A 1919 biography
CHESTER H. ROWELL
Prominent among the newer generation of Californians whose character, intellect and ideals have given them power and influence, and who have made marked use of privilege and opportunity, must be mentioned Chester Harvey Rowell, whose national reputation as editor of the Fresno Republican and as a public man has placed him in the front rank, not only of California's commonwealth builders, but also of scholarly American publicists, and whose personality and achievements have long since made him easily the best-known citizen of Fresno.
He was born in Bloomington, Ill., on November 1, 1867, the eldest son of Jonathan Harvey and Maria Sanford (Woods) Rowell, and received his earlier education at the common and high schools of his native city, and at the Illinois State Normal School.
In the fall of 1885 Mr. Rowell matriculated at the University of Michigan, and three years later he was graduated with the degree of Ph. B. after which he took an additional year there for post graduate study. He there laid foundations of learning and of training which enabled him in later life, when called upon to assume unusual responsibility and leadership and be equal to the task.
The three years immediately following Mr. Rowell spent in Washington. D. C, where for two years he was clerk to the committee on elections of the House of Representatives, of which his father was chairman, and then for a year he gave himself up to private literary work, making use of material to be found only at the national library.
While in Washington he compiled a digest of the contested election cases of the Fifty-first Congress, which was published by Congress. He also then got together most of his volume on the contested election cases in all the congresses, which was afterward also published by Congress. At the nation's capitol he met the nation's leaders in all departments of activity, and he thus naturally became familiar with most phases of public and strenuous life.
Less for the sake of rest than to continue in his characteristically energetic fashion the hard work he had driven through. Mr. Rowell next visited Europe, where he spent a couple of years in travel and study.
He was enrolled as a post-graduate student in the German universities of Halle and Berlin, and later he studied in Rome and in Paris. During the long vacations, he traveled a-foot across Germany, Switzerland and Italy, seeing both land and people at first-hand and mastering the dialectical peculiarities of everyday foreign speech in French, German and Italian, and he also made an interesting and instructive foot-tour in Bohemia.
On his return from Europe, Mr. Rowell began his experience as a teacher in Baxter College, Kans., and Racine College, Wis. He taught for two years in the high school at Fresno, and soon after was added to the modern language force in the University of Illinois, where he had charge of the course in scientific German. At other times and places, he taught mathematics, French and Latin.
In 1898 Mr. Rowell returned to Fresno, in which expanding city he had already established valuable social and professional connections, and assumed the editorial management of the Fresno Republican, in which he has been continuously engaged ever since.
After the death of his uncle. Dr. Chester Rowell, in 1912, he became the principal owner of the paper, and president of the publishing company. Mr. Rowell has done much to direct local thought and to guide Fresno County to its deserved destiny, but he has also found time to accomplish a good deal for both California and the nation.
He spent the winter of 1900-01 in Washington, and further studied national politics. In 1901 he accepted the Republican nomination for mayor of Fresno, but was defeated.
Mr. Rowell served as one of the trustees of the Fresno Free Public Library, and was instrumental in securing from Andrew Carnegie the gift of $30,000 for the construction of a library building. He has also served as a member of the Fresno Board of Education. During the summer of 1911 he delivered a series of lectures on journalism before the University of California and at various times, in different sections of the United State's he has lectured upon political, civic and educational subjects. He has also contributed numerous articles to the leading magazines and reviews of the country.
Among Mr. Rowell's civic and other work may be noted his organization with others of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican League, of which he was president, which was the first organization of the reform movement in California, out of which the Progressive party afterwards grew.
It was their organization which nominated Hiram W. Johnson as a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 1912. Mr. Rowell was chairman of the committee in charge of the Johnson campaign. He was a member of the Republican State Committee from 1906 to 1912, and from 1916 to the present time (1919). In the interval from 1912 to 1916, he was a member of the Progressive State Committee. He was chairman of the Republican State Convention of 1910, the last delegate convention held in California, and was chairman of the Republican State Committee from 1916 to 1918. He was delegate to both the Republican and Progressive National Conventions in 1912, and had the unique experience of serving with the subcommittees on platform, of nine members, of each of these committees, thus assisting in the drafting of the national platform of two political parties the same year.
He was also a delegate to the National Progressive Convention of 1916. From 1912 to 1916 he was National Committeeman for California on the Progressive National Committee. Returning to the Republican party in 1916, he was elected state chairman of the party committee the next day after he had changed his registration to Republican.
He was a member of the National Campaign Committee of sixteen members, in the Hughes campaign of that year. Since 1918 he has not taken active part in organized politics, though retaining his membership on the Republican State Committee.
