Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Part 15

Author: Herndon, Richard, comp; Williams, Alfred M. (Alfred Mason), 1840-1896, ed; Blanding, William F., joint ed
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Boston, New England magazine
Number of Pages: 334


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 15


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


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Hospital Alumni Association, Union Club, Royal Arcanum and Kickemuit Grange. In politics he takes little interest. He is very much interested in natural history, and finds his chief recreation in hunting and fishing. He is also keenly interested in genealogy and the early history of our country, and especially in local history. He married, Octo- ber 4, 1893, Edith Wheaton of Boston, by whom he has one child, a son : John Robert Wheaton Hall.


HARRIS, WILLIAM ANDREW, builder of the Harris- Corliss Steam Engines, Providence, was born in


WM. A, HARRIS.


South Woodstock, Conn., March 2, 1835, son of Elisha and Mary Ann (Winsor) Harris. He is a descendant in the eighth generation of William Harris who came to Rhode Island with Roger Williams. His early education was acquired in the public schools, supplemented by a term at boarding school in South Williamstown, Mass., in the summer of 1851. He spent the three years from 1852 to 1855 as clerk in the Union Bank of Providence, and early in the latter year entered into the employ of the Providence Forge and Nut Company (now the Rhode Island Tool Company) as draftsman. In April 1856 he entered the drafting room of Corliss & Nightingale, afterwards the Corliss Steam Engine Company, remaining till August 1864, when he com-


menced business on his own account, on Eddy street, in what was, in Dorr times, Governor Dorr's headquarters. In November 1868 he removed to a new location on Park street, where he has continued building the Harris-Corliss Engine to the present time. Mr. Harris has represented his ward in the City Council, and was a member of the House in the State Legislature for the four years 1883-86 in- clusive. He is a Republican in politics. He has recently resigned from the Commercial Club, of which he was a member nearly fifteen years, and also from the Pomham Club, Advance Club and the Providence Business Men's Association. He was married, September 8, 1859, to Miss Eleanor Frances Morrill, who died October 28, 1895, leaving two children : Frederick A. W., born August 22, 1864, and William A. Harris, Jr., born June 22, 1872.


HARKINS, MATTHEW, Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence, was born in Boston, Mass., November 17, 1845, the son of Patrick and Margaret (Kranitch) Harkins. He is of Irish ancestry. He received


MATTHEW HARKINS.


his early education in the public schools of Boston, Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass., and St. Ed- munds College, Douai, France, from which he graduated in 1864. He received his training for the priesthood in the Seminary of St. Sulpice of Paris


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


and the Gregorian University of Rome. He served as assistant pastor of the church of the Immaculate Conception of Salem, Mass., from 1870 to 1876. He was pastor of St. Malachi's church of Arlington, Mass., from 1876 to 1884, and of St. James' church of Boston from 1884 to 1887. He was appointed Bishop of Providence in 1887, and has since administered the affairs of that diocese.


HAYWARD, WILLIAM SALISBURY, Mayor of the city of Providence for three terms, 1881-83, was born in Foster, R. I., February 26, 1835. In 1847, at the age of twelve, he went to Old Warwick, R. I., where he engaged in farming, attending the district school during the winter months. Removing to Providence, his present home, in 1851, he obtained employment in a bakery establishment and followed that occupation until 1858, when he purchased an interest with Rice & Hayward, biscuit manufactur- ers. In 1863 Mr. Hayward bought the entire inter- est of the firm, and continued in business alone un- til 1865, when Mr. Fitz-James Rice again became his partner, which co-partnership has existed until the present time. His fellow-citizens were not long in recognizing the qualities that were chiefly instru- mental in making his establishment one of the large and prosperous industries of the city, and in conse- quence he was called upon to fill many positions of honor and public trust. In 1872 he was elected to the Common Council, and was annually re-elected until 1876. During his terms of office in this branch of the city government he served on many important committees, acting as chairman of the committees on fire department, public parks, etc. In 1876 he was elected to the Board of Aldermen, was chosen President of that body in 1878 and served in that capacity three years, and in 1880 he was elected Mayor, succeeding Hon. Thomas A. Doyle. He brought to the administration of the Mayor's office the ripe experience of a long train- ing in the two legislative branches of the city gov- ernment, as well as the enterprising spirit and sound judgment which had characterized his busi- ness career ; and that he filled the executive office to the satisfaction of the community is evidenced by the commendatory terms in which his chief mag- istracy was referred to, both in editorial utterances and reports of public addresses, by the press of that period. After serving as Mayor three terms he de- clined a renomination, and ex-Mayor Doyle again succeeded to the office. Mr. Hayward has always


