Charles Howard (August 7, 1804 – November 6, 1883) was mayor of Detroit in 1849.

Biography

Charles Howard was born August 7, 1804, in

Chenango County, New York Chenango County is a County (United States), county located in the south-central section U.S. state of New York (state), New York. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 47,220. Its county seat is Norwich, New York ...

. His family moved to

Port Jervis, New York Port Jervis is a city located at the confluence of the Neversink and Delaware rivers in western Orange County, New York, United States, north of the Delaware Water Gap. Its population was 8,775 at the 2020 census. The communities of Deerpark, ...

; when Charles Howard was an adult he moved to

Sackets Harbor, New York Sackets Harbor (earlier spelled Sacketts Harbor) is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States, on Lake Ontario. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. The village was named after land developer and owner Augustus Sackett, who ...

and worked as a

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

captain. He later joined the firm of Alvin Bronson and Company (later Bronson, Crocker, and Company) as a shipping and forwarding commission merchant, and moved to

Oswego, New York Oswego () is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 16,921 at the 2020 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in Upstate New York, about 35 miles (55km) northwest of Syracuse. It promotes itself as "The Port C ...

, to represent to firm. In 1834 he married Margaret Vosburg. The couple had two children: Mrs. William J. Waterman and well-known dramatist

Bronson Howard Bronson Crocker Howard (October 7, 1842 – August 4, 1908) was an American dramatist. Biography Howard was born in Detroit where his father Charles Howard was Mayor in 1849. He prepared for college at New Haven, Conn., but instead of ente ...

. In 1840, Howard came to Detroit, now a partner in the shipping firm of Bronson, Crocker, and Howard, to establish an agency for the firm. In 1848, he entered a partnership with N. P. Stewart, continuing his shipping and forwarding business and also as a railroad contractor, building substantial portions of the

Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

line, although his firm lost $280,000 in the project. In 1854, Howard dissolved his partnership with Stewart and formed another one with his brother, Sebre. Howard was simultaneously president of the Farmer's and Mechanics Bank and the Peninsular Bank, and in 1848 he was elected mayor of Detroit. The

Panic of 1857 The Panic of 1857 was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Because of the invention of the telegraph by Samuel F. Morse in 1844, the Panic of 1857 was ...

caused the failure of the Peninsular Bank, and in 1858, Charles Howard moved to New York City. There, Charles and Sebre Howard opened the business "Howard Brothers, Firearms," which was in business from 1863 to 1874. Charles Howard died November 6, 1883, at the house of his son-in-law.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Charles 1804 births 1883 deaths Mayors of Detroit People from Chenango County, New York 19th-century American politicians