Chapter XXXIV
I have alluded several times to the great House of G. & S. S. Howland, now Howland & Aspinwall. The two Howlands that come to this city were Gardner Greene and Samuel Shaw Howland. They founded the great commercial house of G. G. & S. S. Howland, now Howland & Aspinwall. They were sons of Joseph Howland, of New London, Connecticut. He was in the whaling business.
Both sons came to New York while boys to learn business, Gardner G. became a clerk with the house of Leroy, Bayard & McEvers. I have alluded to this house in another chapter under the firm of Leroy & Bayard. The house started in 1790 under that style. Herman Leroy was of the firm then. They did business at No. 3 Hanover Square. Herman lived over the store, as was then the custom. William Bayard lived at No. 43 Wall street. They took in Charles McEvers, who had previously done business upon his own account at 194 Water street, and lived at 34 Wall street. This last residence was famed for many years as the McEvers mansion. Through it led Wall street Court to Pine street. The mansion was next door to the Bank of New York.
The old man Charles McEvers was of the house of Le Roy, Bayard & McEvers from before 1804 to long after 1815. Their counting house for many years was at 66 Broadway, where old Herman Le Roy lived, and afterwards the office and store was at 66 Washington street.
It was with this great house Gardner G. Howland clerked it for many years, rose to be head clerk, and when he left them was a thorough business man. G. G. at first went alone, and after the war he became prominent as a merchant. Then he did business at 77 Washington street, and his residence was in the rear at No. 64 Greenwich street. The firm was G. G. Howland. Samuel had been a clerk in the auction business. When he commenced business on his own account it was as a coffee broker.
While a clerk with Le Roy, Bayard & McEvers, Gardner G. Howland was sent out to Matanzas as supercargo of a little brig. He then probably formed many connections that in after years added to his commercial grandeur. While in Cuba he visited St. Jago de Cuba, and there formed the business acquaintance of the great house of Wright, Shelton & Co. Few can have an idea what a business that house of Wright, Shelton & Co. did for many years, forty or fifty years ago. Wright was an Englishman, a monstrous large man. The Sheltons were from about Derby, Connecticut. Stephen was the senior brother. He died in a boarding house in State street. Henry Shelton was a large man. He came to New York finally and married a daughter of Elisha W. King of Westchester County. Mr. King was a renowned lawyer in this city in the early part of this century. Henry Shelton's beautiful widow afterwards married Doctor Watson. Philo S. Shelton married and settled in Boston, where he is or was one of the " solid men," owns a few Guano Islands, and has recently recovered from Venezuela a few hundred thousands of dollars, thanks to Senator Westcott of Florida, " who worked up the case," and has received the trifling check of $50,000 for his trouble.
One of the Shelton brothers kept a tin shop down by the bridge in New Haven in the olden time. Many of the graduates of Old Yale have visited old Shelton's tin shop, and will recollect it.
A Miss Shelton married Nehemiah Sanford, who kept a tin shop at Woodbury, Connecticut. He made all sorts of tin ware, and employed several tin peddlers to dispose of his wares in other States. But old Nehemiah is more remarkable for being the father of Henry Shelton Sanford, his only son, recently appointed Minister to Belgium by our new President, Abraham Lincoln. H. S. Sanford was named after his uncle, Henry Shelton, of the great house at St. Jago de Cuba, who made immense sums by importing cargoes of unchristianized Africans to that island.
To go back to G. G. Howland. He spent several days at the Gran Sofia the largest coffee plantation in Cuba, and owned by old Wright. It is located about thirty miles from the city of St. Jago.
When Gardner returned to New York, he made arrangements to commence on his own account. He did business for three years before Samuel joined him. Meanwhile he had married a daughter of the rich William Edgar, a wealthy old merchant, who commenced business at 7 Wall street in 1786, and continued there for some years after. For twenty years and more, commencing at 1800, he lived at 39 Broadway; and in that house the friends assembled at Gardner G. Howland's wedding. From Miss Edgar he received capital and credit sufficient to establish the firm of G. G. & S. Howland.
The first vessel the firm owned was a schooner, and she was named the "Edgar." She lasted many years, and they kept her running in the Matanzas trade.
This schooner was built and named the same year that William Edgar Howland (the eldest son of G. G. Howland) was born.
G. G. & S. S. Howland worked along by degrees, until they got into a very heavy Mexican and West India business, Vera Cruz, Campeachy, &c., &c.
The house suffered heavily by placing too great confidence in a person (I suppress his name) it sent out as agent. It nearly broke them. The firm suffered terribly, and came very near failing. Nothing saved them but the indomitable courage of G. G. Howland. He mastered all the difficulties. He frequently said, that on but two occasions was his house in danger. One by the rascality of their agent in Mexico, and again in the "Greek business."
The concern stretched out and made new commercial connections in all directions. The house opened a trade with the Mediterranean, and also became largely connected with England.
From the time of the shock owing to the Swartwouting of their agent; to the Greek business, the second crisis in their affairs, the Howlands went on swimmingly.
The Greek business nearly broke them. The firm contracted to build two men-of-war for the unfortunate Greeks. Le Roy Bayard & Co. shared in this contract. I shall allude to it in detail in another chapter. They employed Commodore Chancy, under whose inspection the Greek frigates were built. But one was sent out to Greece. The other was bought by our Government, and eventually rotted in the house at the Brooklyn navy yard.
The Howlands went through the cotton panic in 1826, when hundreds of houses failed. After this difficulty, Gardner G. Howland went to England. He afterwards traveled all over Europe. His pleasing address, and encouraging mode of talking, made him very popular, and he procured an enormous business both from England and from the continental cities. That business has never decreased.
William H. Aspinwall was a nephew. He was brought up in the house as a clerk. About 1832, he was taken into the house of G. G. & S. S. Howland as a partner. They gave Mr. A. one quarter of the profits of the commission business (which that year was $60,000.) The same offer was made at the same time to Moses Taylor, who was also a clerk with G. G. & S. S. Howland.
Moses declined the offer, and started next door to G. G. & S. S. H., who kept then at Nos. 49 and 50 South street, where the office is still kept.
G. G. Howland lived for many years at No. 18 Greenwich street. Afterwards Sam lived in the same house, and Gardner moved to the splendid house with pillars at No. 7 State street. It is still standing.
The firm of G. G. & S. S. Howland was changed in 1836 or 1837, to Howland & Aspinwall. The two old Howlands retired as active partners, each one putting in a cash capital of $100,000. The general partners were William Edgar Howland, the eldest son of Gardner G., by his first wife, and William H. Aspinwall.