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 20
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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
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
was incorporated in the First Regiment, under the command of Colonel Burnside, and marched with it in the defence of Washington. On the first of June he returned to Providence, when within three days he recruited Company C for the Second Regi- ment, of which he was commissioned Captain. He was promoted to Major for gallant conduct at the battle of Bull Run. On the 12th of June, 1862, he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, and was pro- moted to Colonel December 15, 1862, while com- manding his regiment in the battle of Fredericks- burg. While with the Second Regiment he took part in the battles of Bull Run, Malvern Hill, Williamsburg, Antietam and Fredericksburg. He resigned January 5. 1863, and returned to Provi- dence, when in August of the same year he was commissioned Major and afterward Colonel of the Fourteenth Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (colored). He organized the regiment of eighteen hundred men and served with it in the Department of the Gulf until the close of the war. For his gallantry and merit he received the brevet of Brigadier- General April 15, 1866. In 1866 he was elected a Representative in the General Assembly, from Providence, and in May of the same year he was elected Chief of Police for Providence, which posi- tion he held for a year, resigning to accept the position of Warden of the State Prison, which he still holds, his administration having been marked with great success. He was one of the nine charter members who organized the Grand Army of the Republic in Rhode Island, and is a member of Prescott Post ; in 1866 he was elected Junior Vice- Commissioner of the Department of Rhode Island. He is a member of the Soldiers and Sailors' Histori- cal Society of Providence ; also of St. John's Lodge A. F. & A. M. He married, February 5, 1848, Miss Mary W., daughter of Silas and Freelove (Millard) Peckham ; they have had six children : Willard Seymour, Arthur Manchester, Grace Eveline, Mary Nelson, Ellen Estella and Nelson Shorey, of whom only two, Grace Eveline and Nelson Shorey Viall, are now living.
WEEDEN, CHARLES EDWARD, hotel proprietor and insurance agent, Jamestown, was born in Jamestown, September 4, 1848, the son of Clarke C. and Lucy K. (Palmer) Weeden. He received his early education in the public schools of Jamestown. He has done much to develop his native town as a summer resort. He was proprietor of the Prospect House in Jamestown from 1888 [to 1891] inclusive,
and of the Hotel Thorndike at that place from 1891 to the present time. He has been an insurance agent since 1882, representing the Providence Washington Insurance Company. He was Town Clerk from November 1888 to April 1891, was
CHAS. E. WEEDEN.
President of the Town Council from April 1892 to April 1895, and was elected Senator from James- town to the Rhode Island Legislature April 4, 1895. In politics he is a Republican. He married, October 12, 1886, Miss Flora M. Clarke ; they have no children.
WHIPPLE, WILLIAM LEWIS, merchant, Provi- dence, was born in Olneyville, September 21, 1851, son of Stephen D. and Emily D. (Barnard) Whipple. His father was a leading marketman of Olneyville, and the son has always been closely and very promi- nently identified with the interests of that commu- nity. He received a common-school education, was graduated from the Mount Pleasant grammar school in the class of 1868, and was then employed for three years in the general store of Holloway & Phillips. He next took a course in bookkeeping and commercial law at Scholfield's Commercial College, Providence, graduating from that institu- tion in 1873. Entering the employ of Thomas Sawyer, Jr., as bookkeeper, he continued in that
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capacity until June 1879, when he resigned to en- gage in business on his own account. In August 1879 he opened a house-furnishing establishment at 47-49 Manton avenue, where he has built up an extensive business in the better lines of goods. At
WM. L. WHIPPLE.
the present time over thirty-five thousand square feet of floor space is required to properly display the various lines of carpets, furniture and stoves in his stock. The manufacture of tin and sheet-iron ware is carried on, and a plumbing department has also been added. Mr. Whipple was elected to the Common Council of Providence from the Tenth Ward in 1884, and served three years, to the satis- faction of all concerned ; he was Chairman of the Harbor Committee, a member of the committee on Lamps and Highways, and one of the special com- mittee on the extensive "Gray Plan " for sewerage of the city. He was elected Representative to the State Legislature for 1893-94, and served on the important committees of Corporations and Manu- facturers. In November 1895 he was again elected to the Common Council from Ward Eight, and is at present serving on the joint standing committees on Police and Water. He is a Director of the Atlantic National Bank, Providence, and was the first Vice-President of the Olneyville Business Men's Association, and the following year filled the office of President, in which organization his abilities have
been evidenced in a marked manner. He is a thirty- second degree Mason, and in the Odd Fellows holds membership in both the Grand Lodge and Grand Encampment of Rhode Island. He is also a mem- ber of the West Side and Providence Press clubs. Mr. Whipple was married, October 21, 1880, to Miss Lucy A. Sawyer, daughter of Thomas Sawyer of Providence.
