When Cullen Cowart was born in 1801, in Burke, Georgia, United States, his father, Abraham Whitehead Cowart, was 23 and his mother, Civil Horne, was 22. He married Elizabeth Sharpe on 11 June 1829, in Montgomery, Chatham, Georgia, United States. They were the parents of at least 6 sons and 3 daughters. He lived in Tattnall, Georgia, United States for about 30 years and Appling, Georgia, United States in 1870. He died in 1880, at the age of 79, and was buried in Appling, Georgia, United States.