About 1838, Clark moved to Cobb County, Georgia, where he built the Lebanon Mills, near the Rosewell Mills. He remained here for about three or four years and then moved to Forsyth County, now Milton County. While living in Cobb County he represented that county in the legislature. From Forsyth County he went back to Gwinnett, his second wife having died in 1850. In 1852 he came to Atlanta, which was then a mere village. He bought the Sasseen House now used by the Richmond & Danville company as headquarters (later the site of the Metropolitan Theater, opposite Piedmont Hotel). Dr. Long of Athens was then building it. Judge Howell purchased it and finished it. It was noted as being the finest house anywhere in this part of Georgia, and people rode for twenty miles to see it. While building this house Judge Howell and his family lived in two little huts situated on the three acres lot that stood just where the Butler and McMillian residences are on Marietta Street.

Judge Howell engaged in the mercantile business in Atlanta about this time, having a store where Menko’s store now stands, and he had a partner by the name of Pharr.

While in Atlanta, he married his third wife, Mary D. Hook, who survived him. There were two children born of this marriage. Dr. Dan Howell and Mrs. Park Woodward. Judge Howell received his title from service at the head of the Inferior Court of Fulton County. It was under the supervision of this court that the county lines of Fulton were laid off and the new county created. The court was composed of Clark Howell, C. H. Strong, S. Teny, James Donahoo and Samuel Walker. This court laid off the county and organized the admirable system under which it has been so prosperous. He also represented Fulton County in the Legislature, and was at the time of his death a County Commissioner. He was always held in the highest esteem, and never ambitious to occupy any office except where he felt that he could do his country a service.

It is safe to say that he would ask for nothing that his people would not have given him, and that he was stronger and more popular in those communities that knew him best.

His life was not an eventful one nor marked by brilliant episodes. He was a quiet, unobtrusive citizen, holding his own views from principle, and was contented rather to express them quietly than to seek distinction. He was always a farmer, though often engaged in other businesses also. At the beginning of the war, he was worth about $75,000.00 and after the war his sons and daughters inventoried over $50,000.00 worth of property. He made a point to give each child a fair start in life.

At his death he was in good circumstances, and leaves a fine property. His love for his family was strong and abiding. He kept his sons and daughters near him and nothing so delighted his heart as reunions or social gatherings that brought them all together, and strengthened the ties that bound them one to another.

He dies with each one of them living near him, and all of them will follow his remains to the grave. He was always in easy circumstance, lived abundantly, and hospitable and generous, gave to each of his children a fair start in life and died without an enemy.

He was for many years of his life a member of the Christian Church, and with the consciousness that death was coming fast upon him, and was most likely to seize him without warning, the last years of his life were peaceful and happy. Long ago he had squared his accounts with the world and said to his wife and children that he had live seventy years without doing any man in injustice, and that he was not afraid to go the judgment bar of God with the record he had made.

Few more blameless lives were ever lived than the one that closed when Judge Howell breathed his last. He was the central point of three generations of his family. He father said of him, that he was the best son that ever lived.

His brothers and sisters testified "that he was admirable in his fraternal relations, and as a husband he was irreproachable and affectionate, and his sons and daughters sorrowing today over his coffin and mindful of the long years of life and helpfulness, his sympathy and his strong love, shrewd advice, and his shining example rise up and call him blessed.

As a matter he was a just, merciful, and kind master of over sixty slaves that he owned more than two-thirds live on his plantation today and have no troubles or differences that they do not submit in the fullest faith in his decision and adjustment.

As a public official he was wise and incorruptible, a leader of opinion always, but rather by reason of his example than his appeals, conservative, devoted and firm."

At the time of his death, he owned about 4,000 acres of land in Fulton County.

Evan Park Howell, son of Clark and Effiah Park Howell was born at Warsaw, Milton County, Georgia, December 10, 1839, and died in Atlanta, August 6, 1905. He removed with his father to Atlanta when about nine years of age, and continued to live there the rest of his life.

He attended a field school at Warsaw and later a private school in Atlanta until 1855, when he entered the Georgia Military Institute at Marietta. After two years at the latter institution he read law at Sandersville, Georgia, until 1859, when he entered the Georgia University Law School at Athens. The following year Mr. Howell graduated from the law school and began the practice of law in the office of James S. Hook, a prominent lawyer at Sandersville, but his legal career was interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities between the South and the North.

Evan P. Howell enlisted at once with the Washington Rifles, which were organized at Sandersville, and was elected Orderly Sergeant. During the first year of the war he saw service in the Army of Northern Virginia, under General Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, and upon the expiration of his term of enlistment, returned to Sandersville. There, with Captain Robert Martin of Augusta, he organized a Light Battery of Artillery, which became known as Howell’s Battery.

Evan served as First Lieutenant of the Battery and later as Captain in command. Howell’s Batteiy engaged in the Battles of Chickamauga (a monument still stands for his courageous actions taken at this place) and Missionary Ridge and later served under General Joseph Eggleston Johnston and took part in every fight between Chattanooga and Atlanta. The battery occupied particularly conspicuous positions in the Battle of Peachtree Creek, July 19, 1864, and the Battle of Atlanta. Following the fall of Atlanta, Captain Howell and the remainder of his battery were ordered to Macon to recruit and to reorganize. Subsequently they retired to Fort Hawkins and were there when Lee’s surrender terminated the War Between the States.

