My Genealogy Hound

SIMEON HOWES. Probably the one man who has done more to advance the material welfare of the village of Silver Creek than any other is the venerable and aged gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch. He became identified with this place in 1856, and since New Year’s Day, 1866, has been at the head of our leading manufacturing establishment.

Simeon Howes is a son of Sylvauus and Persis (Crittenden) Howes, and was born in Franklin county, Massachusetts, March 28, 1815, and is now seventy-six years old. He is a direct descendant of rugged and long-lived ancestry and traces his family back to a very early day, when three brothers emigrated to North America, settling at Cape Cod. When he was about one year of age his parents removed to Middlebury, Wyoming county, this State, where they tilled the soil for subsistence for themselves and family. While he was still a boy his parents died and left him to battle with the world alone. Fortunately for him, his grandparents were still living, and he returned to Massachusetts and spent three years with them near the scene of his birth. His life during this period was probably not materially different from that of other boys of that time. He went to school and worked hard on the farm in his spare hours, and considered it the climax of earthly bliss to go to “general training” with a couple of shillings in his pocket to spend. When he was sixteen years old, Mr. Howes returned to Wyoming county, and from that time on he has had to “paddle his own canoe.” Three months at the academy at Middlebury, then quite a noted educational institution, finished his schooling and placed him in a position to impart to others the education he had himself received. For eight years he earned his living teaching school in winter, and working on a farm during the summer months. Then in 1838, he married Angeline Ewell and settled down to farming. The issue of this union was eight children, five of whom are still living. These are: Mrs. Geo. P. Brand, Miss Charlotte L. Howes, Mrs. R. J. Quale, and Mrs. W. H. Merritt, of Silver Creek, and Mrs. L. F. W. Arend, of Buffalo. At this occupation he continued for fourteen years, and apparently had found his life work. But, fortunately, as it afterwards proved, his health began to fail and he decided that he would give up farming and turn his hand to something else. A fortunate determination indeed. On the farm he had only made his living and a trifle more. In his new business he was to make a reputation and a fortune.

In the spring of 1853 Mr. Howes went to Miami county, Ohio, and joined with Benjamin Rutter and Henry Rouzer in placing upon the market a combined smut and separating machine. This embodied in a crude form the principles of the Eureka machine, which has proved so successful, but, as is generally the case with new inventions, the first machines made were of comparatively little value for the use intended. Still it was the pioneer, and as such is worthy of respect. Some fifty machines were made and sold during the continuance of his partnership. The work of introducing them to millers was done entirely by Mr. Howes.

In October of that year a patent was granted to Rutter & Rouzer, and then it was decided to stop making machines and to sell the patent instead. Accordingly, in the spring of 1854, Mr. Howes and Gardner E. Throop, acting as agents for Messrs. Rutter & Rouzer, sold the patent under which the machines were made to Ezekiel Montgomery and his two sons, of Silver Creek, and the right of selling in fourteen counties in western New York; while Alpheus Babcock purchased the right of selling in nine counties of western Pennsylvania. Mr. Howes then went to Watertown, New York, where he devoted considerable time to improving the machine; at the same time the other parties who had purchased the right to manufacture were striving in the same direction, and the result naturally was much improvement. Not many machines were built, however, until in 1856 Mr. Howes moved to Silver Creek and joined hands with the Montgomerys in building the machines. In that year and the next about 120 machines were built, and they were received with favor by millers.

In 1858, after a considerable delay in the patent office, a patent was granted Messrs. Howes and Throop for improvements in combined smut and separating machines. The principal points of novelty claimed in this patent were, first; the placing of the separators side by side, and second; the enclosing of the perforated case within an outside casing and connecting the space thus formed by means of tubes with an exhaust fan for the purpose of removing the dust. This patent was subsequently held to be the foundation patent on combined smut and separating machines, and Howes and Throop claim to be its original inventors.

At its expiration, in 1872, it was re-issued and its term extended for seven years. In 1879 it finally expired.

In 1859 Mr. Howes sold out his interest — one-third — to his partners, and retired from the grain-cleaning machine business for a time, and during the interim between that date and 1864, the business was carried on by the Montgomerys and also by the Babcocks, who each manufactured a machine differing in some respects from that of the other. In 1864 Mr. Howes joined the Babcocks, and they carried on their business under the style of Howes, Babcock & Company. The Messrs. Babcock had already made some improvements in the machine, and Mr. Howes now suggested certain others.

On January 1, 1866, Howes, Babcock & Co., bought for $20,000, the business of the Messrs. Montgomery, and the firm changes since that date have consisted in the addition of Mr. Albert Horton, in 1866, who, the same year sold his interest to Mr. Carlos Ewell; the removal by death of Messrs. Babcock and Ewell, and the purchase of the interests of the estates of those gentlemen by Mr. Howes, who now for nearly three years has been the sole proprietor of this immense business. How steadily the business has grown may be judged by the constant enlargement of the buildings, and the great increase of the working force. In 1865 employment was given to only fifteen men; subsequently this number was increased to fifty. In 1873, large, new brick shops were erected and another addition to the workmen was made, so that now about 130 men are kept steadily employed in the factory which is 220x50 feet on the ground and is four stories high.

In 1865 about 200 machines were made. All the work was done by hand, and the castings were made outside. The next year the output was increased to 700 machines, and after that the number averaged about 1000 annually. At first only the combined smut and separator was built, but beginning in 1874 other machines were added, until now a full line of grain cleaning machinery is made and the total sales amount to upwards of 2000 machines per year. We have not, nor can we obtain, the figures relative to the number of men employed and the amount paid out in wages, prior to 1865, but we have figures beginning with that year, when Mr. Howes re-acquired an interest in the business, and a brief study of them will prove not only interesting, but highly instructive as well:

YEAR NO. MEN YEARLY WAGES
1865 14 $18,979.27
1866 29 33,594.80
1867 39 37,209.30
1868 52 35,161.42
1869 55 43,337.55
1870 53 44,946.88
1871 53 48,093.78
1872 58 50,198.63
1873 61 53,356.21
1874 67 55,005.42
1875 64 53,277.22
1876 67 48,668.43
1877 71 48,756.43
1878 66 47,424.33
1879 66 47,456.11
1880 75 53,777.15
1881 89 57,819.99
1882 105 68,250.62
1883 131 74,650.34
1884 121 70,718.69
1885 112 71,601.37
1886 113 74,757.76
1887 113 71,227.56
1888 106 68,124.77
1889 128 79,813.98
_________
Total wages in twenty five years $1,356,208.01

Making an average annual pay-roll of $54,248.32; an average monthly roll of $4,520.69; and an average amount of $151.71, paid out for every day.

In all these years Mr. Howes has had sole control of the financial and business management of this company and the manner in which he has discharged his duties needs no comments.

No man’s word stands higher than his; a promise is never forgotten nor in the least degree abated from. Financially, none in Silver Creek ranks higher than Simeon Howes; socially he is esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and in general popularity it is doubtful if a man could be found in Chautauqua county who possesses a larger degree of the people’s confidence.

He is a liberal supporter of the Presbyterian and Methodist Episcopal churches of Silver Creek, and, although allied with neither, is now, and for fifteen years past, has been a trustee of the latter.

In political adherence he is a stanch republican, and, although four times a delegate to the State conventions of his party, has steadily refused other political distinction.