Dr. Chester A. Rowell was born October 17, 1844, in Woodsville, New Hampshire, one of eight sons of Jonathan B. Rowell and Cynthia Hay Abbott Rowell. In 1849, the family moved to Stout's Grove, near Bloomington, Illinois. His father died a year later.
During the Civil War (1861-1864), Chester (age 17) and four of his brothers served in the Union Army. After the war, Chester attended Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, and then studied medicine privately in Chicago.
In 1866, he came west to San Francisco and continued his medical training under his uncle Dr. Isaac Rowell. In 1870, he graduated from Cooper Medical College, a department of the University of the Pacific, and received his license to practice medicine from the State of California in 1876. In 1871, Rowell taught school in Oregon.
On August 25, 1872, at the age of 28, he married Mrs. Nellie (Hale) Rowell, the widow of his uncle and former tutor Dr. Isaac Rowell. Chester continued to care for his stepchildren Frank A. and Imogene (who were also his cousins) after Nellie Rowell's death in 1881. (NOTE: Many accounts confuse his middle initial with that of his younger nephew, Chester H. Rowell. However, as was the custom at the time, he was most likely named after his mother's maiden name of Abbott.)
Rowell initially came to Fresno in 1874 to look over property that belonged to his wife. (Some accounts indicate he was a physician from Denver.) He stayed in Fresno and started a medical practice. In 1875 the family moved to the southeast corner of Tulare and K (Van Ness) Street across from Courthouse Park. The site is now the home of the six-story Rowell Building built by the Rowell Family in 1911.
Dr. Chester A. Rowell was one of Fresno's early Republican Party pioneers; owner of the Fresno Republican Newspaper; served three years as California State Senator (1880-1882, 1899-1901, 1903-1905); University of California regent (1891-1912); and mayor of Fresno (1909-1912). He died in office in 1912.
In September, 1876, Dr. Rowell, "who had associated with him George McCullough and Lyman Andrews, M. J. Donahoo, Frank Dusy, A. Tombs, J. W. Williams, C. W. DeLong, Russell Flemming, Cottled, Luse and some other gentlemen" founded the Fresno Republican, Fresno's second daily newspaper and maintained a controlling interest in the publication for fourteen years. The newspaper's managing editors included Rowell, Rowell's nephew Chester Harvey Rowell, who succeeded his uncle Chester A. (hense the confusion), and later Ben Randal Walker. The "Republican" remained an important publication until the Fresno Bee purchased the paper in 1928. The Fresno Republican Publishing Company was founded in 1891. Rowell and his older brother George were also involved in sheep farming in the Kings-Kaweah Divide.
Fresno Historic Note: In 1858 the town of Fresno was founded on only 50 residents. By 1876 Fresno had more than 3,000 itinerants and property owners. Dr. Chester Rowell arrived in that year and started the Republican newspaper partly in response to the civil strife he witnessed upon arrival. Fresno was by then a liberal, brawling, rowdy, Libertine, and wide-open frontier town of bawdy houses, saloons, cattle men, Sequoia logging mill workers, gold miners, gamblers, and railroad speculators.
Town government was ineffective, its officials were naive, illiterate, and lacked any interest in maintaining law and order. Graft, bribery, and corruption controlled City Hall. Citizens were apathetic and were even afraid to be on Fresno City streets after dark. (Not much has changed.)
However, the powerful influence of the ideas and editorials published in the Republican newspaper appealed to Fresnans to establish peace and insure the safety of its people and their property in order to establish a social and economic foundation for growth and property.
Though Rowell's interest in Republican Party politics was well grounded by the time he started the Fresno Republican newspaper in 1876, his political career began in 1880 when he was elected to the State Senate; he again served in 1896 and 1900. He traveled to China and Japan in 1887, and became interested in serving as United States Minister to Japan but failed to secure the appointment. Rowell served on the State Board of Health and was a Regent of the University of California. He also had aspirations to become a United States Senator, however, he never ran for the post.
Dr. Rowell assumed personal management of the Republican in 1876, dispensing with the services of an editor, discharging all help not absolutely necessary to the production of the paper, temporarily postponing the indebtedness with new notes, and turning in his personal medical accounts, to assist in the support of the enterprise.
