USA > Rhode Island > Reminiscences of Rhode Island and ye Providence Plantations > Part 7
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One of the most unique characters who ever lived was Mr. Barnes. He came from Maine to Providence abont 1854, and opened a small store on Sheldon street, first off' Benefit, the store that later was occupied by Mr. George W. Guild. Mr. Barney prospered here, but he was not satisfied. Later he built and occupied a store on Wickenden street, near Brook; in a few years he was gone. He was a remarkable looking man-tall, large and dark. In looks he resembled Daniel Webster; always wore a silk hat, which in summer time was in strange contrast with his shirt sleeves. Somewhere about 1875, after I had come to Washington, I often heard of a Dr. Barnes as a great checker player and dentist. Later, having some trouble with my teeth, I sought this Dr. Barnes, and found him in a small frame house
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on Sixth street S. E. The parlor was small, say 12 x 14. In it was an old-fashioned square piano, on the top of which was a variety of instruments-violin, accordion, guitar, &c. In a few minutes the Doctor entered. After the usual salutation he asked me where I came from. I told him Providence; he replied, " I used to live there." No sooner had he said this than I placed him. Then we had quite a talk. He said he came from Maine ; that he was so troubled with the rheumatism that he decided to get further South, so came to Providence; got better, but in a few years the old trouble came back, so he went to Richmond, Va. He got as far as Washington, where he had to lay over. Wandering about the town he came to a place where lots were being sold; bought one, and opened a store. But, said he, " I always wanted to be something better and higher than a grocer- man, so I concluded to study dentistry. I went to Baltimore and studied there two weeks; then I came back and put out my sign as deutist. When a man goes to a new place it is always well for him to belong to some church, so I looked them all over, and came to the conclusion that the Methodist Church was the strongest here. I concluded to become a Methodist. I pros- pered; but later my old complaint returned, so I decided to go to Texas. I went to Philadelphia to see my son, who was a car driver there. I brought him to Washington, and in twenty- four hours taught him all that it took me two weeks to learn." Dr. Barnes was in Texas some three years or so. When he came back the son would not relinquish the business, so the old mau took a house near by and reopened his office. The two were competitors for the patronage of the public; they pulled teeth for ten cents apiece. Seeing all the musical instruments, I asked the Doctor why he had so many. " That is to accommodate the publie, my patrons. For example, the other day a lady came' in; she was a little nervous. So said I, ' Madam, sit down awhile. I took up my violin and played some soothing' tune. In a few minutes she was quiet, and readily went to the operating room. The Doctor is now dead. I wondered how he came to have such a free and easy air, but when he told me that for three years he was in Europe with an American circus I no longer wondered. He was a most courteous gentleman, polite to all, a fine checker player, and could play on most any kind of musical instrument.
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Such a man was Dr. Barnes. The world does not produce many like him.
The old Stone Mill at Newport has always been a matter of great interest. When built, no one knows. That it was a mill has even been questioned. But one familiar with the old mills of Holland will not question this mill. The upper part, which was of wood, is gone two centuries or more, but the old stonework remains, and it is most artistic. I do not suppose that the builders when they erected it though of it in this light, but it is most artistic.
During the war boxes were sent to the soldiers at Thanksgiv- ing time. Small soap boxes were generally used for that purpose. They contained a cooked turkey, cakes, a few odds and ends, per- haps a pair or two of socks. Soldiers who liked liquor would get their folks at home to put in a flask of whiskey, but it was use- less, for all the men who drank were known and their boxes opened and the whiskey confiscated.
In the fall of 1867 there came to the Rhode Island camps an old Quaker gentleman. His object was to secure the names of the soldiers, and as much of their ancestry as they were possible to tell. Whatever became of this gentleman and his work I do not know.
The Tingley Brothers' stoneworks, in their days, say from 1850 to 1870, were the largest in the city. At their upper place, on the same square with the old Joseph R. Brown place, they did the lighter work-headstones, mantels, &c .; at the lower place the heavy stonework. Mr. Edward Tingley was the oldest brother and the head of the firm. He was a fine aud rapid artist in letter- ing. Mr. Charles Henningway worked there, and became quite a sculptor; later he open a studio of his own, where he made busts of such men as he could get to employ him. But he was not a success. He was too much after the old ways, liked leisure, would work, even work hard at times, but hupractical. He was sober, but too much of the ideal artist.
In 1849, when so many were going to California, on South Main street, just above James, was a large grocery store, kept by Mr. Woodward. His son Robert went to California in one of the sailing vessels that went around the Horn. At San Francisco, instead of going to the mines, he opened a place for refreshments,
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which later became known as "Woodward's Garden," a place that became quite famous.
In Supplement No. 1, I spoke of Mr. John Potter Sherman, always spoken of as Potter Sherman. His son, John P. junior, survives him, and runs the old farm. " Farmer John," as he is sometimes called, has been prosperous, and made the old farm pay. In the winter he does considerable fishing, largely in cels, which he sends to the New York market. Two years ago be dug a canal from the West to the East Pond. It has proved a great success, reducing the grass in the West Pond, and made a way for the fish. In olden times oysters used to be plentiful in the " salt pond." " Farmer John's" canal has been beneficial to the oyster growth, as oysters flourish in moving waters.
The Sonth County Fair was a good thing for that part of the State. In 1870, and later, Mr. William HI. Sheldon was quite prominent there as a judge of butter, cheese, &e. Old Mrs. Sherman, the wife of J. Potter, was always on hand during fair week.
One of the jokes, some fifty years ago, in the large machine shops was, when a man came in and inquired for Mr. Smith, they would send him on a tom-fool walk through the shop. "He has just gone out in the boiler shop." When he got there the man " had just gone up into the patternmakers' department." And so they sent him all over the shop. It was a great joke in those days.
In Providence they have always had good and peculiar barber shops, at least two kinds, one to catch the transient customers, the other quite indifferent to the transient customers. The sec- ond are generally upstairs, with a quiet sign. The customers at these places are regular. One of these barbers was William H. McCormick. He was a good barber ; would have nothing to do with anything new, such as clippers. His customers were the old citizens. A new man in town would not be apt to find his place, unless introduced by a friend who knew Mr. MeCormick.
There was Peter Grinnell, who kept a hardware shop on the west side of South Main street, just below Balch's drug store.
Down town, in the old Third Ward, on Wickenden street, op- posite the Tool Company's works, Mr. Benjamin Bailey kept an
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old-fashioned drug store. One part was a drug store; in the other he sold dry goods, needles, threads, &c.
Transit street is a queer name. It is said to have received it from the fact that some years ago a transit of one of the heavenly bodies was observed from this meridian.
Before the war students from the South used to come to Brown University. Providence and Newport were favorite places for the families of the South to come.
Soon after the war the meat business of the country took a new departure. Prior thereto the drover was prominent everywhere. Drovers from Providence would go to Albany, buy their cattle, drive them home, and slaughter them in Providence. The Messrs. Comstock very soon took interest in the Chicago beef that was shipped East. They made money by it, and to- day the firm is well established. Mr. Charles H. Moore was one of the drovers. Some men are so constituted that they can- not enter into anything new. Mr. Moore was of this nature. Ile tried to continue the old plan, but the odds wore against him, so he put his money into real estate, and thereby made a good living, but nothing like what he would have had had he done the same as the Comstocks.
A number of times I saw Miss Helen Whitman in Mr. John Arnold's studio. Mr. Arnold painted her portrait, and it was one of his best works. He always claimed that a good subject would produce the best work.
In his day John L. Noyes was quite a prominent man. For years he was cashier of the Mechanics' Bank on North Main street. In those days the most of the banks, all that I remem- ber, were up one flight of stairs; to-day many are on the first floor, where they are more accessible.
Mary Grey came from Vermont to Providence. She had been at a boarding school somewhere in Massachusetts. There she fell in with a man by the name of Briggs, quite a number of years her senior. She had a remarkable experience. She first married this Mr. Briggs ; from him she got a divorce. For some years she remained single. During this time she was the head of the Employment. Store, then in the Areade. Later she married a Mr. Carpenter, an old man who wanted a companion, one to whom he was not only willing, but desirous, to leave his
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little property. He was not expected to live long ; it was well known. In a few years he died, leaving her his money. She was now a widow, and again in the Employment Store as head. She was a woman of tact, having good executive ability. Through her second husband she got acquainted with Mr. Aldrich, a manufacturer in the southern part of the State, at Wood's Junction. After the third marriage she lived about ten or twelve years. She was a remarkable woman.
