David A Howe was born in West Almond, was raised in Wellsville, and attended Dickenson Seminary, present day Lycoming College, in Williamsport, PA. He worked in Wellsville before moving to the Williamsport area, where he was involved in many business activities, but his fortune was generated in the lumber business. Encouraged by his aunt, Louise A Brown of the Monday Club, Howe built the first library in 1908 at the corner of Jefferson and Main. Upon his death in 1925, his will funded construction and equipping of the present Georgian style library building, which opened in 1937.