Biography

Lemuel J. Howell is the fourth son of David and Susannah Howell. Lemuel appears in the 1850 U. S. Census living with his brother Robert, his mother Susan (Susannah), and a Bryant Howell. Lemuel married Mary Jane Saunders December 16, 1857 in Gates County, North Carolina. The ceremony was witnessed by William H. Cross and William L. Eure. The sons of Lemuel and Mary Jane Howell (Walter Moses and Samuel David Howell) were in the business of milling lumber. They would buy property and sell the timber. A survey was done on September 28, 1908 to mark the boundaries of the property Lemuel owned for the benefit of his heirs. It was recorded in Deed Book 38 page 411 in Hertford County Courthouse on June  23, 1909. Lemuel died in the fall of 1866. Mary Jane filed a petition to the November 1866 Hertford County, NC Court for the widows provisions for one year. Mary Jane remarries to Mitchell Howell on June 5, 1873. Mitchell is a laborer living on their farm and is 28 years old at the time they marry. It is not known if Mitchell is somehow related or is part of another Howell family. Mary Jane Howell died in 1913 and is buried in Buckhorn Baptist Church Cemetery in Como, North Carolina. There is an unmarked grave next to her, but it is not known if it is Lemuel Howell or Mitchell.