Hattie Howard, a wayward girl of Medford, who had disappeared from home, was found last week in Dunsmuir, where she had been arrested. "Captain" A. S. Smith, it appears, had followed the young girl to Dunsmuir and endeavored to procure a license to marry her there without success. She was brought back to Medford on Thursday evening's train.
Ashland Tidings, March 19, 1900, page 2


    Hattie Howard, the unfortunate Medford girl of 15 years, whose sad experiences in Dunsmuir were related in Monday's Tidings, was committed to the Magdalene Home, near Portland, Saturday by County Judge Crowell. Charles Prim of Jacksonville took charge of the girl on the way to her new home.
"Brevities," Ashland Tidings, March 22, 1900, page 3


    [Miss Hattie Howard of Medford was brought back from California by her father last Thursday, and the next day County Judge W. S. Crowell committed her to the Magdalen Home at Portland. Chas. Prim took her there.]
Dunsmuir News, March 17.]--
    A pretty young girl arrived here from Medford, Oregon, last Saturday, and was followed a couple of days later by an old man, who called himself her uncle. The couple were seen on the streets together and in the different stores, where the man bought presents for the girl. He applied at the Furlong lodging house for a room containing two beds, saying that at home he and the niece had been accustomed to occupy different beds in the same apartment. His request was promptly denied, but he was finally furnished with a room, while the girl applied to Mrs. Lew Brown and was accommodated with lodging for the night.
    On the way here from Yreka, where she remained a short time, the girl met a railroad brakeman to whom she told her troubles, and who gave her sympathy and sound advice, urging her to return home. She refused to return, however, and after arriving at Dunsmuir he befriended the girl still further by introducing her to the wife of Constable Brown, who gave her a temporary home. After the "uncle" arrived on the scene Constable Brown and wife surmised that there was something wrong and telephoned to Jas. Howard, the father of the young lady, asking him if he knew his daughter was in Dunsmuir and in company with an old man. Mr. Howard immediately replied, instructing the constable to arrest both parties and hold them until his arrival. A second message advised Constable Brown to detain the girl, but to give the man short notice to leave town. Mr. Howard, however, disclaims knowledge of the source of the latter message. The girl's aged companion, Captain A. C. Smith, left on the northbound train Wednesday evening. Mr. Howard arrived here Thursday morning, departing for Medford on the ten o'clock train with his wayward daughter.
    After his arrest Captain Smith applied to Justice Isgrigg to procure a license for him to wed Miss Howard, saying that he was willing to take this step in order to save the girl from public disgrace, since she had been betrayed by a Medford young man named Tice, who had deserted her in her trouble. Justice Isgrigg telephoned to the girl's father asking him if he gave consent for Hattie to wed the aged captain, and the reply was that on no consideration would he consent to such marriage. .
    The girl's story is that her ruin was wrought by young Tice about four
months ago, when they with a party of friends at Gold Hill, Oregon, were under the influence of wine. She asserts that she was ready to marry her betrayer, but could not obtain the consent of her father, so she came to Yreka to meet him, but he failed to keep his appointment, and that being friendless and among strangers she came here with Smith, who was an old friend of the family and who offered to protect her.
    Mr. Howard partially denies this and says Tice is a worthless scamp and drunkard. He also stated that he was making arrangements to send the girl to an asylum where she could be properly cared for, when Smith told her of her father's intentions and induced her to leave for the south, he following a few days later with her trunk.
    Captain Smith, who in spite of the fact that he is a Grand Army pensioner, bears a very unsavory reputation at Medford, passes as an injured humanitarian who was merely sacrificing himself to help an unfortunate girl. The father, who is convinced that Smith is responsible for the girl's ruin, can do nothing, as the refusal on her part to give evidence against him make it impossible to mete out justice to the gray-haired scoundrel.
    The situation of the girl, who is but sixteen years of age, is a most pitiable one. She has been about the same as motherless for several years, and has been making her home with her grandmother, whose overindulgence has perhaps been the cause of her downfall.
Valley Record, Ashland, March 22, 1900, page 1


    Hattie Howard, a wayward girl of 15, was examined before Judge Crowell Friday, who adjudged her incorrigible and sent her to the Magdalene Home in Portland.
"Jacksonville News," Medford Mail, March 23, 1900, page 3


    In the matter of Hattie Howard, incorrigible, ordered that a warrant for $7.50 be drawn in favor of W. J. Howard for presenting her before the court pending an examination into the charge against her.
"County Commissioners' Court," Valley Record, Ashland, April 13, 1900, page 3


Chas. Prim conveying Hattie Howard to Crittenton home, including admission fee of $20 . . . $78.35
"County Commissioners' Court: Bills Allowed," Valley Record, Ashland, April 13, 1900, page 3


