Juliette Abbey Peak was born May 8, 1837 to Jefferson Peak, Sr. (1801 – 1885) and Martha Mavina Reser (1812 – 1900) in Warsaw, Kentucky. The children of this couple who lived beyond infancy were: Carroll Marion, William Wallace, Sarah Ann, Jefferson Jr., Juliette Abbey, Martha Helen (lived to age 13), Junius W., Worth, Florence, George Victor and Matthias L. The Peak family and their descendants were founding members of the first Christian Church in Dallas County. That early East Dallas congregation has relocated several times since then, but continues today.
Jefferson Peak had served in the Mexican-American war. When Juliette was about eighteen years old, the family moved from Kentucky to Dallas County, settling a few miles north of downtown in an area that later became called East Dallas. Peak built a residence that was located at what was to become the intersection of Peak and Worth streets. For several years, Jefferson, Sr. farmed in the area but as the population increased in Dallas County, chose to stop farming and lay out streets and sell residential lots to incoming residents.
Dallas area residents will recognize that many East Dallas street names are named for Peak children and their spouses. Some of the more obvious ones are Peak Street, Junius Street, Worth Street, Carroll Avenue, Flora Street, Victor Street, Juliette Fowler Street (now Munger Street), Wallace Street (now Gaston Avenue), Harwood Street (for the husband of Sarah) and Field Street (for the husband of Flora).
According to other articles, Peak Street was once named Martha Street, for Mrs. Jefferson Peak, and at least two more streets were first named for Peak children, Sarah and Matt, but they were later renamed Haskell and Sycamore, respectively. The subdivision begun by Jefferson Peak, Sr. was known as Peak’s Suburban Addition and was annexed into the City of Dallas around 1890 after only briefly existing as part of an incorporated town known as East Dallas.
Several of the children remained in Dallas while others relocated to Fort Worth. Juliette’s brother, Dr. Carroll Peak was one of the first doctors to practice in Fort Worth. Juliette married a young man by the name of A. Y. Fowler on April 27, 1857 in Dallas, Texas. Archibald Young Fowler was the son of William Anderson Fowler (1795 – 1867) and Elizabeth Mamie Harbin Fowler (1792 – 1882). A. Y. was born to the couple on January 8, 1925 in Laurens, South Carolina and was roughly in the middle of a large number of siblings. After their marriage, A. Y. and Juliette Fowler lived in Fort Worth. They had two children, a boy and a girl, neither of whom lived beyond infancy.
A. Y. Fowler practiced law and advertisements for his law practice can be found numerous times in the Fort Worth and Dallas newspapers. He was also a member of the local Masonic Lodge. However, on August 24, 1961, A. Y. Fowler was killed in an altercation between himself and a Tarrant County Sheriff named John York. No conclusive reason is given for the argument, though several are suggested, but the conflict ended with the death of both York and Fowler.
After Archibald’s death, Juliette returned to Dallas to live. She never remarried and devoted herself to charitable pursuits. She took in an abandoned seven year old boy who had been left at her church, a local Christian Church. The idea of establishing a home for widows and orphans seems to have germinated about this time. She traveled around the county as she researched the organization and operations of homes for orphans and the indigent. In early 1889, Juliette purchased fifteen acres of land off Columbia Avenue in Dallas with a view toward creating such a charitable organization for Dallas County. Her health began to decline and later that year Juliette died on June 4, 1889 while in New York City. Her funeral was held at Bryan Street Christian Church on Sunday, June 9, 1889.
Juliette’s will designated that the acreage she had acquired and a certain amount of cash be designated to establish a widow’s and orphan’s home. Her sister Sarah Peak Harwood (1833 – 1914) was the main person who began to carry out Juliette’s plans and wishes for the institution.
Sarah Ann Peak Harwood was the oldest daughter among the Peak siblings. Like the other older siblings, she was born in Kentucky. Sarah came to Texas with her family. By then, she was over twenty years old. She married Alexander Maury Harwood, Jr. (1820 – 1885), already a Dallas County resident, on October 24, 1855. Harwood was born in Tennessee but by 1850 was living in Dallas. Harwood was a businessman and according to his obituary in 1885 was “for many years a popular county official and beloved citizen.” The couple had three children who lived beyond infancy: Ripley Barksdale Harwood, Juliette Abbey Harwood and Ada Pauline Harwood. Alexander Harwood had served as assistant to the postmaster general (CSA) during the Civil War and died of unspecified causes in 1885. Sarah survived him about twenty-nine years. Sarah was named as executrix of the will of Juliette Fowler. Her obituary credited Sarah for the personal supervision and development of the Fowler charitable institutions. She also was involved with the arrangement whereby the institutions became associated with the National Benevolent Association of the Christian Church.
Three years later in 1892, the Juliette Fowler Home for Children and the Aged was chartered as a not for profit entity. Mrs. Harwood and others began to raise support. The first home that the charity operated was an orphanage that it acquired and operated in Grand Prairie. Construction began on a building on the East Dallas acreage. It was called Harwood Hall, completed in 1911, and was intended to serve aged women. A children’s building was completed two years later. The children of the Grand Prairie facility were relocated to Dallas. Sarah Harwood served as President of the entity until her death.
The Fowler Home began its long association with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1903 and that relationship continues today. The work of the charity has also continued uninterrupted for well over one hundred years. Today the entity is known as Juliette Fowler Communities.
For more information about Juliette Fowler and The Fowler Communities, please see https://fowlercommunities.org/
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