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SETH HOWLAND (1765 – 1814), son of LIEUTENANT NATHAN HOWLAND and PRISCILLA DREW

HARRIET EMMONS (1770–1847), daughter of DEACON BENJAMIN EMMONS and ELIZABETH SMITH


Seth Howland, the son of Nathan and Priscilla Howland, was born on 19 October 1765 in Middleborough, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.1 Seth, the husband of Harried, died on 2 January 1814, age 48, in Woodstock, Vermont.2,3 He married Harriet Emmons in Woodstock.1 Seth and Harriet are buried in the Cushing Cemetery in Woodstock.3

Harriet, the dauaghter of Benjamin and Elizabeth Emmons was born on 21 May 1770 in Hinsdale, Cheshire County, Vermont.4 Harriet, the wife of Seth Howland, died on 8 May 1847, age 77.3

Seth Howland, son of Nathan and Priscilla Howland, was born October 19, 1765. He was an only child, came to this town with his parents, married Harriet, daughter of Benjamin Emmons, had a numerous family, and died January 2, 1814.5

Miss Harriet Emmons kept school in her father's house.6

According to the census, Seth Howland headed a household made up of one male over sixteen and one female in Woodstock in 1790. He headed a household with one male and one female age 26 to 44 and two males and three males under ten in Woodstock in 1800. He headed a household with one male and one female age 26 to 44, one female age 16 to 25, two males and one female age ten to 15 and one male and three females under ten in Wooodstock in 1810.7

During my apprenticeship to the printing trade at Woodstock, Vt., I went fequently to see my grandmother Howland (nee Emmons). She lived in the Howland house on a farm not quite a mile from the office where I was engaged. I had often visited my grandmother before I went to Woodstock to live, and my memory of the house and its surroundings is very clear. It was for those days a rather large frame house with a front door in the center, with a gambrel roof and dormer windows; it was built by my great grandfather Nathan Howland (1742-1831), and was among the earliest frame houses in the township. The town was settled, if I remember rightly, in 1764. In this house, and one some distance farther along on he same road, was reared a large family of Seth Howland, my grandfather, he being the only son of Nathan Howland, who came from Middleboro', Mass., with other settlers; among them, I believe were the Hutchinsonss and the Marshes and Benjamin Emmons, my Grandmother Howland's father. [Andrew Jackson Aikens, quoted by Gates8]

 Children of Seth Howland and Harriet Emmons:

i. Priscilla Drew Howland was born on 6 November 1791 in Woodstock.9 She died in 1867. She married John B. Terry.8,10 John was born on 18 January 1796 in Coxsackie, New York and he died on 15 January 1874 in Mineral Point, Iowa County, Wisconsin.11 John and Priscilla are buried in the Graceland Cemetery in Mineral Point.12,13 They had no children.8

John was engaged in the hardware business in St. Charles, Missouri. He later came to the mines in Wisconsin and was a merchant and smelter. He was a member of the legislature and a captain in the Black Hawk War. He was a general in the state militia.11

According to the census, in 1850 John and Priscilla were living with (apparently) a servant in Mineral Point. John was 53 and born New York; Priscialla was 49 and born in Vermont. John had no occupation and had real estate worth 4,000 dollars. In 1860 John, age 62, and Priscilla, age 57, were living in Mineral Point with two servants. John had no occupation and had real estate worth 8,000 dollars. [14]

ii. Nathan Howland was born on 11 May 1793 in Woodstock.9 He probably died young.

iii. Seth Howland was born on 4 February 1795 in Woodstock.9

Seth never married. He lived with his mother during her widowhood.8

iv. Lydia Cobb Howland was born on 28 June 1796 in Woodstock. She died on 13 July 1874 in Barnard. She married Warren Aikens.

v. Rowena Howland was born on 26 March 1798 in Woodstock.2

Rowena never married and died at the old homestead.8

v. Solon Howland was born on 25 November 1799 in Woodstock.9 Solon, the son of Nathan? [sic] and Harriet, died on 26 July 1870, age 70 years, seven months and five days, in Pomfret, Vermont.15 He married Lois Smith.16 She was born in 1795.16 She died in 1866.16 Solon and Elizabeth are buried in the River Street Cemetery in Woodstock.16

Solon lived at English Mills in Woodstock. He was a postmaster and superintendent of the mills.8

vi. Harriet Howland was born on 29 May 1801 in Woodstock.9 She died on 17 March 1848 in Chicago.17 She married Zachariah Ormond Paddock on 8 February 1829 in Woodstock.17,18 Zachariah, the son of Apollos and Mary (Hudson) Paddock, was born on 5 March 1806 in Woodstock.17 He probably died on 4 April 1884 in LaFayette County, Wisconsin.17 He married second Leantha Hovey about 1848.17

Zacchariah and Harriet lived in Dodgeville, Illinois in 1837.17

vii. Caroline Howland was born on 26 February 1803 in Woodstock.9 She married Aramel H. Gould in September 1828 in Vermont.18

