Howe Family/Howe House Timeline
[Richard and Sarah (Evans) Howe]

1823 Sarah (Evans) Howe, born in Wales, Dec 23, 1823. (Died Apr 11, 1896 (age 72).

1825 Richard Howe, born Oct 31, 1826, S. Wales (5th child of 10). Died Aug 20, 1910 (age 83).

1854 Richard and Sarah married in Wales, Dec 23, 1854.

1855 (Sept) Richard and Sarah sailed from Liverpool (to New York), then to Canada, settling in New London, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

1856 Robert Howe, son of Richard and Sarah, born in New London, Canada (Jan 13,1856; died Aug 29, 1912, age 56); father of Charlotte, Priscilla and Sarah Genevieve.

1857 Richard Howe family moved to Pomeroy, Ohio; Richard obtained naturalization papers.

1858 Richard Howe family moves to Lyon County, settling first in a squatter’s cabin known as the Fowler “shanty,” erected in 1855, SE of Emporia. “This was a crude cabin built of logs, not chinked, with a shake roof which often let in snow in [wintery] weather.” (Source: Biographical History of Richard Howe, Central Kansas, Vol Two, 1903)

1859 Richard Howe family moves to a house on the corner of 8th Avenue and Merchant Street.

1858-87 Recognized as an accomplished stone mason, Richard worked on buildings including the first Lyon County Court House; the first building at the Kansas Normal School (now ESU, “Sunken Garden” site of building’s foundation); the iconic Chase County Court House; Indian stone houses at Kaw Mission in Council Grove; and numerous others.

1860 Richard and Sarah Howe drew plans for the Howe House at 315 E. Logan, and began construction. Although materials were on the site, the advent of the Civil War delayed construction. The “vernacular” architecture implies that “local” materials were utilized, with limestone from near Americus and Bushong.

1867 Howe House is being completed (Source: The Emporia News, Friday, Oct 25, 1867).

1868 Howe family completes move to the Howe House site on East Logan in early 1868. Richard lived there for 42 years. (Richard died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Sarah Owen, 728 Merchant St.)

1876 Margaret Jane Griffiths, future wife of Robert Howe, born in Birmingham, England, Mar 15; her mother died when Margaret was four. Robert Howe and Margaret Jane are parents of Charlotte, Priscilla and Sarah Genevieve Howe. Margaret Jane died Jan 24, 1954. (See, also, 1897 and 1954 entries.)

1878 Robert Howe went to New Mexico and worked in gold and silver mining for 18 years; he returned to Emporia in 1896.

1888 Emporia St. David’s Day Concert is organized, ostensibly, the first such concert.

1897 Robert Howe married Margaret Jane Griffiths. (See 1876 and 1954, also.)

1899 Charlotte Elizabeth (Howe) Wilson, daughter of Robert and Margaret, was born Mar 13, 1899, and died Oct 26, 1979, age 80.

1900 Robert Howe suffered a stroke of paralysis and was an invalid thereafter. Mary Priscilla Howe, daughter of Robert and Margaret, was born Nov. 4, 1900, and died Feb 17, 1981, age 80.

1905 Sarah Genevieve Howe, daughter of Robert and Margaret, was born Jan 22, 1905, and died Nov 3, 1994, age 89, in Emporia.

1910 Richard Howe died Aug 20 at home of his daughter and Robert’s sibling, Sarah (Howe) Owen, who lived at 728 Merchant St. Burial was at Lower Dry Creek Cemetery (now Evergreen Cemetery).

1912 Robert Howe died Aug 29; funeral was at the Howe House home, and he is buried in Lower Dry Creek Cemetery. Later, ostensibly the daughters put a stone for him at Upper Dry Creek, now Greenwood Cemetery, next to their mother.

1919 Charlotte Howe graduates from Kansas State Normal (KSN) School; taught at Pratt, KS. In 1930 she is noted as teaching at Emporia Junior High; later appointed as librarian at Emporia Junior and Senior High.

1922 Mary Priscilla Howe graduates from KSN with majors in commerce and mathematics; she is noted as participating in school activities, e.g., the girls’ varsity basketball team.

1925 West porch (counterpart architecturally to existing east porch), then a storeroom, was converted to a “modern” bathroom.

