Thomas Howell

by Bob Brail

     It is probably safe to say that there has never been a tombstone engraving that even came close to fully summarizing the life of the person buried under it. This is certainly true of the gravestone of Thomas Howell, who is buried in the cemetery which bears his name: “Thomas Howell. Born in Caswell Co. N. Carolina. March 14, 1783. Died Sep. 12, 1869. Aged 86 Ys. 5 Ms. 29 Ds.” The entirety of the man's life is summed up with a handful of words, numbers, and abbreviations. Yet the life of Thomas Howell deserves a fuller telling, for Thomas Howell was an important figure in early St. Charles County, and his story is interesting for many reasons.

     Thomas Howell was born on March 14, 1783, in Caswell County, North Carolina, to Francis, Sr., a miller, and Suzannah Howell, but spent only a small portion of his life there. When Howell was twelve years old, his family loaded a wagon and made the long trek from North Carolina to Upper Louisianna, then ruled by Spain, in what is now St. Louis County, accompanied by three other families. Years later Howell's sister Nancy recalled riding in the wagon with her mother and younger siblings, following the lead of their father and Uncle John Stone in front, while behind the wagon “came Tommy and his rifle on Baldy.” The trip was not without danger, and everyone knew what to do if Indians attacked; once the pioneers traveled through the night “to keep Indians from tracking them should they happen upon their trail.” Even young Tommy took a turn at guard duty when the small caravan stopped.

     After rejecting an offer of forty acres from the mayor of St. Louis in exchange for “teach[ing] the French how to farm,” Francis Howell, Sr., settled his family in Bonhomme Bottoms, an area now dominated by a large outlet mall and several stores, east and southeast of the Daniel Boone Bridge on Interstate 64. Their time there would be brief, however, as they crossed the Missouri River to settle in the St. Charles District in 1800. Eventually Francis, Sr., and Suzanna would build a home which, because it became a designated place of refuge from Indian attacks, was called Howell's Fort.

     When he was just sixteen years old, on December 10, 1799, Thomas Howell was given Spanish Land Grants 1773 and 1798 by Carlos Dehault Delassus, lieutenant governor and commander in chief of Upper Louisianna in St. Louis. Land Grant 1773 was situated about three miles due east of presentday New Melle, and Land Grant 1798 is the site of the Weldon Spring Site. These two grants totalled about 960 acres. This acquisition was the first transaction in what would be a lifelong pursuit of real estate. Eventually these grants were approved by an American claims commission.

     In 1802, Howell was still living with his parents when he began to work for a neighbor, helping to improve the man's land claim by building a house, clearing fields, cutting timber, and assisting in the construction of a mill. It was about this same time that Howell began to work 750 acres of land “situated on the waters of the Darden [Dardenne Creek].” In 1808 when Howell appeared before government commissioners to state his case for his claim, Howell's brother-in-law testified that Howell began raising crops on the land in 1803, while he was still living with his parents, but that Howell had lived on the claim since 1804. Eventually the commisioners denied Howell's claim, even though James McKay, the former commandant of St. Charles, testified he gave Howell permission to settle on the land before 1803. What was indisputable by this time was that Thomas Howell was an independent adult living in the Missouri Territory because in 1805 he had been listed in “The Wilkinson Memorial,” which included a roster of male residents residing in the southeastern portion of the Missouri Territory.

     Thomas Howell began what would ultimately be a sixty-three year marriage to Susannah Callaway, daughter of Jemima Boone and Flanders Callaway on July 10, 1806. Howell was twenty-three, and his young bride, a granddaughter of Daniel Boone, was fifteen years old. Eventually they would have fourteen children grow to adulthood: Coanza, Larkin, Eliza Ann, Pizarro, Alonzo Boone, James Callaway, Amazon, Eviza Lydia, Mary Etaline, Amandelia, John Francis, Jemima, Lewis, and Sarah.

     Over the next several years, Howell involved himself in military service. In August of 1808, Howell enlisted in the St. Charles Dragoons. He served as a sergeant under General William Clark, going with his unit, which included his brothers John and Newton, up the Missouri River to help build Fort Osage, located on the Missouri River between present-day Lexington and Kansas City. A few years later Howell would again leave his farm and family to fight in what is now known as the War of 1812. Great Britain had instigated attacks on people living along the Missouri River, providing Native Americans, especially the Sauk and Fox tribes, with guns and ammunition, and encouraging them to attack settlers. In response several companies of rangers were formed to fight back. In 1813, Thomas Howell became a trumpeter in Callaway's Rangers, a group of soldiers raised by his brother-in-law Captain James Callaway, in Colonel Alexander McNair's command of the Missouri Militia.

