After Hattie, Bryon Howell is the second most important character in the story.
To review… Byron is Hattie’s uncle, her father Hannibal’s brother. Byron enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 with his brothers Hannibal and Tappan. In real life, Bryon was discharged for medical reasons in April 1862. He is the only brother to survive the war. However, in the story, Byron is not discharged until after The Battle of Antietam in September 1862. For the purposes of the story, I needed to keep Byron in the war longer so he’d have war stories to tell Hattie.
I was fortunate early in my research to run across Brad Thome through Ancestry.com. Brad is a 3rd great-grandson of Byron Howell (I’m a 3rd great-grandson of Hannibal). Brad and I are 4th cousins (we share 4th great-grandparents). Brad sent me a short biography of Byron written by his grandfather. His grandfather was able to amass a great deal of background information about Byron that proved very useful. Perhaps the most important tidbit of information was that the Howell brothers had a painting business before the war. They painted signs and carriages. This fact is confirmed by census data from 1860 indicating that Hannibal listed his occupation as Painter. This bit of knowledge opened the door to a major theme in the book, Hattie’s desire to be an artist like her father.
Research informs the story
So, here I’ve taken a fact: Hannibal was a painter ➛ extended the idea ➛ he is an artist at heart ➛ and then embellished it ➛ Hattie wants to be an artist like him for the purposes of storytelling. Her desire to become an artist is one of two facets of her quest. The second, of course, is to discover more about her father’s death.
More information from the biography that made it into the story:
- Byron was in Columbia Hospital in Washington, DC. due to his illness
- He was bedridden for 2.5 years and suffered life-long health problems.
- He was given Calomel in the hospital, which contained mercury, damaging his health further (he lost all his teeth.)
- He worked as a registered agent helping veterans, and widows get pensions.
- He had a successful business as a contractor during Recontruction, rebuilding the South.
- His projects included dredging harbors and building bridges.
- He traveled and lived in many areas of the South. West Virginia was one location.
- He corresponded with his younger brother Milo about joining him in his business. See below.
More about Byron
Byron married Helen Clark (Ella) in February 1861 in Groton, New York. They had nine children. He traveled extensively even though he had significant lifelong health problems. The family often followed him, relocating to the area where a project was taking place. At one point, he spent two years in Denver. In addition to his business during Recontruction, he owned a newspaper in West Virginia. He died in January 1915 at age 74 while on a business trip to New York State.
