My knowledge of my father's (Richard James Howden) ancestry is sketchy. His grandfather, James Howden, was born in County Derry, Fermanah, Ireland, in 1811. In those days the wagons were made by hand and he was a wagon-maker. About 1840, James Howden moved to Ontario, Wentworth County, Canada, where his son William (my father's father), was born in 1850. In 1862, James Howden died leaving twelve year old William to make a living for his mother and sisters and brothers. William Howden hauled material for a sawmill and later he became a framer - a rough carpenter who prepared the material before a raising. A raising was a kind of celebration where all the families gathered together to build a framework for a building, usually a barn. Two men, designated captains, chose sides, each choosing the fastest and most skilled workers. Then the two sides raced to complete their portions of the building - the losers gave the winners a supper. William Howden married and moved to Huron County, Ontario, Canada, where my father, Richard James, was born in November of 1876. Later William Howden moved his family to a small inland village called Kintail, located on Lake Huron, where he ran a butcher business. (My father remembered delivering meat to the customers.)
In 1882 William Howden came to what was then Dakota Territory and settled near Sanborn or Jamestown. The following year he went after his family. They came to Sanborn and lived with relatives while waiting for the railroad to be completed to Cooperstown and for their home to be built. Then they came to Sutton and then settled on a homestead on the bank of Bald Hill Creek in Clearfield Township ten miles west and two miles south of Cooperstown. My father was seven years old then and this homestead was his home the rest of his boyhood except that they built a nice new house, which was the best in the neighborhood.
My father went to a one-room schoolhouse for his first few grades and when he was ready he came to Cooperstown and attended what would now be called high school. When through there he would work summers and in the winter go to Valparaiso, Indiana, to school until his money would run out. When still quite a young man he settled in Carrington, North Dakota, and was elected to the office of Register of Deeds in Foster County. It was here he met my mother - Agnes Everson, whose parents had come from Christiania, Norway, to settle in Montivideo, Minnesota.
My parents were married in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1915, and they lived there for seven years. During this time my father ran a silent motion picture theater and my brother, William Tupper, was born in 1918 and I, Jean Marie, in 1921.
In the spring of 1922, Dick Howden brought his family to North Dakota to his homestead 8 miles west and 2 miles south of Cooperstown - just two miles from his father's homestead where he had grown up. We lived here in the summers and in Cooperstown in the winters until 1925 when we moved to my grandfather's homestead. Here we lived until 1930 when my father was elected County Treasurer of Griggs County and we moved to Cooperstown. He held this office until 1934, and then, having held it two terms he was not eligible for reelection. He then successfully ran for County Auditor of Griggs County and he held this office until his death in January of 1939. My mother remained in Cooperstown until January 1940 when she moved to Bismarck, North Dakota, to become secretary to Mr. G. B. Edmondson, State Purchasing Agent. She held this position until her death in April 1958.
My brother, William Tupper, attended first grade in Cooperstown, rest of the grades in a one-room schoolhouse in Helena Township, and graduated from Cooperstown High School in 1934 and from the School of Pharmacy, North Dakota Agricultural College in June 1940. That same month he married Margaret Knauss of Hannaford, North Dakota. He worked as a pharmacist in Devils Lake, North Dakota and in 1942 purchased the Rexall Drug Store in Cooperstown from P. H. Costello and moved to Cooperstown. In 1957 he purchased the Larson General Store and operated the Howden Store until 1972 when he sold his business and retired. He and Margaret now divide their time between Mesa, Arizona, and Red Willow Lake, and Cooperstown. They have four children:
1. Diane (now Mrs. Dennis Larson and mother of Lori, Greg, and Susie)
2. Richard (Dick)
3. Jeane (now Mrs. Jerry Marshke and mother of Jay, Steve, Ryan and Robin)
4. and William (Bill).
I attended the one-room school in Helena Township for the first four grades, Cooperstown Elementary for rest of grades and graduated from Cooperstown High School in 1939, attended State School of Science in Wahpeton, worked in Bismarck, and later in Washington, D. C. In 1942 I married David E. Evans of Scranton, Pennsylvania. In 1969 my husband retired from the US Army after twenty-eight years of service and we now live in El Paso, Texas, where I am still working for Civil Service. We have two children:
1. Barbara Jean (Bobbi) (now Mrs. Fred Daughtry and mother of Teresa (Terry) and Tommy)
2. and David Richard (Rick).
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 67