USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. IV > Part 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
Mr. Thompson married, in 1906, Juliet Weaver, a native of Newport, and they became the parents of three children: I. James Whitehill, who died at the age of sixteen years. 2. Dorothy Forbes. 3. Nancy Weaver Thompson.
EVERETT W. ADAMS-Through various activities, as farming, mercantile and industrial, Chief of Police Everett W. Adams has risen to his present office in East Providence. For more than a quarter of a century he has been at the head of the police department of that city, in which he served in subordinate positions previ- ously for ten years. Chief Adams is highly re- garded in the associational bodies of his service in this State, New England and the country at large.
Born in Seekonk, Massachusetts, July 21, 1861, Everett W. Adams is the son of Rufus W. and Samantha L. (Brown) Adams, his father, who was a native of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, was a stonemason until his death; and the mother, who is deceased also, was born in this State. The public schools of East Providence furnished the son and future police chief with his preliminary education, and he finished with a course at Bryant & Stratton's Business College in Provi- dence. From textbooks and classroom he duti- fully returned to the home farm, on which he was engaged profitably as to health and brawn until he was eighteen years old.
He then decided to enter the business world, taking his first position in the employ of the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, with whom he remained four years. His subsequent term of employment was on his own account, as head of a dairy business in East Providence,
477
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
which he managed for fourteen years. Thereafter he was variously engaged until he decided to take up police duty.
In 1894 he began his career as the wearer of a uniform, having been elected a member of the East Providence Police Department in that year. Ten years of faithfully rendered service was re- warded in 1904 with appointment to the chief- tancy of the department, in which he has since continued at the head of the force guarding the peace of the community. His professional affilia- tions are the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Asso- ciation, of which he is a past president; the New England Police Chiefs Association, and the In- ternational Police Chiefs Association. He is a member of the East Providence Business Men's Association and the Craftsman's Club. His poli- tics is of the Republican party. He holds fra- ternal relations with Redwood Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Gibbs Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Calvary Commandery, Knights Tem- plar; and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon. He is a Communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and he has one hobby to which he confesses, and that is athletic diversions of various types.
Chief of Police Adams married, in 1886, Inez W. Wood, a native of East Providence, and their children are: Ethel W., Elizabeth (de- ceased), Ralph E., Frances, and Edith.
HOWARD EDWARDS, Litt. D., LL. D .- During the twenty-four years which the late Dr. Howard Edwards spent at Kingston as the presi- dent of the Rhode Island State College, he not only made for himself an outstanding reputation as an exceptionally able and successful educator and educational administrator, but he also built up this institution, the management of which he had taken over when it was at its lowest ebb, into one of the best and most highly regarded land grant colleges of the country. For this college, to which he gave the best years of his life, he gained national recognition; he greatly increased its en- rollment and its faculty; he secured the perma- nent interest and support of the State Legislature; he won the support and admiration of the people of the State and thus was able to secure the necessary funds to carry out if not all, at least the most important of his plans; and last, but not least, he always maintained the college on the highest possible plane, his own high ideals per-
meating the student body, the faculty and the public attitude towards the college.
Howard Edwards was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, November 7, 1854, the son of Francis Marion and Frances Lawson (Bland) Edwards. Through his mother he was a descendant of Theodoric Bland, a Revolutionary patriot. Fol- lowing the completion of his preliminary educa- tion, he entered Randolph-Macon College, Ash- land, Virginia, from which he received the degree of Master of Arts in 1876. During 1877 and 1878 he was a student at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and later, in 1891-92, he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Meanwhile, however, his professional career was well under way. From 1878 until 1880 he was associate principal of the Bethel Military Academy, Virginia, and from 1880 until 1882 a teacher in the Bingham School in North Carolina. He then again went to Bethel Academy, serving as its principal during 1882-84. In the following year he served in the same ca- pacity at the academy at Tuscumbia, Alabama. He was professor of English and modern lan- guages at the University of Arkansas during 1885-90 and, from 1890 until 1906, he occupied the chair of English and modern languages at the Michigan Agricultural College. When the trustees of Rhode Island State College, then known as the Rhode Island College of Agricul- ture & Mechanic Arts, sought a new president for that institution in 1906 as the successor to Dr. Kenyon L. Butterfield, who had resigned to be- come president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Dr. Edwards' preeminent qualifications led them to offer him the place. He accepted, taking over his new duties on July I, 1906, and from then on until his death he remained at the head of the college.
