Three Forks of the Kentucky River Historical Association

Genealogy

The Rowlett Family

by Jerry Scott Ward, 1998

JESSE BENJAMIN ROWLETT (1834-1912) and his wife Eliza Jane Brown Jones (1839-1915) moved their family to Owsley County, Kentucky about 1862, and first settled in Island City. This move appears to be the direct result of Jessie’s political disagreement with the Southern cause, and most likely to his own civil disobedience that had resulted in his being arrested on more than one occasion by the local ‘Confederate’ officials. It is unclear if the family moved to Kentucky from Rose Hill, Virginia or nearby Clairborne County, Tennessee, but family stories indicate that the couple was married in Sneadville, Tennessee and made their first home in nearby Hoop, where their first three children were born. Levi Stewart Buchanan (1857), Martha Jane (1859), and Elizabeth (1861) joined Jessie and Eliza in the family flight from the area of Southern persuasion to an evidently more Northern thinking area of border state Kentucky. Jessie and Eliza must have left numerous relations in Lee County, Virginia, as well as the Tazewell, Tennessee area. Jessie was an accomplished blacksmith and it did not take long to establish himself around Island City, Traveller’s Rest, Vincent, and Booneville, Kentucky, and this is where the family grew to include Sarah (1866), Josephine (1870), Jesse U. (1871), Matilda (1872), Eliza Parish (1875), and Delaney Joseph (1879).

From 1862, for the rest of his life, Jessie B. Rowlett, was a noted influence around Traveller’s Rest, Kentucky. Expanding from his basic livelihood as a blacksmith, he developed a store, became a landowner of some significance, and was a recognized minister of the Missionary Baptist Church; with some family stories indicating he operated his own Rowlett Church.

Palmer Scott was a grandson of Jessie and Eliza Jane Rowlett, as Matilda Rowlett had married George C. Scott around 1887-88, and Palmer was born in 1890. In 1902, George Scott was killed, and until he reached man hood, the male influence in Palmer Scott’s life was Jessie B. Rowlett. In the 1960s, Palmer wrote a loving tribute to his grandfather Jessie Rowlett, and through these memoirs, our family shares many common stories and experiences about Owsley County, Kentucky. We have always been intrigued by his account of his Aunt Parish, the youngest daughter of Jessie and Eliza Rowlett, who died suddenly at the age of 20 in 1895. What did she look like, did she have the red hair that the Rowlett family was known for, was she quiet and retiring or outgoing and vivacious, was she committed to stay at home and take care of her aging parents, and what would life have held for her had it not been for her appointment with God? The following is an excerpt from Palmer Scott’s memoirs and the writing style, as well as the story, has also captured our interest: (Picture a 70-plus year old man, sitting at an old Underwood typewriter, pecking away one letter at a time to record his own account of family history).

“Jessie’s life had been practically free of any deep and lasting sorrow. True, they had lost two children in infancy. Such experiences sting deeply, but action has a way of allaying sorrow and anxiety. He like many others was to drink deeply of personal sorrow at a time action was slowing down, and he could do nothing more but sit and nurse his sorrow.”

“July, (1895 or 1897), brought to him and grandmother their deepest and most profound sorrow. Their youngest child and daughter, Aunt Parish had reached young womanhood. She was the darling of their declining years, and the pride of their hearts. She being the youngest, and all the other daughters married off, had full and uncontested, possession of their aging and lonely hearts. She carried this honor like the lady she was, with credit to all concerned. Accepting all their doting with grace. She was very popular with the younger set of the community and was engaged to an outstanding young man of the community. In July of this fateful year, she was stricken with pneumonia, a common malady known for the viciousness of its attack. She succumbed to the ravages of this attack in but a few days.”

“To these old folks, as she went out, with her went all they had to live for. She on whom they had placed their hopes for comfort and protection in their declining years, now lay cold and pallid in the parlor where she was went to entertain so many times... The voice that thrilled so often was silenced forever and would soon slumber in the cemetery on top of the hill. Their hopes for solace in their advancing years were interred with her body. The grandfather I knew and loved so long ceased to exist after this loss. A new grandfather emerged from the ordeal, one that we loved much better. He was more sympathetic and kind, calm, patient, and more understanding than before. Above all he had a greater faith in himself, his fellow man, and God.”

Our family considers this a wonderful and extraordinary story about a young woman we all wish we could have met or at least know more about. We believe there may be pictures of Parish. We would also appreciate correspondence from any of the Rowlett and Scott kinfolk.