The Howe family gathering, at Harmony Grove, South Framingham, Thursday, August 31, 1871

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Creation.— The most Noble <fc Puissant Ld. Charls' How, El. of Lancaster, & Bn. How of Wormleighton
1st coraisr. of ye Treasury, Ist Gentn. of ye bedchembr. to his Maj., Kt. of ye garter, & one of ye (Jovrs. of ye
Ohartr. houee. Creatd. Bt. How of Wormton. in ve county of Warwick, Novr. 18, 1606, in ye 4:th of James ye
1st, & El. of Lancaster, Jun.ye Sth, 1643, in ye 19th of Charls. ye 1st, of this famy. which derivs. themsplvs.
from a youngr, branch of ye ants. Bns. How's, men fams. many eges Since in Engd. among which where Hugh
■ How ye father & Son great faverts. of Kn. Edwd. ye 2d., John How, Esqr. son to Jn. How of Hodinhull in ye
County of Warwk.

AEM8 — He bear'th Gules, (Eed) a Chevron (pointed arch) ^r^/en*, (Silver) between 3 croscroslete Or, (Gold)
3 Wolfs heads of ye Same crest on a wrath (or wreath) a Wyvern orDragn. partd. per pale Or &■ Vert (Green)
perced through ye mouth wth. arow, by ye Name of How, ye wolfs are ye fams. arms, ye cross, for gt. accts.

°The above is a' fac simile of the original Coat of Arms said to have been brought from England by John Howe
about 1030, and adorned the walls of the " Wayside Inn," or Howe Tavern, in Sudbury, for over 150 years.

^*

Coat of Arms of I,ord ChedwortJi, (Senry FredericJc Sotve).

THE

HOWE FAMILY GATHERING

iS JY ^ ^

Harmony Grove, South pRAMiNGH^tMr'

THURSDAT, AUGUST 31, 1871.

BY

REV. ELIAS NASON, M.A.

" Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."

PUBLISHED BY ELIAS HOWE,

103 COURT STREET, BOSTON.
18 7 1.

pkice; fifty cents.

■ ■ -- '^

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

I.

■THB^OWB S-AMILT IK AMERICA.

The number of those who bear the name
of How, or Howe, in America, is very great ;
yet they may, for the most part, be traced to
James and Abraham Howe (perhaps broth-
ers), of Koxbury, admitted freemen in
1637-38 ; to Edward and Abraham Howe, of
Watertown; to Daniel and Edward Howe,
of Lynn; and to John Howe, who was m
Sudbury as early as 1638, and who died m
Marlborough, in 1687.

Of these early settlers, James was the son
of Eobert, of Hatfield, Broad Oak, Essex
Co., England, and died in Ipswich, m 1702 ;
Edward, of Lynn, came over in the True-
love, in 1635, and died in 1639, leaving issue
from which most of the Howe families in
Connecticnt have descended. Daniel, of
Lynn, after holding several public offices in
Massachusetts, removed to Southampton, on
Long Island. They were all honest, hardy,
vigorous men, having, in the main, large
families, which, multiplying and increasing
from generation to generation, have, by their
industry, genius, probity and valor, aided in
laying the foundations, and in building up
the structure, of this Eepublic ; and they
are now found busily engaged in the various
trades and professions, arts and industries
of life, in almost every section of the Union.
So far as known, but one of them was ever
executed for a crime, and that was Mrs.
Elizabeth Howe, of Ipswich, hung for witch-
craft in 1692 ; but her virtues, just as those
of her great Master, sanctified the altar;
and her name, now as the mists of supersti-
tion break away, becomes illustrious.

II. — THE ORIGIN OF THE HOWE MEETING.

In accordance with a desire deeply im-
planted in every breast to know our kindred
and to be known of them, a meeting of some
members of the Howe family was convened
at 289 Washington Street, Boston, on the
twenty-ninth day of March, 1871. The sub-
ject of holding a general meeting of the
Howes, in America, was fully discussed, and
it was finally determined that such a gather-
ing would be one of unusual interest, both
in°a social and a moral point of view ; that it
was due to the good old friendly name of
Howe to hold such a reunion, and that ef-
fective measures should be taken to provide

for it.

The following account of this preliminary
meeting was drawn up by Edward Howe,

Esq., of West Boylston, who died suddenly
in April following, and was greatly lamented
by a large circle of relatives and friends.
Some account of his life will be found in the
Register of the Howe Family.

In pursuance to a call for a meeting of
the descendants of John, Abraham, Daniel
and Edward Howe, issued by six of the de-
scendants in the vicinity of Boston, there
met at 289 Washington Street, Boston, about
twenty of the family, and the following busi-
ness was transacted : —

Mr. C. M. Howe, of Marlborough, opened
the meeting by reading the call, which was
as follows :

PERSONAL. Howe Family. The de-
scendants of John, Abraham, Daniel
and Edward Howe, of Watertown and Rox-
bury, afterward of Lynn, Sudbury and Marl-
boro' (who landed in this country about
1634), are invited to meet at A. M. Leland's
Pianoforte Rooms, 289 Washington Street,
Boston, on Wednesday, March 29, 1571, at
12 o'clock, M., to make arrangements for a
family gathering and public celebration some
time during the coming summer.

C. M. Howe, Marlborough ;

S. H. Howe, Bolton;

B. L. Howe, Groton Junction;

G. M. Howe, Framingham;

Elias Howe, Boston;

WiLLARD Howe, South Framingham.

Colonel Frank E. Howe, of New York,
was chosen Chairman, and Edward Howe,
of West Boylston, Secretary.

After several speeches from some of the
gentlemen present, Mr. S. H. Howe, of
Bolton, moved " That the sense of the meet-,
ing be taken whether we will have a celebra-
tion or not."

Voied, That we have a celebration.

Voted, That the Chairman appoint a Com-
mittee of three to nominate an Executive
Committee of ten (10) to carry out the ar-
rangement.

Colonel Howe appointed Messrs. S. H., C.
M., and Willard Howe a Committee to nom-
inate, who reported as follows, viz. :

Col. Frank E. Howe, New York;

S. H. Howe, Bolton ;

Willard Howe, South Framingham ;

Elias Howe, Boston; .

B. L. Howe, Ayer;

Elbridge Howe, Marlborough ;

A. L. Howe, Dedham ;

William. G. Howe, Boston ;

(3)

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

Dr. George M.. Howe, Framingham ;
Eev. S. Stokrs Hoave, Iowa City, Iowa.

This report was accepted and adopted.

Voted, That Harmony Grove, South Fra-
mingham, be the place fs)r the celebration,
and the time be left with the Executive Com-
mittee, with instructions that it be holden in
June, or as soon after as possible.

Voted, That the Executive Committee
take such steps as they deem necessary in
carrying out the objects of this meeting.

Mr. Elias Howe, No. 103 Court Street,
Boston, was chosen Corresponding Secretary
and Treasurer.

Voted, The meeting do now adjourn sub-
ject to the call of the Executive Committee.
Edward Howe, Secretary.

Names of the persons present at the first
meeting, at 289 Washington Street, Boston,
March 29, 1871 :

C. M. Howe, Marlborough;
WiLLARD Howe, South Framingham;
Edward Howe, West Boylston ;
Sidney Howe, Marlborough;
Albert W. Howe, Danvers ;
Elbridge Howe, Marlborough;
S. H. Howe, Bolton;
Benjamin L. Howe, Ayer;
S. A. Howe, 2d, Marlborough;
B. S. Howe, Rowley;
Elbridge Howe, Natick ;
Euth E. HoAVE, Eowley ;
Elias Howe, Cambridge ;
Allen L. Howe, Dedham ;
Frank E. Howe, New York;
Lindsay I. Howe, New York;
Willard Howe, Danvers, Mass. ;
David Howe, 60 W. Cedar St., Boston.

III. •

■THE

PLACE AND TIME OF THE GATH-
ERING.

Thus, after careful deliberation, it was
agreed to hold the meeting at Harmony
Grove, South Framingham, and it was sub-
sequently voted that it should take place on
Thursday, the thirty-first day of August,
1871, and that the services should commence
at 10 o'clock, A. M., of that day.

It was deemed advisable to hold the meet-
ing at South Framingham, because it is near
the early soat of one of the Howe families,
because several lines of railroad intersect at
this point, and because in itself the place is
very beautiful, and affords accommodations
for a multitude of people.

Harmony Grove has long been celebrated
as a favorite spot for picnics, rural assem-
blies, fetes champetres, and open-air conven-
tions. Nature and art combine to make it
worthy of its wide-spread reputation.

" Hie /j;elidi fontes, hie mollia prata, Lycori,
Hie nemus." — Virg. Ec. x.

The grove itself consists of several acres
of tall, majestic pine, oak, maple and chest-

nut-trees, whose spreading branches form a
dense and grateful shade.

The squirrel leaps from bough to bough ;
the song-birds fill the air with melody. A
depression in the grove affords an amphi-
theatre in which a speaker's stand and seats
for several thousand people have been
erected. Near by there is a commodious
hall for dancing. On the left of the main
entrance to the grove, a green and level
lawn spreads out for the erection of booths
and tents, and for athletic sports and games,
of such as may delight in them. On the
west, a broad and placid lake extends to the
distance of a mile or so for bathing and for
boating; and beyond it rises old Mount
Wait, renowned in Indian story; and still
farther on are seen the verdure-covered hills
and spires of Framingham.

The grove itself is beautiful ; the sur-
rounding country teems with charming vil-
las, gentle knolls, and sunny glades, verdant
meadows, orchards and gardens, forming
landscapes which a Claude Lorraine might
love to put on canvas. A spot more eligible
for the meeting could not, probably, have
been selected.

IT. — THE CIRCnLAR OE INVITATION TO THE
HOWE FAMILY.

As soon as the Committee had fixed upon
the time, the place, and plan of the meeting,
a circular was prepared making known the
decision, and forwarded to as many as 5,000
of the members and connections of the Howe
family. The directories and other works
were consulted for the purpose of ascertain-
ing the names and residences of the kindred,
and letters solicited in reply. After describ-
ing the plan, the purpose, and the place of
meeting, the circular presented this most
cordial invitation to the festival :

"To this beautiful 'Harmony Grove'
every person bearing the name of Howe, or
How, as well as every one connected by ties
of marriage with this family, or descended
from this family, is most cordially invited
for the purpose of spending the day above
mentioned 'in union sweet and dear esteem,'
of calling to mind the days of ' Auld Lang
Syne,' and of telling one another how we
love the good old family name of Howe.

" Should anyone possess any ancient rec-
ords, portraits, or relics pertaining to the
family, let him not fail to bring them for the
' Howe Cabinet,' to be exhibited on the
occasion. It is the earnest desire of the
Committee to extend an invitation to every
member, connection, and descendant of the
Howe family; but this is utterly impossible;
therefore let every one who may receive this
circular consider himself a Committee es-
pecially appointed to extend this invitation
to every one who bears our name, or is in
any way related to our family. The word
is — Free! Come one, come all! Bring
those of your name and kindred with you ! "

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

In answer to this Circular, many letters
were received from all parts of tli^ country,
signifying either an intention or a desire to
be present at the gathering ; and sometimes
containing photographs, genealogical, or
personal items of great interest. A few of
these letters we here present, together with
several of the many received sipce the hold-
ing of the meeting.

Letters Received in Response to the
Invitation.

The following letter is from the Hon. Jo-
seph Howe, in reply to one from Dr. Samuel
Gridley Howe, inviting him to be present
and deliver an oration at the Howe Family
Gathering :

Ottawa, May 8, 1871.
My Dear Sik, — Few things would give me more
pleasure than to attend the proposed gathering of
the Howes, and I will come if I possibly can. At
present I know of nothing to prevent me.

I do not know what to say about the Oration, but
will think of it, and will let you know in time,
should anything occur to prevent my attendance.

With kind regards to Mrs. Howe and all your
circle.

Believe me, ever truly yours,

Joseph Howe.
Br. Howe, Boston,

The following characteristic letters are
from the Hon. Timothy O. Howe, U. S.
Senator, Wisconsin :

Washington, May 29, 1871.

Mv Deah Sir, — I have delayed answering your
invitation to the IIoweG-athering at South Framing-
ham on the 22d proximo. I did hope I could ac-
cept it. I would be glad to see a gathering of the
clans. I don't know but little about them. The
only Howes I ever heard of, for whom I cherished a
real admiration, were that Jemima Howe who was
captured by the Indians, and that Samuel G. Howe
who was captured by Julia Ward.

I admire Jemima because she escaped ; and I ad-
mire Dr. Samuel G. because he didn't escape.

I suspect I ought to add to this number your
namesake, who worked out the problem of the sew-
ing-machine; but all forms of mechanism are such a
profound mystery to me, that I never like to allude
to the subject. I am always afraid of making some
such mistake as an innocent townsman of my own
made once when I was a child.

He saw an umbrella for the first time, and he tim-
idly expressed a wish to have the proprietor " play
8 tune on it I "

But I regret to say I cannot come to Framingham
next month. I have been kept here much longer
than I expected. Engagements made long since in
Wisconsin wait performance, and I must go there.

But I wish you the very jolliest of meetings. I
hope you will discover that you are all brothers and
sisters.

I beg you to remember that I claim you all for
first cousins, and if any one disputes the claim let
him disprove it if he can.

Very truly yours,

Timothy O. Howe.

Elias Howe, Esq.

Green Bay, Aug. 9, 1871.

My Dear Sir, — I shall not be able to meet with
my cousins at Harmony Grove on the 31st.

There are several considerations which forbid it,
the most peremptory of which are a State Conven-
tion, to assemble on the 30th ; and a wedding in the

family of a brother, advertised for " about the 1st of
September."

Thanking you for the compliment conveyed in
your invitation, I am.

Very truly yours,

Timothy O. Howe.
Elias Howe, Esq.

The next letter is from John F. Howe,
President of the Pin Manufacturing Co. of
Birmingham, Ct. He was present with his
family on the occasion.

Birmingham (Derby), Ct., July 19,^1871.
Elias Howe, Esq., Sec'y :

Dear Sir, — Your circular addressed to the Howe
Manuf 'g Co. was duly received by me. 1 wi'ite this
to request the favor of you to send one of them to
my brother, " William Howe, North Salem, New
York." It is our purpose to attend the Gathering
unless prevented by circumstances which we cannot
now foresee.

Respectfully yours,

John F. Howe.

In response to an invitation to be present,
Mr. Henry W. Longfellow, the poet, sent
the following note :

Nahant, Aug. 26, 1871.

My Dear Sir, — I have this morning had the
pleasure of receiving your very friendly and flatter-
ing letter, and hasten to thank you for your most
kind invitation, which I am sorry to say it will not
be in my power to accept. My engagements here
render it impossible. I can only seud you my
thanks and regrets, and my best wishes for a pleas-
ant day in the groves of Framingham.

I am, my dear sir, yours truly,

Henry W. Longfellow.

Elias Howe, Esq.

The letter below very pleasantly plays
upon the name Howe, and indicates the
promptitude with which the Howes supply
material for the "Register of the Howe
Family." If every one will do the same,
the work will soon be finisbed.

Terre Haute, Ind., Aug. 26, 1871.
Elias HOwe, Esq. :

Dear Sir,-^ I regret exceedingly that I shall not
be able to attend the gathering of the Howe Family
next week. If an excuse were needed from so hum-
ble a member of the great family, I am sure that I
should be more than forgiven, even commended, if
it were known that my absence is due to an effort
to add to the number, and the glory of this illustri-
ous race of the inquisitive patronymic, which effort
will probably be crowned with success about that
time. May the interrogative branch of the human
family (we monopolize this honor, for who ever
heard of the What family, or the When or Where
families ?) have a jolly good time, and demonstrate
to the world that they have been asking " How" to
such a good purpose, that they are able to show all
the other branches of the human family " How,"
better than anybody else. While your antiquaries
will look after the " previous question," .ind these
should be respectfully disposed of, yet let them not
" move the previous question" to the exclusion of
present and coming ones. I have sent a complete
family record of my branch to my brother, who,
after filling some blanks, will forward the same to
you. Let me know of all that is done, so far as re-
ported by the press, and assess me for expenses.

Long may these human interrogation points stand
on the earth, and at the end may each prove that he
has learned How to go up higher.
Yours fraternally,

E. Frank Howe.

It is hoped that the "six-foot sapling of
twenty-four summers," who represents the
family in the region of Petroleum, and writes

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

the following pleasant letter, has, by this
time, " struck oil," and that he will be pres-
ent, "clothed in the comeliness and vigor
of connubial foliage," at the next Howe
gathering.

TITUSVILLE, Pa., Aug. 28, 1871.
Col. Frank E. Howe, Chairman:

I beg lenve to present my sincere regrets that the
only male representative of the Howe family in the
conimercial capita! of the oil region should be un-
able to participate in your happy reunion in Har-
mony Grove.

Eovje it so happens may be easily explained. The
only branch of the family tree that has extended it-
self to this locality, cannot put forth its leaves. It
has neither bud nor blossoms, but stands a six-foot
sapling of twenty-four summers, its tendrils of
springing affection retarded by summer drouth.
When the coming dews shall refresh it, and it shall
be clothed in the comeliness and vigor of connubial
foliage, putting forth twigs, boughs, and branches
in emulation of its revered ancestry, its loftiest am-
bition will be gratified in transporting its trunks and
limbs to every succeeding reunion of that celebrated
and ubiquitous ZToJO^-sehold, which yet no man hath
numbered. I remain yours respectfully,

Wm. Parker Howe.

It was very gratifying to the Committee
to receive the ensuing letter and its con-
tents, evincing the liberality of the under-
signed, as well as the interest manifested in
the reunion :

Lowell, Sept. 2, 1871.
Elias Howe, Esq., 103 Court St., Boston :

Dear Sir, — While enjoying the interesting exer-
cises at the grand " reunion " on Thursday, the op-
portunity for me, and those who were with me, to
contribute any funds to the treasury, passed by un-
heeded till it was too late.

I now enclose a check for twenty-three dollars,
which I beg you to accept and appropriate towards
paying the expenses of the first " Grand Howe Gath-
ering." Tours respectfully,

Edward B. Howe.

Mrs. Sally Howe, $-5.; Mrs. Clara W. Harwood,
$5. ; E. B. Howe, $10. ; Miss Aurelia L. Howe, $1. ;
Miss Laura F.Howe, $1.; Miss Martha W.Howe, $1.

The following letter, from a member of
the family in the far South-west, well ex-
presses the interest which the Howes enter-
tain for each other, and the records of their
ancestry :

ViCKSBURG, Miss., Sept. 14, 1871.
ElL(VS Howe, Esq.,

103 Court Street, Boston :
Dear Sir, — I deeply regret my inability to be
present at the Family Gathering, 31st ult. It was a
very happy thought originating said reunion, and
doubtless many things were seen, many -words said,
and agreeable persons collected together that will
render the 31st of August, 1871, memorable in the
annals of "The Howe Family." I know myself to
be a lineal descendant of John Howe, of Marlborough,
in the tenth generation. My father was Rev. Bezaleel
Howe, and his father was named Timothy. Thus

far memory. The records of our family are with my
oldest brother, B. F. Howe, Esq., of New York. I
have livedPiin this place for the last thirty-three
years ; yet my love for family name and fame is aa
intense as ever, and the purity of my descent has
ever been my pride.

I should be pleased to be furnished with any me-
morial of the occasion referred to that may be gotten
up by the managers, or any medal that maybe struck
off commemorative of it, and with " The Genealog-
ical Register" that is contemplated, or intended to
be published. Any, or all of these sent by express,
C. O. D., will be attended to.

Living at such a distance as I do, I have not been
able to procure even a newspaper containing a fall
account of " The Gathering." Enclosed I send 50
cents to purchase for me such papers as you can pro-
cure for me, containing such proceedings.

Any other information you can give me on these
points will be greatly appreciated, and will oblige
Your obedient servant,

R. D. Howe.

The following letter exhibits the interest
taken in the festival, and the generosity and
liberality of all members of the Howe fam-
ily throughout the country :

Akron, Sept. 23, 1871.
Elias Howe, Esq. :

Dear Sir, — Will you he kind enough to inform
me if the proceedings of the " Howe Gathering " at
Framingham will be published in anj' other form
than that already furnished by the newspapers ?

If such is the case I would like a few copies, and
also to become a subscriber to any fund necessary
to defray any expense of that kind' that has, or may,
accrue.

I should have been present at the meeting, but
was taken sick at Hartford, on my way there, and
could not attend.

I do not know of any of our branch of the Howe
family to have been present.

My great-grandfather was an early settler in St.
Mary's County, Md. I can give a partial history of
some of his descendants when it is necessary.

My father, Richard Howe (aged 72), would like
very much to find out if any descendants are living
of his uncles Richard and Joseph, who emigrated
to Kentucky between the years 1800 and 1806, from
Maryland. Yours truly,

C. R. Howe.

A vast number of letters has been re-
ceived, and still they continue to come, in
relation to the "Gathering." They contain,
in many instances, genealogical information,
which will prove of invaluable service to
those engaged in preparing the " Register
of the Howe Family." Several of thera
trace the descent back to the original set-
tlers. One of them is from a descendant of
Mrs. Jemima Howe, who was, with her chil-
dren, taken captive by the Indians at Hins-
dale, N. H., in 1755. All of them express
a lively interest in the Howe Family Gath-
ering. They form of themselves a valuable
" Howe Library ^"

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

The letter of the Hon. Henry "Wilson,
U. S. Senator, which follows, will be read
with great pleasure by every member of the
Howe family, and especially the touching
allusion, at the close, to the lovely and pious
wife of the distinguished Senator.

Natick, Mass., Oct. 7, 1871.
Elias Howe, Esq.: , . , . .^

My Dear Sir,'— On my return from a brief visit
to Europe, I found your pressing invitation to be
present at, and participate in,tbe intended gathering
of the Howe family at Framingham, in August.
Such a galhenng could Bot but be one of the deepest
interest to all who bore that name, or were con-
nected with it by kindred ties. I am glad to learn
that the meeting was largely attended by persons of
the family name and blood, from all sections of the
country, and that the occasiop was full of joyous
associations and fond recollections. Absence, alone,
from my native land, prevented my attendance. I
regret, and shall long continue to regret, that I was
not permitted on that occasion to mingle with those
who bear the name of one endeared to me by the
holiest and tenderest ties of earth — of one of the
purest and loveliest spirits that ever blessed kindred
and friends by her presence , or left, in passing through
death to a higher life, more precious memories.*
Ever yours,
i Henry "Wilson.

* The Hon. Henry Wilson was born in Farming-
ton, N. H., Feb. 16, 1812; and was married to Miss
Harriet M. Howe, of Natick, Oct. 28, 1840. She was
the daughter of Amasa and Mary (Tombs) Howe,
of Framingham, and died greatly lamented, in May,
1870.

Their only son, Lt.-Col. Henry Hamilton Wilson,
bom in Natick, Nov. 11, 1846, died at Austin, Texas,
Dec. 24, 1866. Mrs. Wilson was a lady of unusual
menital and personal attractions, blending grace with
dignty in manner, and ornamenting, both in private
and in public life, the doctrines of her Lord and
Master. The following sketch, by Mrs. Mary Clem-
aaer Ames, will be read with interest:

" Within the last week the body of one has been

laid in her native earth, whoso lovely presence will
long be missed in Washington. Mrs. Wilson, the
wife of Senator Wilson, went out from among us in
the fair May days, and the places which have known
her here so long and so pleasantly, will know her,
save in memoiy, no more forever. She was a gentle,
Christian woman. I have never yet found words
rich enough to tell all that such a woman is. My
pen lingers lovingly upon her name. I would fain
say something of her who now lives beyond the
meed of all human praise, that would make her ex-
ample more beautiful and enduring to the living.
For, in profounder intellectual development, result-
ing from wider culture and larger opi'ortunity, are
we in no danger of losing sight of those graces of
the spirit, which, however exalted her fate, must
remain to the end the supreme charm of woman ?
There is nothing in all the universe so sweet as a
Christian woman ; as she who has received into her
heart, till it shines forth in her character and life, the
love of the divine Master.

