Humphrey Posey Howell was the son of Isaac Howell and Margaret Tucker. The family lived in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, when he was born, and his early years were spent there. His father moved the family to Georgia sometime between 1820 and 1830 along with his Uncle Evan's family and his Grandfather Joseph. His family was one of the pioneer families that helped settle lands west of the Chattahoochee River.

On Dec. 25, 1860, Humphrey married Eugenia California Blanchard, daughter of Thomas Jefferson Blanchard and Mary Ann Taylor, in Powder Springs, Georgia. They settled in Carroll County, near Villa Rica where four of their children were born. The family then moved to what is now Douglas County, Georgia, nearer to the Blanchard family and the Howell family. Humphrey farmed but also had a mill along Sweetwater Creek near a dam.

In 1883, tragedy struck the family on their daughter Lula's fifteenth birthday. According to the article in The Constitution, her mom was home baking a cake and Lula was out with a friend. Lula asked her father to take them across the creek because she was impatient to get home, but he told her to wait until he finished work. She was too excited to wait, so she and her friend talked a young boy into rowing them across. The current, however, was too strong for him and the boat went over the dam and capsized. They were able to rescue the boy and the friend, but Lula was lost. Her parents are now buried next to her in the Powder Springs Methodist Church Cemetery.

Altogether, Humphrey and Eugenia had 8 children:

Mary Bartow Howell (1862-1889)
Emma Magnolia "Nola" Howell (1864-1930)
George Lester Howell (1866-1937)
Tallulah Savannah "Lula" Howell (1868-1883)
Robert Lee Howell (1870-1942)
Elizabeth Odessa Howell(1874-1944)
Posey Alonzo Howell (1876-_____)
Walter Arthur Howell (1882-1918)

H.P. appears in U. S. Census documents for Georgia in 1850 (Campbell Co), 1860 (Cobb Co), 1870 (Carroll Co.), and 1880 (Douglas Co.).