Filial tribute to the memory of Rev. John Moffat Howe, M.D.

Front matter

FROM LIFE SIZE CRAYON TAKEN IN 1879.

FILIAL TRIBUTE

TO THE MEMORY OF

I. The Howe Family In America

[The following introduction is from the " Howe Family Gathering," a pamphlet published by Elias Howe, Esq., of Boston, in 187 1, to whom the Howes of America are much indebted for the great interest he has taken in the common family history. He says :]

" r I A HE number of those who bear the name of JL How, or Howe, in America, is very great; yet they may, for the most part, be traced to James and Abraham Howe (perhaps brothers), of Roxbury, admitted freemen in 1637-38 ; to Edward and Abraham Howe, of Watertown ; to Daniel and Edward Howe, of Lynn; and to John Howe, who was in Sudbury as early as 1638, and who died in Marlborough in 1687.

"Of these early settlers, James was the son of Robert, of Hatfield, Broad Oak, Essex Co., England, and died in Ipswich, in 1 702 ; Edward, of Lynn, came over in the Truelove, in 1635, and died in 1639, leaving issue from which most of the Howe families in Connecticut have descended. Daniel, of Lynn, after holding several public offices in Massachusetts, removed to Southampton, on Long Island. They were all honest, hardy, vigorous men, having, in the main, large families, which, multiplying and increasing from generation to generation, have, by their industry, genius, probity and valor, aided in laying the foundations and in building up the structure of this Republic ; and they are now found busily engaged in the various trades and professions, arts and industries of life, in almost every section of the Union.

" So far as known, but one of them was ever executed for a crime, and that was Mrs. Elizabeth Howe, of Ipswich, hung for witchcraft in 1692; but her virtues, just as those of her great Master, sanctified the altar ; and her name, now as the mists of superstition break away, becomes illustrious."

At the Howe family gathering, held August 31, 1 87 1, at Framingham, Mass., Hon. Joseph Howe, Secretary of State of the Dominion of Canada, delivered an oration, in which he says :

" In England the Howes have lived and flourished for centuries. The Howe banner hangs as high in

The Howe Family in America.

Henry VII. 's chapel as any other evidence of honorable service, and the battle of the ist of June will be remembered as long as the naval annals of England last. In the old French wars for the possession of this continent, one Howe fell at Ticonderoga and another was killed on the Nova Scotia frontier. In the Revolutionary War the Howes were not fortunate. I have heard my father describe Sir William as he saw him leading up the British forces at the battle of Bunker Hill, with the bullets flying like hail around him. But I am apprehensive that in that old war God was not on the side of the strongest columns, and that the time had arrived when the peopling and development of a continent could not be postponed by the agencies of fleets and armies.

"The Howes who have been ennobled trace their family back to the reign of Henry VIII., and seem to have held estates in Somersetshire, Gloucester, Wiltshire, Nottingham, and Fermanagh, in Ireland. Jack Howe, as he was familiarly called, who was a member of Parliament in the reigns of William and Anne, was a fluent speaker, and, like a good many other people in those days, had a great dislike to standing armies. His son, who sat for Nottingham in the Convention Parliament, was one of those who established the liberties of England in 1688.

" But many branches of the family are scattered all about England. I found three Howes, bearing my own family Christian names, lying side by side s

The Howe Family in America.

in' the churchyard at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, and I learned that in the western end of the Island a family of honest farmers, who are all Howes, have been living there on the same land beyond the memory of man.

"I found three others, all males, lying just inside the graveyard at Berwick-on-Tweed. I could not hear of any Howes in the neighborhood, and I took it for granted that they must have been killed in some old border fight, which is not at all improbable if they came from the south side of the stream.

"But, passing over the nobles and the plebeians of England, I must confess that there is one Howe of whom we may all be proud. This is John Howe, who was chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and whose fine form and noble features are preserved in some of the old engravings. He must have been an elo-

o o

quent preacher, for he won his place by a sermon which the Protector happened to hear. That he was a fine scholar and learned theologian is proved by the body of divinity, written in classic English, which he has left behind him. That he was a noble man is proved, also, by a single anecdote which is preserved to us. On one occasion he was soliciting aid or patronage for some person whom he thought deserving, when Cromwell turned sharply round and, by a single question, let a flood of light in upon the disinterestedness and amiability of his character which will illuminate it in all time to come. 'John,' said the Protector,

0*- " ■•"

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1 you are always asking something for some poor fellow ; why do you never ask anything for yourself? ' My father's name was John, and I have often tried to trace him back to this good Christian, whose character in many points his own so much resembled."

