Apart from his regular duties there, Rowand participated in hunting bison and indulged in another of his most notable pastimes through the years: horse-riding.
In 1838 when Catholic priests passed through Fort Edmonton John and Louise did not get their marriage solemnized, but after living together almost 30 years they seem to not have felt the need for external affirmation of their relationship.
In 1823, Rowand started his first of three appointments, totalling nearly 17 years, as the chief factor at Fort Edmonton, making him answerable only to Governor Simpson or the HBC's London committee.
In the early years of Rowand's administration, overland routes to northern posts such as Fort Assiniboine were made, and Edmonton became a central hub for furs to be shipped.
"[7] Rowand's various abuses against the workers earned their ire, but it was an unfair Hudson's Bay Company practice that put a mutiny over the top in 1851.
Rowand capitulated, but as per Gladstone's account, only after presenting himself in a dramatic fashion to them, fearless and defiant, to be struck dead by the mutineers, though the revolting workers told him that that was not their intent at all.
This was from the shuffle-step-shuffle sound made when Rowand walked, owing to the broken leg he had suffered earlier in his career.
[3] In spring of 1854, Rowand joined the boat brigades which annually carried furs to Hudson Bay where they would be loaded onto ships and commence their voyage to England.
On May 31, while at Fort Pitt - a post commanded by his son John - Rowand was about to intervene into a dispute between two tripmen, when he clutched his chest and fell suddenly dead.
"[10] The intended burial place was Montreal, but lacking means to preserve Rowand's body for a journey of so many weeks, his cadaver was boiled down to the bones.
Edmonton musician Cadence Weapon recorded a timpani-based dance music song about Rowand titled "One Pound One".