USA > Rhode Island > Memorial encyclopedia of the state of Rhode Island > Part 43
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390
John Thomas Cuddy
died. The mother with her family came to America, locating at once in Providence. The only one of the children now living, besides Mrs. Cuddy, is Patrick Dugan, a resident of Providence. Mr. and Mrs. Cuddy were the parents of the following children: 1. William Francis, married Mamie O'Neil, of Providence, and is a bookkeeper employed by Swift & Company, residing in Pawtucket; they have two sons, William Francis and John Al- bert. 2. John Thomas, a partner of A. H. Briggs, in the Briggs Engineering Company of Providence; he married Louise Brown, of Willimantic, Con- necticut. 3. Walter Michael, foreman of the transfer room of the Provi- dence Lithograph Company ; he married Ina Follansbee, of Pawtuxet, and they have a son, Walter Michael, Jr.
William Henry Brown
SON of a Rhode Island farmer, William H. Brown forsook the farm for factory life and from the beginning of his appren- ticeship years until his death was employed in the large cities of his State. His father, George W. Brown, was born August 10, 1800, became a farmer of Seekonk, Rhode Island, and married Mary Purinton, born July 8, 1808. They had three children: Anne Eliza, Benjamin and William Henry.
William Henry Brown was born at Seckonk, Rhode Island, May 31, 1835, died at his home in Providence, Rhode Island, January 15, 1906, aged seventy years, seven months, fifteen days. He attended the public schools of Pawtucket when a boy, but quite early in life began learning the trade of cigar maker, a line of activity he followed for eleven years. The confine- ment of a cigar factory told on his health and he was obliged to seek a new field of employment, one in which he could be in the open air. He chose canvassing and for a time was employed in selling various articles, continu- ing until he regained his health. He did not return to his trade but became a worker at Fifields Foundry in Pawtucket, remaining there several years. He then moved to Providence, which city was ever afterward his home. He first worked in the Spice & Peckham Foundry, but in a short time en- tered the Crompton & Knowles Loom Works, there continuing until his death, highly esteemed by his employers and by his fellow-workmen. He was a Democrat in politics, a communicant of the Free Baptist church, a member of the American Patriotic Association and the Temple of Honor.
Mr. Brown married Ellen J. Carney, born at Freedom, Maine, daugh- ter of Patrick and Jane (Cookson) Carney, her father born in Ireland, her mother born in Maine. Patrick and Jane Carney had six children: Emily, Benjamin, Mary, Edward, Julia and Ellen J., widow of William Henry Brown, now residing at No. 1353 Westminster street, Providence. She has one son, Frederick Eugene Brown, now foreman at the loom works in Provi- dence. He married Hattie Estelle Kenyon. and has a daughter, Grace Edna Brown.
Constant Simmons Thorton
W THILE not one of the early families of Rhode Island, the Hor- tons have won prominence in the business and civil history of Providence in more recent years, while in Massachusetts the name is associated with the early. settlement of Reho- both, one John Horton coming to Massachusetts in 1640. Rehoboth was the seat of this branch of the family for sev- eral generations, Henry Horton, father of Constant S. Hor- ton, being a prosperous farmer of that town all his life. He married Ara- bella Simmons, who bore him nine children, of whom there are yet surviv- ing, a daughter, Mrs. John M. Fisher, and two sons, George H. and John O. Horton.
Constant Simmons Horton, son of Henry and Arabella (Simmons) Horton, was born at the Rehoboth, Massachusetts, homestead, January 7, 1848, died at his home, No. 25 Almy street, Providence, Rhode Island, April 13. 1914. He was educated in Rehoboth public schools, and after complet- ing his studies began learning the carpenter's trade, an occupation he fol- lowed at East Providence and Pawtucket, Rhode Island, until 1877. In that year he located in Providence, where he obtained a position on the police force. From that time until his death in 1914, a period of thirty-seven years, he was connected with the police department, rising from the ranks to the position of deputy superintendent. He was a conscientious, efficient official and rose from the lowest position in the department to one of the highest solely through merit. He was a happy, genial, friendly soul, made all cheerful around him and won the friendship of all with whom he came in contact. He was a Republican in politics, and was a member of the Men's Club of the Cranston Street Church.
