Mace Howell was a fine old-school type of Kentucky gentleman and he led a very active life. He as a farmer near Morning Star School, Otter Creek, Larue County; and he raised his family on the farm. Morning Star School was the first schoolhouse near Malt, Kentucky; it was then known as the Greenbriar District. Later a house was built at its present site and its name was changed sometime before 1920 to Morning Star. Mace opened the first merchandise and hardware store at Otter Creek in 1883; later he and his son-in-law, Henry E. Lewis, conducted the business. In 1898 Mace and his son Joseph "Joe" ran the business for a few years; then Mace and his son James Richard operated the business. From 1904 to 1915, Henry Bloyd conducted the stand, but then from 1915 to 1919 Mace operated it again. Jack Thompson then took it over, then T. D. Noe, and in 1921 to 1924 Joseph "Joe" (Mace's son) and Joe's son Wayne operated it; then Jim Ward, Stella (Mace's daughter) and her husband Wayne Ennis took it over; and lastly it was run by Fred (Mace's son) until his death in 1941. Across Otter Creek about 50 yards, Mace operated a gristmill powered by a giant overshot water wheel (built in 1861 by Robert Salsman). From the surrounding hills of Malt, people came from all directions from the edge of Taylor, Green, and Larue Counties to patronize Mace's mill. Mace operated the mill from 1880 to 1931. Five generations hence have operated the Howell Roller Mills for 80 years. A flourmill was added in the 1890's. In 1941 W. L. "Rooster" Straley purchased the Howell Roller Mills and the Howell merchandise and hardware store; Rooster wrecked both for the lumber. The machinery was moved to another mill in another county. Before 1883, the people of the Otter Creek Community in Larue County hired their mail carried from Hibernia to Buffalo by paying the carrier themselves. Mace and Kitchell Willis Huber were the persons most interested in this service and W. H. Allen was the carrier for some time. The mail started at Hibernia and went to Buffalo and back once a week and later twice a week and still later, three mails weekly. In 1883, a post office was established at Mace's mill on Otter Creek and Mace became the first postmaster there until it was removed in 1897. The Post office was named Otter bearing the name of the creek. (The creek was named from the fur-bearing animal, the otter). In 1897 at the close of Grover Cleveland's administration, some local politics entered into the post office and a Republican took the Post Office away from the Democrat Mace and moved it three miles west but still retained the name Otter. The disappointed community, led by Mace, at once petitioned for a post office at the mill and D. H. Smith, then in congress, aided the effort; a post office was established at the same place from where the first one had been removed. In 1898, Malt Post Office then took the old stand at Otter and has since remained. Hence it is evident why the post office Otter is not on Otter Creek. The first postmaster at Malt was Joseph "Joe" (Mace's son), then Henry Bloyd, Fred Howell, (Mace's son), and then L. D. Noe.

The name "Malt" had an unusual inception. It is told that the place for the post office had been selected, but was nameless, A postal inspector and Joseph "Joe" were unable to agree upon a name. Glancing about the Howell store, the inspector saw a shelf full of cans of Malt. He said, "How about the name of 'Malt' for the Post Office?" It was agreed upon and became the official name thereafter. During World War I, Mace served as a United States Deputy Marshall. He was a Kentucky State Legislator from 1917 to 1919. He was also the deputy sheriff and sheriff of Larue County for 32 years. He served as a Hodgenville City Councilman and Mayor of Hodgenville in Larue County. He was a member of the Independent School Board for 12 years. He helped build, owned, and operated the Nancy Lincoln Inn, adjoining the Lincoln National Historical Park near Hodgenville. He was director of the Larue Federal Savings and Loan Association and acted as an association appraiser. He was a 50-year Mason and a member of the First Baptist Church in Hodgenville. Mace was truly an active and industrious man.
Mace and Patsy had 10 children.

One of the most rugged and efficient County Sheriffs in the state was Mace Howell, waterwheel miller, extensive farmer and stockman, civic-minded citizen, and keen businessman, loyal neighbor and friend. One of his sons, James Howell, was co-owner and manager of the Nancy Lincoln souvenir shop at the Lincoln Birthplace, and with his genial smile and pleasing personality is no doubt remembered all over the United States and the world. His successor, a near relative, possessed all similar traits which help all the many visitors who came and went, to remember their stop at Lincoln Birthplace and Souvenir Shop as one of the most pleasant places they visited in their travels.

The Howell Mill at Malt was built in 1861, along Otter Creek at Malt, in the Ball Hollow section of Larue County. The gigantic, wooden "overshot" water wheel was the second largest in Kentucky. The mill was powered by a large stream of water from the creek that was troughed into a man-made millrace along the hillside from an upstream waterfall. When the water reached the fore bay at its hillside destination, it was channeled into a second wooden trough down to, and just beyond, the top of the wheel. Buckets were attached to the wheel, so that when water flowed over the wheel it would fill the buckets and then spill into the next ones and, slowly but surely, turn the wheel. During the late 1800's and early 1900's, the mill was operated at different times by James M. "Mace" Howell and his sons, Fred Howell and James R. Howell. The Malt Post Office and Store were located across the creek, and for many years the area was the center of activity for people residing within a large radius of this community. Many moonshine stills existed up and down the three branches of Otter Creek, both during and after Prohibition days. Otis Howell, a former resident of the Malt community in Ball Hollow, recalls his father, Fred Howell, telling him of standing atop the Howell Mill in the early 1920's and seeing smoke from as many as seven still in operation at the same time.

A few years after the gold rush in California a fellow whose last name was Beauchamp came to the Otter Creek section of Larue County and shortly thereafter started the only gold rush ever heard of in this neck of the woods. Beauchamp and Mace Howell were apparently the only ones in the know on the deal and Mr. Howell got a big kick out of telling about it for years thereafter. Beauchamp showed up at Howell's Mill one day with a hand full of rock specimens that contained gold, silver, lead and perhaps other minerals. He also had a few small gold nuggets. Local interest flared to an intense pitch when he finally revealed he had discovered the precious stuff somewhere nearby. Beauchamp was not a greedy person though and agreed to let most of the local boys in on the deal on a percentage basis. Each man could have a share of what he dug up if he would agree to work for Beauchamp. The takers were many and a good sized army laden with picks and shovels set out for the spot designated by Beauchamp and made the earth fly for several days. Most of the fellows so employed, according to Mr. Howell, were the sort that wouldn't do a day's work for double pay ordinarily, but whose visions of getting rich quick spurred them to superhuman efforts to wrest an easy fortune from the earth. Naturally they found nothing of value because the ore and nuggets that Beauchamp had shown them had come from the real gold fields in the West and were used only as bait to entice the boys into a little unsuspecting labor for the entertainment of the few in the know.

Thus ended the only other search for precious minerals that we have heard of in Larue County. This last was certainly a hoax and perhaps the first was too. The only mineral of any value we have heard of was the iron ore which extended through the lower edge of the county and down into Hart where Aetna Furnace was located. There were other small furnaces along this iron ridge about which little is known and we would like to hear of them. We have heard there was such a furnace somewhere in the southeast end of the county on the Rolling Fork river which at one time made cannon balls which were floated down Rolling Fork to Salt River and from there via the Ohio to the Mississippi and New Orleans where these same cannon balls were fired by Andrew Jackson's men at the British in the war of 1812. Source: IMAGES IN AMERICA, HARDIN AND Larue COUNTY, KY

1869 Larue Co KY— Larue County marriage record: James Mason Howell & Martha J. Benningfield, 25 Feb. 1869. Cert. from gents father proven by Jacob Howell; cert. from lady proven by Wm. Elliott. Gent born in Larue Co. and lady in Taylor Co., the daughter of Reuben Benningfield; both age 20. Married 25 Feb 1869 at County Clerk's office in presence of Jo Burba and W. Crouch by G. A. Coulson.

1870 Larue Co KY—Census, Otter Creek district, James M. Howell was family #27. He was 21 years old, as was his wife, Martha J. Their children: Mary C., age 3 months. Also living in the household, Emily Houston, age 12.

In January 1879’s Mace was an illicit distiller in Larue county. He and his accomplices were finally apprehended at Level Woods, on Otter Creek, Larue Co., by Marshal Wm. Adair and a posse of six men. Mace and his party were described as a terror of the county and boldly and openly declared they would kill anyone who attemted to arrest them. Mace was a Magistrate of Larue County at the time. He was taken to Louisville and charged with illicit distilling and shooting John Wyatt. He was held on $1000 to appear befor the US Circuit Court.

1879 Larue Co KY—MOONSHINE RAID, How a batch of Bold Illicit Distillers Were Captured in Larue County, Special Dispatch to the Courier Journal, January 20, 1879. Beckham and Tip Morrison, guide returned tonight from the most successful raid of the season, bringing seven moonshiners who are most dangerous characters, being in the saddle thirty hours. These men were captured in Level Woods; Larue County on Otter Creek and have long defied the authorities. Several expeditions have been organized to affect the capture of these parties, but all failed. The officer pounced on the still house about eleven o’clock last night, capturing Joseph Johnson, James Johnson, Mace Howell, and Green Ferrell in the act. The found two stills in operation, one of one hundred gallons capacity and the other sixty-five gallons, eight tubs of mash, twenty three tubs of beer, and one large tub of singlings. (singlings, n. In distilling, the crude spirit which is the first to come over.)