WHITE, HUNTER CARSON, Sheriff of the County of Providence, was born in Zanesville, Ohio, December 18, 1853, son of Amos L. and Nancy J. (Harris) White. He came from early Rhode Island stock on both sides, being descended from the Perrys, Lewises and Hoxies on his father's side, and on his mother's side from Thomas Harris, who came over to Rhode Island in 1630 with Roger Williams in the ship Lyon from Bristol, England. He was educated in the public schools of Provi- dence and at the United States Naval Academy. In business life he was prominent as Manager of the Providence Cotton Lining Company from 1883
H. C. WHITE.
to 1892, and he has held the office of Sheriff of the county of Providence from June 1, 1891. In politics he is an active Republican ; has been a member of the Republican City Committee from 1878, Chairman of the Republican State Central
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Committee from 1892, and a member of the School Committee from 1881. He was Assistant Adjutant- General of Rhode Island from 1892 to October 31, 1895, and then Adjutant-General. He is an ex- President of the Franklin Lyceum, Vice-President of the West Side Club, and a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry, the Soldiers and Sailors' Historical Society, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence Athletic Association, and the Pomham, Squantum and Press clubs ; also a thirty-third degree Mason, A. & A. Scottish Rite, and Past Commander of St. John's Commandery Knights Templar. He was married, December 11, 1877, to Miss Carrie H. Kelton ; they have one child, a boy : Hunter C. White, Jr.
WIGGIN, OLIVER CHASE, M. D., Professor of Biology in the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, was born in Meredith, N. H., May 3, 1839, son of John Mead and Polly Fox (Wadleigh) Wiggin. He is a descendant of Thomas Wiggin, first Governor or Agent of the "Upper Plantations " - that settlement about Portsmouth, now New Hampshire - who came to this country in 1631, in charge of a colony sent out by the Bris- tol Company, which had a special grant of what is now Stratham, N. H. Lords Say and Brook suc- ceeded the Bristol Company, and Thomas Wiggin succeeded them, by purchase. He was noted as a most able and useful adviser and manager in those pioneer days. The original homestead has never been out of the family name to this day, and the graves of Thomas Wiggin and his wife, Mary Whit- ing, are well preserved. Andrew Wiggin, son of Thomas, married Hannah Bradstreet, daughter of Gov. Simon Bradstreet and Ann Dudley, who was a daughter of Gov. Thomas Dudley, a descendant of Alfred the Great, King of England, also Hugh Capet, King of France. The subject of this sketch is a lineal descendant of Andrew Wiggin. He acquired his early education in the common schools and academies of New Hampshire, was fitted for col- lege in the Providence High School, pursued a two- years elective course in Brown University, gradu- ated from the Harvard Medical School July 9, 1866, and practiced medicine in the city of Providence twenty years, establishing an especially large and successful practice in obstetrics and the treatment of children. He was President of the Providence Medical Association two years, in 1880-82, Presi- dent of the Rhode Island Medical Society two
years, 1884-86, Visiting Physician to the Rhode Is- land Hospital eight years, from 1875 to 1882, sev- eral years Consulting Physician to the Dexter Asy- lum and the Home for Aged Men, and was an incorporator of the Providence Lying-in Hospital, and a trustee and its President from its founding in 1884 until 1891. At present he holds the position of Professor of Biology in the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, in which capacity he has served three years. In addition to his membership in the Providence Medical Associa- tion and Rhode Island Medical Society, he is a member of the American Medical Association and
OLIVER C. WIGGIN.
the Franklin Society. In politics he is a Repub- lican. Dr. Wiggin has always had a warm love for natural history and for rural life in general. He has had a farm wherein he could find diversion and a field for study and experiment from childhood, and at present has several thousand acres in Vir- ginia. His knowledge of embryology and compara- tive anatomy and physiology has contributed in no small degree to his success in fine stock breeding, while his knowledge of chemistry, geology and botany in their special relations to husbandry has stood him in good stead in his practical agriculture and horti- culture. He has contributed numerous articles to agricultural periodicals and has delivered occasional addresses to agricultural and scientific societies and
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before other audiences. He was married, Decem- ber 3, 1878, to Mrs. Helen Mortimer Jenckes, widow of Leland Delos Jenckes, Esq., and eldest daughter of the late Hon. Charles Nourse of Woonsocket ; she died May 22, 1890, leaving no children.
