USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 14
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 14
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AN ZANDT, CHARLES COLLINS, ex-Governor of Rhode Island. Born 2 C in Newport, R. I., August 10th, 1830. His father, Edward Van Zandt, was a native of New York, and a civil engineer by profession. The American Van Zandts are of purely Dutch (Holland) origin, and are descended from ancestors who were men of note on the continent of Europe. Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, in her excellent History of the City of New York, vol. ii. pp. 33-4, states that the first of the name settled in New York about 1682. His name was Johannes Van Zandt. He married Margareta Van der Voel in 1681, and emigrated from the city of Anheim, Holland, to New York in 1682. " His son Wynant was born in New York in 1683, and died in 1763. Wynant's son Wynant was born in 1730, and died in 1814. And Wynant, son of Wynant (2d), was born in 1767, and died in 1831." Thus there were three Wynant Van Zandts in Old New York, all men of wealth and worth in their generation. The first Wynant Van Zandt of American birth was educated in Europe, and married a Dutch lady. Their home in William Street, New York, was one of refinement and luxury. Six sons were born to them, of whom Jacobus, the elder, oeeupied the old homestead in 1775. Instinct with the genuine Duteh spirit, and a con- stitutional hater of all tyranny, he was quiekly associated with those who deelared for open resistance to the usurpations and oppressions of the British crown, and served as a most useful member of the Provincial Convention of the colony of New York in 1775. He afterward held the position of surgeon in the army under Washington at Valley Forge and Trenton, and served his country honorably throughout the Revolution. "His wife and beautiful daughter, Catharine (born in 1760), fled to Morristown, New Jersey, during the occupation of New York by the English. It was this Miss Van Zandt who was one of the leading belles at the Inauguration Ball of our first President, and married in 1788 James Homer Maxwell, son of the founder of the first banking establishment in New York. In 1796, Louis Philippe, while in New York, was entertained by Wynant Van Zandt (3d), and after his return to Franee wrote an autograph letter of thanks for the hospitality shown him, sending at the same time to Van Zandt a beautiful watch seal as a token of appreciation and remembranee."
The mother of Governor Van Zandt, nec Lydia Bradford Collins, was a daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Collins, who held his executive position just half a een- tury before his son-in-law attained to the same honor. She was also a grand- daughter of Governor Bradford, who was Lieutenant-Governor precisely one hundred years before Governor Van Zandt aceeded to that office. Lieutenant-Governor Col- lins was a native of Bristol, Rhode Island. The Bradford family are imperishably identified with Plymouth, Mass., and are descendants of William Bradford, author
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of the Chronicles of the Pilgrims, and one of the glorious heroes who lcd the "poor people" of God, who had been so grievously afflicted by apparitors and pursuivants and commissary courts in England, to New England, in order that they might walk with God in a Christian life, as the rules and motives of such a life were revealed to them from God's Word. The Pilgrim's dominant idca was religious liberty ; that of the Puritan was right government in Church and State. Both were correct, but the latter did not perceive that it was only through the enjoy- ment of religious liberty that his own civil and political ideal could be realized.
Bradford accompanied the Separatists of Scrooby to Holland, and faithfully chronicled their impressions and experiences. Like them he supported himself by industrial pursuits as a fustian-maker and silk-worker. With them he emigrated to America from Delft-Haven, lost his wife by drowning while the Mayflower was lying at Cape Cod, suffered from the scurvy and other diseases which their long voyage " and their inaccommodate condition had brought upon them," helped to negotiate treaties of friendship with Massasoit and other Indians, was chosen chief magistrate of the Plymouth Colony after the decease of Governor Carver, conducted its affairs with masterly ability and grave discretion, administered justice with impartiality, and approved himself to be one of the wisest and best of Christian mcn. In 1623 he married Alice, the widow of Edward Southworth, continued his career of rare and earnest usefulness, assisted to organize Christian churches whose charter was the New Testament, and which deduecd from that charter their own right to exist and govern themselves by officers of their own choice and ordination, and when-having " builded more wisely than he knew"-hc came to the closc of his checkered and godly life, died in ripeness of years and honors, leaving behind him that good name which is more precious than great riches, and which the Dutch ancestors of Charles C. Van Zandt prized as dearly as did his English progenitors.
