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 28
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CHAS. O'LEARY.
stances, he was unable to pursue the course of studies contemplated, and came to America in May 1850. He entered Mount Mary's College at Emmetsburg, Md., continuing his studies and being occupied as tutor in Latin and Greek at the same time, receiving the degree of A. B. in 1851 and that of A. M. in
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1853, in which year he became Professor of Greek and Latin in that institution. In the meantime, in the intervals of vacation and during the year, he studied chemistry, natural philosophy and physiology under Dr. William E. A. Aiken, the Professor of these sciences in the college, and also Professor in the University of Maryland. He wrote and published a Greek Grammar in 1855, which was favorably re- ceived and accepted in the schools, but has been allowed to run out of print, the author having turned his attention to other pursuits. In 1856 he went to Cincinnati and commenced the study of medicine in the Medical College of Ohio, teaching, as before, two hours a day, in a college outside of the city. From there he went to the Long Island Medical College, Brooklyn, N. Y., where he received the degree of M. D. in July 1859. Returning to Cin- cinnati he was appointed to the chair of Chemistry and Physiology in the Medical College of Ohio, and lectured there two terms ; he was also visiting physi- cian to the St. John's and German hospitals. In September 1861 he entered into the United States service as Brigade Surgeon, with the rank of Major, serving on the staff of General Couch through the Peninsular and Maryland campaigns of that year. In December 1862 he was appointed Medical Direc- tor of the Sixth Corps, and served with that corps on the staff of General Sedgwick until February 1864, when at his own request he was relieved of duty in the field and assigned to various duties in New York and Philadelphia-to inspect hospitals and examine soldiers supposed to be detained therein without sufficient cause in the way of disability, and return them to the field ; to inspect the Provost Marshal department of the state of Pennsylvania, and to act as member of a board for the examination of invalid and disabled officers. In September of the same year he was ordered to the work of restoring to discipline two hospitals that had lapsed into a state of disorder and abuse - one in Philadelphia, the other in New Haven. Having accomplished this work he was assigned to the command of Lovel General Hospital, near Newport, R. I .; and at the termination of the war, in December 1865, having settled the affairs of the hospital and closed it up, he was mustered out of service with the rank of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel. In the following May Dr. O'Leary went to Paris, where during his stay in 1866-67 he attended the hospital clinics. He re- turned to America in October 1867, and in Septem- ber 1868 took up his residence in Providence, where he has since continued the practice of medicine and
surgery. In 1875 he was appointed Visiting Surgeon to the Rhode Island Hospital ; this position he re- signed in 1893, but still remains Consulting Surgcon to that institution. He is a fellow of the Rhodc Island Medical Society, and in 1881-82 was Presi- dent of that organization. Dr. O'Leary has written several papers that have been published, and which have been considered valuable contributions to med- ical science. A work written in the History of the Medical Department of the Army of the Potomac, by Dr. Letterman, Medical Director of the Army, reprints one of Dr. O'Leary's reports and pays him a high compliment for "efficient service of an un- usual character." He was married in October 1863, to Miss Louise, daughter of Clement Dietrich of Cincinnati, Ohio; they have six children : Clement D., Arthur, Charles, Louise, Angela and Juliet O'Leary.
OWEN, FRANKLIN PIERCE, member of the Rhode Island Bar, was born in Scituate, R. I., December
FRANKLIN P. OWEN.
27, 1853, son of Elisha B. and Mary E. (Mathew- son) Owen. He is of Welsh ancestry. He re- ceived his early education in the public schools and at Lapham Institute, Scituate, and in 1870 entered Amherst College, graduating in the class of 1874. Adopting the profession of law, he studied with George E. Webster, Esq., at Providence, and was
I'M Pendleton
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admitted to the bar January 26, 1883. He has since practiced his profession in Providence. Mr. Owen has served in both branches of the State Legislature, as Senator in 1888 and 1889, and as Representative in 1892 and 1893. In politics he is a Democrat, and has been Chairman of the Democratic State Committee since 1889. He is a member of Temple Masonic Lodge No. 18, also of the Union Club and Providence Athletic Associa- tion. He was married, December 26, 1877, to Miss Mary S. Fisher ; they have three children : Sadie R., Mary F. and Edith R. Owen. Mrs. Owen died December 20, 1892.
PENDLETON, HON. JAMES MONROE, late Presi- dent of the Niantic National Bank and Niantic Savings Bank, Westerly, was born at Pendleton Hill, North Stonington, Conn., January 10, 1822, son of General Nathan and Phoebe (Cole) Pendleton, and died February 16, 1889. He was the youngest son and tenth child in a family of twelve children. He was a descendant on his father's side of Major Brian Pendleton, who came from the mother country and settled in New England shortly after the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620, and became distinguished as a soldier and in the councils of government. Gen. Nathan Pendleton was a member of the Connecticut Legislature from 1810 to 1826. The subject of this sketch received his early education in the district schools, and graduated from the Connecticut Liter- ary Institution in 1844, with high honors, following which he entered at once upon the active duties of a business life. In 1854 he was one of the incor- porators of the Niantic Bank of Westerly, and sub- sequently during seventeen years was its Cashier, the bank in the meantime having reorganized under the National Bank Act. At the time of his death he was President of the Niantic National Bank and also of the Niantic Savings Bank. From youth he took a deep interest in political science and public affairs, and his industry, ability, rectitude, patriotism and exemplary private life early won the public confi- dence, appreciation and esteem. He was elected to the State Senate for the years 1862-65 inclusive, in 1868 was a Delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago, and was chosen Presidential Elector the same year. He was elected to the Forty-second Congress in 1868, and re-elected to the Forty-third Congress, serving during the first session on the Committee on Printing and Revolu- tionary Claims, and subsequently on the Committee
on the Revision of Laws, one of the most important in the House. Mr. Pendleton was a Delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1876, and in 1878 he was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives, was re-elected each succeeding year until 1884, and held during several sessions the position of Chairman of the Committee on Finance. Mr. Pendleton was an earnest advocate of all measures which he believed to be conducive to the good of the community in which he lived or of the country at large. During the war he was President of the Union League in Westerly, and was largely instru- mental in enlisting soldiers for the defence of the government. For fifteen years he was a member of the State Board of Charities and Corrections, and a portion of the time its Chairman. He also held many offices in the Masonic fraternity. He was married, in 1847, to Miss Bethena A. Spencer, of Suffield, Conn., a lady whose talents and refined culture command the highest respect and esteem. Mr. Pendleton having no children, he manifested much liberality and kindness in the education of his nieces and nephews. In 1854, two children of his brother William were taken into his family for that purpose, one of whom, James M. Pendleton, became a Lieutenant in the army during the late Civil War, and died of fever contracted in the service. Another, Elizabeth P. Pendleton, whom Mr. Pendle- ton considered his adopted daughter, died Febru- ary 2, 1891. In 1865, his brother having died, two others of the children were given a home, one of whom has since died, and the other, Rev. Charles H. Pendleton, graduated from Brown University in 1878, and from Rochester Theological Seminary in 188I.
PERRY, OLIVER HAZARD, Chief of Police of Paw- tucket, was born in Hope Village, Scituate, R. I, June 10, 1834, the youngest of eleven children born to George C. and Thankful T. (Carpenter) Perry. He comes of good old Rhode Island stock. His ancestry were among the earliest settlers of the state, he being of the South Kingston Perrys, and a direct lineal· descendant of Matthew C. and Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. His early educational train- ing was received in the country school of his district, and in early life he engaged in mill work, with his brothers William G. and John R., first at Georgia- ville and later at Pawtucket. In June 1858 he was appointed to the position of cloth inspector at the Dunnell Print Works, which position he held up to November 1882, with the exception of the interval
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spent in the service of his country during the Rebel- lion. In 1861, at the call for volunteers, he en- listed in Company E, First Rhode Island Detached Militia, Captain Stephen R. Bucklin, receiving the rank of Corporal, and left Providence for the front April 20, 1861, under command of Colonel A. E. Burnside. After three months of service, during which time he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, he was mustered out at Providence. He returned home and again enlisted May 26, 1862, in Company A, Ninth Regiment Rhode Island Infantry, Captain
. -
OLIVER H. PERRY.
