Matthew Howton Family Story

Matthew Howton was born into the Howton family on 10 May 1838 in Fayette County, Alabama along with his fraternal twin sister Martha Howton. Their father Abraham and family had migrated to Fayette County, Alabama from Hopkins County, Kentucky 17 years before they were born. Matthew Howton grew up on a farm his father Abraham Howton owned and farmed for many years. Matthew grew up with 8 brothers and 5 sisters. There would have been more siblings but a couple children had died already when Matthew was born. It was very common back then that some children weren't expected to survive the conditions. Matthew Howton along with his twin sister Martha was the youngest of the children and had a lot to compete with. When Matthew was only 2 years old, not even old enough to have memories, a tragedy struck their family. Matthew Howton's father Abraham dies on 12 Aug 1840 from causes not yet known. This struck the family hard. Matthew's mother Assella was left with 14 children to take care of and raise. What helped the family was that 8 of the children were over the age of 16 and all the children pitched in to take care of what was needed. While Matthew was raised on a farm, he helped his brothers and sisters out with family chores and took to the farm. Matthew was growing up in a county that was flourishing with cotton fields as far as the eyes could see and plantation homes were abundant. Life was by far easy for Matthew and had its own hardships. Most likely, Matthew's older brothers may have been more of father figures for him since the age differences were very far apart. His brothers and sisters taught him a lot but his brothers more likely taught him about farming and hunting. Matthew Howton had to grow up without personally knowing who his father was. He knew his father's name and was told stories about him. Matthew's mother probably sat down and talked to Matthew about who his father Abraham was and even perhaps while she sewed clothes or during some family evenings around the fire.

Mathew Howton many years later grew up and became a man with his own ideas and his own destination. In the 1860s, the American Civil War was raging on and many men took up arms to fight for what they believed in. Sometimes the men who fought for the Confederate States did not fight for slavery but for the south in general. Matthew enlisted into the Confederate Army on May 8, 1862 at age 23 just 2 days shy of his 24th birthday. He was single and now a soldier fighting for the South. His exact beliefs and agendas are unknown. His enlistment came after his two other brothers David and Elijah who enlisted into the Confederacy and was followed by his other brothers George and Willis who signed into the Confederate Army as well. Altogether there were five Howton brothers fighting for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. What is interesting is that by military records, it says Matthew Howton was born in Greenville District of South Carolina in 1838 but we know from his father Abraham that that is not true. He had to have been born in Fayette County, Alabama and according to census records; Alabama is the place of birth. Now, we ask why Matthew might have lied about his place of birth when he enlisted. I believe it was to protect his family meaning brothers, sisters, and mother if he perhaps got caught by the Union or perhaps to keep his identity clean after leaving the Confederate Army. No one knows but it would have been an honorable act to protect his loved ones from harm.
Matthew was part of the 26th Alabama Infantry (O'Neal's), C.S.A. Company A "Dixie Boys". He trained to fire weapons and to kill. The basic weapon for infantry soldiers
was the single-shot, muzzle-loading percussion musket.
Weapons were in short supply and volunteers sometimes had to use antique weapons to fight with. It was a hard time and death tolls were high in the War Between the
States. Matthew Howton didn't know if he would live or die but still he fought. From records Matthew was wounded with gunshot wound at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862 and
admitted to CSA Hospital in Danville, Virginia on July 2, 1862. He was transferred to Chimbarazo on July 28, then admitted to 2nd Alabama Hospital on August 8 and returned to duty on October 18, 1862. It is unknown what his duty consisted of after returning to duty on 18 Oct 1862. Malvern Hill was a massacre for the south.

After the Civil War ended and the Confederate States rejoined the Union, Matthew Howton started seeing a woman named Miranda Jane Nichols whose family also lived in the Fayette area. There was something about Miranda that caught Matthew's eye. They grew closer and more affectionate for each other as time progressed. Matthew Howton then became a father in 1868 when Miranda Jane Nichols gave birth to their first child James L. Howton. It wasn't till a year later that Matthew at age 30 and Miranda at age 20 tied the knot and got married on 17 Feb 1869 in Fayette County, Alabama performed by J S Clifton, Justice of the Peace. They were now a family and starting a life together. Matthew Howton continued to farm his land, raise his children, and love his wife. Miranda worked as a housekeeper for many years to make a living and help out the family. They would have 12 more children over the next 24 years with 3 sets of twins however losing at least one child in the same year was born. This child's name was Robert Lee Howton, George Matthew Howton's twin brother. George Matthew Howton is my Great Grandfather.

