"Moses Fowler was born on a farm near Circleville, Ohio, April 3, 1815. His father was a veteran of the Revolution and a Virginian by birth. Moses remained on the farm until 16, then learned the trade of a tanner. Two years at this and he accepted a clerkship in a mercantile store at Adelphia.
In 1839 he came to this city with John Purdue and they formed a partnership in the dry goods business. After five years he engaged in the same business alone. His next business venture was to become a partner with W. F. Reynolds and Robert Stockwell in the wholesale grocery trade. This partnership ended his mercantile pursuits.
His banking career began with the organization of the old State Bank here, of which he was made president. Its business was closed out in 1865 and he then founded the National State bank. In 1885 the charter of this bank expired and the Fowler National bank was organized. His business life was very successful and he accumulated a fortune of several million dollars. He has large holding of bonds, stocks and securities and has an immense landed estate, his realty in Benton County alone being worth almost a million. As a financier he had no peer in Lafayette.
In 1844, Mr. Fowler was married to Miss Eliza Hawkins, a sister of Mrs. Adams Earl, and Mrs. Dr. Vanderbilt, and who survives him. The result of this marriage was three children--Mrs. Fred S. Chase, since deceased; Mrs. Charles H. Duhme, of Cincinnati; and Mr. James M. Fowler, of this city.
Mr. Fowler was a Republican in politics and served one term in the city council. Beyond that he did not seek political preferment. He was connected with the Second Presbyterian church and was one of the trustees of Wabash College. He was also a member of the Lincoln club.
Mr. Fowler's name needs no mention to perpetuate it. The thriving little city in Benton County, the prosperous national bank of this city and the costly granite shaft in Springvale Cemetery will do that much more thoroughly than the press.
There were many things about Mr. Fowler's character to admire and he had many friends not only here but the country over. In point of wealth and influence he was the most important personage in the city and his death will be greatly felt. The funeral arrangements will be made today.
[Source: Obituary, Lafayette Morning Journal, August 21, 1889]
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MOSES FOWLER - Indiana has produced few men of more ability than the subject of this sketch, and she can boast of no son whose business career has been more honorable, successful and brilliant. Throughout the Wabash Valley his name is the synonym of business honor and financial success, and we know of no life more full of suggestion and encouragement to the young. His parents, Samuel and Mary (Rogers) Fowler, were of the old Revolutionary stock, and were born and reared in Virginia, inheriting the patriotic pride of that grand old commonwealth. The father was a soldier of the Revolution, and both parents removed to Ohio before the birth of their son. Moses was born on a farm near Circleville, in Pickaway County, Ohio, April 30, 1815. He remained on the farm till about sixteen years of age, assisting his father in summer and attending school in winter, when he went to Circleville to learn the tanning trade with James Bell, who was the proprietor of a large tannery. Mr. Bell was so impressed by the energy, industry and business qualities of the young man, that after he had been in his employ two years, he offered him a partnership. This young Fowler declined, preferring a clerkship which was offered him in a dry goods store at Adelphi, Ross County. Here he remained about three years, mastering the business and saving some money. In the spring of 1839 Mr. Fowler, in company with John Purdue, removed to LaFayette, Indiana, where they started a dry goods store of their own. Mr. Fowler's entire capital at this time was only $700, and part of that was borrowed. This partnership lasted about five years, during which time both men laid the foundations of their subsequent character and influence. At the termination of this partnership Mr. Fowler embarked in a similar business on his own account, in his own room, on what is now the corner of Main and Second streets, in the same city. So great was his success that at the end of about half a dozen years he was enabled to close out his store and to become an equal partner with Mr. William F. Reynolds and Mr. Robert Stockwell, under the firm name of Reynolds, Fowler & Stockwell, in the wholesale grocery trade, which then required no little capital for its successful prosecution. Mr. Fowler was at all times the active business man of this great house, for the most part buying the goods and managing the business. For seven years they carried on one of the largest and most successful trades in this line in Indiana. Although LaFayette was at that time but a small village, yet being the terminus of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and the head of navigation on the Wabash River, their trade was immense, extending over a radius of more than a hundred miles. The magnitude of the business may be judged by the fact that they frequently chartered a fleet of steamboats to bring their stock of Southern merchandise, sugar, coffee, molasses, etc., from New Orleans to La Fayette. At that time the Wabash to LaFayette was navigable for large first-class steamers, and it was not an infrequent thing to see six or eight of these at one time unloading their merchandise at that point. The profits of their business were commensurate with its magnitude, and with the winding up of this partnership Mr. Fowler's mercantile career substantially ended. But during these years he was being gradually prepared for another career in a higher field, requiring the possession of larger and more varied powers. Two years after his arrival at La Fayette, Mr. Fowler was made a director of the old Indiana State Bank, which position he held until the bank was wound up. Afterward, on the organization of the Bank of the State, Hon. Hugh McCullough, who had general supervision over all of its branches, selected Mr. Fowler to organize the branch at LaFayette, with a capital of $300,000. The result was that the stock was speedily taken, and Mr. Fowler was made president of the La Fayette branch. Throughout the eight years during which this bank existed, Mr. Fowler was the delegate from the La Fayette branch to the general Bank Board, which held its sessions at Indianapolis, and which had supervisory powers over all the branch banks. The success of the LaFayette branch was unparalleled in Tippecanoe County, and, with one exception, it proved to be the strongest branch in the State. It was finally wound up, to the great profit and the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Subsequently, in 1865, Mr. Fowler obtained a charter from the general Government, and organized the National State Bank of LaFayette, with a capital of $600,000, of which he was made president. The success of this bank was even greater than that which had attended the Bank of the State. During its existence it was an honor and a blessing to the community, and at the same time a source of large gains to its stockholders. Its charter expired January, 1885, and it is now substantially wound up. Mr. Fowler, at the termination of this enterprise, had been engaged in banking in one form or another, for about thirty years, and he thought it a seasonable opportunity to retire from the business. When this wish became known, all of his old stockholders protested, and insisted most earnestly that he should organize a new bank. He finally consented to do so, chiefly to gratify his friends, and especially his faithful and accomplished cashier, Mr. Brown Brockenbrough. In the hopes of reducing his business he organized "The Fowler National Bank," of La Fayette, a small national bank of only $100,000 capital, the stock of which is chiefly owned by himself. But instead of reducing his business he had, in reality, increased it. His honorable and successful fame as a banker was in everybody's mouth. Business flowed in to it from all quarters. No one cared what stock the bank possessed. Mr. Fowler managed it, and he was behind it, and that was enough. The deposits soon ran up to $1,000,000, which is, perhaps, a fair average of its present deposits; and which is equal to the aggregate deposits of all the other National Banks in the city. The wonderful success of this bank has attracted the attention of financiers all over the country. They regard its prosperity as phenomenal, and point to its large and increasing business as the highest possible testimonial to the great abilities and exalted virtues of its president. Mr. Fowler justly feels proud of an institution which is a constant reminder of the universal confidence and esteem in which he is held by the people of his county. Should he leave no other monument than the recollection of his career as a banker in La Fayette, it will be a monument of which the most distinguished citizen might feel justly proud, and one which will be more enduring than marble. But there was another business enterprise in which Mr. Fowler engaged, and which was attended with the usual success. In 1861 he organized the firm of Culbertson, Blair & Co., of Chicago, of which he became a member. They bought a large packinghouse and engaged, on a mammoth scale, in the slaughter of hogs and cattle. This house, while it existed, was next to the largest establishment of the kind in that great stock market of the West. At the end of eight years Mr. Fowler retired from the business, selling out his interest in the concern for $250,000. His enterprise now took a new direction. Without neglecting his bank and other interests, he began, in connection with Adams Earl, Esq., to buy large tracts of unimproved lands in Benton County, with a view to going into the cattle business, and of ultimately reducing the lands to cultivation. After they had purchased about 12,000 acres of these lands (Mr. Fowler preferring to be the sole manager of his own interest) they were, by mutual consent, divided between them. Mr. Fowler continued to buy lands in this county until he owned, in the very heart of it, in his own right and in one body, 20,000 acres of prairie lands, which for beauty of location and richness and fertility of soil, are not excelled by any lands in the world. We are credibly informed that there is not a single acre of waste land in the whole 20,000 acres. The next move was to build a railroad, which passing through these lands, should connect by the shortest possible route the great cities of Cincinnati and Chicago, his lands being but 100 miles southeast of the latter city. He was not altogether without railroad experience, having for many years been a director in the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & LaFayette Railroad Company. This knowledge was now turned to good account. He in connection with two other gentlemen organized a railroad company and constructed the Cincinnati, LaFayette & Chicago Railroad, since known as the Kankakee or Short Line, being the most important link in the "Big Four" connection between Cincinnati and Chicago.
