People throughout the county came to the funeral making it the largest cortege ever witnessed ‘til that time in Lanark. The Lanark Cornet Band led the procession with the Masonic Lodges of Lanark, Mt. Carroll and Shannon followed them and conducted the proper ceremonies there at the very south edge of the cemetery.

He’d have known everyone and given them a greeting ... Whose crops had been lost to the grasshoppers, what the package was that came in on the night train, whose baby was colicky and what treatment Orpha used with their four children. And, thanks for the asparagus!

Life went on for Orpha Howlett. Her building a large comfortable house at the corner of Locust and Argyle brought no censure within the month of John’s death. Her trips back home were not criticized either. Her family there was important to her and she’d put-up with a lot with John’s activities!!

The solid and substantial of the town, the “leading businessmen” who had aided her husband through the years were still there for support.

In the January 4th edition of 1877 there was a notice that a surprise party had been given her at her home. Likely it was a birthday surprise the first being her birthday. Next door neighbor, D.W. Dame gave a pretty speech and presented her with a revolving butter dish (?) while one of the Drs. Wales who were both there with wives, gave a noble thank-you. Also guests were the Harnishes, C.W. Stones, the Seyfarth’s, Nobles with the newspaper link—McDowell, Arthur Clarke, Lewis Plate and William Lowis. You see, there’d been no pointing of fingers if those stalwarts were there.

Very soon, though, she made the announcement that she was selling the house and returning to New York State to be with family in Richfield Springs where she’d met John and married him there in 1848.

John was born in South Shaftsbury, Vermont in 1824. Not in New York as local source has given. The Howlett’s in America descended from Thomas and Alice (French) Howlett who sailed from Suffolk, England in 1630 with the “Winthrop Fleet,” landing near Boston. John thus was the seventh generation of Howlett’s, he being born (with 2 siblings) to Benjamin and Mary (Rathbone) Howlett. The family moved to Richfield Springs in the mid-1830’s where boy Howlett grew up, meeting future wife, Orpha Zeruch Tuller, to marry her in 1848. She, the daughter of Henry and Maria (Shipman) Tuller who were said to have been “comfortably off” (more later). After the marriage, Orpha and John began the peripatetic life of the world of journalism.

Wayne Bickley, Howlett’s great-great grandson of Somers, Connecticut, recently sent additional material that has filled in the gaps and brought understanding of points in question. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Wayne. The editor’s life back East was a busy one, much more so than we imagined.

His career is listed thus beginning with the “Vernon (NY) Transcript” established by Howlett in 1850. Previously it had been “Central New York Journal.”

“Waterville Journal,” Waterville, NY, initiated by Howlett, 1855. The “Utica Gazette,” begun by Howlett in 1857-58. At that time he was agent for the “Black Swan,” perhaps a political sheet but we couldn’t find even a clue. At that time he came West to organize the “Lane Leader” (Rochelle) keeping it but two-three years when in December of 1861 he enlisted in the local roster of the cavalry as a private but rose to lieutenant.

His first hitch was six months but he enlisted again in spring 1862 (See previous record). When completing his enlistment he came to Lanark in 1864 so his papers at state level report. He began the “Lanark Banner” having sold the “Leader” in 1861.

The Banner was sold in 1867 so he went to Shannon and with a partner, Adair, published the “Carroll County Gazette” which for some odd reason he printed in Lanark which brought on litigation as before told here. The “Banner” ceased publication in 1871. You see, John Howlett initiated five newspapers. What a workaholic.

During those years three children were born to the couple; Frank in 1851, Henry in 1854, Fannie 1857. All born in Vernon, New York. “Little May,” as she was called, was born when they lived in Lanark, 1865.

A scrap of news from the “Lanark Banner” was discovered in John’s mother’s “Friendship Album” and is copied here. We wonder if the intro line was a popular slang phrase. “That’s What’s the Matter—Extra Issue— Immediately after the recent session of the Legislature an extra was issued from the Lanark Banner which continued a matter of deep interest for those concerned. That all our readers be posted we barely mention that the extra weighed ____ pounds and was of the female persuasion. The father is as good as can be expected. That’s What’s the Matter.” A date written beside the scrap is dimly visible, “February 17, 1865.” If this was the date of the Banner or Little May’s birth we don’t know.

In January of 1877 when Orpha announced her removal to New York, newsy, gossipy notes could be found in the C.C. Gazette ... Speculating on who was interested in her house, etc. It turned out the neighbor, D.W. Dame, had bought it and would move there. (His wife had died in 1886). A Mr. Eisenrath bought the Dame residence.

“April 26, 1877—Mrs. Howlett left for Romme, Nork with ‘Little May’.”

“April 26, 1877—Mr. Dame has moved into the Howlett house.”

At Dame’s death in 1895 he willed the house to his daughter, Julia Annzonetta who married Justice L.T. Bray and the Bray-Randecker family lived in the corner house until the middle of the twentieth century. Only two children survived of the six with Dames two wives, the other child being Charles who built the large, imposing residence across south from the Methodist church, that around 1900. This magnificent residence is still known as the “Dame House” despite several subsequent owners! Dr. Keith and Lynn Collins currently live there. They have beautifully landscaped beds and borders to enhance the estate. The barn is a gift shop of “naturals.” The barn, by the way, was called a “spite barn” because a Mrs. Dame came home from church with a spite against someone who’d crossed her so husband C.S. built the barn to block them out!

With Orpha Howlett and May’s removal, the end of the pioneer era had occurred. The prairie town of clapboards and structures brought from Georgetown was sprouting splendid Victorian brick. Late seventies and through the eighties, a boom occurred that impressed the community. The Gazette reported in 1884 that there were already six plate glass windows on main street!!! NOT those little panes but one each, six.

The Gazette meanwhile was being published by Lowis and McDowell who’d taken it after George Hay. McDowell and Lowis persisted until 1878 when Lowis left, McDowell until 1879 when he sold to Lewis Plate and Arthur Clarke whose tenure has been covered at the “Brethren at Work” down the street a block. F.F. Livermore took over from Clarke, he having been sole proprietor since January 1. Two momentous things occurred during Livermore’s term: number one being his changing of the newspaper name—from “Carroll County Gazette” to “Lanark Gazette.” He felt the town deserved its own name on the masthead. Number two occurrence was a big one also ... The office moved “four doors north up Broad Street into the “Valentine Building” built just two years before in 1878 (most recently Shearer’s Variety). Yes, the print shop was moved from its sometime location at the National Bank corner (upstairs, rear) to the upstairs rear of the brick Valentine Building where they remained for over 65 years—1880-1947.

No, the Gazette has never had print shop in the little clapboard building, now razed on the west side of the street (more later on that). Even though one recent source states that in their article on location. “It’s not substantiated,” it is incorrect. Local advisors might have helped with that!!

Pictures showing the “back shop” with four windows and a middle door can still be seen on the alley side of the “Valentine Building.”

Over that door was a thick wooden beam with a pulley attached that would lift heavy bales of newsprint up into the back shop from the dray wagon delivering them weekly from the train cars at the depot ... Milwaukee, one source gives. “Shaner’s horse” was the familiar power plodding down the streets and alley, trustworthy and serene. The late Roswell Packard told this story many years ago because he lived in the house on the alley, his father, Dr. Packard, having built that neat residence. Roz always had a story to enlighten the interested!

Hope you’re interested in just one pioneer family and a pioneer trade that surely promoted the town in its developing days.

—NEXT WEEK.

The pictures here are from Wayne Bickley. The three girls are granddaughters of John Howlett; Fanny Howlett, John’s daughter and Orpha, Little May and either Frank or Henry.