" Such a woman was Mrs. Wilson in this gay cap-
ital. When great sorrow fell upon her, and cease-
less suffering, the light from the heavenly places fell
upon her face; with an angel patience, and a child-
like smile, and an unfaltering faith, she went down
into the vallej' of shadows. She possessed a keen
and wide intelligence. She was conversant with
public questions, and Interested in all those move-
ments of the day in which her husband takes so
prominent a part. Retiring by nature, she avoided
instinctively all ostentatious display; but where help
and encouragement was needed by another, the
latent power of her character sprang into life, and
then she proved herself equal to great executive
effort. No one can praise her so eloquently as he
who loved her and knew her best. To hear Senator
Wilson speak of his wife when he taught her, a
little girl in school; when he married her, 'the
loveliest girl in all the county ' ; when he received
into his heart the fragrance of her daily example ;
when he watched over her dying, only to marvel at
the endurance and sweetness and sunshine of her
patience, is to learn what a force for spiritual devel-
opihent, what a ceaseless inspiration, was this wife
to her husband. Precious to those who live, is the
legacy of such a life."

LETTER OE JAMES MURRAY HOWE.

I have been much gratifled at having the oppor-
unity to meet so many of the Howe family. When
we New England families meet together after a scp-
iration of years, we generally give an account of
vhat has occurred in the branches cf the family to
vhich we severally belong, and at this great gatheiing
)f all the Howes it seems proper that the several
iranches should report concerning their own imme-
liate ancestry, and who they were, and what became
)f them. In accordance with this view I propose to
five you a little sketch of my own immediate family,
kfy grandfather was Dr. Esies Howe, who lived and
lied in Belchertown, Mass. He was a surgeon ii
he army, during the War of the Revolution, and
lerved upon the staff of General Gates. After the
var was over he established himself in Belchertown,
ind through a long life practised medicine in Bel-

hertown and the neighboring towns. He had three

sons; William, Estes, and Samuel, all of whom
became lawj-ers and judges in the States in which
they resided. William in the State of Vermont,
Estes in the State of New York, and Samuel, my
father, in the State of Massachusetts. It is not
common for three judges to come from one family,
much less was it in former days, when the title of Judge
conveyed to every man's mind the idea of integrity,
uprightness, and justice. My father left sis chil-
dren ; three sons and three daughters, four of whom
are at Framingham to-day.

I am glad we have been so successful in gathering
the Howes together, and hope at some future time
we may have another meeting, doubting not that
cousins Joseph of Halifax, Frank of New.. York, and
Ellas of Boston, will always be ready to resume the
respective roles assumed by them to-day, so much to
the gratification of all the Howes.

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

VI. DEATH OF A MEMBEK OF THE
COMMITTEE.

While engaged in making preparations for
the festival, the sad intelligence of the death
of a respected member of the committee who
had taken a lively interest and an active part
in the proceedings, cast a shadow over every
heart, and taught anew the lesson that our
meetings here are but preparatory to the
meetings in a lovelier land ; and that what
is to be done here must be quickly, nobly
done. Mr. Benjamin L. Howe, of Ayer,
Mass., died in that town on the twenty-
fourth day of June, 1871, aged 55 years.
He was a man of ability, possessing a cheer-
ful temper of mind, and enjoying the con-
fidence and respect of his fellow-citizens.
He was, at the time of his decease. Deputy
State Constable and Deputy Sheriff of Mid-
dlesex County, and one of the School Com-
mittee of the town in which he lived. His
funeral was very largely attended, the cor-
tege numbering over one hundred carriages.
A more extended account of him will be
given in the " Register of the Howe Fam-
ily," now in course of preparation by Messrs.
Nason, Trask and Temple.

VII. PEELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE
MEETING.

In order to entertain the large Howe fam-
ily and its connections physically, socially,
and intellectually, the committee engaged
Yale's mammoth tent, whose ample folds
would cover at least eight thousand people,
and a caterer, to provide therein a dinner
for the company. Arrangements were made
for special accommodations with the various
railroads leading to the place of meeting.
The Hon. Joseph Howe, Secretary of the
Dominion of Canada, was ergaged to deliver
the principal oration of the day. Others
were invited to make addresses and remarks
appropriate to the Gathering. The services
of Hall's celebrated band, augmented by the
Metropolitan, were secured, and several
original odes, adapted to some well-known
airs, were composed by members of the fam-
ily for the occasion. A Cabinet of Curiosities
was formed, and blank-books prepared for
registering names : swings, boats, balls, etc.,
were got in readiness for the amusement of
the young.

A very beautiful badge of blue satin rib-
bon, bearing the Howe family coat-of-arms,
with the words in gold, " Howe Family
Gathering, Harmony Grove, South Fra-
MiNGHAM, August 31, 1871," was prepared,
to be worn at the meeting, and to be pre-
served as a memento of the day; and an
elaborate programme of the services of the
day, with the words and music to be sung,
was printed.

Only those experienced in such matters
know what time, what forecast, and what
outlay such arrangements call for, especi-
ally when the number of persons who will

share the entertainment is unknown. But
in anticipation of a glorious gathering of the
good old family of Howe, the work, with
right good-will, was done.

VIII. LEVEE AT THE REVERE HOUSE.

As several distinguished members of the
Howe family had arrived in Boston season-
ably to attend the gathering, it was deemed
advisable that a reunion, where they might
become acquainted with each other, and per-
fect the arrangements for the ensuing day,
should be held at the Revere House on the
evening of the thirtieth day of August, and
a notice to this effect was given in the pub-
lic prints. Owing to a drenching rain, the
number present was quite limited ; yet the
utmost harmony, cordiality, and good-will
prevailed. The meeting was entirely infor-
mal, and, after mutual greetings, wit and
wisdom flowed forth naturally from almost
every tongue.

The Hon. Joseph Howe was full of
sprightliness and mirth. Colonel Frank E.
Howe — who is, by the by, quite courtly in
his bearing — made many happy hits. Thos.
P. Howe, Counsellor, of New York, re-
counted well the struggles of Elias Howe
in bringing out his great invention; James
Murray Howe, of Boston, and James Howe,
President of the Eagle Lead Works, Brook-
lyn, N. Y., were full of good-humor. The
Hon. William Wirt Howe, youthful in ap-
pearance for a judge, conversed quite elo-
quently, and Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Avith
her quick imagination, proved an even
match for him.'

"Do they make out these Smithsonian
forecasts of the weather," she inquired, in
reference to the rain^ then falling, " by
mathematics or by guess?" "By guess, I
think," returned the judge. "Oh, yes!"
replied the poetess, " and that takes erain ! "

The Hon. H. S. Howe, of Bolton, enter-
tained the guests in his usual happy man-
ner, and at an early hour the company
retired, all pleased, no doubt, with the new
acquaintances they had formed, the agree-
able tete-a-tetes they had enjoyed, and the
hope of seeing the whole "Howe Clan" to-
gether in the morning.

IX. HARMONY GROVE ON THE MORNING OF
THE GATHERING.

The sky, on the morning of the tlu. '■v-first
of August, was overcast; but the c. 'ds
slowly rolled away, the sun shone forth ii.
splendor, and there followed one of the
clearest and serenest days of the whole
season.

The heavy rains of the preceding evening
had purified the atmosphere, and given it an
exhilarating freshness, so that it was just a
luxury to breathe and feel one's self alive
upon that peerless day. The shower had
oleansed the grove, and brightened every
leaf and flower; and as the sunbeams fell

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

in golden flashes here and there through
openings in the oak and chestnixt-trees, the
birds poured forth their sweetest carolings ;
the insects sparkled in the light, and ren-
ovated Nature seemed herself to extend a
cordial welcome to the company. Over the
main western entrance to the grove were in-
scribed, in bold red letters: "Howe Fam-
ily Gatheking ! Wklcojie I "

On the green plateau beside the grove the
mammoth tent, adorned withflags and stream-
erg, made a fine appearance ; near it stood an-
other tent, large and commodious, bearing
on its front "The Howe Cabinet"; and
close by still another tent, for the use of the
Finance Committee. The speaker's stand
was handsomely decorated with flowers, with
flags of the United States and England, and
in the front was the inscription, made in ru-
bric, of the simple word — " Howe ! "

Blank-books were opened on a stand for
registering the names of the family, and a
large circular swing, nine-pins, and boats
upon the lake, were in readiness for the
amusement of the younger members of the
family. Huge boxes of viands, fruits, etc.,
were continually arriving for the furnishing
of the tables, which were already decorated
with rich bouquets of flowers.

The dancing-hall was swept and garnished,
and a restaurant near the entrance to the
grove was well stored with icocreams, pies
and cakes, and tea and cofi'ee, and the like,
for the refreshment of the multitude.

X. THE GATHEKING OP THE HOWE FAMILY.

At about nine o'clock in the morning the
trains began to arrive from the diff'erent
points of the compass, freighted with the
members, male and female, old and young,
of the Howe family. Some had come from
the immediate neighborhood, Sudbury,
Marlborough, Hudson, Lowell, Haverhill,
Ipswich, Cambridge, Boston; some from
Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire ; some
from the distant cities and prairies of the
West; some from southern climes; some
from the British Provinces. Among them
might be seen the sturdy yeoman, with his
healthful wife and bright-eyed sons and
daughters ; the intelligent mechanic, with
his well-dressed companion and the " baby" ;
the merchant, with his bland address ; the
minister of serious mien; the physician,
lawyer, statesman; the old man, with his
whitening locks, like Jacob, leaning on his
staff; the maiden in her bloom and beauty ;
the laughing boy, the prattling child, led by
its tender mother.* Reporters of the press

* The youngest person present was Everett Chase
Howe, aged live months and four days, of Marlbor-
ough, and the oldest person there, bearing the Howe
name, was Edward Howe, Esq., formerly a merchant
of Portland, Me., born July 12, 1783, and conse-
quently in his eighty-ninth year. He still writes a
steady, clear, round hand, as his autograph in the
Register of the day attests.

were present taking notes, and here and
there were standing groups of interested
spectators from the neighboring towns.

It was a beautiful and touching sight, the
assembling of these people of a kindred
blood from homes so distant and so varied,
and as they met beneath the grateful shades
pf Harmony Grove, and interchanged con-
gratulations on this delicious morning, light
beaming in every eye, and joy in every
heart, the universal sentiment appeared to
be that the " good time " spoken of had ac-
tually come.

The ends of the earth seemed to meet to-
gether in this grand family gathering : A
Howe from Canada shakes hands with one
from Oregon; a missionary, Mrs. Benton,
nee Howe, from Syria, salutes one of her
kindred from the Sandwich Islands. All
seemed to be well acquainted with each
other. Inquiries for the absent ones pass
from lip to lip ; stories of the exploits and
suff'erings of ancestors are related ; new re-
lationships are discovered; pedigrees and
matrimonial alliances traced out; personal
incidents recounted ; names and addresses
interchanged ; and the pleasure of the pres-
ent meeting, and the hope of one to come,
is everywhere expressed.

On every side the sounds arise: "How
are you, cousin ? " " How is your mother ? "
"Where do you now live?" "To which
Howe family do you belong? " " Was your
ancestor John or James, Edward or Abra-
ham?" "Shall I introduce you to my
brother, M. G. Howe?" "Whom did your
sister Mary marry? " " Isn't this a splendid
day?" "A grand good gathering? "

Yes, it was a grand good gathering! The
hearts of the Howes were opened ; the ten-
derest chords of feeling touched; the holier
sentiments of the soul awakened ; the golden
ties of fraternity strengthened ; and loftier
aspirations entertained of adding pc?- virtu-
tem some fresh lustre to the good old sur-
name Howe.

Sometimes a life of years is most surpris-
ingly compressed into a single day. So Avas
it with some persons in that company. They
met their kindred face to face; they saw
themselves surrounded by a host of friends ;
they saw that heart responded unto hearty
and eye to eye ; they felt that they were not
alone in this widcAvorld; they gained new
courage for the battle-fields of life ; and thus "-
in those brief, joyous hours of social con-
verse, mutual congratulation and fraternal
sympathy, they lived long years; and to
them memory will revert with pleasure till
the beating of the pulse shall cease. Even
by an indifl'erent spectator, were any spec-
tator cynical enough to be indifferent, such
a scene of family affection and felicity can
never be forgotten. The flowers themselves
may fade and perish, but the aroma still
remains.

As the crowd, now decorated with the
beautiful badges in blue and gold, swelled

to

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

lip to thousands * in the gi-ove, it became a
source of exquisite pleasure to look over
it and trace the similarity, the family like-
ness, in the form and features of the people.
Liglit complexions, long and oval faces,
characterized by Eoman noses, everywhere
prevailed. Black eyes and hair were the
exceptions. A peculiar pleasant Howe ex-
pression characterized almost every coun-
tenance, of' which the face of the Hon.
Joseph Howe might be taken as one, and
that of Col. Frank E. Howe as another
type. Even the intonations of the voice
appeared to have a character peculiarly
their own, which indicated unmistakably
the Howe descent. The genealogist here
could in a moment see that

" 'Tis not all in bringing up " ;
but still there's something in the blood.

Seldom has it been our privilege to look
upon such a healthful, well-dressed, well-
behaved and happy throng of people. We
saw no dandies, loafers, shabby-genteel
political brawlers ; but every one seemed to
have come here from a happy and well-or-
dered home. The Howes — and would that
we were one of them — need surely never be
ashamed to meet their kindred.

XI. EXERCISES AT THE GROVE.

As soon as the company was seated in
the amphitheatre, the large and beautifully
printed programme was distributed, a part
of which we give below :

PEOGEAMME.

1. Pratek.

2. Opening Address, by Col. Prank E.

Howe, President of the Day, of New
York.

3. Song, words by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,

of Boston.

4. Oration, by the Hon. Joseph Howe,

Secretary of State of the New Do-
minion.
6. Song, words by Caroline Dana Howe,
of Portland, Me.

6. Address, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe.

7. Music by the Band.

8. Address, by the Hon. Wm. Wirt

Howe, of New Orleans.

9. Song, words by Mrs. Mary Howe

Hinckley, of San Francisco.

10. Other Speakers.

11. Dinner in the Mammoth Tent, at

one o'clock, p. m.

12. Amusements and Sports, after 2.30

p. M.

The bands,t led by David Culver Hall,

*It is estimated that upwards of three thousand
persons were on the grounds during the day. One
reporter sets the number as high as thirty-five hun-
dred. Among them we noticed one person deaf and
dumb, who continually pointed up to heaven as the
place for the final meeting.

fThe combined bands consisted of Hall's Brass
Band, D. C. Hall, Leader, and the following select
members : Rhodolph Hall, T. L. Allen, H. D, Brooks,

played, with great beauty and effect, for the
welcome to the grounds, the "Wedding
March " of Mendelssohn, which was fol-
lowed by the overture of the " Poet and
Peasant," by Suppe; the beautiful air,

" Her bright smile haunts me still,"
and several other favorite pieces. Col.
Frank E. Howe, President of the day, and
other officers, then, at ten o'clock, ascended
the platform, in company with the Hon.
Joseph Howe, the orator, and Mrs. Powers,
of Boston, together with the Hon. William
Wirt Howe and faiDily of Louisiana, Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe, and other distinguished
members of the Howe family.

Among those advanced in life we noticed
the Eev. Moses Howe, of New Bedford; Mr.
Edward Howe, of Portland, who took great
interest in the festival, and Mrs. Amasa
Howe, the mother of the late accomplished
wife of Senator Wilson, now in Paris. Her
eye still sparkles with the glow of youth,
and her faculties are as yet unimpaired by
age. Col. James Brown, of Framingham,
almost ninety years of age, was still in good
health, and seemed greatly to enjoy the fes-
tival.

Decorated as the stage was with flags and
wreaths of flowers, touched now and then
by some stray beam of sunshine stealing
through the overarching oaks and pines, and
containing, as it did, so many of the celebri-
ties of the family in a single group, it drew
and held, as if by fascination, every eye of
the vast throng surrounding it. The follow-
ing unique and ■congratulatory telegram now
brought forth hearty cheers from the vast
concourse :

"Lafayette, Ind., Aug. 31, 1871.
" Jb Col. Fraiik E. Howe., flarmony Grove :
"The undersigned, an infinitesimal por-
tion of the Howe family residing out here in
Hoosier land, sends his greetings, with the
information that he first saw daylight under
the shadow of old Moosilauk, N. H. At the
age of seven he was removed to near the
Hub, and educated to pulling waxed ends
and pegging boots. At sixteen, he left the
land of steady habits. Alone he paddled his
own canoe to the valley of the Wabash,
where he has resided for the last twenty-
eight years. His better-half and children
are present with you to-day. Long live the
everlasting Howe family! May their num-
ber never grow less — including the Howe
Sewing Machine.

" Ira G. Howe."

After this, the Eev. William A. Houghton,

W. A. Owen, W. E. Owen, D. H. Moore, G. H.
Brown, H. French, S. K. Conant, A. P. Holden, J.
M. BuUard; Metropolitan Brass Band, Arthur Hall,
Leader, and the following select members : Charles
H. Ball. J. Riley, I. H. Odell, G. W. Metoalf, J. W.
Plummer, William Briggs, William Barker. E. N.
Catlin, the talented leader of the orchestra at the
Boston Museum ; Wm. H. Whiddon, second leader,
and O. A. Whitmore, solo clarionetist, of the St.
James Theatre : together forming an array of mu-
sical talent unsurpassed.

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

II

of Berlin, addressed the throne of grace in
an earnest and appropriate prayer, during
which he rendered thanks for the beautiful
day; for the social gathering; for mercies
vouchsafed to the fathers of the family ; for
the honorable record which they bore. He
implored the divine blessing upon the chil-
dren here and those absent, upon the speaker
of the day, and the nation which he repre-

sents; also upon the land of our birth; and
he prayed that the smile of God might con-
tinue to rest upon us and our children, until
gathered to the first-born in heaven.

At the conclusion of the prayer, Col.
Frank E. Howe, of New York, rose, and
gracefully addressed the audience as fol-
lows:

INTEODUCTORY AND CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS

BY

COL. FRANK E. HOWE.

Kinsfolk and Friends :

Beckoned by shadowy hands, a family
numbering thousands conies to circle a
a hearth to-day; bending their steps back
to the roof-tree again, come kinsmen who
have cast out their fortunes over a con-
tinent— some of them treading easily upon
the eminences of a realm on which, it has
been said, the sun never sets.

Pilgrims to the shrine of home, you have
left life's din for a day, to freshen fading mem-
ories, to grasp hands with hearts in them,
to know each other better, and to brighten
and strengthen the links of that chain
which binds you together. It is my priv-
ilege, uttering the voice of all, to pronounce
the salutation and welcome of all to all.
It will be fitting in me to claim only a little
space of your time, making way for others
who have added lustre to our name. My
discourse shall be mainly brilliant flashes
of silence. Home Tooke told the judge
that the business of the Court was not to
talk, but to help the crier keep order ; and
no doubt a presiding, officer should be as
silent as a judge — perhaps he should be as
soJ)er, too. My brief words to you cannot
be all of mirth and gladness ; something sub-
dued hushes merriment. A gladness^that
is not gay issues from these scenes and
memories. We meet each other and the
cheek puts on a smile, a smile that comes
from the heart ; but sighs and sadness come
also, because of

" The graves that have grown green,
And the looks that have grown grey I "

Many are here — the good, the gifted,
and the true — many whom Heaven has
crowned with graces and with genius, many
whom Earth has crowned with honors and
riches and attainments ; but still solitude
and loneliness enter these precincts; some
are not here, their places are vacant, and
they will not return again to us.

" Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still."

The sentiment of such a reunion is no
mere holiday affair; it is deeper, more sa-
cred and tender. Attachment to the soil
holding the ashes of their fathers, fondness
for the scenes and the associations of their
childhood, affection for the localities iden-
tified with their ancestors, have, in all ages
and climes, been characteristics of man-
kind. The feeling hardly stops with hu-
manity. Throughout animated nature,
some such instinct seems to prevail — it is
not ancestral pride alone, but a longing to
go back to the places, the visions, and the
things of infancy and early home. The
Eomans brought beasts of the field and
fowls of the air from many distant regions,
and brought with each a measure of its
parent soil; and it was one of Rome's tra-
ditions, that when placed in the amphithe»
atre, these mute and exiled captives sought
each its handful of native land.

Even inanimate creation seeras to share
this human yearning, and things that
have no sense or touch or motion cling to
the memories of birth and to the associa-
tions of childhood. Weird symbols of this
human longing are strewn on Time's banks
and shoals — trees sometimes will bend all
their branches back to earth ; and the little
sea-shell, carried far away from its ocean
home, still ever murmurs of the billows
and the storm. All these things unite in
the thoughts, emotions, and mysteries of
this filial and fraternal day.

How diverse in character and lot are
those I see around me ! How fate ha3
made us all unlike, and divorced and ex-
iled far and wide the descendants of a sin-
gle parentage ! Distinct, like the waves,
to-day, at least, we are one, like the sea.

Of those who wore the name before us,
and inscribed it on the roll of useful and
remembered names, I would gladly speak,
but this grateful task belongs of right to
others, and I forbear. All that language
need do will be done to remind us of their
trials and their labors, and to inspire us

12

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

with emulation of the patriotism and the
virtues which adorned their lives.

We are liere for hardly more than one
little hour — like him of old wrestling with
the angel, let us hold it fast, nor let it go
till it blesses us, and leaves fond and fra-
grant memories to abide with us, and bring
us back again and again in after years, to
lay new offerings upon our ancestral shrine.

Col. Howe's address was delivered in a
clear and distinct voice, and was warmly
applauded during the delivery, and at the
close.

The audience then most heartily joined
in the following admirable song of wel-
come, written by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
and adapted to the familiar tune of " Home,
Sweet Home." [See next page.]

At the close of this song the President
introduced to the audience, in the ensuing
very neat and felicitous speech, the Hon,
Joseph Howe, as the orator of the day :

"I shall have the pleasure to present to
you, in a moment, one who, before he utters
a word, expresses a thought, and whose
mute presence only would herald an idea
hopeful to all the nations of the earth.
England's ensign and the flag of stars
stream over us together — symbols of a
world-wide sway, they canopy this platform
with an archway of unity as unbroken as
the sky that bends above us. These pen-

nants personify two great nationalities ;
these blended colors, those who sit beneath
them, the spectacle on which we gaze, the
very rites we pay — all are emblems of an
era in the civilization of the world. The
two English-speaking nations have conse-
crated the year 1871 to fraternity and inter-
nationality. America and Great Britain
have made this an epoch of Anglo-Saxon
brotherhood.

" Our distinguished kinsman is here in
double friendship. Enjoying the confi-
dence, and wearing the honors of his
sovereign, he comes to us ; we twine our
flag with his, and hail him for the lineage
he bears, for the name he honors, and also
as the harbinger of international recon-
ciliation, of peace on earth, good will
toward men.

" I present to you the Hon. Joseph
Howe, some time of Canada, in the New Do-
minion, but just now of Massachusetts, in
New England."

The orator rose amid the continued accla-
mations of the assembly. He is a well-
built, solid man, of something more than
sixty years, with a frank, open, good-
natured expression of countenance, an
earnest, searching voice, and an English
manner of address. His eloquent words
were listened to with profound attention,
and they elicited frequent expressions of
applause.

SONG OP WELCOME.

Sung at the Howe Family Gathering and Qelebration, Harmony Grove, Sout h Framingham ,Maa8.
.-,«__ -Aug. 31s<, 1871.

Composed expressly for the occasion, by Mrs. JTJLIA 'WARD HOWE. Music, "Home, Sweet Home,"
Moderato. ^^

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* fruit with pride,From summer's fiery mould.

