History of Providence County, Rhode Island, Part 48

Author: Bayles, Richard Mather, ed
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: New York, W. W. Preston
Number of Pages: 938

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Mr. Grant was in 1865 married to Ellen F., daughter of Franklin Rand, of Pawtucket. Their children are: Harriet E., wife of James E. Pratt, of Woonsocket; George F., Edwin S., Ellen F. and William H.

Albert E. Greene was born in 1839, in North Scituate, and came with his parents to Woonsocket in 1849. He is a son of James and Louisa (Phillips) Greene-the former born in Coventry, the latter in Scitu- ate. He was educated in the public schools of Woonsocket. He mar- ried, in 1871, Edna F., daughter of Stephen L. Sprague, of Providence. He was clerk in the post office previous to going to the war. He en- listed in the First R. I. Infantry and was appointed first sergeant. After- ward he was commissioned lieutenant in Company B, Heavy Artillery,

Iseo. H. Grant.

ARTOTYPE, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y

397

HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

and was made captain in January, 1863. He was clerk for N. Elliott, contractor and builder, from 1870 to 1874. He was elected town clerk in 1874, and served in that office until elected city clerk upon the for- mation of the city government.

James Handley was born in 1856, in Smithfield, and is a son of James and Ann (Hourigan) Handley. He was educated at the public schools. He learned the trade of moulder and worked at that four years. He engaged in the meat business in Woonsocket in 1877 un- der firm name of Handley & Coulahan, which continued five years, and since that time has carried it on himself. He served several years on the democratic town committee, and served as highway commissioner. He is one of the charter members of the Catholic Knights, was one of the organizers of the Union Brass Band, also the Woonsocket Tem- perance Brass Band. He was twice elected to town council. He married Kate, daughter of Charles Riley, of Woonsocket, in 1884.

EDWARD HARRIS, son of David F. and Lydia (Streeter) Harris, was born in Smithfield, R. I., October 3d, 1801, and died at his home in Woon- socket November 24th, 1872. In early childhood his parents removed to Dutchess county, N. Y., and remained until 1818, when their son became a resident of Ashtabula county, Ohio. His boyhood and youth were spent at home, his time being employed in farming, studying and teaching school. What he lacked in literary attainments he made good in critical observance of men and things, thus laying the foundation of character that fitted him to become one of the ablest business men of the country.

In 1823 he returned from the West to his place of nativity with 25 cents as his capital, and became assistant in the counting house of his uncle, William Harris, then an extensive manufacturer at Valley Falls, R. I. In 1824 he entered the Albion Mills, then owned by Wil- liam and Samuel Harris, and Isaac Wilkinson. He first worked for his Uncle William, and then for his Uncle Samuel, at $1.33 per day, saving at the end of eighteen months $106, which was devoted to the payment of his debts. During the second year he received higher wages, and promotion to the superintendence of the factory, which he held until 1828. In November of that year he became the agent of the Harris Lime Rock Company, engaged in the manufacture of lime, and held that position until November 1st, 1830. In 1831, with a cap- ital of $3,500, saved from his earnings, with the exception of $1,000, borrowed from his father, he bought a small woolen mill known as "Number 1" of the Harris Woolen Company, with one set of ma- chinery, situated on the Blackstone river at Woonsocket, and in March, 1831, began the manufacture of satinets, with Edward Seagrave and Willard B. Johnson as associates. A decline in woolen goods necessi- tated his relinquishing this enterprise, and Mr. Harris returned to the Albion Mill, still retaining an interest in his satinet mill. During the following year the advance in his fabrics netted him $5,000, and this

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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

may be taken as the starting point of his great business success. Dis- solving the partnership in 1837 he ever after carried on business alone. In 1836 his stone mill in Woonsocket was built, designated as mill "Number 2," in which he began the manufacture of his " merino cassimere," and in 1842 he produced all-wool fabrics, extensively known as " Harris Cassimeres." In 1844 was built factory " Number 3," a large brick and stone structure in the central part of Woon- socket. In 1845 factory "Number 4" was erected, and work com- menced in it. All these mills were run by water from the Woonsocket Falls, supplemented by steam power, and are known as the "old mills." They contained 25 sets of wool cards, and produced 12,000 yards of " Harris Cassimeres" per week. Cotton mill " Number 5" has 7,000 spindles. In 1860 Mr. Harris commenced his mill " Number 6," called the " New Mill," just north of the town, on Mill river, and this was the last great work of his life. It is 442 feet in length, 60 feet wide, and five stories high, containing a Corliss engine of 175 horse power, and a water wheel of 28 feet breast and 40 feet diameter, capa- ble of running the whole mill. The mill has 25 sets of woolen ma- chinery for producing fancy cassimeres and staple woolens. It was finished and set in operation in 1865. Connected with it are a dye house, picker house, foundry, planing and saw mills, and 80 houses with 250 tenements.

