The McGowen family's father immigrated to the United States and settled near Rochester, Monroe county, New York.

The evidence

• “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. In 1849 the family moved to Dodge county, Wisconsin, where the father bought a tract of unimproved land, on which he built a log house and where he successfully continued his occupation of general farming.”

  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