The Howe-Winslow Letters, Part 2: Dust-up Over the Ghent Ferry

Roughly half of the packet of letters between John J. Howe of Carrollton, Kentucky and his uncle Henry M. Winslow of Harriman, Tennessee are about Henry's trials and tribulations as owner of riverfront land and a ferryboat landing at Ghent, Kentucky. I found the letters both fascinating and surprising. After reading them, I think both Henry and his nephew may have been disorganized and easily distracted in their business practices and a bit inept in money management. In this post, I will tell you why I think so.

On Jan. 1, 1923, Henry wrote to Paul M. Williams of Lexington, inviting him to buy Henry's riverfront property in Ghent.

I have been paying no attention to this matter [the land and related ferry business] for many years past as I had too much on my hands here and have just let this matter rock along at the insignificant sum of $35 per month.  ...  This is a perpetual ferry franchise, tho I conveyed the right to the land in front of the town of Ghent for wharfage purposes exclusively reserving all of the ferry rights some years ago.

The Graham Ferry Company, which by the 1920s had been transporting people and goods across the Ohio River between Ghent, Kentucky, and Vevay, Indiana, for a century, paid Henry $35 per month to dock at the Ghent wharf.

Ferry (the Eva Everett?) at the Ghent Riverfront

Throughout the packet are letters from John (Henry's agent for business conducted in Carrollton and Ghent) to Martha A. Graham, acknowledging receipt of the monthly rent payments from the ferry company. Also there are a few letters asking about a missed payment. These inquiries were sent months after the fact, and John's words included phrases such as "I have no record" and "am unable to account for." Was he just softening the demand for a late payment, or was he admitting he could have misplaced the rent checks?

Letters from the rest of 1923 include information about both men getting loans of $500 and $1000 from multiple banks; both men receiving notices of late re-payments on those loans; and notes related to John's campaign for U.S. Senate. My impression is that the campaign was soaking up much of the borrowed funds.

On Feb. 8, 1924,  J. L. Graham writes to John Howe about a problem with the Ghent ferry landing:

Dear Sir:
As manager of the Vevay & Ghent Ferry Co. I wish to draw your attention to the attitude of the Ghent Authorities in regard to the road leading from the bank at the top of ferry grade to the state pike, "about one square." They stopped all tobacco trucks (during the recent thaw) coming from the ferry.
The tobacco pool officer proposed to put metal on the street & then continue to haul but they [the town of Ghent] would not permit them to do so.
I have put from $25 to $100 of metal on the ferry grade each year for the past several years, have had to do so to keep road somewhere near on a level as we have deep deposits of soil on each side of the road every year, as a result of this new metal & constant washing to remove the mud. I have a good hard road [is he referring to the ferry grade on the Indiana side of the river?], but the town of Ghent has only put about 5 yards of gravel on the grade in the past 5 years. I was just wondering if they could be persuaded to repair same so as not to stop our business, it seems there was an agreement between Mr. Winslow and the Town of Ghent whereby the town was to keep the street & grade in repair (to the foot of the bank) in exchange for the Ferry landing proper just one square farther upstream, the idea being that the large str [steamboat] could not use the lower landing during low water.
I have had to move the ferry dock up to the upper landing for the past several summers & the City authorities have had the [writing illegible] notify me to not use their landing.
I wish you would kindly investigate this matter right away.
Yours very truly,
J. L. Graham

In a letter dated March 24, 1924, a man named Leon Ash asked John to find out the lowest price Henry would accept for the Ghent ferry. (I assume that means the land and ferry rights.) John wrote to Henry:

Ash is now living in Vevay and is more or less familiar with the trouble Graham has been having about the road, but nevertheless is interested and, as I have thought for some time, is the best prospective purchaser around here.

Henry responded while on vacation in Florida:

On Sept. 16 – six months after Mr. Ash first expresses interest in buying the land – John invites Ash to his office to discuss the matter, saying that he and Henry had not given this matter consideration recently but would be pleased to hear from Ash if he was still interested. Were John and Henry so busy with other matters (or so disorganized) that they forgot about this possible offer? Or was this gamesmanship on their part?