Mr. Harris made over 250 styles of cassimeres a year, having for his standard of work, " make the best goods possible." His attention to the details of his immense business was no less diligent than that to the outlines of his plans, and he as critically studied the characters of his principal employees as he did the capacity of the larger water wheels. It was thus clearly a misfortune for one to be found " out of gear " or " wrongly balanced." He would not be restricted to the usual customs of trade, and stipulated an exclusive agency with a heavy dealer in New York on condition that all notes taken for " Harris Cas- simeres " should be kept by themselves, and that no notes from those holding or dealing in slaves should be put in that package. In 1855 he opened a warehouse in New York city, and made his bills payable two months shorter than those of other houses, allowing from two and a half to five per cent. to his patrons for early payments, thus be- ing surer of his pay and suffering much less than others in the crisis of 1857. When others suspended, he bought supplies cheaply and drove his mills vigorously. When others declined all credits in 1861, Mr. Harris allowed three months credit, and thus increased his busi- ness. His robust constitution, clear head and great energy carried him through responsibilities of great magnitude. Rising early he at- tended to the details of his extensive business, and would not trust to others what he could do himself. His various milling interests he in- corporated into the " Harris Woolen Company," to be continued as such after his death.

Eduvita Harris

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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

While Mr. Harris was amassing a great fortune he was mindful of the welfare of others. There is reason to believe the sum of his do- nations was half a million. He spent about $100,000 constructing new streets in Woonsocket. He also donated the site for the Woonsocket High School, the site for a district school, and the land for the Oak Hill Cemetery. In June, 1863, he donated to his townsmen the ele- gant block and grounds known as the "Harris Institute," for the pur- pose of promoting the moral, intellectual and social improvement of the inhabitants of the vicinity. It embraces a free library, a large hall for free lectures, and on the ground floor three stores and the post office, from which there is an increasing revenue for the support of the lectures and increase of library, the whole building and site having cost Mr. Harris $75,000. He gave $2,500 to form the nucleus of a library, which now has more than 8,000 volumes.

To the banking institutions of Woonsocket Mr. Harris contributed largely in patronage and influence. He was one of the originators and the first president of the Railroad Bank, organized in 1851, after- ward known as the First National Bank, and held the office until his death. In 1862 he became president of the People's Savings Bank, which office he filled during the remainder of his life. In middle life he was a member of both branches of the Rhode Island general as- sembly. He was a strong opponent of intemperance and slavery, and intimate with the leading abolitionists. While known as such he was desired to omit his name from his fabrics to increase the Southern sales. Instead he ordered his name placed on both ends of each piece of cassimere. He contributed much to the anti-slavery cause, and rejoiced in the emancipation of the slave. While John Brown was a prisoner under sentence of death, Mr. Harris wrote him a very Christian and consoling letter, enclosing a check for $100 for his be- reaved family. This was received and acknowledged in a letter written by John Brown the day before his execution. Mr. Harris married first, December 2d, 1835, Rachel, daughter of Moses Farnham, of Black- stone, Mass, who died February 7th, 1846. Their children were: David F. and Rachel F. (deceased), wife of Oscar J. Rathbun, of Woon- socket. The second wife of Mr. Harris was Abby P., daughter of Joseph Metcalf, of Cumberland, R. I. Their children were: Joseph M., Emma G., Isabel and Helen. Joseph M. died in Berlin, Prussia, October 21st, 1872.

