Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Part 16

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 16


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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


H. W. KIMBALL.


Medical Society, member of the Providence Medi- cal Association, the Medical Improvement Club and the Rhode Island Medico-Legal Society, also of Harmony Lodge of Masons, Washington Park Lodge of Odd Fellows and What Cheer Lodge, Ancient Order United Workmen, being Master of the last named. In politics he is a straight Republican, but has never held political office. He married, January 15, 1896, Miss Emma L. Hayward.


LADD, FRANK FOSTER, of Providence, was born in Providence, February 1, 1873, the son of George W. and Mary J. (Bennett) Ladd. His father was widely known as the inventor of the Ladd filled


gold watch-case and the founder of the Ladd Watch Case Company. Mr. Ladd received his early edu- cation in the Providence schools, and graduated from the Elmwood Grammar School in 1889 and from the Providence Bryant & Stratton Business


FRANK F. LADD.


College in 1890. He then entered the service of the Ladd Watch Case Company, which he left to accept the position of Treasurer's clerk in the office of the Union Railroad Company. He afterwards accepted a position in the office of the H. W. Ladd Company, drygoods dealers, and had charge of the retail accounts. He resigned the position in 1892 and has since been engaged in the real estate and stock-brokerage business. He also holds the office of Secretary and Treasurer of a Rhode Island company engaged in the manufacture of gas gener- ators. He is an enthusiastic yachtsman and an ac- tive member of the Rhode Island Yacht Club. He is a member of the order of America Mechanics and of the Young Men's Christian Association, and is a member and treasurer of various social organi- zations. In politics he holds Republican views.


LADD, JOHN WESTGATE, physician, Newport, was born in East Greenwich, R. I., October 8, 1836, son of John Gardner and Phebe Ann (Watson) Ladd. The ancestry of the Ladd family is of English ori-


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


gin, and is of great antiquity. They came to New England in 1633, on the ship John and Mary. On the maternal side his ancestry is also English, from the distinguished lineage of the Spencers. His father, John Gardner Ladd, who was a native of Rhode Island and came to Newport with his family in 1843, was a man of great originality and inventive genius, by profession an architect, and of a high order. John Westgate spent his early life with his father, from whom he learned and practiced with him much of his art. During this period he was much inter- ested in mechanism, and later on other branches of


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JOHN WESTGATE LADD.


science became of interest to him and engaged his attention and stuty. He is largely self-taught, as the usual routine of the schools did not appeal to his fancy or his desires. He commenced practice as a physician in New York City at the age of twenty-five. His methods are peculiarly his own, but are in strict conformity and harmony with the principles of advanced science. He never uses the knife, and his greatest success has been in the treatment of chronic diseases, - tumors, cancers and kidney troubles being his specialties. As a physician-specialist his field is a very wide one, and although his winter residence has been New York city and his summers have been spent at the family home in Newport, his practice has extended over


the country from Chicago to New Orleans and from Maine to Mexico. Although a Republican, he takes no active part in politics, and is not a club or society member, preferring the surroundings of his home and family in his leisure hours. Dr. Ladd was married September 27, 1868, to Miss Caroline Augusta Vaughan, of Newport ; they have had two children : Maude Crosby (now Mrs. Charles Phillips Scott of Boston) and Harry Watson Ladd, now deceased.


LARRY, JOHN HALE, clergyman, was born in South Windham, Me., December 2, 1843, the son of Joseph Child and Mary (Purington) Larry. His father was a sturdy yeoman of the old New England type, and his mother a woman of great intelligence and strong religious convictions, which were im- parted to her children. He received his early education in the public schools, and early devoted himself to the profession of teaching, beginning at the age of sixteen, and the same year published " A Key to Outline Map," which was much needed in the schools of the state. While supporting himself by teaching he attended a course at Gorham Academy, walking eight miles a day for the purpose. When the civil war broke out he was engaged in teaching at Little Falls, N. H. He gave up his school and enlisted as a private in Company I, Eighth Massachusetts Volunteers, from Lynn. He participated with his regiment in the campaigns in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. On the expiration of his term of service he re-enlisted in the Eleventh Unattached Company, Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, stationed at Fort Independence, in which he was made Orderly Sergeant. He success- fully passed an examination for promotion and was commissioned a Lieutenant in Company H, on which occasion his comrades of Company G pre- sented him with a dress sword and equipment cost- ing over a hundred dollars. While in the service he acted as Adjutant at Fort Lincoln, D. C., and had charge of the new commissioned officers' school. He was in command of the detachment which pur- sued and nearly captured John H. Surratt after the assassination of President Lincoln. After the close of the war he resigned and resumed the profession of teaching, and for about six years was Principal of the Weston High School. He was principal of the New England Christian Institute for a time, and had charge of the Normal School and Agricultural School at Hampton, Va., during the absence of Gen. Arm- strong in Europe for two years raising funds for the


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


building. But for the effect of the climate he would have continued in mission work at the South. He established "A School of Practice" at Penacook, N. H., to exemplify his educational ideas, but gave it up to adopt the ministerial profession, for which


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JOHN HALE LARRY.


he had long felt a predilection. He was ordained in Boston in 1873, and supplied churches in Lynn for about a year. He was then settled in Smytherville, N. H., and afterward at Wilmot, when he established the " The Kearsage School of Practice." He was then settled in Penacook, N. H., and in 1882 re- ceived a call to the Free Congregational Church on Richmond street, Providence, where he has since remained. Since his residence in Providence he has taken an active part in social reforms, and par- ticularly in temperance. He was for some years editor of the Independent Citizen, the Prohibition Organ, and is now the editor of the Pointer, an all around reform newspaper. On the resignation of Gen. C. R. Brayton as Chief of State Police in 1887 he was offered the position by Governor Wetmore, but declined to accept, preferring to continue his church work. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and has been Chaplain of Prescott Post. In 1865 he married Miss Mary E. White, a descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in New England ; they have six children.


LEWIS, NATHAN BARBOUR, Justice of the District Court of the Second Judicial District, was born in Exeter, R. I., February 26, 1842, son of James and Mary (Sisson) Lewis. He is a direct descendant of John Lewis, who settled in Westerly about 1650. His father, commonly known as Deacon Lewis, was a captain in the state militia, and took an active part in the bloodless campaigns of the Dorr war ; he was the son of Col. Nathan B. and Sally (Richmond) Lewis. His mother was the daughter of Lodowick and Mary (Saunders) Sisson of Hopkinton, R. I. He received his early education in the public schools, working on the farm summers. He subsequently spent several terms in private schools, and took a commercial course at East Greenwich Academy. He taught school for several terms beginning in the autumn of 1859. During the war of the Rebellion he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers, August 13, 1862, and served until June 9, 1865, participat- ing in all the campaigns of the regiment, and act- ing for the greater part of the time as company clerk and regimental postmaster, and serving in


NATHAN B. LEWIS.


the color guard. Although not robust he was not absent a single day from the regiment, and when the regiment came from the field after the battle of Cold Harbor, he was one of only seven in his com- pany who reported for duty. During the last three


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


years he has been President of the Seventh Rhode Island Veteran Association, an organization com- posed of the survivors of that regiment. After a term in Greenwich Academy he taught school winters until 1867. In the summer of 1866 he canvassed in Maine for the Henry Bill Publishing Company of Norwich, Conn., in Ohio in the sum- mer and autumn of 1867, and in New York the following year. In 1869 he bought a farm in Exeter and followed farming for three years. In June 1872 he was elected Town Clerk of Exeter, and held that office continuously until 1888. While Town Clerk he was connected with a great many legal cases, there being no lawyer in the town, and this induced him to study the law, which he did in the office of ex-Senator Nathan F. Dixon, of Westerly, and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1890. While Town Clerk of Exeter he wrote most of the deeds and wills executed in the town. At the May session of the General Assembly in 1886 he was elected Justice of the District Court of the Second Judicial District, which embraces the towns of Exeter, North Kingston, South Kingstown, and the District of Narragansett. On account of the distance from railroads he sold his farm on Pine Hill, Exeter, and removed to Wickford in 1887, where he resided until 1894, when he removed to West Kingston. At the last May session of the General Assembly he was for the third time re- elected to the office of Justice of the District Court. In July 1890 Judge Lewis opened a law office in Westerly, R. I., where he enjoys a large practice for a country squire, and has been engaged in set- tling a large number of estates. He was a member of the Commission appointed to build the new County Court House of Washington county. In 1895 he was appointed by the Supreme Court a standing Master in Chancery for Washington county. He was Postmaster at Pine Hill, R. I., from July 1, 1872, to April 1876, when he resigned to accept a seat in the General Assembly, and was re-appointed in 1879, holding the office until 1888. He was a member of the School Committee of Exeter from June 1866 to June 1887, and Superin- tendent of Schools for the greater part of that time. He was a Representative in the General Assembly from April 1869 to April 1872, and from April 1876 to April 1877. He was Assessor of Taxes from June 1875 to June 1888, was Trial Justice of Exeter previous to the establishment of the District Court, was Coroner of the town of Exeter from July 1873 to June 1886, and was Moderator of North


