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 33
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Providence, R. I., where he engaged in practice and has since remained. While his practice has been general, Dr. Haller has devoted especial attention to maladies peculiar to women and children, in the treatment of which he has been very successful. In November 1888, shortly after his removal to Provi- dence, Dr. Haller started the first Swedish news- paper published in Rhode Island, The Tiden, and in 1892 he started the Rhode Island Medical Science Monthly, the first medical journal established in that state. Both of these journals are still published under other names, the latter being changed in
J. FREDERICK HALLER.
January 1895 to the Atlantic Medical Weekly, of which Dr. Haller continued editor-in-chief until his resignation in April 1895, owing to increasing professional duties. He is a member of the Provi- dence Medical Association and the Rhode Island Medical Society, and since 1890 has served as a member of the Committee on Legislation of the last named ; was Assistant Surgeon of the United Train of Artillery with rank of First Lieutenant 1889-92, and is now Surgeon with the rank of Major of the United Train Artillery Veteran Association ; and is Medical Examiner of Enterprise Lodge Knights of Pythias, Unity Lodge of Foresters, Rhode Island Lodge of United Workmen and several life-insurance companies. He is also a member of Mount Vernon Masonic Lodge ; the
Press and Athletic clubs of Providence, being one of the Executive Committee of the former ; and the Graduate Students' Association and German Semi- nary of Brown University. He is at present taking a post-graduate course at Brown for the degree of A. M. Dr. Haller has always been interested in all public affairs, and has been particularly active in urg- ing foreigners in the United States to become good and useful American citizens. He was President of the Swedish-American Association 1888-90, has been lay reader in the Protestant Episcopal Church since 1890, and was Chairman of the Building Committee of St. Ansgarius Church in 1890-1. He has also been active in medical and other literary work, being a contributor to various newspapers and peri- odicals, and a frequent speaker at public meetings upon temperance, church matters and political questions. He has written over two thousand articles for medical journals, besides speeches, addresses and remarks delivered before medical, religious, social and political organizations, on various topics, particularly on sanitation, hygiene, state medicine and public health. Among his principal papers, which have attracted widest notice, are " Cholera, its History, Diagnosis and Treatment," delivered by invitation at the one-hundredth anni- versary of the Windham County Medical Society of Windham, Conn., in May 1893 ; a speech before the Senate Committee on Special Legislation in 1891, on " Medical Legislation in Rhode Island," published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal the same year ; an address before the Rhode Island Medical Society on "Physical Deterioration " ; "Our Water Supply," published in the Providence News in 1890 ; " Cholera in Hamburg," Providence. Journal, 1892 ; " Pure Milk," Providence News, July 1895 ; and an address before the Brown Univer- sity Graduate Students' Association, on " Modern Medicine," in April 1895. In 1892 Dr. Haller visited England, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, for professional study. He has recently invented a surgical and gynecological table which, for simplicity of operating, durability, neatness and usefulness, compares very favorably with, if it does not excel in many respects, any similar table now in use. Dr. Haller is not only an accomplished musician, but is a composer of more than ordinary talent. He has published a number of songs and pieces for the organ that have met with much favor, and his most recent published composition, a song, "The White Rose of Killarney," is an established favorite in refined musical circles wherever known.
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HANAFORD, JAMES BOARDMAN, M. D., Appo- naug, was born in New Hampton, N. H., February 21, 1849, son of Joseph Norris and Betsey Nichols (Prescott) Hanaford. He is descended on the ma- ternal side from Capt. John Prescott, who fell at Bun- ker Hill. His early education was obtained in the public schools and at the New London Literary and Scientific Institution, New London, N. H., now Colby Academy. He studied medicine with the late Prof. L. B. How of Dartmouth College, graduated from the Medical Department of the University of New York in 1871, and immediately began the practice of his profession in Apponaug, where he has since resided.
JAMES B. HANAFORD.
Dr. Hanaford has been very active in his profes- sional life, and has built up a large and lucrative practice. He is known as one of the leading physicians of the county, has been Town Physician of Warwick for many years, and still holds that position. In April 1888 he was elected a Repre- sentative to the General Assembly of the state, and has been re-elected each successive year since, serv- ing as a member of the Judiciary Committee of that body. He is a member of King Solomon Masonic Lodge of East Greenwich, also of the Providence Athletic Association, the Warwick Club and various other organizations. In politics Mr. Hanaford is a Republican. He was married, in 1872, to Anna Louise Reynolds ; they have no children.
