William Alanson Howard
American politician, Michigan (1813-1880)
William Alanson Howard (April 8, 1813 – April 10, 1880) served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1859, and from May 15, 1860, to March 3, 1861. Howard was the sixth governor of the Dakota Territory from 1878 to 1880.
Biography
William Howard was born at Hinesburg, Vermont. When he was fourteen, Howard apprenticed to a cabinet maker at Albion, New York. He graduated from Middlebury College at Middlebury, Vermont in 1839. Howard taught school before moving to Michigan for health reasons. Howard spent a year teaching mathematics at the University of Michigan. Then, Howard studied law and was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1842 before practicing law in Detroit. In 1850 he was a lead defense attorney for those accused of plotting the burning of the Michigan Central Depot in Detroit.
In 1854, Howard was elected as a Republican candidate to represent Michigan's 1st congressional district in the 34th Congress, and was re-elected two years later.
“William Alanson Howard” enters the record as american politician, Michigan (1813-1880). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Alanson and Howard can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1509888. VIAF identifies the subject as 61414994. The Library of Congress control number is nr93009208. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1813, 1880, 1855 and 1859.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Alanson Howard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.