Womack Fowler and his wife Susannah Moseley, had fourteen children if one takes as truth the entries made in the Womack Fowler Family Bible. Seven sons and seven daughters were born between the years 1809 to 1836. Two sons and three daughters did not survive childhood, and if not for the entries in the family bible, their brief existence on earth would not have been known to us. They, no doubt, lie in eternal rest in the Womack Fowler family graveyard near Jonesville.

Nine children — five sons and four daughters — did survive and thanks to extensive paper research and DNA testing, much is known about them and their descendants.

• Martha Patsy Fowler (1809–1872)
• Tempa Fowler (1810–1862)
• William M. Fowler (1812–1872)
• Henry Fowler (1814–1816)
• Marinda Lucinda “Cinda” “Missinda” Fowler (1816–1879)
• Melinda Fowler (1818–1819)
• Susannah Fowler (1821–1866)
• Rhoda Fowler (1823–1825)
• Rufus Marion Fowler (1825–1864)
• Maryan Catherine Fowler (1827– before 1830)
• Felix Parham Fowler (1829–186x)
• James Hervey Fowler (1832–1863)
• Josephus Fincher Fowler (1833–1842)
• Womack Matthew Fowler (1836–1862)

Womack Fowler sent all five of his sons to fight in the War Between the States. Only one returned home. That son was William M. Fowler.

William M. Fowler was born in Union County, South Carolina on December 17, 1812. He was the third child and first son born to twenty-eight year old Womack and twenty year old Susannah Moseley Fowler. I have never seen in any document what the middle initial “M” stands for, but I suspect that it is Mark.

William M. Fowler’s date of birth was recorded in the family bible, he was mentioned in his father’s Last Will and Testament, he was counted in two census records, he penned his own Last Will and Testament leaving his worldly possessions to his widow Martha and his son Morgan Reaves, and his death was mentioned when his mother’s estate was settled after her death in 1878.

He may have fought in the Civil War alongside his brothers Rufus Marion and Wymac Matthew in the South Carolina 15th Infantry. There was a William Fowler in the battalion but I have no proof that it was William, son of Womack.

William M. Fowler married a woman named Martha, born ca. 1821. They had no children although in 1860, a young man named James Lenon lived with them; and in 1870, a young woman named Susan Fowler (and listed as idiotic) lived in the household. I have been unable to document either of the two.

William M. Fowler had an out-of-wedlock son in 1841 with Millie Reaves (b. 1827). Millie Reaves (Reevis/Reeves) may have been the daughter of Zachariah Reaves or Asa Reaves. More research is needed.

The son’s name was Morgan Reaves (1841-1928).

Morgan Reaves and his mother Millie are conspicuously absent in census records until 1870, but so is William M. Fowler until 1860. Millie Reaves married William Pierce before 1870, and they were recorded together with her son Morgan Reaves, his wife Elizabeth and their daughter Adeline.

I found a copy of William M. Fowler’s Last Will and Testament in the SC State Archives in Columbia, SC. In my great haste, I cut off the page just before the date that the will was signed. I will go back for this information. It was mentioned in the estate settlement of the will that his mother (Susannah Moseley Fowler), a sister (Marinda Lucinda Fowler Long) and a son (Morgan Reaves) survived him. HIs son Morgan Reaves was mentioned several times, and there was a dispute between him and the widow Martha Fowler. It was also mentioned that William M. Fowler died in Columbia SC. What was he doing so far away from home?

In the meantime:

Like his father, Morgan Reaves served in the Infantry during the Civil War. He was in the SC 13th Regiment Infantry, having enlisted on September 3, 1861. He was discharged March 17, 1865. He and his wife Elizabeth Thomas had five children before her death in 1912. Morgan Reaves died February 8, 1928 and was buried in the Glendale Cemetery.

Millie Reaves Pierce possibly died March 13, 1939 in Glendale, Spartanburg County, SC, although I have not been able to find documentation for her beyond the 1880 census. There is a Millie Piece buried in the Glendale Cemetery; the dates indexed for her grave in the cemetery may be incorrect — something I intend to look into very soon.

I do not know when or where widow Martha Fowler died. She was living in 1878 when the estate of William’s mother Susannah Moseley Fowler was settled. I do not know if she remained a widow or if she remarried.

• Henry Ellis Fowler (1746-1808)
  • Womack Fowler (1785-1849) married Susannah Moseley
    • William M. Fowler (1812-1872) and Millie Reaves (1827-1939)
      • Morgan Reaves (1841-1928) m. Elizabeth Thomas 1844–1912
        • Adelaide Bolivar Reaves 1870–1953
        • Mary Reaves 1873–1965
        • James Robert Reaves 1875–1942
        • Carrie Reaves 1877–
        • Walter Dickson Reaves 1883–1950