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William Wirt Howe
Overview
William Wirt Howe (1833–1909) was a Hamilton College alumnus (Class of 1853) who became a prominent jurist and legal scholar, serving as a Federal judge in New Orleans and authoring works on civil law and Louisiana legal history. Named for the celebrated orator William Wirt, he pursued a legal career in the South after the Civil War and was recognized by Hamilton with an honorary LL.D. He is notable in the Hamilton corpus as a recurring figure in alumni listings spanning five decades of course catalogs, and his name appears consistently among the college’s most distinguished 19th-century graduates.
Relevance to Research
Howe appears in Hamilton course catalogs from his student years (1850–53) through the early 20th century, documenting his trajectory from enrolled student to honored alumnus. He is listed as a sophomore in the 1850–51 catalog (under his class grouping), as a junior in 1851–52, and as a senior in 1852–53 with the residence Canandaigua, room 28D. By the 1881–82 catalog he appears in the alumni publications list as the author of “The Pasha Papers: Epistles of Mohammed Pasha” (published in New York). By 1902–03 he is listed among the college’s half-century annalists for the Class of 1853, with the title “Hon. William Wirt Howe, LL.D., New Orleans, La.” — confirming his honorary degree and his residence in New Orleans. The Hamilton Life and later Spectator corpus contains no further substantive mentions; the 1977 Spectator reference to a “William Howe” is to the British general of the Revolutionary War era, not this alumnus.
Notes
Role: Jurist; Federal judge; legal scholar; Hamilton College alumnus
Hamilton connection: Class of 1853 (enrolled ca. 1850–53; from Canandaigua, N.Y.); recipient of honorary LL.D.
Key corpus appearances:
- 1850–51: Listed among students, class grouping consistent with sophomore year; from Canandaigua (yhm-arc-pub-cat-1850-51)
- 1851–52: Listed explicitly under “Juniors” (yhm-arc-pub-cat-1851-52)
- 1852–53: Listed under “Seniors,” residence Canandaigua, room 28D (yhm-arc-pub-cat-1852-53)
- 1881–82: Listed in the alumni publications section as author of “The Pasha Papers: Epistles of Mohammed Pasha,” published in New York (yhm-arc-pub-cat-1881-82)
- 1902–03: Listed as Half-Century Annalist for the Class of 1853 with the designation “Hon. William Wirt Howe, LL.D., New Orleans, La.” — placing him in New Orleans at this date (yhm-arc-pub-cat-1902-03)
- Post-1902: No further confirmed mentions of this individual in the corpus; subsequent “Howe” references in catalogs and the Spectator refer to other individuals
Related Sources
[No source pages created for individual corpus issues]