Crow's Nest Homes 49-52

49.       Castlio Fort

            On a bluff above Dardenne Creek, in Survey 417, John Castlio built the Castlio Fort, the seventh and last fort in St. Charles County, according to Bryan and Rose, “Pioneer Families of Missouri,” page 94.

John Castlio was born in North Carolina prior to 1764 and died in St. Charles County, Missouri, November, 1830. On August 3, 1795, he married Eleanor Harrison Lowe of the Harrison family of James River, Virginia. In 1806 the family moved from Tennessee to Upper Louisiana. For about five years they camped near Cottleville because of the tubercular condition of Mrs. Castlio. After the death of his wife in 1811, John Castlio moved from Cottleville to Howell’s Prairie where he built Castlio Fort.

            In the spring of 1922, I first saw the site of this fort when I went there with Cousin Calvin Castlio and his daughter Verna (Kit). One of the Wenke brothers living there said that an original log room of the fort was then one of the rooms of the frame house in which he was living. At Dardenne Creek he showed us three of the logs of a ford, calling our attention to the fact that they had not been placed crosswise, as was customary, but lengthwise.

The children of Eleanor and John Castlio were:

Ruth, married (1) Frank McDermid who was killed by the Indians at Loutre Creek with Captain James Callaway, (2) Alexander Chambers.

Charlotte, married William Keithly, brother of Samuel Keithly, (Crow’s Nest, Chapter III)

Mahala, married Captain Benjamin Howell, brother of Nancy

John Harrison, married Nancy Howell Callaway

Sinai, married Absalom Keithly, brother of William and Samuel

Eleanor (Nellie), married Felix Scott

Hiram, died young

            John Castlio, a Revolutionary soldier, was buried in the cemetery on the Walker farm near Wentzville, Missouri. His wife was buried in the Pitman Cemetery near Cottleville, Missouri.

            Along with other old papers pertaining to Castlio estates, (Box 23, Office of the Probate Court) is the appraisement of the property of John Castlio, interesting because of some of the spelling, the articles listed, and the values placed upon the articles by the appraisers.

