Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Hall-Fowler, Marian 1931
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Ionia County News, 19 Feb 1931

City’s Library Donor is Dead at 82 Years Age

Marian Hall-Fowler Died on January 30 At Palo Alto, California

One Time Librarian

Mrs. Marion Hall-Fowler, donor of the city’s memorial library, is dead at the
age of 82.  She died January 30 at her home in Palo Alto, California after an
illness of two weeks that followed a stroke and during which she never regained
consciousness.  She has been buried at the side of her husband, Major Joshua L.
Fowler, in the cemetery on the grounds of the United States Military academy at
West Point, N.Y.

Information concerning her passing reached here the past week in a letter to
Frederick Tower from Mrs. Marian Tower-Carpenter of Fort Atkinson.

The survivors are an only child, Fred Hall-Fowler of Palo Alto and his two sons,
Frederick, 16, and John, one and one-half years.

Mrs. Fowler became interested in the library problem when she served, before her
marriage as custodian of the first public library which was located in a small
front room on the second floor of the old fireman’s hall on Kidd street.  This
later became the site of the present city hall.

Gave Home to City

Interest in the work of the library continued and several years after the death
of her husband in the Spanish-American war, Mrs. Fowler presented to the city
the home on Main street, built by her father and in which she was married, for
use as a library.  It was made a memorial to her parents.  The gift was secured
in 1902 thru the efforts of Justice Robert Baerd, then a member of the Ionia
city council.  A special act of the legislature had to be granted to cover the
gift as Mrs. Fowler made it a memorial to her parents.  The deed was made May
22, 1903.

Born in 1849 in a house which stood on the present site of the State Savings
Bank, Mrs. Fowler was the only child of the Hon. Frederick Hall, a native of
Vermont, whose father was an associate judge and a member of the Vermont
legislature.  Her mother was Miss Ann Eager, whom Mr. Hall met after coming to
Ionia and married January 8, 1848.  The home in which Mrs. Fowler was born was
later moved to the site east of the home of John Youngs on West Washington
street and is still standing.

After attending school in Ionia, Mrs. Fowler spent several years abroad.  She
was married March 27, 1878 in the home on Main street, which later became to
Hall Fowler library, to Joshua L. Fowler, then a lieutenant in the United States
army and stationed at Fort Custer.  The ceremony took place in the southwest
corner of the home in the large parlor there and was performed by Rev. William
Brittain, rector of St. John’s Episcopal church of which Mrs. Fowler was a
member.  Miss Alice M. Stanton and Mrs. Sarah B. Tower, intimate friends of the
bride, served as attendants and their names appeared on the marriage certificate
as the two witnesses required by law.  The bride was 29 and her husband 32.

By the time of the Spanish-American war, Lieutenant Fowler had risen to the rank
of major and was sent to Cuba when hostilities began.  He was stricken with
fever and started back for the United States but died on board ship.  He was
buried at West Point.


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