Some reports indicate Dr. Rowell sold the paper to S. Adison Miller on April 26, 1879, stipulating, however, that it should remain a strictly Republican paper, that it should always be known as the Fresno Republican.
Records reflect Dr. Chester A. Rowell served as State Senator from Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Mono, Tulare Counties, 1880-82; from Fresno, Madera Counties, 1899-1901; from Fresno County, 1903-05.
Dr. Rowell's brother was Congressman Jonathan Harvey Rowell of Illinois, whose son was Dr. Rowell's namesake. The young Chester H. Rowell served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan. He then took two years of post graduate studies at the University of Berlin before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895, younger Rowell was hired by C. L. McLane, Fresno City School Superintendent for a teaching position at the 115 student, Fresno High School. Young Rowell was among its first five teachers.
Three years later, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as Editor of the Republican from his uncle Dr. Chester A. Rowell. The name on the masthead was soon modified as the Fresno Morning Republican. The younger Rowell soon became well-known throughout the Nation as a crusading young journalist-editor attempting to clean-up Fresno's image of political graft and crime. He went after a change in the General Law for Cities of the Fifth Class.
Rowell was elected mayor of the City of Fresno in 1909; became the fourth mayor of the city, a largely ceremonial post. He appropriated funds for the construction of a civic center on the northeast corner of Kern and L Streets and supported the establishment of playgrounds throughout the city.
Chester A. Rowell died in Los Angeles, California on May 9, 1912, while visiting friends. The entire community of Fresno mourned, and few people, friends or enemies, had negative comments to say on the occasion of Rowell's death. Throughout the Friends of Dr. Rowell Committee, the community raised more than $l0,000 to build a permanent Rowell monument. A Lincolnesque statue, which was constructed on the Southeast corner of Courthouse Park, faces the former site of the Fresno Republican Building and an inscription on the statue reads: Good Physician, Good Citizen, Good Friend."
The statue of Dr. Rowell remains in the Courthouse Park. (Note: Information regarding this monument suggests this statue is for Chester H. Rowell, an initial that is some times attributed to Dr. Chester A. Rowell.) Rowell Meadow in Tehipite was also named after Dr. Chester A. Rowell. Chester H. Rowell says his uncles Chester and George used to run sheep there years ago and had a sort of "shotgun" title to the meadow.
Dr. Rowell was inurned in a silver urn, which was donated by the Armenian people of Fresno. When the Armenian people migrated to the valley they did not have many funds and when they became ill, Dr. Rowell took care of them and often did not expect any remuneration.
Contributed by Lester Letson:
There is no information indicating any biological children for Dr. Chester A. Rowell, but he apparently raised his cousins as his own.
Sources: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/overview/regents/biographies_r.html;
The Rowell Papers: 1877 to 1914;
The Rowell Family Papers: 1883 to 1914 The Fresno Republican Newspaper;
The Daily Republican Newspaper, Vol. 176;
Place Names of the High Sierra (1926), by Francis P. Farquhar;
United States Census, 1880;
Fresno-Madera Medical Society;
Find-A-Grave contributor Lester Letson;
and various related articles.
During the Civil War (1861-1864), Chester (age 17) and four of his brothers served in the Union Army. After the war, Chester attended Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, and then studied medicine privately in Chicago.
In 1866, he came west to San Francisco and continued his medical training under his uncle Dr. Isaac Rowell. In 1870, he graduated from Cooper Medical College, a department of the University of the Pacific, and received his license to practice medicine from the State of California in 1876. In 1871, Rowell taught school in Oregon.
On August 25, 1872, at the age of 28, he married Mrs. Nellie (Hale) Rowell, the widow of his uncle and former tutor Dr. Isaac Rowell. Chester continued to care for his stepchildren Frank A. and Imogene (who were also his cousins) after Nellie Rowell's death in 1881. (NOTE: Many accounts confuse his middle initial with that of his younger nephew, Chester H. Rowell. However, as was the custom at the time, he was most likely named after his mother's maiden name of Abbott.)
