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 4
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DOUGLAS, SAMUEL TOBEV, attorney-at-law, was born in Providence, November 15, 1853, son of Rev. William and Sarah (Sawyer) Douglas. His father was born in Pollock Shaws, near Glasgow, Scotland, of an ancient Scotch house. His mother was a native of Salisbury, Mass., of American and remotely of English descent. He received his preparatory education in the public schools of Providence, and entered Brown University, from which he graduated with the degree of B. P. in 1872. He afterwards entered the Department of Law in Union Univer- sity, Albany, N. Y., from which he graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1875. He was admitted to the bar of the state of New York, May 21, 1875, to the bar of Rhode Island, November 2, 1875, and to the Circuit Court of the United States, March 7, 1877. He has since practised his profession in Providence. In January 1890 he was appointed Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court for the District of Rhode Island, which office he now holds He has taken an active part in the service of the Rhode Island militia. He was Second Lieutenant and Judge Advocate of the First Light Infantry Regiment from 1879 to 1880 ; Captain and Adjutant from 1880 to 1884; Major from 1886
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to 1887; Lieutenant-Colonel from 1887 to 1889 ; Adjutant of the Veteran Association from 1884 to 1887 and Major from 1893 to 1895. He was a member of the Common Council from 1887 to 1890 and of the Board of Aldermen from 1890 to 1892.
S, T. DOUGLAS.
In politics he is a Republican He is a member of the First Baptist Church, of the Rhode Island His- torical Society, the First Light Infantry Veteran Association, and of the Hope, Athletic, Providence Bar and Young Men's Republican clubs. He mar- ried, November 20, 1878, Miss Alice Crawford Noyes, who died January 10, 1881 ; they had one child, Samuel Noyes Douglas, now living. On September 24, 1884, he married Miss Edith Courtney Harris, who died November 27, 1885. He again married, January 1, 1890, Miss Alice Barnes Wilbur.
DOUGLAS, WILLIAM W., Justice of the Supreme Court, was born in Providence, November 26, 1841, son of Rev William and Sarah (Sawyer) Douglas. His father was a native of Scotland and born near Glasgow. His mother was a native of Salisbury, Mass. He was educated in the public schools in Providence and at Brown University, graduating in the class of 1861 with the degree of A M. After graduation he was attached to the Fifth Regiment R. I. Vols , then recruiting, and received a commis-
sion as Second Lieutenant. He took part with his regiment in the Burnside expedition, participating in the battles of Roanoke Island, Newbern, and the siege of Fort Macon. He was promoted to First Lieutenant June 7, 1862, and to Captain February 14, 1863. He was with the regiment on the steamer Escort when the rebel blockade on the Pamlico River was broken by running past the batteries to Washington, N. C. On the expiration of his term of service, not anticipating any further active service for the regiment, which had been changed to one of heavy artillery, he returned to Providence and studied law, first in the office of Samuel Currey and afterwards at the Law School of Union University, Albany, N. Y., where he graduated in May 1866, with the degree of LL. B. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, January 1, 1867, and practised law in Providence until elected Justice of the Supreme Court. He was Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court for the District of Rhode Island from 1874 until 1890. From 1888 to 1890 he was Chief Supervisor of Elections for Rhode
W. W. DOUGLAS.
Island under appointment from the United States Circuit Court. In 1890 when serving as Senator from Providence he was elected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and took his seat in August of that year. In addition to his law practice he has taken
Humor Surfer
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an earnest interest in public and military affairs. He Immediately after his graduation he commenced the was elected a member of the General Assembly for the first time in 1871 and re-elected the following year. He was a member of the Common Council of Providence from the Second Ward from June 1873 to January 1876. In 1866 he was appointed Major and division Judge Advocate on the staff of Gen. Olney Arnold, commanding the Rhode Island militia, and held the same position on the staff of Gen. Horace Daniels, Gen. Arnold's successor, until 1874. In 1881 he was appointed assistant adju- tant-general of Rhode Island with rank of Lieuten- ant-Colonel, and in 1882 was promoted to be adju- tant-general with the rank of Brigadier-General, holding the office until it was filled by election in the General Assembly. He was commander of Rod- man Post, No. 12, Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Rhode Island, 1869-1870, and was Judge Advocate-General of the Grand Army of the Republic from 1871 to 1877, serving on the staffs of Commanders in-Chief Burnside, Devens and Hart- ranft. He was senior Vice-Commander of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, 1889-1890. He was for some years treasurer of the society of the First Baptist Church in Providence, and one of the trustees of the Ministerial Fund. He is a member of the Hope, Squantum and Art clubs, the Providence Athletic Association, the Grand Army of the Repub- lic, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and various professional and literary societies. In poli- tics he is a Republican. He married, June 30, 1884, Miss Anna Jean Bennett of Newton, Mass; they have no children.
