Judge George A. Howard, II (Jr.) was the eldest son George A. Howard and Alice Thurston Clark. His mother was from Carolina County, VA and his father from Anne Arundel County, MD. His parents migrated to Edgecombe County, NC in the late 1820's, where George II was born. The Howards family would became quite prominent, and there would be four George Howards in the succeeding generations.

George Howard, Jr. was a prominent attorney, a judge of Superior Court (1859-1865), a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1868 and 1880, publisher of the Tarboro Southerner, president of the Pamlico Banking & Insurance Company, president of the Tarboro Land & Trust Company, and a cotton mill director.

George and Anna Ragland Stamps met before the Civil War and he courted her until their marriage in 1861 when he was 32 and she just 19 years old. Anna resided with her parents in Caswell County, NC as the Civil War raged, and their first 4 of 6 children were born there. They corresponded during the War as Howard travelled frequently because of his duties as a judge and businessman. Judge George Howard had some harrowing moments during the Civil War, but fared better than he had expected. Two days after the Potters Raid in Tarboro, he quickly wrote to his wife, "the Yankees have been here. I left and kept about an hour ahead. . . . No damage done to us. They only took one horse and 6 or 700 segars (cigars). The Negroes behaved well--even Jane was faithful, not only in staying, but in making such representations that they did not trouble the hotel. Only two came into the house, and they took dinner and left."

Judge George Howard is credited with purchasing and remodeling the historic "Cotton House" on East Church Street in 1868, a house built by Spencer Cotton ca. 1829. In 1890, he built an elaborate Queen Anne structure around the corner on St. Patrick Street, which stills stands today as the historic "Howard-Holderness" House, notable for its turrent and stained glass windows.

The George Howard Papers (1831-1937) Manuscript Collection is housed in the Special Collections of Joyner Library, East Carolina University, in Greenville, NC. In some of the correspondence from the summer of 1863, Howard wrote several letters that discuss the Civil War and its effects on the people of eastern North Carolina. Howard discusses the demoralization of area people (May 21, 1863), rising inflation and the naval blockade's effects on business (May 26, 1863), fears of a Union raid (July 5, 9, 1863), and an accident involving Confederate troops who were being transported to Goldsboro, N.C., by wagon (July 9, 1863).

Howard's attempts to sell slaves are mentioned (July 12, 14, 1863), as are suspicions that a pregnant slave suffered a drug induced miscarriage (July 12, 1863), and his fears that a Union raid would result in the loss of his slaves (July 15, 1863). Other letters discuss a Federal raid on Tarboro and Rocky Mount, N.C., the destruction of property, the good behavior of the slaves, and fears for the safety of family members serving in the military (July 15-22, 1863).

Post-war correspondence discusses the murder trial of John Tayler and Jim Knight (Sept. 14, 1867); a black man bringing a forged order to Howard (Aug. 15, 1871); business undertakings of Howard (1880-1907); and President Grover Cleveland and the gold-silver parity question, and the inability of Cleveland to solve the problem (Feb. 16, 1895).

The remainder of the collection is composed primarily of legal and financial records, including documents relating to the settlement of the George Howard, Jr., estate. In addition, there are ledger books (1894-1895--1898-1899) which include a list of the stockholders of the Tarboro Cotton Factory (Nov. 1899) and accounts of the Pamlico Insurance & Banking Company (Jan.-Aug., 1899).

Judge Howard and Ann Ragland Stamps were parents to 6 known children: Elizabeth Jiggetts Howard (1863-1952) who married Dr. Juliam M. Baker of Tarboro; George A. Howard III (1866-1925) who married Elizabeth Rawls; Alice S. Howard (1868-1953) who married Job Cobb of Tarboro; Harriet Howard (1871-aft 1930) who married George A. Holderness of Tarboro; William Stamps Howard (1875-1954) who married Mary McPherson Ferebee of Granville Co.; and Mary Romaine Howard (1879-1957) who married William T. Clark Jr. of Wilson.


Judge George A. Howard, II died in 1905 at age 76. He survived his wife by 4 years. All of their six children remained in Tarboro, and all made their mark in local history.