p. 527-8, Baird's 1909 History of Clark Co.:
Capt. Wm. HOWARD
The prospects were not pleasing when George & Katherine (HOKE) HOWARD moved
from their KY home to the wilds of Clark County, Indiana. Their land of 500
acres, situated two miles from Charlestown, where the county asylum now
stands (1909), was almost a virgin forest. Great has been the transformation
as today it is triangulated with railroads, a trolley line & a turnpike.
With this pioneer couple came William HOWARD, a son, who was born in
Jefferson County, Kentucky, and became a partner in a firm of contractors
engaged in building Market St. from the car works to the Howard Ship Yards.
For two years he ran an omnibus line from the end of Jeffersonville, Madison
& Indianapolis Railroad to New Albany, & served as City Marshal from 1857 to
1861. In the latter year he enlisted as a private in a company of the 53rd
Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, but soon elected 2nd Lt. & at the battle
of Atlanta obtained promotion to the captaincy. He took part in the battle
of Chattahoochee River, the siege of Corinth, the engagements at Grand Gulf &
Jackson, Mississippi, & maneuvers which drove the Confederates behind the
walls of Vicksburg. During the siege that followed the 53rd Indiana was
under fire of the enemy's guns for 37 days & Capt. HOWARD shared fully in all
his regiment's dangers. After the surrender he helped to drive Gen. Joe
JOHNSTON's forces from Jackson & was with the triumphant SHERMAN in all the
fighting from Chattanooga to Atlanta, during the memorable campaign of 1864.
While at Chattanooga he was on detached service in command of a large force
of men looking after the convalescents drafted & wounded. He was in the
engagements of North Carolina, preceding the surrender of Joe JOHNSTON &
helped to give the final strokes to the dying Confederacy. After the war
Capt. HOWARD was employed for a while as a guard at the State Prison, South,
and later was appointed Deputy Warden under Col. SCHULER. As a carpenter &
inspector of goods he was employed for 30 years in the quartermaster's
department but resigned in July 1900, on account of ill health. The captain
in retirement loves to talk of the older days, where his grandfather HOKE
raised tobacco on a large farm near Jeffersontown, in Kentucky. His aunts
worked in the field & made cigars which were retailed for 10 cents a hundred,
tied up in packages with a piece of bark. Capt. HOWARD treasures as a
curious heirloom two cigars which his aunts made over a 100 years ago. He
also cherishes a big key, which opened his father's mill at Fisherville,
Kentucky. His father, who came from the eastern shore of Maryland to the
woods of Kentucky was bound out & learned the trade of a millwright.
In 1846, Capt. HOWARD married Nancy, daughter of LEVEN & (Catherine)
(GRISAMORE) HOWARD, by which union there were 4 children: Rose A., who d. in
1904; Lydia C. who d. in 1860; Lucinda, who is her father's homekeeper, &
Fannie Belle, wife of T. M. DEHONEY, who resides in Chicago. The mother d.
in February, 1855, & when the father started to war it was with an aching
heart that he left his 4 children with his parents as he marched away to
fight his country's battles. In October, 1869, Capt. HOWARD m. Laura A.
PORTER, a native of Breckinridge County, Kentucky, who d. in September, 1903
The ceremony was notable, being the first marriage that took place in the
Presbyterian Church at Jeffersonville. In 1845, the captain became a member
of the Wall St. Church, for whose construction he carried the first brick.
Formerly, he was for a time a member of the Presbyterian Church & served as
elder. He is a member of the Golden Cross & has been a staunch Republican
since the organization of that party.
Hope this helps.
Susi W. Smith