Esdras Fellows Howell (1910-1962)

From the Scranton Tribune, November 2, 1953.

   Another Pennsylvania attorney who lacked length of years was Esdras Fellows Howell of Clark's Summit, who, in addition to the practice of his profession was a delegate to the  Republican National Convention of 1948 and in 1953 was an unsuccessful aspirant for District Attorney of Lackawanna County. Born on May 1, 1910, into a prominent political family of Welsh descent, Esdras Fellows Howell was the son of John William Howell (1879-1943) and the former Nellie I. Fellows. John W. Howell served as Lackawanna County tax collector and went on to represent Pennsylvania's 22nd district in the state senate for four terms between 1931-1939. John W. Howell's father, Esdras Howell (1832-1908) and namesake of our subject served Scranton as its city controller, and political service extended into the maternal side of Howell's family, with Nellie Howell's father, John Fellows, service as Mayor of Scranton from 1890-1893.

  A student at the Central High School in Scranton, Howell went on to attend both the Wilbraham Academy and Wesleyan University before deciding to pursue a law degree. He enrolled at the Dickinson Law School in the early 1930s and graduated in 1936. In the last-named year, Howell married Florence Lydia Kehrli (1912-2003), who survived him upon his death in 1962. The couple would have three children, including a son, Esdras Jr. (1937-1959).

  After establishing his practice in Scranton Howell would serve during WWII in the Navy, being stationed in the Pacific. He attained the rank of Lieutenant and following his return from service continued with his law practice, serving as First Assistant District Attorney for Lackawanna County from 1942-47. Howell would later figure prominently in Republican Party circles in Lackawanna County, and in 1948 served as part of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia that saw Thomas Dewey nominated for the Presidency. 

  In 1948 Esdras Howell began a five-year tenure as director of the Clarks Summit Mental Hospital. Five years after his attending the Republican National Convention Howell entered into the race for District Attorney of Lackawanna County. After winning the Republican primary, his extensive legal qualifications were profiled in the Scranton Tribune. In a campaign notice signed by nearly thirty members of the Lackawanna bar, Howell was touted as having:

"All the qualifications of a well rounded lawyer. He is careful and foresighted in his preparation of lawsuits, he gives a full measure of attention to all his clients. His devotion to the principles of law is only matched by his understanding of the human interests at stake in every lawsuit. Above all the hallmark of his character is integrity; in dealing with him we recognize his word is his bond."

 Despite being bolstered by many leading figures in the Lackawanna County legal establishment, Howell would be defeated that November by Democrat Carlon Martin O'Malley. After his loss at the polls Howell continued with his law practice and in February 1959 suffered the loss of his son Esdras Jr., who was killed in a car accident in Londonderry, Vermont at the age of 21. A student at Wesleyan University at the time of his death, Esdras Howell Jr. was one of two university students to perish in the accident, the other being Carl Robert Ahrens.
  Esdras F. Howell survived his son by just three years, and on April 10, 1962, he was admitted to the Hahnemann Hospital in Scranton due to a "lengthy illness." He died eleven days later, just short of his 52nd birthday. He was survived by his son David, a daughter, and his wife Florence, who, following her death at age 91 was interred alongside him at the Hickory Grove Cemetery in Waverly, Pennsylvania.

From the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, April 21, 1962.