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 11
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to Rhode Island and located in Pawtucket, where he has since resided. In 1864 he established him- self as an architect in Providence, in which pro- fession he has ever since been engaged. He has been closely identified with public life in his adopted city and the state, having served as a member of the
W. R. WALKER.
Town Councils of both North Providence and Paw- tucket, and also having served both towns as a mem- ber of the General Assembly of the state. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company C, First Regiment Rhode Island Detached Militia, and served until the mustering out of his regiment. He was a com- missioned officer of the state militia for more than twenty years, retiring with the rank of Major Gen- eral in June 1879. He is Past Commander of Tower Post G. A. R., and is at the present time a member of the Board of Park Commissioners of the city of Pawtucket. In politics he is a Republican, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1888. General Walker became a member of Union Lodge No. 10, A. F. & A. M., in 1857, received his capitular degrees in Pawtucket Royal Arch Chapter No. 4, was knighted in Holy Sepulchre Commandery No. 8 in 1871, and has served three terms as Eminent Commander of that body. He is a member of Providence Consistory
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and of Pales- tine Temple Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Massachusetts and Rhode Island he has filled the offices of Grand Lecturer, Grand Standard Bearer, Grand Junior Warden, Grand Senior Warden, Grand Captain-General and Grand Generalissimo, and at the annual session of that body in October 1895 he was elected Deputy Grand Commander, which office he now holds. General Walker was married in 1852 to Miss Eliza Billings Hall, daughter of Nathan Hall of Provi- dence ; she passed away February 21, 1896 ; they had two children : George Clifton, born November 7, 1853, died June 1, 1883 ; and William Howard, born January 19, 1856, who resides in Pawtucket and is associated in business with his father, under the name of William R. Walker & Son, as architects in Providence.
WARD, ABNER HERBERT, dairy and poultry farmer, Middletown, was born in Middletown, September 6,
A. H. WARD.
1854, the son of John B. and Ann S. (Sherman) Ward. His ancestors on both sides were of old Rhode Island families, and on his mother's side were members of the Society of Friends. He re- ceived his early education in the public schools of
Middletown and Newport. Later he attended East Greenwich Academy and graduated from a commer- cial college in 1878. He worked for his father on a dairy and stock farm for several years before start- ing for himself. He commenced the business of dairy and poultry farming in 1880, and has con- ducted it successfully ever since, supplying a large number of the principal summer residents of New- port with milk, cream and eggs. He has been a member of the Town Council of Middletown since April 1884, and President of that body since 1892. He was elected a Representative to the General As- sembly in 1893 and re-elected for successive terms since. He is a member of Coronet Council Royal Arcanum, of Aquidneck Grange Patrons of Hus- bandry, and is Treasurer of Chapter 666, Middle- town, Epworth League. In politics he has always been a Republican. He married, February 24, 1880, Miss Annie Medora Brown of Middletown, at White- hall Farm, the former residence of Bishop Berkeley ; they have four children : Helen M., A. Sadie, Charles H., 2d, and Medora May Ward.
WILCOX, GEORGE DAWLEY, physician and sur- geon, Providence, was born in West Greenwich, R. I., August 28, 1825, son of John and Dorcas (Tanner) Wilcox. He came from Revolutionary ancestry on both sides. He received his early education in the common schools, and graduated in medicine from the University of New York in 1849. He began the practice of medicine in his native town in the spring of 1849. In 1852, he removed to Phenix Village, Warwick, R. I. In 1856, he became asso- ciated with Dr. A. Howard Okie, in Providence. In 1858 he went to Germany and pursued his medical studies in Vienna, Prague and Leipsic for two years, and then went to London, where he was appointed Medical Interne to the London Homo- opathic Hospital, Great Ormond Street. He re- sumed practice in Providence in 1860. In 1870 he became associated with Dr. Ira Barrows, with whom he remained in partnership until the death of the latter in 1882. From that time he has been associated with Dr. Annie W. Hunt, a former pupil. In May, 1862, he was commissioned Surgeon of the Tenth Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteers, and served with the regiment in the field. In July 1884 he was appointed by Governor Bourne one of the two Medical Examiners for the city of Providence for six years, and was re-ap- pointed at the end of that time, and resigned after
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serving a year. He is a member of the Rhode Island Homeopathic Medical Society, honorary member of the Medico-Legal Society of Rhode Island and the British Homoeopathic Medical Society of London, and Corresponding Mitglied des Homœopathischen Central Vereins of Leipzig. In politics he is a Republican, but has not taken an active part in public affairs. In 1854 he married Miss Mary Fry, who died September 17, 1857 ; they
GEO. D, WILCOX.
had one son, Frank Howard. In 1862 he married Miss Mary Caroline, daughter of Rev. Daniel Leach, of Boston, Mass .; by this union were two children : Mary Lawton and Alice Palmer Wilcox.
