USA > Rhode Island > Memorial encyclopedia of the state of Rhode Island > Part 26
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Like his father, Mr. Pierce was greatly interested in East Providence real estate. He saw, as did the elder man, that such property in a growing city is one of the safest and best investments to be found and it was his policy to buy a great deal of it. With his customary foresight he chose property in line with the city's development so that their value increased
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Maarten Lincoln Pierre
rapidly. Among his properties were three houses on Carpenter street, three on Summit avenue, two on Walnut street, one on Grove avenue and one on Taunton avenue, the latter property having an additional house standing in the rear. Much of this has been disposed of by Mrs. Pierce since her hus- band's death.
Besides his various business ventures, Mr. Pierce was always a promi- nent figure in the general life of the community, taking part in informal social activities and always ready with a broad public spirit to assist all judicious movements undertaken for the city's welfare. Interested in politi- cal issues in a theoretical way, he did not ,take a very active part in local politics, but on one occasion was the successful candidate for the City Coun- cil. He served in that capacity during the following term and was instru- mental in putting through important ordinances.
Mr. Pierce was united in marriage in East Providence to Fannie Saman- tha Grover, of that city, daughter of Cephas and Fannie (Brown) Grover. both members of prominent Rhode Island families. Mr. Grover was born at West Mansfield and died in East Providence in 1888. The Browns were prominent farmers of Foxboro, Rhode Island, and it was here that Fannie (Brown) Grover was born. Mrs. Grover was a remarkable woman and dur- ing her very long life was held in the greatest veneration and affection by her neighbors and friends. She came of a remarkably long-lived family, her own death occurring at the venerable age of ninety-one years, while her four sisters all passed the age of ninety, and one of them reached the age of ninety-three. In this connection it will be appropriate to quote from the local press at the time of Mrs. Grover's death to indicate how great was the respect in which she was held there: * Mrs. Grover was a woman
of high character, intelligent, conscientious and devout. She possessed a comprehensive and discriminating mind. forming her own opinions and was firm in her convictions. She was a good mother, counsellor and friend." M:s. Pierce was the younger of the two children born to the Grovers, the elder being a brother, Cephas Pennington Grover, of West Mansfield. Mrs. Pierce's appearance suggests a young woman and she is remarkably alert and capable. She personally carries on all her own business and superin- tends her affairs, such as the renting of her houses in East Providence, their repair and all matters concerning her tenants. As has already been stated she has disposed of much of her husband's property. but she still retains a considerable amount which she manages to the best advantage. Among other properties that she has sold is the old Pierce residence and she has built for herself a charming and comfortable little cottage at No. 195 Wil- marth avenue, East Providence, where she now resides. She has always been devoted to home, and like Mr. Pierce has found her chief happiness by her own hearthside.
Darwin Almp
TT IS AN erroneous opinion very commonly to be met with that the scientist, the inventor, is generally quite lacking in the practical faculty so far as the affairs of daily life are con- cerned, that he is only very imperfectly able to care for him- self and it is a common theme in our modern fiction how the unsuspecting inventor is shorn to the quick by the sophis- ticated man of business who robs him of his hard won rights and is usually pictured as the villain. It is difficult to say just where such an . impression arose unless it be from an association of the inventor with the old fashioned notion of a scholar and student, the man who hides himself away from the world for the purpose of pursuing undisturbed his abstract researches. But surely this is an inaccuracy. The inventor is apt to be something of a scholar, it is true, but he is also a practical man, a man who deals with practical problems and that in a department not very remote from that in which the business man works. And just as we see that it is wrong theoretically, so we shall find that the facts in the case do not bear it out, at least not in the present time. Most of the inventors to-day have amply proven themselves to be quite capable of marketing their own ideas and keeping themselves out of the clutches of the business man, who is sup- posed to be lying in wait for him. New England particularly has offered us scores of examples where the two faculties, if they be not two sides of one faculty, are to be seen side by side in the same person and the inventor is also the man of business and affairs. A very good example of this is to be found in the career of the late Darwin Almy, of Providence, Rhode Island, whose death in that city on March 9, 1916, was a loss to the community generally.
