SHEPARD B. COWLES, one of the best known citizens of Spencer township, Kent county, Mich., and hero of two of the nation's wars, was born in Amherst, Hampshire county,. Mass., March I5, 1826, and is a son of Sylvester and Sophronia (Mason) Cowles, who were the parents of three sons and three daughters, of whom four still survive, viz: Newell M., a retired farmer and wealthy resident of Brunswick, Medina county, Ohio; Shepard B., the subject of this memoir; Millura, wife of Jerome Fredericks, a prominent Freemason and prosperous mechanic of Conneaut, Ohio, and Emily, wife of Louis E. Remsburg, a successful merchant at Ohio, Bureau county, Ill. The name of Cowles is of English origin, and the Cowles family of America traces its lineage to John Cowles, who was born about 1593, sailed from England about I635, and died in Massachusetts in I675. S. B. Cowles, whose name stands at the head of this article, has still in his possession a genealogical tree of the Cowles family, running from 1635 up to the present time, showing that nearly all those of the name in the United States descend from the above mentioned John Cowles. Sylvester Cowles, father of Shepard B., was born in Amherst, Mass., March I2, I795, and died in Ohio in 1880. He was a mason by trade, but an agriculturist chiefly by occupation, and his estate adjoined the campus of the celebrated Amherst college. After marriage he removed to the state of New York, and thence to Ohio, in 1836 purchased land in the Western Reserve, and there passed the remainder of his life. Politically, he was first a whig and later a republican, and religiously both he and wife were Congregationalists. Mrs. Sophronia Cowles was a native of Cummington, Mass., was born in I8oo, and died in 1879. She was liberally educated at Belchertown (Mass.) seminary, was a great favorite wherever she made her home, and was a lady of fine instinct and high principles. Shepard B. Cowles was but a small boy when taken from Massachusetts to New York, and was ten years of age when taken to Ohio, where he lived until he had attained his majority. May 24, I847, he enlisted at Cleveland as a volunteer for the Mexican war, in company E, Fourth regular infantry. He took part in the battle of National Bridge, under Gen. Franklin Pierce, and was thence sent, under the same general, to Pueblo, to reinforce Gen. Winfield Scott. He was present at the battles of Cherubusco, Molino del Rey and Chepultepec. After the fall of the city of Mexico he was for three months on guard duty, or until the final surrender of the Mexicans, and was paid off in the halls of the Montezumas after peace was declared. He is still a pensioner of the Mexican war. After his return to Ohio, he located his land warrant of eighty acres in Wood county, but afterward sold his land, started across the plains of California with an expedition, but so much sickness prevailed in the party he withdrew and returned to Ohio, where his first marriage took place, November 7, I850, to Miss Louise J. Fletcher, the result being four sons and one daughter, of whom three sons and one daughter are still living, viz: Volney F.; Clifton S.; Franklin C.; and Louise, wife of Orwell E. Cole. A separate sketch of each is found in this volume. Mrs. Louise J. Cowles was born at Olmsted, Ohio, February 7, i832, was a daughter of Cotton and Sophronia (Mason) Fletcher, was reared and educated in her native state, and died July 28, 1863, a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church. The second marriage of Shepard B. Cowles took place in Oakfield, Mich., to Miss Marion A. Conant, a native of New York, and to this union were born three sons and three daughters: Georgie M., who is married to Philo Lavander, a farmer of Oakfield; Mason C., of whom mention is made in full elsewhere; Florence M., wife of John Sipple, of Nelson; Corwin, a farmer of Spencer; Cary N., a farmer of Spencer; and Marion A., a teacher of music in Jackson county, Mich. The lamented death of Mrs. Marion A. (Conant) Cowles took place in Spencer township June 14, 1879. The second war experience of Shepard B. Cowles was during the late Rebellion, to assist in putting down which he was enrolled in company G, Thirteenth Michigan infantry, September 24, I864, and assigned to the Fourteenth army corps, under Gen. W. T. Sherman, with whom he made the famous "march to the sea." He was at the burning of Atlanta, and at the siege of Savannah, Ga., and while on the march from the former to the latter city was compelled to do his own foraging, and once, while carrying a good heavy load of flour he had "gobbled up," he lamed himself in both insteps. He was famous as a forager, and being liberal hearted and always ready to divide with his messmates and comrades, and being withal jovial and good natured, was a favorite with officers and men and escaped any little punishment that possibly might have been meted out to another soldier that could not handle his case well. At Savannah, Mr. Cowles once had a very c' lose call." He was helping to erect a fortification, and while behind the enclosure spread his rubber poncho on a stick stuck in the ground and was standing erectly under this shelter to protect himself from the burning rays of the sun; but the thought struck him that he might as well sit down, which he did, and the next instant a Tinnie ball passed through his little improvised tent, just above his head, the act of sitting saving his life. Mr. Cowles was present. at the battle of Bentonville, N. C., the last battle of the war. At Alexandria, Va., came the shocking news of the assassination of President Lincoln, and the recent rejoicing over the surrender of Lee was transformed to deep-seated sorrow and horror. The march was continued on to Washington, D. C., however, and there Mr. Cowles was a participant in the historical grand review in May, and in June, I865, he was honorably discharged, for the second time, from the military service of his country. He was a brave, faithful and devoted soldier, prompt to obey orders, never asked to go home on a furlough, and was never guilty of an act that led to his being put in the guardhouse. It was in 1854 when Mr. Cowles purchased his first tract of land in section No. 29, Spencer township, Kent county. For this tract of I20 acres, utterly without improvement, but a wilderness of pines and swamps, he paid the government $I.25 per acre in gold, and he still holds the original deed to it, signed by President Franklin Pierce, who had formerly been his commander in the war with Mexico. Spencer was then a part of Oakfield township, so he has been a citizen of the former ever since and even before it has borne a name-for, in fact, its first name was Celsus. In the beginning Indians were numerous and deer abundant; no church, no school-house existed in the township, nor any roads. The first post-office was in section No. 29, and Mr. Cowles was the first postmaster, having been appointed during President Lincoln's first administration. The first habitation of Mr. Cowles in his new home was a pine log house, but his present handsome dwelling and the well-tilled farm of to-day give ample evidence of the thrift which has attended the labor and excellent management of the owner. As a practical mason Mr. Cowles has done a great deal of superior brick-work in his part of the county, and among other "jobs " superintended the brick-work on the Cedar Springs high-school edifice; but the greater part of his time has been passed, since residing here, in the improving of his homestead, agriculturally and otherwise. Politically Mr. Cowles was first a free soiler but on the organization of the republican party joined its ranks and voted for its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, and later for Abraham Lincoln; but he is not altogether partisan, and in local politics will often vote for a good man in preference to a strictly party nominee. He has himself held every township office within the gift of the people, with the exception of those of supervisor and treasurer, and has filled each with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituency. Fraternally he is a Freemason, and is also a member of Carlton post, No. 327, G. A. R., at Trufant, of which he is the present quartermaster. His guide through life has been the Bible, and he endeavors to fully live up to its teachings, taking for his model the Savior of man. Having himself taught school in Ohio for two years in his earlier days, he advocates the employment of the most experienced teachers in his present district. He has always been an active worker in all things in which he has been interested, and has lifted himself from comparative obscurity to his present position as one of the leading and most influential men of Spencer township and county of Kent, and is now passing his. declining days in peace at the home of his son, Clifton S., honored and beloved by all the community.