The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 111

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

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ENTHONY, LEWIS WILLIAMS, was born in North Providence, September 19, 1825. He is the son of James and Sarah Porter (Williams) Anthony, and the fifth of nine children. His paternal ances- try is traced from John Anthony, who came from Homestead, England, April 16, 1634, in the bark Hercules, and died July 18, 1675, aged sixty-eight years. From him the succession is as follows: Abraham, William, James, Daniel, the grandfather of Hon. Henry B., Richard, James, the father of Lewis W. His maternal ancestry is traced from Robert Williams, who came from England to Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1638, through four successive generations of Congregationalist clergymen, viz .: Revs. Isaac, Ebenezer, Chester, Nehemiah, the father of Sarah Porter, the wife of James Anthony, and the mother of Lewis W., a woman of marked intelligence, fidelity, and piety. He acquired his education at a school established by his father for the benefit of his children, in the district school, and at the Academy at Fruit Hill. His father died when he was ten years of age. When seventeen years of age he went to Pawtucket, became a clerk in a boot and shoe store, and continued in this position about a year and a half. In 1843 he came to Providence, and became clerk of Greene & Arnold, wholesale dealers in boots and shoes. He was admitted as a partner in the business in 1851, and is now a member of the well-known firm of Greene, Anthony & Co., one of the oldest and largest wholesale shoe firms in Providence. In 1847 he was married to Britannia F. Waterman, and has three surviving children.

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Mr. Anthony has been a member of the city government of Providence, and is a director in the Traders' National Bank. He is a leading member of the Roger Williams Free Baptist Church, and has been for nearly a score of years one of its deacons. He is President of the Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society, and a member of its execu- tive board; also a member of the Board of Management of the Freewill Baptist Printing Establishment, the pub- lishing house of the denomination. Genial, active, benevo- lent, and discreet, he has in his sphere a large influence, and is universally esteemed.

TEARNS, HENRY A., manufacturer, was born in Billerica, Massachusetts, October 23, 1825. His father, Captain Abner Stearns, was a soldier of the war of 1812. His mother was Anna Russell, whose grandfather, though a non-combatant, was ruthlessly shot by the British in their retreat from Lexington, April 19, 1775. Captain Stearns was for many years engaged in wool-carding in West Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also carried on a grist mill and paint mill. He invented the first machines in the country for splitting leather, and devised the first machine for dyeing silk. An uncle of Mr. Stearns's mother, Mr. Whittemore, invented a card- setting machine, considered a wonderful contrivance, which was patented as early as 1797. Captain Stearns removed from West Cambridge, after years of labor, to spend the remainder of his life in Billerica, Massachusetts. When the subject of this sketch was about twelve years of age his parents died. His father, being very zealous for the educa- tion of his children, left a sufficient amount to enable him to attend school for awhile. He therefore went to Andover Academy, and for two years pursued an English course of studies. . At the expiration of that time, being dependent upon his own resources, he supported himself by shoe- making and shopkeeping until twenty years of age. He then concluded to try his fortune in the West, and in the fall of 1846 went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he embarked in the manufacture of cotton-wadding, his establishment being the first of the kind west of the Alleghanies. He was thus engaged until the spring of 1850. Meanwhile, his works were twice destroyed by fire, but, undismayed by these reverses, he at once erected other buildings adapted to the needs of his business. In 1850 a new purpose took possession of him. Gold had been discovered in California more than a year before, and an immense emigration had set toward the Golden State. Thinking that a steam laun- dry might be a source of profit there, he purchased the necessary machinery at Cincinnati, shipped it down the Mississippi and over the Gulf to Chagres, and then, after great exertion, across the isthmus, the boiler being carried overland to Panama by squads of men. At Panama he embarked for San Francisco in an old whaler, which sprung aleak and was in great danger of foundering ; pro-

