Howard, Horton, 1770-1833

Horton Howard was a printer, author, public official, and Quaker minister from North Carolina and Ohio. Howard was born to Bartholomew and Ruth Howard of North Carolina in 1770. Howard's family were enslavers; his parents kept about 26 people in bondage. However, Howard inherited at a young age and he made the decision to free these people (legally transferring them to the yearly meeting to skirt North Carolina's laws against manumission). In 1791 Howard married Anna Mace; she died several years later, and he remarried to Mary Dew in 1798. Mary died in 1804 and two years later Howard married again, this time to Hannah Hastings of Delaware (1774-1833).

About 1800 Howard joined many other North Carolina Quakers in moving to Ohio. He worked as a federal land agent and active in the area's Quaker community, serving as clerk of Ohio Yearly Meeting from 1813 to 1815. During the Hicksite-Orthodox Schism of 1828 Howard became a leading figure among the Hicksites of Ohio and Indiana.

In 1827 Howard became acquainted with herbalist Samuel Thomson, who contracted Thomson as his agent in Ohio. In this capacity Howard administered and sold Thomson's patent medicines and printed and sold his publications. However, the two men fell out over accusations that Howard was not paying Thomson all that was contractually due, and in 1830 Thomson revoked his agent status. Not to be deterred, Howard collaborated with his friend Dr. William Hance to write and publish a two-volume book titled "An Improved System of Botanic Medicine, Founded Upon Correct Physiological Principles" in 1832. However, Howard's success in alternative medicine was cut short in August 1833, when he and 5 other members of his family died of cholera.