Fowler Family History

by Two Fowlers (Glenda & Karna Bloomquist)

Chapter One

Two Williams came to the British Colony of Massachusetts in the early 1600s. One was a Fowler, and one was a Parker. They both built houses and helped start towns throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Today, if you travel to Milford Connecticut, you can see William Fowler's millstone with his name on it, by the Memorial Tower at the Founders' Bridge in the center of town. You can even stand on the mill stone if you'd like to!

Nearby you'll find rocks with William Fowler's name, and other names carved into them. You can even sit on the stones!

If you travel to Saybrook, Massachusetts, you can see a list of the Founders of Old Saybrook. The list includes William Parker's name. There is also a very old house with a sign on it which says "1646 House built by William Parker."

200 years later, young Henry Holmes Fowler (who liked being called Holmes) decided he wanted to see what was out West. He had been born in Durham Connecticut and later lived in Meriden, and then Wallingford.

Holmes thought Connecticut was getting too crowded. He heard of a place called Minnesota where there were few people, prairies for hunting, and creeks full of fish. It sounded wonderful. Holmes went all the way to the Minnesota Territory and then back home again to Wallingford. He had to make enough money in his job as a silver burnisher to buy a farm in Minnesota.

One night at the boarding house where he lived, Holmes met a young woman named Adaline Parker. Adaline's cousin Mary owned the house. Mary tricked the young boarder into meeting Adaline by going to Holmes' room to tell him he has a visitor in the parlor. The visitor, of course, was Adaline. At the supper table that night Holmes told wonderful stories of his trip to Minnesota, and his dream of building a house there. Not long after they met, Holmes and Adaline were married.

A couple years went by; workers were laid off in area factories, and there were riots. It was the spring of 1857 and Holmes decided it was time to find a place to live in Minnesota. He headed west, traveling by railroad to Prairie di Chien, a place on the Mississippi river in southwestern Wisconsin. He left Adaline and their daughter Frankie home in Connecticut.

From Prairie du Chien Holmes traveled west, hitching a ride in covered wagons, and on ox carts. Most of the time he had to walk. While traveling, Holmes met a man by the name of George S. Fowler. They were surprised to learn that they both came from near Wallingford, and were interested in finding a home in the west. Their meeting was an odd coincidence. They thought they were not related to each other, but years later, we found out that they were distantly related. The two men traveled to Winnebago City where they found only a couple of log buildings; it was not a real city. Then someone told them about a place called Fairmont. They went and found only two people living there- Mr. Budd and Mr. Hall.

They decided to stay near Fairmont, as it was a beautiful place for their farms. They traveled a few miles north to Elm Creek, where there were good trees for timber and an excellent site to start a farm where the creek and Martin Lake came together. There was plenty of wile game and fish. The beautiful lakes were also very practical.

Holmes build a log cabin, and claimed land for his farm under preemption rights; there was no such thing as homesteading yet. He walked to Chatfield (near Rochester) to register at the land office, and paid $1.25 an acre for the land.

Remember, near Holmes' cabin, there was no railroad, no planted groves of trees, no roads, and no bridges. A little to the west of the cabin there was a well beaten path down to the water where elk and deer went down to drink. And close by, there was a natural spring. He planted his first crop of potatoes, and after harvesting them stored them in a pit. He returned to Wallingford for the winter, a trip of on thousand, three hundred and forty-one miles!

Chapter Two

Adaline packed Holmes' wedding boots with corn, beans, and other seeds to plant at their new home in Minnesota, including the lemon lily, the yellow rose bush, rhubarb, and onions. Adaline and Holmes didn't tell their parents that five-year-old Frankie was going to have a new baby brother or sister soon. Adaline know they wouldn't let them leave if they knew there was a new baby on the way.

In early May 1858 they traveled to Minnesota. They went first by railroad to Prairie di Chien, then took a Mississippi River steamer to St. Paul. changed boats at St. Paul and came to Mankato on the small steamboat Medora. At Mankato they hired a team to take them to their cabin. Adaline never forgot that ride behind a pair of large grey horses, hitched to a lumber wagon. All the owned was in that wagon, crossing the almost endless prairie, a treeless sea of grass. She saw no roads and there were sloughs (wetlands) filled with water.