APPRAISEMENT OF THE PERSONAL PROPERTY AND SLAVES OF JOHN CASTLIO

LATE OF THE COUNTY OF SAINT CHARLES, DECEASED, DEC. 22, 1830

1 negro man named David	$300.00
1 negro woman named Isabel	$100.00
1 negro man named Mark	$550.00
1 negro man named Perry	$450.00
1 negro woman named Henny	$150.00
1 negro girl named Missouri	$275.00
1 negro girl named Isabel	$225.00
1 negro girl named Sarah	$200.00
1 sorrel horse	20.00
1 bay mare	25.00
1 horse colt 1 year old	15.00
1 sorrel colt six months old	8.00
1 bay mare with bald face	35.00
1 sorrel mare	10.00
10 sheep	15.00
1 yolk of oxen	27.00
1      “    “    “	27.00
1      “    “    “	25.00
9 cows and a bull	50.00
10 young cattle over 1 year old	31.00
10 calves	10.00
10 large hogs	27.00
3 cows, a heifer and 1 calf	20.00
15 small hogs	15.00
4 sows and some pigs	4.00
6 hogs in a pen	17.00
1 large crib of corn	65.00
some corn in a crib	15.00
1 pen of corn	9.00
1 other pen of corn	8.00
2 coffee boilers	0.25
1 earthen jar	0.25
1 lot of old iron	1.00
4 pounds of flax	0.50
1 large spike gimblet	0.25
3 reap hooks	0.12
1 lot of cotton	4.00
1 bag jind cotton	1.00
2 wheet Biddles	0.12	½
1 wash Bason	0.18	¾
2 small baskets	0.25
1 basket	0.18	¾
3 old barrels	0.37	½
10 old barrels	1.25
8 pieces cooper’s wire	1.50
3 pales	0.37	½
1 half bushel	0.06	¼
1 pickling tub	0.50
2 weeding hoes	0.37	½
2 bred trays	0.25
1 riffle gun	3.00
1 pot trammel	1.00
1 table	3.00
1 small do.	1.00
1 mantle clock	15.00
1 looking glass	0.75
1 pair and irons	0.25
1 candle stand and 2 candle sticks	0.37	½
1 coffee mill	0.25
1 fire shovel	0.25
1 grid iron	1.00
1 pair stillyards	1.00
1 large pot	1.50
1 broken pot	0.25
1 oven and led	1.00
1 oven and led	1.00
1 oven and led	0.25
1 pewter dish plate and spoon	0.50
2 pair pot hooks	0.50
2 Bibles and a Testament	0.50
2 trunks	1.50
1 sugar stand	0.50
1 saddle	1.50
1 side saddle	1.50
7 chairs	1.75
1 Razor and Strap	0.12	½
1 plow	2.00
3 do.	5.00
1 double tree	0.75
3 clevises	0.50
1 set of bench planes and 1 beed  )
1 plain hand saw and square         )	1.50
3 chissels and 2 augers	1.25
1 broad axe	0.50
1 falling axe	1.00
1 falling axe	1.25
1 hatchet	0.25
7 sythes	0.25
1 sythe and cradle	1.25
4 stacks of hay	8.00
1 lot of fodder	2.00
1 frow	0.12	½
1 iron wedge	0.25
2 pairs geers and 5 cholavs (?)	2.00
4 gimblets	0.25
1 knife box knives and forks	0.25
5 iron spoons	0.25
5 shoe brushes and close brush	0.12	½
5 tallow and bees wax	0.50
1 lot Tobacco	3.00
1 mataxe and grubbing hoe	0.75
6 guns	1.50
2 guns	0.50
40 plank	10.00
1 cart	6.00
1 shoe hammer and pinchers	0.37	½
1 log chane	1.75
33 Bb. oats more or less	4.12	½
3 bridles	0.50
4 bags	0.50
1 pair spectacles	0.12	½
3 stands of bees and 2 gums	3.00
1 cutting knife and steel	1.00
1 Foot adds and iron bolt	1.00
2 hides, 2 calf skins, 1 deer skin, 1 sheep, 2 skins in
Smith Collinses tan yard	5.00
3 dry hides	2.25
3 bells	1.25
1 lot of flax seed	0.25
½ grindstone	0.75
1 lot of flax in a bundle	1.50
60 pieces cupboard furniture	4.00
1 bay horse	45.00
1 sorrel mare	45.00
7 head cattle	30.00
8 large hogs	30.00
13 stock hogs	9.50
3 sows and 16 or 17 shotes	20.00
1 bell	0.75
	$3101.68	¾

Although the sale was held on the 23rd of December, 1830, the following brief item would indicate that there was no lack of warmth there.

            “Received of John H. Castlio, Administrator of John Castlio estate, three dollars in payment for six gallons of whiskey used at the sale of the property belonging to the estate of the said John Castlio dec’d. 23rd of Dec., 1830.”

Henry Zumwalt

50.       The Farm Home of Lewis Howell and the Site of the First School on Howell’s Prairie (19)

            In his autobiography, Lewis Howell says that after he returned to Missouri from New Orleans, he commenced farming and improving a “piece of land” his father had given him, part of the 640 acre Spanish Grant number 887, which Francis Howell had received in the Dardenne Township. I presume that Great-Uncle Lewis built the brick house here about the time of his marriage to Serena Lamme, a great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone. It was here that he kept his first boarding school and taught school in a house in his yard until the close of the Civil War. This was the first school building on the Prairie of which I have any knowledge, though Great-uncle Lewis says that when he was eight or nine years old he went to school for about a year and a half to an Irishman who taught near the Francis Howell home and that afterwards he went to school for a few months to Mr. Prospect K. Robbins. And as I have related elsewhere, Great-grandmother Nancy was in school when she received word of the death of her husband, Captain James Callaway. These were probably subscription schools with a three-months term conducted in private homes.

