Jesse Howard

1885 - 1983

Jesse Howard was born in 1885, in Shamrock, Missouri. He attended school through the 6th grade. He worked hard on farms that he and his wife fixed up, then sold and made a profit.  In 1944, using that profit from the sale of the farms, Jesse Howard purchased twenty acres for a home in Fulton, Missouri.  Howard raided demolition sites and junkyards to find used lumber, house siding, window shades, and pieces of canvas.  He used black and white house paint for his roadside signs which were painted in bold, neat, hand-lettered text and simple block letters, serving a multitude of purposes. He began using his land to air his religious, political, and philosophical convictions using the signs to preach texts from the Bible, to comment on current events, and to denounce politicians, taxes, regulations, and his neighbors. Howard referred to this property as “Sorehead Hills”. He fenced in the land with the signs, sheds, and other objects and over the next nearly 40 years created a totally unique environment, laced with pathways through the many signs and structures that embellished the landscape. Unfortunately, Howard's neighbors were not pleased with his contributions to the public debate. From the late 1940s until the 1970s, "Sorehead Hills” was frequently vandalized and he was repeatedly harassed for his unconventional means of exercising his "free thought and free speech."  In 1952 some of his neighbors even went so far as to circulate a petition demanding that he be committed to a mental institution. Embittered but hardly broken by such vicissitudes, Howard remained determined to express himself, and he was eventually rewarded with favorable attention from scholars, collectors, dealers, and curators. A 1968 article in Art in America brought Howard’s art to the attention of the public. ²