Chester A. Rowell (October 17, 1844 – May 9, 1912) was an American physician and politician who served as a California state senator and as mayor of Fresno. He was also a

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

. Before moving to California, Dr. Rowell was a Union soldier in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

mustered in the 17th Illinois Infantry along with four of his brothers. He took part in several battles between 1861 and 1864, including the Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Vicksburg. Dr. Rowell arrived in Fresno in 1874 to practice medicine. In September 1876, he established the ''Fresno Republican'' newspaper. It was purchased by and eventually merged into the present-day '' Fresno Bee''. In 1879 he was elected to the state senate in California as a Republican. The county was heavily Democratic at the time, and Rowell was the first Republican to win an election in Fresno County. In 1909 he received an overwhelming share of the vote to win the mayoral election. Rowell commissioned the construction of Fresno's first

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, now known as the Rowell building. It is six stories tall and located in downtown Fresno at the southeast corner of Tulare and Van Ness streets. In 1914, Fresno commissioned Haig Patigian to create a memorial sculpture. The base of the memorial contains a relief where Rowell is shown seated at a patient's bedside. It can be found in the Fresno County Courthouse park, across the street from the Rowell family home in downtown Fresno.

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Join California Dr. Chester Rowell
1844 births 1912 deaths Mayors of Fresno, California University of California regents Republican Party California state senators Physicians from New Hampshire American newspaper founders People of New Hampshire in the American Civil War Union army soldiers 19th-century California politicians 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century mayors of places in California 20th-century members of the California State Legislature {{California-politician-stub