Gardiner Greene Howland

Gardiner Greene Howland (September 4, 1787 – November 9, 1851) was an American businessman notable for his role as a founding partner in the merchant firm of Howland & Aspinwall and as a co-founder of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.

**Early life**

Howland was born in New York City on September 4, 1787. His parents were Joseph Howland (1750–1836) and Lydia (née Bill) Howland (1753–1838). His mother married Joseph Howland in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1772. He had several siblings, including Lydia Howland (who married Levi Coit), Jane Abigail Howland (wife of George Muirson Woolsey), Harriet Howland (third wife of New York State Assemblyman James Roosevelt), Susan Howland (who married dry goods merchant John Aspinwall), and Samuel Shaw Howland. His paternal grandparents were Abigail (née Burt) Howland and Nathaniel Howland. Nathaniel Howland was a descendant of John Howland, a passenger on the Mayflower and a signer of the 1620 Mayflower Compact.

His niece, Mary Rebecca Aspinwall, was married to Isaac Roosevelt, a grandson of James Roosevelt and the grandfather of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His nephew was Joseph Howland, a Union Army officer and New York State Treasurer.

**Career**

Together with his brother Samuel, Howland established the merchant firm G.G. & S.S. Howland, which specialized in importing high-status goods such as porcelain, silk, and tea from China to wealthy Americans. In 1832, his son William Edgar Howland and nephew William Henry Aspinwall became partners in What became known as Howland & Aspinwall. Aspinwall assumed the presidency in 1835 and expanded the company's trade network to South America, China, Europe, the Mediterranean, and the East and West Indies.

Howland & Aspinwall owned several notable clipper ships, including the Ann McKim, regarded as one of the fastest ships afloat, and the Rainbow, regarded as the first of the extreme clippers with a revolutionary sharp bow design. The firm also built the Sea Witch in 1846, which set a speed record from China to New York that still stands. The company's profitability contributed to the wealth of the Howland and Aspinwall families.

In the 1840s, John Lloyd Aspinwall succeeded William Henry Aspinwall as president of the firm. In 1848, Howland, William Henry Aspinwall, and Henry Chauncey co-founded the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to establish transoceanic service to California. This enterprise was subsidized by the federal government, ahead of the California Gold Rush. The company’s first vessel was heavily booked with passengers. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company eventually evolved into what is now the American President Lines and is part of Neptune Orient Lines.

**Personal life**

Howland married twice. His first wife was Louisa Edgar (1789–1826), whom he married on December 14, 1812. She was the daughter of William Edgar, and they had five children: William Edgar Howland, Annabella Edgar Howland, Abby Woolsey Howland, Robert Shaw Howland, and Marie Louisa Howland. Annabella married Rufus Leavitt; Abby married Frederick Henry Wolcott Sr.; Robert founded the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York and married Mary Elizabeth Watts Woolsey; Marie married James Brown.

Following Louisa Edgar Howland's death, Howland remarried on July 7, 1829, to Louisa Sophia Meredith (1810–1888), daughter of Jonathan Meredith. Their children included Rebecca Brien Howland (who married her second cousin James Roosevelt Sr., and was a grandmother of Franklin D. Roosevelt), Meredith Howland, Gardiner Greene Howland Jr., Joanna Hone Howland, Emma Meredith Howland (who died in infancy), and Samuel Shaw Howland.

Howland was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, upon his death on November 9, 1851.

**Descendants**

Through his daughter Rebecca, Howland was the grandfather of James Roosevelt Roosevelt (1854–1927), who married Helen Schermerhorn Astor. Through his son Gardiner Jr., he was the grandfather of Maud Howland (who married Percy Rivington Pyne II) and Dulany Howland (who married Marguerite McClure).