The Howes in America descended from those who settled in New England between 1630 and 1657, and the orator continues :

" What was the Old World about, when these men came to America ? Why did they come ? are questions that naturally occur to us. In 1629, Charles I. dissolved his Parliament, and no other was called in England till the Long Parliament met in 1 640. During the eleven years which intervened, we all know what was going on in England. Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury, Strafford was first Minister, and that hopeful experiment was being tried of ruling without Parliaments, which ended in the wreck and ruin of the monarchy. Within these eleven years, five of the seven Howes were settled in New England, and the reasonable presumption is that they found old England too hot for them.

" They had no fancy for paying ship-money on compulsion, for having their ears cropped or for standing in the pillory for the free expression of opinions ; and, perhaps, foreseeing what was coming, they accomplished what it is said Cromwell, Hampden, and others at one time meditated, and reached America before the civil war began. The earlier battles of Worces- 2 io The Howe Family in America.

ter and Edgehill were fought in 1642, and before this, five of the Howes had made good their lodgment in America. If the two who date from 1652 and 1657 were not born in this country, they may have taken the field ; but of the fact we have no authentic record,

" It is enough for us to know that these ancestors of ours were God-fearing, worthy men, sprung from the sturdy middle class of English civic and rural life, who left their native country not because they did not love it, but because they could not stay there without mean compliance and tame submission to usurped authority. We would perhaps have been just as well pleased had they remained behind and struck a few manful blows for the liberties of England ; but we must accept the record as we find it, with this source of consolation, that no brother's blood was upon their hands when they landed in America. That they were men of worth and intelligence there is proof enough. They were freemen and proprietors in the townships where they settled; selectmen, representatives, officers, Indian commissioners, and seem to have brought from the old country, in fair measure, the common sense, industry, and thrift so much needed by the emigrant.

" In turning to the Provinces, it must be borne in mind that but one of all the Howes in these States took the British side in the Revolutionary War. Of my father I spoke, some years ago, at Faneuil Hall; and my good friend, Lorenzo Sabine (one of the best writers and most accomplished statesmen produced in

The Howe Family in America. n the Eastern States), has kindly embodied what was said, in his second edition of his ' Lives of the Loyalists,' to which I must refer those who take interest in the British-American branch of the family. To-day, I have leisure to say only this : that if it be permitted to the saints in heaven to revisit the scenes they loved, and to hover over the innocent reunions of their kindred, my father's spirit will be here, gratified to see that the family, divided by the Revolution, is again united, and that his son, to use the language which Burns put into the mouth of the peasant woman in his ■ Cotter's Saturday Night,' is 'respected like the lave.'"

John How, who first settled in Marlborough, Mass., was a son of John How, Esq., of Hodinhull, in Warwickshire, England,, and connected with the family of Lord Charles How, Earl of Lancaster, in the reign of Charles I. The records show that the above John How was in Sudbury in 1639 ; that he took the freeman's oath in 1640, -was selectman and marshal in 1642, and was the first white man to settle in Marlborough about 1657; where he died in 1687. In his will, proved in 1689, he mentions his wife, Mary; Sons, Samuel, Isaac, Jonah, Thomas, and Eleazar; Daughters, Sarah Ward, Mary Weatherby ; — and, — John How, Jr., a son of John, deceased.

Thomas How, ancestor of J. M. Howe, and son of John How, of Marlborough, Mass., was born June 12, 1656, and died Feb. 16, 1733. He married Sarah

Hosmer, June 8, 1681, who died April 7, 1724, and on Dec. 24, 1724, he married Mrs. Mary Baron. His children were : Tabitha, born May 9, 1684; James, born June 22, 1685 ; Jonathan, born April 23, 1687; Prudence, born Aug. 27, 1689; Thomas, born June 16, 1692; Sarah, born Aug. 16, 1697.

Jonathan How, the next in our line, and son of Thomas How and Sarah Hosmer, his wife, born April 23, 1687, married Lydia Brigham April 5, 1711. He died June 22, 1738. Their children were: Timothy, born May 24, 171 2, died Oct. 15, 1740; Prudence, born Nov. 3, 1 714; Bezaleel, born June 19, 171 7; Charles, born April 20, 1720; Eliakim, born June 17, 1723; Lucy, born May 20, 1726; Lydia, born April 12, 1729 (died young) ; Mary, born Aug. 12, 1 730 (died young); Lydia, born June 29, 1732.

Bezaleel How, the next in order, and son of Jonathan How and Lydia Brigham, his wife, was born June 19, 1 71 7; married Anna; old records give no further name or dates, and an incomplete record of their children, as follows: Susanna, born 1740; Timothy, born 1742 ; Edith, born 1744; Darius, born 1746; Bezaleel, born I750.

Bezaleel Howe, son of Bezaleel How and Anna, his wife, was born Dec. 9, 1755, according to the record in his family Bible, but was born, as we have seen above, in 1750, in Marlborough, Mass. His father died when he was very young, having either removed to Hillsborough, N. H., shortly before his death, or his mother, a widow, took her little family there very soon after, which accounts for the imperfect record. Thus far our aim has been to follow only the direct line of descent from the settlement in America to the birth of Bezaleel Howe, Junior — the fifth generation — as follows: 1st, John How, in America previous to 1639; 2d, Thomas How, his son, born in 1656; 3d, Jonathan How, his son, born in 1687 ; 4th, Bezaleel How, his son, born in 171 7; 5th, Bezaleel Howe, his son, born in 1750 or 1755 (the father of Dr. John M. Howe). He was the first to spell his name with the final e — Howe.

The following is a complete record for the next two generations, and will enable any of the thirtyseven grandchildren of Major Bezaleel Howe to follow out any of the ever diverging genealogical lines. Bezaleel Howe married Hannah Merritt Sept. 16, 1787, although the copy of the published notice does not exactly agree with this as to date ; for The New York Packet of Friday, Oct. 26, 1787, under " Marriages," published : " Howe : — Capt. Bezaleel married last Wednesday evening to Miss Hannah Merritt of Mamaroneck, Westchester Co., by Rev. John Gano (Baptist)." She died of yellow fever in New York, during the epidemic, Sept. 18, 1 798, and was buried in the Baptist burying-ground of Dr. Parkinson's church, located on the west side of Gold Street, about two hundred feet south of Fulton. She left one daughter, Maria, born Jan. 6, 1789.

On Feb. 15, 1800, he married Catherine Moffat, youngest daughter of Rev. John Moffat and Margaret Little, his wife, who was born in Little Britain, Orange Co., N. Y., March 3, 1755. Their children were: Eliza, born Nov. 19, 1800 (died in infancy); George C, born Sept. 23, 1802; Margaretta, born Feb. 22, 1804; J onn Moffat, born Jan. 23, 1806; Oscar, born March 11, 1808 (died in infancy); Julia Ann, born Oct. 4, 18 10 (died in infancy); Catherine, born Sept. 21, 181 2; Bezaleel, born Aug. 17, 181 5.

Maria Howe (daughter of Major Bezaleel Howe and Hannah Merritt, his wife) was born Jan. 6, 1 789, and died in 1852. She married John Guion Nov. 23, 1805, and became the mother of eleven children: Hannah, who died in infancy ; Edward Merritt ; John Howe ; Mary Jane ; Harriet Emeline ; William H.; Stephen B. ; Caroline ; Armenia H. ; Sarah Waterman ; Anna Maria (died in infancy).

George C. Howe (son of Major Bezaleel Howe and Catherine Moffat, his wife), born Sept. 23, 1802, and died Dec. 4, 1841 ; married, May 24, 1832, Hester Ann Higgins, daughter of Michael and Betty Gregory Higgins, born July 16, 1808, and died March 15, 1884. Their children were : Mary C. Howe, born July 28, 1833; married Mr. Henry L. Weller, Sept. 1, 1853; and married Mr. Chas. Widdifield, June 17, 1858. Harriet A. Howe, born Dec. 16, 1835; married Mr. Wm. J. Gilbert, April 8, 1862. Josephine E. Howe,

The Howe Family in America.

born May 30, 1838; married Mr. E. Whitmore, June 27, 1859. George Bezaleel Howe, born Oct. 5, 1841 ; married Julia Andrews, April 28, 1865.

Margaretta (daughter of Major Bezaleel Howe and Catherine Moffat, his wife), born Feb. 27, 1804; married George Washington Dupignac, Aug. 1, 1820. Their living children were (Feb. 7, 1889): Bezaleel H., Elizabeth, George W., Theodore, Margaretta H., Richard C. P., Almira, Adelaide M., and Edwin Augustus.

John Moffat Howe (son of Major Bezaleel Howe and Catherine Moffat, his wife), was born Jan. 23, 1806; died Feb. 5, 1885; married Oct. 31, 1838, Mary Mason (daughter of Rev. Thomas Mason and Mary W. Morgan, his wife), who was born Aug. 10, 18 1 8, and died Oct. 15, 1841. Their children were: Frances Ramadge, born Aug. 10, 1839 ; Mary Mason, born Oct. 10, 1841 (died in infancy). He then married Sept. 14, 1843, Ann W., youngest daughter of John Morgan and Elizabeth, his wife, who was born in Philadelphia, March 18, 181 5, and died Oct. 19, 1844, after giving birth on that day to a son, John Morgan Howe. John Moffat Howe then married, May 7, 1846, Emeline Barnard Jenkins, youngest daughter of Barzillai Jenkins and Susan Barnard, his wife, born in Hudson, N. Y., April 16, 182 1. Their children were : George Rowland, born Oct. 21, 1847 5 Edwin Jenkins, born July 2, 1849; Chas. Mortimer, born May 1, 1851 ; Ella Louise, born Nov. 16,

1852; Emeline Jenkins, born June 1, 1856; Susan Elanora, born Oct. 18, 1858.

Catherine Howe (daughter of Major Bezaleel Howe and Catherine Moffat, his wife), born Sept. 21, 181 2, died March 4, 1883; married, Oct. 11, 1831, Samuel R. Spelman, son of Phineas Spelman, who was born June 29, 1 809, and died in 1885. Their children were : Jane Augusta, born Aug. 4, 1832, and married James M. Fuller, Dec. 18, 1851 ; Helena Wakona, born Sept. 5, 1834, died July 30, 1836; Mary Wakona, born Sept. 19, 1836, married Charles P. Cummings, Oct. 11, i860, and died July 22, 1874.

Bezaleel Howe (son of Major Bezaleel Howe and Catherine Moffat, his wife), born Aug. 17, 181 5 ; died Jan. 18, 1858; married, Aug. 5, 1838, Jane Cordelia, daughter of Jacob Frank and Mary Barnet, his wife, who was born May 18, 1820. Their only child was Jacob Frank Howe, born April 20, 1848.

From this point we resume our direct line of descent, and give the family records of the children of Dr. John M. Howe.

Frances Ramadge Howe (daughter of John M. Howe and Mary Mason, his wife), born in New York City, Aug 10, 1839; married, Sept. 18, 1859, Rev. John Andrew Munroe, of Annapolis, Md., son of Rev. Jonathan Munroe and Matilda Keiser, his wife. Their children were: Francis Howe, born in Westminster, Md., April 11, 1862 ; Harry Keiser, born in Westminster, Md., Oct. 6, 1865; Milbourne, born in

The Howe Family in America.

Westminster, Md., July 18, 1867; George Rowland, born in Passaic, N. J., July 24, 1869; Clinton, born in Newark, N. J., Nov. 29, 1873; John Herbert, born in Port Jervis, N. Y., Jan. 19, 1877 (died in infancy); Percy, born in Paterson, N. J., Oct. 8, 1878 (died in infancy).

John Morgan Howe (son of John Moffat Howe and Ann W. Morgan, his wife), born in New York, Oct. 19, 1844; married, Oct. 17, 1866, in Paterson, N. J., Emma, daughter of David Roe and Emma Eliza Blois, his wife. Their children were: Grace, born in Passaic, N. J., April 13, 1868; Ethel, born in Passaic, N. J., Jan. 29, 1870; Bertha, born in Passaic, N. J., March 9, 187^ died March 19, 1875; Morgan Roe, born in Passaic, N. J., Dec. 23, 1873; Alma, born in Asbury Park, N. J., July 17, 1 88 1.

George Rowland Howe (son of John M. Howe and Emeline B. Jenkins, his wife), born in New York, Oct. 2i, 1847; married, June 11, 1879, m Homer, N. Y., Louisa Anna, youngest daughter of Paris Barber and Jane Eho, his wife, born Jan. 11, 1854. Their children were: George Rowland, Jr., born in Newark, N. J., Dec. 20, 1880, died Sept. 26, 1881; Herbert Barber, born in Newark, N. J., Oct. 25, 1882; Ruth Eno, born in Newark, N. J., April 22, 1886.