     Because of an act of Congress, more property would come Howell's way after the war was over. Any noncommissioned soldier who served in regular army for duration of the War was entitled to 160 acres of bounty land in the Arkansas, Illinois, or Missouri Territories. The available bounty land in Missouri was located along the Missouri River from Rocheport to Lexington. Thomas Howell was given the northeast quarter of Section 14 in Township 54, Range 19.

     Even as a young man, Thomas Howell showed an interest in area transportation issues. In 1808, Howell and fourteen other men petitioned the territorial government to build a road from St.Charles to La Charette, near present-day Marthasville, with side roads to Femme Osage, Peruque, and the Cuivre River. This is the general route of Highway 94, formerly called the Marthasville Road. However, it appears that no action was taken, for ten years later, in 1818, another petition was presented to territorial authorities to build a road along this same route.

     The Land Act of 1820 allowed Thomas Howell to greatly increase the amount of real estate he owned. Congress had passed the act to encourage land ownership in what was then considered the American West. The Land Act reduced, from a previous act of Congress, the minimum number of acres required to make a purchase (from 160 to 80) and also reduced the cost (from $2.00 per acre to $1.25). Payment could not be made on credit. This means that in 1820 Thomas Howell travelled to St. Louis and paid approximately $1,375 cash for the land he purchased from the government. All of these parcels of real estate were adjacent to the two Spanish Land Grants he had been given twenty years earlier. After the purchase Howell owned over six hundred acres a few miles east of New Melle, and over 1,450 acres more or less south of the eventual location of Howell's Ferry Road and east of present-day Highway 94, including the Missouri River frontage that would be the location of the Howell's Ferry landing.

     Thomas Howell made one additional land grant purchase on the same day, but it wasn't for land in St. Charles County. Immediately across the Missouri River was the location of a ferry landing on a 102 acre parcel of Missouri River frontage in St. Louis County which Howell purchased for $127 in cash. This piece of property was part of Bonhomme Bottoms, where the Howell family had briefly lived in the 1790's. When the day was over, Howell owned ferry landing locations on both sides of the river. It would be twenty-six years before he would be lisenced to operate a ferry there.

     Of course, besides acquiring land Thomas Howell worked hard on his growing farm. During the 1830's and 1840's, Howell kept about a dozen horses and two dozen cattle, which he marked by cutting a smooth crop off the right ear of each. In his earlier years Howell had supplemented his farm income by venturing into the whiskey business, distilling about1400 gallons a year which he sold to merchants William G. Pettis and George Collier in St. Charles.

     There is disagreement as to when the Howells built their large home, but it stood for at least one hundred years just south of the Thomas Howell Cemetery. The Howell family traditional date for the home's construction is sometime before January, 1817, when Amazon Howell was born there. However, the boundaries of one of the tracts of land Howell purchased in 1820 appear to include the eventual location of the home, which suggests the building could not have been constructed before that date. What is perhaps the best evidence for the home's construction was on the building itself. Carved into a stone above the front door was the date “1842,” most likely the time of the home's construction. Whenever it was built, the stately home was impressive. The front parlor had a high, intrically carved walnut mantel flanked with fluted columns. All the floors in the house were walnut, and the woodwork was cherry.

The Thomas Howell house in the 1930's

     Foundational to all of this prosperity were Thomas Howell's slaves. Howell may have received his first slave as a gift from his father. What is known for certain is that by 1817, Howell owned three slaves. By 1830 the number had more than tripled to ten, but it would climb to seventeen by 1840. Ten years later Howell owned twenty-three slaves, which made him the owner of more slaves than almost anyone else in St. Charles County. He still owned twenty-three slaves in 1852 and, although the number of slaves he owned decreased for a few years, by the time the Civil War started, he once again owned twenty-three. In the years before the Civil War, the value of slaves in Missouri peaked because demand was higher than supply. So Howell's twenty-three slaves were assessed at a value of $5,000 in 1861. These slaves were housed in one small brick house and a log cabin. Over the years, the average worth of his slaves ranged from $150 to $300. Needless to say, the slaves were a significant part of Thomas Howell's financial worth.

