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 18
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
SAN SOUCI, JOSEPH OCTAVE, of Providence, head of the large retail shoe and department busi- ness of J. O. San Souci & Co., was born in Stukely, Province of Quebec, Canada, July 27, 1855, son of Euzebe and Louise (Couette) San Souci. His father enlisted in the First Vermont Cavalry in 1861, and was killed in action on July 3, 1863. Joseph was eight years old at the time of his father's death. He had four sisters older and three brothers younger than himself, besides an elder brother who enlisted in the same company as his father, at the age of six- teen. He attended the public schools at St. Albans, Vermont, until sixteen years of age, and then, as his family were poor, he was obliged to enter upon the active duties of life. He entered, in 1871, the store of George S. Eddy, Greenfield, Mass., as clerk, selling drygoods and boots and shoes, and later was engaged with M. S. Fellows in the same place. In 1875 he came to Providence and was employed by E. J. Beane at Olneyville, the manufacturing suburb of the city, in the shoe business as salesman. When a boy at school he read in some paper or magazine a statement said to have been made by A. T. Stewart, the great drygoods merchant, something as follows : " If a young man will economize and save one thou- sand dollars, he will find it comparatively easy to make money afterwards; the hard work comes in getting the first thousand." He never forgot it, and determined at the start to save this amount as soon as possible. His earnings were very small at first, only five dollars a week the first year ; but he perse- vered, and in eight years was the proud possessor of eight hundred dollars, when an opportunity pre- sented itself for him to go into business. His em- ployer opened a large shoe store in the centre of the city, and was desirous of disposing of the Olneyville store. This was the chance of a lifetime for Joseph, and he grasped it. He succeeded in getting two other young men, S. C. Jameson and Asa M. Pinkham, to combine their small capital with his, and they pur- chased the store and started it under the name of Jameson, San Souci & Co., making a success from the start. After five years he had purchased the interests of both partners and taken into partner- ship his younger brother, F. C. San Souci, the firm name being changed to J. O. San Souci & Company. In a few years, finding that they had more money than was needed in their business, they opened another store in Olneyville, and in 1885 bought the shoe store of W. H. Bigelow at Attleboro, Mass., giving one of their salesmen, T. E. McCaffrey, a half interest. In 1887 they bought the shoe business of
Fowler & San Souci at Hartford, Conn., a firm of which another brother, E. J. San Souci, was a mem- ber, and who now was taken into the firm of J. O. Souci & Company. Two years later the Boston Shoe Store, in Westminster Street, was sold at auction by the receiver, and they bid it in at $17,050. They then offered their Hartford store for sale, and sold it the following week at a good bonus. Their greatest venture, and what they believe is to be their most successful one, is their elegant department store in Olneyville Square, where they sell drygoods, cloaks, shoes, etc. It was opened for business in November 1892, and is one of the
J. O. SAN SOUCI.
handsomest stores to be found in New England. Mr. San Souci is entering upon his sixth year as a member of the School Committee of Providence, and has just finished his second year as a Common Councilman, declining re-election on account of the pressure of his private business. He is a member of various fraternal societies, including the American Order of Foresters and Knights of Sherwood, Ancient Order United Workmen, Royal Society of Good Fellows, Royal Arcanum and Knights of Columbus. He was married, June 15, 1890, to Miss Sarah G. Lynch of Providence; they have four children : Paul, aged nine ; George H., aged seven ; Joseph O., Jr., aged five ; and Sadie L. San Souci, aged two years.
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
SAYLES, ALBERT LEPRELETT, manufacturer, Pascoag, was born in Burrillville, R. I., August 29, 1826, son of Harden and Laura (Wood) Sayles. He is descended from an old and well-known Rhode Island family, his ancestor, John Sayles, having
A. L. SAYLES.
married Mary, the daughter of Roger Williams. He received his early education in the public schools, and commenced his training as a manu- facturer in the mill of his father and in that of D. S. Whipple, who were manufacturers of woolen goods in Burrillville. He commenced business for himself in connection with his father as early as 1854, and has continued in it ever since, controlling and managing some large and successful establish- ments. He has refused all political office, except that of delegate to the Republican National Con- vention held in Chicago in 1888. He is one of the Commissioners to erect a new State House in Providence ; is one of the promoters and a Director of the Providence & Springfield Railroad ; a Director of the Pascoag National Bank ; President and Di- rector of the Third National Bank of Providence, and a Director of the American and Enterprise Mutual Fire Insurance Companies. Mr. Sayles has taken an active interest in religious affairs, and was for many years President and Treasurer of the Pascoag Freewill Baptist Society. He married, December 1, 1852, Miss Fannie Jane Warner ;
they have had four children : Edgar Franklin (deceased), Ellen Maria, Albert Hardin and Fred Lincoln Sayles.
SHEPARD, JOHN, JR., drygoods merchant, Providence, was born January 2, 1857, in Boston, Mass., the son of John and Susan Annie (Bagley) Shepard. His father is an eminent and successful merchant in Boston. He received his early educa- tion in the public schools of Boston, graduated from the English High School in 1874, and started in business for himself at the age of twenty-three in a store occupying a small portion of the present site on Westminster street, Providence. Since that time the business has grown in remarkable propor- tions, and he now owns the new and elegant build- ing, Nos. 259 to 273 Westminster street, which has been built by him as various enlargements be- came necessary. He has no partner, all the con- trol of the business emanating from one head and under a thorough and efficient system. In addition to his drygoods business he is President of the
JOHN SHEPARD, JR.
Consolidated Car Fender Company. He has been President of the Rhode Island Business Men's As- sociation and of the Narragansett Boat Club, and is now Treasurer of the Providence Athletic Asso- ciation. Mr. Shepard has not taken an active in-
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
terest in politics or public life. He married, Octo- ber 22, 1884, Miss Flora E., daughter of Gen. A. P. Martin of Boston ; they have three children : John, 3d, Edward P. and Robert Ferguson Shepard.
SHOVE, ISAAC, Secretary of the Pawtucket Mutual Fire Insurance Company for nearly forty years, was born in Smithfield (now Woonsocket), R. I., October 4, 1823, son of Marvel and Lydia (Fish) Shove. The ancestor of the Shove family in this country was the Rev. George Shove, the third minister of Taunton, Mass., whose wife was Hope-
ISAAC SHOVE,
still Newman, daughter of Rev. Samuel Newman, one of the founders of Rehoboth ; she died in 1674, and from them the Shoves, few in number, have de- scended. Isaac's father was a manufacturer at the Globe Mill; his mother died during his infancy, and he went to live with his grandfather, Josiah Shove, in Mendon (now Blackstone), Mass. He attended the district school, and about 1833 went to the boarding school of Thomas Fry in Bolton, Worcester county, Mass., where he was fellow schoolmate with Samuel Foss, for many years editor of the Woonsocket Patriot. At the age of fourteen he went to live with an uncle in the town of Palmyra, Wayne county, N. Y., where he worked on the farm. In 1846 he returned East and lived in
Seekonk, Mass., until 1851, when he came to Paw- tucket, Mass., and obtained employment as a clerk. In 1856 he was elected Secretary of the Pawtucket Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which office he still fills, having held it for a period of nearly forty years. In 1857-58-59 Mr. Shove was on the board of Selectmen of Pawtucket, and in 1860 he was ap- pointed by Governor Banks a Trial Justice with jurisdiction over Pawtucket, Seekonk and Rehoboth. In 1862 Pawtucket was annexed to Rhode Island, and he was elected Town Clerk and held the office three years. He was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 1865 and again in 1866, and in 1865 was elected by the General As- sembly a member of the Court of Magistrates, with jurisdiction over Pawtucket, North Providence and Smithfield - an office which under different names he has held, with the exception of two years, up to the present time, about thirty-three years. In 1874, when the town of North Providence was divided and a portion consolidated with Pawtucket, Mr. Shove was again elected to the General Assem- bly, and yet again in 1881. In 1877 and in 1888 he was President of the Town Council of Pawtucket, subsequently served as Sewer Commissioner, and has held various offices in town and city. In poli- tics he is a Republican.
SIMMONS, GEORGE WASHINGTON, undertaker, Bristol, was born in Bristol, March 9, 1833, son of Smith B. and Sarah B. (Cartee) Simmons. He is a grandson of Comfort Simmons, and his great-great- grandfather, Thomas Simmons, who was a Baptist clergyman, preached a sermon when one hundred years old, and lived to the age of one hundred and five years. His maternal grandfather, Ben- jamin Cartee, was lost at sea in 1833 ; and his great- grandfather, Stephen Talbee, was a Revolutionary soldier, born in 1751 and died in 1842 at the age of ninety-one. George Washington Simmons was educated in the public schools of his native town, and at the age of sixteen, in 1849, was apprenticed to learn the cabinet-making trade of the late John S. Weeden, serving four years' apprenticeship and continuing the trade with him for twenty years. In 1869 he commenced business for himself as a pro- fessional undertaker and still continues in that pro- fession. Mr. Simmons was a member of the fire department of the town of Bristol for twenty-one years, holding the office of foreman of the King Philip hand-engine in 1869, and has served two
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
years as assistant engineer on the board of engineers of the department. He served in the war of the Rebellion as Sergeant of Company E, Twelfth Rhode Island Volunteers, and was wounded at Fredericks- burg, December 13, 1862. He is also a veteran of Bristol Train of Artillery. He is a member of St. Albans Lodge of Masons since 1864, and of United Brothers Lodge of Odd Fellows from 1870; a mem- ber and Past Chief Patriarch of Wampanoag En- campment ; Past Ensign and Lieutenant of Canton Miller, Patriarchs Militant ; and a member of Burn- side Lodge Knights of Pythias and Babbitt Post Grand Army of the Republic. In politics he is a
GEO. W. SIMMONS.
Republican, and has been a Representative to the General Assembly since May 1891. He was mar- ried, October 4, 1855, to Miss Elizabeth R. Allen ; they have three children : Amy E., Emma E. and Mary R. Simmons.
SLATER, ALPHEUS BRAYTON, General Manager and Director of the Providence Gas Company, was born in Warwick, R. I., November 26, 1832, son of Brayton and Patience (Millard) Slater. His family is that of the well-known and respected Slaters of Killingly, Conn., and his maternal grandfather was Charles Millard of Warwick. He received his preparatory education in the public schools of
Newburyport, Mass., and East Killingly, Conn., and afterwards attended Smithville Seminary at North Scituate and the Conference Seminary at East Greenwich. In September 1853, when not quite twenty-one, he entered the service of the Provi- dence Gas Company, and in December 1858, was elected Chief Clerk, in March 1869 was elected Assistant Treasurer, and in February 1870 he was made Director, Treasurer and Secretary, with the additional duties of General Manager, which po- sition he has held continuously to the present time. The great financial and mechanical success of the corporation is largely due to his practical ability and energy. He is the only one now remaining of the organization as it existed when he entered the service. He has taken an active part in the organization and service of the Association for the Development and Improvement of Gas Lighting, is a member of the New England Association of Gas Engineers and served as its President for two years, and is also a member of the New England Guild of Gas Managers, of which he served as Secretary from its organization until he was elected its President in 1885, which position he held for two years. He is also a member of the Society of Gas Lighting of New York, an honorary member of the Western Gas Association, and a member of the American Gas Light Association, in which he has served on the Finance and Executive Committees, and was elected its President in 1888 at the meeting held in Toronto. Mr. Slater has always carefully avoided holding any public office not connected with the business. He is a member of the Squantum Club and of the Providence Athletic Association. In politics he is a Republican. He married, June 25, 1855, Miss Ruth Matthews of East Killingly, Conn. ; they have three children : Lora R., Alpheus B. and Howard C. Slater.
SMITH, IRVING MAURAN, President of the Provi- dence Business Men's Association at the time of his death, was born at Rumstick, in Barrington, R. I., July 15, 1852, and died December 1, 1895. He was the son of Nathaniel Church and Sally (Bowen) Smith, and descended from Italian and English ancestry. With a good education preparatory for business, he commenced his active career as a lad in the wholesale department of George L. Claflin & Co., Providence, where his brother Nathaniel had preceded him in a most successful business experi- ence. He remained with this house until he formed
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
C
Dronning Mr. Smith-
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
a partnership to carry on the drug business under the firm name of Kenyon, Smith & Co., on Ex- change Place. After a few years at this location he returned to the house of George L. Claflin & Co., where he remained until about July 1895, when he was induced to give up his drug business to become the Secretary and Treasurer of the Inter-State Pe- troleum Company, which position he held at the time of his death. Mr. Smith inherited a genial nature, an active disposition and a sanguine tem- perament. He needed no stimulus for work, for his busy mind was full of plans for himself and others, which no obstacles could hinder and no discourage- ments or counter influence check. He was open- hearted, possessed no arts of concealment or of private scheming so that his life, character and purposes were an open book, known and read of all. He was constantly thoughtful for the good name of his native town, and was always on the alert to do something to add to its attractions. Arbor day in Rhode Island owes its existence to Mr. Smith's labors, and the first celebration of the day was held in Barrington under his direction. He was inter- ested among the foremost in the organization of improvement associations, and the Barrington Rural Improvement Association and the Rhode Island Society owe their present successful operations largely to his labors. He was the efficient Presi- dent of both of these bodies, as well as of the Providence Business Men's Association, of which he was a charter member. Mr. Smith was ever lavish of time, strength and enthusiastic interest for the good of his fellows, and a shortened life is the price paid for excessive energy spent in public and private service in the town, in the church at Barrington, in business life, in associational work and in all other pursuits which he followed with such diligence and success. He was married, April 12, 1887, to Carrie Wakeman Ketchum, who survives him; they had two children: Kenneth Valentine and Nathalie Church Smith.
