Mary Susan Fowler was twenty-four years old when she reached up into the sky to grab the dangling rope of a hot air balloon piloted by Thaddeus Lowe.
The year was 1861. She had never seen — had never imagined — the contraption that hovered above her and her family and neighbors; yet she raised her arms into the air, took hold of the rope, and pulled the stranger and his even stranger airship to the ground.
While many of the men aimed their shotguns up at the alien in the sky and others hid nearby, the actions of this woman were bold and brave. I have no doubt that she was courageous beyond words.
She was the daughter of Stephen Fowler and his first wife Sarah. She was the wife of Jackson Palmer. She was the mother of five children, and the ancestor of many.
Mary Susan Fowler Palmer in the Census 1850-1900
Mary Susan Fowler was born in Union County, South Carolina between 1834 to 1836. Her father Stephen Fowler was a son of Ephraim Fowler and a grandson of Henry Ellis Fowler.
Mary Susan Fowler would be the mother of Palmer children, and it would be her descendants — my distant cousins, although I did not know at the time — with whom I would play games in school, have a secret girlish crush upon, see my cousins marry.
Small Town Southern USA, and we were, one and all, related even if the thought never — even fleetingly — crossed our minds.
Mary Susan Fowler married Jackson P. Palmer (1836-1907) ca. 1855. Jackson P. Palmer was the son of Parmenus Palmer (1795– after 1860).
This particular Palmer family had made their way into the state of South Carolina in the person of Joshua Palmer, father of Parmenus and a veteran of the Revolutionary War.
Joshua Palmer was born March 12, 1750 in Amelia County, Virginia. He had moved to Union County, South Carolina before 1775 — the year he enlisted as a volunteer in the army. He was a captain by the time the war ended.
The military traditions of the Palmer family did did not stop at the end of the Revolutionary War. Jackson P. Palmer enlisted in the American Civil War on December 15, 1861, was captured at Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864, and released on June 10, 1865 after the end of the war.
But I digress. Jackson Palmer had married Mary Susan Fowler several years before the start of the Civil War. Their children were born during one of the most turbulent times in the history of the United States.
EDWARD D. PALMER
Edward D. Palmer was born in Union County, South Carolina in 1856, the first of five children born to Mary Susan Fowler and Jackson Palmer.
Around 1878, Edward D. Palmer married his local sweetheart, Harriet Jane Page, daughter of Samuel Page.
The newly married couple stayed in South Carolina only briefly, moving to Alabama where most of their children were born, then on to Texas where the last of their children would enter the world. The Palmer family made one final move — to Oklahoma — where they would spend the rest of their lives.
Edward Palmer died in 1936, Harriet Jane Page Palmer died ten years later, in 1946. They rest together in the Highland Cemetery in Lawton, Comanche County, Oklahoma.
ELIZABETH PALMER
The only daughter of Mary Susan Fowler and Jackson Palmer was born in the autumn of 1857. She was given the name Elizabeth but she was known most of her life as Lizzie.
Lizzie married Marcus Broome in 1880; the 1900 census indicates that she had given birth six times with only one surviving child —Robert Lee Broome, born in 1881.
There were three adopted children in the Marcus Broome household of 1900:
- Mason Sprouse Broome (1885–1908)
- George Andrew Sprouse Broome (1886–1956)
- Sarah Jane “Sallie” Sprouse Broome (1887–1959)
These children were fathered by William Rufus Sprouse (1862-1915) and Liza Smith. There are many people who believe that Lizzie Palmer was the mother of those three children. To clear up any confusion over the identity of the birth mother, I offer the following:
The 1880 household of Hughey Smith and his wife Catherine included eighteen-year-old Sallie, twenty-year-old James, fifteen-year-old Lizzie, twelve-year-old Eliza, ten-year- old John, and nine-year-old Mahala.
The two Smith daughters — Lizzie and Eliza — are of great interest to me in this matter.
The Hughey Smith household was almost adjacent to the Jackson Palmer household. It is my studied and well researched theory that either Lizzie Smith or her sister Eliza Smith had three out-of-wedlock children with William Rufus Sprouse.
Marcus Broome and his wife Lizzie Palmer opened their home and hearts to these three children.
Was there a blood connection between the Broome-Palmer-Smith-Sprouse families that would explain why those three children were reared in the Marcus Broome home? Perhaps taking in these children gave comfort to a mother who had lost five children in less than two decades.
