John Cowman

John Cowman's arrival in 1849 marks the founding of Hubbardston's Irish community. He walked the fertile farmland and claimed a homestead that would become the physical foundation of the Irish settlement. Cowman's converted sheep-shed served as the community's first church, and his hilltop meadow became the first cemetery. His farm on Section 11 was the site of the first St. John the Baptist Church in 1857. By 1851, six additional Irish families had followed him.