Finding Aid of the Daniel G. Fowle Papers, Addition, 1852 - 1957, PC.1638
Abstract
Daniel Gould Fowle (1831-1891) was a lawyer, judge, and Democratic governor of North
Carolina (1889-1891). Papers include law license, petition, correspondence, biographical
sketches; organizational minutes of the Soldiers Home Association, March 1891; speeches
made by Fowle, 1876-1889; letters written to him during his tenure as governor; Sloan
family letters, 1852, 1853; typescript of an 1864 letter from M.M. Fowle; materials
relating to Fowle's daughter, Mary Haywood Fowle Stearns; some printed material, clippings,
miscellaneous materials, and photographs.
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Daniel Gould Fowle (1831-1891), son of Martha Barney Marsh and Samuel Richardson Fowle
of Woburn, Massachusetts, was elected governor of North Carolina in 1888 only to die
suddenly while in office. Born in Washington, North Carolina, Fowle served in the
14th and 31st N.C. regiments until captured and paroled at Roanoke Island. He also
served as a state legislator, state adjutant general, a superior court judge, delegate
to the 1868 conservative convention and chairman of the central committee to the (subsequently the Democratic Party), and defense attorney in Ku Klux Klan prosecutions.
The bulk of these materials are speeches made by Daniel G. Fowle (1876-1889), letters
written to him during his tenure as governor of North Carolina (1889-1890), and materials
relating to Governor Fowle's daughter, Mary Haywood Fowle Stearns, including letters
written to her (1899-1957).
Daniel Gould Fowle (1831-1891) was a lawyer, judge, and Democratic governor of North
Carolina (1889-1891). Papers include law license, petition, correspondence, biographical
sketches; organizational minutes of the Soldiers Home Association, March 1891; speeches
made by Fowle, 1876-1889; letters written to him during his tenure as governor; Sloan
family letters, 1852, 1853; typescript of an 1864 letter from M.M. Fowle; materials
relating to Fowle's daughter, Mary Haywood Fowle Stearns; some printed material, clippings,
miscellaneous materials, and photographs.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Daniel G. Fowle Papers
- Call Number
- PC.1638
- Creator
- Fowle, Daniel G. (Daniel Gould), 1831-1891.
- Date
- 1852 - 1957
- Extent
- 3.00 boxes, 1.00 folders, 105.00 images, 787.00 items
- Language
- English
- Repository
- State Archives of North Carolina
Restrictions on Access & Use
Access Restrictions
Available for research.
Use Restrictions
Copyright is retained by the authors of these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law (Title 17 US Code). Individual researchers are responsible for using these materials in conformance with copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], PC.1638.2-4, Daniel G. Fowle Papers Addition, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Collection Overview
The bulk of these materials are speeches made by Daniel G. Fowle during the period from 1876 to 1889, and letters written to him during his tenure as governor of North Carolina in 1889 and 1890 (but considered personal papers rather than official records). Except for an 1852 and 1853 Sloan family letter, and the typescript of an 1864 letter, the remainder of these materials relate to Governor Fowle's daughter, Mary Haywood Fowle Stearns, including letters written to her between 1899 and 1957.
The earliest Fowle letter in this collection is a typescript of a May 3, 1864, letter from Martha M. Fowle (Governor Fowle's sister) describing the evacuation of Washington, N.C., by the federal forces who had recently held it by occupation. The remaining letters were all written to Governor Fowle during 1889 (eight letters) and 1890 (266 letters). Several of these are purely personal letters written by friends and family members, but most of them are letters written privately to the governor and are concerned with appointments to vacancies in state offices; speaking engagements at public functions; requests for the governor's personal recommendation of the writer to a third party; Democratic Party politics; petitions for pardon of felons whose indictments and convictions were said to have been politically motivated, and so forth.
The letters written to Governor Fowle's daughter, Mary Haywood (Fowle) Stearns, include six written by her brother, Daniel G. Fowle, Jr., between the years 1899 and 1943. The first five relate to his service in the Philippine Insurrection and the sixth relating to division of family property. Other items include two courtship letters written by Walter Stearns to Mary Fowle in 1906 and letters from friends.
Fowle's political speeches are also included in the collection as well as speeches on the occasion of civic and patriotic celebrations. His common theme is reconciliation between the North and the South after the Civil War. Fowle's political speeches characterize the Republican Party as a There are many allusions to Governor Holden's actions during the
There are various miscellaneous materials from both nineteenth and twentieth century
in the collection, however most of them arising from the life and interests of Mrs.
