USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 58
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
ness of perception, undoubted integrity and conservative busi- ness habits were his distinguishing traits. Though never a pol- inician, he was frequently called to positions of honor, having served in the city council, board of asylum commissioners and many other offices of a local character. Ilad he consented, higher public honors might also have been his. He was a man of many charities. He was liberal in his donations in connec- tion with the Second Baptist church, where he was loved and honored as one of its most exemplary members, and also gave to other church and Sunday school work, irrespective of de- nominational bounds and limitations.
Mr. Read was twice married: first on the 1st of December, 1822, to Miss Clarissa Gardner, whose children were: William G., Hannah E., Henry and Edwin O. His second marriage on the 6th of July, 1840, was to Miss Catherine, dangliter of Ed- ward Ilammett, of Newport, who survives him. Mr. Read's death occurred on the 15th of January, 1883. One of the lead- ing publications of the day says of him: " In his death a good man has fallen full of years and of honors. The influence of such a life is a benediction to any community and thousands have occasion to be thankful for the life and example of Oliver Read who is now called away."
JAMES T. RHODES, son of Peleg Rhodes, of Pawtucket, R. I., and grandsou of Malachi Rhodes, was born November 20th, 1800. and during the whole of his life resided in Providence. He was largely engaged in the East India and St. Petersburg trade, and was also one of the leading manufacturers of Rhode Island. Mr. Rhodes was among the first to recognize the im- portance of Newport as a summer resort, and at a very early day purchased land and erected a residence, now the property of his son-in-law, General J. Fred Pierson, on the south end of Bellevue avenne, since the site of many of the most elegant houses in the city. Here, with his family, he was accustomed to seek relaxation from care during the summer months. Mr. Rhodes, until a brief period preceding his death, gave personal attention to his extensive business concerns, and miugled daily in the busy affairs of life. His remarkably quiet and unassum- ing manner but rendered more conspicuous his clear nrind, his sound judgment and his high sense of commercial honor and personal integrity.
Mr. Rhodes repeatedly represented Providence in the general
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ROSELAWN RESIDENCE OF J. FRED PIERSON Newport.
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IHISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
re-elected for the years 1880, 1881 and 1882. In May, 1881, he was unanimously chosen speaker of the house of representa- tives, and re-elected the following year nnder like circum- stances. In Angust, 1882, he was appointed by President Ar- thur one of a board of three commissioners to examine the Northern Pacific railroad. His warm interest in the cause of education influenced his election in 1883 to the Newport school board for three years, and again for the succeeding term. In 1885 Mr. Sanborn was made state senator, and re-elected in 1886, during which time he served as chairman of the committee on finance, and was a member of the State Board of Sinking Fund Commissioners. An enlightened and public spirited citi- zen, he is actively identified with the leading interests of the place of his residence. Mr. Sanborn has held important posi- tions in the Grand Lodge of Masons of Rhode Island, was for two years at the head of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of the state, and is now an officer in the Grand Com- mandry of Knights Templar of Massachusetts and Rhode Is- land. Mr. Sanborn, in 1871, married Miss Isabella M. Higbee of New Hampton, New Hampshire. They have three children.
WILLIAM PAINE SHEFFIELD was born in New Shoreham, Rhode Island, August 30th, 1819. His parents were George G. and Eliza Paine Sheffield, both descendants of early settlers of Rhode Island. On the completion of his academic studies he, in 1844, entered the Harvard Law School, and the same year was admitted to the Rhode Island bar. In 1842 he was a delegate to the "Landholders' Convention," convened for the purpose of framing a new constitution, and the same year was a member of the general assembly, standing firmly for law and order as against " Dorrism." He was returned to the general assembly ' by New Shoreham in 1843 and 1844, while pursuing his legal studies. Mr. Sheffield began the practice of his profession at Tiverton, where he was brought into intimate friendly and pro- fessional relations with Honorable Job Durfee. In 1849 he was again elected to the general assembly as representative from Tiverton, and re-elected in 1851 and 1852.
