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 29
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REED, ROBERT GATES, M. D., Woonsocket, was born in Lonsdale, R. I., November 10, 1852, son of Joseph and Ann J. (Howard) Reed. He received his early education in the public schools of New Bedford, Mass., graduating from the high school of that city in 1870, and pursued a college course at Dartmouth, from which he graduated in June 1874, with the degree of A. B., and from which he re- ceived the degree of A. M. in 1893. He subse- quently studied one course at Dartmouth Medical School, and graduated from the Medical School of Boston University in March 1877. Dr. Reed was a member of the City Council of New Bedford in 1880, and since his residence in Woonsocket has served on the School Committee of that city since
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1891, and on the Park Board since 1894, in the latter acting as Secretary and Treasurer of the Board. He was President of the Rhode Island Homœo- pathic Medical Society in 1895, and is a member of the Worcester County Medical and the Massachu- setts Surgical and Gynecological societies. He is Medical Examiner for the Knights of Honor, the Royal Society of Good Fellows, the Ancient Order United Workmen, and the Mutual Reserve Life In-
ROBERT G. REED.
surance Company of New York, also Surgeon for the Employers' Liability Company of London, England. He is a member of Morning Star Lodge F. & A. M., and of Union Royal Arch Chapter of which he is a Past High Priest, a member of Woonsocket Com- mandery Knights Templar, and of Palestine Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise a member of Washington Lodge Knights of Honor, Ballou As- sembly Loyal Society of Good Fellows, Hope Lodge New England Order of Protection and Blackstone Lodge United Order of Workmen, also of the Woonsocket Business Men's Association and the Rhode Island Universalist Club. In politics he is a Republican. Dr. Reed was married, October 18, 1880, at New Bedford, Mass., to Miss Eudora C. Libby ; they have no children.
REMINGTON, HENRY ADOLPHUS, undertaker, was born August 7, 1834, in Pawtuxet, R. I., the son of Henry Adolphus and Sally Ann (Arnold) Rem-
ington. His mother was the daughter of Sion Arnold of Coventry, R. I., a prosperous farmer, and his father was born in Pawtuxet, of English descent. His early education was obtained in the public schools, which he attended until he was thirteen years of age, when he was put to work on a farm, where he remained until he was seventeen, when he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed until he was twenty-two. At nineteen he went South and located in Northern Georgia, at the foot of Kenesaw Mountain, in Cobb county. He lived there two and a half years, getting back to Rhode Island just in time to escape being conscripted into the Confederate army. He then worked at the manufacture of sash and blinds until 1872, when he entered the employ of an undertaking establishment at 55 Ocean street, Providence, in which he is still engaged, for the last seven years in business for himself. He is a member of Eagle Lodge I. O. O.T., Harmony Lodge A. F. & A. M., the American Legion of Honor and Pettacousett Tribe of Red
HENRY A. REMINGTON.
Men. He has had no interest in politics beyond voting for the most capable man according to his judgment. He was married, February 14, 1858, to Miss Mary Cassidy of Providence, and has three children : Anna Frances, the wife of Charles Fred- erick Jackson ; Charles, in business with his father, and Mary Ann, a teacher in the public schools.
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RIPLEY, JAMES MADISON, counsellor-at-law, Prov- idence, was born in Wrentham, Mass., Septem- ber 8, 1834, son of Benjamin W. and Lucy (Cook) Ripley. He is a great-grandson of Na- thaniel Cook, who served with Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard, which captured the Serapis. He was educated at Smithville Seminary, Lyons' and Frieze's Grammar School, and at Brown Univer- sity. After leaving college he read law for a time
JAMES M. RIPLEY.
with Carpenter & Thurston, Providence, and then entered the Albany Law School, where he was graduated in 1855. He began the practice of his profession in Providence, at 26, now 42, Westmin- ster street, where he has since been located. After the death of General Carpenter he formed a partnership with Benjamin F. Thurston, with whom he was long associated under the firm name of Thurston & Ripley, and afterwards with Mr. Thurs- ton and his brother under the name of Thurston, Ripley & Co. Mr. Ripley had almost the entire management of the law and equity practice of the firm, in which he achieved marked success, speedily acquiring a reputation which placed him among the ablest lawyers of the state. He attained especial distinction in jury cases, and for many years follow- ing his admission to the bar was engaged in the trial of almost every case of homicide in the state.
He is now pursuing the practice of his profession alone, and in which he is very actively engaged. In 1862 he was appointed Judge Advocate of the Second Brigade, Rhode Island Militia. Mr. Ripley is no less respected for his legal attainments than for his genial disposition and social qualities. In 1856 he was President of the Young Men's Fremont Club of Providence, and has since been identified in politics with the Republican party. He was married, June 30, 1859, to Miss Mary W. Brown, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Brown of Provi- dence, and niece of the late Governor James Y. Smith; they have two children : James Herbert and Alice Maud Ripley.
ROCKWELL, ELISHA HUTCHINSON, Factory In. spector of the State of Rhode Island, was born in Lebanon, Conn., October 16, 1829, son of Jabez and Eunice (Bailey) Rockwell, the fifth son in a family of children numbering ten sons and three
E. H. ROCKWELL.
daughters. He is descended from William Rock- well, who came from England and settled in Dor- chester, Mass., in 1630. His early boyhood was spent in farm life of the usually severe kind in those days, as when under nine years of age he was " bound out" for three years to farm work, and
F6 Hayles
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having completed that term served another period of two years, his compensation being board and clothes, and four months' " schooling " in the winter. At fifteen he went into the woolen mill of Henry Gillette at Bozrahville, Conn., and two years later secured a better position in the mill of the Rock- ville Manufacturing Company at Rockville, where he remained two years. He then decided upon a change of occupation and apprenticed himself for three years to his brother John in the tombstone and monumental business at Norwich, Conn. After two years of this service he was offered a position as clerk in the steamboat Charles Osgood, running between Norwich, New London and New York, and he bought the remaining year of his apprenticeship for a nominal sum, and started upon a career in the steamship business which he has since followed with remarkable success. His abil- ities and especial adaptation to the business were at once demonstrated, and in a year and a half, being then but twenty-three years old, the New York, New London and Norwich Transportation Company tendered him the New York agency of the line, which he accepted and held until the company retired from business in November 1861. The first of January following, the steamers Charles Osgood and Osceola were started as an opposition line between Norwich, New London and New York, and Mr. Rockwell was appointed the New York agent. Eighteen months later he was offered and accepted the position as agent of the Providence and Boston line of the Neptune Steamship Com- pany, at their Boston office, where he remained until the line was discontinued by the chartering of the company's steamers for government service in the war of the Rebellion. Mr. Rockwell then associated himself as partner in the shipping and commission house of Bentley, Smith & Company, New York, but at the end of a year retired from the firm to again accept the Boston agency of the Neptune Steamship Company. In 1867 he trans- ferred his services to the Providence & New York Steamship Company, as their agent at Providence, in which capacity he continued six years. In 1873 the Merchants & Miners' Transportation Company re-established their business by a line from Provi- dence to Norfolk and Baltimore, and Mr. Rockwell became their Managing Agent at Providence, a position which he held continuously for twenty-one years, and resigned his agency in June 1893. In June 1894 he was appointed, by Governor D. Russell Brown, Factory Inspector of the State of
Rhode Island for three years, which position he has since held with signal efficiency and ability. Mr. Rockwell is a public-spirited citizen, and has been active in public affairs, notably as a member of the City Government and of the Board of Trade, serving on important committees where his work has amounted to public benefactions. He is a member of Swarts Lodge of Odd Fellows and of the Squan- tum, Advance and Elmwood clubs. He was married, January 28, 1852, to Miss Martha A., daughter of Captain Erastus Geer of Norwich, Conn .; they have three children : Ella M., now Mrs. Walter J. Lewis, of Providence; Frank W., who for eleven years was associated with his father in the steamship office in Providence ; and William P. Rockwell, now engaged in business in Denver, Colorado.
