Hon. Oswin Hart Doolittle Fowler, a well known attorney and jurist of Wallingford, was born in North Haven, Connecticut, January 17, 1857. a son of Henry Baldwin and Lucy Eloise (Doolittle) Fowler.

He is a lineal descendant in the sixth generation of Abraham Fowler, of Guilford, Connecticut, who was a son of John Fowler, who settled in Guilford in 1049 as one of the original planters and became prominent in public affairs there. He owned a large estate at Guilford. John Fowler was a son of William Fowler, who came from London in 1637 and took up his abode in Boston. William Fowler removed to New Haven in 1638 and at the settlement of Milford in 1639 he was the first of the trustees who held the deed of the town. He built the first gristmill in New Haven colony and the millstone that he used is incorporated in the memorial arch erected by the people of Milford upon the old site. Thus the Fowlers have been prominently identified with the county since its earliest settlement. This branch of the Fowler family came from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, and are descended from Sir Richard Fowler de Foxley, the crusader, 1192, knighted at the siege of Acre by Richard Coeur de Lion. Abraham Fowler of Guilford was a member of the general court for twenty-three consecutive years and of the house of assistants, or governor's council, from 1712 until his death in 1720.

In the maternal line Judge Fowler is a lineal descendant in the sixth generation of Abraham Doolittle, who was marshal of the New Haven colony from 1662 until 1667 and was prominently identified with the settlement of Wallingford in 1670. All of the ancestors of Judge Fowler since early colonial days were born and bred in New Haven county and six of the number were soldiers of the Revolutionary war. His father, Henry B. Fowler, was one of the argonauts who went to California in 1849 in search of the golden fleece. With a party of six he traveled from North Haven and after several months devoted to successful mining, and merchandising at Sacramento City he returned by way of the Isthmus of Panama. In 1851 he made a second trip to California but the climate did not agree with him and he again came to New England in 1852.

Five years later Judge Fowler entered upon the scene of earthly activities and after mastering the elementary branches of learning taught in the public schools he entered the Yale Scientific School, from which he was graduated with the class of 1878. He determined upon the practice of law as a life work and pursued his law studies in Yale as a member of the class of 1881. In the meantime, when seventeen years of age, he began teaching in the district school and devoted three years to that profession before and during his college days. He was principal of a grammar school at Fairhaven during the last year in which he was a law student at Yale. Admitted to the bar in June, 1881, he became a resident of Wallingford in September of that year and opened his law office. Through the intervening period he has enjoyed a practice that has steadily grown in volume and importance and he has long been numbered among the ablest representatives of the bar in this section of the state. In 1893 and 1894 he filled the position of judge of probate for the district of Wallingford and in 1902 was chosen prosecuting attorney for the borough court of Wallingford, in which capacity he served for several years. Since the 3d of April, 1911, he has been judge of the borough court of Wallingford, and was reappointed by the general assembly of 1917 for a term of two years beginning on the 4th of June. He has been counsel for the town and borough, is now town counsel, is attorney for the First National Bank and for the Dime Savings Bank and for the past ten years has been one of the directors of the last named institution. In his law practice he has been identified with many prominent cases and has had much important corporation practice. He has specialized to a considerable extent in cor-poration law, is thoroughly informed concerning that branch of jurisprudence, and is retained as counsel of various manufacturing corporations of Wallingford. He has been active in local real estate circles, has erected a number of houses in Wallingford and has been chosen to administer many estates. In all municipal affairs he has taken a deep inter-est. He was one of the leading advocates of the establishment of the municipal electric light plant and drafted all the resolutions authorizing its establishment and the by-laws for operating the plant. In 1902 Judge Fowler compiled a revision of the charter and by-laws of the borough that is still in use.

On the 4th of September, 1884, Judge Fowler was united in marriage to Carrie Belle Parmelee, a daughter of Samuel B. and Lavinia (Cook) Parmelee, of Wallingford, and a grand-daughter of Leander Parmelee, of Wallingford, who was high sheriff of New Haven county from 1845 until 1857. Mrs. Fowler is also a lineal descendant of Colonel Thaddeus Cook, of Revolutionary fame. Judge and Mrs. Fowler have three daughters: Mabel E., who was married May 12, 1908, to John W. Lcavenworth, of Wallingford; Ethel B.; and Helen P., who on the 28th of April, 1917, became the wife of David Tomlinson, Jr., of Yonkers, New York.

Judge and Mrs. Fowler attend St. Paul's Episcopal church, of which Mrs. Fowler is a devoted communicant. He has been a member of the Wallingford Club since its organization. Along strictly professional lines he is identified with the New Haven County Bar Association and the Connecticut State Bar Association. His success is based upon a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, with ability to accurately apply those principles, and while an able lawyer and jurist, he has also made an enviable record as a public-spirited citizen devoted to the general good.