Gideon Frank Rothwell

Gideon Frank Rothwell (April 24, 1836 – January 18, 1894) was a United States Representative from Missouri and later a prominent figure in the governance of the University of Missouri. He was born near Fulton, Callaway County, Missouri, on April 24, 1836, in a region that was then part of the developing interior of the state. Little is recorded about his parents or early family life, but his upbringing near Fulton placed him close to emerging centers of education and law in mid-nineteenth-century Missouri.

Rothwell pursued higher education at the University of Missouri in Columbia, one of the earliest public universities west of the Mississippi River. He graduated from the University of Missouri, an association that would shape his later public service and institutional leadership. After completing his collegiate studies, he turned to the law, reading law in the customary manner of the period. He was admitted to the bar in 1864 and commenced the practice of law in Huntsville, Missouri, during the closing years of the Civil War, entering the profession at a time when Missouri’s legal and political institutions were undergoing significant strain and reconstruction.

Building on his legal career, Rothwell became active in Democratic Party politics in Missouri. His professional standing and party involvement led to his election as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth Congress. He served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1881, representing his Missouri constituency during the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes and the early months of President James A. Garfield’s term. During this period, Congress addressed issues of post–Civil War recovery, currency, and federal administration, and Rothwell participated as part of the Democratic minority that sought to influence national policy in the late Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era. In 1880 he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination, ending his brief tenure in national office.

After leaving Congress, Rothwell returned to private life and resumed the practice of law, relocating his principal practice to Moberly, Missouri, a growing railroad and commercial center in Randolph County. In Moberly he continued to build his reputation as an attorney and civic leader. His legal work and longstanding connection to his alma mater brought him renewed prominence in statewide affairs, particularly in the field of higher education.

In 1889 Rothwell was appointed a member of the board of curators of the University of Missouri, the governing body responsible for overseeing the institution’s operations and development. He quickly assumed a leading role, and from 1890 until his death in 1894 he served as president of the board of curators. His presidency coincided with one of the most critical episodes in the university’s history: the catastrophic fire of 1892 that destroyed Academic Hall, the main building on the Columbia campus. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, Rothwell initially ordered that the remaining stone Columns—the front colonnade of the ruined structure—be torn down, reflecting concerns about safety and structural integrity. Subsequent examination, however, led him to reverse course; he eventually declared the Columns structurally sound and allowed them to remain standing. This decision preserved what would become Columbia’s most famous landmark and an enduring symbol of the University of Missouri.

Rothwell continued to serve as president of the board of curators until his death, guiding the university through the early stages of rebuilding and reorganization after the fire. His leadership helped shape the institution’s physical and administrative recovery in the final decade of the nineteenth century, reinforcing the university’s role in public higher education in Missouri.

Gideon Frank Rothwell died in Moberly, Missouri, on January 18, 1894. He was interred in Oakland Cemetery in Moberly. His career combined service at the bar, a term in the national legislature, and influential leadership in higher education, and his actions during the 1892 fire left a lasting imprint on the physical and symbolic landscape of the University of Missouri.