Darwin Almy was a member of a very old New England family which came to this country as early as 1630 in the person of one William Almy, who was born in England in 1601 and made the trip to the colonies at the date already mentioned and settled in Lynn, Massachusetts. He made a return trip to England and returned in 1635 to America bringing with him his wife, Audrey (Almond) Almy, and their two children. In 1641, about ten years after his first arrival in the country, he removed to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where he settled and where a large portion of his descendants still reside. The branch to which Darwin Almy belonged, however. re- moved from Portsmouth to Tiverton, Rhode Island, and it was there that he was himself born February 28, 1848. He was of the seventh generation from William Almy, the progenitor in this country, and traced his descent from that gentleman through Job, born in 1640, married Mary Unthank, and died in 1684; Job (2), born in 1681, married Bridget Sanford in 1705, and died in Tiverton in 1767; John, born in 1720, died in ISO8; Cook, born in 1763, mar- ried Charlotte Cook, and died in 1861 ; Isaac Cook Almy, the father of Mr. Almy. Isaac Cook Almy was born May 4, 1813, and died September 28, 1868. He was married to Alice Bateman and they were the parents of four children: Charlotte, wife of James H. Corthell, of Bristol; Albert Sidney, a
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Darwin Almy
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Darwin Amp
sketch of whom appears in this work; Alice, wife of Charles F. Herreshoff; and Darwin, of whom further.
Born at Tiverton, Darwin Almy obtained his education at the old school in District Seventeen and this was the only schooling he ever enjoyed as he abandoned his studies at the age of sixteen years and began to work on his father's farm at Tiverton. This he continued to do until his father's death in 1868, when he left home and began to shift for himself. He engaged in the Manhaden oil business and after a period of years during which he held various positions on the steamers connected with this trade, he became him- self a master of such a craft and continued in this profitable line for four years. He tlien, in 1874, removed to Providence and there entered the jewelry manufacturing business in partnership with Edwin A. Baker of that city. In this venture he was eminently successful, but he had gained a love for the life at sea during his experience of the past few years which com- pelled him to return to it, and accordingly two years later, in IS76, he re- turned to the Manhaden oil trade where he again met with a high degree of success. For three years more he continued in this line and then, in 1879, he became associated with the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company of Bris- tol. He was an expert in the construction of boilers and it was as foreman of the boiler and engineering departments that he began working with the famous boat designers. He soon proved himself to be all that even their high standards called for, and it was in this congenial atmosphere that Mr. Almy's inventive genius began to display itself to some purpose. For eleven years he was in charge of the trial trips of the yachts turned out by the Herreshoff yards, and thus had the handling of many of the most famous craft in the world at that most critical juncture. It was in the fall of 1889 that Mr. Almy brought out the most important of his inventions, the Almy water tube boiler, and began to manufacture boilers after this greatly im- proved model. It was not, however, until the following spring that the invention was patented and then a corporation was formd known as the Almy Water Tube Boiler Company, of which Mr. Almy was president and treasurer, offices which he held until his death. After severing his connec- tion with the Herreshoffs, he devoted his whole time to the new concern and it was very soon an assured success. From that ime down to the death of the founder it was a success of the highest kind . nd came to occupy an important place in the industrial world of Providence, giving employment to upwards of thirty-five hands. And not only the concern but Mr. Almy him- self became one of the best known figures in the marine engineering and yachting world and held an enviable reputation for the highest ability and integrity.
It was not by any means merely in connection with his industrial enter- prise that Mr. Almy became so well known, for he was prominently con- nected with the important engineering societies of the country, including the American Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Naval Engineers, Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and the Providence Me- chanical Engineers. He was also a member of the Rhode Island Business Men's Association, the Providence Chamber of Commerce, the Engineers' Club of New York, the New York Yacht Club, the Bristol Yacht Club, the
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Darioin Gimp
Rhode Island Yacht Club and the Rhode Island Automobile Club. He was also a prominent Mason and belonged to St. Alban's Lodge, No. 6, Free and Accepted Masons, and Hope Chapter, No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, of Bristol. Although the great demands made upon his time by his business and his various engineering associations precluded the possibility of Mr. Aliny tak- ing an active part in politics, he was, nevertheless, keenly interested in every political issue whether of local or general significance, and was a staunch supporter of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands, often working hard for the welfare of that party. He kept entirely aloof however, from an active alliance with the local organization and con- sistently avoided all public office.
