William Howe appeared in Warrington Township, York County, around 1779, when his name shows up in tax lists. The names of his parents are unknown. Some researchers list William’s father as Abraham Howe who died in 1766 in Menhallen Township, York County. This is a plausible assumption, since William named his eldest son Abraham. The older Abraham left his estate to “all my children”, without naming them. However the evidence seems to rule out William as a son.The Orphans Court records list seven minor children, but there is no William included.1 In addition William’s granddaughter Susanna Howe Humes wrote in 1890 that he was born on October 18, 1735, when Abraham was only fifteen and Abraham’s wife Elizabeth Mummert was not yet born.2 If William was really born in 1735, then he was twenty-five years older than Susanna and he was in his sixties when their last child was born.

Was William English or German? His name could be either one. York County was full of both English and Germans. His township, Warrington, was settled early by English Quakers who established Newberry Friends Meeting House.3  William was not a Quaker. The evidence of his wife’s family suggests that he was German, although Susanna Howe Humes wrote that he was born in England.4

William married Susanna Shoop some time before 1779, when their first child was born. Susanna was born in 1761, probably in York County, the daughter of Andrew Shoup of Warrington Township, York County. In 1790 Andrew died and left a tract of land in Penns Township, Northumberland County to William and Susanna. William was one of the executors of Andrew’s estate.5

William served in the York County militia from 1779 to 1783. He was part of the Fifth Company, First Batallion, and paid a fine of 16 shillings for some infraction, probably for missing drill or guard duty. He continued in the company when it was moved to the Sixth Batallion, and paid further fines. In 1781 he was listed as “infirm” and did not march with the batallion.6

William and Susanna owned 72 acres in York County, where they were taxed for land, two horses and two cows from 1779 through 1795. The property was about a mile north of Rossville, probably on the Old York Road.7 This was far from the largest holding in the township. Mathias Hollepeter, the other executor of Andrew Shoup’s estate, was taxed for 500 acres. By 1783 the township of Warrington had over 1,000 inhabitants. Rossville was a thriving community, with a nearby tannery and eleven mills.8

Land in York County may have become more expensive by the late 1700s. In 1790 William and Susanna moved north to Cumberland County, to a part that later became Perry County. They were probably living on the land inherited from Andrew. He described it as “All my Lands situated in Penns Township in the County of Northumberland Adjoining to the South and East of of Stophel Brunks Land”. Northumberland County had no Penns Township, whereas Cumberland County does. Stophel “Brunt” had 50 acres surveyed for him in Cumberland County in Aug 1755.9 In 1766 Stophel Brunk issued a caveat against a survey of a tract on the north branch of Middle Creek, Cumberland County, alledging that he had a prior warrant.10 All of this suggests that the land was in Cumberland County, probably in present-day Penn Township.

It is possible that William and Susanna moved with their family during the summer of 1790.They were  listed in the 1790 census in Cumberland County  with three males and four females, an accurate count of their family at the time.11, as William Howe.] In the same census they were also listed in Warrington Township, York County, with three males and four females, adjoining Amos Hussey, one of the witnesses of the will of Andrew Shoup.12 The most likely explanation of the two census records is that William and Susanna moved north during that year.13

In 1797 William and his wife sold their 74 acres in York County to Simeon Hutton for 350 pounds. William signed the transaction, while Susanna made her mark.14 They must have journeyed back down the river for this sale.

In 1800 they were living in Buffalo Township, Cumberland County, with ten people in the household.15 Because of township name changes it is hard to certain whether this is the land inherited from Andrew Shoup, but most likely it is further north, in an area that later became Perry County.16 They lived on the north side of the Juniata, on Bucks Valley Road.17 This area had been settled around 1762. There were three early ferries across the Juniata, plus taverns to accommodate travelers.18

By 1810 William and Susanna may have been living with one of their children, as they do not appear in the census.19 William died in 1814 in Buffalo Township.20 Their son Abraham was the administrator. In December 1816 he came into the Cumberland County Orphans Court at Carlisle to produce his account, showing a balance of $1414.44 in his hands, to be distributed according to law.21 The heirs were the widow Susanna and ten children: Abraham, William, John, Edward, Elizabeth married to Henry Frank, Mary married to Joseph McCollum, Susanna married to Thomas Boyd, Ann, Margaret and Esther. Earlier that year the three youngest daughters, Ann, Margaret, and Esther, had come into the same court to request a guardian for their affairs. The court appointed John Holopeter.22

At the time of his death William owned two adjoining tracts of land along the Juniata. Abraham came into Orphans Court in September 1816 and asked the court to make an inquest of the land and whether it could be divided for the heirs, for “separate enjoyment by them”.23 The court did so, and in mid-1817 each of the four brothers came into court to request confirmation on his share. The record sho. Cumberland County, Orphan’s Court Dockets 1815-1825, Vol. 6-7, page 230, image 142, September 10, 1816ws the acreage each one received, with the valuation, and the amount each had to pay yearly to their mother Susanna and their sisters. Strangely enough the four shares were nowhere near equal. Abraham got 104 acres, William 180, John 146, and Edward 88. But these lands, although adjoining, were valued at a range from over $17 per acre to only 77 cents per acre. So William’s share was worth $3189, John’s $1552, Abraham’s $432, and Edward’s only $68.24 Edward’s land fronted on the Juniata, so it would seem to have some value; perhaps his land was poor for farming.

Susanna lived for ten years after William. She wrote her will in November 1818, signed it by mark. In it she left her “household and kitchen furniture, my bed and my cow” to be divided among her three daughters Anna, Margaret and Esther.25 The interest due for her for her dower (one-third share of William’s estate), which her four sons had been paying to her, she left to them. Abraham and William were to be the executors. Several years later she added a bequest. Her son William and a man named George Frank came before the county register to depose that they were at the house of Susanna on the preceding December 18, during her last sickness, when she said that she wanted her son Edward to have her grey mare and the bell cow “for his trouble”.26 The will was probated on January 19, 1824.

She is buried with William in an old graveyard known as the Freeland-Long Graveyard.27 It lies in present-day Howe Township, off Red Hill Road and Gypsy Hollow Road, and close to Howe Run.28 According to Harry Focht, dean of the Perry County Historians, their house was nearby, further up the valley on Bucks Valley Road.29

In 1830 the four sons adjoin each other in the census, all in Buffalo Township. This would not last. Edward moved his family to Ohio before 1832, and the other sons and daughters gradually moved away.

(See the next post for more information on the next generation.)