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 22
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and as soon as a door was opened for him to re- in subjection to the cherished purpose of his life, enter the field of foreign missions, he at once embraced it. In the fall of 1860 Mr. Bixby was
recalled to Burmah, and was appointed to open a new mission to the Shans. Sailing via England and the Red Sea, he entered the field early in 1861. Just before he reached Burmah, ten thousand Shans, driven out of the Shan States by war, came in a body to Toungoo and settled near his destined home. Encouraged by this providence, he entered with great earnestness upon the work of the new mission, nor did he labor in vain. Success imme- diately followed, and continued from year to year ; the chief's son was soon converted, and converts were multiplied, churches were formed, and a train- ing school was established. In eight years Mr. Bixby travelled extensively over various provinces, far into the interior and among savage tribes, often in great peril, but always with marked tokens of Divine favor. These labors and exposures, how- ever, proved too much for his naturally robust con- stitution, and at length his health broke down and he was again compelled to return to this country. He left his family behind, fully intending to go back; but after a year all hope of his resuming missionary work in that climate being abandoned, his family was called home. For ten successive years he was a sufferer from Burmah fever, but he finally regained his health, and after more than a quarter of a century of service in the home field, is now able to do as much work as at any period in his life. Under his supervision was gathered and organized the Cranston Street Baptist Church in Providence, over which his pastorate has continued uninterruptedly to the present time. In the incip- ient stages of the enterprise the responsibility rested upon him alone. Seeing the possibilities of the field, he personally assumed large pecuniary obliga- tions for a church lot, in September 1869, and in three months completed a chapel with a seating larged three times within ten years. In January capacity of five hundred. This building was en- 1870 the Sunday-school was opened with thirty- five members, and in the following October the church was organized with fifty-six members. A 1895 the twenty-fifth anniversary of the church was dedicated in November 1893, and in January new, beautiful and commodious house of worship
Sunday-school and pastorate was fittingly celebrated.
The results of these twenty-five years of labor are
seen in three houses of worship, two for the home work and one for a vigorous out- station ; two
Sunday-schools, numbering nearly a thousand members ; and an addition of eleven hundred and sixty-five to the church, of which seven hundred
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and twenty-seven were by experience and baptism. Dr. Bixby's labors have not, however, been con- fined to his church alone, he having given counsel and help to many others, and surpervised the build- ing of four churches besides his own. He is pre- eminently the friend of young people and deeply interested in whatever tends to uplift the rising generation. For fifteen years he has been a mem- ber of the School Committee, and it was through his efforts that the normal music course was intro- duced into the schools of Providence. Fourteen successive years he was chosen President of the Rhode Island Baptist Education Society, and only resigned on account of the pressure of other duties. Thirty young men and twenty young women have gone from his church to college. He is a trustee of Brown University, Newton Theological Seminary, Hartshorn Memorial College at Richmond, Va., and Worcester Academy; also a member of the executive committee of the last named institution. Dr. Bixby is even more vigorous now in the ministry than in his earlier years, and is preaching to larger congregations than ever before. He is in his twenty-seventh year with the Cranston Street Church, and the thirtieth year of pastoral work in the city of Providence. Dr. Bixby was married, in November 1849, to Miss Susan C. Dow, of Malden, Vt., who died in Burlington, Vt, in August 1856, ten days after her arrival from Burmah. He was married again, in 1857, to Miss Laura A. Gage, principal of the New Hampton Ladies' Seminary, who has since shared his labors and successes. His daughter Jennie, born in Maulmain, in 1855, is the wife of Rev. Freeman Johnson, M. D., missionary in Toungoo, Burmah. His son, Ernest Merle, born in Toungoo, Burmah, is the founder and head of the Bixby Silver Company of Providence, R. I.
BOSWORTH, BENJAMIN MILLER, Justice of the District Court of the Fifth Judicial District, was born in Warren, R. I., January 17, 1848, and has resided there continuously since. His father was Benjamin Miller Bosworth, son of Peleg Bosworth, and his mother was Elizabeth Luther, daughter of Martin Luther. His ancestry on both sides is Colonial and Revolutionary. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Warren. He prepared for college at the Warren High School, but did not enter, pursuing his studies instead with Isaac F. Cady, and teaching school for two years. He studied law with Judge Richard Ward Greene
and later with Thomas C. Greene, Esq., in the meantime teaching evening school, was admitted to practice law before the state courts in Rhode Isl- and, in August 1873, at East Greenwich, and sub- sequently was admitted to practice in the United States courts. He commenced his legal career in Providence, and since his admission to the bar has been engaged in active practice. He was Trial Justice of Warren from 1874 to 1876, Assistant Attorney General from May 1882 to March 1895, and has been Justice of the District Court of the Fifth Judicial District since 1886. Judge Bosworth has also served the public in various other official capacities. He was a Representative from Warren
1
B. M. BOSWORTH.
in the General Assembly of the State from May 1880 to October 1882, and again in 1885 and 1886 ; a member of the School Committee of Warren for more than twenty years, acting as Chairman and Superintendent for five years ; delegate from Rhode Island to the Republican National Convention in Chicago which nominated President Harrison in 1888; was Town Solicitor of Lincoln from 1891 to 1895, and upon the establishment of the city of Central Falls, became and now is City Solicitor. He has been actively interested in military affairs, serving as Judge Advocate of brigade on the staffs of Gen. Thomas W. Chace and Gen. Elisha H. Rhodes, and as Adjutant, Captain and Colonel of
Augustus O. Brown
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the Warren Artillery. He is a member of Wash- ington Lodge No. 3, F. A. M., of Warren, twice serving as Master; of Temple Chapter and Webb Council, of Warren, having occupied the highest office in both bodies ; and of Calvary Commandery Knights Templar, Providence. He is also a mem- ber of Union Club of Warren, the Rhode Island Business Men's Association of Providence, the Providence Athletic Association, and the George Hail Free Library, of which last named institution he is one of the original corporate members, and has been since 1873 its President. In politics he is a Republican, and active in town and state affairs. Judge Bosworth has been especially active in all matters pertaining to the improvement of his native town, - the introduction of water and electricity, macadamized streets, etc., and the erection of pub- lic buildings, being chairman of the building com- mittees of the beautiful granite Library Building and the Town Building recently erected in Warren. He is also active in business affairs, being a director in the Warren Trust Company, the Warren Gaslight Company and the Bristol and Warren Water Works. He was married, March 17, 1875, to Miss Mary M. Cole of Warren ; they have no children.
BOURN, AUGUSTUS OSBORN, Governor of Rhode Island in 1883-85, was born in Providence, October 1, 1834, son of George O. and Hudah B. (Eddy) Bourn. He is descended in direct line from Jared Bourn, who came to this country from England about 1630, removed from Boston to Portsmouth, R. I., and in 1654-55 was a deputy from that town in the Colonial Legislature ; at the time of King Philip's War he had a garrison house on what is now Gardner's Neck, in Swansea, Mass., in which the settlers from the neighborhood took refuge. In other ancestral lines he is descended on the pater- nal side from the Bowens, Braytons, Wheatons, Carpenters, Chases, Shermans, Tripps, Paines, Sterns, Gibsons, Beckets, Blys, Gotts and other prominent colonial families, and on the maternal side from the Eddys, Ides, Blandings, Coopers, Walkers, Peck- hams, Greenes, Clarkes, Weedens and others. Among them were Francis Brayton, one of the founders of Portsmouth, R. I .; Robert Wheaton, Richard Bowen, Nicholas Ide, Thomas Cooper, Jr., Philip Walker and William Blanding, among the original settlers of Rehoboth, Mass .; Samuel Eddy, one of the early settlers of Plymouth, and the son of Rev. William Eddy, Vicar of St. Dunstan's, Cran-
brook, Kent, England ; William Chase, the ances- tor in this country of the well-known Chase family ; Philip Sherman, Anthony Paine, John Peckham, James Weeden, John Greene, Jeremiah Clarke and John Tripp, among the founders of Portsmouth and Newport, R. I., and well-known as very prominent citizens of their time; and Charles Sterns, John Gibson, John Becket, John Bly and Charles Gott, among the earliest settlers of Massachusetts Bay, Charles Gott being the first deacon of the church in Salem. Augustus O. Bourn received his early edu- cation in the public schools of Providence, passing through the various grades from the primary to the High School, and entered Brown University in 1851, graduating in 1855 with the degree of Master of Arts. Immediately after leaving college he went into business with his father, who was one of the firm of Bourn, Brown & Chaffee, Providence, manufacturers of rubber shoes, and, with the exception of some six years spent in Europe, he has been engaged in that business continuously ever since. He is now manufacturing rubber shoes in Providence as sole proprietor of a large establishment at Nos. 53 to 63 Westfield Street. He was Senator for Bristol in the Rhode Island Legislature from 1876 to 1883. During his first term he was a member of the Com- mittee on