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 31
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important state committees and the most prominent committees of both branches of the Legislature, and has received civil or military commissions from nearly every Governor of the state for the last forty years. Always taking a deep interest in military affairs, Mr. Arnold has served in nearly every position from private to Major-General. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was appointed one of the aides to Governor Sprague, and did efficient work in organizing companies for active service in the field. On account of his energy, ability and knowledge of military affairs he was retained in the state, and was promoted to Major-General of the militia. During the war he was Commissioner and Superintendent of Drafts in Rhode Island for the United States. By the Rhode Island veterans of the war, General Arnold is held in the highest esteem, and he is an honorary member of the First and Second Regiment Veteran Associations, also of Slocum Post Grand Army of the Republic. He is also a prominent Mason, and a member of many charitable associations, historical societies and other organizations. He organized the Pawtucket Electric Lighting Company, and was one of the leaders in se- curing the introduction of municipal waterworks and the fire-alarm system. He is prominently identified with the Universalist church, has been president of its national organization, is trustee of its publishing house, treasurer of its state convention, and has been treasurer and trustee of the Pawtucket parish. Gen- eral Arnold was married, January 23, 1844, to Miss Phebe Dudley, of Providence. Mrs. Arnold was born in Douglas, Mass., December 17, 1824, and died in Pawtucket, March 5, 1895. They had no children.
BAKER, BENJAMIN, Superintendent of Schools, Newport, was born in the village of Wickford, town of North Kingstown, R. I, October 24, 1853, son of David Sherman and Mary Cahoone (Waite) Baker. His family has resided in the "South County " (Washington) since the early settlement of that region. General Silas Casey, Stephen A. Douglas and General Sherman are said to have been distant relations of the family. He acquired his early education in the public schools of Wick- ford, following which he attended the Providence Conference Seminary at East Greenwich, and Brown University, from which institution he gradu- ated in 1875. He was a teacher in the high school at Westerly in 1875-6, studied law in the office of
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Vincent & Carpenter (the late Judge Carpenter of the United States District Court) in 1876-7, was Principal of the high school in Woonsocket 1877-9, was a teacher in the Providence high school from 1879 to 1890, and in the latter year became Super-
BENJ. BAKER.
intendent of Schools in Newport, which position he now holds. Mr. Baker is a member of the Ameri- can Academy of Political and Social Science, the Newport Historical Society, the Natural History So- ciety of Newport, and the Newport Business Men's Association. He was married, February 10, 1880, to Miss Lucy Anna Sisson ; they have two children : Harvey Almy, born April 24, 1881, and Charles Fullerton Baker, born February 28, 1884.
BALLOU, HENRY CLAY, merchant, Providence, was born in Cumberland, R. I., August 22, 1844, son of Isaac Chauncy and Sarah Aldrich (Cook) Ballou. His ancestry is Anglo-Norman, and traces back to Guinebond Ballou, a marshal in the army of William the Conqueror, who fought at the battle of Hastings in the year 1067. Descendants of Guinebond Ballou emigrated to America in the early period of the country's history, and from one of them, Maturin Ballou, a co-proprietor with Roger Williams in 1646, the Rhode Island Ballous are descended. Mr. Ballou is of the eighth generation
from his American progenitor, on both sides, his mother being a niece of Dr. Ariel and the Rev. Adin Ballou. The line of descent is: On the paternal side, Maturin, James, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Levi, Esq., Flavius J., and Isaac Chauncy Ballou ; and on the maternal side, Maturin, James, James, Ariel, Deacon Ariel, Abigail and Sarah Aldrich Cook. His early education was that of the com- mon schools, and his youth was passed on the an- cestral farm. After working a few years in a grocery store in Woonsocket, he commenced his business life in Providence at the age of twenty-one with Flint & Company, house furnishers, and con- tinued with them twelve years. In 1877 Mr. Ballou associated in partnership with Dennison G. Markham, under the firm name of Ballou & Mark- ham, in the same line of business, at 101-111 Eddy street, continuing in this relation until 1891, when on account of failing health Mr. Markham sold his share in the business to E. L. Johnson. In 1893 Albert J. Nichols, a trusted salesman who had been twelve years in their employ, was admitted to part- nership, and the firm was changed to its present
