Maria E. Cowlin

    Maria (Loomis) Cowlin was called "insane" in the 1880 Federal Census. According to circuit court records at Hobart, she was hospitalized from about 1877-1879 in the Hospital of the Insane at the City of Indianapolis.  She was declared incurable and was sent home "not capable of doing any business."  Matthew applied in 1882 for permission to sell real estate without her 

consent as he believed her condition to be permanent.

    However, according to medical records at Central State Hospital, Indianapolis (formerly Hospital of the Insane), Maria was discharged on 3 May 1887 as recovered.  Also according to their records, Maria Cowlin was admitted from Lake County on 14 June 1877, aged 31, born New York.  She was married and her religion was Methodist.  She was a housewife. Matthew Cowlin from Hobart was named but not his relationship.  Her diagnosis was given as "epileptic mania".

Apparently, even after going to Nebraska, Maria continued to suffer "spells". According to family tradition, the Laudenum prescribed for tuberculosis she contracted while in the hospital, drew her further away from the real world and her family, especially when her monthly time came upon her.
Though Matthew traveled with three long-standing friends and neighbors to the Chadron land office to make final proof of their claims in February 1893, he testified later that he felt tied to the farm and was unable to return for his homestead certificate until January 1894, nearly a year late.
Maria languished through the winter of 1894, then on either July sixth or seventh, Matthew couldn't remember which, she died. She was buried at the Box Butte graveyard, now called Pioneer Cemetery, atop a wind-swept hill near Box Butte City. Instead of a tombstone on her grave, Matthew used his carpenter's skills and built a small picket fence around her grave. For over fifteen years, even after he sold the farm and moved to Hay Springs, Matthew rode or walked up the hill to whitewash and repair the boards. In 1992, the foundation of the fence and the four corner posts were still standing among the wooley prairie grass.