USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations > Part 10
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including that of Master, also a member of Provi- dence Royal Arch Chapter, of Providence Council Royal and Select Masters, and of St. John's Com- mandery Knights Templar. He is a Scottish Rite Mason, thirty-second degree, and a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also a member of the Providence Press Club, the West Side Club, the Providence Athletic Association, the Pomham Club of which he was Treasurer for one year and President for two years, the Squantum Association and the Society of the Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution. He is a Companion of the second class of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Massachusetts Commandery. He married, Novem- ber 21, 1878, Miss E. Lillie Low; they have had three children : Ethel, Earle Stowell (deceased) and William Low Studley.
STEVENS, GRENVILLE SMITH, homeopathic phy- sician, Providence, was born in Raynham, Mass.,
G. S. STEVENS.
July 10, 1829. His father was a merchant, and he spent his early youth on the farm and in attendance at the public schools. In 1848 he entered Brown University from which he graduated with the degree of A. M. in 1852. He had early adopted medicine as his profession, and during the vacations of his college
course he pursued his preliminary studies in the office of Drs. Barrows and Graves, eminent physi- cians of Taunton, Mass. Immediately after his graduation he entered the office of Dr. A. Howard O'Kie, Providence, as a student. In 1853 he at- tended a course of medical lectures in Pittsfield, Mass., and afterward entered the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons in New York, from which he graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1854. His first service as a physician was in Chicago during the cholera epidemic, when his health gave way and he returned East. In August 1854 he opened an office in Providence, where he soon gained a successful practice. After thirteen years of practice his health again failed under his exacting labors, and he retired to his farm, where he remained for two years. In 1869 he returned to Providence and resumed the practice which he has continued since. Dr. Stevens has been much interested in religious matters, and was the originator and one of the founders of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Providence. He is a member of the Masonic Order, and of various medical associations. He was one of the founders of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Society and its first Secretary. He married Miss Hannah Wheaton Smith, and subsequently Mrs. Lydia Browning White ; he has no children.
SEABURY, THOMAS MUMFORD, merchant, New- port, was born in Newport, October 4, 1821, the son of Thomas Mumford and Elizabeth Webster (Marsh) Seabury. His paternal grandfather was John Seabury, brother of Samuel Seabury, the first Episcopal Bishop of America ; his maternal grand- father was Benjamin Marsh. He received his early education in the public schools, and at the age of fifteen entered the Trader's Bank, now the First National, of Newport, as its first clerk. He re- mained in that position for four years and then opened a boot and shoe store, which he has con- tinued up to the present time. He has taken an active interest in public affairs. He was a mem- ber of the School Board of Newport from 1865 to 1872, and a member of the Board of Aldermen for eight years. He was Senator in the General As- sembly from 1877 to 1885. He has been President of the First National Bank since 1865 and was Vice-President in 1864. He is a deacon of the Central Baptist Church, and is Vice-President of the Newport Business Men's Association. In poli-
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tics he is a Republican. He married, November 15, 1845, Miss Caroline A. Lovie ; they had four children : John Cozzens, Caroline, Benjamin Ham-
T. MUMFORD SEABURY.
mett and Thomas Mumford, Jr. He married, March 30, 1879, Miss Mary Seabury Tilley ; they have one son, George Tilley Seabury.
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM PAINE, JR., City Solicitor of Newport, was born in Newport, January 1, 1857, the son of William Paine and Lilias White (San- ford) Sheffield. He is descended on both sides from the early settlers of New England, and both families have been settled in Rhode Island since the early days of the colony, and have held various positions of trust and responsibility in the colony and state. He received his early education in the private schools of Newport and graduated with honor from Phillips Andover Academy in 1873. He grad- uated from Brown University in the class of 1877. He studied civil and Roman law in the law school of the University of Paris, France, and prepared for the bar in the office of his father, Hon. Wm. P. Sheffield, and at the Harvard Law school. He was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in March 1880, and located in Newport, where he has since been
actively engaged in general practice. He was elected City Solicitor of Newport in 1891 and holds that office at the present time. Since arriving at age he has been actively interested in public affairs. He was a member of the School Committee of Newport from 1885 to 1894, and a portion of the time its Chairman. He was State Commissioner on the affairs of the Narragansett Indians 1880-1884, and aid-de- camp on the staff of Governor Wetmore with the rank of Colonel, 1885-87. He was a member of the House of Representatives from Newport, 1885-87, 1889-90, 1894-96. He is a Director of the Redwood Library, and its Secretary for thirteen years ; a Trus- tee of the Newport Hospital, the People's Library, the Savings Bank of Newport, and connected with other charitable and financial institutions. He has been especially interested in education, and in pro- moting thorough, progressive and practical methods of instruction. Since 1882 he has been interested in the subject of manual training, and in 1886 in association with others instituted and maintained in Newport private instruction for boys in wood-
