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 37
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
CAMPBELL, FRANK A., Postmaster of Woon- socket, was born in Providence, July 6, 1858, son of Patrick and Jane (Mercer) Campbell. His early education was acquired in the public schools and La Salle Academy, in his native city. Following his school-days he worked at tailoring for a time in Providence. In 1879, he came to Woonsocket, where the following year he established himself in the merchant-tailoring business. He served as Tax Collector in the years 1886-7, and in December of the latter year was appointed Postmaster by Presi- dent Cleveland. In this capacity he served a term of nearly five years, when, the opposing political
F. A. CAMPBELL.
party having secured control of national affairs, he was superseded by a Republican official. Mr. Campbell retired from office, temporarily as it after- wards proved, with a record that had never been surpassed in the Woonsocket postmastership, for efficiency, intelligent personal supervision of every detail of the work, uniform courtesy and general satisfaction. He secured additional mails for Woon- socket, among them a much-needed but hitherto- denied outgoing Sunday mail, and also secured a new and handsome location for the office in the new Longley Building, and fitted up the new quarters in accordance with the latest improved designs of post- office furnishings. Under his administration many
new rules were adopted, and were continued in force by his successor. On account of his record, when a change of national administration again oc- curred, and once more the Democracy came into power, Mr. Campbell's reappointment was favored and strongly urged, not only by his friends in his own party, but by business men of both parties. There was a warm contest for the office, but Mr. Campbell had besides his other support the unani- mous endorsement of the Democratic State Central Committee, and in June 1893 he was reappointed Postmaster by President Cleveland. Mr. Camp- bell was married, in March 1883, to Miss Delia Burke of Woonsocket.
CHAPIN, CHARLES VALUE, M. D., Superintendent of Health for the city of Providence, was born in Providence, June 17, 1856, son of Joshua Bicknell and Louise (Value) Chapin. He is of well-known and highly-respected Rhode Island ancestry, his father having been a practicing physician of repute in Providence, and for many years Commissioner of Public Schools for the State of Rhode Island. He received his early education at the well-known English and Classical High School of Providence, and graduated from Brown University in the class of 1876 with the degree of A. B. He adopted medicine as a profession, and after studying for a year in the office of Dr. George D. Wilcox, a distinguished physician of Providence, attended lec- tures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York, graduating from the latter institution in 1879. He at once received the appointment of House Physi- cian to Bellevue Hospital, where he served until October 1880, when he returned to Providence, where he established a successful private practice. He was appointed Professor of Physiology in Brown University in 1883, where his lectures and methods of instruction received high approval. Dr. Chapin had given much attention to questions of public health and municipal sanitary management, and in 1884 he was elected Superintendent of Health for the city of Providence, which position he has con- tinuously held to the present time, his executive ability commanding the warm approval of the citizens, and his reports attracting the attention of distinguished scientists in municipal sanitation. In 1888 he was elected City Registrar. He was librarian and patriologist of the Rhode Island Hospital from 1882 to 1886, and is now one of the
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Consulting Physicians. He is also a consulting physican at the Providence Lying-in Hospital. In 1891-92 he was Director of Physical Culture at Brown University. He is a lecturer at the School of Sociology in Hartford, Conn .; is a fellow of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and a member of the Providence Medical Association, of which he was President in 1894 ; and is a member of the American Academy of Medicine, the American Public Health Association, the American Statistical Association, and the Association of the Massachu- setts Board of Health. He is the author of the following essays, which received the award from the Fiske fund of the Rhode Island Medical Society : " The Sympathetic Nerve, its Relation to Disease," 1880; "Origin and Progress of the Malarial Fever now prevalent in New England," 1884; "Present State of the Germ Theory of Disease," 1885 ; " Meth- ods and Practical Results of the Treatment of the Malarial Disease now prevalent in New England," 1886; "What Changes has the Germ Theory made in the Means for the Prevention and Treatment of Consumption ?" 1888. He has also published : "Some Points in the Etrology of Scarlet Fever," 1889 : " Disposal of Garbage in the City of Provi- dence," 1893 ; " Purification of Public Water Sup- plies," 1893 ; and Reports on Public Health, and Births, Deaths and Marriages in Providence. Out- side of his office Dr. Chapin has not taken part in public life. He was married, May 6, 1886, to Miss Anna Augusta Balch ; they have one son : Howard M., born May II, 1887.
