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The identity of the Henry C. Howells who write two letters to Milo Townsend is uncertain. An H.C. Howells was a writing master in Bristol, England, from 1812-1849. In an 1846 letter to John B. Estlin, Garrison spoke of H.C. Howells as a friend and asked Estlin to thank the man for his letter and to tell him that he, Garrison, was coming to Bristol. After leaving the position of writing master, Howells kept a boarding school at various places. There is no record of him in Bristol after 1849 (Merrill III 383). If he is the H.C. Howells whose letters appear below, and there is no proof of that, he had apparently emigrated to the United States. No other Henry C. Howells has been found.

In 1854 Henry C. Howells was a member of the Raritan Bay Union, founded by Rebecca Spring and her husband. A school there was under the direction of Theodore D. Weld (Sterling 307; Webster 1047).

At the time of his March 26, 1857, letter to Milo, Howells was very ill and believed he would soon die. However, the only available reference to the time of his death, if the same Howells is referred to, appears in Gerrit Smith's April 13, 1862, letter to Milo a little more than five years later when Smith wrote, "Dear Father Howells! I knew him well and to know him well was to love him greatly. I regret to learn of the straitened circumstances of his family and of the state of health of his widow."

The Raritan Bay Union from which Henry C. Howells wrote to Milo Townsend was an offshoot of the North American Phalanx, a communal society developed according to the principals of Charles Fourier (Holloway 151).

Charles Fourier, a Frenchman, had devised a complex system that he believed could be implemented in communal societies (Holloway 103).

In accordance with his plan, a number of these proposed communities or phlanaxes were to be set up in America. The North American Phalanx, established in September, 1843, was the chief testing ground for Fourierism in this country. There were at the beginning fewer than eighty members with a total capital of $8000. Horace Greeley was among those who helped to prepare for the experiment and often visited afterward. The community was located near Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey. It survived for twelve years. The residents built a three-story building as living quarters, a large grist mill and other mills, and workshops. There were seventy acres of orchard. Other crops included wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, melons, and a variety of vegetables. They obtained abundant yields of excellent quality. It is a mark of their efficiency and enthusiasm that their fields were in better condition than those of the neighboring farmers. Within nine years the value of the property had risen to $80,000 (Holloway 148-149).

Toward the end of the ninth year, the community was weakened by the withdrawal of a number of members and stockholders on religious grounds. These withdrew to form the short-lived Raritan Bay Union of which Henry C. Howells was a member (Holloway 151).

For further information on Fourierism in America and on the North American Phalanx, see in chapter 25 the section on Association/Fourierism.

Letter 66

from Henry C. Howells

R.B. Union, Perth Amboy

Decr 31, 1854

My dear friend Townsend,

More than three long-- no, short, very short months have passed away since I commingled with the happy spirits that form the pleasant circle at New Brighton.

There is yourself, your lovely and interesting wife, your beloved and venerable parents who like myself are almost on the confines of a better, happier world, then our honest friend Ewen with his amiable wife and lovely and interesting girls, then that sweet little gem of a woman opposite you who gave me Gurney's hymns, and lastly your good neighbor Mr. Higby. I have thought of you all a thousand times, and had I been disrobed of mortality I would surely have been with you as often or at least as often as I could have spared from other visits of love.

My intention was to write to you at a much earlier period, but my time has been so fully occupied that I too long neglected a correspondence even with my children. However I can now write to you concerning this place with more satisfaction to my own mind. I must first promise and set you and all my dear friends at N. Brighton (for to you all this letter comes) on your guard, that I generally look at the bright and hopeful and progressive side of every subject which concerns the extension of light, love, and blessedness in this our world. For our Father, God, and His Truth must triumph over all.