SMITH, ROBERT MORTON, physician and sur- geon, River Point, was born in Maitland, near Newport, Nova Scotia, October 12, 1863, the son of Bowden and Elizabeth (Faulkner) Smith. He is descended from New England ancestry, who settled in Hants County, Nova Scotia, prior to the American Revolution. His father's ancestors came from near Newport, R. I., and founded the town of Newport, Nova Scotia. He received his early education in
the public schools and at the Provincial Normal School and Pictou Academy. He adopted med- icine as a profession, graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Md., in 1889, served as clinical assistant in the City Hospital of Baltimore and practiced in New Jersey for a short time. He settled at River Point, R. I., in 1890, where he has since remained in the enjoyment of a lucrative practice. Dr. Smith is a member of Washington Lodge I. O. O. F., of Warwick Lodge
R. MORTON SMITH.
A. F. & A. M. of Phenix, R. I., of Landmark Chapter, of Providence Council, of Calvary Com- mandery, and of Palestine Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. He married, in April 1892, Miss Lizzie A., daughter of Arnold and Lizzie (Taylor) Parker.
SMITH, THOMAS JOSEPH, M. D., Valley Falls, was born in Adams, Massachusetts, April 18, 1859, son of Michael and Bridget (Malone) Smith, of Irish ancestry. His early education was obtained in the public schools, after which he was employed in a cotton mill until the age of seventeen, when he left to finish his studies. He attended La Salle Academy in Providence, West Farnham College in the Province of Quebec, the University of Ottawa (Canada), and the College of Physicians and Sur-
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
geons at Baltimore, Maryland, graduating from the last-named institution March 4, 1884. Since grad- uation he has practiced medicine in the town of Cumberland. He has visited Europe three times since 1887, for the purpose of gaining experience in the different hospitals, and has enjoyed a success- ful professional career. Dr. Smith has served as member of the School Committee three years, and as Chairman of the Board of Tax Assessors for one year. He is a member of the Rhode Island State Medical Society, the Providence Medical Associa- tion, and the Megantic Fish and Game Club. In politics he is an active Democrat, and has been a
T. J. SMITH.
member of the Democratic State Central Com- mittee from Cumberland for four years. He was married, July 3, 1888, to Miss Mary Welsh of Clay- ton Mount (near Manchester), England ; they have four children : Thomas Charles Russell, Mary Beatrice, Helen Welsh and Brenda Angela Smith.
STEARNS, HENRY AUGUSTUS, manufacturer, Vice- President of the Union Wadding Company, Paw- tucket, and Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island in 1891-92, was born in Billerica, Mass., October 23, 1825, son of Abner and Anna (Russell) Stearns. His mother was a daughter of Thomas Russell of West Cambridge, Mass. He is a direct descendant
of Isaac Stearns, who came to this country in 1630 with Governor Winthrop, and settled in Watertown, near Mount Auburn, Mass. For more than two centuries the Stearns name has been a leading one in Billerica and the vicinity thereof. Abner Stearns, Henry's father, was a man of great force of charac- ter and an inventor of more than local reputation. Abner was about nine years old at the opening of the Revolution. He and his brother Solomon, a lad of eighteen, sleeping side by side, were awakened at an early hour on April 19, 1775, by their father, Lieutenant Edward Stearns, who announced that the British were coming. The Lieutenant and his son Solomon marched that day with the Bedford militia to Concord, where they acquitted themselves with great credit in the memorable Concord fight. Captain Wilson of the Bedford militia having been killed, Lieutenant Stearns was placed in command of the Bedford troop during the latter part of the day, and thus it is that the subject of this sketch enjoys the distinction of having had his own uncle a leading participant in the first battle of the Rev- olution. The death of his parents occurred when he was about twelve years old. His early education was acquired in the public schools, supplemented by two years at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. At the age of twenty he went West, and settled for a time in Cincinnati, where he engaged in the manufacture of cotton wadding. In the spring of 1850, his mill having been twice destroyed by fire, he started for California via the Isthmus of Panama. From the Isthmus he took passage for San Francisco on an old whaling vessel, ill-conditioned, ill-fitted and overcrowded, and after four months of tossing about on the Pacific and intense suffering from lack of food and water, he finally reached his destination. He opened the first steam laundry in California, and also ran the first steam ferry between San Francisco and what is now the city of Oakland. After several years of California life he returned East, and in 1857 engaged in business in Buffalo, N. Y., where for a time he was roommate and friend of a young lawyer, Grover Cleveland, now President of the United States. The financial crisis of 1858 swept away his property in the general disaster which it precipitated upon most young business enterprises and many of long standing throughout the country, and he moved, with his young wife and with courage undaunted, to Illinois, and started anew to build up his fortunes. While in that state he formed a friendly acquaintance with another lawyer, of some local reputation, and in 1860, having
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
planned to engage in manufacturing in Rhode Island, but uncertain whether to go into business at that time of political and business agitation, in his per- plexity he consulted his lawyer friend, Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln advised him to carry out his
