Stephen Fowler (d. 1829) ran a mercantile business, first in Fairfield, Connecticut, and after 1805 in Trenton, Jones County, North Carolina., which engaged in trade between New York and North Carolina. Stephen's son, Joseph, in about 1820 expanded the business to engage in the export of lumber, naval stores, tobacco, grain, and blackeyed peas from North Carolina to Bermuda; and later in coastal trade from New Bern to New York. He also worked as as U.S. deputy marshal, Pamlico District, North Carolina from 1831-1860. His brother Dewitt C. Fowler, was a general store and liquor merchant in Bay River, North Carolina. His son, Joseph S. Fowler, Jr. (1838-1873), served in the Civil War, largely at the Confederate Commissary Office in Kinston, North Carolina.
From the guide to the Fowler family papers, 1779-1870, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)