~>^'~°1 ^»"'^4- — H""^ H""^ H"*^— I -I- J

The winged seeds are carried far On

-0-

Even thus the souls of humankind

On Will's strong currents fly,
And their appointed limit find,

To fall, and fructify.
But Love has blown his blast to-day

Beneath the glittering dome,
That we should feel within his sway,

The deathless joy of home.
And this one comes from desert wastes,

And this from sunny isles,
And this one,crowned with sorrows,hastes,

And this one crowned with smiles.

Blest was the freedom that enlarged
Our youth's unfolding powers,

The daring impulse that surcharged.
With life, our pilgrim hours.

But happier yet the sacred bond

That doth our presence claim,
That conjures memories full and fond

With one ancestral name.
Freedom and love are welded both

In ties of kindred blood ;
So let us, thankful, pledge our troth

To human brotherhood

ORATION

OP

HON. JOSEPH HOWE,

Secretary of State of the Dominion of Canada.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : —

To be invited to address such an audience
as this, in the centre of intellectual New
England, I regard as a great distinction.
Yet the position has its drawbacks. The
committee have announced an "Oration";
but a simple and good-humored introduction
to the business of the day is all that I shall
attempt. If disposed to be more ambitious,
and to try a bolder flight, I should be afraid
to risk comparisons that you would not fail
to institute, and which I am not vain enough
to challenge. You have not forgotten the
stately and nervous arguments of Webster,
or the polished elocution and silvery voice
of Everett; and though those masters of the
art have passed awa}"", you can still sit at the
feet of Emerson, listen to the fiery decla-
mation of Phillips, wonder at Lowell's mar-
vellous felicity of phrase and luxuriance of
illustration, and fold to your hearts, -with a
love akin to worship, our good friend Oliver
Wendell Holmes. Let us thank God for
these great lights, which have diffused, or
are still shedding their radiance over the
industrial and intellectual life of a great
nation ; but this is a family party, and as a
member of the family, I throw myself upon
your indulgence. We are here not to make
a parade of our eloquence, if we have any,
but to spend a day in holy brotherhood and
sweet communion.

Drawn from many States and Provinces,
but springing from a comjnon stock, we meet
for peaceful and legitimate purposes, to grasp
each other's hands, to look into each other's
faces, to study each other's forms, and to
mark how the fine original structure of the
race has borne change of aliment, diversity
of climate, and the wear and tear of seden-
tary or active life, amidst the rapid mental
and.bodily movement of the fast age in which
we live.

These family gatherings were, I believe,
first suggested in New England, and their
success is to be traced to the natural out-
crop of feelings that are very rational. A
wise nation preserves its records, gathers up
its muniments, decorates the tombs of its
illustrious dead, repairs its great public

(I

structures, and fosters national pride and
love of country, by perpetual references to
the sacrifices and glories of the past. But,
divide the nation by households, and under
every roof you will find, let national pride
be ever so strong, that family pride, the in-
terest in the narrower circle that bears a
common name, is quite as active. Our lit-
erature is filled with types of the septs, and
clans, and families into which the wide
world is divided, and who cling to their old
recollections and traditions with marvellous
tenacity.

In the British Islands this family senti-
ment finds vent, and expands itself with
great luxuriance and grace, under the shel-
ter of the law of primogeniture. Emerson,
in his delightful book on England, tells us
that there are "three hundred palaces"
scattered all over the face of that country.
A great many of these are comparatively
modern structures, reared by the merchant
princes and great manufacturers of England,
who, in comparatively modern times, have
been enriched by the abounding commerce
and restless industry of a great and prosper-
ous empire.

But by far the larger number are the
growth of centuries ; " the stately homes of
England," where her historic families, many
of them older than the Conquest, store up
and preserve all that can illustrate the bril-
liant and heroic qualities of the race, and
prompt to the highest order of emulation.
Many of these old structures, such as War-
wick Castle, the stronghold of the king-
maker, and Alnwick, the seat of " the stout
Earls of Northumberland," though converted
into luxurious modern residences, and em-
bellished with all that high art in these
recent times can furnish, occupy the com-
manding sites which made them formidable
centuries ago, and wear the outward sem-
blance of strong medieeval fortresses, from
which a stone has scarcely been removed.
In many other cases the stern front of war
has been softened and toned down by the
gradual process of decay, the luxuriance of
vegetation, or by improvements, which have
placed modei-n structures, of vast propor-
tions, upon the old feudal sites, replete with

4)

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

15

every convenience for ease and comfort,
which, from the thickness of the ■■yalls, and
the defensive character of the design, could
not always be commanded in the old feudal
castles.

But whether the style of the structure be
ancient or modern, it is surrounded by an
estate, which, from generation to generation,
has belonged to one family, — been known
by one name, — and the house, whatever
the style of architecture may be, is filled
with all that can illustrate the manhood and
the intellectual vigor of that family, from its
rise, amidst the convulsions of some shadowy
by-gone age, down to the hour in which,
with mingled wonder and admiration, we
survey the marvellous results of a system
not recognized by the institutions under
which we live.

That those families should desire to pre-
serve their estates intact, and gather around
them the evidences of their antiquity and
achievements, is not at all surprising, when
we reflect that a very large proportion of
them are inseparably interwoven with the
great events which have made the history
of their country memorable; and the val-
uable services rendered to the nation by
many of these families, not only throw
around their country seats and personal rel-
ies an indescribable charm, but give them a
strong hold on the affections of the people.

A Stanley won the field of Flodden. One
of the Talbots, who led the English forces
in France, and fought against Joan of Arc,
was the victor in forty-seven battles and dan-
gerous skirmishes. The Percys have seven
times driven back the tide of foreign inva-
sion, and for eight hundred years have stood
in the front of resistance to regal tyranny :
and, say the writers from whom I quote,*
" One Eussell has staked his head for the
Protestant faith; a second the family es-
tates in successful resistance to a despot ; a
third has died on the scaffold for the liber-
ties.of Englishmen; a fourth has aided ma-
terially in the revolution which substituted
law for the will of the sovereigns ; a fifth
spent his life in resisting the attempt of the
House of Brunswick to rebuild the power
of the throne, and gave one of the first ex-
amples of just religious government in Ire-
land; and a sixth organized and carried
through a bloodless but complete transfer
of power from his own order to the middle
classes."

These are eminent services, and we can-
not wonder that the family seats, where such
men were bred, are religiously preserved by
their descendants, and regarded with deep
interest by the nation.

There is no name more familiar to Amer-
icans than that of Lord North, who, under
George the Tliird, conducted, for many
years, the disastrous war which was only
closed by the establishment of the indepen-

* Sanford and Townshend's Governing Families
of England.

dence of these United States. How few of
all the able and distinguished men, who, on
your side, led in that great struggle, have
left behind them homes that have been pre-
served, properties still undivided, or com-
mon centres, where their pictures, books,
and family muniments have been treasured
up, to keep alive for succeeding generations
the memory of their martial or diplomatic
achievements ! By the personal exertions
of Everett, Mount Vernon has been pre-
served ; and, to their honor be it spoken,
the Adams family, by a rare exhibition of
hereditary qualities, have held their prop-
erty and maintained their positions in the
highest circles of political and social ele-
vation. But nearly all the others, though
honorably known to history, have passed
away, and have left no property to embellish
the scenery, no rally ing-places for their
descendants, no familiar evidences of their
existence.

In the heart of Oxfordshire stands Wrox-
ton Abbey, the seat of the Norths. It is an
old ecclesiastical structure, turned into a
modern residence of surpassing beauty,
where all that is antique is preserved with
religious care, and gracefully interwoven
with whatever can administer to refined lux-
ury and convenience. It is surrounded by-
forty thousand acres of the best land in Eng-
land. The outlying farms are cultivated by
a prosperous tenantry, whose families have
occupied the same lands for centuries, many
of whom keep hunters worth five hundred
guineas, and pay a thousand sovereigns a
year of annual rent. Ancestral trees, older
than the Abbey, fling their shadows down
upon sinuous walks and carriage-drives that
appear almost endless ; whilst every window
in the lipuse looks out upon verdant lawns,
well-kept gardens, or clumps of tree-roses,
interspersed with masses of evergreens, the
preservation of which is so much favored
by the moist climate of England.

The Baroness North, granddaughter of
Lord North of the Revolutionary War, and
her husband, Colonel North, reside on this
beautiful estate ; and while distinguished for
the latgeness of heart and great hospitality
which become their stations, are not un-
mindful of the hereditary obligation which
devolves upon them to treasure, to enlarge,
and to transmit to their descendants, all that
can illustrate the daily life, the personal
traits, or the distinguished services of the
house to which they belong, in all its
branches.

You are aware that the family of the
Norths was interwoven with the Guild-
fords and Greys. The hundred rooms and
long corridors of Wroxton tell the family
story, from its foundation in 1496 to the
present hour. Beautiful women, in the cos-
tume of the period in which they flourished
— children of all ages — eminent Lawyers,
Privy Councillors, Soldiers, Ambassadors,
and judges, line the walls of every staircase
and of every room.

i6

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

Many of these pictures are valuable as
•works of art, but their cliief value is in the
record they supply of forms long passed
away — of features that cannot be repro-
duced, and for the facilities they afford to
every rising generation to study and trans-
rait the family story, by the aid of authentic
materials, which in our countries, and under
our systems, we can very rarely supply.

Two or three rooms in this old house
deeply interested me. One was Lord
North's Library, in which every book that
he had ever owned or handled has been pre-
served. Though unsuccessful as a War
Minister, he was a scholar and a wit, and
many of the volumes are rare editions, or
presentation copies, enriched by autographs
or annotations.

A small room, opening from the library,
was Lord North's study. A very remark-
able likeness of him overhangs and looks
down on the table at which he wrote his des-
patches. The inkstand, and I might almost
add the pens, with which they were written,
have been preserved.

A bed-room in this fine old edifice inter-
ested me even more deeply. I slept one
night in it without knowing to whom it had
belonged. It was a stately chamber, hung
with arras, greatly faded, with quaint old
andirons in an open fireplace, a low bed-
stead with high posts ; and all the furniture,
though admirably preserved, bearing the un-
mistakable impress of antiquity. To my
great surprise I was told, on coming down
to breakfast on the following morning, that
I had occupied the apartment of Lady Jane
Grey, and slept in her bed, nothing having
been changed in the room, since her death,
but the bed-linen, which had worn out. I
am not quite sure that I ever slept so soundly
in the same apartment a second night as I
did the first. Visions of the beautiful mar-
tyr to misplaced ambition seemed ever flit-
ting round me, and I sometimes fancied that
the grim headsman, with his axe, was linger-
ing in the long shadows flung out by the
massive walls.

A volume might be written descriptive of
the beauties of Wroxton, and of the treas-
ures of art and of biography which it con-
tains, and yet it is a ■comparatively modern
edifice, nor do the Norths trace back their
lineage nearly so far as many of the great
historic families of England.

But I have taken this single house to show
you how_ strong is the family sentiment in
our mother country, and to answer, in ad-
vance, those who would smile at our humble
endeavors to engraft upon our democratic
institutions some graceful forms of develop-
ment for a yearning that is universal, and
for the outcrop of feelings as old as history.

Neither in the United States, nor in Can-
ada, is any provision made for this develop-
ment. By our old laws two-thirds of the
real estate were given to the eldest son ; but
modern legislation has swept this provision
away, and property is cow equally divided

in all our States and Provinces. The uni-
versal feeling sustains this condition of the
law ; entails are discouraged, and fortunes
are earned only to be distributed, often with
a rapidity that far outruns the process of
accumulation. A spendthrift is too apt to
follow a miser, and the thriftless, bred in
luxurious homes, often seem to have come
into the world for no other purpose than to
scatter what the industrious have earned,
and to disperse, without a thought of name
or race, all that their fathers prized; and in
which their descendants, if not below the
ordinary scale of humanity, Avould be sure
to take an interest.

The democratic system, which prevails all
over this continent, cannot be changed. It
has its advantages, and the evils arising from
the law of primogeniture cannot be veiled,
even by the graceful surroundings to which '
I have referred ; and the practical question
which we have met here to endeavor to
solve is this : Can we, without disturbing
the law, or disregarding the common sen-
timent of the continent, keep alive our fam-
ily name — trace back our family story, and.
while dividing our property among our chil-
dren, divide with them also all that we have
been able to learn, to authenticate, and to
transmit, of the family from which they
have sprung?

May we not do more ? May we not so
pass this day as to make it a festival in the
finest sense of the term — to the repetition
of which the thousands who bear our name
will look forward with intense delight?

In England, the Howes have lived and
flourished for centuries. The Howe banner
hangs as high, in Henry VII. 's chapel, as any
other evidence of honorable service, and the
battle of the first of June will be remem-
bered so long as the naval annals of England
last. In the old French wars, for the pos-
session of this continent, one Ho\ve fell at
Ticonderoga, and another was killed on the
Nova Scotia frontier. In the Kevolutionary
War, the Howes were not fortunate. I have
heard cay father describe Sir William, as
he saw him leading up the British forces at
the battle of Bunker Hill, with the bullets
flying like hail around him. But I am ap-
prehensive that in that old war God was not
" on the side of the strongest columns," and
that the time had arrived when the peopling
and development of a continent could not
be postponed by the agencies of fleets and
armies.

The Howes, who have been ennobled, trace
their family back to the reign of Henry
VIII., and seem to have held estates in
Somersetshire, Gloucester, Wiltshire, Not-
tingham, and Fermanagh, in Ireland. Jack
Howe, as he was familiarly called, who was
a member of Parliament in the reigns of
William and Anne, was a fluent speaker,
and, like a good many other people in those
days, had a great dislike to standing armies.
His son, who sat for Nottingham in the Con-
vention Parliament, was one of those who

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

17

established the liberties of England, in
1G88.

But many branches of the family are scat-
tered all about England. I fouml three
Howes, bearing my own family Christian
names, lying side by side in the churchyard
at Newport, in the Isle of Wiglit, and I
learned tliat in the western end of the Island
a family of honest farmers, who are all
Howes, have been living there on the same
land, beyond the memory of man.

I found three others, all males, lying just
inside the graveyard at Berwick-on-Tweed.
I could not hear of any Howes in the neigh-
borhood, and I took it for granted that they
must have been killed in some old border
fight, which is not at all improbable if they
came from the south side of the stream.

But, passing over the nobles and the ple-
beians of England, I must confess that there
is one Howe of whom we may all be proud.
This is .John Howe, who was Chaplain to
Oliver Cromwell, and whose fine form and
noble features are preserved in some of the
old engravings. He must have been an elo-
quent preach.er, for he won his place by a
sermon which the Protector happened to
hear. That he was a fine scholar and learned
theologian is proved by the body of divinity,
written in classic English, which he has left
behind him. That he was a noble man is
proved, also, by a single anecdote which is
preserved to us. On one occasion he was
soliciting aid or patronage for some person
whom he thought deserving, when Cromwell
turned sharply round, and, by a single ques-
tion, let a liood of light in upon the disin-
terestedness and amiability of his character,
whiefi will illuminate it in all time to come.
"John," said the Protector, "you are always
asking something for some poor fellow ; why
do you never ask anytliing for yourself? "
My father's name was John, and I have
often tried to trace him back to this good
Christian, whose character in many points
his own so much resembled. I may hazard
one observation, before passing from the
English Howes, and it is this : that the pres-
ent possessor of the peerage had better bestir
himself, and do something to add lustre to
his coronet, or else we Howes in America
will begin to think it has dropped on an in-
active brain. He fights no battles, he writes
no books, he makes no speeciies, and, al-
though I believe he is a very amiable person,
and was a great friend of the late Queen
Dowager, I beg to enter my protest against
the apparent want of patriotism, or mental
activity, which this very supine recipient of
hereditary rank seems to display.

But, passing over the Howes who have fig-
ured, or still dwell, on the other side of the
Atlantic, I take it for granted that tlie whole
of this vast audience are descended from
those who settled in New England between
• 1630 and 1657. It would appear, by the cir-
cular kindly sent to me by your secretary,
that there were seven of tliese, although my
father used to tell me that there were but

four. Two of them, Joseph, of Boston, and
Abraham, of ^Yatertown, may have been
sons of some of the otiiers, if they married
early, which is probable ; but I take the list
as I find it, and to me it is full of interest.
What was the Old World about when these
men came to America ? Why did they come ?
are questions that naturally occur to us. In
1629, Charles I. dissolved his Parliament,
and no other was called in England till the
Long Parliament met in 1640. During the
eleven years which intervened, we all know
what was going on in Engl'and. Laud was
Archbishop of Canterbury, Strafford was
first Minister, and that hopeful experiment
was being tried of ruling witliout Parlia-
ments, which ended in the wreck and ruia
of the monarchy. Within tliese eleven years
five of tlie seven Howes were settled in
New England, and the reasonable presump-
tion is that they found old England too hot
for them.

They had no fancy for paying ship-money
on compulsion, for having their ears cropped,
or for standing in the pillory for the free ex-
pression of opinions ; and, perhaps foresee-
ing wliat was coming, they accomplished
what it is said Cromwell, Hampden, and
others at one time meditated, and reached
America before the Civil War began. The
earlier battles of Worcester and Edgehill
were fought in 1642, and before this five of
the Howes had made good their lodgement in
America. If the two who date from 1652
and 1657 were not born in this country, they
may have taken tlie field ; but of the fact
we have no authentic record.

It is enough for us to know that these an-
cestors of ours were God-fearing, worthy
men, sprung from the sturdy middle class of
English civic and rural life, who left their
native country not because they did not love
it, but because they could not stay tliere
without mean compliance and tame submis-
sion to usurped authority. We would per-
haps have been just as well pleased had they
remained behind, and struck a few manful
blows for the liberties of England ; but we
must accept the record as we find it, with
this source of consolation, that no brother's
blood was upon their hands when they landed
in America. That they were men of worth
and intelligence ' there is proof enough.
They were freemen and proprietors in the
townships where they settled; selectmen,
representatives, officers, Indian commission-
ers, and seem to have brought from the old
country, in fair measure, the common sense,
industry, and thrift so much needed by the em-
igrant. That they were men of fine propor-
tions and of sound constitutions, I may infer
from the audience before me, and from the
fact, which your secretary has recorded, that
five of these old worthies left forty-four chil-
dren behind them. That those " forefathers
of our hamlets " set us a good example, their
simple records prove. Thatthe Howe women
have been fruitful, and the men vigorous, is
consistent with all I know of tlieir descend-

iS'

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

ants on this continent and this vast audience,
where forms of manly beauty and female
loveliness abound, shows me that in physical
proportions and feminine attraction the race
has been well preserved. But in tliese sound
bodies are there sound minds? What of the
intellectual qualities and mental develop-
ment of the family? Plave our women
been born " to suckle fools, and chronicle
small beer"? Have the men displaj^ed the
energy and capacity for affairs demanded
of them by the free and rapidi}' expanding
communities in which they lived? It is
only by the nuitual interchange of fact and
thouglit, at such a gathering as this, that we
can answer these questions to our own s.at-
isfaction. But if I were challenged by the
transatlantic branches of the family to bear
testimony upon these points, I think, even
with my limited knowledge of your coun-
try, I could produce a group of eloquent
senators, eminent soldiers, distinguished
philanthropists, and successful business
men, to prove conclusively that, in these
United States, the race has not declined.

In turning to the Provinces it must be
borne in mind that but one of all the Howes
in these States took the British side in the
Eevolutionary War. Of my father I spoke,
some years ago, at Faneuil Hall; and my
good friend Lorenzo Sabine (one of the best
writers and most accomplished statesmen
produced in the Eastern States) has kindly
embodied what was said in the second edi-
tion of his " Lives of the Loyalists," to
which I must refer those who take interest
in the British- American branch of the fam-
ily. To-day I have leisure to say only this :
that if it be permitted to the saints in
Heaven to revisit the scenes they loved, and
to hover over the innocent reunions of their
kindred, ray father's spirit will be here,
gratified to see that the familj"-, divided by
the Revolution, is again united, and that
his son, to use the language which Burns
puts into the mouth of the peasant woman
in his "Cotter's Saturday Night," is " re-
spected like the lave."

Of the past liistoiry of the family, on both
sides of the Atlantic, wc may be justly
proud. That the present is full of hope and
promise this great festival assures us. For
the future I have no fears. We meet to
gather up the fragmentary biographies of
the' family, and to encourage each other in
well-doing that the family may not decline.
B}' honest industry and manly exercises we
must see to it tiiat the race is well preserved,
and bj' careful cultivation that the brain is
well developed. Savage, in his Genealog-
ical Dictionary, tells us that seven of the
Howes, prior to 1834:, had graduated at Har-
vard University, and twenty-three at other
colleges in New England. Nearly all the
Howes that I have ever known were dear
lovers of books, and reasonablj'- intelligent.
To keep abreast with the active intellect of
the age we must be students still. We
inherit a rich and noble language. We are

the " heirs," says Professor Greenwood, "of
all the ages in the foremost files of time."
■' Knowledge," Disraeli tells us, " is like the ■
mystic ladder in the Patriarch's dream. Its
base rests on the primeval earth — its crest
is lost in the shadowy splendor of the em-
pyrean; while the great authors, wiio, for
traditionary ages, have held the chain of
science and philosophy, of poesy and erudi-
tion, are the angels ascending and descend-
ing the sacred scale, and maintaining, as it
were, the communication between man and
Heaven."

But we must not be mere students. This
is not an age wherein people. should be con-
tent to see visions and dream dreams. The
work of the world is before us ; and on this
continent there is work enough and to spare
for centuries to come. We must do our
share of it, and the family will be judged
by the style and manner in which it is done.
The Scotch have a familiar phrase : '• Put a
stout heart to a stiff brae " ; and Goethe
tells us : " All I had to do I have done in
kingly fashion. I let tongues wng. What
I saw to be the right thing that I did." Maj''
your hearts be "stout" when the " braes "
are " stiff." Let the world take note of you
that you are good husbands, good fathers,
good citizens, and true and honorable men ;
that your descendants may come up here to
Framingham, looking back at this festival
as thougl:, from its fruits, it were worth a
repetition; and come, not to glorify a mere
name that has no significance, but to see
that an honorable name which they inherit
is kept untarnished, and transmitted with
new lustre to t/heir children.

But let us hope that these family meet-
ings may be made to subserve a higher pur-
pose than the mere renewal of broken ties
of relationship in limited circles. May they
not embrace a wider range, ascend t,o a
higher elevation, and have a tendency to
draw together, not only single families, but
that great family that the unhappy events
which led to the Revolutionarjr War divided
into three branches ? Germany had its Seven
Years' War, and its Thirty Yeai's' War, to
say 'nothing of centuries of rivalries and di-
visions, and yet a common sentiment, "the
Fatherland," is rapidlj'- uniting all who speak
its language, love its literature, and are
proud of its martial achievements. The Civil
Wars of France have been endless, and yet
the common ties of literature and language,
however rudely those of brotherhood are
broken at times, draw the whole people to-
gether; find though kings and emperors, re-
publics and comi^afunes, pass away, under
them all the common sentiment is, "Vive
la France ! " and tiiis is the cry of a united
people, when each system in its turn has
been overthrown.

Great Britain and the L'nited States have
had eleven years of war, eight at the llevo-
lution, and three in tlie foolisli struggle which
lasted from 1812 to 1815. What are eleven
years in history? Your own Civil War

THE HOWE FAMTLY GATHERING.

19

lasted nearly four, and more men were killed
in if than Great Britain and the United States
.could ever put into the field in those old con-
tests, which sensible men everywhere remem-
ber only to regret. You hope to be, and I
trust the hope may be realized, a unit^
people. Why should not the three groat
branches of the British family unite, our
old wars and divisions to the contrary not-
withstanding? Tliis is " a consummation
devoutly to be wislied." Ocean steamers,
railroads, cheap postage, and telegraphs,
make a union possible ; and gatherings such
as this may hasten on the time, when, living
under different forms of government, and
each loyal to the institutions it prefers, tlie
three great branches of the British family
may not only live in perpetual amity,
but combine to develop free institutions
everywhere, and to keep the peace of the
world.

