"Portrait and Biographical Record of Hunterdon and Warren counties, New Jersey"
Chapman Publishing Company, New York and Chicago, 1898
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H. B. HOWELL occupies the very responsible
position of superintendent of the public
schools of Phillipsburg, Warren County,
and that he is giving entire satisfaction to all concerned needs no other argument than the statement that he has been twice re-elected to the
office. He makes it a point to know what is
transpiring in every department of educational
work, and is thoroughly posted and abreast of the
times in methods and systems being tried in
different portions of the country. While in a
certain sense conservative, he is not averse to
progressive measures, so-called, and has himself
instituted many changes for the better in our
local methods since he assumed the duties of his
position.
Professor Howell comes from one of the representative old Warren County families, having
been born on a farm near this town February 2,
1862. His father, H. B. Howell, was one of the
brave soldiers of the Civil war, one who wore the
blue, and whose life was lost in the defense of his
country. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and
enlisted in a company that went to the conflict
from that state. He died in 1862, the year in
which our subject was born, from fever contracted
during the exposure and privations of army life
in the field. He was an enthusiastic patriot, and
offered himself to his country while still very
young and a student at Lafayette College. He
had married Ellen, daughter of Lawrence Lommasson, and she is still living, aged fifty-six
years.
After graduating from the Phillipsburg high
school, Mr. Howell entered Lafayette College,
and completed his course there in 1886, and in
1889 received the degree of Master of Arts. He
originally was a member of the class of 1881, but
spent several years in Texas, teaching for a few
terms and being variously occupied. Immediately after his graduation from Lafayette
College he was appointed principal of the Phillipsburg high school, and as such he spent the next
four years. In 1890 he was elected superintendent of our public schools. He is one of the county
board of examiners and belongs to the State
Teachers' Association, besides which he finds
sometime to devote to literary or journalistic
work. Under his direct supervision there are
forty teachers, and pupils to the number of fifteen
hundred.
According to the admirable system now in use
in our schools and introduced by Superintendent
Howell, abstract theories are superseded as far as
possible and the children are taught to observe
the phenomena of every-day life, and to make
practical applications of such knowledge. A
lover of literature of the highest type, he endeavors to inculcate the same tastes in those
with whom his influence is maintained. He is a
member of the Knights of Pythias and is connected with Delaware Lodge No. 52, F. & A. M.
March 29, 1887, he married Anna F. Smith and
they have two children, Anna C. and John E.
The father of Mrs. Howell was the late Thomas
Smith, of Belvidere, N. J., and one of her ancestors was Anne Halstead, a heroine of the
Revolutionary war period.
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