The influx of population had now reached the stage where it demanded a supply store, and there lived at Old Alton, in Denton County, the man who had interpreted the need and was on the point of supplying the necessity. His name was Daniel Howell, and had been a merchant at the old capital of Denton long enough to desire a change. He was a shrewd man, of a cautious and calculative disposition as is illustrated by the incident about to be described. He wanted to establish a trading post within striking distance of the western settlements, the tide of immigration towards which had revealed to him that at no distant date a county would be organized there and a County Seat selected; that his future interests would be materially enhanced should his store be located on the spot where the new County Seat would be established he remained convinced. But how was he to arrive at the exact center of the probable future county in the face of the fact that the territory had never been traced by a surveyor bent upon running county boundary limits, was the baffling problem that confronted him. He reasoned that the new county would be created proportionate to the size of those previously formed, and upon this hypothesis he sought the Denton terminus of the imaginary land district line, which has been described as running through Wise County from east to west, dividing the land districts of Cooke and Denton from each other, which he followed into Wise County territory until he had come to where he thought a central line running north and south would cross. At this point he decided to place the structure for his store. Tradition points to the fact that he made further precise calculations as to where the north and south line would cross the east and west one, for he is known to have located the exact center of the county which, in times subsequent, has been definitely located a short distance southwest of Decatur.

Upon locating the county center in the timber he paused again to reflect, and concluded that the future county seat would be built on the prairie as nearly to the center as possible. So coming back out of the timber, he had not emerged far when he encountered a large spring flowing up out of a ravine, which formed the eastern boundary of a prominent rise. Hereon he decided to place his store-house, a location which made him accessible to the settlement trade, placed him near the center of the county and near at hand to the large ever-flowing spring.

If an air line should be drawn in Decatur from the Baptist College to the Cotton Oil Mill, the site of Howell's store would rest upon it at a point slightly less than half the distance between the two institutions. More exactly, if the building remained intact it would stand a few steps northeast of the residence of Rev. W. C. Carver in south Decatur. The spring existed still farther east at the base of the hill.

To this store the early citizens came for those commodities which were not raised for consumption on their farms, and also to procure their mail, the only post office in the territory being kept at this place, regular weekly trips being made by carrier to Old Alton to bring mail. Crowds congregated there for the transaction of such business of a public and private nature as demanded attention. In these several ways Howell's Store responded to the needs and gained a celebrity which has lasted to the present time.

Coming along from Old Alton with Mr. Howell was a young man by the name of Elmore Allen, who acted as clerk in the store and who presently assumed an interest in the business; upon which the firm name was changed, to Howell and Allen, remaining so until the partnership was dissolved years after in Decatur, where the business was latterly removed.

The store was sufficient to supply the wants of the people, and no other businesses were planted in the neighborhood of Howell's, and only two other structures were erected there. One of these was a family residence, constructed of logs, which Mr. Howell had built just under the south brink of the high hill which stands directly south of the original location of the storehouse. The other was a frame structure sixteen feet square, which Henry Martin, a citizen of the territory, raised a few yards west of Howell's store. This house was weatherboarded with four-foot hackberry boards cut in the West Fork bottoms, and shaved with a drawing-knife. It was roofed with two-foot clapboards and floored with cottonwood puncheons. These minute details are given because this building is later on to assume historical prominence in the county. Howell and Allen's business thrived until Taylorsville was established in 1857, to which place it was removed.