John and Mr. Ash did meet, and on Sept. 19 John wrote to Henry:

In response, Henry balked at $5,000 and favored a $7,000 minimum. He also expressed a desire to sell the "circus" lot (see note below under "Two Other Bits of Interest . . .") for $300-$375 and, in a later note, proposed selling his lots on Second Street to Dave Miller for a good price – and offered to finance the purchase. Obviously, Henry is selling off assets to raise cash – either for John's campaign (to which he contributed $10,000) or for other reasons.

Several letters sent by both John and Henry during 1924 include comments about lack of funds – not just for the campaign but for meeting general obligations. The year 1925 began with Henry alerting John that he had received no ferry rental checks for the past 14 months – a total of $490. The Grahams routinely sent the monthly rent checks to John, who would send them on to his uncle. Why had Henry received no checks for 14 months? Was John so busy with his campaign and with his work as commonwealth's attorney that he didn't get around to sending them? Did John (I hate to think it) apply the money to his campaign with intentions of making good sometime down the road? Why did it take Henry 14 months to notice he hadn't been receiving his money? More hints at disorganization and careless business practices on both sides.

Then Henry got into a bit of tax trouble. Judge Matthews of Carroll County notified Henry (through John) that the Ghent School District expected Henry to pay school taxes on his ferry property. Henry offered several reasons why the school board had no right to tax the property. Judge Matthews held steady, warning that the school district could proceed to sell the ferry franchise to recoup the unpaid taxes. In a letter dated June 19, 1924, John postulated that by hiring someone to monitor the ferry business for a month, they had brought unwanted attention to themselves. He also reported that the judge had made some unflattering remarks about the ferryboat owners.

It seems that our having those receipts checked for a month has revived this old ambition on the part of the Ghent folks to gouge you for taxes. Judge Matthews was anything but complimentary concerning the Grahams, saying that they were lacking in enterprise, and most difficult to get along with, and that that was the reason why it would be impossible for you to sell the ferry at anything like a reasonable price as long as the Grahams would have to be contended with.

On July 2, 1925, Mr. Albertson, apparently the manager of Henry M. Winslow's law office in Harriman, Tennessee, reported to John that Winslow wanted to pay the taxes to avoid interest or penalties, but that the firm's bank account was "somewhat low" and would not cover the cost. Mr. Albertson wrote:

If the Ghent folks make demand for the payment of this $160 before Mr. Winslow sends it to you, just give them your check for it and then draw a sight draft on Mr. Winslow thru the First National Bank of this city to cover same. And I will of course take care of the draft when presented for payment.

The tax was apparently still unpaid on Aug. 29, 1925, when John notified Henry that the trustees of Ghent had hired an attorney, J. Wirt Turner of Newcastle, Ky., to collect the tax payment. 

On Sept. 12, John sent Henry the school district officers' receipt for $160. It appears that Henry Winslow lost the battle and paid the tax.

I'll have to do more research to determine if Henry ever sold the various parcels of land, if he got the prices he wanted, and if either man ever managed to solve their cash-flow issues. 

Two Other Bits of Interest

On March 9, 1923, John notified Henry that Joe Miller offered to pay $10 per month to rent Henry's "circus lot" to cultivate corn. I think this lot was close to Henry's riverfront land, because I came across a picture of elephants boarding the Robert T. Graham ferryboat.

On Nov. 30, 1923, John wrote to his uncle about his busy days in court and refers to his hope to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. Notice the second paragraph in this excerpt. He mentions that the court in Carroll County had, for the first time, women serving on the jury. Momentous event!

UPDATE
Within an hour of publishing this post, I found this small document. It appears to be a Kentucky State Bank deposit receipt showing that John J. Howe deposited a $650 check from J.L. Graham on Jan. 15, 1937. What was Graham paying for? Henry Winslow died in 1931. Was John his executor? Was Graham buying ferry rights from Winslow's estate? Was he paying a previous debt to Henry or John? Was this a payment toward buying the land at which the ferry docked?

The mysteries continue.



