George W. Howard

George Washington Howard (c. 1848-19XX) was an American railway worker and trade union functionary. Howard is best remembered as the head of the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors (BRC), a rival to the Order of Railway Conductors (ORC) which was established in 1885 and absorbed into the older organization in 1891. Howard was also the Vice President of the American Railway Union from 1893 to 1894 and was an important figure in the failed Pullman Strike of 1894.

George Washington Howard was born about 1848.

As a young man Howard worked on railroads in a variety of capacities, running the gamut from the dangerous job of brakeman to general superintendent. Among others, Howard worked on the Louisville, New Albany, and Chicago Railroad, the Ohio and Mississippi Railway, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

In 1885, Howard was the leading figure behind the establishment of a new trade union, the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors (BRC), conceived as a rival to the long established Order of Railway Conductors (ORC), gaining election to the leading position of Grand Chief Conductor.

After half a decade of disunity, the two railway conductors organizations combined in 1891, with the ORC swallowing its fledgling rival.

Howard was instrumental in the construction of the lines of the Coronado Beach Company, a transportation company that helped launch the city of Coronado, California, and was involved in the construction of the city streetcar system in neighboring San Diego.

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