Alameda County
Biographies
HARRISON D. ROWE
Among the capable and energetic men who are forwarding real estate interests in Oakland, special mention is due Harrison D. Rowe, whose legal experience renders him particularly efficient as a promoter of homes and land ownership. Mr. Rowe was born on a farm near Elgin, Kane county, Ill., September 23, 1853, his family being one of the earliest to settle in what is now one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the state. The journey overland of his parents, John L., and Hannah A. (Simmons) Rowe, from their home in Canada, in 1837, savors of the heroic and self-sacrificing when viewed from the standpoint of modern means of travel. The father drove a team the entire distance, and while passing through the great trading post of Chicago, soon after incorporated as a city, he was not favorable impressed with the improvements so far instituted by the settlers. The stanch old wagon, which had done service ever since starting from Canada, became stuck in the mud of the principal thoroughfare of the town, making all too apparent the lack of a desire on the part of the inhabitants for good roads. Continuing his way into the country, he entered unimproved land near Elgin, which under his resistless energy, was cleared and made to contribute to the sustenance of the pioneer family. This farm is still owned by the mother, who endured the hardships of travel and early settlement, and at the age of eighty-seven vividly recalls the days when the wolves howled around the improvised cabin and buffalo hunting constituted one of the chief diversions of the settlers.
From the drudgery of the Illinois farm Harrison D. Rowe went to the Elgin Academy, and later completed the law course at the State University of Iowa at Iowa City, in 1878. After practicing law for four years in Iowa City, he became adjuster for the Covenant Mutual Insurance Company of Illinois, in which capacity he traveled over the entire west, and for convenience made Oakland his headquarters in March, 1884. From 1889 until 1899 he was connected with the Northwestern Life Association of Chicago, Ill., but has since been engaged in real estate transactions in his adopted city. In the meantime he has taken an active part in Republican politics, serving as councilman of Oakland four years, and as president of the council for one term, in 1897. At present he is county supervisor of the fourth district, having been elected in 1900. Mr. Rowe has been prominent in Masonic circles, being a member of Brooklyn Lodge No. 225, Oakland Chapter No. 36, Oakland Commandery No. 11 and Oak Leaf Chapter O.E.S., of which latter organization he is past grand patron of California. He has one of the many beautiful homes of the city, located at 35 Athol avenue, and presided over by his wife, formerly Kate S. Sanders, a native of Iowa, whom he married in 1880. In Mr. Rowe Oakland has a reliable and conscientious citizen, upon whom it may implicitly rely to maintain advancement characteristic of the Pacific slope.
Transcribed
7-15-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1268-1269. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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