They reached the creek at night and could not cross it, as the water was almost over the banks. A man and his wife now lived nearby on a claim north of the creek, and Adaline and Frankie slept there that night. Holmes crossed the creek and went home to his little cabin.

In the morning Holmes led Adaline and Frankie across the creek on a log. Adaline then watched him swim an ox team hitched to the wagon with their baggage in it across the creek. Adaline had left her city home in Connecticut to live in a log house 18 feet by 12 feet, with a bark roof and a dirt floor!

A few supplies could be obtained at Winnebago, but Mankato was the nearest trading post. The nearby couple soon tired of pioneering and moved away, leaving Adaline to be the first woman to live permanently in Martin County.

That first summer the cabin got a board floor and a new shingled roof. Frankie's new little brother Charles was born on September 7, 1858. He was the first white boy to be born in Martin County. The midwife was Mrs. Pratt who had come in the summer and lived a mile to the west.

Adaline and Holmes raised crops for their own use. It would be 40 years before the railroads were built to take crops out of the area. The creek and nearby Murphy, Martin and Perch Lakes provided fishing, hunting and trapping. Pelts brought much needed cash. One year grasshoppers came and ate most of the garden. Thankfully, they didn't like Adaline's sage plants. Adaline had learned how to grow herbs for medicine in Connecticut where she had worked for a doctor before she got married. She picked the sage, dried it, and took it and other roots and herbs to sell at St. James. A doctor there used the herbs for medicine. Holmes trapped fur animals for more money, so they were able to buy food for that winter.

Early each spring Adaline would gather cowslips, which you may know as marsh marigolds, and cook their leaves for greens. She also loved to fish. Years later, Adaline's granddaughter Clarice said it was a great privilege to be chosen to go fishing with her grandmother. You had to be quiet, of course, so you didn't scare the fish away.

Chapter Three

The Fowler family shared their creek with friendly Indians who camped nearby and used a spot near the Fowler home to ford the creek.

Once, Adaline opened the door to throw out the dishwater and drenched an Indian! He didn't get mad-he just laughed. Another time when she was finished baking bread an Indian came into the cabin and picked up most of it. Adaline saved one loaf for her family. The Sioux and Winnebago Indians were all around them, hunting and trapping, but no one felt in the least afraid. Adaline quoted the Bible: “He that knoweth not, feareth not.” She knew nothing about the Indians, so she never felt afraid when they visited her home.

One day, Adaline looked at her pretty party dresses that she'd brought from Wallingford. She had no place to wear them in Fairmont. She couldn't eat them, so she got out her scissors, and cut the party dresses up into long thin pieces. She used the ribbons of beautiful silk and cotton to dress up her children, and the Indian’s children s hair.

In the fall of 1858 Sherman's Battery came to the Fowler farm on their way from Fort Leavenworth Kansas to Fort Ridgely in the north. Major Sherman had 64 mules hauling heavy guns, 80 horses, many covered wagons and a long line of marching soldiers. A few of the soldiers had their families with them. Adaline watched, amazed, knowing she would never forget the sight. Frankie, then 5 years old told her “I see a real live little girl!” When Major Sherman asked where he could camp overnight Holmes took him across the creek. A two-year old girl who had died the night before was buried northeast of where Horicon Church later stood. Where the horses had ban tied up in a picket line, they left manure with elm tree seeds.

Adaline & Holmes' great-great grandchildren often heard the story of the horse picket as they looked up at the tall elm trees which grew in a long straight line. Before the trees died, Art and his daughter Mary, his nephew Wayne and two of his children had a hard time holding hands around the trunk of one of the trees that had been only a small seedling in 1858.

Adaline had been here several years before soldiers were stationed not far from their home, forts were built and Indian scares were common. When the country was settled up prairie schooners were numerous. For miles you could see these covered wagons coming, nearly always from the east “bringing civilization” she used to say.

Many settlers passed through the Fowler home including John Allen who lived with them in 1859, and was one of the first settlers of Triumph (now part of Trimont).

Chapter Four

Adaline and Holmes were the parents of five children who lived to adulthood: Francis, Charles, Abbie, Mary, and George the youngest. As there was no school in the area, Adaline taught her three oldest Mildred to write using copies of school book pages sent by an uncle in the East. When the pages were filled they were returned to him, making the Fowler children the first students of a correspondence school in the county, and perhaps in the state.

