Lewis Breckenridge Howe

Page 96

ELIJAH FRANKLIN HOWE, the youngest child of Lemuel and Sally (Jones) Howe, was born September 19, 1832, in Grafton, Mass., from which place he entered college in September, 1855.

After graduation he resided in New Haven until September, 1860, as a student in the Yale Divinity School, spending the next year at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He was licensed to preach, September 4, 1860, in Tolland, and in 1861 began to preach in the Congregational Church in (South) Canaan, Conn., where he was ordained as pastor, December 17, 1862. He left Canaan, December 1, 1865, to supply the pulpit of the Congregational Church in Terre Haute, Ind., serving, with the exception of a part of the year 1875 which he spent abroad, until July 1, 1876, when he resigned in consequence of impaired health. This however improved later so that he accepted a call in the next October to the Central Congregational Church in Newtonville, in the town of Newton, Mass. Here he had a very successful pastorate, becoming greatly endeared to his people. A newspaper report of his funeral said of him:: “During Mr. Howe's residence in Newton, he became identified with reform movements, and was an earnest laborer in the cause of temperance and morality. He will be remembered as one of the gentlemen who took an active interest in the West Newton Lyceum, participating in the debates before that body, and always earnestly advocating measures in the interest of the purification of government and society. He was a former member of the school committee and was much interested in the work of education. He was a man of strong convictions, but possessed a sincerity of purpose which won the admiration and respect of the community in which he lived and labored.” He remained in Newtonville until 1882, when he left his charge, and on September 17 was installed as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Peoria, Ill. Here he labored for several years, afflicted with serious pulmonary disease, and greatly overburdened by the exacting duties of his pastorate, until he was obliged to resign his charge early in 1887. Visits to Colorado and California brought him no benefit, and he died in Peoria, August 11, 1887. His funeral, in Newtonville, was largely attended, and was the occasion of warm tributes to his worth and valuable service.

In 1867 he prepared for the Indiana State Conference a paper on “Congregationalism for America,” which was subsequently published in the Congregational Quarterly of Boston. In 1876 he was appointed Centennial Orator at Grafton, his native town, and in 1878 he was active as a speaker in the campaign against Butler. During his residence in the West he edited the Terre Haute Daily Mail, at the time of the Hayes-Tilden campaign, in the interest of Hayes.

He was married September 23, 1861, to Miss Frances F., daughter of Erasmus Gates, of Monson, Mass. Their children were, -

1. Frank Clifford, born in Canaan, Conn., July 13, 1864; B.A., Yale, 1887; admitted to the bar in Washington, D. C., May, 1889; lawyer, first at Peoria, later in New York City.

2. Lewis Breckenridge, born December 15, 1867.

3. Grace G.

4. Fanny C.

Mrs. Howe died November 11, 1882, and he married for his second wife, October 26, 1885, Mrs. Sarah Proctor, daughter of Charles Storrs, of Peoria, Ill.

Howe was a member of the Brothers in Unity, and the Gamma Nu and Alpha Delta Phi societies, and was one of the Class Deacons. He was awarded a third prize for Declamation, Sophomore year, received the appointment of First Dispute at Junior Exhibition and Commencement, and was one of the speakers at the latter. In the later years of his life his name appeared in published notices of him in the form E. Frank Howe.

Bibliographic information:

• Title History of the Class of 1859
• Author Yale University. Class of 1859
• Published 1914
• Original from Harvard University
• Digitized Dec 10, 2018
• https://books.google.com/books?id=2GU3ZVD3GB8C&printsec=frontcover&...

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/M1SG-N3G