Mr. Almy was thrice married: His first wife was Clara A. Cook, a daughter of William L. Cook. Three children were born to this union: I. Walter S., secretary and treasurer of the Almy Water Tube Boiler Com- pany ; married Harriet B. Glines by whom he has two daughters, Clara and Hope. 2. Charles F. H., vice-president of the Almy Water Tube Boiler Com- pany ; married Clementine Cameron, and has a daughter, Catharine Brooks. 3. Clara M., wife of Rev. Harold Sutton, and has a daughter, Deborah. These children all survive Mr. Almy. Mr. Almy's second marriage was to Jean- nette Spence, a lady of Scotch descent and a daughter of David D. Spence. The second Mrs. Almy is deceased. On December 7, 1915, Mr. Almy was united in marriage with Mrs. E. J. Wilbur, of Providence, Rhode Island. Mrs. Almy, who survives her husband, was prior to her first marriage Ella J. Carpenter, of Providence, a daughter of Benjamin Baker and Hettie (Smith) Carpenter, of that place. She was married to E. J. Wilbur and they had one child, a daughter, now Mrs. G. C. Mendell, of West Barrington, Rhode Island, where also Mrs. Almy has resided since the death of Mr. Almy.
1
MARCUS ULBRICHT
James Acthugh
W E AMERICANS owe our national existence to the great migratory impulse that has driven the European races out over the surface of the earth to seek for new homes and new ventures. Many are the factors that have contributed to this impulse, civil or religious oppression at home, the pure love of the unknown, dreams of wealth or power or fame to be gained, all played their part; but the sum total of them all is this great nation which we perceive about us. to which we consider ourselves fortunate to belong. Many of the peoples abroad have given us most gener- ously of their children, others again have been more niggardly and our gratitude to them has been more on account of the quality than of the quan- tity of the contribution. In James McHugh, however, we have a repre- sentative of a race to which we should be grateful for both quality and quan- tity, for in the case of the Irish we have received an unusually large propor- tion of them and the virtues and abilities which they have brought here and transplanted into our social soil constitute one of the most valuable elements therein.
James McHugh himself, whose death on January 31, 1896, at his home in Providence, Rhode Island, removed from that city one of the most bril- liant of the younger generation of business men, was a splendid example of the best qualities of his race, the qualities that have sent them forth over the whole surface of the earth and made them a dominant element wherever they have gone. He was one of those who seem capable of crowding into a few brief years what the majority of men would feel well satisfied to have accomplished within the compass of the allotted three score years and ten, for in spite of the fact that he was but thirty-three years of age at the time of his death he had already made an impress upon the affairs of his adopted city and come to be a well-known figure in a very large and influential circle.
He was a son of Owen McHugh and through him descended from an old and highly honored Irish family, and was himself born in Ireland in 1863. His father died when he was still very young, but he was brought up by his mother, Mrs. McHugh, Sr., who still resides in Ireland at an advanced age. Under the loving and careful training of his mother Mr. McHugh passed his boyhood in his native land, gaining such education as the con- ditions there permitted. Being of an unusually alert mind he picked up more than the average lad finds possible, yet it is true that the greater part of what must be considered as an excellent education was acquired sub- sequently and not in connection with any school save that universal one of experience. He was a very young man, scarcely more than a youth in fact, when he left his parental honie and native country to come to the United States where, in common with so many of his fellow countrymen, he hoped to find greater opportunities for the expression of his personality and greater rewards for his efforts. The event proved his cherished belief well founded, for without doubt had he lived he would have made a high place for him-
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James Melbugh
self in his chosen home. When he first reached this country he went directly to Providence which was thereafter his home until the time of his death, and there found employment with the firm of Day Brothers, dealers in grain. But the young man was determined to engage in business for himself and with this end in view saved every cent of his wages that he was not obliged to spend. After a short time spent in this-employ and with several other concerns, he managed to accumulate sufficient capital to realize his ambition and later established himself in business on the corner of Pine and Bridge streets, Providence. For eight years he continued successfully to conduct his business at this location and prospered highly. During this period he purchased a handsome house on Arnold street and it was there that his death occurred. Mr. McHugh was a man of strong religious feeling, and in the matter of his religious belief a Catholic. He was a faithful member of St. Joseph's Church in Providence, and liberally supported it especially in its philanthropic undertakings.
