Family History

Sylvester and Mattie (Trudy) Rowell and Their Offsprings

After a brief courtship, Sylvester Rowell and Mattie Gertrude Fielder eloped and married on December 12, 1912. This young couple hailed from two diverse communities. Sylvester grew up in the Mt. Pelia Church community in Lee County, Waverly, Alabama in a family of farmers with a long history of being landowners. His wife, Trudy, was reared in Tallapoosa County, Alabama around Pineywood and New Acker communities. Her family was sharecroppers and cotton mill workers. Trudy’s recall of her family’s sharecropping experience: “I remember one day the white landowner and his wife came to evict (clean up) my parents. They took all of my parent livestock (pigs, chickens, cows and calves). After gathering everything, the white woman took the last straw broom and threw it in their wagon along with the animals. I decided then that this would never happen to me when I became an adult.”

After marriage, Sylvester and Trudy settled in the Mt. Pelia Community near his family. Their seven daughters (Mary Lu, Estella, Brooksie, Sallie, Mahala, Irene and Annie Pearl) were all born and reared in this community. Shortly after Annie was born, the family moved to an eighty-acre farm they purchased by cash payment of $600.00 on January 23, 1934. They built a four-room house with the guidance of Sylvester’s uncle Jacob Webb, a self-made carpenter. A hallway ran through the middle of the house with two rooms on each side. There were a kitchen and three bedrooms. The girl’s bedroom served a dual purpose for both sleeping and living room where on Sundays the girls entertained. The parent’s bedroom was also used as a family room where they gathered around the fireplace to relax after a hard day’s work, to socialize or to read by the light from a kerosene lamp or sometimes by the fireplace light if there was not oil to refill the lamp. Trudy used this room to teach her younger girls their alphabets and how to count to one hundred before they entered school. By this time, the older girls were adults and had moved from the home.

Most of the land was uncultivated when it purchased. Consequently, the family along with the help of other neighboring family members and friends, labored to cut down the trees and bushes to clear the land for farming. Unfortunately, soon after the move, Sylvester was stricken by a chronic heart condition. Though in ill health, he continued to plant and harvest the farm along with Trudy and the older girls until his death on August 15, 1938. The house was livable, but unfinished. Sylvester did not believe in buying anything on credit. There was no debt on the house at the time of his death.

With seven girls and no boys, some of the older girls along with Trudy plowed while some did other farm chores. The younger girls assumed tasks such as gathering eggs, feeding the chickens and pigs, bringing in firewood and assisting with cooking and churning. Once their older sisters moved from the home the younger sisters assumed their role except for the plowing.

Bobbie Kinniebrew, Sylvester’s nephew came to live with the family after his mother’s death. As he grew older, he assumed the responsibility of plowing until he married and moved to New York. By then James, the oldest grandson, had learned to plow and with the help of Cousin Eddie Rowell they did the plowing. The family grew cotton, corn, sugar cane, peanuts, watermelons, sweet potatoes and a limited amount of soybeans, oats, wheat and peanuts. The garden and fruit orchard produced not only vegetables and fruits to feed the family, but yielded enough to sell to the markets. Some of the chickens, pigs and cows that were not consumed by the family were sold to provide income.

The family was actives members of Mt. Pelia Church where Sylvester became a licensed, ordained minister and served the church in many capacities. Trudy and the girls participated in the church’s BYPU, Sunday school, choir, and the missionary and usher boards. As the girls matured, some assumed leadership positions. Mary was elected secretary of the Ebenezer Baptist District Convention.

Although education was a high priority for the family, there were limited opportunities for Black children in the area to obtain beyond a sixth grade education. Sylvester and Mattie were pioneers in the Mt. Pelia educational community. Sylvester was a surrogate school trustee. He assisted in acquiring teachers by locating boarding accommodations and introducing teachers to the community. He along with other men cut firewood and hauled it to the school by mule and wagon so that the children could keep warm. The church built a one-room schoolhouse on the church grounds. At first there was only one teacher who taught first through sixth grades. When a second room was added, there were two teachers; one taught grades one through three and the other taught grades four through six. Years later, a third room was built to accommodate the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. The older daughters returned to school to further their education after the addition of the third room though they had become young adults. When the younger girls became school age, Trudy was elected PTA treasurer, a position she held for approximately ten years. She was seldom absent from a meeting. When there were PTA meetings, Trudy would get an early start on the three-mile walk to school so she could stop along the route to get other mothers to come along with her. Often this meant waiting and helping the mothers dress their pre-school youngsters so they could accompany them.

