came to Chester to do the
preliminary work of building the prison, and it can be truthfully said that the
first work of clearing the ground for the prison site was done by him.
Mr. Dowell
was born at Dover, Tennessee, on the 30th of
October, 1852, and his father was John C. Dowell,
overseer
of the iron furnaces of John Bell
at Dover, John C. Dowell
entered the river service and became mate, pilot and then
captain of a packet in the Nashville-St. Louis service. After following that
occupation for about a dozen years he engaged in building the Illinois Central
Railroad as one of its contractors, and when he retired from that work he
settled on a farm in Williamson county, Illinois, there passing the declining
years of his life. He was born in Daviess county, Kentucky, of Irish lineage,
his ancestry having been originally from county Down, Ireland. The family name
in its primitive form was “McDowell”
and was so written by Allen McDowell,
grandfather of the subject of this review. Allen's
children, including John C.,
dropped the “Mc”
and all of his descendants are now known
under the name of Dowell. Allen McDowell
was a colonial soldier in the war of the Revolution and took part, also, in the
war of 1812. He came into Kentucky and died at Whitesville, in that state. He
was twice married and became the father of five sons and two daughters. In the
early days he was a Democrat of the old school, but after the close of the Civil
war he and his sons transferred their allegiance to the Republican party.
John C. Dowell
married Miss Sarah Mobley,
a North
Carolina lady of Irish blood and a native of County Down, Ireland. She passed
away in 1886, at the age of seventy-eight years, and her honored husband died in
1907, in his eighty-ninth year. Concerning the children of Mr.
and Mrs. John C. Dowell,
four passed away early in life; William C.
is the immediate subject of this review; Alice
is the wife of William Gulledge,
of Williamson county,
Illinois; Monroe
died at Carterville, Illinois, and is survived by a family; and Thomas L.
passed away at Marion, Illinois, where his
family is now residing.
William C. Dowell,
of this notice,
was a child of but four years of age at the time of his parents removal to
Illinois. He grew to maturity in Williamson county, to which public schools he
is indebted for his preliminary educational training. As a youth he engaged in
the railroad business on
the Illinois Central Railroad as
station man at Carbondale, following that line of enterprise from 1871 to 1877.
Subsequently he spent six months with the United States pension department at
Salem, Illinois, and at the expiration of that period he became P.
1205 interested in the
prison work and came to Chester, as previously noted. He became assistant clerk
in the Southern Illinois Penitentiary in 1877 and in the following year was made
purchasing agent of the institution. He served in the latter position until
1885, when he was appointed deputy warden by General Mitchell,
the warden. He served as deputy warden until 1893, when he was appointed captain
of the World's Fair secret service force at Chicago. From 1894 to 1896 he was
assistant secretary of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee, the
committee which so successfully blocked the efforts of the Bryan management and
carried the state by an overwhelming majority for McKinley, thus closing the
greatest political campaign ever fought in the United States. In 1897 Mr. Dowell returned to Chester as deputy warden, by
appointment of J. M. Tanner, and he served as such until
1904, when he again resigned, only to be reappointed in the following year by Governor Deneen. In his capacity as prison official Mr. Dowell has covered a large portion of the United
States in pursuit of escaped convicts and he has a wide acquaintance among
prison men and peace officers everywhere. His familiarity with Illinois and her
public men is most pronounced and the statesmen and politicians developed by the
conditions of the Civil war were in their palmiest days of service when he was
annexed as a public servitor.
Mr. Dowell became interested in active politics as a young man and was a
delegate to the state conventions of 1876, 1884 and 1896, as a Republican. He
has served under all the governors of the state since 1877 and under seven
wardens during that period. In fraternal circles he is a Knight Templar, an Odd
Fellow and an Elk, and he was a delegate to the Grand Lodges of the Odd Fellows
order in 1876 and 1877.
At
Chester, Illinois, on the 18th of November, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Dowell to Miss Mary Dunn, a
daughter of Andrew Dunn, who was born and reared in County
Antrim, Ireland. Mrs. Dowell was born at Chester,
Illinois, and is a member of a family of eight children, six of whom are living,
in 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Dowell are the parents of the following
children, —Linnie, who is the wife of D. M. Logan, of Shawneetown, Illinois; Jean,
who is with the Terminal Railway Company of St. Louis; and
Dorothy, Margaret, David and Mary, all of whom are at the parental
home.
History Table of Contents
Biography Table of
Contents
Name Index
Memorial Library Illinois
Selections
USGenNet.org
- First & Only 501(c)3 Host for Genealogical & Historical Sites
Livingston County Michigan Historical & Genealogical Project
American
History & Genealogy Project
Home
© 2006~ Pam MARDOS
Rietsch pam@livgenmi.com