Stearns. The last series of the collection is a group of 105 photographs relating
to the governor and his fam
Overview of first accession: Box 1 includes law license (1853), commission as Adjutant
General (1863); and petition from legislators favoring Fowle for U.S. attorney general
under Samuel J. Tilden (1876). Much of his correspondence while governor (1888-1891)
concerns routine appointments, invitations, honors, petitions for pardons, and requests
for money, but some concerns the state militia, a lynching in Granville Co. and an
attempted lynching in Person Co., tobacco factory workers, Beaufort Co. swamplands,
UNC, constitutional centennials in New York and Fayetteville (1889), and the railroads,
with warning from Z. B. Vance about Jay Gould's monopoly (1888). Other correspondents
include Kemp P. Battle, W. S. Chadwick, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Coates, John S. Cunningham,
Clement Dowd, James D. Glenn, Thomas M. Holt, Fitzhugh Lee, Fred A. Olds, and George
A. Sparrow.
Overview of the addition of 1998: Boxes 2-3 include speeches made by Fowle, 1876-1889;
letters written to him during his tenure as governor; Sloan family letters, 1852,
1853; typescript of an 1864 letter from M.M. [Martha Matilda?] Fowle to her sister
[Sarah Anna Fowle Telfair?]; materials relating to Gov. Fowle's daughter, Mary Haywood
Fowle Stearns; some printed material, clippings. Miscellaneous materials include poetry;
material relating to Christ Church, Raleigh; Haywood Hall and Joel Lane House, also
Raleigh; a commonplace book belonging to Mary E. Haywood (c.1861-1865), presumably
while she was a student at St. Mary's School, and containing evidence that the book
had fallen into the hands of a Union officer, who could not resist inserting his name
and others into places reserved for those of Miss Haywood's schoolmates. Box 4 contains
photographs.
Arrangement Note
Arranged by type of material into five series: Fowle Letters, 1864-1890; Stearns Letters, 1899-1957; Fowle Speeches, 1876-1889, n.d.; Miscellaneous Papers 1861-1942, n.d.;Photographs, 1905-1906, n.d.
Biographical Note
Daniel Gould Fowle (1831-1891), son of Martha Barney Marsh and Samuel Richardson Fowle of Woburn, Massachusetts, was born in Washington, North Carolina, attended the Bingham School, graduated from Princeton College (1851) studied law at Richmond Hill under Judge Richmond M. Pearson, and opened a law practice in Raleigh in 1853. After outbreak of the Civil War, Fowle served in the 14th and 31st N.C. regiments until captured and paroled at Roanoke Island. During the remainder of the war years he served in the state legislature or as state adjutant general. Appointed in 1865 to a superior court judgeship, Fowle was confirmed in the appointment by the General Assembly in the summer of 1866, but resigned in the late autumn of 1867 in protest against intrusion of the federal military into judicial matters. A delegate to the 1868 conservative convention off the (subsequently the Democratic Party), Fowle was elected chairman of the central committee and remained thenceforth a key party member. In 1870 he was defense attorney in the Ku Klux Klan prosecutions, and in 1876 his name was suggested as Democratic candidate for governor (Vance, however, being nominated on the first ballot). In the hotly contested election of 1876, Fowle campaigned widely in what became a successful attempt to turn the Republican Party out of office for the first time since the end of the war. In 1880, Fowle was defeated in the gubernatorial election by Jarvis. In the 1884 campaign he fought strongly for Cleveland while standing, himself, unsuccessfully, as a candidate for Congress. In 1888 Fowle was elected governor and died suddenly in office in April, 1891.
Fowle was married first to Ellen Brent Pearson, daughter of Judge Pearson, who died in 1862 leaving daughters Margaret Pearson (Mrs. P. H. Andrews) and Martha Barnet (Mrs. David B. Avery). In 1866 he married Mary E. Haywood, daughter of Dr. Fabius Haywood of Raleigh. The second Mrs. Fowle was educated in St. Mary's School, as were her daughters: Helen Whitaker Fowle (Mrs. Thomas D. Knight) and Mary Haywood Fowle (Mrs. Walter Stearns). Of their two sons, Fabius Haywood Fowle died young, while Daniel G. Fowle, Jr., lived to adulthood serving in the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection,and World War I.
