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 82
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
beaches and other similar interests. Mr. Champlin, both in his private and public capacity, is credited with taking a judicious view of the questions involved for the best interests of the town.
Among minor public services he has been for the last twelve years a member of the school committee, and has for as long a time earnestly urged the establishment of a free high school in the town. As the son of a democrat and the father of demo- crats, he has steadily maintained that the great underlying prin- ciples of that party embody the proper basis of the wisest public policy.
URIAHI CHAMPLIN (deceased), the oldest son of Nathaniel L., married Mary G. Card. Their only child, Nancy C., married William H. Perry. Her only child is Charles E. Perry, the teacher of the Block Island high school.
WEEDEN H. CHAMPLIN, farmer and assessor, and Edward H. Champlin, farmer and town treasurer, are the only surviving children of Peleg C. Champiin, the second son of Nathaniel L. Edward H. has three children : Mary J. (Mrs. Martin V. Ball), Carrie E. and Edward l'.
ELISHA R. COE, born in 1808, is a son of Benjamin T. Coe, who was a lientenant in 1812 at Fort Adams, in Newport. The lieu- tenant's father was Benjamin Coe, of Little Compton, in which history the family is further mentioned. Elisha R. married Sybil P., daughter of William Ball. They have raised one son and five daughters. The son, Benjamin T., born in 1839, married Maria, daughter of Gideon Dodge. Elisha R. was six years town treas- urer and twelve years in the town council. His father was in- spector of customs for Block Island from 1818 for abont twenty- five years.
CAPTAIN GEORGE W. CONLEY, of the steamer " G. W. Daniel- son," is a grandson of Philander Conley. He married Arabella E. Dodge, who died, leaving four daughters : Mrs. Ray G. Lewis, Mrs. Dr. Champlin, Hattie D. and Jennie A. His pres- ent wife is Maria C., youngest daughter of Christopher E. Champlin. They have one son, George H. Captain Conley solicited the subscriptions to the stock and organized the com- pany to build the steamer. He let the contract, superintended the building in 1880, and has been captain of the boat and man- ager of the company ever since.
Dickens point, a name applied to the farms now owned by
1
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
A. B. Dickens and Samuel Allen, takes its name from Thomas Dickens, a Scotchman, who bought it of Mr. Greene before the latter was governor. From Thomas Dickens it descended to Caleb, his son. Caleb had two children, one of whom, Ray- mond, the father of Anderson B. Dickens, had the part which Mr. Dickens now owns. Raymond's sister married Wanton Allen, who came here from South Kingstown about 1810, and her portion of the property passed to her son, Samuel Allen, the present owner.
ANDERSON B. DICKENS was born in 1824. His wife was Loxy A. Sprague. Their three children are : Lovell HI., Annie M. (Mrs. Daniel Mott), and Isabella (Mrs. Clarence Rose).
URIAH B. DODGE is a son of Joshna, and grandson of Noah. His wife is Emma E., a daughter of James M. Dodge. They have one son, Lester E. Since the democratic party has had the ascendency in Block Island, Mr. Dodge, although holding no offices himself, has been a leader and organizer in local pol- itics. Since 1879, when the light house board was given charge of the harbor and the range lights at the breakwater, he has been harbor master and light keeper.
JOSHUA TRUMAN DODGE, a brother of Uriah B., was born in 1842. At the age of 19 he went to sea, and in November, 1873, began his present mercantile business as successor to his brother, Darius. In 1875 he married Miss Sayles, of Connecticut. Their children are : Sadie A. and Lucretia M. Mr. Dodge has repre- sented this town three years in the assembly and four years in the senate, by the unanimous vote of the town.
GILES P. DUNN, the treasurer of the Free Will Baptist So- ciety, is a son of the late Giles P. Dunn and grandson of John Dunn. His wife, Abbie L., is a daughter of William Green Littlefield. They have three sons. The oldest, Thaddeus P., is married and resides here. The second bears his father's name, the third is Dwight A. Mr. Dunn is considerably inter- ested in trap fishing.
