Working as a Methodist minister throughout the South Park mining camps, Howbert and his teenage son, Irving, came to Colorado City and filed a homestead claim on Cheyenne Creek in the late summer of 1860. However, the family did not officially move to Colorado City until October 1861. Upon his arrival to Colorado City, Howbert quickly became an active member of the El Paso Claim Club, a vigilante form of early government that recorded real estate claims and settled land disputes.

He had his Church on Colorado Avenue. This is the earliest picture of it.

Since Howbert was a practicing Methodist minister, while meeting in Colorado City in July 1862, the Territorial Legislature elected Howbert chaplain of the assembly.