Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/416

 HOWELL

HOWELLS

destroyed the cargo of the brig Greyhound, stored at Greenwich, N.J. The members of the party were apprehended, but were never brought to trial, as pubUc opinion sanctioned the act. In December, 1775, he was appointed captain in the 2d regiment of Continental troops of New Jersey, and served at Ticonderoga and Quebec. He was woundeil at the battle of Brandywine, Sept. 11. 1777. His brother Lewis was surgeon of the siime regiment, and died of fever during the progress of the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. He was made a special agent to perform secret service for General Washington, and in order better to carry out the purpose, he resigned from the army in 1778. He was arrested at his father's hou^;e, charged with high treason, and being bn)ught before the supreme court of New^ Jersey, he produced the written orders of the commander-in-chief, and thereupon all proceed- ings of the case were erased from the court rec- ord. He was clerk of the supreme court of New Jersey, 1788-93. He was elected governor of New Jersey in 1792, and was six times re-elected, serving, 1793-1801. He commanded the right wing of Washington's army in the suppression of the whisky insurrection, 1794. He was a mem- ber of the Society of the Cincinnati of New Jersey. His son, William Burr, served with honor in the battles on the lakes, in the war of 1812, and Wil- liam Burr's daughter, Varina, was married, in 1845, to Jefferson Davis. Governor Howell died in Trenton, N.J.. May 5, 1803.

HOWELL, Robert Boyte Crawford, author, was born in Wayne county, N.C, March 10, 1801. He was a missionary in Virginia, and in 1827 went to Norfolk, Va., as pastor, serving the Cumberland Street Baptist church, 1827-34. He was pastor of the First Baptist church, Nashville, Tenn., 1)^34-50 ; of the Second Baptist church, Richmond. Va., 1850-57 ; and of the First Baptist church, Nashville, 1857-68. He received the honorary d».'gree of A.M. from the Columbian col- lege, D.C., in 1827, and that of D.D. from George- town college, Ky., in 1844. He was president of the Southern Baptist convention, 1840-50. His books include : Ter7ns of Sacramental Communion (1841); Hoicell on the Deacnnship (184G) ; The Wftjj of Salvation (1849) ; The. Evils of Infant Ba}>ti.tm {\s:>\ ; f,tli ed., 1854) ; The Cross (1854) ; The Covenant (1850) ; The Earhj Bnjitists of Vir- ginia (1H67). and he left unpublishcKl Memorial of the First Baptist Church of Nashville, from 1S20 to 18G3, tin>\ The Family. He died in Nashville, Tenn.. April 5, 1«GS.

HOWELLS, William Dean, author, was born at Martin's F-rry, Oliio. March 1, 1837; son of William CfMijwr and Mary (Dean) Howells ; gran.lson of Josepli and Anne f Ipeneas) Howells, and of John and Elizabeth (Dock) Dean. The

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Ipeneas family was of Welsh origin, the Dean, Irish, and the Dock, Pennsylvania German. His father, a native of Wales, was brought to Ohio by his parents early in the century. He was proprietor of a country newspaper, the Intelli- gencer, at Hamilton, Ohio. Here young Howells liad his first and main schooling, and learned the trade of printer. In 1848 his father sold out his paper, removed to Dayton, and pur- chased the Tran- script, a semi-weekly newspaper, which he turned into a daily, and after conducting it with the help of his sons for two years, the enterprise failed.

The family then removed to a property on the Little Miami river, where he undertook to transform a saw- and grist-mill into a paper-mill. In 1851 they removed to Columbus, where the father was a reporter in the house of representa- tives, and William Dean worked as compositor on the Ohio State Journal, earning four dollars per week, which he contributed to the household expenses of the family. The same year the family removed to Ashtabula, where the father purchased the Sentinel, which, under his editor- ship, was subsequently transferred to Jefferson. In 1856 William Dean was Columbus correspond- ent of the Cincinnati Gazette, and in 1859 news editor of the Ohio State Journal. He was U.S. consul to Venice by appointment of President Lincoln, 1861-65 ; editorial writer on the New York Times, and a salaried contributor to the Nation, 1865-66; assistant editor of the Atlantic Monthly, 1866-72; its editor-in-chief, 1872-81; in charge of " Editor's Study," in Harper's Maga- zine, 1886-92. And in 1901 he revived the " Easy Chair " left by Curtis. His poems : "The Poet's Friends," " The Pilot's Story," " Pleasure Pain," " Lost Beliefs," and " Andenken," appeared suc- cessively in the Atlantic Monthly. For his " Life of Abraliam Lincoln," written to order in 1860, he received $160, and with it made his first visit to Montreal and Boston. He was married in Paris, Dec. 26, 1862, to Elinor G., sister of Larkin G. ^Mead, the sculptor. He received the honorary de- gree of A.M. from Harvard in 1867, and from Yale in 1881. His books include : Poems of Two Friends (1860) ; Life and Speeches of Abraham Lin- coln (1860) ; Venetian Life{\m&) ; Italian Jonrneys (1867) ; No Love Lost (1869) ; Snrhurhan Sketches (1871) ; Their Wedding Journey (1872); Poems