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- A brief biography of her can be found in Maryland's Way: the Hammond-Harwood House Cookbook, on page 282. In 1873, as "Mrs. Benjamin Chew Howard," she published a cookbook entitled Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen.
According to Maryland's Way, "Mrs. Howard was born in 1801, and died in the 90th year of her age. She was married in 1818 to Gen. Benjamin Chew Howard when she was but 17 years of age, and began to raise a family which numbered twelve children. In 1827 her husband inherited "Belvidere" from his father, John Eager Howard, and his accomplished wife became its hostess. Until 1842, when "Belvidere" was sold, Mrs. Howard received within its hospitable walls many of the leading public figures of teh country and fully maintained the high reputation which "Belvidere" had enjoyed for so long as one of the ‘foremost seats of elegant hospitality' in the country.
"Mrs. Howard undertook the effort of compiling her book and was persuaded to acknowlege it authorship ‘soley for the purpose of aiding certain benevolent undertakings.' During her long life she was actively engaged in charitable work, and in 1865 was made president of the Great Southern Relief Association which held a fair in Baltimore city at which nearly $200,000 was raised for the benefit of those who lost their all in the Civil War. She was identified with almost every charitable enterprise which the ladies of Baltimore undertook, and her life was one long career of good works.
"A friend wrote of her--'She possessed great earnestness of purpose, a strong and resolute mind, and unfailing energy. Her character was adorned with womanly tenderness, unaffected and simple courtesy, rare charm and uncommon beauty. She was a delightful conversationalist.'
"It is not to be wondered that Mrs. Howard was a universally beloved figure in her place and time, Baltimore of the 19th century, or that her warm and competent image ramins bright in the twentieth."
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