HEATHCOTE, JOHN, manufacturer, Providence, was born in England, near Manchester, April 30, 1833, son of Luke and Mary (Ferguson) Heath- cote. He came to Providence in boyhood, in 1842, and his associations therefore have always been in that city. He received his education in the public schools of Providence, and at seventeen was apprenticed to the machine business with the Franklin Foundry & Machine Company, at that time one of the leading concerns of its kind in the country. He served his apprenticeship of four years, and soon after entered the employ of the Corliss & Nightingale Engine Company, with whom he remained two or three years and then went to Lawrence, Mass., to help fit up the machinery for the Pacific Mills. After that he was two or three years with Brown & Sharpe, the founders of the now famous manufacturing company of that name, in a little old shop in South Main street, when the firm employed but seven or eight hands. After leaving them he held an official position in one of the departments of the Franklin Foundry & Machine Company for a time, and about 1866 he started business for himself in steam, gas and water piping and brass finishing, with a partner, under the firm name of Barbour & Heathcote. A few years after, Mr. Heathcote bought out the patent of the J. S. Winsor Tentering and Drying Machine, and went into manufacturing under the same partnership; and in 1874 he bought out his partner's interest and prosecuted the business by himself. This drying machine, patented in 1861, which Mr. Heathcote has made a specialty of his business ever since, was for a long time the only chain dryer in use for woolen or worsted goods, blankets, shawls, etc. Many years after, the machine was copied, in another form (horizontal), by foreign builders, and later the foreign-built machine was copied by others in this country. In 1870 Mr. Heathcote bought all the patent rights and entirely remodeled the machine, since when improvements have been added from time to time, strengthening its parts and adding two new patterns for heavier work. At the time of writing this sketch Mr. Heathcote is putting up a machine of twenty-three tons, the largest and the first of its style ever made in this country, for a large felt manufacturing concern in New York state. Mr. Heathcote is also Treasurer of the Russell Electric Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of mast-arms for electric street- lighting. The special feature of their device is that it provides facilities for trimming lamps without
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lowering, and as many lamps are required in posi- tions where it would be impossible to lower them, these mast-arms are largely used. About two thousand are in use in Providence, and the com- pany, who are the only authorized manufacturers in the United States, have also supplied Pawtucket and various cities in Massachusetts and other states. Mr. Heathcote is well-known socially in Providence, and is a member of the West Side and Pomham clubs. He is prominent in Masonic circles, being Past Master of Adelphoi Lodge, and Past Commander St. John's Commandery Knights Templar, the oldest Templar organization in the
JOHN HEATHCOTE.
United States. He is also a member of the Vet- eran Firemen's Association. In politics he is strongly Republican, but has steadfastly declined to accept public office. Mr. Heathcote was married, August 20, 1856, to Miss Jane Barbour, daughter of George Barbour of Providence; they have two children : Ella J., and George H. Heathcote, who is associated with his father in business.
