The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1891-12-04
A SIS, 100000 EDUCATION.



gresham Fowicr's Cost Ills F,miiv.
III bet there isn't man in the world
whose education cost as much as Con-
gresham Sam Fowlers did," said ma.
tive of Sussex county, n. j., where Con-
gresham Fowler was born.
"Old Colonel Sam Fowler. the Con-
Gressmans father, spent fortune in
trying to get into Congress from the Or.
ange county IN. W district, and | sup
pose that was the greatest campaign
ever known in the State. Colonel Sam
lived in his magnificent mansion in Port
Jervis then, and for weeks he did his
electioneering by special railroad trains.
with big company of dashing military
as an escort and fiat car on which was
carried a cannon. which was fired at in.
tervals all along the route. This was 3j
years ago, and that same cannon is in
Milford, Pike county, to-day where its
use is permitted only for celebrating
Democratic victories and saluting the
advent Of the Fourth of July, those being
the conditions on which Colonel Fowler
presented it to number of Pike county
citizens. The Republicans of Milford
have frequently tried to get the old cam
non to celebrate victories of their party,
but it has always been defended against
such use by its vigilant Democratic Gus
todians.
THAT memorable Congressional cam
paign resulted in the beginning Of Colonel
Sam Fowler's financial ruin When he
died, early during the war, he left a great
deal OF property in Orange and Sussex
counties, but it was loaded with encum-
brances and involved in litigation, some
OF which was only recently settled. In
the property that he left was a farm in
Franklin, Sussex county, near the Frank
lin furnace zinc mine, which was then
regarded rs the greatest zinc mine in the
country. Sam Fowler left widow and
a son and daughter. The son was young
Sam, and he wanted college education,
which the family were not then able
to give him. About that time shrewd
old Moses Taylor, of New York, got the
idea that there might be some money in
zinc mines up Franklin way, and he took
n couple of expert minerulogists up there
one day and told them to look the coun-
try over and tell him what they thought
about it. After they had prospected for
few days they told Taylor that if hc
could buy a certain buckwheat field on the
Fowler farm they were positive he would
never be sorry. The matter was kept
very quiet, and soon afterward TAYLOR
surprised the Fowler heirs by making
them an offer for their farm The offer
was only very few thousand dollars,
but the family needed money, and if they
sold the land young Sam could receive
the education he wanted. SO the sale
was made.
1T was not long before zinc mine was
opened in the field, before the richness of
which the value of every other zinc mine
in the world became comparatively
small. The Buckwheat mine at Frank
lin is famous as the most enormous
deposit of zinc yet discovered Between
$l5,OO0O0O and 10000, 900 has been
taken from it. and its wealth may be
said to have been hardly disturbed. It's
the easiest and most economical mine to
work of all known zinc mines. Ere.
quently single blast will throw down
thousand tons Of ore, and half dozen
miners in the wonderful Buckwhcat
mine can do work which it requires
20 men to do in any other mine. 1t ii
worth dozen gold mines, and it was the
price Of young Sam Fowler's education.