            The boarding school of Lewis Howell was one of the first schools west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri Rivers. The renown of Mr. Howell as a teacher attracted young men and women from far and near, many of whom became teachers and prominent citizens of their communities.

            If the figures in the following items are indicative of Lewis Howell’s remuneration from his teaching, his financial success was not due to that profession. Among the papers pertaining to the estate of Joseph Bryan is a note stating that Alexander McKinney, guardian of the heirs of Joseph Bryan, paid to Lewis Howell the following:

            “To the tuition of Louisa Bryan,                  $4.76¾

              To the tuition of Elizabeth Bryan               $5.38½

              To the tuition of Mary Bryan                     $6.73

                        Total $16.88¼                  November 25,1825”

            There is also a note stating that Alexander McKinney paid to Lewis Howell $5.00 for the tuition of Mary Bryan for six months at $2.50 per quarter.

            I was unable to find what Great-uncle Lewis charged for boarding his students, though I did find the following:

            “Alexander McKinney, guardian of the heirs of Joseph Bryan paid to Samuel Morris for boarding two Scollars commencing January 1, 1828, and ending November 28, 1828, 42 weaks and 3 days, each at 50 cents per weak. $42.50.”

Mrs. Mabel Castlio Henderson, who lived in the old Lewis Howell house for a number of years, wrote me January 25, 1957, that the school house, in the yard of Lewis Howell, was originally a log structure with handmade shingles, floor of hand-hewn boards, and blackboards of some kind of black material on the front wall.

            The children of Nancy and John H. Castlio, as well as other Castlio, Howell, and Stewart nieces and nephews, were educated by their scholarly Uncle Lewis, who was not only an educated gentleman but a man of strict principles as his children and students were well aware and as the tenth clause of his will proves.

            “Should one or both of my daughters marry idlers, spendthrifts, or dram-shop visitors, it is then my will that the legacies left said daughters should never come into their hands to be squandered but that said legacies should descend to their bodily heirs, should they have any, if they should have none, then to their nearest blood relations.”

            I think that Great-aunt Liza Castlio inherited this farm from her father, Lewis Howell, and that at her death it became the property of her husband, H. B. Castlio. After the death of H. B. Castlio, November 15, 1904, this land was conveyed by deed to his nephew, Dr. Mitchell Castlio (1, 32) who in turn left it to his son Dwight Castlio, the owner in 1940.

            The children of Serena Lamme Howell and Lewis Howell were: Eliza Ann who married Hiram Beverly Castlio (1, 11) Mary Frances, James William who married Emily Murdock, Almarinda, Sarah Rosalyn (6, 19), and Achillia Adale who married Rufus Easton Gamble (6).

51.       Francis Howell Fort, Spanish Land Grant 887, Township 46 North Range 2 East, 640 acres

Francis Howell, the youngest of the three sons of John Howell of Welsh descent, was born in Orange County, North Carolina, September 27, 1762, and died on Howell’s Prairie, St. Charles County, Missouri, October 27, 1834. In February, 1780, he married Susannah Stone (daughter of Benjamin Stone), who was born December 11, 1763, Orange County, North Carolina, and died on Howell’s Prairie, May 27, 1826.

            Francis Howell was one of the followers of Daniel Boone into Upper Louisiana. For generations the migratory paths of the Howells and Boones had run parallel—from the British Isles to Pennsylvania, to North Carolina, to Missouri—and there the two families were bound by many, many intermarriages.

            My aunt, Iantha Castlio, in her book, “Some Missouri Pioneers, Their Ancestors, Descendants, and Kindred from Other States,” calls attention to the interesting fact that Francis Howell and his wife were born British Colonial subjects. The War of Independence made them citizens of the United States. When they came to Upper Louisiana, they settled in Spanish Territory.