Such a union, to be permanent, must be
based on mutual respect, and on a just ap-
preciation of the position and resources of
each branch of the Great Family. The
marvellous growth and vast resources of
these United States are frankly acknowl-
edged by every rational English and British-
American man that I know. That your
country contains nearly forty millions of
people, as intelligent, industrious, inventive,
and martial, as any other equal number on
the face of the eartli, we frankly admit; but
I am often amused at th(5 style of exagger-
ation adopted in this country, and at the
mode in which we Britishers are talked of
on platforms, and in circles not over well-
informed. Four millions of freemen on the
other side of the line, who govern them-
selves, and who can change their rulers
when Parliament sits, any night ofi the year,
by a simple resolution — who could declare
their independence to-morrow, or join these
United States, if so inclined — are often
spoken of as serfs and bondmen, because
they do not care to rupture old relations,
and go in search of political guaranties,
which, by their own firmness and practical
sagacity, they have already secured. That
we ai'e not laggards and idlers over the bor-
der, may be gathered from the growth of our
cities, and from the rapid development of our
industry in all its branches. Though but a
handful of people commenced to clear up
our country at the close of the Revolutionary
War, we have already a population more
numerous than Scotland, and have peace-
fully organized into provinces a territory
more extensive than the United States, larger
than the whole Empire of Brazil ; the volume
of our trade has increased to §120,000,000;
and the mercantile marine of the Northern
Provinces places them in the rank of the
fourth maritime country in the world. My
own native Province, I am proud to say,
takes the lead in this honorable form of en-
terprise. Nova Scotia owns more than a
ton of shipping for every man, woman, and
child on her soil. The babe that was born

yesterday is represented by a ton of ship-
ping that was built before it was born.

But are the British Islands so decrepit and
effete as we sometimes hear in this country?
Is the empire which is sustained by the two
other branches of the family, unworthy of
the friendship of these United States ? Would
it not bring its sliare of everything that con-
stitutes national greatness into the union of
which I have spoken ? Republican America,
impoverished by the war of Independence,
loaded with debt, having a great country to
explore, finances to reorganize, institutions
to consolidate, and a navy to create, has
done her work in the face of the world in a
manner that challenges its respect and ad-
miration. , Her contributions to literature,
her able judges, sagacious statesmen, elo-
quent orators, acute diplomatists, and emi-
nent soldiers and sailors, have won for her a
place in civilization and history, which all
British Americans and Englishmen proudly
acknowledge. ■ You are " bone of our bone,"
and as one of your Commodores exclaimed,
when lending a helping hand to Englishmen
in the Chinese rivers, '• blood is thicker than
water" ; and the laurels you win, and the tri-
umphs you achieve, even at our expense,
but illustrate tlie versatility and vigor of the
life-currents whicli we share.

Now let us see what the elder branch of
the family has been about for the last eighty
years, and whether, as we approach the
fountain-head, the stream shows less anima-
tion. At the beginning of the seventeenth
century, all London was built of wood, and
thirty years after the Howes settled in New
England, four hundred streets and thirteen
thousand houses were consumed in the great
fire. In 1783, the population did not exceed
six hundred thousand, and the docks were
not yet constructed. By tlie time I saw
London first, in 1831>, the population had in-
creased to a miUion and a half; but within
the last third of a century the numbers have
swelled to about four millions, so that the
metropolis of our empire is nearly as large
as the cities of New York, Brooklyn,
Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, Baltimore,
Boston, Cincinnati, New Orleans, San Fran-
cisco, and Buffixlo, all put together.

At the close of the Revolutionary War,
the British Empire was assumed to be on
the decline. Thirteen noble provinces had
just been lost. She had been humiliated by
land and sea. Her power on the American
Continent had been shaken to its founda-
tions. Her great rival had defeated and
triumphed over her; and, with her capital
imperilled by mobs, and her treasury loaded
down with debt, she had but a grim" outlook
for the future, at that disastrous period.
But the people around the old homestead
were not discouraged. The brain-power
was not exhausted, nor the physical forces
spent. They went on thinking, working,
and fighting, as though, like Antaeus, they
gathered strength from their fall; and now,
at the end of four-fifths of a century, let us

20

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

see what they have accomplished. On this
continent, profiting by the lessons of the
past, and learning the science of colonial
government, they have planted and fostered
great provinces as populous as those they
lost. They have explored and planted
Australia and New Zealand, conquered an
empire in the East, taken Sinj^apore, the
Mauritius, British Guiana, and Hong Kong;
and now, instead of the few feeble colonies
left to them in 1783, when this country broke
away, they have nearly seventy great prov-
ince's and dependencies, scattered all over
the Avorld, to whom Webster's drum-beat is
familiar; which contain a population of
hundreds of millions, and secure to the
mother islands an abounding commerce, in-
dependent of all the rest of the world, but
which they threw open to free competition,
with a somewhat chivalrous confidence in
their own resources.

Of the men produced in these modern
days, why should I weary you with a bead-
i-oll? Nelson and Wellington, Clive and
Napier, stand in the front of a noble array
of warriors who have carried the Eed Cross
Flag by land and sea ; and under its ample
folds great statesmen have remodelled their
institutions, reformed their laws, enlarged
the franchise, limited the prerogative, and
laid the foundations of civil and religious
liberty broad and deep. Nor have the
Mother Islands hung their harps upon the
willows ; while their engineers have covered
the ocean with lines of steamships, and their
architects have embellished the scenery with
noble structures, their great writers have
remodelled history, and the melodious strains
of Scott and Byron, of Hemans and Camp-
bell, have been heard above the din of work-

shops that never tire — the ebb. and flow of
capital enlarging with each pulsation, and
the gradual unfolding of tliat marvellous
web and woof of finance whose meshes
envelop the world.

r have but little more to say. If it be
wise to gather the Howes together, and re-
new old family ties, how much more impor-
tant will it be to bring together the three
great branches of the British fiimily, and
unite them in a common policy, as inde-
structible as their language, as enduring as
the literature they cannot divide !

Out of such a union would flow the bles-
sings of perpetual peace, for no foreign
power would venture to assail us ; and we
would be sufficiently strong to be magnan-
imous when international difficulties arose'.
Ships enough to keep the peace of the seas
would be all we should require. With a
landwehr of millions in reserve, our stand-
ing armies might be reduced to the minimum
of cost. Capital would ebb and flow freely
over the whole confederacy ; our transports,
instead of carrying war material, might carry
the surplus population to the regions where
labor was wanting, and land was cheap;
ocean telegrams would come down to a
penny rate ; and our national debts would
disappear, by the gradual increase of the
population, and the growth of the general
prosperity. May the great Father of mer-
cies hear our prayers, and so overrule our
national counsels, that we may come to be
one people, living under difFei-ent forms of
government it may be, but knit together by
a common policy, based upon an enlightened
appreciation of each other's sti'ength, and on
a sentiment of mutual esteem.

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

21

At the conclusion of this classical address,*
of which we here give a verbatim copy,
Col. Howe invited the audience to join in
singing the following beautiful hymn, writ-
ten for the day, by Miss Caroline Dana
Howe, a well-known poetess of Portland,
Me., who was present on the occasion. It
was sung to the air of "Bonnie Doon," the
band leading. [See page 22.]

After the singing of the foregoing song,
Col. Howe stepped forward and introduced
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe to the audience,
with these felicitous words: "Mrs. Julia
Ward Howe needs no introduction; she
long ago introduced herself.f I might say
of her as Napoleon said of Madame de
Stael — ' She carries a quiver full of arrows
that would hit a man were he seated on a
rainbow.' "

Mrs. Howe then presented herself, amid
the enthusiastic cheers of the assembly.
She was elegantly dressed, and with a very
bland and graceful bearing she observed
that she did not know, until she saw the
programme, that she was expected to make
an address besides reading a poem, but that
in order not to disappoint expectations, she

* The Hon. Joseph Howe, Secretary of State of the
Dominion of Canada, was born in Halifax. ZST. S., in
1804; was editor of the Nova-Scotian, 1828-40, and
Secretary of State of Nova Scotia, 1848-54. He now
resides at Ottawa, and is one of the ablest statesmen
and most eloquent orators of the Dominion of Can-
ada. He is the son of John Howe, editor and loy-
alist, horn in Boston, Oct. 14, 1754; grandson of Jo-
seph Howe, horn in Dorchester, March 27, 1716-17;
great-grandson of Isaac Howe, born in the same
town, July 7, 1678; great-great-gnuidson of Isaac
Howe, baptized in Roxbury, if arch, 1655; great-great-
groat-grandson of Abraham Howe, born (probably) in
Hatfield, Broad Oak, Essex Co., England, made free-
man here, Mav 2, 1638, and died Nov. 20, 168.3. His
father is supposed to be Robert Howe, of Hatfield,
Broad Oak- England; and James Howe, made free-
man in 1637, was probably a brother, so that Mr.
Allibone is in error in stating that the Hon. Joseph
Howe is "a lineal descendant of the celebrated
Puritan divine, John Howe," who was born in 1630,
and died in 1705. The Speeches and Public Letters
of the Hon. .Joseph Howe, edited by William Ar-
mand, M.P.P., were published in Boston, 1855, in
two volumes, octavo. They are very able.

jeor The Committee feel under great obligations to
this gentleman, who gave his valuable time, and
paid his own expenses, refusing all remuneration,
and insisting on making a very liberal contribution
(a pan of which only they could accept) to the fund
to pav the general expenses. They found him a
man of generous impulses — one of nature's noble-
men — and wonder not at his popularity at home, or
th.at he is idolized among his own people.

fMrs. Julia Ward Howe, daughter of Samuel
Ward, a distinguished banker of Kew York, was
married to Dr. Samuel G. Howe, of Boston, in 1843.
She published Passion Floivers in 1854. "These
effusions," says a critic in the Southern Quarterly
Peview, " are'written by a woman who knows how
to think as well as how to feel — one who has made
herself famili.ir with the higher walks of literature
— who has deepiv pondered Hegel, Comte, Sweden-
borg, Goethe, Dante, and all the maslera of song, of
phifosophv and faith.

She published Words for the Hour, 1856; The
World's Own, 1857: and Hippoli/tus, a tragetly, in
1858. Her Battie-Uymn of the Republic, published
in the Atlantic Monthly, 1862, is one of the most
thrillins Ivrics which the late civil war called forth.
Mrs. Howe was born in 1819, and her motlu^r, a
daughter of Mr.-B. C. Cutler, of Boston, was a lady
of poetic talent.

Avould say what few Avords were suggested
by meeting so many of her friends and
kindred. She spoke of the principle of
association as being one of the strongest in
man's nature. It was this principle which
was always attacked by tyrants and despots,
in illustration of which she mentioned the
prohibition of the Marsellais-e by the French
monarchs. The family instinct in America
was democratic, the relations of parent to
child free and easy. In future, when she
goes to a distant town, she should ask, be-
fore any other^ question, "Are there any
Howes here?" Of course they must differ
in matters of opinion, but she hoped they
all agreed in fundamental principles. She
did not know if there were any strong-
minded women among the Howes, but
lioped there were no feeble-minded ones.
She mentioned the different inventions by
members of the family, and spoke especially
of the benefit which Elias Howe had done
to all women by his invention of the sew-
ing-machine. She thought he must have
pitied his mother, or his sister, or perhaps •
his wife. She had never known any Howre
idlers. The " how not to do it " was some-
thing unknown to them. She closed her
remarks by quoting " Si monumentum
quosris adspice." [If you are seeking for a
monument, look around you.]

At the close of her admirable address, she
recited, with a fine effect, the following hu-
morous and original poem on the name of
Howe, which has since been set to the beau-
tiful air " Do They Miss Me at Home? " by^
Grannis. [See page 23.]

This unique poem drew forth hearty ap-
plause, and was followed by an admirable
piece of music by the band, when the
President introduced the Hon. Wm. Wirt
Howe, of New Orleans, in the following
well-chosen words :

" The orator of the day, to whom you
listened a short time ago, came from the far
Nortli. I have the pleasure of introducing
to you now another member of our family
who comes to us from the far South — from
the city of New Orleans. I knew him per-
sonally in Louisiana during the war, and I
can testify to the honorable part he bore as
an officer in the army of the United States.
Eeturniug to the practice of the law in New
Orleans, he at once attained such eminence
that his appointment on the bench of the
highest court of Louisiana followed, almost
as a matter of course, giving the sincerest
pleasure, not only to his immediate friends,
but to all who are interested in the adminis-
tration of justice in that State. Allow me,
then, to present to you the Hon.William Wirt
Howe, of the Supreme Court of Louisiana."

Judge Howe, a tall, slender man, with a
Grecian forehead, then stepped forward,
amid the plaudits of the people, and, in a
clear and resonant voice, delivered a most
eloquent address.

THE NAME WE BEAR.

Suna at the Howe Family Gathering and Celebration, Harmony Grove, South Framingham,M'ass.
^ Aug. Zlst, 1871.

Composed expressly for the occasion, by CAKOLINE DANA HOWE, of Portland, Me.

,, Allegretto.

m^i-i-—'

-K-r-.

■©tS— ' — ' — ^^— ><;

Music, "Bonnie Doon."

'S.

-^ 9-

:?§[■

-S-=

1. There come from out the Past, to-day, A thousand echoes ringing free ; From gen-er-a-tions
. out her mag-ic

(

Omit 2d time, and pass to Chorus

e-

-I &--A-

borne a-.vw^Down thro' the ages yet to be.T'or nature knows her triumph hour, And at the mandate
roll of power A kindred sympathy to claim.

.-J ! -lip- CJZ)^.^ T*( _J \_M |_I1^I^ZJ ^^_*!__J l!- _ ^ !_«_

-ey^ # ^-^ ■§■■§■ ■§■-«■ ■§"§■ ^-i- -,

D.S. ;^ I CHORUS.

— «^j — i^ -^ —

of a name, Calls

Oh: thenlet us honor, and guard it with care,Thename ofourfat!iers, the name that we bear.

-^ -*-<?■

§^I_?E5Z^EEWS

-a — ^H"-

-^fl-

.11:

■Si-

Our kinsmen of the long ago.

Tossed like ourselves on stormy seas;
They watched the deadly conflict grow,

Prayed, fought, and won proud victories.
This same old earth, their brave feci trod,
/ These same pure stars above them shone ;
Our fathers' fate, our fathers' God,

Thro' all these years has been oar own.
Descended from these lords of earth,

Our lives the royal stamp should wear;
While clear insignias of our birth.

Up to the Lord of Heaven we bear.
So shall these sainted souls of yore,

Who trod our soil with bleeding feet,
Around the throne their anthems pour,

As we their great reward complete.
: The good, the pure, it never dies.

Those honored women, and brave men,
Who made such noble sacrifice.

Still live in all true lives again.

Their empire of the ancient time,

Shall hold through generations hence :
While passing years, in grand old chime,

Ring in a new intelligence.
We lack no element of power,

One mission has the guiding star;
And one the lowly blooming flower,

While both, God's chosen vassals are.
If one but rightly fills his place.

However small that sphere may be ;
No seraph at the throne of grace.

Hath surer claim of Heaven in fee.

Friends ! kinsmen ! of a worthy race,

Oh let us proudly fix our eyes
Where lionor holds her court of grace,

Tiirough noble deeds, and high emprise.
For he alone is truly great.

Whose virtue goes before his fame ;
Whose soul stands ever i-obed in state,

To make illustrious his name.

I SIT AND LOOK OUT OP MY WINDOW.

Sung at the Howe Family Gathenv,g and Gelehration, Harmony Grove, South Framingham , Jfans.,
" Aug. 31st, 1871.

Poetry by JULIA WAED HOWE.
7-

0- —

iNj:^-

-I — ^--i-i,^..^ —

-N-

<?— ^

1. I sit and look out of my winaow,The sky wears her fair Summer brow ;I have promised a poem you wait for.Anci

\i

^

'tJI-S 9' S

di^q:'^::^

5=tfcri^:li^|"B:!|=riH=g

g— i -i^ — s

^4J^_<sfijJ|_| g_|l

#-*-

/s e fi |a_.

e>^—G

_ .- L_^ . i__ L— - /Til <A ^> .'—i..^

&^--& S>— '— S3-

-0-© — o-

-fi bi-X — N-V-N-K-^r T- — y- — — -T J-

fancy says nothing but Ilowe. I walk by the high-tossiuj; o - cean Tiiat curls at the vessel's swift prow; I

k |_^fXSQn aiWifl^ . ^laaa 22239^ ^^aui'^^ ft.i jn« Jl III! I i-^xraw.. i^p]» ^l...wu-i»

-/ ■ 1 -'-0—m — '-- [^ w— -f

^_?ir^ o

■^:^:^4^Ji^

jiTMzizt^z -g- — f — g -g— ,«-g-^-j^a(-. --^^

^ — -^^

4i=iiv-

--I

1_! 3

tell it to give me my verses, And what does It answer me, "'Howe? " And what does it answer me"Ho we?

_ — —^ — ^=«^ — •=« _

zz^-^-1-T\-?r&^ "'

Rit.

-^-9-\ — ' — h-i — ^P

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-a-»

e.

sr

— 1 —

*? 1

— j — ^ — 7 r-

e»

2 I dream in the meadows sweet-scented,

And I'oilow the tiirf-cutting plough;
So Burns found his mouse and hisdaisy;

I L-eelv to — and only find Howe.
Then I go to ray books very learned ;

I must write those same verses, I vow ;
Come, help me, yon Greeks and you Germans;

The books, too, have learned to say Howe.

3 Yet \ know 'tis occasion most fitting

When birds that have flown from the bough
Come luck with their broods and their music

At the i)leasant suggestion of Howe.
" And I know there are wondrous inventions

To which other continents bow ;
There are sewers and reapers and wringers

Baptized in the good name of Howe,

4 There's a man who unloosed a soul's prison

With a ]Kiticnt ende.iv(»r, I trow,
Brought the l)lind and the dumb into freedom,

And that soul in its gladness knows Howe.
And one was all ready for battle,

Wlien Southerners made their great row.
And one hopes that battles are over,
And the woman must show the world Howe.

5 I sit and loolt otit of my window.

The sky wears her fair summer brow ;
I have promised a poem that you wait for,

And fancy says nothing but Howe.
Thus others can sing to you better,

I may shut my worn music-liooi-: now;
But I'll close with a true woman's Idcssing—

"God's grace to the children of Howe."

24

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

ADDRESS

OF THE

HON. WM. WIRT HOWE,

Judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana.

We are gravely assured by Mr. Darwin
that tlie family of Howe, as well as the more
numerous family of Smith, and the possibly
more aristocratic family of Howard, are de-
scended from certain " apelike progenitors,"
with hairy skins, and pointed ears and pre-
hensile tails.

We are further informed that these ape-
like progenitors were arboreal in their hab-
its; that they were devoted to climbing;
that their favorite study was literally the
pursuit of the •' higher branches " ; and their
most vaulting ambition was to leap from limb
to limb of the primeval forest.

Kow, whether Mr. Darwin be right or
wrong in his theory — whether his skilful
antagonist, Mr. St. George Mivart, have
demolished him or not — it is certain that
the Howes (as well as the Smiths) are ar-
boreal in their habits ; that though their
hairy skins may have been modified to more
or less smoothness, and the points of their
ears become more or less rudimentary, yet
they are still fond of trees ; their natural
academy is the grove ; their natural tem-
ple the over-arching forest; their natural
place of meeting, on such an occasion as
this, the cool arcades of the New England
woods.

It is well that we should meet under such
noble trees. We may have lost the power
of climbing them, possessed by our "pro-
genitors," (that power appears sometimes in
our boys, by the process of " reversion,"
and trousers perish everlastingly,) — we
may, I say, have lost the art of climbing
these noble trees, between whose dark
stems the forest glows so beautifully with
the rising and setting sun, yet we have not
lost the faculty of enjoying their color, their
form, their shade, their associations. They
have come down to us from a former gener-
ation ; they were contemporaries of those
ancestors whom we have met to talk about
fo-day.

I have thought that on such an occasion a
speaker might, without impropriety, allude
to his immediate ancestors, and, so to speak,
leap from limb to limb of his immediate fam-
ily tree ; for this is a private meeting, and
we may talk of things in which the world at

large. would feel no special interest. It is
perhaps matter of regret that I have noth-
ing very surprising to sa}- in this regard. I
cannot affirm, Avith the man in the song,
that " my grandfather was a most wonder-
ful man "; I cannot allege, after the manner
suggested by Tony Lumpkin, that " my
mother was an alderman and my aunt a jus-
tice of the peace."

And, by the way — or rather out of the
way — t)!j^j^even certain forms of joke have
their points worn away by the continual drop-
ping of the years. In one of Sheridan's com-
edies there is a character who purjiorts to be
crack-brained, and one of his most ridiculous
plans is to run stage-coaches by steam, and
light them with gas. We see no joke in that :
yet it was probably received with shouts of
derisive laughter hj the gods of the gallery
at Drury Lane. And so poor Tony Lump-
kin's jest about a mother being an alderman
and an aunt a justice of the peace, is no
longer, I fear, a proper subject for mirth in
Massachusetts. It has even been said by
the journals — and we must believe every-
thing we see in them — that an eminent lady
of our own family has been made a justice
of the peace in Boston, and that she will
soon be uttering the Delphic thunders of
judicial decision, and launching the live
lightnings of the writ oi fieri facias.

But this is a digression, and let us return
to our — ancestors. I will not go back, like
Moliere's lawyer, to the garden of Eden,
but will come down to an even more mod-
ern point than the opposing lawyer suggested
when he recommended his antagonist to
" pass on to the Deluge."

I learn that my great-grandfather, Abner,
died, in tlie revolutionary army, in 1776.
His son. Job Lane Howe, born in Brook-
field, Mass., in 1769, removed to Shoreham,
Vermont, in 1796, where my father, the
eldest son, was born in 1797. Vermont was
then a frontier countrj''. An irreverent child
might have met a she-bear in those dense for-
ests without any special interposition. Peo-
ple crossed the Green Mountains then, and
settled on Lake Champlain, as now they cross
the Rocky Mountains and settle on Puget
Sound.

/t^''

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

My grandfather seems to have been a good
pioneer, for two reasons at least : in the iirst
place he was a public-spirited citizen, and
in the second place he had great theoretical
and practical skill in mechanics, being an
architect, a builder, a mill-wright, a wheel-
wright, and a ship-builder. He planned
and built the first church — or, I should
say, "meeting-house" — erected at Shore-
ham; /ind so thorough was his work, that it
is still told that the shingle roof lasted with-
out repair for fifty years. He also manufac-
tured some of- the first wagons used over
those early rough'Toads ; and it is related,
as evidence of the sincere manner in which
he did this work, that one of these wagons,
after being used thirty years, sold for moi'e
than its original cost, having been built
after the manner of Dr. Holmes's " one-
hoss shay."

In 1806 he removed to Crown Point, New
York, and it may be said that he substan-
tially founded the town. He built the dam
across the stream which there falls into Lake
Champh in ; built extensive grist-mills and
saw-mills; erected the brick meeting-house,
and the principal mansion and store, which
still stand on the village green. He also estab-
lished lumber-yards, and at last a shipyard.

Nor did he work for himself alone. It is
related that he was benevolent and public-
spirited. In 1814 he volunteered, as captain
of a troop, for the defence of Plattsburg.
In 1816, known as the famine yeai', when
there was a frost in Northern New England
every month of summer, he freely fed the
poor, and refused to sell his grain to spec-
ulators from abroad, who offered him high
prices. This may have been very bad polit-
ical economy, but wo have reason to suppose
it was pretty good religion. He was often
found, with a force of his men, improving a
road or a bridge ; and, on one occasion, be-
ing told by a neighbor, " This will do you no
good," he promptlj' replied," It will do some-
body good."