During the administration of President Ed- wards, who came to Kingston in 1906, the student body of the State College has grown from forty- nine to six hundred and ten, an increase of II.33 per cent., and the faculty has increased from twenty-one professors and instructors to fifty-one members. Seven large buildings have been added to the college campus, and the curriculum, which in 1906 consisted only of agricultural and engi- neering courses, has been broadened and im- proved, and now also includes courses in home economics, applied science and business adminis- tration. Dr. Edwards was intimately associated with every step in the development of the college during these twenty-four years and no single
478
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
improvement in the school's academic and mate- rial facilities could have been achieved, according to his associates, without his energy and his un- failing faith in the institution he headed. So dear to him was the college to which he had devoted twenty-four years of his life, that he pleaded to be returned from the Jane Brown Hospital in this city so that he could view the institution until the end from the window of his home.
When Dr. Edwards became president of Rhode Island State College, he arrived at a time when the interest in the State College throughout the State was at the lowest ebb. The graduating classes for several years had less than ten mem- bers and the ultimate fate of the institution was in doubt. Bringing with him the firm belief in the soundness of public-supported higher institutions of learning and in the principle, as stated in the Morrill Act, of "promoting the liberal and prac- tical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." Presi- dent Edwards immediately began the work of convincing the legislators and other influential persons of the opportunity offered by the develop- ment of the State College. The first two years of the president's efforts toward strengthening the position of the college in the eyes of the citizens of the State resulted in a material improvement, but the momentum of the earlier storm of an- tagonism referred to by President Butterfield in his final report as a feeling "that the College was a burden even a nusiance and should be starved to death" could not be so quickly stemmed, and in 1908 the Legislature appointed a "Commission of Inquiry" of five outstanding men to make a thor- ough investigation and report. President Edwards' efforts brought unstinted praise from this com- mission and the fifteen specific recommendations which they made to the Legislature were, in general, carried out. This marked the beginning of the steady development in the course of which, under the guidance of President Edwards, the college has grown in student body, faculty and material equipment to its present position of se- cure academic standing. While in 1906 the insti- tution's facilities were little better than those which can be found in the smallest high schools in the State today, it now offers engineering courses which are reputed to be among the best of the country and has, in addition, a wide general curriculum. Beginning from 1908 the steadily in- creasing support of the public and of the Legis- lature reflected the growing confidence in the policies of Dr. Edwards. New buildings and in-
creases in salaries and maintenance funds were provided, not always to the extent desired by the president, but sufficient to maintain constant growth. In the public approval by the voters of the State of the $600,000 bond issue for the col- lege in 1927, Dr. Edwards realized his greatest ambition. It enabled him to complete several new buildings on the campus and to extend widely the institution's activities. Of seven bond issues that year, the Rhode Island State College issue rceived 48,684 votes in approval, with only 8,953 votes in opposition, the measure being second only to the Washington bridge issue. The over- whelming approval of the bond issue, Dr. Ed- wards said at the time, showed that "the entire State of Rhode Island revealed a recognition and complete approval of the State College."
The athletic policy inaugurated by Dr. Ed- wards at Kingston has been widely acclaimed. He always maintained that athletics should be con- ducted primarily for the health benefit to the entire student body, and had successfully re- sisted all pressure toward "buying" or offering financial inducements of any sort to prospective athletes, or toward lowering the scholastic re- quirements in order to allow men who were un- successful in their studies to participate in inter- collegiate sports. His stand has been for years exactly parallel to that recently taken by the Carnegie Foundation Commission reporting upon intercollegiate athletics.