visions gave out, and passengers and crew were stinted to four ounces of bread per day. For four months the vessel thus floated on the ocean, and when Mr. Stearns reached San Francisco he was so enfeebled that a physician told him he could not live. But he finally regained his health, set up his machinery, and established the first steam laun- dry in California. Subsequently he turned over to his partner the business of the laundry, and purchasing an in- terest in a steamboat, ran the first regular steam ferry be- tween San Francisco and Oakland, now a large city. For the next two years, he was engaged principally in carrying on a saw-mill at San Jose, and a store at Gilroy. Cutting down the redwood, he converted it into lumber for building houses for miles around. During his residence in San Francisco he witnessed the execution by the Vigilance Committee of many ruffians who for some time had en- dangered the city. In the fall of 1853, Mr. Stearns re- turned to Cincinnati and resumed the manufacture of cot- ton wadding on a larger scale, in which he continued until the spring of 1857. His health being impaired, a change was considered desirable, and he therefore sold out and re- moved to Buffalo, New York. Here he tried a new ven- ture. Finding a partner, they engaged in June, 1857, in the manufacture of hardware. Not many months after came the disastrous financial revulsions of that year, and Mr. Stearns lost nearly his entire property. He then re- moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, where he bought a tract of forest land, set up a saw-mill, in addition to which he carried on a farm, and was thus engaged for two or three years. In the beginning of 1861 he removed to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and became connected with Darius Goff, Esq., of that place, in the manufacture of cotton wadding. It was comparatively a small business at that time, but Mr. Stearns's skill and energy, in conjunc- tion with that of his associate, rapidly enlarged it. Ex - tensive buildings were erected, improved machinery pro- vided, and the capacity of the works greatly increased. Unfortunately, the entire factory was destroyed by fire in 1870. But the business had been too successfully devel- oped to be abandoned. Larger buildings were soon after erected, and the establishment is now the largest and best equipped of the kind in the country, and probably in the world. The works cover a space of five or six acres, and employ between two and three hundred hands. Mr. Stearns has devised several contrivances which have proved of great value in the business. On these he ob- tained patents, and has also a number of patents on rail- way safety-gates, cotton-gins, and for extracting oil from waste substances. After living a year or more in Paw- tucket, Mr. Stearns removed to the adjoining village of Central Falls, where he has resided for over seventeen years. He has been called to fill various offices by his townsmen. For three years he has represented the town of Lincoln in the General Assembly ; has served several terms as School Trustee; and was chairman of the com-

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mittee that secured the introduction of water into the vil- lage. Mr. Stearns is a member of the Central Falls Con- gregational Church, in the work of which he takes an ac- tive interest. On the 26th of Junc, 1856, he married Katc Falconer, daughter of J. II. and Charlotte Smith Falconer, of Hamilton, Ohio. They have had eight children : Deshler Falconer, George Russell, Walter Henry, Kate Russell, Charles Falconer, Henry Foster, Anna Russell, deceased, and Carrie Cranston.

LLIS, JOSHUA JAMES, M.D., born in Boston, Mas- sachusetts, September 13, 1826, being the only issue of a second marriage, and the youngest of a family of ten children. His father, who was a pros- perous merchant, died while he was yet a child, and the family having broken up, his mother removed with him to Scituate, Massachusetts, her native town. In a few years she too died, so that at the age of eight he was left an or- phan. His guardian, Daniel Phillips, who had been ap- pointed to this trust by his dying mother, proved a friend indeed, wisely supervising his education and carefully hus- banding the little fortune left him by his father. He was placed in good schools, and at the age of fourteen com- menced the study of Latin. A year later he was sent to the academy of Paul Wing, of Sandwich, where he was fitted for college. In the fall of 1843 he entered the Fresh- man class of Brown University, of which the late Rev. Dr. Wayland was then President, and graduated in 1847. As a scholar he ranked high, being one of the eleven in his class who were elected members of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. During his Senior year he became interested in religious truth, and in the spring of 1847 was baptized by the Rev. Dr. Neale, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston. Immediately after graduating he removed to New- port, Rhode Island, where he spent a year teaching in a private family-school. Afterwards he entered the Medical School of Harvard University, where he spent three years in the study of his chosen profession. In 1854 he estab- lished himself as a physician in Bristol, Rhode Island, and by close attention to business soon acquired reputation and a handsome practice. In July, 1862, his health hav- ing become somewhat impaired and requiring a change, he accepted an appointment as assistant surgeon in the Thirty- seventh Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. His whole heart was now in the work before him, and with all the enthusiasm of his nature he devoted his professional ener- gies to the care of the men intrusted to his charge. His letters to his friends during his period of service abound with expressions of sincere patriotism, and contain graphic descriptions of the stirring scenes around him. But while thus engaged in his arduous duties, he was seized with typhoid malaria, and for twelve weeks was confined in one of the hospitals at Washington. He was brought home to his family in Newport, where he died Tuesday, March 17,

1863, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. He married, soon after graduating from Harvard, Martha, only daughter of the late Rev. Dr. John O. Choules, of Newport, who and onc son survive him.