WILLIAMS, WILLIAM FREDERICK, physician and surgeon, Bristol, was born in New York city, December 23, 1859, the son of Isaac Frazee and Mary Elizabeth (Weed) Williams. He is a direct descendant in the ninth generation of Robert Wil-
1
W. FRED WILLIAMS.
liams of Roxbury, Mass., among whose descendants were one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, another the founder of Williams College, and others of prominence and distinction. His own father was a very active and influential man in his adopted town and state, many times a member of the Town Council and its President, a member of both houses of the General Assembly, many years a member of the School Committee, a bank director, high in the Masonic and Odd Fellows fra- ternities, superintendent of a great manufacturing establishment and the inventor of many useful arti- cles. He received his early education in the public and private schools of Bristol and at Mowry & Goff's school of Providence, and graduated from
Brown University with the degree of A. B. in 1883. He entered Harvard Medical School in 1886, after a year of preliminary study, and graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1889. He practiced for a few months in New York city, but illness in his family caused a return to Bristol, where he has since prac- ticed. Dr. Williams is a vestryman of St. Michael's Church, a member of the School Committee and a Director in the Bristol County Savings Bank. He has been Medical Examiner for Bristol county, the second district, since 1892. He was Ensign in the Naval Reserve Torpedo Company for three years, 1891-94, and is now Lieutenant in command. He is a member of the Providence Medical Asso- ciation, the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, the Brown University Medical Association, the Harvard Club of Rhode Island, the Medico-Legal Society, the Providence Athletic Association, the Neptune Boat Club, and various other societies and organizations. In politics he is a Republican. He married, January 20, 1891, Miss Mildred Lewis Williams ; they have no children.
WILSON, WILLIAM EDWARD, Principal of the Rhode Island State Normal School, Providence, was born March 26, 1847, among the hills of western Pennsylvania, near Zelienople in Beaver county, son of Francis Thomas and Mary Ann (Morrison) Wilson. His ancestors on both sides came from the North of Ireland in the eighteenth century, the Wilson ancestry living for a time in Northampton county, then inoving to Beaver county in 1803, crossing the Alleghanies on pack horses. He grew up on the farm which his grandfather and his father had cleared in the woods, his early experiences being those of the average country boy during the years just before the war. The school of his boy- hood was kept in a log house at the edge of a wood, and afterward in a less primitive one of brick. With no other education than that given by the common schools of that day he commenced teaching in 1865, during the winter terms, in the country ungraded schools. He attended the State Normal School at Edinboro, Pa., and afterward the West Virginia State Normal School at Hunting- ton, graduating there in 1870. Having prepared for college at an academy at Jamestown, Pa., he entered Monmouth College at Monmouth, Illinois, and graduated from the classical course in 1873. He was immediately appointed to a position in the
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
State Normal School at Peru, Nebraska, just then vacated by Professor H. Straight. This position he held for two years, during which time he was act- ing principal for one term. In June 1875 he went abroad for study and travel ; he studied history and
W. E. WILSON.
literature at Edinburgh University, and visited England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Bel- gium, studying meanwhile during his travels, schools and educational systems of the different countries. On his return he taught in the Morgan Park Acad- emy, Chicago, and was afterward principal of high schools at Tekamah, North Platte and Brownville, Nebraska. From 1881 to 1884 he was Professor of Natural Science in Coe College, a Presbyterian institution at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. From there he came to Rhode Island to teach physics and biology in the State Normal School, which position he held from 1884 to 1892, when he was elected Principal. In connection with his work as teacher, he has held the position of Superintendent of Schools both in Nebraska and in Rhode Island, and has done general educational work by lecturing and writing. He is a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity and of the Temple of Honor. In 1881, June 30, Mr. Wilson married, at Ceredo, West Virginia, Miss Florence May Ramsdell, who is a descendant of John Alden of the Mayflower; their children are : Ralph, born April 28, 1882; Florence Alden, August 5, 1883 ;
Stanley Ramsdell and Francis Thompson, August 23, 1887 ; and Caroline Lucile, September 1, 1889. Of these all are living except Ralph, who died July 27, 1882.
