Historically Speaking

By Linda Thompson

He stood 26 inches tall and lived in McCleary. Who was he?

An article from a January 1925 Collier’s Magazine entitled “The Man Who Can Sleep in a Suitcase” was about McCleary’s Clarence Chesterfield Howerton, also known as Major Mite. They reported his height was 26 inches and he weighed 19 pounds. It states, “the Major does not pine to be as other people are. In fact, he is rather pleased with the distinction which littleness brings him. His size forbids him from associating with adults; neither can he play with children, so it is little wonder he sometimes waxes mischievous. One day his 9-year-old cousin boasted: ‘Why, I could lick the Major with one hand. He’s nothing but a bird.’ The next minute the boy was on the floor and the ‘bird’ on top of him.”

Did you ever watch “The Wizard of Oz”? Then you have seen Major Mite.

He was born in 1913 in Salem, Ore., to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Howerton. He passed away in 1975 in McMinnville, Ore. The Howerton family moved to McCleary in 1914 and stayed here until Frank’s death in 1926. Clarence had five brothers — Albert, Ernest, Forrest, LeRoy, and Charles — all of whom were at least 6 feet tall as adults. His father was employed as a factory mechanic. Howerton never attended school, likely due to his physical size and associated emotional consequences.

Once again, Charles H. Fattig of the McCleary Museum has done the research on this subject. He tells that we have a good collection of photos of Major Mite, 24 in all, at the McCleary Museum, but one eludes us.

It is said he had his photo taken with members of the VFW on March 4, 1926. If anyone knows of that photo or has that photo, we would really appreciate a copy of it.

The McCleary Stimulator, dated March 5, 1926 – “Vets swing big scoop – Major Mite is to be taken in as Honorary Member of Organization”: The McCleary Veterans of Foreign Wars are progressive and they have just completed the arrangements for a “scoop” that will mean a lot in advertising McCleary, the McCleary Vets and Major Mite, our diminutive claim to publicity. The vets have elected Major Mite as an honorary member of their organization and in so doing, have “grabbed off” a mighty big advertising proposition. The Major is to be sworn in in a few days. Yesterday, Thursday evening, a number of the vets got together in their uniforms and with their guns and colors and were photographed with the little major. This photograph is to appear in the Rotogravure sections of every metropolitan newspaper in the United States which have these sections. That will mean the Seattle Times, the Chicago Tribune and most of the big papers. This will mean much in advertising McCleary as a town, and the vets will be noticed by all the other vets in the United States. Major Mite, himself, will get a lot of valuable publicity from it. The vets are an up-and-coming, go-get- ‘em organization and what they do, they do big.”

Pictures that we do have include Major Mite on the front steps of the White House in 1922 after he had called on President Warren G. Harding. We do not have a picture of him with the president. “But,” Charles Fattig says, “several years ago we did have an old scrapbook donated to the museum which, to our astonishment, contained a newspaper photo clipping of the major with the great ex-heavyweight boxing champ of the world, Jack Dempsey.”

Another photo was sent to us by a cousin of the Howerton family of the Mite in Alberta, Canada.

In September 2001 the museum newsletter was dedicated, in part, to McCleary’s Major Mite. In it we reported that his growth slowed when he was 1 year old. He was taken into the circus at age 10 by his mother. She had to lie about his age, claiming he was 18 years old. To further cloud the issue to skirt child labor laws, it was reported he was born in McCleary. Of course, there were no birth records to verify that. That was easily explained as many babies were born at home without birth certificates at the time. Their winters were spent back in McCleary visiting family and friends. Several of his brothers worked at the door factory and one was employed at the Fred McMillan auto fix-it shop.

Steve Willis of McCleary purchased a book back in 1991 entitled “The Munchkins Remembered” – a publication about the little people who acted in “The Wizard of Oz” movie of 1939. In there he learned that our own Major Mite was listed among those who played one of the three trumpeters who heralded the arrival of the Mayor of Munchkinland. Steve further learned that Major Mite acted in several “Our Gang” movies.

Linda Thompson is the editor of the McCleary Museum Newsletter. She has been a volunteer at the museum since 1990.