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 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
BALLOU, COLONEL DANIEL R., attorney-at-law, was born at Smithfield, R. I, August 6, 1837, eldest son of the late Arnold and Roxa (Ross) Ballou. He is a lineal descendant of Maturin Ballou, who settled in Providence about the year 1646. Ac- cording to the best authenticated information Maturin Ballou was a native of England and a de- scendant of the famous Norman chieftain, Guine- bond Belleau, a field marshal of William the Con- queror at the battle of Hastings, in 1066. Descend- ants of this ancestor are found in the different counties of England and Ireland, where they have long enjoyed distinguished heritage and honors. He received his early education in the public and private schools of his native state and completed his student life at Brown University. Upon leaving college he at once entered on the study of the law
85
MEN OF PROGRESS.
at Providence and was admitted to the bar in May 1864. He was largely dependent upon his own re- sources, and passed through the usual experiences incident to a young man striving for an education. Among the most valuable experiences of his earlier days were those incurred during the eight winters spent in teaching school in the country and " board- ing round " the district. He commenced the prac- tice of the law in Greenville and North Scituate, in 1864, and continued in business there until 1867, when he was elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, for Providence county, which office he filled until the spring of 1875, when he retired, declining
DAN'L R. BALLOU.
a re-election. He then resumed the practice of law in Providence, and has continued in active practice ever since. His son-in-law, Clifford S. Tower, is associated with him in professional busi- ness, under the firm name of Ballou & Tower. Colonel Ballou served as a Representative in the General Assembly from his native town of Smith- field, to which office he was elected in 1865 and was returned in 1866 and 1867. He represented the city of Providence in the General Assembly in 1882, and was defeated at the next election, but was returned again in 1884. He resigned in the fall of that year in consequence of increasing pro- fessional business. During this term in the General Assembly he was Chairman of the Committee on
Corporations. He represented the Seventh Ward in the City Council of Providence during the year 1886, but the next year he declined a re-election. He has also served on the School Committee of the city of Providence. He was elected Alderman from the Ninth Ward in the fall of 1891, and occu- pied a seat in the Board during the years 1892-93- 94, and was honored by his associates who elevated him to the position of President of the Board, in which capacity he served during the years 1893 and 1894. In 1890 he was nominated for the office of Attorney-General by the Republican State Conven- tion ; he reluctantly and with grateful appreciation of the distinguished honor, declined to accept, on account of the pressure of professional business. In 1862, during the Civil War, he enlisted as a private in the Twelfth Rhode Island Volunteers, a nine-months regiment, and was promoted to a Lieutenancy. He was engaged with the regiment, which was in General Nagle's brigade, General Sturgis' Division of the Ninth Corps, in the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 12th and 13th, 1862, in which battle the regiment suffered a loss of 109 men, killed and wounded. He accompanied his regiment when it was transferred to the Depart- ment of Ohio, under General Burnside, in 1863, where it performed arduous and valuable service in holding Morgan and his guerrillas in check in Ken- tucky. On his return home from the army, he was commissioned by Governor James Y. Smith, Colonel of the Seventh Regiment Rhode Island Militia, which had been armed and equipped in anticipa- tion of active service. Colonel Ballou has been prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, having filled nearly every position in the gift of the Department of Rhode Island, and during the past year, 1895, he held the position of Department Commander. He is a member of the Massachu- setts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and is also a member of the Provi- dence Athletic Club and the Providence Bar Club. In politics he has been a life-long Republican and has taken an active part in every national campaign from the nomination of General Fremont, in 1856, to the late Presidential election. He married Miss Ellen R. Owen of Scituate, Rhode Island, daughter of Benj. and Betsey Owen; this union has been blessed with two daughters : Leonora L., who is the wife of Dr. Jacob Chase Rutherford, a prosperous physician of Providence, and Fannie R., the wife of Clifford Sayles Tower, the associate of Colonel Ballou in professional business.
86
MEN OF PROGRESS.