WYMAN, COLONEL JOHN CRAWFORD, manufac- ยท turer, and Secretary of the Old Colony Co-opera- tive Bank, Providence, was born in Northboro, Massachusetts, September 13, 1822, son of Abraham and Sarah (Crawford) Wyman. He received his early education in the public schools until about twelve years of age, when he was put into a country store in his native town. In his eighteenth year he procured a clerkship in the well-known drygoods house of H. B. Claflin, then located in Worcester, Mass. Subsequently he was engaged in mercantile business for himself, in Boston, Worcester and New York until 1861. Upon the breaking out of the civil war he abandoned business for the military service, and in May 1862 was commissioned as Captain of Company A, Thirty-third Regiment Massachusetts Infantry. The following September
J. C. WYMAN.
he was appointed Provost Marshal of Alexandria, Virginia, and served in that capacity until the spring of 1863, when he was placed in charge of forwarding supplies to the Army of the Potomac, then in command of Major-General Meade. In
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
October 1863 he was ordered to report to Brigadier- General D. C. McCullom, General Manager of the United States Military Railroads, and was after- wards transferred to the Thirty-third Massachusetts Cavalry in Louisiana, but was ordered by the Secre- tary of War to remain attached to the military railroad service. In May 1865, after serving as one of the military escort accompanying the remains of President Lincoln from Washington to Springfield, he resigned his commission and became connected with the Renssalaer Iron and Steel Company of Troy, New York. In 1882 he removed to Rhode Island, engaging first in mercantile business, and afterwards (1882) in cotton manufacturing. Colonel Wyman's business and executive abilities, combined with his personal qualities, soon brought him into prominence in the community and state of his adoption. He was elected Representative to the General Assembly from the town of Lincoln in 1888, served as Executive Commissioner of the State of Rhode Island to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and has recently accepted an appointment by Governor Lippitt as Commis- sioner to the forthcoming Mexican National Exposition of Industries and the Fine Arts. In politics he is a Republican. Colonel Wyman was married in 1846 to Miss Emma C. Willard, of Uxbridge, Mass. ; she died in Brookline, Mass., in December 1861. In 1888 he married Miss Lillie B. Chace ; they have one child, a son : Arthur C. Wyman, born September 21, 1889.
WEST, THOMAS FRANCIS, lawyer, Providence, was born in Dublin, Ireland, February 29, 1844, son of John and Catherine (Cavanagh) West, of Irish ancestry. He came to this country in 1852 and settled in Providence, receiving his education in the public schools of that city. At the outbreak of the civil war he enlisted, in 1861, in the Seventh New York Cavalry, served with distinction, being wounded at Chancellorsville, Virginia, and was mustered out in 1864. At the close of the war he returned to Providence, joined the Fenians, and
participated in the famous raid on Canada in 1867. In 1872 he joined the Massachusetts State Militia, and did guard duty for two weeks at the great Boston fire in November of that year. He adopted the profession of engineer in 1872, and at one time was connected with Thomas A. Edison, in Newark, New Jersey ; also with the American Conduit Com- pany of Massachusetts, but commenced the study of law, and in 1892 was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar. Mr. West has always been actively
THOS. F WEST.
interested in politics, having held offices both in Boston and Providence, and is at present one of the State Central Committee of Rhode Island. He is also connected with several secret and social orders, and is a member of the Grand Army, National Veteran Association, Providence Press Club, and other organizations. In 1894 he visited his birthplace, and made an extensive tour of the Continent. Mr. West is married and has two children : Alfred L. and Josephine P. West.
MEN OF PROGRESS.
PART III.
ALLEN, COLONEL CRAWFORD, Jr., was born in Providence, April 2, 1840, son of Crawford and Sarah Senter (Crocker) Allen, and died in that city,
CRAWFORD ALLEN, JR.
