The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 100

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 868

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and for a long time was connected with the management of the Friends' School. Through life he was a member of the Society of Friends. In January, 1877, he visited Europe for the third time, with the hope that relaxation from the cares of his profession might recuperate his wasted strength. He returned in the summer, as he thought, im- proved in health. In August he had a stroke of apoplexy, and died, with but little warning of his fate, on the 21st of the month. Dr. Collins married, in 1848, Lydia S. Ca- pron, who, with a son and two daughters, survive him, with their residence at this date (1881) in Providence.

CALDWELL, SAMUEL LUNT, D.D., the oldest son of Stephen and Mary (Lunt) Caldwell, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, November 13, 1820. On his father's side he was descended from John Caldwell, who came to Ipswich in 1654, and on his mother's from Henry Lunt, who came to Newbury in 1635. He was prepared for college in the grammar school of his native town, his earliest teachers being George Lunt, a kinsman, and Albert Pike, both having celebrity among American poets. He was a graduate of Waterville College, Maine, taking high rank as a scholar in the class of 1839. Soon after his graduation he was appointed Principal of the Academy in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. In May, 1840, he took charge of the West Grammar School in Newburyport, continuing there till, in November, 1842, he entered the Newton Theological Institution, taking the full three years' course, and graduating in 1845. Among his classmates were President Kendall Brooks, of Kalamazoo College, Michigan ; President Ebenezer Dodge, of Madi- son University; Professor Heman Lincoln, of Newton, and others who have reached distinction in the clerical profession. The winter after his graduation he spent in Alexandria, Virginia, supplying the pulpit of the Baptist church in that city. In May, 1846, he accepted a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church in Bangor, Maine, where he was ordained the following August. He was married, September 17, 1846, to Mary Leonard Richards, of Newburyport, granddaughter of Hon. Jo- siah Smith, M.D., a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1774, with whom she had lived from her in- fancy. His pastorate of the church in Bangor continued a little over twelve years-1846-58. In June, 1858, he be- came pastor of the First Baptist Church in Providence, where he remained over fifteen years-1858-73. In Sep- tember, 1873, he resigned to take the professorship of Church History in the Newton Theological Institution. Here he remained five years-1873-78. In September, 1878, he was elected President of Vassar College, Pough- keepsie, New York. Waterville College, of which he was a trustee for thirteen years-1850-63-conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1858. He was chosen

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a trustee of Brown University in 1859, and a fellow in 1862. In 1874 he was elected secretary of the corpora- tion, to succeed Hon. John Kingsbury. He has visited the Old World three times, in 1854, 1863, and 1872. Among the published writings of Dr. Caldwell are the following : In the Baptist Quarterly, articles on " The Science of History," " Subterranean Rome," " Roger Williams as an Author," " St. Ambrose and His Times," " Benedict and the Benedictines," " The Mendicant Or- ders," and " Comparative Religion." In the Christian Review, on " The Debt of Literature to Life." Also " Oration for Fourth of July," 1861, at Providence; "Ser- mon before Second Regiment of Rhode Island Volun- teers," Providence, June 9, 1861 ; sermon on " The Missionary Resources of the Kingdom of Christ," in Phila- delphia, at the fiftieth anniversary of the American Bap- tist Missionary Union ; discourse in the first Baptist Meeting-House, Providence, ninety years after its dedica- tion ; discourse at the completion of the first century of the Warren Association, September 11, 1867; sermon in memory of Mrs. Frances Rogers Arnold, October, 1865; " The Parting Benediction," sermon in the First Baptist Meeting-House, Providence, September 7, 1873; bacca- laureate sermon, Vassar College, June, 1878. He wrote the memorial sketch and edited the memorial of Pro- fessor Dunn, and also edited vols. iii. and iv. of Publi- cations of Narragansett Club.