FRANK HARRIS is the grandson of William Harris, who married Sarah Wilkinson, daughter of Abraham Wilkinson, of Pawtucket. His father was Abraham Wilkinson Harris, one of the argonauts of '49 to the Pacific coast and now a resident of Kingston, New Mexico. He married Hannah Bucknell, daughter of Benjamin Bucknell and Eliza, his wife. The children of this union are: Elizabeth Vila (de- ceased), Frank, Anne Wilkinson, and William. Frank, the eldest son, was born April 12th, 1855, on a ranch near Centreville, California,

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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

where he resided until his eleventh year, the date of his removal to Providence. With the exception of intervals of travel, much of his youth was spent in Wrentham, Massachusetts. Here he prepared for college and entered Brown University, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1878.

Mr. Harris immediately began mercantile life as accountant for Addison Q. Fisher, of Providence, and was for three years employed in that capacity, subsequently being admitted as a partner under the firm name of Fisher & Harris, brokers and commission merchants. On the retirement of Mr. Fisher he formed a copartnership with Charles F. Tarbell, of Providence, the firm three months later pur- chasing the Hamlet Mills at Woonsocket. On the first of January, 1889, Mr. Harris, having secured the interest of his partner, became the sole owner of this extensive milling property. By the judicious expenditure of means many improvements have been made in the various departments and the products of the mills brought to a high state of perfection under their present ownership.

Mr. Harris is a director of the Woonsocket Gas Company and of the Woonsocket Business Men's Association, member of the Calumet Club and of the Slater Club (protective association), both of Provi- dence, and of the New England Manufacturers' Association. Aside from his membership in the Providence Press Club he is not identified with other social or business organizations. His brief residence in Woonsocket has precluded active participation in local political affairs, though he was elected alderman in the fall of 1889. His religious belief is in harmony with the creed of the Congregational church, of which he is a member.

Mr. Harris married, October 20th, 1886, Ellen, daughter of the late Samuel H. Reynolds, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, one of the most brilliant representatives of the bar of that state.

Benoni Hawkins, son of Elisha and Rhody C. (Comstock) Hawkins, was born in 1844 in Coventry, R. I., and was educated in the public schools of Coventry. He came to Woonsocket in 1870 and first went to work in the spool and bobbin business, and in 1871 went into part- nership in the firm of Bass Bros. & Co. They dissolved and the busi- ness was sold to a Fall River corporation, he going with them. After- ward he bought out the American Spool Company, of Westerly, and moved it to Woonsocket, running it four years. He sold an interest to David Bass, the business afterward being sold to Thisell, Lamson & Welch. He was interested in the Woonsocket Yarn Company for six years, and in the Woonsocket Lumber Company six years. He also ran another lumber business under the name of B. Hawkins & Co .; afterward sold his lumber business to the Woonsocket Spool & Bobbin Company, having an interest in that company until April, 1888. He then started the Globe Knitting Company in partnership with Henry S. Houghton, which was dissolved at the end of four months, and

Frank Lande

ARTOTYPE, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y

401

HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

run by him alone until August, 1889, when he sold out to Stiles & Green. He served in Company C, First R. I. Cavalry, three years, and was taken prisoner and confined for a time in Libby Prison. He mar- ried for his first wife Lillie G., daughter of Leander Duncan, of Staf- ford, Conn. In 1884 he married his present wife, Elizabeth A., daughter of Thomas Mills, of Scotland.

JOHN F. HOLT is the son of Jeremiah Holt, of Lancastershire, England, who marrried Martha McIntire, of Buzby, Lanarkshire, Scot- land. Their son John F., was born February 14th, 1824, and spent his boyhood until his tenth year in Scotland, his native heath. He began work at the age of nine years in a cotton factory in Glasgow, and later continued the same employment in Manchester, England. With a desire to seek a wider and more attractive field for his energies in the new world, he sailed for America in 1851, and located in Providence, where he entered the extensive works of tlie Providence Rubber Company. Fifteen years he remained thus employed, thoroughly ac- quainting himself with this branch of industry, then under the man- agement of E. M. Chaffee, and finally becoming superintendent of a department of the works. Then removing to Bristol, he erected the machinery and placed in successful operation that section of a factory devoted to the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes, of which he was the superintendent.