Robert McCloy, receiving the rank of Third Ser- geant on date of enlistment, and being promoted to the rank of First Sergeant June 20. This Company was mustered out September 2, after three months' service. Immediately upon his return home he in- stituted steps to recruit a company for the Twelfth Rhode Island Infantry. In this he was successful, and he enlisted with his company October 13, 1862, receiving the rank of Captain. This company served for nine months, being in several important engage- ments, notably the battle of Fredericksburg, and was mustered out at Providence on the 29th day of July, 1863. Mr. Perry, before and after his service in active defence of his country, was an energetic member of the time-honored Pawtucket Light Guards ; he joined the organization in its early for- mation, held every position from private to that of
Lieutenant-Colonel, which office he held at the time of disbandment, and has in his possession commis- sions signed by Governors Sprague, Smith, Burnside, Padelford and Howard. He resigned his position as inspector at Dunnell Print Works to accept the appointment of Chief of Police, November 1, 1882, which office he held until May 1884, and was re-ap- pointed January 1886, at the inauguration of the city formation of government, and has held the office continuously to the present time. In early life he affiliated himself with the Masonic order, having been a member of Union Lodge No. 10 since 1864; he is also a member of the Knights of Honor, the Grand Army of the Republic, and a charter member of Ossemequin Tribe of Red Men. Mr. Perry was married, September 5, 1855, to Miss Mary C., daughter of Joseph and Abby (Lecraw) Arnold, of Pawtucket; to them were born five children, four of whom, Byron T., Mrs. Samuel N. Hammond, Mrs. Fred G. Perry and Claude W. Perry, are now living and residents of Pawtucket.
PETTIS, GEORGE HENRY, City Sealer of Weights and Measures, Providence, was born in Pawtucket,
GEO. H. PETTIS.
R. I., March 17, 1834, son of Henry Nelson and Olive Graves (Parker) Pettis. His paternal ances- tors were among the early settlers of the town of Rehoboth. His maternal ancestors were of New
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Hampshire stock, and among them was Captain John Parker, distinguished at the battle of Lexington. He attended the public schools in Cohoes, N. Y., until the age of ten. At twelve he entered the "poor boys' college," the printing office, from which he graduated at the age of fifteen. In 1849 he moved to Providence, where he followed the occupation of a printer until 1854, when he went to California, arriving at San Francisco on June 17 of that year ; he was engaged in mining near Garrote, Tuolumne county, from June 1854 until May 1858, when he started for the Frazer River, British Columbia. This adventure not being successful, he resumed his occupation as a printer, and was employed on the Alta California and the Morning Call, and held a situation on the Herald when President Lincoln issued his call for troops from California. He entered the military service as Second Lieutenant of Company B, First California Infantry August 16, 1861, was promoted to First Lieutenant of Company K January 1, 1862, commanding the company nearly all the time until mustered out February 15, 1865, when he was immediately mustered into service again as First Lieutenant of Company F, First New Mexico Infantry. He commanded Com- pany F until promoted to be Adjutant June 1, 1865, and was finally mustered out September 1, 1866, with the regiment, having served continually five years and fifteen days. He was in a number of skirmishes with the Apache and Navajo Indians, and was brevetted Captain of United States Volun- teers March 13, 1865, for " distinguished gallantry " in the battle of the Adobe Walls, Texas, with the Comanche and Kiowa Indians, November 25, 1864, in which he commanded the artillery. In 1868 Mr. Pettis removed from New Mexico to Providence, where he was engaged as a promoter of various enterprises. He served as a member of the Common Council from the Ninth Ward from June 1872 to January 1876, and was elected a Representative to the General Assembly in 1876 and 1877. He was Boarding Officer of the port of Providence from 1878 to 1885. He was marine editor of the Providence Journal from 1885 to 1887. He is now Sealer of Weights and Measures and Superintendent of Street Signs and Numbers of Providence. He became a member of the Grand Army of the Republic by joining Kit Carson Post No. I, Department of New Mexico, in 1868, and joined Slocum Post No. 10, Department of Rhode Island, by transfer, in 1872, of which post he held the offices of Adjutant and Chaplain ; was a charter
member of Arnold Post No. 4, Department of Rhode Island, in 1877, of which post he has held the positions of Officer of the Day and Senior Vice Commander ; was Chief Mustering Officer, Depart- ment of Rhode Island, in 1877 and 1879, and Assistant Mustering Officer in 1890; was a member of the National Council of Administration and a Delegate to the Twentieth National Encampment, held at San Francisco in 1886. He became a mem- ber of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Commandery of California, November 10, 1886 ; is Corresponding Secretary of the Rhode Island Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society ; Secretary of the United States Veteran Association of Providence; a member of the Society of California Volunteers, also of the Society of California Pioneers of New England, was Presi- dent in 1891-92 of the California Volunteer Veteran Association, and is now Secretary and Treasurer of the same association. He is an Honorary Member of the Second Rhode Island Veteran Association ; Battery B Veteran Association; Fourth Rhode Island Veteran Association ; and the Fifth Rhode Island and Battery F Veteran associations. He is a member of the Providence Press Club. Mr. Pettis was married in September 1859, at San Francisco, Cal .; he has three children : George Henry, Jr., Annie Olive and Charles Lucian Pettis.