OPPIN, JUDGE FRANCIS EDWIN, son of Thomas C. and Harriet (Jones) Hoppin, was born in Provi- dence, November 26, 1819. He prepared for college in his native city, under the instruction of Thomas C. Hartshorn and Professor Asa Drury, of the University Grammar School, and was a graduate of Brown University, with the highest honors, in the class of 1839. On leaving college he began the study of law in the office of his brother, William Jones Hoppin, of New York, and continued it in the office of Hon. C. F. Tilling- hast, of Providence, and at the Cambridge Law School. In 1842 he was admitted to the Rhode Island bar, and entered upon the practice of his profession in his native city, in which he achieved marked success. The resigna- tion of Judge Thomas Burgess in 1853 had made a vacancy in the judgeship of the Municipal Court of Providence. This vacancy Mr. Hoppin was chosen to fill. For five years he discharged the duties of the office with satisfaction to his fellow-citizens. At the end of this period he returned to the duties of his chosen profession. Failing healthı in- duced him to lay aside his professional labors, and by travel at the South to endeavor to recover his wasted energies. In 1860 the insidious malady which had attacked him as- sumed a singular character. One after another of his senses failed him, until only the sense of touch was left. For

eight years he remained excluded from the outward world, except as he held communication with it through this sense alone. Under the severe discipline through which he was called to pass he exhibited the sweet and gentle spirit which had always been a marked trait of his beauti- ful character. After this long period of comparative isola- tion from the world, he died, June 20, 1868. He married, in May, 1843, Eliza Harris, daughter of William Anthony, of Coventry. Their children were William Anthony, now in the Providence Institution for Savings; Mary, wife of R. S. Howland, of New Bedford; Katharine, wife of Davis Richmond, of New York; and Eliza A., wife of Robert Ives Gammell, of Providence.

OPPIN, PROFESSOR JAMES MASON, D.D., the fifth and youngest son of Benjamin Hoppin and Esther Phillips (Warner) Hoppin, was born in Providence, January 17, 1820. At the age of twelve he was sent to New Haven, Connecticut, to be pre- pared for college at Mr. Aaron N. Skinner's school, and at sixteen entered Yale College, where he was graduated in the class of 1840. He studied law at Harvard College for two years, and received the degree of LL.B. He en- tered a lawyer's office in Providence, but did not remain there long, having decided to change his profession to that of the ministry. He was two years at the Union Theo- logical Seminary in New York, and one year at Andover, Massachusetts. He then went to Europe and became a student of theology in the University of Berlin, especially under the instruction of Neander, the Church historian. He travelled a year in Italy, Greece, and the Holy Land, writing many letters, which were published in the Provi- dence Journal, and returning home in 1848. In 1849 he was settled as pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, and con- tinued in the pastorate nine years. He married, in 1849, Mary Deming Perkins, of Litchfield, Connecticut. After his return from a second visit to Europe, he was appointed, in 1861, Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology at Yale College, as successor of Dr. Chauncey A. Goodrich. He remained in this professorship for nearly twenty years, doing his share in building up the Yale Theological School to its present enlarged and influential estate. While carry- ing on this professorship he was also, from 1861 to 1863, the acting pastor of the Church in Yale College, and for three years, from 1872, he was Lecturer on Forensic Elo- quence in the Law School. In 1879 he was made Profes- sor of the History of Art in the Yale School of the Fine Arts, which position he now holds. In 1880 he accepted the temporary charge of the Department of Homiletics in Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York, made vacant by the death of Dr. William Adams. Pro- fessor Hoppin is a member of the American Oriental So- ciety, the Victoria Philosophical Institute in London, England, and other societies. He has published several

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books : Notes of a Theological Student (1858); Old Eng- land, its Art, Scenery, and People ( 1867) ; Office and Work of the Christian Ministry, being a Textbook of Homilctics (1869) ; Life of Rear Admiral Andrew Ilult Foote ( 1874) ; Memoir of Henry Armitt Brown (1880). IIe has also written much for the New Englander, the Bibliotheca Sacra, and other reviews and journals. In 1870, Knox College conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Professor Hoppin has two sons, Benjamin, lately tutor of Mathematics at Yale; and James Mason, a graduate (1880) of Christ Church College, Oxford, England.

