Representative Nathaniel Woodhull Howell

Nathaniel Woodhull Howell (January 1, 1770 – October 15, 1851) was a United States representative from New York and a prominent early jurist and public official in western New York. He was born in Blooming Grove, Orange County, New York, on January 1, 1770, into a region that was then part of the developing Hudson Valley frontier. Little is recorded about his immediate family background, but his early life in Orange County placed him within the emerging social and political networks of post-Revolutionary New York.

Howell pursued higher education at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, and graduated in 1788, at a time when the institution was a leading training ground for clergy, lawyers, and public officials in the new republic. After completing his studies, he returned to New York and taught school in Montgomery, Orange County, from 1789 to 1792. During these years he combined teaching with the study of law, following the then-customary practice of reading law under established attorneys rather than attending a formal law school.

After his legal studies, Howell was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in New York. From 1794 to 1796 he practiced law in New York City and in Tioga County, reflecting the westward movement of settlement and legal institutions in the state. In 1796 he settled in Canandaigua, in what became Ontario County, where he continued in active legal practice from 1796 until his death in 1851. Canandaigua was then an important center of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and a focal point of land speculation and development, giving Howell a significant role in the legal affairs of the growing western region.

Howell’s public career began early in his years in western New York. From 1799 to 1802 he served as attorney general for western New York, an office that made him the chief legal officer for that extensive and rapidly developing portion of the state. In this capacity he represented the state’s interests in civil and criminal matters and helped to establish the rule of law in newly settled communities. He entered elective politics as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1804, representing his locality in the state legislature during a period of intense partisan competition between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.

Howell sought national office several times before achieving election. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 1802 and 1804 from New York’s 17th congressional district, and again in 1808 from the 15th congressional district. These repeated candidacies reflected both his standing in the Federalist Party and the shifting boundaries and political alignments of early nineteenth-century New York. His persistence was rewarded when he was elected as a Federalist to the Thirteenth Congress, serving as a United States representative from March 4, 1813, to March 3, 1815. His term coincided with the War of 1812, during which New York, as a border state, was of particular strategic and political importance. As a Federalist in Congress during wartime, he was part of a minority party often critical of the Madison administration’s conduct of the war, though specific details of his committee assignments and floor activity are not extensively documented.

After leaving Congress, Howell continued to play a significant role in the public life of New York. In 1817 he was appointed a member of the commission to appraise the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, an early enterprise aimed at improving navigation between the Hudson River and the interior waterways of New York. His work on this commission placed him in the midst of the state’s broader efforts to enhance internal improvements and commercial infrastructure in the years leading up to the construction of the Erie Canal. In 1819 he was appointed the first judge of Ontario County, a position he held from 1819 to 1832. As first judge, he presided over the county’s principal court, overseeing both civil and criminal matters and helping to shape the legal framework of a region that was rapidly growing in population and economic significance.

In his later years, Howell remained in Canandaigua, where he continued his legal practice and maintained his standing as a respected figure in the community. His long residence and professional activity in the village spanned more than five decades, during which Canandaigua evolved from a frontier settlement into a well-established regional center. Nathaniel Woodhull Howell died in Canandaigua, New York, on October 15, 1851. He was interred in West Avenue Cemetery in Canandaigua, where his burial marked the close of a career that had encompassed service as educator, lawyer, legislator, congressman, commissioner, and judge during the formative years of both New York State and the United States.