History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

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FREDERICK FOWLER.
Conspicuous among the old residents and active business
men of Hillsdale County is Colonel Frederick Fowler, of
Reading. His parents, Richard and Anna Fowler, were
natives of Massachusetts. They reared a family of nine
children,-Henry, Frederick, Franklin, Louisa, Horace,
Sophia, Emily, Timna, and Melissa. In 1814, Mr. Richard Fowler emigrated to Ohio with his family. He remained there engaged in farming until 1834, when he
removed to this county. Having reached Jonesville by
the Chicago turnpike, he and his sons cut their own road
through the woods to their destination, on section 30, in
the present township of Adams. There they cleared up a
good farm, and there Richard Fowler died in 1847, at the
age of fifty-six years. His widow passed away in 1873,
aged seventy-eight years.
Frederick Fowler was born at Perry, Geauga Co., Ohio,
on the 5th day of February, 1815. He remained with his
parents until twenty-one years old, assisting in the labors of
the farm, and acquiring a fair English education. Soon
after reaching his majority he took and carried out several
large contracts for clearing off and grading the Michigan
Southern Railroad immediately east of Hillsdale, besides
partially clearing up a farm in Hillsdale township. About
1837, his brother Henry and himself bought seventy-six
acres of land, known as Fowler's addition to Hillsdale City,
on which they erected sixteen dwellings. They also engaged in the dry-goods trade in Hillsdale; but as Henry
died at sea, on a voyage to Havana for his health, Frederick closed the business, having obtained two hundred and
forty acres of wild land in Reading, and built a log house
upon it. He moved thither in 1846, and there he has resided, engaged in farming, to the present time. By purchase this tract now contains four hundred and forty acres
of land beautifully situated, with fine buildings, and all the
accessories of a first-class farm. Colonel Fowler is also the
owner of several other farms, besides considerable village

property, etc. Notwithstanding his numerous agricultural
and business enterprises, he has been very active in all matters relating to the public welfare. He was one of the
principal agents in procuring the location of Hillsdale College at Hillsdale, and has been one of its trustees from the
beginning to the present time.
Always an ardent Republican, Frederick Fowler was one
of the foremost to take up arms when his country's life was
assailed. In the summer of 1861 he raised a company of
horsemen, of which he was commissioned as captain, and
which became Company G of the 2d Michigan Cavalry
(Phil. Sheridan's regiment). In the fall of 1861 the
regiment went to the front. Capt. Fowler was with it at
New Madrid, Corinth, Chaplain Hills, and numerous other
conflicts, as well as in raiding through Virginia and East
Tennessee, burning bridges, tearing up railways, and otherwise crippling the enemy. Being promoted to the position
of lieutenant-colonel in June, 1863, he resigned and returned
home. Colonel Fowler was also supervisor and magistrate
of his town; was elected a representative in the Legislature
in 1857, and in 1864 was chosen to represent Hillsdale
County in the State Senate. He was married on the 13th
day of January, 1842, to Miss Phebe L. Willits, of Lockport, N. Y., and they have been the parents of six children:
Helen, wife of J. C. Merriman, of Reading; two who died
young; Henry M., of Jasper Co., Mo.; and Fremont and
Frederick, Jr., still at home. In this brief sketch we have
confined ourselves to the barest facts, which show the
character of Frederick Fowler, one of the very earliest
pioneers of Hillsdale County, more clearly than we could
do by any labored eulogy. He is a type of the active
workers who have made the wilderness change to fruitful
fields, and as his energy has added to his own possessions,
it has at the same time benefited the community in which
he lived. The example he has set has borne its fruit. As
a farmer, soldier, legislator, and neighbor, he may be well
satisfied with the record he has made.

WOODBRIDGE.

THE township of Woodbridge, lying in the interior of
the county, a little southwest of the centre, was formed
from Fayette in 1840. Its original territory embraced
within its boundaries the present townships of Woodbridge,
Cambria, and the west half of Amboy. Cambria was set
off in 1841, and part of Amboy in 1850.
It now contains a total area of thirty sections, and is
bounded on the north by Cambria; east, by Ransom; south,
by Amboy; and west, by Camden township.
The general surface is elevated and rolling, quite regular
in its character, except along the water-courses and in the
northern part, where the bluffs and knolls rise almost to the
dignity of hills. The entire township was covered, originally, wit a heavy growth of timber, chiefly beech, maple,

linn, poplar, black and white ash, with considerable oak,
hickory, and black walnut. A few acres of the primeval
forests are still found scattered here and there over the
township, giving evidence of its former wealth and magnificence in the grand deciduous trees once so common to this
section. The soil is of a clay and gravelly loam, very fertile,
producing corn, potatoes, fruits, and the various cereals in
the greatest abundance and perfection. As a grazing and
stock-raising township, it has few superiors in the county.
St. Joseph's River, its principal water-course, enters the
township from the north, and flows southwest through the
central part. Silver Creek, flowing southeast, intersects the
northeast part. These streams, and their numerous small
tributaries, afford good water-power privileges, and excel