More information and images of Ghent ferryboats and related topics:
Switzerland County (Indiana) Historical Society
     http://www.switzcomuseums.org/pdf_files/river_pdfs/Ferry_House.pdf
Kenton County (Kentucky) Public Library
       http://www.kentonlibrary.org/genphotos/index.php?q=Ferries
 Kentucky Kinfolk
     http://www.kykinfolk.com/carroll/facts.htm
Juanita Graham – First woman in the district to get a river pilot's license (1900)
     http://www.nkyviews.com/carroll/text/junita_graham.html
News of a fatal accident involving the ferry
     http://www.nkyviews.com/carroll/text/auto_off_ghent_ferry.html
More photos and history of ferryboats
     http://www.nkyviews.com/carroll/carroll_ghent_ferry.htm
"Brief History of Switzerland County, Indiana" 
     https://archive.org/stream/briefhistoryofsw00veva/briefhistoryofsw00veva_djvu.txt
"19th Century Overview of Vevay, Indiana"
     http://switzcotourism.com/19th-century-overview-of-vevay-indiana/

Photo Credit: The ferry image in this post appears on the website nkyviews.com. Original source: Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

The Howe-Winslow Letters, Part 1: John and Uncle Henry Confer on John's Campaign for U.S. Senate – and Blame the Anti-Saloon League for His Loss

The handwriting above this photo of John Junior Howe (1879-1939) says "vote for." Because of other items in the scrapbook, we think the writing was by John J.'s 1st cousin once removed, David H. Salyers II (my husband's father, 1915-1981). "D2" would have been 9 years old in 1924, when John was a candidate in the Kentucky Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. John would have been 45. Although John ran for public office several times, I think this scrapbook entry pertains to his unsuccessful race for U.S. Senate.

Remember my comments in the previous post about having a packet of letters between John and his uncle Henry M. Winslow? I found a picture of Henry in the Carroll County section at Northern Kentucky Views. It identifies him as an lawyer and president of Carrollton National Bank. The image is not dated. Findagrave.com
 reports his birth date as 3 Aug 1850 (Carrollton, Kentucky) and his death year as 1931 (Sarasota, Florida). I'd estimate Henry to be 40 to 45 years old in the photo. (There's gray in the beard but no facial wrinkles.) That dates the image to 1890-1895. I'm  speculating, of course.

Most of the letters in the packet include one or both of these topics:

• John J. Howe's campaign as the "dry ticket" candidate in the 1924 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. (Remember that several of the Howe men were card-carrying, tee-totaling members of the Temperance movement.) Most of the letters on this topic were focused on campaign finance.
• Henry's trials and tribulations related to owning the Carroll County, Kentucky, land from which a ferry made sojourns from Ghent to Vevay, Indiana, home base of the ferry's manager, Martha J. Graham.

In today's post, we focus on the campaign.

The Senate Primary Campaign of John J. Howe

John used caution as he made his decision to throw his hat in the U.S. Senate political ring. Here's an except from a letter he wrote to Uncle Henry on Nov. 9, 1923:

Now that the Democratic state ticket has been elected by such an overwhelming majority [William J. "Honest Bill" Fields, who like John J. Howe was a Methodist and a prohibitionist, was elected governor], I will soon begin to enter into the activities of my canvass much more vigorously and will shortly confer with some of my most dependable advisers preliminary to making my formal announcement.

On Dec. 3, 1923, Henry expresses a possible obstacle between John and victory in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate:

I am a little astonished and concerned to know what effect Gen. J. Tandy Ellis' candidacy will have upon your prospects, thinking probably that Senator Stanley's friends are pulling him out into the race in order to divide the dry vote with you.

(Augustus O. Stanley represented Kentucky in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate and was the state's governor 1915-1919. Fellow Kentuckian  J. Tandy Ellis had multiple connections with him. Stanley was Howe's victorious opponent in the Democratic Party primary for U.S. Senate in 1924, but he lost the general election to Republican Frederick M. Sackett)

Just three days later, Henry writes to his nephew:

I got it in the neck to the tune of about $6000 in the Roane Chancery Court last week. And I am proceeding to pay it up before I leave here tomorrow to meet you in Lexington on Saturday.  . . . In view of this large unexpected demand upon me which I am proceeding to raise the money and pay off rather than continue longer in the courts, kindly do not clip or send in any of the coupons or expect any interest payment before the first of January on behalf of your mother and Lille, as I will be away in Florida until about the first of next year and may not be able to leave my finances in such condition as to meet these demands before that time.

Henry apparently was a defendant and lost in court to the tune of $6,000.

In the packet of letters I purchased, the correspondence about the campaign jumps from December 1923 to July 1924. Now we see a lot of references to cash, loans, rejected loan applications, and the like. On July 2, the president of Louisville National Bank, Richard Bean, writes to John J. Howe at his campaign headquarters, Room 349 Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, with carbon copies to John at his bank in Carrollton and to HMW, likely Henry M. Winslow in Tennessee:

I return herein the note inclosed [sic] in yours of the 30th ult. for $1000.00 because we are not seeking outside loans now Mr. Howe, and, of course, the loan as you offer it is rather unusual anyway. Whenever individuals borrow over $1000.00 we generally have collateral. I hope you can furnish that on this paper without any inconvenience.

