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 97
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
March 26th, 1849. Their only child, a daughter, Sarah W .. was born November 23d, 1876. Alfred C. Briggs was born May 21st, 1813, and died June 5th, 1886. His wife, Elvira M., was born May 16th, 1820, and died November 3d, 1849. Mr Church has always given his support to the republican party in politics. He was elected representative to the general as- sembly in 1885 and 1886, and in 1887 senator from his district, serving meanwhile on the committees on fisheries and state property. He was also appointed one of the commissioners of the stone bridge connecting Tiverton and Portsmouth. Mr. Church fills the role of that important individual, the township auctioneer, and in various other ways has made his presence indispensable to the township.
JOSEPHI CHURCHI, son of Richard', was the oldest brother of Colonel Benjamin. His descendants, although widely scat- tered, have always been represented in Little Compton, and the property owned by him in 1681, in which year he moved to Seconnet from Hingham, Massachusetts, is still owned by John Churchs, son of Colonel John', and several families from the same ancestral line reside here, one of the sons in each gener- ation remaining at home and inheriting the farm.
THOMAS CHURCH' (Thomas3, Benjamin2, Richard') was a military man of more than local reputation. He commanded the Rhode Island regiment at the siege of Boston. His home in Little Compton was at Seconnet point, where Colonel Henry T. Sisson now lives. His regiment, "the 15th Regiment of foot," was at Jamaica Plains in 1775. It consisted of five com- panies from five of the Newport county towns. In it were seventy-four men from Little Compton as privates. Their captain was Thomas Brownell, Aaron Wilbour was lieutenant, and Aaron Wilbour, Jr., was ensign. The mnster roll of this regiment was sadly mutilated, but what remains of its pages are in possession of Mrs. Wilbour (170), who received them from the colonel's great-granddaughter.
WILLIAM PABODIE, whose grave at the Commons is mention. ed, was a conspicuous man in the early affairs of the town. He was for many years clerk of the Seconnet proprietors. The respect with which he was regarded, and the respectful manner in which some public business was done by the gallant gentle- men of the old school are both vividly portrayed in this entry in their records, September 24th, 1702: " Mr Peter Tay-
Nathaniel Church
٠١٦٧١٦١٠٤٠
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
lor was chosen a Clerk of the said Proprietors, Not thereby to diminish Mr William Peabodie, the ancient Clerk, but that either of them May officiate in the said Office, and the reason and intent of our so doing is that the ancient Clerk, while he liveth, may inform the New Clerk in many things touching the records of the lands of the said proprietors, which cannot so well be understood by a stranger."
His home was sonth of the original thirty "Great Lots." Some question has arisen within the last few years as to the location of his homestead. The farm now owned by George A. Gray was the property of John Pabodie in 1762, and on the 24th of April of that year le deeded to Pardon Gray, for £14,000, " Old Tenner" bills of credit, eighty acres, which in the description is called the "homestead where I now live." If this was the Pabodie homestead no doubt the remnants of the original house are in the present buildings of Mr. Gray.
MAJOR SYLVESTER BROWNELL' (Jonathan4, 1719-1776; George', 1685-1756; Thomas2, 1650-1732 ; Thomas', 1619-1665) was born November 20th, 1757. In his eighteenth year he enlisted in the revolutionary army, and was one of the thousand men who, under Colonel Prescott, on the night of the 16th of June, 1775, marched from Cambridge to Breed's hill and threw up the re- doubt which, the next day, brought on the battle of Bunker Hill. He served through the war, and was in the disastrous battle of Long Island under General Sullivan, and afterward in the bat- tle of Rhode Island. In 1778 he married Mercy, daughter of Colonel Thomas Church, and great-grandaughter of Colonel Benjamin Church, the hero of King Philip's war. He had eleven children. The oldest, Thomas Church Brownell, was edu- cated at Brown University, and after a professorship at Union College, Schenectady, studied theology and was rector of Trinity church, New York city, elected bishop of the diocese of Connecticut, and founded and was first president of Trinity College, Hartford. His statue adorns the public park there.
Sylvester was for nearly twenty years a senator in the Massa- chusetts legislature. In t804 he was elected deacon of the United Congregational church in Little Compton. He died in Little Compton March 21st, 1840. Deacon Brownell was much re- spected for his intelligence and public spirit, and his opinions, after a lapse of half a century, are quoted by the older inhabi- tants of the town. Professor Shephard, of Yale, once said of
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
him: "For gennine excellence and dignity of character he was a model man, and greatly esteemed by my father." His sons, Pardon, Richmond and Jonathan, were educated at Union Col- lege, Schenectady. Sylvester Brownell's commission as major, by John Hancock, governor of Massachusetts, is now in posses- sion of his grandson, Frederick R. Brownell, Esq., of Little Compton.
