History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/James B. Howell
JAMES B. HOWELL
JAMES B. HOWELL was born near Morristown, New Jersey, on the 4th of July, 1816. His father removed to Ohio in 1819, where he became a member of the State Senate and afterwards member of Congress. James was sent to the Miami University from which he graduated in 1837, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1839. In 1841 he came to Keosauqua, Iowa, where he opened a law office and afterwards became a partner of James Hall. In 1846 he was the Whig candidate for district judge but was defeated. In 1845, he, with J. H. Cowles purchased the Des Moines Valley Whig and soon after gave most of his time to the editorial management of that paper which had a large circulation in that part of the State. In 1849 the paper was removed to Keokuk where in time it became the Daily Gate City. Mr. Howell had long been one of the most influential Republican editors in the State and in 1870 he was elected by the General Assembly to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate for the unexpired term of James W. Grimes. At the expiration of the fractional term in 1871, Mr. Howell was appointed by President Grant one of the three judges of the Court of Southern Claims which he held until a short time before his death which occurred on the 17th of June, 1880.