been, in private as well as public capacity, a sup- porter and earnest promoter of all measures for the benefit of the city and people, and has contributed much of his time and means to the furtherance thereof. Besides his extensive private business in- terests, Mr. Hayward is President of the Union Trust Company, a Director in the National Eagle Bank and the Citizens' Savings Bank, and a mem- ber of the Sinking Funds Commission of the city of Providence. He was elected Representative to the State Legislature in 1885 and re-elected in 1886, and was appointed a member of the State Board of Charities and Corrections by Governor Bourne in


WILLIAM S. HAYWARD.


1884, to which office he was re-appointed by Gov- ernor Wetmore in 1886. He served five years as Chairman of the Committee on Buildings and Re- pairs of the last named Board, during which time many new and important buildings were erected at the various state institutions, notably the new alms- house, a structure seven hundred and thirty feet in length, with accommodations for four hundred peo- ple. Mr. Hayward is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Providence Light Infantry, Franklin Lyceum, Squantum Club and various other societies and organizations. He was mar- ried, November 9, 1859, to Miss Lucy Maria Rice, daughter of Fitz-James Rice, Esq., of Providence.


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


HAYES, CHARLES, M. D., was born in that part of Berwick now known as North Berwick, Maine, March 7, 1840, and died in Providence, R. I., June 8, 1894. He was the fifth child of Elijah and Jane (Hayes) Hayes. His ancestors came to this country from Scotland early in the seventeenth century. The family in Berwick dates back to the beginning of the eighteenth century, and the subject of this sketch was of the third generation born on the farm which is still in possession of the family. His edu- cation began in the little country schoolhouse of the district where he was born. When older he was a student at Berwick Academy, South Berwick, and


CHARLES HAYES.


later at Phillips Exeter Academy. An injury in early youth reduced him to the use of crutches, and pre- cluded regular study and out-of-doors sports for a long period. This finally resulted in necrosis of the tibia, from which he suffered many years, the last piece of diseased bone being removed by himself in the ordinary method with knife and forceps when serv- ing in the army thirteen years after the accident which occasioned his misfortune. Through the kindness of an uncle, Dr. Jacob Hayes, then a practitioner in Charlestown, Mass., he received the best surgical skill and advice that Boston afforded, and to the suggestion of this uncle was due his choice of the medical profession as his life-work. With this end in view, and his preparatory course


finished, he entered Bowdoin Medical School at Brunswick, Me., and subsequently became a student at Dartmouth Medical College where he pursued his studies to graduation. This however was not without interruption. The Civil War was in prog- ress, and young Hayes was anxious to enlist but his physical condition made that impossible. Later came a call for medical assistants in the hospitals and that was his opportunity. No physical exami- nation was required, and November 1862 found him on duty in Washington at Carver Barracks General Hospital. Here he at once gained the attention and favorable consideration of prominent medical officers, ; and early in 1863 was tendered an appointment as Acting Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. Find- ing himself qualified he accepted the position and was ordered at once to Jefferson Barracks on the Mississippi just below St. Louis, and from this date onward until May 1868 when he was relieved at his own request, he was connected with the army most of the time. During General Grant's siege of Vicks- burg he rendered efficient aid in caring for the sick and wounded upon the hospital transports. From this service he was ordered to Baltimore where he became a member of the surgical staff of McKims Mansion General Hospital. Thence his duties took him to Annapolis and subsequently to Fortress Monroe and Yorktown. In the summer of 1864, at the latter place, blood poisoning developed in such severity that he was obliged to leave the army. His right arm was practically useless and he had become reduced almost to a skeleton. The bracing air of his native state soon restored him to comparative health, and in October of that year he received his diploma at Dartmouth, and a few months later again entered the service, reporting for duty at Hilton Head, S. C. He was assigned to Charleston, and for nearly two years was assistant health officer of that port, his headquarters being upon a ship anchored in the harbor, and his duties to board every vessel that entered that port. From this city he was ordered to Wilmington, N. C., and a little later to Anderson, S. C. While here, the Blue Lodge and Capitular degrees of masonry were conferred upon him, a faithful index of the estimation in which he was held by the citizens, who could not be accused of over-friendliness to northerners at that time. After a year at this post he was transferred to Laurens, S. C., where his appointment was annulled at his own request in May 1868. In resigning from the army, Dr. Hayes' intentions were to enter private practice, and in order to be more fully equipped


