The Howards of Stanstead



Apple Grove - an old barn

In a recent trip to the Eastern Townships, I tried to find the old Howard Farm. Since the local inhabitants of the area were not even aware of the existence of a place called Apple Grove, finding the Howard Farm was a futile exercise. However, Benjamin Campbell Howard, the son of Senator Charles Howard, did leave a document in the archives of the Stanstead Historical Society. In this document, dated 1949, he claimed that the Howard Farm was still standing. So at least we know it was standing 62 years ago. (Benjamin Campbell Howard, now deceased and someone I never met, was my mother's second cousin; but I was so thankful for him leaving something about the Howard family in the archives.)

Thomas Howard claimed a 150-acre farm in the Apple Grove, which is a couple of miles south-west of Fitch Bay, in the Stanstead Township of the early 1800s. After his marriage to Mary Ann Williamson in 1826, they had two children: James, born in 1834, and Thomas A., born in 1837. Given the infrastructures created by the New Englanders and their emphasis on education, I would imagine both James and Thomas attended a local one room school nearby. At one time, these one room school houses scattered the landscape of the Townships, and where most people lived, there was a school within no more than a half hour walk in any direction.



Apple Grove - an old house

There is no record of James' baptism, but there is a record of Thomas A.'s baptism in Sherbrooke, and he was baptized a Catholic. Since his father was Roman Catholic, this made sense. This would have been quite the effort in those days to travel to Sherbrooke to have one's baby baptized. It is only a distance of about 25 miles, but in the 1830s, such a round trip journey with an infant in tow would be done only by the highly motivated.

The Catholic Church, very much aware of the growing number of Irish Catholics coming into the Townships starting in the 1820s, had missions into the area, but had not established many churches. The Howards, essentially being a Catholic family, lived in a sea of Protestants in Stanstead. It makes me wonder how well the Howards fit into the community, given that back in the early 1800s, what religion one adhered was a very important aspect as to how a person was defined.

Tragedy Strikes the Howard Family

In 1850, Thomas Howard died. He was only 52 years old. His surviving wife, Mary Ann, was about 39, but his sons, James and Thomas A., were only 16 and 13 respectively. As to why or how Thomas died is not certain. It could have been a farming accident, or just a simple matter of blood poisoning from a cut, an infection or fever, and perhaps something more basic like food poisoning. Medicine of that era was quite, how shall we say, restricted in its effectiveness to even treat the most basic ailments. Bleeding a person through the use of leeches was still a major treatment for so many types of sicknesses, and doctors had absolutely no concept at all of even the existence of bacteria, and what it meant to keep ones medical instruments sterile.

James being the oldest at 16, became the man of the house and the one responsible for the farm, by default. He apparently took his responsibilities very seriously, and not only did he run the farm, but looked after his mother until her dying day. As for his brother Thomas A. (I wish I knew what name that initial was for in his name, but no records have revealed it so far) he was another story.


The Adventures of Thomas A. Howard

Thomas A. Howard is one of those forgotten ancestors. My hope is to at least keep his memory alive. Just because he had no children is no reason to forget him. His lonely grave lies in the Malvern Cemetery at Lennoxville, Quebec. I went there recently to visit his grave, but could not find it. Regardless, I was perhaps the first blood relative to attempt to visit his grave in the last 125 years. He died in 1886. He is my second great granduncle.

As mentioned above, Thomas was only 13 years old when his father died. In order to run a farm in the mid-1800s, having the strong backs of at least two men was more or less essential. James, his older brother was only 16. The farm was to pass down to both sons, so Thomas owned half the land. I am not sure at what age one had to become to achieve the age of majority in a British colonial province such as Canada East, in the mid 1800s. But when that age came for Thomas, he left the farm. He may have even left before the age of 21, which he would have reached in 1858. One thing was certain, Thomas did not want to farm to earn a living.

Having heard stories about how many more opportunities there were in the US, he headed south, probably by stagecoach. When he hit Massachusetts, he got off and stayed in the town of Haverhill which is right at the northern tip of the State. What he did there to earn a living, I do not know. Perhaps he got a job as a clerk, as he did later on when he moved back to Canada East. For Thomas, I am sure that using an instrument such as a pencil or quill, was far better than using a manure shovel. Not everyone is cut out for life on the farm.

He met a beautiful girl in Haverhill, about his age. Her name was Calantha, although I am sure she went by a nickname like Cally, or something equivalent. By 1860, Cally and Thomas were married, and with the upcoming American Civil War (1861-1865), I am guessing that they both left for Canada soon thereafter. War of any kind brings always brings upheaval, and it would be wise on the part of a foreign male of military age, to return home if he could.

Cally had her own story. She was born in New Hampshire, but her family moved to Massachusetts when she was very young. She was born in 1837, the same year as Thomas, and she was christened, Calantha C. Taylor. She married at the tender age of 16 to a Charles G. Fuller in 1853. He was a mariner, which would mean a sailor or seaman of sort, who would be gone for long periods of time on an ocean going ship. Usually that was the case, anyway. If he was a whaler, his voyages away from home port could be a year or more.

Somewhere along the line, Cally and Charles divorced. It must have been relatively soon after their marriage, because just 5 years later, Charles married for a second time to a Rebecca Beals in 1858. Divorce was not very common in the mid 1850s, so I would imagine this was a scandalous situation for the day.

So Thomas and Cally married in the US, but when Thomas returned to the Eastern Townships, he brought with him as his new bride, a divorced woman. For the day, this was simply a scandal, par excellence. It is no wonder that Thomas and Cally lived in Lennoxville rather than around Thomas' family home 20 miles to the south in Apple Grove.

All along though, his brother James was obliged to pay Thomas for his half of the farm. So Thomas did receive payment for his portion of the farm. It has been recorded that around the year 1862, James still had $400.00 left to pay. That amount of money was a labourer's wage for several years, so it was not a small amount that was still owed.

Thomas and Cally lived in the downtown area of Lennoxville. They probably rented a flat or a house. They never had any children. Thomas's first job in Lennoxville was as a watchman. Later on he worked as a clerk. I can not find out for whom he worked. He died in 1886 at the age of 49, and was buried in Lennoxville. Cally returned to Haverhill MA, and kept her name as Calantha C. Howard till the day she died. She never remarried.