My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE S. ROWLEY. The Willard State Hospital has called to its service a corps of capable and able men, perhaps higher in grade and ability than a private institution could command. In the eye of the public they hold a position that depends upon efficiency and character, and they feel the inspiration of the service in which they are engaged. Among these men Mr. Rowley, the Superintendent of Construction, holds a good position. He has been engaged in his present capacity since 1872, and only character and ability could endure for so long a time in so critical a situation.

Mr. Rowley was born October 20, 1830, near Erie, Pa. Elias and Laura (Bushnell) Rowley, his parents, were natives of Connecticut, where our subject’s ancestors had resided since 1630. In that year they came over from England and settled in Massachusetts, and from there removed to Connecticut. Asher Rowley, the grandfather, was a farmer, and reared his children to agricultural pursuits. His son Elias went to Pennsylvania to locate, but did not remain long in that state. In 1833 he returned to the old homestead in Connecticut to spend the last years of a long and honorable life, and at his death was over eighty years of age. His wife had died some years previously. He was a genuine Yankee, and for quite a long time peddled clocks through the South and West.

In the parental family were seven sons and one daughter, all of whom lived to maturity. Hiram D. is a cigar manufacturer in Delphi. Warren was a soldier in a Michigan regiment in the Civil War, and has never been heard of since the close of the Rebellion. Charles L. is chief engineer in charge of the machinery of Willard Hospital. Ansel is a farmer in Osceola County, Mich. John was a soldier in the Seventh Connecticut Regiment, and died while an employe of Willard Hospital. Henry was a soldier in the Seventh Connecticut Regiment. Catherine, the only daughter, married and died in Connecticut.

Mr. Rowley, our subject, remained on the farm until he was eighteen years of age, and attended the common school of his native town, and also Rockwell Academy. While in Connecticut he learned the carpenter’s trade, which has furnished him a useful and remunerative occupation all his life. In 1857 he went to Wilmot, Kenosha County, Wis., and in 1864 was employed at Rockford, Ill. Ill-health came to interfere with the active prosecution of his labor, and he returned to the old Nutmeg State to recuperate. In 1867 he felt called to try the opportunities of the new West, and started for the land of the sunset. However, he only reached Geneva, where he found employment satisfactory to his mind, and for a time dwelt at Watkins. In 1870 he went into the service of the Seneca Lake Navigation Company, to do the carpenter work that their boats required. After this he was employed by the management of the Willard State Hospital, and soon proving his efficiency was put in charge of the construction department, nearly all the buildings having been erected under his direction.

Mr. Rowley was married, in 1851, to Miss Sophronia Bucknan, a native of Connecticut. Her ancestors came over in the “Mayflower,” and she has a teaspoon which was brought over in that famous ship. Our subject and his wife became the parents of three children. Clifford S. met a tragic fate by drowning in the Fox River in Wisconsin when he had barely passed his tenth year. Clarence G. is a machinist in the employ of the New York Central Iron Works. Edith N. is the wife of C. B. Everett, of Lowville, Lewis County.

Mr. Rowley is of Republican proclivities, but has never sought nor desired political prominence. He is not a member of any church or society. The work of the hospital occupies all his thought and care. He makes his home at Willard, living in a house furnished by the state. During the war he was a recruiting officer in the service of the state, doing good work. He is a self-made man, and has won a large and substantial success.