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 30
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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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practice with his father and the late Chief Justice Bradley, in their copartnership of Tillinghast & Bradley. He remained in this connection until Mr. Bradley withdrew in 1858, and afterwards con- tinued practice with his father until the death of the latter in August 1864. The earliest important case which Mr. Tillinghast especially originated was that of Taylor & Company vs. Place, in 1856, by which he took to the Supreme Court the question of the constitutional power of the General Assembly to grant new trials - a case which at the time caused much discussion throughout the state, and its decision established the independence of the courts, and put an end to the legislative exercise of judicial powers, which had always prevailed under the charter, and had to that time been continued under the state constitution of 1842. For over forty years Mr. Tillinghast has held a distinguished place among the most honored leaders of the Providence Bar. He is universally known as a lawyer of sterling character and high attainments, and as a citizen of unimpeachable integrity and of broad and liberal views. Although public spirited and deeply inter- ested in all matters concerning the public welfare, he never has had the inclination to seek nor could find the time to hold public office, devoting all of his working energies to the practice and perpetual study of his profession. His practice has been extensive in all branches, in both the state and federal courts, with especial attention to equity cases and questions of corporation law. Among the most important incidents of his professional career was that as one of the four associate counsel of the A. & W. Sprague Manufacturing Company, and of its trustee in the litigation which grew out of the company's failure in 1873, and which continued during the subsequent fourteen or fifteen years. Mr. Tillinghast resides in Providence. He was married, May 26, 1857, to Miss Sarah Benson Anthony, daughter of Henry and Charlotte Benson Anthony ; they have had six children : William Richmond, Henry Anthony, Stephen Hopkins, Theodore Foster, Charles Foster and Charlotte Lusanne Tillinghast.
TURCK, JOSEPH ABRAM, manufacturer of pat- terns and models, Providence, was born in Camden, N. Y., August 1, 1870, son of Dr. Joseph H. and Mary C. (Spellman) Turck, the former a native of Syracuse, N. Y., and the latter of Providence, R. I.
His American ancestors were born in Rhode Island five generations back, and his great-great-grand- father, Thomas Spellman, was an officer in the ship Constitution during the Revolutionary war. He received his early education in private and public schools in Providence, and in 1883, at the age of thirteen, was apprenticed to learn the machinist trade. In 1887, on receiving an offer from the Granger Foundry & Machine Company, he decided to learn pattern and model making. After serving his apprenticeship in this branch of mechanics he worked in various pattern shops throughout the city, and was foreman at the works of the House- hold Sewing Machine Company for two years, when he was tendered and accepted an offer from F. A.
JOSEPH A. TURCK.
Chase & Company, mill furnishers, to start a factory for the manufacture of the Chase Wood-Rim Pulley. Accordingly he designed and invented special ma- chinery for the manufacture of wood-rim pulleys. Having a desire to engage in business for himself, in 1893 he started in the manufacture of patterns and models in a well-equipped shop at 220 Aborn street, in which he has since continued, under the name of The Aborn-Street Pattern & Model Works. Mr. Turck is a natural mechanic, having been awarded two diplomas for models made and exhib- ited at the Rhode Island State Fair when twelve years of age.
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WEBSTER, GEORGE ELDRIDGE, Clerk of the Com- mon Pleas Division of the Supreme Court of Prov- idence County, was born in Lowell, Mass., July 16, 1843, son of Clement and Catherine Packer (Lit- tlefield) Webster. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Providence, and after grad- uating from the high school he entered the printing office of the Providence Post, of which journal his father was the editor from its start until his death in 1864. Through his associations with the office during his boyhood, George had become quite an adept at typesetting, and in his regular employment following school graduation he familiarized himself with all the departments of the newspaper printing
GEO. E. WEBSTER.