In 1829, on account of a wide-spread pres-
sure in the money market, he was obliged to
make an assignment of his extensive prop-
erty for the benefit of his creditors ; yet I
rejoice to say that it was really made for
their benefit; and he lived to see every debt
paid in full, and something left for his chil-
dren.

He died in the Fall of 1839, at the age of
70, and, though full of years, his death was
greatly hastened, apparently, by a singular
mishap. The winter before, he went out on
the snow-crust in the woods some miles from
home to select ship-timber, for which he had
an excellent eye. While thus engaged, the
sun came out, the crust melted, and he was
o-bliged to wade home through snow that was
leg-deep. The exertion was excessive for a
man in his 70th year, and probably hastened
his death ; for, by reason of sti-ength, of
temperance, of an orderly, industrious life,
he might easily have attained the age of
fourscore.

Indeed, the region where he lived was
rather famous for longevity. It is said by
some veracious chronicler, that once a trav-
eller, riding along Lake Champlain, saw a
white-haired veteran of perhaps 95 years
sitting by the roadside weeping bitterly,
and said to him, with' respectful sympathy,
"Venerable man! wiiy do you weep?"
"Oh!" said he, "I was a bad boy this
morning, and father thrashed me."

Well, I have told you, in very few words,
the story of the life of the only remote an-
cestor with whose history I have any es-
pecial acquaintance. There is not much in
the story. I would not tell it, except in
what I consider a family circle ; it is neither
exciting nor romantic ; tliere is no glamour
about it. He lived laborious days, without
haste, without rest, doing the duty of the
hour, as builder of churches, mills, ships
and towns, but building wiser than he knew,
I fancy; for, as an honest and sincere,
worker, who wrought as with the loving, yet
inexorable. Eye of tlie Great Taskuiaker ever
resting upon him, he was really one of those
pioneers who help to lay broad the founda-
tions of the State.

To those financial Jews who think that
Wall Street is a little heaven below — a sort
of Jerusalem the Golden — his life would be
an absurd stumbling-block; to those polit-
ical Greeks who hope to go to Saturn when
they die because there are such magnificent
"rings " in that planet, it is the merest foolish-
ness ; but to those who reflect that the Com-
monwealth must, after all, be founded on
the lives of those who do their work hon-
estly and sincerely — and chiefly in the pri-
vate station — such a modest life may seem
of considerable value, as being, in its small
way, in the nature of a corner-stone. Even
Thomas Carlyle might be satisfied with work
done so thoroughly as his.

We have a singular variety of " Great
Man " nowadays. The Hon. Jabesh Leath-
erlungs, being quite unable to earn an hon-
est living, rushes into politics ; plays the
demagogue ; gets on by flattery and bribery;
goes to Congress ; prints speeches, which he
not only never delivered, but which he never
even composed ; skips along through life
from one false pretence to another, as men
cross broken ice by jumping from cake to
cake ; and he is called " our eminent fellow-
citizen." I have no quarrel with the Hon.
Jabesh Leatherlungs, or with his devoted
friends, who call him " our eminent fellow-
citizen." But I do affirm that it is a great
mistake to say that Mr. Leatherlungs, or any
other man like him, is in any wise the cause
of our national prosperity. He is not a
cause, he is only an accidental concomitant.
He is no more a cause than the fly that sat
on the chariot was the cause of its locomo-
tion ; no more than the curculio is the cause
of the apple-crop.

The country gets on in spite of him. The
cause of our national prosperity is to be

26

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

found in the honesty and industry of our
pioneers, wiio move on in the van, doing the
hard work, and doing it well.

And J think we may, without being Phar-
isaical, thank God for a virtuous New Eng-
land ancestry — an ancestry pure in heart.
We are told by Professor Tyndall that what
is called radiant heat may be so gathered
into a focus as to make platinum white-hot;
and j-et the same concentrated rays may be
poured into the human eye not only without
injury, but without sensation, so unconscious
and impregnable is this organ bj'^ its nature
to the attacks of radiant heat. In like man-
ner, it seems as if the white souls of our
grandsires, who lived among these healthy
hills, were unconsciously impregnable to
those attacks of temptation which consume
the present generation as in a furnace seven
times heated.

Ic might be too boastful to say that we
Lave inherited tliis disposition to well-doing,
and this indifference to evil. But we may
try to cherish the good example of our
worthy ancestors. In the elder and better
days of the Roman Republic it is notable
that the fathers taught their sons by contin-
ual personal companionship, and example
of that kind is such a power! One of my
earliest recollections is being taken bjr my
father into the great kitchen, iato at night,
to see a band of fugitive slaves fed, as they
made their way through Western New York
to Canada. We may differ on the political
questions which at that time were involved
in such an act, and we have a right to diflfer ;
but we will all agree in our estimate of the
power of such a scene upon the mind of a
child. And whenever I hear those memor-
orable words, " Inasmuch as ye have done
it unto the least of these my brethren ye
have done it unto me," the scene in the old
kitchen returns ; and it seems as if the light
which shone from the great fire on. the hearth-
stone was not a whit brighter or warmer
than the light of universal brotherly kind-
ness which beamed from my father's face.

I thank you, my friends, for the kind wel-
come you have given to me and mine ; and
I join you heartily in best wishes for all who
are known " By the name of Howe."

At the conclusion of this admirable ad-
di-ess, the following song, entitled "The
Good Old Name of Howe," written expressly
for the occasion by Mrs. Mary R. Howe
Hinckley, of San Francisco, Cal., and
adapted to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne,"
was sung with feeling by the congregation.
[See next page.]

Miss Warner then advanced gracefully,
and sang, in a clear, sweet, and finely mod-
ulated voice, the first two stanzas of the
^' Star-Spangled Banner," the band support-
ing, and the audience joining in chorus.
The President then made the announcement
that a series of three races for prizes would
occur in the afternoon :

1st. A foot-race on the highway near the
grove — first prize, silver cup ; second
prize, silver fruit-knife.

2d. A potato-race — first prize, silver
napkin ring; second prize, silver pencil-
case.

od. A tub-race — first prize, gold pencil-
case ; second prize, silter pencil-case.

This concluded the exercises at the speak-
ers' stand, and the President then informed
the audience that the hour for dinner had
arrived; and, preceded by the band, playing
a lively air, the vast concourse of Howes
moved quickly forward to the mammoth
tent, where the smoking viands were await-
ing them.

XII. THE DINNER.

The table was spread by Mr. S. F.
Twitchel, of South Framingham; and it
may well be supposed that, after the long
services at the grove, the people came with
sharpened appetites to the ample board.
Grace having been said by the Rev. Moses
Howe, of New Bedford, the viands were
discussed without reserve, and full justice
done to every course and side-dish of the
banquet.*

Dinner being over, the company resolved
itself into a general speech-making assem-
bly, led by Col. Frank E. Howe, who was
full of sparkling wit, which kept the com-
pany in the happiest mood, and who, by his
free and happy hits and bonhomie, inspired
every one- to say whatever he might think
would be of interest to the assembled family.
He then read a telegram Just received from
the Lyman family, M-hich was holding its
second reunion at Northampton, Mass., con-
gratulating the Howe family on its gather-
ing, and wishing it health and prosperity.
Many amusing anecdotes of their ancestors
and relatives were told by different persons.
The President paid a high compliment to
Mr. Elias Howe for his eftorts in arranging
for this reunion, and proposed that he should
have charge of the money contubuted toward
the payment of expenses.

The President, Col. Frank E. Howe, in-
troduced the Rev. Moses Howe as follows :

" I am very glad that there is present one
of whom I have known, and whom I have
respected, since my early boj'hood. Though
quite an old man, he still retains, in a won-
derful degree, his youthful feelings ; he is
jovial and witty. >

" He has married more persons than almost
any living clergyman, and is willing, I have

*Whatthe HoweFamilt Ate.— We learn from
Mr. Twitchel, the caterer at the great Howe Gath-
ering, some facts .about the taste of the Howe fam-
ily, that may be of general interest. They ate 1200
ears of corn, 70 watermelons, 32 peeks of the famous
South Framingham doughnuts, 150 pies, besides a
wagon-load of chicken, beef, lamb, an(\ham. — Fra-
mingham Gazette.

THE GOOD OLD NAME OF "HOWE

55

Suna at the HoweFamthi Gathering and Celebration, Earmony Grove, South Framingham , Ma»8.
•^ ««-. Aug. 3lst, 1871.

Composed expressly for the occasion, by Mrs. MAKY E. HOWE HINCKLEY, of San Francisco, Cal.

Music, "Auld Lang Syne."

h-l-I^-

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V-

1. You meet to-day to cel-e-brate With fil-ial heart and brow,

As Children of one

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g-^y -9-Z^ Z-.^ z.-^ £?-_«*^ -

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izi:

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T— N

ij:

fam - i-ly, — The dear old name of Howe.

Brothers and Sisters,-T-t)y that name You

- " .0.
hold in rey'rence dear ; How fitting you should set apart. This day for friendly cheer.

And as you meet, in converse sweet,

"Beneath the greenwood bough,"
Think of the absent ones, who claim

The dear old name of Howe.
"We cannot all be there, to join

The Family Gathering, —
And thus a loyal Daughter, sends

This friendly offering.

The English name our Fathers bore,

We proudly cherish now ;
Aye ! wear it " in our heart of hearts,"

The dear old name of Howe.
Though planted first on England's soil,

A scion of that tree,
Borne o'er the sea— was grafted ■

On the Tree of Liberty.

For when the call for Freemen came,

(As ye are rallying now — )
In time of peace, proved to uphold

The grand old name of Howe.

Our Fathers, arming for the fight,

Left anvil, desk and plow-
Upholding in the cause of right,

The noble name of Howe.

Oh grand old daj's when Heroes lived ;

Green is their memorj'- now ;
And Children's children reverence

The dear old name of Howe.
Now the old Family Tree sends forth

Its strong roots everywhere :
And North,andEast,and South, and West,

Some goodly branches bear.

Broad is the land our Fathers tilled,

The Harvest's Avealth untold ;
Home of the Free ! enshrined in thee.

Their precious trust we hold !
God of our Fathers, — reverently,

Before thy Throne we bow :
Help us to keep unstained and pure,

The good old name of Howe.

2S

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

no doubt, to perform that ceremony here to-
day, if there are any here who wish to be
married.

*The Rev. Moses Howe was born in the west par-
ish of Haverhill, Mass., Aug. 22, 1789. He was a
clerk in his uncle David Howe's store, in Haverhill,
nearly six years. He preached for the first time.
May 1, 1814." and was ordained in Salem, Mass., May
2, 1819. He was married to Frances, daughter of
Asa and Kuhaniah Dearborn, of Portsmouth, N . H.,
Sept. 11, 13-23, by whom he had three sons, viz. :
Moses a., born Aug. 14, 1S26; William S. G., born
Nov. 9, 18.31; and Lyman B., born Feb. 2.5, 1838.

This veteran in the ministry has preached about

" I refer to the Eev. Moses Howe, of New
Bedford, familiarly known as Elder Howe."*

8,000 times, attended 2,215 funerals, and joined in
marriage 3,680 persons. He is a lineal descendant
of James Howe, of Ipswich, who was admitted free-
man Majr 17, 16-37, and -who was the son of Robert
Howe, of Hatfield, Broad Oak, Essex Co., England.
He is therefore of the same branch as the Hon. Jo-
seph Howe of Canada. May his last days be his
best days, and " his strength be renewed." according
to the promise, and he "mount up with wings as
eagles." [Is. si. 31.]

EEMARKS OP REV. MOSES HOWE,

. OF NEW BEDFORD,

Aug. 31, 1871.

Mr. President :

Being over eighty-two years of age, and
therefore a very old man, you would not, I
suppo.so, expect from me a long speech, even
if the time were not short.

I claim the privilege of addressing you^
my friends, as brothers and sisters. That
such we are I think I can prove to my own
mind, if not to yours. We will not go back
to the creation, but only to the days of Noah,
who had three noted sons, Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. These young men, in some way
or other, were informed, and believed, that
there was to be a great flood, and, with that
wise forecast for the future which has dis-
tinguished our branch of their descendants
— I speak with due modesty — they took
each a wife.

To Asia went the descendants of Shem, to
Africa the descendants of Ham, and to
Europe and America the descendants of
Japheth. Does it not follow, therefore, that
the latter was our progenitor, and his full
name Japheth Howe? Thus is our rela-
tionship of brothers and sisters established.

I am glad, my brothers and sisters, to
meet so many of you at this celebration, to
see so many joyous faces, to hear the
friendly voice, and to shake the hands of
so many of this warm-hearted family. I
trust that this occasion will prove-a blessing
to us all, and cause our hearts to be united
fcore firmly than ever before.

We have each decorated ourselves with a
badge — a badge of blue. There is a sig-
nificance to this color which perhaps has not
occurred to you.

It antedates to the time of one of our an-
cestors— Moses of olden time, the son of
Amram. In his day, the children of Israel
were commanded to make for themselves
robes, a garment not unlike the dressing-
gowns which men are wont to wear, and to
put thereon around the wrist a ribbon of
blue, and around the neck a ribbon of blue,
and around the skirt a ribbon of blue,

" that," to use the words of sacred Writ,
" they might look upon it and remember all
the commandments of the Lord to do them."

And so, were their hands at any time lifted
in anger to a servant, the blue ribbon of the
wrist would remind them of the command,
"Thou shalt not kill, and if thou smite a
servant so that he die, thou shalt surely be
punished."

Were they speaking in reproach of their
neighbor, the blue ribbon on the neck would
remind them of the command : " Thou shalt
not bear false witness against thy neighbor."
Were they pursuing a wrong course in life,
the blue ribbon upon the skirt of the gar-
ment would bring to their remembrance the
command which saith : "Thou shalt not
follow the multitude to do evil, but ye shall
walk in all the commandments of tlie Lord,
that ye may live."

Thus were these three great command-
ments, which forbid the Avrong in thought,
word, or deed, taught the children of Israel
by the ribbon of blue which they were com-
manded to wear.

May these badges of blue ever remind us
of our obligation to obey the laws of God,
to love Him with all the heart, and to love
our neighbor as ourselves !

I will close, Mr. President, by expressing
one wish : M.ay the several members of the
Howe familj'^ be noted for their Christian
faith, their Christian hope, and their Chris-
tian charity, even to the latest generation.

The chairman then stated that there were
five members of the family now living, whose
united ages were 404 years. Mr. John
Howe, of Providence, sang an original com-
ic Song by one of his relatives, which he called
his " Aunt Jerusha." Eev. Mark Anthony
DeWolfe Howe, D. D., of Philadelphia,
made a brief speech of welcome and cor-
dial greeting. A relative of the family,
Mrs. L. Golding Benton, a former mission-
ary to Asia, related some interesting remr

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

29

iniscenccs of her grandfather, Capt. Daniel
Howe, of Deerficld, who was twice captxired
by the Indians, and once, reduced to slav-
ery * Other remarks were made by Mr.
Wm. Howe, of Kahway, N. J., Mr. Sidney
Howe, and Mr. Julian Howe, of Michigan.
At dinner, the following resolutions were
then offered by Moses G. Howe, Esq., a
lawyer of Boston, and son of Rev.
Moses Howe, of New Bedford, and adopted :

KESOLUTIONS OF THE HOWE FAMILY.

That the members of the Howe fam-
ily here assembled in Harmony Grove, be-
fore returning to their several abodes, offer
the following resolutions : , . , ,

Resolved, That this occasion, which has
brought into a family union so many of our
kiadred from various parts of the country,
from Canada to the distant Pacific, has
been exceedingly interesting and profitable,
inasmuch as it has revived in our recollec-
tion, and brought to our knowledge, the
names, the memory, and the deeds of an
honorable ancestry. Because it has re-
newed many acquaintances, and brought
into more intimate fellowship many who
long since separated, and many who never
before met.

Resolved, That we send our greetings to
our brothers and sisters far and near, who
now beai-, or who have borne, the name of
Howe, and we regret they are not with
us on this occasion, and we wish them
good health, happiness, and properity.

Resolved, That whereas we have inher-
ited from our ancestors an honorable name,
we will endeavor to transmit it untarnished
to our posterity. .

Resolved, That our thanks are especially
due, and are herewith given to Mr. Ehas
Howe, of Boston, who first conceived the
idea of having this celebration, and who,
after a labor of months, has brought it to
a successful consummation. Also that we
are under great obligations to our distin-
guished cousin, the Hon. Joseph. Howe,

* We regret that we liad not tbe opportunity of
takinsf down, at the time, the very entertaining re-
marL<l of this ladv. She is now lecturing in this
country upon Life and Scenes in Palestine. Ihe
Lvcmm JIagasine thus speaks of her '■ , ^ ^

" Mrs Benton has resided with her husband, Kev.
Wm. A. Benton, for more than twenty years, as
American missionary in the Holy Land.

" As Syrian life and manners have hardly changed
since the davs of the Apostles, any graphic and
truthful account of the present life and manners of
the people of Palestine, gives the most vivid and in-
structive commentary of the times when the Chris-
tian religion was established. , . , i ,

"Mrs.' Benton (we know from having heard her
lecture, no less than from a host of testimonies) has
the rare gift of holding audiences of young people
spell-hound hy her picturesque, yet unpretending
eloquence. She reproduces the customs and lile ot
Syria as it may be seen to-day, so vividly, and witli
such interesting anecdote, that she makes e^-ery one
see the people among whom Christ preached, and
the country in which " he went about continually
doing sood"; and from the scenery and customs ot
which^he drew his illustrations of moral truth.
She now resides at Oakdale, West Boylston, Mass.

for his interesting and instructive address.
Also to the presiding officer, and all others
who have contributed by poem, address,
song, or otherwise, to make the occasion a
success. t

A collection was then taken up for de-
fraying the expenses, after which Col.
Howe offered the final sentiment: "To our
absent friends ! " when the company with-
drew to witness the foot-races. One was on
the road, the other on the campus.

The potato-race was thus arranged :
Three parallel lines, a few feet apart, and,
it might be, two rods in length, were
marked off on the green sward ; at equal
distances along these lines some ten or a
dozen holes were sunk into the earth.
Each contestant stands beside a basket of
apples at the head of his line, and, at a
given signal, starts, with an apple, for the
first hole in his line, and drops it in ; returns
to the basket for another apple for the second
hole, and drops it in; returns for a third, and
so on, till the holes in his line are filled.
He then, in the same manner, carries them
back severally to the basket. He who takes
the apples soonest to the basket wins the
game. The three runners were unequal as
to size and age, but sprang with right good
will the instant that the word was given, to
the execution of the task. A thousand wit-
nesses encircled them, some cheering for
the long, some for the lithe, some for the
little boy. One has more strength, one has
more suppleness, one more agiUty. The,
" little boy" is the quicker on the " turn,"
the lithe boy bends the nearer to the sod.
The little boy leads — the sympathy is for
him — he pants a trifle ; one apple misses
mark ; the lithe boy almost creeps upon the
ground, but steadily, surely. He is gaining-
slow and steady never fail to gain— -and
there he is — line cleared three apples m '
advance — and there he stands, amid the
acclamations of the multitude, the athletic
victor. Well done, Sumner L. Howe!- He
also won thp first prize, a silver cup, in the
foot-race, and we hope that he may win it
in the race of life.J

The boat-race was omitted.

+ The Rev. ElbridgeG-. Howe, of "Watibcegan, 111.,
hut now of Paxton, Mass., and the veteran Edward
Howe, Esq., of PortUand, Me., rendered the Com-
mtoee grelt and valuable assistance m furnishing
Msts of tames, and in sending circulars to members
of the family n all parts of the country. Credit is
also due to Dr. Esles Howe, of Cambridge and
James Ho we, Esq. of New York, for very v.nluable as-
siTance Miss Delia Howe, of Goshen Ct., aged 79
vep^s manifested her interest in the Gathering by
travelling 150 miles, 30 of which w.as by ^tage, upou
that dav in order to be present with her kiu-sfoiks.
%1 is t^e daughter of J--niah 1^°-^]/, ^f^^
In the Kevo ul onary ^\ ar. Mis. Ke.itl (.uowe;
Walker, ot Cumberland, R. L., aged SO, also made
trrntt efforts to bo present. . .,

^ rWalter W. Howe won the second prize, a silver
nencil n the potato-race. The foot-race, one-fourth
of ami e was run in a little less than a, minute ; H.
G TucUei won .the second prize in this, a silver
fruit knife.

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

XIII. — THE HOWE CABINET OF CUEIOSITIES.

The contributions of antique relics, books,
papers, pictures, and indeed all sorts of
heir-looms, to the " Howe Cabinet," were
very liberal, and drew forth many exclama-
tions of surprise and wonderfrom the admir-
ing visitors. Indeed, quite a large group of
people made this tent the rendezvous for the
day; "and this," as one of them remarked,
" with reason, for here I see the Howes of
former generations."

Among the books, pamphlets, and papers
in the Cabinet, which was under the charge
of Mr. Willian Howe, of Marlborough,
we noticed, with much interest: (1.)
An ancient musical publication with
this title — "Worshippers' Assistant. By
Solomon Howe, A. M., Northampton,
Mass., 1799 " ; also, " The Farmer's Evening
Entertainment," by the same author, 1804.
(2.) "A Treatise on Being Born Again.
By S. Wright, Boston, 1742," with this
autograph on the title-page: " Th^ddeus
How, his book, 1757." (3.) "jSTew Guide
to the English Tongue. By Thomas Dil-
■worth," with this autograph: " Eachel
How, July 31, 1751." (4.) The old Family
Bible of "the Wayside Inn." Folio. From
Genesis to Isaiah inclusive. (5.) A rare
and curious printed sermon, bearing this
significant title: "Discourse written by
Uriah How, of Canaan, in the 20th year
of his age, and left with his friends wlien
he went on a campaign to Canada, and was
killed in the year 1758." " He listed in the
wars Apr. 9, 1758, and set out on his march
for Canada June following, and on the 6th
of July received a mortal wound from the
.enemy, at, or near, Ticonderoga, and re-
turned back to Albany, and there died of
his wound, Sept. 1, 1758." Printed in 1761.
pp.12. Text, Isaiah sxx. 1. This curious
sermon is followed by some dozen or more
quaint verses, of wliich the first and third
will serve for a specimen :

"Come on, "brcave soldiers, who .nre bolcler
Than our Ntw England boys ?
TYho dare expose their lives with those
Of them4;bat fear no noise.

" Come let us then all as one man
Fight for E:I^•G George's laws,
And put our trust in God, that's just,
For he'll defend our cause," etc.

(6.) Ancient Indian deeds to Jolm Howe
and others on parcliment; a letter fro'm
Oliver Prescott to Col. Howe, of the
" Wayside Inn " ; a very old and rusty
memorandum-book, supposed to have be-
longed to Mr. Peter How, of Hopkinton.
The following receipt was lying open be-
tween its pages :

"Eec'd of Mr. Peter How thirty-seven
shillings and sixpence a year and an half
rent of 100 acres of Land in Hopkinton to
25 of Sept. last.

Edw'd Hutchinsok,

Treas'r of the Trustees.
EosTON, Dec. 4, 1780."

From this rare book we copy the follow-
ing memoranda :

"Abigail Stanhope, deceased Sept. the
17th, 1722, aged 28."

"Joseph How, dyed Octr. ye 13th, 1723,
aged 17 yrs., 2 mos., and 3 days."

" Sam'l How, dyed July 17, 1732.

"Sudbury, Nov. 26, 1731.
Eeceived of Peter How, of Hopkinton,
the sum of si.x pounds, ten shillings, in full
satisfaction for the sarvis of my son Joseph,
to him performid, in the space of six
months and twelve days, in the year one
thousand and seaven Hundred Thirty. I
say received by me,

Jonathan Stanhope."

