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Gc 974.5 C23r v.4 1225168
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01146 6759
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الرياضية
La Baron B. lerch
RHODE ISLAND Three Centuries of Democracy
By
CHARLES CARROLL, A. B., LL. B., A. M., Ph. D., LL. D.
State Director of Vocational Education; Professor of Law and Government and Rhode Island Education, Rhode Island College of Education; Managing Editor of Quarterly Journal of Rhode Island Institute of Instruction. Author of School Law of Rhode Island, Public Education in Rhode Island, Rhode Island State Song, Etc.
VOLUME IV
LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK 1932
COPYRIGHT LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
1932
1225168
-
Freeph H. Lodd
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JOSEPH HOWARD LADD, M. D .- During his entire career, covering now some three dec- ades, Dr. Ladd has devoted himself to psychiatric work and more particularly to work in connection with the care of the feeble-minded. As physician of a school in Massachusetts during the first seven years of his career and, since 1907, as superin- tendent of a similar institution in Rhode Island, Dr. Ladd has acquired an enviable reputation in medical and scientific circles and today is regarded as one of the leading authorities in his field. Al- though the Exeter School, under which name the Rhode Island institution, of which he is superin- tendent, is known, is still in need of larger facili- ties in order to reach its fullest development and usefulness, Dr. Ladd, with what facilities have been at his disposal, has done remarkably success- ful work. His activities have been an important contribution to the welfare of the State and its people, a fact which is well recognized by his long continuance in his position.
Joseph Howard Ladd was born at High Forest, Minnesota, October 8, 1876, a son of George W. and Emma (Corey) Ladd. He received his early education in the public schools of Vermont, his family having returned east while he was a youth. He then spent two years at Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont, after which he took up the study of medicine at Dartmouth Medical College, graduating there with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1900. Immediately afterwards he be- came physician of the Walter E. Fernald School at Waverly, Massachusetts, a school for feeble- minded, in which capacity he served very success- fully until 1907. Since then he has been superin- tendent of the Exeter School at Slocum, town of Exeter, Washington County, Rhode Island, like- wise an institution for mentally deficient children and adults.
The Exeter School was established by Chapter 1470 of the Public Laws, passed at the January session, 1907, and is under the management and control of the State Public Welfare Commission. By Chapter 1381 of the Public Laws, passed at the January session, 1916, the name was changed from Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded to the Exeter School. The school is established for the education and care of feeble-minded per- sons within the school age, or others capable of being benefited by special instruction. In connec- tion with it there is also maintained a custodial department for the care of feeble-minded persons beyond the school age, and especially for the segre-
gation of feeble-minded girls of child-bearing age, with the idea of thus preventing the transmission of the mental defect by these cases. The school is located in the town of Exeter, about two miles from the Slocum Station of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, and occupies about five hundred acres of land. Application for admis- sion is made to the State Public Welfare Com- mission. The first patient was admitted in 1908. By the end of the first fifteen years of its existence the total number of admissions had reached seven hundred and seventy. By August 1, 1930, one thousand two hundred and forty-three had been admitted, of which six hundred and eighty-five have been returned to their community or have died. Patients are admitted, discharged, paroled, etc., by authority of the State Public Welfare Commission. Patients may be committed to the school by any District Court in the State. Parents of children admitted to the school are expected to furnish clothing and pay for their support, if financially able. The full charge for support at the school is three hundred dollars per year. In case parents are unable to pay this full amount they may pay any portion of it, by arrangement with the agent of the commission. No child, however, is excluded because the parents are unable to pay.
Any person duly certified as mentally defective by two physicians authorized to practice in Rhode Island is eligible for admission. However, as a rule, children under five years of age are not ad- mitted to the school. There are no facilities for taking care of children of this age, who will do much better in the average home than in the school. The most beneficial age for admission is from six to ten years. Persons over thirty years of age should not be sent to the school, unless there is some pressing reason for their being sent. These older individuals are able to profit but very little from the course of training and instruction, and, with the present limited capacity, each such older person admitted keeps out some younger person who might profit very greatly by training. The school is not in any sense a penal or correctional institution, and persons in whom criminal tenden- cies are the outstanding feature are not admitted to the school, though they may be found to be men- tally defective. To be sure many patients, who have committed misdemeanors or crimes have been admitted or committed, and they do well in the school, receive great benefit from the training, and become quite useful individuals. These patients, however, belong to that class of persons who be-
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come criminals through their lack of ability to cope with the problems of life, instead of to that class who prefer and actively seek a criminal life.