Dr. Edwards was noted for his vigorous man- ner of utterance, and on many occasions, in ad- dresses before undergraduate assemblies and civic organizations, he was outspoken in urging a more liberal stand in religion and social relations. He was an optimist. In spite of the wrong he scented in the world, he believed that faith and courage would eventually overcome greed and selfishness. Dr. Edwards' stand on prohibition had been consistently for strong enforcement. He maintained that "no better step had been taken than the Eighteenth Amendment. The last four amendments are symbols of progress." During the events leading up to the World War, Presi- dent Edwards came out early for participation by the United States. Having taught for years in various military academies, he had been a strong believer in the Reserve Officers Training Corps type of work all his life and when this country entered the war he immediately placed every facility of the college at the complete dis- posal of the War Department. Following the war, he opposed the entrance of the United States
479
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
into the League of Nations, claiming that the league could not be effective. The students at the college liked Dr. Edwards because of his unfail- ing sense of humor and his readiness to talk with them and discuss their personal problems. He welcomed their suggestions and he did his best to assist them, occasionally over-riding several fac- ulty resolutions to do what he thought best. He welcomed student opinion and even encouraged senior questionnaires with important and vital ques- tions contained therein. He introduced many in- novations and encouraged the organization of the State College weekly, the "Beacon," offering at one time when it had to cease publication because of lack of funds to reimburse its treasury from his personal funds if at any time it became empty. This spirit was repeated in recent seasons when the foot- ball and basketball teams created one of their best records. He paid the entire expense of banquets and even the cost of small trophies for the ath- letes. Dr. Edwards always deplored hazing, hav- ing termed it at one time as "second only to the cowardice of the Ku Klux Klan." He discouraged it at Rhode Island State College upon the very day of entrance of every Freshman, and Kingston never had a hazing accident of record. His stand upon land-grant colleges was that they should give a liberal education that should not degen- erate into an equipment for mere personal gain. "Public education at public expense," he believed, "was justified only on the basis of adequate and commensurate return to the public for the ex- penditure made." He said the destinies of the United States will be determined by the American colleges, "Colleges are the pecuniary factor in the upbuilding of our civilization and a bulwark of defense in assuring the safety of the Nation. Colleges should be built on the central idea of service and not on the idea of personal privileges."
In addition to his many tasks at the State Col- lege, Dr. Edwards found time to take an active part in local and national education and in civic affairs. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, national scholastic frater- nities. He also belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma and Alpha Epsilon Pi, national social societies, and also to Rho Iota Kappa, the first fraternity ever organized upon the Kingston campus. He was a member of the Town Council of South Kingstown; a Past Master of the West Kingstown Grange, No. 10, Patrons of Husbandry; a past president of the Barnard Club; president of the National Land Grant College Association in 1923; and president of the Rhode Island Institute of
Instruction in 1928. In recognition of his dis- tinguished career, several American universities have conferred honorary degrees upon Dr. Ed- wards. He received the Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Arkansas in 1891, from Brown University in 1914, and from Michigan State College in 1927. The Rhode Island Normal College conferred upon him the Doctor of Litera- ture degree in 1927.
Dr. Edwards married, January 5, 1891, Eliza- beth M. Smith, of "Afton," Fauquier County, Virginia. They became the parents of several children: 1. Marion Norman, who died in boy- hood, while the family was residing in Michigan. 2. Thomas Howard, now deceased. 3. Clarence Bland Edwards, a veteran of the World War and, at the time of the death of his father, un- fortunately an inmate of the Veterans' Hospital in Boston. 4. Elizabeth, who died in 1925, leaving a small son, Howard Edwards Spring, now six years old.