CAMPBELL, JOHN H., Editor and Publisher of the Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner, Phenix, was born in the village of Phenix, May 27, 1849, son of Neil and Catherine (Hart) Campbell. He is of Scotch ancestry, his parents having come to this country from Scotland in 1849, the year of his birth. He received his early education in the public schools of Providence, after which he learned the printer's trade and has since mainly followed that voca- tion. He established himself in business i Phenix, where for some time he has been publisher and editor of the Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner, a newspaper devoted to the interests of one of the most thriving sections of the state. Mr. Camp- bell has been President of the Rhode Island Press Association, and has represented his native town (Warwick) three terms in the General Assembly.
In politics he is a Republican. He was married, June 24, 1874, to Miss Marie Louise Angus ; they have two children : Neil A., born April 13, 1876, and Duncan Campbell, born July 3, 1881.
COLWELL, WILMARTH H., architect, Providence, was born in Providence, July 24, 1849, son of John W. and Hannah (Wing) Colwell. His ancestor, Robert Colwell, the first of the name in this country, came from England. His father, John W. Colwell, was a Freewill Baptist Clergyman and for many years pastor of the church in South Providence. In 1852, the Rev. Mr. Colwell's church was strug- gling under a burdensome debt, and the pastor being offered a good salary for his services as school-teacher on the Pacific Coast, he was in- duced to accept the position by the prospect of thus securing the means to pay off the church mortgage. He accordingly started for California, but died on the passage, as a result of exhaustion and fever brought on by caring for the sick passen- gers of the steamer Monumental City. His death left the wife and mother with seven children, the eldest thirteen ; of these three are now deceased, one being the late Rev. John W. Colwell, a Congre- gational clergyman of Barrington, Rhode Island. Wilmarth, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the public primary and in private intermediate and high schools of Providence. After graduation he went into the drygoods business and continued about four years, and was then apprenticed to Charles P. Hartshorn, a prominent architect of Providence. He studied with Mr. Hartshorn three years, and then went to Boston where he served as draughtsman for a time in different architectural offices. In 1873 he returned to Providence and started business for himself, establishing his office alone, and continuing in that relation ever since. Mr. Colwell's professional skill and reputation are not limited nor directed to any particular class of work or school of architecture. His work is scattered all over the state, and comprises business blocks, manufacturing buildings, of which the Ameri- can Electrical Works may serve as a good example, and churches, including the two Jewish synagogues in Providence and several small church edifices ; but his principal work has been in the designing and construction of dwellings, of which he has built nearly eight hundred in the city of Providence and elsewhere throughout Rhode Island. His designs
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are original, pleasing and practical, and his work is noted for its modern and pretentious results accom- plished at moderate and economical cost. Mr. Colwell lives in the house in which he was born, and outside of his family his life is thoroughly devoted to his profession. He is, however, an enthusiastic Republican in politics, and has attended every election-return meeting in Providence since the Fremont campaign,but has never sought nor accepted public office. He was married, February 25, 1874, to Miss Ida F. Horton, of Providence ; they have six children : Carrie L., Henry H., Wilmarth H., Jr., Chester R., Florence D. and Lillian H. Colwell.
C. FRED CRAWFORD.
ECCLESTON, ALVIN HERBERT, M. D., Provi- dence, was born in North Stonington, Conn., November 26, 1858, son of Latham Hull and Har- riet Elizabeth (Burdick) Eccleston. His paternal ancestry is English, county Cheshire, and his mater- nal ancestors, also English, were among the first settlers of Rhode Island. He received his early education in the public schools of his native town and at Hopkinton Academy, Ashaway, Rhode Island, entered the Albany Medical College and graduated
in the class of 1880 with the degree of M. D. He commenced the practice of his profession in Rhode Island in the summer of 1880, and obtained an extensive and lucrative practice in Washington county. In 1892 he removed to Providence, where he has since practiced. During his residence in Washington county he was a member of the Town Council of Richmond, and Chairman of the School
