FOWLER, Joseph O.

FOWLER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 5/31/2021 at 13:11:15

Joseph O. Fowler
born in 1854

Joseph O. Fowler, of Douglas township, Ida County, Iowa, was born in Sauk County, Wisconsin, in the year 1854, a son of Montague and Elizabeth (Flickinger) Fowler; the father a native of Massachusetts, and the mother born in Ohio. The father removed to Ohio with his parents at the age of thirteen. He was a great lover of books, and soon fitted himself as a teacher. In 1837 he was married to Elizabeth Flickinger. For a number of years he engaged mostly in teaching and the mercantile business. He then removed to Wisconsin, where he purchased and improved a large tract of land. In 1859 he sold out, and with his family started for southwestern Missouri. Sickness of the family prevented him from getting any further than Benton county, Iowa, where he purchased a home. Their family consisted of nine children, five boys and four girls, namely: Eli, Elizabeth, Bina, Lewis, Louise, Joseph, Alvin, Emma and May. Of this number four boys and one girl are living. Bina, the oldest son living, enlisted in the Western army, and served until the close of the war. He is now in Nebraska, where he has been for a number of years engaged in the mercantile business; Lewis, Louise and the mother, the latter being now seventy-four years of age, still resides in the old home in Benton county, Iowa, and is a well-to-do farmer.
Joseph, the subject of this sketch, went to Nebraska in May, 1877, and purchased a farm in Otoe County, which he had sold in 1879, nearly doubling his investment. His next purchase was in Ida county, Iowa, where he bought 160 acres, his present home. He has since purchased another 160 acres, one half-mile from him, making him a farm of 320 acres, under a good state of cultivation. In the year 1881 he returned to Benton county, Iowa, and on March 1 was married to Alice Bower, a native of Canada. Mr. Bower came to Benton County in the year of 1868, where he still resides, and has a valuable and beautiful home. Mr. and Mrs. Fowler have three children: Bertie, Willie and Gladys. Mr. Fowler has spent the larger portion of his life on the borders of a new country. He was also among the early pioneers of Douglas Township, Ida County, Iowa.
Source: Biographical History of Crawford, Ida, and Sac Counties, Iowa, 1893, p.456