Edward Jenkins Howe (son of John M. Howe and Emeline B. Jenkins, his wife), born in Orange, N. J., July 2, 1849; married, Nov. 18, 1875, in Passaic, 3 i8

N. J., Sarah Louise, daughter of Henry P. Simmons and Sarah Van Wagoner Shelp, his wife.

Charles Mortimer Howe (son of John M. Howe and Emeline B. Jenkins, his wife), born in New York, May i, 185 1 ; married, Oct. 12, 1876, in Bath, N. Y., Margaret Ida, daughter of Caleb Augustus Canfield and Sarah Hall Withington, his wife, born Sept. 14, 1854. Their children were: Edith, born in Passaic, N. J., March 10, 1878; John Canfield, born in Passaic, N. J., Sept. 16, 1880.

Ella Louise Howe (daughter of John M. Howe and Emeline B. Jenkins, his wife), born in New York, Nov. 16, 1852; married, June 20, 1874, in Passaic, N. J., Ansel Bartlet Maxim, son of Thomas Maxim and Mary A. Gurney, his wife, born in South Carver, Mass., Sept. 8, 1836, died in Passaic, N. J., April 24, 1886. Their only child was Mary Maxim, born March 18, 1879.

Emeline Jenkins Howe (daughter of John M. Howe and Emeline B. Jenkins, his wife), born in Passaic, N. J., June 1, 1856; married, in Passaic, June 1, 1876, David Carlisle, born at Lisburn, Ireland, May 27, 1844, son °f R- ev - J°hn Carlisle and Maria Harper, his wife. Their children were : Emeline, born in Passaic, N. J., April 27, 1877; Anna, born in Passaic, N. J., Aug. 10, 1880; Marion, born in Passaic, N. J., June 8, 1883; John Howe, born in Passaic, N. J., July 5, 1888.

Susan Elanora Howe (daughter of John M. Howe and Emeline B. Jenkins, his wife), born in Passaic, N. J., Oct. 15, 1858; married, Jan. 7, 1883, in Passaic, N. J., Byron David Halsted, son of David Halsted and Mary Mechem, his wife, born in Venice, Cayuga Co., N. Y., June 7, 1852. Their children were : Claire, born in Passaic, N. J., Oct. 18, 1883; Edwin Howe, born in Passaic, N. J., Jan. 27, 1888.

Such is the ancestry of the family of John Moffat Howe, the subject of this memorial, and thus stands the family record, now at the opening of the year 1889. It may appear, on various accounts, best to repeat some of these items in other connections, but it is thought well to place them also here, together at the very beginning of the memorial.

II. Incidents Of Howe Ancestry

FROM THE OLD RECORDS OF MARLBOROUGH, MASS.

JOHN HOW, as we have seen in the previous chapter, resided first at Watertown and afterwards at Sudbury, where he was in 1639. He was admitted freeman in 1640, and died at Marlborough in 1687 ; his wife Mary died at about the same time. In 1642 he was selectman in Sudbury, and in 1655 was appointed by the pastor and selectmen "To see to the restraining of youth on the Lord's Day." According to tradition, he was the first white inhabitant who settled in the new grant. He came to Marlborough about 1657 and built him a cabin, a little to the east of the "Indian planting field,"

Incidents of Howe Ancestry.

where his descendants lived for many generations. His place, recently occupied by the late Edward Rice, was situated some one hundred yards from Spring Hill meeting-house, a little to the east of the present road from Spring Hill to Feltonville.

His proximity to the Indian plantation brought him into direct contact with the natives ; but by his kindness he secured the confidence and good-will of his savage neighbors, who accordingly, not only respected his rights, but in many instances made him the umpire in cases of difficulty among themselves. Once where a pumpkin vine sprang up within the premises of one Indian, and the fruit ripened upon the premises of another, the dispute which arose between them as to the ownership of the pumpkin was referred to him, and, inspired with the wisdom of a second Solomon, he called for a knife and severed the fruit, giving a moiety to each. This struck the parties as the perfection of justice, and fixed the impartiality of the judge on an indubitable basis. Nor was a sense of his justice and impartiality confided in by the Indians alone. When, in 1662, Thomas Danforth, Esq., made a demand upon the colony for a further compensation for his services, the court ordered "that he shall have granted him so much land as old Goodman Rice and Goodman How of Marlborough shall judge to be worth ten pounds, and they are empowered to bound the same to him."

Incidents of Howe A ncestry.

John How opened the first public house in that place, traditions say, in 1661, when there were but two taverns between his house and Worcester. About 1670 we find his petition for a renewal of his license, and he speaks as though he had been some time engaged in the business.