At his home in Kingston, close to the heart of Rhode Island State College, Dr. Howard Ed- wards died, April 10, 1930. At his own request he had been taken back to his home a week be- fore his death from the Jane Brown Hospital, where he had been a patient for some time. Fu- neral services were held for Dr. Edwards in Edwards Hall on the campus of Rhode Island State College and, at Dr. Edwards' own request, they were very simple. They were conducted by Rev. Edward Holyoke, D. D., pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, of Providence, assisted by Rev. Frederick A. Wilmot. At their conclusion all that was mortal of Dr. Edwards was laid to rest in the Fernwood Cemetery, Kingston, near his daughter, who had preceded him in death several years. On the day of the funeral no classes were held at the State College. Flags on the college campus were at half-staff, and members of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps were ordered to wear black bands on their left arm for a thirty-day . period of mourning. Social functions scheduled at the college were cancelled, and in many other ways the college body, as well as the town of Kingston and the entire State of Rhode Island, gave expression to the deep regret, which Dr. Edwards' death caused everywhere. The follow- ing excerpts, quoted from a tribute paid to Dr. Edwards in an educational journal, expressed these sentiments:
Coming to Rhode Island State College at a time in which both the college itself and the State of Rhode Island doubted seriously, the one a reason
480
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
for continuing the long struggle for existence and recognition, and the other the expediency of further effort to keep the college alive, Rhode Island soon felt the effects of the splendid enthu- siasm of a strong man who masterfully concealed indomitable purpose behind an appeal for sym- pathy that was irresistible. A kindly smile, a softly spoken word, a pithy sentence that was preg- nant with unmistakable logic, a patient sufferance for those who did not understand at first until the revelation broke upon them, an unremitting zeal that knew not defeat but watched always for vic- tory, a magnificent purpose to build on Little Rest Hill a college of which Rhode Island eventually would be proud-these were the new things at Kingston that came with Howard Edwards, and these were characteristic of the man through the years that Rhode Island needed to find him out. At length it dawned upon the State of Rhode Island that one of the greatest educators in a long line of distinguished teachers and administrators was at work. Rhode Island State College was rising. Soon all the State was noticing the magnificent commencement addresses of the new President, and then came the realization that the new man at Kingston was a scholar, almost a poet in the mas- terful weaving of the wealth of English, of history, of literature, of art, of science, of philosophy-into a pattern of irresistible logic brought to bear upon the discussion of the public questions of the day. Rhode Island responded. Building after building rose on Little Rest, and hordes of youth clamored for admission to the college. Howard Edwards had given to it the best years of his life with a devotion to service and to fine ideals that passes description in language. The college that he loved so dearly will be his best memorial, enduring when those who hold their relations with him among the finest memories of life, have passed also with the innumerable caravan.
ARTHUR FARNHAM SHEPARD-Nick- names are frequent indications of affection and such was certainly the case with Arthur Farnham Shepard, for a quarter of a century inseparably identified with St. Andrew's Industrial School in Barrington and latterly its vice warden, where the boys knew him as "Pop."
Founded by the Rev. William Merrick Chapin, rector of St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church in Barrington, as an educational institution where boys could be taught, Mr. Shepard entered into association with it at the very beginning, having offered his services without compensation in the difficult work of organizing and of putting the property that has been acquired into condition for the work that was to come. A man of spotless character, he was an ideal leader of boys and de- lighted in their company, and in observing the development of the youthful intellect. He was a
good musician, an interior decorator of ability and unusual ideas, an amateur actor and a choir master of skill. Enthusiastic in everything he undertook, he led the way in the work of the school as he did in the choir at St. John's Church, or in the many plays that he directed during the course of his activities. Progressive and useful, no man ever spoke an unkind word or thought an unkind thought of "Pop" Shepard. He was above criticism, a full-blooded man whose energies were directed all his life to the improvement of general condi- tions and the advancement of human happiness. In the religio-industrial field of Rhode Island, he stood very high, his work in close harmony with that of Mr. Chapin at the school and in the parish having brought about most excellent conditions and increased the efficiency of the growing generation to a point which it otherwise could scarcely have attained. He was a very valuable citizen of this State and his death was a severe loss to the entire community.
