Rowland Family

Section 23 of Richfield Township was the home of Silas Rowland and his wife, Catherine Stotler Rowland. Silas's father and mother, John and Polly Rowland, were born in Pennsylvania but moved to Ohio soon after their marriage. Their son, Silas, was born in Stark County, Ohio. Silas and brother, Thomas, came to Henry County and Thomas settled in Damascus Township.

Silas and Catherine were married in Stark County, Ohio and for their honeymoon journeyed to Henry County with a wagon drawn by oxen. Silas had acquired a tract of land from the government located in Henry County, and had paid $1.25 per acre for the tract of land. The wagon had a small stock of bedding and household goods, an axe, a grubbing hoe, and a few other tools and personal possessions. They only had seventy-five cents as cash capital.

Richfield Township was wild and remote and almost complete wilderness. The young couple had to clear the way for the passage of the wagon and team. After arriving at their tract of land, they built a log cabin on the swampy land, daubed the chinks with mud, built a stick and mud chimney, laid a puncheon floor, covered the cabin with a clapboard roof bound down with the weight of poles, and hung a puncheon door that swung on wooden hinges. One end of the cabin a wide, deep, and open fireplace, in which a crane swung for kettles and pots. Wild game abounded and Indians often visited the cabin. The only white face that Mrs. Rowland saw was that of her husband. Meeting a white man was a celebrated event. The land was cleared, and eventually the log cabin was replaced with a good frame house.

Silas Rowland died in 1872 at the age of fifty seven years. His wife died in 1892 at the home of a daughter in Delta, Ohio. The family were Presbyterians.

Their son, John M. Rowland, was born on May 13, 1846 was born in the log cabin. When he was twenty-three he married at the home of the bride, a simple log cabin, to Margaret Walker.

Margaret Walker was born in Delaware County, Ohio, on December 14, 1844 to Harvey and Frances Thurston Walker. She was twenty-three when she came to Richfield Township, and taught school in Henry County before her marriage. Margaret and John Rowland were married in Delaware County.

Mr. Walker's first wife died in 1857, leaving children John and Octavius, Ruth, Frances and Margaret. Mrs. Walker married for his second wife, Mrs. Harriet Main Greenley. They then moved to Richfield Township of Henry County and Mr. Walker died eight years later at the age of sixty.

John and Margaret Walker Rowland had the following children: Minnie married Eli Miller, Indianapolis, Indiana; Silas Harvey married Lillie Rodgers, and had son, Orville; Arthur died at the age of eight months; Nellie married Edward Rogers, and had Marie, Lawrence, Helen, Clyde, Ethel, and Opal; Homer E. married and they had three sons and one daughter; Otto married, lived in Chicago, and had Virginia.