Contents of the Collection
The earliest Fowle letter in this collection is a typescript of a May 3, 1864, letter from Martha M. Fowle (Governor Fowle's sister) describing the evacuation of Washington, N.C., by the federal forces who had recently held it by occupation; the evacuation was accompanied by the blowing up of the Yankee fortifications to prevent their falling intact into the hands of the Confederates and the burning of the town. The remaining 274 Fowle letters were all written to Governor Fowle during 1889 (eight letters) and 1890 (266 letters). Several of these are purely personal letters written by friends and family members, but most of them are letters written privately to the governor (or written for his personal attention), and areconcerned with appointments to vacancies in state offices; speaking engagements at public functions (such as academic commencements, Memorial Day ceremonies, patriotic anniversaries, municipal celebrations); requests for the governor's personal recommendation of the writer to a third party, or seeking his endorsement of the writer's scheme; Democratic Party politics; petitions for pardon of felons whose indictments and convictions were said to have been politically motivated, and so forth. Several of the letters written to Fowle during the month of July, 1890, have as their topic the nomination of the Democratic candidate for the 5th Judicial District judgeship, and an equal number of those written during the latter part of July and August concern the nominations of Justices Merrimon and Clark as Democratic candidates for Supreme Court seats. July letters have as their topic, too, the summer encampment of the State Guard at Charlotte and the difficulties Adjutant General James D. Glenn had with some of the officers. Correspondence on the subject of the State Guard ends in these papers following Glenn's acknowledgement in August of Governor Fowle's prohibition of further personal letters from the adjutant general to the governor in regard to public matters. (Governor's Letter Books 72 and 74 ought to be consulted for the remainder of Adjutant General Glenn's letters to the governor.)
These are letters written to Governor Fowle's daughter, Mary Haywood (Fowle) Stearns. They include six written by her brother, Daniel G. Fowle, Jr., between the years 1899 and 1943, the first five relating to his service in the Philippine Insurrection, and the sixth relating to division of family property. A later letter dated November 29, 1918, addressed to Mrs. Fowle at Washington, N.C., encloses a newspaper clipping with a story denying the likelihood of truth in the rumors of Captain Fowle's death in the Argonne Forest, and announcing his having been cited for gallantry and recommended for the Legion of Honor. Two courtship letters written by Walter Stearns to Mary Fowle in 1906 are included in this small scattering of letters, the remainder of which are letters from friends that have little research value as mere survivors from what ought to be a much larger body of correspondence.
These include some of Fowle's political speeches as well as speeches on the occasion of civic and patriotic celebrations. His common theme is reconciliation--that the South, as the injured party, ought to be the first to forgive, and thus bring about a joining of heart and hand that really would heal the union of the states so badly wounded by the Civil War. Fowle's political speeches characterize the Republican Party as a responsible for suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus in time of peace, as having invaded the rights of states and persons, as having devastated and impoverished the South, as having deprived an innocent Mrs. Mary Surratt of her life, and as having poisoned the wellsprings of public virtue. There are many allusions to Governor Holden's actions during the . All the same when George W. Swepson shot and killed Adolphus Moore of Alamance County (who had been one of the democrats victimized earlier during the ), Fowle acted for Swepson's defense and helped secure his acquittal when indicted for murder in the June, 1876, term of Wake County Superior Court. Except for the Swepson defense speech, most of Fowle's speeches draw from one another for the same imagery, including wording, and almost always urge a healing of the nation through reconciliation of North and South.
These include both nineteenth and twentieth century materials, most of them arising from the life and interests of Mrs. Stearns. From her parents, however, the materials include a composition, from Governor Fowle's school days, and a commonplace book that had belonged to Mary E. Haywood (presumably when a student at St. Mary's School). The commonplace appears to have fallen into the hands of Captain Roger W. Woodbury of the 3d New Hampshire volunteers, presumably while his regiment was acting as provost guard at Wilmington, N.C. between January and April, 1865. While the book was in his hands, Captain Woodbury could not resist writing his own name, as well as the names of others (including that of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant), in places reserved for autographs of Miss Haywood's schoolmates, and otherwise scribbling in the book before it was returned to Miss Haywood. The little book was subsequently used in drawing up an extensive address list (pages 194-210), the purpose of which is uncertain. Otherwise, the miscellaneous materials are:
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Gift of Charles P. Wood, Lizard Lick, N.C.