WILLIAMS, HORACE NEWELL, physician and surgeon, Providence, was born in Uxbridge, Mass., January 2, 1861, son of Nicholas B. and Charlotte E. (Newell) Williams. He received his early edu- cation in the public schools and the High School of Uxbridge. Adopting medicine as his profession he entered the Bellevue Medical College, New York, from which he graduated in 1882. He then served in the surgical department at Bellevue Hospital, from which he graduated in 1884. In that year he established himself in Providence, where he has secured an extensive and lucrative practice. In
1885 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the First Light Infantry Regiment and served until 1888. He is a member of the Rhode Island State
H. N. WILLIAMS.
Medical Society, the Providence Medical Associa- tion, and of the Society of the Alumni of Bellevue Hospital. He is a member of Solomon Temple A. F. & A. M., of Uxbridge, of Providence Royal Arch Chapter and St. John's Commandery. He married, April 30, 1890, Miss Carrie L. Peirce ; they have one child, Charlotte Peirce Williams.
WARDWELL, WILLIAM THOMAS CHURCH, lumber merchant and banker, was born in Bristol, R. I ., September 20, 1835, son of Hezekiah Church and Sallie (Gifford) Wardwell. He comes of good old New England stock, and is descended from William Wardwell, who landed in Boston in 1633; his son Uzelle came to Bristol on the settlement of the town in 1680, and his grandson, William, married the granddaughter of John Howland who came over in the Mayflower. From this union the subject of this sketch is descended. His mother, Sallie Gifford, was the lineal descendant of Sir Walter Gifford, who landed in Massachusetts Bay in 1630. His grandmother, Elizabeth Church, was a descendant of Captain Benjamin Church of In-
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dian wars fame. He received his early educa- tion in the public schools and academy of Bristol, and was one of the first scholars in the high school in 1848. He first learned the business of a jeweler with Sackett, Davis & Potter of Providence, from 1853 to 1856, then spent some time in Cuba and the city of New York. He came back to Bristol in 1859, and with his brother, Samuel D. Wardwell, succeeded their father, Hezekiah C. Wardwell, who had been in the same business and the same place since the early part of the century, in the lumber business at the foot of Bradford street, corner of Thames. He continued in business with his brother until 1872, when he purchased his brother's inter- est, and continued the business until 1894, when the Wardwell Lumber Company was organized with W. T. C. Wardwell as President. He has taken an active part in public and business affairs. He has been a Representative and Senator in the General Assembly from Bristol and was Lieutenant-Governor of the State in 1890-91. He is President of the First National Bank of Bristol and a Director of the Industrial Trust Company of Providence. He is a member of the vestry of St. Michael's Church, Bristol. He is a member of the Masonic order to the thirty-second degree and has filled various offices in the organization up to Grand High Priest of the State of Rhode Island. He is a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. In politics he is a Democrat, and was the candidate of his party for Governor in 1893. He married, November 24, 1874, Miss Leonora Frances Glad- ding ; they have three children : Hezekiah Church, Bessie Uzelle and Marguerite Wardwell.
WILLIAMS, ALFRED MASON, journalist and author, was born in Taunton, Mass., October 23, 1840, son of Lloyd Hall and Prudence King (Padelford) Wil- liams. His remote ancestry on both sides were Welsh. His ancestor, Richard Williams, came from Taunton, Somersetshire, England, and founded the town of Taunton, Mass. His great-grandfather, James Williams, was a captain during the Revolu- tionary war, and for a long series of years town clerk of Taunton. His great uncle, John Mason Williams, was Chief Justice of the Common Plea Court of Massachusetts. His maternal ancestors for several generations were seafaring men. He received his early education in the public and private schools of Taunton, and was fitted for college at Bristol Acad- emy. He entered Brown University in the class of
1860, but was compelled to leave before the com- pletion of the course on account of weakness of the eyes brought on by over use. During the civil war he enlisted in Company K, Fourth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, and took part in the Louisiana campaign under General Banks. Having written some letters from the war to the news- papers, he was invited, on his return at the expira- tion of his term of service, to accept a position as reporter on the Taunton Daily Gazette. In 1865 he was appointed by the New York Tribune to report the Fenian disturbance in Ireland. On landing at Queenstown he was arrested on suspicion of being
ALFRED M. WILLIAMS.