Her nephew Andrew Jackson Aikens said that he could remember little about Caroline and did not know what had become of her.8

viii. Nathan Howland was born on 22 March 1805 in Woodstock.9 Nathan, the son of Seth and Harriet (Emmons) Howland, died of old age, on 13 December 1885, age 80 years, eight months and 13 days, in Woodstock.15

Nathan was a farmer.15 He lived in Woodstock.8

ix. Elizabeth Smith Howland was born in 1809 in Woodstock.9 She died on 11 May 1872 in Burlington, Iowa.19 She married William Butler Remey in 1837.18,19 William, the son of Nathaniel and Mathilda (Grigsby) Remey, was born in 1817 in Bardstown, Kentucky.19 He died on 3 April 1871 in Bardstown.19

William and Elizabeth moved to Burlington, Iowa.19

One of William and Elizabeth's sons, Edward Wallace Remey, graduated from the Naval Academy and was a lieutenant in the navy. He disappeared from his ship in Norfolk harbor in 1885. A second son, Rear Admiral George Collier Remey was a distinguished naval officer; the destroyer USS Remey was named after him.. A third son, Willam Butler Remey was a Judge Advocate General in the navy (marine corps) from 1880 to 1892.19

George Collier Remey's Wikipedia entry.

x. Susan Powers Howland (possibly) was born in 1811.20 She died in 1855.13 She married John H. Lilly on 3 July 1834 in Missouri. [21] John was born in 1795.20 He died on 1845.20 John and Susan are buried together in the Muscatine Cemetery in Muscatine, Muscatine County, Iowa.20

Franklin Howland lists Susan Howland as a daughter, but she is not mentioned in the Aikens Monograph, even thought Andrew Jackson Aikens speaks extensively about his other aunts and uncles. Susan named one of her children Benjamin Emmons Lilly.8,10,13

Franklin Howland lists a Benjamin Paul Howland, who married Emmeline Cooper Fish, as a son.10 However there seems to be no other evidence for this.

References:

1. Barbara Lamber Merrick and Alicia Crane Williams, Middleborough, Massachusets, Vital Records vol. 1 (Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1990), 130.

2. "Vermont, Vital Records, 1720–1908," database with images, Ancestry > 1870 and prior > Howe, S.–Hubbard, L., images 914, 935, 943.

3. "Seth Howland," Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/68179918). Photo of inscription with date and age. "Harriet Emmons Howland," Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/68179953/harriet-howland).

4. Scott Andrew Bartley, "Lieut. Benjamin Emmons, Esq. of Woodstock," 2015, digitzed articles, "Early Vermont Settlers, 1700–1784," AmericanAncestors (https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1565/i/22568/3/0).

5. Henry Swan Dana, History of Woodstock, Vermont (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1889), 76, fn. 1.

6. Dana, History of Woodstock, 81.

7. "1790 U.S. Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry > Vermont > Windsor > Woodstock, image 1; "1800 U.S. Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry > Vermont > Windsor > Woodstock, image 4; "1810 U.S. Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry > Vermont > Windsor > Woodstock, image 3.

8. Horatio Gates, The Aikens Monograph (Milwaukee.: privately printed, 1900), 56–59.

9. "Vermont Births and Christenings, 1765–1908," database, FamilySearch, children of Seth and Harriet.

10. Franklyn Howland, A Brief Genealogical and Biographical History of Arthur, Henry and John Howland and Their Descendants (New Bedford: Howland, 1885), 415.

11. Obituary, Mineral Point Weekly Tribune, 15 January 1874, p. 1.

12. "Priscilla D. Terry," Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120451466/priscilla-d-terry).

13. "Cpt. J.B. Terry," Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120451407/j_-b_-terry).

14. "1850 U.S. Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry > Wisconsin > Iowa > Mineral Point, image 5; "1860 U.S. Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry > Wisconsin > Iowa > Mineral Point, image 52.

15. "Vermont Vital Records, 1760–1954," database with images, FamilySearch.

16. "Solon Howland," Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89251102/solon-howland). Photo of inscription with birth and death years.

17. Robert Joseph Curfman, The Paddock Genealogy: Descendants of Robert Paddock of Plymouth County, blacksmith and constable, 1646 (Fort Collins, CO: Curfman, 1986), 97, 144.

18. "Vermont, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1732–2005," database with images, FamilySearch. Harriet m. Ormon Paddock Feb. 1829; Caroline m. Aramel H. Gould Sept. 1828; Eliza m. W. Remey (no date).

19. Bonnelle William Rhamy, The Remy Family in America, 1650–1942 (Fort Wayne, Indiana: n.p., 1942), 87–88.

20. "John H. Lilly," Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52855841). The inscription on the grave stone says "John H. Lilly 1795–1845 Susan P. Howland His Wife 1811–1855."

21. "Missouri, Compiled Marriages," database, Ancestry, entry for Susan P. Howland and John Lilly, m. 3 July 1834.


Last revised: 22-Nov-2021