SAYLES, FREDERIC CLARK, manufacturer, and first Mayor of Pawtucket, was born in Pawtucket, July 17, 1835, son of Clark and Mary Ann (Olney) Sayles. On both sides he is a descendant, through six distinct lines, of the founder of Rhode Island, his ancestor, John Sayles, having married a daugh- ter of Roger Williams; and his ancestry is also traced back to Governor Joseph Jenks, the founder of Pawtucket in 1655. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Pawtucket, and for several winters, beginning in 1840, in the schools of Savannah, Ga., where his father was then en- gaged in a wholesale lumber business. Afterward he attended the University grammar school in Prov- idence, and a course at the Providence Conference Seminary in East Greenwich, from which institution he graduated in 1853. Upon leaving school he at once entered the Moshassuck Bleachery at Sayles- ville, R. I., of which his brother William F. was the owner and manager, his first duties consisting of sweeping the floors, invoicing goods and perform- ing general minor services for a compensation of five shillings a day. Naturally bright, energetic and ambitious, he entered upon this start on active life with a determination to equip himself for a success- ful career, and for many years following he applied himself rigidly and persistently to studying and mastering every department of the establishment, familiarizing himself with the machinery and pro- cesses employed, and becoming acquainted with all the intricate methods and multitudinous details of the business. In 1863 he was admitted into part- nership with his brother, under the firm name of
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W. F. & F. C. Sayles, since which time the busi- ness has increased and expanded, until the Moshas- suck Bleachery long since became noted as the largest and best equipped establishment of its kind in the world. In other respects, as well, it is a model industrial institution, for the handsome vil- lage of more than three thousand people that has grown up around the works is one of the most peaceful, contented, thrifty and enterprising manu- facturing communities in New England. Mr. Sayles is also similarly interested, and to a like extent, in the Lorraine Mills, and Glenlyon Dye Works, in which he was likewise associated with his brother until the latter's death, and is President of the Mosh- assuck Valley Railroad. The Lorraine Mills, also situated in the Moshassuck Valley, are of great re- pute both in this country and abroad, producing by the best of skill and machinery a high grade of French cassimeres that has challenged comparison with the finest products in this line of foreign man- ufacture. Mr. Sayles is also a Director in the Slater National Bank of Pawtucket and the Merchants' National Bank of Providence, a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Franklin Savings Bank of Pawtucket, and is prominently identified with other business and financial corporations and institutions of Pawtucket and Providence. He was the first signer of the call which resulted in the formation of the Pawtucket Business Men's Association, and was chosen first President of that body, serving in that capacity four successive years. In 1886, when Pawtucket became a city, Mr. Sayles was induced for the first time to enter public life. Although always an ardent Republican, he had hitherto de- clined all appeals to become a candidate for politi- cal honors, because of the large and constantly increasing business interests that demanded his un- divided time and attention. But the new city was desirous of starting out with a business administra- tion of its affairs which should prove a shining ex- ample to its successors, and the popular demand for Mr. Sayles to become its executive head was so urgent that he consented to become a candidate and was elected the city's first Mayor. He was re- elected the following year, but at the end of his second term declined to become again a candidate, as his public duties were beginning to make too serious encroachments upon his private business. His term of service was characterized by the same progressive ideas, keen methods and sound princi- ples that had marked his private business career, and the young city gained from his administration,
as was expected, a prestige among municipal gov- ernments and an impetus in the direction of modern progress and development that has proved far- reaching and in the highest degree beneficial. Mr. Sayles has also been interested in military affairs, and at one time served as Major in the Pawtucket Light Guard, an organization that in war time sent a large number of men into the field. He has travelled quite extensively abroad, principally for recuperation from the effect of too close and con- tinued application to exacting business cares and labors, but always in such trips combining health- seeking with both business and pleasure. His home is on East Avenue, in the suburbs of Pawtucket, where he has an elegant residence, Bryn Mawr, adorned with many interesting and beautiful works of art gathered in his foreign travels, and extensive grounds and stables well stocked with some of the finest-bred horses and cattle in the country. He was married, October 16, 1861, to Miss Deborah Cook Wilcox, daughter of Robert and Deborah (Cook) Wilcox, of Pawtucket, and whose grand- father, Thomas Wilcox, was a soldier of the Revo- lution, and one of the daring party of forty-one, led by Colonel William Barton, that captured General Richard Prescott on the island of Rhode Island, July 10, 1778 ; they have had five children : Carrie Minerva (Mrs. Frederick William Hollis), Frederic Clark, Benjamin Paris (deceased), Robert Wilcox and Deborah Wilcox Sayles.