ISAAC BAILEY RICHMOND .- The earliest Richmond of whom there is authentic record came from France to England with the Conqueror in the year 1066. We next hear of William Rich- mond of Druycot Hall in 1390. The progenitor of the family in America was Col. John Richmond, who came from Ashton, Heynes, Wiltshire, England, in 1637. He settled in Taunton, Massachusetts, but later removed to Little Compton, accom- panied by his sons, John and Edward. The latter, from whom the subject of this biography is descended, purchased land at Westerly, Rhode Island, in 1661, and at East Greenwich in 1667, but ultimately settled in Little Compton. Edward was born in 1632 and died in 1696. His son, Colonel Sylvester Richmond, was born in 1673 and died in 1754. He was a lieutenant and justice of the peace, afterward became a colonel, and was an influential and highly respected citizen. His son, Captain Perez Richmond, born in 1702, died in 1770. He married Deb- orah Loring in 1731 and had ten children, of whom Joshua, the eldest son, was born in 1734 and died in 1778. He married in 1761, Elizabeth, daughter of John and Deborah Barker Cash- ing, of Scituate, Massachusetts. Among their sons was Joshua, whose birth occurred in 1770 and his death in 1812. He mar- ried in 1797, Mary, daughter of Isaac and Sarah M. Bailey, and had six children as follows: Isaac Bailey, Mary, John Cush- ing, Joshua, Mary 2d and William.
Isaac Bailey Richmond was born June 14th, 1798, in Little Compton. Here and in Providence, at that date the home of his parents, his childhood was passed. His education was re- ceived at the common schools and under the direction of Rev. Mase Shepard, after which, at the early age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to Mr. John H. Green of Providence, a well known house builder and one of the foremost architects of the country. Mr. Green having received an order to build a large edifice for the congregation of the Independent Presbyterian church of Savan- nah, Georgia, appointed his apprentice as foreman to superintend
Zawad 1. Richmond 11
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RESIDENCE OF ISAAC BAILEY RICHMOND.
Little Compton.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
this work. The young man, though bnt nineteen years of age, ac- cepted the position, and through it became favorably known in Savannah, where he determined to locate, and for twenty years thereafter condneted a prosperous business as house builder and Inmber dealer. Ilis wife's health having failed, he returned to Little Compton and purchased the property now embraced in his present home. Mr. Richmond soon after established a him- ber trade in New Bedford, and also acted as agent for various parties engaged in the whaling business, being himself largely interested in these ventures. For a period of thirty years these commercial relations were continued, Little Compton still being his home.
Mr. Richmond, on the 30th of September, 1823, married Aba- gail Brown, who was born September 15th, 1803, and died JJuly 14th, 1884. Their children are: Henry Isaac, Horatio Whit- ridge, Georgia Anna, Preston Baker, William Brown, Charles Cushing, Abby Elizabeth and Joshua Bailey. Mr. Richmond, aside from his private business, has been interested in many corporate enterprises. He was the projector, and for nineteen years president of the Tiverton and Little Compton Mutual Insurance Company, and a director of the Commercial Insur- ance Company of New Bedford. His political affiliations have been either whig or republican. He represented his district in the state senate in 1870 and 1871, has been a notary public, president of the town council, and filled other township offices.
Mr. Richmond, or Deacon Richmond, as he is familiarly known, in his Christian life has exhibited, as his most marked characteristic, a firm, undeviating loyalty to the truth. It has ever been his aim to do right. He has sought to do his duty; first of all his duty toward God, and then as faithfully his duty toward man. While susceptible, in a high degree, to influences flowing from the love of God, yet the impression which he has made upon his fellow-men is that of a life grounded upon prin- ciple rather than emotion. Consequently he has exhibited a steady, abiding interest in every good work. His position on any question of duty was clearly defined and easily ascertained, and when once known, was known forever; for as the truth al- ways remains the same, so his loyalty to the truth compelled him to be unswerving in his position toward it. This is not to say that he never changed his opinion, but only as new light revealed the truth in a different aspeet. On this principle he
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
has been the fast friend of every canse which had for its object the spread of the truth as it is in Jesus.