Mr. Rowell was a member of the board of state commissioners of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, is a regent of the University of California, and a director in the California Development Board and was a member of the executive committee of the California State Council of Defense. He served as vice-president of the National Municipal League, is a member of the Associated Press and the American Publishers' Association and of numerous scientific and literary bodies.
He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Bear, college honor societies, and of the Delta Tau Delta college fraternity. At Chicago, on August 1, 1897, Mr. Rowell was married to Miss Myrtle Marie Lingle, of Webb City, Mo., and they have three children, Cora W., now a student in the State University, Barbara and Jonathan.∼Chester Harvey Rowell, California journalist and civic leader, was born in Bloomington, Ill., in 1867, son of Congressman Jonathan Harvey Rowell and Maria Sanford Woods Rowell. Siblings include: Cora M. Rowell Olney (b: 1868); Lonnie W. Rowell (b: 1870); Elmer I. Rowell (b: 1873); and Laura M. Rowell (b: 1878).
Rowell is sometimes confused with his uncle, Dr. Chester A. Rowell (1844-1912), a Fresno physician, California State Senator (1880-1882, 1899-1901, 1903-1905), University of California regent (1891-1912), and mayor of Fresno (1909-1912).
The younger Chester H. Rowell was educated in Bloomington public schools, received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, 1888, served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan, then took two-three years of post graduate studies in Europe at the Universities of Halle, Berlin, Paris and Rome before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895 young 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.
On August 01, 1897, Chester married Myrtle Marie Lingle in Chicago, Illinois, and from that union, five children were borne:
Chester Harvey Rowell;
Cora W Rowell Givens;
Mildred Mary "Polly" Rowell;
Barbara Lois Rowell Laughlin, died in Alameda Co., CA;
Jonathan H. Rowell.
In 1898, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as editor and publisher of the Fresno Republican, a small county newspaper founded by his uncle, Dr. Chester Rowell, and soon made it one of the leading papers of the state.
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.
Fresno operated without a Mayor under that law. Town government had been weak and run by five trustees. The Fresno Morning Republican campaigned for election of literate community leaders with commitment to limited government, clean streets and a responsible business community.
He remained the editor for 22 years. He sold the Republican in 1920 to George A. Osborn and Chase S. Osborn, Jr.
In 1907, he was the co-founder and chairman (1907-1911) of the Lincoln-Roosevelt League, a coalition of progressive Republican activists. The league was instrumental in the election of Hiram Johnson as governor of California. In 1912, Rowell was a member of the sub-committee that wrote the national platforms for both the Republican and Progressive parties.
Later, Rowell was a lecturer in journalisn at the University of California, Berkeley (1911) and in political science at Stanford University (1927-1934). He was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle (1932-1939). He was a member of the University of California Board of Regents from 1914 until shortly before his death in 1948.
(Historic Note: The Republican Party evolved in 1854, thirty years after the early Springfiled Republican Newspaper was established in Springfield, Massachusetts 1824. The founder was Samuel Bowles. The newspaper pronounced for the early Republican faith as against that of the Federaists and was ready for progress in democracy.
In 1856, editor Horace Greeley, wrote in the Springfield Republican 'It is the best and ablest country journal ever published on the continent.' One of the outstanding features of the Republican was its concise writing and condensation. Republican loss of control in Congress in 1874.
The historic Springfield Republican eventually was re-cast as a weekly known as the Fresno Republican on the California wild and rugged frontier in February 1877. Its original purposes were renewed as it played a key role in establishing the California Republican Party. In July 1892 it bcame a daily and changed its name to the Fresno Morning Republican and remained independent until November 1926 when it was sold.)
In 1923 Rowell began a series of syndicated newspaper articles and from 1932-1939 was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Chester H. Rowell's correspondence, articles, and editorials reflect his wide interest in the political and social problems of the period. He was an organizer and president of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican League, 1907-1911; delegate to a number of Republican state and national conventions between 1910 and 1936 and Progressive National Committeeman, 1912-1916; unsuccessful candidate for the Progressive nomination for United States Senator from California, 1914; chairman, Republican State Central Committee, 1916-1918; member of the California Railroad Commission, 1921-1923; member of the Presidential Emergency Boards on railroad strikes, 1928-1931; member of American Youth Commission, 1935-1948; and member and officer of numerous other political and social organizations. He was a strong advocate of United States entry into the League of Nations.
Chester H. Rowell died in Alamdea County, CA at the age of 80, closely following the presidential election of Harry Truman(D) in 1948.
