Isham's Journals
This page is all about the private journals of Isham Robertson Howze--the man that enslaved Rev. Alcorn's father, uncle, aunt, cousins, grandmother, and great grandmother. These journal were essential to piecing together the story of Rev. Alcorn's family before the Civil War from 1850-1857.
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Isham Howze was born in 1796 in North Carolina.
1818 - Isham moves to Alabama.
1830 - Isham moves to Petersburg in Lincoln County, Tennessee.
1833 - Isham marries Elizabeth James Wilson
1839 - Isham & Elizabeth move to Chulahoma in Marshall County, Mississippi.
1850 - Isham & Elizabeth move to Germantown in Shelby County, Tennessee.
1853 - Isham & Elizabeth move to Wall Hill in Marshall County, Mississippi.
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Isham Howze died in 1857 at the home of Dr. Thomas Todd in Germantown Tennessee although his home was in Wall Hill, Mississippi.
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Throughout his life, I'm sure that Isham Howze likely filled many more private journals than I have been able to find. Luckily, several of his journals made their way to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson, Mississippi, and one of them to the Denver Colorado Public Library. I have made several trips to MDAH to photograph every page of the five journals there. An old friend of mine and her daughters went to the Denver library and copied the journal for me.
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Book 6 (MDAH) – November 1850 - August 1851. He starts writing while living in Chulahoma, Mississippi but they soon move to Nashoba in Germantown, Shelby County, Tennessee.
Book 8 (MDAH) – 1852 - 1853. He is living in Nashoba during this entire period.
Book 9 (MDAH) – September 1853 - August 1854. He is living in Nashoba but begins moving his family and belongings in November 1853 to Wall Hill, Marshall County, Mississippi.
Book 10 (MDAH) –1854 - 1855. He is living in Wall Hill, MS during this entire period.
Book 11 (Denver) – 1856 and ends abruptly when he dies in 1857. The last written page of the unfinished journal was written by his wife on September 12, 1857 which would have been Isham’s 60th birthday.