Mr. McHugh united in marriage on September 12, 1889, with Elizabeth McGuire, like himself a native of Ireland. She was born in County Leitrim, and was a daughter of Francis and Bridget (Mclaughlin) McGuire, and a member of old and honorable families on both sides of the house. When Mrs. McHugh was a child her mother died and shortly afterwards her father, Mr. McGuire, came to this country bringing her with him. The latter years of his life were spent with his daughter in her home in the ease and comfort that was due his age. To Mr. and Mrs. McHugh was born one son, Eugene F. McHugh, who with his mother survives Mr. McHugh. Since the death of the latter Mrs. McHugh may be said to have devoted her life to one pur- pose-her son. She disposed of the large, handsome residence on Arnold street and purchased a smaller but very comfortable home at No. 93 Superior street where she now resides. Here she gave her son the advantage of a Christian home and he was also given a splendid education. In short, she has bent everything to his good and has proved herself a mother of whom any young man may well be proud. She has also shown herself an admirable business woman and has dealt in real estate to great advantage, having pur- chased, in addition to the house on Superior street, several other valuable properties and now owns houses at Nos. 59 and 61 Arnold street and Nos. 152 and 154 Superior street. These properties she herself takes care of, collecting the rents, and attending to all business arrangements with the tenants. She has a large circle of most devoted friends, but does not care for society in its more formal sense.
Mr. McHugh is properly described as a self-made man in the best mean- ing of that term. Coming to America a young man without friends or in- fluence, starting his life here in very modest circumstances, by hard work, patience, courage and that character that will not swerve from its objective, he advanced himself to the position that he held. Strict application to work and the most honest methods of doing all business were his guides in life, and how effective they proved may be seen at a glance at his career. Even in the few years that fate granted him of life sufficed for him to leave his family well provided for, and had not his life been so early ended he would without doubt have done much more. He was just in the prime of a splendid
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James Mchugh
manhood when death claimed him, with all his powers and faculties at their best, a circumstance that always renders additionally tragic the coming of the dread visitant, since we must contrast the seeming promise with the fact. He was a most genial and approachable man and always had a ready welcome for all without regard to class, creed or race and his charities were many and well judged. Many of them were never known to the public as he obeyed the injunction not to let his left hand know what his right was doing, his giving being purely out of the goodness of his heart and with no thought of public approval. His public spirit was broad and full of wisdom and he was always ready to help along a worthy cause. A man of strong opinions and original mind, he was no blind partisan of any cause, an atti- tude of mind which found its most typical expression in politics. Although keenly interested in politics he would never ally himself with any party but cast his vote for cause and candidate that he thought best at the time. He was no office seeker and this position was one which kept him from anything like political preferment, even had he been ambitious for it, since the giving of political good things rests entirely with the great parties which reserve them for their own henchmen. Mr. McHugh was a man of the strongest domestic instincts, preferring the companionship of his wife and son in the surroundings of his own home to any outside interests. However, this should not be taken,to imply that he had a distaste for intercourse with his fellows. On the contrary he loved the informal meeting of friends, of which he had a great many, and many a pleasant evening was spent by these intimates with the family in the hospitable McHugh home.
