Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/398

 HOWARD

HOWARD

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HOWARD, Ada Lydia, educator, was born in Temple, N.H., Dec. 19. ISJO ; daughter of William Hawkins and Lydia Adaline (Cowden) Howard; granddauirht.T of Col. William and Mary (Haw- kins) Howard ; great-granddaughter of Dea. Samuel and Elizabeth (Barrett) Howard, and of Thomas Cow- den, Esq., the most prominent founder of Fitchburg, Mass. Three of her great- grandfathers were of- ficers in the Ameri- can Revolution. Her ancestry was Eng- lish and Scotch. She received her school training at New Ip- swich academj-, Low- ell high school, and Mount Holyoke semi- nary, and was graduated from the last named in 1S53. She also received especially valua- ble instruction from her father, a progressive educator, who anticipated many of the mod- ern methods. After post-graduate study under private teachers she adopted the profession of a teacher. She was at Mount Holyoke seminary, 1858-61 ; at the Western, Oxford, Ohio, 1861-62, and was principal of the woman's department. Knox college, Illinois, 1866-69. In 1870-75 she leased Ivy Hall, a private school in Bridgeton, N.J. In 1875 she was elected the first pres- ident of Wellesley college, Mass., the selection being made by Henry Fowle Durant, the founder of the college. In placing a woman at its head and conferring upon lier the full powers of presi- dent of a corporate college, Mr. Durant was en- thusiastic in his confidence and said : " I have been for four years looking for a president. She will be a target to be shot at and for the present the position will be one of severe trials. I have for some time been closely investigating Miss Howard. I look upon her as appointed for this work not by the trastees, but by God, for whom the college was built." This promotion made Miss Howard the first woman president of a col- lege in the world. Here she worked in full har- mony with Mr. and Mrs. Durant and her labors in furthering the plans of the founders were un- remitting up to the time of the death of Mr. Durant in 1881. In that j'ear her failure in health demanded immediate and complete rest and the trustees gave her leave of absence, but finding lierself unable to resume her duties she resigned in 1882. In appreciation of her work at Wellesley. the alumnae in 1890 placed in the art gallery a life-size portrait of their first president.

and a scholarship was established in her honor, known as the Ada L. Howard scholarship. Her subsequent life was pa.s.sed in rest and travel, as her continued ill-health called for frequent change of climate. She was obliged to restrict her literary work to occasional articles for lead- ing magazines. She received from Mount Hol- yoke college the honorary degree of Litt.D. in 1900.

HOWARD, Benjamin, governor of Louisiana Territory, was born in Virginia about 1700. He removed to Kentucky when a young man and was a representative in the 10th and 11th con- gresses, resigning his seat in 1810 to accept from President Madison the appointment as governor of Louisiana Territory, which included the sec- tion we.st of the Mississippi river above the ter- ritory of Orleans with the seat of government at St. Louis. In March, 1813, President Madison appointed him a brigadier-general and he com- manded the territory west of the Mississippi river. He died in St. Louis, :\ro., Sept. 18, 1814.

HOWARD, Benjamin Chew, representative, was born at " Belvedere ", Baltimore county, Md., Nov. 5, 1791 ; son of the Hon. John Eager and Peggy Oswald (Chew) Howard. He was gradu- ated at the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1809; A.M., 1812. He practised law in Baltimore county, and in 1814 organized a company of volunteers, which he commanded at the battle of North Point, Md., Sept. 12, 1814. He was a presidential elector in 1828, and a representative in the 21st and 22d congresses, 1829-33, and again in the 24th and 25th congresses, 1835-39. He was chairman of the committee on foreign relations and drew up the boundary report. He was reporter of the supreme court of the United States, 1843-62. and a delegate to tlie peace conference of 1801. In 1861 he was a candidate for governor of Maryland on the Democratic ticket, but withdrew his name at the last moment to prevent a disturbance. He was married to Jane Grant Gilmor. He re- ceived the honorary degree of LL.D. from the College of New Jersey in 1869. He published: Rejjorts of Cases in the Supreme Court of the Un ited St a tes fro m ]S.'f.l t ill 1S55 ( 1 855 ). He d ied at Belvedere, Md., March 6. 1S72.

HOWARD, Blanche Willis, author, was born in Bangor, Maine, July 16, 1847 ; daughter of Dan- iel M. Howard. She was educated in the public schools of Bangor and in New York city, and in 1875 her first book was published, which made her literary fame. She went to Stuttgart, Ger- many, in 1875, acted as a correspondent for the Boston Transcript, and engaged in teacliing and other literary work and in editing a magazine published there in English, 1886. She was a pianist of unusual ability, and wliile in Germany was complimented by Wagner and Liszt. She