The next step was to move the county seat from Oxford to the town of Fowler, situated on this important line of railroad, and which was in the center of the county. This was speedily effected, Mr. Fowler donating $40,000 to Benton County for courthouse purposes, besides giving the county ample grounds for its public buildings. Under his transforming touch, Benton County, which, when he entered it, was sparsely settled and was comparatively unimproved, has been made to bloom and blossom as the rose. Eight years ago another writer in speaking of Mr. Fowler's work in Benton County, said: "Benton County, in its marvelous development, is a monument to his enterprise, more enduring than marble. The impulse of his wonderful energy, liberality, and capacity, has been felt in every pulsation of its healthful blood. From an isolated county, rich in undeveloped resources, with no railroads, and with but a single town, it has grown within seven years to a well-earned recognition among the best counties of Indiana, and now has two lines of railway and eleven flourishing towns. This is Mr. Fowler's work, and it will keep his memory green." This was a beautiful tribute deservedly bestowed, but it conveys no just idea of the high development since attained by that county. But to return to Mr. Fowler's business operations. In addition to this extensive body of land in the center of the county, he owns large tracts bordering on the Warren County and the Illinois State lines, and is also the owner of one of the best farms in White County. His entire landed interests in Benton and White counties alone aggregate about 25,000 acres, which, we are assured by competent judges, are, at a low estimate, of the average value of $50 per acre. For ten years he has, in connection with Mr. William S. Van Natta, the business manager of his lands in Benton County, been engaged in the cattle business. During all that time they have kept from one to two thousand head of cattle, and have been large shippers to Chicago and the East. In addition to the regular cattle trade, they have been large importers of fine stock, and have done much to improve the character of the stock throughout the country. They have a herd of between four and five hundred of the finest thorough-bred Herefords in the United States. They have repeatedly taken the grand sweepstakes over all breeds at the Illinois State Fairs, and have carried off innumerable prizes at other stock shows. All of Mr. Fowler's lands are enclosed, and are in a high state of cultivation. Those not used for grazing purposes are in grain. He has about fifty tenants, who are under the supervision of his efficient manager, Mr. Van Natta. He cultivates about 10,000 acres each year in corn and oats, the greater proportion being in corn. His pasture and meadows produce as fine and luxuriant blue grass as can be grown on the best of the far famed lands of Kentucky. He has expended large sums of money in tiling these lands, and we are informed that within about two years all of his lands will have been thoroughly tiled, and that he will, by that time, have 20,000 acres in grain. These lands are now the source of a great and growing income, and it is believed that within a very few years they will yield a net income of five per cent, on their cash value. When farming is not made profitable, it is because a master hand is not in authority. It is hardly necessary to add that Mr. Fowler is one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest man in Indiana.
In 1844 Mr. Fowler was married to Miss Eliza Hawkins, a sister of Mrs. Adams Earl. They had three children, two daughters and a son. The daughters were educated with the utmost care, attending the best schools in the East, and possessed every grace and accomplishment of person and character. The elder, Miss Annis, was married to Fred. S. Chase (eldest son of H. W. Chase, Esq., of this city), a Yale College graduate and a rising young attorney of LaFayette, who is at present a member of the law firm of Wallace, Baird & Chase. This daughter died about three years ago, leaving a treasury of precious memories to her friends, and a son whom she named Fowler in honor of her father. The other daughter, Miss Ophelia, remains at home, the joy and comfort of her father in his declining years. The son, James, who is married, has a lovely family, and is associated with his father in the bank. In politics Mr. Fowler was formerly a Whig. Since the organization of the Republican party he has been a staunch Republican. During the war he aided mightily by his means and great influence in upholding the hands of the Government. Too old to go into the army himself, he sent a substitute for three years. Governor Morton found in him a true friend and a safe counselor. While in no sense a politician, (having never been a candidate for office in his life, but having repeatedly refused to be a candidate), he has always taken a lively interest in public affairs and has always been an important factor in each campaign. He has, from early manhood, been a member of the Second Presbyterian church of La Fayette, and was for nearly thirty years one of its trustees. He has also been a trustee of Wabash College almost continuously for about twenty-five years, and has always been one of its staunchest friends and supporters. When the National State Bank of La Fayette was organized, Mr. Fowler contributing $2,000, with the assistance of Mr. Alex. Wilson and other friends in La Fayette raised a fund of $10,000, with which stock in this bank was purchased and donated to Wabash College, from which the institution has already realized over $80,000. As this record abundantly discloses, Mr. Fowler is pre-eminently a self-made man. Beginning on nothing and with a very meager education, he has, by the force of his character, and by the habitual practice of those robust virtues—honesty, industry, courage, perseverance, economy, sobriety, patience, energy —and by the preservation of his self-control and the observance of a courteous manner under all circumstances, attained to the utmost summit of business success, and to a position of exalted power and influence. A remarkable fact in the career of this remarkable man is that he never gave a mortgage in his life except in one or two instances to secure a part of the purchase money for lands which he had bought, and then the mortgage was discharged before the maturity of the notes. Another noteworthy fact is that he never had but two law suits in his life, and in each of those cases he was made defendant, and in both instances he was substantially vindicated by the judgment of the court. All this is in striking contrast with that great multitude of men who do business on borrowed capital, and who, if they are not anxious, are often compelled, to mortgage their lands for all that they are worth. This one fact throws a flood of light upon Mr. Fowler's business life, and shows as nothing else could, how genuine and substantial it has been, and how well-founded is the universal confidence which the public repose in him. Not only has he been successful in the acquisition of property, but he has manifested a commendable purpose in the use of it. Every movement of public enterprise or private benevolence finds in him a ready assistant. He enjoys to an enviable degree the esteem of his fellow-citizens of all classes, not only for his successful business career, but for the possession of a warm heart, a genial and sympathetic nature, and an irreproachable public and private life. Though nearly seventy-three years of age, he is remarkably well-preserved, and his fresh, ruddy complexion, his elastic step, the strong light from his eye, his cheerful, equable temper and his erect, manly form, all indicate that his was a well spent youth, and that he will live to a green old age. The silver hairs add a noble beauty and dignity to his appearance, scarcely suggesting in his case the approach of age. Spending the business hours of each day at the bank, he manages his vast interest without noise or friction and with the grace and ease of a consummate general. Here he is always accessible to the humblest citizen, many of whom go to him daily for assistance or advice. We have often thought as we witnessed these interviews and watched his incomings and outgoings that he was not only a truly great man but also a truly good one.
[Source: Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, The Lewis Publishing Company]
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Moses Fowler came to Lafayette in 1839 and engaged in a number of business pursuits which made him very wealthy. At his death in 1889, Fowler had accumulated a fortune of several million dollars. Moses Fowler and his wife Eliza were donors to various community interests including Purdue University. Eliza Fowler Hall (razed) at Purdue University was named in honor of Eliza Fowler. Also the Moses Fowler House is located on the corner of Ninth and South Streets and before 2015, served as the Tippecanoe County Historical Museum was the headquarters for the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
In 1839 he came to this city with John Purdue and they formed a partnership in the dry goods business. After five years he engaged in the same business alone. His next business venture was to become a partner with W. F. Reynolds and Robert Stockwell in the wholesale grocery trade. This partnership ended his mercantile pursuits.
