McGowen was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, son of John and Mary (McDonald) McGowen.

The evidence

• “McGowen, more than threescore years a resident of Wisconsin, is a native of County Fermanagh, Ireland. He was born November 5, 1830, and is the second of four children born to John and Mary (McDonald) McGowen, natives of Ireland. The father was a farmer there until 1840, when he immigrated to the United States with his family and settled on a farm near Rochester, in Monroe county, New York.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/34b-biographical-2.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 382 / book p. 876

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources