Joseph Howland

Joseph Howland (December 3, 1834, in New York City – March 31, 1886, in Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France) was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War, politician and philanthropist. Early life Howland was born into a prominent merchant family that had grown rich in the China trade. His first American ancestor, John Howland, was one of the Pilgrim Fathers and a signer of the 1620 Mayflower Compact, the governing document of what became Plymouth Colony. Howland's father was Samuel Shaw Howland, a partner in the shipping firm of Howland & Aspinwall; his mother was Joanna Esther Hone, the niece of Philip Hone, the noted diarist and mayor of New York City. The family lived at 12 Washington Square. The Howlands were a deeply religious family; at one time Howland considered entering the ministry, but gave up those plans due to ill health. This same ill health also prevented Howland from attending school and university; he was educated at home, with several years of European travel to round out his education. His mother died when Joseph was fourteen; his father when he was nineteen. At the age of twenty-one, Howland married Eliza Newton Woolsey of New York, one of seven sisters well known as prominent reformers and anti-slavery activists. The couple honeymooned in Europe and the Holy Land. While touring Italy, the Howlands commissioned two marble busts of themselves from the Italian neo-classical sculptor, Giovanni Maria Benzoni; these busts stand today in the Howland Public Library in Beacon, New York. The couple returned to the United States of America in 1859. That same year Howland bought the Freeland farm along Fishkill Creek in the village of Matteawan, naming his new estate Tioronda. He commissioned architect Frederick Clarke Withers to design the main house on the estate. Howland's great-uncle, Philip Hone, was a partner with Peter A. Schenck in establishing the first factory, a cotton mill, in Matteawan in 1814. Civil War Howland's life as a country gentleman ended with the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861. Upon the outbreak of the war, Howland immediately joined the 16th New York Infantry Regiment, where he served as the regiment's adjutant. When the commander of the 16th New York received a promotion, Howland was the unanimous choice to replace him as colonel. Howland saw service in the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861.