Joseph Howland

Union United States Army general

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.

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.

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. The official report also stated that Howland's wound " will disable him for several weeks." In fact, the wound ended Howland's military career; the wound and the resulting fever dangerously undermined his health and made further active service impossible. He resigned as commander of the 16th New York and never served again in the field.

After the war, Howland was New York State Treasurer from 1866 to 1867, elected on the Republican ticket. He also had an active role in drafting the trust deeds for Cornell University and in organizing the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane, the humane treatment of the mentally ill being one of his and his wife's great concerns. In Mattewan, Howland was instrumental in building the Presbyterian Church, and the public library that still bears his name. Highland Hospital was established on May 1, 1871. Howland purchased the property, fitted it for a hospital and presented it to the town.

Howland died in Menton, France, on March 31, 1886, and was buried there. He and his wife had no children and after his death Eliza Howland never returned to Tioronda, saying that the memories of her husband made staying there too difficult. She died in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1917], at the age of eighty two. After her death Tioronda became Craig House, a hospital for the mentally ill. The author Louis Stanton Auchincloss is his great grandnephew.