Now we look at how the Howton family would have typically lived everyday life in the 1800s. What would life be like in the mid-1800s? No electricity. No electronic games. No Internet. No television. No toilets or showers in your house! People had to haul water in the house just to have a drink. In some places, people threw trash in the streets — and no one cared! Life was very different then. This part of our family history talks about the way of life during that time. We explore this way of life to better understand how our Howton ancestor family lived during the 1800s.
Daily life-What would life be like for the Howton families during the mid-1800s?

Children:
The Howton children like all other children who lived out on country farms at the time would get up as early as 5 a.m. and start their chores. The boys would milk cows, clean animal pens and feed the livestock. They would also make sure there was plenty of wood to keep the stove heated. The children all had chores to do before heading off to school. Girls helped out in the home and assisted in preparing food. They would also help their mother prepare breakfast. Boys and girls also pumped and hauled water into the home if there was a water pump. The water pumps had to be pumped by hand. After breakfast, the children would walk to a one-room school during those months that the school was opened. They would carry their lunches in a bucket. After school, children would have more chores before eating supper. The school, which was closed during the planting and harvesting seasons, consisted of reading, writing and math. In 1860, 1 out of 6 children in the United States went to school. Boys who lived in the country were expected to help plow fields, plant the crops and harvest them. They also hunted and fished. Girls were expected to spin and weave cloth, sew clothes, bake, wash clothes and make candles. During the cold winter months, after the supper dishes were washed and put away, the Howton family would gather around the fireplace. They would pass the time by eating apples, popcorn or nuts, talking, whittling, knitting or crocheting. In the early 1800s, nearly one-third of all children born in the United States died before reaching 16 years old. Boys and girls were both taught to ride a horse and tend to them as this was the only mass transportation available. The games and toys that were around for children was few and sometimes they had to make do with what they had around to entertain themselves. Boys and girls played blindman's bluff, flew kites, jumped rope, rolled hoops, did jigsaw puzzles and played checkers and dominoes. In the winter, children enjoyed sleigh rides and sledding. During the 1800s, boys' toys included: toys guns and cannons, soldiers, bugles, swords, marbles, tops, rocking horses, toy wagons and stilts. For the girls' toys was included: rag dolls, china and wax; doll houses and puppets. Girls also learned to embroider and to play the piano. What they had to wear for clothing in the mid-1800s were simple as money was pretty scarce, the children of that era usually only had two outfits — one for daily life and one for Sunday or special occasions. Children also had very little shoes to go with what they had. For girls they wore long linen or wool skirts and a long apron known as a pinafore. As they grew older, young women had to wear several petticoats or underskirts.

"I have to go to the bathroom!"
There were no indoor toilets; everyone had to go across the yard outside to an outhouse or use a chamber pot inside which afterwards, had to discard of the human waste. Outhouses were small buildings where people used the toilet. Usually made of wood, the privy had a seat or hole — some had more than one seat or hole — on which one sat to relieve him/herself. Excrement (bodily waste) was collected in a pit or drawer. When the pit filled up, the privy was moved to another location. A new hole was dug and dirt from this hole filled up the previous one. The outhouse set usually out back in the yard, and in the winter was a chilling experience. Some folks had a chamber pot under the bed, but a slop jar had a bail on it and was taller. If you had something in the chamber pot in the morning, you would empty it into the slop jar to carry it out. It belonged to the bedroom set which had a bowl and pitcher. If you washed in the bedroom, you emptied the water into the slop jar and carried that out, too. You may ask yourself what they had for toilet paper. Well, like many did they had newspapers or simple catalogs and took that with them for toilet paper.

What about baths?
Bathing was not always important during the time. When baths were taken, it was mostly done once a week. Water was hauled into the house to fill a tub. The same water was used by all members of the family — not a pleasant experience for the last one in the tub! Sometimes the washtub was filled with water outside and left out in the sun to heat, and then you heated a teakettle of water to put in that, and that is how you'd take your bath. Usually the bathing took place outside behind the house, in the summertime. In the wintertime, everybody usually would clear out of the kitchen and they took it in the kitchen.