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


for his profession he pursued his studies farther at Harvard. He began his professional career in Fall River in April 1869, practised in Bayfield and Ash- land, Wisconsin, 1871-73, in Chicago 1873-75, and in Providence from November 1875 until his death, June 8, 1894. He held at various times the military offices of Assistant Surgeon, United States Army, ranking as First Lieutenant, 1863-68, Surgeon First Battalion Cavalry, Rhode Island Militia, rank of Major, 1878-92, and Medical Director Brigade Rhode Island Militia on the staff of General Kendall, with rank of Lieutenant Colonel, from April 1892 until his death. He was a member of Hiram Masonic Lodge, Anderson, S. C., the association of Military Surgeons of the United States, United States Veteran Association, Soldiers and Sailors' Historical Society, Rhode Island Homoeopathic Medical Society of which he was secretary 1883-88 and president 1888-90, Military Service Institution (N. Y.), American Institute of Homoeopathy, Young Men's Republican Club, Providence, and Visiting Surgeon to the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Hospital from the opening of that institution. In politics he was a Republican, but never held public office. He was married, June 17, 1872, to Miss Abby M. Bennett of Fall River, Mass .; they had four children : Jennie Cook, Ruth Bennett, Charles Jr. and Albert Bennett Hayes, the latter of whom died in infancy. In his character Dr. Hayes added to the activity, courage and persistency which we expect to find in a man, the delicacy, sensitiveness and consideration of a woman. Brave in enduring pain himself, he was tender to others in trouble, while in his profes- sional life, his fellow physicians characterized him as "a man of sound judgment, cautious action, gentle treatment and unremitting attention to duty."


HOLLEN, JAMES H., of Providence, decorative painter, was born in New York city, August 28, 1848, son of Michael and Mary (Malone) Hollen. His ancestry is Celtic. His education was acquired in the public schools, and his training for active life was obtained with decorative painters of New York. He practiced his trade in Troy, N. Y., from 1881 to 1892, coming to Providence in January 1895. Mr. Hollen is a Democrat in politics, and has held various offices in public life, in New York state. He was a member of the Lansingburgh, N. Y., Water Commission, and president of the Village Corpora- tion. He has been identified with the Master Painters' Association of the United States, and New


York State Association of Master Painters and the Troy Boss Painters'Association, and is also a mem- ber of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, of



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JAS. H. HOLLEN.


Troy, N. Y., and the Builders and Traders' Ex- change of Providence. He was married in 1875 to Miss Katie A. Rayher ; they have four children : Ora, Marie, Anna and Eddie Hollen.


JACOBY, DOUGLAS PETER ALEXANDER, physician and surgeon, Adamsville, was born in South Whitehall, Lehigh County, Pa., August 6, 1873, son of Edwin C. and Elizabeth (Hoffman) Jacoby. He received his early education in the common schools, in the Commercial College at Allentown, Pa., and the Pennsylvania Normal School. His first busi- ness work was as an operator in the telegraph office at Coplay, Pa., for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. In 1889 he entered E. S. Heiberger's wholesale and retail drug store at Allentown, Pa., as clerk, and the following year acted as head clerk and travelling salesman. In September 1891 he entered the Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, where he studied for three years, graduating March 22, 1894. He passed a satisfactory exami- nation before the Board of Examiners at Mount Carmel Hospital in the same city in 1892, where he served for two years as Assistant Physician and


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


Surgeon, and at the same time was a student in the office of Professors W. D. & C. S. Hamilton. After graduation he located in Adamsville, Newport county, R. I. Dr. Jacoby is now taking a special course on the eye, ear, nose and throat in the Post-


D. P. A. JACOBY.


Graduate College of New York City. He is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, Electra Lodge I. O. O. F. of Adamsville, Little Compton Grange Patrons of Husbandry, Young Men's Christian Association of Allentown, Pa., Epworth League of Columbus, O., Mannoer Choir of South Whitehall, Pa., and literary societies in the same place. He has also been recently elected a member of the Thurber Medical Association of Milford, Mass. In politics he is a Democrat. Dr. Jacoby was married, February 18, 1896, to Miss Mary Lois Almy, only daughter of the late Philip Almy, of Little Compton, R. I.


JOSLIN, HENRY VAN AMBURGH, Secretary of the Union Railroad Company, was born in Exeter, R. I., April 24, 1846, son of John H. and Julia A. (Vaughn) Joslin. His ancestors on both sides came from England about the middle of the seventeenth century, and settled in the southern part of Rhode Island. He received his early


cducation in the public schools of Providence, and graduated from Brown University in the class of 1867 with the degree of A. B., subsequently receiv- ing that of A. M. in course. He was engaged in the lumber business in Providence from 1867 to 1874, when he was appointed Mayor's clerk by Hon. Thomas A. Doyle. He held this position until 1879, when he was elected City Clerk, being elected successively until 1890, when he resigned to accept the position of Secretary of the Union Railroad Company. He is at present Secretary of the Union Railroad Company, the Cable Tramway Company, the Pawtucket Street Railway Company, and the Pawtuxet Valley Electric Street Railroad Company. He was a member of the Providence School Committee from 1870 to 1879, when he resigned ; he was again elected in 1891 and is now Chairman of the sub-committee on high schools. He was Major of the First Battalion of Cavalry, Rhode Island militia, from 1875 to 1879, when he resigned. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Providence Athletic Association


HENRY V. A. JOSLIN.


and the Providence Board of Trade. In politics he is a Republican. He married, October 29, 1867, Miss Henrietta A. Briggs; they have five children : Effie B., Julia V., Harry A., Marion C. and Royal K. Joslin.


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


KEENE, GEORGE FREDERICK, Resident Physician and Deputy Superintendent of the State Insane Asylum, was born in Whitman, Mass., October 22, 1858, son of Africa and Betsey (Turner) Keene. His maternal grandfather, Daniel Keene, was a prominent member of the Society of Friends of Pembroke, Mass., and his maternal grandmother was Betsey (Turner) Keene, the daughter of Colo- nel Amos Turner of the Continental army of the Revolution ; the father of Amos Turner was Ezekiel Turner, a Colonel in the French and Indian war. His paternal grandfather, Meshach Keene of Pem- broke, was a private in the Revolutionary war, and his paternal grandmother, Anna (Hersey) Keene, was a daughter of James Hersey of Abington, Mass., also a private in the Revolutionary war. He was educated in the South Abington (now Whitman) high school, and graduated from Brown University in 1875, receiving the degree of A. M. in 1878 in course. He entered Harvard University, Medical Department, in 1875, and graduated in 1879, hav- ing served in the Boston City Hospital for eighteen months. He was one of the eight successful com- petitors out of over twenty who came up for exami- nation at the Boston City Hospital, and was assigned to the surgical side, receiving his diploma from the hospital in 1880. He commenced practice in Prov- idence in May of that year, and was soon appointed to the dispensary district of the First and Tenth wards. Soon after he was appointed out-patient surgeon to the Rhode Island Hospital and lecturer to the hospital training school for nurses on physiol- ogy and materia medica, and retained the position until his removal from that city in 1886. In 1884- 85, during the illness of Professor Chapin, he was engaged to lecture one term to the students of Brown University on physiology until the professor recovered his health. He was elected Physician to the State Institution at Cranston, R. I., in March 1883, and visited there three times per week until 1886, when he was elected by the Board of State Charities and Corrections, a Resident Physician and Deputy Superintendent of the State Insane Asylum, which position he now holds. Dr. Keene is a thirty-second degree Mason, and a Past Master of Mount Vernon Lodge No. 4 of Providence. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Medicine, the American Medico-Psychological Association, the New York Medico-Legal Society, the Harvard Graduate Club, the Harvard Club of Rhode Island, the Boston City Hospital Association, the Rhode Island Medical


Society, the Providence Medical Association, the Providence Clinical Club, the Pomham and West Side clubs of Providence and the Providence Ath- letic Association. He has never entered politics or taken much interest in political affairs, although he has always voted the Republican ticket. Dr. Keene has written several monographs on different subjects pertaining to insanity and in 1882 invented a splint for Colles fracture, now considerably used. He delivered the annual address before the Rhode Is- land Medical Society, June 6, 1895, and has made many experimental researches with regard to the relation of bovine and human tuberculosis, as was


GEORGE F. KEENE.


shown in the last annual report of the Board of State Charities and Corrections. He married, Jan- uary 1, 1884, Miss Frances B., youngest daughter of Hon. Erastus Redman of Ellsworth, Me .; they have two children : George Frederick, Jr., and Bessie Turner Keene.


