YELL CO, AR - JOHN B. HOWELL, SR. - Bio

SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas. 
Chicago: Goodspeed Publishers, 1891.

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John B. Howell, Sr., owner of the large and extensive mill plant of 
Danville, was born on a farm in Logan County, Ky., May 12, 1815; here 
his early youth was spent assisting his father in the duties of the 
farm, and in 1836 came with his parents, John and Mary (Jones) Howell, 
to Johnson County, this State, and settled on land which they farmed, 
and in connection with this ran a store of general merchandise, which 
they had opened at Pittsburgh. In 1838 our subject severed his 
connection with this business to go to Van Buren and take charge of 
the mail route between Old Dwight, Mo., and Fort Smith, I. T., 
carrying the semiweekly mail for four years, when he changed to the 
tri weekly stage running between Little Rock and Hot Springs, in it,
passing over a stretch of country for thirty miles without a post-
office, and while acting as mail-carrier was associated with Lewis 
Snap in the inland service, known as the pack routes, the mail being 
carried on horseback. In 1846-47 he ran the steamer on the White 
River, from Napoleon to Rock Craw Creek, where it met the stage line. 

His health failing, he sold his boat at the expiration of two years 
and came to Danville, and settled on a farm, and when that terrible
scourge of the sixties visited the land, was well fixed financially, 
owning 3,000 acres of land, 500 of which were in a thorough state of 
cultivation, the labor of this immense plantation being performed by 
seventy-five servants. Soon this was laid waste by the devastating 
armies of the war, [p.158] stock confiscated, houses and other 
buildings destroyed, and soon nothing remained of this once beautiful 
and vast estate but the land. 

At the close of this long and bloody struggle, he returned to 
Danville, and engaged in farming and milling, erecting, in 1869, his 
large mills, comprising a flouring-mill, ginning and wool-carding 
machinery, and a saw-mill attached, all costing in the neighborhood of 
$10,000, and in 1886 this entire plant with all its contents, was
destroyed by fire, it being a total loss to him, as it was not 
insured. In 1872 he opened the popular Danville, famed throughout the 
county for its genial proprietor, its good cheer, and its first-class 
accommodations. 

He was wedded to Miss Eliza Hurd, of Crawford County, who lived to 
bless his home with her presence but a short time. She departed this 
life in 1842, leaving an infant son to the care of her husband, who 
lived to be but two years of age. He is not connected with any church, 
and, although voting the Democratic ticket, has never held any 
political office. Our subject has one brother, who resides at 
Clarksville, at the advanced age of eighty-one years, and three 
sisters, all deceased.