His banking career began with the organization of the old State Bank here, of which he was made president. Its business was closed out in 1865 and he then founded the National State bank. In 1885 the charter of this bank expired and the Fowler National bank was organized. His business life was very successful and he accumulated a fortune of several million dollars. He has large holding of bonds, stocks and securities and has an immense landed estate, his realty in Benton County alone being worth almost a million. As a financier he had no peer in Lafayette.
In 1844, Mr. Fowler was married to Miss Eliza Hawkins, a sister of Mrs. Adams Earl, and Mrs. Dr. Vanderbilt, and who survives him. The result of this marriage was three children--Mrs. Fred S. Chase, since deceased; Mrs. Charles H. Duhme, of Cincinnati; and Mr. James M. Fowler, of this city.
Mr. Fowler was a Republican in politics and served one term in the city council. Beyond that he did not seek political preferment. He was connected with the Second Presbyterian church and was one of the trustees of Wabash College. He was also a member of the Lincoln club.
Mr. Fowler's name needs no mention to perpetuate it. The thriving little city in Benton County, the prosperous national bank of this city and the costly granite shaft in Springvale Cemetery will do that much more thoroughly than the press.
There were many things about Mr. Fowler's character to admire and he had many friends not only here but the country over. In point of wealth and influence he was the most important personage in the city and his death will be greatly felt. The funeral arrangements will be made today.
[Source: Obituary, Lafayette Morning Journal, August 21, 1889]
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MOSES FOWLER - Indiana has produced few men of more ability than the subject of this sketch, and she can boast of no son whose business career has been more honorable, successful and brilliant. Throughout the Wabash Valley his name is the synonym of business honor and financial success, and we know of no life more full of suggestion and encouragement to the young. His parents, Samuel and Mary (Rogers) Fowler, were of the old Revolutionary stock, and were born and reared in Virginia, inheriting the patriotic pride of that grand old commonwealth. The father was a soldier of the Revolution, and both parents removed to Ohio before the birth of their son. Moses was born on a farm near Circleville, in Pickaway County, Ohio, April 30, 1815. He remained on the farm till about sixteen years of age, assisting his father in summer and attending school in winter, when he went to Circleville to learn the tanning trade with James Bell, who was the proprietor of a large tannery. Mr. Bell was so impressed by the energy, industry and business qualities of the young man, that after he had been in his employ two years, he offered him a partnership. This young Fowler declined, preferring a clerkship which was offered him in a dry goods store at Adelphi, Ross County. Here he remained about three years, mastering the business and saving some money. In the spring of 1839 Mr. Fowler, in company with John Purdue, removed to LaFayette, Indiana, where they started a dry goods store of their own. Mr. Fowler's entire capital at this time was only $700, and part of that was borrowed. This partnership lasted about five years, during which time both men laid the foundations of their subsequent character and influence. At the termination of this partnership Mr. Fowler embarked in a similar business on his own account, in his own room, on what is now the corner of Main and Second streets, in the same city. So great was his success that at the end of about half a dozen years he was enabled to close out his store and to become an equal partner with Mr. William F. Reynolds and Mr. Robert Stockwell, under the firm name of Reynolds, Fowler & Stockwell, in the wholesale grocery trade, which then required no little capital for its successful prosecution. Mr. Fowler was at all times the active business man of this great house, for the most part buying the goods and managing the business. For seven years they carried on one of the largest and most successful trades in this line in Indiana. Although LaFayette was at that time but a small village, yet being the terminus of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and the head of navigation on the Wabash River, their trade was immense, extending over a radius of more than a hundred miles. The magnitude of the business may be judged by the fact that they frequently chartered a fleet of steamboats to bring their stock of Southern merchandise, sugar, coffee, molasses, etc., from New Orleans to La Fayette. At that time the Wabash to LaFayette was navigable for large first-class steamers, and it was not an infrequent thing to see six or eight of these at one time unloading their merchandise at that point. The profits of their business were commensurate with its magnitude, and with the winding up of this partnership Mr. Fowler's mercantile career substantially ended. But during these years he was being gradually prepared for another career in a higher field, requiring the possession of larger and more varied powers. Two years after his arrival at La Fayette, Mr. Fowler was made a director of the old Indiana State Bank, which position he held until the bank was wound up. Afterward, on the organization of the Bank of the State, Hon. Hugh McCullough, who had general supervision over all of its branches, selected Mr. Fowler to organize the branch at LaFayette, with a capital of $300,000. The result was that the stock was speedily taken, and Mr. Fowler was made president of the La Fayette branch. Throughout the eight years during which this bank existed, Mr. Fowler was the delegate from the La Fayette branch to the general Bank Board, which held its sessions at Indianapolis, and which had supervisory powers over all the branch banks. The success of the LaFayette branch was unparalleled in Tippecanoe County, and, with one exception, it proved to be the strongest branch in the State. It was finally wound up, to the great profit and the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Subsequently, in 1865, Mr. Fowler obtained a charter from the general Government, and organized the National State Bank of LaFayette, with a capital of $600,000, of which he was made president. The success of this bank was even greater than that which had attended the Bank of the State. During its existence it was an honor and a blessing to the community, and at the same time a source of large gains to its stockholders. Its charter expired January, 1885, and it is now substantially wound up. Mr. Fowler, at the termination of this enterprise, had been engaged in banking in one form or another, for about thirty years, and he thought it a seasonable opportunity to retire from the business. When this wish became known, all of his old stockholders protested, and insisted most earnestly that he should organize a new bank. He finally consented to do so, chiefly to gratify his friends, and especially his faithful and accomplished cashier, Mr. Brown Brockenbrough. In the hopes of reducing his business he organized "The Fowler National Bank," of La Fayette, a small national bank of only $100,000 capital, the stock of which is chiefly owned by himself. But instead of reducing his business he had, in reality, increased it. His honorable and successful fame as a banker was in everybody's mouth. Business flowed in to it from all quarters. No one cared what stock the bank possessed. Mr. Fowler managed it, and he was behind it, and that was enough. The deposits soon ran up to $1,000,000, which is, perhaps, a fair average of its present deposits; and which is equal to the aggregate deposits of all the other National Banks in the city. The wonderful success of this bank has attracted the attention of financiers all over the country. They regard its prosperity as phenomenal, and point to its large and increasing business as the highest possible testimonial to the great abilities and exalted virtues of its president. Mr. Fowler justly feels proud of an institution which is a constant reminder of the universal confidence and esteem in which he is held by the people of his county. Should he leave no other monument than the recollection of his career as a banker in La Fayette, it will be a monument of which the most distinguished citizen might feel justly proud, and one which will be more enduring than marble. But there was another business enterprise in which Mr. Fowler engaged, and which was attended with the usual success. In 1861 he organized the firm of Culbertson, Blair & Co., of Chicago, of which he became a member. They bought a large packinghouse and engaged, on a mammoth scale, in the slaughter of hogs and cattle. This house, while it existed, was next to the largest establishment of the kind in that great stock market of the West. At the end of eight years Mr. Fowler retired from the business, selling out his interest in the concern for $250,000. His enterprise now took a new direction. Without neglecting his bank and other interests, he began, in connection with Adams Earl, Esq., to buy large tracts of unimproved lands in Benton County, with a view to going into the cattle business, and of ultimately reducing the lands to cultivation. After they had purchased about 12,000 acres of these lands (Mr. Fowler preferring to be the sole manager of his own interest) they were, by mutual consent, divided between them. Mr. Fowler continued to buy lands in this county until he owned, in the very heart of it, in his own right and in one body, 20,000 acres of prairie lands, which for beauty of location and richness and fertility of soil, are not excelled by any lands in the world. We are credibly informed that there is not a single acre of waste land in the whole 20,000 acres. The next move was to build a railroad, which passing through these lands, should connect by the shortest possible route the great cities of Cincinnati and Chicago, his lands being but 100 miles southeast of the latter city. He was not altogether without railroad experience, having for many years been a director in the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & LaFayette Railroad Company. This knowledge was now turned to good account. He in connection with two other gentlemen organized a railroad company and constructed the Cincinnati, LaFayette & Chicago Railroad, since known as the Kankakee or Short Line, being the most important link in the "Big Four" connection between Cincinnati and Chicago.
