He was a fascinating character, and semi-famous in his time. He was a Civil War-era journalist heavily involved in the politics and goings-on of the day, including some scandals and jail time.
I'm going to blatantly steal most of my material from his Wikipedia page, 90% of which was written by my mother.
His entry into the world of journalism was an interesting one:
Shortly after returning from a pleasure trip in California in February 1860, he visited Lynn, Massachusetts to witness a shoemakers strike "to see the fun". According to the popular story, Howard entered a local hotel and saw the name of a reporter from the New York Herald in the registry. He then signed his name in a similar fashion claiming to be a reporter from the New York Times. That night, he sent a report on the strike to The Times which so impressed the editors that Henry J. Raymond personally telegraphed Howard to offer him a full-time position on the paper.
His long career in journalism wasn't without controversy, though. During the Baltimore Plot, he made up a story about Lincoln traveling in disguise in "a Scotch cap and long military cloak" while on his way to Washington, D.C. for his official inauguration.
He also played a series of practical jokes such as holding open the paper's lines to telegraph the genealogy of Jesus and, in September 1862, he violated an order prohibiting journalists from attending the funeral of Brigadier General Philip Kearny by sneaking in dressed in clerical robes.
An inflammatory story of his partially led to the New York Draft Riots (as seen in Gangs of New York).
The most famous of his controversies was the so-called "Civil War Gold Hoax". He invested heavily in gold and used his knowledge of the press to forge a convincing proclamation from Lincoln calling for more troops. The price of gold soared and he made a huge profit. Of course, he was caught and held as a prisoner of war for 14 weeks before being pardoned by Lincoln. The irony is that at the time Lincoln was about to send out an actual proclamation calling for more troops.
Despite the controversies, he was a well-regarded journalist in his day and covered a lot of famous events. He was the go-to reporter for the infamous Lizzie Borden trial. He also wrote prolifically on the events of the day. He had a regular column just dedicated to all of the famous people he would bump into while riding a particular elevator.
My mother is planning on writing a book about him one day. I think his story would make a fantastic movie. It would be like Forrest Gump, where you see him being involved with all these famous events of the times.
TL;DR: Anyone else have any famous/interesting ancestors or relatives?