Rowell initially came to Fresno in 1874 to look over property that belonged to his wife. (Some accounts indicate he was a physician from Denver.) He stayed in Fresno and started a medical practice. In 1875 the family moved to the southeast corner of Tulare and K (Van Ness) Street across from Courthouse Park. The site is now the home of the six-story Rowell Building built by the Rowell Family in 1911.
Dr. Chester A. Rowell was one of Fresno's early Republican Party pioneers; owner of the Fresno Republican Newspaper; served three years as California State Senator (1880-1882, 1899-1901, 1903-1905); University of California regent (1891-1912); and mayor of Fresno (1909-1912). He died in office in 1912.
In September, 1876, Dr. Rowell, "who had associated with him George McCullough and Lyman Andrews, M. J. Donahoo, Frank Dusy, A. Tombs, J. W. Williams, C. W. DeLong, Russell Flemming, Cottled, Luse and some other gentlemen" founded the Fresno Republican, Fresno's second daily newspaper and maintained a controlling interest in the publication for fourteen years. The newspaper's managing editors included Rowell, Rowell's nephew Chester Harvey Rowell, who succeeded his uncle Chester A. (hense the confusion), and later Ben Randal Walker. The "Republican" remained an important publication until the Fresno Bee purchased the paper in 1928. The Fresno Republican Publishing Company was founded in 1891. Rowell and his older brother George were also involved in sheep farming in the Kings-Kaweah Divide.
Fresno Historic Note: In 1858 the town of Fresno was founded on only 50 residents. By 1876 Fresno had more than 3,000 itinerants and property owners. Dr. Chester Rowell arrived in that year and started the Republican newspaper partly in response to the civil strife he witnessed upon arrival. Fresno was by then a liberal, brawling, rowdy, Libertine, and wide-open frontier town of bawdy houses, saloons, cattle men, Sequoia logging mill workers, gold miners, gamblers, and railroad speculators.
Town government was ineffective, its officials were naive, illiterate, and lacked any interest in maintaining law and order. Graft, bribery, and corruption controlled City Hall. Citizens were apathetic and were even afraid to be on Fresno City streets after dark. (Not much has changed.)
However, the powerful influence of the ideas and editorials published in the Republican newspaper appealed to Fresnans to establish peace and insure the safety of its people and their property in order to establish a social and economic foundation for growth and property.
Though Rowell's interest in Republican Party politics was well grounded by the time he started the Fresno Republican newspaper in 1876, his political career began in 1880 when he was elected to the State Senate; he again served in 1896 and 1900. He traveled to China and Japan in 1887, and became interested in serving as United States Minister to Japan but failed to secure the appointment. Rowell served on the State Board of Health and was a Regent of the University of California. He also had aspirations to become a United States Senator, however, he never ran for the post.
Dr. Rowell assumed personal management of the Republican in 1876, dispensing with the services of an editor, discharging all help not absolutely necessary to the production of the paper, temporarily postponing the indebtedness with new notes, and turning in his personal medical accounts, to assist in the support of the enterprise.
Some reports indicate Dr. Rowell sold the paper to S. Adison Miller on April 26, 1879, stipulating, however, that it should remain a strictly Republican paper, that it should always be known as the Fresno Republican.
Records reflect Dr. Chester A. Rowell served as State Senator from Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Mono, Tulare Counties, 1880-82; from Fresno, Madera Counties, 1899-1901; from Fresno County, 1903-05.
Dr. Rowell's brother was Congressman Jonathan Harvey Rowell of Illinois, whose son was Dr. Rowell's namesake. The young Chester H. Rowell served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan. He then took two years of post graduate studies at the University of Berlin before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895, younger Rowell was hired by C. L. McLane, Fresno City School Superintendent for a teaching position at the 115 student, Fresno High School. Young Rowell was among its first five teachers.
Three years later, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as Editor of the Republican from his uncle Dr. Chester A. Rowell. The name on the masthead was soon modified as the Fresno Morning Republican. The younger Rowell soon became well-known throughout the Nation as a crusading young journalist-editor attempting to clean-up Fresno's image of political graft and crime. He went after a change in the General Law for Cities of the Fifth Class.