Tlie following minutes seem to refer to
the officers of a military company :

"John Bowker, Sar. ; Benj. Burnap,
Elisha Hayden, Cor. ; James Lock, Abra-
ham Tilton, James Wark, D. ; Mark Whit-
ney, Nath'l Smith." These were Hopkinton '
men.

Among other relics of the same kind, was
an original document, with the autograph
of Daniel Gookin, major-general of Massa-
chusetts, and author of the " Historical
Collections of New England." It was dated
June 14, 1682, or about five years an-
terior to his decease. Also, a deed '
from James, an Indian, dated 1680, to
Thomas Martin, Also, a document signed
by Col. Ethan Allen, the friend of the
" Green Mountain Boys." A settlement of
the estate of Nehemiah Howe, of Poultney,
Vt., in which was shown the "setting-out,"
or troiisseau, of one of the Misses Howe, in
1784, attracted much attention. A bride in
such array in 1871, would " make a figure
in the world."

A copy of Tate and Brady's Psalms, bear-
ing date 1762, recalled to mind the singing
of the Howe family circles in the days of
old.

From a worn and yellow leaf we copied
the following receipt, which indicates a bus-
iness transaction of one of the Howes upon
the frontier, in the " times Avhich tried
men's souls :

"Bennington (Vt.), 21st July, 1777.
Eeceived of Mr. Abner How, for the use
of this State, twenty-three pounds. It
was for a yoke of Ary Ward's cattle, sold
as Tory property. Received per me,

Ika Allen."

Among the portraits, we noticed one of
the Eev. Nathaniel Howe, distinguished for
his unique, truth-telling century sermon;
one of his son. Gen. Appleton Howe, late of
Vv'eyniouth; one of Lyman Howe, and one

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

31

of Silvia Howe, both of Shrewsbury, en-
tered by J. S. Howe, and also a very striking
one of Mr. Elias Howe, inventor of the sew-
inar-niachine. The photograph of the old
" Howe Homestead," in Framinghani, elic-
ited many encomiums.

Fonr generations from the " Old Home-
stead" were represented in a group of photo-
graplis bearing the names :

" I. Mrs. Elias Howe.
II, Elbridge Hoave.

III. Elbridge H. Howe.

IV. Carrie Howe."

A well-executed coat-of-arms of the
Howe Family, from the " Wayside Inn,"
— the old revolutionary "tavern stand" of
Sudbury, made famous by the classic pen
of Longfellow, awakened many pleasant
associations, and seemed to make the ro-
mantic incidents of the poet's pen a positive
reality. Other relics from the old hotel
confirmed the accuracy of the lines de-
scriptive of the Wayside Inn as given in
the poem. We are happy to be able to
present a fine front view of the building as
it now appears.

THE WAYSIDE INN.

[From a Photograph of Mr. J. W. Black. See Prang's Cbromo, on last page.]

This famous rcoling-place for man and
beast, so long associated -with the name
of Howe, is situated on the road running
from Wayland over the "Causeway" to
Jilarlborougli, and about two miles from the
depot of the Lowell and Framinghani Rail-
road at South' Sudbury. It is nearly tliree
and a half miles from Sudbury Centre, and
something like a half a mile to the north of
Nobscot Hill, in Framinghani. The road,
on wliich it is built, was originally the
"North Path" of the early settlors from
Watertown to Hartford, and afterwards, the
stage-road from Boston to Albany.

The House was called, in the days of
David Howe, the first occupant, " The
Howe Tavern in Sudbury," to distinguish
it from the tavern of .John Howe, only two
miles distant, in Marlboroogli. In the days

of Ezekiel, son of David Howe, who took
the house as early as 1746, the soldiers and
teams, to and from the French war on the
lakes, made this their halting-place. "Eze-
kiel How, Innholder in Sudbury " — for so
the Rev. Josiah H. Temple copies for me
from the State archives — "victualled sol-
diers on their return from an e.xpedition,
1758." During the occupancy of Ezekiel,
the Jiouse received, from its sign-board, the
name of the " Red Horse Tavern," as the
poet intimates :

" And, lialf-effaced by rain and shine.
The Red Horse prances on the .sign "

Col. Ezekiel dying in 1796. Iiis son Ad:im
kept the liouse for about forty years, when
it passed into the hands of his son Lyman,
and at his decease, a few years since, out of

32

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

the Howe family. Originally it was of but
one story in height ; and a part of that build-
ing was standing as late as IS29. The poet-
ical name of " Wayside Inn " was given to it
by Mr. Longfellow, wlio has most truthfully,
as well as most beautifully, described the
quaint old house and its most celebrated
landlord.

We are happy here to insert the descrip-
tion of

THE WAYSIDE INI^,

BY H. W. LONGFELLOW.

One Autumn night, in Sudbury town,

Across the meadows bare and brown,

Tlio windows of the wayside inn

G-loamcd red with tire-light tlirough the leaves

Of woodbine, hanging from the eaves,

Their crimson curtains rent and thiu.

As ancient is this hostelry

As any in the land may be.

Built in the old Colonial day

When men lived in a grander way,

With ampler hosiiitality ;

A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall,

2SJ"ow somewhat fallen to decay ;

With weather-stains upon the wall.

And creaking and uneven floors,

And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall.

A region of repose it seems,

A place of slumber and of dreams,

Remote among the wooded hills !

For there do noisy railway speeds.

Its torch-race scattering smoke and gleeds;

But noon and night, the panting teams

Stop under the great oaks, that throw

Taugles of light and shade below

On roofs, and doors, and window-sills.

Across the road the barns display

Their lines of stalls, their mows'of hay;

Through the wide doors the breezes blow;

The wattled cocks strut to and fro,

And, half-eflfaced by rain and shine.

The Red Horse prances on the sign.

Round this old-fashioned, quaint abode

Deep silence reigned, save when a gust

Went rushing down the country road.

And skeletons of leaves, and dust,

Shuddered and danced their dance of death,

And through the ancient oaks o'erhead

Mysterious voices moaned and fled.

But from the parlor of the inn

A pleasant murmur smote the ear.

Like water rushing through a weir;

Oft interrupted by the din

Of laughter and of loud applause.

And, in each intervening pause.

The music of a violin.

The tiro-light, shedding over all

The splendor of its ruddy glow.

Filled the whole parlor large and low :

It gleamed ou wainscot and on wall;

It touched with more than wonted grace

Fair Princess Mary's pictured face;

It bronzed the rafters overhead ;

On the old spinet's ivory keys

It played inaudible melodies;

It crowned the sombre clock with ilame,

The hands, the hours, the maker's name,

And painted with a livelier red

Tlie Landlord's coat-of-arms again;

And, flashing on the window-pane,

Emblazoned with its light .and shade

The jovial rhymes, that still remain.

Writ near a century ago

By the great Major' Molineaux,

Whom Hawthorne has immortal made.

Before the blazing fire of wood

Erect the rapt musician stood;

And ever atfti anon he bent

His head upon his instrument,

And seemed to listen, till he caught

Ooufessious of its secret thought —

The joy, the triumph, the lament,

The exultation and the pain ;

Then, by the magic of his art.

He soothed the throbbings of its heart,

And lulled it into peace again. *■

Around the fireside at their ease

There sat a group of friends, entranced

With the delicious melodies,

Who, from the far-oft' noisy town,

Had to the W.ayside Inn come down.

To rest beneath its old oak trees.

The fire-light on their faces glanced,

Their shadows on the wainscot danced.

And, though of difl-'erent lands and speech.

Each had his tale to tell, and each

Was anxious to be pleased and please.

And while the sweet musician plays,

Let me in outline sketch them all —

Perchance uncouthly as ihc blaze

With its uncertain toucli portrays

Their shadowy semblance on the wall.

But first the Landlord will I trace;

Grave in his aspect and attire,

A man of ancient pedigree,

A Justice of the Peace was he,

Known in all Sudbury as " The Squire."

Proud was he of his name and race,

Of old Sir William and Sir Hugh;

And in the parlor, full in view.

His coat-of-.arms, well-framed and glazed.

Upon the wall in colors blazed;

He beareih gules upon his shield,

A chevron argent in the field.

With three wolfs' heads, and for the crest

A Wyvern part-per-pale addressed

Upon a helmet barred; below

The scroll reads, " By the n.ame of Howe."

And over this, no longer bright,

Though glimmering with a latent light.

Was hung the sword his grandsire wore,

In the rebellious days of yore,

Down there at Concord in the fight.

The following letter from a member of the
Howe family will be read with interest :

"Framingham, Oci!. 6, 1871. -

_ " The Wayside Inn, so well known to the travel-
ling public, and made immortal by the poet Long-
fellow, is situated in the southwesterly part of Sud-
bury, on the old stage road leading from Boston to
Worcester. It was built and opened as a house of
entertainment in the year 1700, or 1701, by David
Howe, grandson of John Howe, the first settler of
Marlborough. It was kept by father and son for five
generations, the last of the name being Lyman
Howe, who died, at the age of fiftj^-nine years, in
the spring of 1S60. By his death this branch ot the
Howe family became extinct, and the famous • Howe
Tavern,' by which name it was familiarly known
during a period of one hundred and sixty years,
then passed into the hands of strangers, and ceased
to be an inn. As a house of entertainment, it was
always characterized bj' its good order and hospital-
ity, and not less by the sumptuous table with wirich
it refreshed the hungry tr.aveller. Before the inno-
v.ation of railroads several stages made their daily call
at this house, stopping long enough to change horses
and allow the passengers, often from the remotest
sections of tlie country, and sometimes from foreign
lands, to breakfast, or dine, and leave their parting
blessing for the good landlady: whilst, filling the
spacious yard in front, were to be seen the lie.ivily-
loaded teams bringing produce, destined for the
Boston market, from New York, Western Massa-
chusetts, and intermediate places along the route.
And within this ancient inn, among other reminis-
cences of its history, is pointed out the room where
Lafayette, the friend of American liberty, once took
lodgings for a night, while on a visit to the country
he had helped to save.

" Yours truly,

" G. M. Howe."

Among other curious heirlooms was the
old sword, referred to in the poem, worn by
Col. Ezekiel Howe in the Concord fight,
and a silver-mounted waich, which he hnd

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

33

carried through several battles. There were
also muskets, pistols, and powder-horns,
in attestation of the military achievements
of the family.

A pair of snow-shoes and large shoe-
buckles attracted much attention. A curi-
ous knitting-machine, invented by Mi% J.
M. Howe, of Oregon, also elicited much
praise, and will doubtless add to the reputa-
tion of the family for inventive genius.
An old wooden trunk, or chest, originally
belonging to Mr. Abraham How, wlio died
in Eoxbury in 1676, was labelled with this
line of its descent:

"Abraham How. It then descended to
his daughter, Hannah How, Avho married
Capt. Eliezer How; then to their son, En-
sign Gershom Howe, who married Hannah
Bowker; then to their daughter, Merriam
How, who married Jotham Bartlett; then
to their son, Antiphas Bartlett, who married
Lois White ; then to their daughter, Lois
Bitrtlett, who married William Felton; then
to th.eir son, Cyrus Felton, the present
owner." The chest is about two feet in
length, and is made of hard pine, oak, and
chestnut. It has a curious figure carved in

front, and is painted red. It is certainly
good for another brace of centuries. /

The wife of the Rev. Nathaniel Howe
was represented by her wedding-shoes worn
January 2, 1792, and another Howe by an
enormous wedding-bonnet of the coal-hod
pattern of 1829 ; another by the next-to-
nothing pattern of 1869. But under many
points of view, the most interesting article
in this rare cabinet was the original sewing-
macliine, invented by Elias Howe in 1845,
standing beside one of the improved ma-
chines of 1870. It is enclosed in a box less
than twelve inches long, and is in good
working order still. What strange associ-
ations cluster round this old machine,
wliich, to some extent, has changed the
destiny of the industrial world, and ren-
dered the name of Elias Howe, like those
of Watt and Stevenson, immortal.

We are happy to be able to insert here
some remarks, on the invention of this ma-
chine, by Thomas P. Howe, Esq., Counsel-
lor, of New York, and also a clever poem,
by Mrs. H. Grifiith, a relative of the Howe
family, of DeKalb, III.

THE INVENTION OF THE SEWING-MACHINE,

' By THOMAS P. HOWE, Esq.

The invention of the sewing-machine, by
Elias Howe, jr., is a triumph of genius of
which the Howe family may well be pi-oud,
for probably no other invention of any age
has contributed so much, in the same length
of time, to the happiness and comfort of
mankind, or done so much to elevate wo-
man from exhausting and killing drudgery.
For centuries the need of a machine to per-
form the tedious work of the needle, and to
save woman from the slow death resulting
from its constant use, has been seriously
felt, and as early as about the commence-
ment of the present century efforts began
to be made for the production of such a ma-
chine. The problem was, however, a difii-
cult one to solve. All efforts to operate the
common hand- sewing needle by machinery,
and thereby produce a practicable sewing-
machine, have been utter failures, and the
production of an efficient machine in this
way has been thus far, and probably always
will be, too much for human genius. The
problem of producing a successful sewing-
machine Avas not then to be solved by sim-
ply giving by machinery the ordinary motion
to an ordinary hand implement, but involved
the necessity of new devices alid combina-
tions, operating differently from anything
before known, and opening into a field of
invention which the genius of man had
never before trod.

Elias Howe, jr., the inventor of the sew-
ing-machine, was a native of Cambridge-
port, Mass., and, at the time of the produc-
tion of the invention, poor in money, but
rich in genius, of good habits, and untiring
perseverance. In 1845 he produced tlie
sewing-macliine, which has immortalized
his name, and whicli presented the peculi-
arities of a needle witli the eye in the point,
a device for securing the thread under the
cloth, and a feeding apparatus for advanc-
ing the cloth to the needle as.it was sewn.
For securing the thread on the under side
of the cloth, Howe used a shuttle carrying
an independent thread, which device is still
used in a large share of the machines now
manufactured, though in some it has been
changed to a looper. Patiently and unfal-
teringly, in the midst of poverty, with a
feeble wife and two helpless children de-
pendent on him for support, and his beloved
wife finally dying at his side, young Howe
toiled on till success crowned his eftorts,
and the sewing-machine became one of the
established improvements of the age. The
value of this invention to the people of the
United States alone, in money, from the
mere saving of labor, has been shown, by
proof, to be more than one hundred mil-
lions of dollars per annum ; but its value
in the promotion of the happiness of man-
kind, is beyond human calculation.

34

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

ELI AS HOWE, JR., the Inventor of the Sewing -
Machine.

BY MRS. H. GRIFFITH.

Long ye.irs ago, in the primitive age,

Wlieu tlic hand-press tardily printed the page,

And news rattled along in the four-horse stage,

xVnd men plowed with the wooden plow;
"With the old hand-sickle their reaper for grain ;
The donke3' and pannier tlicir fast express train;
And they travelled on foot, in dust and in raiu:

The world had not heard of Howe.

Women comhed the wool with a card of wire.
While the busy wheel buzzed in front of the fire ;
Each house-wife a spinner, and weaver, and dyer.

[Motherhood's cares, no less than now,]
By day labored as hard as the man at the plow ;
By night bent o'er the seam, with aching brow,
As she pleaded with G-od some relief to allow;

Yet only the echo said — Hoioe ?

From one age to another it was echoed down.
Till at last there was horn, in an Eastern town,
A son to a farmer, sturdy. and brown —

We acknowledge G-od's hand in it now —
One He designed to be just the man;
To study it out and perfect the plan.
Which, at the pi-ayer of a woman, began,

And answer- the question — Eowef

He worked in the mill on his father's farm.

While G-od watched o'er him and guardedfrom harm,

Gav:^ strength to his mind, and nerve to his arm,

M'hiah was all his inheritance now.
Tho :^'ii his father preserved an unblemished name,
He li.bd no ;jreat honor, or fortune, or fame,
Svi lie gave i-.ich one of eight children the same —

Only the name of Howe.

When the Sor.-iig-ilachine set to work in his brain.

He f.i inght not of joy, of pleasure, or gain.

But ttMled night and day, through sorrow and pain.

Till the li ii'.s grew deep in his brow.
Hi- fiihioMcl t:;>- iron, the wood, and the steel,
Till e ;ch his mr.a-icul thought seemed to feel,
A'l i with click and rattle, and joyous peal,

Ti.ey answered the question — Howe?

Me'i praise inventors from day to day.
As ihey print, <■'.• plow, or flash news o'er the way,
While to sleep in"a palace will no journey delay.
But woman'will gratefully bow.

And blessing, with blessings, forever will bless
The man whose invention relieved her distrcij^.
While Sympathy's tear she can scarcely repress

As she thinks of jEli<M Howe.
De Kalb, iZZ., Aug. 22, 1871.

XIV. THE CLOSE OF THE MEETING.

This family meeting, which was in every-
thing a complete success, was closed at five
o'clock, p. M. ; and the heavy-laden trains
bore away to tlieir respective homes a noble
family, wliich had spent one of the loveliest
days of the season in friendly greetings, in
sweetest social intercourse, and in rich in-*
tellectual and festive entertainments, unin-
terrupted by a single incivility, mishap, or
accident.

In this meeting political and religious
differences were forgotten, social distinc-
tions set aside ; show and sham unthought
of, — one and the same spirit animated every
breast, and that was the spirit of amity and
fraternal love. It seemed to be an earnest
and a foretaste, of the meetings and the
greetings, which after tearful separation
here, we still may hope to enjoy upon the
" Golden Shore."

For this meeting of kindred and connec-
tions every member of the family looked
with delightful anticipation; by this
meeting every spirit was quickened into
higher life and loftier inspiration ; and to
tliis meeting every one will look back as upon
one of the greenest spots on Memory's waste.

Wlien will another bome?

In response to this question, we are per-
mitted to insert the following suggestions
of Mr. Elias JHowe, the eminr'nt music pub-
lisher, and Secretary of the Committee of
" The Howe Family Gathering."

EEMARKS AND SUGGESTIONS OF MR. ELIAS HOWE,

Secretary of the Esecutive Committee of the Howe Gathering.

Dear Cotts'ins fak aintd near ! — Our
first Howe Family Gathering was a grand
success, affording intense delight and pleas-
ure to several thousands of our kindred
and connections. The day was splendid,
and every one appeared to enter into the
joy and spirit of the occasion. The lonely
found tliey had relatives full of fraternal
sympathies ; the distant found they had a
" local habitation and a name " ; tlie young
met hearts responsive to their own ; the
aged felt "surcease of sorrow"; and one
and all enjoj'ed a social and an intellectual
banquet, never to be lost from the rich
treasures of our memory.

Now, as a natural consequence of this
delightful meeting, large numbers of our
family, from all parts of the country, have,
either in person or in writing, earnestly ex-
pressed to me a desire to have a second
gathering, or reunion, the ensuing year.

Our first meeting was but just the calling
of the roll ; we knew not on whom we could
rely, or how to send. forth invitations to so
many people scattered over such a vast ex-
tent of territory. Had it 'not been for the
great and generous aid vvliich a large num-
ber of gentlemen and ladies, in all parts of
the country, j^romply gave, success had
been uncertain; and, for their assistance,
they will please accept the very cordial
thanks of the committee. To them is
largely due tlie magnitude and enjoyment
of tlie gathering.

Our cousins now desire another inter-
view. They have had a pleasant introduc-
tion to each other, and would continue the
acquaintance. Where, then, and when,
they ask, shall be our next reunion?

Although •' Harmony Grove " is a delight-
ful spot, the whispering of the wind among
the forest leaves, in some degree, prevents

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

35

the people from hearing well the speakers,
and the accommodations of the viUage for
a family so numerous are very limited.

It is therefore respectfully suggested that
cur second family gathering take place at
the Music Hall, in Boston, on or about the
tenth day of October, 1872 ; that it com-
mence at about 9 1-2 o'clock, a. m., with a
concert, social levee for mutual introduc-
tion, the forming of acquaintance, etc.,
with opening speeches and singing. Din-
ner might be served in Bumstead Hall at
one o'clock, and, after this, the speaking
and the music be resumed for the remainder
of the afternoon and evening, and the next
day, if thought desirable.

The Music Hall is capable of seating
some three thousand people ; Bumstead
Hall is in the same building, and there is
also an ante-room adjoining, suitable for tlie
exhibition of the relics and heirlooms of
our family. In the event of an inclement
day, we should here find ourselves in most
comfortable quarters, and the opportunities
for hearing the speakers and the music of
the bands, the celebrated organ, and the
songs by the Howe family combined, would
be enjoyed.

It might be added that, in coming to Bos-
ton, many of our kindred might unite their
business with their pleasure ; and such ar-
rangements might be made by the commit-
tee, that, if timely notice were given, rooms
and board for a day or week, at greatly re-
duced prices, might be engaged. Tickets
of admission to the Music Hall might be
issued to the members of our family at one
dollar for gentlemen, and fifty cents for
ladies, which would cover general ex-
penses, such as hall-rent, music, circulars,
advertising, and tlie lilce.

But these are mere suggestions, and it is
hoped that all who take an interest in a
second gathering will freely add to them as
they may think proper, since many improve-
ments on the plan here diffidently presented,
may unquestionably be made.

The Eegister of the Howe Family is
now in the course of rapid preparation. It
will be a work of great interest to every
member of our stock and lineage now ex-
isting, and to come. It will contain a com-
plete history of the Howe family in Amer-
ica from the earliest settlement of any
person of the name here, down to the pres-
ent time. The writers will carefully trace
out, from private and public papers, the
lineage and descent of the various branches,
and will endeavor clearly to present, as far
as possible, the pedigree of every person
bearing the name of Howe.

Sketches of such as liave in any way dis-
tinguished themselves in art, or science,
literature, military, or political life, or in
any of the learned professions, together
with accounts of accidents, adventures, per-
sonal exploits, trials and misfortunes, pecu-
liarities, proverbs, and facetiae pertaining

to the family, will be written by the Her,
Elias Nason, of North Billerica, Mass.
Tiie genealogies of the Howes of Boston
and vicinity will be prepared by "William
B. Trask, Esq., an experienced genealogist
of that city ; and the Rev. Josiali H.'Tera-
ple, of Franiingham, who is well qualified
for the task, will make out the history of
the Sudbury branch of the family. These
gentlemen will be assisted in their researches
by Alfred Poor, Esq., of Salem.

The Register will be ornamented with
portraits, fac-similes, coats-of-arms, mod-
els of inventions, views of homesteads, res-
idences, manufactories, etc., of members of
our family.

The labor of preparing, and the cost of
printing, such a work, containing, as it
will, a thousand pages or more of compact
matter, will be verj'- great; and it is there-
fore hoped that every member of the fam-
ily will take a lively interest in its progress,
will send in to the editors as full account of
his own family as possible, and also his
name, to me, as a subscriber to the book,
the price of which will be $6 and upwards,
just according to the cost of binding.

Books, pamphlets, and papers relating to
our family, sent to either of the above-
named gentlemen, will be used with care,
and returned with promptness to their own-
ers. If directed to 103 Court Street,
Boston, they will be sure to reach them.
Photographs for the "Howe Pliotograjjhic
Gallery " will be thankfully accepted.

It is presumed that the expense of pub-
lishing the Register will amount to $7,000
or $8,000, and therefore it will require at
least one thousand subscribers to meet the
oirtlay. But I am assured that this enter-
prise will be most cordially seconded and
sustained by the members of our wide-
spread family.

Allow me here again to express my sin-
cere acknowledgments to ray cousins of the
Howe family, far and near, for the assist-
ance rendered in relation to our " Gather-
ing"; to wish them each and every one
health, peace, and prosperity; to extend to
them a hearty welcome to 103 Court Street,
when they visit Boston, and to subscribe
myself their affectionate cousin,

Elias Howe,
Secretary of the Executive Qo'iiimittee of the

Howe Gathering, held at Framing ham,

August 31, 1871.

