WI BIO - Dodge Co - ROWELLS, Luke

History of Dodge County, Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 
1880, p 642

Luke ROWELLS, farmer, Section 18 [Chester Township, Dodge County, Wisconsin], 
P. O. Waupun [a border community in both Chester Township, Dodge County, and 
Waupun Township, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin], was born 10 May 1815 in 
County Limerick, Ireland, and was the son of George and Sarah Griffin 
ROWELLS. [Submitter does not assume Griffin to be a maiden name.]

Mr. [Luke] ROWELLS was the first of his father's family to emigrate to 
America, but was followed soon after by his brother, George, and in June 
1852, his parents [George and Sarah Griffin ROWELLS] came over. His mother 
[Sarah Griffin ROWELLS] died at his house in Washington County, New York, 
about three months after landing in America [by calculation, about September 
1852], and his father [George ROWELLS] died in 1860 in Chester, Dodge County, 
Wisconsin.

On 16 April 1849 he [Luke ROWELLS] was married to [Miss] Margaret O'BRIEN, 
who was born 12 May 1825, daughter of Brian and Bridget O'BRIEN, of County 
Limerick. Mr. ROWELLS came to American in the spring of 1849, and located in 
the town of Easton, Washington County, New York, where he followed farming 
until the fall of 1854, when he moved to Wisconsin and settled in the town of 
Chester, Dodge County, on his present farm, which consists of 181 acres of 
land, valued at about $7,000.

Mr. [Luke] ROWELLS has ten children living. [The eleven children born to 
Luke and Margaret (O'BRIEN) ROWELLS were:] (1) George B., born 01 September 
1850, in Washington County, New York; (2) Sarah, born 13 February 1851, now 
Mrs. Michael O'DONOVAN, of Chester, Dodge County, Wisconsin); (3) John G., 
born 25 March 1853; (4) Bridget Ellen, born 27 February 1855; (5) Luke W., 
born 24 October 1857, now in the law office of H. W. Frost, in Waupun 
[probably in Chester Township, Dodge County, but since Waupun is a border 
community, he may have actually resided in Waupun Township, Fond du Lac 
County]; (6) Maggie J., born 16 July 1859; (7) Jennie A., born 01 April 
1861; (8) Mary, born 12 February 1863; (9) Dennis, born 29 January 1865; 
and (10) Richard E., born 09 January 1867; and (11) Nellie, born on 01 
January 1870, who died on 21 January 1870.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly