Generations in the ranks: 108-year-old Lubbock WWII veteran has family history of service

[Editor's note: Larry A. Williams is the veterans liaison co-chair for the Texas South Plains Honor Flight and co-author of "Texas South Plains War Stories."]

The Civil War, the Chisholm Trail and World War II.

One may wonder what those three things have in common. The answer is that they tell part of the history and heritage of the Howell family.

I met John Howell to talk to his father, 108-year-old WWII veteran Elvin Howell, who resides at Carillon here in Lubbock. That’s right, 108 years old. According to Mr. Howell’s nurse, “he is in better shape than any of my other patients. He takes very little medication and hasn’t been in the hospital. He is amazing!” I also found that Elvin chooses to live in the present. He still has a great outlook and sense of humor. This is the story of the Howell family starting with his grandfather.

Willis Howell – The Civil War

It was interesting that history was Elvin’s favorite subject in school. He, his father, and his grandfather were participants in three significant time periods in the history of our country. Elvin’s grandfather, Willis, was born March 10, 1829 in Wilson County, Tennessee. He married Nellie Cantrell on June 12, 1853, in Lauderdale County, Alabama. According to the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), Willis was conscripted (forced to join or drafted) into the Confederate Army in Florence, Alabama on Oct. 12, 1861, exactly six months after Confederates fired on Ft. Sumner, South Carolina. He left his wife and two children behind in Alabama and was assigned to Company I, 9^th Alabama Regiment, Wilcox’s Brigade, Longstreet’s Division, The Army of Northern Virginia. His rank was a private and it shows that he was a teamster (or wagoner). A teamster drove a wagon team of horses or mules. An army on the march like his division required more than 2,000 teamsters who carried food for men and animals, baggage, supplies, ammunition and transported the sick and wounded.

The ADAH shows that Willis took part in all engagements from April 1862 through October 1864. He participated in some of the most bloody and famous battles during the war such as Second Manassas ( Second Bull Run), Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness, and many more. Sometime after the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6,1864 and before the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21, 1864, Willis was captured by Union forces and sent to Elmira Prison Camp, New York. Southern troops later referred to the camp as “Hellmira”. Muster rolls for the 9^th Alabama showed that he survived a year and one month at Elmira. He took an oath of allegiance to the United States on June 14^th, 1865. He was released that very day and given a train ticket home. Records showed that one out of every four prisoners died in the camp from malnutrition, exposure, and disease. Records show that he was paid $179.13 for the year of 1864. The 9^th Alabama mustered 1,138 men during the Civil War and lost 200 men killed and 175 who died of disease.

Back home in Alabama, twins Luke and Wylie were born to Willis and Nellie on November 3, 1865. On February 8, 1869, Willis purchased 320 acres of land in Lauderdale County and another 240 acres on March 8, 1869. Sometime after 1880, Willis and family moved near Rockwall, Texas. Nellie died on March 29, 1895. Willis remarried in 1897 to Sallie L. Hogg. Willis died on May 11, 1909, in Rockwall, Texas.

Luke Howell – The Chisholm Trail

Elvin’s dad, Luke Ervin, was born on Nov. 3, 1865, in Green Hill, Alabama. As noted above, Luke moved with his family to Rockwall, Texas sometime after 1880. Young Luke was a trailhand at an early age. Only a few years later, his cowboy career came to and end as he was on one of the last cattle drives on the famed Chisholm Trail. which saw its heyday from 1867 to 1884. The trail was named after Jesse Chisholm, Indian trader, guide, and interpreter. Born in 1805, his father was of Scottish descent and his mother was a Cherokee Indian. He made his way west into Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. In 1936, he became a trader and took trade goods into Plains Indian Country and brokered several treaty councils in Texas and Kansas. Active in Texas for 20 years, he finally settled down with his wife Eliza in 1858 in western Oklahoma. He worked for the Confederates and the Union during the Civil War. Originally called The Trail, the trail from Wichita to the Red River became known as the Chisholm Trail but Texas cowboys soon named the entire trail from the Rio Grande to central Kansas after Chisholm.

Luke married young Myrtle Lee in 1898. He was 33, she was only 16. The Howell family moved to Camp Springs in Scurry County Texas near Snyder. They had three boys and one girl. Luke was a farmer and a rancher. It was a hardscrabble existence for the Howell family, especially during the depression and the so-called Dust Bowl era of the 1930’s.

Elvin Howell - The Early Years

Elvin Newton was born on Jan. 17, 1914, near Camp Springs in Scurry County. The area was known for its springs and lush grass was a popular spot to camp for Native Americans. Even General Robert E. Lee stopped there in 1856 while his troops were after some Comanches. Elvin was the youngest of four siblings, two brothers and one sister born to Luke and Myrtle Howell. Elvin recalled growing up there. “I hated hoeing weeds," he said. "We all worked hard. Oil hadn’t been discovered there as yet and that was the poorest county in the state at the time.

“I attended a little country school near Snyder for a few years. I graduated from Snyder High School in 1932. My favorite subject was history.”

Elvin was also a football and track star during his high school days. In fact, he received a scholarship to Hardin Simmons University. The coach told him if he could get a ride to Abilene, he had a scholarship waiting for him, so he “hitched a ride to get there," as he put it.

During his time as a student athlete, Howell was very involved on campus. He was vice president of his class one year and president another year. He was also involved with various councils and clubs.

Marriage and WWII

Newton met young, pretty Rena Southern who was an HSU cowgirl. Rena, with a group of girls, saw a group of guys, pointed to Elvin, and said, “I’ll take the little guy.” They fell in love and married in August 1938. The young couple moved to Kermit where Elvin taught Texas History and coached football. He heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while at Kermit. Millions of young men and women joined up and Elvin said, “I joined the Navy on May 20, 1942. I knew I was at least going to ride something instead of walkin’. I entered with a buddy in Dallas. Basic training was in San Diego. My officer training was at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. After graduating there, I was assigned to the S.S. Cities Service Koolmotor which was an oil tanker. I was in charge of the gunnery crew from New York City to the Panama Canal to the Pacific. I was on there too long. My mother followed me from port to port."

Life after the war

Elvin recalled, “I transferred to the S.S. Cantigny. We went up and down both coasts and South America loaded with fuel for other ships.” The Cantigny was a type T-2 tanker and could hold nearly six million gallons of fuel.

“The war was now over, and I was sent to Houston, Texas," he said. "I now had enough points to get out of the Navy. I was released at Camp Wallace (near Galveston) after three years, four months and two days in the service. Some of this might be mixed up because of my age. I was a lot sharper when I was 100 (chuckles at the thought)! I began teaching at Amarillo and was there for two or three years. By that time, we had two boys, and decided it was better to raise the boys somewhere else, so we built a house in Tulia where I taught school from 1954 until I retired in 1976 then sold cars at a GM dealer. I was very successful at that and was always working at something. I have many students who have kept touch over the years.”

Rena passed away in August 2002 and Elvin moved to Lubbock in 2010 and now resides at the Carillon.

Always up for an adventure

This is by no means the end of Elvin Howell’s story. Mr. Howell continued to “stay busy” well over 100 years old. During his years at Carillon, he has enjoyed playing bridge, dancing (he danced on his 104^th birthday), and visiting neighbors on a bicycle. Always up for. good outing/adventure, Elvin heard that a group of seniors from Carillon were going to go ziplining at Palo Duro State Park. Elvin said, “one of the young guys, Larry Haygood about 90, asked me to go along and I said, ‘Can I go, too?’ I was pretty young then.” So, in June 2017, then 103-year-old Howell went with a group of 18 other seniors to zip down a canyon that drops down nearly 200 feet from the top.

Elvin said, “It wasn’t so much the zipline that bothered me, what scared me was going up all those stairs (to get to the top of the zipline). I was glad that was over. When asked what he'd like to be remembered for, Elvin simply said, “For my longevity and hard work.”

Mission accomplished Mr. Howell.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: 108-year-old Lubbock WWII veteran has family history of service