Removing soon after to Newport, where his talents were speedily recognized, he was, in 1857, returned to the general as- sembly by that city. He continued to serve in that body until 1861, when he was chosen a representative to the Thirty-seventh
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
congress as a republican, and served the nation in that capacity from July 4th, 1861, to March 3d, 1863. In the latter year he was again elected to the general assembly by the city of New- port, and with the exception of the years 1873 and 1874, was annually re-elected until 1884, long serving with ability as a member of the standing committee of the house on the ju- diciary. In 1869 he served on the select committee to revise the laws of Rhode Island, and has been more influential than any other member in framing the statutes as they now stand. Hav- ing become so thoroughly familiar with the legislation of the state from its beginning, he is generally regarded as an excep- tionally able expounder of Rhode Island law. He has served the state with marked faithfulness, and left his impress on all the laws of Rhode Island for the last third of a century.
In 1884 he was appointed by Governor Bourn to fill the va- cancy in the United States senate caused by the death of Henry B. Anthony. Mr. Sheffield is a ready and forcible speaker in conrt rooms and legislative halls, and an able writer, especially on historical subjects. In 1876 was published his "Historical Sketches of Rhode Island," and the same year an "Historical Address on the City of Newport," besides the publication at different times of various papers, reports and speeches before the general assembly. He has very able writings, the product of his unwearied historical researches, that may yet be given to the public. He delivered the address at the dedication of the monument to Oliver Hazard Perry, and was chairman of the committee to receive the French delegation in Rhode Island on their visit to this country to participate in the Yorktown cele- bration.
Mr. Sheffield married, in 1847, Lillias White Sanford, dangh- ter of Samuel Sanford of Boston, a descendant of John Sanford, one of the first settlers of Rhode Island. They have three children. Their son, William P. Sheffield, Jr., graduated with honor from Brown University, and is engaged in the practice of . law in the city of Newport. He was elected to the general as- sembly of Rhode Island from 1885 to 1887.
JOHN W. SHERMAN, son of Elijah and Martha Sherman, was born in Newport October 10th, 1804. He was engaged in the wood and coal business From 1827 to 1873, on Sherman's wharf off Thames street. He had a family of five children.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
WILLIAM H. THURSTON .- The progenitor of the Thurston family in Rhode Island was Edward Thurston, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Adam Mott, in 1647. He had twelve children, of whom Edward was the ancestor of William Thur- stou, grandfather of the subject of this biography. He married Priscilla Norman, and had three children, Abby, Moses and William. The last named son, born in 1782, married Ruth C. Easton in 1815, and died November 19th, 1840. Their children are eight in number, of whom William Henry Thurston was born February 4th, 1823, in Newport, where his life was spent. After a thorough rudimentary education, derived chiefly at private schools, he at once embarked in the business of a farmer and florist, his location being on land purchased by his father in Newport. This he managed with success until his death, when his sons succeeded him.
Mr. Thurston is remembered as a fearless, independent man, of unflinching integrity and honesty, gifted with remarkable social qualities and a cultivated musical taste that gave great pleasure to his friends. He cared little for public honors, and took no active part in the political controversies of the day, though true to the principles of his party, whose tenders of office he declined. His support and aid were given to the Con- gregational church, with which the family worshipped, though charitable toward all denominations. Mr. Thurston was mar- ried October 3d, 1847, to Lanra, danghter of Henry and Eliza- beth Casttoff of Newport. Four children survive him. The death of William H. Thurston occurred in Newport on the 12th of July, 1885, in his sixty-third year.
WILLIAM J. UNDERWOOD .- The Underwood family of New- port are descended from John Underwood, who came from England in 1636 and first settled in Salem. In the direct line of descent is Perry, whose son, Weeden T., was born in Sonth Kingstown and subsequently removed to Newport, where he resided until his death. By his marriage to Susan, daughter of Captain James Albro, were born children: Henry, Harriet, Sarah, William J., Phebe and Theodore. His wife having died December 5th. 1843, he married again, Ann, daughter of Wil- liam Peckham. Their children are two daughters: Mary (de- ceased) and Martha, wife of Thomas Peckham. Mr. Under- wood died on the 5th of July, 1886. His widow survives and resides in Newport.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
William J. Underwood was born in Newport on the 10th of October, 1837, and received such an education as was obtain- able at the public schools, after which he was employed on his father's farm'in the suburbs of the city. At the age of sixteen he determined to acquire a trade and choosing that of a mason, served a four years' apprenticeship in Providence. The three succeeding summers were spent in Boston, his native city prov- ing sufficiently attractive for a winter's sojourn. In 1864 he settled in Newport and established himself two years after as a mason, contractor and builder, which business he has since that time conducted with marked success.
