Howard, Charles bio

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States, and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890; page 337; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Charles Howard is well known throughout this section, as he has been a resident of this county as a boy and man for nearly sixty years. He has witnessed with patriotic pride the greater part of its growth and has assisted its development in various ways, and at one time was prominent in its political and civic life. His home is now in Harris Township, where he has a well-improved and well-appointed farm.
Mr. Howard was born June 26, 1822, in Morgan County Ohio. In 1831 he came to this State with his parents, Samuel and Anna (Alderman) Howard. They located in Farmers Township and sold that claim before the land came into market, his father then buying a piece of wild land on the Lewistown and Bernadotte road, not far from the village of Bernadotte, Bernadotte Township. Our subject can well remember hearing the wolves howl in Table Grove, when they lived in their pioneer home there. His parents were very poor and their only wealth consisted in a team of oxen. The first summer of their residence here, the crops failed and in the following winter provisions were high and the family had a hard time to get along. The wolves killed two of the oxen, so Mr. Howard had to abandon his land the next summer, ten acres of which he had broken, and he sold his claim to Robert Hughes. He then rented a piece of land near Isaac Cadwalleder. He and his family wintered there one season and the next winter he bought a tract of land. He was an honest, hardworking man, and in time became better off.
Our subject was reared amid pioneer scenes, and the life of self-sacrifice and hard toil early made him self-reliant and resourceful. After he attained manhood he married and established himself in life, taking as his wife Miss Susan Clemm, a daughter of Samuel Clemm. They had two children--Samuel B. and Nancy E. Samuel lives at home with his parents. He married Miss Ruth Hollister and they have seven children. Nancy E. is the wife of Sylvester E. Mead, a farmer of Marietta, his farm adjoining the town; they have one child.
The marriage of our subject had taken place February 13, 1844, and he had taken up his residence in Cass Township. In 1855 he removed to Marietta, selling his place on the Spoon River, and in that town he entered into mercantile business. From that he went into politics, and was elected County Treasurer. Thereupon he went to live at Lewistown, the county seat.
Mr. Howard held that important office four years and in the management of its affairs showed good financial ability, clear discernment and sound integrity. At the expiration of his term he removed back to the village of Marietta and bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres near by, and has since given his attention wholly to agriculture, never caring to mingle further in public life. In political views he is a Democrat, and has always stood firmly by his party. In religion, he is a strong Methodist, and has been a faithful member of the church ever since he identified himself with it.