H. [A. STEARNS.
plans, stating that he expected the war clouds would soon blow over. Accordingly Mr. Stearns went to Pawtucket, R. I., and in conjunction with Darius Goff began the manufacture of cotton wadding. The inventive genius inherited from his father was now brought into full play ; many of his inventions have been utilized in the mill of the Union Wadding Company, of which he is Vice-President and Super- intendent, and to-day this company is one of the largest manufacturers of wadding in the world. Mr. Stearns resides in Central Falls, and has been many times honored by his fellow-townsmen. He is a Republican in politics. For a number of years he represented the town of Lincoln in the House of Representatives, and then served several terms in the State Senate. In 1891 he was elected Lieuten- ant-Governor, and in 1892 declined a re-election to that office. He has held various other public and state offices, and has acted as a State Commissioner in many cases ; but the one in which he has taken the greatest satisfaction and interest is his connection with the State Home and School for Homeless and Dependent Children, having been Chairman of its
Board of Control for many years. While in the Senate he introduced and procured the passage of an act creating the institution, and was Chairman of the Committee to select and purchase the property, which is one of the most charming locations in the state, where hundreds of homeless little ones have been kindly cared for, and good permanent homes found for them. Mr. Stearns is an active member of the Congregational Church in Central Falls, and is also a thirty-second degree Mason. He was married, June 26, 1856, to Miss Kate Falconer, a granddaughter of Hiram Falconer, one of the early pioneers in Southern Ohio; they have had eight children, of whom seven are living: Deshla F., George R., Walter H., Kate R., Charles F., Henry F. and Caroline C. Stearns.
STEVENS, COLONEL DANIEL, of Bristol, was born in Cambridge, Mass., September 6, 1849, son of Daniel W. and Caroline (Partridge) Stevens. Colonel Stevens is of early American ancestry on both sides, and his great-grandfather on the
DANIEL STEVENS.
maternal side was a drummer-boy in the army of the Revolution. He received his early education in the public schools of Mansfield, Mass., after which he learned the trade of watchmaker and engraver at Fall River, Mass. In 1878 he went
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
West and settled in Springfield, Ill., the capital of the state and Lincoln's old home, where he worked at his trade seven years, returning East in 1885 and engaging as commercial traveller with the wholesale watch, diamond and jewelry house of D. C. Percival & Company, Boston. After six years with this firm he again went West in 1892 and located in Chicago as agent for the Bay State Watchcase Company, remaining with them until they were absorbed by a larger concern, in 1894, when he once more came East and settled in Bristol, R. I., establishing the retail jewelry business of Stevens & Company. Upon taking up his residence in Springfield, Ill., he became a member of the National Guard of that state, and in June 1881 was commissioned First Lieutenant of Light Battery B. Upon the consolidation of the state forces he was commissioned as Aide-de-Camp on the staff of Brigadier General J. N. Reece, commanding the Second Brigade, I. N. G., which commission he resigned on leaving the state. He became Adjutant of Bristol Train of Artillery, Rhode Island Militia, in 1894, and in 1895 was promoted to Colonel, which office and rank he now holds. He is also a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston. Colonel Stevens has never taken any active part in politics. He is a Knight Templar and a member of Springfield Lodge No. 4, F. A. M., the same lodge to which Stephen A. Douglas belonged, and is also a member of Medina Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Chicago. He was married, in 1872, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Young, who died in 1888, leaving two children: Waldo W., born in 1873, and Ralph P. Stevens, born 1875.
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