Hopkins Co. TX - R. W. Harris on the Life of Henry Howard

From: B & J <jparks@neto.com>

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From the files of June E. Tuck, who does not validate or dispute any
historical facts in the article.

(Edited)

R. W. Harris - Early Days in Cumby - Cumby Rustler, Nov. 1931

Life of Henry Howard

On a cold disagreeable Christmas Eve, 1854, several wagons passed through
Black Jack Grove going west. The outfit was the family of a widow Howard,
lately from Alabama, and en-route to kins people living near the present
town of Campbell. The family consisted of the mother and several
children. One of these children was the late Henry Howard, that time a
promising lad of some years to become a prominent citizen of this section
of the Lone Star State.

Henry Howard was born in Tuscola (sic), Alabama, November 28, 1848. His
mother located near Campbell, where she raised her family, and where she
later married a man by the name of Sheppard, who died. She married a man
by the name of Mackey, and at his death, married a man by the name of
McWhirter, having children by all these men. Mrs. McWhirter lived to be a
good old age, and dying in Durant, Oklahoma, in 1904, was brought to this
place and her remains rest in the Cumby cemetery.

Mr. Howard grew to manhood in Hunt county, and in January 28, 1869, was
married to Miss Mary DeLong, who is still living in Dallas with her
granddaughter, Mrs. L. H. Slade. Henry Howard first settled on a farm on
the Lone Oak Ridge and followed farming for some time, by being possessed
of a business nature, he soon found a way to engage in the mercantile
business which he continued for some time at Lone Oak. In 1890, Mr.
Howard opened a grocery store in this place and was interested in this
for several years. Later on he and his half brother, Marion Mackey, and
the late W. F. Hull, were partners in groceries and lumber. Retiring from
this he and his brother-in-law, Newton Denton, sold dry goods for some
time at this place, after which he was interested in the firm of Howard &
Barker, dealing in hardware and machinery, but in 1902, he merged this
with the Cumby Mercantile Co., with which he was connected for a couple
years when he sold out and went to Durant, Oklahoma, where he put in the
first electric light plant that town ever had. On disposing of this he
returned to Cumby and followed various vocations until he moved to Dallas
several years ago, and where he followed the real estate business for
some years. He died in Dallas, December 15, 1926, and his remains were
brought to this place and interred in our city cemetery, not for from the
grave of his mother.

In matter of politics, Mr. Howard was a Democrat, but he always tried to
find out about one^Òs morals and standing before he desired to cast his
vote for him, and if he found out that the party in question was not the
right kind of man, he was not very enthusiastic in his support. He was a
loyal member of the Christian Church and gave of his means to the support
of that church. He joined the Masonic Lodge when a young man, and as long
as he lived was regular attendant at meetings.

He only had one child, a daughter, Fannie, who married Levi Mercer at
Miller Grove, October 10, 1886, and who died in Cumby, December 11, 1918,
and is buried here. At Mr. Howard^Òs funeral, large concourse of his
former friends met the train at the depot when his remains arrived and
escorted it to the cemetery, where laid to wait the resurrections morn.
In his death, this section of Texas lost one of its most prominent
citizens.