After the war, Evan returned to his father’s home on “Howell Mill Rd.” near Atlanta, and for two years engaged in saw milling on his father’s lands between Peachtree Creek and the Chattahoochee River. Lumber at that time was in great demand for the reconstruction of Atlanta, which had been sorely ravaged by battles that had been fought there.

In 1867, Captain Howell accepted a position as sole reporter on the daily Intelligencer Newspaper in Atlanta, and located there with his wife and two small sons, soon becoming the city editor. Atlanta at that time had begun to prosper again, and Captain Howell, realizing the opportunities, which lay before him, resumed his practice of law. Cincinnatus Peeples, a prominent lawyer of Forsyth, Georgia, having moved to Atlanta, entered into the law partnership of Peeples and Howell with Captain Howell. He later became Solicitor General of the Atlanta Circuit, and was elected State Senator from the Atlanta District for three terms from 1878 until 1882.

Between 1878 and 1892 he was delegate to most of the national conventions of the Democratic Party. In 1887 he bought the majority interest in the Atlanta Constitution Newspaper, giving up the practice of law to become the Editor-in-Chief of that paper which he conducted with great ability and success until he retired in 1897.

He was the leading force in the Atlanta Constitution; in the location of the capital at Atlanta; in the establishment of the first cotton exposition, president of the company that built the New Kimball Hotel in Atlanta in 1883, and in numerous other enterprises of a varied nature. He was a member of the State Capitol Commission, which with a legislative appropriation of $1,000,000.00 in 1884, completed Georgia’s present Capitol building within the appropriation. His foresight, his stalwart integrity, his versatile ability and enduring courage won for him a respected place in the business world and the high esteem and devotion of many friends and acquaintances throughout the South.

Captain Evan P. Howell married Julia Erwin June 5, 1861. She was born at Erwinton, Barnwell County, South Carolina and died on January 29, 1906.

John and Henry, sons of Joseph and Magaret Garmon Howell, purchased land in what afterwards became Haywood County, North Carolina and are the progenitors of the lineage in this county. It is on record, however, that John Howell and Jonathan Osborne made entries of several tracts of land on Richland Creek and Pigeon River in 1803.

It is also known that he married Essena Osborne, a sister of Jonathan Osborne, at a date prior to his coming to Haywood County. There is a peculiar record of the family history that states that John Howell signed as security the matrimonial bonds of two of his brothers, Eli, who married Nancy Love, and William who married Elizabeth Sides on February 12, 1801, evidently a double marriage, which took place in the County of Cabarrus.

John Howell was born 1771, Cabarrus County, North Carolina. In 1794 he came to the area soon to be organized as Haywood County, North Carolina (then a portion of Buncombe County) where he purchased land on Richland Creek. His home at Mount Prospect (now Waynesville) often served as the meeting place before the courthouse was built for the new county. He was a leader in the organization of Haywood County and continued to be active in community affairs throughout his life.

John Howell married first to Essena Osborne and second to Elizabeth Collins. The exact date of his death is not known; his will was made in 1846 but not probated until 1889.

The 1820 census of Haywood County lists nine children living in the home (not including Joseph and Christopher as they were already out of the home).

Henry Howell, also a son of Joseph and Margaret Garmon Howell, (ancestor of the writer) was born in 1775 in Cabarrus County, and came to Haywood County a few years after his brother John, for he was younger by about four years than John.

Before leaving Cabarrus County, he married Polly Lyle, but, having lost her by death in a few years, he remarried, this time to Mary Miller. He also purchased land on Richland Creek and made his home in that quarter of the county. Henry died in 1865 in Haywood County, and is buried in (3reenhill Cemetery in Waynesville.

It may be noted that Mount Prospect was changed to Waynesville in 1804, with the County of Haywood being formed in 1809. The courthouse was not built until 1814, and the first session of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was held in John Howell’s house in 1810.

Henry Howell, progenitor of the writer, was also very prominent in the early affairs of Haywood County. He was a man of influence in the community in which he lived.

Issac Alden Howell, Sr., son of D. Collins, was born February 18, 1841 in Haywood County. He married Frances F. “Fannie” Dillard on March 30, 1850. Alden served in the army of the Confederate States of America and attained the rank of Captain. He died in 1947 at the age of 106. He was the last Confederate Officer living at the time of his death. He also opened the first bank west of Asheville in Waynesville following the War Between the States.

Jeremiah Howell, son of John and Elizabeth Ratcliff Howell, married 1st Julia Luther, and 2nd to Rutha Jane Henderson. Jeremiah joined Company L of the North Carolina Regiment Volunteers and served North Carolina and the Confederate States of America with distinction and pride.

This synopsis on the genealogy of the Howell family and the research done to accomplish this exciting task has taken me several years to complete.

I wish to dedicate the effort that I have spent reviewing my ancestors, to my parents, Harry S. and Zelma Laura Howell. My father breathed his last on this earth on January 31, 1988. My mother breathed her last on August 14, 1997.

My parents were of the rare breed that appears in many of my ancestors. They were kind, loving parents, of which my siblings will attest. Few others ever lived blameless lives than those of my parents. These were parents not wealthy in material possessions, but they had the loving spirit, shrewd advice, and affectionate care that has been instilled in their children, whereas they too have accomplished much in their own field of endeavors. My parents were both hard working people, and as far as my memory serves me, they never did any harm to any other and left this world void of any enemies.

Jim Howell