Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 947
WILLIAM HOWARD

William HOWARD has been a resident of Jefferson Township since the autumn of 1851. He was born in North Carolina about 1819, and came from there to Illinois, and from there to this county, where he endured the hardships of pioneer days.

His son, William D., was born in Mason County, Ill., January 31, 1849, and was two years old upon coming to Harrison County, and as soon as he was old enough became the mainstay of the family. At the age of seventeen years he commenced working out by the month, following this for two years, when he married Minerva WOOD November 24, 1868, the daughter of Samuel and Mary (MERRILL) WOOD. He lived upon a rented farm two years, and then bought his present place, eight acres of which cost him $2.50 per acres. He built a house from lumber hauled from Council Bluffs, which cost him $30 per thousand feet. He has since added to his farm until it contains two hundred and eighty acres, on half of which is under the plow. The hardest times our subject ever experienced were from 1878 to 1880, during the grasshopper raid.

Mr. and Mrs. HOWARD have a family of eight children: William S., Henry F., George W., Minnie E., David, Fred A., Mary L., and Charles.

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