William Pearce Howland

Sir William Pearce Howland, (29 May 1811 – 1 January 1907) served as the second Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, from 1868 to 1873. He was one of the Fathers of Confederation. Biography Born in 1811 in Pawling, New York, William Howland was educated at Kinderhook Academy. In 1830 he settled in Cooksville, Upper Canada, and became a naturalised British subject in 1841. He operated Lambton Mills and later a grocery business in Toronto. In 1852 he acquired a grist mill, sawmill, and general store in Kleinburg, whose operations he left to his brother Henry Stark Howland. In 1857, Howland became a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, and later served in the cabinet as Minister of Finance, Receiver General, and Postmaster General. He became a Member of Parliament in 1867 and was Minister of Inland Revenue from 1867 to 1868. He was created a CB in 1867. Howland was appointed Ontario's second Lieutenant Governor in 1868 and served until 1873. He was created a KCMG in 1879. He was knighted in 1879 and died in Toronto in 1907. He is buried in Toronto's St. James Cemetery. Toronto in 1907. In 1906, at the request of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, Howland prepared an autobiography that included extensive appendices about politics in the 1860s. Personal life On 12 July 1843, Sir William Pearce Howland, (or Marianne) Blyth, the widow of David Webb, a ship's captain. Mary Anne and William had three children: William, Oliver and Florence. Their sons, William Holmes Howland and Oliver Aiken Howland, served as mayors of Toronto. Mary died in 1860.