Howell Cemetery

Duane's take

The marker out here in Newton County tells it this way, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Now, there are family names scattered across East Texas that carry a whole lot of history in just a few syllables, and Howell is one of them. James William Howell — born in 1805 — and his wife Louisa Cheshire Howell — born in 1816 — made a decision that a lot of families were making in the years after the Civil War.

They pulled up from Alabama and pointed themselves toward Texas. The year was 1872, and the whole family came with them. They didn't just pass through.

Family members bought up adjoining land, settled in close together the way families do when they mean to stay, and before long the settlement carried their name — just Howell, plain and simple. And it wasn't long before Howell was on the map in a way that really counted: in 1889, the settlement was granted a post office. That's when a place becomes real to the postal service, and there's something about that fact that says these folks had put down roots that weren't going anywhere.

Now, among the Howell sons there was one named Marmaduke — and you have to figure a man named Marmaduke had something to prove — and in 1882, he introduced the concept of terrace farming to Texas. Terrace farming. In 1882.

That's not a small thing to lay claim to. But here's where the story gets quiet for a moment, because not every chapter of a family's history is triumphant. Back in 1876 — the same year James William Howell himself would die — a one-acre plot of land was set aside and designated a cemetery.

And the oldest marked grave in that cemetery belongs to a Howell grandson. His name was Robert Lee Howell. He was born in 1871, and he was gone by 1875.

A child, buried on family land, before much of the rest of this story had even unfolded. Louisa Cheshire Howell outlived her husband by more than two decades, not passing until 1899. And the land that held those graves — held that little boy's grave — was formally deeded to Howell descendants by one of James and Louisa's sons in 1914.

A legal act, yes. But also a promise. That the ground would stay in the family.

That the names carved into it would be kept. Out here in Newton County, the Howell Cemetery is still standin'. Still holdin'.

That's how a family writes its name on a place — not in a single grand gesture, but acre by acre, generation by generation, all the way down.

What the marker says

The family of James William (1805-1876) and Louisa Cheshire (1816-1899) Howell came to this area from Alabama in 1872. Family members bought adjoining land, and the settlement, named Howell, was granted a post office in 1889. One Howell son, Marmaduke, introduced the concept of terrace farming to Texas in 1882. A one-acre plot of land was designated a cemetery in 1876. The oldest marked grave is that of a Howell grandson, Robert Lee Howell (1871-1875). The cemetery was deeded to Howell descendants by one of James and Louisa's sons in 1914. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986