Farmer, businessman, postmaster.
Born at Dandy Wiske, Yorkshire, England in 1839, son of Francis Fowler and Charlotte Ann Jewett, the family immigrated to Canada in 1840 and settled at Seaforth, Ontario. In 1860, he married Helen Oliver (?-?) and they had seven children: Frank Oliver Fowler, Alexander Fowler, William Oliver Fowler (?-1908), Agnes Scott Fowler (?-?, wife of Charles A. Walkinshaw), Charlotte Ann Fowler (?-?, wife of Thomas Richard Brown), Mary Fowler (?-?, wife of Samuel J. Miller, 1887), and Dora Fowler (?-?, wife of S. Wallace). In 1876, the family moved to Wingham, Ontario where he built a grist mill and cheese factory. He made exploratory trips to western Canada in 1874 and 1879, buying land in the Woodhaven and St. James areas.
In 1881, following his first wife’s death, he came to Manitoba and established a farm in the Chesley district of the Rural Municipality of Oakland, near the junction of the Assiniboine and Souris rivers. He married Katherine “Kate” Calder (1857-?) of Wingham, Ontario in 1886 and they moved to Baldur in 1891. There, he constructed several buildings including, between 1898 and 1899, a large, two-storey brick home. He served as Postmaster from September 1897 to September 1904, being succeeded by his son, Alexander Fowler. He also owned the local grain elevator and was a major shareholder in the Manitoba Elevator Company.
Active in the community, he served as Secretary-Treasurer for the Simpson School District (10 years), promoted the building of the Baldur Presbyterian Church (1900), and was Superintendent of its Sunday School. He moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1905 and died there on 13 March 1906.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Fowler House (Baldur, RM of Argyle)
1891 Canada census, Ancestry.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Death registration [William O Fowler], British Columbia Vital Statistics.
“Yesteryears,” Baldur Gazette, 15 February 1978, page 2.
Come Into Our Heritage: RM of Argyle, 1882-1982 by The Rural Municipality of Argyle, 1981, pages 411-412.
Post Offices and Postmasters, Library and Archives Canada.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 5 September 2024
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