McDowell Family Reunion · Chicago 2026
Love · McDowell · Green
Who We Are
The McDowell family name carries within it the histories of three remarkable lineages: the Love family, rooted in Virginia and Maryland before the Civil War; the McDowell family, rising from South Carolina and Mississippi; and the Green family, who planted their roots in Louisiana before making their way to Arkansas. These three families converged in the Arkansas Delta in the early 20th century — and their union produced every branch of the McDowell family gathered here today.
Together, their stories span over 180 years of American history — from the antebellum South through emancipation and Reconstruction, through the sharecropping fields of the Delta, northward along the Great Migration, and into Chicago where Earl Lee McDowell and his daughters built their lives.
Three names. Three journeys. One family that refused to be forgotten.
— A Reflection on the McDowell LegacyThrough the Generations
The Three Lines in Detail
The Love family is the oldest traceable line in our tree, reaching back before the Civil War to Virginia and Maryland. Peter Love (b. ~1804, Maryland) and his wife Dorcas Wilson (b. ~1810, Virginia) are the earliest known ancestors. Their son Miles Sloan Love Sr. (b. January 1832, Virginia) carried the family south into Mississippi.
Their children, born in Canton, Mississippi:
The McDowell surname begins with James McDowell (b. 1840, South Carolina) and his wife Starry (b. 1833, Mississippi). Their son Anderson McDowell (b. ~1868–1870, Mississippi) moved the family into Arkansas, where he became the patriarch of a large household that blended the McDowell and Love lines.
Anderson and Della's children — carrying both the McDowell and Love lines:
The Green family roots run deep in Louisiana before tracing through Mississippi and into Arkansas. Fredrick Green (b. March 1850, Louisiana) and Mary Green (b. January 1870, Louisiana) had a large family in Adams County, Mississippi — ten children recorded in the 1900 census alone.
Isaih and Dillie's children:
Following Our Ancestors
All three families — Love, McDowell, and Green — were part of the Great Migration, the movement of millions of Black Americans from the rural South to Northern cities. All three lines converged in Lee County, Arkansas before moving northward to Chicago and beyond.
Eliza Love died in Cook County, Illinois in 1928, having made the journey north in her 80s. Della Love Plair McDowell died in East Chicago, Indiana in 1950. Elder E. McDowell settled in St. Louis and is buried at Jefferson Barracks. Mary Emma Lee Green McDowell died in Chicago in 1974. Dillie Green died in Cook County in 1982 at age 83. The path from the Arkansas Delta to Chicago was walked by every branch of this family — and the 2026 Reunion brings it all back to where they landed.
Chicago · June 19, 2026
From Virginia and Mississippi, through the Delta fields of Arkansas, to the streets of Chicago — the Love, McDowell, and Green families have always found their way to each other. Come home on June 19, 2026 and help us honor what they built.
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