William M. Catherwood, one of the pioneers of southern Minnesota, came west in 1857, and located in the village of Sumner in Freeborn county. He took up a claim and farmed for many years, coming to Austin in 1880. He died in 1890. Mr. Catherwood was a man of more than usual intelligence and was a mathematician of prominence, being considered an authority in several of the more advanced branches of this science. He was also a veteran of the Civil War, having served in the Second Minnesota Calvary.

William M. Catherwood married Elizabeth Lowry, and to this union were born two sons, Thomas L. and Samuel D. Mrs. Catherwood, nee Elizabeth Lowry, was born near Indianapolis Ind., daughter of Rev. Samuel G. Lowry, D.D., and Marguerite J. Hannah, his wife. Dr. Lowry spent the years of his active ministry in Indiana, but in his declining years lived in Freeborn County of this state.

He had settled in Indiana in 1825, and there raised a family of eleven children, four by his first wife and seven by his second. The latter mentioned are Elmira, Elizabeth, Felicia, Alfred, Esther (deceased), Annie, and Leander.

Dr. Thomas Catherwood, oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. William M. Catherwood, married Jennie De Wolf, and they have three children: Baird, Dorothy and Virginia. Samuel D. Catherwood, second son of Mr. and Mrs. William M. Catherwood, married Gertrude Sherwood, and they have three children: Josephine, Catherine, and Roger.

The revolutionary ancestor of the Lowry family was Rev. Samuel Doak, the first president of Washington College, Tennessee.