IALL, GENERAL NELSON, son of Samuel and HIan- nah (Shorey) Viall, was born at Plainfield, Con- necticut, November 27, 1827. His father was a native of Barrington, Rhode Island, a cabinet- maker by trade, and in 1823 removed to Plainfield, where he became a farmer. He was a descendant of John Viall, a resident of Boston as early as 1639, and afterwards owned large tracts of land in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. His mother was a daughter of Colonel Abel Shorey, a prominent citizen of Seekonk, Rhode Island, where he died at the age of ninety three. Colonel Shorey commanded a regiment of Massachusetts militia in the War of 1812, be- ing stationed at New Bedford. General Viall received a common-school education, and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to Amos C. Barstow, on Point Street, Provi- dence, to learn the trade of a moulder. During his ap- prenticeship, he joined the Providence Artillery Company, now known as the United Train of Artillery. He remained in Barstow's employ till 1846, when he joined the Rhode Island company which served in the Mexican War under General Scott. During the war he was twice promoted for meritorious conduct. He fought in the battle of Con- treras and at the storming of Chapultepec, where he was wounded while ascending one of the storming ladders. He took part in the engagement which resulted in the sur- render of the city of Mexico, and remained there on gar- rison duty several months. Leaving Mexico in 1848, at the expiration of his term of service, he returned to Provi- dence, and for about two years was in the employ of Thomas J. Hill, on Eddy Street. In 1850 he contracted with the agent of a Brazilian firm to go to Brazil to erect and manage an iron foundry at Bahia. He remained there until 1854, when he again returned to Providence, where he continued his occupation as a moulder until 1861. When the Civil War broke out he held a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Providence Artillery, and in re- sponse to the first call of the Governor, raised a company, with which he immediately proceeded to the defence of Washington, under command of Colonel Burnside, First Rhode Island Volunteer Militia. He was mustered into service at Washington, May 2, 1861, and on the Ist of June returned to Providence, where, within three days, he recruited Company C for the Second Rhode Island Regi- ment, of which he was commissioned captain. For gallant conduct at the battle of Bull Run he was promoted to the rank of major. On the 12th of June, 1862, he was com- missioned lieutenant-colonel, and was promoted to the rank of colonel December 13, 1862, while commanding his regiment at the battle of Fredericksburg. During his

Mitson Viale

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connection with the Second Regiment he participated in the battles of Bull Run, July, 1861, Yorktown, Williams- burg, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and other engagements. January 25, 1863, he resigned his commis- sion and returned to Providence, and on the 21st of August, of the same year, was appointed Major of the First Battal- ion, and afterwards Colonel of the Fourteenth Rhode Isl- and Heavy Artillery (colored). He organized the regi- ment of eighteen hundred men for the field, and was assigned to duty in the Department of the Gulf. On the 15th of January, 1864, President Lincoln appointed him Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourteenth Rhode Island Regi- ment, and he continued in the service until the close of the war, being honorably discharged October 2, 1865. In recognition of his bravery and capacity as a military officer, he was brevetted Brigadier-General, April 15, 1866. In May, 1866, he was appointed Chief of Police of the city of Providence, and served in that capacity for one year, when he resigned the position to accept the office of War- den of the Rhode Island State Prison, which he still holds. In the discharge of his duties General Viall has exhibited marked efficiency, and to his suggestions in regard to the needs of the institution under his management may largely be attributed the architectural superiority of the new State Prison at Cranston, which is said to be the most complete in all of its appointments of any building of a similar character in the country. For many years General Viall has been prominently identified with several military and civil fraternities. He was one of the nine who organized the Grand Army of the Republic in Rhode Island, in 1866, and was elected Junior Vice-Commander, being still a member of Prescott Post, No. I, of that organization. He is a member of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical So- ciety of Providence. In 1861, while stationed in the city of Washington, on military duty, he became a Freemason, uniting with Federal Lodge of that city; but since 1865 has been a member of St. John's Lodge of Providence. He married, February 11, 1849, Mary W. Peckham, daugh- ter of Silas and Freelove (Millard) Peckham, of Provi- dence. They have had eight children, but two of whom -Grace Eveline and Nelson Shorey-are now living.