DURFEE, THOMAS, Providence, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, February 6, 1826. He was the eldest son of Job and Judith (Borden) Durfee. His early years were spent at the home of his parents, and to some extent in the labors of the farm, his father being a great lover of farm and country life. He attended the school of his district in the summer and received instruction at home in the winter, the school being distant. When fourteen years old he went to East Greenwich and began preparing himself for college, first under the tuition of the late Rev. James Richard- son, and later under that of the Rev. Nathan Williams. He entered Brown University in 1842 and graduated in 1846. His class was large for the time and had in it students who have since attained much distinction.
study of law, as a student with Tillinghast & Brad- ley, but pursuing his studies for the first year and more at his home in Tiverton. He was admitted to the bar in October 1848, and at once entered on the practice of his profession in the city of Providence, where he has since resided. In Oct- ober 1849, he was appointed by the Supreme Court, Reporter of the Decisions and held the office for four years. He then served on the Court of Magis- trates of the city of Providence from 1854 to 1860, one year as assistant and five years as presiding magistrate. In 1863 he was one of the Representa- tives of the city of Providence in the General As- sembly and Speaker of the House for that year. He was an active supporter of the Government during the Civil War with both voice and pen, and in 1864 was one of the delegates from Rhode Island to the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President for a second term, and was by ap- pointment of his associates, president of the delega- tion. In 1865 he was elected to the State Senate, and in June of that year was chosen an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and soon after took his seat as such. January 28, 1875, he was elected Chief Justice, to succeed Judge Brayton who had retired, and took the oath of office February 6, 1875, his forty-ninth birthday. He retired from the Bench March 14, 1891, after a service of more than nine years as Associate, and more than sixteen years as Chief Justice. The Court during his in- cumbency had a jurisdiction, original and appellate, covering nearly the whole range of judicial proceed- ings. Its published decisions for that period, extend- ing inclusively from the eighth to the seventeenth volume of the Rhode Island Reports, show in part the importance and variety of the questions before it, and also the manner in which they were niet and decided. It may be mentioned here, as an example of the law of heredity, that Judge Durfee's grandfather, Thomas Durfee of Tiverton, was a lawyer and from 1820 to 1829 Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Newport county ; and that his father, also a lawyer, was Assistant Justice of the Supreme Court from June 1833 to June 1835, and then Chief Justice until his death, July 20, 1847. Since his retirement Judge Durfee has held no public office. He has for many years been a member of the corporation of Brown University, first as trustee and chancellor, and later as fellow, and received from it, in 1875, the degree of LL. D. He now fills, and has for some years filled, the office of President of
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the Providence Public Library. Judge Durfee has occasionally contributed to periodicals and newspa- pers, and has written some things which, having been separately published, may be separately men- tioned. In 1856-57 he completed a work on the Law of Highways, commenced by the late Joseph K. Angell, shortly before his death, published by Little & Brown in 1887. In 1872 he put forth a small volume of verse entitled "The Village Picnic and Other Poems." In December 1877 he de- livered the oration at the dedication of the Providence County Court House, published by order of the State. In 1883 he prepared a paper entitled "Gleanings from the Judicial History of Rhode Island," published ; by Mr. Sidney Rider, number eighteen of his series of " Rhode Island Historical Tracts." In 1884 he published a pamphlet entitled "Some Thoughts on the Constitution of Rhode Island." It was devoted mainly to the question, whether it is competent for the General Assembly of Rhode Island to call a con- vention for the amendment or revision of the consti- tution of the state, the amendments or revisions when prepared by it, to be submitted to the electors for adoption by a simple majority vote. The con- stitution contains a provision for its own amend- ment, prescribing the method to be followed in the most mandatory terms, and requiring for the same, among other requirements, the approval of three fifths of the electors voting. The contention of the pamphlet was that the General Assembly has no authority to provide for an amendment in any other manner, and that revision, even when it takes the form of a so-called new constitution, is but a work of amendment. On June 24. 1886, Judge Durfee delivered the oration at the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the planting of Providence, published by the city and in other ways ; and June 29, 1894, an oration at the dedication of the statue of Ebenezer Knight Dexter, published by the city of Providence. He married, October 29, 1857, Sarah J. Slater, a daughter of John Slater 2d, and has one son, Samuel Slater Durfee.
