MR. GRIFFITH ROWLAND, CONEMAUGH, CAMBRIA, PENNSYLVANIA.
The Rowland family of southern Indiana county is well represented there at the present time, and its members have not only been substantial citizens who contributed to the material prosperity of the section but zealous church workers, associated with the Baptist denomination. Some of its members have entered the ministry of that church, Rev. Elias Rowland, a retired minister, now residing at Mechanicsburg, and Rev. Martin Luther Rowland, also retired and living in South Mahoning township, having done notable work in their day.The family is of Welsh origin. William Rowland, the first of the line in America, was a native of Wales, came to this country with his wife Elizabeth Ellis, and settled near Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. His son Griffith Rowland, born in Wales about 1771, married Jane Jones, daughter of William Jones, and both came to America about 1795, settling first near Ebenburg Pennsylvania. The Rowlands continued to make their home in Cambria county, locating about 1800 in Conemaugh township, where Mr. Rowland became a land owner and followed farming. Settling in the wilderness, he hewed out a home for himself and there spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1847, aged seventy-six years; he is buried in Bethel Church cemetery, near Ebensburg.
His wife also died on the farm, and is buried in the same cemetery. Their children were : William; Maria, who marfried John Crumb and (second) Joseph Craig; Isaac, who married Elizabeth Keller; Jacob; Griffith J., who married Mary Mikesell and (second) Margaret Jordan, and died in 1871; John, who married Jane Conrad, and lived in Brushvalley township; and Eliza, who married Enoch Breese.