I interpret the language to mean that John proposed borrowing $1,000 or more from the Bank of Louisville but was turned down flat.

Then on July 7, Henry replies to a letter from John – a letter in which John wrote, "It will be necessary soon for me to have more and if you are not coming this way soon maybe you better arrange it if possible." Henry responds:

I was in Chattanooga this morning and sold some of my stuff at really about 10% less than I thot [sic] it was worth and nearly 10% less than I was substantially offered last January, and I got for it the enclosed cashier's check for $1820 which I have endorsed to you. Do you suppose that you will be able to pull thru with this? If not, give me the best estimate you can as to what any balance you think I ought to contribute, will likely be.

Henry asks for the total cost of what campaign advertising has cost in the county and city newspapers, as well as the cost of travel and hotel lodging. He reports that relatives in Lexington have commented that John has "about a million of his pictures put up over the cities and country on every post, tree, telephone pole, windows, etc." While Henry admits that the relatives might be exaggerating a bit, he suggests that this kind of publicity may be "over-done."

He adds his opinion that the "Democrats in New York at the Convention are acting a fool very considerably and their chances of success in November maybe considerably lessened by reason of the bickerings they have had among themselves and that Coolidge and LaFollette may each reap considerable benefit for the lack of gumption among the democrats." (Indeed, Republican candidate Coolidge defeated Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive candidate LaFollette.)

Four days later, Henry returns to the topic of posters, relaying reports from Lexington:

. . . some of your friends as well as your enemies are adversely criticising [sic] your extravagant use of posters in that section of the country. I suggest if you should not warn your county managers against repeating this kind of advertising to the extent of over-doing it. However good this "poster" kind of advertising may have been in the more or less remote past, when it was first started, I hardly think it is apt to amount to much after it has become a sort of "old song" to which little attention is paid.

On July 17, Henry expresses dissatisfaction with the system of campaign finance. As I read it, I wondered if the Anti-Saloon League, a powerful, temperance-promoting social/political organization, was demanding money from the candidates it supported. Later in the letter, Henry expresses appreciation for the way a Republican running as a Progressive is funding his campaign. Again, we hear themes that may be familiar today, almost 93 years later.

The letters continue, back and forth. The men occasionally meet in Lexington, Carrollton, or Cincinnati to discuss campaign strategy and family business. In what appears to be his last letter to John during the campaign, Henry urges attention to "getting out the unpurchasable [sic], reliable and honest voters."

 

The primary election must have been soon after Henry wrote this letter, because a letter written by Henry's daughter Alice on Aug. 7 expresses sadness and surprise over John's loss.

It seemed to me that every body [sic] I knew was going to vote for John as there is so much feeling against Stanley. ... I was sorry too when John sent out word after the election that he would support Stanley in the fall. I think that was a mistake as well as wrong. John knows the type of man Stanley is and all he stands for, and to think that just because he is Democrat that he [John] would support him now in the Fall. It would be far better for us to have a good dry republican for a couple of years and get rid of Stanley than to keep him as a disgrace to the party and state.

The packet contains post-election letters, more of them from Henry to John that from John to Henry. We must extrapolate some meaning and make some guesses along the way. I get a sense from Henry's letter dated Aug. 9 that John wrote to him soon after the loss at the polls, thanking his uncle for his generous campaign support (Henry contributed $10,000 in an eight-month period) and maybe apologizing that he did not win. Henry responds:

I do not regret a thing in regard to the whole matter, except that the anti-saloon league did us up the way it did. I am of the opinion that its management is mostly rotten and merely, in recent years especially, becomes a mere graft on the candidates which it sees proper to to endorse for its supposed strength.

Perhaps my old friend Young and some few are reasonably honest (being largely deceived of the Devil however) but they are for the most part nearly as rotten as the old parties have gotten to be, and in their vain imaginations only pretending to earn their salaries and perquisitses [sic].

If in your experience with them you think that I am much misjudging them I would be glad to know.

