Silas Willard Fowler, M.D.
Silas W. Fowler, M.D., of Delaware, was born in 1847. in Prattsville. Green County, New York, the fourth child of Charles M. and Catherine Ann Fowler. His father was also a native of Prattsville, while his mother was born in New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. The parents settled on a 200-acre farm in Porter Township, Delaware County, in 1847, when the subject of this sketch was in his infancy.
Silas W. Fowler received his primary education in the common schools of the township. In 1862-63 he was sent to Central College Academy. During the winters, at the age of 15 and 16. he taught school in the northern part of Franklin County. His ordinary occupations were interrupted by the Civil War, and in the spring of 1864 he enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment. O. V. I. After returning from the army, he entered Oherlin College, where he remained until the fall of 1868. He then began reading medicine under the celebrated Dr. J. W. Russell, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. In 1869-70 he attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and in 1871 he was graduated from Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
His father, having rented the farm, moved to Delaware in 1869. and the son, in the year of his graduation, settled in Delaware, where he has been steadily engaged in the practice of his profession, having for 32 years occupied the same office.
Dr. Fowler has been engaged continuously, more or less, in literary work, besides establishing a large and lucrative practice. He has written articles for various medical journals. In 1880 he was a member of the corps that wrote the Delaware County History, writing the history of several townships and of the medical profession; and he has contributed the history of the medical profession, and of various schools of medicine from 1808 to the present time, as well as the history of the secret orders of the county, for the present history.
Dr. Fowler has been a frequent delegate from the various medical societies to which he belongs to the State Medical Association, the American Medical Association, and to the International Medical Congress. He has been an extensive traveler, and while traveling has been a close investigator of professional work and schools. While visiting on the Pacific slope one year, he had the good fortune to meet the celebrated Dr. Lorenz. and to study his methods on the bloodless reduction and treatment of the hip joint disease. While in California he investigated the history of the old Spanish missions, and wrote many letters concerning them which were published. He made an extensive trip to Mexico and Cuba, as well as through the southern and eastern States of this country. Two years ago he made a trip to the Orient, visiting the Azores; Spain, northern Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and other European countries. While in the Orient he made a special study of leprosy in its various farms, and saw hundreds suffering from this dread disease. He has prepared an article on this ancient disease for the medical fraternity.
Dr. Fowler is a Free Mason, belonging to the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Delaware Council, the Commandery of Knight Templars at Marion, Ohio, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Columbus, Ohio, and the Scioto Consistory, being a Master and 32d degree Mason. He is a member of Asbury M. E. Church, having been thus connected with it since his early youth. His great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents were strict Presbyterians.
The Doctor has always been interested in the welfare of the town, and has written and published several articles on the hygienic condition of the city and its water supply, and has also been interested in perfecting and extending the use of the valuable mineral waters in and around the city.
Dr. Fowler married Miss Iza Vail, a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University, and only daughter of the late Judge Isaac C. and Clara B. Vail, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908
Dr. Silas Williard Fowler is a son of Charles M. and Catherine Ann Fowler, who came to Delaware County. Ohio, in 1847. The father was an oil-cloth manufacturer in New York. The doctor was the fourth child, and was born in Green County, New York, and when one year old came with his parents to Porter Township in the eastern part of the countv. He, like many others, was educated at first in the common schools. At an early age he was sent to Central College in Franklin County, Ohio. After two years in the College he began teaching. By the consent of his father, in 1864 he enlisted in the army in the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment, O. V. I. After being mustered out of the service, he entered Oberlin College, where he remained until the fall of 1868, when he entered the office of that celebrated surgeon, Dr. J. W. Russell, at Mt. Vernon, Ohio. He was one year at Ann Arbor, Michigan, to attend the University. In 1871 he graduated from the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While at Jefferson College he had the advantages of the lectures of the great authors. Gross, Dickson, Wallace, Rand, Keen and Pancoast. After his graduation he returned to Delaware and opened an office, his father and fanlily having preceded him to Delaware in 1869. For thirty-six years he has been on the main street, and is one of the six business men remaining, who were on the street at that time. During all this time he has been in the forefront of the practice of his profession. He has been a frequent contributor to medical journals, and newspapers, and for many years was the local correspondent of the Cleveland Leader. He has always maintained high professional standing.
The Doctor has been an extensive traveler. He has visited all parts of the United States, Mexico, Cuba, the Azores, Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Asia Minor, Turkey, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, France and England.
He was raised a Presbyterian, but now belongs to the Methodist Church. He is a member of Hiram Lodge, F. and A. M., No. 18; Delaware Council. No. 84, R. and S. M.; Delaware Chapter, R. and A. M.. and Marion Commandery, K. T., No. 36. He is a member of the Delaware County, the Ohio State, and the .American and the Tenth District Medical .Associations. Hee was twice made delegate to the International Medical Congress. He prepared the history of the medical profession for the old county history from 1806 down to the present, 1907. Thus the history of the medical profession is recorded
to the present time.
Dr. Fowler has always stood for a high standard of medical education and professional ethics, always gave his services freely to the worthy poor, and has done more literary work than most members of the profession in the county. The Doctor's natural bent towards literature, and his long familiarity with newspaper work, has made him one of the most interesting and profficient writers the county has ever produced, and it is to be hoped that he will yet put many of his interesting articles into the form of a book, so that the public may have the benefit of his experience as a traveler. The Doctor's extended acquaintance throughout this county, his long professional career, and his close and intimate association with the older members of the profession who have passed to their reward, have enabled him to prepare this chapter on the medical profession with much more accuracy and proficiency than it could have been written by the author of this history, who has prepared this sketch of Dr. Fowler's life: and the writer hereby wishes to acknowledge his gratefulness to him for this full and complete chapter on the medical profession.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908