SHEAHAN, DENNIS HARVEY, lawyer, Provi- dence, was born in Providence, of Irish ancestry. When eight years old he was placed at work, be- ginning the active duties of life at that early age. Fitting himself for admission to the Providence high school in the old Front-street evening school, he entered the classical department of the former in 1881, and graduated in 1885. In the fall of that year he entered Brown University, and graduated therefrom in 1889, receiving the degree of Bache- lor of Arts, and delivering the address to under- graduates. His professional studies were completed in the law office of Walter B. Vincent, Esq., and at the Law School of the University of Virginia. He was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar February 20, 1892, and subsequently to the United States Court. Mr. Sheahan has served three years as a member of the City Council of Providence from Ward Three, and as Clerk of the Rhode Island House of Repre-
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sentatives for three years. He was also Secretary of the Democratic City Committee for two years. He was married, June 25, 1894, to Miss Mary A. C.
DENNIS H. SHEAHAN.
McDonnell, of Wickford, a teacher in the Wickford Academy ; they have one child.
SHEDD, JOEL HERBERT, City Engineer of Prov- idence, was born in Pepperell, Mass., May 31, 1834, son of Joel and Eliza (Edson) Shedd. He was educated in the public schools of Massachusetts, in the Bridgewater Academy, and by private instructors. His professional education began in 1850 with a three-years course in civil engineering in the office of a prominent civil engineer in Boston. His first work as an independent engineer was in railroad location and construction in Indiana. He returned to Boston in 1856 and opened an office, making a specialty of drainage and of hydraulic and sanitary engineering. In 1860 he was appointed by Gov- ernor John A. Andrew a Commissioner for Massa- chusetts on the Concord and Sudbury rivers. He designed many important waterworks and sewerage systems for cities and towns in Massachusetts. In 1866 he was invited to Providence to make an examination in regard to a public water-supply, on which work he was engaged for two years. He was
also employed to design a plan of sewerage for the Brook-street district, which was the first step in a comprehensive plan for the entire city. Removing to Providence in 1869, where he has since resided, he began, as Chief Engineer, the construction of the waterworks, which were put in partial operation November 18, 1771, though construction continued until 1877. In 1874 he reported a general sewerage plan for the entire city, which is still under con- struction, and for a time he was engaged in the construction of the waterworks and sewers con- jointly. Mr. Shedd was elected a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1869, and was chairman of its sub-committee on sewerage and sanitary engineering at the World's Fair in Philadel- phia in 1876. In 1877, the main work of construction of the Providence waterworks being completed, he resigned his position and resumed general practice, opening an office in Providence in addition to the
J. HERBERT SHEDD.
office which was still retained in Boston. In 1878 he spent some time in Europe in the study of many important engineering works, especially those of irrigation and sewage disposal. He was appointed Chairman of the State Harbor Commission in 1876 and has held that position to the present time. He designed an extensive system of harbor improve- ment which was executed by the United States gov- ernment. Mr. Shedd was chairman of the Rhode
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Island section of the joint commission for deter- mining the state boundary between Rhode Island and Connecticut, and also chairman of the joint commission of those states for establishing encroach- ment lines in Pawcatuck River and Little Narra- gansett Bay. He was among the founders of the Providence Commercial Club and is a member of the Board of Trade, also of the Rhode Island His- torical Society, the New England Meteorological Society, the New England Water Works Associa- tion, the Worcester County Society of Civil Engineers and various other organizations. He was Commis- sioner from Rhode Island to The World's Fair in Paris in 1878. He holds the degree of A. M., con- ferred by Brown University. Mr. Shedd accepted the position of City Engineer of the city of Provi- dence on May 1, 1890, which he still holds, and is engaged in completing the construction of his system of sewerage. Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography has the following in regard to Mr. Shedd : " He has executed many engineering works in the cities of the New England and the Middle States, as well as for the United States government and the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The most important single work of engineering that he has designed and executed is the Providence water- works, costing $4,500,000. Every element of these works was studied fundamentally, and nothing was copied. They have been much referred to, and have a European reputation. Mr. Shedd has prob- ably done more to improve the quality of American hydraulic cements than any other engineer, both by the rigidity of his demands and by his careful testing of the material. He has been frequently called on to testify on engineering matters in court, and he has contributed largely to professional journals. Among his articles are the sections on 'Rain and Drainage' in French's ' Farm Drainage ' (New York 1859) ; 'Essay on Drainage' (Boston 1859) ; and reports on 'Ventilation' (1864) and 'Sewerage' (1874-84). The latter include reports to nearly all of the principal cities of New England." Mr. Shedd was married, in 1856, to Miss Julia A. Clark of New- port, Me .; their children are : Charles Elmer, a civil engineer, who died in 1892 ; Edward Whitten, a civil engineer, and Mary Isabella Shedd.