Rowell was elected mayor of the City of Fresno in 1909; became the fourth mayor of the city, a largely ceremonial post. He appropriated funds for the construction of a civic center on the northeast corner of Kern and L Streets and supported the establishment of playgrounds throughout the city.
Chester A. Rowell died in Los Angeles, California on May 9, 1912, while visiting friends. The entire community of Fresno mourned, and few people, friends or enemies, had negative comments to say on the occasion of Rowell's death. Throughout the Friends of Dr. Rowell Committee, the community raised more than $l0,000 to build a permanent Rowell monument. A Lincolnesque statue, which was constructed on the Southeast corner of Courthouse Park, faces the former site of the Fresno Republican Building and an inscription on the statue reads: Good Physician, Good Citizen, Good Friend."
The statue of Dr. Rowell remains in the Courthouse Park. (Note: Information regarding this monument suggests this statue is for Chester H. Rowell, an initial that is some times attributed to Dr. Chester A. Rowell.) Rowell Meadow in Tehipite was also named after Dr. Chester A. Rowell. Chester H. Rowell says his uncles Chester and George used to run sheep there years ago and had a sort of "shotgun" title to the meadow.
Dr. Rowell was inurned in a silver urn, which was donated by the Armenian people of Fresno. When the Armenian people migrated to the valley they did not have many funds and when they became ill, Dr. Rowell took care of them and often did not expect any remuneration.
Contributed by Lester Letson:
There is no information indicating any biological children for Dr. Chester A. Rowell, but he apparently raised his cousins as his own.
Sources: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/overview/regents/biographies_r.html;
The Rowell Papers: 1877 to 1914;
The Rowell Family Papers: 1883 to 1914 The Fresno Republican Newspaper;
The Daily Republican Newspaper, Vol. 176;
Place Names of the High Sierra (1926), by Francis P. Farquhar;
United States Census, 1880;
Fresno-Madera Medical Society;
Find-A-Grave contributor Lester Letson;
and various related articles.
Dr. Chester A. Rowell was born October 17, 1844, in Woodsville, New Hampshire, one of eight sons of Jonathan B. Rowell and Cynthia Hay Abbott Rowell. In 1849, the family moved to Stout's Grove, near Bloomington, Illinois. His father died a year later.
During the Civil War (1861-1864), Chester (age 17) and four of his brothers served in the Union Army. After the war, Chester attended Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, and then studied medicine privately in Chicago.
In 1866, he came west to San Francisco and continued his medical training under his uncle Dr. Isaac Rowell. In 1870, he graduated from Cooper Medical College, a department of the University of the Pacific, and received his license to practice medicine from the State of California in 1876. In 1871, Rowell taught school in Oregon.
On August 25, 1872, at the age of 28, he married Mrs. Nellie (Hale) Rowell, the widow of his uncle and former tutor Dr. Isaac Rowell. Chester continued to care for his stepchildren Frank A. and Imogene (who were also his cousins) after Nellie Rowell's death in 1881. (NOTE: Many accounts confuse his middle initial with that of his younger nephew, Chester H. Rowell. However, as was the custom at the time, he was most likely named after his mother's maiden name of Abbott.)
Rowell initially came to Fresno in 1874 to look over property that belonged to his wife. (Some accounts indicate he was a physician from Denver.) He stayed in Fresno and started a medical practice. In 1875 the family moved to the southeast corner of Tulare and K (Van Ness) Street across from Courthouse Park. The site is now the home of the six-story Rowell Building built by the Rowell Family in 1911.
Dr. Chester A. Rowell was one of Fresno's early Republican Party pioneers; owner of the Fresno Republican Newspaper; served three years as California State Senator (1880-1882, 1899-1901, 1903-1905); University of California regent (1891-1912); and mayor of Fresno (1909-1912). He died in office in 1912.