A. H. ECCLESTON.
Committee for five years. In 1889 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly and served two years. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor Ladd a member of the State Board of Health. In 1892 he was com- missioned an Examining Surgeon for the United States. He is Surgeon of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, and is Major and Surgeon of the United Train of Artillery, Rhode Island Militia. He is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society and of the Washington County Medical Society, and is a member of Charity Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Franklin Royal Arch Chapter, Narragansett Commandery, Providence Consistory Thirty-Second degree, Northern Juris- diction, also of Mechanics Lodge, I. O O. F., and Niantic Encampment. Dr. Eccleston is also a member of the Rhode Island Sons of the American Revolution.
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FISHER, GEORGE RUSSELL, physician and sur- geon, was born in North Scituate, R. I., May 28, 1852, the son of Charles Harris and Sophia Reming- ton (Smith) Fisher. His father was a surgeon, and at his death was Secretary of the State Board of Health, and for many years represented Scituate in the General Assembly. On his mother's side he is descended from the West family, one of whose members was Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island ; her grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He received his early education in the com- mon schools and Lapham Institute, Scituate. He entered Brown University and graduated in the class of 1872. He adopted medicine as a profession and studied at Bellevue Hospital and at the Yale Med- ical school. He established himself as a physician in Scituate, where he was town physician from 1876 to 1879. He was Assistant Surgeon General from 1876 to 1881, and on May 6, 1895, was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the United Train of Artillery. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of Roger Williams Lodge, A. F. & A. M. of Centreville, R. I., and of the Order of United Workmen. He married, December 6, 1886, Miss Annie Wilkinson Hale ; they have no children.
GILBANE, WILLIAM, senior member of the firm of William Gilbane & Brother, carpenters and builders, Providence, was born in county Leitrim, Ireland, September 21, 1844, son of Thomas and Bridget (O'Brien) Gilbane. His father and mother were both natives of county Leitrim. They came to this country in 1845 and located at Limerock, in the town of Lincoln, R. I., where the father engaged in farming and also worked for the Harris Limerock Company. The family moved to Providence in June 1868. William Gilbane, the subject of this sketch, received his early education in the Linerock district school, working meanwhile at farming and for a time in the box shop of the Lonsdale Company at Lonsdale. In 1862 he came to Providence and apprenticed himself to learn the carpenters' trade with George A. Brown. While serving his appren- ticeship he attended the Providence Evening School, also drawing school, and took courses at the Bryant & Stratton Business College and the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1870 he went into business for himself as a carpenter and builder, and continued alone until 1883, when the present firm of William Gilbane & Brother was established by the admission
of his brother, Thomas F., to partnership. The firm have built up an extensive business and have been connected with some of the largest building enterprises of Providence and vicinity. Among the large contracts they have executed may be men- tioned : Carpenter work on Manual Training School, Hodges Building, Champlin Block, Art Museum at Roger Williams Park, State Normal School, Home for Aged Men on Broad street, and Athletic Club building on Weybosset street ; carpenter and mason work on St. Joseph's Hospital, Joseph Banigan's house and stable, also P. T. Banigan's house, East
WM GILBANE.
and West Side high schools, and Holy Name Church on Camp street. Mr. Gilbane is a member of the Catholic Knights of America, also of the Brownson Lyceum Literary Society. In politics he is an Inde- pendent. He was married, February 17, 1870, to Annie Frances Martin; they have six children : Annie Josephine, Mary Alice, William Henry, Jennie Ursula, Elizabeth Veronica and Helen Martha Gilbane.
