JOHN McDOWELL, the father of Andrew McDowell

I'm taking a break from Andrew McDowell for a while. Let's talk about his Dad. John McDowell very likely was in Tennessee by 1810. Unfortunately, the 1810 Census from Tennessee and other states no longer exists. It was lost or destroyed some time long ago, so I cannot search through White County or any other county to find John. I would really like to see if he was living with his wife and had other children in addition to Elizabeth and Andrew. However, we are not going to be able to do that until we know where he lived in South or North Carolina.
John McDowell was in Sparta, White County, Tennessee on October 15, 1810. He was at the Entry Office to enter his request to buy 30 acres on the shore of Falling Water River. John was the assignee of Willis Anderson for a part of Warrant 4566 dated February 9, 1797. The land was not surveyed until October 6, 1814 and was granted to John on June 16, 1817. Grant number 10172. I read somewhere that John could have squatted on the land until it was surveyed. Waiting 4 years for a survey was a long time. John's land was right on the water; making me wonder what kind of business he was in. Was access to the water necessary for his work? Or did he want a view of the water? I have been on the land of his neighbor, Col. Burgess. Burgess' land is now a state nature area, and the location of the falls at the top of this blog. I was there in June on a day that was more humid that the ones before it. It was a lovely place to live. I was sympathetic to the women who had to wear long dresses in that humidity. I'm sure their blouses were absolutely soaked in perspiration many days of the year. I wondered what they were allowed to do to cool off. Hitch their skirts up above their ankles? Wear a sleeveless top? That information is not in the history of costume books that I have seen.
The big breakthrough I have had is discovering Willis Anderson's story . Willis is the man who was originally given the land grant (for military service) that was later used by John McDowell. Willis had survived the Revolution, but died after he came home to NC. He had married and had a son, and the land grant for 640 acres was given to his estate.  note 9/24/2013. Other researchers have let me know that the purchaser of the land grant could have bought it without knowing the soldier's family.

When we are able to trace John McDowell back to his family group in South Carolina, we will probably be able to connect him to his immigrant family. In Edgefield there were descendants of Ephraim McDowell at the time John was born. It's possibly just a matter of figuring out which grandson of Ephraim was John's father. I say "just" with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek; by time these immigrants had grandsons, they usually had 8 grandsons with the same name!