Important and varied interests claim the time and attention of Dr. B. F. Rowland, a leading druggist of Ochelata, who also figures prominently in financial circles as Vice President of the Ochelata State Bank, and he is likewise the owner of a good farm in this vicinity, his business affairs being most judiciously managed. He was born in Moniteau County, Missouri, June 7, 1866, his parents being Powhatan and Mary W. (Longdon) Rowland, the latter a daughter of a circuit rider in Missouri, who was one of the well known ministers of the early days. B. F. Rowland’s father engaged in general merchandising at Jamestown, Missouri, but in 1849 he joined the rush of gold seekers to California, where he won success in the mines, later returning to Missouri. In 1878 he moved to Kansas, where he passed away in 1902, at the venerable age of eighty-six, having long survived the mother, whose demise occurred in Kansas, in 1886, when she was sixty-six years of age.
Their son, B. F. Rowland, acquired his early education in the public schools of Missouri, after which he completed a course in medicine at Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1894 he opened an office at Oologah, in Rogers County, Oklahoma, where for two years he followed his profession, after which he removed to Ringold, there continuing in practice for three years. On the expiration of that period he purchased a drug store at Ochelata which he has since conducted, being recognized as one of the leading pharmacists of this part of the state. He carries a large stock of drugs and druggists’ sundries and his reasonable prices and reliability in filling prescriptions have secured for him a large patronage. Widening the scope of his activities, he entered the financial field and is now serving as Vice President of the Oklahoma State Bank, which is one of the sound moneyed institutions of northeastern Oklahoma, and he is also interested in farming, having a good ranch of two hundred and forty acres a mile south and eight miles east of Ochelata, which he is renting. He no longer follows his profession, having discontinued the practice of medicine in 1907, and his entire time is now concentrated upon his business interests, which are important and profitable.
On the 7th of December, 1897, Dr. Rowland was united in marriage to Miss Addie B. Thomas, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Thomas. The latter passed away when Mrs. Rowland was but twelve years old. She was reared on Pryor creek and acquired her education in the Orphans’ School at Salina, on the Grand River. To Dr. and Mrs. Rowland, five children were born: Samuel W., twenty-two years of age, who married Jettie Mullins; Robert T., who is a young man of nineteen and is a graduate of the Wentworth Military Academy at Lexington, Missouri; Minnie C., who was graduated from the normal school at Edmond, Oklahoma; and Mary Opal and Edgar C., who are still attending school. All of the children except Samuel W. are residing at home with their parents.
Dr. Rowland is a prominent Mason, belonging to Ramona Lodge, No. 326, F. & A. M., and to the consistory at McAlester, Oklahoma, in which he has taken the thirty-second degree. His father was also identified with this order, which he joined in Virginia, three years being required at that time to become a member of the craft. The spirit of progress and enterprise has ever actuated Dr. Rowland, leading him into important connections, and his labors have at all times been of a constructive nature, contributing to public progress and prosperity, as well as to individual aggrandizement. In business circles of Ochelata his standing is of the highest and he is recognized as a loyal, public-spirited citizen, whose influence is at all times on the side of advancement and improvement.