BIO: L. William ROWLES, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 525 & 526.
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  L. WILLIAM ROWLES, whose well cultivated and improved farm of twenty acres 
lies in Knox Township, three miles east of Olanta, Pa., was born in Lawrence 
Township, Clearfield County, Pa., May 25, 1866, and is a son of Joseph H. and 
Ruth (Hickok) Rowles.
  Joseph H. Rowles was born March 25, 1835, in Lawrence Township, Clearfield 
County, and now lives retired on his farm of forty-five acres.  His father, H. 
F. Rowles, came to Clearfield County when he was a boy of eight years and found 
work at Curwensville when that town had but two houses.  He there married 
Susanna Henry and they settled in Pike Township until after the birth of three 
children, when they moved into Lawrence Township, where three more were born.  
He was one of the old-time pioneers.  He was a raft pilot and made eight trips 
on the river between Marietta and Clearfield, and lived to be eighty-six years 
of age.  Joseph H. Rowles first went to school in a log cabin where slabs were 
used for seats and desks and later attended other schools, for he was so anxious 
to obtain an education that he went one term after he was twenty-one years of 
age.  He worked hard, sometimes on the farm and at other times in the woods and 
by cutting in the timber he made enough to enable him to buy his farm, on which 
he settled after marriage.  His first house burned down and he thus lost all the 
old family papers.  For thirty-five years Mr. Rowles served Lawrence Township as 
a justice of the peace and also was school director.  During the Civil War he 
served seven months in the Federal Army and was fortunate enough to return home 
entirely unharmed.  He is a member of Lawrence Post, G. A. R., Clearfield 
County.
  Joseph H. Rowles married Ruth Hickok and a family of twelve children was born 
to them, as follows:  Melissa, who died when one year old; C. L. V.; William L.; 
Roxie; Susie; Alman and Herman, deceased; and Aaron, James, Lewis, Harriet and 
Josephine.
  L. William Rowles attended the country schools near his father's house, in 
boyhood, and afterward went to work in the woods and continued at this hard work 
for about one year after his marriage and then purchased his twenty-acre farm in 
Pike Township, of John M. Chase.  At that time it was all woodland and he has 
completed its clearing and has erected all his substantial buildings.  The coal 
is leased to M. J. Kelly & Co.
  Mr. Rowles was married May 10, 1888, to Melissa M. Dunlap, a daughter of John 
R. Dunlap, of Knox Township, and they have ten children, all of whom are yet at 
home, a large and happy family.  They are named respectively:  Warren, Clem H., 
Waine A., John R., Clinton K., Crate M., Minerva J., Burley M. and Bigler D. and 
Biddle C., who are twins.  Mr. Rowles and family are members of Mt. Zion 
Methodist Episcopal Church of which he is a trustee and a steward.  He has 
always been a Democrat since he cast his first vote.  For three years he has 
been a member of the school board of Knox Township.  No family in the township 
is better known than the Rowles.