Biography of H. Robert Fowler
Honorable H. Robert FOWLER, of Elizabethtown, is a son of Josiah W. Fowler, originally from Virginia, and later a farmer in Tennessee, who came to Illinois in 1850, and settled in Pope County. Here he bought one hundred and twenty acres of unimproved timber land, built a house upon it and proceeded to improve it. In Tennessee he was married to Penelope Jennings, a native of North Carolina, whose father was from Dublin, Ireland.
Mr. Fowler improved the farm he bought in Pope County, and resided upon it until his death, in 1874, his widow surviving him until 1892, dying in Pope County. By his marriage with Miss Jennings, Mr. Fowler became the father of twelve children, viz: Nancy A., wife of William Walters,; George W.; and Sarah J., wife of James Lockaby, of Eddyville, all of Pope County; H. Robert; John C., County Superintendent of education of Stewart County, TN; Joseph A., Attorney-at-law, of Denver, Colo.; Martha I., who married Fields Rumsey, a farmer of Pope County; Francis and Newton L., students at Nashville Medical College and three others, who died in infancy.
H. Robert Fowler was the fourth child, was born in Pope County, and brought up on the rarm, receiving a good common-school education when a boy. He subsequently attended the Normal State University, at Normal, Ill., graduating in 1877, after which he began the practice of law in 1884, having graduated from the law school of the Michigan University.
Previous to all this, however, he was a successful school teacher, having been Principal of the schools at Elizabethtown and Cave-in-Rock, serving in the latter place in this capacity five years.
In 1888 he was elected State's Attorney, and at the election of 1892 he was chosen to represent his district in the State Legislature. Politically, Mr. Fowler is a Democrat, and a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Our subject was married February 12, 1892, to Mary E. Griffith, who was originally from Indiana, thence removed to Kentucky, and from that State came to Illinois. Her father and mother are both living in Hardin County. The former served in the Mexican War, and the latter was Catherine C. Bryant, from Kentucky.