and publishing business. At the age of twenty-one, soon after his father's decease, he secured an en- gagement as Private Secretary to Senator William Sprague, and went to Washington, where he was appointed Clerk to the Senate Committee on Man- ufactures, and served in that capacity through the regular session of Congress and the special session
following. From March 1865 until his resignation in 1871 he was connected with the Pension Office,
Special Service Agent, Chief of the Branch Office, occupying successively the positions of Chief Clerk, Secret Service Agent, and Pension Agent at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, where he held a special commission under President Grant, being sent there
to investigate the Wright Indian Frauds matter. While in Washington he studied law, graduated with honors from the Columbian Law College, and was: admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia. He left Washington in the fall of 1871 with the pur- pose of establishing himself in practice in Chicago, but three days after his arrival in the Western metropolis occurred the great fire which laid the greater part of the city in ashes. Returning to Providence, he edited for a period the Providence Herald, which had succeeded the old Post, and in 1875 was elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Providence county, afterwards, upon re- organization, the Common Pleas Division of the Supreme Court, which position he has held unin- terruptedly to the present time, his re-elections having been unanimous with the exception of a single year. Mr. Webster, in 1878, took up his res- idence in East Providence, and has since repre- sented that town on the commissions which intro- duced water service and constructed the Seekonk River Bridge and Town Hall, besides serving in various other official capacities. He was married, February 8, 1884, to Miss Mary Josephine Gale, of Providence ; they have one daughter : Grace Gale, born in Washington in 1868, now the wife of George S. Baker, of Providence.
WHITE, REVEREND CHARLES J., pastor of the Universalist Church of Woonsocket, was born in Boston, Mass., May 22, 1836, son of Charles and Amanda (Kimball) White. He received his edu- cation at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass., and Tufts College, Medford, Mass., from which last named institution he graduated in 1858. Shortly after graduation he became Principal of the Milford High School, at Milford, Mass., where he remained two years, when he resigned to accept a position as cashier in the mercantile house of B. D. Godfrey & Co., Boston. In his leisure hours, while engaged in commercial business, he studied theology under the tuition of Professor Charles H. Leonard, of Tufts Divinity School, and subsequently entered the ministry of the Universalist Church. He was or- dained in 1864, and began his labors in East Bos- ton, where, under his ministry, a parish was estab- lished and a church edifice erected. In 1870 he was led to accept a call to the Universalist pulpit in Woonsocket, to fill the vacancy resulting from the death of the Reverend John Boyden. He entered
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upon the duties February 1, 1871, and the pastoral relations then established remain still unbroken. Rev. Mr. White was married, August 7, 1860, to Miss Harriet Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Obed and Harriet E. Daniels, of Milford, Mass .; they
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CHAS. J. WHITE.
have had five children : Charles Obed, Hattie May, Alphonso Fayette, William Irving (deceased) and Paul Maurice White
WHITTEN, WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, founder of the W. W. Whitten Cycle Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of bicycles and dealers in sporting goods, Providence, was born in Waterboro, Me., January 12, 1861, son of William and Abbie (Hodg- don) Whitten. On the paternal side he is of English descent, as also in one branch of his maternal an- cestry, both families having come to this country some time in the last century and settled in the vicinity at Waterboro; his mother's ancestors on one side of the house were Scotch, who came over many years ago and married into American families. He acquired his early education in the public schools of Wakefield, Mass., being a graduate of the high school of that place, and now a member of its Alumni Association. He prepared for college at Coburn Classical Institute, Waterville, Me., and entered Colby University, studying there two years, and two years at Brown University, from which in-
stitution he graduated in June 1886. He worked his way through college, teaching school and work- ing at various employments during vacations. Im- mediately following graduation he opened up for himself in Providence the business in which he has since been engaged. Mr. Whitten had been prom- inent in college athletics, had played on the Colby ball team and been a member of the Brown boat crew. When a student at Brown he conceived the idea of his present business, and during his senior year laid the plans which after graduation he ma- tured and carried into practical effect. Being ath- letically inclined and actively interested in college sports, his ideas of business turned in this direction, and as there was no distinctive sporting-goods house in Providence at that time, and no bicycle house of any kind, he foresaw the advantages open to such a house in a city of that size, the home of a large and rapidly growing university and numerous preparatory and technical schools. The wisdom of Mr. Whit-
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W. W. WHITTEN.