            In 1800 when Francis Howell moved from Bon Homme Bottom in St. Louis County to what is now St. Charles County, he built Howell’s Fort, the second fort located in this county. It stood on a hill near a spring enclosed by hewed logs, which in the memory of the oldest settlers never failed even in the driest seasons. Above the big spring were three “wet-weather springs” to take care of the overflow of the main spring. Mr. Sylvester Burgermeister, whose mother owned the Francis Howell farm in 1940, said there were times when these three springs “rolled out water that would not go through a barrel.”

            Evidently this spring had been used by the Indians for many years, for Mr. Burgermeister said that chips of flint from the making of arrowheads from local flint rocks were found all about the spring, and it was not unusual to pick up arrow heads anywhere on the farm.

            Near the spring stood an oak tree of unknown species, the stump of which measured eight feet in diameter when it was cut down. A man from the Forestry Department of the University of Missouri, who was present when the tree was felled (about 1940), estimated it to be over 300 years old. The acorns from the tree would never come up when planted.

About one hundred yards east of the fort was the house—the oldest frame house in Howell’s Prairie—the framework of which was large hewed logs pegged together. No nails were used. The spaces between the studding were filled in with home-made bricks which in later years, due to weather and age, seemed to have reverted to dry mud and hair. The foundation of the original section of the house was six feet thick. A stone chimney on the west end of the house was removed by Mr. Jake Burgermeister and windows replaced the fireplaces upstairs and down. The slave house stood in what was later the Burgermeister garden. The old Howell’s Ferry Road ran in front of the house.

            From 1800 until 1940 this homestead belonged first to three generations of Howells and then to three generations of Burgermeisters. Francis Howell willed his plantation and horse mill to his youngest son, James F. Howell, who died just two years after his father’s death. The will of Malinda Howell Moore, a daughter of John Howell and a granddaughter of Francis Howell, tells how the land passed from the Howells to the Burgermeisters:

            “Know all men that I, Malinda Moore, of the County of St. Charles and State of Missouri, for and in consideration of the sum of three thousand three hundred and twenty-seven dollars to me paid by Mathias Burgermeister the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged do grant, bargain, and sell to said Burgermeister the following described tract of land in the county and state aforesaid, and on the South side of the Dardenne Creek, being part of Survey number (453) four hundred and fifty three originally granted to John Howell and part of Survey number (887) Eight hundred and eighty-seven, originally granted to Francis Howell. ————— In Testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this the Fourth day of March, Eighteen hundred and Seventy.”

Malinda Moore.

            Francis Howell, the founder of the Howell family in Missouri, and his wife, Susannah Stone Howell, were buried not far from Howell Fort on a little knoll on the Howell farm, now known as the Francis Howell Cemetery.

            The children of Susannah and Francis Howell were:

John Howell, married (1) Grace Baldridge, (2) Sally Keele, (3) Joanna B. Reeder

Thomas Howell, married Susannah Callaway, daughter of Jemima Boone Callaway

Sarah Howell, married William Stewart, a follower of Daniel Boone into Missouri

Nancy Howell, married (1) James Callaway, son of Jemima Boone Callaway, (2) John Harrison Castlio

            Newton Howell, married (1) Rachael Zumwalt Long (2) Adelia A. Farris

            Col. Francis Howell, Jr., married Mary Meeks Ramsey

            Capt. Benjamin Howell, married Mahala Castlio, sister of John H. Castlio

Susannah L. Howell, married Larkin S. Callaway, son of Jemima Boone Callaway

Lewis Howell, married Serena Lamme, granddaughter of Jemima Boone Callaway

James Flangherty Howell, married Isabel Morris

WILL OF FRANCIS HOWELL

            In the name of God, Amen: I, Francis Howell Sr., of the County of St. Charles and State of Missouri, being of sound mind and disposing memory, and being desirous to dispose of all the estate of which I am possessed, do hereby make this my last will and testament in the manner and form following, that is to say 1st, I desire that all funeral expenses, and all my just debts be paid—2nd I give and bequeath to my son James F. Howell the plantation on which I now live, with all the land belonging to the same which I have not heretofore deeded away, being about three hundred and forty acres (be the same more or less) together with my horse mill, and all other appurtenances belonging to said mill—3rd I give and bequeath to my son Lewis Howell my negro girl, Pleasant –

