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biography
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Howe, William Thomas, the secretary and treasurer of the Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Pittsburg,
has risen to his present high place in business and social circles from the position of office messenger. Born in North Bloomfield, Trumbull County, Ohio, May 29, 1854, son of William H. and
Melvina (Flower) Howe, he comes of a famous old New England family. Belonging to the seventh generation of Howes in this country, he descends from John Howe, who, according to a family tradition,
was born in 1602 in the parish of Hodinell, Warwickshire, England. In 1638 John Howe was residing in Sudbury, Mass.; and he was subsequently the first settler in the town of Marlboro, Mass.
He died in 1689. His wife's name was Mary. Samuel, son of John and Mary Howe, born in Sudbury, Mass., in 1642, built the "Wayside Inn" in that quaint old town so charmingly described
by Longfellow. The house has never passed out of the possession of the Howe family, though it is many years since it was used as a hostelry. Samuel Howe died in 1713. He was twice married,
on the second occasion to widow Sarah Leavitt Clapp.
Nehemiah Howe, a son of Samuel and the great-great-grandfather of William Thomas Howe, was born in Sudbury in 1693. Captured by the Indians in an attack on the fort at Great Meadows in 1745,
during King George's War, he was carried to Quebec, and incarcerated in a French prison, where he died of prison fever in 1747. He left a diary, which was afterward published, containing much
valuable information concerning other New England people carried into captivity at the same time. Nehemiah Howe married a daughter of Benjamin Willard, of Hopkinton, Mass. Their son, Abner Howe,
the greatgrandfather of William Thomas, was born in Grafton, Mass., in 1731. He settled in Northfield, Mass., when a young man, and worked at the blacksmith's trade there for some time, moving
eventually to Westmoreland, N. H., where he was one of the original grantees. Abner Howe was a soldier in the company of Captain Phineas Stevens, of Massachusetts, in the French and Indian War.
He died in July, 1781. His wife, Mehitable Holton Howe, was a descendant of William Holton, who came from England in the ship "Francis" in 1634. Thomas Howe, son of Abner and the grandfather of
William Thomas, was born in Westmoreland, N.H., in 1779. When he was twenty years of age he engaged in a mercantile business in Williamstown, Vt. In 1817 he moved to North Bloomfield, Trumbull
County, Ohio. Made a Mason in 1804 in Vermont, he was afterward Past Master in the fraternity. His death occurred in February, 1863. He married Clarissa Howard, of Woodstock, Conn., whose children
by him were: Thomas M., George W., Nancy, and William H. Both parents were members of the Congregational church.
William H. Howe, a native of Williamstown, Vt., born in January, 1816, received a public-school education. While yet quite young he went alone to Pittsburg, and obtained employment in the dry-goods
store of Baird, Levitt & Co. Subsequently he opened a dry-goods store of his own in Bloomfield, Ohio. Afterward, becoming interested in mining, he entered the employ of the Pittsburg & Boston
Mining Company, and was for some time located at the Cliff Mines in Keweenaw County, Michigan. Then for a number of years he was in the employ of the Corry Manufacturing and Lumber Company of Corry, Pa.
In 1876 he retired from active work, returned to Bloomfield, and there died in February, 1886. In 1848 he married Melvina, daughter of Horace Flower, of Bloomfield. Of their nine children Mary D.,
William Thomas, Minnie M., and Harry W. attained maturity. Minnie M. is now the wife of Eleazar Harmon, of Baltimore; and Harry W. resides in Pittsburg. The parents were members of the Congregational church.
William Thomas Howe had a varied school experience, pursuing his studies in the different towns where his father lived. At the age of sixteen he went to work in the hardware store of C. J. Swift & Co. in Corry, Pa.;
and three years later he was hired as messenger by the Oil Creek & Allegheny River Railroad Company, afterward the Pittsburgh Titusville & Buffalo Railroad Company. In eight years he rose from
the position of messenger to the responsible office of auditor and general passenger agent. He obtained in 1881 the position of bookkeeper for the Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Pittsburg, and
in the following year was made assistant secretary and treasurer. In May, 1888, he was installed in his present office, a very responsible position, requiring a man of integrity, ability, and conservative
judgment. Mr. Howe is also first vice-president of the Keystone State Building and Loan Association, which he was active in organizing.
He was married May 11, 1886, to Ida E., daughter of William M. Faber, of Pittsburg, and has two children — Gladys and William T. In politics he follows the traditions of his family, affiliating with
the Republican party. He is a charter member of Nelson P. Reed Council, Junior Order United American Mechanics. Both he and Mrs. Howe are connected with the Shady Side Presbyterian Church.
Biographical review: containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburg and the vicinity, Pennsylvania. Boston: Biographical Review Pub. Co., 1897, Author: Anonymous, Submitted by C. Anthony.
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