Mrs. James B. Howell
One
of the splendid women of Iowa who in her day was known in Washington
society and in many cities of Europe was Mrs. James B. Howell. She was
born in Iowa City, Oct. 29, 1829, daughter of General Jesse Bowen, who
served as State Senator and as Adjutant General of Iowa. At the
beginning of the Civil War he was appointed paymaster in the regular
army by President Lincoln. After several years of service he resigned
and passed the remainder of his life in retirement. At her father's
home in Iowa City, Mary A. Bowen was married, Oct. 3, 1850, to James B.
Howell, of Keokuk. Judge Howell was at that time the Whig leader of
Iowa and was publisher of the Keokuk Gate City. He had been publisher
of the Des Moines Valley Whig at Keosauqua, from 1845 to 1849, when he
moved the paper to Keokuk and changed its name. He distinguished
himself as a journalist, a statesman, and a scholar. He became U. S.
Senator from Iowa and later Federal Judge of the Court of Claims by
appointment of President Grant and President Hayes. He was a man of
wide influence in Iowa affairs from the time he came to the state in
1841, to the day of his death in 1880. The Hon. Sam M. Clark, one of
the most brilliant writers Iowa has produced, said of him: "We have
seen Judge Howell's life from the earth side of view where we stand
with the general lookers on ; and then from the moonside of Browning's
fine fancy — that other side of a character which is its sacred own,
and which those who look only at the public side can never know. So we
know him well enough to know that it takes no charity to judge him.
There is noth- ing to forgive and nothing to forget as to his
character. We are disposed to hold him the most sagacious man we
have ever known ; the wisest in his judgment of men and events. While a
man of affairs, he was a man of books ; his reading was large and
accurate. James B. Howell was a supremely honest man. ' ' Seven
children were born to Judge and Mrs. Howell, three of whom died in
infancy. A son, Jesse B. Howell, died at the age of 45 years. He
succeeded his father in the management of the Keokuk Gate City and for
twenty-five years was its able business manager. Three children are
still living: Miss Lida Gordon Howell, in whom are em- bodied the
traditions of her family, a scholarly woman of the highest culture.
Col. Daniel Lane Howell, U. S. A., and Capt. James Fredrick Howell, U.
S. A. Mrs. Howell's life was a very full one. From her childhood she
was associated with people in public life, for in her father's home in
the territorial days were gathered the men who made the early history
of this state. She had always a vital interest in her husband's career,
and her fine tact and charming manners made her a helpmate indeed to
her talented husband. She had a knowledge of business and politics
which would have done credit to a man, and yet she was always womanly,
full of sentiment, and high ideals. Her residence in official
Washington society and in the capitals of other nations made her
familiar with the usages of cosmopolitan society, and yet her heart was
always in her home and its interests. She was a strikingly handsome
woman and a woman of great dignity. She died June 17, 1903, in Keokuk,
which had been her home for more than half a century.
Source: The Blue Book of Iowa Women, A History of Contemporary Women (1914); Edited & compiled by Winona Evans Reeves
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