”Around the Capital” (detail), engraving, Thomas Fleming, 1902, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

HOWELL, Benjamin Franklin, a Representative from New Jersey; born in Cedarville, Cumberland County, N.J., January 27, 1844; attended the common schools; was graduated from Fort Edward Institute, New York; enlisted in the Twelfth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, in 1862 and served until the close of the war; engaged in mercantile pursuits in South Amboy, N.J., 1865; surrogate of Middlesex County 1882-1892; president of the People’s National Bank of New Brunswick and vice president of the New Brunswick Savings Institution; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth and to the seven succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1895-March 3, 1911); chairman, Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (Fifty-eighth through Sixty-first Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910 to the Sixty-second Congress; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1896; member of the United States Immigration Commission 1907-1910; died at New Brunswick, N.J., February 1, 1933; interment in Christ Cemetery, South Amboy, N.J.