California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


WILLIAM HOWARD. Probably no man in Tulare county has had a more roving or adven- 
turous life than the one whose name introduces this review. Since early manhood he has trav- 
eled much of the time, and while it is only possible for us to give an outline of his career, 
his life, if fully written, would be of intense interest to the reader. 

A native of the Keystone state, Mr. Howard was born in what is now Wyoming county, July 
11, 1833. His father, Charles, was also a native of Pennsylvania, and was the first white male 
child born in the vicinity of Wilkesbarre. By trade he was a cabinet maker, but in later life 
was employed as a lock keeper on the Lehigh canal. His last days were spent in Luzerne 
county, where he worked for a coal mining concern. He married Sarah Blakslee. a native of 
Connecticut, who became the mother of seven children, our subject being the eldest and the 
only one living in this state. Two sons lust their lives in the Civil war, one being killed and 
the other dying of small-pox. 

William Howard was reared and educated in the country about Wilkesbarre. At the age of 
seventeen he was apprenticed to learn the marble cutter's trade. In 1854 he was married to Miss 
Rosalia Peck, after which they migrated to the westward, Mr. Howard following his trade in 
different states. At the time of the breaking out of the Civil war he was living in Tennessee, 
being overseer of a plantation. Later he received a government appointment as assistant assessor 
of the internal revenue department at Nashville, where he lived until the close of the war. Soon 
after he went to Alabama to engage in growing cotton, the product at the time being worth $1.25 
per pound, but a year later the price went down to six and nine cents, and after one year de- 
voted to this industry he sold out and started for Texas, but before reaching his destination 
changed his mind and went to Venezuela. There he joined a colony that had received a grant of 
land from the government. A year was spent on the Orinoco river, when he returned to the 
United States, finally locating in Michigan, where he was employed by the United States 
Government Coast Survey. His first wife having died two years after their marriage, Mr. 
Howard was again married while in Michigan and shortly after he engaged in farming and 
stock-raising, continuing in this until the Wabash railroad cut his farm up, when he sold and 
engaged in a mercantile business, which he conducted for eight years. At this time his wife 
died, so he disposed of his store and next located in Ocean Springs, Miss., where he followed 
farming, and where he was again married, but four years later his wife died, and he then came 
to California, arriving in Tulare county in December, 1890. Locating in Goshen he purchased 
a small store, which he conducted for three years, when he enlarged his store and has since 
carried on a general merchandising business. 

In January, 1892, Mr. Howard married Mrs. Cora (Kirkland) Halstead, who was born in 
Mississippi and is a daughter of William Pitt Kirkland, a native of Baton Rouge, and by pro- 
fession an attorney and newspaper man. Later in life Mr. Kirkland removed to the Isthmus of 
Panama, where he conducted a hotel until 1864, when he came to San Francisco and engaged 
in the restaurant business. In 1870 he took up his residence in Tulare county, engaging in the 
grocery business at Visalia. He finally removed to Auckland, where he lived at the time of his 
death. His wife bore the maiden name of Louisa Wilson and was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her 
father, William, was a merchant there, where he lived at the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. 
Kirkland were the parents of ten children, seven of whom are now living, Mrs. Howard being 
the eldest. Much of her earlier life was spent on the Isthmus, although two> years were de- 
voted to schooling in Brooklyn, N. Y. She remained at home until 1866, when she was united 
in marriage with James Halstead, who crossed the plains in 1854. After leaving home he en- 
gaged in farming and stock-raising, which vocation he was following near Visalia at the time 
of his death in 1888, at the age of forty-six years. By this union Mrs. Howard became the 
mother of four children : Erminie. now Mrs. Morrow of Visalia ; William Franklin, residing 
near Layton ; Robert Edward, who is a contractor and builder in Los Angeles, and Harry 
D.. at home. Mrs. Howard and her children own one hundred and twenty acres of land three 
miles southeast of Goshen and one hundred and sixty acres in the Isham valley. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Howard have many friends, and while the former has lived in Goshen 
but a few years and is a man well advanced in years, he is still very active and one who can be 
relied upon to do his duty as a citizen.