Hence we find that for years he has been a liberal annual con- tributor to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American Home Missionary Society, the American Missionary Association, the American Bible Society, the Amer- ican Tract Society, the American Seamen's Friend Society, the American Education Society, the American Colonization Soci- ety, the Congregational Union, the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society, the New West Education Com- mission, the Rhode Island Temperance Union, and doubtless to other benevolent organizations. Of many of these societies he is a life member, and of three or four he made also his wife and each of his eight children life members, desiring thus to enlti- vate an interest on the part of his children for those objects so dear to himself.
But his strongest attachment has been for the United Congre- gational church and society of his own town. For more than fifty years this church has received his almost constant care, his warmest prayers, his frequent tears, and his great labor of love. A deacon for nearly all this period, performing his du- ties with singular fidelity, dignity and love; as Sunday school superintendent, carrying the gospel into less favored parts of the town; as clerk and treasurer of the church, keeping its rec- ords with almost faultless accuracy; as president and treasurer of the society, managing its financial interests with remarkable sagacity; and as member of the standing committee, watching every department with the keenest interest, his wise counsels were felt in the whole administration of the church.
In matters of religious doctrine, while cherishing a hopeful view of the ultimate success of the kingdom of Christ, he has, during all his Christian life, been conservatively orthodox. This is clearly shown by the doctrinal part of the church man- ual, which, although the adopted sentiment of the whole church, was prepared by him alone. To very few persons is given the opportunity for such extended usefulness, and to still less the ability to fill each position with such efficiency.
It would be a long story to tell of his deeds of charity. The Bible Depository, auxiliary to the American Bible Society, which was inaugurated and managed principally by him, being kept for twenty years in his house, and the Richmond Acad-
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
emy, which he established by erecting suitable buildings and procuring teachers, and sustained for a period of years for the benefit of his own and other children, are examples of that Christian enterprise which has ever marked his course. As a result of this faithful adherence to Christian principles, Dea- con Richmond has ever held an honored place in the respect and confidence of his fellow- citizens.
JAMES F. SIMMONS' (Davis, 1769-1832; George8, 1731-1809; William3, 1699-1774; William', 1675) was born in Little Comp- ton September 10th, 1795. His means of education were lim- ited to the schools of the rural neighborhood. Trained to the hardy labors of the farm, his evenings were occupied by study, and at an early age he manifested a taste for finance and com- merce, and when quite young established himself in Providence, and soon after in Johnston, R. I., where he lived until his death. Johnston was then a stronghold of the democratic party for several years. Mr. Simmons contended with the dominant party, but in 1827 was elected to the legislature, where he soon rose to a commanding position, and where he continued, with brief intermission, till 1840, when he was elected to the United States senate for the term commencing in March, 1841, with the administration of General Harrison. Clay and Cal- houn were then in the senate, and Webster had just left it for the state department.
Mr. Simmons was a manufacturer and a high tariff man; his memory was remarkably tenacious of statistics, and he soon took a high position on financial questions. It is said that Mr. Clay declared on one occasion that Mr. Simmons knew more abont finance than any other man in the nation. In 1847, after one of the most memorable struggles ever held in this state. Mr. Simmons was succeeded by John H. Clark. It is said that Mr. Simmons was defeated in consequence of his advocating the pardon of Thomas W. Dorr, who was then in prison on a life sentence for treason. In 1857 he was again elected to the senate.
He was a warm supporter of Henry Clay and his personal friend, in his first term in the senate. Soon after taking his seat, he made a powerful speech on the currency, which estab- lished his reputation as a sound thinker and a practical man ac- quainted with matters of trade and commerce. Upon these matters he was always an authority and his views commanded
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
the respect and attention of his colleagues. The subject to which he gave his greatest study was the tariff, and his reten- tive memory and familiarity with financial and commercial sta- tisties gave him great power in debate.
Mr. Simmons was tall and elegant in person, but plain and simple in manners. Few men have had, to a greater degree, the power of attaching friends to them, and few have been followed with greater personal devotion. He died July 13th, 1864.
GEORGE W. BRIGGS, D. D., of Cambridge, is a man remem- bered here with love and respect.
RAY PALMER, the poet, was born here (131) and his sister, Mrs. Thomas B. Grinnell is still a resident of the town.
THE COE FAMILY .- Early generations of the Coe family were prominent here. The grave of John Coe2 (106) is sonth of the Pabodie monument, in the cemetery at the Commons. He was a son-in-law of Elizabeth Alden Pabodie, having married her daughter Sarah. George S. Coe, president of the American Ex- change National Bank, of New York, is one of the descendants.
