The Rowlette's

This blog is mostly about the Johnson, Pearson, Parm part of my ancestory, my father's family, but I did have a mother and her family had a story too. So here is some information about the "other side." I should give credit to my mother's sister's husband who did this research, but since he won't communicate with me in any way and since I had to obtain this information by the round about mechanism of asking my sister to pretend interest which she graciously did, I will not acknowledge him so much as to make his name public. But I will give him credit for doing the research. If he or anyone else should happen to read this, of course. Blogging is like shouting into the dark.

During the early 1800’s, the Rowlette’s decided to leave Virginia for reasons of their own and head to Texas with all their livestock and household goods. They came into Kentucky and near Berea one of their wagons broke down. I imagine that happened a lot as the journey through the mountains between Virginia and Kentucky was pretty tough. A blacksmith was called upon to fix the problem. Kinda like taking a car to a mechanic today. The blacksmith had an attractive daughter and one of the young Rowlette sons was smitten.
After repairs were made, the Rowlette family packed up and persuaded the love struck boy to accompany them westward. When they reached the Red River it was in flood. They attempted to cross anyway, probably bemoaning their bad luck and the delay in Kentucky which had used up precious resources and ate into the time they had allocated for the move. They lost some of their possessions during the rough crossing. Or anyway, some of them lost some of their possessions.
Then the family split up, some headed on a more northerly track and some waiting for the flood waters to recede. (I’m guessing not all made it across although my mother's sister's husband's narrative doesn’t say.) The young son, possibly getting tired of this journeying or figuring Kentucky was not a bad place to live, and wondering what was ahead in Texas, or perhaps just being so head over heels in love he couldn't stand it,headed back to Berea to rejoin the Blacksmith’s daughter. They married and "established the Rowlette Empire in Madison County, Kentucky." The family became quite large, owned "vast" lands and were successful tobacco farmers and mule breeders. (My mother always thought she was better than everyone else, perhaps this is the origin of that.)
Supposedly they were known far and wide for the quality of their mules. Mules seem to pay a big part in my family history on both sides, what with Mule Shed Lane and all. I wonder if some of the Rowlette mules shipped through the big Mule Shed that Neville said existed on Mule Shed Lane. He couldn’t quite figure out why the location as it was not near the major trails of the time. Perhaps the mules were shipped by water?
"For the most part the family thought they were better than other people." (That fits.) Section P in the Richmond cemetery has the graves of 30 or more of the Rowlette family. (I saw a few when I visited with Uncle Neville.) Granny Grace Rowlette S's baby who died early of pneumonia is buried there with her father’s family.