Clarence Albern Aldrich
S OME MEN unquestionably possess a natural talent for affairs and gravitate into public life as naturally as water finds its level. Also it is often obviously true that such talent runs in families and we frequently see more than one member of such a household force their way to the front, and some- times, which removes. the possibility that one may aid the other, upon opposing sides. A very conspicuous case of this is the Aldrich family of Rhode Island, of which the generation just past presented two brothers of equal talent and ability in dealing with public affairs. The elder, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, reached a position more exalted politically and was undoubtedly better known without the borders of the State, but it is to be remembered that he was allied with the party in power there who had at its disposal most of the larger offices, State and National, while his brother, Clarence Alvern Aldrich, with whose career this article is especially concerned, was allied to the Democratic party as con- sistently as the other was opposed to it, the party normally in the minority in Rhode Island, yet within the ranks thereof and throughout his State there was no one more highly valued nor more admired than he.
Clarence Alvern Aldrich was born August 9, 1852, in the little town of East Killingly, Connecticut, and died in Providence, Rhode Island, Feb- ruary 1, 1916. He was a son of Anan and Abby (Burgess) Aldrich, who for many years had resided at Foster, a town but just on the Rhode Island side of the line between Connecticut and that State. Here Anan Aldrich was employed as a mill machinist and here Nelson W. Aldrich was born, but in the eleven years that intervened between that event and the birth of the younger brother the family had removed to East Killingly, so that the Mr. Aldrich of this sketch was a native of Connecticut. The early years of his childhood were spent in his native town and it was there that he first attended school. He passed through the grammar grades and then went to the Danielson High School at Danielson, Connecticut, a slightly larger place where the school advantages were greater. From this institution he gradu- ated and then entered the Lapham Institute at North Scituate, Rhode Island. It had been his intention to take a course in Brown University, but upon graduating from Lapham Institute in 1871 he decided to take up teaching for a time. For four years thereafter he taught in the district schools in the west of Rhode Island and the east of Connecticut, East Kill- ingly, Connecticut, and Chepachet, Rhode Island, being the scenes of his labors. But although this was a temporary work, an episode as it were in his career, the time was of great importance as it was during these four years that he determined upon the profession that later was to lead him into public notice and appreciation. This choice was the law and accordingly in 1875 he came to Providence, Rhode Island, and thereafter made his home there, taking up the study of law in the office of Benjamin N. and Simon Lapham, at that time prominent attorneys in the city. It has been said of the Lap-
Shownon A Aldrich
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Clarence Alvern Alorich
hams that the young men who received their training under them invariably turned out first class lawyers, and Mr. Aldrich amply sustained this tra- dition. Even as a school boy he had shown unmistakable signs of originality and a most definite individuality and these became much stronger during this period of his life, which was a formative one with him in which opinions and basic beliefs were ultimately fixed. ~ A. very striking example of his strength of mind and the importance in which he himself held his convic- tions is shown in the matter of his differing with his elder brother in politics, although his choice of sides was unmistakably a sacrifice of personal inter- ests. The elder man had already begun his brilliant career while Clarence A. was still a student and then a teacher in country towns, and was already a man of influence when the latter came to' Providence to put his project of studying law into effect. Nothing would have seemed more natural than for the young man to simply follow in the steps of his elder, and such a course would have implied no disingeniousness in many youths, even had their predilections been the other way. Youth is easily led before it has outgrown the habit of accepting the authority of those older than them- selves. Not so with Mr. Aldrich. His mind was fully capable of forming its own conclusions upon the problems presented to it and that with a definiteness and clearness that gave him rather the position of leader than "of one led. Aside from whatever personal sorrow he may have felt in differ- ing from his brother, no other consideration weighed with him a jot and intellectually he was no more concerned than with any other opposition that he might be called upon to meet. Democrat he was by conviction, and Dem- ocrat he remained to the end of the measure. This sturdy independence characterized him in all his actions and he proceeded to fit himself for the practice of the law, and after his admission to the Rhode Island bar in 1879 to follow this chosen career with the most commendable persistency. He never formed a partnership with anyone, but continued by himself up to the time of his death. He was universally recognized as one of the most able attorneys in the city and a large amount of the most important litiga- tion of that region was intrusted to his care, nor did he ever fail to amply dis- charge his responsibility.
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