This is a lovely spot of retirement, beauty, and great capabilities of being made to promote human wants and happiness. The society includes a school of the first order conducted by Mr.T .D. Weld, consists of more than 150 persons and the most part of very intelligent and congenial minds, kind and Christian with a variety of religious theories tho for the most part Spiritualists. The families here live apart and can cook for themselves or take their meals at the public table. There is a large handsome palace-like-looking unitary dwelling and the old Mansion. In the latter we live which commands most beautiful country.

Jany 22nd. Just one month since I began this letter, which I could not finish, so fully is my time occupied. I now wish you all a most happy new year, a year in which you will prosper more than ever you have done in all that is just, true, lovely, and of good report. That you may be the better

prepared, by the indwelling spirit of the Holy, lowly Jesus, and thus be the better fitted for an inheritance with the spirits of the just made perfect.

I have just been reading that interesting Spiritual Telegraph of yesterday. How much of precious truth it contains. Poor Doctor Dodds. "Saul among the prophets"! That is an excellent joke, if there was no such thing as conscience.

We have a meeting here every first day morning pretty much like friends' meeting except that sometimes we read scripture or other works and generally sing once or twice. The speakers are various men and women. Theodore D. Weld is the master spirit, a mind of the most spiritual and powerful order. If you come this way come and see us. The Steamer John Potter connected with Perth Amboy, stops at Perth Amboy, which is only one mile from Raritan Bay Union.

The winter is passing away. The snow and frost will soon be gone, the flowers will soon appear, the birds return and resume their song and the voice of the turtle dove be heard in our land. Oh! This is a world of beauty. But what to the bright world to which we go.

Every first day evening we have a discussion in the Welds's school room of some reformatory subject in which all may take a part. This has been the most happy and merry Christmas I ever had a portion in in the way of music and dancing. Both are delightful and innocent amusements and good for health of body and soul. See the beautiful parable of the prodigal son's return and the joy of angels over him. This is the 28 of Janr. I could not close this before.

With the kindest love of my heart to you all, I am your friend and Brother

Henry C. Howells

Adieu!

Let us hear from you soon.

Theodore Dwight Weld (November 23, 1803-February 3, 1895) was born in Connecticut and was comverted to Presbyterianism by Charles G. Finney in 1825. By 1830 he was a committed abolitionist. At Lane Seminary in Cincinnati four years later, Weld was the leader of a group of antislavery students called the Lane Rebels. When the trustees of the school ordered the group to disband, Weld left the school. He became a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society in the same year and two years later was a trainer and leader of the traveling agents. By 1836 seventy of his trained lecturers were in the field. These proved to be such a success that the society put all of its resources into speakers, canceling their pamphlet campaign (Frost 425). It was Weld who converted Gerrit Smith to abolitionism. In 1838 he married Angelina Grimke, effectively taking both her and her sister Sarah, who lived with the couple, out of their work as antislavery lecturers, a marriage which Parker Pillsbury doubted caused any joy in heaven because it deprived the cause of the very effective Grimke sisters. . After some more antislavery work, he became convinced that his labors for the movement had been accomplished and returned to private life (Kraditor 33 n, 168; Sterling 221),

Weld, who advocated absolute equality of the sexes, had urged the Grimke sisters (before his marriage to Angelina) to lecture publicly in "promiscuous assemblies," (assemblies made up of both men and women); for as Southerners the sisters could do much more for the antislavery cause than would be possible for Northern women. However, he urged them to stick to abolition because he believed that by pushing for the rights of the enslaved they would also be advancing women's rights without even mentioning that issue (Kraditor 60, 61). According to Hart in The Oxford Companion to American Literature , Weld was the first and most influential abolitionist in the country (904). which statement seems more than a little overblown. His tract, American Slavery As It Is was used by Harriet Beecher Stowe as an important source for Uncle Tom's Cabin (Hart 904). Weld was the nephew of Dr Thaddeus Clarke, Sarah Jane Clarke's father, and may have become acquainted with Milo through the Clarkes (Webster 1047).

