Front page story
Dawson Progress Thursday 16 Dec 1971
Funeral services for Paul L Howton, 61, were conducted Sunday afternoon at Beshear Funeral Home.The Rev. Haven Betts assisted by Rev Jesse S Bell and Rev Tom Martin officiated. Burial was in Rosedale Cem.
Howton, a prominent civic leader of Dawson Springs for many years, died suddenly of an apparent heart attack in his home at 417 S Main St at 9:30 pm Friday, Dec 10.
He had not been ill. On Thursday he had attended an All-Kentucky Cities meeting in Louisville. He had been chairman of the Dawson Springs All-Kentucky Cities committee since it was formed.
Howton was district manager of Kentucky Utilities Company here. He had been an employee of the KU Company for 43 years.
He had been a member of the Dawson Springs board of education for the past 22 years; he had been board chairman for several years.
He was a former member of the State Board of Pardons and Parole. He had been a member of the First Methodist Church here for many years.
Howton was a charter member and former president and secretary of the Dawson Springs Rotary Club. For many years he served as president of the Dawson Springs Chamber of Commerce.
He was a charter member of the Hopkins County Fair board, was a member of the Pennyrile Redevelopment Organization, was on the Tradewater RC&D board, and had served as chairman of the Second District State Board of Education.
Since its inception Howton had served as a member of the West Hopkins Industrial, Inc, Industrial Committee, he was a former member of the Lions Club, was a Kentucky Colonel, had a Kentuckyy Admiral's commission, was a member of the Masonic Lodge and was a Shriner.
Howton was a graduate of Dawson Springs High School, attended Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Needlepark Electrical School in Cleveland, Ohio and studied business administration at the University of Michigan.
He was born in Dawson Springs May 7, 1910 son of the late James R and Mary C Dodge Howton. He married Miss Pauline Dawson Sep 5, 1938.
Survivors in addition to the widow are 2 daughters, Mrs Thurman Long Jr, Harrodsburg, Ky and Mrs William J Rudloff, Bowling Green; 5 grandchildren; 1 brother, Robert Howton, Madisonville.
Pallbearers were Joe Allen, Truman Menser, Robert Smith, Gene Sisk, George Glass, Bayless Wadlington and James D Hunt.
Photo included
* * * The next week, Dec 21, 1971, the Dawson Springs Progress ran a front page story concerning a memorial fountain for Paul L Howton. The story doesn't give any genealogical info that is not included in the obit so was not copied.
* * * I spoke with Mr Dillingham, father of the Progress publisher, and a Mr Holeman, at the Progress after I finished transcribing the obituary. They both remember this family. There is no family left in this area to their knowledge. They said that Paul's mother and aunt both were Dodge's. The aunt never married [I forgot to ask for her first name]. They think they are both buried in Rosedale Cemetery. The brother, Robert, is also deceased and they thought maybe he was buried in Madisonville at Oddfellows Cemetery. The oldest daughters name was Carol. Neither of them could remember the name of the other daughter and neither remembered whether Carols husband was Long or Rudloff. All of the pallbearers were fellow employees at KU. They think that Bayless Wadlington was a KU employee in Paducah [McCracken Co] but were not positive. Joe Allen and James Hunt they think are both still living.
Mr Holeman said that Paul Howton 'was a character'. When I asked in what way, he said that Paul 'loved' Dawson Springs and further, that as far as he was concerned 'there was no other town in the country'.
The memorial fountain was eventually set up at Legion Park however the day came when they had to fill it in because it was too much trouble to maintain. I did not have my camera with me so did not take a new photo, but you will find several photos of the park in the Dawson Springs slide show.
Additional notes:
Mary Dodge Howton had 2 brothers. They could only remember the name of 1 of them... Louie. They thought they remembered that the 2nd brother went my initials but couldn't remember what they were. Neither of them mentioned a sister. The 2 Dodge brothers ran a lumber mill. The location was approximately across the street from where the flower shop sits today on the east side of hwy 62. The mill was in operation until probably the 1950s. Today the new Dollar General Store and a pharmacy are under construction at the site, next to IGA.Mary Dodge Howton was the telephone operator for Dawson Springs for years. The telephone office was on the 2nd floor in the building next door to Woodburn Drugs. The drug store is there but the other building is empty. These buildings would have been just a couple of buildings west of the Old Century Hotel and across the street from Arcadia Park.
They said that Pete Dodge was probably a nephew of Louie Dodge.
They said that they thought that James R Howton, father of Paul, died when he was a small boy.
* * * A quick check of Ky death records at: http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ky/death/search.cgi showed:
- Pauline D Howton, age 72, d in Warren Co 07-12-1987, Cert #18589
- James R Howton, age 53, d Hopkins Co 4-27-1928, cert # 09564. Paul would have been 17 or 18 if this is his father.
- There are several Mary Howtons.
- There are 7 Dodge's whose residence was Hopkins Co.
* * *
ROSEDALE CEMETERY shows Thomas Dodge Oct 1, 1869 Oct 6, 1919 Janie his wife Feb 3, 1875 Mar 18, 1968 Olah Apr 20, 1896 - I. W Sep 2, 1901 Jan 11, 1980 A.O. (Pete) May 6, 1904 1964 Dallas Dodge Apr 15, 1884 Aug 21, 1966 Lena Dodge his wife Apr 3, 1891 Aug 27, 1919 Lora Dodge his wife Sep 13, 1899 Jun 1, 1954 Louie Dodge 1874 1960 Lena Mae Dodge 1882 1968 James Howton May 19, 1875 Jun 3, 1942 Father Mamie Howton Apr 3, 1879 Jan 28, 1944 MotherI checked ODDFELLOWS CEMETERY in Madisonville and found NO Dodge or Howton in the index. Both Rosedale and Oddfellows were copied in the 60s so it is not surprising that Paul, his wife, or his mother were not found.
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