Kingston from 1889 to 1892 and Auditor of Town Accounts from 1890 to 1894. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Past Commander of Charles C. Baker Post of Wickford, and was Judge Advocate of the Department of Rhode Island 1890-1893. He is a member of Exeter Lodge I. O. O. F. , having been through all the chairs, and is a member of the Grand Lodge; is a Past Chief Patriarch of Uncas Encampment I. O. O. F. of Wickford ; a member of Orilla Lodge D. of R., Peacedale, R. I .; of Exeter Grange P. of H. and Washington County Pomona Grange ; of Charity Lodge A. F. & A. M., Hope Valley ; of Franklin Chapter Royal Arch Masons, Hope Valley, and of Narragansett Commandery K. T. of Westerly. In politics he is a Republican. He married, March 7, 1869, Miss Rowena K. Lillibridge, who died July 5, 1879 ; they had four children : Aubrey C., a graduate of Dartmouth College and now studying law, Agnes Mabel, Howard and Nathan Richmond Lewis, the latter three dying in infancy. He married, August 15, 1880, Miss Nettie Chester. He resides in West Kingston.


LEWIS, SAM WARREN, florist and nurseryman, Olneyville, was born in Exeter, R. I., April 22, 1844,


SAM W. LEWIS.


the son of Warren Gardiner and Amy (Reynolds) Lewis. His grandparents on his father's side were


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


Simon and Rhoda (Wood) Lewis. On his mother's side they were Samuel and Deborah (Lillibridge) Reynolds. On both sides he is of New England ancestry. He received his early education in the public schools, and was employed on a farm until March 1870, when he entered the employ of David Moore, Jr., nurseryman, with whom he remained until 1873, when he commenced business for himself. He first purchased some trees and sold them on the Crawford-street bridge of Providence, but now has an extensive nursery, one of the largest in Rhode Island, on Hartford avenue, Olneyville. He has also a greenhouse and is engaged in the florist busi- ness, and is also interested in bee keeping and a large producer of honey : at the present time he has sixty-eight colonies of bees. He is a member of the Rhode Island Horticultural Society, and of the Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry. He has taken no part in public life and is an Independent in politics. He married, January 10, 1869, Miss Mary Reynolds Lillibridge, who died December 29, of the same year; they had one child, a son, who died in infancy.


LIPPITT, ROBERT LINCOLN, Agent and Manager of the Lippitt Woolen Company, Providence, was born in that city, March 22, 1860, son of ex-Gover- nor Henry Lippitt and Mary Ann (Balch) Lippitt. He is a brother of Charles W. Lippitt, the present Governor of the State of Rhode Island. They are descendants of John Lippitt, who came to Rhode Island in 1638, two years after its settlement by Roger Williams; their ancestors were officers in General Washington's army, and in later times were all noted as manufacturers. R. Lincoln Lippitt was educated in Mowry & Goff's School in Providence, St. Mark's School in Southboro where he spent the five years from 1873-78, and at Brown Uni- versity, class of 1882. Upon leaving college he entered the mill of the Lippitt Woolen Company, where he spent three years learning the woolen business, after which he sold woolen goods in the commission house of Walkinshaw & Voigh, 78 Worth Street, until 1889, thus familiarizing him- self with the commission business. He then became Agent and Manager of the Lippitt Woolen Company, which position he now holds. He is also a Director in the Social Manufacturing Company, the Turkey Red Dyeing Company and the Providence Opera House Association, all of Providence. He was elected as a Member of the House in the State


Legislature in 1894-95, in which body he is serving the present year as Chairman of the Committee on Corporation. He is also a member of the Commis- sion appointed by the Legislature to represent the State at the Atlanta World's Fair, being appointed on the Governor's staff. Mr. Lippitt belongs to the Hope and Union clubs, the Press Club, Anawam Hunt Club, Providence Athletic Association, Rhode Island Yacht Club (vice-commodore), What Cheer Harbor No. 13 American Association of Masters and Pilots of Steam Vessels, and the Sons of the American Revolution, all of Providence ; also the


R. LINCOLN LIPPITT.


New York Yacht Club, the Society for the Preven- tion of Cruelty to Animals, and various other societies and organizations. In politics he is a Republican. He was married in 1882 and has one daughter : Mabelle Clifton Lippitt. At present he is unmarried.


