Philip Fowler was a carpenter who lived in a two-room frame home on Third Street south of Jefferson Street in 1828, according to John Todd Stuart’s recollections. (The home is No. 19 on the reconstructed map of 1828 Springfield.)
In August 1826, Fowler was one of the jurors who convicted Nathaniel Van Noy of murdering his wife, Peggy. As Sangamon County’s first murder trial (the killing occurred at the couple’s home west of Athens, now in Menard County, but the area was all part of Sangamon County at the time), it became a milestone for many county residents.
Van Noy was hanged on Nov. 20, 1826.
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