Sources:
Wikipedia;
The Daily Republican Newspaper, Vol. 176;
Chester H. Rowell papers, BANC MSS C-B 401, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
CHESTER H. ROWELL
Prominent among the newer generation of Californians whose character, intellect and ideals have given them power and influence, and who have made marked use of privilege and opportunity, must be mentioned Chester Harvey Rowell, whose national reputation as editor of the Fresno Republican and as a public man has placed him in the front rank, not only of California's commonwealth builders, but also of scholarly American publicists, and whose personality and achievements have long since made him easily the best-known citizen of Fresno.
He was born in Bloomington, Ill., on November 1, 1867, the eldest son of Jonathan Harvey and Maria Sanford (Woods) Rowell, and received his earlier education at the common and high schools of his native city, and at the Illinois State Normal School.
In the fall of 1885 Mr. Rowell matriculated at the University of Michigan, and three years later he was graduated with the degree of Ph. B. after which he took an additional year there for post graduate study. He there laid foundations of learning and of training which enabled him in later life, when called upon to assume unusual responsibility and leadership and be equal to the task.
The three years immediately following Mr. Rowell spent in Washington. D. C, where for two years he was clerk to the committee on elections of the House of Representatives, of which his father was chairman, and then for a year he gave himself up to private literary work, making use of material to be found only at the national library.
While in Washington he compiled a digest of the contested election cases of the Fifty-first Congress, which was published by Congress. He also then got together most of his volume on the contested election cases in all the congresses, which was afterward also published by Congress. At the nation's capitol he met the nation's leaders in all departments of activity, and he thus naturally became familiar with most phases of public and strenuous life.
Less for the sake of rest than to continue in his characteristically energetic fashion the hard work he had driven through. Mr. Rowell next visited Europe, where he spent a couple of years in travel and study.
He was enrolled as a post-graduate student in the German universities of Halle and Berlin, and later he studied in Rome and in Paris. During the long vacations, he traveled a-foot across Germany, Switzerland and Italy, seeing both land and people at first-hand and mastering the dialectical peculiarities of everyday foreign speech in French, German and Italian, and he also made an interesting and instructive foot-tour in Bohemia.
On his return from Europe, Mr. Rowell began his experience as a teacher in Baxter College, Kans., and Racine College, Wis. He taught for two years in the high school at Fresno, and soon after was added to the modern language force in the University of Illinois, where he had charge of the course in scientific German. At other times and places, he taught mathematics, French and Latin.
In 1898 Mr. Rowell returned to Fresno, in which expanding city he had already established valuable social and professional connections, and assumed the editorial management of the Fresno Republican, in which he has been continuously engaged ever since.
After the death of his uncle. Dr. Chester Rowell, in 1912, he became the principal owner of the paper, and president of the publishing company. Mr. Rowell has done much to direct local thought and to guide Fresno County to its deserved destiny, but he has also found time to accomplish a good deal for both California and the nation.
He spent the winter of 1900-01 in Washington, and further studied national politics. In 1901 he accepted the Republican nomination for mayor of Fresno, but was defeated.
Mr. Rowell served as one of the trustees of the Fresno Free Public Library, and was instrumental in securing from Andrew Carnegie the gift of $30,000 for the construction of a library building. He has also served as a member of the Fresno Board of Education. During the summer of 1911 he delivered a series of lectures on journalism before the University of California and at various times, in different sections of the United State's he has lectured upon political, civic and educational subjects. He has also contributed numerous articles to the leading magazines and reviews of the country.
Among Mr. Rowell's civic and other work may be noted his organization with others of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican League, of which he was president, which was the first organization of the reform movement in California, out of which the Progressive party afterwards grew.
It was their organization which nominated Hiram W. Johnson as a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 1912. Mr. Rowell was chairman of the committee in charge of the Johnson campaign. He was a member of the Republican State Committee from 1906 to 1912, and from 1916 to the present time (1919). In the interval from 1912 to 1916, he was a member of the Progressive State Committee. He was chairman of the Republican State Convention of 1910, the last delegate convention held in California, and was chairman of the Republican State Committee from 1916 to 1918. He was delegate to both the Republican and Progressive National Conventions in 1912, and had the unique experience of serving with the subcommittees on platform, of nine members, of each of these committees, thus assisting in the drafting of the national platform of two political parties the same year.
He was also a delegate to the National Progressive Convention of 1916. From 1912 to 1916 he was National Committeeman for California on the Progressive National Committee. Returning to the Republican party in 1916, he was elected state chairman of the party committee the next day after he had changed his registration to Republican.
He was a member of the National Campaign Committee of sixteen members, in the Hughes campaign of that year. Since 1918 he has not taken active part in organized politics, though retaining his membership on the Republican State Committee.