Mr. Horton married, May 9, 1875, Calista W. Viall, born in Seekonk, Rhode Island (now East Providence), daughter of Willard and Calista (Lyon) Viall, her father a farmer and both parents of Massachusetts birth. Superintendent and Mrs. Horton were the parents of two children, a daugh- ter, Bertha Willard, who died at the age of nineteen months, and a son, Chester Shorey Horton, a clerk with the Union Trust Company, of Provi- dence, married, in 1913, Alice Louise Ward, and resides on Hanover street, Providence, Rhode Island. Mrs. Horton resides at the family home, No. 25 Almy street, Providence.
John Shierson
OHN SHIERSON was born in London, England, March 22, 1848, and died in Providence, Rhode Island, February 21, 1913. But little is known of his family or early life, and it is only certain that after a common school education re- ceived in his native city the youth came to the United States and settled at once in the New England city of Providence. A stranger in a foreign land; Mr. Shierson was of that enter- prising and optimistic character which refuses to be discouraged and it was not long before he found the work necessary to support himself, and found it the more readily because of his bright, alert manner and quick intelli- gence. Mere boy though he was, he succeeded in getting employment in the Cranston Print Works, and later in one of the large industrial concerns which make up so great a part of the business life of the city, the Silver Spring Bleachery by name, an association started thus which was to con- tinue until towards the latter end of his life, and was the only association of the kind ever thus formed by him. His quickness in grasping the details of the work and his industry were elements that appealed to his employers and the youth rapidly began the ascent of the ladder of promotion and soon came to have a responsible position in the concern. He never assumed the attitude, but too common among employees, of getting the advantage of their employers, but rather strove to act in their interests all the time with the result that they soon perceived that they could trust him and he who had been faithful over few things was placed over many. In brief he was made overseer of the finishing department and continued to hold that post of trust until within twelve years of his death when he withdrew from active work altogether. But in the meantime Mr. Shierson had very properly remem- bered his own interests and by the exercise of much judgment, foresight and discretion had laid up for himself quietly no little valuable property in the form of city real estate. In the case of a city growing in population and wealth like Providence, it is inevitable that property values should rise with great rapidity and thus offer the greatest opportunities for investment to be found. The only question is, of course, to know where to select your contemplated investments, since values do not by any means rise evenly or regularly, and much business perspicacity is needed in the selection. This opportunity Mr. Shierson quickly saw and took advantage of and the result entirely justified his trust in his own good judgment. It was to the management of this estate that he had acquired that Mr. Shierson turned his attention exclusively after the retirement from active business just now mentioned, and this gave his faculties exercise during the twelve years pre- ceding his death.
Mr. Shierson was not a man who mingled very largely in the social life of the community, although he was by no means desirous to stand aloof from his fellows. Still lack of time and a certain tendency to retire kept him
394
John Sblerson
somewhat in the background as far as this aspect of the city's affairs is con- cerned, nor was he a member of clubs and other organizations to any great extent. He did not seek to ally himself with organized politics, and for the matter of that would doubtless have found it difficult to do so, since he chose to exercise more personal discretion in casting his ballot than is approved by the parties and was, in short, too independent to declare him- self for any organization whatsoever. In the matter of his religious belief Mr. Shierson was an Episcopalian and attended the Church of the Redeemer in Providence, as do all the members of his family to this day.
It was in March, 1873, that Mr. Shierson was united in marriage with Ellen Peckham, who, like hiniself, was born in England and came to this country at nearly the same time. To Mr, and Mrs. Shierson were born two daughters as follows: Fannie Helen, now the wife of Martin Van Buren Irons, of Providence; and Louise, the wife of Walter Howard Angell, of the same city.
