The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 105

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

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On the 16th of February, 1878, the new and elegant fire- proof library building, constructed and arranged after his own ideal, from funds bequeathed by the late John Carter Brown, was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies. The next morning Dr. Guild took a superb folio copy of Bag- ster's Polyglot Bible, and accompanied by the late Professor Diman, a member of the Library Committee, together with his assistants, reverently carried it alone, as the first book to be removed from the shelves in Manning Hall to the new edifice. There, with uncovered head, he placed it as the corner-stone of the literary structure within, number one, shelf one, alcove one, calling it " the book of books; the embodiment of all true wisdom, and the fountain head of real culture, civilization, and moral improvement." The subsequent classification of the library, the arrangement of the books upon the shelves, and the preparation of the card catalogue show a wise adaptation of means to ends, that have called forth unqualified praise. A writer in the Bos- ton Sunday Herald, for November 7, 1880, in an article of nearly three columns, headed " A MODEL LIBRARY," calls it "in construction and general management the nearest approach to a perfect college library which America has to show." Dr. Guild has been a voluminous and successful writer. Besides articles for various periodicals and papers, reports, pamphlets, and addresses, he has published the following volumes : Librarian's Manual, 4to., New York, 1858; Life, Times, and Correspondence of James Man- ning, 12mo., Boston, 1864; History of Brown University, with Illustrative Documents, 4to., Providence, 1867; Life of Roger Williams, being a biographical introduction to his writings, as published by the Narragansett Club; Thomas Smith Webb, being a series of thirty-three consec- utive articles published in the Freemason's Repository. A condensed sketch of Webb was also published in the Pro- ceedings of the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and in the Proceedings of the Grand En- campment of the United States, for 1874. He edited, under the direction of the General Assembly, Judge Staples's Rhode Island in the Continental Congress. He also edited Letter of John Cotton, and Roger Williams's Reply, and Queries of Ilighest Consideration, in the publications of the Narragansett Club. Several of the biographical sketches in the memorial volume, entitled Brown University in the Civil War, are from his prolific pen. He is at present engaged on a work, entitled A Chaplain of the Revolu- tion; or, Life, Letters, and Journals of the Rev. Hezekiah Smith, D.D., of Haverhill, Massachusetts. This will probably be published during the present year. For seven years Dr. Guild served as a member of the Common Council of Providence, and for fifteen years as a member of the School Committee, most of the time acting as secre- tary. He is a member of the Union Baptist Church in Providence, having been baptized April 5, 1840, by the late Rev. Dr. Baron Stow. He has been connected with various educational and religious societies, either as sec-

retary or president. Ile is at present secretary of the Alumni Association of Brown University. In 1874 he re- ceived from Shurtleff College, Illinois, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1876 he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Massa- chusetts, filling the vacancy occasioned by the death of the late John Carter Brown. In the autumn of 1877 he visited England and Scotland, examining the great libraries of Glasgow and Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge, and at- tending the International Conference of Librarians held in London. He was elected a member of the council, and afterwards an honorary member of the " Library Associa- tion of the United Kingdom." He married, December 17, 1849, Jane Clifford, daughter of Deacon Samuel Hunt, of Providence. Of six children, a son and three daughters are now living. His eldest daughter was married, in 1874, to George H. Coffin, of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, now a Professor in Colgate Academy, Hamilton, New York.

URNSIDE, MAJOR GENERAL AMBROSE EVERETT, United States Senator and ex-Governor of Rhode Island, was born at Liberty, Union County, Indi- ana, May 23, 1824. His father, Edghill Burnside, a lawyer, born near Columbia, South Carolina, re- moved to Indiana in 1813. His mother, whose maiden name was Pamelia Brown, was a native of South Carolina, and a daughter of John Brown, of Belfast, Ireland. His grandfather, James Burnside, a native of Scotland, came to this country and settled in South Carolina near the close of the last century. The subject of this sketch received his elementary education at the seminary in Liberty, Indi- ana, and at Beach Grove Academy, near the same place. In 1843 he was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1847. The same year, July 1, 1847, he was brevetted Second Lieuten- ant, 2d Artillery, U. S. A., and commissioned Second Lieu- tenant, 3d Artillery, September 8, 1847. Leaving West Point, during the Mexican War, Lieutenant Burnside went to Mexico, and joined the United States Army. At the close of the war he was ordered to Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island. In 1849 he was ordered to New Mexico, where he joined Bragg's famous battery. In November, 1851, he was commissioned First Lieutenant, put in com- mand of a cavalry company, and served in the Indian wars, resigning May 1, 1853. While in Mexico he was impressed with the need of more effective carbines than those then in use in the army, and finally invented a new breech- loading rifle, for the manufacture of which he built a fac- tory at Bristol, Rhode Island, soon after his resignation, expecting a contract from the Government. The contract was never consummated, however, and after carrying on the business unsuccessfully for four years, was obliged to relin-