Mr. Rowell was a member of the board of state commissioners of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, is a regent of the University of California, and a director in the California Development Board and was a member of the executive committee of the California State Council of Defense. He served as vice-president of the National Municipal League, is a member of the Associated Press and the American Publishers' Association and of numerous scientific and literary bodies.
He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Bear, college honor societies, and of the Delta Tau Delta college fraternity. At Chicago, on August 1, 1897, Mr. Rowell was married to Miss Myrtle Marie Lingle, of Webb City, Mo., and they have three children, Cora W., now a student in the State University, Barbara and Jonathan.∼Chester Harvey Rowell, California journalist and civic leader, was born in Bloomington, Ill., in 1867, son of Congressman Jonathan Harvey Rowell and Maria Sanford Woods Rowell. Siblings include: Cora M. Rowell Olney (b: 1868); Lonnie W. Rowell (b: 1870); Elmer I. Rowell (b: 1873); and Laura M. Rowell (b: 1878).
Rowell is sometimes confused with his uncle, Dr. Chester A. Rowell (1844-1912), a Fresno physician, California State Senator (1880-1882, 1899-1901, 1903-1905), University of California regent (1891-1912), and mayor of Fresno (1909-1912).
The younger Chester H. Rowell was educated in Bloomington public schools, received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, 1888, served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan, then took two-three years of post graduate studies in Europe at the Universities of Halle, Berlin, Paris and Rome before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895 young 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.
On August 01, 1897, Chester married Myrtle Marie Lingle in Chicago, Illinois, and from that union, five children were borne:
Chester Harvey Rowell;
Cora W Rowell Givens;
Mildred Mary "Polly" Rowell;
Barbara Lois Rowell Laughlin, died in Alameda Co., CA;
Jonathan H. Rowell.
In 1898, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as editor and publisher of the Fresno Republican, a small county newspaper founded by his uncle, Dr. Chester Rowell, and soon made it one of the leading papers of the state.
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.
Fresno operated without a Mayor under that law. Town government had been weak and run by five trustees. The Fresno Morning Republican campaigned for election of literate community leaders with commitment to limited government, clean streets and a responsible business community.
He remained the editor for 22 years. He sold the Republican in 1920 to George A. Osborn and Chase S. Osborn, Jr.
In 1907, he was the co-founder and chairman (1907-1911) of the Lincoln-Roosevelt League, a coalition of progressive Republican activists. The league was instrumental in the election of Hiram Johnson as governor of California. In 1912, Rowell was a member of the sub-committee that wrote the national platforms for both the Republican and Progressive parties.
Later, Rowell was a lecturer in journalisn at the University of California, Berkeley (1911) and in political science at Stanford University (1927-1934). He was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle (1932-1939). He was a member of the University of California Board of Regents from 1914 until shortly before his death in 1948.
(Historic Note: The Republican Party evolved in 1854, thirty years after the early Springfiled Republican Newspaper was established in Springfield, Massachusetts 1824. The founder was Samuel Bowles. The newspaper pronounced for the early Republican faith as against that of the Federaists and was ready for progress in democracy.
In 1856, editor Horace Greeley, wrote in the Springfield Republican 'It is the best and ablest country journal ever published on the continent.' One of the outstanding features of the Republican was its concise writing and condensation. Republican loss of control in Congress in 1874.
The historic Springfield Republican eventually was re-cast as a weekly known as the Fresno Republican on the California wild and rugged frontier in February 1877. Its original purposes were renewed as it played a key role in establishing the California Republican Party. In July 1892 it bcame a daily and changed its name to the Fresno Morning Republican and remained independent until November 1926 when it was sold.)
In 1923 Rowell began a series of syndicated newspaper articles and from 1932-1939 was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Chester H. Rowell's correspondence, articles, and editorials reflect his wide interest in the political and social problems of the period. He was an organizer and president of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican League, 1907-1911; delegate to a number of Republican state and national conventions between 1910 and 1936 and Progressive National Committeeman, 1912-1916; unsuccessful candidate for the Progressive nomination for United States Senator from California, 1914; chairman, Republican State Central Committee, 1916-1918; member of the California Railroad Commission, 1921-1923; member of the Presidential Emergency Boards on railroad strikes, 1928-1931; member of American Youth Commission, 1935-1948; and member and officer of numerous other political and social organizations. He was a strong advocate of United States entry into the League of Nations.
Chester H. Rowell died in Alamdea County, CA at the age of 80, closely following the presidential election of Harry Truman(D) in 1948.
