DR. ALEXANDER McGOWN [sic] was born in Muhlenberg County, KY, August 24, 1819,
and is the third of seven boys and four gils born to Joseph and Polly (Bell)
McGown, natives of Bardstown and Muhlenberg County, respectively. Joseph
McGown located in Muhlenberg County, about 1811, and died in 1868, aged
eighty-eight; he was in Gen. Wayne's campaign in the Northwest about 1795; was
a son of Alexander McGown, who married a Miss Uncle. They were natives of
Scotland and Germany. Alex. McCown was a teamster in Washington's army, and
later in the war carried a musket; was by occupation a hotel-keeper and
trader, and built the first house in Bardstown, KY. Polly Bell was a daughter
of Josiah Bell, who married a Miss Forbus; they were of English and Swiss
descent respectively; they came from Virginia to Muhlenberg in an early day.
Dr. McGown was reared on a farm until he was sixteen; he received a fair
education at the common schools and later attended Morganfield Academy two or
three years. In 1840, he commenced preaching in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and traveled for seventeen years preaching; commenced the study of
medicine and graduated from the Kentucky School of Medicine in Louisville in
1860; then located five miles northeast of Greenville. In 1870, he located
where he now resides, and continues his practice with good success. He now
owns seventy acres of good land. Dr. McGown was married in May, 1856, to Mary
Webster of Taylor County, KY, a daughter of Archibald and Ann W. (Hazelwood)
Webster, natives of Virginia and of English origin. The Doctor and wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; he is a member of the Masonic
fraternity and also of the Grange. They have one child - Archibald W. McCown.