| The Highland
Township Historical Society THE ROWE FAMILY |
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Squire Washington Rowe [1], the third child of Daniel and Mary/Polly (Crossman) Rowe, was born June 1, 1815, at Camillus, Onondaga County, New York. He soon moved with his family to Parma, Monroe County, New York, where he married Dolly Castle on March 26, 1835. Within weeks after the wedding the couple joined Daniel Roe's move to Michigan. One source relates that Squire, his wife and mother, travelled by boat from Buffalo to Detroit, while his father and brother, Nelson Roe, drove a wagon with their household goods across Canada. The family arrived in Highland Township in May, 1835, where Squire W. Rowe made his own purchase of 40 acres in Section 32. The portrait below is from a biography of Squire W. Rowe found in Samuel Durant, History of Oakland County, Michigan (1877)
[1] - While Daniel Roe's gravestone, land patents and other documents all use the older spelling of the family name, the early 1800's saw an increasing number of younger family members switch to the "Rowe" spelling. Some historians of the family - noting that the change occurred between the Revolution and War of 1812 - speculate that the "Rowe" spelling was somehow "less British," but others find this explanation far-fetched.