[Excerpt from Dodge City and Ford County, Kansas 1870-1920 Pioneer Histories and Stories. Copyright Ford County Historical Society, Inc. All Rights reserved.]
The builders of the railroads that crossed the country built only one set of tracks between towns. Trains going in either direction traveled on the same tracks, therefore a provision was made that would allow these trains to pass. This was done by providing a siding every few miles. A small station house with a telegraph operator on duty was located at each siding. When two trains came toward each other, the operator advised the one closest to the siding to pull off onto the side track while the other passed. Across Ford County, sidings were located five to 10 miles apart at Bellefont, Wright, Dodge City, Sears and Howell.
The siding after Sears, to the west, was near the Gray County line. In the earliest times, it was called Morrison Station. Information concerning its early history is sketchy. It is believed that it was later named Howell, after a railroad employee named Thomas Howell. Ledger O. Smith was appointed as post master at Howell, on June 2, 1886, but that post office was closed October 31, 1888. Smith continued to live in the vicinity. A cottonwood tree planted by Smith in 1893, is still living in 1995, although it now shows the scars of more than I 00 years of wind, heat and cold.
In the late 1880s, promoters went through the country promising huge profits from the silk spun by silk worms that thrive on mulberry trees. The promoters sold the trees to local farmers and were to provide silk worms imported from China. A Howell resident, among others in the area, made an investment in this scheme and planted a large mulberry grove south of the Arkansas River. Unfortunately, when the worms which had been promised by the promoters arrived from China, they were all dead. Very few of those who invested in this scheme could afford to order more worms, and no silk factory ever materialized. Mulberry trees are very hardy and some of them were still living in the 1950s and ’60s, even though they received little or no care.
The Ford County Republican, printed in Dodge City, in its June 12, 1889, edition, told of a cheese factory in operation south of the tracks at Howell. It was built with great expectations for the future, but supply and demand were not sufficient in the small community and after a few years, the factory was moved into Dodge City.
During the boom years of the 1880s and early ’90s, Howell had a population of close to 150 people. Most of the homes were built north of the tracks. The Howell school was built a short distance north of the river in 1890. The first teacher was Mrs. Edwards, who died before finishing the first term. The Howell school was remodeled and enlarged in the early 1900s. In order to accommodate the larger enrollment, it became a two-room, two-teacher school. The school was closed when Ford County consolidated rural schools. With very few changes in its structure, it has become a community center.
Another post office was established November 26, 1895, with Anna Beveridge as post mistress. As the previous post office had done, it lasted only two years, closing April 30, 1897.
John Merk, a Dodge City resident who had worked for the railroad as a section hand west of Dodge City, was promoted to section foreman at Howell, in 1893. He and his wife, Minnie, with their two small daughters, Lena and Ada, moved into the section house and lived there until 1899. Daughters Elsie, Christina and Amelia, were born after the Merks moved to Howell. As section foreman, John Merk was to supervise a work crew of nine to 16 Mexican workers. Their job was to inspect and repair any fault in the roadbed, the ties, or the rails on the Santa Fe tracks between Dodge City and Cimarron. In 1901, the Santa Fe built a long, cement and block building north of the tracks. It was divided into living quarters for seven families. The building remained there until about 1963.
The Merks purchased land and built a farm home less than a mile north of Howell, October 3, 1898. They moved to this farm home in 1899 and lived there for many years.
Charles Allen, who worked as a telegraph operator for the Santa Fe at Howell, married Lena Merk on October 26, 1908. They built a small home and opened a grocery store in the front part of the house. They opened a post office in the same room in 1916. The post office had been closed since 1897. This post office closed a short time later when rural mail routes reached the area.
The Davidson Grain Company of Hutchinson, Kansas, built the first grain elevator in Howell, in 1919. It was operated by Charles Allen until 1928, when he built his own grain elevator and continued in business there until 1952. By that time, his elevator was no longer able to handle the larger quantity of wheat being raised in that vicinity. The new Howell elevator, built and owned by The Dodge City Cooperative Exchange has a capacity of approximately 1,700,000 bushels.
There is only one descendant of the early pioneer family still living at Howell in 1995. Edna (Allen) Reynolds, daughter of Charles and Lena (Merk) Allen and granddaughter of John and Minnie Merk, lives with her husband Charles Reynolds, in the house that her father built in 1909.
Lola Adams Crum, Edna Reynolds,
Guy Josserand, Jr.
Dodge City and Ford County, Kansas 1870-1920 Pioneer Histories and Stories is available for purchase from the Ford County Historical Society.