The next step was to move the county seat from Oxford to the town of Fowler, situated on this important line of railroad, and which was in the center of the county. This was speedily effected, Mr. Fowler donating $40,000 to Benton County for courthouse purposes, besides giving the county ample grounds for its public buildings. Under his transforming touch, Benton County, which, when he entered it, was sparsely settled and was comparatively unimproved, has been made to bloom and blossom as the rose. Eight years ago another writer in speaking of Mr. Fowler's work in Benton County, said: "Benton County, in its marvelous development, is a monument to his enterprise, more enduring than marble. The impulse of his wonderful energy, liberality, and capacity, has been felt in every pulsation of its healthful blood. From an isolated county, rich in undeveloped resources, with no railroads, and with but a single town, it has grown within seven years to a well-earned recognition among the best counties of Indiana, and now has two lines of railway and eleven flourishing towns. This is Mr. Fowler's work, and it will keep his memory green." This was a beautiful tribute deservedly bestowed, but it conveys no just idea of the high development since attained by that county. But to return to Mr. Fowler's business operations. In addition to this extensive body of land in the center of the county, he owns large tracts bordering on the Warren County and the Illinois State lines, and is also the owner of one of the best farms in White County. His entire landed interests in Benton and White counties alone aggregate about 25,000 acres, which, we are assured by competent judges, are, at a low estimate, of the average value of $50 per acre. For ten years he has, in connection with Mr. William S. Van Natta, the business manager of his lands in Benton County, been engaged in the cattle business. During all that time they have kept from one to two thousand head of cattle, and have been large shippers to Chicago and the East. In addition to the regular cattle trade, they have been large importers of fine stock, and have done much to improve the character of the stock throughout the country. They have a herd of between four and five hundred of the finest thorough-bred Herefords in the United States. They have repeatedly taken the grand sweepstakes over all breeds at the Illinois State Fairs, and have carried off innumerable prizes at other stock shows. All of Mr. Fowler's lands are enclosed, and are in a high state of cultivation. Those not used for grazing purposes are in grain. He has about fifty tenants, who are under the supervision of his efficient manager, Mr. Van Natta. He cultivates about 10,000 acres each year in corn and oats, the greater proportion being in corn. His pasture and meadows produce as fine and luxuriant blue grass as can be grown on the best of the far famed lands of Kentucky. He has expended large sums of money in tiling these lands, and we are informed that within about two years all of his lands will have been thoroughly tiled, and that he will, by that time, have 20,000 acres in grain. These lands are now the source of a great and growing income, and it is believed that within a very few years they will yield a net income of five per cent, on their cash value. When farming is not made profitable, it is because a master hand is not in authority. It is hardly necessary to add that Mr. Fowler is one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest man in Indiana.
In 1844 Mr. Fowler was married to Miss Eliza Hawkins, a sister of Mrs. Adams Earl. They had three children, two daughters and a son. The daughters were educated with the utmost care, attending the best schools in the East, and possessed every grace and accomplishment of person and character. The elder, Miss Annis, was married to Fred. S. Chase (eldest son of H. W. Chase, Esq., of this city), a Yale College graduate and a rising young attorney of LaFayette, who is at present a member of the law firm of Wallace, Baird & Chase. This daughter died about three years ago, leaving a treasury of precious memories to her friends, and a son whom she named Fowler in honor of her father. The other daughter, Miss Ophelia, remains at home, the joy and comfort of her father in his declining years. The son, James, who is married, has a lovely family, and is associated with his father in the bank. In politics Mr. Fowler was formerly a Whig. Since the organization of the Republican party he has been a staunch Republican. During the war he aided mightily by his means and great influence in upholding the hands of the Government. Too old to go into the army himself, he sent a substitute for three years. Governor Morton found in him a true friend and a safe counselor. While in no sense a politician, (having never been a candidate for office in his life, but having repeatedly refused to be a candidate), he has always taken a lively interest in public affairs and has always been an important factor in each campaign. He has, from early manhood, been a member of the Second Presbyterian church of La Fayette, and was for nearly thirty years one of its trustees. He has also been a trustee of Wabash College almost continuously for about twenty-five years, and has always been one of its staunchest friends and supporters. When the National State Bank of La Fayette was organized, Mr. Fowler contributing $2,000, with the assistance of Mr. Alex. Wilson and other friends in La Fayette raised a fund of $10,000, with which stock in this bank was purchased and donated to Wabash College, from which the institution has already realized over $80,000. As this record abundantly discloses, Mr. Fowler is pre-eminently a self-made man. Beginning on nothing and with a very meager education, he has, by the force of his character, and by the habitual practice of those robust virtues—honesty, industry, courage, perseverance, economy, sobriety, patience, energy —and by the preservation of his self-control and the observance of a courteous manner under all circumstances, attained to the utmost summit of business success, and to a position of exalted power and influence. A remarkable fact in the career of this remarkable man is that he never gave a mortgage in his life except in one or two instances to secure a part of the purchase money for lands which he had bought, and then the mortgage was discharged before the maturity of the notes. Another noteworthy fact is that he never had but two law suits in his life, and in each of those cases he was made defendant, and in both instances he was substantially vindicated by the judgment of the court. All this is in striking contrast with that great multitude of men who do business on borrowed capital, and who, if they are not anxious, are often compelled, to mortgage their lands for all that they are worth. This one fact throws a flood of light upon Mr. Fowler's business life, and shows as nothing else could, how genuine and substantial it has been, and how well-founded is the universal confidence which the public repose in him. Not only has he been successful in the acquisition of property, but he has manifested a commendable purpose in the use of it. Every movement of public enterprise or private benevolence finds in him a ready assistant. He enjoys to an enviable degree the esteem of his fellow-citizens of all classes, not only for his successful business career, but for the possession of a warm heart, a genial and sympathetic nature, and an irreproachable public and private life. Though nearly seventy-three years of age, he is remarkably well-preserved, and his fresh, ruddy complexion, his elastic step, the strong light from his eye, his cheerful, equable temper and his erect, manly form, all indicate that his was a well spent youth, and that he will live to a green old age. The silver hairs add a noble beauty and dignity to his appearance, scarcely suggesting in his case the approach of age. Spending the business hours of each day at the bank, he manages his vast interest without noise or friction and with the grace and ease of a consummate general. Here he is always accessible to the humblest citizen, many of whom go to him daily for assistance or advice. We have often thought as we witnessed these interviews and watched his incomings and outgoings that he was not only a truly great man but also a truly good one.
[Source: Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, The Lewis Publishing Company]
~~~~~
Moses Fowler came to Lafayette in 1839 and engaged in a number of business pursuits which made him very wealthy. At his death in 1889, Fowler had accumulated a fortune of several million dollars. Moses Fowler and his wife Eliza were donors to various community interests including Purdue University. Eliza Fowler Hall (razed) at Purdue University was named in honor of Eliza Fowler. Also the Moses Fowler House is located on the corner of Ninth and South Streets and before 2015, served as the Tippecanoe County Historical Museum was the headquarters for the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
"Moses Fowler was born on a farm near Circleville, Ohio, April 3, 1815. His father was a veteran of the Revolution and a Virginian by birth. Moses remained on the farm until 16, then learned the trade of a tanner. Two years at this and he accepted a clerkship in a mercantile store at Adelphia.
