Staggs Family History

My ancestors in the United States

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      John Benton Howell (1840-1920)

      BIRTH: 11 Jan 1840, West Plains, Howell County, Missouri, USA
      DEATH: 26 JUL 1920, Newton County, Arkansas, USA
      FATHER: Josephus Madison Howell (1811–1889)
      MOTHER: Eliza Jane Parrock Eubank (1818–1866)
      SPOUSE: Sarah Jane Glenn (1848–1921)

      When John Benton Howell was born on January 11, 1840, in West Plains, Missouri, his father, Josephus, was 29 and his mother, Eliza, was 21. He married Sarah Jane Glenn on October 8, 1871. They had three children during their marriage. He died on July 26, 1920, in Newton, Arkansas, having lived a long life of 80 years, and was buried there.

      The Life of John Benton Howell

      A Pioneer of the Ozarks, a Soldier of the Border War, and the Father of a Lasting Line

      John Benton Howell was born on 11 January 1840 in West Plains, Howell County, Missouri, a frontier settlement carved out of dense timber and rocky ridges. His parents, Josephus Madison Howell of Tennessee and Eliza Eubank of Kentucky, were among the early families who pushed westward into the Ozarks. Their home stood in the region known as Howell Valley, named for John’s grandfather, Josiah Howell, one of the earliest settlers whose name would later be given to the county itself.

      John grew up in a world of hard work and close family ties. The 1860 census shows him at age twenty, living with his parents and siblings, working as a farm hand, and attending school when he could. The Howells were not wealthy, but they were rooted — a family of farmers, hunters, and timber workers who knew every bend of the creeks and every ridge of the hills.

      The Civil War comes to the Ozarks

      When the Civil War erupted in 1861, the Ozarks became one of the most violent border regions in the nation. Missouri was torn between Union and Confederate sympathies, and Howell County — lying directly on the fault line — suffered terribly. Guerrilla bands, Union patrols, and Confederate raiders swept through the countryside. West Plains was burned, farms were seized, and families fled for their lives.

      John was twenty‑one when the war began. Like many young men of the Missouri–Arkansas border, he entered Confederate service through a Missouri cavalry unit, later documented in his Arkansas Confederate Pension application (1901). His pension record identifies him as a member of Company F, a Missouri cavalry regiment associated with the Boone region, a mounted unit typical of the Ozark borderlands. These companies were small, fast‑moving, and constantly engaged in scouting, escorting supply trains, and defending isolated settlements.

      Mounted service in the Ozarks was harsh and unpredictable. Soldiers fought skirmishes rather than grand battles, endured long rides through rugged terrain, and lived with the constant threat of ambush. John’s 1911 Confederate Veteran Questionnaire confirms his service and his residence in Arkansas after the war, placing him among the thousands of border soldiers who returned home to rebuild their lives in a land scarred by conflict.

      During the war, John’s parents and younger siblings fled south into Arkansas, escaping the destruction of West Plains. They settled in the Crooked Creek valley, near what would later become Harrison, Arkansas — a fertile refuge for displaced Ozark families.

      Marriage, Famly, and the Ozark Homestead

      After the war, John married Sarah Jane Glenn on October 8, 1871, beginning a partnership that would last nearly fifty years. The couple first appears together in the 1870s and 1880s in Boone County, Arkansas, raising their children in the rolling hills between Harrison and the Newton County line.

      Their children included: Anthem E. Howell (1873–1966), Ida Belle Howell (1875–1937), and Aly Ann Howell (1878–1974).

      By 1880, the family was living in Harrison Township, where John farmed and Sarah kept the household. Their daughter Aley would later recall attending the White Church near present‑day Highway 7 and 206, where she and her sisters were baptized as young girls.

      In 1900, John and Sarah were living in Plumlee, Newton County, owning their home free of mortgage. Their daughter Aley, age 21, still lived with them. John worked as a farmer, and despite limited schooling in his youth, the census records show he could read and write at that time.

      In 1909, at age sixty‑nine, John secured a 40‑acre homestead patent in Newton County under the Homestead Act of 1862. This land — the SE¼ of the SW¼ of Section 35, Township 17N, Range 22W — lay in the heart of the Howell–McFerrin country. It was the culmination of decades of labor, a permanent claim to the land he had farmed since the end of the war.