Having received his preliminary literary education in the select schools of Newport, and also under the tuition of his grandfather Collins, young Van Zandt next entered an academy at Shrewsbury, and finally completed preparation for college under the supervision of the Rev. Charles T. Brooks, at Newport. His knowledge of languages was first acquired under the tutelage of a Jesuit priest, named Leonard. In 1847 he matriculated at Amherst College, spent one year in that institution, and thence repaired to Trinity College, from which he graduated in 1851. His degree of A.M. was subsequently conferred by Brown University.
The catholicity of his ancestral antecedents, together with that of his educational experience, is singularly in harmony with that of the legal profession, to which he resolved to devote his principal energies. His legal studies began in the office of the celebrated Thomas C. Perkins at Hartford, Conn,, and were continued in that
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of Christopher G. Perry-son of Commodore Perry-at Newport. Admitted to the bar of the latter city in 1853, he has ever since prosecuted the duties of his profession in the same locality. For two years he officiated as corporation attorney for Newport. In 1854-5 he was clerk of the House of Assembly, and afterward entered it as a duly eleeted member. In 1857 he was chosen Spcaker of the House, and took an active part in the Ives and Hazard controversy. In 1858 he was again returned as a mem- ber of the House, and has since been chosen to the same dignity at a number of con- secutive elections. The appreciation of his character and abilities by his fellow legisla- tors was invariably made manifest by his elevation to the Speakership of the House. In 1862 he was promoted to the State Senate, served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and became a prime mover in the enactment of a law abolishing that hoary and absurd iniquity, imprisonment for debt, within the limits of his State. In 1873-4 he was chosen to the office of Lieutenant-Governor, and occupied the ehair as President pro-tem of the Senate. In 1877 he received the compliment and trust of the highest local honor within the power of Rhode Islanders to bestow, in the form of election to the chief magistracy of the commonwealth; and during his term of office exercised the functions of Governor with marked distinction and success. By virtue of his office he also served as the presiding officer of the Senate.
In politics he was originally associated with the Old Line Whigs. After the dissolution of that party, he identified himself with the Republicans, and has always been active and efficient in the prosecution of its poliey, both in State and nation. On two successive occasions he has acted as chairman of the Rhode Island delegation in the Republican National Conventions-first in that which nomi- nated General U. S. Grant for his second Presidential term, and second in that which selected Governor R. B. Hayes as the standard-bearer of Republicanism. During Presidential campaigns, his eloquent and convincing speech has been heard in various States, and with such excellent effect that President Hayes offered him the position of minister to the court of St. Petersburg. The United States, however, had stronger elaims than the Russian mission, and he declined the proffer, in order that he might continue his large practice in the United States courts in Rhode Island and sister States.
Governor Van Zandt was married in 1863 to Arazeli, daughter of Albert G. Greene.
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ITTLEFIELD, ALFRED HENRY, of Lineoln, Governor of Rhode Island. Born at the Jackson Factory in the town of Seituate, R. I., April 2d, 1829. His father, John Littlefield, was born in South Kingston, R. I., July 15th, 1798, and died June 23d, 1847. The family name is evidently English, and those who first bore it in this country were settlers on Block Island, Mass. His mother, Deborah (Himes) Littlefield, was born in North Kingston, R. I., March 30th, 1798, married Mareh 11th, 1816, and still lives (March 30th, 1880), at Paw- tueket. The occupation of John Littlefield was that of a farmer, in North and South Kingston, until his removal to Seituate, a short time before Alfred H .-- one of eleven children-was born.
When two years of age the latter removed with his family from Seituate to the village of Natiek, in Warwiek, R. I. There he attended the village sehool until he attained the age of eight years, when he began the labor of life in the cotton mills of the Messrs. Sprague, where he earned the very modest sum of one dollar per week. Passing through different departments of the factory, he continued to work therein for about seven years, until the fall of 1844, when he resumed attendance at school.