Adaline enjoyed her first frame house, built in the 1870s--a tiny two-story house with a loft for the children. George loved to ride on his big brother Charlie’s back as they went up the ladder to sleep in the loft. With later additions, the house took the shape of the simple salt box, typical of New England. The house stood more than 100 years, weathered but intact with its original doors and windows.

Holmes was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and the Grange. He was a
Republican and had been an officer in the local party. The Governor of Minnesota, Henry H. Sibley appointed Holmes Fowler and others as the first county commissioners. They divided the county into the townships you now see on maps.

Eventually, all of Holmes and Adaline’s daughters taught school. A schoolhouse was built on the farm in the 1880s, a little east of the house. Sometimes teachers stayed with the Fowler family. You can still see the hand pump in the meadow marking where the schoolhouse stood. School children used to play in a hollow where a settler had once had a dugout for a home. The creek enticed them during recess, and they had a grape vine swine over the creek. In winter they slide down the bank onto the frozen creek. It was very hard to go back into the schoolhouse after noon or recess.

The farmhouse had often been used as a church. And the Horicon church stands on the Fowlers' property. The family was deeply respected, and their story is important in the history of Martin County.

Holmes Fowler died in 1904, and was buried not in the Horicon cemetery on the farm, but in Lakeside Cemetery at Fairmont.

Adaline had received mail addressed first to Winnebago City, then Chain Lakes via Winnebago, then Fairmont, Waverly, Westford, Horicon, and once again Fairmont, though she always lived in the same place for over 55 years.

Adaline had a greater opportunity for kindly deeds than the average person. She had cared for the sick, and been at the birth of many little children. She comforted many people who were longing for home and friends. She shared what she had to supply the needs of others. Her life had seen much of sorrow and much of joy, but she would tell you that she had never been sorry that she had spent her life in the west.

After President Johnson proclaimed Memorial Day a national holiday, Adaline started the tradition of having the yearly Fowler picnics on that day, by Sisseton Lake. Six generations have continued the tradition of gathering at the Salvania Park shelter house at noon on each Memorial Day. Remember, it is up to each of YOU to continue the tradition!

Son George and his wife Emma (Schoeppech) lived with Adenine in her home until her death on Memorial Day, 1921.

Chapter Five

George, Emma, and their children continued living on the Fowler farm. Before marrying, George had tried sheepherding in Wyoming, and drove stagecoach in Yellowstone. He had chauffeured school teachers from New York around the park in 1899. Emma was raised on a farm south of Fairmont, with her sisters Louise, Ida, and Hattie, and her brothers William, Johann, and Lewis.

George and Emma's children were Esther, Charles, Osmer, Clarice, Mary, Mildred, Richard (Chuck), George (Art), and Laurence. George enjoyed farming, working with his animals, and fishing. Emma was often barefoot as she tended her garden and cared for her family.

The loft in the old house was split into two un-insulated rooms, one for girls and one for the boys. There was warmth from the corn cob stove in the kitchen, and the heating stove in the living room. For years there were two favorite pictures in the living room--black and white stallions, and the big picture of the little boy and girl. (If you want to see the picture of the stallions, Charles Bloomquist has it.)

A doorpost in the living room recorded the heights of George and Emma's grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Visiting children always played with the black board in the corner of Emma's kitchen. (Mary Catherine has the board.) Nearby stood a table filled with flowering plants. The table is in the Heritage Acres farmhouse, at Fairmont. The cowslips still grow in the pasture. Laurence brought a bouquet of them to his mother each spring. After her death, he took cowslips to his sister Clarice each year.

There was a three-generation joke about when the basement steps would be improved they never were.

Chapter Six

Emma and George had twenty-nine grandchildren. Through the years those living away came to the farm when they could; most lived in Martin Count, or very near by. In 1952 they had their 50th anniversary. Shortly after, when George died, Grandma Fowler continued working in her garden, visiting with her large family, and living by her son Art, his wife Ethel and their children Mary and Jim. Grandma Fowler, as several generation knew Emma, died in 1974. At that time there were 78 great-grandchildren, and 15 great great grandchildren. By 1993 there were 90 great grandchildren and untold numbers of great great grandchildren

On September 8, 2007 the Fowlers gathered at the old farm for a picnic to celebrate the 150 years the Fowler family has lived on the same site in Martin Count, Minnesota. It is up to the well over 150 descendants of Holmes and Adaline to continue this story...