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The Rowell family,
Haralson Co. pioneers

Since the original publication of this Web page, the online documents linked below have been removed.
The author of the following five documents, Mr. Brad Jones, offers this cautionary apology:
"Dont believe anything posted here unless it is verified by yourself or sources you trust."

Excerpts from a copy of the first document linked above follow:
Jesse Rowell was born in Virginia in 1748. He migrated southward into North Carolina, where he served in the 1st North Carolina regiment of the Continental Army, commanded by Colonel Thomas Clarke, from October 1776 until 1780...

In March 1824 Jesse Rowell's pension lists his age as 76 with a wife, Marian, aged 50, and three children, Anne, 17, Joshua Franklin, 15, and Civility, age 12. It is not certain if Jesse Rowell had a first wife, and whether from that union William Rowell, his son, was born in 1788...

Rowell and his family traveled to Carroll County sometime between 1830 and 1832. Jesse Rowell appointed his son William attorney to "take lawful means to obtain bounty land" on 25 April 1834. the Cherokee Cession followed in 1835. At this time, William Rowell's son, Dudley, served with John Witcher's Company, Mounted Volunteers of Paulding County, who gathered Cherokees at Fort Cedar Town in 1838 as a means of insuring the validity of the Treaty of New Echota. The Cherokees were sent on the "Trail of Tears." By 1835 the Rowell's had settled on a hill above the Tallapoosa River at the convergence of the Cedar Town and Van Wert roads, near the location of today's Tallapoosa East Baptist Church...

William and Anna Rowell lived near their children up until the death of William Rowell on March 17th, 1856. In his will he gave his son Dudley the majority of his land and personal property...

For more information about people in the US Revolutionary War, consult Revolutionary War Records at Ancestry.com.


Revolutionary War pension of Jesse Rowell (1748-1850)

Cabin of Dudley Rowell (1818-1877),
once located on the land shown below,
demolished and sold as scrap circa 1996


The Rowell land (green) on the Tallapoosa River conveyed in 1856 by the will also cited above. Lot 974 was won in the Georgia land lottery of 1832 by Alfred Clopton, a resident of Bibb County. Clopton paid the $18 registration fee in 1846, but still eventually defaulted on the land. This allowed William Rowell to buy it directly from the US government.

Speaking of revolutionary soldiers I recall the fact that in my childhood three of them were living in the borders of what is now Haralson county, viz: Mr. Silliman, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Goggins and probably another, Mr. Rowell. The three first named are buried in Haralson county...

from Some Early History Of Buchanan. No. 4. By 'Old Timer'. The Tribune (Buchanan, GA) Sept. 14, 1906

Is this report complete? Or might Jesse Rowell also be buried in Haralson County - presumably in the pioneer graveyard shown in the aerial view below?

Site of the pioneer graveyard (white box) on the one-time Rowell lands, just off Tallapoosa East Church Road. (The land is now in the hands of persons unrelated to the Rowells who want their privacy respected.)

Rowell descendent Brad Jones reports that only one grave is marked with a headstone, naming William Philpot (1798-1844), who served with Dudley Rowell in Capt. John Witcher's Company, Turk's Regiment, Paulding County, which force is associated with removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia in the early 19th century. Cherokee Removal: Forts Along the Georgia Trail of Tears (March 2005 draft) writes:
Witcher’s behavior as organizer of an armed and unauthorized mob beyond the reach of discipline represents the worst expression of Georgia’s callous behavior regarding the removal of Indians.
Mr. Jones says that the headstone was placed by the Philpot family after the fact, and that the particular grave marked may not hold his remains. Jones further speculates that many of the early Rowells are also buried in the graveyard, possibly including all the following:

ROWELL, Jesse b 1748 d 1850
ROWELL, William b 1788 d 17 Mar 1856
ROWELL, Anna FITZGERALD b 1796 d 24 Nov 1877
ROWELL, Dudley, Sr. b 12 Jan 1818 d 4 Nov 1877
ROWELL, Martha Matilda b 26 Jul 1831 d 1905

Below are photographs of the graveyard itself in recent years:


The graveyard lies within this stand of trees, located a few hundred feet to the west


The graveyard shows few easily discernable features today



The grave marked with the name William Philpot, located roughly at the center of the graveyard



Some rocks seem to mark another grave