The Howell family traces its origin to a Welsh family's desire for opportunity, land and education. The family began their odyssey before the United States of America existed. Three Howell brothers and three sisters left their ancestral home in Lancillo, Caemarthen, Wales, bound for the New World, by sailing vessel, embarking from Gravesend, England in the year 1684.

In March, 1685, they debarked at Norfolk, on the east coast of North America. They made their way to Chester County, Pennsylvania and as a family settled in Whiteland Township on a tract of land surveyed to Francis, the eldest. There Francis, Thomas, Mary, John, Elizabeth and Susan began their struggle to wrest new lives from the virgin soil of their adopted homeland.

Over the next hundred years Howell offspring, as British Colonial subjects, migrated southward along the east coast of what ultimately became the United States of America. Howell descendants gradually drifted from Pennsylvania to Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and finally, in 1795, to the "Upper Louisiana Territory ".

In 1794, Francis Howell Sr., a miller and farmer, living in Rockingham County, North Carolina, heard a rumor that Colonel Daniel Boone had sent his eldest surviving son, Daniel Morgan Boone, westward beyond the Mississippi and north of the Missouri River, in search of game-filled, fertile land. Daniel Boone was contemplating his last great leap westward and a generation of new Americans were eager to join in his final adventure.

Some thirty years earlier (1769), John Howell, father of Francis Howell Sr., a contemporary and acquaintance of Daniel Boone, had missed his opportunity to share in the initial exploration of the "Kaintuck" Territory. A "persistent malady" prevented the elder Howell from participating in that historic trek via the Cumberland Gap. His son Francis Sr., immediately began making preparations for his own great adventure. He would not be similarly denied.

In Spring, 1795, well in advance of Daniel Boone's anticipated journey, Francis Sr., his wife Susannah Stone Howell, their seven children, brother-in-law John Buford Stone and several other families, made the long, arduous, overland trek from North Carolina to the little village of St. Louis on the Mississippi, at that time, the western border of the United States.

Crossing the Mississippi and quickly leaving civilization behind, the Howell party pressed onward to Bon Homme Bottom and the south bank of the Missouri River. There, near the tiny hamlet of St. Andrews, the Howells built a log cabin, cleared land, farmed, raised their seven children (John, Thomas, Sarah, Nancy, Newton, Francis Jr. and Benjamin) and watched the family grow. Susannah L. Howell was born there on April 22, 1798 and Lewis Howell on May 22, 1800. Nancy Howell later commented: "We stayed there a few years and it seemed that some of us always had chills and fever. Then one early spring (1800) a flood came. During the years we were living in Bon Homme Bottom, Pa often crossed the river to look over the land on this (north) side. Our illness and that flood convinced Pa that he didn't want bottom land. He received a (Spanish Land) grant of 640 acres in the (later) Dardenne Township and there he built the fort where we lived until it was safe to move into a house." Francis Howell Jr., the man for whom the school district would later be named, was then eight years of age.

On their new land, soon known as Howell Prairie, at first under the flag on Imperial Spain, the Lilies of France and finally (as a result of the Louisiana Purchase) under the "Stars and Bars" of the United States of America. Francis Sr. built Howell Fort, the second fort in the region. The first fort had been built by Daniel Morgan Boone as marauding bands of Fox, Sauk, Illinois, Missouri, Shawnee, Sioux and Osage Indians were a threat to pioneer families. James Flangherty Howell, last of the Howell children, was born on February 5, 1803, their only offspring to be born on Howell Prairie. On May 9, 1805, seventeen year old Nancy Howell married James Richard Callaway, a grandson of Daniel and Rebecca Bryan Boone. Nancy first met "Jimmy" Callaway as the Howell's passed through Boonesborough on their journey to Upper Louisiana.

In August 1808, Lieutenant James Richard Callaway, Sergeant Thomas Howell and Privates John and Newton Howell of the St. Charles Dragoons, a troop of horse, accompanied General William Clark and his Territorial Militia westward to construct Fort Osage, then the westernmost fort and trading post in the U.S. Territory.

During the War of 1812, sons of Francis Howell Sr. served as members of the St. Charles Rangers, protecting settlers from Indian raids. Benjamin served as a Captain and Thomas and Francis Jr. served as privates. Captain James Richard Callaway (the man for whom Callaway County, Missouri is named) organized a company of Rangers only to be killed by Indians at Loutre Creek in Montgomery County on March 7, 1815, near the war's end. He was 32 years old and left Nancy Howell Callaway a widow with three small children (Thomas, Boone and Theresa Callaway).

On December 29, 1816 Francis Howell Jr. married the widow Mary Meek Ramsey. Their union proved to be a childless one, however, in 1823, they would adopt William Jackson Howell, the youngest child of Brother John and the late Sally Keele Howell. Mary would come to be known as "Aunt Polly" to her many nieces and nephews.

In 1818 the widow Nancy Howell Callaway married John Harrison Castlio, son of John and Eleanor Harrison Lowe Castlio. Eleanor, as tidewater Virginia Harrison, was reputed to be a cousin of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States. Nancy and John Castlio would raise six children of their own (John Callaway Castlio, Fortunatus Boone Castlio, Jasper Newton Castlio, Othaniel Caleb Castlio, Hiram Beverly Castlio and Zerelda Elizabeth Castlio) in addition to Nancy's Callaway children.

Time passed, farmlands were cleared and planted, settlers homes were increasingly secure from attack and the spiritual, governmental and educational needs of prairie families grew. Churches were organized, villages were planned, temporary one-room "subscription" schools opened, and then quickly closed. In early 1821 a group of neighbors and kinfolk prevailed upon Lewis Howell, "a classically educated young son of Francis Howell Sr.," to open a permanent school on Howell Prairie. Lewis opened his Howell Prairie Schoolhouse that fall, however, within a few months he became disillusioned with the role of schoolmaster, closed the school and on January 22, 1822, accompanied by his older brother, Francis Jr., rode off to the Texas territory to seek a Spanish land grant. Returning home from Texas in late March, Lewis almost immediately left Missouri to travel and teach in Louisiana. When he eventually returned to Missouri he gave up on his desire to study medicine, farmed for a time,. served as Adjutant of the St. Charles Militia, (his brother Francis Jr. then serving as colonel of the regiment),. tutored and in 1830 once again accepted the role of schoolmaster. That fall he opened the Lewis Howell Seminary on his farm on Howell Prairie. It was from this one-room subscription school that the present day Francis Howell School District traces its origin.

In June of 1833 Lewis Howell married Serena Lamme, a granddaughter of Daniel and Rebecca Boone. They were the first couple to be wed in Dardenne Presbyterian Church. Serena would raise six children and oversee the operation of the family farm for the next forty years, leaving Lewis free to be schoolmaster for generations of area youth.

Francis Howell Sr. died on October 27, 1834 at the age of 72. He was laid to rest beside his beloved Susannah in the Howell Burying Ground (now the Francis Howell Cemetery located within the Busch Wildlife Area), on the grounds of his Spanish land grant farm. The age of the pioneer ended with his passing. Francis Sr. and Susannah raised 10 children and some 50 grandchildren. They were widely respected as pioneers, settlers and community leaders. Their lives spanned a time of great change and growth. The United States became an independent nation, great territorial expansion occurred and Upper Louisiana became first the Territory of Missouri and then the state of Missouri.