W. P. SHEFFIELD, FJR.
working. He has also been an advocate for a system of manual training in the public schools. He married, October 16, 1889, Miss Mary Stevens Burdick ; they have three children : Margaret Bur- dick, William Paine and Mary Morse Sheffield.
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SPRAGUE, NATHAN BROWN, musician and com- poser, Providence, was born in Greenville, R. I., April 25, 1864, son of John S. and Lelotina (Phetteplace) Sprague. He received his early
N. B. SPRAGUE.
education in the public schools and in the English and Classical schools of Providence. He was early attracted to musical studies and pursued them in Providence, Boston and New York, and under lead- ing masters in England and Germany, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the principles of both vocal and instrumental harmony. Since 1881 he has taught the pianoforte, organ, the cultivation of the voice and musical theory in Providence, having a large clientage. As a composer, Mr. Sprague has produced four complete operas, two of which have been performed, about fifty songs, some of which have been very popular, a large amount of church music, and many pieces for violin, piano and orchestra. He is the organist and director of music at Grace Episcopal Church, Providence, con- ductor of the Narragansett Choral Society of Peacedale, R. I., President of the Rhode Island Music Teachers' Association, also a member of the executive committee and organist and pianist of the Arion Club, the leading musical association of Providence. He is a member of the Athletic and Press clubs of Providence, the Boston Cadet Club,
and of the Masonic order. He married, June 24, 1884, Miss Lydia A. Irons ; they have one son, Stanley Sprague.
SENIOR, DANIEL WIDMER, manufacturer, Woon- socket, was born in Troy, N. Y., July 17, 1849, son of Francis and Elizabeth (Widmer) Senior. He comes from English stock on his father's side, and on the maternal side from Swiss ancestors. He was educated in the public schools of Troy, and prepared for college under the tuition of Rev. F. Widmer, of Fultonville, N. Y., following which he entered the office of the Troy Woolen Company. After serving as clerk in the office a few years he went into the mill of the company, to learn the practical and mechanical end of the business. Afterwards he studied the art of fancy weaving and designing, and finally took up the manufacture of fancy woolen and worsted goods, rising from weaver to overseer and from overseer to superintendent. He was Superintendent of the Livingstone Mills, Bristol, Pa.,
D. W. SENIOR.
from September 1884 to September 1887, and since the latter date has held the position of Superin- tendent of the Harris Woolen Company's mills at Woonsocket. He has just started in business for himself, as a member of the firm of Cole, Senior &
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
Co., manufacturers of fine kerseys, meltons and fancy cassimeres. Mr. Senior is vice-president of the Woonsocket Business Men's Association, and is a member of all the Masonic bodies, was Eminent Commander of Woonsocket Commandery Knights Templar from October 1893 to October 1895, High Priest of Union Royal Arch Chapter, and has passed through the several offices of the Blue Lodge. He is a Republican, but has never held political office. He was married, May 12, 1870, to Miss Mary J. Button, of Schaghticoke, N. Y., who died July 8, 1884 ; two children were born to them, both of whom are living : Clare E. and Frank W. Senior, the latter now a student at the Philadelphia Dental College.
