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 14
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Erskine A., Edward S., William A., Susan E. M. and Eugenia A. The three sons, as has been stated, are established in business with their father.
DAVIS, JOHN WILLIAM, retired merchant, and Governor of Rhode Island in 1887 and 1890, was born in Rehoboth, Mass., March 7, 1826, son of John and Nancy (Davis) Davis. He comes of old New England ancestry. On his paternal side he is a descendant in the seventh generation from James Davis, who came with a family from Marl- boro, Wiltshire, England, to Massachusetts Bay Colony, about 1630, was admitted a freeman in Newbury in 1634 and in 1640 was one of the twelve original settlers of Haverhill, of which town he was chosen to the first board of Selectmen and was the largest individual tax payer for many years. The line of descent is James and James, Jr. (both from England), Elisha and Daniel (born in Haverhill), Daniel, Jr., and Daniel, 3d (of Swansea), and John and John W. of Rehoboth. On the maternal side he is a descendant in the fifth generation from John Davis, who came from London, England, to New- port, R. I., about 1678, where he built a house, which was occupied by the General Assembly as the place of its sessions and made practically the Prov- ince House from 1682 to 1691, when the first public Colony House was built. This ancestor's descend- ants of the third generation, having identified them- selves with the Revolutionary party were obliged, as were hundreds of others, to leave Newport, upon its occupation by the British in December, 1776, and came up to Rehoboth, Mass., and settled there. Mr. Davis received his early education in the pub- lic schools of Rehoboth and at a private school in Pawtucket. He was brought up, as all his pater- nal ancestors were, to the business of farming, until he was eighteen years of age, when he ap- prenticed himself to the trade of a mason in Providence, teaching public schools in the country during the winters. Having completed his ap- prenticeship of three seasons, he traveled as a journeyman, working at his trade in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Louisiana from 1847 until 1850, when he went into mercantile business in Providence, which he continued until 1890, and which by industry and prudence through all the vicissitudes of forty years he successfully maintained. True to his ancestral instincts, and in line with his mercantile business (the grain and provision trade), he has always taken a deep interest
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in agriculture and carried on an extensive farming business in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, still owning and being largely interested in farm lands and plantations in the Western states, in Manitoba and in the Island of San Domingo, to
JOHN W. DAVIS.
all of which he habitually gives much thought and attention. Having removed his residence from Providence to Pawtucket in 1877, he was there chosen to his first public office, that of Town Councilman, and President of the Board, in 1882, and again in 1885. In 1885 he was elected a State Senator, re-elected in 1886 and again in 1893. In October 1886 he was appointed by President Cleveland Appraiser of Foreign Merchandise for the Providence United States Customs District. In 1887 he was elected Governor of Rhode Island by the Democratic party, aided by a large independ- ent vote, and was for five consecutive years the candidate of his party for that office, receiving in four of the five, the last three successively, the ma- jority vote, though owing to the then law requiring a majority of all the votes cast, to elect by the people, he was but twice seated in office, viz .: in 1887, by a majority of all the votes, and again in 1890, by choice of the General Assembly. The most notable events of his gubernatorial service were an investigation and reform in prison discip- line and management; the adoption of an amend-
ment to the state constitution, extending the elective franchise to all citizens upon uniform qualifications, as a right, instead of a privilege as theretofore held to especial classes, and thus amica- bly concluding a long and bitter partisan controversy of more than fifty years of acrimonious debate with threatened insurrection ; the adoption of a ballot- reform law and the establishment of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Kingston (which was chartered upon his special recommendation) were also substantially outcomes of his administrations. At present Mr. Davis is employed in the care of various fiduciary interests for himself and others, and engaged in several busi- ness enterprises which serve to keep him in active life, and abreast with the state's progressive citizens. His residence is in the suburbs of Pawtucket, and his family, a wife and two daughters, are well known in social circles.
