E. Howard & Co. traces back to the Howard & Davis firm, founded in 1842 in Roxbury, Massachusetts by Edward Howard and David Porter Davis, both trained under noted Boston clockmaker Aaron Willard Jr. After Howard & Davis dissolved, Edward Howard reorganized the business as E. Howard & Co. in the late 1850s, focusing on high-grade weight-driven clocks.
The company became Boston’s leading maker of precision regulators, banjo clocks, and tower clocks for railroads, schools, and public buildings, and is remembered for never producing an inexpensive clock, with every piece made to a high standard. E. Howard regulators remain highly prized by collectors, with rare examples selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.