4th       I give and bequeath fifty dollars in cash to my daughter Sarah Stewart

5th       I give and bequeath fifty dollars in cash to my daughter Nancy Castlio

6th       I give and bequeath fifty dollars in cash to my daughter Susannah L. Callaway

7th       All the rest of my estate, of what nature or kind soever it may be, not heretofore particularly disposed of, I desire may be divided into four equal parts, one of which parts I wish to be equally divided between my two sons, Francis Howell and Benjamin Howell, and the other three parts to be given to my three sons, John Howell, Thomas Howell, and Newton Howell—each of the three last receiving one part

8th       It is my will and desire that my faithful negro woman Lucy be free and emancipated from and after the time of my death, and that my Executor do execute all necessary instruments, and pay all necessary charges for her emancipation, and also that they procure the necessary security for her maintenance and charge my estate with the same.

            Lastly, I do hereby constitute and appoint my sons Newton Howell and Lewis Howell, executors of this my last will and testament, hereby revoking all other or former wills or testaments by me heretofore made—In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 2nd day of August, 1830.

Francis Howell

Witnesses

Y. D. Stephenson

Robert McCluer

John H. Castlio

(The faithful Lucy for whom Francis Howell so thoughtfully and kindly provided in his will was baptised and admitted to membership in the Dardenne Presbyterian Church, November 6, 1825)

52.       Thomas Howell Home

            July 10, 1806, Thomas Howell, the second son of Suzannah and Francis Howell, Sr., married Susannah Callaway, a daughter of Jemima Boone and Flanders Callaway. Their fourteen children, all of whom lived to maturity, were:

            Coanza B., married (1) John McMillen (2) Mr. Blacketer

            Larkin Callaway, married Martha Baugh

            Eliza Ann, unmarried

Pizarro, married (1) Mary Ann Howell, daughter of Newton Howell (2) Maria Hoffman

            Alonza Boone, unmarried

            James Callaway, married Susan L. Morris

Amazon, married Hannah Tyler; named by his great-grandfather, Daniel Boone, who as he held the baby on his lap, said he was naming him for the greatest river in the world.

            Eviza Lydia (“Cousin Duck”), married Andrew Jackson Coshow

            Mary Etaline, married (1) Samuel C. Moore (2) S. Jesse Fisher

            Amandelia, married Memory Yarnell

            John Francis, married Sarah Ann McCourtney

            Jemima Elizabeth, married Solomon Fisher

            Lewis M. (Bud), married Eliza Jane Wallace

            Sarah Minerva, died young

            In 1808, Thomas Howell was a sergeant in the company of about eighty dragoons under Captain Mackey Wherry and Lieutenant James Callaway who had volunteered to accompany and protect General Clark up the Missouri River and to assist in the building of Fort Osage. Later he was trumpeter in the first company of Rangers raised by Captain James Callaway as protection against the Indians.

            American State Papers, Vol. II, page 447: Thomas Howell has claimed 750 acres of land “situate on the waters of the Darden” and that William Stewart, a brother-in-law, swears that the claimant “raised a crop on the tract claimed in 1803, but resided with his father, about one half mile from the tract; claimant has had stock on the same ever since, and cultivated it ever since.”

On parts of Spanish Grants 1669, 1798, and 2990, and sections 31, 32, 34, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 18, extensive acreage between Dardenne Creek and the Missouri River, Thomas Howell and his family lived. The western part of this tract was prairie which receded into a wooded area and bluffs along the river. Near the edge of his western boundary, Thomas Howell built a large and beautiful house of bricks made on the place, and nearby a small brick house and a log cabin for slaves.

            In front of his house ran the Howell’s Ferry Road, which commenced at Flint Hill passed in front of his father’s house, and terminated at Howell’s Ferry on the Missouri River.