"Our clothes need washed!"
In the 1800s, washing clothes was a once-a-week chore. A tub was filled with hot water and the clothes would soak. The clothes were scrubbed with bars of soap, and sometimes sticks were used to loosen the dirt. The clothes were then rubbed on a washboard. Next, they were rinsed in another tub and wrung out or shaken before hanging them up to dry. And, yes, in the winter, clothes would freeze dry. On wash day, soup beans were usually fixed for supper since the beans could be put in a pot on the stove or over a fire and left to cook all day. Flat irons, which were heated on the stove, were used to remove the wrinkles in the clothes. Some irons could be filled with hot coals. Drying clothes was done by wringing them out all by hand and hang them on a line outside to dry.

Housecleaning
Most homes weren't built as tightly as they are today; so much dirt and dust came in from the outside. Roads were usually dirt or gravel, which added to the filth. There was no running water in homes, so water had to be hauled inside. Furthermore, the burning of wood or coal added greatly to the grime inside a house. Thus, spring and sometimes fall cleaning was a necessity as we get the term, "Spring Cleaning." Any rugs that were in the house were rolled up, taken outside, and literally beaten to get all the dirt out of them.

Hauling water
With no plumbing inside a house, water for everything had to be hauled inside from an outside pump, well, spring or creek. This means that water had to be hauled for cooking, cleaning, laundry, bathing, drinking and washing dishes. The used water then had to be hauled back outside! Summer heat and frigid temperatures that froze the water complicated an already tiresome task.

Trash
Before the 1900s, people in the United States produced much less trash. There were less packaged goods, and what little that was bought was often purchased in bulk. Furthermore, people reused almost everything. Food scraps became part of soup or fed to the animals. Some leftover food was put into a slop pail and used either to feed animals or to produce soap and candles. Furniture, if no longer used, was passed on to other family members or friends or stored in an attic. Items were repaired or their parts were used for other things. Some things were burned for heating or cooking purposes. Clothes were mended, handed down or turned into rags, quilts or rugs. Bottles were reused and refilled. However, there were some things that were just considered garbage. What happened to these things? Bottles, glass and crocks were thrown in back yards. Adding to this mix were horses, whose manure contributed to the muck and smell. In cities and towns, garbage was thrown in the gutters of streets where pigs, goats and dogs "cleaned it up." Outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid were a constant threat to public safety.

Women's role in the 1800s
Lower class women would have been mostly poor farmers' daughters, often worked to support themselves, as their husbands or fathers were not making enough money to support the family. Their jobs included working for higher class families, doing household duties such as cleaning or cooking. In these ways, the underprivileged white American women were able to help support their families. In addition to their outside jobs, these women, unable to afford help in the house, also had all the responsibilities of their household: cleaning, cooking, taking care of the children, making clothes… A lot was expected from these women, and they were often tired and sickly. The life expectancy in the 19th century was in the late forties, very low compared to the late seventies life expectancy today. In general though, a white woman had no or very few political rights. She was unable to vote, or have any political views. She also had a very limited career selection, as women were excluded from most jobs. A factor in this exclusion could have been a lack of education, since women were not often very educated. Before the civil war, there were only 3 colleges that women could attend. This did improve; after the civil war, nearly 40% of college students were women. Once a woman was married, everything she owned became her husband's; her land, her life savings, any slaves that she owned and her name. If there was a case of adultery, the woman lost most, if not all, respect in the society. The man however, lost very little respect, if any. If a married couple divorced, unlike most cases today, the husband kept custody over the children.
Farm life:
Farmers on small farms were often close to towns or other farms, and tended to contribute to the larger community while maintaining their independent status. Small farmers tended to live hand-to-mouth; largely independent, but relying on neighbors for major tasks like barn raising. What's interesting is that most free Southerners were small farmers who did not own slaves. They raised enough crops to provide for their needs, with family members providing the labor. Farming was once the chief way of life in nearly every country. People cannot live without food, and nearly all their food comes from crops and animals raised on farms. Many other materials such as cotton and wool also come from plants and animals raised on farms. Not many people farm for a living any more, but farming remains the most important occupation in the world. Prior to the twentieth century, the typical American family lived on a small farm. They raised hogs, cattle, sheep, chickens, and planted corn, fruits, garden vegetables, hay, and wheat. Everyone worked long and hard, but the results were often meager. Families barely harvested enough food for themselves. This situation began to change during the last half of the 1800's and it changed remarkably in the next century.

