This website is howderfamily.com. Therefore, anything related to the Howder family is fair game. So I’m going to take an opportunity to feature something that crosses a couple of my interests, geography and genealogy.
In Hillsdale Michigan I found a three-block road named Howder Street.
Those of you with common surnames are probably saying “so what.”
However only a few hundred people in the United States carry the surname Howder. Most of us are seemingly related. So who was this Howder of Hillsdale Michigan? And why did the town name this short street lined with rental housing filled mainly with students from nearby Hillsdale College after him?
Adam Howder was an early Michigan pioneer. He was also one of the first settlers in the Hillsdale area, arriving around 1835 from Lockport, New York. Then he built a log house on what became Hillsdale Fair Grounds. Later he became the first tavern keeper in town and built increasingly spacious and popular establishments. Additionally, he served as sheriff in 1845 and 1847.
I hope the college students on Howder Street remember to toast Adam Howder, pioneering Michigan bar tender and saloon keeper. He would be proud. As far as I know this is the only geographical feature named after a member of the Howder family.
UPDATE: I visited Howder Street in 2016.
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