Staggs Family History

My ancestors in the United States

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      Aly Ann Howell (1878-1971)

      BIRTH: 21 Oct 1878, Arkansas, USA
      DEATH: 30 Sep 1971, Boone County, Arkansas, USA
      FATHER: John Benton Howell (1840–1920)
      MOTHER: Sarah Jane Glenn (1848–1921)
      SPOUSE: Joseph Henry McFerrin (1876–1969)

      When Aly Ann Howell was born on October 21, 1878, in Arkansas, her father, John, was 38, and her mother, Sarah, was 30. She married Joseph Henry McFerrin on November 17, 1901, in Compton, Arkansas. They had six children in 10 years. She died on September 30, 1971, in Boone, Arkansas, at the age of 92, and was buried there.

      The Life of Aly Ann Howell

      Pioneer Woman • Mother • Christian Matriarch

      Aly Ann Howell was born on October 21, 1878, in Everton, Arkansas, into a family whose story was already marked by hardship, resilience, and movement across the Ozarks. Her parents, John B. Howell and Sarah Jane Glenn, had fled Howell County, Missouri during the Civil War after soldiers and marauding bands swept through the region, burning farms, seizing livestock, and destroying the town of West Plains. The Howells escaped south into Arkansas, settling first in the fertile Crooked Creek Valley, where food and water were plentiful and where they could begin again.

      Aly grew up in a family shaped by both loss and determination. She and her sisters — Anthem, Ida Bell, and Aly — were baptized as young girls at the White Church, a small frontier congregation near what is now the intersection of Highways 7 and 206. The church building is long gone, but the cemetery remains, surrounded by tall prairie grasses, a quiet reminder of the community that shaped her early faith.

      The promise of land drew the Howells once more into the hills. They left the valley and moved up onto the mountain above Erbie, becoming neighbors to the McFerrins — a family whose history would soon intertwine with their own. It was here, on the high ridges above the Buffalo River, that Aly met a tall, quiet young man named Joseph Henry McFerrin.

      Aly was small — barely five feet tall — but lively, capable, and quick‑witted. Joseph Henry was steady, thoughtful, and hardworking. Their personalities complemented each other, and on November 17, 1901, they married and began their life together on the McFerrin homestead.

      The McFerrin children. (L to R) Hester, Vera Ida, and John Bayard. Troy Joe Cephasin front.

      Their first home was a two‑room log cabin Joseph Henry built with his own hands. Life was demanding. Aly cooked over a wood stove, hauled water from the springhouse, and helped clear land for crops. But she met every challenge with energy and skill. Over the years, she and Joseph Henry raised five children: Vera Ophelia, John Bayard, Ida Estelle, Rhoda Hester, and Troy Joe Cephas.

      Aly’s days were filled with the work of survival. Each spring she and the children planted a vast garden; each fall they harvested, canned, dried, and stored food for the long winters. She made lye soap, grated cabbage for sauerkraut, plucked geese and ducks for feather mattresses, knitted socks and gloves, and pieced quilts from scraps of worn‑out clothing. She taught her daughters to sew and cook — skills that later sustained their own families. Vera became a master seamstress, sewing wedding dresses for college students in Oklahoma. Ida worked in garment factories and made coats, suits, and dresses for relatives and neighbors.

      Aly was also known for her hospitality. Sunday afternoons brought children and grandchildren to the farm, where she and Hester served fried chicken, mashed potatoes, pies, and cakes. When the visit ended, Aly insisted everyone leave with a snack — a chicken wing, a biscuit with jelly, or the last slice of pie.

      She had a sharp tongue when needed, but always delivered her opinions with humor and affection. When a great‑grandson from California arrived with long hair covering his face, Aley pulled him close, brushed his hair back, and said, “Hold still a minute. Let Grandma look at your face. I want to remember what you look like.”

      Aley and Joseph McFerrin, June 1959

      Faith was central to her life. Though the family lived far from any church, Aly read her Bible daily, marking passages, folding corners, and tucking handwritten verses between the pages. Traveling to church meant walking or riding horseback for miles, but she went whenever she could. Later, when the Open Door Bible Church established a congregation in Compton, the pastor often visited Aly, claiming he went to cheer her up — but always left feeling cheered himself.

      In her later years, Aly suffered from chronic digestive problems and relied heavily on Milk of Magnesia, tossing each empty cobalt‑blue bottle over the fence into the barnyard until the pile grew into a small blue hill. Family stories claim she once took to her bed for nearly ten years, yet she lived to be 96, outlasting nearly everyone of her generation.