XV. EEPOETS OF THE PUBLIC PKESS.

The press was well represented by its
gentlemanly reporters at the gathering.
Very full and satisfactory accounts of the
proceedings of the day were given in the
Boston" Traveller," "Transcript," "Jour-
nal," "Advertiser," "News," "Post,"
and other city and local journals. At the
close of its report, the "Post" remarked:

" On all sides the celebration was re-
garded as of the most gratifying and sue-

36

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

cessful character. "What has been so well
begun, will no doubt be continued annually.
The occasion was one of much interest and
enjoyment, and fully justified the orignators
of the same, who, it is very evident, are an
honor to their name and their land. It was
very largely confined to such of the family
as reside in New England, though represen-
tatives were present from nearly every part
of the country. The project was conceived
in Marcli last, at which time an Executive
Committee was appointed. These gentle-
men addressed themselves to the task with
characteristic energy, and the gathering yes-
terday was a proud and happy result."

Another journal says :

" It seemed to be the universal opinion
that the reunion had been a complete suc-
cess, and every one hoped that a similar
meeting might be held next year, at which
the difl'erent members of this great family

should come to know each other better than
they ever had before."

" It was throughout," says the " Fram-
ingham Gazette " — and this-,Avas the general
sentiment — "a magnificent success. Great
praise is due Elias Howe for his efforts.
He was ably seconded by the other mem-
bers of tlie committee, including Willard
Howe, Elbridge Howe, and Hon. C. M.
Howe."

XVI. THE REGISTER OF THE NAMES.

A register was opened for the names of
those present: but it was impossible for
only a part of them to make the record.
The name and address of such as had
an opportunity to write them are given
on the following page. The names of a few,
from whom letters have been received, are
also added.

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

37

REGISTER OE NAMES.

Rev. J. William A. Benton, Mount Lebanon,

Syria, Asia.
Loanza G. Benton, Mount Lebanon, Syria,

Asia.
Eev. Daniel Dole, Hawaiian Islands.
C. C. Dole, "

Mrs. M. A. Howe, St, John, N. B.
John D. Howe, " "

Jamie Howe, " "

Thomas Temple, Fredericton, "
Mrs. Thomas Temple, " "

Bertha Ida Temple, " "

Bessie Temple, " "

Eufus Howe, Consecon, Ont.
Mrs. W. W. Field, Consecon, Ont.
Henry P. Winter, Reporter, Boston Daily

News.
E. Eraerton, Reporter, Boston Daily Ad-
vertiser. \

C. B. Tillinghast, Reporter, Boston Daily

Journal.
Charles H. Ames, Reporter, Northampton
Free Press.

D. S. Andrews, Norway, Me.
Mary E. Andrews, " "
P. H. Fiske, Readfield, "
J. D. Howe, Portland, W. V^a.

C. Burr Vickery, Washington, D. C.
Leverett N. Howe, St. Charles, Minn.
Hollis Howe, Faribault, Rice Co. "
George G. Howe, " u »

Henry P. Howe, Dansville, Tenn.
R. D. Howe, Vicksburg, Miss.
Jesse Haven, Enterprise, Utah.
O. C. Howe, Mobile, Ala.
John Milton Howe, Portland, Oregon.
John D. Howe, Omaha, Nebraska.

E. K. Howe, Lakeview, "

Hon. William Wirt Howe, New Orleans, La.

Bainbridge Howe, Alameda, Cal.

William Howe, San Francisco, Cal.

A. T. Dewey,

A. B. Bancroft, "

C. E. B. Howe, "

Ezra Howe, Carlisle, Ky.

Julia Howe, " "

J. B. Howe, Louisville, Ky.

Mrs. Jennie Howe, " "

Hannah W. Howe, La Fayette, Md.

James Howe, " "

Charlton H. Howe, La Grange, Mo.

William H. Howe, Florine Station, Mo.

Aaron S. Howe, Clinton, Henry Co. "

James Howe, Plattsburg, "

J. Morris Howe, Mt. Idaho, Idaho.

Rev. Samuel Storrs Howe, Iowa City, Iowa.

Charles W. Lewis, Fernandina, Fia.

Rev. Lucian Howe, Fort Gratiot, Mich.
Mrs. Fran Howe Foote, Grand Rapids, Mich.
CJiarles C. Hickey, Detroit, '•

i^^lbert Howe, .Jackson, "

Mrs, J. E. Howe Bartholmew, Lansing, " ■
Charles N. Howe, Saline, "

George A. Howe, Belpre, Ohio.
Persis P. Howe, " "

C. A. Howe, «' "

Mrs. Charlotte P. Stone, Belpre, Ohio.
Henry Howe, Springfield, " "

Rev. Timothy Winter Howe, Pataskala, O.
J. S. Howe, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dr. Storer W. Howe, «' "

Henry Howe, " "

Dr. A. J. Howe, " "

C. R. Howe, Akron, "
Rev. H. R, Howe, Pine Grove, "
George W. Howe, Cleveland, "
James M. Hiatt, Clermont, Ind.
Ira J. Howe, La Fayette, "
Mrs. Ira J. Howe, '"' "
Charles P. Howe, " "
Anna J. Howe, " "
Edw. P. Howe, Indianapolis, "

E. Frank Howe, Terre Haute,"
Joseph M.Howe, Bloomington "
Samuel T. Howe, Spencer, "
John B. Howe, Lima, "
James Howe, " "

D. W. Howe, Franklin, "
S. L. Howe, Chicago, 111.

W. E. Howe, "

F. A. Howe, " " i----'^
J. L. Howe, " "
Samuel Brown, " "
Sylvanus Howe, Robinson, 111.
Julia Ward Howe, Newport, R. I.
John Howe, Providence, "
J. G. Brown, " '•'
Eliza Howe Brown, Providence, R. I.
Mrs. Relief Howe Walker, Cumberland,

R.I.
Mrs. Seraphine Pierce, Cumberland, R. I.
Henry B. Noyes, Bristol,
Mrs. Willard Pierce, Diamond Hills,
William E. Tolman, Pawtucket,
Martha L. Howe Tolman, "
Mrs. Henry Hill, "

Mrs. Jane Howe, "

William Blanchard, Lawrence Co., Pa.
William Parker Howe, Titusville,
Mrs. Mary Howe Little, "

A. J. Howe, Meadville,
Edmond Howe, W. Philadelphia,

B. F. Howe, "
J. Howe Adams, "

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

Eev. Mark A. De Wolf Howe, D. D., W.
Philadelphia, Pa.

Amory Howe Bradford, Montclair, N. J.

William Howe, Kaliway, , "

Thomas H. Howe, Greenville,

Harriet Howe, Trenton, x ••

David Howe, Lincolnville, Me.

Sarah L. Howe, "

Edward Howe, Portland, "

Caroline Dana Howe," "

Daniel K. Frohock, " "

Eliza M. Howe Frohock, Portland, Me.

Jeremiah Howe, " "

William S. Howe, Pittsfield,"

Otis Howe, Rumford, "

S. C. Smith, N. Bridgton, " ''

William C. Howe, Bethel, "

Charles W. Howe, " "

Mrs. Florida Mason Howe, Hallowell, ile.

Charles K. Howe, "• "

Linwood Mason Howe, " "

Joseph E. Howe, '• '•

Betsey D. Howe, '' ■'

Jesse B. Howe, Hanover, •'

Ida N.Howe,

Mrs. Mary A. H. Clement, Standisli. "
Kate S. Clement, " "

Dr. John I. Howe, Derhy, Conn.

Mrs. Jane Maria Ho\v€ Downs, Derby, Conn.

William Howe Downs, '.'

Hellen G. Downs, ■'

Mary E. Howe, Canaan,

William Howe, Ridgefield,

Miss Emma F. Howe, "

Allen Howe, Greenwich,

Lewis L. Howe, "

William A. Howe, "

George M. Howe, Stafford Springs,

John Howe, Stamford,

David W. Howe, West Goshen,

M. E. Howe, " "

Birdsey T. Howe, Goshen,

Delia Howe, "

Elbridge G. Howe, Hartford,

H. H. Howe, Burlington, Vt.

J. W. Hobart, St. Albans, "

A. J. Howe, Montpelier, "

Mrs. A. J. Howe, " "

Storrs L. Howe, " "

Mrs. Storrs L. Howe, Montpelier, Vt.

Ciiarlotte Howe Merrill, "

Elizur F. Howe, Tunbridge, •'

Ellen W. Howe, "

Albei-t Howe, W. Concord,

William H. Howe, East Barnard,

Milton Davidson, Richmond,

Joshua B. Howe, Readsi)oro', '•

Mrs. P. J. Howe, Middlebury,

Albert ISF. Howe, Dover,

Lois Maria Howe, " '-

L. H. Gould, East "

T. P. D. Matthews, Cornwall,

Abbie P. Matthews, "

Alvin A. Howe,' Ludlow,

L. N. Howe, Northfield,

Mrs. William McGuire, Lunenburg, •-

John B. Browning, New Haven, Conn

Gardner Morse, " " «'

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Sarah A. Morse, New Haven, Conn.

William H. Howe, Glastenbury, " •

Eliza A. Howe, " "

George Leavens, West Killingly, "

Fanny A. Leavens, " " "

Isaac O. Close, Round Hill, "

John I. Howe, Birmingham, "

Mrs. John I. Howe, " "

James H. Howe, Troy, N. Y.

John K.Howe, " "

Allen B. Howe, <' "

Mrs. L H. Howe, "

Mrs. Charlotte M. Howard, New York, N.Y.

Ora Howard, " "•

George A. Howe, " "

William B. Howe, " "

Jane Howe Stockwell, " "

Levi J. Stockwell,

Henry A. Howe,

Marshall Howe Clement,

Thomas P. Howe,

Mary L. Conant,

Col. Frank E. Howe,

W. W. Howe,

Joseph M. Howe,

Newton Howe,

N. F. Howe,

Mrs. Ellen Howe Clark

Georgiana Clark,

Lewis J. HowCjQueensbur}', Glens Falls,

James Howe, Fort Edward,

Henry B. Noyes, Corning,

Mrs. Sarali A^ L. Noyes, Corning,

Elias B. Howe, Mannsville,

Samuel 0. Howe, Mount Vernon,

Russell G. Howe, " "

Maria G. Howe, " "

Dr. A. B. Howe, Jordan,

C. E. Howe, Deersville,
Mrs. M. L. Merriman, Copenhagen,
Lyman Richardson, Elton,
Mrs. H. M. Williams, Watertown,

D. B. Howe, Clarence,
James Howe, Brooklyn,
J. R. Howe, "
L. W. Howe, "
Thomas P. Howe,"
George E. Glines,"
Cranston Howe, "
Mrs. E. E. Lippincott, Brooklyn,
Edward S. Cornwell, Buffalo,
D. H. Patterson, Killbuuk,
J. M. Howe, Rochester,
Mrs. Martin B. Willmore, Milford,
John A. Howe, Albany,
William Howe, Syracuse, "
Mary Howe, B. Aurora, "
Charles F. Allen, Belmont, "
Miss N. Howe, Long Island, "
S. B. Howe, Schenectady, "
G. W. Conhitt, Ulster ville, "
G. W. Howe, Binghamton, "
Betsey Howe Perham, Fitzwilliam, N. H.
Benjamin L. Howe, Ashuelot,
Moses Howe, East Acworth,
Alvan Davidson, South "
Mrs. A. J. Small, N. Sanbornton,
Mai-y F. Bean, Henniker,

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

Frank L. Howe, Keene,

Micah Howe, Dublin,

L. L. Howe, "

P. D. Howe, Manchester,

Rozina Howe, "

D. W. Howe, "

Amanda E. Howe, "

John M. Howe, "

Benjamin P. Howe, "Winchester,

Josiali S. Howe, Laconia,

Mr. J. S. Howe,

Lucy M. Howe, Nashua,

P. W. Howe, E. Jaffrey,

Benjamin Howe, Hudson,

Walter W. Howe, "

Homer Howe, "

A. G. Howe, Pisheryille,

N. E. Howe, "

I. G. Howe, Concord,

M. E. Howe,

Ira Gove, "Ware,

William H. Howe,

Stimpson Howe,

George W. Howe,

George Windsor Howe,

Clara A. Howe,

Warren G. Howe,
Lizzie 0. Howe,
Nellie P. Howe,
N. M. Walker,
H. T. Estabrook,

Samuel Howe,

Evoline Arnold,

William P. Gleason,

Mrs. Mary A Gleason,

Miss P. A. Gleason,

Miss O. W. Gleason,

Miss P. A. Gleason,

William N. Howe,

Persis Howe.

Lizzie Howe,

Sumner Loring Howe,

Abby D. Howe,

Elmer D. Howe,

Nellie F. Howe,

Sophia A. Getting,

Charles W. Getting,

Need ham Howe,

Candace N. Howe,

Oliver 7i. Howe,

Ida N. Howe,

Annie M. Howe, •

Tbadden livjwe,

Lyh-an N. Ho\re,

lucy A. Howe,

William J. Arnold,

Anna E. Arnold,.

L. Arnv-vld,

Howard W. Arnold,

C. A. Wilt,

Elizabeth Witi,

P. A. Howv:,

Mrs. P. A. Ho>re,

L'lcy Whitney,

Lini S. Whitney,

Lauri P. AVhitney,

Annie L. Howe,

Mrs. Mary Howe Lawrence,

N. H.

Marlboro', Mass.

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William Stetson, Jr., Marlboro', Mass.

E. K. Stetson, "

Mrs. A. H. Stetson, "

A«na J. Stetson, "

'Prank E. Stetson, "

Jennie G. Stetson, "

Prank E. Stetson,

Josiah S. Howe,

Cyrus Pelton,

Emile T. Morse,

Mary H. Morse,

Martha A. Morse,

Stephen Morse,

Winslow M. Warren,

John A. Prye,

Elvira P. Prye,

Mrs. L. S. Wheeler,

George S. Russell,

Hattie B. Russell,

Mr. L. S. Brigham,

S. H. Howe,

Mrs. S. H. Howe,

Ephraim Howe,

W. G. Howe,

Amariah Howe,

Ellen M. Howe,

Clarence E. Howe,

Mary J. Howe,

Susan M. Barker,

Charles 'M. Howe,

Sarah E. Howe,

Grace L. Howe,

Walter W. Howe,

Sarah W. Howe,

Plorence I. Howe,

Herbert M. Howe,

Winthrop Howe,

Lyman N. Howe,

Lucy A. Howe,

Trueman Edwin Howe,

Calvin Clisby Howe,

Edward Holyoke Howe,

Elbridge Howe,

S. B. Pratt,

Mrs. Martha A. Howe,

Warren Howe,

Anne M. Howe,

Cordelia Morse,

Lucy Ann Howe Ward,

George A. Howe, "

Emilv B. Hov/e, "

Sabra H. Howe, - ' "

Lizzie E. Morse, Quincy, Mass.

Rev. Dennis Powers, Abington, Mass.

Mrs. Mary T. Powers, " "

Artemas L. Howe, Rock Bottom, Mass.

Phebe S. Howe, " "

Mrs. Anna H. Lord, Chelsea, "

N. L. Hov/e, West Amesbury, "

A. W. Howe, " "

John W. Howe, Clinton, "

Delia S. Howe^ " "

Mary C. Howe, -^ " "

Rev. Elias Nason, North Billerica, Mass.

E. J. C. Levering, Auburn, "

Jos. S. Howe, Methuen, *'

Joseph Howe, " *'

Niles Howe, " «

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40

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

Christopher Howe, Methuen, Mass.

John Howe,

Charles Howe,

E. D. Southworth, Douglass, "

C. C. Southworth,

E. L. Howe, Cochituate, "

Asa H. Goddard, Princeton, "

Mrs. Adeline Howe Elder, Chester, "

Abbie M. Howe, Ashland, "

Edward S- Nason, " "

Mrs. E. S. Nason, "

E. L. Howe, Wayland, "

Helen M. Wilkins, Peabody, "

E. P. Howe, N. Bridgewater, "

Newel Brown, Belmont, "

Mrs. Mary W. Brown, Belmont, "

Henry W. Longfellow, Nahant, "

Edward Howe and wife, Mary B. Fox Howe,

"Westfield, Mass.
Mrs. Elizabeth A. (Howe) Bush, Westfield,

Mass.
Hon. H. J. Bush, Westfield, Mass.
Capt. A. L. Bush, and wife Josephine,

Westfield, Mass.
William J. Howe, Eandolph, Mass.
Mrs. Wm. J. Howe, " "

Mrs. Abby T. Howe, " "

Joanna W. King, " "

Ellen P. King,

Mary P. Pickens, Foxboro, "
Martha W. Howe, " "

A. E. Danforth, Hudson, "

Edwin D. Bruce, " "

Mrs. H. M. Bruce, " "

Edw. A. Holyoke, " "

Anson B. Howe, " "

Mary E. Bigelow, " "

Dana Howe, " "

Elsie Howe, " "

J. M. Howe, "

Sarah J. Warner, " "

Zopher Warner, " "

Asa Sawyer, Berlin, "

Mrs. Emma Sawyer, Berlin, '•
Louisa S. Hastings, " "

Mary Grace Howe Houghton, Berlin, Mass.
Eer. W. A. Houghton, "

Lydia Howe Peters, "

Luther Peters, "

Eebecca Howe Bartlett, "

Mattie A. Bartlett, • "

Warren S. Howe, "

Albert Babcock, West Berlin,
George Howe Pitman, Dorcester,
Mrs. Charlotte M. Pitman, Dorchester,
G. Fowler,

Laura E. H. Fowler, . "

Harvey Howe, "

E. E. Howe, "

Mrs. Lucy H. Howe, "

Ella L. Howe, "

H. F. Howe, "

Edward Howe, "

Wm. B. Trask, "

Ezekiel Pitman, Wakefield,
Mrs. Mary Pitman, "
Charles H. Hill, "

Eliza L. Howe, Weymouth,

Haverhill,

Joseph B. Howe, South Weymouth,

Avery S. Howe, Weymouth,

J. Clarence Howe, South Weymoutli;

Frank E. Howe, "

Minerva B. Howe, "

Clarissa P. Howe, - " -

Clara A. Howe, "

Alice E. Howe, "

Mrs. Appleton Howe, "

Harriet A. Howe, ' "

Henry S. Howe, Warren,

Charles W. Howe, Norfolk,

Emma E. Howe, Brooklino,

Kimball T. Howe, Woodvilie,

Charles Howe Hadley,

George A. Howe, West Boylston,

William T. Howe,

Joel Howe, "

Thomas Harlow, "

Olive M. Waterman, "

Olive J. Waterman, "

A. E. Waterman, "

William G. Howe, Haverhill,

James Howe,

Mrs. Susan W. Howe,

Ann G. Keniston,

Dr. Eichard C. Howe, "

Joseph Brown, "

H. Maria Brown, '•

Mrs. L. J. Harris, "

Moses Howe, "

James C. Howe. "

Nathan Baker, Weston,

Elisha Baker, "

Mary Baker, "

Nathan Baker, Jr., Weston,

Ari Baker, "

Josiah A. Eockwood, Upton,

Susan H. Eockwood, ' "

Merrick Howe, Leominster,

William F. Howe, North Leominster,

Charles H. Howe, Leominster,

Oliver K. Howe, Sterling,

Lucj- G. Howe, "

Isabella Howe Hastings, Sterling,

S. S. Hastings, "

Stephen Howe, Baldwinsville,

Henry M. Howe, Sekonk,

Sarah Littlefield, Milton,

Geoi'ge H. Howe, Brighton,

Corinth Howe Plumm-er, Brighton,

Lucie J. Brigham, Concord,

Dalby Onthank, Southboro',

Alvah S. Howe, "

David H. Brown, "

Julia E. Brown, "

S. F. Onthank, "

Lydia B. Onthank, '"

Syhm J. Howe, Templeton,

Martha A. Howe Barnard, Woburn,

Mrs. Kate Howe, Palmer,

Addison Howe, Ashburnham,

Leroy A. Howe, "

Eliza M. Gates, "

Mrs. Francis E. Howe, Braintree,

William Howe, South Braintree,

D. B. Howe, Fitchburg,

Amos A. Howe, "

Mass.

THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

41

Mrs. E. M. Gates, Fitchburg,

C A. Howe, Dover,

Isaac Howe, "

G. L. Howe, "

Louisa B. Smith, Dover,

Sarah E. Smith, "

George L. Howe, "

B. Howe Conant, Wenham,

Eev. John Haven, Charlton,

Mrs. M. M. Haven, "

William B. Haven, "

Mrs. E. B. Haven, "

J. Frank Howe, Springfield,

Elijah Howe, "

E. B. Howe Douglass, Greenwich,

Angenette H. Vaughan, "

Mrs. S. E. Howe Pitman, Salem,

Alice Howe, "

George Browning,

Alfred Poor,

Miss Helen Varnum, Dracut, Mass.

Nellie M. Lee, " "

Mr. Henry Varnum, " "

Mrs. Ljdia A. Howe Lee, Dracut, Mass

Mr. Liab Lee, " "

Augusta A. Eox, " "

Winthrop A. Eox, " "

Mrs. Jeremiah Howe, " "

Aaron H. Rogers, Holden, "

Silas Howe, " "

Persis W. Howe, " "

J. Warren Rogers,

Almira Rogers,

Edwin Howe, " "

S. C. Howe, " "

Leroy A. Howe, " "

George B. Howe, Danvers,

izzie A. Howe, "

Albert W. Howe, "
Josephine E. Howe, "
Geo. Howe Peabody,
Chas. H. Peabody,
Wm. H. Clark, Paxton,
Lewis Bigelow, "
Mrs. H. D. Howe, "
Eliza M. Howe, "
Nahum S. Newton, "
Marcia M.Newton, "
Wm. H. Harrington, Paxton,
Olive G. Harrington,
Lucy A. Harrington,
Laurette A. Harrington, "
L. S. M. Howe, "

Mary E. Howe, "

W. H. Glaus, "

Mrs. W. H. Glaus, "

David G. Davis, "

Rev. Elbridge G. Howe, "
Mrs. Erancena (Howe) Brock, Ayer, "
John Howe, East Somerville, "

Sarah F. Howe, East Somerville, "
Jennie A. Howe, "
Joseph Howe,
Lizzie C. Howe,
Joseph T. Howe, Natick
Mrs. Amasa Howe, "
E. H. Brigham, "

Elbridge Howe, "

Mass.

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Olive M. Howe, Natick, Mass.

Ida M. Howe, " "

Lucy F. Howe, "

George Howe, "

W. H. Coolidge, "

L. L. Howe, "

Augusta P. Washburn, Natick,

Gilbert Warren Hovvre,

Persis A. Howe,

Bertha F. Howe,

Frank F. Howe,

Elbridge H. Howe,

Melinda Howe,

Carrie E. Howe,

Eliza L. Cole,

John L. Cole,

Alice E. Cole,

Fred E. Cole,

James E. Cole,

Grace E. Cole,

Charles E. Cole,

Hon. Henry Wilson,

John L. Perkins, Charlestown,

Thos. Pitman,

Mrs. Caroline Pitman,
E. W. Howe,
Mrs. E. W. Howe,

S. O. Little,

Mrs, S. O. Little,

L. Hull and E. Maria (Howe), Charlestown,

Mass.
Lucius S. Howe, Charlestown, Mass.
Emory Hunt, South Sudburv, "
E. B. Hunt, " ' " " " .

N. B. Hunt, " " "

Angelline V. Hunt, South Sudbury, Mass.
Alice Howe Hunt,
John Eaton,
Ruth Eaton,
E. T. Eaton,
E. N. Eaton,
John H. Eaton,
Lucinda B. Fairbanks,
Reuben Hunt,
Mrs. Reuben Hunt,
A. M. Howe,
Martin Goodnow,
Solomon A. Howe, Maiden,
J. R. Howe, "

Mrs. J. R. Howe, "

Wm. H. H. Howe,
Millard F. Howe, ."

