Fowler, Jacob, 1750 - 1787

Jacob Fowler was a prominent religious and civic figure in late eighteenth century native New England.  Born the son of James Fowler and Elizabeth, he attended Eleazar Wheelock’s Moor’s Charity School, more commonly known as Wheelock’s School, from 1762-1766, and was classmates with Enoch Closs (Delaware) Samuel Tallman (Delaware) and Sarah Wyyougs (Mohegan), Abraham Primus and Abraham Secondus, Peter (Mohawks), Daniel Mossuck (Tunxis), Samuel Ashbow (Mohegan) and Patience Johnson (Mohegan).    Fowler served as an usher and schoolmaster among the Oneida from 1766 to 1770, and school master among the Pequot communities in what is present day Ledyard and North Stonington, CT from 1770 – 1774. It is likely during this time that he married Esther Poquiantup, a Niantic woman, the daughter of Samson Poquiantup. The winter of 1772 in Ledyard must have been particularly difficult with Jacob and Esther suffering the loss of their only child.  After serving a year as preceptor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, in 1776, Fowler became the messenger to the Six Nations for Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull, a position the Reverend Joseph Fish of Stonington, among others, recommended him for and was a negotiator at Fort Pitt during the Revolutionary War.  After the war, Fowler, along with his brother David and brother-in-law Samson Occom, was instrumental in the founding of Brothertown, a Christian agrarian community.  Arriving in upstate New York 1784 he served as the first town clerk and died a short time thereafter.   McCallum, Eleazar Wheelock’s Indians, 115; Brooks, Writings of Samson Occom, 417; De Loss Love, Samson Occom, 348; Brown and Rose, Black Roots, 129:  Fish Correspondence