Battle Hymn of the Republic author, Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) was born in New York City to Samuel Ward, Jr., a stockbroker, and Julia Rush, a poet who died of tuberculosis when Julia was five. Howe was educated at schools for young ladies and tutored at home until the age of 16. Her father died in 1839, and five years later Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe, head of the Perkins Institute for the Blind. The couple had six children, the last of whom was born in 1859.
