Orson Squire Fowler (October 11, 1809 – August 18, 1887) was a phrenologist who popularized the octagon house in the middle of the nineteenth century.
The son of Horace and Martha (Howe) Fowler, he was born in Cohocton, New York, He prepared for college at Ashland Academy and studied at Amherst College, graduating in the class of 1834. With his brother, Lorenzo Niles Fowler, he opened a phrenological office in New York City, and wrote and lectured on phrenology, preservation of health, popular education and social reform from 1834 to 1887. The Fowler brothers, and Orson's sister-in-law Lydia Folger Fowler, were "in large measure" responsible for the mid-19th century popularity of phrenology.
He edited and published the American Phrenological Journal, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1838 to 1842. He was a partner with Fowler & Wells, publishers, New York, from 1846 to 1854, residing in Fishkill, New York and Elizabeth, New Jersey. He moved his office to Boston in 1863, residing in Manchester from 1863 to 1880, and resided in Sharon, New York from 1883 until August 18, 1887, when he died.
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And our Sophias are not so emphatic,
But fair as then, or fairer to behold.
We have no accomplish’d blackguards, like Tom Jones,
But gentlemen in stays, as stiff as stones.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“As a Tax-Paying Citizen of the United States I am entitled to a voice in Governmental affairs.... Having paid this unlawful Tax under written Protest for forty years, I am entitled to receive from the Treasury of “Uncle Sam” the full amount of both Principal and Interest.”
—Susan Pecker Fowler (1823–1911)