In September, 1876, Dr. Rowell, "who had associated with him George McCullough and Lyman Andrews, M. J. Donahoo, Frank Dusy, A. Tombs, J. W. Williams, C. W. DeLong, Russell Flemming, Cottled, Luse and some other gentlemen" founded the Fresno Republican, Fresno's second daily newspaper and maintained a controlling interest in the publication for fourteen years. The newspaper's managing editors included Rowell, Rowell's nephew Chester Harvey Rowell, who succeeded his uncle Chester A. (hense the confusion), and later Ben Randal Walker. The "Republican" remained an important publication until the Fresno Bee purchased the paper in 1928. The Fresno Republican Publishing Company was founded in 1891. Rowell and his older brother George were also involved in sheep farming in the Kings-Kaweah Divide.
Fresno Historic Note: In 1858 the town of Fresno was founded on only 50 residents. By 1876 Fresno had more than 3,000 itinerants and property owners. Dr. Chester Rowell arrived in that year and started the Republican newspaper partly in response to the civil strife he witnessed upon arrival. Fresno was by then a liberal, brawling, rowdy, Libertine, and wide-open frontier town of bawdy houses, saloons, cattle men, Sequoia logging mill workers, gold miners, gamblers, and railroad speculators.
Town government was ineffective, its officials were naive, illiterate, and lacked any interest in maintaining law and order. Graft, bribery, and corruption controlled City Hall. Citizens were apathetic and were even afraid to be on Fresno City streets after dark. (Not much has changed.)
However, the powerful influence of the ideas and editorials published in the Republican newspaper appealed to Fresnans to establish peace and insure the safety of its people and their property in order to establish a social and economic foundation for growth and property.
Though Rowell's interest in Republican Party politics was well grounded by the time he started the Fresno Republican newspaper in 1876, his political career began in 1880 when he was elected to the State Senate; he again served in 1896 and 1900. He traveled to China and Japan in 1887, and became interested in serving as United States Minister to Japan but failed to secure the appointment. Rowell served on the State Board of Health and was a Regent of the University of California. He also had aspirations to become a United States Senator, however, he never ran for the post.
Dr. Rowell assumed personal management of the Republican in 1876, dispensing with the services of an editor, discharging all help not absolutely necessary to the production of the paper, temporarily postponing the indebtedness with new notes, and turning in his personal medical accounts, to assist in the support of the enterprise.
Some reports indicate Dr. Rowell sold the paper to S. Adison Miller on April 26, 1879, stipulating, however, that it should remain a strictly Republican paper, that it should always be known as the Fresno Republican.
Records reflect Dr. Chester A. Rowell served as State Senator from Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Mono, Tulare Counties, 1880-82; from Fresno, Madera Counties, 1899-1901; from Fresno County, 1903-05.
Dr. Rowell's brother was Congressman Jonathan Harvey Rowell of Illinois, whose son was Dr. Rowell's namesake. The young Chester H. Rowell served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan. He then took two years of post graduate studies at the University of Berlin before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895, younger Rowell was hired by C. L. McLane, Fresno City School Superintendent for a teaching position at the 115 student, Fresno High School. Young Rowell was among its first five teachers.
Three years later, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as Editor of the Republican from his uncle Dr. Chester A. Rowell. The name on the masthead was soon modified as the Fresno Morning Republican. The younger Rowell soon became well-known throughout the Nation as a crusading young journalist-editor attempting to clean-up Fresno's image of political graft and crime. He went after a change in the General Law for Cities of the Fifth Class.
Rowell was elected mayor of the City of Fresno in 1909; became the fourth mayor of the city, a largely ceremonial post. He appropriated funds for the construction of a civic center on the northeast corner of Kern and L Streets and supported the establishment of playgrounds throughout the city.
Chester A. Rowell died in Los Angeles, California on May 9, 1912, while visiting friends. The entire community of Fresno mourned, and few people, friends or enemies, had negative comments to say on the occasion of Rowell's death. Throughout the Friends of Dr. Rowell Committee, the community raised more than $l0,000 to build a permanent Rowell monument. A Lincolnesque statue, which was constructed on the Southeast corner of Courthouse Park, faces the former site of the Fresno Republican Building and an inscription on the statue reads: Good Physician, Good Citizen, Good Friend."