John Shierson was of the type of man that makes the best citizen. With a high sense of civic duties and obligations, he identified himself with many important movements undertaken for the welfare of the community and did much to assist in its development. As a man he was in all respects admirable and won the confidence and affection of his associates in all walks and relations of life. These were given him, too, from that quarter where they count the most for few are the men who are beloved by those who are obliged to work under them. To manage any large number of men is one of the most difficult of tasks, and those who occupy the position are gener- ally disliked or despised. In the case of Mr. Shierson, however, this was far from being true, and the many men who worked under him in the bleachery for so long were all his warmest friends and admirers. In all capacities lie measured up to the highest standards and his name may well be held in memory by his fellow citizens as an example of worthy manhood.
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Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Henry Hadley and Family from a Photograph taken in 1890
Thomas henry Ihadley
IN 1856 Thomas H. Hadley was born in Birmingham, Eng- land. He died in Cavendish, Vermont, whither he had gone for health, September 8, 1910, son of James and Sarah (Lowe) Hadley, his father a silversmith. His life was an adventurous one and passed under strangely varied condi- tions and in many climes. The business houses of his native Birmingham knew his value, as did those of Cape Town, South Africa, where he had secured a position in a wholesale cutlery con- cern, and the diamond fields of Kimberly attracted him. He held a respon- sible railroad position in South Africa, but the United States claimed him and the last twenty-eight years of his life were spent in Rhode Island.
Thomas H. Hadley was educated in "King Edward's the Sixth School," Birmingham, and after completing his studies passed a civil service exami- nation, standing highest in several branches. His first business position was as clerk in a tea store, but his aims were higher, and at the age of twenty-two years he carried out a long cherished desire of his heart and went to Cape Town, South Africa, carrying a letter of recommendation from his old employer to a cutlery and hardware merchant of Cape Town. He was at once given a position as bookkeeper, holding that for years until the failure of the firm by whom he was employed. In the meantime he had married and built a residence in Cape Town.
After losing his position, he left his family in that home and sought the Kimberly diamond fields, there obtaining a good position with the rail- road. After six months he returned to Cape Town, next making a mercan- tile venture in the gold fields on the East Coast of Africa, at Knysna.
In the meantime his parents had gone to the United States, his father securing a position with the Gorham Silver Manufacturing Company at Providence. After returning to the East Coast, Mr. Hadley decided to join his father in Providence, and in ISS7, with wife and two children, arrived in Providence. He was engaged with the Providence Washington Fire Insurance Company until two years prior to his death, and was said to have accomplished the work of about three men. The company valued his serv- ices highly and had a pension granted him, the first in the history of the company. He was an exceedingly talented man, very fond of books, read- ing and study.
Mr. Hadley married, in Cape Town, in 1882, Maria Sarah Art, born in Cape Town, daughter of John James and Ellen Sarah (Adams) Art, and granddaughter of John Art, of the "Seventy-second Highlanders," born in Scotland, who settled at Cape Town and married a Quakeress of good Eng- lish family, long living in South Africa. John James Art was born at Cape Town, and for forty-two years held a position in the department of public works at Cape Town, finally retiring on a generous pension. He was a member of the "Duke of Edinburgh's Riflemen," a crack rifle shot, and
396
Thomas Denty babley
when he was laid at final rest was paid full military honors. He had attained the title of major of that company, the D. E. O. V. R. Maria Sarah (Art) Hadley taught fourteen years in the public school of Cape Town, having been also educated in those schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Hadley were the parents of three children: I. Art, mar- ried Frances E. Perry, of Susquehanna, head of the Hadley Jewelry Com- pany of Providence. 2. Una, married Leon S. Gay, a graduate of Brown University, and a mill owner of Cavendish, Vermont: they have two chil- dren: Alice Hadley and Leon Stearns Gay. 3. May, is a bookkeeper at the Hadley Jewelry Company, residing with her mother at the family home, 269 Doyle avenue, Providence. They are members of the Fourth Baptist Church.