The school has two departments, the custodial and the educational. The object of the custodial department is to receive and care for those men- tally defective patients, who are unable to care for themselves and for whom no other suitable provi- sion can be made. The object of the educational department is to receive, care for and teach those mentally defective persons, who are capable of be- ing taught, but who for one reason or another can not be trained to advantage in the public schools, or who are unable to adapt themselves to the en- vironment in which they are found. Every child capable of learning to read and write attends school. If reasonable progress is made each child continues in school until he is sixteen or eighteen years of age. In addition to the academic instruc- tion, and of equal importance with it, each child receives such manual and industrial training as he is capable of absorbing. Training in the various household activities, in gardening, sewing, laundry work, basketry, rug weaving, and various kinds of fancy work is provided for the girls; for the boys, training in household activities, farm and garden, carpenter work, painting, and shoe repairing. Each girl who is able to learn is taught to make, mend, and launder her own clothing. Along with the academic and industrial training every endeavor is made to instill into the minds of the children a de- sire for right living. Efforts along this line are ably seconded by the assistance of two clergymen, one Catholic and one Protestant, who hold services every Sunday. For recreation, the children have moving pictures, dances, little plays and concerts with home talent, outdoor sports of various kinds, and in the summer frequent picnics in the woods and at the beach. The aim of all this teaching and training is to so develop these children that they may be able to return to the community and be- come useful or at least inoffensive members of society. Children returned to the community are looked after and advised by the social worker of the Exeter School, who usually has on parole some one hundred and forty-five former pupils, about equally divided between boys and girls. Both of these are found to do well and some are doing exceptionally well, largely as the result of the training received in the school.
The Exeter School has grown and prospered exceedingly under Dr. Ladd's able administration, hampered, though it is, to a certain extent by the lack of complete facilities. The present capacity of
the school is about three hundred and forty-four, while its average population is five hundred and fourteen, with a long waiting list. Under Dr. Ladd's administration proper provision has been made for administrative offices, a central kitchen, and bakery. Still further accommodations, how- ever, are greatly needed, including a hospital ward for sick and helpless cases, additional school rooms, new dormitories and new buildings for the accommodation of employees. Also an assembly hall for the children.
Dr. Ladd is a member of the New England Society of Psychiatry, the Rhode Island Medical Society, the Washington County Medical Society, and the American Association for the Study of Feeble-minded. He also belongs to several Masonic bodies, including Belmont Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, of Belmont, Massachusetts; and the Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Commandery, Knights Templar; and Rhode Island Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. In politics he is a supporter of the Republican party, while his religious affiliations are with the Protestant faith. He is also a member of Theta Chi and Alpha Kappa Kappa fraternities.
Dr. Ladd married at Concord, Massachusetts, August II, 1903, Margaret A. MacInnes. Dr. and Mrs. Ladd are the parents of one daughter, Theo- dora Marion Ladd. They make their home at the Exeter School, Slocum, Washington County.
ANDRES ANDERSON-Engaged in the dairy and poultry business on the Sneach Pond Road in the town of Cumberland, Rhode Island, Andres Anderson owns a sixty-four-acre farming prop- erty in this district, and is widely and favorably known among the farmers here and in the milk trade. He sells his dairy products wholesale, and conducts an extensive business in this region of New England.
Mr. Anderson was born in Sweden, on July 17, 1870, son of Andrew Carlson Anderson. His parents never came to the United States, but he himself crossed the ocean to take up his home in the New World when he was twenty-seven years old. At first he came to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he worked for a time, but later took up work on a farm at Arnolds Mills, where he was a hired hand for three and one-half years. At the conclusion of that period he rented the farm which he now occupies, and continued to do so for the following thirteen years, at the
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end of which he bought it, in 1914. Immediately, he set to work to rebuild and remodel it in accordance with his own ideas of progressive farming, and new barns, new house and general remodeling readily placed it in a position of out- standing importance in agricultural circles in this vicinity. Mr. Anderson has since that time de- voted himself and his energies tirelessly to the task of building up this property and the busi- ness that he has started on it, and his constant study and untiring industry have brought to him a great measure of success and achievement.