. . . Still yet your affectionate uncle,

Henry

The last few letters about the campaign and election tell us a lot about money. It's easy to assume that both John and Henry were prosperous. Both came from entrepreneurial, successful families. Both worked as attorneys. Both were bank officers and had financial interests in land and other assets. The letters from Henry seem to cast doubt on that assumption. In a letter dated Sept. 3, 1924, Henry itemizes his outstanding loans:

I am up to my limit in both the banks here and another bank in Tennessee, besides having $4100, which I renewed at the Louisville National Bank, with the understanding that I would pay it about the first of November. This, besides the $5000 which I have from the Carrollton National Bank, including a $3000 note of Mr. Kennedy, discounted there by me. . . . I will see what other help I can render you, but if I add on another thousand, it will have to be by increasing my notes at Carrollton from $5000 to $6000 and putting up collateral. And taking out Mr. Kennedy's note discounted there.

Three days later, John writes back to his Uncle Henry, describing his own financial woes:

Did John accidentally buy a farm? Was he at the auction to inflate the bidding but got caught with the high bid? If he made a habit of that, it's no wonder he lacked cash!

More questions than answers at this point – and some of those answers may never be found.

FIRE! FIRE! Carrollton Business District Burns – Again, 1895

In Ashes Are Some of Carrollton's Finest Houses

Special dispatch to the Enquirer
Carrollton, Ky., September 5. – Fire broke out in this city to-day at 12:30 o'clock, and as a result the following buildings, with their contents, are in ashes: Mrs. Gertrude Smith, three business houses, occupied by M. & M. Denkelspiel, general merchants; Browinski & Son, druggists; and H.J. Kuhlman, shoe merchant; C.D. Salyers, stove store and stock. The loss on this property is fully $65,000. All of the parties have reasonable insurance, except Mr. Kuhlman, who has none. Fifteen other persons and firms were damaged more or less by the fire and intense heat, bringing the total loss to nearly $75,000. The post-office and Jett's large whiskey house were saved only by the most heroic fight, but the post office was greatly damaged.

Cincinnati Enquirer, September 6, 1895

That article and an undated, unattributed article that may or may not refer to the same fire, were not in Sarah Eva Howe's scrapbooks, but I found them online, thanks to the folks who manage and contribute to Northern Kentucky Views.

Sarah's scrapbooks inform us about the impact of the fire on the Howe family. She identified the date of this photo as "after the fire," 1895.

 Family letters tell the tale. This card is to John J. Howe from his sister Lille. (Both were Sarah's first cousins, children of her father's brother William F. Howe.)

Dear John – Fire broke out yesterday morning in the rear of Browinski Adcock's store – soon checked however – more damage from smoke and water than from fire. The store was full of smoke when Papa went in yesterday, but hope we can get allowance from insurance to cover damage. Salyers also got full benefit of smoke.
Hastily, Lille
Monday Morning

Apparently, Lille's card didn't reach John as soon as his family expected. This letter is from his mother,  Louisiana "Lou" Winslow Howe.

Dear John – We received your letter to Papa and were surprised that you had not heard of the fire at the time of its writing. There was no essential damage to the goods in Howe Brothers, but the injury to their reputation induced the insurance adjuster to allow them damages. They do not consider it wise to be advertising just how much they got but part of it was paid yesterday and that enables them to offer their stock at reduced rates. They had a fine trade yesterday. Called on Jen to act as cashier and their deposit at 4 o'clock in the afternoon was considerably over 200 dollars. We expect you home next Thursday. I send you a copy of the Directory which if you are not ashamed of you may leave with cousin Bessie for her mother.
Yours lovingly,
Mamma

 In later scrapbook pages, Sarah wrote a comment about the ability of the City of Carrollton to combat fires.

When the “fathers” started to put in the Carrollton “water works” in 1895, they dug the reservoir up on the side of the highest hill outside town. The pipes were all laid & the reservoir ready in the fall of 1895 when the terrible Main St. fire broke out when Mr. Salyers’ last big store was burned — but there was no water yet. . . . There was some water in the reservoir but not very much – muddy and dark looking.

The Howe family had experienced a business fire before. Their Carrollton Woolen Mill, the first of the family businesses, caught fire in 1878.

“A part of the woolen factory owned by John Howe & Sons was destroyed by fire to-day at one o'clock, while the hands were at dinner and the watchman left in charge.  the picker-house, about ten feet apart from the main factory, took fire and was entirely consumed,  Loss about $4,000, and insured for $2,700.”   

