Stephen Howell 1810-1850

Stephen and Phebe Howell lived first, around 1840, in Orange County, New York, where their first four children were born.[1] They then lived in New Jersey where their next two children were born in 1844 and 1846. By 1850 they lived in the Battle Creek, Michigan area,[2] where David and Delia Howell (brother and his wife) had lived to about 1845. Stephen was a farmer and owned eighty acres of land in Battle Creek.

It appears as though tragedy befell Stephen and his family in 1850, while living in Battle Creek. Stephen, his wife Phebe and their youngest son, Levi, all died within a month of each other in the fall of that year. Furthermore another daughter, Caroline, dies only two years later in New York. No known reason for this apparent calamity is yet known.

Stephen Howell's will was filed in Battle Creek, Michigan October 1, 1850. It was proven October 28, 1850[3] with his brother David W. Howell listed as Petitioner and Executor. The beneficiaries included his children Cecelia, Caroline, David, Phoebe and his nephew, Leander. David was appointed guardian of the surviving minor children who after 1850 could be found living either with or near David and Eliza Howell and their family in Bergen, Genesee county, New York.

No grave site has yet been discovered for Stephen, his wife Phebe or their son Levi in or around Battle Creek, Michigan. Many cemeteries were known to have been moved, most consolidated into Oak Hill Cemetery, the main village burying ground; around the mid 1850's. It is possible that they were part of that reinternment, yet without family in the area their new graves went unmarked.[4]