The Howton family in 1880 was doing well in Fayette, AL. In fact, Matthew Howton had a mixed white and black laborer named Joseph Enos who helped out on the Howton farm and the family. Joseph Enos lived with the Howton family according to the U.S. Census record of 1880 who was divorced and was 30 years old. It is not known if Joseph actually slept in the same house as the Howton family or had a wood cabin on Matthew Howton's property.
In 1907, Matthew Howton was reported by U.S. Census to be living in Covington County, AL. Covington County, Alabama is a county at the very bottom of Alabama. In fact, Covington County is about 241 miles from Fayette County, AL. It is unknown why Matthew Howton was living in Covington County, AL so far away from Fayette or if he was still living with his wife Miranda. I cannot explain this. It is left up for speculation until further investigated. At some point though, Matthew Howton filed for a Confederate Pension and submitted an application. He was a wounded confederate soldier who was seeking some kind of compensation for his injuries.
About 9 years later on 9 Oct 1916, Matthew Howton at age 78 took his last breath as his life slipped away. He died and was buried in Fairmont Baptist, Red Level, in Covington County, Alabama. Now what I find unusual is that Matthew's wife Miranda lived 15 years past Matthew and died 26 APR 1931 in Fayette County, Alabama. She was buried in New River Church of Christ Cemetery, Fayette, Alabama, on Carbon Hill Rd. How or why the separation between Fayette County and Covington County concerning Matthew and Miranda is unknown and puzzling to me.
Matthew Howton
10 MAY 1838 - 9 Oct 1916
"May We Never Forget
Your Sacrifice"

Matthew Howton possessed a fighting spirit and a will to never quit. He pursued what he felt was right and just. This is the legacy of Matthew Howton. A soldier, a farmer, a father, a husband, and a man who endured past all odds. May his life be remembered and the stories told for many generations to come. We honor his life by doing so.

Author: Ronnie Dale Howton
Born March 14, 1982 of Druid City Hospital,
Tuscaloosa County, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Currently Residing in Clarksville, TN.
Dated: 1 Aug 2010

Matthew Howton Family Story

Matthew Howton was born into the Howton family on 10 May 1838 in Fayette County, Alabama along with his fraternal twin sister Martha Howton. Their father Abraham and family had migrated to Fayette County, Alabama from Hopkins County, Kentucky 17 years before they were born. Matthew Howton grew up on a farm his father Abraham Howton owned and farmed for many years. Matthew grew up with 8 brothers and 5 sisters. There would have been more siblings but a couple children had died already when Matthew was born. It was very common back then that some children weren't expected to survive the conditions. Matthew Howton along with his twin sister Martha was the youngest of the children and had a lot to compete with. When Matthew was only 2 years old, not even old enough to have memories, a tragedy struck their family. Matthew Howton's father Abraham dies on 12 Aug 1840 from causes not yet known. This struck the family hard. Matthew's mother Assella was left with 14 children to take care of and raise. What helped the family was that 8 of the children were over the age of 16 and all the children pitched in to take care of what was needed. While Matthew was raised on a farm, he helped his brothers and sisters out with family chores and took to the farm. Matthew was growing up in a county that was flourishing with cotton fields as far as the eyes could see and plantation homes were abundant. Life was by far easy for Matthew and had its own hardships. Most likely, Matthew's older brothers may have been more of father figures for him since the age differences were very far apart. His brothers and sisters taught him a lot but his brothers more likely taught him about farming and hunting. Matthew Howton had to grow up without personally knowing who his father was. He knew his father's name and was told stories about him. Matthew's mother probably sat down and talked to Matthew about who his father Abraham was and even perhaps while she sewed clothes or during some family evenings around the fire.

