Editing Cowan, Tennessee (section)

== History ==

The earliest settlers arrived in the Cowan area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  The home of one such settler, William Russell, served as the Franklin County Courthouse until the establishment of [[Winchester, Tennessee|Winchester]] in 1810.<ref name=tehc>John Abernathy Smith, "[https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=506 Franklin County]," ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture''. Retrieved: April 24, 2016.</ref>  The town was named for Dr. James Benjamin Cowan,<ref>Larry Miller, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=zOzPQYkkbaAC&dq= Tennessee Place Names]'' (Indiana University Press, 2001), p. 53.</ref> a Civil War-era doctor whose family had lived in the area since the early 1800s.<ref>Jenny Lou and Jim Brock, "[http://cowanrailroadmuseum.org/cowanhistory.html The Cowans of Franklin County]," Cowan Railroad Museum website.  Originally published in the ''Cowan Bell'', June 19, 1975.  Retrieved: April 24, 2016.</ref>

[[File:Cowan-depot-tn1.jpg|thumb|left|Cowan Railroad Museum]]
The town of Cowan dates from the mid-19th century and developed mostly as a railroad town. It was the site where several branch lines met the main  [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] to [[Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga]] trunk of the [[Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway]] which ran through the important [[Cowan Tunnel]]. As the last stop before the uphill climb onto the nearby [[Cumberland Plateau]], pusher engines to assist trains in making the steep ascent were based there, and are still in use today.<ref name=tehc />

The town's economy declined with the importance of the railroad after [[U.S. Route 41A in Tennessee|U.S. Route 41A]] was built in the 1940s. The old passenger depot, built in 1904,<ref>"[http://cowanrailroadmuseum.org/history.html History]," Cowan Railroad Museum website.  Retrieved: April 24, 2016.</ref> was restored as a museum, and is a focal point of the downtown area.