Pioneers by the name of Fowler were early in Kentucky, and some of them were the owners of large bodies of land. In 1783, Alexander Fowler entered 10,000 acres on the Little Kentucky river; and in 1784, John Fowler, who was the first member of Congress from Ashland District, located 1536 acres on Brush creek and on the dividing ridge between Pitman’s creek and Robertson’s run. I do not know whether Jacob Fowler was of the family of these Fowlers, but he was certainly akin to them in so far as the love and ownership of lands were concerned. Besides other possessions, he owned 2000 acres of the site of the present city of Covington, Kenton Co., Ky. He was one of the pioneers of what afterward became the county of Kenton, before the city of Covington was incorporated. A census of the male inhabitants of this locality shows him to have been residing here in 1810, with his sons Edward and Benjamin. Had he been permitted to retain these Covington lands, he might have become a multi-millionaire. His kind heart, however, led him to become the indorser of those who made a clean sweep of his fine estate. A large double brick dwelling house, handsomely furnished, in the midst of ample grounds, planted with trees and shrubbery, flowers and blue-grass, went with his lands to pay the debts of others. Had he written his name as indorser as illegibly as he wrote the names of others in his Journal, there might have been some ground for what lawyers call the plea of _non est factum_, to clear him of liability. But such was not the case, and his security for others swept away his large estate. Major Fowler was born in New York, in 1765, and came to Kentucky in early life, a fine specimen of physical manhood, fully equipped for the office and duties of a surveyor. His surveying instruments were the best of their day, and elicited no little envy from those who used the common Jacob’s staff and compass, and chain of the times. He had the reputation of being an accomplished surveyor, and did much in this line for the United States government. His surveying extended to the great plains and mountains of the far West, before civilization had reached these distant wilds. He was there when wild animals and wilder savages were the only tenants of the wilderness.