Bernard Howard was born into slavery in 1789 and lived on the nearby Needwood Forest property, where he was involved in the daily operations of the successful Needwood Farm owned by Mary Digges Lee Gouverneur. In 1850, the farm produced 800 bushels of wheat, 1000 bushels of Indian corn, 100 bushels of oats, 100 pounds of wool, 50 pounds of honey, 200 pounds of butter, as well as potatoes, beans, hay, and orchard products. Howard labored on the Needwood property until he gained his freedom on November 1, 1864, when the new Maryland Constitution freed enslaved people in Maryland. After emancipation, Bernard Howard, his wife, and children remained in the area, and in 1869 he purchased 5 acres from Mary Gouverneur and built a small stone house about 3 miles away. The home was later passed down to his daughter Julia Ann Smothers, while Bernard and his wife Sarah often shared their nearby home with children and grandchildren. Their oldest children, Daniel and Julia, continued working on farms in the area; Daniel's daughter Mary later worked for many years as housekeeper and cook for the Charles Flook family on this property, and Julia worked on the nearby Lee farm as a housekeeper and cared for the family's children, who knew her as Aunt Julie. Julia married John Smothers and raised her family nearby, and one of her sons, Charles Smothers, played baseball in the Black Baseball League for the Yales of Brunswick. Bernard Howard continued working in local agricultural production until about 1880, when his health no longer allowed him to labor, and he died on July 17, 188, after nearly 80 years spent helping grow and harvest the region's agricultural goods. Farms in the region, including the Gouverneur and Hilleary farms, benefited for generations from the Howard family's agricultural knowledge.