Mr. Holt was in 1867 summoned to Woonsocket as the general su- perintendent of the Woonsocket Rubber Company. In this responsi- ble office he remained for 20 years, retiring in 1887 from its active management, but retaining his interest as a director and as one of the principal stockholders. The high estimate in which the services of Mr. Holt were held by this company can best be indicated when on the occasion of his retirement it was resolved by the board of direc- tors "that on receiving the declination by Mr. John F. Holt of a re- election to the the office of superintendent of the mills of this company, an office so efficiently and ably filled by him for 20 years, and under whose intelligent oversight the manufacture of boots and shoes was · first inaugurated in these works, which goods have come to be of the first rank and reputation in this country, and who has thus contrib- uted largely to our financial prosperity, we desire by this vote to express our high esteem for him, both as a skillful artisan and manu- facturer and as a business associate and friend. The official relations thus terminated we shall ever esteem most pleasant recollections, with warm personal regard for him and in his welfare."

Mr. Holt was married in 1843 to Margaret Lowry, daughter of James Lowry, of Manchester, England. They have three surviving children. Mr. Holt and his family worship at St. Charles Barromeo's Roman Catholic church at Woonsocket, of which he is a member and a trustee.

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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

William S. Hopkins, son of William L. and Elizabeth (Smith) Hop- kins, was born in 1849 in Providence. He came to Woonsocket in 1879, and was first employed as bookkeeper for Woonsocket Machine Company, afterward the Woonsocket Machine & Press Company, and was made treasurer in 1885. He married Lucy M., daughter of Albert Briggs, in 1879.

C. H. Horton, son of Otis H. and Elizabeth (Kingsley) Horton, was born in 1850 in Rehoboth, Mass., came with his parents to Woonsocket at the age of 12 years, and was educated in the public schools and the high school. He was clerk in the post office three and one-half years under Major Stephen H. Brown, and in 1870 went to Mattoon, Ill., and kept books for Day & Sprague two years. He then returned to Woonsocket and carried on the notion business four years, afterward the shoe business, and since that time has been connected with the Perforated Pad Company, which he started in 1878, and of which he is treasurer and general agent. He served two years in town council and was elected councilman from the Third ward upon the formation of the city government. He married Mary, daughter of William E. Casto, of Mattoon, Ill., in 1871.

William E. Hubbard, son of Elisha and Amelia (Turner) Hubbard, was born in 1826, in Franklin, Mass., and was educated in the public schools of that place. He came to Woonsocket in 1847 and began the business of contractor and builder, which he has carried on ever since with the exception of the time he was in the war. He enlisted in the 12th R. I. V. in 1862 as private, and became captain of Company F. He served as president of the town council in 1888, and was also presi- dent once before. He was moderator most of the time for 20 years. He was for a long time a member and president of the Woonsocket Lyceum. He was married first in 1846 to Martha W., daughter of Orin Chilson, of Bellingham, Mass. His present wife, whom he married in 1856, is Ruth, daughter of Jefferson Scott, of Woon- socket.

Etienne N. Janson was born in 1835, in St. Rosalie, Quebec. He came to Woonsocket in 1858 and ran a saw mill for George Ballou, then went to Fall River and started business there in company with his brother, and in 1877 sold his interest to his brother and returned to Woonsocket and started his present business of grocer and market- man. He married Angeline, daughter of Augustus Lemery, of Slaters- ville. He was elected to the town council in 1888, and re-elected councilman of the Second ward upon the formation of the city govern- ment.

HORACE A. JENCKES was of the eighth generation of the Jenckes family in America. His grandfather, Job Jenckes, was the largest owner of the Social Manufacturing Company at its foundation in 1810, and when he withdrew he founded the village and mill at Jenckesville in 1822.

John H. Holt

ARTOTYPE, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y.