COLONEL HENRY T. SISSON .- Whoever would know of the prominent men of New England who are or have been a part of the local history of Newport county, must have some knowledge of the life and public services of the gentleman, now a resident of Seconnet, whose well known name and well earned title head this paragraph. Henry Tillinghast Sisson was born Au- gust 20th, 1831. His father, David Sisson, was one of the thir- teen children of Lemnel Sisson. Lemuel was a native of Ports- mouth, R. I., in which town David was born on the 16th of February, 1803. In 1811 the family removed to Newport, whence they came in 1816 to Seconnet point, where Lemuel be- came a tenant on the Roach estate, then one of the best farms in Little Compton. Here Lemnel reared his seven sons and six daughters. Here David was trained to the life of a farmer, and after he and his brother had succeeded their father as tenants, he became the owner of the Roach farm. This property, now occupied by Colonel Sisson, is the estate once owned by Colonel Thomas Church and is said to have previously been the property of his grandfather, Colonel Benjamin Church. It is unques- tionably the most valuable land property on the Seconnet pen- insula. Colonel Sisson has been principally engaged for the last several years in managing this property, plotting it and getting it into the market as building sites for summer cottages.
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Eight generations of white owners have made this locality his- toric. As the home of Colonel Church it is of more than pass- ing interest. As the site of the Roach mill it has been men- tioned in the preceding chapter. As the home of Lemuel Sisson it became the Mecca of the early Methodists. The active days of David Sisson's life were passed outside of Newport county. Beginning at the age of twenty-three as clerk at Fall River for the Fall River Iron Works Company, he was made their agent in 1837 and put in charge of a branch establishment at Provi- dence, where he soon after removed his family, which consisted in part of his wife, who was a daughter of Tillinghast Bailey, of Little Compton, and the son, Henry T., then a lad of eight years. The name of David Sisson from that time until his death was closely identified with mercantile and manufacturing enterprises, including the American Print Works, the Globe Print Works, the American Linen Manufacturing Company and the Providence Tool Company. He was a man of indom- itable energy-a characteristic of his father-and a high ideal of moral and religions duty, a quality conspicnous in the char- acter of his mother.
Colonel Sisson was educated at the Gorham Academy, Maine, and fully prepared for college there and at the University Grammar School at Providence. Prior to 1861 he was engaged in varions manufacturing and mercantile pursuits, but the opening of the civil war created an era in his life and led to the military career by which he will be best known to posterity. In 1851 he connected himself with the Providence Marine Corps of artillery as a private, and in the same year he received an appointment upon the staff of its colonel, George L. Andrews, the present senior colonel in the United States army. He after- ward acted as major under Governor Sprague, who was colonel of the organization. Probably no man living has displayed more activity in the militia organization of Rhode Island than the subject of this sketch. Some two years prior to the rebel- lion he accepted the coloneley of the Mechanics' Rifles, raising it from a company to a full regiment, and thus earned the dis- tinction of being the first in Rhode Island to raise and command a full militia regiment. From this regiment were enlisted two companies for the First Rhode Island Regiment for United States service. Colonel Sisson took a position on General Burnside's staff, with the rank of lieutenant, and acted as pay-
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
master. He was appointed instructor of "The Carbineers "- a hundred picked men-and led the company in the first battle of Bull Run. For ability displayed there he was put in com- mand of the Ninth Rhode Island Artillery. He was in the fight at James Island and in front of Charleston. For gallant services on that occasion he was recommended for promotion and received the colonelcy of the Fifth Rhode Island Artillery, which rank he held to the close of the war.
He performed service as commandant of the Fifth Regiment in North Carolina, commanding a brigade and division in the second siege of Newbern, commanding the center and most important division with more men than both wings. In April, 1863, he raised the siege of Little Washington while in com- mand of the Fifth Regiment. This event is the subject of much war correspondence, and is one of the cardinal points in Colonel Sisson's career. Governor Sprague, one of the colonel's friends and admirers, in an antograph letter, says he was "a distin- gnished officer in our Union army, who conferred great credit upon our state and reaped great honor for himself, doing the cause immense service." The legislature of Rhode Island passed a vote of thanks to Colonel Sisson in apprecia- tion of this service. After the war he was general superintend- ent of the Sprague mills in Coventry and Warwick. From 1875 to 1877 he was lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island. In 1881, having expoused the cause of the democracy, he accepted the nomination for congress against the present incumbent, Hon. H. J. Spooner, who was elected. He is the inventor of several practical devices in the arts of war and of peace, to which he has not yet given the time and attention which is called for by their possibilities as practical improvements.
