Editing Samuel Gridley Howe (section)

==Early life and education==
Howe was born on Pearl Street in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], on November 10, 1801.<ref name="Richards, Laura E. page 13">Richards, Laura E. (Howe). ''Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe'', p. 13. Boston: Dana Estes & Company, 1909</ref> His father, [[Joseph Neals Howe]], was a ship-owner and rope manufacturer in Boston.  The business was prosperous until he supplied the U.S. Government with ropes during the war of 1812 and was never paid.<ref name="three">[https://books.google.com/books?id=v5laAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA35 "Maud Howe Elliott"] ''Three Generations with Illustrations'', Boston: Little, Brown, And Company, 1923: p. 35</ref><ref>Richards, Laura E. (Howe). ''Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe'', p. 14. Boston: Dana Estes & Company, 1909.</ref> His mother Patty (Gridley) Howe was considered to be one of the most beautiful women of her day.<ref name="Richards, Laura E. page 13"/> Samuel Gridley Howe's grandfather, [[Edward Compton Howe]], was one of the patriots at the [[Boston Tea Party]].<ref name="three"/>

Howe was educated at [[Boston Latin School]], where he was cruelly treated and even beaten, according to his daughter.<ref name="Richards, Laura E. page 14">Richards, Laura E. (Howe). ''Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe'', page 14. Boston: Dana Estes & Company, 1909.</ref> Laura (Howe) Richards later wrote: "So far as I can remember, my father had no pleasant memories of his school days."<ref name="Richards, Laura E. page 14"/>

Boston in the early nineteenth century was a hotbed of political foment. Howe's father was a Democrat who considered [[Harvard University]] a den of [[Federalist Party|Federalists]], refusing to allow his sons to enter the university.<ref name="Richards, Laura E. page 14"/> Accordingly, Howe's father had him enrolled at [[Brown University]] in 1818.<ref name="Richards, Laura E. page 15">Richards (1909), ''Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe'', page 15</ref> He engaged in many practical jokes and other high jinks and, years later, Howe told his children that he regretted that he hadn't more seriously applied himself to his studies.<ref name="Richards, Laura E. page 15"/> One of his classmates, [[Alexis Caswell]], future doctor and president of Brown University described Howe as the following: "he showed mental capabilities which would naturally fit him for fine scholarship. His mind was quick, versatile, and inventive. I do not think he was deficient in logical power, but the severer studies did not seem to be congenial to him."<ref>Richards (1909), ''Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe'', p. 17</ref> After graduating from Brown in 1821, Howe attended [[Harvard Medical School]], taking his [[Doctor of Medicine|degree]] in 1824.<ref>Richards (1909), ''Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe'', pp. 19–20</ref>

[[File:Samuel_Gridley_Howe_-_John_Elliot.jpg|thumb|Samuel Gridley Howe painted in the dress of a Greek soldier by [[John Elliott (artist)|John Elliott]]. Elliott married Howe's daughter [[Maud Howe Elliott|Maud Howe]].]]