DROWN, BENJAMIN, for many years prominent in the political and social life of Warren, was born
BENJAMIN DROWN.
in Warren, December 19, 1826, son of Benjamin and Eliza (Champlin) Drown. He is of old New England ancestry, his grandfather Jonathan Drown having served in the war of the Revolution. He was educated in the public and private schools of
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Warren, and has been engaged in business as team- ster and contractor since 1855. He has held the office of Street Commissioner of Warren, was a member of the School Committee for several years, has been Assessor of Taxes continuously since 1872, and has served his town on various committees, important among which was the committee to re- build Kelly's bridge over Warren river. He was Senator from Warren in the General Assembly from 1882 to 1887, and again from 1890 to the present time, in which body he is at present Chairman of the Senate committees on Finance and Fisheries. He is also a member of the Shell Fish Commission of Rhode Island, elected in 1895 for five years. He is President of the Union Club of Warren, and member of the Philanthropic Society and the George Hail Free Library. Mr. Drown is a life-long Republican, and active in politics and public life, having been on the Republican Town Committee of Warren, and for ten years a member of the Repub- lican State Central Committee. He was married in April 1850 to Miss Mary W. Bowen, deceased ; in October 1884 he was married to Miss Mary J. Walker, also deceased ; in January 1887 he married Miss Mary Merritt, who is now living. He has three children by his first marriage : William B. Drown ; Mary A., now the wife of Walter H. Rose; and Carrie E., wife of Charles S. Davol.
DUBOIS, EDWARD CHURCH, Attorney General of Rhode Island, was born in London, England, during the temporary absence of his parents from the United States, January 12, 1848, the son of Edward Church and Emma (Davison) Dubois. His paternal grandfather, Edward Church of Kentucky, was Con- sul at L'Orient, France, and his grandmother was Marie Dubois of Paris. On his mother's side he is descended from the English families of Davison and Moore. In 1857 his father had his name and that of his family changed from Church to Dubois. He was a distinguished teacher and lecturer, and the author of several text-books : Church's " French Spoken," Dubois' "Method of Teaching French," a book called " Blunders," and the edition of " Le Petit Courier " published in Boston. The subject of the present sketch received his early education at Russell's Mili- tary Academy, New Haven, Conn., the Pawtucket, R. I., High School, and the Friends' Academy, New Bedford, Mass. After graduation he was em- ployed by Thomas Otis, apothecary of New Bedford, for a year, and then went on a short whaling voyage
in Jonathan Bourne's barque Andrews. After his return he renewed his engagement with Mr. Otis, and then was engaged by Corlies, Platt & Metcalf, wholesale druggists, and by William E. Clarke, apoth- ecary, of Providence. He determined to adopt the law as his profession, and went to Boston, where he studied in the office of Hon. Charles J. Noyes. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in Boston, March 19, 1870, to the United States Circuit Court bar in Boston, May 15, 1877, and to the bar of the Rhode Island Supreme Court December 15, 1877. After his admission to the bar he remained in the office of Mr. Noyes until
EDWARD C. DUBOIS.
1871, when he went to Haverhill, Mass., to take charge of the latter's office there. In 1872 he formed a co-partnership with Mr. Noyes under the firm name of Noyes & Dubois. In September 1872 he was appointed Clerk of the Police Court in Haverhill, and resigned his position in November 1877 to remove to Providence and practice law in Rhode Island. Mr. Dubois removed to East Provi- dence in 1878 and has since resided there. He was elected Town Solicitor and has held the office for most of the time since. He served as State Senator from East Providence from 1883 to 1885. He was elected Attorney General of Rhode Island in 1894 and re-elected in 1895. In politics he is a Repub- lican. He married, February 24, 1872, Miss Jennie
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Roberts of West Gardiner, Maine, daughter of Henry and Mary J. (Potter) Roberts. They have had three children, girls : the first died shortly after birth ; the second was Blanche Emma Roberts, since deceased ; and Désirée Jennie Dubois, born April 5, 1877.
EARLE, CHARLES HENRY, physician and surgeon, East Greenwich, was born at the homestead of his family in Cranston, R. I., near Fiskeville, January
CHAS. H. EARLE.
15, 1861, the son of Charles William and Cynthia Jones (Hawkes) Earle. He came of good old Rhode Island stock, and is a relative of the late well known Dr. Pliny Earle. He received his early education at a private school, at home and in the public schools of the village, and was graduated from the Friends' School in Providence, in 1883. He was engaged as a teacher in the public schools of Rhode Island for five years, during which time he held the position of Principal of the grammar school at Auburn for three years. He adopted medicine as a profession, and was graduated from Bellevue Medical College, N. Y., in 1889, and from Kings County Hospital, Flatbush, L. I., in 1890. After graduating from the hospital he established himself in East Greenwich, R. I., where he has built up an excellent practice. He has acted as examiner for various life insurance companies,
having been appointed Medical Examiner for the East Greenwich District in 1892, as successor to the late Dr. J. H. Eldredge. He is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society. In politics he is a Republican. He married, October 13, 1893, Miss Jennie M. Perry of Rehoboth, Mass ; they have no children.
