The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-30
A LONG BUSINESS CAREER
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE ED
 WARD s. FOWLER.

Learning the Bookbinding rrade-In .
 ships' Supplies House at New London
 Conductor on the Shore Line-Ticket
 Agent at New HAven-Reaidence in Cin-
 cinnnti-Ths Return to New Haven and
 tho Last Years of His Business Life .
 Conductor on tho shore Line.
 Ex-Conductor Edward 8. Fowler. who was we'll known in this city. and whose death last Friday night at Guilford, was chronicled in Saturday mornings issue of this paper. left manuscript in the form of letter to his son Ed- ward, which will be of great local in- terest to many of his friends and &C., quaintancea The letter Is written in answer to q request of his son. that he furnish him data which would enable him to answer the inquiries of old friends and acquaintances of his fa- ther's.
 In the beginning of the letter he speaks of a party which was given when he
  kiss, Hall and Platt, somewhere about 1s3s. to celebrate the twenty-first birth day of D. A. Prescott, jr. One of the guests at the party was the late Ezek- iel H. Trowbridge
 The letter proceeds as follows:
 'In my earliest advent in New Ha- ven in 1893, on some public days the boys were in the habit of going out to play ball on Sodom hill. where Mir. Hotchkiss had rope walk which was located, as remember, nearly oppo- site where the N. r.. N. H.. & H. R. R. engine house now stands on the blum near Putnam street and was in work ing order in those days. The time of which I am now writing was in the spring and summer of '33, while was living with A. H. Maltby, who kept the College book store. went to learn the book-binder's trade and my home was with MT. Maltby in the Lyon resi- dence, which was Mrs. Maltby's fathers, who was, believe, quite a wealthy man, and his business was a timer and stove dealer in his own building next the Maltby residence, which was next west of where Besse, Besse, & Co. now are. The Maltby residence was taken down to make room for the s9 cents store.
 "T remained with the Maltby's until had acquired a perfect knowledge of making the paste and glue in the bin dery. After six months time I left the Maltby,s and went home to Guilford. A few weeks after, Jasper Griffing, Guilforder who was a bookkeeper for Noble Trowbridge, came home for little recreation, and meeting me in- quired if would like to go to New Haven again. If I would he thought MT. Towner would like me to come into his store in the Dwight building, now the Boardman. Soon after MT. Grif- fing returned to New Haven, was sum- moned over to MT. Towner's and we remained in the Dwight building until the Adelphi was completed, which I think was in the spring of '35. Then we crossed the old sDitch," as the old Northampton canal was called, and oc- cuIicd the room now used as the -Wes- tern Union Telegraph office. At the time of removal MT. Towner took as a partner the late Edward A. Mitchell, subsequently postmaster of New Haven and very wealthy citizen. In addi- tion to our store opening on Chapel street we occupied a large store room with an entrance on Union street. We had quite trade with the merchants at Bristol Basin, notably with the Whit ing, Hawley and Adna firm. The last named was the house business mar, while the former ran the boats and was jolly good fellow.
 Another firm was the Welchs'. think the firm name might have been H. M. Welch & Co. H. M. Welch was later mayor, and president of the First National bank. Two younger brothers of H. M. ran the canal boats in their business at B. Basin. They were very bright, smart business fellows"
 MT. Fowler here narrated several oth- CT business incidents of a minor nature and proceeding gave a succinct account of a raid made by the New Haven off, cers on the old Liberia hotel, kept by one King Lamson, noted colored man of his time, and how some of New Ha- ven's then 400 were captured and taken to the lock up, where they speedily were bailed out.
 T remained with Towner & Co. up to May, 1886. having previously met the late p. B. Hall on the street and told him that expected to leave Towner < Co. at that time. As the time ap- preached that I was to leave met MT. Hall again, who said T have a place for you" went there in the early part of May, 'S6. and remained until Febru- ary, 40 and had a severe attack of bilious fever. The result was that I was not fitted for really any work for a year or two. went back to the store but could not stand even the work in the dry goods department. went home again and went down to Sachems Head with my father and mother, spent the summer there when we moved up in the fall. w. w. Baldwin wanted me in his store and spent the winter there when Russell Clark of North Branford en- gagged me to manage his store-the old Hale store next to the Methodist church in Guilford. That think was in the spring of Al. I kept on there until the spring of '4S, having been married octo. | 1T, AZ. I think in the spring of ,43 Fl hired the Johnson store in the corner where B. Q. Bishops house now stands, built my house and store I think in | ''l5. in May. '4S, having become mixed | up with Guilford Manufacturine com Ynanv4 J S Norton T.r,.lr Vu,orires Y ,. .Z v |