May 7, 1894. Mr. Allen was descended on both sides from early New England ancestry. His father was one of the noted manufacturers whose enter- prise and skill have made the name of Rhode Island famous in the industrial world, for many years at the head of the Allen Print Works, Providence. He was a grandson of Zachariah and Anne ( Crawford) Allen, and a nephew of Hon. Zachariah Allen, a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1813, and long distinguished as a lawyer, scientist, in- ventor and manufacturer. The family came from Dorsetshire, England, in 1636. On the maternal side he was a grandson of Rev. Nathan B. Crocker,
D. D., a prominent Episcopal divine of Providence, and a great-grandson of Dr. Isaac Senter, a noted physician of Newport, Surgeon in Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec and in the Revolutionary army, honorary member of the medical societies of London and Edinburgh, and for many years Presi- dent of the Society of the Cincinnati of Rhode Isl- and. The subject of this sketch attended the University Grammar School in Providence, prepara- tory for college, and entered Brown University, but did not graduate, as before the completion of his college course he went abroad with a tutor, making an extensive tour of Europe and extending his trip around the world, visiting China, the East Indies and the Asiatic Islands. Upon his arrival at San Francisco news of the breaking out of the Rebellion reached him, and he immediately returned home and enlisted in a battery of light artillery then being formed in Providence. On November 7, 1861, he was commissioned by Governor Sprague as Second Lieutenant of Battery G, First Rhode Island Light Artillery, and November 18, 1862, was promoted to First Lieutenant ; his regiment joined the Army of the Potomac and participated in the Peninsula cam- paign, and later in the battles of Fredericksburg and Antietam, also in the second battle of Freder- icksburg, where Lieutenant Allen was slightly wounded. Shortly after the latter engagement he was made Adjutant of the regiment and Acting Adjutant-General of the artillery brigade of the Sixth Army Corps, which positions he held until September 30, 1863, when he was promoted to the Captaincy of Battery H, and served at various points in the defence of Washington. For several months he was in command of Fort Richards, near the Falls of the Potomac. In the spring of 1864, Battery H was transferred to a more active scene of operations, joining the artillery reserve of the Army of the Potomac and participating in many important movements and more or less severe engagements. In
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the following January the battery joined the artillery brigade of the Sixth Army Corps, and took part, April 2, 1865, in the final assault on Petersburg. On this occasion Captain Allen was warmly com- mended by General Wheaton, commanding the First Division of the Sixth Corps, for the admirable handling of his battery, and was recommended for promotion to Major by brevet, "for distinguished gallantry and most valuable services at the assault on the enemy's works at Petersburg," which pro- motion he received from the President bearing date of April the second. Captain Allen and his battery continued in active service until the close of the war, and it is said, on the authority of an officer ; present, that to Battery HI belongs the honor of firing the first gun discharged in the country in celebration of Lee's surrender. Major Allen was breveted Lieutenant-Colonel on June 12 following, and the battery returned home and was mustered out June 28, 1865. After the close of his army career, until his marriage some twelve years later, Colonel Allen spent the greater part of his time abroad, having a residence in London, and coming home only at infrequent intervals. The severities and exposures of army service had implanted in his constitution the germs of a fatal malady, to which he finally succumbed, passing away at his home in Providence, in the midst of his family, to which he was devotedly attached, May 7, 1894. Colonel Allen was a member of the old Rhode Island Club of Providence, also of the Sons of the American Revolution, and of several clubs abroad, his favorite social organization being the Junior Naval and Mili- tary Club of London. In politics he was strongly Republican in principles, but independent in his following of party candidates. He was married, November 19, 1877, to Miss Clara Dennison, daughter of Samuel Foster, a prominent manu- facturer of Providence, now living at the age of ninety-two years ; they had four children : Crawford, Ella Clarke, Sarah Senter and Churchill Senter Allen.
ANTHONY, JAMES, Sheriff of Newport County, was born in Middletown, R. I., November 6, 1840, son of George and Margaret (Hathaway) Anthony. He was educated in the public schools, and was trained to the avocation of farming, which he has successfully followed. He has served in public life as a member of the School Committee and Town Council of Middletown, as Representative to the General Assembly, and as Sheriff of Newport
County, which office he now hokls. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Anthony is a member of Coronet Council, No. 63, Royal Arcanum, and of Aquidneck Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, of Mid-
JAMES ANTHONY.
dletown. He was married, February 24, 1869, to Miss Charlotte S. Coggeshall ; they have two chil- dren : Arthur R. and Alfred C. Anthony.
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