403

HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

The subject of this notice was born September 23d, 1841, in the brick house at Jenckesville, known as the Jenckes homestead, within the present city limits of Woonsocket. His parents were Nelson and Deborah (Morse) Jenckes. His mother belonged to an old Uxbridge family. He received a preliminary education in the public schools of Woonsocket. In 1855 he went to Utica, N. Y., where he studied in a commercial college for one year. He returned to Woonsocket in 1856, and entered the Citizens' bank, where he occupied the position of teller for about 18 months. He resigned this position on account of poor health. He subsequently opened a grocery store in Center- dale, this state, where he remained for a short time, and then returned to Woonsocket and opened a grocery and provision store at Jenckes- ville in a building which stands opposite the lower Jenckesville mill on Social street, and which is now used as an office by Ray, Rathbun & Co., owners of the Jenckesville mills. He sold this store in 1862, and in the fall of that year became a recruiting officer for the United States government. He resigned this position to enter the town clerk's office at Cumberland as recording clerk. At a subsequent period he became bookkeeper for Nathaniel Elliott, at the latter's lumber yard office, North Main street. In a short time he was given full control of the business of his employer as a contractor, builder and lumber merchant. In his capacity of general superintendent he worked hard, allowing himself but little rest. City Clerk Albert E. Greene, who was bookkeeper for Nathaniel Elliott at that time, says that the deceased was one of the hardest working men he ever came in contact with. He further adds that he worked not only all day, but also late into the night, and was often obliged to trespass on the Sabbath in order to keep up with the vast amount of labor which fell to his lot to perform. In 1874 he formed a contracting and building copartnership, under the firm title of Jenckes, Page & Co., the other members of the firm being Joseph Page and P. J. Conley. This part- nership was in time dissolved, the deceased, however, still continuing the business of contractor and builder. His next progressive step was the organizing of the Franklin Rubber Company, the first start of which was made in Woonsocket. These works were subsequently located in Franklin, Mass., in buildings erected under his supervision. He remained superintendent of these works for a few years, and finally resigned. His successful efforts to establish water works in Woonsocket, and the establishment by him and others of the Woon- socket street railway and building of the Woonsocket Opera House are enterprises of such recent date as to be fresh in the minds of every resident.

He was a large owner of real estate in this vicinity and one of the principal owners of the Jenckes Teaming company.

At the same time that he was engaged in business schemes of magnitude, to the details of which he was giving personal attention,

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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

he was interesting himself in public affairs and becoming a power in politics. He was always a republican and took a deep interest in the welfare of his party, although never holding an elective office except that of representative in the general assembly in 1878-9. He was long an acknowledged leader, and during his leadership could have been elected to any office in the gift of his party which he desired to hold. He was a member of the republican town committee, before the town merged into a city, and a member of the state central com- mittee and of the national committee from 1884 to 1888, one of his last duties in this connection being attendance at the meeting in Washington in the spring of 1888, which called the presidential con- vention at Chicago. He also, as a member of the committee, attended the national convention. In 1880 he was a delegate to the national republican convention that nominated Garfield and exercised consider- able influence there.

The character of Mr. Jenckes had marked individuality. In busi- ness, as intimated, he was a man of mighty energy. To this he added a boldness of conception, a breadth of view, that often startled con- servative associates, although he usually converted them to his views. He was in this respect a type of the kind of American business men that are building cities and creating great states on this continent. His mind was tireless-particularly in the last decade of his life -- in setting on foot new projects, most of which were in the nature of public improvements. Of course he carried out only a small part of them. There were limitations with which he struggled-capital was not always to be had in sufficient quantity, and worse, in the midst of his activities, his health began to fail. But no one who looks about the young city of Woonsocket can fail to realize that what he did set on foot and carry through has made it a modern city in something more than population and form of government, and has made it a far more desirable place of residence. Beside the street railway, the water works and the opera house, he was one of the pioneers in the erection of dwellings of an attractive style of architec- ture. In his varied business career he had reverses, but undaunted he met them with redoubled energy and determination to win in the end.

In politics-in the management of campaigns, the handling of men and the carrying of measures-Mr. Jenckes found a most congenial employment. He was for at least a dozen years pre-eminent in the republican councils of the town and state, and not unknown in the nation. The habit of hard work and never surrendering, the knowl- edge of men, a personal magnetism that made his friends adhere to him and serve him-a strong development of what might be termed "the political sense," an addition to the senses which some men in this country have-made him remarkably successful. He always paid his political debts to allies and opponents, and to the latter he was.

Horace a Gend enelle

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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.

manly and open in his warfare. It was his way to say to a man to whom he was opposed, " I am against you and I will fight." For two or three years previous to his death he was less interested in politics than formerly. Mr. Jenckes died on the 1st of October, 1889.

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History of Providence County, Rhode Island, Part 48

Author: Bayles, Richard Mather, ed Publication date: 1891 Publisher: New York, W. W. Preston Number of Pages: 938

Author: Bayles, Richard Mather, ed
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: New York, W. W. Preston
Number of Pages: 938