In 1882, his farm was sold to Charles Powers, a grandson, who lived there until 1899, when the Great Northern Paper Company purchased the farm.
Even today, descendants of the Fowler family, which include the Cliffords, Hales, Martins, McCauslins, Wileys, and others, remain in the Millinocket area.
Around 1860, Charles and Daniel Watson cleared land on what was to become known as the Rice Farm.
Much has been written about the formation of the Great Northern, yet it would be impossible to discuss the town of Millinocket without including the pulp and paper mill that built it.
Great Northern began with Charles Mullen, an engineering graduate of the University of Maine, who had participated in the building of a dam and groundwood pulp mill in Enfield. When the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad had completed a section of its track from Bangor to Houlton, crossing the West Branch near the rapids and falls between Quakish Lake and Shad Pond, Mullen recognized that this area was ideal as a power source for a large pulp and paper mill.
Initially, Mullen brought together a syndicate of Bangor investors, purchasing the necessary land, in Indian Township 3, then he bought them out and sold half of his interests to Garrett Schenck, who was then serving as vice president of an International Paper Company mill in Rumford.
In an effort to raise capital, they took on some partners, including Colonel Henry Haskell, a Rumford associate of Schenck’s, as well as Colonel Augustus Paine, a New York industrialist who had been born in Maine.