Howard, Horton, 1770-1833

p. 98. The call of the Hicksite Yearly Meeting at Miami.... I consider it in several respects, the best production that I have seen from the Hicksites, and it is signed by Horton Howard, Ebenezer Thomas, Joseph Ridgway, Abraham Cook, Jonathan Wright, and Noah Haines.

vol. 1, p. 272. Core Sound Monthly Meeting, 1798-02-05: Horton Howard, son of Bartholomew and Ruth, of Craven County, married Mary Dew at Clubfoot Creek Meeting House.

vol 1, p. iii. From exposure in early youth, my health became much impaired, and my constitution weakened by sickness; insomuch that from the age of thirteen to twenty-one, I was a constant prey to disease and all its concomitant ills—its pain and anxiety—its gloomy forbodings, and the repulsive prospect of a slow decay. During this period I not only applied for medical aid to the best physicians of my native state, (North Carolina,) but I devoted a portion of my time to the study of medicine, in the hope of finding something to mitigate my sufferings, and also, at the same time, of acquiring the knowledge of a useful and honorable avocation for life.

vol. 4, p. 1166. Alum Creek Monthly Meeting. Horton, Howard, b. 1770-01-22, d. 1833-08-14, bur. Columbus, Ohio; m. Hannah (b. 1774-02-24 d. 1835-08-21, bur. Columbus, Ohio); children: Ann (b. 1811-06-11, d. 1833-08-09, bur. Columbus, Ohio)

vol. 1, pp. 271-272. Core Sound Monthly Meeting, 1791-08-07: Horton Howard, son of Bartholomew and Ruth, of Craven County, married Anna Mace at Clubfoot Creek Meeting House.

p. 139-140. Horton Howard remains a somewhat shadowy figure involved in medical publishing of the first half of the nineteenth century. Between January 1827 and August 1830, he operated as a western agent for publications of Samuel Thomson (1769-1843), a medical practitioner of a healing system based upon herbal medicine, a practice which gained him considerable opposition among the established medical community of the southern and western states. As agent, Howard had published about six thousand copies of Thomson's New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician, of which about four thousand had been sold for $80,000 (or $20 per copy). Thomson complained that he received no "honorable settlement" from Howard, whom he also charged with illegally publishing a series of fifteen lectures on the "Thomsonian system" delivered in 1829 by a rival physician before the Friendly Botanical Society at Cincinnati. Howard operated his publishing business out of both Columbus, Ohio, and also St. Clairsville, Ohio (fifteen miles west of Wheeling, West Virginia). Howard published at least three editions (1827-1829) of Thomson's autobiography, A Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel Thomson (which contains somewhat biased details of their association), 8 plus three editions of his New Guide to Health (1827-1829) and the first two Columbus editions (1829-1839) of Samuel Robinson's A Course of Fifteen Lectures on Medical Botany, Denominated Thomson's New Theory of Medical Practice, against which Thomson fulminated. After being dropped by Thomson in mid-1830, Howard continued using his former employer's material during the 1830s for his own editions of An Improved System of Botanic Medicine, which included a supplement on midwifery.

hdg.: Howard, Horton, 1770-1833; note: printer at Columbus, Ohio; author of medical books; b. in North Carolina; moved to Ohio; receiver of public money in land office of Delaware Land District; Quaker; not to be confused with his son, Horton Jefferson Howard, publisher at St. Clairsville, Ohio

p. 67. A native of North Carolina, Howard had inherited considerable property in slaves. As an act of conscience, he freed his inheritance on the day he reached lawful age. He also became an active member in the Society of Friends and later became a minister. Despite these actions, Howard continued to be charitable toward those who owned slaves and announced his belief that the North should not interfere with the peculiar institution;
p. 68. On January 25, 1827, Thomson and Howard signed articles of agreement. In chem, Thom on authorized Howard-a his western agent in and for the state of Ohio-to administer, sell, and dispose of medicines ecured by his patent; to sell to heads of families and others the right of administering medicines; to appoint and authorize ochers as his subagents; and to print, publish, sell, and dispose of any books and pamphlets copyrighted by Thomson.... According to Thomson's estimate, Howard sold about six thousand copies of New Guide to Health and four thousand rights, grossing between himself and his subagents approximately eighty thousand dollars. But each time Thomson attempted to settle on his share of the profits Howard refused. Exasperated, Thomson revoked Howard,s agency status on August 9, 1830,barely three and one-half years after establishing it.
p. 69. Howard was not undone by the revocation of his agent status. The more he examined medical botany the more convinced he became of its utility; he also concluded that Thomson's system was still in its infancy and "could not so remain." To justify himself before the public, Howard sought out his old friend Dr. Hance, and together they agreed to write a book that would state the facts of the botanic system, explain every improvement, and present to the world "a better system of medicine than had hitherto been offered." In 1832, two years after the revocation of his agency contract, Howard published An Improved System of Botanic Medicine,Founded Upon Correct Physiological Principles.... In the preface of chis two-volume work, he admitted to relying heavily on Dr. Hance in the selection and arrangement of the book.
p. 72. In August 1833, cholera killed Howard and five other family members in the course of nineteen days. The first to die were two children of his daughter Mary and her husband, Harvey Little, editor of the Eclectic and Medical Botanist, the official publication of Howard's improved system of medicine. In desperation, Howard experimented with wheat bran on himself and his youngest daughter, Ann, without the effect he had anticipated. The bran produced profuse diarrhea. Ann died first, then Howard, followed by Little, and then Howard's wife.

Horton’s parents were members of the Society of Friends (also known as Quakers), but they were also slaveholders. The family owned about 26 slaves, according to the 1790 census for Craven County.

Slave-holding was technically contradictory to Quaker beliefs, but freeing one’s slaves was discouraged in North Carolina, with a law actually forbidding it by 1796. As a way of getting around the problem, a Quaker could transfer ownership of his slaves to the Meeting to which he belonged, thus relieving the individual from owning slaves, and the slaves were often freed through colonization in places like Haiti or Liberia.

Horton apparently used this method to free the slaves he had inherited from his father, according to his daughter Sarah:

"Left by his father in possession of slaves, who might have made him wealthy, he freed them all at the age of 21… He left them in the care of the yearly meeting of Friends, who have since sent them to Hayti [sic], I have heard. He said he was much affected the morning he became of age…for he being the eldest had the first choice. After parting with his slaves Carolina was no place for him, and he determined to move to that part of the N.W. Territory now known as the State of Ohio"...

Horton’s third wife was Hannah Hastings, daughter of John and Sarah Hastings. Hannah was born February 24, 1774, in Wilmington, Delaware. Horton and Hannah were married December 5, 1806, at a public meeting of Quakers in Wilmington, Delaware.