STINESS, JOHN HENRY, Providence, Justice of the Supreme Court, is a native of Providence, where he was born August 9, 1840, son of Philip Bessom and Mary (Marsh) Stiness. Judge Stiness is descended from sturdy English stock; the name originally being Staines, pronounced in two sylla- bles, and changed to Stiness in America. The family settled in Marblehead, Mass., and during the Revolutionary war Samuel Stiness, the great-grand- father of Judge Stiness, served in the famous regi- ment recruited mainly among the fishermen of Marblehead and vicinity, called "The Amphibious Regiment, " commanded by Colonel - afterward Brigadier General - John Glover. The grandfather of Judge Stiness was a sea-captain and during the war of 1812 served as sailing master in the two-gun schooner Growler, attached to the squadron under command of Capt. Isaac Chauncey in Lake Ontario. After the war Capt. Stiness removed to Smithfield, R. I., where he died in 1816. Philip Bessom Stiness, the father of Judge Stiness, was born in Marblehead, and in his early business life served as a clerk to the firm of which Samuel Slater, the famous founder of the cotton manufacturing industry in the United States, was a member at Slatersville, R. I. He afterward engaged in the business of calendering cotton goods at Woonsocket, and in a few years be- came interested in the manufacture of gimlet- pointed screws under a patent obtained by Cullen Whipple. He and Mr. Whipple founded the busi- ness in Providence in 1838, which resulted in the formation of the New England Screw Company. Mr. Stiness died in 1878. Judge Stiness's mother was Mary Marsh, daughter of John and Lucy (Blake) Marsh of Sutton, Mass., and a sister of
George W. Marsh, a former Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island. Judge Stiness re- ceived his early education in the Providence public schools and at the University Grammar School. He entered Brown University in the class of 1861. At the close of the Sophomore year he took charge of the Hopkins Grammar School, North Providence (now the Branch Avenue Grammar School of Prov- idence), and remained two years. At the outbreak of the civil war he received a commission as Second Lieutenant in the Second Regiment New York Ar- tillery and served a year and a quarter, acting as
J. H. STINESS.
Adjutant and occasionally as Judge Advocate. He did not graduate from the University but received the honorary degree of A. M. in 1876 and that of LL. D. in 1893. After his service in the army he studied law in the office of Thurston, Ripley & Co., and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar March 31, 1865, and to the United States Supreme Court in January 1875. In 1874-75 he was a Represen- tative in the General Assembly from Providence, and was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court on April 13, 1875. Among the important decisions rendered by Judge Stiness was the one sustaining the validity of the trust deed given in behalf of their creditors by the A. & W. Sprague Company. The Court of Errors in Connecticut had decided
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
that the deed was invalid and this decision had been followed by Judge Shipman in the United States Circuit Court. Judge Stiness's opinion, how- ever, was sustained in the United States Supreme Court, where it was contested by General Butler in the case of Evan Randolph vs. the Quidnick Com- pany, and the Court of Errors in Connecticut mod- ified its opinion so as to hold the mortgage valid for the assenting creditors, which was the main point at issue. Judge Stiness was one of the com- missioners for the erection of the Providence County Courthouse in 1876-77. In 1882 he was elected a trustee of the Providence Public Library and is a member of the library committee. In 1893 he was elected President of the Brown University Lecture Association. He is President of the Rhode Island Historical Society, and member of the Churchmen's Club, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and other social and fraternal organ- izations. In politics Judge Stiness is a Republican. He married, November 19, 1868, Miss Maria E. Williams ; they have two children : Flora Brown, wife of Henry C. Tilden, and Henry Williams Stiness.
SAWIN, ISAAC WARREN, homoeopathic physician, Providence, was born in Dover, Mass., December 30, 1823, son of Joel and Mary (Battelle) Sawin. He comes of old New England stock, his ances- tor Thomas Sawin having emigrated from Boxford, county of Suffolk, England, and settled in New England between 1647 and 1653. He received his early education in the public schools of Massachu- setts, supplemented by private teaching and self- culture. He studied medicine under Dr. P. T. Bowen of Providence, and Dr. C. W. B. Kidder, then of Providence but now located in New York, who was lecturer on surgery and demonstrator of practical and surgical anatomy at the medical college in Worcester, Mass. He graduated from the Western Homoeopathic College of Cleveland,
Ohio, March II, 1857 In 1875 and 1876 he took a post-graduate course of clinical study in Vienna, Austria. In 1857 he established himself in Centre- dale, R. I., and remained there until 1867, when he removed to Providence, where he has since contin- uously practiced, except for the season spent in study in Europe. He was an Assistant Surgeon in the Rhode Island Militia under the militia law enacted during the war of the Rebellion. He was appointed Visiting Physician of the Rhode Island Homœo-
pathic Hospital in 1886 and has been a Consulting Physician at the same institution since 1892. He is also a Consulting Physician in the Providence Homo- opathic Dispensary. He is a member of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Medical Society and a senior
ISAAC W. SAWIN.
of the American Institute of Homoeopathy. He married, January 1, 1849, Miss Olive S. Budlong ; they have had children : Adaline Frances (de- ceased), Olive Ervina and Ida Estelle Sawin.