ECROYD, HENRY, M. D., of Newport, was born in Muncy, Lycoming county, Pa., May 6, 1858, son of James and Rachel (Haines) Ecroyd. He is descended, on the paternal side, from the Ecroyd family of Lancashire, England, where the records show they have held public offices since the reign of Richard II in the fourteenth century. This family were among the early followers of George
Fox, and introduced into their district the manu- facture of worsted. The grandfather of the present representative of the family in this country emi- grated to the United States in 1795 and bought a large tract of land in Pennsylvania from sons of the scientist Dr. Priestly. The subject of this sketch is a graduate of the Friends' School at Westtown, Pa., and of the University of Pennsyl- vania, class of 1883, Medical Department. He read medicine eighteen months with Dr. Rankin of Muncy, Pa., was three years at the University of Pennsylvania, and two years in the hospitals.
HENRY ECROYD.
He is acting Assistant Surgeon of the United States Marine Hospital service, a member of the staff of the Newport Hospital, and Medical Examiner for the Third District of Rhode Island. He is also a member of the Rhode Island State Medical Society, the State Medico-Legal Society, and the Newport Medical Society. He was married, Octo- ber 30, 1890, to Miss Rebekah Ashbridge of Philadel- phia, Pa., and has two children : Henry Ecroyd, Jr., and Elizabeth Ashbridge Ecroyd.
EDDY, CHARLES D., Collector of Customs for Bristol and Warren District, was born in Providence, October 1, 1829, the son of Cyrus B. and Eunice (Dyer) Eddy. His ancestry was of well known
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Rhode Island stock on both paternal and maternal sides. His early education was limited, and he adopted seafaring as a profession when quite young. He was promoted to positions of respon- sibility and was master of vessels in the foreign
CHAS. D EDDY.
trade for fourteen years. In 1891 he was appointed Collector of Customs for the District of Warren and Bristol, which office he now holds. He is a member of the Masonic order. In politics he has always been a Republician. He married in March 1862 Miss Sarah Martin Bennett, daughter of Capt. Albert C. Bennett, who died in 1886 ; they have had three children, Mary Eunice, Grace Dyer and Sarah Martin (deceased ) Eddy.
EASTMAN, JAMES HENRY, Superintendent of Rhode Island State Institutions, was born in Hano- ver, New Hampshire, May 31, 1842, son of Rev. Larnard L. and Lucy Ann (Currier) Eastman. Re- ceiving his early education in the district schools, he graduated at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary at Tilton, and entered Wesleyan Univer- sity in the fall of 1860, but left in his junior year to enter the Union army. He served the remainder of the war, and was discharged as First Sergeant of Captain Sumner T. Smith's Company C, One Hun-
dred and Ninety-First Ohio Volunteers, in August 1865. At the close of the war he entered upon reformatory work, as teacher in the Boys' Reform School at Deer Island, Boston Harbor, during the winter of 1865-66. In April following he went to the Connecticut Reform School, remained there seven and a half years, and in September 1873 was appointed Superintendent of the Girls' Industrial School at Middletown, Conn. He left this position April 1, 1874, to take charge of the Reform School for Boys at Jamesburg, N. J., where he remained ten and a half years, and resigned to take charge of the Sockanosset School for Boys at Howard, R. I., September 1, 1884. In March 1886 he was ap- pointed General Superintendent of Rhode Island State Institutions, holding this position ever since. He belongs to the West Side, Pomham and Athletic clubs of Providence, and is a member of all the Masonic orders to the thirty-second degree, also of Prescott Post No. 1, Department of Rhode Island, Grand Army of the Republic. He married, October
JAS. H. EASTMAN.