On January 23, 1864, Ellen Angier, a former resident of New Brighton but currently teaching in New York City, wrote to Milo about meeting Theodore Weld:

Who do you think I saw the other night? No one less than Theodore Weld! He came in to our gymnasium and I was introduced and had a long talk with him. Isn't he magnificent, glorious! I never saw an old gentleman whom I admired so much; I think he would be a perpetual inspiration to one. We had a long and interesting conversation, and among other agreeable topics talked about Willie Howells. He said he was a beautiful boy and that his father's mantle had fallen most worthily upon him.

Weld told Ellen that Milo had written to him asking that he try to find a position for Willie Howells (perhaps a son of Henry C. Howells) and that "he and his wife had been casting about to see what they could do for Willie but so far had met with no success" (Angier). While Weld was still at the academy, a homeopathic doctor to whom Ellen Angier had spoken about taking Willie into his office, arrived. Angier wrote, "Weld gave Willie such a recommendation that the doctor is anxious to have him with him."

Two months after meeting Weld, Ellen Angier, wrote to Milo about hearing him speak:

I did hear Mr. Weld. What he said was well, excellent. But his voice is weak and he is too lengthy. I wish he taught school as of old. I should love to teach with him. Do you know about his sons? The oldest is pro-slavery in sentiment, admires Louis Napoleon and has gone to join the French Army. The other was a magnificent little boy, full of talent and high promise and now he is hopelessly insane. I think his trouble is a softening of the brain. When I see you and Lizzie I will tell you what I think is the reason they are so unfortunate in their children....

The children were Charles, born December 14, 1839; Theodore, born January 3, 1841; and Sarah, born March 22, 1844 (Ruchames IV 216 n).

The Welds and Sarah Grinke moved to the Raritan Bay Union at Eagleswood, New Jersey, in 1854. Both the Welds and Sarah had invested a thousand dollars in this cooperative community. Weld was director of the community school, called the Eagleswood School.

The cooperative died at the end of the second year of its existence, but the Welds and Sarah continued to live there on their own land and to operate the school, which became private, until 1862, when they moved to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Their final move was to Hyde Park, Massachusetts, where they lived for the remainder of their lives (Sterling 307; Ruchames IV 216 n).

There is one other letter from Henry C. Howells. It was written from Eagleswood, the Raritan Bay Union having by that time failed.

Letter 97

from Henry C. Howells

Eagleswood, March. 26/57

Milo Townsend

My Dear friend:

As I am indebted to you a letter which I have not been able to answer heretofore, & believing that the brotherly affection which has long existed between us is undying, I think it well, though from much weakness I am compelled to use the hand of a dear friend, to write you a few lines from the borders of that happy spirit land to which I am hastening. My complaint being dropsy & asthma combined, I think it not unlikely that my stay will be very short.

I am indebted to you, my dear friend, for having first called my attention to the glorious realities of Spiritualism, which being in harmony with the spirit & love of Jesus, cheers my heart and elevates my hopes-- There are two mistakes which the world is making, one is the bold assertion that the whole Bible is the word of God and must be received as such on peril of salvation-- This conflicting with common sense & the best principles of our natures, has led other minds-- because they will not be trammeled, to reject the whole of Scriptures as unworthy of their regard. Now dear friend, if God has ever revealed his mind to man, most precious revelations will be found in the prophets, the psalms, the teachings of Jesus & the writings of the Apostles-- I am thankful, very thankful, that now in my weakness when unable to read, or to hear much, that the dew-drops of divine love are brought fresh into my soul, both by day & during the sleepless hours of night, in the form of precious portions from Scripture--

Give my kindest love to your venerable father & mother, to your beloved wife, to the widow Townsend & her family-- To the honest millwright whose name I forget, and his dear family-- To the dear little Quaker dame (whose name I also forget) that gave me the hymn book. And through her to dear little Sallie Jordan.

Dear friends, Adieu, till we meet all in glory. May every blessing in time and eternity rest upon you all.

Henry C. Howells