Elizabeth E. Howell
Inventor
(1848-1938)
Elizabeth E. Howell was an inventor in the late 19th century to early 20th century based in Maryville, Missouri. Howell stands out at this time as she was one of the few female inventors that received recognition in a time when being an inventor was seen to be a male-only field. She paved her own way with her inventions and gained respect from the people around her who praised the work she did and the items she created and was an important figure in Nodaway County history.
Howell was born in 1848 in Fowler, Illinois, to her parents, Martin and Sarah Stewart, and was one of fourteen children born to the couple. In December of 1868, Howell left Illinois and went to Missouri where she eloped with her husband David Howell. The two moved to Maryville in the 1870s and opened a boarding house and millinery shop. While they were in Maryville, Elizabeth came up with her first invention: the Self-Waiting Table, which was an early version of the "Lazy Susan Table" and started her career as an inventor. Howell had the table patented in 1891.
Though the Self-Waiting Table was her first invention, the first creation she patented was the Accordion Plaiting Machine. She received the patent for this machine in 1890 from the United States government. The Accordion Plaiting Machine was a machine that would create artistic creases in clothes, usually in skirts, that gave the skirt a folded, flowing look. Her third patent was in 1894 for Garment Stays. This was a type of undergarment like a corset and was her most successful invention. Howell led the Missouri Board of Inventors Committee to Chicago in 1893 for the “World’s Exhibition” where her inventions were displayed, and Elizabeth received a medal for the Self-Waiting Table.
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Self-Waiting Table
Accordion Plaiting Machine
Garment Stay
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The Self-Waiting Table met statewide acclaim as it made its way to neighboring states like Kentucky and received positive remarks there as well, though it wasn’t marketed very well and would eventually be replaced by the “Lazy Susan Table” which Elizabeth was not credited for. The garment stays were so popular locally that Elizabeth opened a company in Maryville to stock them called “The Howell Dress Stay Company” with machines for making them bought and engineered in St. Louis. The company was very successful boasting $5,000 of capital stock by 1896. However, the company failed to submit the paper reports they needed and were sued by the state of Missouri leading to the company’s downfall.
Elizabeth E. Howell and her husband had four children, all of whom attended school in Maryville and were successful in their lives. Elizabeth asked for a divorce from her husband in 1905 with the argument of desertion as David had been in Alaska for several years looking for gold. The divorce was allowed, and Elizabeth moved to be closer to her daughter in Denver, Colorado. While she was there, she wrote a book that was published in the 1930s April and May editions of the Barnard Bulletin in Barnard, Missouri. Called “Thirteen,” the book was about her time in Missouri during the Civil War and dealing with “Bushwhackers.” In 1938 Howell moved to Long Beach, California, with her son and died later that same year in May at 90 years old.
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Resources
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Stairway of Stars Booklet, Nodaway County Historical Society.​
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Bob Bohlken, Famous People of Nodaway County (Instant Publisher, 2010).
Images from NCHS