The second period of seholastie eulture was decidedly brief, and terminated in May of the following year, when-through the influence of his brother George, who had been clerk to J. M. Davis of Central Falls for some time-he removed to that village, and entered the same employment, for the compensation of two dollars and twenty-five eents per week. In addition to his trade as a retail dealer in dry goods, boots, and shoes, Mr. Davis put up small quantities of skein and spool eotton for the general market. So valuable did the serviees of the new clerk prove, that his wages were raised to three dollars per week at the end of three months. Soon afterward a sceond advance to four dollars per week was effeeted. The youth now felt himself to be on the high road to assured and permanent prosperity. A tem- porary check in his progress was experienced when, in January, 1847, his employer failed in business. The cheek was only temporary, for his brother George and Elias Niekerson bought the stoek, and continued the business under the firm title of Littlefield & Niekerson until the spring of 1849, when the latter partner sold out his interest to the former, who theneeforward eondueted the business in his own name until May, 1851.
At the latter date the firm of Littlefield Brothers was organized by the inelusion of Alfred H., who had up to that epoch served Littlefield & Nickerson, and G. L. Littlefield in the eapaeity of elerk. Now, the dry goods, boot and shoe branch of the coneern at Central Falls was disposed of, and the thread department continued under the management of Alfred H. Littlefield, at Central Falls and Pawtucket. At
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the same time, in connection with another brother, D. G. Littlefield, the business of a country store was carried on at Haydenville, Mass .- A. H. Littlefield acting as buyer. In January, 1853, the Haydenville concern was sold out to the resident partner. The brothers George L. and Alfred H. then began the dry goods business on April Ist, in the block of J. B. Read, Main Street, Pawtucket. Prompt to enter upon advantageous openings, George L. purchased, about this time, an interest in the firm of David Ryder & Co., thread and yarn manufacturers, of Pawtucket- leaving Alfred H. to attend dry goods affairs. This he did until April, 1854, when the store was sold to A. O. Mead & Co. From that time until November 27th of the said year, A. H. Littlefield was occupied in the settlement of his retail accounts. That completed, he purchased of David Ryder a quarter interest in the business 'of his firm, and thus became its third member. On the 31st of March, 1858, he bought the interest of Mr. Ryder, who retired from the firm, which thence- forward transacted its business under the title of Littlefield Brothers, in Pawtucket- a title it still retains (April 10th, 1880). Indeed, the firm of Littlefield Brothers, notwithstanding the temporary association with Mr. Ryder, has remained intact from its organization in 1851 to the present. ^
On March 20th, 1857, Mr. A. H. Littlefield purchased a small house with a large lot on Broad Street, Central Falls, from H. B. Bowen. In the year ensuing . the old house was taken away, and the handsome and commodious edifice in which he now resides was erected.
Governor Littlefield's public political career commenced in June, 1873. The village of Central Falls, with which he has been so prominently identified, formed part of the old town of Smithfield until April, 1871, when it was divided into three district townships. Central Falls became part of the new town of Lincoln. At the town caucus in May, 1873, Mr. A. H. Littlefield was nominated for membership in the town council, but declined the proffered honor. Notwithstanding his declination, he was urged to allow his name to be used, was again nominated, and was elected at the town meeting in June. In 1874, '5, '6, and '7 he was returned to the same position, and served with such entire satisfaction to his constituents that they unani- mously renominated him in 1878. But pressing duties in other relations helped to induce a firm refusal to accept the honor a sixth time. He had been elected to membership in the Rhode Island House of Representatives in April, 1876, and re-elected in 1877. In both years he acted as chairman of the Committee on Accounts.
Public trusts and honors seek demonstrably fit non-professional politicians; and membership in the State Senate, from his own town sought Mr. Littlefield's ac- ceptance in April, 1878, and again in 1879, when he was triumphantly elected by
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his supporters. In the Senate he served on the Committees on Corporations and Finance. But another step to the pinnacle of local eminence remained. On the 18th of March, 1880, he received the Republican nomination for the chief magis- tracy of his grand old State; and on the 7th of April, the day of election, re- ceived 10098 votes for that office. The Democratic candidate received 7239, and the Prohibitionist, supported by disaffected Republicans, 5062 votes for the gov- ernorship. As the State Constitution requires that a clear majority of votes over all competitors must be cast for the successful candidate, there was manifestly no election, either of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, by the people in this particular instance. The General Assembly, however, as by law instructed, obeyed the popular will by seating Mr. Littlefield in the gubernatorial chair on the last Tuesday in May.