H. C. BALLOU.
name of Ballou, Johnson & Nichols, wholesale dealers in kitchen furnishing goods and grocers' supplies, Mr. Ballou being the buyer and general manager. The firm of Ballou & Markham did a large retail and jobbing business up to 1890, when a pressure
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of business decided them to drop the retail part of it, and they have since done a strictly jobbing busi- ness. They are today the leading jobbing house in their line in Rhode Island, buying direct from the manufacturers in large quantities and thus being enabled to compete with the largest houses in Bos- ton and New York. Mr. Ballou is very methodical in all his business relations, and to this especial characteristic is due a large measure of his success. He is a member of the Universalist Club of Rhode Island, and of the Elmwood Club, Providence. In politics he is a Republican, but he has never held public office, although he has recently been nomi- nated for Alderman from the Sixth Ward, and the election is soon to take place. Mr. Ballou was married, July 4, 1867, to Miss Frances Eveline Williams ; they have two sons : Myron Clarence and Henry Welcome Ballou.
BARTON, NATHAN BOWEN, manufacturing jew- eler, Providence, was born in Warren, R. I., August 8, 1853, son of Alfred and Ann Elizabeth
N. B. BARTON.
(Bowen) Barton. He is of old New England ancestry, and distantly connected with General William Barton of Revolutionary fame. He re- ceived his early education in the public schools of Warren, and prepared for college in the high
school, but owing to force of circumstances was unable to carry out his intention of pursuing a collegiate course. In September 1869, at the age of sixteen, he entered the employ of Belcher Brothers, hardware dealers in Providence, and remained with them until July 1879, when he left to engage in the manufacturing jewelry business with E. C. Ostby, under the firm name of Ostby & Barton. This relationship continued until in August 1893 a charter was secured from the Leg- islature and the business was incorporated under the name of the Ostby & Barton Company. Mr. Barton was elected Treasurer of the company at its formation and has since held that position to the present time. The factory employs from two hundred to two hundred and fifty hands, with a product of nearly a million dollars yearly. The head office is at Providence, with branches in New York and Chicago. Mr. Barton has been a Director in the Manufacturing Jewelers' Board of Trade since December 28, 1885, and has been a Director in the High Street Bank since 1893. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, also of the West Side Club and the Providence Athletic Association. He was married, September 21, 1874, to Miss Lillian Fisher ; they have one child, a daughter : Annie Florence Barton.
BATES, WILLIAM LINCOLN, M. D., Providence, was born in North Kingstown, R. 1., January 1, 1855, son of Benjamin Sanford and Lucinda (Howland) Carr. His father was of New England parentage, and was a contractor and builder. His mother was a descendant of the Howland family of Rhode Island, of noted Quaker stock. On the death of his mother, October 7, 1861, he was adopted by his relatives, John and Hannah Fowler Bates, being then under seven years of age. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Newport, supplemented by an academic course at Willimantic, Conn. After taking a special course at Brown Uni- versity, he went to Philadelphia to pursue his regular medical studies, having determined to adopt the medical profession. During the next few years he studied at the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Polyclinic, and the Philadelphia Elec- tropathic Institute, graduating from the latter in December 1891, and receiving the degree of M. E. (Master of Electro-therapeutics), and afterwards taking a post-graduate course, completing his studies in 1892. Having thus made himself familar with
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the science of electricity in its relation to medicine, Dr. Bates returned to Providence and established himself as a medical electrician, and within a short time his reputation for skill became so well known that patients came to him from all parts of New Eng-
WILLIAM LINCOLN BATES.
land. Realizing the need of a suitable sanitarium, where patients could be afforded the care and com- forts they needed and be constantly under his over- sight during treatment, Dr. Bates examined all the available places in and near Providence, and finally secured for his purpose the old Professor Chace mansion on Benefit street, which under his direction has been remodelled and refitted into an ideal Sani- tarium and Medical Home. The house is situated in the midst of large grounds, with handsome lawns, fruit and flower gardens, and is richly but unostenta- tiously furnished, everything about the establishment having been devised for pleasing, quiet and soothing effect, and for the comfort and permanent benefit of visiting invalids and patients. In his position as electrical specialist Dr. Bates has gained the confi- dence, not only of the general public, but of the medical fraternity as well, many patients being sent to him by practitioners whose limited knowledge of electricity, or lack of facilities, prevent them from applying it under satisfactory conditions. He is called to work at the Homoeopathic Hospital,
besides being compelled to make frequent trips out of town and to other states, for consultation and advice in different cases. Dr. Bates is a member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Providence Franklin Society and the Rhode Island Horticultural Society. He has followed in the footsteps of his maternal ancestors by accepting the principles of the Society of Friends. He was married, July 5, 1895, to Miss Martha Boyce of New York, an accom- plished lady, well fitted to adorn the position which she has chosen to fill; there are two children : Carrie L. and William P. Bates, by a former marriage.
BEDLOW, HENRY, Mayor of Newport for three terms, 1875-6-7, was born in New York city, December 21, 1821, son of Henry and Julia (Halsey) Bedlow. The name of Bedlow belongs to one of the oldest Knickerbocker families of New York, and the American ancestor of the subject of this sketch was Isaac Bedlow, son of Godfrey Bedlow, physician to William, Prince of Orange. Isaac Bedlow came from Leyden, Hol-
HENRY BEDLOW.
land, and settled in New Amsterdam, now New York, in 1639. He soon became prominently identified with the interests of the city, was for some years Alderman, and in 1668 he acquired by purchase the historic Bedlow's Island, afterward
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deeded to the state of New York. One son in each generation has since represented the family, who have always made New York their residence. William Bedlow, grandfather of Mayor Bedlow, was appointed by the Government one of the commis- sioners to make the survey and establish the military school at West Point; he married Cath- erine, sister of Colonel Henry Rutgers, and had one son, Henry. The present Henry Bedlow was educated under private tutors at Yale University, studied law and graduated at Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the New York State bar in 1842. Subsequently he studied medicine in this country and France. In early life he became an attaché of the United States Legation at Naples, where he rendered Minister Polk, brother of the President, James K. Polk, efficient service in inter- course with what at that time was considered the most formal court in Europe. Mr. Bedlow was also officially attached to the United States Dead Sea Expedition, sent out under command of F. W. Lynch, whose published report bears complimentary testimony to his efficient aid rendered in the ex- ploration and survey of the Jordan river and valley and the lake of Sodom and Gomorrah. For many years Mr. Bedlow has spent with his family the sum- mer and autumn season in Newport, of which city his varied capabilities and social accomplishments have made him a most valued resident. He became ac- tively concerned in and closely indentified with all the city's interests, and in 1875 the citizens elected him Mayor, to which office he was twice re-elected. His three successive terms marked a period of at that time unprecedented advancement for the city and of general improvement in its municipal affairs. Mr. Bedlow was married, March 2, 1850, to Miss Josephine DeWolf Homer, daughter of Fitzhenry Homer of Boston ; there are two children : Harriet Hall, widow of Lieutenant-Commander Francis Morris, and Alice Prescott, wife of William Henry Mayer of Middletown, Rhode Island.
BENTLEY, BENJAMIN COURTLAND, contractor and builder, Westerly, was born in Westerly, May 2, 1841, son of Benjamin Wilbur and Mary Potter (Maxon) Bentley. His paternal grandparents were Benjamin Peckham and Hannah (Wilbur) Bentley, and his mother was a daughter of Jonathan and Nancy (Potter) Maxon. He was educated in the common schools of Westerly, and for many years has been a member of the firm of Randolph Bentley
& Company of that place, contractors and builders, and dealers in builders' materials of all kinds. Mr. Bentley has been for fourteen years a member of the Town Council of Westerly and Chairman of the Board for six years, and a member of the Board of Trustees of School District Number One for two years. He is a member and Past Master of Franklin Masonic Lodge, member of Palmer Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, member and Past Commander of Narragansett Commandery Knights Templar, and member of Palestine Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member and President of the Westerly
B. COURTLAND BENTLEY.
Business Men's Association. He was elected a member of the Rhode Island House of Representa- tives in April 1894, and Senator in April 1895. Politically he is a Republican. Mr. Bentley was married, February 14, 1867, to Miss Henrietta Clark ; they have had five children : Bertha, Benja- min Courtland, Jr., Maryetta, Anna Hancox (died August 18, 1877) and John Clark Bentley.
BRICE, HARRY BEGGS, Superintendent and General Agent for Rhode Island of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, was born in Wash- ington, Warren county, N. J., December 15, 1864,
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son of Alexander Lawrence and Amelia (Beggs) Brice. His father, the Rev. A. L. Brice, was a Methodist clergyman in the state of New Jersey for forty-five years, located in Newark sixteen years, Presiding Elder twenty-four years, a member of the Newark Conference and of the New York Mission- ary Board of the Methodist Episcopal church ; he died in 1892, at the age of about seventy years. His grandfather, Alele Reise Brice, was a French- man, a paper manufacturer, and at one time asso- ciated in business with Cyrus W. Field. His maternal grandfather, Hugh Beggs, came to this country from Wick, Scotland, and settled in Pater-
HARRY B, BRICE.
son, N. J., where he became proprietor of the Union Machine Works of that city. The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of his native city, graduating from the grammar school and attending the high school until the age of six- teen, when he was apprenticed to the printing trade. After learning his trade, in 1880 he went into the printing business for himself, continuing until 1887, when he took up the insurance busi- ness, in which he has since been engaged. In 1895 the Prudential Insurance Company of America, whose home office was in Newark, became desirous of extending their business in the Rhode Island field, which they had only entered in June of the previous year. A capable man was needed to
take charge of the Providence office of the com- pany, and Mr. Brice was appointed to the position, under the official title of Superintendent and General Agent of the Prudential Insurance Com- pany of America for Providence. He came to Rhode Island and assumed charge of his present office April 29, 1895, since which time the com- pany, which has attracted the attention and gained the confidence of the people by its liberal and sound methods, has largely increased its business in the state. The company which Mr. Brice repre- sents ranks as one of the great financial institutions of the world, and in the twenty years of its exis- tence has built up $15,780,000 of assets, $12,500,- 000 of annual income and $3,300,000 of surplus, has paid to policy holders over $22,000,000, and has now, at risk, insurance amounting to more than three hundred millions of dollars Although its principal field has been outside of New England until within a comparatively recent period, it is already doing a very large business in life and endowment policies in this section. Mr. Brice has been active in politics and public life in his native state, and served in 1894 as Document Clerk of the House of Assembly, and as Secretary of the Committee on Municipal Corporations. His pro- clivities are Republican. He is a member of the West Side Club of Newark, also of the Odd Fel- lows, the Ancient Order United Workmen, and the Typographical Union. On his departure from Newark he was given a farewell dinner by his friends, which was attended by a large number of public officials and prominent men of the city. Mr. Brice was married, May 9, 1889, to Miss Zilla Alverta, daughter of Lieutenant Lorrin Bundy, of the Maine Cavalry; they have two children : Lorrin Smylie, aged six, and Harry Danforth Brice, aged four years.
CANFIELD, HERMAN, A. M., M. D., of the Hopeworth Sanitarium, Bristol, was born in Medina, Ohio, April 17, 1853, son of Herman and S. A. Martha (Treat) Canfield. The Canfields came from France to England in 1350, and settled in Yorkshire. From there they came to Milford, Connecticut, about 1640. Dr. Canfield's great grandfather, Colonel Samuel Canfield, served on Washington's staff in the Revolutionary War. His grandfather, Herman Canfield, removed to the Western Reserve early in the present century, and founded the town of Canfield, Ohio. His father,
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Herman Canfield, was a lawyer and located in Medina, where he held in succession all the town and county offices, and when serving as Mayor was elected State Representative, and later was a State Senator. At the fall of Sumter he was appointed Major, and soon after Lieutenant-Colonel, of the Seventy-second Ohio, and was in command of his regiment when shot and killed at the battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing. Dr. Canfield's mother's fam- ily, the Treats, came to East Hartford, Connecticut, from England. His great-grandfather Treat was Governor of Connecticut and a member of Wash- ington's staff during the Revolution ; his grand- father Treat removed to Ohio about 1840, and is now living in Denver, Colorado, at the age of ninety-nine years. The Canfields were all profes- sional men, the Treats always in business. The father of our subject, when Senator, introduced a bill establishing the State Idiot Asylum of Ohio, and was President of that institution at the time of his death ; he was a strong Abolitionist, and was the head in his part of the state of the underground railway between the slave states and Canada. After his death his widow went South to care for sick and wounded soldiers, and at the close of