Four Brothers In The American Revolution The family background and the careers of Timothy, Darius, Bax­ ter, and Bezaleel Howe with a partial list of their descendants BY HERBERT BARBER HO\VE PRIVATELY PRINTED I 9 5 7 I !t-1 lw1 I l\:11 l)('J """ t· J ,,,,:..' I q·,; IN LOVING MEMORY We, the wife and children of the late Herbert Barber Howe, publish this manuscript in loving memory of the author, exactly as we found it at the time of his death, May 2, 1957. The only significant change in the text is the addition of the names of a few descendants which were sent to the author during his last illness. Elizabeth Blossom Runyon Howe Alice Runyon Howe Wendt Jane Eno Howe McGeary Emeline Barnard Howe Malpas David Fitz Randolph Howe August 1, 1957 These famifv notes are In memory of Colone.l Thomas Howe of Massachusetts Prominent during Queen Anne's War And the great grandfather of The Four Brothers V FOREWORD The purpose of this study is twofold; to depict realistically four men who served in the armed forces during the Revolution and to outline their descendants, widespread and various. Here is strange and far from conventional reading. The home ties of the fifth generation Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Puritans were disrupted, revealing its members, prior to the Lexington Alarm, resident in western Massachusetts, New York and New Hampshire. Yet, whereever they were, without taint of Loyalism, they served the cause of the United Colonies. One with his family endured the Wyoming Massacre. Three suffered at Valley Forge. Yorktown took the life of the third brother. After the conflict closed the survivors lived in western Massachusetts, New York-two on its frontier, another on Manhattan Island-and Vermont. Amid all these changes it was inevitable that blind spots should cloud the sources. But all the facts available have been used in the plain, unvarnished biographies. Basic to every study of the family is Daniel Wait Howe's monumental geneal­ ogy. Appreciation for this im·aluable work is unbounded. Since its publication, 1929, there has come to light much material not only carrying the list into the twelfth generation but also correcting errors. Nevertheless, the oldest daughter and the sec­ ond son of the Rernlutionary generation have only inadequate records of grand­ children and to date no living descendants are known. The only extant portrait is that of the youngest brother. Serious as are these shortcomings, it seems worthwhile to publish the information generously furnished by interested friends and history­ conscious members of the family. To them, one and all, for their cooperation are due most sincere thanks. H.B.H. Mount Kisco, :--ew York March I, 1957 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Descendants of Timothy Howe 29 Through his daughter, Lydia Howe Davis 47-Benjamin Thorne Gilbert 4:21, through his son Bezaleel Howe 3rd 48-Margaret Howe Strader Barth 555. Descendants of Baxter Howe 32 Through his son Brigham Howe 77-Walter Howe 561, Margaret Bruce Howe Crapo 562, Bruce Howe 563, Calderon Howe M. D. 564, William Travers Jerome 3rd 566. Descendants of Bezaleel Howe Jr. 33 Through his son George Cooper Howe 81-Russell Lowe Gilbert 469, Harriet Hul­ dah Gilbert Tougas 471, Evelyn Howe Townsend 473, Bezaleel Howe & Florence' Mae Piennan Whitmore 477, Rose Naomi Whitmore Gastmeyer 478. Through his son John Moffat Howe 83-Helen Batchelor Munroe 374, Ruth Eno Howe Wilder 387, Edith Howe Kip 388, John Canfield Howe Jr. 389, :Mary Howe vii \faxim Cowdrey 390, Ella Howe Halsted Cox 391. Emelcen Carlisle Hill 392, John Howe Carlisle M. D. 395, .\fargaret Armstrong Halsted 397. Roe Howe Lagarde 490, David Fitz Randolph Howe Sr. 495. Alice Joan Hinds Wilder 497, !\filo West \Yilder 3rd -J.98, Eleanor Smith Howe 502. Lorine Byles Howe .'i03. \farv Bartlett Cowdrey 505, Miriam Young Isherwood 'ill, Da,id Halsted Riege \L D. 51:;, John Hicks Riege 516. Through his daughter Catherine Howe Spelman 86-Jamcs \falcolm Belcher Sr. 520, Zachariah Belcher Jr. 'i21, .\fary Watts llckhcr Young 'i22. Jane .\ugmta Rush­ more Houghton 52'i. Ralph Rushmore 528, :",orman Dodd 531. Counsellors and Researchers Elizabeth Brigham Cleavelano, Vermont Genealogist; Charles Kenneth Clinton. \:ew York State Society of the Cincinnati; Frances Coleman. Kentuckr Historical Society: Harry S. Douglass, Wyoming County Historian; Caroline Dunn. lndiana Historical Society; James J. Heslin, New York Historical Society; Edna Jacobsen, \:ew York State Library; Arthur S. Maynard, \:ew York Genealogical and Biographical Society; Elizabeth D. Meier, Drew l.iniversitv Library; Carlton 0. !\filler. Colgate l'niversity Alumni Corporation; Augusta Robinson, \fount Kisco Public Library; .\farv Smith. Town Clerk of \:ew Marlboro; :\atalie M. Seth, Westchester County Genealogist; Frank :\. Spencer, Sharon Historical Society; Henry C. Strippel and \fildred E. Struble, \1/estchester Count, Historical Society: Emilv-Mae Thomas. \'enuont Histor­ ical Society; M. Halsey Thomas, C0lumbia University Library; .\my Ver ;'liooy. Dutches, County Historical Society; also the staffs of the Evamille Public Library; of the Genealogical and Local History Room of the :'sew York Public Library; of the Rockport Public Library and of the Williams College Library. Abbreviations and Explanations a. adopted d. died b. born dau. daughter of bapt. baptized m. married bur. buried rem. removed to C. approximately res. residence cem. cemetery s. son of Index numbers indicate persons (not pages). Names marked with asterisk are carried forward for additional informa­ tion, viii CONTENTS Foreword and Acknowledgments vu The Wayside Inn x1 The American Forebears !st to 4th generations John and Mary Howe l Thomas and Sarah Hosmer Howe 3 Jonathan and Lydia Brigham Howe 5 Bezaleel and Anna Foster-Wilkins Howe 7 The Revolutionary War Generation-the 5th in America Susannah Howe and William Wood 14 Timothy Howe, Elizabeth Andrus and Zipporah Cash 14 Edith Howe and Timothy Bradford 24 Darius Howe and Louise Church 24 Baxter Howe, Levina Taylor and Mary Moone 31 Bezaleel Howe Jr., Hannah Merritt and Catherine ~foffat 4 l Their Descendants-6th to 12th Generations 55 Index 106 ILLUSTRATIONS Bezaleel Howe, Jr. 58 Catherine Moffat Howe 59 Catherine Howe Spelman 60 Jane Augusta Spelman Fuller 61 Bezaleel Howe IV 62 Harriet Augusta Howe Gilbert 63 Benjamin Howe Gilbert and Russell Lowe Gilbert 63 John Moffat Howe and his eight children 64 ix THE WAYSIDE INN • • • • • To place the Four Howe Brothers among eighteenth century Massachusetts families only three words are required-The Wayside Inn. That landmark was well descrihed in Longfellow's diary. "Drive with (James T.) Fields to the old Red Horse Tavern in Sudbury-alas no longer an inn. A lovely valley; the winding road shaded by grand old oaks hefore the house. A rambling, tumble down old building two hundred years old; and till now in the family of the Howes who have kept an inn for one hundred and seventy five years. In the old time it was a house of call for all travellers from Boston westward." Then the poet immortalized the place in the Prelude of his Tales of the Wayside Inn 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 hospitality, • • • • • • Remote among the wooded hills! For there no noisy railway speeds, Its torch-race scattering smoke and gleeds; But noon and night, the panting teams Stop under the great oaks, that throw Tangles 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 effaced by rain and shine, The Red Horse prances on the sign. In 1692 Samuel Howe, great uncle of the Four Brothers, was re­ commended by one of Sudbury's Selectmen to have a license for the entertainment of travellers. "Our fathers came into this wilderness to enjoy the Gospel-in its purity and the conversion of the hethen but xi instead of converting them we have taught them to be druncherds." Apparently meeting the test, his descendants long controlled the Howe Tavern. His son, David Howe, built the original part of the structure soon to be known as the Red Horse Tavern. A Revolutionary officer, Col. Ezekiel Howe, became the next proprietor, followed by his son, Adams Howe, and he in turn by his son, Lyman Howe. the last of the family to entertain travellers, who died at the outbreak of the Civil War. Of him Longfellow wrote- But first the Landlord will I trace; Grace 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, The scroll reads, "By the name of Howe." And over this, no longer bright, Though glimmering with a latent light, Was hung the sword his grandsire bore In the rebellious days of yore, Down there at Concord in the fight. xii FIRST GENERATION l. John Howe born in England, settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1638, married :\fary - - - - ,removed to Marlborough 1657, died there I 680 and his widow in 1698. Almost a century and a half before the firing of "the shot heard around the world" and over sixty years before Sudbury's tavern was built, the great-great grandfather of the Four Brothers, John Howe, came to the :\fassachusetts Bay Colony. Vague traditions mention War­ wickshire as his birthplace and glover as his old world occupation. There is no confirmation of these claims, but in Massachusetts he was a successful pioneer. In 1638 he settled in Sudbury, was duly admitted freeman and probablv married his wife there.