ALY, JAMES WINCHELL COLEMAN, M.D., was born in Windsor, Vermont, October 2, 1820. IIis pa- rents were Rev. Richard M. and Lora (Skinner) Ely. His father, also a native of Windsor, was a Baptist clergyman, and a lineal descendant of Na- thaniel Ely, who came from England to this country in 1633, and settled at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he resided for awhile, and then became one of the original settlers of West Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Ely pre- pared for college at Townshend, Vermont, under Professor Wheeler, and in 1838 entered Brown University, where he graduated in 1842. He studied medicine in Boston, and attended two courses of lectures in the Medical Depart- ment of Harvard University, from which institution he re- ceived the degree of Doctor of Medicine in March, 1846. The following April he opened an office and commenced the practice of his profession in Providence, on North Main Street, subsequently removing to Benefit Street, where he remained about twenty-five years, and, in 1872, removed to his present residence, corner of Prospect and Waterman Streets. Dr. Ely early acquired a large practice, and his professional career throughout has been eminently successful. In June, 1847, he was elected a member of the Rhode Island Medical Socicty, of which he has served as secretary, treasurer, and president, and is now a censor. He was one of the original members, and the first secre- tary of the Providence Medical Association, of which he served as president for one year. He was elected one of the physicians to the Providence Dispensary, from the Eastern District, and served as Attending Physician for four years from June, 1847. Several years thereafter, he served as consulting physician. In August, 1850, he was elected city physician, and medical attendant at the Dex- ter Asylum, and served in both of these capacities until February, 1866, when he was elected consulting physician at the Dexter Asylum, which position he now holds. He was elected attending physician at the Rhode Island Hos- pital at its organization in October, 1868, and served until 1874, when he was chosen consulting physician, in which capacity he still continues to serve. Since January, 1868, he has also been consulting physician in the Butler Hos- pital for the Insane. He is a member of the Rhode Island

Historical Society, the Providence Franklin Society, in which he has served as secretary and president, and of the Providence Athenaeum, of which he has been a direc- tor. For two years he was a member of the Providence School Committec, and was obliged to resign before the expiration of his term of office, on account of pressing pro- fessional duties. In July, 1870, he went to Europe and travelled through England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and has also travelled extensively in this country. On the 6th of June, 1848, he married Susan Backus, daughter of Lieutenant- Governor Thomas Backus, of Killingly, Connecticut. Her father was a graduate of Brown University and a lawyer by profession. Her mother was Almira Cady, daughter of Joseph Cady, of Providence. They have two sons. The eldest, Joseph Cady Ely, graduated at Brown Univer- sity in 1870; received the degree of Bachelor of Laws from Harvard University in 1872, and is now a member of the law firm of Tillinghast & Ely, of Providence. He married, November 6, 1877, Alice Peck, of Norwich, Connecticut. The other son, Edward Francis Ely, graduated at Brown University in 1879, and is now studying architecture, with Stone & Carpenter, of Providence.

B ABCOCK, EDWIN AND HORACE, widely known under the firm-name of " E. & H. Babcock," the younger sons of Rowse 2d and Hannah (Brown) @ Babcock, are treated together in this sketch, as they were educated together and have long been associated in business relations. After attending private schools and academies they spent several years in the ser- vice of mercantile houses in the city of New York, ac- quiring a business experience of great subsequent value to them. At nearly the same time both decided to return to their native town. In 1843 they purchased the mills and water-power at Potter Hill, previously owned by Thomas W. and Joseph Potter & Co., and during the next fifteen years carried on an extensive and profit- able manufacturing business. Then came one of those periods of financial embarrassment against which the best skill and foresight are inadequate safeguards, and, like thousands of others, the subjects of this sketch were com- pelled to succumb to the monetary revulsion. All that remained of their hard and honestly earned wealth was conscientiously handed over to their creditors, by whom it was promptly accepted as payment in full of an indebt- edness of twice its amount. Starting afresh in busi- ness with no capital, except their integrity and unsullicd reputation, which remained after the storm, they were met by the confidence of all who had known them, and were so prospered in their business that at the end of two or three years, by the practice of strict economy, they were able to surprise their former creditors by presenting them with the full amount, principal and interest, of all the old

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unpaid balances. On the death of their brother Rowse, in 1872, Edwin succeeded him in the presidency of the Na- tional Phenix Bank, in which he had long been a director, and still presides over the institution. Horace has been a director in the National Niantic Bank from its organiza- tion in 1854. Early in life both became communicants of the Episcopal Church, and have always been active and liberal promoters of the religious and educational interests of Westerly and of the State. Edwin was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, April 8, 1819, married, April 21, 1845, Olivia S. Cady, and has two children, Elizabeth and Al- bert. Horace was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, August 4, 1822, married, first, September 11, 1843, Abby J. Cross, second, December 18, 1860, Harriet B. Cross, and has six children, Rowse, Abby, Martha, Hannah, Hobert, and Mary.

