The Many Lives of J. S. Howell: Gold Miner, Town Founder, Tacoma Broker

TACOMA, Sept. 17.—J. S. Howell died this morning. The funeral will take place Wednesday at 1 p.m. from his late residence, No. 1,820 Twelfth street.

Josephus Scudder Howell was born in Salem, Monroe county, Ohio, January 10, 1822. When quite young he removed with his parents to Tyler county, Va. At the age of 7 his parents again moved, settling in Vermillion county, Ind., on the Wabash river. After receiving the best education to be had in those times, Mr. Howell left his father's farm in Indiana and went to Southern Illinois, where he remained for five years, when he located in Chicago, that city being classed at that time as a 'swamp village.'

On March 21, 1836, Mr. Howell moved to Wisconsin, locating on a preemption claim. After procuring title to this property he removed to the city of Milwaukee, where he resided for fifteen years, engaged in mercantile business. From Milwaukee he removed to Waukesha, where he remained two years, afterward entering the lumber business at Prairie du Chien, then opened a hardware store, conducting at the same time a carriage factory and real estate business.

During the gold excitement in Colorado he crossed the Great American desert fifteen times, owning and operating a train of wagons engaged in freighting, also acting as correspondent for some of the leading papers of the East. He operated in Colorado mines very extensively, going to great expense in securing machinery to work his mines. In mining ventures he lost a handsome fortune accumulated by years of industry and toil. He then returned to Wisconsin and engaged in the produce business in a little town named Barkersburg, fifteen miles north of Prairie du Chien, where he retrieved his lost fortunes in a large measure. He afterward moved to Northwestern Iowa, where he engaged in town, farm and stock speculations. Buying up a large tract of land in Lyon county, he formed a syndicate, laid out and established the town of Rock Rapids, Ia., the greater portion of which he owned when he came to the territory of Washington in 1877.

He came direct to Tacoma, where he found his old friend W. H. Fife, with whom he had pioneered in Iowa years before. Locating his family temporarily, he traveled over Washington and Oregon for several months, and, after becoming thoroughly satisfied as to the future of Washington and Tacoma, he returned, purchased some lots of the Tacoma Land Company and built a home for his family. Returning to Iowa, he disposed of his interests there, returned to Tacoma and opened a real estate office, being a member of the firm of J. S. Howell & Son, brokers. During his years of residence here he had the utmost respect of all who knew him, and did much for the city. He was an earnest Christian worker, having organized the First Presbyterian church of Tacoma, of which he was a member. He leaves a wife, Abigail J. Howell, and two children, I. M. Howell, captain of Company C, of Tacoma, and a daughter, Winnie E. Howell.