MARTIN, JOSEPH WRIGHT, of Warren, President of the Warren Trust Company and the Warren Elec- tric Light Company, was born in Warren, October 14, 1852, son of Ezra M. and Cynthia M. (Wright) Martin. His parents came to Warren from Reho- both, Mass. He received his early education in the public schools of Warren, and entering the Commer- cial Department of East Greenwich Seminary, East Greenwich, R. I., at the age of nineteen, graduated


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


therefrom in 1873, and began at once the active duties of a commercial life. He is at present as- sociated with his father, Ezra M. Martin, in the lumber and coal business in Warren, under the firm name of E. M. Warren & Company. Mr. Martin is


JOSEPH W. MARTIN.


President of the Warren Trust Company and the Warren Electric Light Company, Vice President of the Warren National Bank, and a Director of the National Hope Bank. He has also served as Town Treasurer three years, and as President of the Town Council in 1894 and 1895. He is a Director of the Warren Foundry and Machine Company, also a member of Washington Lodge of Masons and of the Union Club of Warren. In politics he is a Repub- lican. He is unmarried.


MACKAYE, HENRY GOODWIN, physician and sur- geon, Newport, was born March 16, 1857, in New York City, son of Colonel James and Maria Ellery (Goodwin) MacKaye. His father's father came from Scotland and settled as a farmer in Rome, N. Y. His mother's grandfather was Hon. Asher Robbins, United States Senator from Rhode Island, the "Cicero of the Senate." He received his early education at Pastor Godet's school, Neufchatel, Switzerland, and graduated from Phillips Acad- emy, Exeter, N. H., in the class of 1874. He


graduated from Harvard College with the degree of A. B. in 1878, and from the Harvard Medical School with the degree of M. D. in 1885. He was an assistant in the Bennett Street Dispensary, Boston, a pupil for a very short time of Henry B. Holton, M. D., of Brattleboro, Vt., and of LeRoy Gale, M. D., of New York. He studied for some months in the hospital of Paris, France, in 1878. He was Interne at the City Hospital in Worcester, Mass., in 1883-84, and special laboratory pupil under Prof. E. S. Wood, Harvard Medical School, 1884-85. He practiced casually while on a vacation in the summer and autumn of 1885 at Plymouth, Mass. He then came to Newport, R. I., and opened an office early in January 1886, and has remained there since. He was appointed by Governor Taft Medical Examiner for District Number Three for the term ending February 1859, and declined a re-appointment, although urged to accept one by Governor D. Russell Brown. He was City Physi- cian of Newport for a short time in 1892, but resigned because there was too much politics con- nected with the office. He was Secretary, Vice-


H. G. MACKAYE.


President, and is now President of the Rhode Island Medico-Legal Society. He has been Sec- retary of the Newport Sanitary Protection Society for many years, and is now Vice-President of the Rhode Island Harvard Club, Attendant Physi-


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


cian and Surgeon at the Newport Hospital, Fellow of the Rhode Island Medical Society, of the New York Medico-Legal Society, of the Alumni Associa- tion of the Harvard Medical School, and of the Newport Business Men's Association. He was a delegate to the Massachusetts Medical Society from the Rhode Island Medical Society at the annual meeting in 1894. He has written many short-case reports for medical journals and societies, and also "Some Chemical Aspects of Urinary Analysis " (vide archives of the Rhode Island Medical Society), and a report of the cure of poisoning by Tyrotox- icon, published by the Newport Sanitary Protection Association in 1893. He married, in January 1887, Miss Ellen T. Bailey of Middletown, R. I.


MCCARTHY, PATRICK JOSEPH, attorney-at-law, Providence, was born in Geevagh parish, County


PATRICK J. MCCARTHY.