Mathew Howton many years later grew up and became a man with his own ideas and his own destination. In the 1860s, the American Civil War was raging on and many men took up arms to fight for what they believed in. Sometimes the men who fought for the Confederate States did not fight for slavery but for the south in general. Matthew enlisted into the Confederate Army on May 8, 1862 at age 23 just 2 days shy of his 24th birthday. He was single and now a soldier fighting for the South. His exact beliefs and agendas are unknown. His enlistment came after his two other brothers David and Elijah who enlisted into the Confederacy and was followed by his other brothers George and Willis who signed into the Confederate Army as well. Altogether there were five Howton brothers fighting for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. What is interesting is that by military records, it says Matthew Howton was born in Greenville District of South Carolina in 1838 but we know from his father Abraham that that is not true. He had to have been born in Fayette County, Alabama and according to census records; Alabama is the place of birth. Now, we ask why Matthew might have lied about his place of birth when he enlisted. I believe it was to protect his family meaning brothers, sisters, and mother if he perhaps got caught by the Union or perhaps to keep his identity clean after leaving the Confederate Army. No one knows but it would have been an honorable act to protect his loved ones from harm.
Matthew was part of the 26th Alabama Infantry (O'Neal's), C.S.A. Company A "Dixie Boys". He trained to fire weapons and to kill. The basic weapon for infantry soldiers
was the single-shot, muzzle-loading percussion musket.
Weapons were in short supply and volunteers sometimes had to use antique weapons to fight with. It was a hard time and death tolls were high in the War Between the
States. Matthew Howton didn't know if he would live or die but still he fought. From records Matthew was wounded with gunshot wound at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862 and
admitted to CSA Hospital in Danville, Virginia on July 2, 1862. He was transferred to Chimbarazo on July 28, then admitted to 2nd Alabama Hospital on August 8 and returned to duty on October 18, 1862. It is unknown what his duty consisted of after returning to duty on 18 Oct 1862. Malvern Hill was a massacre for the south.

After the Civil War ended and the Confederate States rejoined the Union, Matthew Howton started seeing a woman named Miranda Jane Nichols whose family also lived in the Fayette area. There was something about Miranda that caught Matthew's eye. They grew closer and more affectionate for each other as time progressed. Matthew Howton then became a father in 1868 when Miranda Jane Nichols gave birth to their first child James L. Howton. It wasn't till a year later that Matthew at age 30 and Miranda at age 20 tied the knot and got married on 17 Feb 1869 in Fayette County, Alabama performed by J S Clifton, Justice of the Peace. They were now a family and starting a life together. Matthew Howton continued to farm his land, raise his children, and love his wife. Miranda worked as a housekeeper for many years to make a living and help out the family. They would have 12 more children over the next 24 years with 3 sets of twins however losing at least one child in the same year was born. This child's name was Robert Lee Howton, George Matthew Howton's twin brother. George Matthew Howton is my Great Grandfather.

Now we look at how the Howton family would have typically lived everyday life in the 1800s. What would life be like in the mid-1800s? No electricity. No electronic games. No Internet. No television. No toilets or showers in your house! People had to haul water in the house just to have a drink. In some places, people threw trash in the streets — and no one cared! Life was very different then. This part of our family history talks about the way of life during that time. We explore this way of life to better understand how our Howton ancestor family lived during the 1800s.
Daily life-What would life be like for the Howton families during the mid-1800s?

Children:
The Howton children like all other children who lived out on country farms at the time would get up as early as 5 a.m. and start their chores. The boys would milk cows, clean animal pens and feed the livestock. They would also make sure there was plenty of wood to keep the stove heated. The children all had chores to do before heading off to school. Girls helped out in the home and assisted in preparing food. They would also help their mother prepare breakfast. Boys and girls also pumped and hauled water into the home if there was a water pump. The water pumps had to be pumped by hand. After breakfast, the children would walk to a one-room school during those months that the school was opened. They would carry their lunches in a bucket. After school, children would have more chores before eating supper. The school, which was closed during the planting and harvesting seasons, consisted of reading, writing and math. In 1860, 1 out of 6 children in the United States went to school. Boys who lived in the country were expected to help plow fields, plant the crops and harvest them. They also hunted and fished. Girls were expected to spin and weave cloth, sew clothes, bake, wash clothes and make candles. During the cold winter months, after the supper dishes were washed and put away, the Howton family would gather around the fireplace. They would pass the time by eating apples, popcorn or nuts, talking, whittling, knitting or crocheting. In the early 1800s, nearly one-third of all children born in the United States died before reaching 16 years old. Boys and girls were both taught to ride a horse and tend to them as this was the only mass transportation available. The games and toys that were around for children was few and sometimes they had to make do with what they had around to entertain themselves. Boys and girls played blindman's bluff, flew kites, jumped rope, rolled hoops, did jigsaw puzzles and played checkers and dominoes. In the winter, children enjoyed sleigh rides and sledding. During the 1800s, boys' toys included: toys guns and cannons, soldiers, bugles, swords, marbles, tops, rocking horses, toy wagons and stilts. For the girls' toys was included: rag dolls, china and wax; doll houses and puppets. Girls also learned to embroider and to play the piano. What they had to wear for clothing in the mid-1800s were simple as money was pretty scarce, the children of that era usually only had two outfits — one for daily life and one for Sunday or special occasions. Children also had very little shoes to go with what they had. For girls they wore long linen or wool skirts and a long apron known as a pinafore. As they grew older, young women had to wear several petticoats or underskirts.

