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Howell County, Missouri (view source)
Revision as of 17:13, February 20, 2021
, 17:13, February 20, 2021Added to page
'''Howell County''' is a county located in the Ozark Mountains of southern [[Missouri]]. It had a population of 40,400 at the 2010 census. One of the larger counties in the Missouri Ozarks, by both land area and population, it was formally organized on March 2, 1851, and named for Josiah Howell, a local notable and a member of one of the first families to settle in the region. [[West Plains, Missouri|West Plains]] is the county seat and the largest city.
'''Howell County''' is a county located in the Ozark Mountains of southern [[Missouri]]. It had a population of 40,400 at the 2010 census. One of the larger counties in the Missouri Ozarks, by both land area and population, it was formally organized on March 2, 1857, and named for Josiah Howell, a local notable and a member of one of the first families to settle in the region. [[West Plains, Missouri|West Plains]] is the county seat and the largest city.
==History==
The area that would become Howell County was first inhabited by a number of Indian tribes, including many members of the [[Osage]] nation. They were drawn by the fertile prairies in this part of the Ozarks, to which they occasionally added by the burning of trees and other vegetation.
The first American pioneers to settle in the region had begun to trickle in by the late 1830s, also attracted to the prairies with their potential for livestock grazing. Among the most important of these was the Howell family from [[Tennessee]], whose leader, Josiah, purchased a plot of land near the center of what is now West Plains. One of his sons, Thomas Jefferson Howell, would later represent Oregon County (to which most of the area was still attached at that time) in the Missouri legislature, and the family as a whole was prominent enough for many nearby landmarks to bear their name (such as Howell Spring, Howell Valley, etc.). It was natural, then, that when the legislature organized this part of the state as a new county in 1857, it would be named for the family: specifically for Josiah, still regarded as the family patriarch.<ref>https://collections.shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/C2366/howell-county</ref>
At the time of the 1860 federal census, Howell County had a population of a little over 3,000, and West Plains had already come into existence as a flourishing farming community and the permanent county seat. It was hit especially hard, though, by the subsequent [[Civil War]]; no significant battles were fought within the county, but there was constant [[guerrilla warfare]], and West Plains was mostly burned to the ground. By 1865, over 90% of the original population had fled. The immediate post-war era saw a slow rebuilding, but this was soon accelerated by the arrival of the railroads in the 1880s, creating a boom for agriculture and timber harvesting and making West Plains a significant rail hub. The county's population soared from only about 4,200 in 1870 to almost 22,000 in 1900.
==Geography==
==Geography==