Also active in community affairs, Mr. Ander- son is especially interested in politics, having aligned himself with the Republican party, whose policies and principles he regularly supports. He is a member of the Grange. His religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of whose parish at Arnold Mills he is a member. Into his extra-business activities he puts the same full measure of thought and enthusiasm that characterizes his work in connection with the farm which he operates on the Sneach Pond Road, thereby causing himself to be highly re- garded and esteemed by the people of this great Rhode Island community.
Andres Anderson married Johana Christian Anderson, a native of Sweden, who came to the United States when she was only fifteen years of age.
RHODES-DENNIS-Among the outstanding families in Rhode Island affairs are those of Rhodes and Dennis, which were united in the marriage of Sarah Arnold Rhodes to Dr. Wil- liam B. Dennis on September 27, 1868. Though Dr. Dennis is now deceased (1930), his wife still lives, and is keenly interested in the civic life of her State and of the city in which she lives, which is Providence. Dr. Dennis himself was born in April, 1837, son of Samuel Cham- berlain and Emeline (Mead) Dennis. He was graduated from the Medical School of Harvard University with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine, and on April 17, 1861, enlisted in the Ist Rhode Island Volunteer Regiment. He was mus- tered out of the service on August 2, 1861, after having served from May 2, that year. His death occurred on July 18, 1877.
The family of Rhodes, of which Mrs. Dennis is a member, is an old and honored one, which has been traced back to Zachariah Rhodes, the immigrant ancestor of the line. Born in 1603,
he is first recorded in this country, as far as is known, as living in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, in 1643. In 1646 he removed from that place to Rhode Island. In 1644 he had lot No. 46 in the division of wood land at Rehoboth; and on July 5, 1644, he signed the agreement of the settlers forming a town government there. He drew lot No. 45 in the division of the Great Plain, on July 9, 1645, and lot No. 37 in the meadow division, February 18, 1646. In 1646 he settled at Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, on the Warwick side of the Pawtuxet River; and here he became a large property owner. According to the records, he refused to obey the Massachusetts laws re- quiring him to contribute to the support of public preaching; and this seems to have been the reason for his removal to Rhode Island. He was an Independent or Baptist in religion, and was doubtless banished from Massachusetts because of his views, as a letter written by Roger Wil- liams seems to show. Zachariah Rhodes was one of those in favor of joining Pawtuxet with Rhode Island rather than with Massachusetts. In 1664 and 1665 he was treasurer of Providence, and a member of the Town Council. He was a promi- nent man in public affairs, and held various of- fices. He was admitted a freeman on May 18, 1658. He was chosen commissioner in 1658, and was fined on May 18 for not appearing at the General Court of Commissioners. In 1659, 1661, 1662, and 1663 he also served as commissioner, and in 1663 and 1664 was a member of the orig- inal General Assembly of Rhode Island from Providence. He also served in 1665. On June I, 1653, he signed with five others an address to the court at Boston, asking that Pawtuxet be dismissed from the Government of Massachu- setts Colony. One record says that he was a friend of the Indian chief, "Pomham," and that he saved the Colony from a raid by the Indians through his influence over the chief. He was one of the commissioners to treat with the Narra- gansett Indians. His will was dated in 1662, and he died in 1665. A letter written by Roger Wil- liams seems to show that he was drowned in Narragansett Bay, off the shores of Pawtuxet; that letter was dated August 24, 1669.
Zachariah Rhodes married, about March, 1646, Joanna Arnold, born February 27, 1617, daugh- ter of William Arnold; and she married (second), July 11, 1666, Samuel Reape, of Newport. Her second marriage seems to have been unfortunate, as she was allowed by the General Court to dis- pose of her own estate. Her will was proved
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January 27, 1667, several years before her death. She died in 1692. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes were: I. Jeremiah. 2. Malachi, through whom passes the line of descent with which we are concerned. 3. Zachariah. 4. John. 5. Peleg. 6. Elizabeth. 7. Mary, who married John Low. 8. Rebecca, married (first) Nicholas Power, and (second) Daniel Williams, son of Roger Wil- liams.
