Dr. Chester A. Rowell (Oct. 17, 1844 - May 9, 1912) was an American physician and politician who served as a

California state senator The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

and as mayor of

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

. He was also a

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

. Before moving to California, Dr. Rowell was a

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

soldier in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

mustered in the 17th Illinois Infantry along with four of his brothers. He took part in several battles between 1861 and 1864, including the

Fort Donelson Fort Donelson was a fortress built early in 1862 by the Confederacy during the American Civil War to control the Cumberland River, which led to the heart of Tennessee, and thereby the Confederacy. The fort was named after Confederate general Da ...

, the Battle of Shiloh and the

Siege of Vicksburg The siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mis ...

. Dr. Rowell arrived in Fresno in 1874 to practice medicine. In September 1876, he established the ''Fresno Republican'' newspaper. It was purchased by and eventually merged into the present-day ''

Fresno Bee ''The Fresno Bee'' is a daily newspaper serving Fresno, California, and surrounding counties in that U.S. state's central San Joaquin Valley. It is owned by The McClatchy Company and ranks fourth in circulation among the company's newspapers. I ...

''. In 1879 he was elected to the state senate in California as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

. The county was heavily Democratic at the time, and Rowell was the first Republican to win an election in

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...

. In 1909 he received an overwhelming share of the vote to win the mayoral election. Rowell commissioned the construction of Fresno's first skyscraper, now known as the Rowell building. It is six stories tall and located in downtown Fresno at the southeast corner of Tulare and Van Ness streets. In 1914, Fresno commissioned

Haig Patigian Haig Patigian ( hy, Հայկ Բադիկեան; January 22, 1876 – September 19, 1950), was an Armenian-American sculptor. Biography Patigian was born in the city of Van, Turkey, Van in the Ottoman Empire. His parents were teachers at the Am ...

to create a memorial sculpture. The base of the memorial contains a relief where Rowell is shown seated at a patient's bedside. It can be found in the Fresno County Courthouse park, across the street from the Rowell family home in downtown Fresno.

External links

Join California Dr. Chester Rowell

References

1844 births 1912 deaths Mayors of Fresno, California University of California regents Republican Party California state senators Physicians from New Hampshire American newspaper founders People of New Hampshire in the American Civil War Union Army soldiers 19th-century American politicians 20th-century American politicians 19th-century American businesspeople {{California-politician-stub