September 30, 1835 – October 20, 1902
McLennan County Resident 1882 – 1902
Information contributed 2010 by great-great granddaughter: Sandra Browning Fite
sfite@etex.net Gilmer, Texas
Henry Howard, of English extraction, was a soldier in the War of 1812 and was Jasper Howard’s great-grandfather. In the early part of his life Henry Howard settled in Mississippi and was a planter by occupation. His grandson Jesse was Jasper’s father. Jesse was reared in Mississippi and moved to Georgia where he married Martha Armstrong and then moved to Marion County, Alabama. Their son, Jasper Howard, was born in Shelby County, Alabama, September 30, 1835. The Howard family moved to Nacogdoches County, Texas in 1841, in 1854 moved to Hunt County, and in 1859 to Parker County where Jesse died September, 1865 at the age of sixty-five. Jesse was a famer and stock raiser during his life. Jesse and Martha were anti-mission Baptists (members of the old school Baptist church). Both Jesse and his son Jasper were Jeffersonian Democrats all of their lives.
Jasper’s mother, Martha Armstrong Howard was a native of Mississippi and a daughter of James Armstrong, a planter and a soldier in the War of 1812. At the age of sixty years she died in Palo Pinto County, Texas in 1878.
Ten children were born to Jesse and Martha Howard: 1) their first, Samuel Green was born in Alabama and died in Falls County Texas in 1862; 2) Jesse also resided in Falls County; 3) Timney J. was married to John Renfro; 4) Martha was married to A.B. Trimmer and resided in Hunt County; 5) Marvin J. lived in Kent County; 6) Jasper H. eventually settled in McLennan County; 7) Isaac Newton of Wise County; 8) James W. moved to Kent County; 9) Andrew J. also of Kent County; 10) Sarah A. was married to Robert Williams. All six sons served in the Confederate army during the Civil War.
Jasper H. Howard, their sixth child, was educated in Nacogdoches County and then moved with his family to Hunt County and then to Parker County. In 1855 in Wood County he was married to Lettie Matthews, a native of Georgia who had resided in Texas for several years before their marriage. Her father was George W. Matthews.
In the spring of 1861 Jasper enlisted in the Confederate army from Parker County, in Company A, Twenty-first Texas infantry and served in the Gulf department along the coast, in the vicinity of Galveston and Houston. During his time in Galveston, in 1862, he was baptized into the fellowship of Galveston Church. After the end of the war he returned to Parker County and united with the Bethel Church. From Parker County he moved to Falls County and from Falls to Limestone. He was ordained deacon by Horn Hill church in 1877. From Horn Hill he moved to Groesbeck which is also in Limestone County. In 1882, Jasper Howard moved from Groesbeck to Mart, in McLennan County which became his final residence. In 1883 he became a member and deacon of the Mart Baptist Church.
Jasper and Lettie Howard had 5 children; 1) Martha Elizabeth was born June 9, 1857; 2) Georgia Ann who married J.M. Chapman was born September 17, 1859: 3) Mary Melvirdia was born Oct 13, 1861: 4) Salathiel Victoria was born July 11, 1864 and after marriage died in Falls County in 1888; 5) James A. Washington born December 12, 1866 and later resided in Mart, McLennan County. Lettie died in 1868 leaving three children: Georgia Ann, James A Washington and Salathiel Victoria.
Jasper took a second wife in Falls County December 18, 1868: Mary Elizabeth Matthews, a native of Cherokee County and daughter of David R. Matthews. To this union were born eight children; 1) Marion Almarine, a twin. born February 20, 1869; 2) Mary Alzada the other twin was also born February 20, 1869 married Frank Pierce Holloway and is buried in the Mart Cemetery; 3) William Jasper was born January 14, 1871; 4) Henry Elmo was born September 17, 1873; 5) John Matthews was born September 20, 1876 and when he married Fay Breland, daughter of Mr. L. C. Breland, they made their home in Mart; 6) Milton, a twin, born January 18, 1878; 7) Clinton the other twin was also born January 18, 1878; and 8) David Rushing was born February 28, 1881 and is buried in the Mart Cemetery.
October 20, 1902 Jasper was a passenger on a train that collided with a freight train at Lewis Junction fourteen miles from Calvert. Jasper Howard and one other passenger were killed and fifteen were injured. Mr. Howard is buried in the Mart Cemetery. February 23, 1910, his second wife Mary Elizabeth died and is buried beside him.
References:
A memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Chicago: the Lewis Publishing Company 1893, Pages 824-25.
J.L. Walker and C.P. Lampkin, History of the Waco Baptist Association of Texas, Waco: Byrne-Hill Printing House, 1897, p. 323.
A handwritten list of the names of Jasper Howard’s children and their dates of birth passed down by the family.