10, 1862, Elizabeth Finley of Middletown, Conn .; they have four children : George L., Assistant Sec- retary of the Rogers' Silver Plate Company, Danbury, Conn .; Frank G., M. D., East Greenwich, R. I .; Alice Trowbridge, Providence, R. I., and Grace Eastman.
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ELY, JAMES WINCHELL COLEMAN, physician and surgeon, was born October 2, 1820, in Windsor, Vt., son of Rev. Richard M. and Lora (Skinner) Ely. He came of good old New England stock on both sides. His paternal ancestor, Nathaniel Ely, was made a freeman of Cambridge, Mass., in 1635, and in June 1636 with a hundred others accom- panied Rev. Thomas Hooker and made the first settlement of Hartford, Conn ; in 1654, he with others purchased land of Governor Ludlow and settled at Norwalk, and in 1659 he sold his Norwalk property and removed to Springfield, Mass, where he died December 25, 1695. Dr. Ely fitted for col-
J. W. C. ELY.
lege in an academy at Townsend, Vt., under Prof. Wheeler, who was afterward Professor of Greek in Brown University. He entered Brown University in 1838 and graduated in 1842 with the degree of A. B., receiving the degree of A. M. some years later. Immediately upon leaving college he began the study of medicine. He attended two courses of lectures in the Medical Department of Harvard University, and received the degree of M. D. March 12, 1846. From April 1844 to April 1845 he was Interne at the city institution at South Boston, long before the House of Industry was re- moved to Deer Island. He settled in Providence in April 1846, and was admitted a fellow of the Rhode Island Medical Society in 1847. He has
served in every office in the gift of the society, and was elected President for two years, 1868-1870. He was one of the founders of the Providence Medical Association, its first Secretary and afterward its President. In 1847 he was appointed Dispensary Physician for the whole east side of the city, in which place he served four years, and on his resig- nation was appointed on the board of consultation. In 1850 he was elected one of the physicians of the Dexter Asylum, and also City Physician. He served in the former capacity fifteen and a half years, and in the latter eighteen years. Upon his resignation he was placed upon the consulting staff of the asylum. In January 1868 he was elected to the board of consultation at the Butler Hospital, which position he still holds. Upon the opening of the Rhode Island Hospital in 1868 he was elected one of the attending physicians. He resigned in 1874 and was placed on the consulting staff. In 1883, at the request of Professor Chace, President of the Board of Trustees, he again took the part of Attending Physician, and served six years. Since that time he has been on the con- sulting staff. Ever since the opening of the Providence Lying-in Hospital he has been a mem- ber of its consulting staff. He is a member of the American Academy of Medicine, and has served several times as delegate to the American Medical Association. Soon after settling in Providence he joined the Franklin Society, a scientific association, and was an active member, reading many papers, and having been elected its President. During the civil war he served with Dr. Joseph Mauran as an examining board for applicants for the positions of surgeons and assistant surgeons in the Rhode Island regiments. He has served for three years as one of the directors of the Providencc Athenaeum, and two years as a member of the city School Com. mittee. He is a member of the Squantum Club. He married, June 6, 1848, Miss Susan Backus, daughter of Lieut .- Gov. Thomas Backus, of Killingly, Conn. ; he has two children : Joseph C. and Edward F. Ely.