HILL, THOMAS JEFFERSON, founder of the Providence Machine Company, and for more than half a century at the head of one of the most im- portant iron industries of Rhode Island, was born in Pawtucket, R. I., March 4, 1805, son of Cromwell
and Cynthia (Walker) Hill, and died in Providence, July 24, 1894. His father was a blacksmith, and a resident of Rehoboth, Mass., until his removal to Pawtucket about the year 1800. The boy 'Thomas was unable to fully avail himself of even the limited opportunities for education furnished by his native town. He attended school until the age of fourteen, after which he worked two years in his father's shop, and then served an apprenticeship in the machine shop of Pitcher & Gay, Pawtucket, where he re- mained as apprentice and journeyman nine years. In 1830, at the age of twenty-five, he came to Providence and took charge of the machine shop connected with the steam mill owned and operated by Samuel Slater, and four years later purchased an interest and became associated with his employer under the name of the Providence Machine Company. This was the beginning of the business which Mr. Hill in after years developed to extensive proportions, and which is to-day, under the same name, one of the leading manufacturing industries of Rhode Island. In 1835 Mr. Slater died and his interest was sold to other parties. Mr. Hill continued at the head of the business however, and under his management the industry expanded and increased until in 1845 larger and improved quarters and facilities were imperatively demanded. Accord- ingly new buildings were erected and equipped, and the succeeding year Mr. Hill became the sole owner of the plant and business, manufacturing all kinds of cotton and woolen machinery. Continued prosperity and success followed, and in 1874, a charter having been secured some years previously, the business was incorporated and organized with Thomas J. Hill as President and Treasurer, his son Albert Hill as Secretary, and his foreman George Hazard as Manager and Agent, retaining the old and widely-known name of the Providence Machine Company. Although in his later life engaged in many other large business enterprises, Mr. Hill made this one a special object of his careful atten- tion and oversight, and his personal interest in its welfare and progress continued up to the time of his death. Mr. Hill was a man of great enterprise and public spirit, and besides his energy and mechanical skill possessed remarkable powers of organization together with rare executive capacity and financial ability. Few men have done more individually to promote and develop the business interests of his town, state and section. In 1837 he bought the Lee Mill at Willimantic, Conn., and ran it seven years as a thread mill. In 1850, having his
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attention drawn to the grand opportunity for manu- facturing at Lewiston, Me., he associated a number of Boston capitalists with him in the purchase of the Androscoggin waterpower at that place, organ- ized the Bates and the Hill manufacturing com- panies, and built extensive cotton mills there. He also erected a foundry and leased a machine shop in Lewiston, to aid in supplying the new mills with machinery, and this enterprise, afterwards organized as the Lewiston Machine Company, has continued to manufacture cotton machinery, for mills all over the country, to the present time. In 1859 he bought the Peckham Mills at East Greenwich,
THOS. J. HILL.
R. I., and ran the plant for a time as the Bay Cotton Mills, afterwards giving them to his two sons. He founded the village known as Hill's Grove, seven miles out of the city, and in 1875 started there a twenty-thousand-spindle cotton mill, which in honor of his wife he named the Elizabeth Mill. He organized in 1866 the Providence Dredging Company and in 1867 the Rhode Island Malleable Iron Works, and in 1874 he organized the Provi- dence Pile-Driving Company, which built the Crawford-street bridge and constructed other public works of magnitude. Notwithstanding the demands of his extensive and varied personal business interests, Mr. Hill found time to devote a share of his services to some of the city's financial
institutions, and was long prominently identified with various banking and insurance corporations. He was for nearly forty years President of the Limerock National Bank, and twenty-five years Vice-President and Trustee of the City Savings Bank. He served in the City Council for the years 1848-52, 1855-56 and 1878, also repre- sented the city in the General Assembly. Mr. Hill was an active and prominent member of the Slater Club of Providence and the Home Market Club of Boston, also of the Rhode Island Agricultural and Historical societies. In 1857 he travelled exten- sively in Europe for his health, and again in 1867 he made a European tour on business. At the time of his death, which occurred July 24, 1894, he was Vice-President of the Rhode Island Veteran Citizens Historiccal Association, and as a fitting close to this sketch, a few words or brief extract may be quoted from the resolutions passed by the society as a merited tribute to his memory. Among other resolutions referring to the high character and distinguished ability of their departed friend and associate, and to the loss sustained by the society and the public, it was resolved : "That in his death Providence has lost an honorable and upright citizen, whose word was his bond, and who was ever loyal to the city's best interests and success." Mr. Hill was three times married : first, October 12, 1825, to Miss Betsey Brown, daughter of Sylvanus Brown of Pawtucket, whose death occurred May 9, 1859; second, December 9, 1861, to Miss Olive L. Farnham, daughter of Stephen Farnham of Can- terbury, Connecticut, who died November 16, 1866 ; and third, August 9, 1869, to Miss Elizabeth C. Kenyon, daughter of John H. and Ruth Kenyon of Warwick, Rhode Island, who is now living. Of three children that reached maturity, but one is now living, a daughter, Mrs. Charles M. Pierce of New Bedford, Massachusetts ; she has six children, the elder son, William C. Pierce, being the present head of the Providence Machine Company, of which he was the Superintendent for several years during the lifetime of his grandfather.