Malachi Rhodes, the second child listed above, was born in 1650, and died in 1682; he married, May 27, 1675, Mary Carder, who died January 22, 1692-93. Their son, also named Malachi, born in 1676, died August 17, 1714; he married Doro- thy Whipple on March 8, 1700; she was born in 1680. and died September 10, 1728. Their son, James, born December 15, 1711, died October 9, 1797; he married Sarah Westgate on February 22, 1732-33; she was born January 10, 1713. Their son, Captain Robert Rhodes, born April I, 1743, died March 25, 1821; he married Phebe Smith, on April 1, 1763; she was born February 14, 1744, and died May 31, 1819. Their son, Colo- nel William Rhodes, born February II, 1782, died July 23, 1854; he married Sarah Arnold on February 20, 1803; she was born on May 28, 1783, and died on September 25, 1843. This Wil- liam Rhodes was a prominent man in his day, having been the first president of the Weybosset Bank, organized in 1831. Later, this institution became the Weybosset National Bank, that change having taken place in 1865; and it was absorbed, in 1904, by the Union Trust Company. Colonel Rhodes died in 1854.
The Arnold family, from which his wife, Mrs. Sarah (Arnold) Rhodes, claimed descent, was an old and honored one, like the Rhodes house itself, the line of this family having gone back to the American immigrant, William Arnold, who was born on June 24, 1587, and died in 1676. He lived in Cheselbourne, and on November 23, 1616, was appointed administrator of the estate of his brother John. In 1635 he removed with his family from Dorsetshire to New England. He also lived for a time in Hingham, Massachusetts, where he was a proprietor in 1635. In 1636 he became associated with Roger Williams and others in the purchase of land in Rhode Island, and he received large tracts of land in Providence, Pawtuxet, and Warwick. He was one of the thirteen original proprietors of Providence, and signed the agreement of government in 1640. He was a leading man of the Colony, and held differ- ent offices of trust. On March 9, 1658-59, a
statement was made that he was lately robbed of property in Pawtuxet by the Indians. He was commissioner from Providence to the court of commissioners in 1661. He married Christian Peake, daughter of Christopher Peake. Their daughter, Joanna, as already noted, became the wife of Zachariah Rhodes, referred to previously; and so the Arnold and Rhodes families were once united in marriage. Then the two houses were again brought together in the marriage of Colonel William Rhodes and Sarah Arnold, daugh- ter of John Rice Arnold, many generations later.
Robert Rhodes, son of Colonel William and Sarah (Arnold) Rhodes, married Julia Clarke, in January, 1843. His daughter, Sarah Arnold Rhodes, became the wife of Dr. Dennis, who, as noted at the beginning of this review, died in 1877.
The children of Dr. William B. and Sarah Arnold (Rhodes) Dennis were: I. Dwight Brown Dennis, now (1930), of New York City. 2. Sarah Rhodes Dennis, who, on October 14, 1901, became the wife of Roscoe Clifton Washburn. They had a daughter, Mary Fessenden Wash- burn, born May 24, 1906, who was united in mar- riage, on June II, 1927, with Frederic W. Howe, Jr., son of Frederic W. and Ruth (Stone) Howe. This marriage, too, has produced one son, Fred- erick W. Howe, III, who was born November 15, 1928.
W. NORMAN SAYER-Having interrupted his college education, in order to volunteer for military service during the World War, Mr. Sayer, after almost two years of active service with the United States Army Engineers Corps, did not return to college, but entered business. For six years, immediately following his return to civilian life, he was connected with the New England Steamship Company, after which he became clerk of the Newport District Court. He is one of the popular public officials of New- port, maintains membership in several fraternal and social organizations, and is prominently active in religious circles.