     The stories Thomas Howell's descendants told about him focused on his apparently unusual athletic ability. One incident from Howell's early adulthood involved him swimming across the Missouri River with his fiddle and clothing on his head in order to play at a wedding in Bonhomme Bottoms. In his early twenties, Howell was at the wedding of his sister when a man named Lewis, the champion jumper of his community, challenged Howell to a jumping contest. Howell's fiancee Susannah was in attendance, so Howell was loath to refuse the challenge but uncertain if he could win. Suddenly Lewis approached a table “loaded down with good things for the wedding dinner” and jumped over it. “Beat that if you can!” he challenged Howell. So Howell did just that, outdoing Lewis by “several inches.” Even in his later years, Howell retained a reputation for his athletic abilities. In 1850, when Howell was sixty-seven years old, Frank Wyatt built a ferry boat for him. Howell paid the man in gold, and then he made an unusual proposal. Howell offered to race Wyatt for the gold he had paid him. However, Wyatt, who was a young man, rejected the offer, not considering the risk a safe one for himself.

     A new financial venture began for Howell in 1845. On September 5, Howell travelled to St. Louis and paid $500 to operate a ferry “across the Mi[s]souri River at Howells Landing.” His lisence obligated him to “keep at said ferry, a good boat or boats, suitable to the water of said river, with sufficient number of able hands, and give ready and due attendance on all occasions, for the transportation of passengers across said river, and generally do and perform all . . . the duties . . . of Ferryman.” When Howell started this business, he renamed the ferry, which had been known as the Lewis Ferry since at least 1823 when Albert Worthington was lisenced to operate a ferry there. It seems reasonable to come to two conclusions: 1) that someone named Lewis had operated a ferry at that location perhaps as far back as territorial days, so Thomas Howell was not the first, and 2) that Howell received payments for the use of the ferry landings on his property, which he had owned since 1820. Ferry lisences at the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center indicate that a lisenced ferry operated at this point on the Missouri River only sporadically until Howell started the Howell Ferry. Howell continued to pay $500 for ferry lisences through April, 1851, when he purchased his last one which expired in 1852. Howell family tradition states that Larkin Howell ran the ferry for his father.

     Less than one year later, on August 15, 1846, a petition signed by several residents of Dardenne, Cuivre, and Callaway Townships to build a road from Howell's Ferry to Flint Hill was presented to county officials. Was Thomas Howell among the petitioners? It seems likely. These citizens knew that, with an improved road to the ferry landing, “the farmers in St. Charles County had a direct route to the Mississippi River and the New Orleans markets.” The road went from Flint Hill to the Salt River Road and then southeast for two miles, crossing Mexico Road five miles from its start. It then crossed Perruque Creek and the Boone's Lick Road before coming to the Dardenne Creek twelve miles from Flint Hill. From there it continued east, crossing the Marthasville Road (Highway 94) at the northern boundary of Thomas Howell's farm, before moving down toward the Missouri River. When it reached the ferry landing, the road had traversed sixteen miles. The idea for a Howell Ferry Road was quickly approved.

     Within a few years of the beginning of the Howell Ferry Road, “almost a mania” for plank road construction commenced in Missouri. Beginning in 1849, forty-nine plank road companies chartered in Missouri. The Missouri State Legislature authorized these companies to buy land for roads and erect toll houses along them. The roads generally were required to be fifty feet wide with an eight to ten feet wide plank road going down the middle. Roads had to be at least one-third completed before the company could begin charging tolls. No tolls could be charged if the road was left in bad repair for ten days. This emphasis on plank roads was good news for Thomas Howell because in 1851 the Central Plank Road Company was chartered in St. Louis. A road was authorized from Olive Street in St. Louis to Howell's Ferry Landing in Bonhomme Bottoms. “St. Louis commercial leaders at an early date saw the advantages of building the Olive Street Road, not only to serve the St. Louis County farmer, but to get the market of the St. Charles County famers.” The construction of this plank road would greatly improve travel conditions from Howell's ferry operation to the city of St. Louis, thereby increasing traffic on the Howell Ferry.

     Why did Thomas Howell end his Howell Ferry in 1852? The purchase of a new ferry boat in 1850 makes this decision seem unwarranted. In 1850 he had a new ferry boat built by Frank Wyatt; 1851 tax records indicated its assessed value was $200. Howell, though, would never again pay taxes on a ferry boat which means he owned the ferry boat less than two years, acquiring it in the last part of 1850 after the yearly assessment by the county, owning it for the assessment in 1851, and selling it before he was assessed in 1852. Why did he rid himself of the ferry, and apparently the boat, so quickly?