Cincinnati Enquirer, November 23, 1878

According to another newspaper article, undated, one block in the Carrollton business district was destroyed or severely damaged by fire four times in 20 years. Some merchants lost their businesses multiple times. The article mentions several of the same businesses affected by the fire of 1895, but I can't be certain that it refers to the same fire. The website, Northern Kentucky Views, includes these excerpts and links to news about those fires:

“A destructive fire occurred at Carrollton, Ky., Sunday. One-half of the most valuable block of buildings in the center of town was destroyed. The principal sufferers are Messrs. Thurman, Martin, Booker, and Hamilton & Smith. The amount of losses is not stated.”

New York Times, September 22, 1874

A fire that started in the grocery and hardware store of D.O. Wilkins on Main Street destroyed a row of eight businesses and damaged several others. An article about the fire, with a list of businesses ruined, appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, October 16, 1884

 Other major fires not in the business district:

“The distilleries of Messrs. Root & Co., and Mr. Snyders, at Carrollton, were  destroyed by fire last night, together with all the contents and a large number of hogs. The loss is estimated at $100,000.”

 NY Times, July 8, 1854

“J. B. Rollin's ice plant was destroyed by fire early today.  the loss is estimated at $8,000. The fire was supposed to have been of incendiary origin.” 

Cincinnati Enquirer, April 7, 1915

Howe Brothers, Inc. – THE Place to Shop in Carrollton

Today we focus on Howe Brothers, Inc., purveyors of household goods and fashionable clothing for men and women.

In this fading image, circa 1910, Robert J. Howe stands with three women who could be store employees or Howe family members.

The immigrant John Howe launched the store, possibly in the late 1870s, and his sons had a hand in management of day-to-day operations. While first-born son William Ficklin Howe was more focused on the family's woolen mill and pants factory, his younger brothers John Irvin Howe, Robert James Howe (father of Sarah, the scrapbooker), and Joseph Brown Howe were running the store. The youngest son, George Thompson Howe, apparently had a role at the store, too, before he died in 1881¹ at 21 years of age.

By 1900, brothers John and George had died, and only Robert's and Joseph's names were on the store's letterhead. On 4 May 1900, the immigrant's first-born son William used the store stationery to write to his son John Junior Howe about family news. In the letter, he mentions that business is going well:

We have had a fine trade at the store all the week. Were very busy yesterday.

Apparently, Robert and Joseph shared responsibility as buyers, traveling to wholesalers to select the goods that would be sold at the store. Clippings, letters, and Sarah's notes frequently mention her father's trips to markets in New York and other cities. One example is a society column from a Carrollton newspaper. Her father's name is indicated in the clipping by an arrow.

Joseph was the "veteran retailer" featured in a Carrollton Democrat article. While Sarah (as usual) did not record the date of this clipping, the article's content helps set the publication year as 1927. Joseph Brown Howe was born March 7, 1857;² the article appears to have been published a few weeks shy of his 70th birthday. (The last line of the article's left column is missing from the scrapbook.)


Joseph, who died on Dec. 7, 1929,² said in the interview: "There were five boys in that store, and I'm the only one left." Joseph was in the middle of the birth order among the seven Howe siblings to reach adulthood. He outlived all four of his brothers and one of his sisters. His sister Sarah Varena "Sallie" Howe died in 1950 at 87 years of age.

















Robert and Joseph also wrote the Howe Brothers ads published in the Carrollton Democrat and possibly in other papers in the northern Kentucky and southern Ohio area. Sarah called her father's writing style "refined" and "sophisticated." She  preferred it over the "flamboyant" ads written by her Uncle Joe.
The two ads illustrate Sarah's point. Sarah proudly noted on one ad: "Papa wrote this one." Elsewhere on the page, she wrote, "One of Papa's advertisements, nothing sensational, just dignified statement."


The other ad was the work of Sarah's Uncle Joe, who perhaps was the more outgoing of the two and more prone to a "hard sell" approach.

In 1893, when Sarah was 10 years old, she tried her own hand at writing ads for Howe Brothers, taking liberties with popular nursery rhymes. She commented that she knew they weren't as good as her father's, and she expressed little hope they would be published.