Mr. Underwood was married December 25th, 1864, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of William and Mary Underwood. In politics the subject of this biography is a staunch democrat, and one of the most prominent representatives of his party in the county. He has been for seven years a member of the city council and connected with the board of health since its organi- zation. He was in April, 1887, elected to the Rhode Island senate from the district embracing the city of Newport. He has ever manifested a warm interest in the growth of his native place and contributed in various ways to its advancement. Mr. Underwood is an influential Mason and a member of St. John's Lodge. No. 1. of which he is past master. He is past commander of Washington Commandry of Knights Templar, past presiding officer of Van Rensselaer Lodge of Perfection and past commander of the Rhode Island Sovereign Consistory. He is also connected with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Providence.
JOHN G. WEAVER is descended from an ancestry that from the earliest history of Newport have been identified with its most important interests. His grandfather, Perry Weaver, settled in the town as early as 1740 and for years pursued his trade of hatter. He was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca Goddard of Newport, and reared a large family, of whom Ben- jamin Weaver, born in Newport about the year 1780, acquired under his father's instruction the hatter's trade. He married Hannah, daughter of Joseph Briggs, of Newport, and had chil- dren: Joseph, John G., Mary, Catherine and George. Mr. Weaver later in life abandoned mercantile pursuits and retired to the farm, which, since the settlement of the island, has been and is still in the possession of the family, where his death occurred.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
John G. Weaver was born on the 25th of November, 1812, in Newport, where he received a rudimentary education at the common schools and maintained the traditions of the family by learning the trade of a hatter. At the age of twenty-one, his health requiring a less sedentary life, he abandoned his trade and established himself in the livery business in which he is still engaged. He was one of the proprietors of the Provi- dence Mail Stage line and was interested for a period of twelve years in this enterprise. Mr. Weaver's active mind songht a more extended field and in 1843, in connection with a partner, he became the landlord of the Bellevue House in Newport, continuing this relation for one season. Desiring greater freedom of action than was possible through a partner- ship arrangement, the following year he built the Ocean House which was under the management of its popular host speedily enlarged, and in 1845 consumed by fire. Nothing daunted, the present spacious and attractive structure rose from its ashes in 1846 and Mr. Weaver has continued its proprietor, his urbanity and uniform courtesy having made the honse one of the most in- viting to summer tourists.
When Newport was incorporated as a city, Mr. Weaver be- came one of its aldermen and for a period of fifteen years was a member of one or the other of its municipal bodies. Always a staunch whig or a republican in his political faith, he in 1863- 64 represented his district in the state legislature. In his reli- gious belief he is a Unitarian and president of the board of trustees of Channing Memorial church of Newport. Mr. Weaver was in 1832 married to Susan, daughter of Ray and Susan Bliven of Newport. Their children are a son, John G., Jr., as- sociated with his father as one of the proprietors of the Ocean House, Newport, and the Everett Honse, New York, and two daughters, Susan and Hannah, who survive, and three children deceased: Benjamin, Joseph and Marion Jones.
GEORGE PEABODY WETMORE. the eldest surviving son of the late William Shepard Wetmore, of Newport, Rhode Island, was born in London, England, on the 2d of August, 1846. After a thorough preparatory course he entered Yale University, and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1867. He received the degree of LL. B. from Columbia College in 1869, and that of A. M. from his alma mater in 1871. He was made presi- dential elector of the state of Rhode Island in 1880 and 1884,
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
and a member of the state committee to receive the representa- tives of France on their official visit to the state in 1881. Mr. Wetmore filled the office of governor of Rhode Island from May, 1885, to May, 1887. He is one of the trustees of the Pea- body Museum of Natural History in Yale University.
