The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-10-19
rELLowsnIP OF THE rowLIsns-
A n .union or One OF the Oldest. Wealth
ies+ and Most PROMINENT Families
of Lyon County.
Holm Fow,sr =. I'd over Fifty Of HIS III
rect Descart.. Nats Meet and Have

rect Deseanfs. Nnts Meet and Have
Good Old Time.
Saturday will be Ioi'g remembered by
the FowIers and their m my relations as
the celebration of a CRANE famsiY reun-
ion. twenty-five years h passed
since the father and mother al d eleven
children were together. 1t " rs me
pleasure Of NEWS reporter TO be 'reS-
emf to-day ut the old homestead adjo. q
ing Emporia ON the east, and there see
the venerable John Fowler, now eighty
three years old and bis good wife, only
ten years his junior, surrounded by their
children, their childrens' children and
their Children. numbering in all over
fifty. but constituting only about one
half of the entire number of descendants.
1t was q happy time. The day was
spent IN renewing the old kinship, in
talking about the days gone by, in
laughing over the many funny incidents
taking of the great family dinner-for
six times were the loaded tables re-
plenished and we almost think that
notwithstanding the boanties of the
feast, the first who sat down must have
been nearly ready for another meal
when the last rose from the table. The
Fowlers are plain folk, but are sub
stantial, Industrious and well-to-do, live
happily and seem TO rejoice in the stand
ard qualities they possess.
Old John Fowler, as he is respectfully
called, was born in December, 1899 only
five days after the death of the first
president of these United States. His
wife, formerly Millie Glass, was born
in the same state, North Carolina, in
1909. They were married in 1925. 1t
surely must have been love match. for
they were as poor as religious mice
and the bird of job were reputed to
expert with the bow and unerring as u
marksman. Tradition does not say that
he had jack knife, but at any rate he
carved out his own furniture and even
had to make his own cooking utensils,
and he and his faithful helpmeet began
the foundation of their fortune. In 1882
they emigrated TO Morgan county, In
diana Here all their children, save
one, were born, sixteen in all, namely,
Harvey, Elvis, William, Levi, Doris,
Eli, Irnton, Ruffln, Alison, Gusta, (the
only Jayhawker), Melinda, the wife of
Rev. Sol Brown; Sally, now Mrs. Vim.
McCoin, of Ottawa; Nancy, now wife of
James Cheshire, of WyandOtte,
and Lethe, wife of VIM. Stack.
alcO of Wyandotte; frankie Ann,
late Mrs. GreasoD, and Louisa, late
wife of John White. OF these sixteen
all are now living except the last Two,
and of the others all but the last three
were at the reunion to-day. The eldest
child is Mrs. Sally McCoin, who is now
81. The next is Harvey, who is SO, and
whose grand children were present and
enjoyed the cake, pie and good things
as well as those of the first generation.
The youngest descendant present was
Harry Dale, the seven weeks old son of
c. A. Dale ana the great grandchIld of
John Fowler.
To go back to 1855 we find Mr.. Fow-
Ter, with his wife and fifteen children.
struggling along in Indiana, and
realizing the necessity of 60
ing to the west where land
was cheap and "plenly of it, in order
to place their children in way to be
prosperous and independent. SO moth
ing daunting John sold the mills he had
managed and every item of his proper
ty that he could not take with him. He
the results of his thirty years
of labor into about $4,000 in gold and
with his family and his effects behind
six yoke of oxen started for the
the promised land, the territory of Kan
sas. After many hardships, long Jour-
ney which well nigh consumed the
strength of the oxen and almost exhaust
ed the pioneers. they landed, so to speak
on the banks of the Cottonwood, three
miles southeast OF Emporia, on the 18th
day of September 1855, ON the quarter
section which now constitutes part of
the John Fowler farm.
AS the boys have grown up, most of them
have invested in farms near Emporia
and now acre after acre is titled by the
FOwlers, who are numbered among our
best and most successful farmers. Eight
of the male children now live in Lyon
county, the other two. EIvis and Will
liam, are now prosperous citizens of
Morgan county, Indiana, and are here at
present on visit They will go back
to Indiana in few days, and will have
wonderous tales 10 tell of the products
of this wonderful state. To corroborate
their stories William will take with
him few ears of corn from the ground
which his father planted in this grain
for twenty-five years. the ears mCasur-
ing as much as twelve and thirteen
inches in length Eivis, too. will have
strange things to tell upon his return,
but he will probably forget 10 mention
to his wife the jealousy of the handsome
young lady, and wonder himself what
he was thinking about when he met his
aunts. his brothers and sisters, but miss
cd the young lady. We wouldn't think
| that of Elvis if we had not been told by
such good authority.
Speaking about the products of the
s,iiI the Fowlers till, Harvey, we under
stand, raises his own tobacco, and his
brothers good naturally say almost
raises everybody out OF the neigh
hood when he smokes the home grown
weed. They tell story in this connec-
tinn about Harvey and his tobacco at the
Whitewater convention lately, where he
was a delegate, but as the sham trial
held that day at the reunion failed
to convict Harvey of any mlsdc-
meanor, the writer does not propose
to let the boys give their eldest brother
dencc
Five of the children of old MIR Fow-
Ter served through the entire war. John
Fowler was the postmaster at Columbia,
sn Indian trading post, which existed in
the early days near what's now Oolumbia
ford, and two miles southeast of where
Emporis soon after set her stakes and
took the spots out OF the rising city Of
Columbia.
Among the "reminiscences, the one
about dads mail was laughed over again
1t seems that in '62 when H. w. FIck
was postmaster of Emporia, John SEN
his daughter Nancy up to the postoffics
for his mail. She went To the office, bu
, found such a crowd of men about th.
, delivery window, which is not unusua
at such places, that she was unable L
e call for her fathers paper, and cam,
$ home empty handed. On entering tn
house. Gusta, the youngest, holleret