TAFT, ROYAL CHAPIN, A. M., banker and manu- facturer, is the son of Orsmus and Margaret (Smith) Taft. He was born in Northbridge, Mass., February 14, 1823. His parents removed to Uxbridge, Mass., when he was less than one year of age, where he remained until his removal to Providence, R. I., in July 1844, in which city he has since resided. He is a descendant in the seventh generation from Robert Taft, one of the original settlers of the town of Mendon, Mass., who moved to that town from Braintree, Mass., at the close of King Philip's war, in 1680. Robert Taft originally came from Scot- land, and was a householder while in Braintree, was chosen one of the selectmen of Mendon in 1681, and he, with his five sons and their descendants, has had an important influence upon the history
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MEN: OF PROGRESS.
and affairs of Mendon and Uxbridge. His grand- father, Jacob Taft, appears with the rank of private on Lexington alarm roll of Capt. Joseph Chapin's company, which marched from Uxbridge on the alarm of April 19, 1775. He appears with rank of Sergeant on muster roll of Captain Seagrave's com- pany, Col. Joseph Read's regiment, May 1, 1775, as also on September 25, 1775, having served in that capacity at the battle of Bunker Hill. The subject of this sketch had the usual common-school instruc- tion in the town of Uxbridge, and the benefit of a two-years' term in Worcester Academy. Upon his removal to Providence he entered as clerk in the
ROYAL C. TAFT.
office of Royal Chapin, who was engaged in busi- ness as a woolen manufacturer and dealer in wool. After five years' service he was admitted as a partner with Mr. Chapin, under the firm name of Royal Chapin & Co. In 1851 he started in the wool and manufacturing business with S. Standish Bradford, of Pawtucket, as a partner under the firm name of Bradford & Taft, which was continued as Bradford, Taft & Co., and Taft, Weeden & Co., until 1885, when he for a while retired from active business. He is now engaged in manufacturing both cotton and wool. In 1888 he purchased the interest of the late Henry W. Gardner in the Coventry Company. He is Treasurer of the Bernon Mills at Georgiaville, R. I., and President of the
Quinebaug Company, located at Brooklyn, Conn. He has been for many years prominently identified with the financial affairs of the state, as President of the Merchants National Bank of Providence since 1868, as Vice-President of the Providence Institu- tion for Savings, and one of the directors of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company. He is also President of the Boston & Providence Railroad, and a director of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. It may be truly remarked in this connection that few men have had more influence upon the financial affairs of the state than Mr. Taft. Originally a member of the Whig party, he has, since the dissolution of that party, been a Republican. He was, during 1855 and 1856, a member of the City Council of the city of Providence ; a Representative to the General Assembly from that city in 1880, 1881 and 1882, and for six years one of the sinking fund com- missioners for the state. In April 1888 he was elected by the people Governor of the state of Rhode Island upon the Republican ticket. He held the office one year, and declined a renomina- tion on account of the increasing demands of his private business. He has held many positions of trust and honor in the city and state. He is now President of the Rhode Island Hospital, has been a member of the board of trustees of Butler Asylum for the Insane since 1865, and is Vice-President of the Providence Athenaeum. He was associated with the late Hon. George H. Corliss as one of the Commissioners from the State of Rhode Island to the Centennial Exposition of 1876 held in Phila- delphia. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Brown University in 1891. He married, Octo- ber 31, 1850, Miss Mary Frances, daughter of George B. Aimington, M. D., of Pittsford, Vt .; their children are : Mary E. (now Mrs. George M Smith), Abby F., Robert W. and Royal C. Taft, Jr.
TANK, JOHN THOMAS, contractor and railroad bridge builder, was born in Newton, Mass., June 22, 1843, the son of John and Caroline Elizabeth (Stevens) Tank. His father was born near Truro, Cornwall, England, and came to this country at an early age. His mother is a native of East Brookfield, Mass., and of old New England stock. He received his early education in the public schools, and at early manhood entered the service of his father, who was a prominent railroad contractor. He served in various capacities in this work and was
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early put in charge of a gang of men in the con- struction of railroads. In this capacity he was em- ployed for several years on the Boston, Hartford &
JOHN T. TANK.