Finance, and for the remaining five years was its Chairman, and also a member of the Com- mittee on the Judiciary. In 1883 he was elected Governor and served two successive terms as chief executive of the State. He was also Senator for Bristol from 1886 to 1888, but was excused from serving on any regular committees during that time. In 1889 he was appointed Consul-General of the United States for Italy, at Rome, which position he held until 1893. Governor Bourn has travelled ex- tensively abroad, in Cuba, Mexico, England, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy and Morocco, and is well versed in the French, German, Italian and Spanish languages. He was the author of the " Bourn Amendment " to the Constitution of Rhode Island, which granted to foreign-born citizens the right to vote on the same terms as those who are native born ; he introduced the Act into the Senate, and was chairman of the Joint Special Committee to which the Act and others to the same or similar effect were referred. In politics he is a Republican, but was elected Senator the first four or five terms without opposition. He was for a long time inter- ested in military matters, having joined the Provi- dence Horse Guards about 1861, and held every position from private to major, and served as
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Licutenant Colonel in the Battalion of Rhode Island Cavalry. He is a member of numerous clubs and societies, among others the Phi Beta Kappa of Brown University, What Cheer Lodge of Masons, and Calvary Commandery of Knights Templar. Governor Bourn was married, February 24, 1863, to Miss Elizabeth Roberts Morrill, daughter of David C. and Mary (Wentworth) Morrill, of Epping, N. H. Both the Morrill and Wentworth families have been, from the beginning, very prominent in the history of New Hampshire, and also of Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts. They have four children : Augustus O., Jr., born May 7, 1865, educated at . Providence in the University Grammar School and Brown University, studied law at Harvard Law School and Columbian University, Washington, D. C., from which latter he graduated with the de- gree of Bachelor of Laws, and is now practising his profession at Denver, Col .; Stephen Wentworth, born April 5, 1877, now in Brown University ; Eliza beth R. and Alice M. W. Bourn, the former study- ing music in Vienna, and the latter living at home with her parents at Bristol, Rhode Island.
BOYLE, PATRICK JOSEPH, Mayor of Newport in 1895 and 1896, was born in Newport, March 8,
P. J. BOYLE.
1860, son of Patrick and Barbara (Conroy) Boyle. He received his early education in the parochial
schools of his native city, and pursued a classical course under the tuition of the Rev. P. Grace, D. D. Since the age of seventeen, or from 1877, he has been engaged in business as bookkeeper and confidential clerk for the Newport Gaslight Com- pany. Mr. Boyle has always taken an active interest in public affairs, and has served his city on all important committees in both branches of the municipal government. He was a member of the Common Council for six years, 1885-92 inclusive, acting as President of that body in the latter year, served two terms as Alderman in 1893-94, and was elected Mayor in 1895 and again in 1896. He is a Democrat in politics, and is serving his second successive term as Chairman of the Democratic City Committee. Mayor Boyle is an active mem- ber of the Newport Commerical Club and the Robert Emmet Association. He was married, January 17, 1894, to Miss Anna Frances Gatzen- meier ; they have one child : Patrick Boyle.
BROWN, COLONEL WILL EDWIN, Colonel of the Kentish Guards of East Greenwich, and Senior Colo- nel of Rhode Island Militia, was born in North Kingston, May 22, 1854, son of Edwin and Sybil (Spencer) Brown. His grandparents on the pater- nal side were John and Abby (Adams) Brown, and on the maternal side Job and Rebecca (Briggs) Spencer. He is a descendant in the ninth genera- tion of John Spencer, who landed at Newburyport, Mass., in 1633, and came to Newport, R. I., in 1677, and whose son, Thomas Spencer, was the first white child born in East Greenwich. His great-great- grandfather Benjamin Spencer was a charter mem- ber of the Kentish Guards, organized in 1774, and served with them through the war of the Revolution. On the father's side he is descended from Chad Brown, who landed at Boston in 1638, and came to Providence in the same year. His great-great- grandfather Colonel Robert Brown, who was the great-great-grandson of Chad, served with distinction through the Revolution, defeating Captain Wallace of King George's fleet off Newport, for which he was publicly thanked by the General Assembly of Rhode Island. The Colonial History gives consid- erable space to his deeds. He is also a direct descendant (great-great-grandson) of Major Eben- ezer Adams, who came from the Massachusetts Adams family, and who was one of the party that under command of Colonel Barton entered the Prescott camp and captured General Prescott, and
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who also led a party on Patience Island and captured fifteen of His Royal Highness' naval officers. He also had a grandfather and two great-uncles in the war of 1812, and a great-uncle in the Mexican war. Will Edwin Brown was educated in the public schools of Portsmouth and East Greenwich, the Highland Military Academy of Worcester, Mass., and the Commercial Department of the Providence Confer- ence Seminary, now known as East Greenwich Academy. At the age of manhood, in 1874, he became associated with A. W. Place under the firm name of Place & Brown, in the house-painting busi- ness. Two years later he sold out to his partner, and entered the employ of W. H. Hunt & Son. con-
WILL E. BROWN.
tinuing this relation three years, then purchasing a half interest, and continuing under the name of Hunt & Brown. In 1881, A. W. Place bought the Hunts' interest and the firm became Brown & Place, from which Mr. Brown shortly after retired on ac- count of poor health. He afterward became asso- ciated with the clothing firm of J. P. Mowry & Company as local salesman, subsequently going to Attleboro and Marlboro, Mass., in the same capacity for the firm. In 1886 he accepted a position with the Greenwich Printing Company, with whom he was employed until the fall of 1889, when he entered the employ of the Adams Express Company, and is now serving as their agent at East Greenwich.
Colonel Brown holds the civil offices of Chief of Police and Town Sergeant of East Greenwich, having been appointed to the former successively in 1893- 94-95, and elected to the latter each year since 1892, in two instances by a unanimous vote. Upon the organization of a volunteer fire department in East Greenwich, Mr. Brown took an active interest in its affairs and assisted in perfecting its organization, volunteering his services as a member, filled a num- ber of offices, and at the close of five years' service retired as first assistant engineer. He enlisted in the Kentish Guards in 1868, and rose through the various grades until elected Colonel in 1881, and has been unanimously re-elected every year since, having been in command longer than any officer before him, and making him Senior Colonel of Rhode Island Militia. He has also served as First Lieutenant and Captain of Company C, Third Bat- talion Infantry, First Brigade, and as Major in the Third Battalion Brigade, R. I. M., with which rank he was mustered out in July 1881. Besides his official membership in the Kentish Guards, he is a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, the Military Service Institution of New York, and the Rhode Island Sons of the American Revolution. He is also a prominent Odd Fellow, having filled nearly all the offices in Harmony Lodge of East Greenwich, and serving on important committees in the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island. In politics he is an Independent, with Democratic proclivities. Colonel Brown was mar- ried, May 22, 1876, to Miss Harriet Frances Vaughn of Warwick, R. I., who died June 16, 1892; they had two children, both of whom died at birth. He was married, second, January 22, 1896, to Miss Cora Jane Smith of Providence.
BUDLONG, JOHN CLARK, M. D., Surgeon- General of Rhode Island for nearly twenty years, was born in Cranston, R. I , August 28, 1836, son of Samuel and Rachel (Martin) Budlong. He is a lineal descendant of Francis Budlong, the first of the name in the colony of Rhode Island, who with his wife and all his family except one child were massa- cred by the Indians at the outbreak of King Philip's war in 1675 ; his son John, then three or four years old, was carried away by the Indians but was subsequently rescued and became the owner of twenty-five acres of land on Coweset Bay in 1692, to which he added at various times until he owned a tract of several hundred acres, including Brush
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Neck, on which he built the house at present owned by Henry W. Budlong, one of the old- est now standing in Warwick. The line of de- scent is : Moses, Samuel, Samuel second, Samuel third, and John, who is the subject of this sketch. Dr. Budlong is also a lineal descendant, in the seventh generation, of Roger Williams. His mother was descended from Christopher Martin, who came over with the founders of Plymouth colony in the Mayflower. He attended the district school of his native town, and Fruit-Hill Classical Institute, from which he graduated valedictorian of his class. He then entered Smithville Seminary (afterward Lapham Institute) at North Scituate,