      Final Years

      By 1910, John was seventy years old, living in Plumlee with Sarah, listed as living on “own income,” a sign that his land and pension supported him in old age. He identified himself as a Confederate veteran, and his parents’ birthplaces — Tennessee and Kentucky — matched the family history he had carried all his life.

      John Benton Howell died on 26 July 1920 in Compton, Newton County, Arkansas, at the age of eighty. He was buried in McFerrin Cemetery, the resting place of many members of the intertwined Howell and McFerrin families.

      Legacy of John Benton Howell

      The legacy of John Benton Howell is written in the hills and hollows of the Ozarks. Born in a frontier cabin in Missouri, shaped by the violence of the Civil War, and tempered by the hardships of pioneer farming, he lived a life of endurance, quiet strength, and deep family loyalty.

      He carried his family through war, displacement, and rebuilding. He carved a homestead out of the rocky soil of Newton County. He raised children who would become the ancestors of generations still living in the Ozarks today. Through his daughter Aley Ann Howell, who lived to the remarkable age of ninety‑six, his stories, values, and resilience passed into the McFerrin line.

      John’s life reflects the story of the Ozarks themselves — rugged, persistent, rooted in the land, and bound by family. His legacy endures not only in records and land patents, but in the lives of his descendants who still remember the man who helped shape their family’s place in the world.

      Parents

      FATHER: Josephus Madison Howell (1811–1889)
      MOTHER: Eliza Jane Parrock Eubank (1818–1866)