They then proceeded to the residences of John Johnson, Jerry Johnson and Jas. Ferrell, and captured them at Green Ferrell’s house. They destroyed another forty-five-gallon barrel of whiskey. When the officers arrived at the still house, Capt. Adair, in the lead, burst open the door. Green Ferrell leveled his guan at him, but Adair got the drop on him and Clark drew his carbine. When the men surrendered, they found three revolvers, a shotgun and a rifle in the still house, which they captured. Jerry Johnson is the man who boast of having shot John Wyatt last October, when the officers failed to capture the still. These parties are the same who shot at Henry Bevens and Ben Kirkpatrick on the former trip. The officers are entitled to great credit for having captured these parties, who have been the terror of the country in which they live, and have openly and boldly defied the officers, boasting that they would of killed anybody who attempted to arrest them. Mace Howell, one of the prisoners, is a magistrate of Larue County.. He sais that had the parties had five minutes notice of the raid of the Officers, they would have had a belly full of fun, for they are dangerous and desperate men. The Prisoners were lodged in jail here, and will be taken to Louisville tomorrow.

1879 Larue Co KY—THE ODOR OF MOONSHINE, Court Croppings: Courier Journal
January 22, 1879. Yesterday James Johnson, Mace Howell, Green Ferrell, Joseph Johnson and James Ferrell, five of the gang of moonshiners captured in Larue County by Deputy United States Marshall Adair, were presented before United State Commissioner John C. Wharton. James Johnson and Mace Howell were charged with illicit distilling and shooting John Wyatt; they were held in $1,000 each to appear before the United States Court. Green Ferrell and Joseph Johnson, charged with illicit distilling only, were held in $500 each. James Ferrell was charged with having a barrel of moonshine in his house. He was asked where he got it by Col. Wharton, United States Attorney.

“I never to it at all”
“Wasn’t it in your house”
“Yes”
“How did it get there?”
“Somebody left it there when I had gone to sleep. I guess that can be, can’t it?”

The prisoners are full-fledged moonshiners. There was an odor of improbability about their statements yesterday: and another kind of odor about their bodies which was a cross between a whiskey still and a pig pen.

1880 Larue Co KY—Census In the Otter Creek District of the 1880, Mason Howell was family 4; 31 years old, a Farmer, and born in Kentucky. His wife, Martha J., was 30 years old and the children at home were: Mary C., 10; Margaret, 8; Joe R., 6; Ellen F., 2; and James R., age 4/12 years.

1892 Larue Co KY—Census The Larue County Herald News, Thursday, July 14, 1892: J. M. Howell sold Dan Bush, one yoke of work oxen for $75. (Otter news)

1910 Larue Co KY—Census, James M. Howell was head of family #351. He was 62 years old and had been married 42 years to Martha J., age 61, who was listed as the mother of 10, 8 living children. The children in the home were: James R., 30; Stella B., 21; Fred, 19. The following grandchildren were also living with them: Marshal Howell, 11; Mary, 9; and Wayne, age 7 years. (these were children of Joseph R. Howell).

1919 Larue Co KY—daughter, Stella B., age 31. Also living with them is his mother Winnie Catherine Salsman, age 86. James M. (Mason)(Mace) was 70 years old and his wife, Martha Jane was also 70.

ID: I05055
Name: James Mason 'Mace' Howell, Sex: M, Birth: 25 APR 1849 in Larue Co., KY (C-1880, Larue, Otter Sect. Fam. # 4) (C-1910 Larue) Burial: Mt Tabor Baptist Church Cemetery, Larue County, KY, Note: Father: Joseph Howell b: 1828 in Howell Homestead, Ginseng, Hardin (now Larue) Co, Ky. Mother: Winnie Catherine Salsman b: 14 APR 1833 in Hardin (Now Larue) County, KY (C-1880, Larue, Otter Distr., Fam. #6) Marriage 1 Martha Jane Benningfield b: 18 AUG 1849 in Taylor County, Kentucky. Married: 25 FEB 1869 in Larue County, KY. CHILDREN: Mary Catherine 'Cattie' Howell b: 6 FEB 1870, Margaret Jane Howell b: 30 DEC 1871, Joseph R. Howell b: 15 NOV 1873 in Kentucky, John W. Howell b: 11 JAN 1876 in Larue County, Kentucky. He never married, Ellen Frances Howell b: 12 JUL 1878, James 'Jimmie' Richard Howell b: 7 DEC 1879 in Larue County, Kentucky, Nora E. Howell b: 14 SEP 1883 in (resided in Los Angeles in 1955 when her sister Ellen, died), Hattie V. Howell b: 18 JUL 1886, married Chester Howard, Stella B. Howell b: 5 OCT 1888 in Kentucky, Fred Howell, Sr b: 25 MAR 1890 in Larue County, KY; ran store and mill at Malt, Ky

Possibly born in Green Co., KY according to Stella Howells marriage certificate.