USA > Rhode Island > Reminiscences of Rhode Island and ye Providence Plantations > Part 4
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Essex is now dead. What a lesson is his life for the young man! In the southern part of the State there was another man with a similar experience, Elisha Clark, though he did better than Essex. He secured a fine practice ; was William Sprague's attorney. When the farmers of the South County got in trouble it was, "Hitch up, and see who will reach Elisha Clark first." But liquor got the best of Elisha, and he succumbed to the mon- ster rum. What a theme for the temperance orator! Both of these men were highly gifted, and one, Essex, was a fine orator.
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The fifties were remarkable for the events that took place around Providence. Daniel Sickels was a first-class inventor. He invented the cut-off. Thurston & Green, then the style of the firm that is now the Providence Steam Engine Company, bought the Sickels patent. George H. Corliss invented a cut-off, too. It was simply an infringement upon the Sickels invention. In the name of Sickels the Providence Engine Company sued Mr. Corliss. He employed the first lawyer of the country, William HI. Seward, and won; Mr. Sickels was left out in the cold. So it has been with many an invention. The man whose name goes with the invention oftentimes is not the inventor. Many a man, who would not steal your purse, will, without conscience, steal your invention. It is no wonder that poor inventors hang about the Patent Office and get the credit for being insane on this point.
The passing generation well remember the old ferries-the one at the foot of Janes street, and the other at Hill's Wharf. The boats were double enders, and some twenty feet long ; seats all around. The ferryman stood up, about one-third way from the bow, and crossed and pushed the oars. These boats, morning and night, when the crowds were the greatest, would go loaded to within two or three inches of the water's edge. The fare was two cents. The ferrymen were Dotey and Croty. What their last names, or their true names, were I know not. These were evidently nicknames.
A unique and wonderful woman was Miss Elizabeth Bowen. In her younger days she was of one of the F. F.'s of Providence. Her people owned the old Jenkins house, and there she lived. She had a brother, Henry. He ran through with the property, and in her declining years she was left destitute. In the fall of 1849 Mr. Samuel Douglas, the father of the present Chief Justice, was then chaplain of the State Prison and superintendent of the town charities. He put Miss Bowen to board with Mrs. J. U. Noyes, then 344 Benefit street. Miss Bowen was tall and very thin, dressed always in black, with small white dots. For six years she never went out of the house, with the exception of going into the back yard. She was a remarkable woman. She was an intense Whig, and could talk "protection " with any one. She wore a white turban, like a Turk. In religion she was an Episcopalian. She lived to be about seventy-six.
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We of those days remember old Zachariah Taylor, with his ruffled shirts.
In those days Mr. Burgess, who afterwards became Mayor, was on a lark. Very early one morning, before sun-up, he was dis- covered under the porch of the First Baptist Church, singing:
" When I can read my title clear To mansions in the skies,
I'll bid farewell to pork and beans And live on pigeon pies, And live on pigeon pies. I'll bid farewell to pork and beans, And live on pigeon pies. O, that will be joyful, joyful, joyful, O, that will be joyful, to live on pigeon pies."
Some time in the forties the American Serew Company began to come to the front. For a long time there were no dividends and the stock was a drug on the market ; men who held it parted with it for very little. But after a while it came up, and became one of the most valuable stocks in the country. Albert G. Angell, for years, was the president of this company. With such a man at its head it must prove a success.
One of the queer characters of Providence was John B. Chase, who kept a grocery store under the Brown & Ives office, on South Main street. Mr. Taylor came to Providence to take a position in Brown & Ives office. He arrived early and took a walk down South Main street. Meeting Mr. Chase, he inquired of him where was the office of Brown & Ives. "I have the honor to be the good Episcopal foundation of the house of Brown & Ives."
Providence, in the fifties, had two remarkable architects- Thomas left and Alpheus C. Morse. Mr. Teft was the designer of the celebrated railroad station, so recently taken down to make room for the present railroad station. He was also architect of many fine buildings in Providence. When he had reached the highest rank of his profession he went abroad, and died in 1859 at Florence. Old Mr. James C. Bucklin was as a father to him and assisted him in many ways. He was architect of the Watch- cheer Building, the Paris Hill house on Washington street, and many residences and churches. Mr. Morse came to Providence about 1854. He designed the Thomas Hoppin house on Benefit street. He married Miss Pierce, the sister of Edmund D. Pierce.