a Fenian emissary and detained a week, while his papers were being examined in Dublin. When it was discovered that he was no more dangerous a personage than a newspaper correspondent, he was released, and he reported the trials of O'Donovan Rossa and other Fenian leaders in Dublin, besides giving sketches of the people and country for several American newspapers. On his return he took the position of city editor of the Gazette, and was after- ward managing editor. In 1868 he was elected a Representative to the Massachusetts Legislature and re-elected the following year by unanimous vote of both parties. In the fall of 1869 he went West and established the Neosho Journal in Neosho, a town in the southwest corner of Missouri near the Indian
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Territory. While there he spent much time with the Indians in the 'Territory, and was secretary pro tem. of the last grand council of all the tribes held at Ok- mulgee in the Creek Nation. Camp life and exposure during a peculiarly wet season brought on a severe attack of fever and ague, which compelled him to abandon his enterprise and return East. He ob- tained a position on the local staff of the Provi- dence Journal, and after about six months was pro- moted to the position of chief editorial writer, which he held until the death of George W. Danielson in 1884, when he became editor-in-chief. He held this position, acquiring also a share in the corpora- tion, until 1891, when he resigned while on a visit to Europe. Since his retirement he has contributed a large number of articles to magazines and news- papers on literary and kindred subjects. He has published " The Poets and Poetry of Ireland " with Historical and Critical Essays and Notes, Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1880; an introduction to the popular edition of the poems of Sir Samuel Fergerson, Dublin, Seeley, Bryers & Walker, 1887 ; "Sam Houston and the War of Independence in Texas," Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893 ; " Studies in Folk Song and Popular Poetry," Houghton, Mifflin & Co., London, Eliot Stock, 1894. In 1882 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from Brown University. In 1888 he was elected a trustee of the Public Library of Providence and has held that position since, serving on the library committee and as chairman of the committee to purchase a site and procure plans for a new building. He was one of the charter members and an early Com- mander of William H. Bartlett Post 3, G. A. R., Department of Massachusetts, and has been Vice- President of the Fourth Regiment Veteran Associa- tion. He was the founder and the first President of the Providence Press Club. He is a member of the English and American Folk-Lore societies, of the Irish Literary Society of London, of the Ameri- can Historical Society, of the Indian Rights Asso- ciation, of the Sons of the American Revolution, and the United States Veteran Volunteer Association of Rhode Island. He married, July 5, 1870, Miss Cora Allen Leonard of Taunton, Mass., who died December 11, 1886 ; he has no children.
WINSOR, JOHN, physician and druggist, Anthony, was born in Sterling, Conn., May 18, 1843, son of Ira and Almira (Main) Winsor. On the paternal
side he is of French descent and on his maternal side of English. He received his early education in the district and high schools of Connecticut. He adopted medicine as a profession and gradu- ated from the Berkshire Medical College of Pitts- field, Mass., November 8, 1865. He first practised in Sterling, Conn., from December 1865 to 1869, when he removed to Anthony, R. I., where he has since remained, having a large practice. He is also sole proprietor of a large drug store there since 1878. He was elected State Senator for two terms,
JOHN WINSOR.
1884-85, for the town of Coventry. He was ap- pointed Medical Examiner of District No. I, of Kent County, in 1884 and reappointed in 1890. He is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, member and ex-president of the Rhode Island Medico-Legal Society, member of the War- wick and Flat River clubs, and the Literary Club of Anthony, of McGregor Post G. A. R., of Grand Lodge and Grand Encampment of Odd Fellows, of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Rhode Island, and is a thirty-second degree Mason. In poli- tics he is an active Republican. He married, September 22, 1878, Miss Carrie A. Bowen ; they have no children.
MEN OF PROGRESS.
PART II.
ALMY, HERBERT, attorney-at-law, was born in Providence, February 25, 1851, the son of Hum- phrey and Amey Ann (Chase) Almy. He came of
HERBERT ALMY.
well-known and respected Rhode Island ancestry. He received his early education in the public schools of Providence, and was fitted for college at Merrick-Lyon's University Grammar School. He graduated from Brown University in the class of 1873. He adopted the law as a profession, and was a student in the office of the late Wingate Hayes and the present Chief Justice Matteson He was Assistant Clerk of the Supreme Court from December 1876 to April 1885, since which time he has successfully practised his profession in Provi- dence. He is not a member of any societies or clubs, and has taken no part in public life. He
married, February 21, 1884, Miss Lydia F. Kelton ; they have four children : Bertha K., Carrie W., Ada F. and Marion Almy.