The three younger sisters went to live with an older sister or a relative after completing ninth grade at Mt. Pelia School. Mahala stayed with Trudy’s sister, Luedella and her husband, Silas, in Birmingham, Alabama to complete tenth and eleventh grades. She was the first of the seven girls to obtain a high school diploma when she graduated from Mc Kinley High School in Canton, Ohio while living with her sister, Sallie’s family. Irene and Annie went to Anniston, Alabama to live with their sister, Estella and her husband, Hermon, where they graduated from Cobb Avenue High School. Following high school graduation, Irene went to Cincinnati, Ohio to live with her sister, Mary and became the first sister to attend a business college. Annie was the first sister to obtain a college degree when she graduated from Tuskegee University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education. She was also first to receive advanced degrees, a Master’s Degree in Education and a second Master’s Degree in Library Science. Mary, the oldest sister went to night school in Cincinnati, Ohio and obtained her high school diploma years later.

The Rowell sisters had many talents. Most of them followed in Trudy’s footsteps by learning to sew. Trudy, an artist at quilt making, taught her older girls how to make quilts. She made many of the family’s clothing. Brooksie, a very talented self-made seamstress and designer, sewed for the family and the community. She had the ability to look at a design, duplicate it or alter it. After moving to Chicago, Brooksie went to night school, perfected her skill and learned to use a pattern. Irene exhibited natural talent for sewing, interior decoration and cooking. Mary, Mahala and Annie developed basic sewing skills while Estella and Sallie leaned toward the culinary arts. We all enjoyed their pound cake and other delicious dishes.

One by one the girls married and moved to the city. Brooksie was the first girl to leave home to seek work in the city before marriage when she traveled to Columbus, Georgia to stay with her eldest sister, Mary, and her husband until she obtained a job. Estella married Walter Brooks. They divorced and she returned home before their son, James, was born. James was the first male born into the family and he was reared in Trudy’s household. Mary Lu married Robert Hicks, they had one child, Mary Will, and after several years their marriage ended in divorce. Both Mary and Estella married a second time, Estella to Hermon Lockhart and they had two children — Hermon Jr. and Mattie; Mary married John Silmond and no children were born to this union. Brooksie married Rev. Edward Thomas and had three children — Patricia, Leon and Diane. Sallie married Herschell Stroud and their children are Grover, Hurschell Jr., Paul, Alfred, Dennis and Veronica. Mahala married Lorenza Slay and their children are Glenn, Joanne, Yvonne, Cheryl, Holly and Lorenza Jr. Irene married Walter Touchstone and their children are Tyrone (Randy), Joseph and Rosemary. Annie married Simuel France and their children are Sonia and Dexter.

Property Deed Timeline

From the 2019 Family History Addendum — review of Waverly, Alabama property deeds and Mama Trudy’s bible recordings.

Bible Records — Marriage

Sylvester Rowell and Mattie Gertrude Fielder were united in holy matrimony in Waverly, Alabama on December 15, 1912 by Rev. Lonnie Smith. The marriage was witnessed by Arthur Rowell, Sylvester’s brother, and Annie Smith.

Waverly, Alabama Property Deeds

• January 23, 1934 Sylvester and Mattie Rowell purchased eighty acres of land located in Lee County, Waverly, Alabama for $600.00 with the right of survivorship upon the death of either. Mattie Rowell held ownership of the land after the death of her husband, Sylvester Rowell, on August 15, 1938.
• October 20, 1980 Mattie, owner of the property by virtue of the survivorship clause, transferred the property to her daughters: Estelle Lockhart, Brooksie Thomas, Sallie Stroud, Mahala Slay, Irene Touchstone, Annie France and Mary Moss, a granddaughter who is the daughter of Mary Lu Rowell Hicks, a deceased daughter.
• February 2, 1994 James Rowell, Sylvester and Mattie’s oldest grandson, purchased the property conveyed to the daughters with the exception of Brooksie’s portion. James, giving the sellers right to purchase for the sum of $600.00 one acre of the property. When James purchased the property, Estelle had passed in November 1981 leaving Herman Lockhart Jr., Mattie J. Reynolds and James Rowell as her surviving heirs. Mattie Rowell had also passed at this time.
• August 30, 1995 Brooksie sold her portion of the land to James with the same purchase terms as the other daughters. James is now sole owner of the eighty acre property.