Lowrey is of Scottish origin, with two potential meanings. The first could be a patronymic surname meaning "son of Lawrence;" the second being based on the Scottish word lowrie meaning "foxy," having the crafty look of a fox. It can be traced back to the late 1600's in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

From son of Willie Edith Lowrey:
From Ireland, in the early 1700's, came families with the names; Lowry, Lowrey, and Lowery. [...]

The first group spelling their name Lowrey, which was my mother's name, came from Ireland and settled in Augusta County, Virginia. In 1742, John Lowrey, whose wife was Elizabeth, and who had five sons: William, John, Robert, David, and James, and three daughters: Rebeckah, Jennet and Elizabeth, purchased 350 acres on the north fork of the James River in Augusta County.

John with his wife, Elizabeth, died in 1759. His will mentioned assets in Ireland which indicates that he came from there. All his sons can be found on the Rowan County, North Carolina 1790 Federal Census.

In 1800 they were still there, but in 1810 they were gone. However, about the same time they began to appear on the records of Franklin County, Georgia. In 1808 John Lowrey, whose wife was Ellender, died in Frnaklin County, Goergia. His brother, William, witnessed the will. John and Ellender had one son, James. In 1815 another of the brothers, Robert, got a land grant of 450 acres in Jackson County, Georgia. I do not have any record of his family.

James Lowrey (Sr) died in Franklin County, Georgia, in 1824. His will lists his wife as Anna, and his sons as Benjamin, John Wesley, Henry, and Christopher.

William Lowrey left Franklin County in 1824 after obtaining 250 acres in Hall County, Georgia. Gis property was located on the county line of Hall and Lumpkins County, only a few miles south of the town of Delonega, Georgia, and some thirty miles north of Gainesville, Georgia.

Since this was Cherokee Indian Territory until 1832, Lumpkins County was established in that year and the town of Delonega was established in 1833. The name Delonega was derived from the Indian word "Tolonega," meaning golden. Delonega was the site of the first gold strike in the United States and it was here than the famous phrase, "Thar's gold in them htar hills", was coined.

William Lowrey of Hall County, had a wife Milly (or Mary Anne) and at least two sons. I do not have a record of his daughters, if any. His oldest son, David, was born in North Carolina in 1787 and married a Sarah Cook in Franklin County, Georgia in 1816. David owned 125 acres, adjoining his father's, in Hall County.

John, the youngest son, was born in Franklin County, Georgia in 1807. On the 22nd day of February 1829, he married Mahala Mincy in Habersham County where he lived. Mahala was the faughter of Aaron Mincy.

John and his father, William, were involved in the Habersham County Gold Lotery in 1832. Evidently there were not successful in making a strike. William sold the east half of his land - 125 acres, on August 27, 1827. John sold a 100 acre tract that he owned on July 20, 1831. David sold his 125 acre tract on May 6, 1835. Sometime later, David and John left Hall County and moved over to Walker County which is in the northest corner of Georgia, around Chestnut Town. It is on the Alabama line adjacent to Jackson, Cherokee, and DeKalb Counties of Alabama. They bvoth appeared on the 1840 Census there. Their father, William, died within a very few years after they left Hall County. A settlement of his estate was made on February 11, 1844. Signing the estate papers were Milly Lowrey, Aaron Mincy, James Evans, and two people by the name of McDaniel.

Walker County was an interesting place at the time David and John and their families arrived around Chestnut Town. The Cherokee Indians were hardly out of sight. A man who had lived with the Sherokees for many years had this to say about the area:
Strawberry was a large town situated on the head-waters of the Amuchee River, ten miles east of LaFayette. Dogwood was situated on the head-waters of the Chickamauge. The principle Chief was Charlie Hicks. Chestnut Town was on Peavine Creek and the head Chief was Patridge. Crayfish Town was situated west of Chestnut, the principle Chief there was George Lowrey (unrelated!). The first court in Walker County was held at Crayfish Town with Judge Hooper presiding.

Crayfish Town was the oldest settlement in Walker County. Chestnut Flat (Town) was next. The Coopers, Arnolds, Williams, Moons and Lowreys were among the first to settle there.

David, John's brother, and his family remained in Georgia. The 1850 Census of the Peavine District of Walker County, shows David a Methodist Minister. His wife and only two of their children still at home, Wesley and Sarah A. David and most of his family remained in Walker County. Some of them are buried at the Wesley Chapel Cemetery.

Sometime before 1850, John and Mahala moved their family over into Cherokee County, Alabama. Evidently they settled somewhere near the DeKalb County line in the area of Ft. Payne. The 1850 Census of Cherokee County, Alabama shows John Lowrey, Mahala, and their children: David Sanford, Sarah E., Aaron Newton, Rachel Armina, John N., and Martha Louise.

Aaron Newton was born August 21, 1833 in Delonega, Lumpkins County, Georgia.

The story is told that one day in the early 1850s, John Lowrey got into his buggy for a trip to town and never came home. No one has ever known where he went. There is an unproven rumor thet he went to Texas. His wife lived the latter part of her life with her youngest daughter, Martha Louise. She died July 1, 1877 and is buried in the old Moore's School House Cemetery on Lookout Mountain above Ft. Payne, Alabama.

I visited her grave this past summer. The cemetery seems to have been abandoned and is rapidly disappearing in the weeds and undergrowth. This, to me, is sad, that a person who was abandoned in life should also be abandoned in death.

