George W.’s Story

George W. Howell and family circa 1879. GW would have been 67ish in this photo. (courtesy of Janel Howell)

I had to draw up a portion of the family tree to see how I was related to GW. According to my thinking, I’m his 2nd cousin, 4 times removed.

The green boxes on the chart are GW and his 1st cousins that were addressed in the letter. My direct ancestor Samuel was a 2nd cousin to the four 1st cousins I show (there are plenty that aren’t shown.) I am 4 generations removed from Samuel. Thus, 2nd cousins, 4 times removed.

While I was at it, I showed Janel’s direct descendants on the chart, lined up with my direct descendants. Since there is a 1 for 1 matchup back to our common ancestor in 1718, that makes us 6th cousins. That’s amazing that after 300 years there are exactly the same number of ancestors in each of our lines. Even more astonishing is that there aren’t that many generations over that time frame.

Back to the story — kind of like that TV show “Who Do You Think You Are”, where they take one ancestor and tell his/her story.

George W. was born in 1812, took a horseback ride as described in the letter, except that he must have done it in 1846, not 1816. He bought a portion of his father’s land in 1847 and his brothers John and Samson bought the rest and they continued to farm it. He was married to Rachel Harriet Stackhouse in 1853 and had 5 children. Sometime later he ran into financial difficulties and sold his share of the land to his brother John. By 1864, it appears that he was forced to turn over other assets to pay off creditors. After this time, records indicate he was a laborer and had moved from New Jersey to West Pittston, PA. It was there that the local newspaper recorded this story:

SUICIDE IN WEST PITTSTON

An Old Man of Seventy-one Years Hangs Himself in his Barn

Between five and six o’clock this morning, George W. Howell, an old resident of West Pittston, committed suicide at his home on the upper end of Montgomery St., by hanging himself. He slept, last night, with one of his sons and arose and went out about five o’clock this morning. When breakfast was prepared, his daughter, went out to call her father, thinking he was nearby and repairing to a shed back of the house was astonished to find him hanging by the neck, quite dead. He had placed a rope over a spike driven in the side of the building, scarcely as high as his head, and putting the noose about his neck, strangled himself to death. His knees nearly touched the floor when he was discovered, showing determination in his rashness, and his hands were folded in front.

Mr. Howell has resided in West Pittston for upwards of fifteen years and was 71 years of age. He leave a wife, four grown sons and a daughter. He was always know as a steady, industrious man and a good citizen. For the past two years his health has been failing, so that he had been unable to work and this doubtless so weighed upon his mind that he concluded not to be a burden to others, although his home relations have always been pleasant, the family having just completed a new house. He gave no intimation of his purpose to end his life, so far as could be learned, to anybody, and nothing was observed in his previous conduct indicating mental aberration. We understand that the deceased was a native of New Jersey, from whence his family came here.

The coroner was promptly notified of the sad occurrence and send S. F. Bossard, of Wilkes-Barre, up here to empanel a jury and notify Squire Koon to hold an inquest. A. Stutzbach, Wm. Ferguson, D.G. Bossard, Henry Bardes and W. D. Hepler constituted the jury with S. F. Bossard as foreman. After viewing the body, they returned to Squire Koon’s office and rendered a verdict that the deceased came to his death from strangulation, by hanging himself by the neck

Not the ending I was expecting for the hero of our story, but worth sharing. Huge thanks to Janel for all the research that allowed me to add these details to the blog.

By Dennis

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