04/30/2026
Today in Chester history: April 30, 1860
George Washington Howe doesn’t return to Chester after a visit to New York City. The man looking for information as to his whereabouts is his first cousin, Elias Howe, Jr., and one of the richest men in America.
George Howe was born in North Chester in 1830 to Liberty and Lucy (Bemis) Howe. He married another Chester resident, Amy Millikan, in 1855.
In the 1860 census things looked incredible for him. At age 31 he owned a bedstead factory worth $7,800 that produced 2,500 bedsteads a year and employed eight people. Unfortunately, things were not as good as they seemed, when he didn’t return from New York City a closer look at his books showed that the business was in trouble.
He had two young children, a daughter Ida was 4 years old and a son George was just two months and in order to protect his wife and children his estate was put into bankruptcy court. His uncle Elbridge Howe was appointed one of the administrators of the estate and he purchased the factory to clear the debts of his nephew.
George returned to Chester eight months later, the story he gave was that he had been drugged and robbed in New York City and only recently recovered his memory. A few months after his return he enlisted in the 10th Massachusetts Infantry as a Private and served 21 months before receiving a disability discharge.
In 1865 he is listed in the state census as a “Mechanic”, this term usually referred to someone who was a skilled worker in a mill but not the owner. We don’t know for sure where he was working but it is very likely he was working for his uncle in the bedstead factory he used to own.
He managed to get back on his feet and bought a 250+ acre dairy farm in Middlefield. He regularly showed his dairy herd at the Middlefield Fair and became a respected member of the community.
He died in 1895 and Amy died in 1923, they are buried in the Norwich Bridge Cemetery in Huntington.
Who was his cousin, Elijah Howe Jr.? He never lived in Chester but he had deep connections here. His mother Polly Bemis was from Chester and two of his Howe uncles lived here, so he had Chester uncles, aunts and cousins on both the Bemis and Howe sides.
In 1846 he filed the first patent for a lock-stitch sewing machine, a development that ushered in the production of the modern sewing machine. Rather than manufacture the machines himself he licensed his patent to four companies, including Singer. Those companies paid him 5% of each sewing machine they sold. It was reported that he received up to $200,000 a year in licensing fees from this arrangement, the equivalent of $7.5 million a year today.
His patent was set to expire in 1867, at which time all those licensing fees would stop, so in 1863 he opened his own factory in Bridgeport CT to manufacture sewing machines under his own name.
The Chester History Museum was recently gifted one of his sewing machines by the Bush family in memory of Jean (Elder) Bush. Stop by during Chester on Track May 16th to see the invention that made Elias Howe Jr. one of the richest men in America.
