My Genealogy Hound

Col. R. P. Rowley, a civil engineer during the late war, and a prominent citizen of Lonoke County, was born in Montgomery County, Tenn., in 1837, and is a son of Kelsey M. and Maria B. (Scott) Rowley, from New Jersey and Virginia, respectively. Kelsey M., the father of Col. Rowley, was a classmate of Dr. McLean, of Princeton University, and a graduate of the Philadelphia Medical College, and followed his profession until his health gave out, when he then engaged in the drug business at Clarksville, and carried on a large wholesale and retail trade. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics a Whig, voting for William H. Harrison, Henry Clay, etc. He died in 1847, after which his wife moved to Nashville, Tenn., with her family, which consisted of seven children, two of whom, Mary B. and R. P. (our subject), are still living; Catharine, Robenia, Jeannette, Kelsey M. and an infant are deceased. Mrs. Rowley died January 4, 1884, at the age of eighty years, being also a member of the Presbyterian Church. R. P. Rowley was educated in a private school at Nashville, and afterward took a course of civil engineering. At the age of nineteen he came to Little Rock with letters of recommendation, and took charge of the Little Rock & Napoleon Railroad as chief engineer, and in about a year afterward, in 1858, received an appointment from Gov. Conway as State engineer, which office he held until the spring of 1860, when he went to Memphis, Tenn., to join an independent company of soldiers to go to Virginia, but before starting, by order of Gov. Pillow, the company was made a Tennessee regiment. Mr. Rowley serving as private for a few months, then served at Island No. 10, New Madrid, Fort Thompson, Belmont, Mo. (where Grant was defeated for the first, last and only time in his life), at Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain and a number of others, and on his return from Atlanta was wounded at Dalton Gap by a shell. He was afterward appointed by Gov. Pillow, military engineer, and held the office of first lieutenant of the Confederate Army corps of engineers, and served with the Army of Tennessee under Gen. Bragg. He held this office until May 27, 1863, when he was appointed captain, and on April 30, 1864, was promoted to major of the first battalion of the first troops of Virginia, by the war department of Richmond, under Gen. Johnston. He was ordered to report at Shreveport, La., in the Trans-Mississippi department. He was afterward promoted to lieutenant-colonel of engineers, and served as chief engineer of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and was paroled at Galveston, on June 20, 1865, by Provost-Marshal Laughlin of the district of Texas. After the war he returned to Arkansas and was married to Mary Overton Meriwether, of Todd County, Ky., in 1866. He continued as engineer for about six months, and then settled on a plantation, on the Mississippi eight miles below Memphis, on the Arkansas side of the river, and in 1879 came to Lonoke County, and located on his present place. Col. Rowley has 800 acres of land, with 300 under cultivation, a large gin, good residence and out buildings. He is a prominent Democrat, and has represented his county in the legislature and in the county conventions ever since he came to Lonoke County. Mr. and Mrs. Rowley were the parents of five children: James (deceased), Robenia, Kelsey B., Lucy O. and Robert P. He, with his wife, belongs to the Presbyterian Church. The Colonel is one of the leading men of his county, besides being one of the most popular.