AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
RALPH JOHN WESLEY HOWARD

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When we came to their driveway, there was a small building at the back that probably housed a cow or a horse, or both. We drove in and stopped, Bert sat in the wagon and I went the door and knocked. A young lady, I had never seen before, came to the door; I asked if Mr. Roper lived here and she said, "Yes", and I asked if he was home. She said no, he was up town delivering milk. I said, "I would wait until he returned". I joined Bert on the wagon. In a very short time, an old lady came out of the house and went to the building at the back and then returned to the house and told the girls, "I know who made that wagon cover and fixed up that wagon, their names are Howard." About this time, a one horse light wagon of some sort turned off the street, and stopped behind our rig. A man got out and came up side of us and stopped. I made the remark, "Traffic is so thick on the street, we drove in to rest a minute". To which the gentleman replied, "I don’t like having my yard littered up." And I shot right back with "I would like to trade for that horse you are driving". He said, "I don’t want to trade, that is the only horse that I have got". Then I asked, "What have you done with old Tom and Nig?" He said, "Howards." I said, "Precisely." He said to unhitch that team and give them feed, there is a lot of visiting to do. He took us to the house and introduced us to the charming young lady we had never met; it was his youngest daughter. Their oldest daughter, Mable, was married and lived in Lincoln, a few blocks away. Mr. Roper took us to see her. We happened to meet just as she stepped through her gate to the street. Mr. Roper said, "Our cousins from the east have some to make us a visit." She looked at us and said, I can’t see any cousins, this id Bert and Ralph Howard" … a good guess, for today, people that don’t see us together that often make the same mistake. We learnt that John their oldest son was in Parker, dealing in hardware. We enjoyed their hospitality and a pleasant visit and then continued on our journey.

I somehow wasn’t feeling right, my appetite wasn’t right and what I did eat didn’t agree with me; I was weak and feverish, at times and as we journeyed each day, I felt a little worse. We reached Parker about mid afternoon on Saturday. We stopped and visited Mr. John Roper at his store, a little while and then drove to the Little Vermilion River and made camp. We visited old friends and relatives in Parker until min afternoon Sunday.

We had an uncle living one mile out of town and one of his sons was living with him. He came to town and asked that we come out and spend the night with them, which we did expecting to depart in the morning. This was Mr. Lenard Howard, the man who had walked with my father from their homesteads to do mason work