Eldridge Fowler joins the company

 When Leander McCormick in 1890 ceased to be vice president of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, his successor was Eldridge Fowler. This must have been a deep satisfaction to his sister. It was a climaxing point in the new relation between the two that had developed after the death of Mr. McCormick. Brother and sister had always been devoted and in sympathetic touch throughout the varied experiences each had suffered. But there had been something less than congeniality between Mr. McCormick and Mr. Fowler, and the brother had not come freely to his sister's home. There had been business dealings: Mrs. McCormick had early enlisted her husband's interest in her brother, when he was not yet on a firm basis financially, and there is a tradition that she induced Mr. McCormick to lend Eldridge the money that he had been about to spend on a set of emeralds for his young wife. However that may be, Mr. McCormick did offer employment at times and backed business ventures of Eldridge Fowler's with a loan. But though the amenities were observed, the imperious temperament of the master of 135 Rush Street was not agreeable to Eldridge Fowler — whether to endure or to observe. 

Source

After his death brother and sister were able to enter more easily into each other's lives, and Eldridge Fowler was soon able to give Mrs. McCormick and her son Cyrus helpful advice in their problems, personal and business. By the late eighties he had moved from Detroit to Chicago in order to help more. (Source)

The Journal Of Jacob Fowler

Fowler is an ancestral name; it is not known if there is any relationship to Jacob Fowler.

The Journal of Jacob Fowler: Narrating an Adventure from Arkansas Through the Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, to the Sources of Rio Grande Del Norte, 1821-22
Jacob Fowler, F. P. Harper, 1898 - New Mexico - 183 pages

The author of this Journal is Major Jacob Fowler [born in New York in 1765]. His name is not attached to the Journal and does not appear on any of its pages in such a way as to indicate authorship. Yet it is well understood among his numerous descendants now living in Kentucky and other States that he is the author. I obtained the manuscript some years ago from Mrs. Ida Symmes Coates, daughter of the late Americus Symmes, now residing at her country seat near Louisville. Mrs. Coates is a great granddaughter on the maternal side of Jacob Fowler. The manuscript descended to her in a direct line from her mother, Frances Scott, who was a granddaughter of Jacob Fowler, and who had obtained it in the same way from her mother, Abigail Fowler, the only daughter of Jacob Fowler. 

Rio Grande

"When Fowler ascended the Rio Grande...".

Nancy Maria (Nettie) Fowler McCormick

Source - Nettie McCormick ca 1861

Nettie (Fowler) McCormick (named Nancy Maria) was the wife of Cyrus Hall McCormick, who was the inventor of the reaper.  The invention was parlayed into the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company which evolved into the International Harvester Company.

Mrs. McCormick was born 8 February 1835, in the Jefferson County, New York, area, to Melzar and Clarissa (Spicer) Fowler.  The Fowler grandparents were Anson and Maria.  "These Fowlers had for their first American ancestor, William Fowler the Magistrate, who emigrated from England in 1637...".  Her Spicer grandparents were Silas and Nancy (Fish) Spicer.

Note:  I have Fowler ancestors from New York, so her Fowler family was especially interesting to me.  There is not a known connection to Nettie Fowler's family and mine.

Some relatives mentioned were:

Cousin, Ermina Merick
Sons, Cyrus H. McCormick and Harold F. McCormick
Daughter, Mrs. [Anita] Blaine
Niece, Kate Fowler Merle-Smith (Mrs. Van Santvoord)
Wilton Lloyd-Smith, husband of Mrs. McCormick's great-niece, Marjorie Fleming Lloyd-Smith
Nephew, Melzar Fowler

The Journal Of Jacob Fowler

The journal of Jacob Fowler: narrating an adventure from Arkansas through the Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, to the sources of Rio Grande del Norte, 1821-22 (Google eBook) [also here]:

Major Jacob Fowler's great-granddaughter (on her maternal side) was Mrs. Ida Symmes Coates (of Louisville, Kentucky), daughter of Americus Symmes, who was named in the introduction to the diary.  Her mother was Frances Scott [daughter of Major Chasteen Scott] and Ida's grandmother was Abigail Fowler, Jacob Fowler's only daughter.

Major Fowler was born in New York [or New Jersey in 1764] in 1765, and came to Kentucky early in life.  He was an accomplished surveyor.

About 1821 Fowler went further west from the Fort Smith, Arkansas, area.

...we arrive at the following approximately correct roster of the party : 

1. Colonel Hugh Glenn, in command. 

2. Major Jacob Fowler, the journalist, second in command. 

3. Robert Fowler, brother of Jacob Fowler. 

4. Baptiste Roy, interpreter. 

5. Baptiste Peno. (French name, no doubt misspelled.) 

6. George Douglas. 

7. Nathaniel Pryor, ex-Sergeant of Lewis and Clark's Expedition. 

8. Bono. (French name, no doubt misspelled, possibly Bonhomme.) 

9. Barbo. (French name, no doubt misspelled, possibly Barbu.) 

10. Lewis Dawson. (Fatally injured by a bear, Nov. 13, 1831; died Nov. 16.)

11. Taylor. 

12. Richard Walters. 

13. Eli Ward. 

14. Jesse Van Bieer. 

15. Slover. 

16. Simpson. 

17. Dudley Maxwell. 

18. Findley. 

19. Baptiste Moran. 

20. Paul, a negro belonging to Jacob Fowler.

The most interesting of the above names is that of Nathaniel Pryor, of whose identity with the sergeant of Lewis and Clark I have no doubt: see L. and C, ed. of 1893, p. 254, delete the query there, and add: Nathaniel Pryor of Kentucky became an Ensign of the U. S. Army Feb. 27, 1807; Second Lieutenant May 3, 1808; resigned April 1, 1810 ; was appointed First Lieutenant of the 44th Inf. Aug. 30, 1813; promoted to be Captain Oct. 1, 1814; and honorably discharged June 15, 1815.