Cheesy Grits: The Charleston Howards

 So far, we've been tracing the Thorne branch of Jane's great-great-grandparents. Now it's time to turn to the Howards. Here's a graphic refresher:

Valeria "Valley" Howard is Jane's paternal great-grandmother. If you recall, she's the one who left Savannah for New York City around 1906, presumably to find a better life for herself and her two children, one of whom was Jane's grandfather, George Ralston.

Valeria was herself the scion of Charleston's ante-bellum "brown" aristocracy. We've seen that her maternal grandfather, Philip M. Thorne, was the president of the Friendly Moralist Society. But who were her paternal grandparents? They were the Howards, another of  Charleston's "brown elite" families.

Robert Howard, the paterfamilias, was born in Charleston in 1807. His mother was Dorilla Motte, herself a Free Woman of Color. She also bore a number of other children but there is no record so far of any other Howards.

We do not know who Robert's father was. Because Robert is generally identified as "brown," and given the propensity in Charleston for sons to bear their father's family name whether the son was born within wedlock or without, it doesn't seem unreasonable to think that his father may have been one of Charleston's white Howards. The Charleston city directories of the time show several who will have attained their majority by the time our Robert was born, but we have no evidence of any connection between Robert's mother and any of the white Howards. Robert's father may also have been a mixed race man, but the status of the evidence is the same: there is none.

As attested to in our Robert Howard's family Bible (Series 0044 in the "Inventory of Various Small Collections" at the Avery Research Center), he married Harriett Williams on 27 Oct 1831, at the home of Mr Anthony Weston on Boundary (later Calhoun) Street. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Mr. Bath of the Methodist Church. (Best guess so far is that the Rev. Bath was from the Old Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church on Boundary/Calhoun.)

Robert and Harriett had six sons and a daughter: James Bruce, Robert Payne, Joseph Penciell/Penceel, Henry Williams, Robert Jr. (Robert Payne had passed away at age 5, two years before this second Robert was born), Cecelia Maria, and John Ancrum Howard.

Robert Howard, Sr.'s wife, Harriett Williams Howard, died in 1858 and according to the Charleston municipal death records was buried in the Brown Fellowship Cemetery on Pitt Street. He subsequently remarried to Sarah Johnson.

Howard Senior (subsequent references will be to him, not his son) was one of Charleston's richest Free Persons of Color before the Civil War. A member of the Brown Fellowship Society, he had made his money as a lumber dealer, or "wood factor" as he is identified in the documents of the time, as well as in real estate.

Here is a listing of Robert Howard's properties according to the 1861 Charleston City Census::

98 Anson St.
100 Anson St. (This address is listed as his residence.)
11 Calhoun St.
13 Calhoun St.
15 Calhoun St.
17 Calhoun St.
19 Calhoun St.
95 Coming St.
23 Concord St.
25 Concord St.
27 Concord St.
3 Hewitts Alley
5 Hewitts Alley
10 Marsh St.
12 Marsh St.
14 Marsh St.
16 Marsh St.
18 Marsh St.
20 Marsh St.
22 Marsh St.

It appears that his commercial property at 10 North Commercial Wharf (along E. Bay St; the second wharf below Tradd St.) was leased at the time of the 1861 census.

The 1860 U.S. Census lists the value of Robert Howard's real estate at $33,900 and his personal property value at $3,200. Apparently the only Free Persons of Color in Charleston richer than Robert Howard were his partner in the lumber business, Richard Dereef, and the quasi-matriarch of the Weston clan, Maria Weston. As far as Robert Howard is concerned, I'd wager that we're looking at a net worth in the hundreds of millions in today's dollars.

Howard was heavily invested in the Brown Fellowship Society, including its social improvement program: when one of Thomas S. Bonneau's students, Daniel Alexander Payne, opened his own school and quickly outgrew it, Howard built him a new one in the Howard family back yard on Anson Street. White South Carolinian legislators grew alarmed over the education of free African American children and banned such schools in 1835.

Although Howard was a Methodist (as was educator Payne), he dallied for a time with the Presbyterians after the Civil War, becoming a trustee for the Mission Presbyterian Church. He apparently provided significant financing for their new building on George St. (Alas, it's no longer standing.)

Howard also served as an alderman in Charleston's Republican city government after the Civil War, joining his son's father-in-law, Philip M. Thorne, on the Charleston City Council and also serving with Thorne as Almshouse Commissioner. The 17 Sept 1869 Charleston Daily News (p. 3) reports some angry exchanges between Commissioner Howard and one of his colleagues (not Thorne), to the extent that Commissioner Howard called his colleague a liar. (Bear in mind that these reports are second-hand, as reporters were not permitted in the sessions.) The colleague took exception to being so called and called for what amount to a vote of confidence from the rest of the Commission. The Commission voted in his favor, "whereupon Howard left the room." The Daily News went on to suggest that the reason Commissioner Howard was upset was because he had held the contract to supply the Almshouse with fuel and the Commissioners had proposed to put that contract out for bid.

Remember that the year is 1869 and Robert Howard is still apparently a major supplier of fuel for Charleston. The suggestion is that he had come through the Civil War with much of his business operation intact, which is pretty remarkable if you think about it. (In fact, the 1870 federal census shows the value of his real estate as still being around $30,000, down only about $7,000 from before the war. It would be interesting to know how he managed to hold on to all of it through the wartime chaos.)

The 9 Dec 1869 Charleston Daily News (p. 1) identifies the various committees of the City Council. Alderman Howard is listed as serving on the following: "Brick and Wooden Building," "Public Institutions and Grounds," and "Printing." I haven't yet identified how long he served, but I don't believe it was for very long, as there do not seem to have been African American aldermen after about 1872. The Republicans themselves were swept out of office in 1877 by the resurgent Southern Democrats.

Robert Howard died on 14 April 1883 at his home on Anson Street in Charleston. He had apparently resumed Methodism, as his funeral took place at Centenary Methodist on Wentworth. According to his death certificate, he was buried in the Brown Fellowship Cemetery at 54 Pitt Street, perhaps alongside his first wife, Harriett, who had been buried there twenty-five years earlier.