Named after his grandfather, Ellis Fowler was the last son born to Ephraim and Nancy Moseley Fowler.  He was born circa 1805 in Union County, SC and died before 1840.

Ellis and his sister Betty were still living in his father’s household in 1822 when Ephraim’s will was probated.  How do I know this?  From Ephraim’s will of 1822:

 

Sometime after 1822 and before 1825, Ellis married Sarah “Sallie” Mabry.  An analysis of census records indicates that Ellis, his wife Sarah, two young sons, and a young daughter lived in the home of his widowed mother Nancy Fowler in 1830.

How do I know that Nancy Fowler’s household of 1830 included Ellis and his young family, and not that of Betty and her family?  If I may turn aside from Ellis for a moment, I will explain my train of thought…………….

 

Ephraim left his daughter Betty a negro girl named Jane, a feather bed, a cow and calf.

Betty married Richardson Bentley between 1822 and 1830.  The 1830 Union County census reflects the following household:

• Randall R. Bentley age 20-29 (Richardson……Randall…….a census taker’s mistake when recording the name of the head of household?)
• a female age 15-19  (right age for Betty)
• a female slave age 10-23 (“one negro girl named Jane“)

Richardson Bentley and Betty Fowler began their family with the birth of son Lemuel Bentley in 1831.  They may have had more children born in Union County before moving to Blount County, Alabama where some of their children were born.

The Bentley family was counted in the 1840 census for Blount County.  Richardson Bentley died in 1843.  Betty Fowler Bentley was included in Blount County census records in 1850 and 1860.  She was summoned to Union County SC in 1866 for the settlement of her brother Stephen Fowler’s estate settlement.

If the 1830 household of Randall S. Bentley was indeed the Richardson and Betty Fowler Bentley household — the 1830 household of Nancy Fowler could only include her son Ellis, his wife Sarah, and their three young children:

• Nancy Fowler: female 50-59
• Ellis Fowler: male 20-29
• Sarah Mabry Fowler: female 20-29
• Henry Richard Fowler: male <5
• Julia Fowler: female <5
• B. Elbert Fowler: m<5

(daughter Mary Jane Fowler was born after 1830)

Ellis and Sarah had four children prior to his untimely death before 1840.  Was his  death caused by an accident or illness?  Was he laid to rest in the graveyard on the old Fowler place?  His early demise meant that he would never be head of household in any census records.  Instead, his widow, Sarah Mabry Fowler was counted in 1840.

• Sarah Fowler: age 30-39
• Julia Fowler: age 10-14
• Mary Jane Fowler: age 5-9

Were twelve year old Henry Richard and seven year old Elbert sent to live with relatives?

In the 1850 census, Sarah Fowler was living with her eldest son, Henry Richard Fowler.

• Sarah Fowler: age 42
• Henry Fowler: age 24

Julia Fowler had married William Sprouse and was counted in his household in 1850.  Mary Jane Fowler was living with her favorite aunt, Mary Fowler White (sister of Ellis Fowler), and B. Elbert Fowler was not to be found although he was soon to marry Malinda Susannah Newbury and move to Cherokee County, Georgia.

Sarah Mabry Fowler is absent from records after the 1850 census.  Did she marry again, or perhaps follow her dearly departed husband Ellis Fowler into the afterlife?  I still continue to search for her, and hope to someday have more answers.

Children of Ellis Fowler and Sarah Mabry

• Henry Richard Fowler b. 1825
• Julia Fowler b. 1828
• B. Elbert Fowler b. 1830
• Mary Jane Fowler b. 1833

 

 