JOHN F. HAYES, carpenter and builder, was born in 1855. His father, Edward, born 1832, died 1884, was a son of John Hayes, the first of the family on this island. Mr. Hayes learned his trade with Swinburn & Peckham. He has worked here fifteen years, the last eight as contractor. In 1884 he built the only steam mill on the island, where he has put in facilities for planing and moulding.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
WILLIAM P. LEWIS, born 1822, is a great-grandson of Enoch, grandson of Enoch and son of Jesse Lewis, who came to Block Island from Wakefield. Mrs. Lewis is Wealthy, daughter of Gideon Dodge. Their daughter Alice, deceased, was Mrs. C. C. Ball. Their four children living are: John R., Ray G., Cordelia J. (Mrs. Hiram A. Ball) and Jesse. Ray G. Lewis' wife is Addie E. Conley, the captain's daughter. Mr. Lewis has been twenty- five years in the town council, notary public for the last fifteen years and is commissioner of wrecks for Block Island.
HON. LORENZO LITTLEFIELD .- Among the names conspienous in the history of Block Island for the last century is the name of Littlefield. A tradition well authenticated is to the effect that Ephraim Littlefield was an apprentice on an English man- of-war, once lying in Boston harbor, and was left in America when the ship was ordered back to England.
On the homeward voyage the ship and all on board were lost, and Ephraim's father in England, supposing his son had shared the common fate of the crew, named a younger son after the unfortunate naval apprentice. Time passed, and Ephraim the older, with the industry and economy which has character- ized each generation of his descendants, accumulated enough to buy a tract of land where Yorkshire, Me., was afterward built.
Later on, among a company of young men seeking homes in the new world, was the second Ephraim Littlefield, who bought land in the same vicinity: and thus in the same town there came to be two men of the same name, unknown to each other, yet sons of the same parents. The elder is credited with first noticing the family resemblance, and from the younger Ephraim he learned the supposed fate of the naval apprentice. Recognition followed, the strangers became neighbors, the neighbors became brothers, and from them is supposed to have sprung the whole Littlefield family in New England.
In 1721 Caleb and Nathaniel Littlefield were admitted free- men. The latter was in the general assembly five years; each had a son, Caleb and Nathaniel, admitted freemen in 1756. John Littlefield was in the assembly thirty years, after 1747. William Littlefield married Phebe Ray; their daughter, Cathe- rine, married Major Nathaniel Greene. This William was active in the revolution, being an ensign in 1775. He represented the town in 1785 and 1792. Other names known in the social
Lorenzo Littlefield
AYTOTYPE, E BIERSTADT N Y
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
and commercial history of the island are Henry, Nathaniel, Elias and Anthony Littlefield. In 1887 thirty-two estates and properties in the town were taxed in the name of Littlefield.
The subject of this sketch traces his lineage through Thomas Littlefield, whose wife was Susan Long. Their son, Nicholas, was a successful farmer, acquired a fair property, became a man of affairs, married a daughter of Elam Packer of Mystic, Conn., and raised nine children. The oldest of their five sons was named in honor of his grandfather and was the Elam Packer Littlefield so well known here as the successful merchant in the middle half of this century. The other sons were Nicholas, now living at Cranston, R. I .; Elbridge P., Asa, who died in the West Indies, and Alamanzo now living here.
Elbridge P. was for some time in business in Charleston, S. C. He afterward returned to Block Island and built, at the center, a store which was burned February 22d, 1879. He was a promi- nent man, wielding a large personal influence, although never, it is said, acting in a public office.
Elam P., the older brother, was born in 1813, and during his life filled many stations of public and private trust. He was customs inspector at the time of his death, which occurred suddenly on the first day of April, 1856, in the 43d year of his age.
His children now living are: Lorenzo, whose name appears at the head of this sketch, Elam P. and Ray Sands Littlefield, each of whom bear well the honorable family name.
Lorenzo, the oldest son, inherited in a marked degree the keen business insight of his father, and that indomitable energy and push which gave financial success to several generations of ancestors. Born in 1835, and having but the limited advan_ tages of the common schools, he nevertheless was marked by men of riper years as available for positions of public trust, and in 1861, when but twenty-six years of age, he was made the candidate of the democratic party and elected to the state sen- ate, where he represented his native town two years. Five times since then he has been elected treasurer of the town.