W. Norman Sayer was born at Newport, Jan- uary 20, 1894, a son of Archibald Baldwin and Sarah Anna (Norman) Sayer. His parents, too, were born in Newport, in which city his father was successfully engaged until his death in the wholesale and retail grocery business. Mr. Sayer's mother still makes her home in Newport. Hav- ing received his early education in the public
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grammar and high schools of his native city and, having graduated from the Rogers High School, Mr. Sayer became a student at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, which he attended for two and one-half years. The en- trance of the United States into the World War changed the course of Mr. Sayer's life, as it did that of so many other young men. On Septem- ber 18, 1917, he enlisted in the United States Army as a private in Company A, 30Ist Engi- neers. At first stationed at Camp Devens, Mas- sachusetts, Mr. Sayer, in January, 1918, was sent to the Engineers Officers Training School at Camp Lee, Virginia, where in April of that year he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army Engineers Corps. He then was assigned to duty as assistant personnel ad- jutant at Camp A. A. Humphries, Virginia. Promoted first lieutenant, United States Engi- neers, in October, 1918, he received his honorable discharge with that rank in May, 1919. At that time Mr. Sayer accepted a position with the New England Steamship Company, with which he con- tinued to be connected until 1925, when he was appointed clerk of the Newport District Court. In August, 1930, he resigned as clerk of the First District Court and was elected on August 26, 1930, city clerk of the city of Newport, being reelected unanimously on January 5, 1931, as city . clerk, with offices in the City Hall. At one time he also served for a period of five years as a member of the Representative Council of the city of Newport. He is a member of St. Paul's Lodge, No. 14, Free and Accepted Masons; Newport Post, No. 7, American Legion; Mianto- nomi Club, of which he is treasurer; and the Narragansett Bay Sojourners Club. In politics he is a supporter of the Republican party, while his religious affiliations are with the Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church at Newport, of the vestry of which he is clerk, serving also as sec- retary of the corporation. His favorite form of recreation is bowling and he is also very much interested in bridge whist.
Mr. Sayer married, October 28, 1918, Zita V. Fletcher, a native of Brooklyn, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Sayer are the parents of one son, Archibald Baldwin Sayer.
GOVERNOR HENRY LIPPITT-The Lip- pitt family has given to Rhode Island two gover- nors: Governor Henry Lippitt, subject of this
record, and his son, Charles Warren Lippitt. The former was an outstanding manufacturer and financier, and the son was associated with the father in most of these important enterprises.
The family was founded in America by John Lippitt, who had a house and home lot of six acres in Providence, Rhode Island, in the year 1638. On July 27, 1640, he signed a compact containing proposals for a form of government, and he was in 1647 one of the commission from Providence which, with committees from Ports- mouth and other towns met for the purpose of "organizing a Government under the first char- ter." Later he moved to Warwick, Rhode Is- land, where he bought land and farmed. The line was carried by his son, Moses Lippitt, deputy to the General Assembly, who married Mary Knowles; Moses, their son, also a deputy, who married Ann Phillis Whipple; their son, Chris- topher, who moved to Lippitt Hill in Cranston and married Catherine Holden; their son, Charles, a soldier in the Revolution and a pioneer manu- facturer of Providence, contributing to the estab- lishment of the Lippitt Manufacturing Company with a capitalization of $40,000, who built their mill, the third in the State, in 1807; married Penelope Low; their son, Warren, who became the father of our subject. Warren Lippitt, son of Charles and Penelope (Low) Lippitt, was born in Providence, September 25, 1786, and died Jan- uary 22, 1850. He was a sea captain in young manhood but subsequently became a cotton mer- chant in Providence and in Savannah, Georgia, and treasurer of the Lippitt Manufacturing Com- pany. Warren Lippitt married, July 7, 1811, Eliza Seamans, and they were the parents of ten children, of whom one was Henry Lippitt, our subject.
Henry Lippitt, son of Warren and Eliza (Seamans) Lippitt, was born in 1818 and died in 1891. He was well educated at the Academy of Kingston, Rhode Island, and he began his business career as a clerk for Burr & Smith of Warren, Rhode Island. In 1835, he returned to Providence, where he became bookkeeper for Josiah Chapin & Company, then the most impor- tant cotton merchants of the city. In 1838 he and Edward Walcott established the commis- sion house of Walcott & Lippitt, dealers in bale cotton and prints, and in 1840, the firm became Amory Chapin & Company. Six years later, upon the death of Mr. Chapin, Mr. Lippitt's younger brother joined him, and two years later they, with other Providence capitalists, pur-
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