Portland Welcome, May 12.]
    Captain A. C. Smith is behind the bars. The Welcome predicted, about a month ago, that he would eventually be. The charge against him is for abducting and unlawfully detaining a female person, under the age of 16 years. That female person is Miss Hattie Howard of Medford, Jackson County, who now has the measles, and is, incidentally, enjoying the prospects of becoming a mother.
    For more than a year Hattie Howard has defied parental authority. She was bad by nature and by habit. She rapidly became incorrigible and finally permitted herself to be spirited away by the old scamp who is now in jail in this city on her account.
    After the sensational elopement from Medford, the authorities pursued, overtook and apprehended the girl. The old man escaped. Hattie Howard was sent to the Florence Crittenton Home in this city, her parents and friends believing that a term of treatment and counsel in such an institution would redeem the wayward girl from the consequences of her wicked tendencies.
    When in the Crittenton Home in this city, however, Captain Smith appeared and, in a plausible talk to President Riggs, obtained permission, under surveillance, however, to visit the girl in the interest of her grandparents. On the day following his first visit, Hattie escaped and was next heard from at The Dalles, to which point she had flown with her aged lover. Again the couple were located at Arlington, at which place the antiquated Lothario seems to have deserted the lass in her distress. Her father sent her transportation to her home at Medford.
    Search for Captain Smith, however, was being prosecuted with vigor by the police department of this city, when, on Thursday, Detective Wiener registered the old scoundrel at the station on the charge above suggested.
    Captain Smith is patriarchal in appearance, and very suave in manner. He is an uncommonly plausible crook in his explanation of his tribulations, but the likelihood is that now he will have to support his story with something more than a mere narrative of events.
    Judge Crowell of Jackson County will be especially pleased at Captain Smith's apprehension. Smith is a Grand Army man, with long, white beard and a pretentious countenance. It has been suggested that he may be in the employ of bawdy houses as a procurer. The statements he has made to the buxom girl he induced to leave a comfortable home and good parents seem to support that suspicion. He will probably be arraigned in the municipal court on Monday.
Valley Record, Ashland, May 17, 1900, page 2


    CHARGED WITH ABDUCTION.--A. C. Smith, a resident of Southern Oregon, was held to answer to the grand jury yesterday by Judge Hennessy in the sum of $500, on a charge of abduction. Mrs. Annie R. Riggs, manager of the Florence Crittenton Home, alleges that Smith enticed Hattie Howard away from the Home, and that Hattie is under 16 years of age. The girl is now somewhere in Jackson County, and will be brought back to Portland to testify against Smith. The prisoner waived examination in the municipal court.
"Criminal Cases," Morning Oregonian, Portland, May 17, 1900, page 7


Portland Welcome, May 19.]
    Captain A. C. Smith, a Grand Army man whose bounteous beard and whitened locks tell the story either of age or early piety, but who has really passed the three-score niche of life in years, was arraigned on Wednesday morning in the municipal court on the charge of abducting Hattie Howard, a buxom girl under 16 years of age, from the Florence Crittenton Home in this city, and, on plea of not guilty, was held in bonds of $200 to answer to the grand jury.
    The story of the affair in which Miss Howard mysteriously disappeared from her Medford home and of the manner in which she was carried away by Captain Smith, the two being overtaken and the former apprehended at Dunsmuir, Cal., is known to Welcome readers, as are also the circumstances surrounding Miss Howard's committal to the Crittenton Home in this city as a wholly incorrigible lass, and the peculiar manner in which she was soon spirited away from that institution by Smith.
    The prosecution expects to encounter little difficulty in proving that Captain Smith, patriarchal as he appears to be, is the cause of this young girl's guilty escapade.
    Bowed with age and trembling with humiliation, the venerable-appearing defendant turned from the prisoner's dock on Wednesday morning, as the amount of his bond was fixed by the court at $500. He said he had here neither money nor friends. His eyes were moistened with tears and his lips quivered as he attempted to say more; but he turned away at beck of the jailer and was given the comfort of a cell in the "woman's department" upstairs.
Valley Record, Ashland, May 24, 1900, page 1


West Medford Precinct, Oregon:
Warren J. Howard, 46, born May 1854, day laborer, married 17 years,
    born in Iowa, father Tennessee, mother Indiana
Ida M. Howard, 33, born Oct. 1866, eight children, five living, born Vermont,
    father Vermont, mother Vermont
Hattie M. Howard, 15, born Sept. 1884 in Oregon
Eddie W. Howard, 13, born Sept. 1886 in Oregon
Mattie A. Howard, 10, born June 1889 in Oregon
Jesse J. Howard, 8, born Aug. 1891 in Oregon
Hazel Howard, 4, born June 1895 in Oregon
U.S. Census, enumerated June 8, 1900


    Not a true bill was reported in the case of Amos C. Smith, charged with abduction of Hattie Howard, a girl under the age of 16 years, from the Florence Crittenton Home.
"Criminal Cases," Morning Oregonian, Portland, September 22, 1900, page 8  "Not a true bill" means a grand jury declined to indict Smith.


    Three boys of tender age, two of whom are named Howard, broke into a dwelling house one day this week and stole a watch and some other articles, which they sold to a second-hand store. They were allowed to go upon their own recognizance, but will probably be sent to the reform school as soon as Judge Prim returns from his vacation.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, July 25, 1901, page 4


F. G. Plymale to Hattie Howard
"These Were Licensed to Wed: May," Medford Mail, December 27, 1901, page 4


    A decree of divorce has been granted in the case of Hattie Plymale vs. Francis G. Plymale. M. G. Hoge was attorney for plaintiff.
"City Happenings," Medford Mail, September 22, 1905, page 5