Background
Emily Howland was born at Sherwood, Cayuga County, New York, on November 20, 1827. She was the only daughter of Slocum and Hannah (Tallcot) Howland. Her grandparents had been prominent among the Quaker pioneers who settled the eastern shore of Lake Cayuga some thirty years earlier. Her father was a man of many interests, owning several farms and engaging in the wool and grain trade on the lake. The community observed strict Quaker discipline and discussed in meeting the evils of war, intemperance, and slavery. Women took free part in the discussions and some would buy no goods produced by slave labor.
Education
Emily Howland was sent to good local schools and then to Miss Grew's school for girls in Philadelphia. At sixteen she was at home again, still studying and reading whatever came her way.
In 1926 she received and honorary Litt. D. degree from the University at Albeany, SUNY, the first woman to have this honor conferred upon her from this institution.
Career
Her father took the National Anti-Slavery Standard and she agonized over slavery. Finally, in 1857, she went to Washington to teach in Miss Miner's normal school for colored girls. During the Civil War she helped organize the Freedman's Village at Camp Todd for refugee slaves, nursing through a smallpox epidemic and teaching school day and night.
After the war, her father bought for her a tract of land in Northumberland County, Va. Thither she transported destitute families and there she boldly opened a colored school, visiting later neighboring districts and starting other schools. Her own school she supported for fifty years until the state of Virginia took it over. Her interest spread rapidly to colored schools throughout the South and to other educational institutions. Many of these she visited and to all she became a generous and understanding friend.
In 1871 she helped found the Sherwood Select School (later the Emily Howland School) in her native village and in 1882 she assumed financial responsibility for it, erecting a new building and taking its teachers into her own household, an arrangement which she maintained until 1927, when she relinquished the school to the state.
She had then been patron, teacher, or director in thirty schools. She had ardor to spare for other causes and a gift for terse and forcible speech. She took part in temperance agitation and other enterprises for social betterment and in her last years she was a tireless champion of international peace. From 1891 until her death she was a director of the Aurora National Bank.
Religion
She deplored the asceticism of her Quaker youth, choosing to attend a Unitarian church whenever it was possible.
Membership
For years she was president of the county Woman's Suffrage Association and coworker with Susan B. Anthony and Anna H. Shaw in the general suffrage movement.
Personality
She was genial and humorous, loved travel, flowers, and gaieties.