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A brief biography on Carroll Fowler
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When it came time to name the new elementary school on the corner of Moffet and Garrison streets so many years ago, Jennie Whitmore Caswell suggested the name of Carroll Fowler. Jennie had stated that Carroll Fowler was a learned man, was a very active man in Ceres community events and was the first president of the Ceres Library Association. Not only that but Carroll had been on many elementary and secondary school boards in Southern California.

Carroll Fowler was born in Southern California in 1875. He graduated from Monrovia High School, one of only two students, in about 1895 and then went on to graduate from the University of California in 1899. Upon graduation he stayed and taught at Berkley for one year, his area of focus was entomology, specifically bees. He then taught at a high school in Southern California for a year. There, eye problems caused him to drop out of the teaching profession.

Fowler then wished to start a dairy and he consulted with the University of California for a good location for a farm. The University advisers recommended Ceres. Though Ceres was a dry area, growing wheat, it was to soon benefit from the new dam on the Tuolumne river and get irrigation. Fowler found that the area where the school and Smyrna Park are now located would receive irrigation water a few years earlier than other areas and purchased that land.

Fowler ran the dairy at that location until 1913. During that time he married Aurelia Whitmore and had two children Annie Mary and Richard (Hardy) Hardiman. The roads in Ceres are named for the first person to reside on them so the road in front of Carroll's home became Fowler Road. In 1913 Fowler's father called him to return to Duarte to run the family orange ranch there. Fowler left Ceres but kept the land. He rented out the dairy and moved south. In1923 he planted the Ceres ranch to peaches and by 1927-28 the peach business was flourishing. Fowler still maintained his home in Duarte and lived there, but every summer was spent in Ceres harvesting the peaches. The family would travel by train each year but Carroll would hitch up the wagon and team of horses. His journey would take four days.

Hardy and Caryl Fowler came to take care of the peach ranch in 1950. Soon Morrow Village homes were flourishing next door and the Fowler's were asked to sell land for the school. The School Board at that time agreed with Mrs. Caswell and named the new school Carroll Fowler School.