FARNSWORTH, JOHN PRESCOTT, Treasurer and Agent of the Providence Dyeing, Bleaching and Calendering Company, was born in Pawtucket, Mass. (now Rhode Island), February 18, 1860, son of Claudius Buchanan and Marianna (McIntire) Farnsworth. There have been seven generations of the Farnsworth family in New England, principally settled in northern Massachusetts. His great-grand- father fought at Bunker Hill, and was a cousin of Colonel Prescott, who commanded. His near an- cestors were mostly farmers, living in Groton, Mass. He received his early education at a private school in Pawtucket, until the age of thirteen, and in the next four years prepared for college at Rev. C. H.
JOHN P. FARNSWORTH.
Wheeler's school in Providence. He then pursued the regular course at Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1881 with the Degree of A. B. In July of that year he entered the bleachery of the Lonsdale Company as clerk, and remained there in
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various capacities until January 1885, at which time he was serving as Assistant Superintendent, and resigned to superintend the rebuilding of the Great Falls Company's bleachery at Great Falls, N. H. He severed this connection in July 1885 to accept the position of Agent of the Providence Dyeing, Bleaching and Calendering Company, of which corporation he became Treasurer in 1890. Since becoming the executive head of this large manufac- turing establishment he has rebuilt the works of the company, adding six new buildings to the plant, increasing its output over four hundred per cent. Mr. Farnsworth is a member of the A. E. Club of Providence, the Providence Athletic Association, the Churchman's Club of Rhode Island and the Arkwright Club of New York, and has been Secre- tary of the Harvard Club of Rhode Island from 1889 to the present time. In politics he is a Republican, and was a member of the Republican City Com- mittee in 1890-92. He was married, November 25, 1885, to Miss Margaret Cochran Barbour, by whom he has three children : John Prescott, born Febru- ary 8, 1888; William Barbour, born September 7, 1892 ; and Claudius Ralph Farnsworth, born March 25, 1895.
FOLSOM, FRED WILLIAM, sail-maker, Provi- dence, is a native of Wiscasset, Maine, born April 16, 1848, son of Samuel C. and Ann E. (Dammon) Folsom. His ancestry on both sides were among the early pioneers in Maine, on his father's side settlers in Starks ; on his mother's side he is a de- scendant of the Newburys of Newburyport, Mass., who went to Maine in 1765. His educational advantages were confined to the district school of his native town. After working more or less in the lumber mills of Wiscasset, at the age of seventeen he apprenticed himself to John Topham and learned the business of sail-making. In 1871 he came to Providence and went to work at his trade for George S. Dow. After serving in this connection for quite a long term of years, in 1884 he bought a half interest with Albert Jillson, and upon the latter's death, which occurred early in 1894, he asumed the control and management of the business, under the firm name of Fred W. Folsom & Company. They have lately removed from the old stand in South Water street to new and commodious quarters at 108 Dyer street, where they now have one of the largest and best equipped establishments for the manufacture of sails, awnings, tents, canopies, etc., in the state. Mr. Folsom is prominently connected
with various fraternal orders, being Past Grand of Eagle Lodge No. 2 I. O. O. F., Past Chief Patriarch of Moshassuck Encampment No. 2 I. O. O. F., Past Councillor of Narragansett Council No. 2 Order of United American Mechanics, and Past
FRED W. FOLSOM.
Commander Canton W. S. Johnson No. 1 I. O O. F. Besides the above named, he is a member of Prov- idence Lodge No. 17 Knights of Pythias, the Rhode Island Yacht Club, and the Ninety-two Club of Boston. He is a Republican in politics. He was married, January 8, 1887, to Miss Dora A. Whit- marsh ; they have no children.
