Estes Howe was born on July 13, 1814, the son of Samuel Howe and Sarah L. Robbins of Northampton, Massachusetts. After earning a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1832 and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1835, he established practices in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pomeroy, Ohio. Howe returned to Cambridge before 1851 and worked for the Cambridge Gas Company. He and his first wife, Harriet Maria Spelman (1814-1843), married on August 20, 1838, and had two children, Elizabeth Spelman (b. 1839) and Sarah Lydia (b. 1841). Following his wife's death, Howe married Lois Lillie (or Lilley) White (b. 1824) on December 28, 1848. Their four children were Samuel (b. 1849), Clara (b. 1851), James Robbins (b. 1860), and Lois Lillie (or Lilley) (1864-1911). In 1850, Mary and Agnes White lived with the Howe family in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Estes Howe died in January 1887.
From the guide to the Estes Howe family letters, 1835-1893, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
