William Harvey Howell, merchant, alderman, & entrepreneur was born in Monongalia County, West Virginia, on the 4th day of May, 1845, the son of George and Mary Howell. His great-grandfather, Samuel Howell, emigrated from England to Maryland, and his grandparents, Annie and Laban Howell, came from Maryland into West Virginia.
William H. Howell’s father, George Howell, was one of seven sons, good old English stock. His father died when he was only three years old and his mother married again two years later, which caused William to live with his grandfather Howell until he was sixteen years old. In March, 1862, he came west to Carbondale, Illinois, and there learned fine carpentering and soon became a contractor. In 1869 he went to Kansas and during the boom in that state he carried on an extensive contracting business.
William afterwards returned to Marion, Illinois and went into the mercantile business, remaining there eight years. While in Marion, he formed a partnership with Francis M. Westbrook called Westbrook and Howell, together they operated a store located at 900 Public Square. This store sat on the south side of the square at the east corner of the intersection of S. Market Street. One of the original county courthouses sat just to the east of their building and the entire block was leveled by fire in June of 1875. Only two weeks before the buildings burned, a gunfight occurred in front of their store involving James Morray and Leander Ferrell, causing the death of Morray.
While living in Marion, William served as a trustee for the city of Marion in 1873 and again in 1876 and 1877. In 1878 he served in the same capacity but it was called an alderman. In 1873 he served under Mayor William N. Mitchell; in 1876 under Mayor George W. Goddard and in 1877 and 1878 he served under Mayor James C. Jackson.
On September 15, 1874, William Howell married Mary M. Mitchell, at Grayville, White County, Illinois. She was the daughter of M. P. and C. W. Mitchell. Her father, Mardonius Paterson Mitchell, was the second son of Sion Hunt and Elizabeth (Cook) Mitchell. He was born in Williamson County, April 19, 1821. His father, Sion Hunt Mitchell, was the son of William and Elizabeth (Hunt) Mitchell, and he was born in Franklin County, North Carolina, September 13, 1797.
Sion Hunt Mitchell was one of a family of eleven children, and his father was William Mitchell, son of John Mitchell, who lived at Whitehall, Lincoln County, England, and was knighted sometime in the eighteenth century. William Mitchell married Elizabeth N. Hunt, March 3, 1790. She was born at White Hall, Lincoln County, December 18, 1771. Lord Hunt, the great-great-grandfather of Mary M. (Mitchell) Howell, was famous by reason of his leadership in the Hunt rebellion.
From Marion William moved in 1879 to Harrisburg, Illinois, and was a partner of Robert Micks in the dry goods business for one year.
In the 1880 census he and his wife were living in Harrisburg with their daughter, Lelle and Martha Hancock, a servant. His occupation was keeping a store. Also, in 1880 he formed a partnership with Jack Davenport, William Alsopp and E. O. Roberts, and went into the coal business under the firm name of the Clifton Coal Company, operating a coal mine known as the Clifton mine, which they operated very successfully together for two years.
At the end of that time William H. Howell bought out two of his partners, which gave him 75% of the business. In two years he bought out his remaining partner and continued in the business alone, in which he was particularly successful: In 1892 he leased his coal mine to Davenport & White for a term of five years, and upon the termination of their lease he incorporated a new company known as the Clifton Coal Company and sunk a shaft to No. 5 vein of coal, retaining a controlling interest in the new company and leasing his property to the new company on a royalty basis. Under the management of Mr. Howell this arrangement was a very profitable one.
In 1900 William, Mary and daughter, Lelle, were still living in Harrisburg. William and Mary had been married 25 years. The census listed him as a flour miller. He owned his own home without a mortgage.
In 1905 the Clifton Coal Company sold out its interests to the O‘Gara Coal Company at a figure which represented a handsome profit. Mr. Howell also sold all his coal lands to the O‘Gara Coal Company and retired from the coal business. Two weeks after selling his coal mine and coal lands Mr. Howell found himself out of a business. He began to get restless, his time heretofore having always been employed by his various business interests, and he began to prospect about for a new business. His attention became centered upon Vincennes, Indiana, and there he purchased three acres of land, near the center of the city, with a view to starting a factory to manufacture corrugated paper, single and double faced board, and manufacturing it into boxes of all sizes for shipping cases, taking the place of wood.
In June, 1906, this firm was incorporated as the W.H. Howell Manufacturing Company, of Vincennes, Indiana, with a capital stock of eighty thousand dollars. William H. Howell was president and general manager and owned a controlling interest in the business. The new concern did business at a profit, and Mr. Howell was firm in his opinion that the industry had a great future.
He manifested a great deal of pride in the success it had achieved thus far, and it was not too much to say that that success was for the most part due to the management of Mr. Howell as president of the concern and its general manager. He still retained his home in Harrisburg, Illinois, where he lived, going and coming each week from there to the factory in Vincennes.
In 1910, their daughter, Lelle M., had married and moved into her own home. William and Mary were living alone. He was the manager of the paper manufactory and they were still living in Harrisburg.
William H. Howell was a thirty-second degree Mason and an old school Presbyterian. He was a past master of Harrisburg Lodge, No. 325, and was vice president and a member of the directorate of the First National Bank of Harrisburg.
No death records have been found on either William or Mary yet, but both appear to have still been alive in 1923 based on a Son’s of the American Revolution application filed by grandson, John Howell Pruett in that year. The application claim was based on ancestor Lieutenant Thomas Lewis who served in the Revolutionary War for 3 years and was at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and guarded prisoners on the march to Philadelphia.
Notes on the children:
Lelle Mitchell Howell Pruett, was born at Marion, Illinois, on the 21st of July, 1878. She married J. M. Pruett at Harrisburg, Illinois, April 25, 1900, and they had one son,—John Howell Pruett, born August 21, 1902. The Pruett family also resided in Harrisburg, Illinois.
(Sources: U.S. Census Records, Events in Egypt, Smith’s History of Southern Illinois. Compiled by Colleen Norman)