The Cowan House, located at 310 West Main Street in Stevenson, is a classic Greek Revival farmhouse constructed about 1850 by Thomas A. Nance. William A. Austin (1812-1875), an Alabama state senator, Reconstruction-era commissioner of oaths, former merchant, and staunch Unionist, acquired the house in 1855. It is currently the home of John and Angela Graham, who have restored it lovingly with attention to preserving its history, and they have lived there with their two children for XX years.
The house was used as a Civil War hospital during the brief Confederate occupation of Stevenson. It later became a headquarters for Union Brevet Brigadier General Wladimir Krzyzanowski and his staff while the Union forces occupied Stevenson, 1863-1864. Wartime maps and other documents sometimes referred to the Cowan House as “Fort Stevenson”. Here is a Civil War-era map showing the Cowan House WHERE.
Here is a photo of Krzyzanowski and his generals sitting on the front porch of the Cowan House:
And here is a close-up of the men on the porch.
Here is the commander himself, Wladimir Krzyzanowski, in a photo take in 1887:
Judge Graham wrote this history of the house when it was part of the Alabama Historical Association home tour in 2014.
One of eight blockhouses built to protect Stevenson's vital rail lines was situated in the lower yard during the Federal Army occupation. Three springs on the property provided fresh water to the multitude of troops, war refugees, and others that passed nearby during the War. Period photographs and drawings depict soldiers at the house, and four rifle loop-holes bored into the back wall attest to its role in the War. During the Reconstruction period, the house continued to serve as the headquarters for General Kryznowski.
The house also played an early and important role after the war in the new-found freedom of black men and women. In 1865, Wilmer Walton, a Pennsylvania Quaker missionary, founded a Freedmen's school in Averyville located on what was then the outskirts of Stevenson and marked with a historical marker. Walton reported that he had “effected an arrangement” with General Krsyznowski whereby he “issued a license to Robert Caver, a worthy, industrious colored man—a preacher and a shoemaker who lived near the General’s headquarters—authorizing him to legally perform marriage ceremonies “among the colored population in this vicinity, keep a regular record thereof, and give each couple a marriage certificate.” Walton wrote: “A short time since I accompanied the said Robert Caver and his wife, who had been married many years since under the old code, up to the General's headquarters and witnessed their legal marriage ceremony performed by Adjutant-General E. W. Breusinghausen of New York. THIS WAS SAID TO BE THE FIRST COUPLE OF COLORED PERSONS LEGALLY MARRIED BY A U.S. OFFICER IN THE STATE OF ALABAMA.”
Walton also wrote that a large assembly of people, black and white, marched from Averyville to General Krzynowski’s headquarters upon learning of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. “The town of Stevenson was draped in mourning,” he reported. Some 400 to 500 or more persons assembled on the lawn of the house and there held and impromptu, but solemn and impressive, memorial service for the slain President.
Both of these events stand as early milestones in the long march of Freedmen from slavery into citizenship.
In the late 1870s, William A. Austin, who owned the house during the Civil War, petitioned the Southern Claims Commission for $13,789.65 remuneration for losses suffered during the War, of which $4,260.50 was awarded to him. The house was sold to William A. Cowan in 1878 and remained in his family a hundred fourteen years, until 1992. Here is the photo of the house in November 1977 from the report created to put the community on the National Registry of Historic Places.
The Cowan House was the scene of countless social events during the 20th century, as well. Stevenson’s elders recall that “there always seemed to be a party going on there,” including events as diverse as festive dances, ladies’ teas, weddings and even funerals. The house was mostly occupied by renters from the 1950s through the 1980s, divided into apartments and falling into serious disrepair. People often stop by the Cowan House to share memories of living here in those days, including stories of ghosts which many of them are certain haunt the house.
The Cowan House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1978. A historical marker will replaced in front of the house this sprung.