PHILIP L. FOWLER, ex-county auditor, of Clarke County, is a
native of Ohio, born in Tuscarawas County, September 3, 1845, a son of L. D.
and Joanna (Laffer) Fowler, natives of Ohio and Kentucky respectively. The
father moved his family to Clarke County, Iowa, in 1854, locating in Osceola.
He was an active business man and had purchased the ground where the Arlington
Hotel now stands (southwest corner of the public square) and was building a
frame hotel, when he was accidently killed in a sawmill then located in the
northeast part of Osceola, August 26, 1854. He was engaged in moving a slab and
a wrong step caused him to be thrown against a saw, which caused his death
almost instantly. The mother is still a resident of Clarke County. Philip L. Fowler was but eight years of age
when he accompanied his parents to Osceola. He attended the public schools of
Osceola and later entered a select school, where he made rapid progress in his
studies. At the age of seventeen he entered the clerk’s office, as deputy under
A. H. Burrows. In 1864, at the age of eighteen,
he entered the army, enlisting in Company H, Forty-sixth Iowa. At the close of
the war he returned to the clerk’s office and remained in that office a number
of years. In 1873 he was elected auditor of Clarke County, which office he held
for two terms of two years each. Retiring from office he contracted with the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and the Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific Railroad to work out their road taxes upon the highways through the
State, which contract he has had ever since.
In 1880 he went to Kentucky where he purchased a car load of fine Jersey
cattle, and was the first to introduce a herd of this celebrated stock into
Clarke County. He owns 300 acres of the best land for stock-raising in Osceola
Township. It is well stocked with cattle and horses, among the latter being
specimens of the celebrated Hambletonian roadsters. Mr. Fowler was married in 1871, to Maggie A.
McKee, of Osceola, a daughter of Professor W. A. McKee, who is now a resident
of Knoxville, Iowa. Mr. Fowler has been president of the Clarke County Farmers’
and Mechanics’ Agricultural Society for several years, which has proved very
successful under his management. He is also president of the Old Settlers’
Association. Mr. Fowler is not only an active man in the stock interests of his
county, but is first and foremost in every enterprise which tends to the public
good. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and takes an active
interest in the Sabbath-school of which he is superintendent.
SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Record of Clarke
County, Iowa, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1886 p. 357-8