AMES, GEORGE HENRY, D. M. D., of Provi- dence, was born in Foxboro, Mass , April 24, 1848, son of Benjamin Keath and Sarah Durbey (Carpen- ter) Ames. The family has been long prominent in the history of New England; it came originally from Somersetshire, England, in the person of William Ames, born at Burton, October 6, 1605, who settled at Braintree, Mass., very early in the planting of New England, and from a large and excellent posterity descended. The first English settler died in Braintree, January 11, 1654. Dr. Ames's parents came to dwell in Providence in 1855, and young Ames was entered as a pupil in the Providence schools, where the foundation of his education was laid; subsequently the young student was entered at the Lapham Institute, which institution had succeeded the Smithfield Academy, then among the most distinguished of the secondary schools in New England. After graduation from this institution young Ames was sent to Biddeford, Me., where he entered the office of Thomas Haley, D. M. D., for the purpose of acquiring some prac- tical knowledge of the science of dental surgery. One year was spent in this pursuit, until the autumn of 1870, at which time young Ames entered the Dental School at Harvard University, where he pursued the full course two years, and was gradu- ated February 14, 1872. Doctor Ames then opened an office in the town where he was born, Foxboro, Mass., for the practice of his profession. At the end of a year, in May 1873, he opened a second office, the latter in Butler's Exchange in Provi- dence, R. I .; but he still accepted appointments at Foxboro, making weekly visits to that town for that purpose. In the meantime the requirements of
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
practice which developed at the Providence office so fully occupied his time that the visits to Foxboro were forced to be abandoned. In 1874 he entered into partnership with T. D. Thompson, D. D. S., the two surgeons joined offices, and for three years,
:
GEO. H. AMES
until September 1877, this - business arrangement was continued. In September of that year, he succeeded to the business of William B. Dennis, D. D. S., whose office was then at No. 17 Mathew- son street, Providence. Here Dr. Ames developed one of the finest practices of dental surgery which had been known in that city. In 1879 he visited Europe, partly for rest and pleasure, and partly in pursuit of the further development of his profession. In 1888 he removed to his elegant and admirably fitted quarters on Snow street, which were especially fitted with every appliance that modern science had developed for the skilful practice of dentistry, and where a liberal share of the best patronage has fallen to his lot. Dr. Ames married first, June 26, 1872, Miss Myra Hatton, of Port Clyde, Me. ; one son, Reginald Mountford Ames, was born of this marriage ; Mrs. Ames died January 1, 1879. His second wife was Miss Isabel Brownell, daughter of Stephen and Henrietta (Hunt) Brownell. The Doctor and Mrs. Ames are active in all the best society movements in Providence. He has long been connected by membership with several of the
leading clubs and societies of Providence, in which pleasing relations he finds that rest and recuper- ation which the severe practice of his profession necessitates.
ANTHONY, CHARLES WILFRED, architect, was born in Providence, May 19, 1854, son of Henry E. and Lucy Dudley (McKnight) Anthony. He be- longs to the Anthony line so long prominent and well known in Rhode Island. He received his early education in the public schools of Providence, and was a student in the classical department of Mowry & Goff's Classical School in that city. He adopted the profession of architecture, and for a number of years has been a member of the firm of Anthony Brothers, architects, of Providence. Mr. Anthony is well known and his original and unique designs for buildings have met with high commen- dation and attracted favorable notice outside of local circles. He leads a quiet bachelor life and is a congenial, companionable man to meet, being possessed of an ample fund of information in gen-
CHAS. W. ANTHONY.
eral, as well as on professional subjects, that enables him to acceptably entertain his friends as well as his clients. In politics he is a Republican, and has always been a thorough advocate of sound financial measures.
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
ARNOLD, WARREN OTIS, of Chepachet, manu- facturer, and Representative to Congress from the Second District of Rhode Island, was born in Cov- entry, R. I., June 3, 1839, son of Otis Whitman and Caroline M. (Sweetser) Arnold. He was educated in the common schools, and received his training for active life as an operative in a cotton factory and as clerk in a country store. In 1864 he en- tered into the cotton manufacturing business for himself, in which he continued two years, and since then has been engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods. He was a Representative from the
WARREN O. ARNOLD.