A man by the name of Wyatt once built a ferry boat for Thomas Howell who paid for the work in gold. Then Mr. Howell challenged Mr. Wyatt to run a foot race for the money paid him. Even though Mr. Wyatt was a young man and Mr. Howell in his sixties, the former had no desire to compete with this man who for many years had been the champion runner of the area.

            A son, Alonza, said that when he was a young man very little grain was sold but was used principally in distillation. In some seasons his father produced as many as 1400 gallons of whiskey which he sold in St. Charles to William G. Pettis and George Collier.

Thomas Howell lived on this farm until his death in 1869. Then he was laid to rest in a spot a short distance north of the house, which became the family cemetery.

            On March 3, 1874, the old Howell homestead was sold at the St. Charles Court House because Thomas Howell had died intestate and some of his heirs petitioned for the partition of the estate. Mr. Henry Schneider being the highest and last bidder bought the house and several hundred acres of the tract for $3856.46. The property passed from him to his son Adam Schneider, the owner until 1940. Mr. Adam Schneider lived here until 1919, when he moved to his birthplace, near Hamburg, leaving tenants on the farm from 1919 until 1940.

            Mr. Adam Schneider’s family was almost as large as Thomas Howell’s. The children of Adam and Eve Schneider were Emma, Catherine, George, Henry and Anna (twins), and Adam Jr. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Schneider married Elizabeth Koehler; their children were Lydia (Mrs. William Berthold), Paul T., and again twins, Hannah and Huldah (Mrs. Louis Kampmann).

            It is to Mrs. Berthold and Mrs. Kampmann that I am indebted for the following information about the old house, another landmark on Howell’s Prairie which was destroyed in 1940. 

            Smooth stones carefully placed and deeply embedded in the ground formed a gutter on each side of a walk—originally brick but later gravel—leading to the front steps of stone and the three massive stone slabs at the entrance to the house. On each side of the double walnut doors, in a deep recess, was an Ionic column. Above the columns and transom rested another large, hand-dressed stone in which the date 1842 and the letters G. W. E. had been cut, the latter probably being the initials of the stone mason. Similar stones were above all the windows and smaller ones formed the sills. All of these stones were hauled by oxen from what was later known as the Jules Stephens place, about a mile east of where the Marthasville Road joins the Boone’s Lick.

            A wide brick area extended across the front and the back of the house. In warm weather the Howell family often placed their dining table on the area in front when they had a large number of guests or when they were giving a party.

            Through the double front doors one passed into a spacious hall with an usually graceful and beautiful walnut stairway and balustrade. In the center of the ceiling was an elaborate plaster decoration about two and one half feet in diameter with ornate leaf carvings—an excellent dust-catcher according to Mrs. Schneider and her daughters. The floors and woodwork of the hall were walnut, walnut or cherry being the only wood used on the interior of the house. Double back doors made the hall an exceptionally cool spot in summer, at which time it became the Schneider’s dining room.

            On the right side of the hall was the eighteen by eighteen foot parlor with a high, beautifully and elaborately hand-carved walnut mantel with hand-carved wardrobes on each side. Fluted columns adorned each side of the mantel. Under each downstairs window, in the eighteen inch walls, was a window seat.

            On the north side of the hall was the room used by the Schneiders as a kitchen. The high mantel with its fluted columns and the wardrobe with double doors were as beautifully carved as were those in the parlor, for originally this must have been a bedroom as the Howell kitchen and dining room were in the basement.

            From the following story one may gain some idea of the size of the wardrobes in this house. Frequently the Schneider children would miss their mother—who was not a small woman but certainly a difficult one to find sometimes. Finally they discovered that their mother was taking her afternoon nap on the bottom shelf of the living room wardrobe, a cool spot where she could rest and escape from her children for a little while.

            The two upstairs bedrooms, on each side of a large hall similar to that on the first floor, had mantels carved like the two downstairs, though the one in the north bedroom was the most simple of the four and the one in the south room the most beautiful. All of this handsome hand-carved woodwork was destroyed with the house in 1940!

