Tulare County Biographies

Chester Rowell

Submitted by Sally Kaleta, June, 2007

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	Dr. Chester Rowell, prominent in the profession in 
California, was born in Woodsville, New Hampshire, on the banks of the 
Connecticut River, in 1844. Except a few years passed in his native town he grew 
to maturity in Illinois, where his father emigrated with his family of eight 
sons in 1849, and died in 1850. The family were thereafter known as "Widow 
Rowell's boys." In 1861 they were prompt to respond to their country's call for 
recruits, and five joined the Union forces in defense of their flag, which had 
been dishonored at Fort Sumter. The youngest, a boy of fifteen, was taken ill 
and obliged to return home, but four of the brothers were in active service 
forty months, in the Department of the Tennessee. They were in the principal 
campaigns and battles of the West, and through all were more or less wounded; 
none were seriously so, and were never off duty during their entire term of 
service. After the war, Mr. Rowell went to Chicago, and in the family of a very 
prominent physician began the study of medicine, which was continued more 
systematically after his arrival in San Francisco, in 1866, under the direct 
preceptorship of his cousin, Dr. Isaac Rowell. He graduated at the medical 
department of the University of the Pacific in 1870. He then began practice in 
San Francisco, and in 1874 came to Fresno, where he soon secured the confidence 
of the people, and has succeeded in building up a very extensive practice in 
both surgery and medicine. In the fall of 1876, assisted by a number of 
prominent Republican residents of the county, Dr. Rowell started the Fresno 
Republican, which was under his editorial management for about three years. The 
course of the paper was independent and vigorous though Republican in sentiment, 
and it was his conduct of the Republican that gained for him the confidence and 
respect of the people of San Joaquin Valley, and eventually, in 1879, made him 
State Senator from a district that was strongly Democratic. By his independence 
the Doctor gained the enmity of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and 
though in 1882 and 1886 he was the universal choice of his party for Railroad 
Commissioner his nomination was defeated by the above company. For several years 
the Doctor has been a member of the State Board of Health, and in January, 1891, 
he was appointed Regent of the State University by Governor Markham. His public 
offices have been those of honor and not of emolument. He has always been a 
great traveler, and though having visited nearly every prominent city in the 
world he is about making an extended tour through Russia. Dr. Rowell is modest 
and unassuming in manner, and becomes more retiring with advancing years. He has 
unabated faith in the ultimate prosperity and wealth of Fresno County, and is 
recognized as one of her substantial citizens. 

Source: "The Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, 
Tulare, and Kern, California," Lewis Publ. Co., 1892, pp. 611-612.