The fifties was a remarkable period for a variety of things. There were the Swiss bell ringers, the bells making a variety of tunes. There was the caliope about 1858, on the Worcester locomotives and on one of the Bay steamers. There was also the glassblowers, who made all sorts of things with glass, even to glass pens, making ornaments that imitated silk, &c.
In our grandfathers' day of some men they would say: "He can't get over the bridge." " Why?" "Because his coat don't cover his hinder parts." So there was humor in the old folks ; they could be humorous and gay as well as sober and carnest.
Before the war the old rolling mill was one of the prominent industries of the city. Here I learned all about the process of handling iron, from the "pig" and "old junk " to nails and railroad iron. At first the iron from the " pig " was treated by a set of shears, much resembling a crocodile, and called eroco- dile shears, but later some man invented a different machine. The ball of hot pig was introduced between a large eccentric wheel and a stationary holder. As the wheel turned it turned the mass of half molten pig iron, then a hammer from the side played upon the end. This reduced the unshapely mass to a cylinder about six inches in diameter and some sixteen inches long. From this point it was sent to the rollers, where it was rolled into sheets sixteen inches by four or five feet. After cool- ing these sheets were ent into varions widths, according to the length of the nails that were desired.
The firm of Shepard & Pierce was an unique company. The two men were quite unlike, yet they got along very well together. Dr. Shepard was a man more of theory, a fine chemist and photo- grapher ; Mr. Pierce a steady man of business, practical in every part, who cared little for society or dress, always dressing well, but more for comfort than style. Dr. Shepard was the exquisite
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gentleman. Having married into the Goddard family, and liv- ing in Prospect street, he was prominent in the old and elegant society of Providence. Every one knew where their works were, by the tall chinmey over by the State's Prison. Mr. Pierce took much interest in horticulture. He bought a small place in East Providence, on the shore of the Bay, near where used to be "('rosses'." Here he had a fine greenhouse, where he raised choice grapes. One year he raised a single bunch of grapes that weighed eighteen pounds. It was larger than a peck measure. Mr. Leavitt, the artist, painted it. What has become of the picture I do not know. It should be preserved in the cabinet of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
While on the South County I should have mentioned a few characters of interest. There was Hazel Noyes, father of Dr. Robert F. Meeting him one day he made a remark about some- thing not being any more desirable than a horse with two tails. I replied that two tails in flytime would be quite convenient for the horse.
In the South County there was an odd character by the name of Nathan. Nathan what? I do not know. He was of the tramp order. During the colder months he made his headquarters at the Kingston Jail. When it got warm he would go off' some- where, sleep in barns, steal and beg. When it got too cold to stop out he would come to the jail. They would hear a faint knock. " Who's there?" In a very quiet, subdued voice would come the reply, "It's me-it's Nathan."
In July, 1853, I went down to the old farm by the pond, the first pond you see after leaving Kingston station, generally called the " Larkin Pond." Just before midnight some three or four young men gathered at the farm. Why they should have come from the hill, a distance of two miles, I do not know, but they did, and we all, some half dozen of us, walked up to the hill or village. All but me had a gun. Arrangements had been made with some other young men to get the keys of the church and the schoolhouse. At low twelve we were in the village street. The guns were fired and the bells rung. At first the citizens knew not what to make of it, but soon it came to them that it was the Fourth of July. I do not believe that the hill ever before or since has had such an awakening on the Fourth.