CATHARINE LORILLARD WOLFE, danghter of John David Wolfe and Dorothea Ann Lorillard his wife, was born in New York city March 8th, 1828. Miss Wolfe was descended from an old Lutheran family in Saxony, whence her great-grandfather, John David Wolfe, came to this country before the year 1729. He died in 1759, leaving four children, of whom the eldest was David. David Wolfe lived till near the end of a long life of eighty-eight years in the old family residence on Fair, now Ful- ton street, and this, with other city real estate, has remained in the family to the present time. In the war of the revolution, David Wolfe and his brother Christopher served their country with credit. After the war David and his younger brother John Albert were partners as hardware merchants in New York city, and about 1816 they were succeeded in business by Christopher, son of John Albert, and John David, son of David.
John David Wolfe, born July 24th, 1792, retired from active business in the prime of his life. Thereafter he devoted his large wealth and judicions labors to benevolent purposes, largely in the foundation and encouragement of educational, charitable and religious institutions. He was devontly attached to the Episcopal church, was for some time vestryman of Trinity parish, New York; afterward vestryman, and at the time of his death, senior warden of Grace church. His memory is perpetnated in many noble institutions, not only in his native city, but in varions and remote parts of the country.
Miss Wolfe was endowed with a mind of remarkable power, cultivated by education, reading and extended travel. Her biography cannot be written here. She devoted herself and her large and largely increasing wealth to the widest and most effective charity, governing herself in her gifts by careful ex- amination and calm judgment, where personal investigation could be made, and where that was not possible, displaying her superior ability in the selection of sound and trustworthy ad visers, on whom she relied with confidence. Her catholic dis- position of charities may be gathered from the names of a few objects of her larger appropriations, as Union College at
39
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Schenectady, St. Luke's hospital in New York, the noble chari- ties at St. Johnland on Long Island, the American chapel at Rome in Italy, the Italian mission in Mulberry street, New York, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Grace church in New York city, to which she gave the chantry and other buildings, the Wolfe Expedition to Asia, the Home for Incurables at Fordham, the Diocesan House in Lafayette Place, New York-the list must stop abruptly. There is not space to enumerate half of her recorded gifts, in sums varying from twenty to two hundred thousand dollars. But those who should form an estimate of Miss Wolfe's benevolence from the . mere magnitude and number of her gifts would fail to appre- ciate her inner life and character. She was constant and un- failing in personal charities among those who were suffering. She visited the poor, and her presence always carried with it the atmosphere of purity and kindness in which she lived. She educated young girls; she had always large numbers of benefi- ciaries; she sought out opportunities to relieve the poor and those who were in trouble or sorrow. When she was absent in Europe she did not forget home benevolence. A friend tells of her sending to him in New York, from her boat on the Nile, $25,000 in a check, to be distributed in charities.
Nor did she, while devoting so much of her life to good works, fail in any degree to fulfill the duties of that position in the social world to which she was called by her wealth and her accomplishments. She recognized those duties, and performed them with grace and dignity as the accomplished hostess in her own house, and the always welcome guest in others. Those who knew her best admired and loved her most.
She had from early life cultivated her affection for the fine arts. Her taste was excellent, and her judgment strengthened by study and very thorough acquaintance with the works of old and modern artists. She had, therefore, great enjoyment in gathering around her, in her city residence, examples of mas- ters in the modern schools, a work which was continued steadily from year to year through her life, and in which she was happy in her reliance for advice and assistance on her kinsman, John Wolfe, Esq., through whom most of her selections were made. Nevertheless, she exercised a completely independent taste, which decided her, after thorough acquaintance with a painting, whether to retain or reject it.
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IIISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Miss Wolfe had a constant interest in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to whose collections she had been a large con- tributor, and of which she was one of the patrons. Her interest in art history had been exhibited shortly before her death by her gift to the American School at Athens, and by her payment of the expenses of an expedition to Asia for the purpose of explor- ation with reference to future work of excavation among the buried remains of ancient art.
