RC froze up for a while after my last post... Go to Worldconnect and look for "Robert Cowan" with spouse Caroline. Lots of info, some stating that Caroline was nee Jones.
Most interesting:
p. 633 Robert Cowan, a native of Scotland, emigrated to Missouri, where he
married, and joined the Oregon companies of 1847. In the following year he
settled in the Umpqua Valley, Yoncalla Precinct, and with the exception of Levi
Scott and sons, was the first white settler in Douglas County. "His cabin
stood near the old trail which the pioneer gold-seekers of 1848 and 1849
travelled, and is remembered by many as the last mark of civilization north of
the Sacramento Valley." He was killed by a splinter from a tree which he was
felling Mar 9, 1865. Or. Statesman, March 20, 1865
(from: Author Milne, Frances W., Mrs. Title Roster of 1847 emigrants to Oregon : a
genealogical study of their families / by Mrs. Frances W. Milne, compiled ca
1970-1995 while she lived ca NW 1450 Deane St, Pullman WA. Imprint [1995?],
then ca 2005 manuscript photocopied into 4 volumes by Kay & Warren L. Forsythe
and by ca.2005 archived at Oregon Historical Society Research Library,
Washington State University Libraries, and Clackamas County [Oregon] Historical
Society Library.)
Robert's and Thomas's parents said to be (IGI submitted) Alexander Cowan & Barbara Wilkinson.
Nick