Death of I.B. Howe 23 Apr. 1880
"With malice towards none, with charity for all,"
he lived to do good.
We bring him home with love and tears.
That you may guard his place of rest.
Who knew him, through life's active years
And loved him most who knew him best.
To: Miss Sue M. Sawyer, Danvers, Mass.
From: J.C. Weston, Clinton National Bank, Clinton Iowa. Monday 4/26 1880.
Miss Sawyer.
Saturday morning last, I received a line from Henry Howe at Marshalltown saying he had a telegram that his uncle was "very low" & in less than an hour came one to me that he was gone.
The p.m. mail brought your letter & you have my thanks for the same. Of course in writing Mr. Howe I have avoided expressing the sad thought that we were never to meet again, but have for some time had that idea.
Whether he had the same, it was impossible to tell from his letters, he was so peculiar in everything, but I presume he had.
My feelings I will not even try to express, but will you please assure Mrs. Howe of my sympathy & say that now & in the hereafter I desire that she will call upon me freely for anything that lies in my power to do for her & hers.
I am sure that Mr. Young & Bailey & many others here have the same feelings.
I hope Mrs. W. will be going out to see you sometime in June, & I will write Mrs. Howe before very long.
Very truly yours, JC Weston
PS -- I will attend the business with Miss Baker. Will you please write me particulars as to funeral etc.
(in old handwriting: "from Aunt Net Scott after Father's death. " Isaac B. Howe died April 23, 1880 (he bought the Danver's house the October before). Tana
There are no references to the burial of Ike at Elmwood in Northfield. Assume the family gathered there for that event.
Clinton, April 27th, 1880
Dear Sister Annie,
How I wish I could write you and the dear children some words of comfort but the aching in my own heart can offer only tears, as my thoughts follow you in your last journey with the form of our Darling, who for the first time heeds not your tears; as you turn to go back to your home with only your children. May God comfort you all. I know you will do all you can to comfort each other and, dear Annie, you have yet a mother to love, a brother, a sister. It seems as if it had been years since I parted from him though the roses have not once bloomed. How I did want to see him once more. But he rests and we would not awaken him to suffering as he has suffered again.
Dear Georgie; I had thought how the "menfolks" would enjoy working together beautifying your grounds if you bought that place and I felt that you all would enjoy having a beautiful home as I trust you yet may, though all so different from what we hoped, though fearing all the time.
29th. Since commencing I have rec'd Ella's letter speaking of the dear Dead so tenderly, and by sympathy softening the blow that could not be withheld. Also one from sister Sophia written just before he died. Hannah &~nt Walter* out with the telegram Saturday and I went in and stayed with her till Sunday afternoon. She rec'd many tokens of sympathy. Mrs. Lee had been to see her. Mrs. Sabin's folks did all they could to comfort. Some sent flowers. But her children were as kind and thoughtful for her and me as yours can be for you, and I need say no more. They never seemed so dear to me before. Minnie grows worse rapidly. She is very poor and has very little appetite. She had two spasms that night. The care and anxiety is wearing Han out very fast I think. How it did storm that night -wind, thunder, lightening, hail and rain. But it could not break the slumber of our loved One.
Oda, dear. I had a letter partly written to you and Papa, I meant to have answered your letter long ago, but I felt so sad that it seemed as if I could not write. But I shall answer yours and Sue's* letters soon. I must write to Aunt Martha, * for I know she feels most desolate.
May the God of the widow and fatherless be with you ever to guide and bless you.
Lovingly yours,
Aunt Net
*Hannah 57 & Walter 18 were I.B.'s sister and nephew living in Clinton. Sue 25 was Aunt Sophia's daughter living with Ike's family in Danvers as 'teacher'. Aunt Martha Jones was I.B's sister living in Northfield. At this time Aunt Net was living in Clinton too although she had lived in many places. --Tana
Ella 28, Asa's daughter.
Minnie [Minnehaha 19] had supposedly died 2 years earlier in 1878; this indicates she is still alive, altho' just barely.
Census record June 1880
Letterhead:
John McGraw, Ithaca, N.Y. W. J. Young, Clinton, Iowa.
Office of W.J. Young & Co.'s Steam Gang Saw Mills,
flooring, siding, ceiling, lath and shingle mills,
Mills: cor. First St. and 10th and 14th Aves. Office: cor. 2nd Street and 10th Ave.
Clinton, Iowa. May 3, 1880
Miss Mary Howe, Danvers, Mass.
Dear Mary
Your kind but sorrowful letter of 23rd ult did not reach me till after your Dear Father's Death. When Mr. Weston got telegram Saturday morning he brought it down to me. It was a great shock to me, for I fully expected to see your dear Father out here and enjoy many a pleasant hour with him. I had told Mr. Weston to tell him to come out and spend a good time on our boats, thought it would do him good, but he is gone, and I feel that I have lost one of my best friends, we had so much pleasure together and I think the most unbounded confidence in each other. Dear Mary you have lost a kind and indulgent Father you may feel very thankful indeed to know that you had so noble a man for your Father but notwithstanding your great loss you must be thankful that you have a good and kind Mother left and that it may be and will be a great joy to you as the oldest of the family to contribute to her comfort and happiness and then how much your dear Little Sisters Oda & Daisy and your Brother George will look to you for examples for comfort & guidance. Dear Mary let me suggest to you keep up your interest in the Church, I know you used to attend Sunday school, and I know it will delight your Mother's heart see her dear children all willing workers in the church. I do pray that God will bless and comfort you all in your great affliction. Mr. Weston will send you papers showing the action taken by the citizens referring to your Father --, will you please express the deep sympathy of myself & family to your Mother, and say to her that we do hope she will come with her family & make us a visit.
with kindest regards and sympathy for you all in your great distress I am sincerely your friend W.J. Young.
Letterhead:
E.S. Bailey, Attorney at Law, Post Office Block.
Clinton, Iowa, May 3, 1880.
Miss Mary Howe
My Dear Mame,
I received your letter of the 23rd ult 2 or 3 days after we learned the sad news of your father's death. I cannot tell you deeply I feel his loss. Not only on my account but yours -- I had known him so long, so intimately and so well and had so much social and business intercourse with them and also harmoniously and pleasantly and my attachment to him had become so strong that I shall miss and warm? him almost as a member of my own family. I cannot yet reconcile myself to it and yet the frequent intelligences I received about him nearly prepared me for the worst, when it came. I sympathize most deeply with you, your mother and little sister & brother, and what ever I can do to soften your affliction and ameliorate your loss, I shall be most willing to do. I trust you will all look upon me, as I hope I am, as one of your nearest friends and whenever I can be of any service at all to you, that you will freely and without reserve, call upon me. Please tell your mother that Mrs. Bailey and all the family join me in assuring her of our warmest sympathy. I shall be very glad to hear from you often.
Affectionately yours, E.S. Bailey
Proclamation written by J. Weston
As has been announced already in these columns, Mr. I.B. Howe, lately a resident of this city, departed this life at his new home in Danvers, Mass. on 23 April last. Mr. Howe had long been in failing health and his decease was not unexpected. But yet, when death did at last occur, there was cast upon his friends in Clinton, a gloom more than usually profound. It was hard for them to realize that the places which had known him so long and so well would know him no more forever. His keen quaint but genial jests, his words of wise counsel, his friendly acts, his many evidences of a warm, true, sympathetic nature, will not readily fade from the memories of those who have known him intimately, as many of our towns folk have for more than a score of years.
The officers and directors of the Clinton National Bank, of the Clinton Savings Bank, of the Clinton Waterworks Company, and of the Clinton Gas Light and Coke Company, together with some of our old and prominent citizens assembled by appointment this afternoon at the parlor of the Clinton National Bank to adopt resolutions expressive of regard for the deceased, and of sympathy and condolence with his family. The following were adopted and Mr. J.C. Weston, an old and intimate friend of the deceased, was designated to communicate the same to the family, with assurances of the sincere sorrow and sympathy of their Clinton friends in their sad bereavement.
Resolved -- That as the business associates and long time friends of the late Isaac B. Howe, we have received the painful intelligence of his death with deep sorrow. He was no less conspicuous for his intelligence, attainments, and thorough discharge of every duty, then beloved for the modesty of his life and his genial, social disposition. His integrity was part of his nature. He was instinctively an honest man in every sense of the word. The death of a citizen so useful, of a friend so firm, deserves more than a passing notice and having been intimately associated with him for years in both business and social relations, we feel that we should fail in proper respect to his memory were his decease permitted to pass without a public expression of our sincere esteem and affection for him, in all the varied relations of life in which we have known him.
Resolved -- That a copy of the foregoing be communicated to his family, with assurances of our sincere sympathy in their deep affliction, and be placed of record in the books of the several institutions represented at this meeting.
J.C. Weston, Sec.