            In the basement were three rooms, the north having a dirt floor, but the center and south rooms, used as dining room and kitchen by the Howells, having brick floors. Since, from time to time, coins had been found in the north room, the Schneider children almost dug up the dirt floor there, looking for money, and not the least discouraged by their father telling them that if a person buried money, he would remember the hiding place.

            When Mr. Schneider took up the bricks in the south room to straighten and relay them, he found a large, flat stone beneath the brick floor. He removed the stone and found a gallon can in a hole—and one coin in the can.

            Frequently the children found large, old pennies near a stump in the barn lot. The finding of each coin was the incentive for another treasure hunt. Unfortunately, however, the unerring determination of the children was never rewarded.

            Mr. and Mrs. Schneider, at the time of their marriage, were warned not to live in a house about which such strange stories were told, especially when that house was just a few yards from the Howell family cemetery. Mr. Schneider was not the least perturbed by his neighbors’ admonitions and the nearby graveyard—not even by the “sighing ghost” and the strange noises heard in the old house.

            The first night that Mrs. Schneider heard the “sighing ghost” she tried unsuccessfully to arouse her husband. She was a resourceful woman, determined to find out, if possible, about this ghost—even if her husband was indifferent to the eerie, mournful sigh. She arose from bed and crept toward the spot from which came the long, drawn-out sigh. She did not have to go very far. The bedroom door was ajar. A breeze was gently blowing the door back and forth, causing the latch to slip a little way down in the catch. A stronger gust of wind would force the door open, causing the latch to rub against the catch, making the weird, mournful sigh.

            The queer noises, however, were not so easily explained. When one was heard, the reason given for it seemed so plausible and logical that the incident was forgotten until someone discovered that the solution had been incorrect. One night Mrs. Berthold (Lydia) had remained out beyond the designated hour and was trying to unlock the front door and slip to her room without being heard, especially by her mother. Just as she thought she had been successful in quietly unlocking and locking the front door with its eight or nine inch long key, there was a terrible thud. Everyone was aroused, and Mrs. Schneider called down to find out what had happened. Her daughter replied that the ham which Mrs. Schneider had that day hung on the basement stairway had fallen. The noise had been explained, and every one went back to bed. The next morning the ham was hanging just where Mrs. Schneider had placed it the day before.

            In the winter time, the warm, cheerful north bedroom was used much as a sitting room. One evening a cousin who was visiting the Schneiders started downstairs. As he reached the landing, there was a loud crash. Mrs. Schneider rushed into the hall and called, “John, did you fall?” John replied, “No, but it sounded as if someone fell on the bottom side of the step.” A search was made. Everything was in its place. This time, as always, the noise seemed to have come from underneath the hall stairs.

The bluish lights over the Howell cemetery disturbed many passers-by who saw them and caused some of the Schneider boys to try to chase them, only to have them vanish suddenly; but they did not deter the Schneider children from playing in the cemetery—their favorite playground. They especially enjoyed playing on the large flat slab over the grave of Sarah Minerva, the youngest child of Thomas and Susannah Howell, who had died when she was about seventeen years old and was said to have been buried with much of her jewelry. The children were particularly intrigued by this grave because they had been told that if the slab were pushed aside one could see the body of the Howell girl, since there was a glass over the body. The children spent hours and hours trying to move the slab, but they failed in this attempt just as they had in their search for hidden treasure. Mrs. Kampmann remarked that their mother had no idea how they spent much of their time in the cemetery; had she known, each child would have spent several hours “sitting on a chair.” There was never a funeral at the cemetery that these active, vivacious children were not interested observers, either from some tree or from the attic window.

And it was not uncommon to see a solemn procession come slowly down Howell’s Ferry Road and stop at the cemetery. In 1876, Thomas’ wife, Susannah, was placed beside him. Today numerous descendants and relatives of Thomas Howell rest in this prairie cemetery.