In national politics, Governor Littlefield was affiliated with the Whig party until its dissolution. He then united with the Republicans, and has since consis- tently sustained the principles and policy peculiar to their organization. In 1876 he was president of the Hayes and Wheeler Club of Central Falls. To that Christianity which is at once the ground and bulwark of free institutions he is intelligently and strongly attached. Although not a member of the First Baptist Church in Pawtucket, with which his wife is connected, he is a regular and interested attendant upon its instructions and worship. In strict consistency with political bias and business principles, Governor Littlefield has exhibited keen practical interest in the military organizations of Rhode Island. When the Pawtucket Light Guard was formed, in September, 1857, he united with it, and held the post of commis- sioned officer until 1863, when he was appointed brigade quartermaster on the staff of Brigadier-General Olney Arnold. At that period all the citizens of Rhode Island, who were liable to military duty, were formed into companies and brigades. Early in 1864 General Arnold was elected major-general of the State by the General Assem- bly, and Mr. Littlefield was appointed division inspector of the Rhode Island militia, with the rank of colonel. That office he held for five consecutive years. During the great Rebellion he performed efficient service in the struggle for the preserva- tion of the Union at home. Such aid was as needful to ultimate success as consummate generalship and heroic bravery at the front ; for without sympathy and support at home the heart of the " defenders" must have waxed spiritless and faint.
Governor Littlefield is one of the corporators of the Pawtucket Hair-Cloth Company, and has been a director since its formation. He is also a member of the directory of the Cumberland Mills Company, of the Stafford Manufacturing Company at Central Falls, and of the First National Bank in Pawtucket.
On the 9th of February, 1853, he was united in marriage with Rebecca Jane,
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daughter of Eben and Jane Northrop of Central Falls. Four children have been the issue of the union, viz., Eben N., born February 7th, 1854; Minnie Jane, born January 14th, 1857, died August 24th, 1861 ; George Howard, born March 24th, 1859, died August 8th, 1861 ; Alfred H., Jr., born October 16th, 1863.
Governor Littlefield is a Yankee of the best type-and better type of genuine manhood there is none. As a boy he was laudably ambitious, and determined to know something, and to be something. The spirit of Benjamin Franklin, the great philosopher and diplomatist, was alive and vigorous within him. Not less than Elihu Burritt, Simpson, Sherman, Herschel, and the host of " self-made men" whom Smiles has made familiar by his works, he has illustrated the possibilities of one to whom ordinary educational culture in early life is denied. Leisure moments have been dili- gently utilized in reading and study, with such success that, as an editor truly remarked, " no one would suspect that he had not received the best literary training in his youth." In the wider and more practical school of active life, in the walks of business, and in the halls of legislation, " no man has gained a better reputation for general intelligence, knowledge of public affairs, sound judgment, sagacity, and practical ability in legislation, than Alfred H. Littlefield."
DWARDS, PIERREPONT, Judge of the United States District Court of Connecticut. Born at Northampton, Mass., April 8th, 1750; died at Bridge- port, Conn., April 5th, 1826. He was the third son, and the youngest of eleven children of the celebrated metaphysician .and theologian, Jonathan Edwards ; and, according to the family record kept by the latter, was born on the evening of the Sabbath, and was baptized the Sabbath following.