HOLDEN, FRANK EUGENE, coal merchant, Woon- socket, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, November 17, 1861, son of Thomas B. and Sarah (Stone) Holden. His ancestry is English. He was edu- cated in the common and high schools of Newton, Mass., and began work in Woonsocket as a freight clerk for the New York & New England Railroad
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in 1880. Resigning the position of Freight Cashier in 1888 to enter the retail coal business, in 1890 he became a Director in the Woonsocket Spool & Bobbin Company, to whom he sold his coal business but continued in charge of the same as a special department of their plant, with enlarged accommoda- tions and facilites. In May 1894 he bought back the business, and in partnership with H. C. Card, Jr., conducted it under the name of the New England Coal Company, doing a large retail and wholesale business. The latter department of the business has been personally cared for by Mr. Holden, and
FRANK E. HOLDEN.
included supplying many of the largest manufactur- ing plants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. At a quite recent date Mr. Holden sold his retail busi- ness, and under his own name is extending his manufacturing trade all over New England. The peculiarities of different coals, and the varying condi- tions under which they are used, are matters of much concern to the consumer. Mr. Holden is success- ful in supplying his customers with the coal that is best adapted to the particular conditions, which un- doubtedly accounts for his success in this line of busi- ness. Mr. Holden served as President of the Common Council of Woonsocket in 1890 and 1891, as Chairman of the Board of Sewer Commissioners 1893-6 inclusive, and as Representative to the General Assembly three terms, 1894-6. He is a
Director in the Citizens' National Bank of Woon- socket, and First Vice-President of the Woonsocket Business Men's Association. He is a prominent Mason, being a member of Morning Star Lodge, Union Royal Arch Chapter and Woonsocket Com- mandery, is a Thirty-second Degree Mason and a member of Palestine Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows, Royal Arcanum, Ancient Order of United Workmen and United Order of the Golden Cross. Mr. Holden is a great lover of music, and has been for two years President of the Woonsocket Choral Associa- tion. He is a member of the Woonsocket Baptist Church, was Secretary of the Building Committee which had in charge the erection of its new brick edifice within a few years, and is President of its Bible Class Number Two, taught by Colonel Amos Sherman, which has a membership of nearly three hundred. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Holden has a beautiful modern residence with spa- cious grounds at Prospect and Winter streets. He was married October 18, 1884, to Miss Hattie A. Devere ; they have one child, a daughter : Grace Beatrice Holden.
HUNT, SIMEON, M. D., East Providence, was born in Seekonk, Mass., April 27, 1837, son of William D. and Lydia (Chase) Hunt. He received his early education in the public schools, prepared for college at the Friends' School in Providence, entered Dartmouth in 1858 and graduated in 1862 with the degree of A. B. Having commenced the study of medicine in the winter of 1861 with Dr. Phineas Spaulding of Haverhill, N. H., and contin- uing later under the preceptorship of Dr. A. B. Crosby of Hanover and Dr. William D. Buck of Manchester, he took two courses of lectures at Dart- mouth Medical College and was graduated as M. D. in October 1864. For a short time following grad- uation he practiced medicine at Corry, Pa., and then, in the spring of 1865, was engaged in practice at Springfield, Erie county, that state. After two years he returned to his native state and town, locating in East Providence, where he has since resided, in extensive and successful practice. Dr. Hunt is an active member of the Providence Med- ical Association, the Rhode Island Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and a charter member and now an honorary member of the Rhode Island Medico-Legal Society. He is a charter member and Past Master of Rising Sun
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Lodge of Masons, also a member of the chapter, commandery and A. A. S. rite, thirty-second degree, and of the Veteran Masonic Association. Dr. Hunt has served his town as Health Officer several years, 1885-7, and as a member of the School Committee,
SIMEON HUNT.
1886-8. He was appointed State Medical Exam- iner by Governor Bourne, and held the office six years, 1885-91. Prior to graduating in medicine, Dr. Hunt taught school, select and public, for several years, 1857-63. In October 1864, shortly after graduation, he was commissioned by President Lincoln, after a competitive examination, Assistant Surgeon of the Sixty-ninth United States (colored) Infantry, but did not muster, on account of ill health. Dr. Hunt was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Dartmouth in 1862, and was honored by the degree of A. M. from that institu- tion in 1887. He was married October 25, 1865, to Miss Anna M., daughter of Samuel W. Balch of Lyme, N. H. ; they have had five children : Charles Balch, born September 2, 1866, died in infancy ; William West, born April 22, 1868, graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, 1890, and now associated in practice with his father ; Charles Balch, born July 24, 1869, died in infancy ; Fred Balch, born January 8, 1872, drowned August 10, 1882, and Archie John Hunt, born November 3, 1878.
