"Papa" – Sarah's Father, Robert James Howe (1855-1910)

Sarah Eva Howe was a daddy's girl. That's my sense, based on what I see in her early scrapbooks. There are many loving mentions of her mother, Alice Ada Cost, but many more mentions of her father, Robert James Howe, and much more detail about the things he did and the ideas he expressed. Today, we get better acquainted with "Papa" – or Rob, as he was known to his friends.

We already know a little about Robert Howe the businessman. I've found a few other items that offer more insight. One is what Sarah called "Papa's little book." It is only 2 1/2 inches wide and 5 inches long. Apparently, he had many of them over time. As Sarah wrote:

"Papa filled endless little books like this with lovely cramped writing mostly of special orders to be looked for on his trips to the cities." 

Look how much writing he wrote on each tiny page! The example below shows a numbered list of expenses for October, November, and December 1894. Among the highlights:

• seltzer 25 cents
• meat 30 cents; figs 35 cents; grapes 50 cents
• 3 chickens 60 cents
• Book Concern 35 cents
• Renewal of St. Nicholas magazine subscription [for Sarah] $3.10
• 2 lecture tickets 50 cents
• Overshoes 85 cents
• 2 concert tickets 70 cents
• Christmas gifts $1.80

These and other entries in the list reveal or confirm things about Robert. His purchase of lecture and concert tickets indicate that he enjoyed culture and the arts and was a life-long learner. His renewal of his daughter's favorite magazine tells us that he encouraged Sarah to read. His habit of keeping these bits of information in such a detailed and consistent way makes me think he was a highly organized and meticulous man. Those characteristics fit with what we have already learned about his approach to business.

Robert's contribution to Book Concern, the first publishing house of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, hints at his connection to that denomination. The scrapbooks confirm that he followed in his parents' footsteps as an active member and leader of Carrollton Methodist Episcopal Church (now Carrollton First United Methodist). Robert was also a leader in church programs on a state and regional level. In the next photo, he sits front and center (to viewer's right of the woman wearing leg-of-mutton sleeves) at a convention of the Epworth League, an association established in 1889 for young adults in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Robert would have been 41 that year, so he and others at the convention were likely the organizers within the organization. His place in the photo tells me he may have had a leadership role.

In her scrapbooks, Sarah pasted many items about her father's involvement with his church – too many to include in one post. She also wrote about his popularity as a Sunday school teacher and his commitment to Bible study at home.

A portion of Sarah's writing about Bible lessons.

"Papa was a joyous teacher of the Bible — that is, he could make it so interesting for us. Before Leonora, Mama and I on Sunday afternoon were his companions in many contests, to see who could first recognize the descriptions he gave of Bible events. He called them Word Pictures and always began 'I see a ____.' Sometimes we took the letters of the alphabet and gave all the men’s names of each letter, or all the women’s names or all the places. I remember how Papa astounded us all by finding the only one for F (it must have been in the Old Testament 'Fair Haven,' in Acts, about one of Paul’s journeys). Of course, there were Felix and Festus for men’s names."

Considering Robert's strong faith and his leadership in the church, we can't be surprised to find his temperance card in the scrapbooks.

In 1870, Irish immigrant Francis Murphy considered the value of temperance after his own drinking had destroyed his family and his successful hotel and saloon business.¹ By 1876, the Murphy temperance movement1 had 65,000 card-carrying abstainers. The Epworth Herald,² a publication of the Methodist Church's Epworth League, promoted a pledge-signing crusade, so Robert may have signed this card as part of his church's participation in that crusade. Robert's daughter Sarah became a life-long member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.³

Lest I paint him as always serious, I include an image of Sarah's Papa at a summer camp in Chicago. Robert (the man with the fishing pole in the picture with friend Harry Given and standing on the far left in the group picture) is not smiling, but I think this camp must have been for fun. The scrapbooks do not indicate what kind of camp this was; maybe it had something to do with the Methodist church or a literary or social organization. The scrapbook has similar photos of other people at the same event. 

Based on letters and postcards from Robert, and Sarah's written comments about her Papa, I know that the meticulous businessman also had a soft side. He cared deeply about his family – especially Sarah, if I dare speculate on that. He doted on her and encouraged her, and maybe, to some degree, spoiled her. He was her champion in education, and he taught her about the world. He included her in conversations about the news of the day.

Robert obviously loved his wife. When he traveled, he wrote her almost every day – and some days twice. His letters were often brief, but they told of his daily activities and asked about hers. Unfailingly, he signed with "all my love" or "your devoted husband" or other endearments.

He participated in a number of civic groups and literary societies; he attended concerts and plays.

All in all, I surmise that Robert was a learned and sophisticated yet friendly man who was loved and respected at work, at church, at home, and about town.

Endnotes
¹ https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/western-pennsylvania-history/francis-murphy-pittsburgh-great-temperance-movement
² tinyurl.com/zxwdcpf
³ https://www.wctu.org/history.html

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.