Endnotes
¹ Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Memorial #22896462. Original source: Methodist Church Cemetery, Carrollton, Kentucky
² Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Memorial #31550928. Original source: Carrollton IOOF Cemetery, Carrollton, Carroll County, Kentucky

Howe's Business? One Entrepreneurial Family in Carrollton, Kentucky (1859- )

In 1847, John Howe, Sarah "Sallie" Brown Howe, and their infant son William Ficklin Howe moved from Ireland to New York and soon, according to scrapbook notes and various records noting the birthplaces of three of his children, continued on to Fleming County, Kentucky. John used his skills as a tailor to support his family.

By 1857, John decided that farming would be a better way to support his expanding brood. He moved his household to a patch of prairie near Urbana, Illinois, only to discover that he was not cut out for farming¹. The family left Urbana for St. Louis, Illinois, then Madison, Indiana. By 1859, now with five children, John and Sarah moved to Carrollton, Kentucky.

Carrollton must have been the perfect place for John Howe's entrepreneurial spirit to thrive. Returning to skills he learned in Ireland, he set to work as a merchant tailor². Later, for a few years, he tried his hand at banking by establishing John and W.F. Howe and Sons.³ He also established (or bough?) Carrollton Woolen Mills and then launched a related business, Carrollton Pants Factory. He made fabric, then clothing, so the logical next step was to open a dry goods store that sold those goods not only to wholesalers and distributors but directly to consumers. The store flourished and, over time, expanded to add styles from big-city fashion houses.

 Carrollton Woolen Mills, 1876⁴

The businesses provided good jobs and incomes for John and all five of his sons: William F., John, Robert, Joseph, and George, who died in 1881 at age 21. Not all went smoothly, though. In 1878, fire took a toll on the woolen mill. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported it on November 23 of that year:

A part of the woolen factory owned by John Howe & Sons was destroyed by fire today at one o'clock, while the hands were at dinner and the watchman left in charge. The picker-house, about ten feet apart from the main factory, took fire and was entirely consumed. Loss about $4,000, and insured for $2,700.⁵

Apparently, the woolen mill and the pants factory were still doing a booming business 13 years later. On November 14, 1891, The Carrollton Democrat published a lengthy article⁶ about the Howe pants factory, referring to the factory's product as "pantaloons." The Howes advertised the pants as "doeskin jeans," doeskin being a finely woven, soft, smooth woolen fabric, jeans being a style created in the early 1870s. In the article, the reporter seemed to be fascinated with the factory's transition from work by hand to work by machines and the hiring of women to operate those machines. Excerpts from that article:

The Pants Factory
One of Carrollton’s Valuable Institutions 

Among the several valuable manufacturing institutions in Carrollton is the pantaloon factory recently established in connection with the Carrollton Woolen Mills. It is located in the building known as the old woolen mill on 6th Street. We called the other day to inspect some alterations that were being [done] with a view to increased convenience and greater capacity, and were highly delighted with the scene. Nearly everything is done by machinery, the operatives being for the most part bright, handsome ... young women — and how they do hustle! However, the work is not heavy, as all the machines are run by steam.

The factory, having a connection with the woolen mills, is of course under the management of Mr. Wm. F. Howe, but it is under the immediate charge of Mr. W. A. Hoagland, as Superintendent, who is a pleasant gentleman, with evident qualifications for the position.  ... He has some assistants in the work of cutting, John Beal being the first.  ...

There are 13 splendid sewing machines, a button hole machine, a button machine and a crimping machine, each in the charge of a young lady, Miss Ollie Craig being the efficient forewoman in this department. The ladies at present employed are: Misses Ollie Craig, Zella Scandrett, Lucy Betem, Nannie Welch, Linda McKim, Laura Coghill, Minnie Meier, Virginia Soar, Barbara Lang, Lulie Leap, Nannie Soar, Mattie Welch, Rosa Lorch, Katie Betem, Hattie Brown, Eva Porter, Mary Dugan, Ella Hays, and Annie Morgan.

... Several other persons fill positions about the factory — two young Kendall brothers doing all the pressing while Edgar Williams and perhaps others are 'general' men. The total number of employees is 25. Many of these would be earning little or nothing if it were not for the opportunity the factory gives to them, and hence we started out by calling it a very valuable institution.

...  At this time the weekly payroll of the two concerns amounts to nearly $500 — and a fourth of the machinery in the mill, perhaps, is not running.

