Benjamin Chandler HOWARD of Boston Mass. [23269]

  General Notes:

Death of Mr B. C. Howard.
An Old Resident of Yokohama Passes Away.
A cable has been received at the Yokohama office of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co, announcing the death on Friday, the 10th inst, in California, of Mr Benjamin Chandler Howard, the agent of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co at Yokohama.
Mr Howard was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 11, 1849. He passed through St Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, one of the leading Latin Schools of America, and entered the service of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co in 1873. In this service he was transferred to Japan in 1884, and became the Agent of the Company and Agent of the Occidental and Oriental Steam Ship Company, (an allied organisation) in 1892. When the service of the Toyo Kisen Kaisha was inaugurated in 1898 he also assumed the agency of that Company, and later, in 1904, the agency of the Portland and Asiatic Steamship Co. When he was compelled, by reason of the necessity for caring for his health, to leave Yokohama, he was General Agent of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for Japan.
Mr Howard was for a short time Consul General for the Republic of Hawaii, resigning this appointment in 1896. He has served on the Committee and Boards of many of the public and business Associations of Yokohama, and was thoroughly identified as a public spirited man, with the various charitable organisations whose work is centred in Yokohama.
His position made his name a well-known one throughout the Far East, and his broad humanity, and the fairness induced by lack of prejudice, attracted to him a wide circle of friends. He was thoroughly respected, not only by foreigners, but by the Japanese amongst whom he had lived for many years, this respect having been notably evident by the conferring upon him, in October 1911, by his Majesty the Emperor of Japan, at the request of the Gov of Kanagawa Ken, the decoration of the Fourth Order of Merit of the Rising Sun.
Mr Howard was first stricken with paralysis at Yokohama on 30 September, 1911. With Mrs Howard, he left for Paso Robles, California, on 27th of December last, and remained there for about three months, removing to Santa Barbara, where he died on Friday last, the cause of death being stated as apoplexy.
Mr Howard leaves, to mourn his loss, his wife and two daughters, the elder of whom is Mrs C W Atkinson of Kobe, and the younger Mrs Robert F Moss, of Yokohama.
At the local P.M. office today the flag was half-masted as a mark of respect.
An unidentified newspaper -.May 10 1912

Benjamin married Ella C (Nellie) HOPPS of San Francisco [23270] [MRIN: 8354], daughter of Charles HOPPS [23649] and Jennetta HART [23653], about 1884 in Californiaq USA. (Ella C (Nellie) HOPPS of San Francisco [23270] was born on 6 Dec 1855 in San Francisco CA USA, died on 6 Dec 1956 in Laguna Beach Orange Co CA USA and was buried on 3 Feb 1956 in Cypress Lawn Cemetery Colmar CA USA.)