J. C. BUDLONG.
and pursued a special course preparatory to the study of medicine. Instead of entering college he devoted five years to his medical course, in 1855 placing himself under the tuition of Dr. I. W. Sawin at Centredale, who enjoyed a high repute as a physician, and in 1857 he entered the Homco- pathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, which later was merged into the Hahnemann Medical College. At the end of his course he returned home, and was unable to resume his studies in Philadelphia until 1862, when he completed them and obtained his degree of Doctor of Medicine, March 3, 1863. The winters of 1857-8 and 1863 he attended clinics at the Pennsylvania Hospital and Philadelphia
Almshouse, and during this time became a private pupil of Dr. Agnew, Professor of Surgery in the University of Pennsylvania, studying surgical anat- omy and operative surgery, and receiving a certifi- cate of proficiency in both branches. After gradua- tion he was tendered and accepted the assistant charge of the College Dispensary. Dr. Budlong intended to establish himself in Philadelphia, and opened an office in that city, but feeling it his duty to enter the government service, he returned to his state to take part in the military movements then being organized. In July 1863 he enlisted in the Third Regiment Rhode Island Cavalry, was immediately appointed Assistant Surgeon in charge, and subse- quently was advanced to the rank of Surgeon. The regiment sailed for New Orleans in December 1863, and took part in the Red River campaign, during which Dr. Budlong held the positions of Brigade and Division Surgeon, and for a time Surgeon in Charge of the General Hospital. He remained with the army, arranging and systematizing various matters connected with the Medical Bureau until December 1865, when he was honorably discharged Returning to Rhode Island he engaged in practice in partnership with his brother-in-law and late preceptor, Dr. Sawin, at Centredale, until the latter removed to Providence in 1868, since when Dr. Budlong has continued the practice. Some time after the war he was solicited to join the state troops, and having a natural liking for the military service, joined the Pawtucket Horse Guards, of which he was chosen Surgeon. Later he was promoted to Brigade Surgeon of the Second Brigade, which position he held several years. In 1875 he was elected Surgeon-General of the state, with rank of Brigadier-General, being the first homoeopathic physician to be accorded this honor in any state, and in which capacity he served continuously for nineteen years. Dr. Budlong is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, is Vice-Presi- dent of the National Homoeopathic Medical Society, has served one year as Treasurer and two years as President of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Med- ical Society, and represented his state in the World's Homeopathic Medical Congress held at Philadelphia in the centennial year of 1876. He is also an hon- orary member of the New York State and Massa- chusetts Homœopathic medical societies. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, member of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Athletic and Squantum clubs of Providence, and associate member of the Military
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Service Institution of the United States ; he is also an active member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. He has been for many years a communicant and vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which he is a zealous member. In politics he is a Republican, but has always declined political honors, which have been repeatedly tendered him. He resides in Providence. Dr. Budlong was married, June 7, 1866, to Miss Martha Alexander, daughter of the late Professor Walter Williamson of Philadelphia ; they have had eight children, of whom only three are living : Walter Williamson Budlong, salesman in the house of Callender, McAuslan & Troup, Providence ; Martin Salisbury Budlong, A. M., M. D., associated in medical practice with his father ; and John Clark Budlong, Jr., insurance agent, Providence. Mrs. Budlong's ancestors, the Williamsons, were among the early settlers of Pennsylvania, and a portion of the original Pennsylvania grant of lands in Delaware county is still in possession of the family ; her father was Emeritus Professor in the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania and a man of distinguished ability.
CAMPBELL, JOHN PARK, President of the Campbell Mills, Westerly, and of the Cranston Print Works Company, was born in Voluntown, Conn., December 28, 1822, son of Winthrop and Susan Dorrence (Gordon) Campbell. He is the third of four Campbell brothers, all prominently en- gaged in business in Rhode Island. The ancestry of this branch of the Campbell family runs back to Scotland, and counts many highly worthy names in the various professions and all the walks of life. Robert Campbell emigrated from Scotland to New England with his wife and six children in 1719, and located first in New London, Conn , afterwards settling at Voluntown, where they were among the first settlers of the region. Robert's son John, known in local history as Dr. John on account of his professional skill, married and had eight chil- dren. His son John, the second of the name, well known as Deacon John, born in 1728, had six chil- dren, among them a third John, born 1758, who was a farmer of the stalwart type of those days, and be- came a soldier and a captain in the war of the Rev- olution. Winthrop, a son of this Captain John and father of the present John, was born in 1786 and had nine children, of whom four were sons, as has been stated ; he was an enterprising and successful
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