YOF OPKINS, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JAMES NOYES, son of Noyes and Patience Greene (Brayton) Hopkins, was born in Foster, Rhode Island, - September 30, 1820. His father, born May 25, 1793, died September 29, 1829. His grand- father, Judge Robert Hopkins, is elsewhere sketched in this work. Mr. Hopkins was educated in the common schools and in a select school at South Scituate, taught by Mr. John H. Willard. At an early age he went to the city of Provi- dence, and learned the jeweller's trade of Joseph B. Chase. After working a few years as a journeyman, saving his earnings, he bought out his employer, Mr. Thomas A. Richardson, and commenced business as a jeweller on his own account, a business which, in its varied forms, he has pursued till the present time (1881). His work at first was all done by hand, while now it is done largely by machinery. In 1837 he joined the United Train of Artil- lery in Providence. At the first election thereafter he was chosen corporal, and by gradual promotion attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the command, in which po- sition he served with success and honor for eight years, resigning in 1854. That organization, of which he is still an honored member, owes very much to his liberality and energy. During his active military career he sympathized with " Governor Dorr" in his political movements, and was present with him at Acote's Hill. He aided with the United Train of Artillery in escorting the would-be gov- ernor from the depot on his return from Washington. Colonel Hopkins rejoiced in due time in the adoption of the more liberal State Constitution. For four years he rep- resented the Sixth Ward in the City Council, and refused to be nominated as an alderman. He was on the select committee that bought the site of the new City Hall. As a director of the Rhode Island Exchange Bank, of East Greenwich, he did what he could to prevent the catastrophe that finally befell that institution. For several years he was an active member of the order of Odd Fellows, from which

he finally withdrew. In 1851 he joined the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, and has ever maintained a deep interest in the objects of that society. His religious connections, as those of his family, are with the church of the Mediator (Universalists) in Providence. In 1847 he built a residence on Prairie Avenue, where he now resides. He married, December 26, 1841, Sarah Corey, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, daughter of Ben- jamin Clarke and Mehitabel (Reynolds) Corey, who traces her descent from Sir Francis Drake. Colonel Hopkins's children have been, Mary E. (married Dr. Joseph Clifford Moore, of Lake Village, New Hampshire) , James F. (died young) ; Felicia H. (died young) ; Sarah E. (died young) ;. Celeste (married Dr. Frederic Whittier Bradbury) ; and Florine B. (died young). Colonel Hopkins has added much to the wealth, intelligence, and character of Providence.

HOPKINS, HON. HORATIO LAWSON, son of Augustus and Lydia (Harris) Hopkins, was born in the town of Scituate, Rhode Island, February 9, 1820. In his childhood the family removed to

Burrillville. IIe was educated in the common schools and in a private academy. At an early age he entered his father's shop, where he learned the business of manufacturing spindles, and soon became a member of the firm of A. Hopkins & Co., spindle-makers and ma- chinists, at Laurel Ridge, Rhode Island. Gradually the supervision of the outside interests of the factory devolved upon him, while his father devoted himself to the inside management, and for more than twenty years he had the general management of the entire business, his brother-in- law, James A. Potter, being associated with him as a part- ner. At the time of his death, which occurred January 21, 1876, the capacity of their factory was two hundred thousand spindles per annum, employing generally about sixty operatives. In the later years of his life he became largely interested in the banking business of the town, and for a long time was President of the Pascoag Savings Bank, and one of the directors of the Pascoag National Bank, which positions gave him a wide circle of business ac- quaintances and made him many firm friends. He served as a member of the Town Council in 1866. From 1867 to 1869 he represented his town in the State Senate, and rendered valuable service as a member of that body, his public career, like his conduct in all the affairs of life, being marked by the exercise of sound judgment and the exhibition of those genial qualities of character which gave him great personal popularity. He was one of the original movers in projecting the Providence and Springfield Rail- road, of which corporation he was a large stockholder. For many years he was a deacon of the Free Will Baptist Church at Pascoag, in the Sunday-school of which he was an earnest worker, and was a warm supporter of true re-

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ligious and benevolent enterprises. He was a power for good not only in the town where he lived, but throughout the State, and especially so in the temperance reform, in aid of which he gave much of both time and money. Hle was heartily interested in the cause of education, which he did much to promote while serving as chairman of the School Committee, and whatever commended itself to him as a public benefit always received his earnest support. He married, April 7, 1842, Amey Ann, daughter of Mial and Amey (Irons) Smith, of Scituate. They had three chil- dren, of whom but one, Addison Sidney, is now living. Mr. Hopkins possessed in an eminent degree those ele- ments of character which distinguish the truly useful and noble man, and the memory of his quiet, gentle spirit is cherished with reverence and love by many friends.

