Howdeshell History

Saturday, March 6

Today, I rode back in time to the Pea Ridge battlefield in NW Arkansas. I left Trusty behind and went with some friends, Lissa and Rich, who are also into time travel. When we got there, it was March 7th, 1862, and very cold. We held our ears as the cannons roared and ducked as musket fire peppered the air.

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I spent Saturday afternoon with a lovely lady named Rosella who isn’t a Howdeshell, but was raised by one. Her mother married Henry Howdeshell when she was only 3. Trusty and I picked her up at her house in Siloam Springs and we drove back to 1945, and Howdershell Ridge where she grew up. As we drove the back roads of Bloomfield, memories spilled out about her step-dad and granddad and her early experiences of growing up in the hollow near Coon Creek. They had four cows and sold the milk. She remembers walking for long distances to school and to pick up their mail. Henry had an old Ford pickup and he would make the kids get out of it when he drove up a certain steep hill, trying to lighten the load so he wouldn’t stall. She said the kids would freely roam and play all over the ridge and bottom lands. They found a cave and explored it; fished in the creek; spent hours a day just being kids.

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Friday night I met some sure nuff Howdeshells (descendants that still carry the name) at a gym meet.  Gary and his daughter, Mariah,  are from Dallas.  In the picture, Gary is on the left and I am squished between him and my husband, Jack, on the right.

Mariah is on the gymnastics team at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.   She put in a dazzling performance as Gary and I got to know each a little between changeovers.  Gary’s g-grandfather was a brother to my g-grandmother, so we are third cousins.  Not real close, but we’re going to try and change that.  Gary is coming to stay at our place the next time he is in town for a gym meet. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t care what they say, February is the loooongest month of the year! But, I’m already beginning to see signs that winter is losing its grip.  When I went to feed the horses yesterday, I noticed a few tufts of hair on the ground from my shaggy little gray equine, and some loose white ones lying on the black hair of my American Paint horse. And it seemed like the ground was a little greener. Read the rest of this entry »

We received 4″ of beautiful snow last Friday and were socked in for 4 days; meaning simply that we were too stupid to move our vehicles onto level ground before the storm hit.  During those days, I occupied myself with the largest jigsaw puzzle I have ever worked on, arranging and rearranging the old, ragged and faded-by-time pieces, many of them just plain missing.  I’m speaking, of course, of the giant puzzle of the Howdeshell family in Arkansas during the Civil War years. So many tantalizing bits of information to try and put in a logical order. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, I spent 3 hours rumaging around in the Benton County archives in Rodgers, Arkansas, sorting through old Howdeshell documents that are 150 years old.  The county has done an excellent job of preserving its  history, and are very good at helping you find information.  I spent today sorting, transcribing, and piecing together what facts could be gleaned from all the Howdeshell court records.  Besides deeds, tax records, and marriage liscenses, there is a trail of sadness and death.  There are child custody appeals for children of brothers killed in the war; children torn by war and then struggled over; families changed forever with very little left to build on.  With father and 7 out of 11 brothers gone, Henry Howdeshell was the oldest male left in the family and, it seemed, took that responsiblity very seriously.  Even though he’s not my direct ancestor, I think he’s the real hero in the story of the Howdeshells here in Arkansas.  It’s sleeting outside right now, which kind of goes along with my mood of gloom and doom.  Ice can do almost as much damage to the landscape as war.

To lighten things a bit here, I’m including a picture of some mystery Howdeshells.  I like to think they are some of mine.

I had to return my library books today.  Thought my blog followers might enjoy this quotation fromConfederate Women of Arkansas in the Civil War. Mind you, this quote came from a New York Tribune war correspondent, Junius Henri Browne.  Mr. Browne, with an ‘e’, wrote:

“The women were only such in name; their sex, in the absence of physiological demonstration, requiring to be taken on faith.  Tall, meagre, sallow, with hard features and large bones, they would have appeared masculine if they had not been too attenuated to suggest the possibility of health or strength.  They drank whiskey and smoked as freely as men; often chewed tobacco, and went about swearing in discordant tones, and expectorating skillfully, and were as hideous as any Tophetian trollops that the most depraved mind could imagine.” Read the rest of this entry »

Today, Trusty (my pickup) and I braved the cold 40 mph winds and traveled to the Prairie Grove battlefield, 20 miles south of us.

The battle took place December 7, 1862 and was a decisive Union victory.

I don’t know if any Howdeshells were there, but they might have been.  The army didn’t always keep good records. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I felt like quite the adventuress today!  The sun was shining and the day was inviting, so I hopped in my trusty pickup and headed back to 1860.  First, I visited the Howdeshell homestead at Bloomfield and took some pictures.  The land is pretty flat and uninteresting, but it’s good crop and pasture land.

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It rained all night and today was one of those gloomy, icky days that can chill you to the bone even when it isn’t very cold outside.  I spent the whole day in the office reading and copying parts of William Baxter’s book on Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove.  Baxter was the president of Arkansas College in Fayetteville before it was disbanded at the beginning of the war, and gives a first-hand account of his experiences.  Very eye-opening. Read the rest of this entry »