Joel H ROWLAND

Agnes - 1868-1955
Joel - 1856-1940

J. H. Rowland. Another of the enterprising young men of this section is Mr. Rowland, a school teacher of Dallas Township. He was born in this county in 1856, the seventh in a family of fourteen, eight of whom died in infancy, born to Thomas and Elizabeth (Williams) Rowland, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Alabama. His maternal grandfather, James Williams, was one of the earliest pioneers of Bradley County, settling there in 1836, when the country was very thinly settled, his nearest neighbor being twenty miles distant. His paternal grandfather came to Bradley County from Missouri about 1841 and settled near Mr. Williams. Our subject's parents grew to maturity in Bradley County, and were married there in 1844. They soon moved to Dallas County, now Calhoun, and settled at Chambersville, where they remained, however, but one year. They then moved to Dallas Township. where Mr. Rowland entered a tract of 160 acres, on which he had at once proceeded to make improvements, building a house, etc. He lived on this place until 1873, during which time he cleared some 100 acres - and greatly improved the place. In 1873 he exchanged his farm of 125 acres of land, about sixty acres under cultivation, and the balance well timbered. Politically, he votes with the Democratic party, and although he is no office-seeker and not active in politics, he has held the position of justice of the peace for nearly twenty years. Both he and wife are now, and have been for years, members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and has always been an earnest advocate of public schools. He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1863, in a Home Guard company, and served in the Trans-Mississippi Department until the close of the war. He had one son in the army also, J. P., who served from his majority, early in 1865, to the close of the war; was in the battle of Mount Elba. Our subject was reared on his father's farm, and attended the common schools of this count during early youth and worked on the farm at his majority. Then he attended school at Summerville for seven months; then for a term of five months, at Warren, and then again at Summerville. In February, 1883, he entered the State University, at Fayetteville, and remained there until June, 1884, and in September of the same year was taken sick and returned home. During all this time he had taught school at intervals to pay his way to complete his education. In October, 1887, he entered the Ouachita Baptist College, remained there two years, and graduated in June, 1889, and has since been engaged in teaching at Summerville. He is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, and is very active in church work. He is also a member of the Dallas Agricultural Wheel No. 1227. (Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas - Goodspeed Publishing Company - 1890)

Contributed on 2/3/09 by debbraszymanski
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Record #: 146886

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