A Really Good Guess
The Road to Here
Able Gower
1720 - 1780 (60 years)-
Name Able Gower Birth 1720 Brunswick, Brunswick, Virginia 
Gender Male Death 10 Nov 1780 [1] Person ID I3736 The Road to Here Last Modified 21 Aug 2026
Father Willam Gower, b. 1700, Surrey, England d. Yes, date unknown Mother Anne Thorpe d. Yes, date unknown Marriage 20 Jan 1729 Chiddingstone, Kent, England [2] Family ID F2418 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Mary Robertson, b. 27 Jan 1716, Brunswick, Brunswick, Virginia d. Wake, North Carolina Marriage 1746 Brunswick, Brunswick, Virginia Children 1. Able Gower, b. 1740, Brunswick, Brunswick, Virginia d. 10 Nov 1780, Clover, Davidson, Tennessee (Age 40 years)2. Charles Gower, b. 1754, Brunswick, Brunswick, Virginia d. 1788, Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee (Age 34 years)3. Obedience Gower, b. 1760, Brunswick, Brunswick, Virginia, United States d. 18 Jun 1860 (Age 100 years)4. Russell Gower, b. 1757, Davidson, Davidson, Tennessee d. 1825, Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee (Age 68 years)5. Nancy Gower, b. 1758, Brunswick, Brunswick, Virginia d. 1831, Davidson, Davidson, Tennessee (Age 73 years)6. Engley Gower, b. 1758 d. 1850, Davidson, Davidson, Tennessee (Age 92 years)7. Matthew Gower, b. 1762 d. 1853, Lawrence, Tennessee (Age 91 years)8. Robert Gower, b. 1773, Davidson, Davidson, Tennessee d. 1817, Davidson, Davidson, Tennessee (Age 44 years)9. William Gower, b. 6 Oct 1776, Wake, North Carolina d. 11 Oct 1851, Davidson, Davidson, Tennessee (Age 75 years)Family ID F1286 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 21 Aug 2026
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Notes - Was killed in the Clover Bottom Massacre near Nashville
An earlier column mentioned the Gower family. Ralph Winters wrote that this family "possibly made the greatest sacrifice of any of the earliest settlers of Tennessee."
Winters is the author of "Historical Sketches ? Adams (in) Robertson County and Port Royal (in) Montgomery County Tennessee 1779 ? 1968."
Included in the book is information about many of the families in the area, information provided by the families themselves. The Gowers are one of these families.
Gowers were with groups traveling with James Robertson and John Donelson. Robertson's overland group arrived in the area that is now Nashville on December 24, 1779. Donelson went by boat and arrived on April 24, 1780.
Abel Gower, his wife, five sons, and four daughters were in this initial "migration." One son was killed on the way.
In the summer of 1780, a petition was sent to North Carolina asking for protection for the new settlement. Abel Gower, Russell Gower, and Abel Gower, Jr., signed the petition.
In the fall that year, a group went to the mouth of Stone's River to harvest the corn and bring it back to the settlers. Indians attacked the boats on the journey.
Both Abel Gower and Abel Gower, Jr., were killed.
The three surviving Gower brothers ? Russell, Elisha, and William ? settled west of Nashville.
Russell settled on an island in the Cumberland. The site of Gower's Island was in today's Cheatham County, a bit west of the Davidson County line.
Elisha Gower settled north of the Cumberland on "Sulphur Creek."
William settled on the south side of the river near Gower's Island. It is interesting to note that William Gower married Charlotte Reeves, a niece of James Robertson's wife.
In 1801, all three Gower men were converted to Methodism. All three became Methodist preachers.
Elisha served for forty years. William served until he died in 1851. For forty years the home of William Gower was a meeting house.
Methodism was so strongly entrenched in the Gower family that a particular note was made in a sketch by G.V. Frey that "one of Russell's sons is now a Baptist preacher.'
This was Wilson L. Gower, an active minister in the Freewill Baptist Church for fifty years. The list of churches that he organized reads "Heads, Charity, Mt. Zion, Good Springs, Bethlehem, Liberty, Rock Springs."
Wilson Gower had married Charlotte Baird in 1812. Goodspeed says that he was also in the War of 1812.
Their son was James W. Gower, born in 1821. He married Amelia (Milly) Head on November 16, 1841. Their family lived on a farm on Miller's Creek near Sandy Springs here in Robertson County.
Their farm had belonged to Caleb Winters. It was sold to James W. Gower in 1855.
A list of the children of James and Milly Gower show that they married into some of the most steadfast families of the county ? Murphey, Woodruff, Frey, Gray, Elliott, White, Nichols, and Lawrence.
- Was killed in the Clover Bottom Massacre near Nashville
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