Solomon A. Howe, Jr. "
Lois R. Howe, "

Lois R. Howe, Orange,
Geo. W. Howe, "
Mary Howe, "

Lewis R. Howe, "
Mary L. Howe, "
George W. Howe, "
Moses G. Howe, Lowell,
Augustus J. Howe, "
Mary J. Howe, "

Jeroboam Howe, "
James M. Howe, "
Abbie Howe Chase, "
Mabel Howe Chase, "
Grey Herbert Chase, ' '

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THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING.

Persis Howe Gove, Lowell, Mnss.

Florence C. Gove,

E. Lillian White,

Horace F. Howe,

Annie C. Howe,

Ella E. Howe,

Ella A. Howe,

Edwin A. Howe,

Anna A. Howe,

Lucy A. Hale,

Lizzie E. H. Olcutt,

Edward B. Howe,

Sally Howe,

Clara W. Harwood (nee Howe), Lowell,

Aurelia L. Howe,

Laura Howe,

W. G. Howe,

Charles W. Howe,

Wm. C. Howe,

Aaron P. Howe,

Elizabeth H. Critcherson, Eraminghaui, '

John Critcherson,

Ophelia Critcherson,

S. E. Critcherson,

Buddy Moore,

M. D. Moore,

E. M. Moore,

C. M. Moore,

Hattie M. Daniels,

Charles E. Daniels,

E. D. Daniels,

F. R. Daniels,
John C. Howe,
Benj. F. Wilson,
J. H. Hubbard,
Hepzebali Hubbard,
Elisabeth Stone,
Geo. Marshall Howe,
Harriet Maria Howe,
Waldo Vernon Howe,
Gertrude Howe,
Helen Marshall Howe,
Wm. E. Temple,
S. Isabella Temple,
Addie M. Temple,
Eev. J. H. Temple,
Alice L. Howe, South Framingham,
Florence A. Howe, "
N. H. Moore,
Ella F. Moore, "
LydiaL. T.Moore,"
Lizzie M. Moore, "
F. L. Moore, "
David Howe, Boston,
A. Therese Howe, Boston,
Jacob Howe, "
Miss Jennie Howe, "
Chas. W. Howe, "
Milton Howe, "
Mrs. C. A. Wood (?iee Howe), Boston,
Oscar F. Howe, "
Mary E. Howe, "
Geo. A. Howe, "
Ma/W. Howe, "
Henry Howe, South Boston,
Mary A. Howe, " "
Lyman E. Howe, South Boston,
Adam Howe, " "

Mass.

F. B. Howe, South Boston, Mass.

Mrs. Martha F. Parker, Boston,

Hiram Wellington, "

Mrs. Ann H. Wellington, "

Hamilton Howe, Boston Highlands,

Mrs. Hamilton Howe, "

Florence A. Howe, "

Blanche B. Howe, "

Emma Perkins, Boston,

Jennie Perkins, "

Mrs. Fannie Howe Teele, Boston,

Mrs. Hannah Howe Berry, Boston High-
lands, Mass.

Fannie Howe Berry, Boston Highlands,
Mass.

^John King Berry, Boston Highlands,
Albert Howe, Boston,
Mary A. Crocker, Boston,
Lucy Howe Horn, "
B. F. Horn,
Sidney Howe, "

Charlotte A. Howe, "
S. Gleason, "

Samuel N. Howe, "
Thomas H. Howe, "
Emma A. Perkins, "
Mary J. Perkins, "

Hon. Geo. S. Hillard, "
A. C. Garratt, M.D. "
Caroline Olivia Howe,"
George Howe, "

Rufus K. Robinson, "
Delia Howe Robinson,"
R. Frank Robinson, "^
Frank M. Howe, "

E. F. Hall, "

0. H. Monroe, "
Ellen Elvira Gibson, "
E. L. Cornwell, "
Manley Howe, "

1. J. Howe, "
Charles Howe, "
I. A. HoAve, "
Frank A. Howe, "
H. R. Sharp, "
Arthur Hall, "
Lydia C. Hall,
Annie E. Hall, "
Frank J. Hall, "
Herbert A. Hall, "
Emma A. Hall, "
Asa W. Wait, "
Hannah R. Wait, "
Lizzie F. Wait, "
O. S. Fowler, "
J. J. Brown, "
William Howe, Cambridge,
Rowena Howe, "
Ella R. Howe, "
Edith F. Howe, "
David Howe, Cambridgeport,
A. M. Howe, Cambridge,
Estes Howe, "
Mary E. Howe, "
Jas. Murray Howe, "
SaraR. Howe, "
Jas. Murray Howe, Jr
Tracy Howe,

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THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

43

Kate C. Howe, Cambridge, Miiss.

David Howe, Cambridgeport, ''

S. M. Howe,

Frank M. Howe, North Cambridge, M iss.
Eliza Howe Teeie, Cambridgoport, M.tss.
Mary Howe Green, " ""

Mary Addle Green, " "

Hattie A. Howe, "

Anna C. Howe, " "

Mrs. Caroline H. Howe, " "

Wni. H. Howe,
Ellas Howe, "

Ellas Howe, Jr., "

Edward F. Howe,
G. Herbert Howe,

S. W. Howe, Jr., Worcester, "

A. M. Howe,
Elmer P. Howe,

Lyman Howe, " "

Alise L.^lritcherson, "
Francis W. Howe, "
Harry E^Rice,

Lewis Gates, " "

Delia Gates, " "

H. E. Simmons, '•

Mrs. H. E. Simmons, '• "

John Simmons, •' "

H. A. Towor,

Emmeline Tower, " • "

Mary A. Maynard, ''' ''

Artemas Hawes, " "

Mrs. Artemas Hawes, •' "

Mrs. Mary L. Howes {iiee Howe). Worces-
ter, Mass.
Henry A. Howe, Worcester, Mass.
Alden A. Howej " "

Roxa Howard, . " "

Barnard Sumner, " "

Mrs. E. D. Warner, "
Nancy Eaton, " "

Alexander Marsh, " "

Mrs. Maria Marsh, "
Henry A. Marsh, " '•

Wm. Curtlss, Westborough, Mass.
Mrs. Wm. Curtlss, "
Sarah H. Wilson,

Caroline P. Mirick, " "

Lyman Howe, " "

Abbie L. Brigham, "
Eaierson B. Wilson, " "

J. B. Brigham,

George Howe, Winchester, '■

Mary Howe, " "

Sarah E. Leiand, Sherborn, Mass.
Charles H.Howe, "
Lewis Howe, Winchcndon, "
Francis Howe, Brookfield, "
Elbridge Howe, E. '• "

Alphonse Howe, " " "

John M. Howe, " "
Oliver C. Howe, " "

Julius A. Howe, " "

Albert S. Howe, Erookfield, "
Angennet C. Vaughn, Brookfield, Mass.
Lorenda S. Whiting, " .

Mary Lucy Smith, " "

Jennie Howe, " "

Henry Howe, " "

ii
It

Alvin Howe, Brookfield, Mass.

Emeline H. Bardwell, Southbridge, "
Joshua Howe, Georgetown, "

Nathaniel Howe, " "

Mary J. Howe, " "

Geo. H. Richardson, " "

Eanna J. Richardson, " "

Alfred A. Howe, " ' "

Mrs. G. E.Howe,

Hattie Howe, " "

Francis Augustine Howe, M. D., Ncwbury-

port, Mass.
Mrs. Mary F. Howe, Newburvport, M.i>-s.
Geo. W. Hill,

Mrs. H. D. Jones, " " '

James W. Osborn, So. Abintjton "

David B. Howe, " "^ "

Mrs. D. B. Howe, " " "

diaries Howe, " " "

Mrs. Charles Howe, " "

Isaac S. Howe, " "

Hannah AV. Howe, " "

Elijali Howe, Jr., Dedhani,
Julia Ann Howe, " "

Oliver H. Howe, " "

Isaacus Colburn, West •• "

*4. L. Howe, " "

Wm. R. I-Iowe, Franklin, "

Charles Howe, " . "

Carrie Howe, " "

Ahnira Howe Morse, Medfield, "

Mary B. Morse, ^' "

Lizzie P. Morse, " ''

John Ord, Jr., " "

Eliza H. Bishop, "

Mrs. Eliakim Morse, " "

Henry W. Howe, Waltham, "

Mrs. Sara M. Howe, " "

Sarah E. Smith, " "

Almira A. S. Batchelder, "
Nahum Howe, "

Mary E. Howe, "

Lavinia A. Howe, "

Lucy A. Howe, Northboro,
Fannie B. Howe, " "

Mary S. Howe, " "

Ruel Howe, "

Ephraim C. Howe, " "

Gilman B. Howe, " ''

Silas Howe, " "

Ann G. Howe, "

Anson Rice, " "

Mrs. Percls Howe, " "

Alonzo B. Howe, '- "

Edwin F. Howe, Bolton, "

E. W^ Barker, " • "

C. G. Barker, " "

A. A. Barker,

E. G. Barker, " "

H. D. Barker, " "

S. H. Howe, " "

Edwin B. Eames, Holliston, "

Elmira B. Eame's, "

Pamela H. Clark,
Elijah Clark,
Charles E. Draper, "
Charles H. Morse, "

Mrs. Rebecca Travis, "

a

44

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

If

f (

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a

a

Mrs. Josephine L. Pierce, Holliston, Mass.

Prederick W. Wilder, " "

Edward W. Howe, Milford, "

Natlian C. Howe, " " '

Mary J. Howe, " "

Mrs. Mary K. Glines, " " ,

E. D. Howe, Gardiner, "

James H. Howe, " "

Harrison Howe, " "

Lucy E. Howe Sweet, Gardiner,

Ebenezer Howe, "

Simeon Howe, "

Marcus H. Howe, "

Ephraini D. Howe, "

C. S. Greenwood, South Gardiner,

Elbridge Howe, South Gardiner,

Willard Howe, South Eramingham,

Charlotte A. Howe,

Erank Fay Howe,

Harrie M. Howe,

Lucy Ann Ballard,

Charles Howe,

Mrs. Charles Howe,

Curtis Howe,

Mrs. Curtis Howe,

Brainard Rice,

Mrs. L. E. Eice,

P. P. Field,

Mrs. P. P. Field,

Charles D. Power,

■Tosiali Hem en way,

Mrs. Josiah Hemenway.

Edward S. Hemenwaj',

Mrs. Edward S. Hemenway, South

mingham, Mass.
Erank Hemenway, SouthEramingham,
Henry Eames,
Mrs. Henry Eames,
Luther Eames,
Mrs. Luther Eames,
H. Gardner Eames,
Elipholet Eames,
Mrs. Elipholet Eames,
W. R. Eames,
Flora Eames,
Wilbor Eames,
Mrs. Catherine Eames,
Angelina Eames,
Fannie Eames,
Emily Eames,
Edwin Eames,
Charles A. Stearns,
Mrs. Charles A. Stearns,
Mary Stearns,
Henry O. Stearns,
Galvin Bullard,
Franklin Manson,
Curtis II. Barber,
Mrs. Curtis H. Barber,
Thomas L. Barber,
S. W. Howe, Hopkinton,
Mrs. C. M. Howe, "
W. N. Howe, "

Clara L. Howe, "
John A. Fitch, '<■
Lucy Ann Howe, "
Martha L. Howe Long, Hopkinton,
James Long, "

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Mass.

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Nelson Howe, Lynn,
Mary A. Howe, "
Ida A. Howe, "

Ada J. Howe, "

Nelson Howe, Jr.,"
Horace J. Howe, "
Mrs. Barnard Adams, Lynn,
Enieline Howe, Ware,
Lyman C. White, "
Mrs. Lyman C. White, Ware,
J. Henry Howe, "

Merrill N. Howe, Lawrence,
Hattie E. Howe, "

Freddie M. Howe, "
Levi Howe, "

Mrs. Levi Howe, "

^eorgie P. Howe, "
Mr*r-Martha M. Howe, Marblehead,
Charles H. Howe, "

William T. Howe, "

Gideon Howe, West Medway,
Susan B. Howe, "

Emma T. Howe, "

Lillian S. Howe, '«

Ralph G. Howe, <'

Joel Howe. Spencer,
Albion K. Howe, Wellesley,
Emerson Howe, Ipswich,
Ruth C. Howe,
Eliza Howe Perley, "
A. W. I-Iowe, Rowley,
N. L. Howe, "

Lucy A. Howe, "
Susan D. Howe, "
Celia A. Howe Prescott, Rowley,
George Pi-escott, "

^Mary Jane Bailey, *"

Charles T. Howe, Saxonville, '_ ,_
Harriet A. Harlow, Shrewsbury,
William H. Howe, "

Amasa Howe, "

Seth W. Howe, "

Kate W. Howe, "

Anna S. Howe, "

M. Eliza Howe, "

Gideon Harlow, "

Abby P. Allen, ■ "

Mrs. Maria Howe Mason,"
Persis H. Tainter, Watertown,
Mrs. W. A. Benton, Oakdale,
Sarah B. Dodge, Lancaster,
Mrs. Susan Stickney Howe, Byfield,
J. Henry Howe, Enfield,
Mary J. Howe, "
Carrie M. Howe, "
Mrs. Helen A. Howe Ripley, Enfield,
Hattie A. Howe, "

Henrv C. M. Howe, "

Willie E. Howe, "

Rufus Hastings, Sterling,
Isabella Howe Hastings, Sterling,
Sarah S. Plastings, "

Abbie S. Hastings, "

Humphrey B. How^, Medford,
Susan E. Howe, "

Lizzie W. Howe, "

Arathusa A. Gilmoi-e, Mansfield,
Sarah A. Miller, Worthington,

Mass.

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\

THE HOWE FAMILT GATHERING.

Jubal Howe, Newton,
Lucy Howe Rice, Barre,
James S. Stoddard, Millbury,
Franklin Howe, '■

Mass.

Rev. E. G. Howe, Marshfield,

O. K. Howe, BoyJston Mills,

Stillman Clark, Hardwick,

Albert Howe, P. M., West Townsend,

45

Mass.

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE FUND OF THE HOWE FAMILY GATHERING,

SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, AUGUST Zh 1S71.

S. H. Howe, Bolton, Mass. . . . $
Col. Frank E. Howe, New York, N. Y.
Edward B. Howe, Lowell, Mass.
Hon. Joseph Howe, Halifax, N.S. .
Wm. G. Howe, Haverhill, Mass.
Hon. Wm. W. Howe, New. Orleans, La.
James Howe, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Estes Howe, . . .

A. L. Howe, Dedham, Mass. .
Dr.Geo.M. Howe, Framingham, Mass.
Willard itowe. So. " "
Chas. M. Howe, Marlboro', •'
Elbridge Howe, " "
Dr. W. J. Howe, Randolph, . "
Lewis A. Howe, Marlboro', . "
Stors L. Howe, Montpelier,Vt.
L. W. Howe, Marlboro', Mass.
H. H. Howe, Burlington, Vt. .
James Murray Howe, Cambridge, Mass.
John J. Howe, Birmington, Conn. .
Manley Howe, Boston, Mass. .
Geo. H. Howe, Brighton, '• .
G. W. Howe, Natick, " .
E. W. Howe. Charlestown " .
Rev. Moses How, New Bedford, Mass.
M. G. How, Lowell, "
J. H. Howe, Troy, N.Y. .
Dr. F. A. Howe, Newburyport, Mass.
J. A. Howe, J3oston, "
Joshua B. Howe, Readsboro', Vt. .
S. A. Howe, Marlboro', Mass. . 1
John A. Frye, " " ' .

B. F. Howe, Ashuelot, N.H. .
J. C. Howe, Sudbmy, Mass. .
O. F. Howe, Boston, "
N. Howe, Lynn, "
Dr. Richard C. Howe, Haverhill, Mass.
S. H. Howe, Marlboro', "
G. W. Howe, " "
N. S. Howe, Little Rock, Ark.
O. Howe, Cambridge, Mass. .
Prof. Thos. H. Howe, Boston, Mass.
Gilbert Howe, So. Framingham, Mass.
John D. Howe, St. John. N.B.
Capt. F. Brigham, Hudson, Mass. .
Wm. A. Howe, Greenwich, Conn. .
Mrs. Lucretia Howe Amsden, Boston

Highlands, Mass.
Chas. Howe, Boston, Mass.
S. A. Howe, Maiden, "
Harry Howe, Ontario,
Sai-a R. Howe, Cambridge, Mass. .
J. C. Howe, Homewood, 111. .
Geo. W. Leland, HoUiston, Mass. .
Geo. A. Howe, West Boylston, Mass.

50 00

25

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6

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5

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4

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3

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2

50

2

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2

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2

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2

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2

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2

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W. J. Howe, West Boylston, Mass., $1 00

J. B. Case, Haverhill, '

J. H. Richards, Marlboro', '

John M. Tyler, Cambridge, '

Joseph Howe, Somei-ville, '

A. F. Howe, Brookline, '

John Howe, Stamford, Conn. .

Geo. H. B. Howe, Bradford, Mass.

J.W.Weston, New York City,

A. M. Howe, Cambridge,

Mary Howe, "

Joel Howe, West Boylston,

Artemus Barnes, AVorcester,

Joseph M. Howe, Bloomington, Ind.

Lewis R. Howe, Orange, Mass.

Geo. W. Howe, " , •' .

E. H. Brigham, Natick, " .
O. Howe, Brookfield, " .

C. W. Howe, Boston, " .
Joshua Howe, Geortjetown, " .
L. L. Howe, Dublin, N.H.
Edwin Howe, Holden, Mass. .
Chas. Punchard, Chelsea, Mass.
Levi S. Stockwell, New York City,
Samuel P. Teale, Cambridge, Mass.
Frank M. Howe, N. Cambridge, Mass.

F. A. Henderson, Boston, "
Edwin A. Howe, Ludlow, Vt. .

A. M..Howe, Worcester, Mass.
P. B. Howe, Haverhill, '' .
Mrs. L.R. Hartshorn, Somerville, Mass.
S. Howe, Gardner, "

D. H. Gregory, Princeton, "
D. B. Hinckley, Marlboro', "

G. W. Goodnow, Cambridge, "

B. F. How, Boston, "
Gilman B.' Howe, Marlboro', "
J.W.Howe, Newton Upper Falls, '•
Rufus Howe, Marlboro', "
H.W. Howe, Portland, Me. .
Walter Howe, Charlestown, Mass. .
Susan H. Rockwood, Upton, "
Stephen Morse, Marlboro', " .
Geo. W. Howe, Middlefield, " .
Adeline Elden, Chester, "
John Milton Howe, Portland Oregon,
P, B. Howe, Marlboro', Mass. .
Geo. B. Howe, Auburndale, Mass. .
Edward W. Howe, Jamaica Plain, Mass. 50
M. Howe, Dublin, N.H. . . . 50.
Robert C. Howe, Louisville, Ky. . 50
C.W. Howe, Paxton, Mass. . . 50
Mrs. Littlefield, unknown, . . 50
0. H. Munroe, Braintree, Mass. . 20

1 00

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1 00

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50
50
50

HERALDRY.

The folio-wing 7iotes on Heraldry are introduced-, by request, f ran Mr.
H. Whitmore's able vjork on this subject:

William

For the proper description of coat-armor, which is technically termed the
"blazon of arms," it Avill be convenient to divide such representations into five
parts ; viz. : the shield, crest, supporters, helmet, and motto.

The shield may be of any shape., with this exception : the lozenge or diamond
shape is the only form which females can use^ and is reserved for them. The
crest is a common adjunct of the shield, and consists of any object placed above
it, and used as a hereditary distinction. It is generally placed on a wreath made
of twisted ribands of the two principal tinctures of the shield ; sometimes the
crest rises out of a coronet. Some of the earlier crests were merely coronets
surmounted by feathers. The supporters, which are sometimes placed on each
side of the shield, consisting of men or animals, are, in English heraldry, almost
the exclusive privilege of peers and members of certain orders of knighthood.
The use of the helmet is optional, and should never be mentioned in a blazon, of
€irms. The motto is a word or sentence upon a scroll, generally, but not always,
placed below the shield. ■ •

The colors upon a shield termed " tinctures " are represented in engravings by

Sablo, or Black, by cross lines.

Vert, or Green, by diagonal lines from left to right.

Purpur, or Purxjle, by cfiagonai lines from right to left.

Or, or Gold, by dots.
Argent, or Silver, by a blank.
Azure, or Blue, by horizontal lines.
Gules, or Eed, by perpendicular lines.

The points of a shield are

1 called the dexter chief

point.

2 called the middle chief

point.

3 called the sinister chief

point.

4 called the honor or collar

point.

5 called the fesse point.

6 called the xiombril or

navel point.

7 called the dexter base

point.

8 called the middle base

point.

9 called the' sinister base

point.

It willbe noticed that the dexter, or right-hand side,
is to the left of the observer, and the sinister, or left-
hand side, is on his right.

"Whenever one tincture predominates, it is con-
sidered, with but one exception, to be the tincture of
the shield; when two occupy equal portions, it is
divided. The divisions are as follows : —
Per pale, made by a perpendicular line.
" fess, " horizontal line.

" bend, " diagonal line from point 1 on

the shield, to 9.
Per bend sinister made by a diagonal line, from

point 3 to 7.
Quarterly, made by a perxjeudicular and a horizontal

line intersecting.
Per saltire, by two diagonal Rnes intersecting.

Tiie •' cliarges " are objects placed upon the shield ;
the simplest correspond with the divisions of the
sliield, and are termed " ordinaries." These are:
The chief, a band occupying the upper third of the

.shield.
The fesso. a band occupying the centre third of the

shield liorizontally.
The pale, a band occupying the centre third of the

.shield perpendicularly.

The bend, a band occupying one-third of the shield,

diagonally, as from point 1 to 9.
The bend sinister occupying one-third of the shield

diagonally, as from 3 to 7.
The cross being the fesse and pale conjoined.
The saltire, composed of the bend and bend sinister.

The chevron resembles the lower half of tlie saltire,

with tlie upper lines brought to a jioint.
Couped — cut off in a straight line.
Sa. — abbreviation of sable.
Crescent — chai'ge used by a second son.
Erased — having a torn edge.

Enfiled — a sword is said to be entiled with any object
which it is represented as having pierced.

Escallop — shell.

Ppr. — Abb^viation of proper — -terra for objects re-
presented by their common form and color.

Ar. — Abbueviation of Argent.

Escallop, in the field — signiiies that an ancestor has
been on a long pilgrimage, or engaged in the
Crusade.

Difference— a figure added to a coat-of-arms to dis-
tinguish those of a family who bear the same
arms.

How (Lord ChedworthJ. Or, a fesse between
three wolves' heads, couped at the neck, s«.,
a crescent for diff. Crest — A .dexter arm, erased
at the elbow, lying fesseways, and holding in
the hand a scimitar, erect, entiled with a boar's head,
couped, all ppr. Motto — Justus et i^ropositi tenas.

The following are charges comprised under tl..
name of sub-ordinaries : —

The canton — a square placed in the dexter chief, and
occi;«pying one-ninth of the shield.

The ioescutcheon, thebordure. the lozenge, the label,
annulet, crescent, fleur-de-lys, the martlet, the
escallop, etc.

By the term "blazon " is meant the description of arms so precise as to enable the reader to depict the
cscutclioon correctly. The rules are: 1st, the field is to- be described, whether of one tincture or two; if of
two, the form of division is to be mentioned, as per pale, per fesse, etc. 2d, the principal ordinary is to be
n.amed, and if none, the principal charge being the one nearest the fosse point.' The remaining charges
placed on the field are next to be described, the centre charge being described as " between" them, then the
charges on tlie jjrinoiijal charge, the canton, and lastly the difference ; being a label for first son, crescent
for second, etc. The crest, supporters, and motto are to be seisarately blazoned after the shield. In
blazon repetition should be avoided. The name of a tincture should not be repeated, but if two consecutive
portions are of the same tincture, it may be mentioned only after the last.

(46)

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