Howland, Texas: What’s in a name?

Those Cotton Pickin’ Towns

The best part about researching a topic is discovering the fascinating trivial facts irrelevant to the subject at hand. In researching the beginnings of Texas motorsports for an upcoming book, I ran across just the kind of fact that makes the often mundane task of researching bearable. This one involves the community of Howland, four miles east of Roxton. To borrow a few facts about Howland’s history, I turn to the Texas State Historical Association’s (TSHA) online handbook. Howland was settled just a few years after Roxton (1880), known as “Pleasant Grove.” When a post office came to town, the settlement must have lost some of its enjoyment (possibly from the population explosion to 200 in just four years). So the “Pleasant” was dropped, and the community took the name “Grove.” The new town, complete with businesses that included three general stores and three gristmill-cotton gins, plus a church and a school, must have been on the list of fastest-growing cities in Texas. The growth became even more prominent in 1890 when the Texas Midland Railroad laid tracks just west of town. Like Roxton did around 1876, Grove moved west so it could be on the rail line. It grew to 300 residents, with two doctors, a blacksmith, and a grocer added to the community’s amenities. Grove became an essential stop on the Texas Midland, which stretched from near Ennis northeastward to Paris. Just a few miles north, Atlas was where railroad workers baked the Blackland soil and its underlying clay for use as ballast for the Texas Midland. As the town continued growing, in 1897, residents extended thanks to the railroad and changed the community’s name again. This time the choice was “Howland,” in honor of Edward Howland Robinson Green (known as “Ned”), son of the widely known miser and the “Witch of Wall Street” Hetty Green. Had it not been for Texas Midland President Ned Green and his decision to build his railroad so close to town, the community may not have survived. Instead, it thrived. And it is the name change and history behind “Howland” that makes this story so interesting. What if I told you that the existence of Howland, Texas, owes itself to one of the first historical facts and dates schoolchildren learn? And what if that fact involved the arrival of The Mayflower in the New World in 1620? Chances are, you›d be preparing yourself for another Texas tall tale. After all, Texans have been known to boast, exaggerate, or—let›s face it—outright lie about their state. But, of course, it›s all in the effort to maintain Texas› rightful place above all others. But the connection between Howland and The Mayflower is no tall tale; it is a matter of direct lineage. Ned Green came upon enormous wealth from both sides of his family. His father’s family was a major player in early 19th-century trade in the West Indies. His mother’s family built its fortune on the New England whaling business. It was Hetty, however, who took that wealth and grew it to become the richest and most financially powerful woman in America during the second half of the 1800s. One might think a family whose ancestors first stepped foot in the New World from The Mayflower brought wealth from England with them. In the case of the Howlands, of which Hetty’s mother was one, nothing could be further from the truth. John Howland traveled aboard The Mayflower as an indentured servant to John Carver. The history books tell us that Carver was the first governor of Plymouth Colony and contributed to the Mayflower Compact, an agreement among the men related to the colony’s governance they would soon build. According to many accounts, the document provided an outline for the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. But the Mayflower Compact did nothing to make a case that “all men are created equal.” After all, not only did slavery arrive in the New World a year before The Mayflower, but the idea of true freedom was only a future dream for indentured servants like John Howland. His freedom would be earned over time. The harsh New England winter that set in just after The Mayflower arrived is well-documented. Over half of the ship›s 102 occupants reaching Plymouth Colony died from disease and starvation. John Howland was one of the survivors, along with John Carver and his wife, Elizabeth. Howland carried a streak of luck with him, as what became the Howland family tree and eventual fortune was very nearly swept overboard in the mid-Atlantic. If not for a single sail›s rope, John Howland would have never survived the voyage. Luck remained with Howland in Plymouth. His servitude to the Carvers was “paid off ” in May 1621 when John Carver and Elizabeth died, likely from illness leftover from the winter. Not only was John free, but he inherited whatever wealth and possessions the Carvers had carried aboard The Mayflower. In short order, a former indentured servant became a prominent colonist in Plymouth, outliving every other original settler of the colony. A few years after his arrival, two brothers, Arthur and Henry, arrived, both indentured servants. John must have built enough wealth to obtain their freedom, as, in 1624, Henry is listed as receiving “one black cow” during the colony’s “division of cattle.” In true Texas fashion, this single cow helped the Howlands grow from indentured servants to wealthy landowners. Any farmer, rancher, or just an owner of a cow knows that even one cow needs real estate to roam. Henry and John Howland began gathering real estate in and around Plymouth. Over the years, what they lacked in financial wealth was made up for in property holdings. Neither withheld the hard-earned value of being one’s own man— whether through cash or property—in their children. As each generation built more wealth—and married into wealth— the Howlands’ descendants’ influence in New England, New York, and trading countries grew. The passing of financial genius from one generation to the next allowed a family tree billowing with wealth to grow out of its meager beginnings. Eventually, Hetty Howland Robinson, the most famous of the Howland descendants in terms of consistently growing wealth, emerged. She later married Edward Green but forced her husband to renounce all claim to her fortune. It was the wisest move the miser ever made. Edward Green entered into a series of investments and financial failures that left his family virtually penniless. But the Howland and Robinson wealth continued to grow. Hetty Green first sent son Ned to Chicago to manage her affairs. By 1893, she sent him to Texas. She named him president of a short rail line, which would soon become the Texas Midland Railroad. It eventually extended from southeast of Dallas through Terrell, Greenville, and Cooper before heading north through Enloe and the newly named Howland to its terminated point at Union Station in Paris. At Paris, the rail line connected with the Santa Fe Railroad, a line offering shipping lanes throughout the United States. Together, the Santa Fe, Texas Midland, and the Texas-Pacific Railroad helped build Paris into a vital shipping center in Northeast Texas. So, in some ways, one could claim that all of Lamar County owes gratitude to John Howland, one of The Mayflower’s indentured servants, along with brother Henry. Both arrived in the New World in servitude but quickly became significant figures in American colonial history. But promoting such a claim might fall into the category of a Texan exaggerating a fact to make it appear larger than reality speaks. When it comes to Howland, Texas—one of those cotton pickin’ towns—on the other hand, no exaggeration is necessary.