Francis Edward Howe (1828 - 1883)

Born 4 Jul 1828 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA

Ancestors

Died 23 May 1883 at age 54 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA

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Biography

He was born in Boston 4 July 1828. He married 25 Sep 1857 Sarah Elizabeth Haughmont, daughter of Eder V. and Elizabeth (Woram) Haughmont, born in New York 2 Oct 1838.

He went to New York City about 1856, and engaged in the wholesale dry goods business with the firm of B. G. Wainwright & Co. He became prominent during the Civil war in caring for the troops who passed through New York City. At first he took them intu his house and his store; soon after he was made the agent at New York, for Mass., Me.. N. H., and Vt., and later Ind., Minn. and Wis. It was his duty to care for the soldiers from these states who had occasion to pass through the city, either on their way to the front, or on their return to their homes. In the prosecution of this work, he established the New England Rooms at 194 Broadway, where the soldiers obtained aid and were cared for in illness. During that period over 80,000 men from different states were cared for at those rooms. He was a member of the Staff of Gov. Andrew of Mass., in 1861, and of the staff of Gov. Dix of New York in 1862. President Lincoln made him Quartermaster with the rank of Colonel. In 1870 he was appointed Agent of the Treasury Department by President Grant. In 1878 he resigned, to accept the appointment of Pension Agent, which position he held until near the close of the Grant Administration, when he moved to Boston and engaged in business.^[1]

He was at the initial meeting 29 March 1871 of the group that planned the Howe Family Gathering held in August, and was elected Chairman of the committee. He was the President of the day at the Howe Family Gathering in Framingham on 31 Aug 1871. His introduction and address to the gathering are reprinted on pages 11 and 12 of the Howe Family Gathering reference.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Daniel Wait Howe, Howe Genealogies, Genealogies of Abraham of Roxbury, James of Ipswich, Abraham of Marlborough and Edward of Lynn, Massachusetts", Vol. 2, (Boston: NEHGS, 1929), pp.127-128.
2. ↑ Elias Nason, The Howe Family Gathering at Harmony Grove, South Framingham, Thursday, August 1, 1871", (Boston: Elias Howe, 105 Court Street, Boston, 1871), https://archive.org/details/howefamilygather00naso pp.3-12.