      Married

      Sarah Jane Glenn (1848–1921) on 8 Oct 1871 in Boone, Arkansas, USA

      Children

      Documents

      • Birth Records
        • Find a Grave > Birth: 11 Jan 1840, West Plains, Howell County, Missouri, USA
      • Wedding records
        • Arkansas, U.S., County Marriages Index, 1837-1957 > Name: John B Howell; Gender: Male; Marriage Age: 29; Event Type: Marriage; Birth Date: 1842; Marriage Date: 8 Oct 1871; Marriage Place: Boone, Arkansas, USA; Residence Date: 1871; Residence Place: Boone, Arkansas; Spouse: Sarah Glenn; FHL Film Number: 1035449
      • Death records
        • U.S., Veterans’ Gravesites, ca. 1775-2019 > Name: John Benton Howell; Death Age: 80; Birth Date: 11 Jan 1840; Death Date: 26 Jul 1920; Interment Place: Arkansas, USA; Cemetery Address: Compton, AR 72624; Cemetery: McFerrin Cemetery; Notes: Confederate States Army
        • Find a Grave > Birth: 11 Jan 1840, West Plains, Howell County, Missouri, USA; Death: 26 Jul 1920 (aged 80), Newton County, Arkansas, USA
        • Burial: McFerrin Cemetery, Newton County, Arkansas, USA
      • Military
        • Arkansas, U.S., Confederate Veteran Records, 1861-1956 > Name: John Benton Howell; Record Type: Application; Birth Date: 11 Jan 1840; Birth Place: West Plain, Howell, Missouri; Relation to Head: Applicant; Military Enlistment Place: USA; Military Discharge Place: USA; Father: Josephus Howell; Mother: Eliza Hubanks; Description: Confederate Questionnaire, 1911
        • Arkansas, U.S., Confederate Pension Records, 1891-1935 > Name: John B. Howell; Residence Location: Boone, Arkansas; State Served From: Missouri; Division: Cavalry; Company: F; Regiment: Boone; Vet Application Year: 1901; Comments: approved
      • Census Records
        • 1850 United States Federal Census > Missouri > Oregon > District 65 > Name: John B Howell; Gender: Male; Race: White; Residence Age: 11; Birth Date: abt 1839; Birthplace: Missouri; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: District 65, Oregon, Missouri, USA; Line Number: 12; Dwelling Number: 207; Family Number: 207; Inferred Father: Joseph M Howell; Inferred Mother: Eliza J Howell; Household members: Joseph M Howell (farmer, 40), Eliza J Howell (31), John B Howell (11), Andrew W Howell (9), Thomas J Howell (7), Sarah J Howell (5), James KY (1)
        • 1860 United States Federal Census > Missouri > Howell > Name: John B Howell; Age: 20; Birth Year: abt 1840; Gender: Male; Race: White; Birth Place: Missouri; Home in 1860: Howell, Howell, Missouri; Post Office: West Plains; Dwelling Number: 24; Family Number: 24; Occupation: Farm Hand; Attended School: Yes; Cannot Read, Write: Yes; Inferred Father: J M Howell; Inferred Mother: Eliza J Howell; Household members: J M Howell (42), Eliza J Howell (41), John B Howell (20), Andrew W Howell (14), Thomas J Howell (16), Sarah J Howell (24), James H Howell (11), Cyntha A Howell (10), Frances E Howell (1)
        • 1870 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Boone > Prairie > Name: John B Howell; Age in 1870: 30; Birth Date: abt 1840; Birthplace: Missouri; Dwelling Number: 92; Home in 1870: Prairie, Boone, Arkansas; Race: White; Gender: Male; Post Office: Rolling Prairie; Occupation: Farmer; Male Citizen Over 21: Yes; Inferred Father: Josephus Howell; Household members: Josephus Howell (59), Ellen Howell (36), John B Howell (30), Jas K Howell (20), Jno Mc Brooks (17), Cyntha Brooks (14), David R Brooks (12), Kizzy P Brooks (10)
        • 1880 United States Federal Census Page 2 > Arkansas > Boone > Harrison > 018 > Name: John B. Howell; Age: 39; Birth Date: Abt 1841; Birthplace: Missouri; Home in 1880: Harrison, Boone, Arkansas, USA; Dwelling Number: 275; Race: White; Gender: Male; Relation to Head of House: Self (Head); Marital Status: Married; Spouse’s Name: Sarah J. Howell; Father’s Birthplace: Tennessee; Mother’s Birthplace: Kentucky; Occupation: Farmer; Household members: Sarah J. Howell (31), Anthun Howell (7), Ida Howell (5), Aly Howell (3), John B. Howell (39)
        • 1900 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > District 0089 > Name: John B Howell; Age: 61; Birth Date: Jan 1840; Birthplace: Missouri, USA; Home in 1900: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas; Sheet Number: 6; Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation: 98; Family Number: 99; Race: White; Gender: Male; Relation to Head of House: Head; Marital Status: Married; Spouse’s Name: Sarah J Howell; Marriage Year: 1871; Years Married: 29; Father’s Birthplace: Tennessee, USA; Mother’s Birthplace: Kentucky, USA; Occupation: Farmer; Months Not Employed: 6; Can Read: Yes; Can Write: Yes; Can Speak English: Yes; House Owned or Rented: Own; Home Free or Mortgaged: Free; Farm or House: House; Household members: John B Howell (61), Sarah J Howell (52), Aly A Howell (21)
        • 1910 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > District 0102 > Name: John B Howell; Age in 1910: 70; Birth Date: 1840; Birthplace: Missouri; Home in 1910: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas, USA; Sheet Number: 5a; Race: White; Gender: Male; Relation to Head of House: Head; Marital Status: Married; Father’s Birthplace: Tennessee; Mother’s Birthplace: Kentucky; Native Tongue: English; Occupation: Own Income; Home Owned or Rented: Own; Home Free or Mortgaged: Free; Farm or House: House; Able to read: No; Able to Write: No; Enumeration District Number: 0102; Years Married: 39; Survivor of Union or Confederate Army or Navy: Ca; Enumerated Year: 1910; Household members: John B Howell (70), Sarah J Howell (62)
        • 1920 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Osage > District 0105 > Name: John B Howell; Age: 79; Birth Year: abt 1841; Birthplace: Missouri; Home in 1920: Osage, Newton, Arkansas; Street: Coupton and Casper Road; House Number: Farm; Residence Date: 1920; Race: White; Gender: Male; Relation to Head of House: Head; Marital Status: Married; Spouse’s Name: Sarah J Howell; Father’s Birthplace: Kentucky; Mother’s Birthplace: Kentucky; Able to Speak English: Yes; Home Owned or Rented: Owned; Home Free or Mortgaged: Free; Able to read: Yes; Able to Write: Yes; Household members: John B Howell (79), Sarah J Howell (71)
      • Other

      Relation of John Benton Howell to Karen Edgar: 2nd great-grandfather

      Page last updated June 15, 2026

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