The subject of this sketch was born in Davenport, Iowa, November 16, 1850, to Wolfh H. and Ellen (Bothwell) Anderson, the last-named being a lineal descendant of the Earl of Bothwell. Her father, a native of Copenhagen, Denmark, comes of the same family as Mary Anderson, the actress. He was educated at Kiel, one of the leading educational institutions of the old world, and came to the United States about the beginning of the Mexican War. Soon after his arrival he entered the United States service, and still carries in his body several bullets as mementos of that struggle. At the opening of the Civil War he recruited a company, of which he became captain, and which became Company K, One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry. After three years' service he was honorably discharged in 1865. Soon after the close of the war he became superintendent of construction at Rock Island Arsenal, under General Rodman. After seven years' service he transferred to the Engineers Corps, under Colonel McComb, in the building of the wagon bridge across the Mississippi to the City of Rock Island. Later he spent three years at Keokuk building locks in the river, under Major Stickney. At the present time (1894) he is in the Government employ at Chicago, as a member of the Civil Engineer Corps, under Captain Marshall, and is widely known as one of the most capable and efficient men in the branch of the Government service with which he is connected. Our subject's mother died when the daughter was an infant, so that she was deprived of a mother's care and training. During her childhood she was much given to out-of-door exercise, and through this developed a strong and healthy body. She received her preliminary education in the public schools of Moline, Illinois, finishing her studies in the high school at the age of fifteen, and receiving a certificate authorizing her to teach, which she did, three months, in Moline. In 1865 she was married to James, the only son of Dr. Thomas Rowland, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and a retired physician. In 1877 she was left alone with two children to support; but she decided to gratify a long cherished desire and prepare herself for the medical profession. Accordingly she attended a medical college at Keokuk, Iowa, and then returning to Moline, began to practice as a student in the office of the venerable Dr. J. W. Stewart. That was in 1878. In 1882 she began a course of study at Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, and was graduated therefrom in 1886. In order to procure means to prosecute her studies she was obliged to mortgage her household furniture; and, although the mortgage was foreclosed and her property sold, she was uudismayed, and renting a suite of furnished rooms established herself in practice.
Yielding to the wishes of her children Dr. Rowland, in 1889, moved to Davenport, and for three years she had an office at No. 1225 Brady Street, after which she removed to the central part of the city at No. 218 Brady Street. She has learned German since coming to Davenport and speaks that language fluently; and a large proportion of her patients are of that nationality, she being the only lady practitioner in Davenport speaking that tongue readily. Dr. Rowland has been eminently successful and now has a practice that yields her a handsome income, and it is constantly growing. She is honored and respected among her fellow-practitioners, and takes an active interest in matters outside of her profession, having; rendered especially valuable service to the community in the cause of social purity. To her many an unfortunate woman is indebted for her rescue from a life of shame.
Dr. Rowland's daughter Nellie is married to Mr. E. L. De Vere of Davenport. Her son Henry is a student at Ames College.
BIOGRAPHIES