      When age and illness made it difficult to remain on the farm, Aly and Joseph Henry moved to a small house near Compton, and later to Harrison to be closer to medical care. Even then, her independence remained intact. One night, unable to sleep and craving chocolate meringue pie, she rose quietly, baked one from scratch, ate a slice, and went back to bed. When Thelma discovered the pie the next morning and asked why she hadn’t said anything, Aly replied, “Well, at my age, I didn’t think I could wait any longer.”

      Joseph Henry died in 1969. Aly lived five more years, cared for daily by her children and grandchildren. On the morning of September 30, 1974, Thelma found her in bed, softly reciting Psalm 103:

      “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name…”

      Sometime during that quiet prayer, Aly slipped peacefully into eternity.

      She was buried beside Joseph Henry in the Hill Top Cemetery, close to the ridges where she had lived, worked, worshiped, and raised her family. Her life — like the Ozarks themselves — was marked by endurance, faith, and the steady strength of a woman who made a home in the wilderness and filled it with love.

      Legacy of Aly Ann Howell

      In the quiet sweep of the Ozark hills, Aly Ann Howell McFerrin left a legacy woven from the work of her hands and the steadfastness of her spirit. She was not a woman of public titles or grand possessions, yet her influence ran deep — in the quilts she pieced, the gardens she tended, the meals she cooked for generations of family, and the faith she lived out with quiet conviction. She shaped her children and grandchildren not through speeches, but through example: resilience in hardship, generosity in abundance, and a devotion to family that never wavered.

      Her life stretched from the last years of the frontier to the modern age, yet she remained rooted in the values she learned as a girl in the White Church and carried with her to the McFerrin homestead. Even in her final years, when age slowed her body, her mind and spirit remained bright — the same determined woman who once rose in the night to bake a chocolate pie simply because she wanted one.

      When she was laid to rest beside Joseph Henry in Hill Top Cemetery, she returned to the land that had shaped every chapter of her life — the ridges where she worked, the hollows where she raised her children, and the community she helped hold together through faith, labor, and love. Her legacy endures in the stories told around family tables, in the memories of Sunday dinners and warm quilts, and in the generations who still walk the hills she once called home.

      Aly’s life, like Joseph Henry’s, is part of the larger story of the Ozarks — a story of endurance, resourcefulness, and deep family roots. And like the hills themselves, her influence remains steady and enduring, carried forward in the lives of all who descend from her.

      Parents

      FATHER: John Benton Howell (1840–1920)
      MOTHER: Sarah Jane Glenn (1848–1921)

      Married

      Joseph Henry McFerrin (1876–1969) married on 17 Nov 1901 in Newton, Arkansas, USA

      Children

      • Vera Ophelia McFerrin (1902–1984) married Troy Phillips (1901-1997)
      • John Bayard McFerrin (1904–1976) married Gladys Richardson (1905–1990)
      • Ida Estelle McFerrin (1906–1994) married Earnest Edgar (1904–1992)
      • Hester Rhoda McFerrin (1908–1992) married Lex Burge (1905–1979)
      • Troy Joe Cephas McFerrin (1911–2008) married Thelma Bareland (1915–2009)
      • Joseph P McFerrin (1912–?)