JOSS, HON. SAMUEL SIMMS, was horn in West Boyl- ston, Massachusetts, August 15, 1821, and was the 20 son of Robert and Lydia Foss, who came from near Derby, England, to America in 1820. He obtained the rudiments of his education in Boylston, where his father was the bookkeeper and storekeeper of a cotton mill from 1820 to 1827. Samuel had a twin brother, German W., and they bore so great a resemblance to each other that one was often taken for the other. In 1824 they were presented to Lafayette as he passed through Boylston on his way from New York to Boston. In 1827 the family removed to Slatersville, Rhode Island, where the father

of Samuel became private secretary and bookkeeper of John Slater, then an extensive manufacturer. At this place he and his brother German attended the common school, and afterward spent about a year at Uxbridge Academy, and two terms at Fryville Academy, in Bolton, Massachusetts, then in charge of the Society of Friends, Thomas Fry being its principal. In the autumn of 1836 they left school, and German entered a book-store in Woonsocket as salesman. Samuel soon afterward began to learn the printer's trade in the office of William N. Sherman, then proprietor of the Woonsocket Patriot, and while serving in this capacity was remarkably industrious, studious, and obliging. The Penny Magazine, published in England, which his father presented to him in 1832, was read by him with great profit in his youth, and proved a great source of usefulness to him, as he frequently acknowledged in manhood. He also read extensively in various departments of literature, and ac- cumulated a valuable library. His father removed to Mansfield, Connecticut, in 1838, but Samuel remained in Woonsocket to pursue the calling he had chosen. He had a large brain and active mind, a retentive memory, and was noted for his generous disposition. In 1841 he bought the Woonsocket Patriot from his employer and became its ed- itor, a position for which he had been preparing himself. He changed the Patriot from a Whig to an independent paper. While holding this neutral position in politics he visited the Dorr camp, at the time of the " Dorr Rebellion," to obtain information for his paper, and was there arrested as a spy, but through the interposition of his friend, General Henry De Wolf, was released without a trial by court- martial. Through the energy and talent of Mr. Foss the circulation of his paper rapidly increased from 500 to 8500, and the Patriot was so improved by him that it was pro- nounced by good authority " the best weekly paper pub- lished in New England." In 1865 Mr. Foss bought the Patriot building. In the spring of 1876 he began publish- ing The Daily Patriot, which under his management at- tained an extensive local circulation. Among other evi- dences of his enterprising spirit was the establishment by him of a telegraph line from Providence to Woonsocket for the benefit of his paper. He was the first it is said to employ a corps of local correspondents throughout Rhode Island and in other States, and to classify New England news under the heads of the different States. But few men better exemplified the three elements of success-principle, tact, and push-than Mr. Foss. By industry, perseverance, and integrity he accumulated wealth, and attained a promi- nent and useful position in the community. He was for one year a member of the Rhode Island Senate. Mr. Foss made his influence felt throughout New England, and his manly qualities of character commanded the respect of all who knew him. He died at his residence in Woonsocket, August 6, 1879. His twin brother, German Foss, who pos- sessed many of the characteristics of Samuel, was for some time the publisher of the Literary Harvester, of Hartford,

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Connecticut; then a successful manufacturer of silk at Camden, New Jersey, from 1847 to 1857; and afterwards associate editor of the Woonsocket Patriot until the death of his brother Samuel, when he became sole editor of that paper, which position he retained until his death, which occurred October 22, 1880. The father of Samuel S. and German W. Foss was born in England, April 5, 1787, and died in Mansfield, Connecticut, in November, 1871. Their mother was born in Lee, England, January 14, 1788, and died in Mansfield, Connecticut, December 23, 1838. Samuel Foss married, December 24, 1851, Amey A., daughter of Stephen Hendrick, of Thompson, Connecticut. She was born January 1, 1833, and died March 11, 1879. They had two children, Herbert S. Foss, born February 16, 1856, and died May 23, 1859, and Bertha S., born September 27, 1865.