By her last will she disposed of more than a million dollars in money and objects of art, for the perpetnation of those works of Christian charity and centers of education of the people to which her father and herself had so wisely and faithfully con- tributed. Her gifts to the Museum of Art illustrate the judic- ious consideration which had characterized all her generosity. Taking into consideration, as few have ever done, the fact that in a museum withont an endowment, dependent on its members for its current expenses, every new gift entails increased expense on the institution, she not only gave to the museum her collec- tion of paintings, but added an endowment of $200,000, the income to be used for the preservation and increase of the col- lection.
The death of Miss Wolfe occurred in New York city on the 4th of April, 1887.
CHAPTER XII.
TOWN OF PORTSMOUTH.
Geographical and Descriptive .- Settlement .- Dealing With the Indians .- Com- parative Importance .- Admitting Inhabitants .- Rates and Taxes .- Taverns or Ordinaries .- Public Morals .- The Common Lands .- Early Customs and Ceremomes .- Public Improvements .- Early Representatives .- During the Revolution .- After the War .- Town Action .- Means of Communication .- Mining and Manufacturing.
T HIS township occupies the northern part of the island of Rhode Island, originally called Aquidneck. The town was at first called after the Indian name of the locality, Pocas- set. The township covers an area of thirty-three square miles, being about ten miles in length on the longest line that can be stretched across it. which would be a line running from the ex- treme north point of the island sontherly to the southeastern point on the Middletown line. The greatest width of the town is in the sonthern part, where it is abont three miles. Cen- trally, the town lies nineteen miles south-southeast from Providence, and eight miles north- northeast from Newport, in latitude 41° 35' and longitude 5° 44' west from Washington.
The surface of the town is beautifully rolling and hilly, with sufficient elevation to secure a dry and healthy condition of atmosphere. Some of the hills rise to a height of 260 feet, while but a narrow belt of lowland skirts the shores with a less elevation than twenty feet. Some of the prominent elevations are Slate hill, in the southern part, 260 feet; Quaker hill, in the central part, 270 feet; the farm of William M. Manchester, in the southern part, 260 feet; lands of Joseph Coggeshall, Edward Almy and George E. Sisson, 180 feet; hill on the West road, at the junction of Potter's lane, 200 feet; at the junction of Mid- dle road and Mill lane, 260 feet; Butt's hill, 180 feet; on Ben- jamin Hall's land, near Portsmouth grove, 160 feet; and on land near Sandy point, on the east side, 140 feet. The land is clear of trees or forest growth, and beautiful views of the water
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
on either side, the numerons islands, the jutting peninsulas, the rambling coves and the distant hills of the mainland shores greet the eye from almost every point. In the varied and de- lightful landscapes which its many eminences afford, this town is probably second to no other in the New England states.
The soil in the southern part of the town is rich and heavy clay loam. In the northern part it becomes a rich sandy loam. It is everywhere susceptible of the highest degree of cultivation, and yields abundant crops. The land is almost entirely under cultivation, the principal products being potatoes, corn, oats, barley, hay, apples, peaches, strawberries, pears and garden vegetables.
From the main central ridge of the island the surface slopes generally in either direction to the shores on the east and west sides. In the northeastern part a rambling cove enters the land, which is here low and largely occupied by salt meadows. But few brooks are found in the town. On the west it is bordered by the main channel of Narragansett bay and on the east by the East passage or Seconnet river. The high lands of the north end of the town command a fine view of the elevation of Mount Hope, with its historic associations, and the beautiful bay of the same name. The western side overlooks the beautiful peninsula of Bristol and the verdant island of Prudence Ou the eastern slopes the picturesque heights of Tiverton and the peaceful undulations of Little Compton fill the vision with en- raptnring prospects.
Portsmouth has always been pre-eminently an agricultural town. Its people are progressive, though but few marked pub- lic improvements may be noticed. The Old Colony railroad runs along the low grounds which skirt the western shore, but this, while it cannot be claimed as a local improvement, it may be answered, has been of but little importance in developing the resources of the town. It has stations at Bristol Ferry, Coal Mines and Portsmouth Grove. Besides the stone bridge, with which the town is connected with Tiverton, other means of communication are afforded by the steamers of the Fall River and Providence Steamboat Company which touch daily at Bristol Ferry and a row boat ferry across from the same point to the Bristol shore.
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