GORTON, WILLIAM ARTHUR, M. D., Superin- tendent of the Butler Hospital for the Insane, Providence, was born in North Brookfield, Madison county, N. Y., June 21, 1854, son of Tillinghast and Adaline M. (Rice) Gorton. He is descended on the paternal side from Samuel Gorton, one of the early settlers of Rhode Island, and on the ma- ternal side from the Wight family, prominent among the early residents of Massachusetts. His educa- tion was acquired in the public and in private schools. He completed a classical and scientific course in Whitestown Seminary, Whitestown, N. Y., graduating in 1873, and entered the Medical De- partment of the University of the city of New York
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in 1874, from which he was graduated in 1876, having completed two full courses of lectures, an intermediate course and a course of instruction by Dr. J. E. Winters of New York city. In April 1876 he entered Bellevue Hospital in New York city,
WILLIAM A. GORTON,
and after serving the regulation period of eighteen months in that institution went to Cooperstown, N. Y., and commenced practice in partnership with Dr. L. H. Hills, now of Binghamton. A few months later he was offered a position in the New York State Asylum for Insane Criminals, which he accepted in June 1878. In January 1882 he was appointed Assistant Physician to the Danvers Luna- tic Hospital, Danvers, Mass., of which institution he was chosen Superintendent in 1886. He re- signed in May 1888 to become Superintendent of the Butler Hospital, Providence, which position he holds at the present time. Dr. Gorton deems it the chief honor of his professional career that he has been chosen to succeed such men as Isaac Ray, John W. Sanger and William B. Goldsmith at tlie Butler Hospital. The last named was his intimate
associate and warm friend; and he is mindful of the great benefits he derived from this association, while the many important plans for the develop- ment of the Butler Hospital that were devised by Dr. Goldsmith, he has endeavored to further pro- mote and carry out. Of Dr. Gorton's own work at
the Butler Hospital the least that can be said is that he has endeavored to maintain the high stand- ard of the institution established by his predeces- sors. Dr. Gorton is a member and first Vice- President of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and a member of the American and the Boston med- ico-psychological associations. He is also a member of the St. Botolph Club of Boston, and of the Provi- dence Athletic Association. He was married, June 8, 1877, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Langley of Dan- vers, Mass .; they have had four children : Mary Putnam (deceased), Janet Langley, Miriam Rogers and William Tillinghast Gorton.
GRANT, ROBERT ALEXANDER, M. D., Crompton, was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, December 24, 1870, came to Providence in October 1871, son of William and Jessie (MacDougald) Grant. He ac- quired his early education in the Providence public schools, fitted for college at the College Hill School in Providence, pursued a course at Union College, and finally graduated from the Albany, N. Y., Med-
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ROBERT ALEX. GRANT.
ical College. His medical training was received in the Albany City Hospital and in dispensary practice, and he entered upon the practice of his profession in Providence, June 1, 1895, removing to Crompton in September following. He is Chan-
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cellor Commander of Narragansett Lodge K. of P., year. In the summer of 1858 he was assistant being the youngest "C. C." in the state, and is a member of Washington Lodge No. 11 I. O. O. F., Howard Encampment I. O. O. F., and one of the leading college secret societies. He is unmarried.
GRINNELL, FREDERICK, President of the Gen- eral Fire Extinguisher Company, and inventor of the Grinnell Automatic Fire Extinguisher, was born August 14, 1836, in New Bedford, Mass., the son of Lawrence and Rebecca Smith (Williams) Grinnell.
FREDERICK GRINNELL.
The Grinnells were French Huguenots, who came to this country in 1632 and settled near Newport, R. I. They intermarried with the well-known families of Williams, Smith, Ricketson, Tallman, Russell and Howland, all of whom were among the first settlers of New England and distinguished in its history and social and business life. This portion of the ancestry of Mr. Grinnell is all of English descent. He received his early education in the Friends' Academy of New Bedford, Mass. He adopted civil engineering as a profession and studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, N. Y., from which he graduated in 1855. He commenced his practical work as draughtsman together with shop practice at the Jersey City Locomotive Works in the fall of that