I do not know for certain that either Lizzie Smith or her sister Eliza Smith who lived next to the Palmer family in 1880 was the right Liza Smith who gave birth to the three adopted children. I do know that both sisters were in the right place at the right time, and were of the right ages, and had a connection to the Palmer/Broom family.
There are many family trees on-line that have Elizabeth “Lizzie” Palmer as the birth mother of those three children. This is not possible. Lizzie Palmer had married Marcus Broome several years before the birth of the children…
…and more importantly, the death certificate for Sarah Jane Sprouse/Broome has LIZA SMITH recorded as the mother:
The Marcus Broome family of 1900 drastically transfigured into an unrecognizable, broken tribe by 1910.
Robert Lee Broome, his adopted brother George Sprouse Broome , and his adopted sister Sarah Jane Sprouse Broome had all married and started their own families.
Mason Sprouse Broome had died in 1908.
Lizzie Palmer Broome had moved into the household of her younger brother Robert Palmer and his family.
Lizzie’s husband Marcus Broome had abandoned his family to marry her cousin Anna Victoria Leonard (1872-1946). They had a son born in Texas in 1903 — evidence that Marcus Broome had left Lizzie and their house filled with children shortly after the 1900 census was taken.
Texas was a long way from the scornful stares of family and friends, and perhaps they thought they could leave their guilt behind in Carolina.
Anna Victoria Leonard was paternally descended from Henry Ellis Fowler (1746-1808) through his son Ellis Fowler (b. 1770); she was also descended maternally from Henry Ellis Fowler through his son Big Mark Fowler (b. 1780).
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Palmer was descended from Henry Ellis Fowler through his son Ephraim Fowler (1765-1822).
Thus, Lizzie Palmer and Anna Victoria Leonard were double third cousins. Did Lizzie suffer double heartbreak ?
Lizzie Palmer lived through the American Civil War, the hardships of reconstruction, the loss of five infant children, the desertion of her husband. She lived to see some of her grandsons march off to fight in World War I, and she lived through the Great Depression.
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Palmer Broome died January 21, 1931 of Pellegra. She was laid to rest in eternal peace in the Haney Graveyard, not far from her mother and father.
Her final rest was a long time coming, and well deserved.
ISSAC P. PALMER
Isaac Palmer was born June 15, 1859. He was the second son … the third child … born to Mary Susan Fowler and Jackson Palmer.
Isaac “Ike” Palmer married Louise “Lou” Bentley, daughter of Aquilla Bentley (1814–1866) and Rachel Caroline Haney (1827–1864).
Ike and Lou were the parents of a large family. Thirteen children had been born to them, per the census of 1900. I know the names of only nine children: five sons and four daughters to carry on the name and blood of this Fowler/Palmer line.
Louise Bentley Palmer died July 5, 1908. She was buried in the Haney Graveyard.
On November 25, 1908, in Cherryville, North Carolina, forty-six-year-0ld Ike Palmer married eighteen-year-old May Falls. In spite of the age difference, it was a successful union as Ike, May, and his sister Lizzie shared a household in 1930.
Ike Palmer died in 1933 of cancer. He was laid to rest in the Haney Graveyard.
After the death her husband, May Falls Palmer moved back to Cherryville, NC and remarried. She died in 1956 and was buried in North Carolina.
ROBERT P. PALMER
Robert Palmer was born in 1861, not long after the start of the Civil War.
Robert Palmer married Ann Inman (1859–1920) around 1883. They had three sons and four daughters,
The sons and daughters of Robert Palmer and Ann Inman lived long lives and had many children who had many children, and their descendants today carry on this family line.
Ann Inman Palmer died in 1920. Her husband Robert Palmer would follow her to the grave only six years later.
There are two death certificates for Robert Palmer. Although this is somewhat rare, I have seen it happen several times in my research.
Both death certificates have the wrong date of birth: September 21, 1859. He was not counted in the 1860 census, and his brother Ike Palmer was born in June of 1859.
The headstone for Robert Palmer at Mt. Joy Cemetery in Kelton has the correct date of birth: October 26, 1861.
The two death certificates have conflicting information as to the date of his death:
The first one has May 19, 1926 as the date of death, and heart disease listed as the cause of death.
