ANNA ELIZABETH (OWNBY) ROWELL

OWNBY, ROWELL, WHARTON, FENION

Posted By: Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert (email)
Date: 7/29/2002 at 22:48:14

Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa
Thursday, April l9, l923

Two good women have passed on, MRS. PHILOMA BROWN and MRS. ANNA ROWELL, both old time residents of this town and community, says the Afton Star-Enterprise. They have lived here for so many years, their circle of acquaintances has been large and they were so highly useful in this community, that anything we might say would only be a repitition of what is already well-known by all.

Both of these women have been true examples of real womanhood. Good kind wives and mothers, fine neighbors, always realizing their duty to the church and community. It was a privilege and pleasure to know them and be entertained in their homes.

We are giving here below some of the principal events in the lives of these good women:

ANNA ELIZABETH OWNBY was born September l2, l84l, in Franklyn County, Virginia. Died in Afton, April 9, l923, aged 8l years, 6 months and 28 days.

With her parents she moved to Iowa in l850, settling in Decatur County. On Dec. 6, l859, she was united in marriage to NEAL W. ROWELL, who preceded her in death in l9l5. To this union were born eight children, four of whom died in infancy. Those living are: DR. R.W. ROWELL, of Leon, Iowa; MRS. HELEN P. WHARTON, Des Moines, Iowa; BESSIE ROWELL, Afton, Iowa; and NEAL C. ROWELL, of Casper, Wyoming; also two grandchildren, EDGAR N. ROWELL, of New York City; MRS. LAWRENCE E. FENION, of Des Moines, Iowa; and one great grandson, JAMES WHARTON FENION.

With the exception of a short time, her whole married life was passed in Afton. Funeral services were held at the M.E. Church, Wednesday, April ll, conducted by the Pastor, Rev. C.F. Hand, assisted by Rev. H.G. Irvine, and the body laid to rest in Greenlawn Cemetery.

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A Tribute to MRS. N.W. ROWELL.

The Death Angel has again visited Afton and MRS. ANNA ROWELL has been called Home.

The writer has known MRS. ROWELL for the past thirty-five years, therefore, when I say that by the death of MRS. ROWELL, Afton loses one of the most noble, exalted and motherly women that ever lived within the confines of the town, each and every one who knew her intimately, will know that I speak only the solemn truth.

MRS. ROWELL raised a family of children of her own, yet her heart was big enough to go out into the hedges and the by-ways and hunt up some poor, homeless boy or girl and take him or her into her heart and home, and give to him or to her a pleasant, comfortable and ideal home, all without hope or expectation of any financial reward; the pleasure of being one of God's noble women, a feeling for the homeless child being all the reward asked or expected -- and, this she did, not once, not twice, but many times; in fact, her home was seldom without one such ward, over whom and toward whom she expended her love and comfort, until such time as the ward was able to care for himself or herself.

Being a lawyer, I may be a little (*can't read - paper torn) me that she has received the diction "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord."

MRS. ROWELL has left an example worthy of emulation by each and every one, than which no record could be better.

--E.A. LEE.

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Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa
Thursday, April 26, l923

(The following beautiful tribute, paid to the memory of MRS. ANNA ROWELL, and so richly deserved, was written by a life-long friend, DR. J.W. LAUDER.)

Last week, MRS. ANNA ROWELL, widow of the late N.W. ROWELL, one of the early pioneers of our town and much beloved in the community, closed her house to take a journey and she will not return. All of her that was mortal now lies under banks of flowers by the side of her husband in beautiful Greenlawn Cemetery.

She was married at the age of eighteen years to N.W. ROWELL in Decatur County, Dec. 6, l859. Two days after their marriage the young couple with all their belongings, came in a sled to Afton, the place previously chosen by them for the establishment of their home. They soon became identified with every interest of their adopted town and prosperity yielded to their industry. Their little house became a commodious home with fields of fertile land surrounding it. Children came to aid and cheer them and though happy in their home surrounded by every comfort, they were not unmindful of the needs of the poor. Poverty pinched pretty hard during the long cold winters of that early time. Distress always appealed to them and many poor families of the town, year after year, were given substantial assitance by this couple, of which the public never knew.

The ROWELLS celebrated their silver and their golden wedding. MR. ROWELL, standing beside his wife in a little talk to the friends gathered there, made this remarkable statement, "that during the twenty-five years of their married life no hateful word had ever been passed between them." This same statement was repeated twenty-five years later at their golden wedding and substantiated by MRS. ROWELL.

MRS. ROWELL was an unusual woman. The misfortune of others always enlisted her sympathy. She was unselfish and generous. For the orphan girl and homeless boy her heart opened wide and her mother instinct found for them a home. No less than forty boys and girls outside of their family sheltered under the ROWELL roof for periods of many months or years and it was their home in every sense.

The moral and religious influences of that home yet remain with those boys and girls, now men and women, wherever they may be and those influences will pass on to their children and following generations, then on and on forever to walk the earth and bless it.

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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
List Administrator; Decatur County, Iowa GenWeb
"With permission from the Leon Journal Reporter"
July 29, 2002