1926 Sarah Genevieve Howe graduates from KSN.

1938-40 Charlotte is treasurer of the American Bible Society Welsh Auxiliary of Lyon County. Feb, 1938, 50th Annual St. David’s Day Concert held at Bethany Church (see 1888 entry); a feature of the program was a Welsh play directed by Charlotte.

1939 Sarah Genevieve Howe is noted as teaching in Rochester, MN. Another scrapbook clipping (dated Sept 21, 1939) titled “Allies Fatalistic on War, Says Teacher After Trip,” describes her trip experience on a blacked-out ship bound for Canada after the declaration of war and cites that “…Miss Genevieve Howe, Rochester high school home economics instructor, …has just returned home from a trip through the British Isles and France.”

1942 Charlotte Elizabeth Howe and Dr. Clyde Wilson (MD) were wed Sept 1; their home was at 901 Market Street in Emporia.

1954 Margaret Jane (Griffiths) Howe died Jan 24, age 77. (See 1876 and 1897 entries.)

1973-74 West addition is added to Howe House.

1979 Charlotte Elizabeth (Howe) Wilson dies at age 80 (Oct 26); buried in Greenwood Cemetery. (See 1899 entry.)

1981 Mary Priscilla Howe dies, Feb 17, at age 80. She had been an administrative assistant (registrar) at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. (See 1900 entry.)

1982 Howe House awarded the 1982 Kansas Preservation Alliance Award “for excellence in the preservation of a residential structure” May 8, 1982. (Announced in April 16 letter to Sarah from Richard Wagner, Board of Directors, KPA, Department of Architecture, KSU.) Award presented by Senator Nancy Kassebaum to Howe House representatives, Steve and Beth Hanschu, in the stead of Sarah Genevieve, who did not attend due to health reasons.

1983 (April 19) Sarah gifts a 12-acre tract near Reading Lake to the ESU Department of Biology as one of its “natural areas” (a stone house on the property is now owned by Randy Davis).

1984 In March, Lucya Davis, a nearby neighbor, began coming to assist Sarah Genevieve and tend for the house and yard, and continued doing so until Sarah’s death, and continues thereafter to the present for care of the house and yard.

1986 The Kansas State Historical Society approves the Howe House to be nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination meant that the Howe House was therefore granted status as a listing in the Register of Historic Kansas Places.

1986 (July 7) The Howe House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1994 Sarah Genevieve Howe dies Nov 3, age 89. (See 1905 entry.)

1994 The Last Will and Testament of Sarah Genevieve Howe dated October 12,1994, states “The entire property at 315 East Logan, Emporia, Kansas shall become the property of the Lyon County Historical Society, Emporia, Lyon County, Kansas (hereinafter called LCHS) with all the safeguards specified herein.

1995 Formal action of the LCHS Board of Trustees finalized the acceptance and understanding of continuing stewardship for the site in Oct, 1995. Laura McAntee was president of the Board of Trustees at the time of the formalization, and Eunice Irwin was executive director of the LCHS.

2018 The LCHS is recipient of a Heritage Trust Fund grant to address three needs:stabilize NW corner foundation, straighten and stabilize floor joists in the dining room floor, and repoint exterior masonry where needed. A celebration of the 150th anniversary (the sesquicentennial) of the completion and occupancy of the Howe House by the Richard and Sarah (Evans) Howe family is celebrated with
events at the LCHS History Center (Sept 28) and at the HH&WF site (Sept 29). A Ten-Year Preservation Plan is unveiled to seek funding to address needs to provide the necessary stewardship of the property for future generations to enjoy and appreciate as the oldest residential structure in Lyon County, and the second oldest building in the County.

Preceding compiled by DeWayne Backhus, past president of LCHS (2017), trustee, and chair of the Howe House & Welsh Farmstead Committee on the occasion of the sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of the site, and Steve Miller, past LCHS trustee. Most information was abridged from a timeline credited to Cathy Hoy at the time (2012-2013) of the production of the video titled: “A Welsh Farmstead: The Howe Family from 1858.” Howe family scrapbooks and other documents from the LCHS research archives in the Lyon County History Center, 711 Commercial Street, served as primary sources for the information contained herein.

Backhus, September, 2018.