Henry Leonard
H ENRY LEONARD, long a useful citizen of Rhode Island, passed away at his home in Providence, March 31, 1907. He came of a very old and conspicuous English family, which has been identified for many centuries with the iron indus- try. This family has been traced back to John Leonard, born in 1479, who lived at Knole, County Kent, England, and died in 1556. He was the father of John Leonard, born in 1508, who also lived at Knole, and died in 1590. His son, Samson Leon- ard, was the eleventh Baron of Dacre, born in 1545, died in 1615. He mar- ried Lady Margaret Fienes. Sir Henry Leonard, son of Baron Samson Leonard, was the twelfth Baron of Dacre, born in 1569. He married Lady Chrisogona, daughter of Sir Richard Baker, of Sissinghurst, County Kent, England, and was the father of Richard Leonard, thirteenth Baron of Dacre, seated at Chevening, and died in 1630. His son, Thomas Leonard, resided at Pontypool, Wales, and had several sons who came to America. One of these was James Leonard, of Pontypool, Wales, born in Great Britain, came to America in 1645. He settled first in Lynn, and later in Taunton, Massa- chusetts, and was the founder of the iron works in Saugus, near Lynn, the first in America. In 1653, in association with his brother, Henry Leonard, he engaged in the manufacture of iron in Taunton. There was a saying cur- rent in early times in Massachusetts : "Wherever you can find an iron works, you will find a Leonard."
Henry Leonard, of this review, was born in Birmingham, England, the great iron center of the United Kingdom, in 1824, grew up there, and re- ceived an excellent ordinary education. He served an apprenticeship to the trade of silversmith, and became a skilled worker in the precious metal. About 1850, at the age of twenty-six years, he came to the United States, and in association with two other young men, engaged in the tinsmith busi- ness, also in the manufacture of silver in New York City, and this continued successfully for several years. Having a desire for suburban life, Mr. Leon- ard went to Rhode Island, and located at Greenwood, in the town of War- wick, Kent county, where be purchased a farm, upon which he spent several years engaged in its tillage. Having decided to retire from active life, he disposed of his farm, and removed to the city of Providence, where he spent the last nine years of his life in retirement. He first built a fine large resi- dence near Roger Williams Park, but it was too large and after living there two years sold it and moved to Friendship street, where his death occurred. Mr. Leonard was a man of broad mind and high principles, and wherever his lot was cast he readily gained and retained the esteem and friendship of those about him. He was a faithful member and among the most liberal contributors to the Baptist church, and was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His tastes were domestic, and he did not seek to mingle in public life, was not self-assertive, and was really known only to
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398
henty Leonard
his few intimates, who learned to appreciate his high character as a man. He married (first) in England, Emma Perry, and to this union were born five children: Thomas H .; Richard; Emma, Mrs. Martin; Alina, Mrs. B. Whipple, had one son, Earl; and William, deceased. Mr. Leonard married (second) Margaret (Currie) Innis, a daughter of Captain John and Mary J. (Archibold) Currie, and the widow of Richard Innis, of Warwick. By her first marriage Mrs. Leonard was the mother of the following children : Neal; Mary G., deceased; Agnes, Mrs. E. L. Buffington, has two children : Louisa E. and Margaret I.
1
George Joseph Enzinger
N THE little village of Wein, Austria, there was born August 9, 1863, George Joseph Enzinger: the distinguished gentle- man with whose career this sketch is concerned, and who in his own person exemplified the sterling virtues of his fellow countrymen. Like so many of those fellow countrymen, he transplanted those virtues from their native environment to America, where they have flourished none the less. A son of George J. and Anna Enzinger, and a member of an old family for many generations held in respect in the neighborhood of Wein, the early life of Mr. Enzinger was passed amid favorable and pleasant surroundings in his native region until he had attained the age of twenty-two years. In the meantime, his father being a successful business man, the son received an excellent education in the local schools, as did also his only sister, Anna, who afterwards became a teacher in the gymnasium or classical school, corresponding somewhat to our own high school. The story of this young lady was a tragic one and ended with the early termination of her life. She had become engaged to a professor in the same school in which she taught and the date of the marriage was set, but she died just before its arrival and was buried in the wedding gown she had prepared.
