Edgar Wellington Howe was born in Concord, Massachusetts about 1846. He enrolled as a cadet at West Point in 1874, and graduated in 1878. He achieved the rank of Second Lieutenant in the 17th Infantry of the U. S. Army and served on frontier duty at Fort Sisseton, Dakota from 1878 to 1880, and at Fort Yates, Dakota until 1882. He taught Military Science and Tactics at Bowdoin College, Maine in 1882 and at Maine State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts until 1885. He returned to frontier duty in 1885, serving first at Fort Custer, Montana; then at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, and finally at Fort Steele, Wyoming. After a leave of absence in 1887, he returned to Fort D. A. Russell. In 1889 he left for instruction at the Engineer Torpedo School at Willet's Point, New York. He served in the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and in the Cuban Army of Pacification.

Howe married Julia Rosenberger and they had four children including a daughter, Gertrude, who married M. W. Piper in 1921. The Pipers moved to Nacogdoches, Texas about 1939 and ran Las Casitas Motor Court from 1947 until 1970, the year Mrs. Piper died. Col. Howe died in New York on June 15, 1923.