1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



711 





WILLIAni RAPP HOWARD, M. D. 



Tbe subject of this sketch was born Sept. 13, 1848, in 

 Fulton county. Ark. The town of Mountain Home, with its 

 beautiful cottages, occupies the ground where his father set- 

 tled in the forest in 1847. His family moved to Ozark 

 county, Mo., when he was 4 years of age, and opened a farm 

 in the forest in the fertile bottoms of the " north fork " of 

 White river, where they lived till the beginning of the War, 

 when they moved to Marshfleld, Webster county, Mo., nearly 

 a hundred miles north of the old home. 



At the close of the War his father, a physician, was left 

 with his profession and a large family, of which William was 

 tbe oldest. A farm was secured, and the boys worked on the 

 farm and attended school in the winter. In the autumn of 

 1866, when he was 18 years of age, he was examined by the 

 county superintendent of public schools of Webster county, 

 and obtained a first grade teacher's certificate. By teaching 



D)\ Wm. R. Hijward, Fl. Worth, Tex. 



and usiug the means in attending the schools and colleges of 

 the country, he advanced to the head of his classes, and grad- 

 uated with honors in 1870, with the degree of B. A. About 

 this time, the family having moved to Taney county — one of 

 the southwestern border counties of the State— he made his 

 permanent home with them, and was elected by a majority 

 over two other candidates, in 1871, as county superintendent 

 of public schools. During his term of his office he organized 

 the county into school districts, the first attempt at such an 

 undertaking after the close of the War. He secured good 

 teachers, and placed the county on a good educational system. 

 In 1873 he graduated in medicine at the St. Louis Medi- 

 cal College, and returned to the family home, and with his 

 father did a large country practice. During the years 1870- 

 73, he devoted his spare time to the study of botany and en- 

 tomology — two branches In which he was much interested. He 

 made a great deal of original investigation in entomology. He 

 was a close personal friend of the late Prof. Chas. V. Riley, 

 then State Entomologist of Missouri, in whose State reports 



due credit is given for tbe assistance Dr. Howard rendered. 

 He was a member of the Entomological Society of Ontario, 

 honorary member to the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 and quite a number of scientific societies. 



L_: In 187.5 Dr. Howard went to Texas on a prospecting tour, 

 and made the entire round trip of over 1,000 miles on horse- 

 back, writing a history of his trip for the literary journals. 



In 1876 he moved his family, consisting of wife and 2- 

 year-old son, to Texas. He settled in Hunt county, near 

 where the town of Kingston was established five years later, 

 when tbe railroad came. Here he practiced his profession for 

 10 years on horseback, never, perhaps, a day without being 

 on his horse. 



In the early part of 1877, Dr. H. became acquainted with 

 W. R. Graham, and in the summer of that year these two 

 gentlemen concluded to issue a call for a State organization of 

 the bee-keepers, and with the late and lamented Judge An- 

 drev.fs at the head of the list, the Texas State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association was formed The Judge was its first president, 

 and the Doctor was the first secretary. W. R. Graham, of 

 Greenville; Rev. W. K. Marshall, of Marshall; George Wil- 

 son, of McKinney; and Rev. 1. H. Hightower, of Kingston, 

 were prominent among the charter members. This Is now the 

 oldest society pertaining to any branch of agriculture in the 

 State, and has never failed to have an enthusiastic annual 

 meeting. 



During the years 1878 to 1883, the Doctor devoted as 

 much of his time as his professional duties would permit to 

 bee-keeping and the supply business, his being the first supply 

 factory ever started in the State. During this time he entered 

 largely into the discussions of the day through the journals, 

 and made many original investigations. His paper on the 

 " Honey-Plants of Northern Texas" — in which the technical 

 name of the plant, its time of flowering, whether sought for 

 honey or pollen, or both, how long in bloom, character and 

 quality of honey produced, market value, etc., were given at 

 full length — was of great value to Texas bee-keepers, enabling 

 apiaries to be established in places where none heretofore 

 existed, relying upon the pasturage for the location. His 

 paper on " The Parthenogenesis of the Honey-Bee," being the 

 most enthusiastic paper on the subject ever written, attracted 

 much attention, and brought out much discussion. Many 

 other able papers were contributed from his pen. 



In 1884 the Doctor's professional duties demanding all 

 his time, he sold out everything pertaining to the bee-business, 

 and in the earlv part of 1886 moved to Fort Worth, Tex. 

 ^_j In 1804 be published bis little work on "Foul Brood," 

 which gained for him an international reputation. Later, his 

 "White F'ungus Disease" bas solved a very puzzling problem. 

 This latter appeared in the American Bee Journal for Sept. 

 10, 1896. 



The Doctor's active interest taken in scientific agricultural 

 affairs bas won for him frienlship wherever bis name is 

 known. Besides being a member of the Texas State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, he is a member of the State Horticultural 

 Society. Of the societies devoted to other branches of science, 

 of which he is a member, here are a few : Member of tbe 

 North Texas Medical Association. Fellow of the Texas 

 Academy of Science. Professor of History, Pathology and 

 Bacteriology in the Medical Department of Fort Worth Uni- 

 versity. Secretary and Curator of the Pathological Museum. 



" Dr. Howard's Biological Laboratory," in which all his 

 work is done, is a private enterprise of his own, and not con- 

 nected with the medical school. 



In the medical world the Doctor stands at the head of his 

 profession. His ability as a pathologist has won tbe confi- 

 dence of the physicians of the country, and his laboratory and 

 microscopical work is much in demand where a diagnosis de- 

 pendent upon these methods is necessary. The Doctor has 

 made much original research in this line, and suffering hu- 

 manity has been the beneficiary. He reports through medical 

 journals the results of his works, though he does not write 

 much now, on any branch of science, his other duties employ- 

 ing his time. 



His father and mother still live at their old home in Taney 

 county, Missouri. A Friend. 



Honey as Foo«l :tii4l Sle«Iicine. — A new and revised 

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