L. B. Rowley, Attorney,
Former Realtor, Is Dead
Bank Law Expert Passes Away; Family Pioneers Here
L. B. Rowley, 72, Madison attorney, prominent authority on banking
practices and former real estate operator here, died Tuesday at a
Madison hospital.
Mr. Rowley was at his office at 114 N. Carroll St., until July 2 when
he was taken ill. He died of a heart attack. For the past two years he
had been in ill health. Mr. Rowley lived at the Bellevue apts.
Private funeral services will be held Friday afternoon at the Fitch
Lawrence funeral home. The Rev. Leonard E. Nelson of St. Francis chapel
will officiate and burial will be at Forest Hill cemetery.
Surviving Mr. Rowley are his widow and six sons: Laurence M. Madison,
Jack, New Smyrna, Fla.; Leslie E., Los Angeles; Silas H., Ashland; Henry
M., Biloxi, Miss., and Gordon C., Detroit. Mr. Rowley's first wife was
the daughter of Col. J. H. Knight, Ashland.
Mr. Rowley was widely known in banking circles throughout Wisconsin
and the Northwest. He was the author of Wisconsin's bank income tax law,
and defended its constitutionality before the U. S. Supreme court after
it had been declared unconstitutional by the state supreme court.
In 1921 he organized the Rowley Service Bureau, Inc., a legal and
financial service supplying banks and trust companies with legal service
and banking condition surveys.
Mr. Rowley was born at Niles, Mich., Apr. 10, 1865, the son of Lt.
Col. Manley S. and Julia Brooks Rowley. He came to Madison shortly after
the close of the Civil War.
Private tutors supplied Mr. Rowley with most of his education. After
reading law for a time, he was admitted to practice by the state supreme
court in 1895. He opened offices in the Tenney building.
Mr. Rowley was a member of an early Madison family. His grandfather
was Abiel E. Brooks, early day Madison realtor. Mr. Brooks was a '49er,
and held large real estate holdings in the university district. Mr.
Rowley could trace his ancestry back to Dr. Fuller, physician on the
Mayyflower. The Rowleys came to America shortly after the Mayflower
landed.
Mr. Rowley counted many military men among his ancestors. Members of
the Rowley family fought in all wars in which the United States engaged.
In Realty Business
During his early manhood, Mr. Rowley worked with his father as real
estate agent and estate manager. He platted and improved the Brooks
addition to Madison and platted and sold many sections and subdivisions
on the West side of Madison. Rowley ave. is named for him.
Included in his real estate operations were platting in West Lawn,
Highland Park, Oakland Heights, College Park, Nakoma, Briar Hill and
other suburban division. For many years he was a director of the Madison
Realty Co.
In 1921 he gave up his real estate operations to re-enter the
practice of law.
Mr. Rowley was a member of the American Bar association and of the
Wisconsin and Dane county bars. He was a charter member of the Madison
club and helped organize the Six o'Clock club. He held membership in the
40,000 Club, an organization formed in 1900 of civic leaders who sought
to boost Madison's population to 40,000 by 1920.
As a young man he was a member of the Lake City guards, and as such,
was called to Milwaukee in the 1880's to help quell strike riots there.
In Military Service
He was a captain in Co. K, 8th infantry of the Wisconsin National
guard. During the war he served as captain in the University Student
Army Training corps.
He was a voluminous writer, and authored many books dealing with
banking law and financial statutes. It was said that he wrote most of
the laws on banking found in Wisconsin statutes today. |