ten's views were well borne out by the success of the business he established with his associates under the name of the W. W. Whitten Cycle Manufacturing Company. At first only a retail business was carried on, but in 1887 a wholesale department was estab- lished, and bicycle parts and supplies from England were imported and sold to the trade. There were few if any bicycle supply houses in the country at
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that time, and many large and prosperous manu- facturers of to-day were greatly assisted in the early years of their development by the facilities afforded by this enterprising Providence house. In 1893 the Whitten Company began the manufacture of bicycles and bicycle parts at Elmwood, and this branch of their business has been increased and its facilities extended year by year. In addition to the goods of their own manufacture, the company are large retail dealers and jobbers of bicycles, athletic and sport- ing goods of every description, besides having the agency for some of the standard and leading bicycles of the world. Mr. Whitten was the prime mover in starting the Rhode Island Wheelmen, the largest cycling club in Providence, was first Vice-President and has held various minor offices and committee- ships since. He has been a member of the League of American Wheelmen since 1886 and has been Local Consul of the district since 1893. He is a member of the National Board of Trade of Cycle Manufacturers, and is President of the Providence Cycle Dealers' Association, having held that office since 1892. He is also a member of the Rhode Island Business Men's Association, of Harmony Lodge of Masons, the Providence Athletic Associa- tion and the Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Whitten resides in Cranston, a suburb of Providence, where he built a fine residence for himself in 1892. He was mar- ried, January 12, 1884, to Miss Adelaide Davis of Waterville, Me .; they have two children : Delora Davis and Carl Edmund Whitten.
WILBOUR, ISAAC CHAMPLIN, of Little Compton, President of the Tiverton & Little Compton Mutual Fire Insurance Company, was born in Little Comp- ton, May 10, 1830, son of Philip Tabor and Eliza Penelope (Champlin) Wilbour. His paternal grandfather, Isaac Wilbour, was very prominent in Rhode Island official life, having served as Gov- ernor of the State, Representative to Congress, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court for nine years. His mother's ancestor, Jeoffrey Champlin, was a man of wealth who early settled in Kings Town (now Kingston) and lived on his two- thousand-acre farm in fine colonial style. His mother's father, Daniel Champlin, inherited the homestead, and lived and died there ; he was an as- sociate Judge of the Supreme Court for many years. Isaac C. Wilbour was educated in the district school of his native town, and received his early training
for active life upon the farm. He was one of the founders of the Tiverton & Little Compton Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and became its President, which office he still holds. He resides in Little Compton. In politics he is a Republican. He was married, November 5, 1854, to Miss Deborah J. Wilbour, who died in 1864, leaving two children :
I. C. WILBOUR.
Philip H. Wilbour, and Dora J., who married F. M. Patten of Boston. November 17, 1868, he married Miss Amelia H. French, by whom he has one son : William F. Wilbour.
WORK, GODFREY, merchant and financier, of Providence, was born in Eastford, Conn., April 27, 1806, and died in Providence November 29, 1895. He was the son of Samuel and Patty (Ward) Work. The name was originally Wark, but was changed to Work by the members of the family soon after coming to this country. The Work family origin- ated in Scotland, where it has been traced, clearly, to the time of Cromwell. They emigrated to Ireland, where they were merchants and ship owners, and engaged in the East India Trade. Thence they emigrated to America and settled in Eastford, Conn., where for generations they were large land owners and prominent and influential men. His maternal grandfather, Joel Ward, settled
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in Westford, Conn., where he owned extensive tracts of land, and was a member of the Legislature and a Major in the Army of the Revolution. His father, Samuel Work, was a farmer of Eastford, Conn. Godfrey attended the town schools, and afterward studied with the Rev. Reuben Torrey for four years, to prepare for college. It was his first intention to study law, but deciding to follow a busi- ness career, he gave up his contemplated college course, and in 1826, took a clerkship with Samuel W. Wheeler, a retail grocer in Providence, with whom he served an apprenticeship of four years, as was customary at that time. He then entered the employ of Gould & Hunt, wholesale grocers, and when this partnership was dissolved remained with John Gould, who continued the business, until his health failed and he returned to his home in East- ford, remaining there about a year, then returned to Providence and took charge of the business of Samuel W. Wheeler, his old employer, who had accepted the position of Assistant Postmaster of Providence, continuing in this relation about a year, when he again returned to Eastford and engaged in manufacturing woolen goods. This was in 1832, and he carried on the business with success until 1837, when the great panic and consequent demoral- ization of manufacturing interests caused him to close up the factory. He then went west to Carlin- ville, Ill., driving the entire distance, a journey of sixty-five days. While residing in the West, the death of his wife took place, and, although success- ful there, desiring to educate his children in the East, he returned to Providence in 1845, and went into the wholesale grocery business. The following year he took in as partner Silas B. Whitford, and
under the firm name of Work & Whitford continued until 1852, when the partnership was dissolved and he associated with him Frederick P. Shaw of New Bedford, under the name of Work, Shaw & Company. This association continued about a year, when the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Work then (1854) took his brother Harrison G. into partnership under the name of G. & H. Work, which association continued until 1875, when the senior partner, and subject of this sketch, retired from the business. After his retirement from trade, and a trip across the Isthmus, in his seventieth year, Mr. Work took up his residence in Edgewood, R. I., and invested his money in real estate and mortgages, actively attending to the details of his business to the day of his death. In all his business career he showed himself possessed of exceptional abilities as a financier, although he preferred the gradual gains of a modest, well-conducted business to the unsafe if more rapid methods of speculation. He was a great reader and student of history and philosophy, and, when not engrossed with the cares of business, was a fluent and interesting conversationalist. He had travelled extensively in this country, both before and after the introduction of railroads ; he went on business all through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Penn- sylvania and New York, during the "thirties," and knew personally many of the prominent business men and politicians of those states. He was always a Democrat, but was never active in politics. Mr. Work was married, January 1836, in Mansfield, Conn., to Miss Almira Thomas ; they had two chil- dren : William Ellery Work, who died in 1862, and Martha N., now the wife of General Z. R. Bliss, U. S. Army.
