Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Cowen, Benjamin S.

COWEN, Benjamin S., physician, b. in Washington county, N.Y., in 1793; d. in St. Clairsville, Ohio, 27, Sept., 1869. He was educated in his native place and studied medicine. In 1820 he removed to Moorefield, Harrison co., Ohio, subsequently studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He removed to St. Clairsville in 1832, and after a time edited the Belmont “Chronicle,” of which he was proprietor and principle editor until 1852, when he relinquished it to his son , now Brig.-Gen. B.R. Cowen. In 1839 he was a delegate to the convention that nominated Gen. Harrison for president, and in 1840 was elected to congress by the whigs, where he succeeded Joshua R. Giddings as chairman of the committee on claims. He took strong ground in favor of the tariff of 1842, and throughout his congressional career was looked upon as a consistent anti-slavery man. During 1845-'6 he was a member of the Ohio legislature, and from 1847 till 1852 was presiding judge of the court of common pleas. At the beginning of the war he was active in raising men and money, and during its continuance his efforts to aid the government never relaxed.