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For many years he prospered, and would have prospered to the end had he been practical. His designs were all chaste and classical. For a few years he was in partnership with Mr. Clifton Hall ; ther, later, in 1859, for about two years, Mr. Alfred Stone was his partner. But Mr. Morse could not get along with any one ; he must be by himself ; a practical man as a partner annoyed him. Besides being an architect, he was a first-class crayon portrait artist.
Another prominent character was the Unitarian minister, Rev. Dr. Hall, of Hall's Church, on Benefit street, corner of Benev- olent.
In most cities the movement is toward the west, and for some years this was the case in Providence, but shortly after the war the movement changed toward the east. What brought this about was the cable road up College Hill.
The doctors of Providence were the peers of those elsewhere. There was old Dr. Parsons, who was with Perry on Lake Erie. I only speak of those whom I knew. There were others, worthy men, but I was not familiar with them. There were Drs. Ca- pron, Peckham, Ely ; Dr. Okie, the homopathic doctor; Dr. Armington, of the old Third Ward, whose office was on Wieken- dam street near Benefit. Young Dr. Okie, son of the elder Okie, was a very promising doctor. He had good practical ideas. Ilis treatment was of a practical nature, coming under the head of preventive medicine. He removed to Boston, flourished for a few years, and died comparatively a young man. The Winans, of Baltimore, thought so much of him that they took him to Europe with them, and one winter he lived with them in Balti- more.
"Scup's come !" was in those early days a well known cry. Clams were peddled about the streets. "Blow your horn if you don't sell a clam !" Frost fish were then common in the river. Under almost every wharf was a frost fish pot, and in the morn- ing it was full. But the filthy condition of Providence River drove those fish away, so they are now no longer seen and caught there.
Before the war there were no regular towboats. The river steamers would at times be called upon to tow large vessels up the bay. The What Cheer was built for a towboat. After a season
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or two, mostly at Newport, she was lengthened and made into a regular passenger boat.
In the fifties the boys had small fire engines. The Second Ward boys had a very fine one. The Third Ward boys got one. It was a cheap affair beside the other; its works were of tin, but it had a large chamber. Saturdays the boys would get to- gether and have a "squirt." The Second Ward engine, on the outside, was larger and finer, but the old Third Ward engine had the inside works ; and then there was more spirit in the Third Ward boys-their machine beat.
In the fifties Mr. Crawford Allen was quite a figure. Young Crawford, the son, had a small sailboat of his own. Mr. Allen was a prominent member of the firm that ran the Calico Printing Works, at the north end. His relative, Zachariah Allen, was not only a business man, but was a fine scientific man, and is the anthor of a fine work on physics.
Albert F. Allen-no relative of these Allens-was a sergeant in Battery H, First Rhode Island Light Artillery, during the War for the Union. When he came home, he became inventor of fire engine supplies, and for some years was flourishing. He went to New York on business ; returning, he lost his life in the steam- boat train wreck near Richmond.
As has been remarked, Providence became a great coal market. Mr. Joseph Hodges, in those days, in the fifties, was the most prominent dealer. At his yard the mine-broke coal was first in- troduced ; also the sawing and splitting of wood by machinery. In those days there was a large force of men with small hammers, handles like a pick. Coal then came in large chunks, some in cubes of a foot. Some people objected to the mine-broke and demanded yard-broke, and were willing to pay extra for it.
"Gray Trouble " was a fast horse of his day ; he was owned in Providence. There was " Honest John," owned by Mr. Cran- dall. Mr. Peleg S. Sherman always bought old race horses ; some of them were very fast. In those days Mr. Jacob Morgan, who lived on the southeast corner of Benefit and Sheldon, kept a livery stable, and Mr. John Brown, his neighbor on Sheldon street, was a large teamster. Mr. Lake was a teamster ; had an old-fashioned truck, and hauled for the South Water street mer- chants. Mr. Green, who lived on Transit street, corner of Mo- hawk alley, was a prominent citizen of the Third Ward. Mr.
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Crocker kept a little store on the corner of Thayer and Transit. Opposite was Mr. Luther, the plumber, and his neighbor was Mrs. Thayer, a widow, with a handsome son and daughter, William and Scora.