"I have to go to the bathroom!"
There were no indoor toilets; everyone had to go across the yard outside to an outhouse or use a chamber pot inside which afterwards, had to discard of the human waste. Outhouses were small buildings where people used the toilet. Usually made of wood, the privy had a seat or hole — some had more than one seat or hole — on which one sat to relieve him/herself. Excrement (bodily waste) was collected in a pit or drawer. When the pit filled up, the privy was moved to another location. A new hole was dug and dirt from this hole filled up the previous one. The outhouse set usually out back in the yard, and in the winter was a chilling experience. Some folks had a chamber pot under the bed, but a slop jar had a bail on it and was taller. If you had something in the chamber pot in the morning, you would empty it into the slop jar to carry it out. It belonged to the bedroom set which had a bowl and pitcher. If you washed in the bedroom, you emptied the water into the slop jar and carried that out, too. You may ask yourself what they had for toilet paper. Well, like many did they had newspapers or simple catalogs and took that with them for toilet paper.

What about baths?
Bathing was not always important during the time. When baths were taken, it was mostly done once a week. Water was hauled into the house to fill a tub. The same water was used by all members of the family — not a pleasant experience for the last one in the tub! Sometimes the washtub was filled with water outside and left out in the sun to heat, and then you heated a teakettle of water to put in that, and that is how you'd take your bath. Usually the bathing took place outside behind the house, in the summertime. In the wintertime, everybody usually would clear out of the kitchen and they took it in the kitchen.

"Our clothes need washed!"
In the 1800s, washing clothes was a once-a-week chore. A tub was filled with hot water and the clothes would soak. The clothes were scrubbed with bars of soap, and sometimes sticks were used to loosen the dirt. The clothes were then rubbed on a washboard. Next, they were rinsed in another tub and wrung out or shaken before hanging them up to dry. And, yes, in the winter, clothes would freeze dry. On wash day, soup beans were usually fixed for supper since the beans could be put in a pot on the stove or over a fire and left to cook all day. Flat irons, which were heated on the stove, were used to remove the wrinkles in the clothes. Some irons could be filled with hot coals. Drying clothes was done by wringing them out all by hand and hang them on a line outside to dry.

Housecleaning
Most homes weren't built as tightly as they are today; so much dirt and dust came in from the outside. Roads were usually dirt or gravel, which added to the filth. There was no running water in homes, so water had to be hauled inside. Furthermore, the burning of wood or coal added greatly to the grime inside a house. Thus, spring and sometimes fall cleaning was a necessity as we get the term, "Spring Cleaning." Any rugs that were in the house were rolled up, taken outside, and literally beaten to get all the dirt out of them.

Hauling water
With no plumbing inside a house, water for everything had to be hauled inside from an outside pump, well, spring or creek. This means that water had to be hauled for cooking, cleaning, laundry, bathing, drinking and washing dishes. The used water then had to be hauled back outside! Summer heat and frigid temperatures that froze the water complicated an already tiresome task.

Trash
Before the 1900s, people in the United States produced much less trash. There were less packaged goods, and what little that was bought was often purchased in bulk. Furthermore, people reused almost everything. Food scraps became part of soup or fed to the animals. Some leftover food was put into a slop pail and used either to feed animals or to produce soap and candles. Furniture, if no longer used, was passed on to other family members or friends or stored in an attic. Items were repaired or their parts were used for other things. Some things were burned for heating or cooking purposes. Clothes were mended, handed down or turned into rags, quilts or rugs. Bottles were reused and refilled. However, there were some things that were just considered garbage. What happened to these things? Bottles, glass and crocks were thrown in back yards. Adding to this mix were horses, whose manure contributed to the muck and smell. In cities and towns, garbage was thrown in the gutters of streets where pigs, goats and dogs "cleaned it up." Outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid were a constant threat to public safety.

