Note Type
Historical NoteNote
Memucan Hunt Howard was born on December 14, 1708 in Granville County, North Carolina, to Barnard Howard and Jane Hunt Howard. At the age of twelve, he left home to work at a general store. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, he left the store to work on his uncle's plantation, while his uncle served in the army. After the war, he moved to Oxford to work at another general store. He soon became bookkeeper of the store and ultimately helped copy Chancery Court documents as one of the store's owners was also Clerk and Master. Howard's uncle Dr. Thomas Hunt hired Memucan to survey land warrants in West Tennessee, because of this survey work, Howard amassed a large holding of lands in West Tennessee. On November 11, 1832, he married Rebecca Porter in Nashville. By 1880, they lived in New York City, where Rebecca died in 1885. Memucan moved to Philadelphia after her death, but died the following year. He is buried in Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia. They had no surviving children, so Howard left much of his estate to charitable organizations, including the Howard Library in Nashville, the Old Woman's Home, Fisk University, Protestant Orphan Asylum, Woman's Mission Home, and the Tennessee Historical Society.