My cousin Annie F. Howie is here buried alongside her brother Robert Maitland Howie. She is a cousin that I never met, although she lived so close by to us in southern California. Robert and Annie were the children of James Alexander Howie. Most of you are now saying who was James? William Rider Howies' father was William George Howie. James Alexander Howie was one of the brothers of William George Howie. They had moved out to California back in 1893. This was much earlier than William Rider Howie who moved with his family from Canada to California in 1935 just after his wife died. Also, earlier than William R. Howie's parents, Helen Desdemonia Rider (Howie) (Parker) & her second husband Albert Gardner Parker. They came to Pasadena California just before 1910.
Robert Maitland Howie was just three years old when his family moved him from the family farm in Canada out to California in 1893. We then find Robert and Annie on the 1900 U.S. Census along with the rest of their family living in Compton California. Their father James A. Howie was a railroad laborer. By the 1910 U.S. Census we still find the family living together in Compton, but the census now lists them as farmers between Tweedy Blvd and Abbott Road. If you look on a current map, this is a large area. By the 1920 U.S. Census, Robert M. Howie has married Vera Naomi Gains and they have a son. They are renting a farm next to Thomas Mayo and Flora (Howie) Mayo on Lemon Ave. in Compton. I believe this is where this next photo was taken.
The year of this photo says 1916 Compton. Pictured in the photo from left to right. James Alexander Howie and above him his spouse Clara Elnett (Hand) Howie, and below him is Flora L. (Howie) Mayo and her daughter Marjorie L. Mayo. Above and to the right of Marjorie is Albert Gardner Parker and standing behind him is his spouse Helen Desdemonia (Rider) (Howie) Parker. Then sitting on the step is the Thomas Mayo and their second daughter Mabel M. Mayo. On June 5th 1917 we find a WWI draft registration card for Robert Maitland Howie, and then nine years later we find his Burial:
Woodlawn Memorial Park
Compton
Los Angeles County
California, USA.
On the 1920 U.S. Census, we find James Alexander Howie (wd) living with his daughter Annie Howie. It says he owns the home, 130 So. Rose Ave., Compton, CA. He was 65 years old, and was working as a night security guard.
Annie Howie lived a very long time. She most likely inherited the home from her father where she resided at 130 S. Rose St., Compton CA until her death January 04, 1976. She was 91 years old. She out lived all of her family except Mabel (Mayo) Somfelde who died in 1986 at 73 years of age.
Using Google maps streetview, we now find the above home is gone, it has been replaced with an asphalt parking lot.
This is about all I have on Cousin Annie Howie. I wish I had been able to get more information from Dorothy Lecka way back when. The people are gone as are the farms. All that is left is a headstone, and as you can see from the above photo taken in 2005, it appears that the headstone soon will be pushed off its base and probably broken as so many headstones are.
