San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOSEPH MINER FOWLER
Among the honored pioneers of San
Joaquin County was the late Joseph Miner Fowler, who for many years was
actively associated with the development of this portion of the state, and was
always noted for patriotism and public spirit, industry and integrity. He was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, July
25, 1825, his parents being Royal and Harriet (Smith) Fowler, the former a
native of Massachusetts, and the latter of Connecticut. Royal Fowler was a farmer by occupation and a
contractor and builder as well. He was
one of the builders of the Erie Canal and one of the contractors on the Boston
and Albany railroad; he died in Westfield, Massachusetts, August 27, 1875, at
the age of eighty-six years. In tracing
the genealogy of the Fowler family we find that they are of Scotch
descent. They emigrated
first to England, where they were the inventors of the first steam plow used in
England, thence came to America.
Joseph M. was reared on a farm and
remained at home until he was about eighteen years of age, when he went into a
machine shop as an apprentice, remaining three years, at the expiration of
which time he took a contract for building power and hand planers. After finishing this contract he joined a
company for California. They sailed from
New York February 28, 1849, on the schooner John Castner,
which was chartered by a party of eighty and took them to Point Isabel, about
five miles from the Rio Grande River.
There they took passage on a Government steamer for Port Brown and Hamargo, landing on Mexican soil; and there they were
delayed a week by cholera, which took the lives of two men. Fifteen of the party, including Mr. Fowler,
procured riding mules and left for Monterey, Mexico. They went by El Paso and Saltillo, camped on
the field of Buena Vista, following General Taylor’s line as far as it
extended, and through Chihuahua and Tucson, the eighty-mile desert, down the
Gila River to the Colorado River, across the Colorado Desert. Here they had trouble with the Indians, who
threatened them with destruction. At
that time they were waiting for a pack-train of provisions, and had been out of
food for two days. On several occasions
on the journey they were without food from three to five days at a time. Their route from Chihuahua though was without
a road or guide. From Los Angeles they
took the coast route for San Juan, where they spent the Fourth of July. They arrived at the mines at Jamestown on
July 8, 1849. There they spent about two
months in the mines; then mined in other places, following that occupation for
several years until 1856. In the
meantime Mr. Fowler’s brother, William, had taken up land and he helped him
harvest during the harvest season. He
was very successful in mining. In 1856
he returned east via Panama, but in the fall of the same year returned to
California to work on the ranch of his brother.
In August, 1857, Mr. Fowler went
east and was married to Miss Eliza Brumley, a native
of Massachusetts. In the spring of 1858
he returned via the Isthmus, bringing his wife and from that date to the day of
his death he resided on his ranch in San Joaquin County. In 1863 he purchased his brother’s
interest. He owned a section of land
located about twelve miles from Stockton on the Davis Road; he also owned 1440
acres situated about five miles east of Merced.
He was engaged in a general farming business and was a director of the
Granger’s store in Lodi and also of the Lodi Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Fowler were the parents of
twelve children: George B. deceased;
Royal R. resides in Stockton; Joseph Warren died at the age of fifty-three;
Charles E. died when nine years old; Ellen L. Mrs. T. A. Jordan, died at the
age of fifty-two; Mary E. Mrs. Wilson H. Thompson, died in 1900, aged thirty
years; Myrtle Mrs. E. E. Thompson, resides in Stockton; Hattie died at the age
of three years; Addie Mrs. D. K. Woods, resides at Kingdon;
Ernest, the youngest, is a salesman for the Harris Manufacturing Company at
Stockton; two children died in infancy.
Mr. Fowler was a member of the Lodi Grange and the Pioneer Society. He passed away in 1896 at the age of
seventy-three years and his wife was sixty-eight when she died in 1906.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
467-468. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases