Fonds 72-002 - Fowlds family fonds

Henry Fowlds was born in 1790 in Scotland and married in 1813 to Jane Marshall Steele. Together they had ten children of which five survived. The family came to North America in 1821, settling first in New York, and then in Hartford in 1833. In 1834, they crossed the border and settled in Prince Edward County, Upper Canada. The Fowlds family settled in Asphodel Township in 1836, and then moved on to Westwood, where they set up a saw mill in conjunction with Dr. John Gilchrist in what was to become the village of Keene. In 1851, Henry Fowlds purchased from the Honourable James Crooks the water rights, lands and buildings then known as Crooks' Rapids, and later as Hastings. The Fowlds built upon this base, expanding their original saw mill to a corporate busisness of saw mill, grist mill, general store and post office. The three Fowlds' brothers, James, Henry M. and William, set up a lumber and flour business under the name of Jas. L. Fowlds and Bros. This company was terminated with the death of James Fowlds in 1884. The Fowlds were active in Hastings, occupying the seat of reeve, and the office of postmaster. James S. Fowlds (1818-1884) married Margaret MacGregor and they had nine children. Their seventh child, Frederick W. Fowlds (1857-1930), married Elizabeth Sutherland and they had three children, Helen, Eric, and Donald. Eric and Donald were soldiers in World War I and Helen was a nurse in the same war. Helen married Gerald Marryat after the war and became a local historian of the Peterborough region.