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Mr. Howard, the man who built Howard's Block and the Providence Theatre, in his day was one of the prominent busi- ness men of Providence. He dealt in furniture. He frequently went on to New York to buy, where he bought large lots. One day he went into a large wholesale place there, and, walking through the establishment, saw a pile of furniture-chairs, I think. He looked at it for a number of minutes, then made an offer for the whole; but the parties would not sell that way- they must count every piece. The theatre that Mr. Howard built next east of the Howard Block, as well as the Howard Block Hall, was on the third floor. Think of going up two flights of stairs to reach the main floor of a theatre, or the hall ! People would not do it to-day. There were no elevators in those days. At this theatre, about 1854, came the Pine and Harrison opera troupe from London. It was the first opera I ever heard, and was about the first, if not the first, English opera in America. But even in English you cannot understand the words very well, so it does not matter much what the language is. It is the action that speaks, while the music interests and is soothing to the car. The only opera of this trompe that I remember is Fra Diavolo.
Gorham's silver works have grown since the days of Jabez Gorham. They then were on North Main street, opposite the First Baptist Church. They expanded. The old gentleman, the founder, died, and his son John took his place. The place con- tinned to grow, and took in more buildings. John was artistic. Ile loved to go to Europe, in order to buy fine works of art. What has become of him I do not know. He is out of the firm, and others run the business. Of late years the firm built a fine plant, on the Stonington road near Auburn.
When I came home from the war, in 1865, I found the " High Church" movement quite prominent. Its headquarters was the new St. Stephen's Church, then presided over by the Rev. Henry Waterman, the son of Resolved Waterman. At first I entered into the spirit of it. Mr. Lyman Klapp, the man so prominent. in the Union Oil Company, was the leading member of the church. To me he was like an elder brother-about fifteen years older than I. A most zealous man, one with the spirit of Hilderbrand. In a few years, however, I got my eyes open. There is no progress in the " High Church " idea. It is from
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medieval days, being transplanted in the twentieth century. There is much sentiment about it, and withal very artistic, but not practical. So I left it-not only renouncing it, but de- nounced it. This was quite an independent step for a poor young man to take, especially when his business, that of archi- tect, largely depended upon the men who controlled this move- ment. All the while I had my office in Providence, four and a half years, none of these men came near me, not even Lyman Klapp. Yet when they saw where I was going, that I was re- nouneing this " High Church," and commencing in a quiet way to denounce it, they had Bishop Clarke preach a sermon in St. Stephen's. In that sermon he said : " If he will only return all will be right." What a confession on their part! If it proved anything, it proved that they had not been kind toward a zealous brother. Return ? No; not for all that was in their power to bestow. One of the prominent members called on me. I went with him to the church, up to the roof of the chapel, which needed repairing. The pinnacles were in sight, but I did not climb up them. I remained on the roof. I gave my advice free. No bill was presented, nor was I ever asked to present it. This was in 1869. Two years later I closed my office in the old Franklin House and went to Washington, D. C. My office rent was $15 per month. Mr. William M. Bailey was the agent for the Potter estate that owned the building. Mr. Bailey was generally regarded as a very sharp man, and rather hard if any- thing. Yet when I came to settle, without any demurrer, he took the half month's pay. I appreciated this kind aet, so different from the St. Stephen's Church folks. Mr. Bailey carried himself with a very military air. Of late years I learned from some source that when a young man he was at West Point. If so, that will account for his very erect carriage.
In the first supplement I referred to the Pecks, who lived on Arnold street. The boys are all dead ; Mary is dead. Mrs. Peek and her younger daughter Ella live at Longbeach, Cal. The place where they are was selected because it reminded Mrs. Peck so much of her early Nantucket home.
During the war one of the lieutenants of Battery HI was Mi. Horton. He was a brave man in action: not only brave, but had good sense, and kept his wits about him. The people of
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Rhode Island must not foreget Captain Crawford Allen, who, from August, 1863, until the end, in 1865, commanded Battery HI, First Rhode Island Light Artillery. It was through him that Battery HI, at Appomattox, fired the first guns for peace, a gun for every State in the Union. This act, in itself, was an argu- ment against secession.
