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1 “The Savior Says Ask & Have Faith & Ye Shall Receive”: Charles and His Early Years Charles Henry Howard was born on October 28, 1838, in the small town of Leeds, Maine. The third son of Rowland and Eliza Howard, after Oliver Otis (only referred to as Otis by family members) and Rowland, the Howard family traced its settlement in New England back to the 1640s and to Maine shortly thereafter when it was still a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.1 Charles grew up on a small, simple family homestead where he worked from a very young age in the family’s fields harvesting their crops. Charles’s father, Rowland Bailey Howard, passed away in 1840. Only a year later his mother remarried a local military officer, John Gilmore.2 Charles’s time at home was ever so brief; he left at the age of nine to undertake studies at nearby Kents Hill School. Founded in 1824 Kents Hill School originally went by the name of Maine Wesleyan Seminary.3 Charles enjoyed his time at Kents Hill as he fully immersed himself in his studies. Charles’s first surviving correspondence as a thirteen-year-old emphasized the large role of faith in his life. Indeed, it was in 1853 while at Kents Hill that Charles officially accepted Christianity. In a September 30, 1853, letter to his mother, Eliza Gilmore, Charles remarked, “It is this I have been seeking to have my sins forgiven, seeking to get religion, & I have faith that God has forgiven men, through Jesus our Lord, & I mean to live a Christian life.”4 Charles explored both the local Congregational as well as Methodist churches before ultimately settling on the Congregational Church.5 Following his time at Kents Hill, Charles undertook studies at North Yarmouth Academy and Topsham Academy before entering Bowdoin College in the fall of 1855.6 “The Savior Says Ask & Have Faith” 2 Following in the footsteps of his brothers Otis (class of 1850) and Rowland (class of 1856), Charles entered Bowdoin College in the fall of 1855. Originally chartered in 1794 by the General Court of Massachusetts, Bowdoin College drew its name from James Bowdoin, a wealthy Bostonian in the shipping industry whose son donated land for the creation of a school.7 Set in Brunswick, Maine, along the banks of the Androscoggin River, the school became an ideal location for sons of Maine compared to the colleges and universities of Massachusetts farther afield.8 The town of Brunswick was selected following a rigorous analysis of other possible towns in the area, but generous donations by a William Stanwood and the town of Brunswick all but assured the ultimate location of the college.9 In September 1802, the first eight students of Bowdoin College commenced their studies under a watchful professor, soon becoming Bowdoin’s first graduating class in 1806.10 Despite economic struggles and the challenges faced by the establishment of Maine statehood, the school continued to grow over the course of the nineteenth century. The student body and faculty expanded, and so with it did the facilities of the college.11 Improvement to the college continued through the financial turmoil of the late 1830s so that by the time of Charles’s admission in 1855, Bowdoin was one of the strongest schools in New England from an educational and fiscal standpoint. Charles’s time at Bowdoin was interrupted by a sickness that overcame him during his freshman year. It required Charles to return to Leeds in order to regain his health. Yet this did not deter Charles, for upon his return he worked earnestly to catch up to his class, insistent that he would graduate with his classmates.12 At Bowdoin, Charles spent many dedicated hours on declamations and recitation of works of classical literature. By all accounts Charles enjoyed his time at the college and the friendships that he forged there. In a biography of Charles written by his son Otis McGraw Howard, he referenced a letter written by his father in 1892 reflecting on his time at Bowdoin. In the letter, Charles reminisced, “I do not expect ever to give her an endowment of money, but I am not insensible of the debt her sons owe to her and to those who in the early history of this century founded by their liberality and by the Christian consecration of their means, so beneficent an institution. Bowdoin has been true to her mission to give a thorough foundation of education, accompanied by positive Christian...

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