SMITH, ALBERT WATERMAN, wool merchant, Providence, was born in Johnston, R. I., October 7, 1855, son of Olney Latham and Maria Jeanette (Paine) Smith. His paternal ancestors were resi-
dents of Smithfield, R. I., as early as the year 1700; and on the maternal side he is a descendant of the well-known Hoyle family who came from England about the middle of the eighteenth century and became large landholders in the western part of Providence, in the neighborhood of the Hoyle Tavern on Broad street. His early education was obtained in the public schools, which he left at the age of fourteen to acquire at a commercial college in Providence the rudiments and methods of gen- eral business. After leaving business college he entered the employ of the Collins Line of Steam- ships, making several voyages to Liverpool on the steamship Baltic, Captain Joseph J. Comstock, until about 1859, when he abandoned sea life, and for
ALBERT W SMITH.
two years following was engaged in various pursuits. In 186t he entered the cotton and wool business in Providence, in which he continued until the close of the war, when he took up the wool business separately, in which he has ever since been actively engaged. In 1873 he bought the Duncan Home- stead, an estate comprising some four acres situated on the brow of Smith's Hill in Providence, and in 1876 converted some of the buildings into ware- houses for business purposes, where he has since carried on an extensive and prosperous business, retaining the large and fine old mansion as a resi- dence. Mr. Smith is Vice-President of the Fourth
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National Bank of Providence, an active member of the Providence Board of Trade, and prominent in the Masonic Lodge and other fraternal societies. He is also a member of the Hope, Squantum and Athletic clubs of Providence, and of the First Light Infantry Veteran Association. In politics he is a Republican, but excepting for one term in the City Council he has never been in public life. Mr. Smith was married, November 22, 1865, to Miss Emma C. Merrill of New York city; they have one son and two daughters : Arthur Blakeley, Stella Merrill and Florence Marston Smith.
TALLMAN, BENJAMIN, Member of the Rhode Island Senate from Portsmouth, was born in Ports- mouth, November 7, 1846, son of Benjamin and Sarah Ann (Dennis) Tallman. His paternal an- cestors were German, and on the maternal side he is of English descent. His education was obtained in the common schools of his native town. He has
B. TALLMAN.
been master and pilot of sailing vessels six years and of steam vessels nineteen years, and for the past twenty-five years he has been engaged in the men- haden and fresh-fish business, combined with farm- ing on a small scale. He was elected as Represen- tative to the Rhode Island Legislature from the town of Portsmouth in 1893, was re-elected in 1894 and
1895, and elected Senator in 1896. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Tallman is a member of Eureka Masonic Lodge of Portsmouth, in which he has held several of the offices. He was married January 17, 1875, to Miss Eleanor Ann Fish ; they have no children living.
TILLINGHAST, JAMES, member of the Rhode Island bar, was born in Providence, July 22, 1828, son of Charles Foster and Lusanna (Richmond) Tillinghast. He is a descendant of Pardon Tillin-
JAMES TILLINGHAST.
ghast, who was contemporary with Roger Williams and was the original ancestor of the Tillinghast family in the United States. Among his paternal ancestry were also Stephen Hopkins, Colonial Governor and signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and Theodore Foster, one of the first Rhode Island Senators in Congress. His ancestors on the maternal side, the Richmonds, were among the earliest settlers at Seaconnet, now Little Comp- ton, R. I. He acquired his early education in the grammar and high schools of Providence, and received his collegiate training at Brown University, from which he graduated in 1849. Adopting the law as a profession, he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court at Providence, September 22, 1851, and immediately became associated in active
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