Mr. Howe feels very much encouraged from the success of the new enterprise.  He said: “A gentleman was here from Louisville today and gave us an order for 76 dozen pairs; Mr. J.B. Ribella, who travels exclusively for this factory and the woolen mill, is sending in some orders. Besides Mr. Ribella, we have five men who are on the road who sell for both departments on commission. The latter, however, represent us in connection with other lines."

Letterheads from two Howe family businesses

A sketch of Howe Brothers store circa 1895⁷

ENDNOTES

¹  See a transcription of a handwritten family history found in the scrapbooks of Sarah Eva Howe, granddaughter of immigrant John Howe. Also see a published biography at http://tinyurl.com/John-Howe-bio
²  The largely obsolete term merchant tailor describes a business person who trades in textiles, and initially a tailor who keeps and sells materials for the garments which he makes. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloth_merchant
³  History of Kentucky, Volume 5 by William Elsey Connelley, Ellis Merton Coulter; American Historical Society, 1922; p. 238. See online at http://tinyurl.com/CarrolltonHistory-Howe.
⁴  Image from http://www.nkyviews.com and included here with permission. 
⁵  Excerpt posted at http://www.nkyviews.com/carroll/carroll_businesses.htm; included here with permission.
⁶  Full article posted at http://www.nkyviews.com/carroll/text/pants_factory.html; included here with permission. 
⁷  Image from http://www.nkyviews.com/carroll/carroll_businesses.htm; included here with permission. 

A Virtual Stroll Through the Business District, 1889-1896

Little Sarah Eva Howe could hardly escape knowing about the thriving businesses in her home town of Carrollton, Kentucky. Her grandfather John Howe and John's five sons (including Sarah's "Papa," Robert James Howe) were prominent in local banking, textiles, custom-made suits, the manufacture of jeans, and retail sales. Some of the women in the family were business owners and managers, too, or owned stocks – and all of them likely had influence in business decisions made by their fathers, husbands, and sons.

No wonder, then, that Sarah's scrapbooks about growing up in 1890s Carrollton are rich with clippings and notes about large stores and small shops, manufacturing and merchandising, banking and finance. At every family gathering, the conversation likely turned to business matters – and Sarah was the kind of child who would have soaked up every word.

The ads she clipped from the Carrollton Democrat newspaper and pasted into her scrapbooks guide us on a virtual tour of the Carrollton business district of that time. They also tell us much about the Howes, their extended family, their friends, and their neighbors.

Of course, Sarah saved many ads representing Howe Brothers, the place in Carrollton to buy men's and ladies' fashions from New York and other big cities. We'll explore those another day. Today we'll visit other businesses in town – all of them owned by Howe relatives, friends, or neighbors.

Our first stop is a pharmacy, M.A. Geier & Company.

Now we proceed to M.A. Browinski & Son, purveyors of musical instruments and sheet "musik." (Note: This ad comes not from a newspaper but from a school event's program booklet.) We'll also pass by Browinski's Drugs.

Sarah's note (see original below) points out that both the Geier and Browinski businesses were owned by women: 
Both of the "M.A.s" of the drugstore were the women of the family. M.A. Browinski was Mrs. Mary Browinski, Miss Sue's mother. Her son Anson of course ran the business at this time. M.A. Geier was Miss Mary Alice Geier, whose brothers stayed in the store tho Miss "Jule" went into the grocery business about 1890 or 91. Mr. Oscar Geier had a partnership with the Driskell Bros in the Ghent Pharmacy.

 We continue on to other businesses in this thriving northern Kentucky town:



  



          
Sarah remarks about the ad on the right: Mr. Kreutzer lived at 4th and Sycamore diagonally back of us with his three pretty daughters.

                                                              


Mr. Kreutzer also advertised his blacksmithing skills.








Steam-powered paddle boats carried mail and passengers up and down the Ohio River. The people of Carrollton may have visited N.T. Drake & Co. for stationery and books when they visited Madison, Indiana.



 















J.J. Blessing and the Framme Brothers were competitors in the meat business.



The Carrollton Democrat, of course, advertised in its own newspaper.



Next stop, People's Building and Loan Association, which in 1889 advertised the highlights of its Annual Report.

Now we pass by these Carrollton medical offices:
 

And last but not least . . .

I hope you enjoyed our virtual visit to some of the businesses in 1890s Carrollton. In a future post: The Howe family businesses and the impact they had on Carrollton, Carroll County, and northern Kentucky.