John Fowler (April 27, 1756 – August 22, 1840) was an American planter and political leader in Virginia and Kentucky. After serving in the American Revolutionary War, Fowler became an early settler and civic leader in Lexington, Kentucky. A Jeffersonian Democrat, he variously represented Fayette County and nearby Woodford County in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Ratifying Convention before Kentucky's statehood, then became a Democratic-Republican member of the United States House of Representatives and served from 1797 to 1807.
Early life and education
Fowler was born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, on April 27, 1756, to John and Judith (Hudson) Fowler. He received an education appropriate to his class, including at the private common schools.
American Revolutionary War
Fowler fought in the American Revolutionary War, joining Captain Patterson's company in 1777 as a first lieutenant and rising to the rank of captain in 1783. Meanwhile, Fowler also studied at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg 1780, and became a member of the Williamsburg Lodge Freemasons.
Kentucky career
In 1783, Fowler moved to Lexington, Kentucky, with surrounding Fayette County then considered a part of Virginia. Fayette County voters elected Fowler as one of the two delegates representing them in the Virginia House of Delegates, and re-elected him the following year (but replaced his fellow part-time legislator). While Fowler attended the legislative session in Richmond in October 1786, fellow legislators appointed him as one of the trustees of the new city of Frankfort, Kentucky. However, neither represented Fayette County in the legislative session that began on June 23. Fowler again won election to the Virginia legislature representing Woodford County on the outskirts of Lexington in 1791, and thus served in the session which approved Kentucky's statehood (and terminated this man's Virginia legislative service).
Also in 1788, Fowler, along with Richard Clough Anderson Sr. and Green Clay, established Lexington Freemason Lodge No. 1. Fowler also was a member of Kentucky Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, which was associated with the Danville Political Club. Fowler was also the treasurer of Transylvania Seminary from 1789 to 1793.
Kentucky voters first elected Fowler to the United States House of Representatives in 1797, after Alexander D. Orr of Maysville (who represented what was then Kentucky's northern district) announced his retirement. Fowler defeated fellow former Virginian Notley Conn and won re-election four times (although the district numbers changed after the census-based reorganization in 1803) and thus served a decade, in the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth congresses.
After leaving that legislative office in 1807, Fowler served as a member of the board of trustees for Lexington, and chairman of the board from 1817 to 1818. A decade late, he owned 27 slaves, of which 5 boys and 7 girls were younger than 14 years old. However, in the 1830 census, Fowler owned a dozen slaves (of whome 4 boys and 1 girl were younger than 10 years old) and had two free blacks in his household.