SABOR, DEACON STEPHEN HILLS, son of Samuel and Lucretia (Hills) Tabor, was born at Whites- boro, Oneida County, New York, September 9, 1820. His father was a eotton manufacturer, formerly from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Deacon Tabor received a common-school education, and when eighteen years of age was employed as clerk in the Hope Factory Variety Store, near Cooperstown, New York, where he remained until 1841, when he removed to Slatersville, Rhode Island, where he was employed for a few months in a similar capacity in the store of Benjamin P. Tabor. In the spring of 1842 he engaged as book- keeper in the counting-room of the Blackstone Manufac- turing Company at Blackstone, Massachusetts. On the Ist of April, 1849, he became station agent of the Providence and Worcester Railroad Company, retaining his position as bookkeeper of the company before mentioned. In Sep- tember, 1849, he went to Providence and accepted a posi- tion as ticket elerk, and finally that of General Ticket Agent of the Providence and Worcester Railroad Com- pany. In August, 1855, he was appointed Master of Transportation, and in February, 1856, was elected Gen- eral Superintendent of that road. He entered upon the duties of the last-named position in March, 1856, succeed- ing John B. Winslow. He served as Superintendent of the Providence and Worcester Railroad until February 5, 1866, when he resigned the position, his resignation taking effect April 1, 1866. While occupying that position he exhibited great activity and efficiency, and was instru- mental in advancing the interests of the road in various ways. During his superintendency there was for some time sharp competition between the Norwich and Worees- ter and the Providence and Worcester Railroad companies for transportation of freight from Nashua, Lawrence, Man- chester, Lowell, Fitchburg, and other important freight centres, to New York. Mainly through Deacon Tabor's efforts the right of the Providence and Worcester Com- pany to share in transportation of freight between New

York and the points above mentioned was established, not- withstanding the combined opposition of other lines, which had so far enjoyed a monopoly of the business. He did not engage in active business again for two years suceeed- ing his resignation as Superintendent. In the spring of 1868 he purchased a farm at Long Meadow, near Spring- field, Massachusetts, where he intended to pass the re- mainder of his life quietly in agricultural pursuits. In August, 1868, he was induced to go to Webster, Massa- chusetts, to act for a short time as agent for the manu- facturing company of Samuel Slater & Sons during the ab- sence of the principal of the firm in Europe. He continued there until January, 1871, when he was invited to Provi- dence, Rhode Island, to organize the Mechanics' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which was chartered in May, 1871, the officers elected in July following being Amos C. Barstow, President, and Stephen H. Tabor, Seeretary and Treasurer. In January, 1872, he was elected Cashier of the Rhode Island National Bank, and Treasurer of the Rhode Island Institution for Savings, which positions he still occupies. In noticing his election to the former posi- tion, the Providenee Evening Bulletin said, "S. H. Tabor, for many years the highly esteemed Superintendent of the Providenee and Worcester Railroad, has been elected Cashier of the Rhode Island National Bank, in the place of Manton E. Hoard. Mr. Tabor's upright, high-toned, and conscientious character is calculated to inspire the fullest respect and confidence of the community, and the choice of such a man at this juncture was a propitious event." From 1865 to 1868, when he left Providence, he was a member of the School Committee, and still continues to manifest a deep interest in educational matters. In 1837, at the age of seventeen, he united with the Presby- terian Church at Fly Creek, near Cooperstown, New York, it being the nearest church of that denomination to his home at that time. After removing to Providence he united with the High Street Congregational Church in 1849, and was soon afterward elected deacon, which office he held until his removal to Long Meadow, Massachusetts, in 1868, when he resigned, and took a letter to the First Congregational Church. In 1871, after his return to Prov- idence, he joined the Union Congregational Church, and was soon afterward elected deaeon, which office he still retains. He is a member of the Rhode Island Home Missionary Society, and has served as its treasurer since 1877. He has been treasurer of the Congregational Club since its organization, March 22, 1875. He has been twice married. His first wife was Nancy Cole, daughter of Lyman and Nancy Cole, of Worcester, Massachusetts, to whom he was married October 21, 1844. She died No- vember 29, 1874. December 29, 1875, he married Sarah A. Gilmore, daughter of Joseph F. and Sally Page Gil- more, of Providence. Her father was a mason and con- tractor, and served as a member of the General Assembly of Rhode Island, member of the Providence Common

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 100

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 868