Born in
Northampton, Massachusetts, on May 20, 1848, Howe was of
pilgrim ancestry. He grew up in the Boston suburb of
Brookline, where he attended a local academy. He graduated from
Harvard University in 1869, and, three years later, graduated from the
Harvard University School of Law. as a protest against McKinley. They nominated
Donelson Caffery of Louisiana, a US Senator and Democrat, for President and Howe for Vice President. Caffery had not asked to be nominated by a party other than his own, and he quickly withdrew; Howe followed, and the party merely asked its followers nationwide to vote for the party's electors as a protest vote. Few votes were received. Howe spent much of his life doing historical research; reading and writing papers on history. He was a member of the Massachusetts Reform Club, and there in 1900 read a paper which denounced imperialism and the "spirit of empire". His obituary in
The Boston Globe stated that he was "a brilliant, forceful speaker". In his final years, Howe was in declining health. On the morning of January 6, 1916, two policemen found Howe, stumbling around in the street, barefoot and in his night-clothes. He was covered in blood, and police found a stab wound to his neck and a large bruise on his head. Taken to the hospital, Howe died later that morning. A search of his home showed the wounds to be self-inflicted. He was buried at
Mount Auburn Cemetery. At the time of his death, he was married to Ania Sargeant Divwell, whom he married in 1881. ==References==