Colonel Sisson, in the environments of his home life, is hap- pily circumstanced. His wife, Josephine E., is a danghter of Joseph Brownell, whose mother, Lydia Church Brownell, was a danghter of Joseph Church, a lineal descendant of Richard Church. Their four children are: Nettie W., David, Henry T., Jr., and Frank Harris.
LEVI W. SISSON .- Lemnel Sisson, born in Portsmouth, April 21st, 1769, removed to Seconnet point in 1816, where he resided for the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1849. He married Susannah Lake, of Portsmouth, born April 28th, 1775. Their children were: Mary, born October 1st, 1793; John, Jan-
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Levi CH.
chin
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
uary 21st, 1796; Elanor, November 25th, 1797; Ann, Feb- ruary 26th, 1799; Joseph, February 12th, 1801; David, February 14th, 1803; Lemuel, May 27th, 1805; Levi W., March 19th, 1807; Susannah L., March 10th, 1809; James P., June 16th, 1812; Sarah A., January 4th, 1815; William H., January 19th, 1818, and Harriet P., January 19th, 1818. But two of this num- ber, Sarah A. and Harriet P., survive.
Levi W. Sisson was a native of Portsmouth, and spent his early youth in Newport. At the age of nine years he removed with his parents to Seconnet point, and received such education as the primitive schools of the day afforded. He then gave a helping hand to his father in his farming pursuits, and the year succeeding his marriage, having leased the farm, continued for twelve years to cultivate it. Owing to failing health Mr. Sissou deemed it prudent to abandon for a time active employment, but continued his residence as before. He married on the 2d of February, 1837, Mary, daughter of Elnathan Taber, of Fair Haven, Massachusetts. Their children are: William II., born December 24th, 1837, who, with his family, located near the home of his father; Elizabeth T., May 22d, 1839, deceased; Rachel D., October 30th, 1840; Mary F., September 30th, 1845; Lemmel, February 8th, 1849, and Levi, December 9th, 1852. In 1853 Mr. Sisson purchased the property now the home of his younger sons, and there engaged in what is termed mixed husbandry until his death.
He was retiring in his manner, shunned the excitements of public life, and was content to cast his vote with the republi- can party, without aspiring to the offices within its gift. On the occasion of his death, which occurred November 1st, 1880, · the following tribnte was paid his memory by a friend: "Mr. Sisson had been a member of the M. E. Church about fifty years. He will be remembered as a humble, trustful, con- sistent Christian. As an office-bearer in the church. in busi- ness life, in his family, under all circumstances, he exemplified the religion which he professed. Mr. Sisson has, ever since his conversion, taken a deep interest in the church; he loved her doctrines and usages, and enjoyed with a deep relish the means of grace. He was an affectionate husband and father, a genial companion and a true friend. His last sickness, though lingering and painful, was met with fortitude, and with a spirit of loving, trustful submission to the will of God. He lived
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IIISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
well, and therefore died well. A little before losing conscious- ness he said, with utmost assurance, 'I have no fears for the future.' "
EPHRAIM BAILEY SISSON. - No family name in Little Comp- ton has been more closely associated with the growth of Ameri- canism than that of Sisson. In 1816 Lemuel Sisson settled at Seconnet, and during his lifetime his home was the Mecca of the Methodists. John Sisson, one of his thirteen children, who was born in Portsmouth twenty years before and died in 1879 in Little Compton, with his wife, Mary Brownell, lived on the farm belonging to James I. Bailey at Seconnet. Their only child, Ephraim Bailey, was born there February 4th, 1821. At this point his early days were passed, and from this humble home the lad was sent to get as he might, such learning as he could in the primitive schools of that day. Later he enjoyed some advantages at a city school in New Bedford, and during his early manhood was twice employed as a teacher in the schools of his native town. The year after attaining his majority he was married to Harriet E., daughter of Jediah Shaw, and six years later they became tenants of the homestead farm. Here were brought into action those inherited qualities which have dis- tingnished their lives until to-day. For thirty years he con- tinned this business relation, and by the decease of his father he became the owner of the Edmond Brownell homestead prop- erty in 1879, which he now rents, though still retaining his res- idence.
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