Sources:
Wikipedia;
The Daily Republican Newspaper, Vol. 176;
Chester H. Rowell papers, BANC MSS C-B 401, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
A 1919 biography
CHESTER H. ROWELL
Prominent among the newer generation of Californians whose character, intellect and ideals have given them power and influence, and who have made marked use of privilege and opportunity, must be mentioned Chester Harvey Rowell, whose national reputation as editor of the Fresno Republican and as a public man has placed him in the front rank, not only of California's commonwealth builders, but also of scholarly American publicists, and whose personality and achievements have long since made him easily the best-known citizen of Fresno.
He was born in Bloomington, Ill., on November 1, 1867, the eldest son of Jonathan Harvey and Maria Sanford (Woods) Rowell, and received his earlier education at the common and high schools of his native city, and at the Illinois State Normal School.
In the fall of 1885 Mr. Rowell matriculated at the University of Michigan, and three years later he was graduated with the degree of Ph. B. after which he took an additional year there for post graduate study. He there laid foundations of learning and of training which enabled him in later life, when called upon to assume unusual responsibility and leadership and be equal to the task.
The three years immediately following Mr. Rowell spent in Washington. D. C, where for two years he was clerk to the committee on elections of the House of Representatives, of which his father was chairman, and then for a year he gave himself up to private literary work, making use of material to be found only at the national library.
While in Washington he compiled a digest of the contested election cases of the Fifty-first Congress, which was published by Congress. He also then got together most of his volume on the contested election cases in all the congresses, which was afterward also published by Congress. At the nation's capitol he met the nation's leaders in all departments of activity, and he thus naturally became familiar with most phases of public and strenuous life.
Less for the sake of rest than to continue in his characteristically energetic fashion the hard work he had driven through. Mr. Rowell next visited Europe, where he spent a couple of years in travel and study.
He was enrolled as a post-graduate student in the German universities of Halle and Berlin, and later he studied in Rome and in Paris. During the long vacations, he traveled a-foot across Germany, Switzerland and Italy, seeing both land and people at first-hand and mastering the dialectical peculiarities of everyday foreign speech in French, German and Italian, and he also made an interesting and instructive foot-tour in Bohemia.
On his return from Europe, Mr. Rowell began his experience as a teacher in Baxter College, Kans., and Racine College, Wis. He taught for two years in the high school at Fresno, and soon after was added to the modern language force in the University of Illinois, where he had charge of the course in scientific German. At other times and places, he taught mathematics, French and Latin.
In 1898 Mr. Rowell returned to Fresno, in which expanding city he had already established valuable social and professional connections, and assumed the editorial management of the Fresno Republican, in which he has been continuously engaged ever since.
After the death of his uncle. Dr. Chester Rowell, in 1912, he became the principal owner of the paper, and president of the publishing company. Mr. Rowell has done much to direct local thought and to guide Fresno County to its deserved destiny, but he has also found time to accomplish a good deal for both California and the nation.
He spent the winter of 1900-01 in Washington, and further studied national politics. In 1901 he accepted the Republican nomination for mayor of Fresno, but was defeated.
Mr. Rowell served as one of the trustees of the Fresno Free Public Library, and was instrumental in securing from Andrew Carnegie the gift of $30,000 for the construction of a library building. He has also served as a member of the Fresno Board of Education. During the summer of 1911 he delivered a series of lectures on journalism before the University of California and at various times, in different sections of the United State's he has lectured upon political, civic and educational subjects. He has also contributed numerous articles to the leading magazines and reviews of the country.
Among Mr. Rowell's civic and other work may be noted his organization with others of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican League, of which he was president, which was the first organization of the reform movement in California, out of which the Progressive party afterwards grew.
It was their organization which nominated Hiram W. Johnson as a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 1912. Mr. Rowell was chairman of the committee in charge of the Johnson campaign. He was a member of the Republican State Committee from 1906 to 1912, and from 1916 to the present time (1919). In the interval from 1912 to 1916, he was a member of the Progressive State Committee. He was chairman of the Republican State Convention of 1910, the last delegate convention held in California, and was chairman of the Republican State Committee from 1916 to 1918. He was delegate to both the Republican and Progressive National Conventions in 1912, and had the unique experience of serving with the subcommittees on platform, of nine members, of each of these committees, thus assisting in the drafting of the national platform of two political parties the same year.
He was also a delegate to the National Progressive Convention of 1916. From 1912 to 1916 he was National Committeeman for California on the Progressive National Committee. Returning to the Republican party in 1916, he was elected state chairman of the party committee the next day after he had changed his registration to Republican.
He was a member of the National Campaign Committee of sixteen members, in the Hughes campaign of that year. Since 1918 he has not taken active part in organized politics, though retaining his membership on the Republican State Committee.
