He was the great grandson of Gardner Howe, an early settler in Vermont and soldier in the Revolution, and he was a direct descendant of John Howe (1602-1680) who arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 from Brinklow, Warwickshire, England.

Howe was also a descendant of Edmund Rice another early immigrant to Massachusetts.

[2] Howe worked as a reporter for newspapers in Vermont, New York and Florida before buying two Bennington, Vermont weeklies in 1902 and merging them to form the daily Bennington Banner, of which he was publisher and editor.

[5] A Republican, Howe served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1908 to 1912, and was Speaker from 1910 to 1912.

[9] He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 1914 and 1918, afterwards resuming management of his newspaper.