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, Septem -. ber 24, 1858, a son of Emory N. Shepard, who, with his family, removed to Concord, New Hamp- shire, where the boy received his education, gradu- ating from high school and then entering into busi- ness. His first occupation was a railway employee, attached to the office of the auditor, where he remained for a number of years. In 1891 he came with his wife to Barrington, being associated as an interior decorator with a Providence establishment, with which he remained for four years, when he entered upon his work with the Industrial School that occupied all of his attention until his retire- ment, owing to ill health, many years later. So successful was he with the work he did in co- operation with Mr. Chapin that today the school and its property is valued at more than a quarter of a million dollars. He was the composer of much of the music sung and played at St. Andrew's School and was a tenor himself of considerable power and sincere training. The only organization to which he belonged, beyond the school and the church were the Players' Club of Providence and the Barrington Yacht Club. His death occurred in Barrington, April 16, 1928, six months after his retirement from active work at the school.
Arthur Farnham Shepard married, April 8, 1885, Elizabeth M. Hardy, of Concord, New Hampshire. They were the parents of one daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, deceased in September, 1918, who mar- ried Henry E. Fowler and they became the parents of one daughter, Elizabeth.
IF Shepond
481
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
Mr. Shepard's assistance in promoting the enter- prise with which he was associated for many years was of such value that the success of the institution is attributed largely to him in his constant and sympathetic cooperation with the founder. He came to the institution in its embryonic stage and re- mained to see it a full grown and efficiently func- tioning part of the educational system of Rhode Island. His life was one of sincerity and purpose- ful industry and he lived it well and nobly-for the benefit of others. Men of his qualities are rare and can ill be spared from the work that makes up the daily task of progressive civilization.
THOMAS F. MONAHAN-The largest and best equipped, as well as the oldest, undertaking establishment in Providence, Rhode Island, is that of Thomas F. Monahan & Son, located at Nos. 207-19 Wickenden Street. The present proprietor founded the business in 1876, and for more than half a century it has been increasing its useful- ness and extending its field of operations.
Thomas F. Monahan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, November 10, 1856. His father, Thomas Monahan, was born in Ireland, but as a young man came to America and settled in Provi- dence, where he became a "boss carpenter," and here he spent the remainder of his life. Both par- ents are now deceased. There were eight children, of whom only one, Mrs. Ellen Hurley, besides the subject of this review, is now (1931) living.
Thomas F. Monahan attended the public schools of Providence, graduating from the Thayer Street Grammar School, and then, as a boy, began the serious business of earning a liveli- hood. Until he was nineteen years of age he was employed in the Providence Market. He then de- cided to learn the undertaking business and in a short time opened an establishment of his own on Wickenden Street, opposite the site of his present modern funeral home. A half century ago the methods and equipment of the "undertaker" were quite different from those of the scientific morti- cian of today, but as years passed and methods and customs changed, Mr. Monahan not only kept thoroughly abreast of the times but frequently took a step or two in advance of the main line of progress. Eventually, when the Portuguese Church and rectory were vacated Mr. Monahan purchased the discarded buildings, remodelled the structures, thoroughly renovated the interior of
the church, erected another large building on ad- joining grounds, and established his greatly en- larged business on its present site. His hearses are of the most modern type, and all his oper- ating equipment represents the last word in mod- ern scientific efficiency, and five trained assistants aid in giving first class service to his large busi- ness. A large and complete stock of caskets, trimmings, fittings, and hardware gives patrons every advantage in selection. Mr. Monahan's only son is associated with him in the business under the name of Thomas F. Monahan & Son.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.