GILBANE, THOMAS FRANCIS, of William Gilbane & Brother, carpenters and builders, Providence, was born in Limerock, Lincoln, R. I., November 5, 1854, son of Thomas and Bridget (O'Brien)
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Gilbane. His parents were born in the county of Leitrim, Ireland, and came to this country in 1845, locating at Limerock, where the father worked for the Harris Limerock Company and also at farming, until their removal to Providence, June 10, 1868. His early education was acquired in attendance at the Limerock district school and at evening school in Providence. Later he attended both day and evening commercial school at the Bryant & Stratton Business College in Providence, and also studied drawing at a school on Fountain street and for six winters in evening class at the Rhode Island School of Design. In June 1868 he went to work in the Allen Print Works in Providence, where he re- mained two years, and then worked for the Provi- dence Tool Company until in July 1871 he entered upon an apprenticeship with his brother William to learn the carpenters' trade. In 1883 he became
THOS. F. GILBANE.
associated in partnership with his brother, under the firm name of William Gilbane & Brother, which relation has continued to the present time. The firm have built up a large business in their line, and besides their building and construction work, which is mentioned in greater detail in the preceding biographical sketch of William Gilbane, they oper- ate a large factory for getting out building fin- ish and material, and for general woodworking. Mr. Gilbane is a member of the Brownson Lyceum
Literary Association, and is an Independent in politics. He was married, January 27, 1886, to Miss Mary Josephine McGuinness ; they have two children : Catherine Josephine and Miriam Attracta Gilbane.
J. J. LACE.
LANGMAID, GEORGE BATCHELDER, M. D., East Greenwich, was born in North Danville, Vt., September 5, 1848, son of Willard K. and Emily (Batchelder) Langmaid. He received his early education in the common schools, and at Barton (Vermont) Academy, from which he graduated at the age of twenty. Immediately following gradua- tion he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Stokes of St. Johnsbury, Vt., where he remained for six months, and then went on a tour west as far as Colorado. Upon his return he resumed his study of medicine, under the preceptorship of the late Dr. Calvin Woodward of his native town, with whom he continued for a year, when the Doctor came to Boston and arranged for his pupil to enter the Boston University School of Medicine. Here he took a three-years course, and graduated with the class of 1877. Locating in Melrose, Mass., he practiced his profession in that town for nine years, removing in April 1886 to East Greenwich, where he took an entirely new field, and has continued in active practice to the present time. For the last
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three years he has been Surgeon of the Kentish Guards of East Greenwich. Dr. Langmaid is a
GEO. B. LANGMAID.
member of the Boston Homoeopathic Medical Society. In politics he is a Republican.
MITCHELL, JOHN WAITE, M. D., Providence, was born in Norwich, Chenango county, N. Y., April 6, 1848, son of John and Caroline D. (Foote) Mitchell. He is of old New England ancestry on both sides; the Mitchells came originally from Scotland, and his grandfather Mitchell came to New York state from Connecticut ; the Footes were also from Connecticut, and his maternal ancestor, Isaac Foote, was an officer in the Revolutionary army, and with Washington at Valley Forge, and later was a Judge in Chenango county, N. Y. John Waite Mitchell received his early education in the public schools and prepared for college at Williston Seminary, East Hampton, Mass., from which insti- tution he graduated in 1868. He then entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York city, graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine in 1871, and after graduation served for a time as Interne of the hospital, under Dr. James R. Wood and Dr. John J. Crane of New York as pre- ceptors. In October 1872 he began his career as a medical and surgical practitioner in Providence, and has continued in active practice ever since.
Dr. Mitchell served as Attending Surgeon of the Rhode Island Hospital Dispensary in Providence from 1873 to 1875, was Visiting Physician to the Rhode Island Hospital from 1873 to 1882, and since the latter date has been Visiting Surgeon to that institution ; is Consulting Physician to St. Joseph's Hospital, St. Elizabeth's Home and the Catholic Orphan Asylum; and was one of the original incorporators of the Providence Lying-in Hospital, of which he has been Consulting Physi- cian and President of the Board of Trustees ever since. He became a member of the Providence Medical Association in 1886 and of the Rhode Island Medical Society in 1889, and is one of the most influential members of those organizations, frequently contributing valuable papers to both associations, as well as to various medical journals. In politics Dr. Mitchell is a Republican. He was married, April 15, 1875, to Miss Frances E. Mason, who died in 1876. In August 1878 he married Miss Lydia Pearce; they have one child, John Pearce Mitchell.
JOS. F. MCDONOUGH.
