Rowell Family History & Genealogy

In this story, I will write about two men who lived in our neighborhood that were well-known and well liked. They were servents of the community in the day when one could leave their doors unlocked at night, when one neighbor knew the others who lived about a mile apart from each other, but knew each other because of the local convenience grocery store. The brother who ran the store was Bright Rowell. It was located on the corner of Mill Grove Rd. and Lawyer's Rd. He married Helen Hargette and had three lovely daughters.
Spurgeon Rowell, the other brother, lived across from our small farm and had many acres in land and pasture near the paved rural road. His wife, Cora King, was my aunt on my dad's side.
Spurgeon liked to fly a small plane at his house for fun on Sundays. He had people come from far and near just to go up in that plane because all of Union County knew Spurgeon Rowell. He was a large farmer with many corn and soybeans fields rented on the backside of peoples land. More than that, these two brothers and families kept a small Methodist church going with their giving of monies and service down through the years. That church is Mill Grove United Methodist Church on Mill Grove Road in the Hemby Bridge area of Indian Trail, NC.

If people who worked outside jobs for a living got "rained out" on a work day, most of the time you could find them sitting or standing 'round at the 'store' chewing the fat and telling tall tales. And their children knew each other through school and riding the bus together to and from school. Most of us kids had chores to do each day or night around the house or farm, and then homework to get up. But supper time, well, that was special. We all gathered round the table, ate the good home cooking of our mothers, then helped clear the dishes, which meant washing them in pans of hot soapy water, then rinsing them in another pan of hot water, then drying those dishes after they drained and putting them away. That is where we learned to help each other. And we did not get paid monies for doing that either...it was how families lived together.

Well, Spurgeon would come pull your car or truck out of a ditch if you happened to get sideways in the road for some reason and couldn't get out. He never asked a penny for gas, or the trouble it took him to come and do that for you...he seemed to enjoy using his tractor for that reason...always with a grin on his face.

When I was about 12 years old, Bright and his wife, Helen, gathered up a load of young people one night and took us to the Charlotte Checkers Hockey game. That was exciting!! Spurgeon's son, my cousin, Joe Rowell went and I cannot remember who all else went....but we enjoyed ourselves. We did not get to do stuff like that too often...and I think Bright and Helen knew just what we needed.

Nowadays, families are different, or are they? First, Cora died. Then Spurgeon became disoriented with dementia. Bright died instantly with a heart attach on his lawn tractor. Helen remarried to my dad, Dewitt King after my mom, Mildred, died. Spurgeon never remarried and his son Ralph was with him working in the fields or working on machinery near his home until he became worse. He died. Spurgeon, Cora, Bright,and Helen are all deceased. The store is still there, run by Bob who is from the country India, with his wife and son. The Methodist Church is still there, and is brick. The white wooden building has been moved to the back of the church lot. Some descendants of the Rowell brothers families still attend there.

If I am thinking correctly, the parents of these Rowell brothers was named Horace and Letha Rowell. Horace would gather produce and ran a little store on Ridge Rd. near the Lawyer's Road end. They lived in the back of the store for years until Horace passed away, then Letha came to live with Cora and Spurgeon. She had dementia. She died.

But what lives on in the hearts of those who knew the aforementioned folks is the helping and joyful spirit each one had. Now it seems money comes before anything...let's keep the human spirit alive....help those who need it if you have it to help with. And your treasures will abound and flourish. A sense of humor keeps life in balance.