the war established the Canfield Colored Orphan Asylum at Memphis, Tennessee. Afterwards she had charge of the Division of Orphan Asylums, In- dustrial Schools and Charities in the Bureau of Education at Washington. She died at Hope- worth in 1890, from the effects of exposure in her work for the soldiers during the war. During the war the subject of this sketch spent most of his time at the front with his mother in caring for sol- diers, so that he grew up in hospitals, and became personally acquainted with Grant, Sherman and other prominent generals of the war in the West. He obtained his early education in private schools, completed his preparation for college in the grammar school at Gambier, Ohio, and graduated in 1874, at Racine College, Racine, Wisconsin, from which institution he received the degree of A. M. in 1877. In the fall of 1874 he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, received his degree from the University of New York, Medical Department, in 1876, was admitted, after a severe competitive examination, as Junior Assistant Fourth Medical Division on the staff of Bellevue Hospital in New York city, and in 1878 went abroad and studied at Wurtzburgh, Berlin, under Virchow, and also in London. While in Bellevue Hospital he was appointed to the care of a practice in Cold Spring,
New York, and latter was appointed to collect and care for an exhibit to represent Medical Education, by request of the United States Commissioner of Education, at the Centennial Exposition in Phila- delphia. He also served for a time at the head of the Bellevue Emergency Obstetrical Hospital. In the spring of 1879 he located in Cleveland, Ohio ; but wishing to open a sanitarium, he removed with his wife and child, in the same year, to Bristol, Rhode Island. Dr. Canfield is emphatically a self- made man. He began his business life in Bristol with twelve dollars in his pocket and no other finan- cial resources. After practicing two years in order
HERMAN CANFIELD.
to get something to start a sanitarium upon, he rented the General Burnside estate and opened his institution with one room. In eighteen months the business had outgrown its quarters, and Dr. Can- field bought his present estate. The house then contained seven rooms, and has since been extended to forty-five rooms, with accommodation for thirty patients ; other buildings have from time to time been added, so that it is now one of the best and most complete sanitariums in the East. In 1885 he took his brother, Dr. William E. Canfield, into partner- ship, and the firm name has since been Canfield & Canfield. Dr. Canfield has spent four or five winters abroad, and is now establishing a sanitarium at the Hot Springs in Jamaica, British West Indies, and
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another at Cartago, Costa Rica. His labors are en- tirely devoted to his specialty of nervous diseases, and besides his sanitarium work much of his time is spent in consultation with physicians all over New England. Aside from the business part of Hopeworth, it is a rule of the Sanitarium to care always for two deserving patients who are unable to meet the regular charges. The institution is rapidly growing, and is every year obliged to extend its accommodations. The record of Dr. Canfield's professional career commences with his services in the United States Sanitary Commission and United States Christian Commission during the war. He was House Physician at Bellevue Hospital, New York, in 1878; House Physician of Bellevue Emergency Obstetrical Hospital in 1879; and has been Physician in charge of Hopeworth Sanitarium since 1883. He is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, Providence Medical Association the Society of Internes of Bellevue Hospital, the Military Order of Loyal Legion and the Providence Athletic Club. He has always been a Republican, but while actively interested in politics has never sought nor held public office. Dr. Canfield was married, April 13, 1878, to Ella M. Kendall of Wind- sor Locks, Connecticut; they have two children : Herman and Roderick Canfield.
COTTON, JOSEPH POTTER, civil engineer, New- port, was born in Bowdoin, Me, May 8, 1837, son of Isaac H. and Rhoda Lamont (Potter) Cotton. His paternal ancestors were engaged in farming and ship-building. His great-grandfather Lamont was a soldier in the Revolution and died in the service. He acquired his early education in the public schools and academies of his native district, working as a boy on the farm, and later teaching in district schools in Maine, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1857 he taught winter school in Topsham, Me., and taught in the same town the following year. In 1859-60 he taught school in Phillipsburg, N. J., and in 1861-2-3 in Easton, Pa. In 1862 he served as Orderly Sergeant in Captain Finley's Company, Colonel Clemens' regiment militia, of Easton, Pa. In 1863 he raised and commanded Company C, Thirty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Militia, mus- tered into the United States service. In 1864-5 he was Assistant Superintendent of the House of Refuge in Philadelphia. In 1866 Mr. Cotton com- menced work in engineering, being employed from
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