The Howland connection

I met Tom Howland via email 5-6 years ago. He was researching common family in North Carolina and we exchanged notes.

A couple years later I noticed the name Howland on the Census in Cortez, Florida. As I examined the names and details I realized they were Howlands who were related to Tom's family in North Carolina.

I spent a while researching the family and found Walter Raleigh Howland lived in Cortez from the mid 1890s but only stayed about 15-20 years and had moved to Punta Gorda, Florida by 1920. He was a fisherman in Cortez and Punta Gorda was another fishing community further south. He must have felt more connected to Cortez, maybe because of all the other folks there who came from the same area of North Carolina. When Walter died in 1946 his family buried him in the Palma Sola Cemetery near the other early settlers of Cortez.

Walter's son, Benjamin Clifford Howland was born in Cortez but later moved to Boston and was a car dealer there. He also must have also felt at home in Cortez because when he died in 1965 he was buried at the Palma Sola Cemetery. In my research I found two of Clifford's grandchildren. The both live near Boston and although they knew their Grandfather had been born there, they had never been to Cortez or knew of the family connections.