As his own financial affairs have demanded increased per- sonal attention, although accredited in the councils of the party for the last twenty-five years with a deep insight into the prac- tical problems of local and state politics, he has given less atten- tion to such subjects.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Mr. Littlefield's business career, which has already covered a period of over thirty years, began in the old store which his uncle Elbridge built at the center. Although not aspiring to public office, he has ever remained alert to the best interests of the town, and the success he has attained in his private affairs has given weight to his judgment upon any question of public policy in the town.
A genial disposition and a pleasing address, combined happily with a fine physique, make Mr. Littlefield a gentleman whose acquaintance is enjoyable. His cordiality toward the young and toward those less favored than he in worldly affairs, has contributed no less to his success in life than to that popularity which he among all classes so justly enjoys. In his domestic relations Mr. Littlefield is very pleasantly sitnated. His wife, Annie E., is a daughter of George E. S. Eley, of New Bedford, Mass. They have two sons, Clarence and Frank. Clarence graduated at Brown University with the class of 1885, being, it is believed, the only graduate from that institution from this town. He has a position in the internal revenue office at Providence, with fair prospects of success for the future. Frank, following in the footsteps of his father, takes a seat in the state senate when but twenty-three years old. He was elected in 1887 with- ont opposition. Thus the subject of this sketch enjoys a pros- pect, which to many is denied, of seeing generations come and generations go and a family name maintained, to which broader significance should be given by the generations which are to live with broader opportunities.
RAY SANDS LITTLEFIELD, a brother of Lorenzo, was born in 1847. His wife, Sophronia, is a daughter of William M. Rose. Their children are Charity I. and Harold R. Mr. Littlefield served nine years in the senate, was associated in business with his brother for some time, opened the "Central House" for summer boarding eight years ago, and began business as mer- chant for himself in 1884. His store is on the site where his father's store was burned more than thirty years ago.
JOHN E. LITTLEFIELD, merchant at West side, succeeded his father, E. R. Littlefield, in the business in 1872. He is warden of the peace and agent for the Merritt wrecking organization. His grandfather and great-grandfather were each named Thomas Littlefield. It appears that Henry W. Green, in 1850, had a store at the Harbor, and made E. R. Littlefield his agent for
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
the west side of the island, consigning goods to him for sale there. From this beginning Mr. Littlefield's business developed and since then the business has been increasing.
J. EUGENE LITTLEFIELD, merchant at the Harbor, was born in 1858. His father, John N., son of Joshua, was grandson of William Littlefield. Mr. Littlefield, prior to the erection of his store in 1887, was fifteen years in the menhaden fishery with the Church Brothers. Ilis wife, Mary A., is a daughter of Hon. John G. Shellield.
ORISON SWEET MARDEN, M. D., deserves a prominent place in this history. Of all the resorts for which this county of Newport is justly famed, none is more popular than Block Island, " the gem of the sea; " and to Mr. Marden, more than to any other one man, is due the credit of discovering the superi- ority of Block Island as a summer resort. Though not the first to discover it, he was the first to see its great possibilities. He found it occupied in summer by a mere handful of guests, not a first-class hotel on the whole island, and only a few houses that took boarders at all; his far-sighted sagacity and wise and judicious advertising have made it the resort of as line a class of people as can be found at any resort in the country. What- ever else Mr. Marden is distinguished for, or shall be, he will be remembered with gratitude by thousands who have through him found rest, and health, and refreshing in the almost matchless atmosphere of this sea-girt isle.
Doctor Marden has had a remarkable career. He was born in the town of Thornton, New Hampshire, in the year 1848, and is therefore still a young man. His early history was a hard and painful one, but its very hardships only serve to emphasize the traits of character which have won him success. Deprived of a mother's care at three years of age, he became doubly or- phaned at seven in the death of his father. Of constitution by no means rugged, with no relatives who could care for him, he was placed in the care of a guardian, to whom was also en- trusted the care of the small property left by his father, suf- ficient to have given the child a good home and a fair education. Little of this property did the lad ever receive; and so far from enjoying the blessings of home, he never knew a home until he made one for himself. His minority was spent in cruel neglect and hardship, in service to those who heartlessly oppressed him with too much work. Few men in our Christian New England
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
have such bitter memories of childhood to look back npon as lie has. His schooling was also utterly neglected, and he had no legal redress. Yet by sheer pluck what he could not gain by right he won by barter-he bought by his labor the privilege of attending school a little. This little meant more to him than much more would to other lads. At seventeen, therefore, we are not surprised to see the lad at an academy, paying his way by chopping wood, ringing the academy bell, attending to the tonsorial needs of the institution-in fact, by any means in which hard work would turn for him an honest penny. A few terms in this way, alternating with hard labor in a saw-mill, and next we find him teaching district schools. His first experience at teaching was in a private school, organized in an old shoe shop, an experience which gave him confidence, and for which he re- ceived twelve dollars a month. In this way he attained his majority. Of his little patrimony, as has been mentioned, he received almost nothing. His health also was poor, and gave promise of continuing so through life. Indeed, it was more than doubtful if he would live to middle life. Nevertlie- less, he had tasted of success, and his appetite for study was insatiable. In his twenty-second year he set ont for the New Hampton Literary Institute and Academy at New Hampton, N. H. It was here that the writer first met him, during the second year of his course. He had entered with but poor preparation, necessarily far behind most in his class; yet in the second year he was one of the most prominent men in the academy. Throughout his course here he maintained a high rank in scholarship and character, and his influence was felt for good in every department of the institution. He was graduated from this academy in 1873.
It was during his course here that he first became interested in hotel life. With several other students, he went in the sum- iner of 1872 to the Crawford House, White Mountain Notch, to wait on the table. The second year he was advanced to the position of assistant head waiter, and the third season to that of head waiter. Thins began that life in the hotel business, learned practically and laboriously, step by step, that has made him so distinguished a success in the position which he now occupies.
It is seldom that a man succeeds well in more than one line of effort. Doctor Marden has succeeded well in two very im-
OS Mardin
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
portant lines. As a hotel manager he is the peer of any. It is not generally known by his hotel acquaintances, however, that parallel with his successful labors in this direction he hasalso car- ried on a remarkably successful and systematic course of study. He has been an indefatigable student ever since. To large abilities he adds a strong and healthy ambition, indomitable perseverance, and a will that never yields. Above his ambition to succeed in his work of ministering to the wants of the weary "summerer," and above his thirst for knowledge, Doctor Marden has a line ambition to be useful to the world. All his labor is means to this end. It is not surprising, therefore, that during all these years he has been assiduously pursuing course after course of study, during the months while his hotel work has not taken all his time.
On graduating from the academy, Mr. Marden's plans were not matured. Beside the need to continue in his hotel work in the summer for financial reasons, he also found his health so poor that a college course seemed out of the question. Being an earnest Christian, in this emergency he went to the Theolog- ical Seminary at Andover and joined the junior class there, following the advice of friends. He continued there one year. At the end of that time, feeling the great need of a college edn- cation and finding his health had improved, he applied for ex- amination at the Boston University, was matrienlated, and before the end of the year passed on into the sophomore class. He graduated honorably with the first class which graduated from this institution in 1877, taking the degree of A. B. The severe strain of donble work, soon after his entrance, bronght on an affection of the eyes which threatened to end his career as a student. He was advised by his best friends to abandon his plans and leave college. Instead, he employed a student to read his work to him, his eyes gradually grew better, and after a time he had the satisfaction of recovering their full use, though he has ever since had to use them with great care. In 1879 he graduated, with high honors as an original writer, from the Boston University School of Oratory, under Professor Lewis B. Munroe, and received the degree of A. M. from the univer- sity. In the following year he studied law in the Boston Uni- versity Law School, covering the full course of study in one year, and next year received the degree of LL. B. During 1881 and 1882 he pursued the course in the Harvard Medical School,
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
and graduated in the full course in the latter year, receiving the degree of M. D. A tour in Europe, attended with an almost fatal illness in Rome and Florence, a post graduate course in the Harvard Medical School, medical practice and lecturing on physiology and hygiene, occupied the spare months of the next year. Since that time he has kept up a systematic course of private study and general reading in his spare time, never idle, always busy.