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
PART IV.
ANTHONY, FREDERICK HENRY, member of the firm of Anthony Brothers, architects, Providence, was born in Providence, November 4, 1846, son of
F. H. ANTHONY.
Henry Edwin and Lucy Dudley (McKnight) Anthony. He is of old New England ancestry, on the paternal side belonging to the well-known Anthony family of Rhode Island, and to the Hunt family. His mother is a direct descendant of Gover- nor Dudley, one of the earliest colonial governors of New England, and is also descended from the Stuart family. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Providence. He graduated at the Elm-street grammar school and was entered for the high school, but instead of pursuing his school course he entered the office of the American Screw Company, and shortly after became Paymaster, in which capacity he served three years or more, and
then resigned to accept a position in the American Bank, where he gained valuable financial experi- ence. He resigned his bank connection to engage in commercial pursuits, representing a factory prod- uct in Boston, of which he had full charge, up to the period of the great Boston fire in 1872. He then went to New York, where he remained some twenty years, still successfully engaged in commer- cial business, and visited regularly all the cities of importance in the United States and Canada. About 1893 he was invited to join the firm of Anthony Brothers, the well-known Providence architects, and assume the general management of the commercial portion of the business. The firm are largely engaged in designing and superintending the construction of business buildings, residences and public edifices, one of the latter class upon which they are now engaged being the new Town Hall in Seekonk. Mr. Anthony's position in the firm is that of general business manager, mainly looking after and conducting the details of the out- side business, a work of no small magnitude and importance, and one for which he is especially qualified by natural adaptation and his long experi- ence in commercial life. In politics Mr. Anthony is a high-tariff and sound-money Republican, but has never sought nor held office.
ARNOLD, GENERAL OLNEY, banker and manu- facturer, Pawtucket, was born in Newton, Mass., January 17, 1822, son of Dr. Seth and Belinda (Streeter) Arnold. The name of Arnold is one of the most ancient known in history. Thomas Arnold, born in 1599, in Cheselbourne, Dorset county, Eng- land, was a direct descendant of Cadwalader, the last King of the Britons, and of Alfred the Great, King of England. He came to America in the ship Plain Joan in 1635, settled first at Watertown, Mass., where he married Phebe, daughter of George and Susanna Parkhurst, and came to Providence in 1661,
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where he bought land and took up his residence ; he was for years one of the Town Council, and represented the town in the General Assembly. His son, Richard Arnold, was Speaker of the House of Deputies, and a member of that body for many years, was also for many years one of the Council of Governor Sir Edmond Andros, and was appointed to draw up the address of congratulation to King James Second on his peaceable succession to the crown. John Arnold, son of Richard, was the first President of the Smithfield Town Council, was a
OLNEY ARNOLD.