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quish it. Subsequently the Bristol Fire-arms Company was incorporated, in May, 1855, with one hundred and forty-four thousand dollars capital, and a patent secured March 25, 1856. Accepting a situation as cashier in the Land De- partment of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, he went to Chicago, April 27, 1858, and was elected treas- urer of the Company in June, 1860. In January, 1859, the Bristol Fire-arms Company removed their business to Providence, General Burnside having retired from it, and in May, 1860, the name of the company was changed to the Burnside Rifle Company. In 1861 land was bought upon which were erected the buildings now known as the Rhode Island Locomotive Works. The war created an active demand for rifles, and six hundred thousand were made by the Burnside Rifle Company. At the close of the war, there being no longer a demand for rifles, it was deemed advisable to enter upon some new enterprise in order to make the capital invested remunerative. Ac cordingly, in January, 1867, the Rhode Island Loco- motive Works were incorporated. When the Civil War broke out, in April, 1861, Lieutenant Burnside was com- missioned Colonel of the First Regiment, Rhode Island Detached Militia, and was mustered into service May 2, 1861. This regiment contained twelve hundred men. Colonel Burnside commanded a brigade at the first battle of Bull Run, in July, 1861, and was promoted to Briga- dier-General of Volunteers, August 6, 1861. He origi- nated and commanded the celebrated Burnside Expedi- tion to North Carolina, leaving Annapolis, Maryland, with fifteen thousand men, in January, 1862, encoun- tering a terrible storm off Cape Hatteras. February 8, 1862, he captured Roanoke Island, with six forts and bat- teries, forty cannon, and two thousand prisoners, which were afterwards exchanged. Friday, March 14, 1862, he captured Newbern, and April 25, 1862, Fort Macon, and Beaufort, North Carolina. March 18, 1862, he was pro- moted to Major-General of Volunteers; July 22d, organized and took command of the Ninth Army Corps, and com- manded the left wing of the Union army at the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. By a singular good fortune, not paralleled in the history of any other corps in the Army of the United States, the relations of the Ninth Corps with its leading officers were unchanged during the continuance of the War of the Rebellion. November 9, 1862, General Burnside assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, numbering two hundred and twenty five thousand men. January 25, 1863, he was relieved from this command, and after a brief rest at his home in Providence, where he re- ceived every demonstration of welcome and esteem, he took command of the Department of the Ohio, comprising the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and East- ern Kentucky, and soon after relieved East Tennessee from rebel invasion. In 1864 his military achievements were conspicuous at the battle of the Wilderness, May 5th and 6th, Spotsylvania, May 12th, Cold Harbor, June 3d, and

before and after the siege of Petersburg. He resigned his commission April 15, 1865. His prominence as a military officer made his name familiar throughout the country, and his patriotic services elicited expressions of thanks from Congress, President Lincoln, General Grant, and from the General Assembly and Governors aud citizens of Rhode Island. He was elected Governor of Rhode Island, by the Republican party, in 1866, and re-elected in 1867 and 1868. In 1874 he was chosen United States Senator, as a Republican, succeeding William Sprague (Independent), and re-elected June 8, 1880. General Burnside has visited Europe five times. In 1870 he was the medium of com- munication between the German and French lines, in and around Paris, in the interests of reconciliation. On the 27th of April, 1852, while a Lieutenant at Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island, he married Mary Richmond Bishop, daughter of Nathaniel and Fanny Bishop, of Provi- dence, who was a descendant, on her mother's side, of Roger Williams. She died in Providence, March 9, 1876.