It is a proof not only of the ability, but the energy of char- acter of Doctor Marden, that he could do so much educational work at the same time that he was doing, and doing so well, the work of developing Block Island. He went to the island in 1877 as clerk of the Ocean View Hotel, at that time scarcely larger than a country tavern. It was not long before the sa- gacions owner, the Hon. Nicholas Ball, discovered the ability of his new clerk and made him manager of the house. The new manager had already discovered the possibilities of this won- derful island, and began at once that system of advertising which has brought it to the notice of the wealthy and influen- tial. Knowing also that it would be useless to attract the rich to the island if there were not suitable accommodations for them after they came, he began a systematic course of enlarge- ment and careful attention to the quality of his accommoda- tions. His policy has been surprisingly successful. Year by year, as business steadily increased, he enlarged his house until in a few years he had a strictly first class hotel, capable of ac- commodating five hundred guests.
Meanwhile, the virtues of this wonderful island, as a health resort and summer resting place, have been so apparent to the people whom Doctor Marden has drawn hither, and guests go- ing away have carried such glowing reports to their friends of this magical island out there in the midst of the ocean, that Block Island has become the temporary home of a rapidly grow- ing summer population. A visitor to the island would not know it as the quiet, dull, uninteresting place of ten years ago. On every hand have sprung up fine hotels and beautiful cottages; distinguished strangers from all over the land flock hither to enjoy the balmy air and magnificent ocean scenery; business has increased many fold; real estate has advanced almost fabu- lously, and still increases in value. For this great prosperity Block Island and its inhabitants are largely indebted to the wis-
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
dom and enterprise of Doctor Marden; and it is pleasant to re- cord that they appreciate this fact to a large extent. He has also himself prospered with the prosperity of the island; is owner of the "Hotel Manisses," one of the finest of the island hotels; also of quite a large amount of real estate, and is the trustee of several land syndicates. He is also treasurer of the Fort George Island Company in Florida.
Doctor Marden's career thus far gives promise of an enviable future. Clear-headed, far-sighted, careful, pains-taking, labori- ous, with large and honorable ambition, dauntless courage, tire- less energy and invincible will, he is also a conscientious, unsel- fish, cultured Christian gentlemen. Such qualities will always enrich not only their possessor, but the world.
CAPTAIN ARNOLD R. MILLIKIN was born in 1826. At the age of fifteen he began a seafaring life of twenty-five years in the merchant marine, in the coasting trade, having command of a vessel eighteen or twenty years. He has been and is corre- spondent for the New York Board of Underwriters. His father was Archibald, and his grandfather was Archibald Millikin. The latter was in the Rhode Island legislature several years.
HON. BARZILLA B. MITCHELL .- The ancestors of the Mitchell family of Block Island, now honorably represented here by the gentleman whose name heads this article, were among the early settlers of the island, and the public and private life of mem- bers of this old family have formed, in every generation, no in- considerable part of the social, the political and the business history of the town.
Mr. Mitchell was born here in 1838. His father, who bore the same name, was a well-to-do farmer, who, through that system of mixed husbandry which still prevails here, and through his connection with the old wrecking company, obtained a compe- tency for those times, and lived and died a respected citizen. The grandfather, Jonathan Mitchell, was one of those plain men whose ambitions and tastes let their peaceful lives run on in uneventful channels to their close.
The Mr. Mitchell of to-day was surrounded in his boyhood by those stern circumstances which limited his privileges of an education to the public school system of his native town. These, however, he used to an advantage, and on the foundation there laid he, like many another, by observation and experience, de- veloped a mental discipline which the college and the university
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
often fail to impart, and in the supreme test of practical life, either in public or private affairs, he has acquitted himself fully.
In business he became a member of the old wrecking company, and was one of the foremost in the politic.il movement by which Ray S. Littlefield and Darius B. Dodge became the first demo- cratic members of the state legislature from this town, Mr. Mitch- ell having nominated them for the position. In this movement the young men of the town were more in personal sympathy with each other than with the older men, who, as republicans, had controlled the town for years. Mr. Mitchell was but one of the young men of that period, claiming no special credit for results, but it is a significant fact that two years later he went to the legislature himself, and was re-elected for six years in succes- sion. In the legislature he was a working member of various committees; one was the committee on fisheries, of which he was chairman.
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