Ila Earle Fowler

(1876-1963)
Kentucky

Teacher, genealogist, lawyer, and poet

photograph

Charles Mayfield Meacham, A History of Christian County, Kentucky, From Oxcart to Airplane 510 (Nashvile, Tennessee: Printed by Marshall & Bruce Co., 1930)

Ila Earle Fowler was born and raised in Charleston, Kentucky in Hopkins County. Her father was Dr. Benjamin Earle.

The following biographical sketch of Fowler is drawn from Charles Mayfield Meacham's A History of Christian County, Kentucky, From Oxcart to Airplane 509-511 (Nashvile, Tennessee: Printed by Marshall & Bruce Co., 1930):

ILA EARLE FOWLER was born April 2, 1876, at Old Charleston, in Hopkins County, Kentucky; educated at the private school of the noted teacher, Hanson H. Boring, at Madisonville, and graduated in 1893 at South Kentucky College at Hopkinsville. She taught schools before her marriage to William T. Fowler, at Madisonville, Ilsley, St. Charles, Henson's in Hopkins and at Fowler's School in Christian-Caldwell.

She was the daughter of Dr. Benjamin Price Earle and Mary Anne (Roberts) Earle. . . .

* * * *

Mrs. Fowler compiled two chapters on "The Virginia Earles," in the Earle Family History, published 1924. She was World War Historian for Christian County under the State Council of Defense, the records gathered then being now in the Carnegie Library in Hopkinsville. She is an honorary vice-president of the Kentucky State Historical Society and a member of the Filson Club. She is a member of the State Executive Boards of the N.S.D.A.R. and U.S.D. 1812, and State Federation of Women's Clubs, and she . . . completed two years of service as president of Kentucky Division, U.D.C. She edits the Club Notes Column in The Club Woman Magazine, and is recording secretary of the Woman's Club of Central Kentucky. While living in Christian County she was for years the recording secretary of the Civic League and President of the P.T.A. of both West Side and Virginia Street schools and an active member of the W.C.T.U. She was a pioneer worker for woman suffrage as well.

[She assembled] historical material for the Presbyterian Church U.S., as she is historian of the Woman's Auxiliary of that church and of the Kentucky Synodical as well as a member of the Executive Board of the Historical Foundation of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches, which has its headquarters at Montreat, N.C.

Mrs. Fowler studied law in her husband's office, was examined before the State Board in April, 1927, was admitted to the bar, being presented before the Court of Appeals by Judge J. P. Hobson, commissioner of the court.

Mrs. Fowler has managed the affairs of a large household successfully and takes particular pride in cooking, sewing and homemaking, and her greatest interest has always been the care and training of her children.

photo

Iva Grace Solomon Peters, Mothers of Kentucky 7 (Iva Grace
Solomon Peters, 1964)

Poetry

Ila Earle Fowler, Down in West Kentucky and Other Poems (Cynthiana, Kentucky: Hobson Book Press, 1944)

Writings

Ila Earle Fowler, Kentucky Pioneers and Their Descendants (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1951)(1967)(1978)(1988)

____________, Captain John Fowler of Virginia and Kentucky: Patriot, Soldier, Pioneer, Statesman, Land Baron, and Civic Leader (Cynthiana, Kentucky: The Hobson Press, 1942)

Research Resources

Ila Earle Fowler Papers
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky

Ila Earle Fowler Notebook
Kentucky Historical Society
Frankfort, Kentucky