ITTLEFIELD, DANIEL GREENE, manufacturer, son of John and Deborah (Himes) Littlefield, was born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, November 23, 1822. His father was born in South Kingstown, July 15, 1798, and died June 23, 1847. His mother was born in North Kingstown, March 30, 1798, and is still liv- ing. They were married March 11, 1816, and had eleven children. The Littlefields of Rhode Island are supposed to be the descendants of Edmund Littlefield, who came from England and landed at Boston in 1637. Several members of the family were conspicuous in Colonial and Revolutionary history. Caleb Littlefield had a son John, who was the ancestor of the wife of General Nathanael Greene. At the age of eight, while his parents resided in Scituate, Daniel G. began to work in the Jackson Factory, and early attracted notice on account of his fidelity and mastery of the details of the business. For more than twenty-five years he was engaged in the manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, operating all kinds of machines, becoming overseer and superintendent, working in Scituate, Wakefield and River Point. In 1846 he removed to Flor- ence, Northampton, Massachusetts, and began to operate a cotton mill, also becoming interested in a drygoods store in Northampton. Subsequently he became overseer of a cotton mill in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. He next en- gaged in mercantile business in Haydenville, in partner- ship with his brothers George L. and Alfred H. Selling out here, he became a salesman and agent for Hayden & Sanders, re-arranging their mill-plans, and selling their goods in New York. In 1856 he returned to Florence and began the manufacture of Daguerrean cases, which he carried on successfully, and added thereto the business of making sewing-machines, assisting in perfecting and manu-

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facturing the Florence machine, becoming president and agent of the Florence Sewing-machine Company. In 1863 he accepted the agency of the Pawtucket Hair-cloth Com- pany, and directed the erection of the spacious mill at Cen- tral Falls. The old firm at Florence of Littlefield, Parsons & Co. became the Florence Manufacturing Company, and enlarged their business, erecting a new mill in 1868, mak- ing brushes, mirrors, and various articles, and employed one hundred and twenty-five hands. Afterward, in the direction of the Florence Machine Company, Mr. Little- field made improvements, when the name of the new ma- chine became "The Crown." To confirm certain patents of the Hair-cloth Company, and to gather information per- taining to his business, he went to Europe in 1865 and spent some time in Great Britain, France, Belgium and Germany, leaving one of his improved machines with the French Department of Arts, as evidence of his skill and claims. He visited Europe again in 1866, extending his journey and researches into Southeastern Russia. Having an interest in the firm of Henry B. Metcalf & Co. in Bos- ton, organized January 1, 1867, he suffered loss with that firm in the great fire of November 9, 1872. He made three more visits to Europe, in 1868, 1871 and 1872, in the interests of his business. In his last trip he acted un- der appointment of the President of the United States, as an honorary commissioner from this country to the Inter- national Exhibition at Paris, and won encomiums as a juror at that Exhibition from the Commission. His journeys for business and recuperation have extended through many States and as far west as Montana, where he studied the processes of mining and manufactures. In 1861, and again in 1862, he was a Representative from Northampton to the Legislature of Massachusetts. In 1879-80 he was chosen a member of the Town Council of Lincoln, in which he now resides. In 1878 he was elected President of the Providence County Savings Bank, which office he still holds. He married, in 1843, Maria B. Collins, of Natick, Rhode Island. They had four daughters, all of whom are deceased, one of whom survived her mother, and attained the age of twenty. Mr. Littlefield married, second, in 1866, Maria Antoinette McMurray, daughter of John G. McMurray, of Lansingburg, New York. Of his children by the second marriage, two are now living, Leland H. and Florence A. Mr. Littlefield's residence is the elegant mansion built in Lincoln by the late General Horace Dan- iels. Politically he is a Republican, and was formerly a Whig. Religiously he is a Congregationalist, and rendered important aid in erecting the house of worship in Florence, acting on the Building Committee. He was also one of four who defrayed the expense of building a parsonage. Mr. Littlefield is widely known as an ingenious mechanic, inventor, manufacturer, and business agent, and notwith- standing the fluctuations and competitions in the branch of business in which he has been engaged, his career has been remarkably successful.

