Violent Temper: Fowler’s Fatal Surrender
⚠️ Content Warning: This story includes horrific themes of violence and loss.
Reader discretion is advised.
— A Southwick Time Machine Original | True Crime
Lewis D. Fowler Jr. of Southwick, Massachusetts, was known to those around him as a man of a violent temper, one he seemed unable to control, especially toward his wife, Elizabeth (Mallory). Before mid-September 1862, her concerned friends had him arrested, and bail was arranged on his behalf. The bond was secured by two men: his brother-in-law, Ogden D. Griswold Jr., of the Hartford firm Hastings & Griswold, and Dr. Byington of Southwick. As a condition of his bond, Fowler was required to stay away from his wife and could only visit their home, located approximately half a mile from Southwick Center, at specified times.
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| An authentic Civil War–era envelope addressed to Ogden Griswold. |
At the time, Griswold himself was enduring profound personal loss. His wife, Mary A. (Mallory) Griswold, had died only a few months earlier, on June 24, 1862. The couple had also lost two young children: a son, James Griswold, who died just fifteen days after his birth in 1856, and a daughter, Florence Hastings Griswold, who died on February 22, 1861, before reaching her second birthday.
Fowler, too, had suffered recent losses. His father, Lewis Sr., died on November 17, 1861, at age sixty-nine. And like the Griswolds, the Fowler family had also buried a child before her second birthday. Their daughter, Mary Lucia Fowler, born on November 11, 1854, died in 1856—the same year the Griswolds lost their infant son, James.
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| Illustration inspired by this story. |
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| Illustration inspired by Southwick. |
Upon his return, Fowler was with one of his sons, whom now rode with him. Along the way, he gave the young man his pocket watch for safekeeping. When they arrived, Fowler saw his brother-in-law on the piazza of the house. He climbed down from the wagon and seized a shotgun that had been concealed inside. His son continued on as Fowler took aim and fired. The full shot blew a hole through Griswold’s body. Though gravely wounded, Griswold did not die immediately and was left lying where he fell.
Fowler rushed toward the house as the women inside, including his wife, hurried outside and carried the wounded man indoors. Elizabeth secured the door before her estranged husband could enter, which further enraged him.
Unable to reach her, Fowler walked into the yard, drew a straight razor, and slit his own throat. Despite the severity of the wound, he turned back toward the house, blood pouring from his neck. He mustered his strength and kicked in the front door, but the loss of blood was too great. He collapsed at the base of the steps and died there.
Griswold met Death at about 6:00 p.m., roughly six hours after being shot. His father arrived in Southwick by train before that time and had his son’s body loaded onto the morning train to Hartford, where a funeral was held at his home on September 19.
Several months later, on March 2, 1863, a meeting was held at the Southwick Hotel (today’s Southwick Inn) at 1:00 p.m. to allow any creditors with claims against Fowler’s estate to present them for review by appointed commissioners, bringing a formal close to the legal and financial matters left behind by the tragedy.
The Griswold–Fowler murder-suicide was widely regarded as horrifying, though it was considered less appalling than the recent Jones triple murder in Otis, Massachusetts, which still weighed heavily on the public mind. It nonetheless stirred greater excitement than Southwick’s own Holcomb scandal, which had sent shockwaves through the nation in 1859.
Yet in a year already marked by violence, the Griswold–Fowler case occupied a grim middle ground—overshadowed by greater horrors, but no less unsettling to those who lived through it.
(See related stories: “The Otis Butchery: Jones Triple Murder” and “The Southwick Tragedy.”)
Ogden Duett Griswold Jr.: January 1, 1829 - September 16, 1862.
Lewis Doolittle Fowler Jr.: January 5, 1820 - September 16, 1862.
Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline
Edited Out /Author’s Additional Research Notes
Elizabeth (Mallory) Fowler: abt. 1825 - August 28, 1873.
Mary A. (Mallory) Griswold: February 12, 1830 - June 24, 1862.
James Duett Griswold: February 27, 1856 - March 13, 1856.
Florence Hastings Griswold: July 6, 1859 - February 22, 1861.
Contemporary records show variations in the spelling of both Griswold’s middle name (DeWitt, Duett) and his surname (Griswold, Griswald).
Lewis Fowler — Prior Incidents and Injuries
In 1855, Lewis Fowler was arrested for possessing a large number of bobolinks. His case was the first tried under a newly enacted Massachusetts law intended to protect and preserve useful birds. The presiding judge dismissed the charges, noting in part that Fowler could have raised the birds himself or taken them from the wild prior to the law’s enactment.
On April 5, 1855, Lewis Fowler fell from an apple tree, suffering several broken ribs.
Conflicting Accounts of the Shooting and Its Aftermath
Some sources report that Lewis was alone in the wagon.
Some sources say that he fired the gun from the wagon as he passed, and then pulled into the yard.
Some sources say that after the shooting, Lewis ran a short distance, slit his throat, and then returned to the house.
Family and Marriage Details
Shortly after Elizabeth Mallory became pregnant, she married Lewis Fowler in Winsted, Connecticut, on May 5, 1846.
On January 15, 1855, Ogden D. Griswold Jr. married Miss Mary A. Mallory.
Lewis Fowler, Jr. had a sister who died in 1841. She was about 14 years old when she passed on February 24.
It is interesting to note that two of the Fowler sons died in 1922.
Lewis Fowler — Occupation and Status
Lewis Fowler worked as a painter by trade.
The Fowlers raised prize-winning livestock.
Lewis Sr. may have been a colonel.
The murderer’s brother, Samuel Horton Fowler, was a merchant turned lawyer. He may also have been in the hotel business. Samuel was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, on September 6, 1825, and died in Fremont, Nebraska, on November 29, 1870. Two of his sons died in 1939.
Hastings & Griswold — Business Background
E. G. Hastings and Ogden D. Griswold were business partners.
The firm Hastings & Griswold operated as manufacturers and wholesale dealers in gold jewelry, as well as wholesalers of fancy goods, silverware, pocket watches, clocks, and related items.
The firm regularly employed traveling peddlers to sell its merchandise.
The firm’s office was located in different spots but mainly at 36 Asylum Street in Hartford, before later moving to 50 Asylum Street.
The firm routinely rented space in hotels in different states, where they held presentations to recruit peddlers (usually 25), promising that they would make more money selling their goods than working in a factory.
Later, Hastings & Griswold also sold textiles, sleds, and skates.
Both Ogden Griswold and his father, Ogden Griswold Sr., worked for the firm. It remains unclear which of the two founded the business. Although it makes more sense that Sr. founded it, it appears that Jr. did.
The firm dissolved shortly after the younger Griswold’s death.
Ogden D. Griswold Jr. — Residence and Reputation
Griswold Jr. appeared to have lived in a seven-room house on Walnut Street in Hartford. The house had gas and water.
His father sold off some of the furnishings and rented the house out within weeks of his son’s death.
At one point, Ogden Griswold was listed among the largest taxpayers in Hartford, Connecticut.
He also made the list of the most well-known people in Hartford to die in 1862. Others on that list include Colonel Samuel Colt (of Colt .45 fame) and author and minister Charles A. Goodrich (who may have popularized the saying, “a place for everything and everything in its place”).
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