EAMES, BENJAMIN TUCKER, attorney-at-law, Prov- idence, was born in Dedham, Mass., June 4, 1818, son of James and Sarah (Mumford) Eames. His father was born in Haverhill, Mass., and his mother in Eastford, Conn. His parents in 1820 removed to Providence where they resided during life. He had the advantage of the schools of Providence,
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and of some of the leading academies of Massachu- setts and Connecticut. At the age of sixteen he was placed in the auction rooms of Martin Stoddard & Co., where he remained for a year or two, and then as bookkeeper entered the employ of Bates & Hutchins, wholesale drygoods merchants of Provi- dence, and subsequently the employ of Borden & Bowen, who were the agents of the Blackstone Man- ufacturing Company, and the financial agents of the American Print Works in Fall River, Mass. With a thorough English education, and some knowledge of mercantile and commercial pursuits, which were of service to him in after life, in the fall of 1838 he went to the Worcester Academy, and under the tuition of the late Professor S. S. Greene prepared for, and in the fall of 1839 entered, Yale College, and graduated in 1843 with a fair standing in his class. He took during his college course an es- pecial interest in the debating and literary societies connected with the college. In the vacation before graduation he entered his name as a law student in the office of the late Chief Justice Samuel Ames, with whom was then associated Rollin Mathewson, Esq. For about six months after graduation he was engaged as a teacher in the academy at North At- tleboro, Mass. In the spring of 1844 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and entered the law office of the Hon. Bellamy Storer, where he remained until the following winter, when he was admitted to practice in the courts of Kentucky. Upon his return to Providence he was admitted in 1845 to practice in the courts of Rhode Island and in the United States courts, and since then, except when in Congress and for the past two years, he has been actively en- gaged in his profession in Providence. He grad- ually succeeded in obtaining a remunerative practice and a prominent position at the bar. From 1845 to 1850 he served as Clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives of Rhode Island, and during part of this time was the reporter of the proceedings of the General Assembly for the Providence Daily Journal. In 1854 he was elected Senator from the city of Providence to the General Assembly, and was re- elected to that office in 1855, 1856, 1859, and 1863. He was a member of the state House of Representa- tives in 1859, 1868 and 1869, serving the last year as Speaker. He was one of the commissioners on the revision in 1857 of the public laws of Rhode Island. In 1860 he was a Delegate to the Republican Con- vention at Chicago, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency. In 1870 he was elected Representative to the Forty-second Congress from
the First District of Rhode Island, and was re-elected to the Forty-third, Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses. In the Forty-second Congress he served on the committees on Elections and Revo- lutionary Claims and the War of 1812 ; in the For- ty-third, on the Committee on Patents; in the Forty-fourth on the Committee of Banking and Cur- rency, and in the Forty-fifth on the same committee and Expenditures in the War Department. Among his speeches in Congress that have been published for circulation are those on the presentation by the State of Rhode Island of the Statue of Roger
B. T. EAMES.
Williams, Currency and Free Banking, Counting the Electoral Votes, Resumption of Specie Pay- ments, Repeal of the Resumption Clause, Coinage of the Silver Dollar, Treasury Notes as a Substitute for National Bank Notes, the Tariff, and Reduction of Letter Postage. In the fall of 1878 he declined to be a candidate for re-election to Congress. He was in 1879 elected a Representative to the General Assembly from Providence. He was re-elected to that office in 1880, and in 1884 was elected Senator from Providence. Mr. Eames became identified with the Republican party at its first organization. He stood by it through the struggle for national life, and has always been a firm supporter of its principles and policy. He was married in War-
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wick, R. I., May 9, 1849, to Laura S. Chapin, daughter of Josiah and Asenath (Capron) Chapin ; his wife died October 1, 1872. Of four children, two died in infancy ; his son Waldo C., a graduate of Yale, class of 1881, died August 20, 1894; his daughter, Laura Chapin Eames, is living.
ELY, JOSEPH CADY, attorney-at-law, Providence, was born in Providence, March 24, 1849, the son of Dr. James W. C. and Susan (Backus) Ely. The record of his ancestry will be found in the sketch of
J. C. ELY.
Dr. J. W. C. Ely. He received his early education in the grammar and high schools of Providence. He entered Brown University and graduated in the class of 1870 with the degree of A. B. He then entered the Harvard Law School and graduated in 1872 with the degree of LL. B. He was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in December 1872. He entered the office of James Tillinghast as an assist- ant, and in 1874 formed a partnership with him, which continued until 1883, since which time he he has practiced law alone. The specialty of his practice is equity, real estate, conveyancing and consultation. In 1890 he was appointed member of a commission to revise the laws of Rhode Island
under a statute directing revision and compilation, and whose work has been to reform the judicial system and practice in all courts, bringing the courts into closer relations, giving more efficient administration, more systematic methods of proce- dure, and speediness in litigation ; to reform the property law and the proceedings in cases of in- solvency ; also to revise the laws as to corporations, property of married women, marriage and divorce, and other matters, a work not heretofore at- tempted in this state. He was a member of the School Committee of Providence in 1885-86. He is a member and ex-President of the Unitarian Club, ex-President of the First Congregational Church Society, President of the Providence Athe- næum and chairman of its library committee. He is Secretary of the Providence Art Institute, and is a member of the American Bar Association. He married, November 6, 1877, Miss Alice Peck ; they have had three children : Alice Louise (deceased), Ruth and Robert B. Ely.
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