[Howe’s Hunter]

While after 20 plus years I’d gotten 395, the 950 plus find revealed several new things. I’d never seen any with what we can only guess was Howe’s writing on them. I’d never seen any with more than one stamp. And just the sheer randomness of what cards he had, ones he had multiples of, and commons he had none of is still a head scratcher.

One thing to consider … both the McCormick family and the Howe family lived above the McCormick Howe Grocery. Howe had a sister approximately four years younger than him, and a cousin who was the child of his uncle John Howe that was younger than his sister. Maybe the younger ones got into his stash of cards one day while he was at school with their rooster rubber stamp on and scribbled on the cards? Howe, as an adult, told his daughters friend Ron that he never traded for cards or gave any away. Everything he got was from the store and was either the cards left by buyers of cigarettes that didn’t want them, or perhaps his father and/or uncle were smokers. But the writing and stamps would have to be from within the family.