Mark Howell Chaves County, New Mexico

Mark Howell, chief deputy sheriff of Chaves County, living in Roswell, was born near Warrensburg, Missouri, in 1842, and in his boyhood days went to Independence, Missouri, with his parents. In 1853 he accompanied them on the long and tedious journey to California. The family home was established on the Tuolumne River, and at the age of fifteen years he engaged in freighting. He has lived at different times in various parts of California, laid out and surveyed the town of Madera and was one of the first settlers of Merced, California, taking up his abode there in 1872. In January, 1882, he came to New Mexico, locating in Las Vegas, and in 1884 he removed to Roswell. He has surveyed most of the ditches in Chaves County and also land. His work in this connection has been an important one for there is nothing which has as direct bearing upon the development and. prosperity of the Territory as its irrigation system.

Aside from his activity in business, Mr. Howell has been recognized as a leading merchant of Chaves County because of his capable and active service in public office. He was deputy treasurer for six years, county treasurer for four years, and was the first county surveyor, receiving that office through appointment. Since the first of October, 1905 he has been chief deputy sheriff, and over the record of his public career and private life there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil. Fraternally he is a Mason and Odd Fellow, prominent in the ranks of that order, as well as in political and business life. His labors have been of direct and permanent good in Chaves County, proving a valued factor in the upbuilding and advancement of this part of the Territory.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.