SUNN, PROFESSOR ROBINSON POTTER, D.D., was born in Newport, May 31, 1825. He was the son of Dr. Theophilus C. and Elizabeth ( Potter) Dunn. He prepared for college in his native city, and grad- uated, with the highest honors of his class, at Brown University, in 1843. He returned to the University soon after he graduated, and took charge of the library. During the absence of Professor Jewett in Europe he gave instructions in French. His temporary connection with the University continued until December, 1845, at which time he repaired to Princeton, New Jersey, to pursue his course of theological study. He received his license to preach as a Presbyterian minister, in April, 1847. His character and scholarship at Princeton made him a marked man. Rev. Dr. W. M. Paxton, of New York, who was his classmate, says of him : " He was greatly beloved for his kind, genial fellowship, whilst he was admired for his fine talents and scholarly culture. He was, beyond ques- tion, the most finished, accurate scholar at that time in the institution. There was such a perfection in everything that he did, that he has a place in my memory as a finished man, capable of doing anything, and of adorning any position. In his fidelity to all the duties of a student he was a model." He completed his theological course, May, 1848, and at once commenced to preach in the Presbyterian Church in Camden, New Jersey, of which he was ordained the pastor by the Presbytery of New Jersey, November 1, 1848. Here he remained, performing his ministerial duties with great fidelity, and winning the confidence and affection of his church, until, in the spring of 1852, he was invited to take the chair of Professor of Rhetoric and English Liter- ature in Brown University. Soon after his removal to Providence, the Central Congregational Church was formed, and although Professor Dunn never left the Presbyterian Church, he identified himself with the interests of the new parish. " For years," says Dr. Swain, the pastor of the church, " he taught a large Bible class of our young ladies, spending eight hours every week in preparing himself for

tlic recitation. During almost the entire fifteen years he presented, at the monthily concert, the reports from the for- eign missionary fields, making himself so perfectly familiar beforehand with the contents of the Missionary Ilerald that by the aid of that wonderful memory which he pos- sessed, and of that equally marvellous facility of speech which belonged to him, he would, without referring to the book, set before us in a condensed, swift, and beautiful narrative of half an hour, almost the entire substance of what was contained in thirty or forty pages." In the sum- mer of 1860 he was elected Professor of English Literature and Elocution in the college at Princeton. He felt, how- ever, that his work was in Providence, and he declined the call. He remained at his post in Brown University until the summer of 1867, when, on Wednesday, August 28th, he passed to the better world, after sixteen years of con- tinuous service in the chair to which he had been elected in 1852. A few of his discourses have been published. Several of his articles published in the Quarterly Reviews as literary productions have very great merit. Professor Dunn was twice married, the first time to Maria, daughter of John Stille, Esq., of Philadelphia, September 21, 1848, who died June 23, 1849, and second to Mary Stiles, daugh- ter of the Hon. Alfred Dwight Foster, of Worcester, Massa- chusetts, January 25, 1855, who and one son survive him.

HIPPLE, CHARLES HENRY, manufacturer, son of Ziba and Mary (Sayles) Whipple, was born in Burrillville, Rhode Island, February 22, 1823. His father was a native of Burrillville, and a descendant of Samuel Whipple, who came from England and settled in Providence in Colonial times. His mother was a member of the Sayles family of Rhode Isl- and, many of whom have been prominently identified with the manufacturing, mercantile and political interests of the State. Charles H. Whipple was the fifth of a family of seven children. His eldest brother, Daniel, who died in 1872, in his fifty-eighth ycar, was a manufacturer, and for many years a leading man of Burrillville. The other brothers engaged in manufacturing and mercantile pursuits. Mr. Whipple was educated in the public schools, and at Smithfield Seminary, at North Scituate. At the age of twenty-two he entered his brother Daniel's factory, where he was employed until 1852, when he and his brother Ster- ry leased his brother Daniel's mill, and continued the busi- ness under the firm-name of S. & C. H. Whipple. They manufactured satinets, and did an extensive business for those times, being successful in a marked degree. At the expiration of four years, Charles sold his interest to his brother, who continued to carry on the business, taking his brothers James and John into partnership with him. Charles then bought the Plainville Mill, located near the other mill, and began the manufacture of fancy cassimeres. He con- tinued in business alone until January, 1880, when he asso-

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 111

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