     One clue as to why Howell might have ended his ferry venture is contained in a letter written in June, 1850, from Howell's Landing by Robert Smith, who was apparently overseeing construction of buildings at the ferry landing on the St. Louis County side of the river. Smith wrote to J. B. Moulton, the St. Louis County engineer: “Every person that crofses on it say that they will not crofs on it again the ferry is managed verry badly indeed the pilot says he will Quit unlefs there is a man aboard the Boat who will help do the work. . . . come up amediately or your ferry will be in bad Reputation.” This letter makes it sound as if Howell had not been operating or maintaining the ferry as his license required him to. The letter also makes clear the fact that J. B. Moulton had a financial interest in Howell's Ferry, at least in the development of services on the St. Louis County side of the river. Perhaps Moulton pressured Howell to give up his lisence so someone else could operate the business more efficiently.

     Another factor may have been financial. In the Missouri census of 1852, Howell is listed along with his twenty-three slaves. Yet by the time the county assessments finished on June 10, Howell owned only fifteen slaves. Why did he sell one-third of his slaves in such a brief time? He may have had a financial crisis which required him to raise revenue (selling slaves) and to cut expenses (ending a ferry operation that was not making money). However, there doesn't seem to be any conclusive documentary evidence for this.

Howell's Ferry is misspelled as "Hawls Ferry" on this small portion of an 1857 St. Louis County map.

     A final factor is suggested by what eventually happened to the roads built to connect with the ferry. The Howell Ferry Road in St. Charles County, if it was every completed, was apparently not maintained. In 1858, Der Demokrat, a St. Charles newspaper, lamented the deplorable road conditions in the county, including the road to the ferry. In the same year, St. Louis County bought out the bankrupt Central Plank Road Company, the operators of the toll road from St. Louis to Howell's Landing on the Missouri River. The road was declared a public road, and renamed Olive Street Road. These roads may have been in poor shape even five years earlier, causing Thomas Howell to realize that his ferry business would never be as profitable as he had hoped.

     The ferry operation at Howell's Ferry landing died a slow death over the next decade. In February, 1853, Der Demokrat of St. Charles reported that a St. Louis business was buying the Howell's Ferry, and that the company would be using a “special Steam Ferryboat.” The article also described a tavern and store being built on the St. Louis side of the river, and that the company had plans to plank the entirety of the Howell Ferry Road. In February, 1855, the legislature of Missouri created “an act to establish a ferry across the Missouri River, between the termination of the Central Plank Road to the county of St. Louis and Howell's Ferry landing in the county of St. Charles,” but nothing every came of this. In April, 1855, William P. Fenn advertised the opening of Fenn's Steam Ferry, identifying it as the former Howell's Ferry. He described a new “large and substantial steam ferry boat.” However, only nine months later, in early 1856, two St. Louis realtors were advertising the Howell's Ferry for sale, calling it “the old and well-established ferry.” Included in the deal were several buildings on the St.Louis side of the river, including a store house and a mill. The advertisement also describes “a new steam ferryboat” worth $7000 and “an active, growing, and profitable business.” It seems likely that Fenn sold his ferry to the two realtors, who then changed the ferry's name back to Howell's Ferry and immediately put it up for sale.

     By 1858 Howell's Ferry was out of business, apparently for good. In the article about deplorable road conditions in St. Charles County, Der Demokrat referred to the fact that “the ferry does not exist.” How long it had been out of business is unclear but, without doubt, the Howell Ferry was closed. However, in the fall of 1959, the ferry seems to be resurrected. A resident of St. Charles County, Adam Rubeling, placed advertisements in Der Demokrat stating that “the old so-called Howells Ferry” would reopen. Rubeling stated that the Howell Ferry Road was in good, repairable condition and that the boat was ready for service. It appears, though, that this venture never got off the ground. A few months later Rubeling identified himself in the 1860 federal census as a ferryman, but no lisence authorizing him to operate a ferry has survived, if one ever existed.

     The Civil War was not kind to Thomas Howell The effect of the war on his financial state was severe. Perhaps his losses are best illustrated by contrasting his 1861 property tax of $83 with his 1866 property tax of $10. His twenty-three slaves which had been assessed at $5000 in 1861, were worth only $2300 in 1863. Of course, his slaves were no longer owned by Howell at the war's end. After his death, his daughter Eviza recalled that “Hessian Dutch come and stole and confiscated his property.” This may refer to the freeing of his slaves by area Germans who supported the Union cause or their commandeering livestock for the Union cause. Eviza also remembered they “forst him to take some unlawful oaths.” This had occurred in January, 1862, when Arnold Krekel arrested several men, including Thomas Howell, calling them all “leading secessionist[s].” Howell, along with the others, was forced to swear a loyalty oath before he and the others were released.