In 1839 he came to this city with John Purdue and they formed a partnership in the dry goods business. After five years he engaged in the same business alone. His next business venture was to become a partner with W. F. Reynolds and Robert Stockwell in the wholesale grocery trade. This partnership ended his mercantile pursuits.
His banking career began with the organization of the old State Bank here, of which he was made president. Its business was closed out in 1865 and he then founded the National State bank. In 1885 the charter of this bank expired and the Fowler National bank was organized. His business life was very successful and he accumulated a fortune of several million dollars. He has large holding of bonds, stocks and securities and has an immense landed estate, his realty in Benton County alone being worth almost a million. As a financier he had no peer in Lafayette.
In 1844, Mr. Fowler was married to Miss Eliza Hawkins, a sister of Mrs. Adams Earl, and Mrs. Dr. Vanderbilt, and who survives him. The result of this marriage was three children--Mrs. Fred S. Chase, since deceased; Mrs. Charles H. Duhme, of Cincinnati; and Mr. James M. Fowler, of this city.
Mr. Fowler was a Republican in politics and served one term in the city council. Beyond that he did not seek political preferment. He was connected with the Second Presbyterian church and was one of the trustees of Wabash College. He was also a member of the Lincoln club.
Mr. Fowler's name needs no mention to perpetuate it. The thriving little city in Benton County, the prosperous national bank of this city and the costly granite shaft in Springvale Cemetery will do that much more thoroughly than the press.
There were many things about Mr. Fowler's character to admire and he had many friends not only here but the country over. In point of wealth and influence he was the most important personage in the city and his death will be greatly felt. The funeral arrangements will be made today.
[Source: Obituary, Lafayette Morning Journal, August 21, 1889]
~~~~~~
MOSES FOWLER - Indiana has produced few men of more ability than the subject of this sketch, and she can boast of no son whose business career has been more honorable, successful and brilliant. Throughout the Wabash Valley his name is the synonym of business honor and financial success, and we know of no life more full of suggestion and encouragement to the young. His parents, Samuel and Mary (Rogers) Fowler, were of the old Revolutionary stock, and were born and reared in Virginia, inheriting the patriotic pride of that grand old commonwealth. The father was a soldier of the Revolution, and both parents removed to Ohio before the birth of their son. Moses was born on a farm near Circleville, in Pickaway County, Ohio, April 30, 1815. He remained on the farm till about sixteen years of age, assisting his father in summer and attending school in winter, when he went to Circleville to learn the tanning trade with James Bell, who was the proprietor of a large tannery. Mr. Bell was so impressed by the energy, industry and business qualities of the young man, that after he had been in his employ two years, he offered him a partnership. This young Fowler declined, preferring a clerkship which was offered him in a dry goods store at Adelphi, Ross County. Here he remained about three years, mastering the business and saving some money. In the spring of 1839 Mr. Fowler, in company with John Purdue, removed to LaFayette, Indiana, where they started a dry goods store of their own. Mr. Fowler's entire capital at this time was only $700, and part of that was borrowed. This partnership lasted about five years, during which time both men laid the foundations of their subsequent character and influence. At the termination of this partnership Mr. Fowler embarked in a similar business on his own account, in his own room, on what is now the corner of Main and Second streets, in the same city. So great was his success that at the end of about half a dozen years he was enabled to close out his store and to become an equal partner with Mr. William F. Reynolds and Mr. Robert Stockwell, under the firm name of Reynolds, Fowler & Stockwell, in the wholesale grocery trade, which then required no little capital for its successful prosecution. Mr. Fowler was at all times the active business man of this great house, for the most part buying the goods and managing the business. For seven years they carried on one of the largest and most successful trades in this line in Indiana. Although LaFayette was at that time but a small village, yet being the terminus of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and the head of navigation on the Wabash River, their trade was immense, extending over a radius of more than a hundred miles. The magnitude of the business may be judged by the fact that they frequently chartered a fleet of steamboats to bring their stock of Southern merchandise, sugar, coffee, molasses, etc., from New Orleans to La Fayette. At that time the Wabash to LaFayette was navigable for large first-class steamers, and it was not an infrequent thing to see six or eight of these at one time unloading their merchandise at that point. The profits of their business were commensurate with its magnitude, and with the winding up of this partnership Mr. Fowler's mercantile career substantially ended. But during these years he was being gradually prepared for another career in a higher field, requiring the possession of larger and more varied powers. Two years after his arrival at La Fayette, Mr. Fowler was made a director of the old Indiana State Bank, which position he held until the bank was wound up. Afterward, on the organization of the Bank of the State, Hon. Hugh McCullough, who had general supervision over all of its branches, selected Mr. Fowler to organize the branch at LaFayette, with a capital of $300,000. The result was that the stock was speedily taken, and Mr. Fowler was made president of the La Fayette branch. Throughout the eight years during which this bank existed, Mr. Fowler was the delegate from the La Fayette branch to the general Bank Board, which held its sessions at Indianapolis, and which had supervisory powers over all the branch banks. The success of the LaFayette branch was unparalleled in Tippecanoe County, and, with one exception, it proved to be the strongest branch in the State. It was finally wound up, to the great profit and the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Subsequently, in 1865, Mr. Fowler obtained a charter from the general Government, and organized the National State Bank of LaFayette, with a capital of $600,000, of which he was made president. The success of this bank was even greater than that which had attended the Bank of the State. During its existence it was an honor and a blessing to the community, and at the same time a source of large gains to its stockholders. Its charter expired January, 1885, and it is now substantially wound up. Mr. Fowler, at the termination of this enterprise, had been engaged in banking in one form or another, for about thirty years, and he thought it a seasonable opportunity to retire from the business. When this wish became known, all of his old stockholders protested, and insisted most earnestly that he should organize a new bank. He finally consented to do so, chiefly to gratify his friends, and especially his faithful and accomplished cashier, Mr. Brown Brockenbrough. In the hopes of reducing his business he organized "The Fowler National Bank," of La Fayette, a small national bank of only $100,000 capital, the stock of which is chiefly owned by himself. But instead of reducing his business he had, in reality, increased it. His honorable and successful fame as a banker was in everybody's mouth. Business flowed in to it from all quarters. No one cared what stock the bank possessed. Mr. Fowler managed it, and he was behind it, and that was enough. The deposits soon ran up to $1,000,000, which is, perhaps, a fair average of its present deposits; and which is equal to the aggregate deposits of all the other National Banks in the city. The wonderful success of this bank has attracted the attention of financiers all over the country. They regard its prosperity as phenomenal, and point to its large and increasing business as the highest possible testimonial to the great abilities and exalted virtues of its president. Mr. Fowler justly feels proud of an institution which is a constant reminder of the universal confidence and esteem in which he is held by the people of his county. Should he leave no other monument than the recollection of his career as a banker in La Fayette, it will be a monument of which the most distinguished citizen might feel justly proud, and one which will be more enduring than marble. But there was another business enterprise in which Mr. Fowler engaged, and which was attended with the usual success. In 1861 he organized the firm of Culbertson, Blair & Co., of Chicago, of which he became a member. They bought a large packinghouse and engaged, on a mammoth scale, in the slaughter of hogs and cattle. This house, while it existed, was next to the largest establishment of the kind in that great stock market of the West. At the end of eight years Mr. Fowler retired from the business, selling out his interest in the concern for $250,000. His enterprise now took a new direction. Without neglecting his bank and other interests, he began, in connection with Adams Earl, Esq., to buy large tracts of unimproved lands in Benton County, with a view to going into the cattle business, and of ultimately reducing the lands to cultivation. After they had purchased about 12,000 acres of these lands (Mr. Fowler preferring to be the sole manager of his own interest) they were, by mutual consent, divided between them. Mr. Fowler continued to buy lands in this county until he owned, in the very heart of it, in his own right and in one body, 20,000 acres of prairie lands, which for beauty of location and richness and fertility of soil, are not excelled by any lands in the world. We are credibly informed that there is not a single acre of waste land in the whole 20,000 acres. The next move was to build a railroad, which passing through these lands, should connect by the shortest possible route the great cities of Cincinnati and Chicago, his lands being but 100 miles southeast of the latter city. He was not altogether without railroad experience, having for many years been a director in the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & LaFayette Railroad Company. This knowledge was now turned to good account. He in connection with two other gentlemen organized a railroad company and constructed the Cincinnati, LaFayette & Chicago Railroad, since known as the Kankakee or Short Line, being the most important link in the "Big Four" connection between Cincinnati and Chicago.
