326 HOWE. HOWELLS. HOWE, Francis Augustine, second son of the Rev. James and Harriet (Nason) Howe, was born at Pepperell, Middlesex county, April 20, 1827, and obtained his early education at the Pepperell Academy. He graduated at Amherst in the class of 1848, and attended medical lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1S53, and at the Harvard medical school in i852-'54, and received his de- gree of M. D. from Harvard in 1854. For three years he practiced medicine in Pepperell, and in 1857 located in Newbury- port, where he has since resided and led an active professional life. He has also tak- en a deep interest in public affairs, and been prominent in whatever has tended to promote the social and moral welfare of the city. On the 10th of June, 1857, in Pepperell, Dr. Howe married Mary Frances, daugh- ter of Hon. James and Harriet (Parker) Lewis. Their children are : James Lewis Howe, professor of chemistry in Louisville, Ky., Francis Freeman, and Edith March Howe. Of these, the second son died in December, 1868. Dr. Howe is a member of the American Medical Association, Massachusetts Medi- cal Society, and was for two years presi- dent of the Essex North District Medical Society. In 1881 he was appointed by the governor to the board of consulting physi- cians of the Danvers Hospital. He has been president of the corporation, and one of the trustees of the Anna Jaques Hos- pital at Newburyport since its organiza- tion, and was prominently instrumental in its foundation. For many years he has been a member of the board of trustees of the Putnam free school, and has served several terms on the school board. He has been president of the Y. M. C. A. since 1S87, and is one of the officers of the Belle- ville church. In 1888 he was elected a member of the board of aldermen of New- buryport, serving one year. During the war he was stationed at the Wheaton Hos- pital, in Yorktown, Va., in May and June, 1862, as contract surgeon. He was the first physician in Newburyport to make use of the hypodermic syringe, the clinical thermometer, and the aspirator, in medical practice. HOWE, SAMUEL I., son of Calvin and Mary (Wyman) Howe, was born in Shrews- bury, Worcester county, February 8, 1822. He obtained a common school educa- tion. He first began business for himself in 1847. He engaged in mining in California in 1S52, and continued in the mines two years. In 1854 he opened a dry-goods and grocery business in Shrewsbury, which he carried on until 1885, when he retired from business and continued in the gen- eral country justice employment of con- veyancing, and preparation of law papers, until the day of his death, which occurred May 13, 1889. Mr. Howe was first married in Berlin, in April, 1847, to Sarah, daughter of Daniel and Hannah Carter. His second marriage was in Shrewsbury, to Lucy A., daughter of Jesse and Laura A. Perry. He has five children : Walter C. and Nellie C. by the first, and Jennie L., Frank P., and May V. Howe by the second marriage. Mr. Howe served his town and State in various offices. He was town clerk, chair- man of the board of selectmen, assessors, and overseers of the poor ; constable, moderator at town meetings, etc. These offices he held the greater part of the time for twenty-five years. He was postmaster nearly the same length of time ; a member of the General Court of 1877 ; a delegate to the various Republican conventions in the Commonwealth ; chairman of the Re- publican town committee, etc. Mr. Howe will be remembered as the author of the bill known as the " Guide Board Bill " in the House of Representa- tives. This bill was held up to ridicule, and reported upon adversely, but by his persistent efforts he carried it through House and Senate without a dissenting vote, and he afterwards received, as was his due, the thanks of almost the entire press of the Commonwealth. HOWELLS, William Dean, son of William Cooper and Mary Dean Howells, was born at Martin's Ferry, Belmont county, Ohio, March 1, 1S37. His ancestors on his father's side were Welch Quakers, and people of property; his great grandfather introduced the man- ufacture of flannel into his town, and built three mills ; his grandfather emigrated to this country and became an ardent Metho- dist, while his father adopted the doctrines of Swedenborg, in which the son was educated. In all these generations this family was an educated race, living in an atmosphere of books and religious refine- ment. Up to ten years of age, Mr. Howells attended small private and public schools, pursuing his studies in rather a desultory manner. Almost as soon as he could read he began to make verses and put them in type in his father's printing office. He