- Rank:
- Branch:
- Home Town:
- Date Of Birth:
- Disposition:
- Family DNA on File:
S2c Joel Beman Cowden
Just shy of his 14th birthday, Joel Beman Cowden and his buddy Irving Davis went on a week-long camping trip along the upper Mohawk River — likely just beyond Joel’s dad’s farm in Mohawk northeast of Springfield, Oregon, population 2,364.
“The boys spent much of the time fishing,” the Eugene Register newspaper said. “They ate fish until they were tired of that diet, then shot squirrels and young rabbits which they fried and put in stews. Experience in the various phases of woodcraft which they obtained at previous Boy Scout camps proved valuable to them, they report.”
He was born at Springfield on Aug. 4, 1916, to Joel B. Cowden, a farmer, and Alma Schnetzky Cowden, a homemaker. After mid-1917 but by 1920 the family was in Baker in northeast Oregon with the father cutting logs in a saw mill. The parents divorced before early 1930 with Joel back in Springfield with his mother and her new husband. His father moved to Nevada, where he was killed in a mine explosion in April 1935.
Joel was active in the Epworth League, an organization for young Methodists. He attended Springfield High until his senior year, when he transferred to Medford High, from which he graduated in 1935.
He worked as a truck driver before enlisting in the Navy on Dec. 3, 1940. As an apprentice seaman, his starting pay was $21 a month. He was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the next December.Sources: The Eugene Guard; the Medford Mail Tribune; the Reno Gazette Journal; draft registration cards for World War I and World War II; Census; Nevada death certificate; Navy enlistment records and muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
NOTE: If you are a family member related to this crew member of the U.S.S. Arizona, or have additional information, pictures or documents to share about his life or service to our county please contact us through our FAMILY MEMBER SUBMISSION FORM.