The next step was to move the county seat from Oxford to the town of Fowler, situated on this important line of railroad, and which was in the center of the county. This was speedily effected, Mr. Fowler donating $40,000 to Benton County for courthouse purposes, besides giving the county ample grounds for its public buildings. Under his transforming touch, Benton County, which, when he entered it, was sparsely settled and was comparatively unimproved, has been made to bloom and blossom as the rose. Eight years ago another writer in speaking of Mr. Fowler's work in Benton County, said: "Benton County, in its marvelous development, is a monument to his enterprise, more enduring than marble. The impulse of his wonderful energy, liberality, and capacity, has been felt in every pulsation of its healthful blood. From an isolated county, rich in undeveloped resources, with no railroads, and with but a single town, it has grown within seven years to a well-earned recognition among the best counties of Indiana, and now has two lines of railway and eleven flourishing towns. This is Mr. Fowler's work, and it will keep his memory green." This was a beautiful tribute deservedly bestowed, but it conveys no just idea of the high development since attained by that county. But to return to Mr. Fowler's business operations. In addition to this extensive body of land in the center of the county, he owns large tracts bordering on the Warren County and the Illinois State lines, and is also the owner of one of the best farms in White County. His entire landed interests in Benton and White counties alone aggregate about 25,000 acres, which, we are assured by competent judges, are, at a low estimate, of the average value of $50 per acre. For ten years he has, in connection with Mr. William S. Van Natta, the business manager of his lands in Benton County, been engaged in the cattle business. During all that time they have kept from one to two thousand head of cattle, and have been large shippers to Chicago and the East. In addition to the regular cattle trade, they have been large importers of fine stock, and have done much to improve the character of the stock throughout the country. They have a herd of between four and five hundred of the finest thorough-bred Herefords in the United States. They have repeatedly taken the grand sweepstakes over all breeds at the Illinois State Fairs, and have carried off innumerable prizes at other stock shows. All of Mr. Fowler's lands are enclosed, and are in a high state of cultivation. Those not used for grazing purposes are in grain. He has about fifty tenants, who are under the supervision of his efficient manager, Mr. Van Natta. He cultivates about 10,000 acres each year in corn and oats, the greater proportion being in corn. His pasture and meadows produce as fine and luxuriant blue grass as can be grown on the best of the far famed lands of Kentucky. He has expended large sums of money in tiling these lands, and we are informed that within about two years all of his lands will have been thoroughly tiled, and that he will, by that time, have 20,000 acres in grain. These lands are now the source of a great and growing income, and it is believed that within a very few years they will yield a net income of five per cent, on their cash value. When farming is not made profitable, it is because a master hand is not in authority. It is hardly necessary to add that Mr. Fowler is one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest man in Indiana.
In 1844 Mr. Fowler was married to Miss Eliza Hawkins, a sister of Mrs. Adams Earl. They had three children, two daughters and a son. The daughters were educated with the utmost care, attending the best schools in the East, and possessed every grace and accomplishment of person and character. The elder, Miss Annis, was married to Fred. S. Chase (eldest son of H. W. Chase, Esq., of this city), a Yale College graduate and a rising young attorney of LaFayette, who is at present a member of the law firm of Wallace, Baird & Chase. This daughter died about three years ago, leaving a treasury of precious memories to her friends, and a son whom she named Fowler in honor of her father. The other daughter, Miss Ophelia, remains at home, the joy and comfort of her father in his declining years. The son, James, who is married, has a lovely family, and is associated with his father in the bank. In politics Mr. Fowler was formerly a Whig. Since the organization of the Republican party he has been a staunch Republican. During the war he aided mightily by his means and great influence in upholding the hands of the Government. Too old to go into the army himself, he sent a substitute for three years. Governor Morton found in him a true friend and a safe counselor. While in no sense a politician, (having never been a candidate for office in his life, but having repeatedly refused to be a candidate), he has always taken a lively interest in public affairs and has always been an important factor in each campaign. He has, from early manhood, been a member of the Second Presbyterian church of La Fayette, and was for nearly thirty years one of its trustees. He has also been a trustee of Wabash College almost continuously for about twenty-five years, and has always been one of its staunchest friends and supporters. When the National State Bank of La Fayette was organized, Mr. Fowler contributing $2,000, with the assistance of Mr. Alex. Wilson and other friends in La Fayette raised a fund of $10,000, with which stock in this bank was purchased and donated to Wabash College, from which the institution has already realized over $80,000. As this record abundantly discloses, Mr. Fowler is pre-eminently a self-made man. Beginning on nothing and with a very meager education, he has, by the force of his character, and by the habitual practice of those robust virtues—honesty, industry, courage, perseverance, economy, sobriety, patience, energy —and by the preservation of his self-control and the observance of a courteous manner under all circumstances, attained to the utmost summit of business success, and to a position of exalted power and influence. A remarkable fact in the career of this remarkable man is that he never gave a mortgage in his life except in one or two instances to secure a part of the purchase money for lands which he had bought, and then the mortgage was discharged before the maturity of the notes. Another noteworthy fact is that he never had but two law suits in his life, and in each of those cases he was made defendant, and in both instances he was substantially vindicated by the judgment of the court. All this is in striking contrast with that great multitude of men who do business on borrowed capital, and who, if they are not anxious, are often compelled, to mortgage their lands for all that they are worth. This one fact throws a flood of light upon Mr. Fowler's business life, and shows as nothing else could, how genuine and substantial it has been, and how well-founded is the universal confidence which the public repose in him. Not only has he been successful in the acquisition of property, but he has manifested a commendable purpose in the use of it. Every movement of public enterprise or private benevolence finds in him a ready assistant. He enjoys to an enviable degree the esteem of his fellow-citizens of all classes, not only for his successful business career, but for the possession of a warm heart, a genial and sympathetic nature, and an irreproachable public and private life. Though nearly seventy-three years of age, he is remarkably well-preserved, and his fresh, ruddy complexion, his elastic step, the strong light from his eye, his cheerful, equable temper and his erect, manly form, all indicate that his was a well spent youth, and that he will live to a green old age. The silver hairs add a noble beauty and dignity to his appearance, scarcely suggesting in his case the approach of age. Spending the business hours of each day at the bank, he manages his vast interest without noise or friction and with the grace and ease of a consummate general. Here he is always accessible to the humblest citizen, many of whom go to him daily for assistance or advice. We have often thought as we witnessed these interviews and watched his incomings and outgoings that he was not only a truly great man but also a truly good one.
[Source: Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, The Lewis Publishing Company]
~~~~~
Moses Fowler came to Lafayette in 1839 and engaged in a number of business pursuits which made him very wealthy. At his death in 1889, Fowler had accumulated a fortune of several million dollars. Moses Fowler and his wife Eliza were donors to various community interests including Purdue University. Eliza Fowler Hall (razed) at Purdue University was named in honor of Eliza Fowler. Also the Moses Fowler House is located on the corner of Ninth and South Streets and before 2015, served as the Tippecanoe County Historical Museum was the headquarters for the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
In 1839 he came to this city with John Purdue and they formed a partnership in the dry goods business. After five years he engaged in the same business alone. His next business venture was to become a partner with W. F. Reynolds and Robert Stockwell in the wholesale grocery trade. This partnership ended his mercantile pursuits.
