American Composer: Julia Ward Howe
A great patriot, humanitarian and composer
The life, times and accomplishments of one of America's most brilliant and patriotic women.
Famous American Women
Born in 1819, in Yonkers, New York, to a strict Episcopalian Calvinist family, Julia Ward Howe was the fifth of ten children of Samuel Ward , a well-to-do banker. Her father was the son of another Samuel Ward who served as colonial governor of Rhode Island and later as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Her mother, Julia Rush Cutler, died when she was very young and an aunt took over her care. When Julia Ward Howe's father died a few years later, her guardianship fell to a more liberal-minded uncle and Julia herself grew to be liberal in her thinking on religion and social issues.
Marriage
In 1843, at the age of 21, Julia Ward Howe married a fellow abolitionist and reformer, Samuel Gridley Howe who was the founder of Perkins School For The Blind and a radical Unitarian who had broken away from the strict Calvinism of New England and introduced his wife to a large circle known as Transcendentalism. They had six children (four of whom lived to adulthood) and lived in Boston where they were very active in the Free Soil Party. Julia' War Howe's diary tells of a violent marriage and a controlling husband who mismanaged her paternal inheritance. They considered divorce, but Julia Ward Howe endured both because she loved him and because he has threatened to take her children from her if they divorced, which was a common practice at the time.
The Battle Hymn of The Republic and Later Life
William Steffe had already written the stirring music of what would become the most popular song for the Union cause during the American Civil War. Julia Ward Howe set down the words and the song was first published in the Atlantic Monthly
in 1862.
A Unitarian, Julia Ward Howe published poetry, plays and travel books as well as many articles. After the war, she became very active in the women's rights movement and in 1870 issued the first Mother's Day Proclamation. And on January 28, 1908, Julia Ward Howe became the very first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was also inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1970. Julia ward Howe died on October 10, 1910, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The life of Julia ward Howe is testimony to the power of the female spirit and of a woman who was a great patriot, poet and humanitarian.
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