engineer in the construction of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, now a part of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. He returned to the Jersey City Locomotive Works and remained until 1860, when he entered the employ of the Corliss Steam Engine Company, Providence, as draughtsman, and was soon after elected Treasurer of the Company. He acted as Superintendent of the Works, and dur- ing the war went on three trips on the steamer Blackstone, because of his familiarity with the con- struction of the engines designed by Mr. Corliss. One of their trips was in search of the line-of-battle ship Vermont, which had been given up for lost. In January 1865 he accepted the appointment of manager of the Jersey City Locomotive Works, then leased by the Atlantic & Great Western Rail- road Company. In the fall of the same year he was appointed superintendent of motive power and machinery of the Atlantic & Great Western Rail- road. Previous to taking this position he spent three months in visiting and studying the large mechanical establishments of England and Scotland. He remained in the employ of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company until 1869, when he purchased an interest in the Providence Steam and Gas Pipe Company, of which he has since been the President, Business Manager and Mechanical En- gineer. The corporation has done a very large business in equipping manufacturing establishments with steam-heating apparatus, gas works for lighting them, and in providing them with automatic fire- extinguishers. It is in this last department in which Mr. Grinnell has accomplished a work of original genius of the utmost practical importance, and which has made his name known all over the civilized world. He became attracted by an inven- tion of Henry Parmelee of New Haven, of an auto- matic fire-extinguisher exhibited in 1874. In 1878 the Providence Steam and Gas Pipe Company began the manufacture of fire-extinguishers under an ar- rangement with Mr. Parmelee. Since that time Mr. Grinnell has so improved and perfected them that he has completely revolutionized the system of fire protection in manufacturing establishments through- out the world. He has solved the problem of automatic fire-extinguishing in buildings so high as to be above water service, and when water would freeze in the pipes, by a system of air pipes and force pumps acting automatically. The apparatus has been very generally introduced not only in this country but in Europe, India, and Australia. His
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improvements in the apparatus include some forty patented devices. The work has received the en- dorsement of all the principal fire insurance com- panies, and has resulted in a reduction in the rates of insurance for manufacturing establishments of from thirty to fifty per cent and in other buildings of twenty-five per cent. He is President of the Providence Steam and Gas Pipe Company and of the General Fire Extinguisher Company, and a Director of the National Bank of Commerce of Providence, the Mechanics National Bank of New Bedford, the Dunnell Manufacturing Company of Pawtucket, and the Wamsutta Mills of New Bed- ford. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Hope Club, and the New York and Eastern yacht clubs. He is an enthusiastic yachtsman and spends his brief vaca- tions in that recreation. In politics he is a Re- publican. He voted first for Abraham Lincoln, and for every Republican Presidential candidate since. He married, October 15, 1865, Miss Alice Brayton Almy, daughter of William Almy of New Bedford, who died January 5, 1871 ; they had two children : Lawrence and Alice Almy Grinnell. He married, February 17, 1894, Miss Mary Brayton Page, daughter of John H. W. Page of Boston ; they have five children : Russell, Lydia, Frederick, Law- rence and Francis B. Grinnell.
HALL, NELSON READ, M. D., of Warren, was born in Warren, March 31, 1868, son of John Champlin and Sarah Wheaton (Read) Hall. On his father's side he is descended from Bishop Hoare of England, and Samuel Champlain. His great- great-grandfather, Samuel Hoar, made gun carriages for the colonial forces during the Revolution. The latter's grandson, Allen Carey Hoar, married Mary Champlin, a direct descendant of Samuel Cham- plain ; and John Champlin Hall, their son, married Sarah W. Read, his second wife, who was the mother of the subject of this sketch. His maternal ancestry in this country dates from John Read of Rehoboth, and Ephraim Wheaton of Rehoboth who landed at Salem in 1636. John Read landed in 1630 and came to Rehoboth in 1643. His son John was killed by Indians at Pierce's fight in King Philip's war. By marriage the Reads were con- nected with the Carpenters, Abels and many of the old families of New England. The early Wheatons were prominent in the Baptist Church, Elder Ephraim and Deacon Robert being noted as elo-
quent preachers. One Wheaton endowed a scholar- ship at Brown University. The families on both sides were closely connected with the early history of the country, and one of the Reads (George) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In all branches of the family the ancestry can be traced back into the parent countries of England, Wales and France. The subject of this sketch re- ceived his early education in the public schools of Warren, graduating from the high school in 1887, and teaching chemistry, physics and botany in the school during the year following. Entering Johns Hopkins University in October 1888 as a special
NELSON READ HALL.
student in biology, he remained one year and was compelled to give up because of failing health. In September 1889 he entered Long Island College Hospital and was graduated March 23, 1892; was laboratory assistant in the department of histology and pathology during the years 1889-90, and assist- ant in the throat and nose department, under Pro- fessor French, in 1891-92. He entered upon the practice of medicine at his old home, Warren, about May or June 1892, and has enjoyed an unusually good and successful practice. He is Surgeon of the Warren Artillery, was Vice-President of the Warren High School Alumni Association in 1893-94, and is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, Providence Medical Society, Long Island College
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