3. Robert Oliver Cowan 1895
Robert Oliver Cowan (Bud) b. August 8, 1895 d. October 21, 1964. Robert was born while the family still lived at Sheldon and it is likely that the family; including the children Mae, Willie and Robert, lived at grampa's small farm. Remember that their grandmother had died back in 1890 and that grampa Bill was a widower. In 1898 - about the time that Grampa Bill married young Dell - the family moved to Anselm where their dad started a farm there.
The boy was called Oliver in his younger years and later picked up the nickname of Bud. At Anselm, Oliver attended the one room country school at Owego School No 2, District #9 of Ransom County, which was a few miles walk from the farm. A souvenir of attendance for the period of March, 1901 to June, 1902 was given to the pupils by the teacher, Margaret Stoffel and his name is listed. In about 1904 when he was nine, the family moved to a farm near Buffalo and then in about 1909 the family moved to farm at Enderlin. By 1909, there were eleven children in the family.
In 1917 when the war broke out, Bud was aged 22 and he joined the U. S. Army. His younger brother Melbourne, now age 18, joined in the war effort as well in the Navy. Bud served as a private and was sent to Europe and eventually went to Germany. His service # is 4421659. He served in Co. G, 161st Depot Brigade. Their older brother Willie died of pneumonia four years before the war in 1913.
My mother tells me that Grampa Jim used to drink and often passed off discipline and management of the younger children to Bud. Bud was a strict with the younger kids - likely from his experiences in the war - and was abusive to the younger boys. According to mother, Esther Cowan it was due to Bud that Walter ran away from home in 1922 at age 15. Bud would have been 27 then. It is my guess, as well, that experiences of childhood had its effect on Wallace and compelled him to move away to Detroit, never to return.
A few years later, when Bud was about age 30, he married a girl named Audrey ____ who was from the Brainard area. Her family owned the hotel at Brainard. Bud moved to Brainard with his bride and he did not keep close contact with the rest of the family after he moved there. Bud and Audrey were together at least through the fall of 1928 when his brother Walter got married but later Bud and Audrey were divorced. Both mother and aunt Francis say that he later lived with two other woman at different times but didn't marry again. Francis Cowan says that the person who Bud lived with most recently still lives in Brainard. He has no Children. Places where Bud lived include Baxter, Crow Wing, Brainard, East Gull Lake and Lake Shore, Minnesota.
An interesting story of the brothers relates to the time when the boy's father, Jim had the stroke at Granville in the summer of 1932 and could no longer care for himself. He needed just about complete daily care and was difficult to manage. Martin borrowed a big new car and, along with Walter and Harriet, went up to ranville to bring him back to Minneapolis. He was first in the hospital and then kept at Walter's home in Minneapolis where Bud and his sister, Harriet were very involved in his day-to-day care. I suspect that Bud had a strong attachment to his father and this time was difficult for him and his relationship his brother Walter stumbled toward a kind of reconciliation. It is interesting to note that, although Bud and Walter didn't get along in years past, Bud was one of just two brothers that attended Walter's wedding and he was a sponsor for the baptisms of several of Walter's children.
It is also interesting to note that many years earlier during the winter of 1898, Jim his father had spent some time in the Brainard area logging in the woods trying to make some money. This was when the children were small (Bud would have been three) and they were still living in Sheldon. Was there an earlier tie to the Brainard area?
Bud died October 21st, 1964 at the age of 69 at the Minneapolis Veteran's Memorial Hospital and is buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, lot E874, in Minneapolis. On what would have been his 100th birthday in 2005 I went to visit his gravesite at Fort Snelling and remember thinking that I may be the last person ever to think on his life or visit his grave. And so it goes for us all - May Bud rest in God's peace.
The boy was called Oliver in his younger years and later picked up the nickname of Bud. At Anselm, Oliver attended the one room country school at Owego School No 2, District #9 of Ransom County, which was a few miles walk from the farm. A souvenir of attendance for the period of March, 1901 to June, 1902 was given to the pupils by the teacher, Margaret Stoffel and his name is listed. In about 1904 when he was nine, the family moved to a farm near Buffalo and then in about 1909 the family moved to farm at Enderlin. By 1909, there were eleven children in the family.
In 1917 when the war broke out, Bud was aged 22 and he joined the U. S. Army. His younger brother Melbourne, now age 18, joined in the war effort as well in the Navy. Bud served as a private and was sent to Europe and eventually went to Germany. His service # is 4421659. He served in Co. G, 161st Depot Brigade. Their older brother Willie died of pneumonia four years before the war in 1913.
My mother tells me that Grampa Jim used to drink and often passed off discipline and management of the younger children to Bud. Bud was a strict with the younger kids - likely from his experiences in the war - and was abusive to the younger boys. According to mother, Esther Cowan it was due to Bud that Walter ran away from home in 1922 at age 15. Bud would have been 27 then. It is my guess, as well, that experiences of childhood had its effect on Wallace and compelled him to move away to Detroit, never to return.
A few years later, when Bud was about age 30, he married a girl named Audrey ____ who was from the Brainard area. Her family owned the hotel at Brainard. Bud moved to Brainard with his bride and he did not keep close contact with the rest of the family after he moved there. Bud and Audrey were together at least through the fall of 1928 when his brother Walter got married but later Bud and Audrey were divorced. Both mother and aunt Francis say that he later lived with two other woman at different times but didn't marry again. Francis Cowan says that the person who Bud lived with most recently still lives in Brainard. He has no Children. Places where Bud lived include Baxter, Crow Wing, Brainard, East Gull Lake and Lake Shore, Minnesota.
An interesting story of the brothers relates to the time when the boy's father, Jim had the stroke at Granville in the summer of 1932 and could no longer care for himself. He needed just about complete daily care and was difficult to manage. Martin borrowed a big new car and, along with Walter and Harriet, went up to ranville to bring him back to Minneapolis. He was first in the hospital and then kept at Walter's home in Minneapolis where Bud and his sister, Harriet were very involved in his day-to-day care. I suspect that Bud had a strong attachment to his father and this time was difficult for him and his relationship his brother Walter stumbled toward a kind of reconciliation. It is interesting to note that, although Bud and Walter didn't get along in years past, Bud was one of just two brothers that attended Walter's wedding and he was a sponsor for the baptisms of several of Walter's children.
It is also interesting to note that many years earlier during the winter of 1898, Jim his father had spent some time in the Brainard area logging in the woods trying to make some money. This was when the children were small (Bud would have been three) and they were still living in Sheldon. Was there an earlier tie to the Brainard area?
Bud died October 21st, 1964 at the age of 69 at the Minneapolis Veteran's Memorial Hospital and is buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, lot E874, in Minneapolis. On what would have been his 100th birthday in 2005 I went to visit his gravesite at Fort Snelling and remember thinking that I may be the last person ever to think on his life or visit his grave. And so it goes for us all - May Bud rest in God's peace.