His banking career began with the organization of the old State Bank here, of which he was made president. Its business was closed out in 1865 and he then founded the National State bank. In 1885 the charter of this bank expired and the Fowler National bank was organized. His business life was very successful and he accumulated a fortune of several million dollars. He has large holding of bonds, stocks and securities and has an immense landed estate, his realty in Benton County alone being worth almost a million. As a financier he had no peer in Lafayette.
In 1844, Mr. Fowler was married to Miss Eliza Hawkins, a sister of Mrs. Adams Earl, and Mrs. Dr. Vanderbilt, and who survives him. The result of this marriage was three children--Mrs. Fred S. Chase, since deceased; Mrs. Charles H. Duhme, of Cincinnati; and Mr. James M. Fowler, of this city.
Mr. Fowler was a Republican in politics and served one term in the city council. Beyond that he did not seek political preferment. He was connected with the Second Presbyterian church and was one of the trustees of Wabash College. He was also a member of the Lincoln club.
Mr. Fowler's name needs no mention to perpetuate it. The thriving little city in Benton County, the prosperous national bank of this city and the costly granite shaft in Springvale Cemetery will do that much more thoroughly than the press.
There were many things about Mr. Fowler's character to admire and he had many friends not only here but the country over. In point of wealth and influence he was the most important personage in the city and his death will be greatly felt. The funeral arrangements will be made today.
[Source: Obituary, Lafayette Morning Journal, August 21, 1889]
~~~~~~
MOSES FOWLER - Indiana has produced few men of more ability than the subject of this sketch, and she can boast of no son whose business career has been more honorable, successful and brilliant. Throughout the Wabash Valley his name is the synonym of business honor and financial success, and we know of no life more full of suggestion and encouragement to the young. His parents, Samuel and Mary (Rogers) Fowler, were of the old Revolutionary stock, and were born and reared in Virginia, inheriting the patriotic pride of that grand old commonwealth. The father was a soldier of the Revolution, and both parents removed to Ohio before the birth of their son. Moses was born on a farm near Circleville, in Pickaway County, Ohio, April 30, 1815. He remained on the farm till about sixteen years of age, assisting his father in summer and attending school in winter, when he went to Circleville to learn the tanning trade with James Bell, who was the proprietor of a large tannery. Mr. Bell was so impressed by the energy, industry and business qualities of the young man, that after he had been in his employ two years, he offered him a partnership. This young Fowler declined, preferring a clerkship which was offered him in a dry goods store at Adelphi, Ross County. Here he remained about three years, mastering the business and saving some money. In the spring of 1839 Mr. Fowler, in company with John Purdue, removed to LaFayette, Indiana, where they started a dry goods store of their own. Mr. Fowler's entire capital at this time was only $700, and part of that was borrowed. This partnership lasted about five years, during which time both men laid the foundations of their subsequent character and influence. At the termination of this partnership Mr. Fowler embarked in a similar business on his own account, in his own room, on what is now the corner of Main and Second streets, in the same city. So great was his success that at the end of about half a dozen years he was enabled to close out his store and to become an equal partner with Mr. William F. Reynolds and Mr. Robert Stockwell, under the firm name of Reynolds, Fowler & Stockwell, in the wholesale grocery trade, which then required no little capital for its successful prosecution. Mr. Fowler was at all times the active business man of this great house, for the most part buying the goods and managing the business. For seven years they carried on one of the largest and most successful trades in this line in Indiana. Although LaFayette was at that time but a small village, yet being the terminus of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and the head of navigation on the Wabash River, their trade was immense, extending over a radius of more than a hundred miles. The magnitude of the business may be judged by the fact that they frequently chartered a fleet of steamboats to bring their stock of Southern merchandise, sugar, coffee, molasses, etc., from New Orleans to La Fayette. At that time the Wabash to LaFayette was navigable for large first-class steamers, and it was not an infrequent thing to see six or eight of these at one time unloading their merchandise at that point. The profits of their business were commensurate with its magnitude, and with the winding up of this partnership Mr. Fowler's mercantile career substantially ended. But during these years he was being gradually prepared for another career in a higher field, requiring the possession of larger and more varied powers. Two years after his arrival at La Fayette, Mr. Fowler was made a director of the old Indiana State Bank, which position he held until the bank was wound up. Afterward, on the organization of the Bank of the State, Hon. Hugh McCullough, who had general supervision over all of its branches, selected Mr. Fowler to organize the branch at LaFayette, with a capital of $300,000. The result was that the stock was speedily taken, and Mr. Fowler was made president of the La Fayette branch. Throughout the eight years during which this bank existed, Mr. Fowler was the delegate from the La Fayette branch to the general Bank Board, which held its sessions at Indianapolis, and which had supervisory powers over all the branch banks. The success of the LaFayette branch was unparalleled in Tippecanoe County, and, with one exception, it proved to be the strongest branch in the State. It was finally wound up, to the great profit and the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Subsequently, in 1865, Mr. Fowler obtained a charter from the general Government, and organized the National State Bank of LaFayette, with a capital of $600,000, of which he was made president. The success of this bank was even greater than that which had attended the Bank of the State. During its existence it was an honor and a blessing to the community, and at the same time a source of large gains to its stockholders. Its charter expired January, 1885, and it is now substantially wound up. Mr. Fowler, at the termination of this enterprise, had been engaged in banking in one form or another, for about thirty years, and he thought it a seasonable opportunity to retire from the business. When this wish became known, all of his old stockholders protested, and insisted most earnestly that he should organize a new bank. He finally consented to do so, chiefly to gratify his friends, and especially his faithful and accomplished cashier, Mr. Brown Brockenbrough. In the hopes of reducing his business he organized "The Fowler National Bank," of La Fayette, a small national bank of only $100,000 capital, the stock of which is chiefly owned by himself. But instead of reducing his business he had, in reality, increased it. His honorable and successful fame as a banker was in everybody's mouth. Business flowed in to it from all quarters. No one cared what stock the bank possessed. Mr. Fowler managed it, and he was behind it, and that was enough. The deposits soon ran up to $1,000,000, which is, perhaps, a fair average of its present deposits; and which is equal to the aggregate deposits of all the other National Banks in the city. The wonderful success of this bank has attracted the attention of financiers all over the country. They regard its prosperity as phenomenal, and point to its large and increasing business as the highest possible testimonial to the great abilities and exalted virtues of its president. Mr. Fowler justly feels proud of an institution which is a constant reminder of the universal confidence and esteem in which he is held by the people of his county. Should he leave no other monument than the recollection of his career as a banker in La Fayette, it will be a monument of which the most distinguished citizen might feel justly proud, and one which will be more enduring than marble. But there was another business enterprise in which Mr. Fowler engaged, and which was attended with the usual success. In 1861 he organized the firm of Culbertson, Blair & Co., of Chicago, of which he became a member. They bought a large packinghouse and engaged, on a mammoth scale, in the slaughter of hogs and cattle. This house, while it existed, was next to the largest establishment of the kind in that great stock market of the West. At the end of eight years Mr. Fowler retired from the business, selling out his interest in the concern for $250,000. His enterprise now took a new direction. Without neglecting his bank and other interests, he began, in connection with Adams Earl, Esq., to buy large tracts of unimproved lands in Benton County, with a view to going into the cattle business, and of ultimately reducing the lands to cultivation. After they had purchased about 12,000 acres of these lands (Mr. Fowler preferring to be the sole manager of his own interest) they were, by mutual consent, divided between them. Mr. Fowler continued to buy lands in this county until he owned, in the very heart of it, in his own right and in one body, 20,000 acres of prairie lands, which for beauty of location and richness and fertility of soil, are not excelled by any lands in the world. We are credibly informed that there is not a single acre of waste land in the whole 20,000 acres. The next move was to build a railroad, which passing through these lands, should connect by the shortest possible route the great cities of Cincinnati and Chicago, his lands being but 100 miles southeast of the latter city. He was not altogether without railroad experience, having for many years been a director in the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & LaFayette Railroad Company. This knowledge was now turned to good account. He in connection with two other gentlemen organized a railroad company and constructed the Cincinnati, LaFayette & Chicago Railroad, since known as the Kankakee or Short Line, being the most important link in the "Big Four" connection between Cincinnati and Chicago.