THOMPSON, DAVID MOULTON, President and Treasurer of the Corliss Steam Engine Company, Providence, was born at Great Falls, in the town of Somersworth, N. H., April 10, 1839. He was the eldest of a family of four sons and three daughters,
W.M. Thompson .
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
children of Joseph H. and Lydia B. (Moulton) Thompson. He was educated in the public schools of his native town, and graduated from the high school at sixteen years of age. It was the earnest desire of his parents that he should enter college ; but he had formed other plans, and finally obtained their consent to a postponement of theirs for one or possibly two years. He had from early boyhood man- ifested a deep interest in machinery and mechanics. His father was both a frame and mule spinner, and operated under contract for many years the spinning of several mills owned by the Great Falls Manufac- turing Company. Thus exceptional opportunities were at hand to gratify his desire to learn the art of cotton manufacture. Very much of his time out of school hours and nearly all school vacations had been spent in the mills. At fourteen years he had engaged in all of the duties and operations required of the back-boys, cleaners, frame spinners, and the mule piecer, spinners and doffers ; while at sixteen he was regarded as a proficient operator of Smith and Mason mules. This early experience and training may be regarded as not only the foun- dation, but as a factor of great supplementary force, influencing in a large measure all subse- quent effort and the achievements of later years. Shortly after leaving school he went into the mills, in pursuance of a well-formed purpose to learn all of the operations of the several departments, to which he devoted nearly four years. The last ten months were spent in the bleachery and cloth-finishing departments. He then went to Boston, and served a regular apprenticeship to the trade of a carpenter and joiner. In 1860 he returned to the mills, to engage in the mechanical departments. In the latter part of said year, he was engaged to go to Manville, R. I., where he started up and operated a room of self-acting mules. Several months later he accepted, of the same company, the position of master mechanic, in which he remained during the re-organization of the property. Hon. Jonathan Chace, ex-Senator of Rhode Island, was then Agent. In September 1863 he removed to Whitinsville, Mass., and entered the employ of the Paul Whitin & Sons, sub- sequently the Whitin Machine Works, noted builders of cotton machinery, in which service he remained three years. In September 1866 he removed to Portland, Me., entered a copartnership with two former associates, and began business as carpenters and builders. One of the partners retired in a few months ; during the second year he
purchased the interest of the remaining partner and continued the business alone. The third year he employed an average of one hundred and seventy- five carpenters, upon a variety of high-grade work, among which was a contract for the re-build- ing of the High Street Congregational Church (Rev. Dr. Fenn, pastor). A recognition such as the above, accorded a young man but twenty-nine years of age and a resident but two and a half years, was an honor of which he may justly have been proud. In September 1869 he was invited to remove to Boston and enter into partnership with the builder of whom he learned his trade (a man of large experience and considerable means) less than eleven years before. He accepted the proposal, and in January 1870 sold out his business in Portland. In July following, the terms of the copartnership were revised to enable him to open an office for the practice of architecture and engineering as a pro- fession, - a long cherished plan, in the prepara- tion for which years of earnest effort had been given. In July 1871 he was engaged as the archi- tect, engineer and builder for the Number Three Mill (designed for 120,000 spindles) at Manville, R. I., where eight years before he was employed as master mechanic. This engagement materially changed recently-formed plans, and he determined to unite the varied experiences of previous years and devote the future exclusively to mill engineering, a profession justly demanding a wide range of practical experience. It then appeared clear that the many departments of industrial work which had occupied the preceding sixteen years were but the links of a chain awaiting the process of welding, or as a series of minor paths all converging toward a central point or junction into a broad thorough- fare common to all. In September 1873 he dissolved his partnership in the builders' trade in Boston, and the following December removed his engineer- ing office from Boston to Providence. The business extended beyond local surroundings and gave promise of large operations in the future. In the spring of 1878 he visited Europe, where he devoted seven months to a careful study and observation of the methods employed in the manufacture and finish of cotton and woolen textile fabrics, as also to questions of engineering and mechanical con- struction, both in England and upon the conti- nent. In February 1879 he visited the South, devoting four months to extended travel and study of its social and physical conditions, with reference to its probable future in the manufacture of cotton.
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