Biography

Charles Howard was born August 7, 1804, in Chenango County, New York

Chenango County, New York

Chenango County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 50,477. The county's name originates from an Oneida word meaning "large bull-thistle." Its county seat is Norwich.-History:...

. His family moved to Port Jervis, New York

Port Jervis, New York

Port Jervis is a city on the Delaware River in western Orange County, New York, with a population of 8,860 at the 2000 census. The communities of Deerpark, Huguenot, Sparrowbush, and Greenville are adjacent to Port Jervis, and the towns of Montague, New Jersey and Matamoras, Pennsylvania face the...

; when Charles Howard was an adult he moved to Sackets Harbor, New York

Sackets Harbor, New York

Sackets Harbor is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 1,386 at the 2000 census. The village was named after land developer and owner Augustus Sackett, who founded it in the early 19th century.The Village of Sackets Harbor is within the western part of the...

 and worked as a schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 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, New York

Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 18,142 at the 2010 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in north-central New York and promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York"...

, 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 Howard

Bronson Howard was a well-known American dramatist and son of Detroit mayor Charles Howard. He prepared for college at New Haven, Conn., but instead of entering Yale he turned to Journalism in New York. From 1867 to 1872 he worked on several newspapers, among them the Evening Mail and the Tribune...

.

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 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

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. Indeed, because of the interconnectedness of the world economy by the time of the 1850s, the financial crisis which began in the autumn of 1857 was...

 caused the failure of the Peninsular Bank, and in 1858, Charles Howard moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. 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.