Prominent in politics was Major Pirce. The Major was a fine stump orator. In Senator Anthony's time he was prominent in the Republican politics of Rhode Island, but after Anthony's death the Journal folks became unfriendly to him. He ran for Congress, was elected, but they worked up a case against him, and after serving two years in the national House at Washington he was ousted, and a Democrat put in his place. In one of his speeches the Major told a good story of a man who came to Providence many years ago. He was a man whom no one liked, and when he left all were glad. One of the gifted speakers of that day described this man after this manner: "He came amongst us uninvited, and on his departure there was no restraint."
When President Wayland came to Providence one of his duties was to preach in the First Baptist Church. He was uncertain as to whether he could fill the large church, so he got a nephew to go up into the farther gallery. If he could not hear his uncle, he was to raise his handkerchief. He kept on raising his handkerchief until the minister, it was said, was holloaing like a loon and was very red in the face. It was thought that the nephew put up a practical joke upon his unele.
In those days, when Dr. Wayland was President of Brown, a student took a keg of beer up to his room. This was against the rules of the college. Dr. Wayland, hearing of it, called the young student to his office, and enquired about it. The student admitted it; said that he was not well, so the doctor had prescribed beer. Accordingly, he got a keg of beer and took it to his room. "Have you derived any benefit from it?" "I think so, doctor. When I took it to my room I could hardly lift it, now I can lift it with ease." It is not related what reply the Doctor made to this. He discovered in the student a germ of smartness.
Professor Chase was prominent ; for a while was President of Brown. He was also a school committeeman, and would visit the schools and talk fine to the scholars. In 1874 I was at the dedication of the new high school, on Summer street. George I. Chase was billed to speak. While I knew the man, I conld
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not see him on the platform. But when he arose to speak I rec- ognized the voice. He had been to Europe, and while there had grown a full beard; prior thereto he was always clean shaven.
The Rhodes family down town were queer people-Gus Rhodes and his sister Mary, always called Moll. She dressed herself up in men's clothes, and shipped aboard of a vessel. They had a queer story about her being a forty-gun frigate, &c. I should not care to repeat it here.
Professor John Pierce was a kind and able man. He per- fected the telephone, but received no credit for it. He is now dead.
Rev. James Eames, the brother of the Hon. Benjamin Eames, was a devout, genial and able Episcopal minister. He was pastor of the old St. Stephen's Church, on Benefit, corner of Transit. This church now goes by another name. His wife was an accom- plished writer.
A queer character in Providence was the Rev. James Cook Richmond, an Episcopal minister. He had no church, or rather was unable to hold one for any length of time. He did mission work, and preached in the various churches. By the Rev. Henry Waterman he was often invited to preach in old St. Stephen's. He was called to a church in Newport, but his stay there was short. One Sunday he took for his text, " The poor shall have the Gospel preached to them." Looking over the church he said, " Where is the place for the poor here ?" His stay at the church was short. He was a great European traveller. At Vienna he met a young man who was about to graduate from the church seminary. He had a thesis on the immortality of the soul. Turning to Mr. Richmond, he said, " You are not such a fool as to believe in the immortality of the soul, are you ?" Richmond replied, " I will not be so big a fool as to come and hear you." He had high ideas of the ministry, and often said that it was the most noble and highest calling on earth. In the winters he fre- quently gave lectures on his European travels. He was a most learned man and a pleasant lecturer. He was charged with being insane, and for a number of months was in the Butler Asylum. Ilis last charge was a small church up the Hudson. In his neigh- borhood was a family with a bad reputation. He called the girl of the family a "strumpet;" for this the father and brother waylaid and beat him so unmercifully that he soon died. Thus
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went out the light of one of the grandest and most fearless men that ever lived. He did some good in the world. But for his cecen- tric nature he might have done more good, and had an influence that would have been far reaching. But he was James Cook Richmond. He did not look like a sensational man, but he was, and this peculiarity killed this influence, and was the cause of his death.
George B. Jastram, the father of Pardon, was a prominent citizen of the Third Ward. He was a school committeeman. He failed in business, then went to Colorado, where he died; as did also his wife, a most estimable lady.