The descendants of John How were very numerous, though a portion of the Hows of Marlborough were of another family. When his will was admitted to probate, his property was inventoried at ^511. He gave Thomas " the horse he troops on."

His son John — the father of John, Jr., referred to in his will (see preceding chapter) — was killed by the Indians in Sudbury, April 20, 1676.

Elizabeth, a daughter of John, 2d, was taken captive by the Indians in 1692 at Lancaster, when she was visiting the family of a married sister ; all the family were killed except herself. She was held as a captive for three or four years, when she was ransomed by the Government and returned to her friends. She was about to be married when she was captured. Her intended considered her lost to him forever, and resolved never to marry, but on her return repented of his folly. Although she lived to be 89 years of age, it is said she never fully recovered from the fright of her capture.

Thomas How, son of John How, 1st, and ancestor of John M. Howe, "was a prominent citizen in town, filled the principal town offices, represented the town

Incidents of Howe A ncestry.

in the General Court, rose to the rank of colonel in the militia, and was one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace." He took an active part in the early Indian wars, and was in a severe action at Lancaster. He kept a public house in Marlborough in 1696. This was not, as some have thought, the Howe tavern of Sudbury, immortalized by the poet Longfellow as the Wayside Inn. This latter house was opened by his brother Samuel, son of John, 1st, who married Hephzibeh Death in 1700, and whose descendants kept the house until within the past few years, when the property was reported to have been sold. As his bond shows the spirit of the times, we will give the material portions of it.

The bond provides that " He shall not suffer or have any playing at cards, dice, tally, bowls, ninepins, billiards, or any other unlawful game or games in the said house, or yard, or gardens, or backside, nor shall suffer to remain in his house any person or persons, not being his own family, on Saturday night after dark, or on the Sabbath days, or during the time of God's public worship ; nor shall he entertain as lodgers in his house any strangers, men or women, above the space of forty-eight hours, but such whose names and surnames he shall deliver to some one of the selectmen, or constable of the town, unless they be such as he very well knoweth, and will insure for his or their forthcoming. Nor shall he sell any wine to the Indians or negroes, nor suffer any children or servant or other person to remain in his house tippling or drinking after nine o'clock in the night. Nor shall buy or take to preserve any stolen goods, nor willingly or knowingly harbor in his house, barn, stable, or otherwhere, any rogues, vagabonds, thieves, sturdy beggars, masterless men or women, or other notorious offenders whatsoever. Sell or utter any wine, beer, ale, cider, rum, brandy, or other liquors, by defaulting or by color of his license ; nor shall entertain any person or persons to whom he shall be prohibited by law or by any of the magistrates of the county as persons of jolly conversation or given to tippling."

Eleazer How (son of John, ist, and younger brother of Thomas) seems to have been a man of wealth. In his will he refers to silver spoons, a silver tankard, etc., which he leaves to his children.

FROM THE NOTES OF REV. BEZALEEL HOWE.

In the year 1844, Rev. Bezaleel Howe, of the New York Conference of the M. E. Church (who was born in 1780, and was a son of Timothy How, born in 1742), a cousin of John M. Howe, visited Marlborough, Mass., collected and made a record of many incidents that are of interest to the family. We quote from the original manuscript now in the possession of his grandson, Bezaleel Howe, Esq., of Montclair, N. J. :

Incidents of Howe A ncestry.

" My grandfather's family consisted of Baxter, Timothy, Darius, and Bezaleel, the last named after himself. Baxter was a captain of artillery in the revolutionary army, and died of fever at Ethton, while the army under Washington was moving towards Yorktown. He left one son, Brigham Howe, of New York City. Timothy, my father, after his term of service in the French war had expired, was married in Stillwater, Saratoga Co., N. Y., to Elizabeth Andrus, and shortly afterwards removed to Wyoming on the Susquehanna, where they lived until driven thence by the Tories and Indians in July, 1778, with seven children. My father was first lieutenant under Capt. Hewitt, who was slain with his whole company save nine men, of whom my father was one. He arrived at the fort about midnight. The next morning a flag of truce came to demand its unconditional surrender. The bearers of the flag of truce were prisoners whose families were kept as hostages to secure their return. Col. Denison and my father, the only surviving officers in the fort, went out to meet them. As soon as they learned the terms, they knew no favor would be shown to any who were in the engagement of the preceding day. My father, therefore, gathered all these, and, with some provisions hastily thrown into a scow that lay near, shoved down the river, and escaped, leaving all the women and children to the mercies of the Indians, my mother and seven children among the rest."