Women's role in the 1800s
Lower class women would have been mostly poor farmers' daughters, often worked to support themselves, as their husbands or fathers were not making enough money to support the family. Their jobs included working for higher class families, doing household duties such as cleaning or cooking. In these ways, the underprivileged white American women were able to help support their families. In addition to their outside jobs, these women, unable to afford help in the house, also had all the responsibilities of their household: cleaning, cooking, taking care of the children, making clothes… A lot was expected from these women, and they were often tired and sickly. The life expectancy in the 19th century was in the late forties, very low compared to the late seventies life expectancy today. In general though, a white woman had no or very few political rights. She was unable to vote, or have any political views. She also had a very limited career selection, as women were excluded from most jobs. A factor in this exclusion could have been a lack of education, since women were not often very educated. Before the civil war, there were only 3 colleges that women could attend. This did improve; after the civil war, nearly 40% of college students were women. Once a woman was married, everything she owned became her husband's; her land, her life savings, any slaves that she owned and her name. If there was a case of adultery, the woman lost most, if not all, respect in the society. The man however, lost very little respect, if any. If a married couple divorced, unlike most cases today, the husband kept custody over the children.
Farm life:
Farmers on small farms were often close to towns or other farms, and tended to contribute to the larger community while maintaining their independent status. Small farmers tended to live hand-to-mouth; largely independent, but relying on neighbors for major tasks like barn raising. What's interesting is that most free Southerners were small farmers who did not own slaves. They raised enough crops to provide for their needs, with family members providing the labor. Farming was once the chief way of life in nearly every country. People cannot live without food, and nearly all their food comes from crops and animals raised on farms. Many other materials such as cotton and wool also come from plants and animals raised on farms. Not many people farm for a living any more, but farming remains the most important occupation in the world. Prior to the twentieth century, the typical American family lived on a small farm. They raised hogs, cattle, sheep, chickens, and planted corn, fruits, garden vegetables, hay, and wheat. Everyone worked long and hard, but the results were often meager. Families barely harvested enough food for themselves. This situation began to change during the last half of the 1800's and it changed remarkably in the next century.

The Howton family in 1880 was doing well in Fayette, AL. In fact, Matthew Howton had a mixed white and black laborer named Joseph Enos who helped out on the Howton farm and the family. Joseph Enos lived with the Howton family according to the U.S. Census record of 1880 who was divorced and was 30 years old. It is not known if Joseph actually slept in the same house as the Howton family or had a wood cabin on Matthew Howton's property.
In 1907, Matthew Howton was reported by U.S. Census to be living in Covington County, AL. Covington County, Alabama is a county at the very bottom of Alabama. In fact, Covington County is about 241 miles from Fayette County, AL. It is unknown why Matthew Howton was living in Covington County, AL so far away from Fayette or if he was still living with his wife Miranda. I cannot explain this. It is left up for speculation until further investigated. At some point though, Matthew Howton filed for a Confederate Pension and submitted an application. He was a wounded confederate soldier who was seeking some kind of compensation for his injuries.
About 9 years later on 9 Oct 1916, Matthew Howton at age 78 took his last breath as his life slipped away. He died and was buried in Fairmont Baptist, Red Level, in Covington County, Alabama. Now what I find unusual is that Matthew's wife Miranda lived 15 years past Matthew and died 26 APR 1931 in Fayette County, Alabama. She was buried in New River Church of Christ Cemetery, Fayette, Alabama, on Carbon Hill Rd. How or why the separation between Fayette County and Covington County concerning Matthew and Miranda is unknown and puzzling to me.
Matthew Howton
10 MAY 1838 - 9 Oct 1916
"May We Never Forget
Your Sacrifice"

Matthew Howton possessed a fighting spirit and a will to never quit. He pursued what he felt was right and just. This is the legacy of Matthew Howton. A soldier, a farmer, a father, a husband, and a man who endured past all odds. May his life be remembered and the stories told for many generations to come. We honor his life by doing so.

Author: Ronnie Dale Howton
Born March 14, 1982 of Druid City Hospital,
Tuscaloosa County, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Currently Residing in Clarksville, TN.
Dated: 1 Aug 2010