William John Howey
William John Howey was born on January 19, 1876 in Odin, Illinois. At age 16, "Bill" Howey began selling insurance and by 1900 began developing land and towns for the railroad in Oklahoma. He opened the Howey Automobile Company in Kansas City in 1903 at age 27, and after making seven Howey Cars, closed his business and went to Perez, Mexico where he bought a large tract of land, hoping to develop pineapple plantations with help from American capitalists, but the Mexican revolution forced him back to the USA.
Howey perfected his citrus farming and sales program techniques in the Winter Haven, Florida area, and his original home site must have been where Bok Tower now stands. In 1914, Howey began buying land in Lake County for $8 to $10 per acre and sold it for $800 to $ 2,000 per acre after it was cleared and planted with 48 citrus trees per acre. Later, the plantings were doubled to 96 trees per acre. He married Mary Grace Hastings from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on April 13, 1915, his second wife, and they adopted two daughters, Mary and Lois Valerie.
He built the Bougainvillea in 1917, a two-story frame boarding house across from the future site of the Howey Mansion, to house visiting prospective grove investors. By 1920, he had amassed nearly 60,000 raw acres for his "City Inevitable,” but the Bougainvillea burned to the ground that year, and he set up temporary housing in "Tent City" on the same location. He opened the Floridan Hotel at the south end of town in 1924, and it soon became the social hub of the community.
The Florida Land Boom tripled Howey's enterprises and the Town named after him was incorporated on May 8, 1925. He served as Mayor from 1925 to 1936. To celebrate the completion of his 20-room, 7,200 square foot Howey Mansion in 1927, he hosted the entire New York Civic Opera Company of 100 artists, drawing a crowd of 15,000 arriving in 4,000 automobiles to the free outdoor performance. The Mansion was built in Mediterranean Revival style at a cost of $250,000 (in 1926 non-inflated dollars), is presently in private ownership, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The collapse of the Florida Land Boom in 1926, the Stock Market Crash in 1929, and the Great Depression of the 1930s contributed to a decline in land sales. Howey ran unsuccessfully as a Republican Candidate for Governor in 1928 and 1932 and though his dreams were never fully realized, he was known as Florida's greatest citrus developer when he died of a heart attack in Umatilla, Florida on June 7, 1938 at the age of 62. After an untimely death at age 16, Lois Valerie was laid to rest with William on August 13, 1941. Surviving daughter, Mary married George E. Smith Jr., residing in Eustis, Florida. Grace died at age 92 on December 18, 1981 and was placed in the third of six vaults in the family mausoleum, a small Georgian marble structure replete with filigree glass doors, and a stained glass window to diffuse the rays of the setting sun, located on the Mansion property.