The second death certificate has the date of death as May 20, 1926. It states that, although Robert Palmer had suffered from heart disease for several years, his death was caused by heart issues activated by a gun shot wound. He had been under the care of a doctor since April 2, 1926, so one must assume that he was shot that day.
Robert Palmer’s death was determined to be a homicide.
Who shot Robert Palmer? Reported homicide notwithstanding, was it a self-inflicted gun shot wound or did someone make an attempt on his life? I find nothing in the newspapers of 1926. My search continues.
JOSEPH PALMER
Joseph Palmer was the fifth and last child born on March 10, 1866 to Mary Susan Fowler and Jackson Palmer. He was conceived after his father’s return from the Civil War.
In 1898, Joe Palmer married a widow from North Carolina. Her name was Lucy Ellen Petticord (born September 2, 1863) and she had four children from her previous marriage to William M. Trogdon.
Joe Palmer and Lucy had two sons:
- Carl J. Palmer (born July 10, 1899 in Forsyth County, Nc; died July 11, 1932 in Pinckney, Union County, SC.)
- Robert Glen Palmer (born May 24, 1901 in Forsyth County, NC died November 25, 1974 in Winston-Salem, NC.)
The Joe Palmer family lived in North Carolina from 1898 until 1920. I have been unable to find the family in the 1930 census, but Joe Palmer was back in Union County, South Carolina by 1933. That was the year he killed a man.
In June 1933, Joe Palmer slashed the throat of Ollie Millwood at the Ottaray Mill in Union County. Ollie Millwood died after being taken to the hospital.
That is the extent of my knowledge of this tragedy or the aftermath.
Lucy Ellen Palmer died on March 1, 1937 in Winston-Salem and was buried there.
Joseph Palmer died October 10, 1937 in Union County. He was buried at Mount Joy Cemetery in Kelton.
Jackson P. Palmer died in 1907. His wife Mary Susan Fowler outlived him by a little more than a decade. She died on June 30, 1818.
Both husband and wife lie side-by-side in the Haney Graveyard.
I visit there often. I walk among the headstones to pay my respects to the ones who lie beneath, the ones who were here before me.
I am drawn to the beautiful stone that stands guard over Mary Susan Fowler. I sometimes sit by her grave and think about her life.
I imagine the glorious day she pulled a balloon out of the sky, and my dreams of Mary Susan Fowler float up, up, up into the deep blue heaven above.
- Mary Susan Fowler (1836-1918) m. Jackson P Palmer (1836–1907)
- Edward D. Palmer (1856–1936) m. Harriet Jane Page (1859–1946)
- J C Palmer (1881–)
- Mary Palmer (1883–)
- Eula Palmer (1884–)
- Monroe Palmer (1888–)
- Nanni Palmer (1889–)
- Bessie Mae Hale (1891–1966)
- Volley Palmer (1893–)
- Odell Palmer (1897–1932)
- Lola Palmer (1901–)
- Elizabeth “Lizzie” Palmer (1857–1931) m. Marcus Gilliam Broome (1859–1931)
- Robert L Broome (1881–1950)
- Isaac P “Ike” Palmer (1859–1933) m. Louise Bentley (1857-1908)
- Mary Palmer (1879–1939)
- Frances Palmer (1881–1907)
- Samuel Palmer (1882–1902)
- Charles Paul Palmer (1885–1957)
- Alice Palmer (1886–1930)
- Goodman Palmer (1888–1925)
- Joseph P. “Joe” Palmer (1890–1977)
- Ellen Palmer (1892–1983)
- John Palmer (1893-1959)
- Robert P. Palmer (1859–1926) m. Ann Inman (1859–1920)
- Clough Palmer (1883–1961)
- Charles “Charlie” Palmer (1886–1972)
- Josie Palmer (1889–1978)
- Nettie Palmer (1891–1979)
- Julia Palmer (1894–1975)
- Stella Belle Palmer (1896–1977)
- William Oliver Palmer (1899–1971)
- Joseph “Joe” Palmer (1866–1937) m. Lucy Petticord (1862–1937)
- Carl J. Palmer (1899-1932)
- Robert Glenn Palmer (1901–1974)
- Edward D. Palmer (1856–1936) m. Harriet Jane Page (1859–1946)
For more information on the family of Mary Susan Fowler, please click on the links below:
THE FOWLER FAMILIES OF UNION COUNTY, SC 