SAY, REV. GEORGE TIFFANY, D.D., son of Benjamin and Cynthia (Kent) Day, was born in Day, then Concord, Saratoga County, New York, December 8, 1822. In 1826 the family removed to Hope, Scituate, Rhode Island, and in 1828 he began work in a cotton mill, meanwhile attending school. He afterwards removed with his parents to Hebronville, and then to Lebanon, Massachusetts, where his mother died, in 1834. He was converted in 1840, in Lonsdale, under the preaching of Rev. Martin Cheney, with whose church (Free Baptist), in Olneyville, he united by baptism soon afterwards. From this time his student career commenced. After working two years in Laccarappa, Maine, studying at night, he returned to Rhode Island in 1843, and entered the Smithville Seminary, under Rev. Hosea Quinby, D.D., and remained two years, having charge of the High School, in Bristol, a portion of the time. In 1845 he entered the Free Baptist Theological School, at Whitestown, New York, under Rev. John J. Butler, D.D. In December, 1846, he became pastor of the Free Baptist church in Grafton, Mas- sachusetts, and during the following year was ordained at a quarterly meeting at Olneyville. At the close of his pastorate at Grafton, in April, 1851, he became principal of the Geauga Seminary, at Chester, Ohio, and pastor of the church in that place. In July, 1852, he became pas- tor of the church in Olneyville, being in this position the successor of Rev. Martin Cheney. During the year 1857 he spent several months in Europe. In October of that year he became pastor of the Roger Williams Church in Providence, which position he occupied for about ten years. In 1865-66, partly for the recovery of his health, which had become impaired, he travelled in Europe, Palestine, and Arabia. In 1866 he was elected Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in Bates College; but before he had signified his acceptance of this position he was elected editor of The Morning Star, the organ of the Free Baptist denomination, and published at Dover, New Hampshire. In this position he was the successor of Wil- liam Burr, and entered upon its duties, for which he was preeminently qualified, in December, 1866. He had been a writer for this paper since 1850, and a corporator of the. printing establishment in 1863. In 1875 his health had become greatly impaired, and with leave of absence he re- paired to the home of his sister in Pennsylvania, where he died, May 21, 1875, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. He was buried in Pocasset Cemetery, Cranston, where a beauti- ful granite monument was erected over his grave, in De- cember following. He was married to Frances L. Greene, of Lonsdale, Rhode Island, in December, 1846, three children being the issue of the marriage. In 1852 he wrote the Life of Rev. Martin Cheney, fulfilling that man's dying request. He contributed largely to the pages of The Freewill Baptist Quarterly, and was one of its edi- tors. He was widely known as a successful lyceum Lec- turer, and was an earnest friend of education, and all

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reforms. He did much literary work for the publishing house of D. Lathrop & Co., Boston. He was twice elected President of Hillsdale College, Michigan, from which institution he received his doctorate in 1868. His life was shortened by the severity of his studies and labors, and his death caused deep mourning, and left a great vacancy. His biography, by Rev. W. H. Bowen, D.D., was published in 1876.

UFOT MITH, ORLANDO, was born in Groton, Connecticut, February 9, 1814, and is the son of Shubael and Sarah (Raymond) Smith. His father and grand- father, Charles Smith, were farmers and large land- holders. During his minority Mr. Smith was em- ployed on a farm and in learning the trade of a stonecutter. His school advantages were therefore very limited. For several years he worked at his trade, first in Groton, and afterward in Westerly, where he combined the business with stone and brick masonry, until about 1847, when he opened a quarry on the old Dr. Babcock farm. At that time he began to make a specialty of cutting granite for various purposes. In 1848 he bought the Babcock farm, and continued in the quarry business until his death. At first he employed but five or six hands, and his business was confined to simple contracts for curbing and plain work for building, but the business he established has increased until it now amounts to about $250,000 per year, several hundred hands being employed, mostly on monumental work. In 1858 the number of workmen was so great as to necessitate the opening of a store for their accommodation, which added greatly to the material interests of the town. Mr. Smith was the first person to develop in Westerly the branch of industry to which most of his life was devoted. He was a member of the Congregational Church in Westerly, and took an active interest in the welfare of that communion. He married, April 10, 1845, Emeline Gallup, daughter of Isaac and Prudence (Geer) Gallup, the issue of the mar- riage being four children, Orlando Raymond, who learned his father's business and became his successor ; Sarah, who married Otis Chapman; Julia E., and Isaac Gallup, who is the travelling agent for the quarry company. Mr. Smith died May 30, 1859. He was highly esteemed as a business man and as a useful citizen.

URDICK, WILLIAM ALFRED, son of Samuel and Sarah (Sheffield) Burdick, was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, March 14, 1822. His early life was spent on his father's farm, and he was educated in the common schools and at the Providence Conference Seminary, in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. In 1843 he went to Millstone Point, Connecticut, where he spent one year as a stonecutter's apprentice, and the following year worked at his trade at St. George, Maine.

In 1844 he returned to Westerly, and was employed by the late Orlando Smith in the stone-quarry business, where he soon became foreman, and after Mr. Smith's death, in 1859, became one of the trustees of the estate, and was appointed superintendent of the works, which position he has since held. He has the general management and responsibility of the concern, which now employs about 300 men, and produces about $250,000 per year, mostly in the line of monumental work. Mr. Smith's sons, Orlando R. and Isaac G., have gradually become associated with Mr. Bur- dick in the management of the business. Mr. Burdick is a member of the First Baptist Church in Quonochontaug, and is highly respected for his sterling qualities of character. He married, July 4, 1847, Elizabeth A., daughter of Chris- topher and Amelia A. (Parks) Burdick, of Westbrook, Connecticut. Their children are Alice A., and Alfretta, who married Arthur Burdett, of Clinton, Massachusetts.

