“Town of Rowena Dakota Territory”

On July 27, 1888, Thomas Ryan of Dubuque, Iowa, purchased land for the Rowena townsite in the SE¼, Section 26, Split Rock Township from Nelson Webster. On October 10, 1888, Ryan platted the town into 43 city blocks and named the streets after various kinds of stone. He named the new town ‘Rowena’ for the heroine in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, ‘Ivanhoe’.

Ryan contracted with Madison and Winfield Webster to open stone quarries on their adjacent farm. He formed the Minnehaha Granite Company and erected the ‘Mastadon Jasper Crusher’, the first stone crusher in Dakota Territory. The artistry and skill of immigrant Welsh and English stone cutters was soon evident in the quartzite buildings designed by ‘Prairie Architect’ Wallace Dow and others. Many miles of streets were paved with hundreds of railroad cars of cobblestones from area quarries, shipped to Omaha, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit and other cities.

A post office was established October 17, 1888. The new town included a town hall, railway depot, the Dixon Hotel, a tenement, meat market, the ‘Black Diamond’ saloon, a livery barn, creamery and blacksmith shop.

During the spring of 1889, a publication, the ‘Skyrocket’, appeared and the first babies born in Rowena were named for the town: a boy, Rowein Costine and a girl, Rowena Jones.

The Illinois Central Railroad built a stockyard which prospered because of its direct access to the Chicago markets.

Later two grain elevators, a store building and a quartzite bank building were added and in 1902 the Methodist Episcopal Church was built.

Following the Depression of the 1930’s and the growing use of cement, the quarry industry declined and Rowena became a quiet trade center for area farmers.

Minnehaha County, SD 42 west side of Rowena (2006)