Mr. Rowell was a member of the board of state commissioners of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, is a regent of the University of California, and a director in the California Development Board and was a member of the executive committee of the California State Council of Defense. He served as vice-president of the National Municipal League, is a member of the Associated Press and the American Publishers' Association and of numerous scientific and literary bodies.
He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Bear, college honor societies, and of the Delta Tau Delta college fraternity. At Chicago, on August 1, 1897, Mr. Rowell was married to Miss Myrtle Marie Lingle, of Webb City, Mo., and they have three children, Cora W., now a student in the State University, Barbara and Jonathan.∼Chester Harvey Rowell, California journalist and civic leader, was born in Bloomington, Ill., in 1867, son of Congressman Jonathan Harvey Rowell and Maria Sanford Woods Rowell. Siblings include: Cora M. Rowell Olney (b: 1868); Lonnie W. Rowell (b: 1870); Elmer I. Rowell (b: 1873); and Laura M. Rowell (b: 1878).
Rowell is sometimes confused with his uncle, Dr. Chester A. Rowell (1844-1912), a Fresno physician, California State Senator (1880-1882, 1899-1901, 1903-1905), University of California regent (1891-1912), and mayor of Fresno (1909-1912).
The younger Chester H. Rowell was educated in Bloomington public schools, received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, 1888, served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan, then took two-three years of post graduate studies in Europe at the Universities of Halle, Berlin, Paris and Rome before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895 young 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.
On August 01, 1897, Chester married Myrtle Marie Lingle in Chicago, Illinois, and from that union, five children were borne:
Chester Harvey Rowell;
Cora W Rowell Givens;
Mildred Mary "Polly" Rowell;
Barbara Lois Rowell Laughlin, died in Alameda Co., CA;
Jonathan H. Rowell.
In 1898, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as editor and publisher of the Fresno Republican, a small county newspaper founded by his uncle, Dr. Chester Rowell, and soon made it one of the leading papers of the state.
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.
Fresno operated without a Mayor under that law. Town government had been weak and run by five trustees. The Fresno Morning Republican campaigned for election of literate community leaders with commitment to limited government, clean streets and a responsible business community.
He remained the editor for 22 years. He sold the Republican in 1920 to George A. Osborn and Chase S. Osborn, Jr.
In 1907, he was the co-founder and chairman (1907-1911) of the Lincoln-Roosevelt League, a coalition of progressive Republican activists. The league was instrumental in the election of Hiram Johnson as governor of California. In 1912, Rowell was a member of the sub-committee that wrote the national platforms for both the Republican and Progressive parties.
Later, Rowell was a lecturer in journalisn at the University of California, Berkeley (1911) and in political science at Stanford University (1927-1934). He was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle (1932-1939). He was a member of the University of California Board of Regents from 1914 until shortly before his death in 1948.
(Historic Note: The Republican Party evolved in 1854, thirty years after the early Springfiled Republican Newspaper was established in Springfield, Massachusetts 1824. The founder was Samuel Bowles. The newspaper pronounced for the early Republican faith as against that of the Federaists and was ready for progress in democracy.
In 1856, editor Horace Greeley, wrote in the Springfield Republican 'It is the best and ablest country journal ever published on the continent.' One of the outstanding features of the Republican was its concise writing and condensation. Republican loss of control in Congress in 1874.
The historic Springfield Republican eventually was re-cast as a weekly known as the Fresno Republican on the California wild and rugged frontier in February 1877. Its original purposes were renewed as it played a key role in establishing the California Republican Party. In July 1892 it bcame a daily and changed its name to the Fresno Morning Republican and remained independent until November 1926 when it was sold.)
In 1923 Rowell began a series of syndicated newspaper articles and from 1932-1939 was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Chester H. Rowell's correspondence, articles, and editorials reflect his wide interest in the political and social problems of the period. He was an organizer and president of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican League, 1907-1911; delegate to a number of Republican state and national conventions between 1910 and 1936 and Progressive National Committeeman, 1912-1916; unsuccessful candidate for the Progressive nomination for United States Senator from California, 1914; chairman, Republican State Central Committee, 1916-1918; member of the California Railroad Commission, 1921-1923; member of the Presidential Emergency Boards on railroad strikes, 1928-1931; member of American Youth Commission, 1935-1948; and member and officer of numerous other political and social organizations. He was a strong advocate of United States entry into the League of Nations.
Chester H. Rowell died in Alamdea County, CA at the age of 80, closely following the presidential election of Harry Truman(D) in 1948.