The next step was to move the county seat from Oxford to the town of Fowler, situated on this important line of railroad, and which was in the center of the county. This was speedily effected, Mr. Fowler donating $40,000 to Benton County for courthouse purposes, besides giving the county ample grounds for its public buildings. Under his transforming touch, Benton County, which, when he entered it, was sparsely settled and was comparatively unimproved, has been made to bloom and blossom as the rose. Eight years ago another writer in speaking of Mr. Fowler's work in Benton County, said: "Benton County, in its marvelous development, is a monument to his enterprise, more enduring than marble. The impulse of his wonderful energy, liberality, and capacity, has been felt in every pulsation of its healthful blood. From an isolated county, rich in undeveloped resources, with no railroads, and with but a single town, it has grown within seven years to a well-earned recognition among the best counties of Indiana, and now has two lines of railway and eleven flourishing towns. This is Mr. Fowler's work, and it will keep his memory green." This was a beautiful tribute deservedly bestowed, but it conveys no just idea of the high development since attained by that county. But to return to Mr. Fowler's business operations. In addition to this extensive body of land in the center of the county, he owns large tracts bordering on the Warren County and the Illinois State lines, and is also the owner of one of the best farms in White County. His entire landed interests in Benton and White counties alone aggregate about 25,000 acres, which, we are assured by competent judges, are, at a low estimate, of the average value of $50 per acre. For ten years he has, in connection with Mr. William S. Van Natta, the business manager of his lands in Benton County, been engaged in the cattle business. During all that time they have kept from one to two thousand head of cattle, and have been large shippers to Chicago and the East. In addition to the regular cattle trade, they have been large importers of fine stock, and have done much to improve the character of the stock throughout the country. They have a herd of between four and five hundred of the finest thorough-bred Herefords in the United States. They have repeatedly taken the grand sweepstakes over all breeds at the Illinois State Fairs, and have carried off innumerable prizes at other stock shows. All of Mr. Fowler's lands are enclosed, and are in a high state of cultivation. Those not used for grazing purposes are in grain. He has about fifty tenants, who are under the supervision of his efficient manager, Mr. Van Natta. He cultivates about 10,000 acres each year in corn and oats, the greater proportion being in corn. His pasture and meadows produce as fine and luxuriant blue grass as can be grown on the best of the far famed lands of Kentucky. He has expended large sums of money in tiling these lands, and we are informed that within about two years all of his lands will have been thoroughly tiled, and that he will, by that time, have 20,000 acres in grain. These lands are now the source of a great and growing income, and it is believed that within a very few years they will yield a net income of five per cent, on their cash value. When farming is not made profitable, it is because a master hand is not in authority. It is hardly necessary to add that Mr. Fowler is one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest man in Indiana.
In 1844 Mr. Fowler was married to Miss Eliza Hawkins, a sister of Mrs. Adams Earl. They had three children, two daughters and a son. The daughters were educated with the utmost care, attending the best schools in the East, and possessed every grace and accomplishment of person and character. The elder, Miss Annis, was married to Fred. S. Chase (eldest son of H. W. Chase, Esq., of this city), a Yale College graduate and a rising young attorney of LaFayette, who is at present a member of the law firm of Wallace, Baird & Chase. This daughter died about three years ago, leaving a treasury of precious memories to her friends, and a son whom she named Fowler in honor of her father. The other daughter, Miss Ophelia, remains at home, the joy and comfort of her father in his declining years. The son, James, who is married, has a lovely family, and is associated with his father in the bank. In politics Mr. Fowler was formerly a Whig. Since the organization of the Republican party he has been a staunch Republican. During the war he aided mightily by his means and great influence in upholding the hands of the Government. Too old to go into the army himself, he sent a substitute for three years. Governor Morton found in him a true friend and a safe counselor. While in no sense a politician, (having never been a candidate for office in his life, but having repeatedly refused to be a candidate), he has always taken a lively interest in public affairs and has always been an important factor in each campaign. He has, from early manhood, been a member of the Second Presbyterian church of La Fayette, and was for nearly thirty years one of its trustees. He has also been a trustee of Wabash College almost continuously for about twenty-five years, and has always been one of its staunchest friends and supporters. When the National State Bank of La Fayette was organized, Mr. Fowler contributing $2,000, with the assistance of Mr. Alex. Wilson and other friends in La Fayette raised a fund of $10,000, with which stock in this bank was purchased and donated to Wabash College, from which the institution has already realized over $80,000. As this record abundantly discloses, Mr. Fowler is pre-eminently a self-made man. Beginning on nothing and with a very meager education, he has, by the force of his character, and by the habitual practice of those robust virtues—honesty, industry, courage, perseverance, economy, sobriety, patience, energy —and by the preservation of his self-control and the observance of a courteous manner under all circumstances, attained to the utmost summit of business success, and to a position of exalted power and influence. A remarkable fact in the career of this remarkable man is that he never gave a mortgage in his life except in one or two instances to secure a part of the purchase money for lands which he had bought, and then the mortgage was discharged before the maturity of the notes. Another noteworthy fact is that he never had but two law suits in his life, and in each of those cases he was made defendant, and in both instances he was substantially vindicated by the judgment of the court. All this is in striking contrast with that great multitude of men who do business on borrowed capital, and who, if they are not anxious, are often compelled, to mortgage their lands for all that they are worth. This one fact throws a flood of light upon Mr. Fowler's business life, and shows as nothing else could, how genuine and substantial it has been, and how well-founded is the universal confidence which the public repose in him. Not only has he been successful in the acquisition of property, but he has manifested a commendable purpose in the use of it. Every movement of public enterprise or private benevolence finds in him a ready assistant. He enjoys to an enviable degree the esteem of his fellow-citizens of all classes, not only for his successful business career, but for the possession of a warm heart, a genial and sympathetic nature, and an irreproachable public and private life. Though nearly seventy-three years of age, he is remarkably well-preserved, and his fresh, ruddy complexion, his elastic step, the strong light from his eye, his cheerful, equable temper and his erect, manly form, all indicate that his was a well spent youth, and that he will live to a green old age. The silver hairs add a noble beauty and dignity to his appearance, scarcely suggesting in his case the approach of age. Spending the business hours of each day at the bank, he manages his vast interest without noise or friction and with the grace and ease of a consummate general. Here he is always accessible to the humblest citizen, many of whom go to him daily for assistance or advice. We have often thought as we witnessed these interviews and watched his incomings and outgoings that he was not only a truly great man but also a truly good one.
[Source: Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, The Lewis Publishing Company]
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Moses Fowler came to Lafayette in 1839 and engaged in a number of business pursuits which made him very wealthy. At his death in 1889, Fowler had accumulated a fortune of several million dollars. Moses Fowler and his wife Eliza were donors to various community interests including Purdue University. Eliza Fowler Hall (razed) at Purdue University was named in honor of Eliza Fowler. Also the Moses Fowler House is located on the corner of Ninth and South Streets and before 2015, served as the Tippecanoe County Historical Museum was the headquarters for the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
Gravesite Details
age 74. Born near Circleville, Ohio. Came to Lafayette in 1839. Leaves widow and two children. Lot owner, Ophelia M. {Fowler} Duhme.
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