BARKER, COLONEL ALVIN ARNOLD, Newport, was born in Middletown, R. 1., November 29, 1858, son of Ezra J. and Lydia Eunice Barker. He was born and grew up on a farm, receiving his education in
A. A. BARKER.
the public schools, until at the age of fifteen, in 1873, he moved to Newport where he prepared himself for a business life. In 1878 he launched out for himself in the grocery, grain and hay busi- ness, which he has successfully continued to the present time. He was a member of the Newport City Council in 1892, representing the second ward as second councilman, but declined a re-election, preferring to give his time to his private business. He joined the Newport Artillery, Rhode Island Militia, July 27, 1875, and was elected First Lieute- nant and Quartermaster April 25, 1882, serving three years in this capacity. April 28, 1885, he was elected Major, and held this position three years. He was appointed, May 29, 1888, aide-de- camp on Governor Royal C. Taft's personal staff, with the rank of Colonel. He was elected Lieutenant- Colonel of the Newport Artillery August 30, 1892, and Colonel commanding April 24, 1894, which posi- tion and rank he now holds. The Newport Artil- lery is the oldest active military organization in the United States. It was organized during the trou- blous time occasioned by the declaration of war between England and Spain in 1739, and received
its charter from the colonial government under King George Il. February 1, 1741. It has taken part in all the wars of the country from the date of its charter, and has done escort duty at the inaugural of every Rhode Island governor from 1796 to the present time. Colonel Barker is a member of Coronet Council No. 63 Royal Arcanum, having joined October 17, 1884. In politics he is a Re- publican. He was married, November 2, 1882, to Miss Augusta Neilson Peckham of Middletown, R. I., by whom he has four children : Ezra J. Barker 2d, Lydia Elizabeth, Myitalie and Alva A. Barker.
BARNEFIELD, THOMAS PIERCE, City Solicitor of Pawtucket, was born in Boston, Mass., March 25, 1844, son of John and Eliza Ann (Thayer) Barne- field. He is descended in the ninth generation on his mother's side from John Alden who came to America in the Mayflower in 1620, and is a son of John Barnefield, formerly of Gloucestershire, Eng- land, a descendant of John of Barneveld, who was the Grand Pensionary of Holland in the beginning
THOMAS P. BARNEFIELD.
of the seventeenth century. His father died when he was eight years of age, and in 1854, upon the subsequent marriage of his mother with Martin Snow of North Bridgewater (now Brockton), Mass.,
87
MEN OF PROGRESS.
he removed to the latter place and was educated in the public schools of Massachusetts. In 1862 he enlisted as a private soldier in the Thirty-fifth Regi- ment Massachusetts Volunteers, served with his regiment in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg and Jackson, and was mustered out of the service at the close of the war with the rank of First Lieutenant. He removed to Pawtucket in 1865, and entered as a student in the law office of Hon. Pardon E. Tillinghast, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. He was admitted to the bar October 8, 1870, and has since practiced his profession in Pawtucket. He was elected by the Legislature a Judge of the Magis- trates' Court for Pawtucket and vicinity in 1871 and 1872, and was appointed Judge of the Probate Court of Pawtucket for the years 1879-80-81. He was elected to the General Assembly as a member of the House of Representatives for the sessions of 1880-81, 1884-85 and 1886-87. In 1884 he was appointed Town Solicitor of Pawtucket, and upon the organ- ization of the city government, in 1886, was elected City Solicitor and has continued to hold the office by annual election until the present time. In 1880 he was appointed Assistant Judge Advocate General of the State with the rank of Captain. He is, by appointment of the Supreme Court, one of the standing Masters in Chancery for the county of Providence. He is a member of the Congregational Church, and for the last seventeen years has been Superintendent of the Sunday School. In 1889 he made a tour of Europe, Egypt and Palestine, and visited Europe again in 1891 and in 1894. In 1888 he was elected one of the trustees of the Franklin Savings Bank and continues in the same relation to this institution. He was President of the Congre- gational Club of Rhode Island from October 1892 to October 1894, and in 1895 was chosen a Director of the Rhode Island Home Missionary Society. In 1871 he married Miss Clara Josephine Paine, and has one daughter, Florence May, and two sons, Harold Chester and Ralph Tillinghast Barnefield.
BARRY, WILLIAM FRANCIS, M. D., of Woonsocket, was born in Woonsocket, November 11, 1872, son of Michael and Catherine (Ryan) Barry. Hisearly education was acquired in the public schools, and after attending the Woonsocket high school for a year he entered the high school at Franklin, Mass., from which he graduated in 1887. He adopted the profession of medicine, and graduated with honors
from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore in 1893. Dr. Barry was appointed and served for one year as Resident Physician at St. Joseph's Hospital, Providence, and in 1896 was
WILLIAM F. BARRY,
elected Consulting Physician to that institution. He is a fellow of the Rhode Island Medical Society, hav- ing been elected in 1895, and is a member and local examiner of the society of Knights of Columbus.
BAXTER, JOHN JAMES, physician and surgeon, Woonsocket, son of Charles and Elizabeth (Mc- Queeney) Baxter, and grandson of Michael Baxter, was born in Providence, June 23, 1860. After graduating from Lasalle Academy, Providence, in 1876, he entered the mercantile office of B. B. & R. Knight, as a clerk, and remained in their employ until 1881. Having accumulated sufficient money for a professional education, he began to read med- icine in 1881, at Providence, under William F. Hutchinson, M. D. He attended two winter and one summer courses of lectures at the University Medical College, New York City, and was graduated in March 1885, being president of the class and among the honor men in the final examinations. He has practised medicine at Woonsocket since April 1885. Dr. Baxter is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, the Rhode Island Medico-
.
88
MEN OF PROGRESS.
Legal Society, the Woonsocket Medical Society, the Ancient Order of Foresters and the Catholic Knights of America. He has been secretary of the board of pension examining surgeons at Woon- socket since 1891, a member of the staff of the
:
JOHN J. BAXTER.
Woonsocket Hospital since 1888, Medical Exami- ner of District 6, State of Rhode Island, and is medical examiner and physician to the secret socie- ties of which he is a member. He is a tenor vocal- ist of considerable reputation. He married, June 2, 1886, Miss Jennie C. Furlong, of Providence, R. I .; they have three children : Thomas Furlong, Rosa and John C. Baxter.
BEANE, GEORGE FREDERICK ALDRICH, general teaming, coal, and wood business, was born in North Scituate, R. I., October 24, 1849, the son of Constant Cook and Olive L. (Aldrich) Beane. His ances- tor, William Pitt Beane of Meredith, N. H., mar- ried Annie Cook of Scituate, daughter of Constant Cook, a descendant of the brother of Governor Cook, one of the first governors of Rhode Island. His father Constant C. Beane was born in Pomfret, Conn., and married Olive L. Aldrich, born in Scituate, a descendant of David Aldrich of South Kingston on the father's side and on the mother's of Thomas Angell, one of the five settlers who came
with Roger Williams to Providence. She is a cousin of Hon. James B. Angell, ex-Minister to China. He received his early education in the district schools, at Lapham Institute, North Scituate, and at Schofield's Commercial College, Providence. He entered the office of the Franklin Manufactur- ing Company, Merino village, October 16, 1865, as clerk, and Horace Beane's market, Fall River, in the same capacity in 1868. He returned to the Franklin Company in 1871, and in 1872 entered the employ of Rice & Hayward, bakers, Providence. In 1873 he engaged in the real estate business in Providence under the firm name of Peirce & Beane. In 1874 he started in the egg business, and is now engaged in the general teaming and coal and wood business in his present location in Olneyville. He has been a highway surveyor, member and Presi- dent of the Town Council, State Senator from 1890 and 1892, Town Moderator in 1894 and 1896, and was Chairman of the State Highway Commission, appointed by Governor H. W. Ladd, in 1892. He was Chairman of the Republican Committee of the
GEO. F. A. BEANE.
town of Johnston from 1887 to 1890, and a member of the State Central Committee in 1891-92. He is ex-foreman of the Rough and Ready Fire Company of Johnston. He has been President of the Olney- ville Business Men's Association, and of the Fruit Hill Detecting Society. He is a member of Nestell
89
MEN OF PROGRESS.
Lodge A. F. & A. M. of Providence, and of Scituate Royal Arch Chapter, P. G. of Manufacturers' Lodge and P. C. P. of Woonasquatucket Encampment, and is a Past Grand High Priest of the Grand Encamp- ment of Rhode Island, I. O. O. F. He married, June 14, 1870, Miss Abby Louisa Angell, who died in August, 1887; they had children : Louisa A., Josephine A., William Henry and George Fred- erick. He married, January 1, 1893, Mrs. Ida Louise McAllister, née Marshall, of Bear River, Nova Scotia.
BRUCE, HENRY JEWETT, M. D., Pascoag, was born in Webster, Worcester county, Mass., Novem-
HENRY J. BRUCE.
ber 8, 1849, son of Winsor and Huldah (Webster) Bruce. His father was a native of Dover, Vt., and his grandfather was Abijah Bruce, formerly of Mil- ford, Mass. His mother was born in Woodstock, Conn., of the same stock as Noah Webster of dictionary and spelling-book fame. Henry's early education was obtained in the public schools of his native town. Having gone through the college pre- paratory course, he afterward took up the scientific course, and graduated in 1869. Following gradua- tion he engaged in surveying and civil engineering, having an office with the Town Clerk of Webster, and devoted his spare time to reading law. In the spring of 1871 he began the study of medicine,
under the tutorship of Dr. E. G. Burnett, of Webster, and attended the following winter term of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (the Medical Depart- ment of Columbia College), New York, after which he took the two following courses at the Long Island Hospital College, from which he received his diploma in June 1874. In company with an old schoolmate, Albert Howard, he opened a drug store in Webster, and also engaged in practice in his native town ; but after a time, as the business did not pay very well, he sold out and went to Olneyville, R. I., where he spent the winter, and in the spring of 1877 took up his residence in Pascoag, about twenty miles from Providence. He had been a resident of Pas- coag about a year when his father, mother and sister, who were all in poor health, came to live with him. They took a house and lived very comfortably, considering their condition of health, but in Decem- ber 1879, his mother, who had been an invalid for more than twenty years, died ; in June following, his father, who had been suffering from a spinal disease for about six years passed away, and a week later occurred the death of his sister. During all the family sickness Dr. Bruce had personally taken upon him most of the care of the sufferers, besides attending to quite a busy practice, and when it was all over he succumbed to the long continued strain and was compelled to lay aside the most of his practice for over two years on account of nervous prostration. Dr. Bruce has always been a Republican but has never held political office. He has been many times importuned to serve as a candidate for election to the Town Council but has always refused. In 1878 he was appointed Superintendent of Schools, and filled the position two years, when he resigned. He has devoted much time and earnest work to influ- encing the public mind in favor of good roads, and is happily beginning to see some of the results of his labors in this direction. He is a member of the Masonic order of Knights Templar. In 1881 Dr. Bruce married Mrs. Lydia Bailey, a widow with three children mostly grown up, the youngest about fourteen years, with whom he is still living ; he has no children.
BURBANK, ROBERT WILLARD, attorney-at-law, Providence, was born at Koloa, island of Kauai, Hawaiian Islands, September 14, 1856, son of Samuel and Mary A. (Morse) Burbank. He is descended from New England ancestry, the family having been residents of the state of Maine. He prepared for college at the Friends' Boarding
90
MEN OF PROGRESS.
School in Providence and entered Brown University, from which he graduated in the class of 1878. After graduation he commenced the study of the law in the office of Mowry & Comstock, and was admitted to the bar November 29, 1880. He
ROBERT W. BURBANK.
established a successful practice in Providence and in 1888 was appointed Assistant Attorney General, holding the office for one year. In 1891 he was unanimously nominated for Attorney General of the State by the Republican Convention and held that office for three successive terms. Since that time he has continued in general law practice in Provi- dence. In the municipal election of the city of Providence in November 1895, he was elected Alderman from the Second Ward on the Good Gov- erment Ticket, and now represents that Ward in the Board of Aldermen, In politics he is a Repub- lican. He married, April 12, 1883, Miss Martha Anna Taylor; they have three children : Robert Taylor, Philip and Elizabeth Burbank.
CADY, GEORGE WATERMAN, architect, Provi- dence, was born in Providence, August 27, 1825, son of Rev. Jonathan and Eliza (Pettey) Cady. He comes of old New England stock, his ancestor, Nicholas Cady, having settled in Watertown, Mass., in 1645. The family soon afterward removed to
Killingly, Conn., where they were prominent citi- zens of the town for many generations. He re- ceived his early education in the public schools and in the Lowell high school. After his school educa- tion he was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade, and after some time in this work developed his studies in architecture, for which he had a natural taste and ability. In 1860 he opened an architect's office in Providence, and has since, under the firm name of Geo. W. Cady & Co., done a large business in designing and superintending the erection of many important buildings. He has always taken an active interest in military affairs and in the fire department. He has been a member of the First Light Infantry Regiment from 1854 to 1895, and was an inspector on the staffs of Cols. Dennis, Goddard and Thornton. During the war he was commissioned Major of the Twenty-second Regi- ment Rhode Island Volunteers, which was not called into the service. In the Fire Department he was captain of a company from 1854 to 1870, and second President of the Providence Veteran Fire- man's Association. He is a member of the Rhode
GEO, W. CADY.
Island Chapter of the American Institute of Archi- tects, of the First Light Infantry Veteran Associa- tion, and of the Providence Art Club. In politics he is a Republican, but of late has not taken an active part in public affairs. He married, July 20,
91
MEN OF PROGRESS.
1846, Miss Mary Anna Burr of Providence ; they have four children : Frederic Waterman, Ella Porter, Annie Burr and George Milton Cady, the latter associated with his father's firm.
CADY, PHILO VICTOR, Sheriff of the County of Bristol, was born in Barrington, R. I., May 23, 1856,
PHILO V. CADY.
son of James Jerome and Experience (Smith) Cady. His great-great grandfather, Isaac Cady, was one of the first settlers of Alstead, N. H., being one of the first three men that wintered in that town. He married Mary Heldrick, who was the first woman that spent a winter in that town, and their son Jacob was the first child born there. The old homestead is now occupied by Levi Cady, and his father, James Jerome Cady, was born there. On his mother's side he is the grandson of the Rev. Eleazar and Experience (Barney) Smith of Swan- zey, Mass. He received his early education in the public schools of Warren, R. I., and commenced to learn the shipbuilding trade with his father, a ship- builder, who constructed the last two ships built in Warren. After working two years at the trade he was knocked from the side of a ship and injured. He then learned the trade of manufacturing cigars. He went West in 1877, crossing the plains on foot from Fort Pierre, Dakota, to the Black Hills. After
four months' mining and prospecting in the Hills he left for Cheyenne, Wyoming. In Cheyenne he served as a member of a posse under Sheriff T. Jeff. Carr to run down Reddy, the notorious outlaw and stage robber, and the leader of a gang of outlaws and murderers. He returned to Rhode Island in 1880 and established the cigar-manufacturing busi- ness in Bristol, where he has since remained. He was Corresponding and Recording Secretary of the Cigar-Makers Union in Denver, Col., in 1879-80. He was elected Sheriff of the County of Bristol in 1890-91-92, held over in 1893, and has been con- tinuously re-elected since. He is a member of Burnside Lodge Knights of Pythias of Bristol. In politics he is a Republican. He married, April 1, 1875, Miss Elizabeth McCormick, who died April 18, 1889 ; they had children : Annie Newell, Grace Mapleton, Harrison Victor and Lizzie Cady. He married, second, November 15, 1893, Miss Florence May Maxwell ; they have one son, George Maxwell Cady.
CAPWELL, REMINGTON PENDLETON, physician and surgeon, Slatersville, was born in Phenix, R. I.,
REMINGTON P. CAPWELL.
January 5, 1872, the son of Edwin C. and Susan (Remington) Capwell. He is a nephew of Dr. Wm. C. Monroe of Woonsocket, with whom he studied during his school term in that city. He received
92
MEN OF PROGRESS.
his early education in the primary and grammar schools of Phenix and the high school of Woon- socket, graduating from the latter in the class of 1891. He entered the Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York, and graduated in 1894. Dr. Capwell established himself in practice in Slatersville, R. I., April 1, 1894, at the age of twenty-two, and has since remained there. He is not married.
CARPENTER, ALVA, iron manufacturer, Provi- dence, was born in Seekonk, Mass., March 2, 1829, son of Jonathan and Leafy (Bourne) Carpen-
ALVA CARPENTER.
ter, and a descendant of Albert Carpenter, who came over from England with the early Puritans. He attended the common schools until fifteen years old, and then spent two years in a cotton mill. In 1846, at the age of seventeen, he was apprenticed to learn the moulder's trade with Thomas J. Hill (now the Providence Machine Company), and at the expiration of his term of service worked three years in a foundry at Matea- wan, N. Y., returning to Rhode Island in 1850 and working two years in a foundry at Newport. In 1852 he entered the employ of the Corliss Steam Engine Company, remaining with them until 1865, and in September of that year started in the foundry business in company with Amos D. Smith, under
the firm name of Smith & Carpenter, on Dyer street. The partnership continued until 1870, when they disposed of the business there and removed to Aborn street, Mr. Carpenter buying out Mr. Smith's interest soon after and continuing the busi- ness alone. In 1880 he took in Henry C. Bowen as partner, and they continued together until 1889, when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Carpenter with his two sons building a new foundry in their present location on West Exchange street. On November 11, 1892, this foundry was entirely de- stroyed by fire. The firm immediately rebuilt on the same site, and on a larger scale, and they have at present one of the best equipped foundries in the state, employing one hundred hands. Mr. Carpenter has never taken a very active part in politics, but has always been a staunch and consist- ent Democrat of the old school. In 1892 he was elected and served as a Representative in the Rhode Island State Legislature for one year. He joined Roger Williams Lodge of Odd Fellows in 1874, received the highest honors of the Lodge, and in 1886 became a charter member of Mount Pleas- ant Lodge No. 45, I. O. O. F., of which he is still an active member. He is also a member of the Pomham and West Side clubs. He was married in 1854 to Miss Mary E. Allen of Attleboro, Mass. ; they have five children : three sons, all married and having families, the eldest an episcopal clergy- man, rector of St. Mark's Church at Warren, R. I., and two daughters, residing with their parents in Providence.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.