Erie, now the New England, Railroad. In 1870 he became clerk and afterward superintendent for Dawson, Tank & Co., who were general contractors and owned a large granite quarry in Connecticut. He remained in the employ of this company about four years, when it discontinued business, and he removed to New York, where he engaged in agri- cultural pursuits at Chatham until 1883. He then came to Providence, R. I., and engaged in the con- tracting business under the firm name of Ingerson & Tank. This partnership continued four years, when it was dissolved, and he has since carried on the business alone. His contracts are usually of heavy masonry stonework, and the erection of dams and bridges for public works. He is also a dealer in granite. In 1889 he leased the Plumer quarry at Northbridge, Mass., and the following year pur- chased the property ; the output of the quarry has been about twenty thousand tons since he took possession of it. He is also the owner of the quarry formerly owned by Dawson, Tank & Co. Among the contracts which he has completed have been the construction of bridges on Smith, Gaspee, and Francis streets for the new terminal plan of the Consolidated Railroad, and at Elmwood avenue,
Broad street, and Reservoir avenue for the proposed Belt Line in Providence, and one at Broad street, Lonsdale. He also rebuilt several of the Stonington railroad bridges, and did considerable grading for a second track between Providence and New London. He built a well in Waltham, Mass., considered the largest in the United States. It is fifty feet in diameter and was constructed by the city for water supply at a cost of $15,000. He has now completed, at Lonsdale, a dam and bridge across the Blackstone River for the Lonsdale Company, which cost $150,000, and another at Ashton for the same com- pany which cost $75,000, and has just completed the new Central or Red Bridge across the Seekonk River, at Providence. He is a member of the New England Granite Manufacturing Association, and is Secretary of the Granite Manufacturing Association of Rhode Island. In politics he is a Republican always. He married, in 1868, Miss Euphemia Shufelt of Chatham, N. Y .; they have one son : Morton Richard Tank.
TANGUAY, JOHN BAPTIST ANTONY, physician and surgeon, Providence, was born in St. Rosalie, county
J. B. A. TANGUAY.
of Bagot, Province of Quebec, Canada, April 3, 1846, son of Joseph and Eulalie (Yon) Tanguay. He is descended from old and respected Canadian
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
families. He received his early education at the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe, P. Q. He adopted medicine as a profession, and studied for three sessions at M'Gill Medical College, Montreal, and one session at the Victoria College, from which he graduated in 1869. He first practiced in St. Hy- acinthe, and removed to Providence in 1882, being the first French physician to establish himself in the city. He is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, the Canada Medical Society, a member and one of the founders of the Massachu- setts Canadian Medical Society, the St. Louis Medical Society, the North American Physician and Surgeons Protection Society, of Court Thomas A. Doyle Ancient Order of Foresters, Providence Sanctuary A. O. of S of A., the St. John Baptist Society, Naturalization Club, and Catholic Knights of America. He married, February 8, 1875, Miss Vitaline, a daughter of Prosper Cloutier, Esq .; they had children : J. A. Edgar, J. B. P. Raphael, Marie Antoinette Blanche, Marie Corinne, and two others who died in infancy.
WALKER, GENERAL WILLIAM RUSSELL, architect, Providence, and Deputy Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery Knights Templar of Massachu- setts and Rhode Island, was born in Seekonk, Mass. (now East Providence, R. I.), April 14, 1830, the son of Alfred and Huldah Bardeen (Perry) Walker. He is a descendant in the third generation of John Walker of Rehoboth, Mass., who was a Sergeant in the Minute Men from Rehoboth in the Lexington alarm and in service during the war of the Revolu- tion. John Walker was descended in the fourth generation from the Widow Walker, who came into the Plymouth Colony at a date unknown, and who was previous to 1643 one of the purchasers and pro- prietors of the town of Rehoboth. Who her hus- band was, or what part of the old country she came from, is unknown ; but that she and her two sons were the founders of the family of Walker in South- ern Massachusetts is unquestionable. The subject of this sketch attended the public schools of his native town, and after graduating from the Seekonk Classical Academy in 1846, went to Providence and became a builder's apprentice, serving for a term of three years, during which time he continued his studies and began mechanical and architectural drawing at the Schofield College. After completing his apprenticeship he removed to Augusta, Ga., re- maining there for about a year, and then returned
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