One of the smart school boys was Frank Cooley, who lived for some years with his uncle Mr. Jastram. Frank was a perfect story-book boy, in education and culture far above most of the boys of his day ; but he ceased to grow after he was sixteen. He knew Latin, some Greek, and was a graceful speaker; but for all this proficiency he was not a success in life. He died young- when he had only by a few years passed the thirty-year mark. Liquor was the cause of his non-success. Like Essex and Clark, his talents were stultified by liquor. Oliver H. Washburn was a different sort of man. He came to Providence about 1856, and was made president of the rolling mill company.
I must not neglect "Ned McGowan." He was a faithful watchman for the rolling mill.
In 1815 we had the September gale; in 1868 it was repeated. Fearful havoe was made by these gales. The water was above the wharves ; trees were torn down, and just east of the city the tornado mowed a path through the woods which, at a little dis- tance, looked like a well-laid out road.
Prior to 1860, on the east side, about two-thirds way up the hill on Wiekenden street, was a Chinese pagoda. At this pagoda on Fourth of July fireworks used to be fired.
About 1854 Mr. Barnum brought a Chinese junk to Provi- dence. It was located at Foxpoint wharf, and an admission fee to go aboard was charged. Many boys got aboard without paying, by crawling in through the rudder-post hole. Why the Chinese make this rudder-post hole so large, I do not know. In running before the wind in a heavy sea meh water must be shipped through this large hole --- a hole as large as a barrel. Perhaps the idea of this large rudder-post hole is to keep the
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Chinese seamen near land, the government not wanting them to wander far out to sea for fear they may learn something it does not want them to know, this being one of the devices to keep the populace from learning much about the outside world. Did the Chinese know more about the outside world, it would be better for them. It is in harmony with her having no rail- roads or modern improvements. These things all go together, and are the means of keeping the people ignorant. In the long run the upper classes suffer as well as the low and ignorant.
On Wickenden street, near Hope, was Mr. Thomas Holland's house. Mr. Holland was a black man, intensely so, a prosperous stevedore, and carried on an extensive business. He was a very large man, weighing probably two hundred pounds or more. He had one daughter, a fine and ladylike woman. It is said that Tom, as he was familiarly called, would give any white man twenty-five thousand dollars to marry the daughter. People also said that Tom would be willing to be skinned alive if he could only be white. Some years later he sold out in Providence, and went to Liberia.
Prior to 1856 cottonseed was a nuisance to the Southern planter. About this time a process was invented by which the seed could be hulled and converted into oil. It makes a fine oil, equal to olive oil. When it was first put upon the market it sold for olive oil, but after its reputation was established it was sold under its true name.
About 1854 a new model sled appeared. It was called the Clipper. It was long, and there were no nails or screws in the irons, from front to back. The irons were secured at the front and the back, so there was little friction. The wealthy Second Ward boys were the first to have them.
In the fifties there were two prominent dancing masters. They had halls in a building on South Main street, a large brick building, on the west side, about a square below College street. To Mr. Capron's school went the more quiet and conservative class. Mr. Alexander Eddy was the Beau Brummel of Provi- dence. It was amusing to see him on the street-always in full dress, a tall, handsome man. The class that attended his school were the elite of Providence. He taught all sorts of dances. The german had not then been introduced. The most attractive dance to me was the Spanish dance, and a pretty dance it was.
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The couples formed in a circle about the room, couples facing each other; forward and back; take hold of hands; crossing each other; then waltz around, the couples going in opposite directions, in each case couple number one going to the position of number two. The dance was continued until each couple came around to the starting point.
A few doors below the dancing school was Louis Louisson's clothing bazaar. He was about the first Jew to start such a store in Providence. It was sensational, and quite unlike any store prior thereto in Providence.
In the summer of 1870 I was aboard the steamer Perry, coming from Newport. The Eagle's Wing, a steamer about the size of the Perry, came from outside, from New Bedford; she was to take excursionists the next day to New Bedford. The boats met just north of the Breakwater. At this time both boats were carrying their normal steam. The Perry was slowly working ahead, and they were pretty evenly matched. When we got up by Sandy Point, the Perry was some lengths ahead. Very black smoke was seen to issue from the smokestack of the Eagle's Wing. This indicated that they were firing up with more combustible material. She gained on the Perry, and passed her. By the time we were abreast of Canimicut the Eagle's Wing was some lengths ahead. Now the Perry began to use wood ; the black smoke began to roll out of her stack. Steadily we gained on the Wing ; when off Pautuxet beacon the boats were about abreast, the Perry steadily gaining. Then fire was seen to come from her rival. About this time there were few boats on the bay, but in a very short time the water was thick with them. Where did they all come from ? They appeared as if by magic. Then a river steamer was going down. The Perry was stopped, and boats were sent out. No one was lost from the Wing. The stewardess was about the last person to be rescued. She had re- treated from the flames, towards the aft part of the boat, and it was from here that she was rescued. The Eagle's Wing proved a total loss.