Second District of Rhode Island to the Fiftieth Congress, was re-elected to the Fifty-first, and was elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress in 1894. In politics he is a Republican. He was married, Oc- tober 30, 1862, to Miss Mary Owen ; they have no children.
BABCOCK, ALBERT STILLMAN, merchant, Rock- ville, was born in Ashaway, R. I., November 15, 1851, the son of Welcome B. and Mary (Rogers) Babcock. His ancestors on both sides are of well- known Rhode Island families. He received his early education in the Hopkinton Academy, and was pursuing the highest course of studies, alone in his class, at the closing of that institution. He then at
once entered the employ of the Ashaway Union As- sociation as a clerk in the general store, and suc- ceeded as general manager at the close of one year. Shortly afterward, at the age of eighteen, he taught school for a while in the Quarryhill district of Wes-
ALBERT S. BABCOCK.
terly. He removed to Rockville in the spring of 1871, and was engaged in the Rockville store of which he became the proprietor April 1, 1878. He has since continued in business there, combin- ing with other work considerable real estate busi- ness. He was Postmaster in Rockville from June 1877 to June 1893, when he resigned to enter the State Senate, of which he has been a member since that time. He married, May 4, 1878, Miss Lantie A. Burdick, daughter of Gardner and Betsey Bur- dick of Rockville ; they have one daughter, Lyra A. Babcock.
BAKER, DARIUS, Justice of the District Court for the First Judicial District of Rhode Island, and Judge of the Probate Court of Newport, was born in Yarmouth, Mass., January 18, 1845, son of Braddock and Caroline (Crowell) Baker. He is descended on both sides from Plymouth Bay Colony ancestry. Six of his ancestors came over in the Mayflower in 1620, viz., Stephen Hopkins and his daughter Constance ; John Howland; Elizabeth
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
Tilley, who afterwards married John Howland ; and John and Bridget (Van der Velde) Tilley, parents of Elizabeth. Among his ancestors are also Gover- nor Thomas Prence, for eighteen years governor of Plymouth Colony ; Yelverton Crowell, the first set- tler of the south side of the town of Yarmouth, about 1640 ; Francis Baker, who came over in 1635 in the ship Planter from Great St. Albans, England ; and Captain John Gorham, who married a daughter of John Howland, supra. Gorham was captain of a company at the famous swamp fight with the Indians at Narragansett, and is the ancestor of a numerous and distinguished posterity, including John Gorham
DARIUS BAKER.
Palfrey the historian, Hon. Charles Francis Adams, William Everett and others. The subject of this sketch acquired his early education in the public schools of Yarmouth, and at the Providence Con- ference Seminary, East Greenwich, R. I. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1870, saluta- torian of his class, and the next two years he was a teacher at Chamberlain Institute, Randolph, N. Y. From 1872 to 1874 he was tutor in Latin at Wes- leyan University, at the same time pursuing his legal studies, having decided to adopt the law as a profession. He was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 1874, and to the Rhode Island Bar in 1875, and in the same year established himself in Newport, where he has since remained in successful
practice. He served as Trial Justice of the city from 1875 to 1886, has been Judge of the Probate Court of Newport from 1877 to the present time, and in 1886 was elected Justice of the District Court for the First Judicial District, which office he still holds. He served as a member of the School Committee from 1877 to 1883, and for the last two years of his term as chairman of that body, and has been elected by the alumni, for two terms of five years each, a Trustee of Wesleyan University. Judge Baker has taken an active interest in the charitable work of Newport, being president of the Charity Organization Society and a member of various other charitable organizations, and serving as a trustee of the Newport Hospital for the past ten years. He is also a member of the Newport Business Men's Association. In politics he is a Republican, but has taken no active part in public life other than as stated. During the war of the Rebellion, at the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, and served nine months, mostly in North Carolina, par- ticipating in engagements at Kinston, Whitehall and Goldsboro. He was married October 30, 1878, to Miss Annie Barker, daughter of W. J. Barker, Ph. D., of Leipsic, Germany ; she died October 7, 1886, leaving two children: Hugh Barkly and George Yelverton Baker. On October 8, 1891, he married Miss Bertha A. Neales, daughter of Arch- deacon Thomas Neales of Woodstock, New Bruns- wick ; they have two children : Dorothy Neales and Alfred Colebrooke Baker.
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