Quaker in religion, and gave land and money to build two meeting-houses, one at the northerly and the other at the southerly end of his farm, being nine miles apart ; one was built at what was called Bank Village, and the other near Butterfly Factory. The grandson of John Arnold was Nathan, captain of a military company from Cumberland, R. I., during the war of the Revolution, and who lost his life in consequence of exposure after being wounded at the battle of Rhode Island, which took place August 29, 1778. General Olney Arnold's line of descent from Thomas, born in 1599, died 1674, is as follows : Richard, son of Thomas, born March 22, 1642, died April 22, 1710 ; John, son of Richard, born November 1, 1670 ; Seth, son of John, born September 6, 1706, died 1801 ; Nathan, son of Seth, born October 18, 1735; Nathan, son of Nathan ;
Seth, son of Nathan, born February 26, 1799, died October 31, 1883 ; and Olney, son of Seth, born, as above, January 17, 1822. General Arnold is also descended in direct line from William Arnold, half brother of Thomas, who came from Cheselbourne with his wife, Christian Peake, first to Hingham, Mass., in 1635, and to Providence in 1636 ; he was one of the original proprietors of Providence Planta- tions, his name being second in the deed - this deed being from the Indian sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi, with Roger Williams. He is also descended from William Carpenter, one of the thirteen original proprietors of Providence Planta- tions ; Richard Waterman, also one of the original thirteen; Richard Carder, who represented the town in the General Assembly for many years ; Thomas Olney, another of the original proprietors, for many years one of the Governor's Council, the first Town Treasurer, and one of those named on the royal charter granted by King Charles Second, 1663 ; Thomas Angell, who was but eighteen years old when he accompanied Roger Williams in his landing at Slate Rock in 1636 ; Rev. John Myles of Swansea, Mass., a noted preacher of his day ; Rev. Pardon Tillinghast, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Providence in 1681 and many years after ; Edward Smith of Rehoboth, for many years a member of the Governor's Council; Benjamin Smith, of Providence, one of the Governor's Council and Deputy to the General Assembly for many years ; Edward Freeman, Commissioner and Deputy many years ; and John Johnson of Boston, Commander of all the Arms and Ammunition, Chairman of the Committee on War, and Deputy for twenty years. General Arnold is also de- scended from many other lines of first-comers, who have helped make Rhode Island history. His grandparents on the maternal side were Jonathan and Patience Mason, both descendants from Samp- son Mason of Rehoboth, through the Rev. Pelatiah, Charles and Benjamin Mason. Jonathan Mason was a farmer of Cumberland, Rhode Island, and a member of the Town Council. The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of Woon- socket, Rhode Island, where his early life was spent, and at Bushee's Academy in Smithfield. His first business training was in mercantile pursuits, but in a few years he became cashier of a bank in Woon- socket, and in 1853 he removed to Pawtucket, having been elected Cashier of the People's Bank of that place. From that time he has been prominently identified with many of the enterprises that have
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made the present city of Pawtucket and given it the rank and reputation in the business world which it now holds. In 1855 Mr. Arnold was tendered the position of Cashier of the newly organized Bank of Mutual Redemption in Boston, but declined the offer, on account of his business interests and asso- ciations in Pawtucket. In 1863, when the national banking system was established, he organized the First National Bank of Pawtucket, the first national bank in the town and the sixth in the state, and became its Cashier. Two years later the People's Bank was merged with it, and in 1875 he was elected President, which office he has since held. Soon after coming to Pawtucket he was elected Treas- urer of the Providence County Savings Bank, and has since continued in that office. Under Mr. Ar- nold's management the net earnings of the People's Bank and its successor, the First National, have averaged more than twelve per cent. yearly for up- wards of forty years. Naturally his services have been constantly in requisition as financier and man- ager of trusts, and in the settlement of estates, and he has served and is still serving as treasurer, direc- tor and trustee of a great number of corporations, societies and institutions. In 1858 he engaged with David Ryder, A. H. Littlefield (afterwards Gover- nor) and a few others in an attempt to perfect the manufacture of haircloth by machinery, in which he succeeded after numerous discouragements in establishing a large and successful industry. He is also Managing Director in the Cumberland Mills Company and the Dexter Yarn Company, and is variously interested in other manufacturing and industrial enterprises. In a public capacity he has served as President of the Town Council, Town Treasurer, Water Commissioner, Trustee of Schools, Trustee of the Public Library, Moderator, and in various other town offices. For several years following 1846 he was a Representative to the General Assembly from the town of Cumber- land, of which the village of Woonsocket was then a part. After his removal to Pawtucket, then in North Providence, he was Representative and sub- sequently Senator from the latter town. Politically he is a Democrat, of the Jeffersonian type, and he has been the candidate of his party for Governor, Representative to Congress, United States Senator, Presidential Elector and other prominent positions, always leading his ticket largely in popular elections. He has been Railroad Commissioner, Commissioner for the Organization of State Banks, State Prison and Jail Commissioner, has served upon numerous
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