After the completion of his schooling Mr. Enzinger learned the craft of working in silver and attained a very high degree of proficiency therein. During his youth the accounts that were current in his country of the great republic of the West appealed to him strongly and upon reaching the age of twenty-two he came to this country with the intention of making it his home. The move required courage of no mean order, since he was wholly unaquainted with the languages or customs of the adopted land, but so quick and intelligent was he that in a very short time he both wrote and spoke English fluently. His skill in the art of chasing silver stood him in good stead, and he very soon found employment with no less a concern than that of Tiffany, working in the silver department for about a year. He then removed to Stamford, Connecticut, where he resided for two years longer. Here, as elsewhere, he found work in his craft, his skill always insuring this to him, and in ISSo he made his final move to Providence, Rhode Island, where for twenty-six years he made his home, his residence only ending with his death. January 9, 1915. In Providence, as in New York and Stam- ford, he quickly secured employment with the very best house in his line of business, it being in this case the famous Gorham Manufacturing Company. At the time of his death, twenty-six years later, he was the silver chaser of that great concern and was regarded by those who were judges as one of the best in this line of work in the country. He was employed on the highest grade of work which the Gorham people turned out and notably on the silver services that have been the conventional present from the States to the battle ships named after them, so that many examples of his handiwork are to be found in the navy.
400
Ørorge Joseph Enzinger
Mr. Enzinger was a man of wide sympathies and exceedingly broad public spirit and he was always active in the affairs of his adopted com- munity, working disinterestedly in its interests. He was keenly observant of the political situation, but never had any ambitions to take part in any capacity than as a private citizen, nor would he ally himself to any party, preferring rather to keep himself wholly independent and ready to support any principle or candidate that he sincerely believed in without reference to the political name with which it was labeled. He was a prominent mem- ber of a number of important societies and other organizations of a similar nature and in all of these was an active worker. He was deputy and secre- tary of Knights and Ladies of Honor for oyer sixteen years, the lodge, upon several occasions, making him handsome presents in acknowledgment of its gratitude to him for his many services. He was also a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft, the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and the Silk Hat Club. His skill was so well known as a worker and designer in metal that he was sought out by the Rhode Island School of Design, the management wishing him to give instruction in the several crafts of which he was a master. This he consented to do and actually taught evening classes at the school in chasing, hub and dye cutting for three seasons. Eventually, however, he found the task too great a strain in addition to his other work and gave it up.
It was March 6, 1885, when he was twenty-two years of age and dur- ing the first year spent in this country while in New York, that Mr. Enzin- ger was united in marriage with Katharina M. Behrens, a daughter of Fred- erick and Helen Behrens, both of whom came from Germany. Mrs. En- zinger was a native of Germany and by quite a remarkable coincidence was of precisely his age, her birth having occurred on August 9, 1863, just as his did. To Mr. and Mrs. Enzinger were born two children as follows: Kath- erine E., now the wife of Robert August Weidman, of Providence, to whom she has borne a son, George Robert; and George F., a resident of Provi- dence, who having learned his trade under the direction of his father is now employed by the Gorham concern in the same department in which the elder man worked before him.
Mr. Enzinger was a young man when death overtook him, not having completed his fifty-second year, and his career still apparently lay before him bright with promise. He was a sufferer from asthma, however, and it was an acute attack of this trouble that brought about his untimely end. His funeral was attended by the many friends that he had made during his long residence in the city and he was buried in Pocasset Cemetery, where his wife has had a handsome stone erected to his memory. He was a type of man which is of great value in this country, a "self made man" in the best sense of the term, and this although he never became wealthy in the modern sense of the word. He left his family in comfortable circumstances, how- ever, and everything that he had was made by himself by his own skill and industry. His talent and ability in his work was another valuable element for the influence of this time and place, since in this day of mechanical per- fection, when all things are done by machinery, the kind of skill that raises the crafts into the realm of art is rare enough. Mr. Enzinger was public-
401
George Joseph Ensinger
spirited to a degree and always kept himself abreast of the times on every question and issue of importance. His manner was genial and friendly and he made friends easily and kept them long. He thoroughly enjoyed the society of these, but was never so completely happy as when in the privacy of his own home and surrounded by his immediate household. One of his strongest tastes was for music and his taste was naturally an excellent one and highly cultivated so that he was a very good critic in that art. Alto- gether he was a large factor for culture and enlightenment in the commu- nity, and one whose influence upon his fellows was both strong and always exerted in the right direction.
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