POWE, DARIUS L, eclectic physician, was born in Canada, April 28, 1854, the son of Josiah and Mary (Grigg) Powe. His parents were both born in England. His father's ancestry can be traced in a direct line to George III., the name being rather a rare one. His mother was the eldest daughter of Dr. William Grigg, who practiced medicine in Can- ada for fifty-two years, and died in 1880. He re- ceived his early education in the public schools, and his physical training on his father's farm. He was early attracted to the study of medicine by the in- fluence of his grandfather, who was an allopathic physician, and from whom he received much of his early education ; but being of a liberal turn of mind he adopted the eclectic system, which he has since pursued. He graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1881, and attended a post-graduate course in the New York Post-Grad- uate College and Hospital in 1891. He first prac- ticed his profession in Boston, Mass., in 1882-83, then in Falmouth, Mass., from 1884 to 1892. He
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then removed to Providence, where he has since successfully practiced. He has been a member of the Massachusetts Eclectic Medical Society since 1882. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and an Odd Fellow. He is a collaborator of the Massachusetts Medical Journal and a contributor to
DARIUS L. POWE.
other medical journals. He married, in 1885, Miss Mary F. Baker, eldest daughter of Captain N. P. Baker, of Falmouth, Mass .; they have no children.
RANDALL, REUBEN G., banker and business man, Woonsocket, was born in Richmond, N. H., September 24, 1826, son of David and Ruth (Allen) Randall. His education was acquired in the public schools of his native town and at the Friends' School in Providence. After leaving school he was book- keeper for Dexter Ballou, manufacturer, at Woon- socket, eight years. In 1850 he became Cashier of the Railroad Bank, which in 1865 became the First National Bank of Woonsocket, and holds this posi- tion at the present time. He was made Treasurer of the People's Savings Bank in 1857 and is still serving in that capacity, and has been Treasurer of the Woonsocket Gas Company since 1859. He is also one of the Trustees of the Harris Institute, having held the office since 1863. Mr. Randall has
always been deeply engaged in business, and has never held any public office. He was first married, in November 1853, to Miss Sylvia Harrington. He
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REUBEN G. RANDALL.
married, second, Miss Medora Cook, in June 1857 ; they have two children : Willis C. Randall, and Ruth A., now the wife of Henry C. Hubbard, of Woonsocket.
RAY, DAVID SAUNDERS, merchant, East Provi- dence, was born December 24, 1840, son of Robert and Mary P. (Graham) Ray. He received his early education in the public schools of Providence and of Rehoboth, Mass., and his training for active life was that which came from "paddling his own canoe " after the age of ten years. From ten to fourteen he worked on a farm and attended school, and at sixteen he was apprenticed to the shipbuild- ing trade, working for a year in the shipyard on Palmer River, at Barneysville, where he assisted in the building of the last ship launched there. After the company discontinued business and the ship- yard was closed, he apprenticed himself to learn carriage-making in Taunton, Mass., where he re- mained until the summer of 1858. From that time until 1860 he was employed in Fall River. In the latter year he removed to Seekonk, Mass. (now East Providence, R. I.), and established a carriage shop, where he was engaged at the breaking out of
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the Rebellion in 1861. He at once endeavored to enlist, but was debarred on account of physical disability. Later in the year, October I, he was more successful, and enlisted as private in Troop C, First Rhode Island Cavalry. He participated in this regiment's varied service and engagements while in the Army of the Potomac, and with Sheri- dan in the Shenandoah Valley, and was mustered out as a Quartermaster-Sergeant at Harrisonburg, Va., October 4, 1864, after three years' service, with- out having lost a day's duty, and with health fully re-established by the outdoor life and arduous ex- periences of his campaigns. Upon his return home he took up the business he had dropped in 1861 to
DAVID S. RAY.