Sources:
Wikipedia;
The Daily Republican Newspaper, Vol. 176;
Chester H. Rowell papers, BANC MSS C-B 401, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
CHESTER H. ROWELL
Prominent among the newer generation of Californians whose character, intellect and ideals have given them power and influence, and who have made marked use of privilege and opportunity, must be mentioned Chester Harvey Rowell, whose national reputation as editor of the Fresno Republican and as a public man has placed him in the front rank, not only of California's commonwealth builders, but also of scholarly American publicists, and whose personality and achievements have long since made him easily the best-known citizen of Fresno.
He was born in Bloomington, Ill., on November 1, 1867, the eldest son of Jonathan Harvey and Maria Sanford (Woods) Rowell, and received his earlier education at the common and high schools of his native city, and at the Illinois State Normal School.
In the fall of 1885 Mr. Rowell matriculated at the University of Michigan, and three years later he was graduated with the degree of Ph. B. after which he took an additional year there for post graduate study. He there laid foundations of learning and of training which enabled him in later life, when called upon to assume unusual responsibility and leadership and be equal to the task.
The three years immediately following Mr. Rowell spent in Washington. D. C, where for two years he was clerk to the committee on elections of the House of Representatives, of which his father was chairman, and then for a year he gave himself up to private literary work, making use of material to be found only at the national library.
While in Washington he compiled a digest of the contested election cases of the Fifty-first Congress, which was published by Congress. He also then got together most of his volume on the contested election cases in all the congresses, which was afterward also published by Congress. At the nation's capitol he met the nation's leaders in all departments of activity, and he thus naturally became familiar with most phases of public and strenuous life.
Less for the sake of rest than to continue in his characteristically energetic fashion the hard work he had driven through. Mr. Rowell next visited Europe, where he spent a couple of years in travel and study.
He was enrolled as a post-graduate student in the German universities of Halle and Berlin, and later he studied in Rome and in Paris. During the long vacations, he traveled a-foot across Germany, Switzerland and Italy, seeing both land and people at first-hand and mastering the dialectical peculiarities of everyday foreign speech in French, German and Italian, and he also made an interesting and instructive foot-tour in Bohemia.
On his return from Europe, Mr. Rowell began his experience as a teacher in Baxter College, Kans., and Racine College, Wis. He taught for two years in the high school at Fresno, and soon after was added to the modern language force in the University of Illinois, where he had charge of the course in scientific German. At other times and places, he taught mathematics, French and Latin.
In 1898 Mr. Rowell returned to Fresno, in which expanding city he had already established valuable social and professional connections, and assumed the editorial management of the Fresno Republican, in which he has been continuously engaged ever since.
After the death of his uncle. Dr. Chester Rowell, in 1912, he became the principal owner of the paper, and president of the publishing company. Mr. Rowell has done much to direct local thought and to guide Fresno County to its deserved destiny, but he has also found time to accomplish a good deal for both California and the nation.
He spent the winter of 1900-01 in Washington, and further studied national politics. In 1901 he accepted the Republican nomination for mayor of Fresno, but was defeated.
Mr. Rowell served as one of the trustees of the Fresno Free Public Library, and was instrumental in securing from Andrew Carnegie the gift of $30,000 for the construction of a library building. He has also served as a member of the Fresno Board of Education. During the summer of 1911 he delivered a series of lectures on journalism before the University of California and at various times, in different sections of the United State's he has lectured upon political, civic and educational subjects. He has also contributed numerous articles to the leading magazines and reviews of the country.
Among Mr. Rowell's civic and other work may be noted his organization with others of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican League, of which he was president, which was the first organization of the reform movement in California, out of which the Progressive party afterwards grew.
It was their organization which nominated Hiram W. Johnson as a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 1912. Mr. Rowell was chairman of the committee in charge of the Johnson campaign. He was a member of the Republican State Committee from 1906 to 1912, and from 1916 to the present time (1919). In the interval from 1912 to 1916, he was a member of the Progressive State Committee. He was chairman of the Republican State Convention of 1910, the last delegate convention held in California, and was chairman of the Republican State Committee from 1916 to 1918. He was delegate to both the Republican and Progressive National Conventions in 1912, and had the unique experience of serving with the subcommittees on platform, of nine members, of each of these committees, thus assisting in the drafting of the national platform of two political parties the same year.
He was also a delegate to the National Progressive Convention of 1916. From 1912 to 1916 he was National Committeeman for California on the Progressive National Committee. Returning to the Republican party in 1916, he was elected state chairman of the party committee the next day after he had changed his registration to Republican.
He was a member of the National Campaign Committee of sixteen members, in the Hughes campaign of that year. Since 1918 he has not taken active part in organized politics, though retaining his membership on the Republican State Committee.