The statue of Dr. Rowell remains in the Courthouse Park. (Note: Information regarding this monument suggests this statue is for Chester H. Rowell, an initial that is some times attributed to Dr. Chester A. Rowell.) Rowell Meadow in Tehipite was also named after Dr. Chester A. Rowell. Chester H. Rowell says his uncles Chester and George used to run sheep there years ago and had a sort of "shotgun" title to the meadow.
Dr. Rowell was inurned in a silver urn, which was donated by the Armenian people of Fresno. When the Armenian people migrated to the valley they did not have many funds and when they became ill, Dr. Rowell took care of them and often did not expect any remuneration.
Contributed by Lester Letson:
There is no information indicating any biological children for Dr. Chester A. Rowell, but he apparently raised his cousins as his own.
Sources: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/overview/regents/biographies_r.html;
The Rowell Papers: 1877 to 1914;
The Rowell Family Papers: 1883 to 1914 The Fresno Republican Newspaper;
The Daily Republican Newspaper, Vol. 176;
Place Names of the High Sierra (1926), by Francis P. Farquhar;
United States Census, 1880;
Fresno-Madera Medical Society;
Find-A-Grave contributor Lester Letson;
and various related articles.
During the Civil War (1861-1864), Chester (age 17) and four of his brothers served in the Union Army. After the war, Chester attended Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, and then studied medicine privately in Chicago.
In 1866, he came west to San Francisco and continued his medical training under his uncle Dr. Isaac Rowell. In 1870, he graduated from Cooper Medical College, a department of the University of the Pacific, and received his license to practice medicine from the State of California in 1876. In 1871, Rowell taught school in Oregon.
On August 25, 1872, at the age of 28, he married Mrs. Nellie (Hale) Rowell, the widow of his uncle and former tutor Dr. Isaac Rowell. Chester continued to care for his stepchildren Frank A. and Imogene (who were also his cousins) after Nellie Rowell's death in 1881. (NOTE: Many accounts confuse his middle initial with that of his younger nephew, Chester H. Rowell. However, as was the custom at the time, he was most likely named after his mother's maiden name of Abbott.)
Rowell initially came to Fresno in 1874 to look over property that belonged to his wife. (Some accounts indicate he was a physician from Denver.) He stayed in Fresno and started a medical practice. In 1875 the family moved to the southeast corner of Tulare and K (Van Ness) Street across from Courthouse Park. The site is now the home of the six-story Rowell Building built by the Rowell Family in 1911.
Dr. Chester A. Rowell was one of Fresno's early Republican Party pioneers; owner of the Fresno Republican Newspaper; served three years as California State Senator (1880-1882, 1899-1901, 1903-1905); University of California regent (1891-1912); and mayor of Fresno (1909-1912). He died in office in 1912.
In September, 1876, Dr. Rowell, "who had associated with him George McCullough and Lyman Andrews, M. J. Donahoo, Frank Dusy, A. Tombs, J. W. Williams, C. W. DeLong, Russell Flemming, Cottled, Luse and some other gentlemen" founded the Fresno Republican, Fresno's second daily newspaper and maintained a controlling interest in the publication for fourteen years. The newspaper's managing editors included Rowell, Rowell's nephew Chester Harvey Rowell, who succeeded his uncle Chester A. (hense the confusion), and later Ben Randal Walker. The "Republican" remained an important publication until the Fresno Bee purchased the paper in 1928. The Fresno Republican Publishing Company was founded in 1891. Rowell and his older brother George were also involved in sheep farming in the Kings-Kaweah Divide.
Fresno Historic Note: In 1858 the town of Fresno was founded on only 50 residents. By 1876 Fresno had more than 3,000 itinerants and property owners. Dr. Chester Rowell arrived in that year and started the Republican newspaper partly in response to the civil strife he witnessed upon arrival. Fresno was by then a liberal, brawling, rowdy, Libertine, and wide-open frontier town of bawdy houses, saloons, cattle men, Sequoia logging mill workers, gold miners, gamblers, and railroad speculators.
Town government was ineffective, its officials were naive, illiterate, and lacked any interest in maintaining law and order. Graft, bribery, and corruption controlled City Hall. Citizens were apathetic and were even afraid to be on Fresno City streets after dark. (Not much has changed.)
