Biography extracted from History of Sauk County, Wisconsin Chicago: Western Historical Company, published 1880.

Baraboo:

Dr. Charles Cowles, was born Oct. 5, 1815, in Geneva, Ashtabula Co., Ohio; his parents were poor, but honest, respectable people, his father, Lorrin Cowles, was born in Norfolk, Conn.; his mother, whose maiden name was Betsey Hulburt, was born in Northhampton, Mass.; he emigrated with his father, mother and a family of eight children, to Gull Prairie, Kalamazoo Co., Mich., in 1831; among the very first pioneer settlers of that part of the State; there being no schools at that time, he availed himself of the advantages of the evening tallow-candle and rainy days to acquire such education as circumstances would admit; went to Oberlin, in Ohio, in 1836, and prepared for college in view of the Christian ministry; was dissuaded therefrom, by an old Congregational Minister by the name of Knappen, who urged as a reason that he was too light and trifling in his make-up for so grave and dignified an office, which he subsequently and now regards as the first great mistake of his life; in the winter of 1841 and 1842, taught the village school at Battle Creek, Mich., at the same time prosecuting his studies in medicine in the office of Drs. Cox and Campbell; in the winter of 1843, attended a course of medical lectures at Willoughby, Lake Co., Ohio. In the spring following, the 26th of March, was married to Miss Mary Cowles, daughter of Squire Adna Cowles, of Harperfield, Ashtabula Co., Ohio; entered Dr. Sherwood's office in the further prosecution of his medical studies, where he remained one year and eight months; in the summer of 1844, taught school near Lexington, Ky., by which he obtained means to attend another course of medical lectures at Willoghby, in the winter of 1844 and 1845, and graduated in March following; he settled in the town of Saybrook, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, for the purposes of practicing his profession; in May, 1846, he emigrated to Baraboo, Sauk Co., Wis., where his father and one brother had settled three years previously; there he has remained to the present time; they have had six children, three of whom died in infancy, the remaining three-two daughters and one son-are still living; the son, Lucian C., is a practicing physician and druggist at LaCrosse, Wis.; Maria A. married Albert Dennett, a graduate of the law school at Ann Arbor, Mich., by whom she has a daughter. Young Dennett was a man of great brilliancy and promise, but death marked him for his own, and he succumbed to phthisis-pulmonalis in Denver, Colo., whither he had gone in hopes of regaining his failing health; his young widow and infant daughter returned to her father's house, where she remained the six subsequent years, being engaged as teacher in the graded school at that place, subsequently married James Crobly, of Cadillac, Mich., where she now resides; Nellie, the youngest, lives at home with her parents. Dr. Cowles was the first regular physician in Sauk County, and was exposed to many perils in his long rides into the northern pineries; on one occasion at sun-down, Jan. 3, 1847, was called to go sixty-four miles to visit a lumberman taken with pleuro-pneumonia; on an indian pony he rode that distance by four-o'clock the next morning without dismounting, the thermometer being 26° below zero, such a feat demonstrating a degree of physical endurance seldom seen in our time; he has followed the practice of his profession theirty-four years in this county with indefatigable zeal, taking great interest in the different phases of diseases as they have appeared from time to time in the history of our county; if in anything he may be said to excel it is in diagnosis, arriving at conclusions from facts and observation, known as the inductive method, rather than a priori reasoning; his success as an obstetrician has been, as far as he knows, without a parallel within the range of his observation; has had 1,386 cases, not one of which has died either proximately or remotely as the result of parturition, eleven forceps cases and fourteen of puerperal convulsion, all saved, a record of which he is deservedly proud; he has held a commission from the Government of Examining Surgeons seventeen years; examined 3,000 men for enlistement from this country in the late unpleasantness with our Southern brethren, also, all the disabled soldiers since the war, who have applied for pensions within a circuit of twenty miles. In the spring of 1861, he visited the Rocky Mountains, traveled 1,100 miles on foot in Colorado, examining the mines and searching for new deposits; was the first one who demonstrated the predictability of separating gold from the pyrites of iron by rusting the ores with caustic potash of soda; was a Garrison Abolitionist; the first vote he cast for President was for James G. Birney; espoused the Republican cause in its incipiency, and is a firm believer in the universal natural equal rights of all men, without distinction of race or color; always cheerful and happy; given to hospitality, and in sympathy with the oppressed of every race and clime; is a firm believer in the Christian religion, and regards it as better adapted to human needs than any or all religions known to mankind; believes the United States of America the best country in the world, and its government the best on the face of the earth.

Return to Sauk County Biographies