Mr. Rowell was a member of the board of state commissioners of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, is a regent of the University of California, and a director in the California Development Board and was a member of the executive committee of the California State Council of Defense. He served as vice-president of the National Municipal League, is a member of the Associated Press and the American Publishers' Association and of numerous scientific and literary bodies.
He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Bear, college honor societies, and of the Delta Tau Delta college fraternity. At Chicago, on August 1, 1897, Mr. Rowell was married to Miss Myrtle Marie Lingle, of Webb City, Mo., and they have three children, Cora W., now a student in the State University, Barbara and Jonathan.∼Chester Harvey Rowell, California journalist and civic leader, was born in Bloomington, Ill., in 1867, son of Congressman Jonathan Harvey Rowell and Maria Sanford Woods Rowell. Siblings include: Cora M. Rowell Olney (b: 1868); Lonnie W. Rowell (b: 1870); Elmer I. Rowell (b: 1873); and Laura M. Rowell (b: 1878).
Rowell is sometimes confused with his uncle, Dr. Chester A. Rowell (1844-1912), a Fresno physician, California State Senator (1880-1882, 1899-1901, 1903-1905), University of California regent (1891-1912), and mayor of Fresno (1909-1912).
The younger Chester H. Rowell was educated in Bloomington public schools, received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, 1888, served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan, then took two-three years of post graduate studies in Europe at the Universities of Halle, Berlin, Paris and Rome before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895 young 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.
On August 01, 1897, Chester married Myrtle Marie Lingle in Chicago, Illinois, and from that union, five children were borne:
Chester Harvey Rowell;
Cora W Rowell Givens;
Mildred Mary "Polly" Rowell;
Barbara Lois Rowell Laughlin, died in Alameda Co., CA;
Jonathan H. Rowell.
In 1898, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as editor and publisher of the Fresno Republican, a small county newspaper founded by his uncle, Dr. Chester Rowell, and soon made it one of the leading papers of the state.
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.
Fresno operated without a Mayor under that law. Town government had been weak and run by five trustees. The Fresno Morning Republican campaigned for election of literate community leaders with commitment to limited government, clean streets and a responsible business community.
He remained the editor for 22 years. He sold the Republican in 1920 to George A. Osborn and Chase S. Osborn, Jr.
In 1907, he was the co-founder and chairman (1907-1911) of the Lincoln-Roosevelt League, a coalition of progressive Republican activists. The league was instrumental in the election of Hiram Johnson as governor of California. In 1912, Rowell was a member of the sub-committee that wrote the national platforms for both the Republican and Progressive parties.
Later, Rowell was a lecturer in journalisn at the University of California, Berkeley (1911) and in political science at Stanford University (1927-1934). He was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle (1932-1939). He was a member of the University of California Board of Regents from 1914 until shortly before his death in 1948.
(Historic Note: The Republican Party evolved in 1854, thirty years after the early Springfiled Republican Newspaper was established in Springfield, Massachusetts 1824. The founder was Samuel Bowles. The newspaper pronounced for the early Republican faith as against that of the Federaists and was ready for progress in democracy.
In 1856, editor Horace Greeley, wrote in the Springfield Republican 'It is the best and ablest country journal ever published on the continent.' One of the outstanding features of the Republican was its concise writing and condensation. Republican loss of control in Congress in 1874.
The historic Springfield Republican eventually was re-cast as a weekly known as the Fresno Republican on the California wild and rugged frontier in February 1877. Its original purposes were renewed as it played a key role in establishing the California Republican Party. In July 1892 it bcame a daily and changed its name to the Fresno Morning Republican and remained independent until November 1926 when it was sold.)
In 1923 Rowell began a series of syndicated newspaper articles and from 1932-1939 was editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Chester H. Rowell's correspondence, articles, and editorials reflect his wide interest in the political and social problems of the period. He was an organizer and president of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican League, 1907-1911; delegate to a number of Republican state and national conventions between 1910 and 1936 and Progressive National Committeeman, 1912-1916; unsuccessful candidate for the Progressive nomination for United States Senator from California, 1914; chairman, Republican State Central Committee, 1916-1918; member of the California Railroad Commission, 1921-1923; member of the Presidential Emergency Boards on railroad strikes, 1928-1931; member of American Youth Commission, 1935-1948; and member and officer of numerous other political and social organizations. He was a strong advocate of United States entry into the League of Nations.
Chester H. Rowell died in Alamdea County, CA at the age of 80, closely following the presidential election of Harry Truman(D) in 1948.
Sources:
Wikipedia;
The Daily Republican Newspaper, Vol. 176;
Chester H. Rowell papers, BANC MSS C-B 401, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Gravesite Details
interment date, 12-1949 S/W: Given, John Alfred
Family Members
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