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Collection : COWLES, CALVIN J. , PAPERS PXL-iil^T111 • 45
Elkville 6 Wilkesboro, Wilkes County
, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County
1817-1885
Physical Description: c. 23,000 items; incoming letters, tissue
letterpress books, accounts memorandums, advertisements,
etc.
Acquisition: From Biennial Reports: 1914-1916 , Mrs. Calvin J.
Cowles [Ida Holden] of Wilkesboro presented a large number
of papers and letter books of her husband, the late Calvin J.
Cowles. 1934-1936 , Mrs. Calvin J. Cowles, gift of 3,094
papers, chiefly business and personal correspondence.
Description: The father of Calvin Josiah Cowles — Josiah Cowles
(1781-1873) — left Connecticut in 1815 to peddle Yankee no¬
tions and buy rabbit skins in the Creek Indian territory of
Georgia. During the same year he set up a tinner's shop in
Kernersville, North Carolina, returned to Connecticut to
marry Deborah Sanford, moved to Hamptonville, Surry (later
Yadkin) County, where he settled in 1816, and spent the re¬
mainder of his life as a prosperous merchant and manufacturer
of tinware. He was a justice of the peace, served on the
county court and on the Council of State (Governor W. A.
Graham, 1845-1849) , and was a postmaster for nearly half a
century. An old-line Whig, he opposed secession but suppor¬
ted the Confederacy during the war, and was a Democrat after
the war. By his first wife he had 3 children; by his second
wife, Mrs. Nancy Carson Duvall, there were 6 children and 3
step-children [See genealogical chart] .
ч
Calvin J. Cowles (1821-1907) was born in Hamptonville;
married his step-sister Martha Duvall in 1844; two years la¬
ter moved to Elkville (Elk Mouth) near the Caldwell/Wilkes
county line where he engaged in general merchandising, esta¬
blished a root & herb business, and became postmaster (1852-
1858). In 1858 he moved to Wilkesboro, furthering his in¬
terests in buying land and developing mineral properties.
A Whig, he strongly objected to secession, remained a
Unionist through the Civil War and supported peace movements.
Exempted from service because of a lame leg, he was threatened
with conscription and arrested under charges of disloyal ac¬
tivities. He was postmaster in Wilkesboro from January, 1861,