KELLIHER, MICHAEL WILLIAM, physician and surgeon, Pawtucket, was born in Palmer, Mass., February 20, 1864, son of Cornelius and Mary (Maunsell) Kelliher. He received his preparatory education in the public schools of Palmer and grad- uated from the high school. He subsequently spent two years at the University of Vermont. He


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


adopted medicine as a profession and studied at the Medical College of the University of New York, from which he graduated in March 1886. After taking a post-graduate course he began the practice of medicine in Pawtucket the same year. He was


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MICHAEL W. KELLIHER.


appointed Medical Examiner for Pawtucket and Lincoln by Governor Davis in 1890, for the term of six years. In November 1889 he was elected a member of the School Committee of Pawtucket for three years. He is Consulting Physician of St. Joseph's Hospital, Providence, is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and the Providence and Pawtucket Medical Association, and Vice-Pres- ident of the Rhode Island Medico-Legal Society. He is unmarried.


KIMBALL, JAMES MADISON, retired cotton man- ufacturer and merchant, and President of the Second National Bank of Providence, was born in Smithfield, R. I., May 12, 1814, son of Paul T. and Lillie (Warner) Kimball. He was educated in the com- mon and high schools, the best afforded at that period, and for the first twenty-five years of his busi- ness life was engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods, at Fall River, Mass., and at Kirkland, N. Y. Mr. Kimball spent six winters in the south, one at New Orleans and five at Memphis, in the latter place establishing a house for the purchase of cotton,


under the firm name of Taber & Kimball, which continued until the breaking out of the war, and did a large and successful business. In the year 1860 he removed to Providence and in association with his two sons opened a cotton commission house, under the firm name of J. M. Kimball & Sons, and continued until 1880, at which time he retired from all active business. Mr. Kimball has been very suc- cessful in his business life, and although advanced in years, he is active still, and fills various important official positions of trust and public usefulness. He is President of the Second National Bank of Provi- dence, having served in that capacity since 1884. In Utica, N. Y., he was in 1845 elected a Director in the Utica City Bank. In 1870 he was chosen a Director in the Franklin Savings Bank of Providence ; in 1884 he was elected a Director in the Blackstone Mutual and Merchants Mutual fire-insurance com- panies of Providence ; he was elected a Director, and also one of the Executive Committee, in the Industrial Trust Company of Providence, in 1887 ; and in 1893 he was elected a Director in the Rhode Island Safe Deposit Company, all of which offices he holds at the present time. He is also a member of the Central Congregational Church of Providence, and of the Congregational Club of that city. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Kimball was abroad in 1869, with a portion of his family, for about eight months, travelling extensively in England, France, Germany, Austria and Italy. He has been twice married : first, August 4, 1835, to Miss Caro- line Maria, daughter of Uriah Benedict of Pawtucket, which union was blessed by five children, two of whom are living : James C. and William B. Kimball ; and second, February 17, 1848, to Miss Cornelia, daughter of Otis Walcott, of Smithfield, R. I.


KIMBALL, HARRY WALDO, M. D., Providence, Externe of the Dermatological Department of the Rhode Island Hospital, was born in Woonsocket, R. I., January 17, 1868, son of James Frederick and Ada Frances (Wales) Kimball. He acquired his early education in the public schools, and at the Coles English and Classical school, Pawtucket, fitting for college at the last-named, and entered in 1888 the Portland (Maine) School for Medical Instruction, later the Medical Department of Bowdoin College, from which he was graduated in 1891. During 1890 he was assistant in the Portland Dispensary, and the following year served as clinical clerk of the Maine General Hospital. In 1891-92 he


Jannes Mo Tinesball


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


filled the position of Interne of Rhode Island State Institutions and the Insane Hospital, and January I, 1893, was appointed Externe of the Derma- tological Department of the Rhode Island Hospital, in which capacity he is now serving. Dr. Kimball has served as Assistant Surgeon, with rank of First Lieutenant, of the First Regiment Infantry Brigade Rhode Island Militia, and Assistant Surgeon First Light Infantry Regiment 1892-94 ; also as Medical Examiner of the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company of Portland, Maine, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a Fellow of the Rhode Island




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