Hunt, Herbert and Floyd C. Kaylor. Washington: West of the Cascades. Vol. I. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917. p. 452. (Note: this biography was taken from the memoirs of William West, written about 1913, before his death). HORACE HOWE: "Horace Howe of the Cowlitz prairie was another sturdy old pioneer, who took an active interest in public affairs. He located on the lands of the Hudson Bay Company farms before the award had been paid by the Government, and when notified to leave by a certain time, or take the consequences, he told them to come at any time, as his rifle was in good order, and that the sights on it were properly adjusted. His early life had been spent as a flat-boat man on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, before the days of steamboats, and in times when every man depended on his native courage and strong right arm, as ample protection in all emergencies. In 1863 some of the Hudson Bay Company's barns at the Cowlitz farms had been burned. The newspaper in Olympia had censured Mr. How as having taken a part in causing incendiary fire. Mr. Howe, on hearing of the accusation, at once went to Olympia and in an altercation with the editor, Mr. Kendall, during which he used his horsewhip, was short down by Mr. Kendall, but recovered. "Mr. Howe served the county in public capacities and was county commissioner for several terms, had a quick ready wit and resolute will. I remember the following incident of his quick repartee: Mr. Howe, Mr. Fay and Mr. Ingalls were the county commissioners, and I was county clerk and auditor. Mr. Howe was at that time seventy-five and Mr. Fay about forty-five. One morning we were standing on the porch outside the courthouse. Mr. Fay turned to Mr. Howe, saying, 'How old are you, Mr. Howe?' Mr. Howe replied, 'Seventy-five.' Mr. Fay remarked, 'Well, I wish that I may be as good a man as you are when I get to be your age.' The reply from Mr. Howe came sharp and quickly: 'Well, if you are, you will have to improve wonderfully.' "Mr. Howe had read law and often took cases before the justices of the peace, and often won his cases against regular practicing lawyers. He was a ready speaker, and could see as far into a legal millstone or knotty question of law as most of the trained lawyers. "On one occasion he was defending a client before a local justice, and the plaintiff's attorney had come from the capital city and had brought with him a bulky assortment of law books, from which he read a number of extracts to prove his side of the case, claiming that they were precedents of the old English common law, when he was interrupted by Mr. Howe, who appealed to the court, saying that this country was not now under English law, that we had fought against English laws, that we had suffered, bled and died fighting against English laws, and had won out, and asked that no more of the English common law be read in court. Whereupon the justice at once ordered the plaintiff's attorney to close his books, telling him that he had been trying for an hour to befuddle the mind of the court, by reading decisions of law emanating from a foreign jurisdiction, and that he would near no more of them, and the case was according decided in favor of the defendant." Howe Kendall Fay Ingalls = Lewis-WA