Scope and Content Note
The papers of Barnett Allen Howard (born 1827) span the years 1885-1949 and consist of his memoirs written circa 1900, genealogical material, legal documents, and printed matter. The memoirs document Howard's boyhood on a farm near Paris, Tennessee; his unsuccessful attempts to become wealthy in the California gold rush; his return from California by way of Panama, Cuba, New Orleans, and the Mississippi River; his sympathy with the Union cause during the Civil War, resulting in a move with his wife and family to Du Quoin, Illinois; and his farming, trading, and preaching in Illinois, Mayfield, Kentucky, Fresno, California, and Weatherford, Texas. Topics include Howard's membership in the Prohibition Party; his numerous public debates on religious dogma; and his accounts of enslaved African Americans and freedmen.