1818-1864
Adoniram Judson Rowell
Businessman/Public Servant. Vermont
Adoniram Judson Rowell was born on 4 November 1818, in Waterville, VT. He died 46 years later on 24 December 1864, in New Troy, VT. He married Lucy Ann Richardson in 1841 and six children were born into this family. Rowell’s obituary reads in part:
Died, at his residence, in North Troy, Dec. 24, of typhoid fever, after a distressing sickness of several weeks, Hon. A. Judson Rowell, aged 46. Thus has fallen, in the meridian of this manhood, one of the ablest and best known citizens of Vermont;… [local citizens] will never forget his zealous, his touching appeals in behalf of the oppressed, and his trilling demonstrations of the “irrepressible conflict” between freedom and slavery…[1]
A businessman and politician, Rowell attended the University of Vermont but left before graduating because of a problem with his eyes which made it difficult to study. He became active in business, including a general store in North Troy. He was an anti-slavery activist and became active in politics as a member of both the Liberty and Free Soil Parties. He joined the Republicans when that party was organized as the major anti-slavery party in the mid 1850’s. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress several times as a Free Soil candidate. Rowell served as a Justice of the Peace, member of the Vermont House of Representatives, member of the Vermont Senate, and also served as state Banking Commissioner. In 1853 he received an honorary master’s degree from University of Vermont. During the Civil War, he was appointed as a Commissary officer with the rank of Captain, responsible for acquiring and distributing supplies and equipment needed by Union Army soldiers.[2]
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[1] Orleans Independent Standard, January 6, 1865, p. 2.
[2] Adoniram Judson Rowell, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175242458/adoniram-judson-rowell