This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Howard, Smeltzer, McDowell
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Bk.2ADE/1237
Message Board Post:
This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it just has the
insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just
thought I would share. I do not know anymore about these families or these surnames. NOTE:
I don’t know if there is any additional mention of this family in the book, it has no
index. I do not want to sell this book. I am typing the biographies from it.
Typed by Lora Radiches:
Surnames in this biography are: Howard, Smeltzer, McDowell,
RALPH HOWARD. In Putnam County, near Putnamville, is situated the Indiana State Farm of
Indiana, and Ralph Howard has been actively identified with the executive and practical
management of this farm since 1914, his administration as its superintendent having been
marked by constructive efficiency and by loyalty that entitles him to classification among
the valued officials of his native state. Mr. Howard was born at Winchester, Randolph
County, Indiana, June 21, 1881, and is a son of John and Louisa C. (Smeltzer) Howard, the
former of whom was born in England and the latter in Ohio. John Howard was a youth when he
came from his native land to the United States, in 1868, and in Indiana he became a
successful school teacher, though his major success was gained through his active
association with farm industry, of which he became a substantial representative in
Randolph County, where also he served a term of years as superintendent of the orphans’
home of the county. !
He was influential in community affairs and was a sterling citizen who ever commanded
unqualified popular esteem. The death of John Howard occurred December 27. 1929, his wife
having passed away October 25, 1925, and the three surviving children being Frederick,
Grace and Ralph, Frederick being a resident of Bastrop, Louisiana, and Grace being now a
resident of Knightstown, Henry County, Indiana. The public-school discipline of Ralph
Howard culminated in his course in the high school at Winchester, and about the time of
his attaining to legal majority he initiated his service in Indiana institutional work,
his earlier experience of practical order having been mainly in connection with the
activities of the home farm. In 1914 he assumed the position of assistant superintendent
of the Indiana State Farm, near Putnamville, and his ability and efficiency later led to
his advancement to the office of superintendent, of which he has since continued the
incumbent. Mr. Howard is a !
staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican Party, he is affiliated with both
York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife are members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. March 24, 1906, recorded the marriage of Mr. Howard to
Miss Carrie E. McDowell, daughter of a physician and surgeon who is now deceased,
but was for fifty years engaged in the practice of his profession at Sumner, Illinois. Mr.
and Mrs. Howard have two sons, John M. and Charles E., both of whom are, in 1930, students
in engineering in Rose Polytechnic Institute.