JENCKES, JOHN, State Senator from Barrington, was born in Providence, August 30, 1848, son of Daniel C. and Elizabeth D. (Randall) Jenckes. He is a great-grandson of John Jenckes, who was a member of the Legislature from 1772 to 1789 and was one of a committee to act in any sudden emergency when the Assembly was not in session, with full power to take all necessary measures for the safety of the colony. He is a great-great- grandson of Nicholas Cooke, Governor of Rhode Island during the Revolution, and also a great- great-grandson of Colonel Elisha Mowry of Revolu- tionary times. He is also a direct descendant in the seventh generation from Roger Williams. His early education was obtained at the Woodstock Academy and in the Providence high school. For some years he was associated with his father, Daniel C. Jenckes, in active business in Providence, in commercial fertilizers and masons' materials, a business founded in 1844, and carried on success- fully for over forty years. He removed to Barring- ton in 1870. Mr. Jenckes was elected Represent- ative to the Legislature from Barrington in 1893,
JOHN JENCKES.
was elected Senator in 1894 and re-elected in 1895 and again in 1896. He is a member of the Provi- dence Athletic Association and of the Rhode Island Yacht Club, also of the Rhode Island Sons of the American Revolution. In politics he is a Republi-
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can. He was married, June 15, 1875, to Ida, daughter of Acting Master R. L. Kelly, United States Navy, who was killed at the taking of Port Hudson, Miss., in 1863 ; they have two children : Alice and A. Katherine Jenckes.
KENYON, GEORGE HENRY, M. D., A. M., Surgeon General of Rhode Island, was born in Providence, April 1, 1845, son of George Amos and Isabella Greene (Brown) Kenyon. On the paternal side he is of English ancestry, his Ameri- can progenitors being among the early settlers of Southern Rhode Island. His maternal ancestors
GEO. H. KENYON.
came from Wales, and located in the vicinity of Wickford, R. I., where Beriah Brown, the first of the family in America, settled in 1640, and twenty years later built the house now standing and still occupied by his direct descendants. Receiving his early education in the public schools, he prepared for college in a two-and-a-half-years course at the Friends' School in Providence, and entered Brown University, from which he graduated in 1864 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Subsequently he was honored with the degree of Master of Arts, conferred upon him by the same institution. Having an inclination for the profession of medi- cine, he gave considerable time to medical studies
in the last two years of his college course, especially devoting himself to practical chemistry in the laboratory of the university. Upon leaving college he entered the office of Doctors Capron and Perry, and after a period of study there entered the Medical Department of the University of Vermont, where he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in June 1866. Returning to Providence, he was elected a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society in the month of his graduation, and at once commenced practice in his native city, where he has since resided. Dr. Kenyon has found time in the midst of a busy life and the exacting duties of an extensive practice to devote some attention to matters outside of his profession, and he has been actively interested in social, mili- tary and general public affairs. In 1862 he enlisted as private in the Tenth Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers, and served in the Army of the Potomac for the term of his enlistment. After the war he became a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public, joining Prescott Post of Providence, serving as Post Surgeon for two or three years, and later as Medical Director of the Department of Rhode Island. In the state militia he served a number of years as Surgeon of the United Train of Artillery of Providence, and resigned in 1883 to accept an appointment on the Governor's staff as Assistant Surgeon-General of Rhode Island, which position he held until May 1894, when he was elected by the Legislature Surgeon General of Rhode Island, which office he now holds. Dr. Kenyon has served as Secretary and as President of the Providence Medical Association, also as Treasurer of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and is a member of the American Medical Association. He is a prominent Mason, being a member of Rising Sun Lodge, which he has served in all the various official posi- tions, also of Calvary Commandery Knights Templar and Rhode Island Sovereign Consistory Scottish Rite, and has held various offices in the Grand Lodge ; he was Grand Master of Masons in Rhode Island for three years, 1889-92, and is now Com- mander-in-chief of Rhode Island Consistory Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rites.
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