• Ellis Fowler 1805-before 1840 m. Sarah (Sallie) Mabry 1808–after 1850
  • Henry Richard Fowler 1825–1885 m. Nancy Ann Elizabeth Farr 1840–1923
    • John Henry Fowler 1861–1914 m.  Eunice Lawson 1869–1919
      • Henry Richard Fowler 1889–1917
      • Robert K Fowler 1891–1917
      • Mamie Fowler 1893–1951 m. William Oscar Horne 1892–1966
        • Robert Horne 1918–
        • Gladys Horne 1921–
        • James Cecil Horne 1921–1953 m. Alta Jones
        • William Fowler “Billy” Horne 1923–2005
        • Peggy Horne 1927–2003
        • Sarah Ann Horne 1930–
      • Carrie Fowler 1895–1975 m. James F Faulkner 1891–
        • James Fowler Faulkner 1924–2000
        • Hugh Grier Faulkner 1927–1993
        • Rachel Faulkner 1929–
        • John Wilson Faulkner 1932–1989
      • Vera Fowler 1897–1977
      • William Fred Fowler 1900–1968
      • Mary Fowler 1903–1995
      • John Wilson Fowler 1906–1975
      • James Glenn Fowler 1909–1968
    • William Gist Fowler 1863–1923
    • David Nicholas Fowler 1866–1950
    • Sarah Catherine Fowler 1867–1950
    • James Thomas Fowler 1871–1954
    • Louise Fowler 1873–1953
    • Lucy Caroline Fowler 1876–1963
    • Richard Franklin Fowler 1878–1961 m. Mamie Aycock 1886–1972
      • Richard States Rights Fowler 1910–1962
      • Norris Rogers “Buddy” Fowler 1912–1997
      • Harold C Fowler 1914–1988 m.  Carolyn Eugenia Brown 1917–2006
        • Julian Harold Fowler 1944–2006
      • Rowland Franklin Fowler 1915–1917
      • Thesis Fowler 1916–1989
      • Julian Campbell Fowler 1918–1937
    • Nannie Mahala Fowler 1881–1973
    • Mary Ellen Darling Fowler 1885–1974
  • Julia Fowler 1828–1880 m. William Sprouse 1822–1870
    • Mary Jane Sprouse 1848–1910 m. Andrew Jackson Foster 1834–
      • Emma Foster 1866–
      • William D. Foster 1873–
      • Elizabeth Foster 1876–
      • Lizzie Foster 1885–
      • Texanna Foster 1886–
    • John H Sprouse 1850–1910
    • James Calvin Sprouse 1853–1929
    • Sallie Sprouse 1854–1880
    • McSwain “Doc” Sprouse 1856–1936
    • Caroline Sprouse 1859–1880
    • LouElla Sprouse 1865–1939
    • Len Newton “Jesse” Sprouse 1868–1952 m Syphrone  Fowler 1870–1953
      • Willie C Sprouse 1889–1975
      • Clara M Sprouse 1892–
      • Cea L Sprouse 1897–
      • Eula Sprouse 1901–
      • Clarance Sprouse 1905–
      • Effie Sprouse 1908–
      • Lin Newton Sprouse 1909–1930
  • B. Elbert Fowler 1830–1900 m.  Malinda Susannah Newberry 1833–1905
    • Mary Fowler 1852–
    • Texanna Jane Fowler 1856–1923 m. Joseph H. Jones 1839–; m. Charles Hoffman 1865–
      • Lillie Jones 1877–1949 m.  Joseph Benjamin Garner 1875–1950
        • Hubert Lee Garner 1894–1943
        • Oco Lydia Garner 1896–
        • Anna Beatrice Garner 1899–
        • Murdie Garner 1902–
        • Marion Garner 1909–
        • Willie Garner 1913–
        • Ida Garner 1919–
      • Charlie Hoffman 1893–
    • Susan Northa Fowler 1858–
  • • Harriett Fowler 1861–
    • John Marion Fowler 1861–1909  m. Nora Louise Strozier 1871–1935
      • Bennie L Fowler 1888–1963
      • Wilson S Fowler 1893–1968
      • Herbert F Fowler 1895–1915
      • Annie L Fowler 1897–1909
      • Walter Godard Fowler 1899–1984 m. Leila Jane Hencely 1914
        • Walter Godard Fowler Jr. 1939–1999
      • John L Fowler 1901–1965
      • James E Fowler 1903–1978
      • Edward Jefferson Fowler 1904–1967 m. Rena Mae Davis 1906–1984
        • Jefferson Edward Fowler 1941–2007
    • Benjamin Fowler 1862–
  • • Henry R Fowler 1869–1933 m. Georgia P Harris 1871–1949
    • Calvin Fowler 1873–
  • Mary Jane Fowler 1833– m. Newton Lipsey