Sligo, Ireland, September 1848, the son of Patrick and Alice (Cullen) McCarthy. His parents came to the United States when he was only four years of age, and both died within a few weeks after, while at quarantine on Deer Island, Boston harbor ; their place of burial is unknown. He received his early education in the public schools of Boston and Somerville, Mass., and became self-supporting from a very early age. He came to reside in Provi-


dence in 1865, and, after acquiring the necessary means, devoted himself to the study of the law. He graduated from the Law School of Harvard University, June 28, 1876, and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar the same year. He has since successfully practiced his profession in Providence. He has been prominent in municipal politics and was a member in the Common Council in 1890-92 and '94. He was elected a Representative to the General Assembly from Providence in 1892 and 1893. He is a member of the Brownson Lyceum, was its president three terms. In politics he is a Democrat, favoring protection to American indus- tries. He was married, August 29, 1875, to Miss Anna M. McGinney of Providence, since deceased ; they had three children: Mary Josephine, now living ; Patrick, Jr., and Alice, deceased.


McMURROUGH, THOMAS, Providence, is a na- tive of Ireland, born July 31, 1840, son of Patrick and Ann (Foley) McMurrough. His ancestry on both sides is Irish. He came to Providence in 1850, and attended the public schools when he


THOMAS McMURROUGH.


could get a chance, which was not often, and his entire schooling was covered by a period of not more than two years in all, being placed at work in a cotton mill when he was eleven years old. He


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MEN OF PROGRESS.


worked in the mills for six years, and in 1858 en- gaged with the firm of Marsh & Horton, to learn the iron moulding business. When the war broke out he entered the employ of John Roach & Sons, New York, and remained with them four years, at the end of which time he returned to Providence where he has since resided. In May 1870 he engaged in the undertaking business, in a small way, and has kept on steadily increasing, until at the present time he carries one of the largest and best stocks of un- dertakers' supplies of any house in the state. He has never held any public office. In politics he is somewhat independent, usually acting with the Democratic party. He is a member of the Brown- son Lyceum, a literary society organized in Provi- dence about thirty-five years ago, also of Branch 237 Catholic Knights of America. He has been twice married, first in May 1869, to Mary Murry, a daughter of Lawrence Murry, who for a number of years was connected with Albert Daley's lumber yard in Providence, by whom he had one child, Amy McMurrough ; his second marriage was in September 1892, to Mary C. Sinnott, daughter of the late Peter H. Sinnott, clerk a number of years for William H. Gree & Co., Providence.


MOIES, CHARLES PARMENTER, first Mayor of Cen- tral Falls, was born in North Providence (now Paw- tucket), March 24, 1845, son of Thomas and Susan W. (Seymour) Moies. He is a grandson of John and Anna (Robinson) Moies of Dorchester, Mass. On the maternal side his great-grandfather was Capt. John George Curien, who came to this coun- try from France with Lafayette, served in the Revo- lution, and married Olive Branch of Providence ; their daughter Cecilia married George Seymour, and their daughter Susan married Thomas Moies and was the mother of the subject of this sketch. Charles P. Moies received his early education in the public schools of Central Falls, and attended Scho- field's Commercial College, Providence, in 1864. In March 1865 he went to Chicago, Ill., and entered the freight office of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, remaining there until September 1866, when he returned to his home in Central Falls and entered the Pawtucket Institution for Savings as clerk, and assistant to his father, who filled the office of Treasurer. Upon the death of his father, in November 1886, Charles was elected Treasurer, which office he still holds. In May 1885 he was elected Treasurer of the Pawtucket Mutual Fire In-


surance Company and still holds that office. In January 1881 he was elected Treasurer of the Cen- tral Falls Fire District, succeeding his uncle, Charles Moies, who had held the office twenty-six years, and continued in that capacity until March 1895, when the district was abolished by the organization of the city of Central Falls. He also succeeded his father, upon the latter's death in 1886, as Treas- urer of Union School Districts One and Two of Central Falls, and served until May 1892, when the district school system was abolished by the adop- tion of the town system by the town of Lincoln. He was also elected Treasurer of the town of Lin-


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CHAS. P. MOIES.


coln upon the death of his father (the former treas- urer), and continued in that office until the town was made a city, March 18, 1895, when he was elected the first Mayor of Central Falls, and held the office until January 6, 1896. In politics he is a Republican, and has represented the town of Lincoln (1885) in the lower branch of the General Assem- bly. Mr. Moies left school at the age of seventeen, in September 1862, to enter the army, and served during his term of enlistment nine months in Company B, Eleventh Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers. He is a member of Ballou Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and served two years as its commander. He is also a member of the order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, Knights of




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