      Documents

      • Birth Records
        • Find a Grave > Aly Ann Howell McFerrin; Birth: 21 Oct 1878, Arkansas, USA
      • Wedding records
        • Arkansas, U.S., County Marriages Index, 1837-1957 > Name: Aly Howell; Gender: Female; Marriage Age: 23; Event Type: Marriage; Birth Date: 1878; Marriage License Date: 16 Nov 1901; Marriage Date: 17 Nov 1901; Marriage Place: Newton, Arkansas, USA; Residence Date: 1901; Residence Place: Compton, Newton, Arkansas; Spouse: J H McFerrin; FHL Film Number: 1035374
      • Death records
        • U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 > Name: Aley McFerrin; Social Security Number: 430-19-4692; Birth Date: 21 Oct 1878; Issue year: 1973; Issue State: Arkansas; Last Residence: 72601, Harrison, Boone, Arkansas, USA; Death Date: Sep 1974
        • Find a Grave > Aly Ann Howell McFerrin; Birth: 21 Oct 1878, Arkansas, USA; Death: 30 Sep 1971, Boone County, Arkansas, USA — NOTE: Correct date of death is 30 Sep 1974 (date on headstone and in U.S., Social Security Death Index)
        • Burial: Hilltop Cemetery, Hill Top, Boone County, Arkansas, USA
      • Census Records
        • 1880 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Boone > Harrison > 018 > Name: Aly Howell; Age: 3; Birth Date: Abt 1877; Birthplace: Arkansas; Home in 1880: Harrison, Boone, Arkansas, USA; Dwelling Number: 275; Race: White; Gender: Female; Relation to Head of House: Daughter; Marital Status: Single; Father’s Name: John B. Howell; Father’s Birthplace: Missouri; Mother’s Name: Sarah J. Howell; Mother’s Birthplace: Arkansas; Others: John B. Howell (father, farmer,39), Sara J Howell (mother, 31), Anthun Howell (7), Ida Howell (5)
        • 1900 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > District 0089 > Name: Aly A Howell; Age: 21; Birth Date: Oct 1878; Birthplace: Arkansas, USA; Home in 1900: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas; Sheet Number: 6; Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation: 98; Family Number: 99; Race: White; Gender: Female; Relation to Head of House: Daughter; Marital Status: Single; Father’s Name: John B Howell; Father’s Birthplace: Missouri, USA; Mother’s Name: Sarah J Howell; Mother’s Birthplace: Arkansas, USA; Can Read: Yes; Can Write: Yes; Can Speak English: Yes; Others: John B Howell (father, farmer, 61), Sarah J Howell (mother, 52)
        • 1910 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > District 0102 > Name: Aly McFerrin; Age in 1910: 31; Birth Date: 1879; Birthplace: Arkansas; Home in 1910: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas, USA; Sheet Number: 5a; Race: White; Gender: Female; Relation to Head of House: Wife; Marital Status: Married; Father’s Birthplace: Missouri; Mother’s Birthplace: Arkansas; Native Tongue: English; Able to read: Yes; Able to Write: Yes; Enumeration District Number: 0102; Years Married: 9; Number of Children Born: ; Number of Children Living: 4; Enumerated Year: 1910; Others: Joseph H McFerrin (husband, farmer, 33), Verra McFerrin (7), Bayard McFerrin (5), Ida McFerrin (3), Hester McFerrin (1)
        • 1920 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Osage > District 0105 > Name: Joseph H Mc Ferrin; Age: 43; Birth Year: abt 1877; Birthplace: Arkansas; Home in 1920: Osage, Newton, Arkansas; Street: Jasper Road; House Number: Farm; Residence Date: 1920; Race: White; Gender: Male; Relation to Head of House: Head; Marital Status: Married; Spouse’s Name: Aly A Mc Ferrin; Father’s Birthplace: Alabama; Mother’s Birthplace: Alabama; Able to Speak English: Yes; Occupation: Farmer; Industry: General Farm; Employment Field: Own Account; Home Owned or Rented: Owned; Home Free or Mortgaged: Free; Able to read: Yes; Able to Write: Yes; Others: Aly A Mc Ferrin (41), Vera O Mc Ferrin (17), John B Mc Ferrin (15), Ida E Mc Ferrin, (13), Rhoda H Mc Ferrin (11), Troy J Mc Ferrin (8)
        • 1930 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > District 0021 > Name: Aly A McFerrin; Birth Year: abt 1879; Gender: Female; Race: White; Age in 1930: 51; Birthplace: Arkansas; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Wife; Homemaker?: Yes; Home in 1930: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas, USA; Map of Home: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas; Dwelling Number: 4; Family Number: 4; Age at First Marriage: 22; Attended School: No; Able to Read and Write: Yes; Father’s Birthplace: Missouri; Mother’s Birthplace: Arkansas; Able to Speak English: Yes; Others: Joseph H McFerrin (husband, farmer, 53), Joseph P McFerrin (18), Lex Burge (son-in-law, 24), Hester R Burge (daughter, 21), Milton Mayhu (farm laborer, 19)
        • 1940 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > 51-22 > Name: Aly McFerrin; Age: 60; Estimated Birth Year: abt 1880; Gender: Female; Race: White; Birthplace: Arkansas; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Wife; Home in 1940: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas; Map of Home in 1940: Plumlee,Newton,Arkansas; Inferred Residence in 1935: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas; Residence in 1935: Plumlee; Sheet Number: 5A; Attended School or College: No; Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 8th grade; Weeks Worked in 1939: 0; Income: 0; Income Other Sources: No; Others: Joe McFerrin (husband, 62), Hester Burge (daughter, 31), Lex Burge (son-in-law, 35)
        • 1950 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > 51-22 > Name: Aley A McFerrin; Age: 71; Birth Date: abt 1879; Gender: Female; Race: White; Birth Place: Arkansas; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Wife; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas, USA; Street Name: North East on Highway 43; Dwelling Number: 43; Farm: No; Occupation Category: Unable to Work; Worked Last Week: No; Seeking Work: No; Employment Status: No; Other: Joe McFerrin (husband, farmer, 73)
      • Other

      Relation of Aly Ann Howell to Karen Edgar: great-grandmother

      Page last updated June 8, 2026

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