     Thomas Howell survived the Civil War by only a few years. In August of 1869 Howell suffered a stroke, resulting in paralysis on his right side and the loss of speech. Several of his children still lived at home, and they took turns rubbing his limbs, trying to restore movement. Dr. Jasper Castlio visited Howell nine times in three weeks. Finally, on September 12, 1869, Thomas Howell died. He was eighty-two years old. A few days later, his remains were buried in the cemetery that now bears his name.

     There would be one more chapter in Thomas Howell's story, though he would not witness it. Even though Howell was a much poorer man after the Civil War, he was still “land rich” at his death in 1869. Howell owned ten parcels of land in St. Charles County, all in Range 3 of Townships 45 and 46, totalling 1,449 acres, and the one parcel across the Missouri River in St. Louis County consisting of 82 acres. After the Civil War, Howell's son Lewis had moved to Montana Territory. It had been Howell's desire to have Lewis help him settle his estate before he died. That, however, did not happen and Howell died intestate. Coanza, one of Howell's daughters, along with some of his son Larkin's children (Larkin was already dead), sued the rest of the family. This battle of heirs lasted several years. On March 3, 1874, the Howell homestead finally was sold at auction. The estate was fully settled in May, 1875, nearly six years after Howell's death.

     Now, nearly one hundred fifty years after his death, Thomas Howell's name is almost entirely absent from this area. Other than the cemetery sign that bears his name, a person would be hard pressed to find any evidence of him in St. Charles County. However, there is a story to be told about this individual: he was one of St. Charles County's first settlers, he was involved in the development of county transportation, he operated a farm covering hundreds of acres, he founded his financial success on slave labor, and he was nearly ruined by the Civil War. Without a doubt, Thomas Howell was more than a handful of words, numbers, and abbreviations on a gravestone.

Sources: 1875 St. Charles County Plat Book; 1905 St. Charles County Plat Book; Ancestry.com; Bureau of Land Management; Crossroads: A History of St. Charles County, Missouri (Steve Ehlmann); Der St. Charles Demokrat (digital.shsmo.org); Crow's Nest (Lilian Hays Oliver); Dexter P. Tiffany Collection (Missouri History Museum); Early Settlers of Missouri as Taken From Land Claims in the Missouri Territory, Vol. 2 (Walter Lowrie); Eviza Coshow correspondence (Draper, Series C, Volume 21); Federal Population Censuses; Fold3.com; General Land Office Records (glorecords.blm.gov); A History of Pioneer Families of Missouri (William S. Bryan and Robert Rose); Hutawa's Atlas of St. Louis County, 1847 (Missouri History Museum); “John Howell and His Descendants” (Louis R. Howell); “Land Act of 1820” (ohiohistorycentral.org); Laws of the State of Missouri Especially Applicable to St. Louis County (google.com); “Marks and Brands” (St. Charles County Historical Society); “May 24” (stlmedia.net/sonderman); (Missouri Land Claims: reprint of 1835 report (St. Charles County Historical Society); Missouri Military Land Warrants, War of 1812 (Maxine Dunaway); Missouri State Censuses of 1852 and 1868; Pitzman's New Atlas of the City and County of St. Louis 1878 (shsmo.org); “Plank Roads in Missouri” by North Todd Gentry in Missouri Historical Review, April 1937 (digital.shsmo.org); Provost Marshal’s Records for St. Charles, Warren, and Lincoln Counties, Dec. 13, 1861 – July 30, 1862 (contentdm.mohistory.org); St. Charles County Circuit Court Records (St. Charles County Historical Society); St. Charles County Missouri Territory Enumeration for 1817 and 1819 (St. Charles County Historical Society); St. Charles County Probate Records (St. Charles County Historical Society); St.Charles County Real Estate Tax Books (St. Charles County Historical Society); “St. Charles' Old Highways From the Beginning” (B. H. Jolly); St. Louis County, Missouri [between 1880 and 1910] (loc.gov); St. Louis County Map 1909 (historicmapworks.com); St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican (shsmo.org);“Slavery in Missouri” (law.wustl.edu); Some Boone Descendants and Kindred of the St. Charles District (Lilian Hays Oliver); Some Missouri Pioneers, Their Ancestors, Descendants, and Kindred From Other States (Mary Iantha Castlio); Through a Woman's Eyes (Cleta Flynn); “Waagner's Map of St. Louis County, Missouri – 1857” (loc.gov); “War of 1812 Begins” (Dorris Keeven-Franke @ stcharlescountyhistory.org); “The Wilkinson Memorial” (stlgs.org).