William Rowell volunteered with Benjamin Cleveland's Company in the Georgia Militia during the War of 1812. He served at Fort Hawkins, which later became the site of the present day City of Macon, Georgia. Fort Hawkins was a frontier outpost set up to muster troop movements and guard against attacks from the Creek and Seminole Indians.

In the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery, Jesse Rowell was awarded land in the sixth district and 1st section of Carroll County. In the 1832 Gold Lottery of Georgia, Jesse Rowell was awarded land in the Cherokee Nation which was to become Paulding, and then in 1856, Haralson County.

The Rowell family traveled to Carroll County sometime between 1830 and 1832. Jesse Rowell appointed his son William attorney to "take lawful means to obtain bounty land" on 25 April 1834. the Cherokee Cession followed in 1835. At this time, William Rowell's son, Dudley Rowell, served with John Witcher's Company, Mounted Volunteers of Paulding County, who gathered Cherokees at Fort Cedar Town as a means of insuring the validity of the Treaty of New Echota. The Cherokees were sent on the "Trail of Tears." By 1835 the Rowell's had settled on a hill above the Tallapoosa River at the convergence of the Cedar Town and Van Wert roads, near the location of today's Tallapoosa East Baptist Church.

It has not been determined if Jesse Rowell provided a will upon his death. He is shown in the 1850 census of Paulding County as a  "Revolutionary Soldier, now dead, age 112, living immediately adjacent to William Rowell and Joshua Rowell". This remarkable note of longevity is exagerrated; Jesse Rowell would have been 102 upon his death.

William and Annerah Rowell lived near thier children up until the death of William Rowell in 1856. In his will he gave his son Dudley the majority of his land and personal property, having given his other children generous offerings in earlier years.