Westmoreland County PA Archives Biographies.....Fowler, James J. August 5, 1832 

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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 13, 2018, 3:41 pm

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 JAMES J. FOWLER, a prudential and prosperous farmer of Unity township and on
whose farm was sunk the first experimental and productive gas well of the
Latrobe natural gas region of Westmoreland county, is a son of John and
Elizabeth (Mickey) Fowler and was born at Youngstown, Unity township,
Westmoreland county, Pa., August 5, 1832. John Fowler was a descendant of the
Fowler family of Bedford county, Fa., where he was born and reared to manhood.
Soon after learning the trade of shoemaker he removed to Ligonier township, this
county, where he remained until 1843. He then came to Pleasant Unity where he
worked at his trade for many years and died at Crabtree January 29, 1890, at the
advanced age of eighty-four years and four months. He was a democrat who never
believed in half-way measures and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church. His wife was Elizabeth Mickey who was a native of Ligonier township, a
consistent member of the M. E. church and who died April 9, 1874, aged
sixty-nine years.

  James J. Fowler was reared in Unity township, received his education in the
common schools and having a decided preference for farming he engaged in that
line of business after leaving school. He farmed at different places until
February, 1878, when he removed to his present farm of one hundred and forty-two
acres of land which is two and one-half miles west of Latrobe. On this farm
natural gas was struck in 1886 and again in 1888. Both wells were put down by a
company, are still productive and pay a certain percentage of their earnings to
Mr. Fowler, who heats and lights his dwelling-house by gas from one of them. In
October, 1852, he was drafted and served nine months in Co. 1, one-hundred and
sixty-eighth reg., Pa. Vols. In 1864 he enlisted in the sixth Pa. Heavy
Artillery, was stationed at Fort Ethan Allen in Virginia and served until the
close of the war.

   May 22, 1867, he married Elizabeth Steele, daughter of Matthew Steele, of
Derry township, this county. They are the parents of three children, two sons
and one daughter: Harry M., John C. and Bessie O.

   James J. Fowler is a firm believer in the principles of the Democratic party.
He is a member of Latrobe Methodist Episcopal church, a hard-working man and a
good citizen. His farm while productive of good crops, yet is wonderfully rich
in its untold wealth of natural gas which needs but a thorough development of
its present wells to establish beyond a doubt the existence of another great gas
basin in Westmoreland county.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from
Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Compiled and Published by John M. Gresham & Co.
Samuel T. Wiley, Chief Assistant
1890


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