When the war broke out Thomas T. MeKensey Daniels was a dranghtsman in what was then Thurston-Green's machine shop. Robert HI. Thurston and Mr. Daniels both enlisted as assistant engineers. Mr. Daniels was so well thought of, being a practical as well as a theoretical engineer, that he was the most of the time detailed to superintend the construction of the monitors. Near the close of the war he resigned and went to California. He married my second sister, Sarah Bolles Noyes; she went with him to California. The project in which he was interested failed, so my sister had to go to teaching school. For twenty years she was principal of one of the largest schools in San Francisco. Later my brother-in-law became foreman of a miscellaneous repair shop.
When Battery H, First Rhode Island Light Artillery, was organized it was rendezvoused at Camp Mauran, on the borders of Marshpangue Pond. This was an ideal camp. At times we took exercise by going to the city. , We took part in the cere- monies of the funeral of General John P. Rodman. The section that I was with fired minute guns as the procession was passing.
One of the novel sights in Providence, before the war, and even later, was the Sprague tandem team of six noble stallions. There was nothing like it in the country, if in the world. Stal- lions are supposed to be unruly, but these were as tame and as easily managed as an ox team.
In 1865, when I came home from the war, the bicycle was being introduced. The hall upstairs in the old station was con- verted into a school, where nightly crowds went to learn to ride and to observe the riders. The early machine was a clumsy affair, and even dangerous, beside the safety pattern introduced about 1890. The wheels were large, and after the model of a carriage wheel. Later came the very large wheel, as large as the old racing gig wheel, with a very small wheel behind, about sixteen inches high. Still later came the reverse of this, with the
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small wheel in front. Following the rude wheel came the modern wheel, made of steel wires; instead of the support coming from the hub, it came from the tire. I suggested this wheel before it had made its appearance. Why not have had it patented? may be asked. For various reasons. I have had some experience in applying for patents. If a man has anything of value, sharks who hang around the Patent Office, and around him, if they have any suspicion that he is an inventor, will be on the watch. They will simply steal it, and have the audacity to claim it as their own. I invented this wheel. I communicated the idea to a man whom I had known for some time. He said nothing, but I think that he applied for a patent and got it. He soon retired from business and apparently did nothing. He is now dead.
Mr. James Edwards was an able, yet peculiar, man. He was a machinist, but looked more like a doctor or minister than like the man he was. He was a student, somewhat of an inventor, earnest, true and reliable, yet withal impractical. He had as fine a woman for a wife as any man ever had-a cultured woman, fine singer. A most lovable woman was Susan Edwards. She delighted in reading first-class novels ; he abominated all novels. Heavy reading, works on science and mechanics-these, too, he wanted his wife to read. Ridiculous! He wanted his wife to be both a gentlewoman and a deep student of heavy works. Absurd ! No wonder that these two people grew apart, and in about ten years there was a divorce. Later Mrs. Edwards mar- ried a more genial and practical man.
Another man, in lower life, was Mr. David Honghton, a teamer. Like all the men of his day and vocation, he wore the long tunic like butchers wear to-day, and like what we see in old English prints, back in the medieval days.
Then there was another subject that well recalls the progress of the world. That is postage and all connected with it. Up to my early years, say ten, there had been no material change for centuries. There was no envelope. The old people wrote on (marter sheets, and so folded the paper as to have a plain side ont, upon which was the direction. These letters were always sealed with red sealing wax. Postage in those days was expen- sive-twenty-five cents for a letter ! The postage stamp came later. The first stamps had to be cut apart ; there were no per-
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forations, whereby to make separation easy. In those days, in the fifties, you could prepay or not, as you saw fit, and the amount of mail passing through the post office was very small. Few people of to-day realize the convenience of living now com- pared with even a half a century ago. The postal card was in- trodneed in the seventies. A gentleman in Providence, thinking to surprise his family, sent one to the house, expecting to see it. there when he came home. When he got home, it was not there. The next morning he found it in his post-office box. So he did not surprise his wife and family.
When I came home in June, 1865, the Rhode Island Hospital had been commenced; the outer buildings were erected. I re- turned to Mr. Morse, architect; I made all the drawings of the hospital. The most of them had to be made over four or five times; there was one set to be retained in the office, one to the carpenter, one to the mason, one to the stonecutter, one to be sent away to the 'parry where the voussoirs or archstones were made ; then a general set for the contractor, to be kept at the works for con- sultation.
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