James B. Howell

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James Bruen Howell
United States Senator
from Iowa
In office
January 18, 1870 – March 3, 1871
Preceded byJames W. Grimes
Succeeded byGeorge G. Wright
Personal details
Born(1816-07-04)July 4, 1816
Morristown, New Jersey
DiedJune 17, 1880(1880-06-17) (aged 63)
Keokuk, Iowa
Political partyRepublican
Signature

James Bruen Howell (July 4, 1816 - June 17, 1880) was an American lawyer, newspaper editor, and politician. The son of a

United States senator from Iowa
for slightly over one year.

Biography

Early years

James B. Howell was born July 4, 1816, near

Ohio State Senate in 1830 and to U.S. Congress as a member of the anti-Jacksonian National Republican Party in 1836.[1]

James Howell graduated from Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio, in 1837.[1] Following graduation Howell studied law for two years under Judge Hoeking H. Hunter of Lancaster, Ohio, gaining admission to the Ohio state bar in 1839.[1] Following his admission to the bar, Howell opened a law practice in his hometown of Newark.[1]

Troubled by ill health, in 1841 Howell decided to move to a more satisfactory locale.[1] He settled upon the tiny town of Keosauqua in Van Buren County in the territory of Iowa, where he opened a new legal office and began to rebuild a legal practice.[1]

Political career

Soon after arriving in Iowa, Howell became actively involved in the Whig Party, one of the two major American political parties of the day.[1] His political interests led him to purchase an ailing newspaper, the Des Moines Valley Whig, the operation of which soon came to consume his interest.[1] Howell subsequently gave up law to dedicate himself to full-time editorship of his partisan newspaper.[1]

At the end of 1846 Iowa was admitted to the United States and a period of protracted growth followed. In 1849 Howell moved with his newspaper to the booming Iowa town of

Know-Nothingism.[1]

As was the case with many Whigs, Howell shifted his political allegiance to the new Republican Party during the middle years of the 1850s.[1] He was a signer of the convention call to establish the Republican Party in Iowa and a delegate from the state to the 1856 Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia. Howell was himself a frequent, albeit unsuccessful, Republican candidate for state and national office in the period.[1]

Following the national Republican victory of 1860, Howell appointed as

political position. He served in that role from 1861 to 1866. An accident which crippled him for life left Howell unfit for enlistment in the Union cause during the American Civil War, although he remained a bitter opponent of the Southern rebellion.[1]

In 1870, the

Ulysses Grant in 1871 to adjust claims for stores and supplies and served until 1880.[1]

Death and legacy

Howell died June 17, 1880, in Keokuk at the age of 63. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "James B. Howell," National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Volume 9. New York: James T. White and Company, 1899; pg. 450.
  2. ^ Dan Elbert Clark, "History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa." Iowa City, IA: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1912; pp. 143-49.

External links

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U.S. Senate
Preceded by
James Harlan
 		Succeeded by
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