Biographical Note

Henry Howland, the son of William Avery and Hannah Morton Howland, was born in Conway, Massachusetts, on March 20, 1827. A carpenter, Howland moved to Chicago in 1854 and worked in the lumber industry. He married Jane Elizabeth "Eliza" Gray in 1856; the couple would eventually have three children: Allen, Grace and George.

In September 1861, Howland joined the 51st Illinois and was commissioned the regiment's quartermaster. He left Chicago with the regiment on February 14, 1862. By the end of the war, Howland was a captain, serving as quartermaster for the Union Army's Department of Kentucky. His military service ended on January 19, 1867.

Howland returned to the lumber industry, then engaged in a short-lived mining operation in Leadville, Colorado. Howland apparently left Leadville around 1881 and fell into what his obituary described as "unsettled habits." He seems to have moved frequently, occasionally working for various Chicago businesses while his wife returned to live with her parents. In April 1883, Howland traveled from Buffalo to Rochester, New York on business for the National Blue Book of the shoe and leather trade of Chicago. Howland drowned in a canal there on May 6. He was buried in Chicago's Rosehill Cemetery.

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records: