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Andrew James Howard

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Birth	:	19 May 1888 Greenville County, South Carolina, USA
Death	:	9 Feb 1931 Highland, Greenville County, South Carolina, USA
Burial	:	Highland Baptist Church Cemetery, Taylors, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate	:	35.0863991, -82.3233032
Description	:	Andrew's family was from the Tigerville area of north Greenville District, SC, but the first record I can find of Andrew he was living with his parents at Spartan Mill in 1905 on the Spartanburg City Directory, he was 17 and working in the textile mill; I have not been able to find Andrew or his mother Angeline on the 1900 census. His parents split up about 1897 when his father Wilburn Howard ran off to TN with the recently widowed Emma Gosnell-Gosnell where he reportedly got a job as a security guard at a prison & Emma worked... Read More	Andrew's family was from the Tigerville area of north Greenville District, SC, but the first record I can find of Andrew he was living with his parents at Spartan Mill in 1905 on the Spartanburg City Directory, he was 17 and working in the textile mill; I have not been able to find Andrew or his mother Angeline on the 1900 census. His parents split up about 1897 when his father Wilburn Howard ran off to TN with the recently widowed Emma Gosnell-Gosnell where he reportedly got a job as a security guard at a prison & Emma worked in the prison laundry, they had one son together in Tennessee named James Wilburn "Will" Gosnell born 1899. Andrew's father Wilburn evidently returned to his wife in SC by 1902-3 to live at Spartan Mills in Spartanburg with Angeline & their youngest son Andrew. Wilburn & Angeline Howard are listed in Spartanburg City Directories from 1903 thru 1905, Wilburn was a State Constable, Andrew & later Letha Holcomb-Howard were listed at their address on 21 Bomar Ave, which is near Arkwright Mill. Neither Andrew nor his parents were listed in Spartanburg on the 1908 directory. In 1907 and 1909 both Andrew & Letha were listed on the Greenville City Directories living with his parents but not always as married, in 1909 Letha was listed by his parents as "Miss Letha Holcomb" at their Woodside Mill address. In 1910 Andrew was listed on two census's as married & living with both Letha Holcomb's family in Spartanburg and with his parents in Greenville. Letha and Andrew were listed together on the 1911 and 1913 Spartanburg City directories and she had a baby daughter born in 1912, then she doesn't appear on records again until the 1920 census when she's listed with her parents sans Andrew as a widow. There is no way of knowing if or when Andrew & Letha were publicly married, there were no SC birth, marriage or death records before 1912-13 when the federal government forced all states to start keeping them; in Spartanburg, the first recorded marriages are in 1913. My great-aunt told me of a typical poor person's wedding that took place in her elementary school one-room classroom in Campobello when her teacher stopped his class to marry a young couple who walked in off the street, he married them in front of the class then resumed teaching. The issue of marriage to Letha is also brought up looking at the 1930 census where Andrew said he had only been married for the first time at age 29, that would've been about 1917. But this is obviously not true, he had already lived with Letha for many years. His married life is a study of inconsistencies, or else they were never married. There is a 15 Feb 1916 marriage recorded in Greenville between an Andrew Howard and a Cora Jones, they are listed on the 1917 and 1921 Greenville city directories together. This might be Andrew because in June 1917 Andrew was at Woodside Mill in Greenville on his WWI draft card, it said he was married but had no dependents, a wife's name was not listed so we can't be sure who she was; Andrew was described as tall & slender with brown eyes and light hair. By the 1920 census, Letha & her 7 yr old daughter Gaynelle were living at Spartan Mills in Spartanburg with her parents, and they told the censustaker that Letha was a widow; she was going by the name Howard for the rest of her life, as did Gaynelle. I cannot find Andrew listed on the 1920 census, I wonder if he had gone to live with his widowed mother near Tigerville. His mother was living next to his oldest brother Rev Albery Howard and the census said his father Wilbury Howard was there, but his father had died suddenly in 1916 of blood poisoning from a shaving cut; I suspect this man was actually Andrew, not his father. It's possible his 2nd marriage was ending now because there is a marriage record of a Cora Howard in Greenville in 1922 to a Walter Gregory who was evidently not a local man. By 1930, Andrew was with his last wife Bertie/Birdie Davis, daughter of Edward Christopher "Ed" Davis & Florence Elizabeth Hitt Davis, he was living with her family at Woodside Mill & they had one daughter Ruthie M Howard 3 mos old, he was a section hand in the mill listed as A James Howard age 37. (I cannot find Letha or Gaynelle in 1930. Strangely enough, Letha's daughter Gaynelle told the censustaker in 1940 in Sptbg that her father Andrew was alive & living in their household, but she failed to provide full work details for him as she did for herself and her mother; I wonder if Letha or Gaynelle knew Andrew had been dead for nine years.) When Andrew died in 1931 of a lung ailment, he was not living in the Woodside Mill town, he was on the family farm in Highland TWP with his widowed mother and brother. He was 42 yrs old. It's possible Andrew left the mills for clean country air because he was becoming progressively sicker. Andrew had been working in the early 1900 textile mills on every record that lists his occupation from age 17 on (except the directory in 1921 with Cora which may not be him), when he died the doctor listed double lobar pneumonia as the cause of death, but since he was only 42 I suspect it was what we came to call "brown lung disease", meaning his lungs became damaged from cotton dust. Until the mid-1900's, the textile mills were not ventilated and the cotton dust was a health hazard. The powerful textile mill owners were putting a lot of pressure on the medical establishment to keep all mention of work-related lung ailments out of their reports, so doctors often listed tuberculosis or pneumonia as the main cause of death in textile workers when it was actually a secondary cause; Letha Holcombe's father William succumbed to lung disease in 1921. It wasn't until later that the term brown-lung-disease was coined by coroners to describe the brown color of the lung lining of textile workers, and the medical establishment started a campaign to shame the textile mill owners into eliminating the cotton dust inside their mills with ventilation. Today we would call it COPD, an all-purpose term that covers brown lung, black lung and tobacco-related lung disease as well as many other causes from other pollutions. Once COPD starts, it gets progressively worse, there is no stopping it and no cure. If this is what Andrew died from, it's likely Andrew suffered from progressively worsening lung problems for years before he finally succumbed. In the photo of Birdie and Andrew that Birdie's grandson provided, Andrew looks crooked, like one shoulder is higher than the other, it may be possible Andrew did not walk evenly. He may have had polio as a child, or had a crooked back. This photo may be a composite of two individual photos because his grandson also had another photo of Birdie that looks exactly like this pose with the same clothes. I cannot find a marriage record for Andrew & Birdie, but I have no doubt they were husband and wife when he died. --Jeni Revised 2/2018

