09/03/2026
🩺 FROM THE ARCHIVES: DR. JAMES C. HOWELL — A LIFETIME OF SERVICE TO JACKSON
For many longtime residents of Butts County, the name Dr. James C. “Jim” Howell will bring back memories of a familiar hometown physician. But Dr. Howell’s story is about more than one doctor—it is part of a family legacy of medicine in Jackson.
Dr. Howell was the son of Dr. O. B. Howell and Mrs. O. B. Howell, and the Howell name was associated with medical care in Jackson long before James began his own practice. Old newspaper records contain numerous references to babies being born at the Howell Clinic in Jackson during the 1930s and 1940s.
James C. Howell grew up in Jackson, attended the Butts County public schools, graduated from Mercer University, and earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1951.
Before settling into his medical career, however, Dr. Howell had already lived an extraordinary chapter of his life.
During his military service, he was a pilot in the United States Air Force and served in the China-Burma-India theater, flying an impressive 72 combat missions.
After completing his medical internship in Macon, Dr. Howell came home to Jackson and began practicing medicine around 1952—following in his father's footsteps and continuing the Howell family's connection to healthcare in Butts County.
By the time the new Sylvan Grove Hospital opened, Dr. Howell had already spent approximately 11 years caring for local patients. A July 26, 1962, Jackson Progress-Argus feature introducing the hospital's medical staff listed him among its physicians.
Dr. Howell would go on to serve as Chief of Staff at Sylvan Grove Hospital.
His involvement in Butts County extended well beyond the examination room. He served on the Butts County Board of Health, belonged to the Medical Association of Georgia and the American Medical Association, and was a member of First Baptist Church of Jackson.
In 1970, another side of Dr. Howell's life appeared in the newspaper when he was appointed a director of **Sharing Properties Incorporated**, an Atlanta real estate investment company. The announcement described him as a “widely known resident of Jackson”—a fitting description of a man whose medical practice and community involvement had made him familiar to so many local families.
But one of our favorite newspaper stories about Dr. Howell has nothing to do with hospital administration, business, or professional accomplishments.
It involves a boat, a dock, Lake Lanier—and one very unfortunate jump.
On a Sunday afternoon in 1970, Dr. and Mrs. Howell and their son Chris were enjoying an outing at Lake Lanier with Dr. Bill Potter of Ellaville. As their cabin cruiser approached a dock, Dr. Howell jumped from the boat toward it.
A support beneath the dock apparently gave way.
Dr. Howell was thrown into the icy water and trapped beneath the boat.
Fortunately, Dr. Potter was nearby and came to his aid. Dr. Howell escaped, but not without injury. He suffered a severely fractured right ankle, and while trapped beneath the boat he also ripped his hand on a piece of glass badly enough to require seven stitches.
The fractured leg was expected to remain in a cast for three months.
You might think that would have kept a doctor away from his office for a while.
Apparently not Dr. Howell.
The Progress-Argus reported that he expected to be completely off his feet for only three days and planned to return to active practice later that same week—working from a wheelchair and on crutches.
Perhaps that tells us something about the kind of hometown physician Dr. Howell was.
Years later, in 1973, Dr. Howell told the Progress-Argus that during his 21 years of medical practice in Jackson, he had treated approximately eight cases involving rabies. That small detail helps document just how long his career of caring for Butts County families had already been.
Dr. Howell and his wife raised their family in the community he served. A 1962 newspaper profile listed their children as Mike, Bryan, George and Charles.
And there is one more small detail preserved in the pages of the Progress-Argus: Dr. James C. Howell's birthday was December 19.
From the Howell Clinic of his father’s generation, to his military service and 72 combat missions, to medical school and his return home, to Sylvan Grove Hospital and decades spent caring for his neighbors, Dr. James C. Howell’s life was woven into the medical history of Jackson and Butts County.
Dr. Howell passed away in December 1992, bringing to a close a life marked by service—to his country, his profession, and the community he called home.
More than three decades later, his name and the Howell family’s medical legacy remain a part of Butts County history. And sometimes it is the smaller stories—the hometown doctor who broke his ankle jumping onto a dock and still planned to be back seeing patients a few days later—that allow us to remember not only what someone accomplished, but who they were.
Do you remember Dr. Howell?
Was he your doctor? Did he care for you, your children, your parents or grandparents? Did your family know Dr. O. B. Howell or remember the Howell Clinic?
Please share your Dr. Howell stories, photographs, and memories in the comments. Those personal memories help us preserve a part of Butts County history that can't always be found in the pages of a newspaper.
GL