The Edwards family is of Welsh origin. Richard Edwards, the earliest known ancestor of Judge Edwards, was reputed to have been a clergyman in London in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and to have emigrated thither from Wales. He graduated at Christ College, in Cambridge University, in 1607, and died in London of the plague in 1625. His widow married James Cole, and emigrated to America in 1640, bringing her only child, by her first husband, with her. The name of that child was William Edwards. Mother, son and stepfather settled at Hartford, Conn. There William Edwards married. His son, Richard Edwards, born in Hartford, May, 1647, was a
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merchant of wealth and respectability, and was remarkable for his conscientious integrity, and unusual devotedness to the interests of religion and .morality. Rev. Timothy Edwards, son of Richard, and father of President Edwards, was born at Hartford, May 14th, 1669; graduated from Harvard College, July 4th, 1691, and was . ordained to the ministry of the Gospel at Windsor, Conn., in May, 1694. He married, in November of the same year, Esther, second child of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, and a woman of rare mental and moral excellence, who shared the enlightened and advanced opinions of her husband. Mr. Edwards prepared not his son only, but each of his daughters also, for college. He was a diligent and faithful pastor, and the instrument of many beneficent revivals of religion. His fifth child was the distinguished philosopher, Jonathan Edwards, who, though born in an obscure colony, and nurtured in the midst of a wilderness, has left the impress of his own mind and heart upon those of succeeding generations; and who " unfolded a" system of the Divine moral government so new, so clear, so full, that while at its first disclosure it needed no aid from its friends, and feared no opposition from its enemies, it has at length constrained a reluctant world to bow in homage to its truth." Life of President Edwards, p. 9.
Jonathan Edwards was born at East Windsor, Conn., October 5th, 1703. On both sides of the house he was allied to the ecclesiastical aristocracy of New England. His parents embodied the highest type of Christian character. His home education was of the wisest and happiest. The family government, under which he rose to maturity, was at once strict and affectionate, and saved him from those " evil communications" which too often blast the brightest promise of youth. He was naturally religious-" had a genius for religion." At the age of seven or eight years he was "concerned about things of religion" and his " soul's salvation, and was abundant in religious duties." He writes: "I used to pray five times a day in secret, and to spend much time in religious conversation with other boys, and used to meet with them to pray together. I experienced I know not what kind of delight in religion." Afterward, in reflecting on his carly fervid cmotions, he did not regard them as signs of genuine piety. They reveal, however, those elements of nature out of which genuine picty must spring.
Dutiful, docile, and exemplary from infancy, he was as exceptional in intellcetual as in moral particulars. Trained by his father and his four eldest sisters, who were proficients in learning, he entered Yale College in 1716, just before he was thirteen years of age-one of the youngest, if not the youngest student that ever enrolled his name on its books. During the following year his favorite study was Locke on the Human Understanding. Prior to this lie had written a paper which exhibited deep interest in the question of materialism. He also composed some remarkable
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papers on questions in natural philosophy. Portents of future greatness multiplied. At college he distinguished himself as an acute thinker and an impassioned writer. In 1720 he took the degree of B.A., and delivered the " salutatory, which was also the valedictory oration."
About the epoch of his graduation from college, after varied and thrilling experiences, he began to entertain an abiding confidence that he had been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and recorded his ideas and emotions in poetic and glowing language. He felt, at times, as if " alone in the mountains or some solitary wil- derness, far from all mankind, sweetly conversing with Christ, and rapt and swallowed up in God." Acuteness of intellect, activity of imagination, quickness of sensibility, and depth of piety were so markcd that his friends looked upon him as one called of God to the ministry of the word. For two years after his graduation, he pursued theological studies at Yale, as a resident scholar, and was approbated as a preacher in 1722,-several months before he had reached his nineteenth ycar. From August, 1722, to April, 1723, hc preached to a Presbyterian Church in Ncw York City, but declined the call to the pastoratc. While in New York he wrote the first thirty-four of his "Resolutions" for the government of his life. From June, 1724, to September, 1726, he was a tutor in Yale College ; and on February 15th, 1727, was ordained as pastor of the church in Northampton-a colleague of his renowned grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. Eminence as a preacher was reached at a bound. He dwelt mainly on the Divine law, the Divine sovereignty, man's entire sinfulness by nature, justification by faith, and eternal punishment. Speech was often extemporaneous, gesture was slight and seldom, voice was not command- ing, but his sermons were powerful from deep thought and strong feeling. Few preachers have ever produced such profound and lasting impressions. The people realized the truth of his words, and were completely carried away by his eloquence.
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