ROCKWOOD, AMOS D., manufacturer, son of Cap- tain Benoni and Phebe (Greene) Lockwood, was born in Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, October 30, 1811, and is a lineal descendant in the sixth generation of Roger Williams. His ancestor, Abraham Lock- wood, settled in Old Warwick about the year 1690, and had a son, Captain Amos Lockwood, who accumulated a large property in that town. All of Mr. Lockwood's an- cestors in this country were Rhode Islanders, among whom were Stukely Westcott, Richard Waterman, Hon. Thomas Olney, and William Arnold, who were among the thirteen original proprietors of Providence, most of whom were also first settlers of Warwick, and all of whom were more or less prominent in colonial affairs. Mr. Lock- wood is also a descendent of the Greene family in War- wick and West Greenwich, of Hon. Caleb Carr, one of the early Governors of the colony, and of several early settlers of Newport, Kingston, and Portsmouth, who held various positions in the infant colony. Mr. Lockwood's father was in early life a sea-captain, and removed from Paw- tuxet to Providence when the subject of this sketch was but six years of age, and afterward became a surveyor and civil engineer. At the age of sixteen, Amos D. Lockwood entered the store of Peck & Wilkinson at Rehoboth, which was connected with the cotton-factory there, where he re- mained for two years. At the end of that time he entered the factory of his employers, where during the next two years he worked as an operative, familiarizing himself with all the details of the work of the establishment. On the Ist of February, 1832, he became assistant superintendent of the factories of Almy, Brown & Slater, in Slatersville, Rhode Island, and in 1835 was appointed resident agent, the firm having meanwhile sold their interest in the mills to Samuel and John Slater. On the Ist of April, 1843, Mr. Lockwood and his brother, Moses B. Lockwood, and brother-in-law, Rhodes B. Chapman, leased these mills for

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a term of ten years, and carried on business under the style of A. D. Lockwood & Co. In 1851 they purchased an in- terest in the Quinebaug Company, at Danielsonville, Con- necticut, and assumed the management of its affairs, and Mr. Lockwood has continued this relation to the present time. In 1853 a corporation was organized at Plainfield, Connec- ticut, under the name of the Wauregan Mills, for the pur- pose of erecting and operating mills for the manufacture of fine bleached cottons, and Mr. Lockwood superintended the construction of the works, the purchase of machinery, etc. His experience in the erection and management of mills has since been frequently called into use, and he has often been engaged in various manufacturing districts as a consulting and superintending engineer. In 1855 he re- arranged the Pacific Mills, at Lawrence, Massachusetts, and in 1858 took charge, as mechanical engineer, of the ex- tensive manufacturing operations of Boston capitalists as- sociated in the proprietorship of mills at Lewiston, Maine, and in other places in that State and in Northeastern Massa- chusetts. The Androscoggin Mills, at Lewiston, were built, equipped, and started under his immediate supervision, and for several years were under his personal manage- ment as resident agent. He was also resident agent for many years of the Franklin Company at the same place, which, in addition to its cotton mills, owned the water- power and much of the real estate of the city, and is now its president. In 1864 he and others purchased the con- trolling interest in the Lewiston Foundry, and reorganized its business as the Lewiston Machine Company, and was for several years its president. He continued his relations as consulting engineer to the several corporations at Lewis- ton ; the Pepperell Mills, at Biddeford, Maine ; the James Mills, at Newburyport, Massachusetts; the Naumkeag Mills, at Salem, Massachusetts; and other mills, until 1871, when he opened an office as mechanical engineer in Bos- ton. The next year, however, his plans were changed on account of the death of his brother, who was treasurer of the Quinebaug Company, and in the spring of 1873 he re- turned to Providence, giving his personal attention to the business of that firm. During the same year he superin- tended the building of the mills of the Otis Company, at Three Rivers, Massachusetts, and the improvements made to the buildings and machinery of the Boston Manufactur- ing Company, at Waltham, Massachusetts. He subse- quently had charge of the construction of cotton mills at Piedmont, South Carolina, and Vaucluse, South Carolina. In 1875 he commenced for a corporation, to the stock of which he was a large subscriber, the erection of the mills of the Lockwood Company, at Waterville, Maine, of which company he holds the office of treasurer. He is now en- gaged in the huilding of mills at Charleston, South Caro- lina, and other places in the South ; at Utica, New York; Manchester, New Hampshire ; Waterville, Maine; St. Stephens, New Brunswick, and elsewhere. Mr. Lock- wood's life has thus been one of unusual activity and en-

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 105

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