enter the army, but in the fall of 1865 emigrated to Ohio and engaged in mercantile pursuits. Return- ing to Rhode Island in the fall of 1868, he engaged in carriage making in Providence until 1874, when he sold out his business and removed to East Provi- dence, where for eighteen years he carried on suc. cessfully a general hardware business, from which he retired in 1892. Mr. Ray has been an active and public-spirited citizen of his town and has done much toward building up this beautiful and prosper- ous suburb of Providence. He was elected State Senator in 1888, and was renominated the following year, but declined the honor. In 1892 he was elected Second Representative to the State Legis-
lature and has continued in that capacity to the present time, serving on several legislative commit- tees, and as Chairman of the Committee on Militia for the past two years. Mr. Ray has kept up an active interest in military matters, and in the State Militia, under the old law, served as First Lieutenant and Captain of Troop A, Providence Horse Guards. Under the new law he was First Lieutenant and Commissary five years on the staff of Major George N. Bliss, commanding the First Battalion of Cavalry, R. I. M. In the Grand Army he joined Prescott Post in 1869, and in 1886 was transferred to Bucklin Post, of which he was elected its first Commander and served three successive terms. He served as Aide-de-Camp on the staff of the Department Com- mander two years, and on the National Commander- in-Chief's staff for a similar period ; was Quarter- master-General of the Department of Rhode Island two terms; was elected Senior Vice Department Commander in 1891, and at the encampment of 1892 was unanimously elected to the highest office in the Department, that of Department Commander. He is also a member of various Masonic bodies, including St. John Lodge of Providence, Providence Royal Arch Chapter, Calvary Commandery Knights Templar, and Palestine Temple Order of the Mystic Shrine. Since retiring from active business Mr. Ray has devoted those talents which proved so successful in his mercantile life to the finances and other in- terests of the town in which he resides, having been elected Town Treasurer of East Providence in 1874, and continuing in that office ever since. He has also been for the past three years Vice President of the East Providence Business Men's Association. He has shown in his public life the same cardinal principles of application and integrity, and the same executive ability, that have characterized his business career. He stands a living example of a self-made man whose natural modesty forbids his claiming for himself those qualities so much sought for by others. Mr. Ray was married on his return from the army, October 30, 1864, to Miss Mary H., daughter of Miles B. Lawson of Providence ; they have had six children : Miles Hobart, Arthur Gra- ham (deceased), Clara Josephine, Edgar Saunders, Myra Amelia and Emma Louise Ray.
READ, BYRON, merchant and undertaker, An- thony, was born in Coventry, R. I., April 7, 1845, son of Henry and Phebe (Wait) Read. His father and mother were both born in Coventry, in 1801
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and 1804 respectively ; the former died in 1887 and the latter in 1895. He is a grandson of Joseph and Sabria (Knight) Read and of Sheffield and Rebecca (Andrews) Wait, and is a descendant in the sixth generation of John Read, who was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1598. His father was a farmer, and Byron followed that calling until he be- came of age, his education meanwhile being such as could be obtained in the district school. He showed at a very early age, however, that he pos- sessed both industry and perseverance, and the lessons he learned on the farm and in the school
BYRON READ.
were not forgotten in later life. On attaining his majority, in 1866, he entered the employment of his brother, Henry Read, Jr , who was engaged at that time in the undertaking, furniture and small- hardware business in the village of Anthony. He continued in this relation until 1872, at which time he bought a half interest in the business, and the firm name was changed to H. Read, Jr., & Co. In March 1873 his brother died, and Byron at once purchased of the heirs their interest in the business, retaining the old firm name for seven years, when it was changed to that of his own. The increasing trade demanding larger quarters and better facilities, and the building and land where he was located being owned by the heirs of Isaac B. Aylesworth, who originally began the business, he erected in
1878 a large and convenient barn and storehouse, 40 x 80 feet, of his own, upon land he had pre- viously purchased of the Coventry Company, just opposite the old stand. In 1882 the store was built, 40 x 100 feet, three stories and basement, with com- partments specially adapted to the needs of the trade, the whole built under his own active super- vision. In these commodious and well-equipped quarters, fitted with all modern improvements, Mr. Read has continued business with ever increasing prosperity to the present time. In 1887, feeling that he ought to have, in keeping with his increasing business, a new and modern dwelling, he purchased the estate of the late Oliver Matteson, and remov- ing the old house to another lot to be used for tenements, erected on the site the handsome house containing all modern improvements where he now resides. In politics Mr. Read has always supported the principles of the Republican party ; but he has declined all public trusts tendered him, and giving undivided attention to his business, has by a life of quiet industry, perseverance and economy acquired a competency, and gained the confidence and esteem of all with whom he has been associated. In June 1895 he celebrated his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, upon which occasion his wide circle of friends was very numerously represented. He is a member of Manchester Lodge of Masons and An- thony Lodge of Odd Fellows. He was married, in June 1870, to Miss Julia A., only daughter of Edward S. and Eleanor (Johnson) Pinckney of Coventry Centre, and granddaughter of Jacob and Sarah (Fowler) Pinckney of Providence ; they have two sons : Herman Byron, born February 17, 1878, and Charles Sheldon Read, born November 23, 1879.
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