On the Fourth of July, 1865, the people of Providence saw something new in the way of a Fourth of July procession. It was the "Antiques and Horribles." There was plenty of the antique, but nothing of the horrible ; humorous would have been a more appropriate term. There were all sorts of queer cos-
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tumes, like a Mardi Gras ; some on foot, some on horse, some on wheels-all sorts of queer regalia, all sorts of colors ; the variety was great. It produced a great deal of amusement.
Mr. Lindsley kept a small store on the corner of Wickenden street and Bridge. He made cigars. His trade was all retail, and the boys patronized him. He made light cinnamon cigars, which he sold for a cent apiece. These were the cigars that the boys of those days learned to smoke-their initiation in smoking. To-day the boys commence with cigarettes, but I think the Linds- ley's cinnamon cigars were preferable to the cigarette. About 1855 or '56 Mr. Lindsley's daughter was riding with Mr. Hodges in an old fashioned shay, when, in turning the corner from Sheldon street to Benefit, they ran into the lamp post, throwing Miss Linds- ley out, and killing her.
William Martin was an unique character. He was familiarly called Billy.
"Iligh Billy Martin, tip toe fine, Couldn't find a wife to suit his mind."
William Martin was a gentleman. He drove a market wagon. When the stores began to deliver goods no royal coachman sat on his box in a grander style than Martin. He was always well dressed, polite and kind.
Some time in the thirties Mr. Samuel M. Noyes went out to Cuba, going into business with his father's cousin, William Jenekes, who was also from Providence. For some years he was a commission merchant in Matanzas, then bought coffee and sugar plantations, as Mr. Jenckes had done before him. This brought out to Cuba quite a colony of Rhode Islanders. Among them was my aunt, Eliza Updyke Boone. While she was there she saw two negro insurrections. After she returned to the States, when on the South Kingston farm, of an evening, she would en- tertain her nephews and nieces by telling them about these slave insurrections.
Amos C. Barstow was a man of whom the citizens of Provi- dence ought to be proud. He was at the head of a large and flourishing stove industry, and became Mayor of Providence. He was a most eloquent man. While he would be classed under the head of a self-made man, he was scholarly and classical, far more so than half of the university men. Would that there were
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more such self-made men! He should have been sent to the United States Senate. About 1875 he was a candidate, he and Nathan F. Dixon. Then the Anthony party, to offset these two worthy men, ran in a soldier. It was popular; the soldier ele- ment was flattered, so General Burnside was made a United States Senator. He was a fine soldier, but a failure as a Senator. He undertook to reply to Roscoe Conkling, and the reply was silly. In a hand to hand fight he might as well have under. taken to attack a Jeffries. Roscoe Conkling was a Jeffries in the Senate, while Burnside was an infant. The simple reason for putting Burnside into the Senate was because Mr. Anthony did not want any man there from Rhode Island who would over- shadow him, and both Dixon and Barstow would have done so. At least, they were his peers in intellect, and were far superior in ability to do good work; they were both fine orators, while Anthony was an indifferent one. He could write well, but he was no orator. He was a courteous gentleman, and served the State well, with the exception of keeping out Amos C. Barstow and Nathan F. Dixon, and putting in the stick Burnside.
John Turner engineered the Burnside forces in the State Legis- lature. John Turner was an able man, a graduate of Brown. While a student he had some controversy with Professor Way- land, He disliked mathematics, and argued the case with the President, as to studying this branch. While mathematics would be of no special use to a lawyer, as a study it was of value, so I think that Mr. Turner made a mistake in this. He married Judge's Blake's niece, and took up his residence in Bristol. For a number of years he was clerk of the House of Representatives of the State. He died in middle life. Had he lived he evi- dently would have had a bright future before him, perhaps the United States Senate. He was an able man, industrious, and of superior common sense, and a good lawyer. In looks he re- sembled Roscoe Conkling.
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