Aaron Newton married on September 16, 1856 in Jackson County, Alabama, to Elizabeth Jane Floyd, the daughter of Alva Waters Floyd and Malinda Whittenburg Floyd on June 16, 1837.

From "Who Was Who in DeKalb County" by Elizabeth S. Howard, page 101:
[Aaron Newton] Lowrey moved to DeKalb County some time between 1850-1860. He settled at first in the valley, but soon moved to Sand Mountain to the Oak Hill Community, near Geraldine. He homesteaded 160 acres of ection 20 in township 8 of range 6 east. There were no real roads on the mountain at that time and cotton had to be hauled by ox wagons to Gadsden to the nearest gin. The Reverend Mr. Lowrey helped to build a road when the dirst and rocks for the big fills had to be hauled with wheelbarrows. He was a farmer and also a Methodist circuit rider, traveling by horseback over his circuit, which reached all the way from Langston, in the Tennessee Valley, to McCauley's Chapel, near Noccalula Falls in Gadsden. He was the first pastor on record at the Salem Methodist Church at Geraldine and also served Lusk Chapel, Jones Chapel, Bethel, and Chestnut Grove. His name appears on the 1866 report of DeKalb Lodge 116 of the Masonic Order. He became affiliated with the Van Vuren Lodge No. 355 on May 13, 1870, and remained a member until his death.

From DeKalb County's "Landmarks of DeKalb County" webpage:
Salem Methodist Church was organized around the mid 1850’s. In 1876, G.W. and Jane Black deeded two acres of land to William A. Elrod, A.N. Lowrey, William Nunn and Nelson Elrod for the purpose of building a school house and a house of worship for members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Phillip Elrod, who helped establish the church, preached the first sermon and was the first person buried in the cemetery. The first pastor of record was Aaron Newton Lowrey.

From son of Willie Edith Lowrey:
Two children were born to Aaron Newton and Elizabeth Jane: John Alva, born June 16, 1857, and Cicero Walker, born December 7, 1858. Elizabeth Jane would die only three months after his birth on March 31, 1860.

Aaron Newton then married Frances Mary Anne Croft, who was born January 16, 1837 and died July 19, 1886. They would have 6 children.

Aaron Newton and family moved to Crossville in DeKalb County, Alabama, where Cicero Walker married Tululah Catherin Johnson on December 22, 1880 in Geraldine, Alabama. Together, they had 10 children: Hampton Gurley, Ruba Eva, Willie Edith, Bettie Lou, .Cicero Walker and Tululah established their home and lived in the Geraldine area until 1909, 29 years, with the exception of four years between 1892 and 1896, in which he and his family moved with his father-in-law, Daniel Johnson and his family, to Bolling, Alabama. Bolling was a small lumber town some fifty miles south of Montgomery, Alabama.

In 1909, Cicero Walker moved all his family, which the exception of his daughters Willie Edith and Ruby Eva, to Alvord, Texas, to join his brother John Alva, who had moved there in 1892. John Alva's address was Alvord, but the farm was located between the small towns of Alvord and Chico. As a boy, I lived in Chico for a while and remember visiting their farm. In 1977, only five years ago, I attended a Milner Reunion in Bridgeport, Texas and John Alva's daughter was there, Effie. Lowreys still occupied the old homestead.

Cicero Walker and family lived there for three years before moving on up to Loveland, Tillman County, Oklahoma. This was in 1912, only five years after Oklahoma had become a state in 1907. They lived in Loveland two years before moving on up to Chattanooga in Commanche County, Oklahoma, during which time Cicero Walker traveled to Tillman County for work. On Auust 15, 1915, Cicero Walker died from Typhoid Fever and was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Tillman County. The family soon moved back to Wise County, Texas where they were living when my family arrived there from Alabama, in 1919.

Some time around 1923, Tululah and her youngest daughter Mildred Inez moved on to DeQueen, Arkansas where some of her other children were located. She lived there until her death on June 9, 1939.

Eldest child, Hampton Gurley, was born September 10, 1881, in DeKalb County, Alabama. On December 17, 1905, he married Nettie Alice Magers, who was born at Alvord, Wise County, Texas, February 16, 1888. The date of their marriave indicates that he went to Texas and lived with his uncle John Alva at Alvord, Texas several years before the rest of his family moved from Alabama in 1909. Their first child, Lura Valice, was born September 23, 1906 in Alvord. She married Buford Neylon Turnage of DeQueen, Arkansas on September 9, 1928. He died December 20, 1978 and she on October 10, 1996, both in DeQueen, Arkansas. The next two children were born in Alabama and the following two in Alvord, Texas, Hampton Gurley and family returning briefly to Alabama and returning with his father and family to Texas in 1909.

Their next child, Valeria Lowrey, was born in DeKalb County, Alabama on Devember 11, 1907. On August 6, 1935, she married David McAnally of DeQueen, Arkansas. Laverda was their next child and she was born in DeKalb County, Alabama on March 20, 1909. She married L.L. Godwin on April 17, 1951.

Norvin was the next child and when he was born on November 15, 1912, his parents were back in Alvord, Texas. He married Elizabeth Holman on January 13, 1934. Velma Dell was also born in Alvord on November 22, 1917. She married James Hansen, December 24, 1939. The last child born was Verneil. He was born March 1, 1930 in DeQueen, Arkansas, where the family had moved sometime earlier and lived he rest of their lives. Verneil married Lillian Crosby on August 13, 1953.

Hampton Gurley died September 12, 1963, and Nettie Alice on December 21, 1971. They are both buried in DeQueen.