However, the powerful influence of the ideas and editorials published in the Republican newspaper appealed to Fresnans to establish peace and insure the safety of its people and their property in order to establish a social and economic foundation for growth and property.
Though Rowell's interest in Republican Party politics was well grounded by the time he started the Fresno Republican newspaper in 1876, his political career began in 1880 when he was elected to the State Senate; he again served in 1896 and 1900. He traveled to China and Japan in 1887, and became interested in serving as United States Minister to Japan but failed to secure the appointment. Rowell served on the State Board of Health and was a Regent of the University of California. He also had aspirations to become a United States Senator, however, he never ran for the post.
Dr. Rowell assumed personal management of the Republican in 1876, dispensing with the services of an editor, discharging all help not absolutely necessary to the production of the paper, temporarily postponing the indebtedness with new notes, and turning in his personal medical accounts, to assist in the support of the enterprise.
Some reports indicate Dr. Rowell sold the paper to S. Adison Miller on April 26, 1879, stipulating, however, that it should remain a strictly Republican paper, that it should always be known as the Fresno Republican.
Records reflect Dr. Chester A. Rowell served as State Senator from Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Mono, Tulare Counties, 1880-82; from Fresno, Madera Counties, 1899-1901; from Fresno County, 1903-05.
Dr. Rowell's brother was Congressman Jonathan Harvey Rowell of Illinois, whose son was Dr. Rowell's namesake. The young Chester H. Rowell served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan. He then took two years of post graduate studies at the University of Berlin before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895, younger Rowell was hired by C. L. McLane, Fresno City School Superintendent for a teaching position at the 115 student, Fresno High School. Young Rowell was among its first five teachers.
Three years later, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as Editor of the Republican from his uncle Dr. Chester A. Rowell. The name on the masthead was soon modified as the Fresno Morning Republican. The younger Rowell soon became well-known throughout the Nation as a crusading young journalist-editor attempting to clean-up Fresno's image of political graft and crime. He went after a change in the General Law for Cities of the Fifth Class.
Rowell was elected mayor of the City of Fresno in 1909; became the fourth mayor of the city, a largely ceremonial post. He appropriated funds for the construction of a civic center on the northeast corner of Kern and L Streets and supported the establishment of playgrounds throughout the city.
Chester A. Rowell died in Los Angeles, California on May 9, 1912, while visiting friends. The entire community of Fresno mourned, and few people, friends or enemies, had negative comments to say on the occasion of Rowell's death. Throughout the Friends of Dr. Rowell Committee, the community raised more than $l0,000 to build a permanent Rowell monument. A Lincolnesque statue, which was constructed on the Southeast corner of Courthouse Park, faces the former site of the Fresno Republican Building and an inscription on the statue reads: Good Physician, Good Citizen, Good Friend."
The statue of Dr. Rowell remains in the Courthouse Park. (Note: Information regarding this monument suggests this statue is for Chester H. Rowell, an initial that is some times attributed to Dr. Chester A. Rowell.) Rowell Meadow in Tehipite was also named after Dr. Chester A. Rowell. Chester H. Rowell says his uncles Chester and George used to run sheep there years ago and had a sort of "shotgun" title to the meadow.
Dr. Rowell was inurned in a silver urn, which was donated by the Armenian people of Fresno. When the Armenian people migrated to the valley they did not have many funds and when they became ill, Dr. Rowell took care of them and often did not expect any remuneration.
Contributed by Lester Letson:
There is no information indicating any biological children for Dr. Chester A. Rowell, but he apparently raised his cousins as his own.
Sources: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/overview/regents/biographies_r.html;
The Rowell Papers: 1877 to 1914;
The Rowell Family Papers: 1883 to 1914 The Fresno Republican Newspaper;
The Daily Republican Newspaper, Vol. 176;
Place Names of the High Sierra (1926), by Francis P. Farquhar;
United States Census, 1880;
Fresno-Madera Medical Society;
Find-A-Grave contributor Lester Letson;
and various related articles.
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