Evan Howell

Who was Evan Howell?

Evan Park Howell was an American politician and early telegraph operator, as well as an officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

A native of Warsaw, Georgia born to Atlanta pioneer Clark Howell, Sr., he became a runner and pupil of Atlanta's first telegraph operator, D.U. Sloan, at the age of twelve. In 1855 he attended Georgia Military Institute in Marietta. He read law in Sandersville, and briefly practiced law in Atlanta before the outbreak of war.

In 1861, he joined the infantry, enlisting in Georgia's First Regiment. Within 2 years, Howell was promoted to first lieutenant. He fought under Stonewall Jackson in Virginia, and then was sent West, where he fought in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Atlanta Campaign where he defended the city as a captain of artillery. He ended the war in Hardee's Corps as captain of Howell's Battery, Georgia Light Artillery.

Upon his return, he farmed for two years clearing and selling lumber on his father's land near Atlanta. Then for a year he was a reporter then city editor of Atlanta's Daily Intelligencer. In 1869 he returned to practicing law and served a number of political positions including member of city council, member of the state Senate and solicotor-general of the Atlanta circuit. One of his law clients was the Constitution where he learned E.Y. Clarke was willing to sell part of his interest in the paper. In 1876 he purchased a controlling interest in the Atlanta Constitution and became its editor-in-chief.