Elizabeth Jane Fowler, also known as Jane Fowler, was born August 29, 1834 in Butler County, Ohio. On August 10, 1854, Jane married Solomon Dill in Butler County, Ohio. Elizabeth Jane Dill died in Fredonia, Louisa County, Iowa on June 17, 1869.
Elizabeth Jane Fowler was born August 29, 1834, the 2nd of 8 children born to Felix Fowler and Susan Pitman. She grew up in Butler County, Ohio and moved to Lafayette City, Indiana, with her parents around 1849. At some point, the family returned to Butler, Ohio where on August 10, 1854, Jane married Solomon Dill. Solomon and Jane had two known daughters:
- Mary Augusta Dill
- Laura Susan Dill
Jane and Solomon's daughter Mary was born in Oxford, Ohio in 1855. The Dill family then moved to Toddtown, Iowa, where Jane's parents and married sister, Hannah VanDyke, had moved the year before. After a few years in Toddtown, Jane's husband relocated his medical practice to Fredonia, Iowa. Jane and Solomon's second daughter Laura was born in Freedonia in 1859. On June 17, 1869, Elizabeth Jane Dill died of consumption at the age of 34, leaving her husband and two daughters, ages 14 and 11.
A family story says that Jane's cause of death was lockjaw. The anecdote relates that “a young man on horseback came to the Dill house in the winter of 1869 and said his wife was having a baby. Jane sent him back and said she would get her husband who was on a call at another house. She had a couple of bad teeth but jumped on a horse during a winter storm to go and get her husband, Dr. Solomon Dill. She became rather sick and developed lockjaw and died soon afterwards.” While sadly amusing, Jane died in June, months after winter, so she likely did not die of lockjaw since lockjaw would have resulted in a faster death. It is possible that she had a tooth infection which was left untreated, eventually spreading to her body and causing her death. However, the cause of death recorded in the US 1870 census mortality schedule was consumption, and since her husband was a doctor, it appears that this diagnosis would be correct.
Elizabeth Jane Dill was buried in the Fredonia Cemetery in Louisa County, Iowa.
Genealogical Research and Life Sketch completed: 24 July 2020Sources:
“United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch, Jane Fowley in household of Felix Fowley, Lafayette, Tippecanoe, Indiana, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
"Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958", database, FamilySearch, Jane Fowler in for entry for Solomon Dill, 1854.
"United States Census, 1860", database with images, Elisabeth Dill in entry for Solomon Dill, 1860.
“Iowa Mortality Schedules, 1870”, Family History Library, Film #008939051, Image 231.
“Portrait and Biographical Album of Louisa County, Iowa”, Acme Publishing Company, 1889. Web. Retrieved from the Library of Congress