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Andrew James Howard's memorial?
Andrew James Howard's memorial is located at: Highland Baptist Church Cemetery, Taylors, Greenville County, USA.
When did Andrew James Howard death?
Andrew James Howard death on 9 Feb 1931 in Highland, Greenville County, South Carolina, USA
Where are the coordinates of the Andrew James Howard's memorial?
Latitude: 35.0863991
Longitude: -82.3233032

Family Members:

Parent

Chief Wilburn D. Howard

(1858 - 1916)

Angeline Harrison Howard

(1860 - 1946)

Spouse

Siblings

Rev Albary Thomas Howard

(1878 - 1971)

Lou Emma Howard Lindsey

(1881 - 1958)

Leeanner Howard Christopher

(1883 - 1963)

Children

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Highland Baptist Church Cemetery
Taylors, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0863991, -82.3233032

2. New Salem Baptist Church Cemetery
Tigerville, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0815887, -82.3394928

3. Tyger Baptist Church Cemetery
Tigerville, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0772018, -82.3544006

4. Camp Creek Baptist Church Cemetery
Taylors, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0544014, -82.3293991

5. Hopewell Baptist Church Cemetery
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.1204510, -82.3286080

6. David Jackson Park
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0530400, -82.3122500

7. Robertson Family Cemetery
Glassy, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.1144590, -82.3487540

8. Crain Burying Ground
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0560110, -82.2986790

9. Ebenezer Welcome Baptist Church Cemetery
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0957985, -82.2797012

10. Tigerville Baptist Church Cemetery
Tigerville, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0715450, -82.3647510

11. Glassy Mountain Baptist Church Cemetery
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.1218987, -82.3091965

12. Sudduth Family Cemetery
Greer, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0742240, -82.2795510

13. Glassy Mountain Church of God Cemetery
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.1155777, -82.3543320

14. Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Cemetery
Glassy, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.1157010, -82.3544010

15. Pleasant Hill Baptist Church Cemetery
Greer, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0632286, -82.2825546

16. Highland Church Of God Of Prophecy Cemetery
Highland, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0806600, -82.2670700

17. Pennington Family Cemetery
Greer, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0415878, -82.2891617

18. Fews Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery
Greer, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0358009, -82.3019028

19. Few Family Cemetery
Greer, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0306282, -82.3128738

20. Blue Ridge Baptist Church Cemetery
Greer, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0366300, -82.2860160

21. Mountain Hill Baptist Church Cemetery
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.1464005, -82.3311005

22. Lister Family Cemetery
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0982560, -82.2494000

23. Mountain View Methodist Church Cemetery
Taylors, Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0312805, -82.3572693

24. Liberty United Methodist Church Cemetery
Greenville County, USA
Coordinate: 35.0861015, -82.2478027