Private George Washington Howard (1837-1909)

Private George W. Howard, 3rd great-grandfather of brother Jason Fite, was born in Knox County, Illinois on February 14, 1837 to Stephen and Martha (nee Coffee) Howard. According to Malcom McGregor's 1901 Biographical Record of Jasper County, "Stephen Howard was one of the very early settlers in Knox county, Illinois. In 1848 he removed to Arkansas and located in Sebastian county, where he bought a claim, but ten years later he moved to Crawford county, Kansas, where he died in 1875."

On August 15, 1861, George enlisted as a private in Company A, 6th Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He served until honorably discharged at the mustering out of his company at Camp Dietzler, Missouri. His father-in-law, William B. Southard (c. 1816-1863), was captured in 1863 by Confederate bushwhackers in Fort Scott, Kansas and hanged in Smithfield, Missouri.

George Howard settled in Jasper County, Missouri after the war and prospered.