THOMAS H. ROWE was born in Madison County, Ohio, May 17, 1835, and is the elder of the two children born to William T. and Mary A. (Hair) Rowe, natives respectively of Virginia and Clermont County, Ohio. Thomas Hair, the father of Mrs. Mary A. Rowe, was among the first to settle at Fort Washington, now known as Cincinnati. William T. Rowe was born in Fluvanna County, Va., February 8, 1795, and in 1803 moved to Ohio with his father and settled near the then village of Chillicothe. He attended school seventeen days only, but was an extensive reader and became a well-informed man. His parents died when he was aged about seventeen, leaving under his protection six younger brothers and sisters. for whom be found places as best he could until his marriage, when he took them all to his home. At the age of eighteen, he became a. mail contractor, and until 1850 ran a mail stage line from Chillicothe to Columbus, Ohio, and for many years held extensive mail contracts in several other States. He purchased real estate from time to time until be was the owner of a well-improved -farm of 2,200 acres in Madison County, Ohio. For many years, he was Probate Judge of the same county. In the fall of 1849, he moved to Benton County, Ind., and bought some 500 or 600 acres of land, and was there elected County Commissioner in 1850. In 1853, he removed to Tippecanoe County, bought a farm of 200 acres, and there died, June 1, 18T8, having been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for more than sixty years. Thomas H. owe was employed on his father's farm and in carrying the mail until twenty-one years old, when he began life on his own account. In 1864, he came to this township and settled on 600 acres of wild land owned by his father, of which 320 acres are now his own. For the first fifteen years, he was exclusively engaged in herding, but subsequently added general farming. He was married, March 12, 1862, to Mary O. Swartz, a native of Floyd County, Ind., and daughter of George and Sarah (Brown) Swartz, of Pennsylvania. The two children living born to this union are William B. and Jessie M. Mr. Rowe is a Democrat and has served six years as Justice of the Peace, and four years as Trustee of this township; he is a Freemason, and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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