The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 117

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

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ERRESHOFF FAMILY. CHARLES FREDERICK HERRESHOFF, the first of the name that came to America, born in Minden, Prussia, and married Sarah Brown, second daughter of John Brown, of Providence, Rhode Island, July 2, 1801. Their children, three of whom are now living, were Anna Francis, Sarah, John Brown, deceased, Charles Frederick, and Agnes Frederica, deceased. Charles Frederick, through whose family the name of Herreshoff has become known through- out the world, was born in Providence, July 26, 1809, and was educated at Brown University, where he graduated in 1828. After leaving college he engaged in agricultural pursuits, and spent several years in improving the Point Pleasant Farm, in Bristol, which was purehased in 1780 by John Brown. In 1856 he removed to the town of Bris- tol, where the family now resides. He married Julia Ann Lewis, of Boston, May 15, 1833. His children are James Brown ; Caroline Louisa, who married, August 16, 1866, E. Stanton Chesebro, of New York city, a lieutenant in the Union army during the Civil War, who died of disease contracted in the service, October 22, 1875; Charles Fred- erick, John Brown, Lewis, Sally Brown, Nathanael Greene, John Brown Francis, and Julian Lewis. James Brown was born March 18, 1834, and was educated at Brown University. After graduating he was engaged for six years

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as a manufacturing chemist with the Rumford Chemical Company. In 1870 he retired from business to devote himself to experimenting, and as a result of his discoveries produced the " coil boiler," now so widely known in this and other countries. He made a series of experiments with compressed air in air-engines, the results of which were never published. In 1875 he married Jane Brown, of New York city, since which time he has resided abroad. Charles Frederick, brother of James Brown Herreshoff, was born February 26, 1839. He was educated in the schools of Bristol and at East Greenwich Academy, and has ever since been engaged in farming at the homestead. He married, first, March 19, 1863, Mary Potter, of Tiver- ton, Rhode Island, who died March 24, 1866; and, second, Alice Almy, of Tiverton, December 3, 1868. John Brown Herreshoff was born April 24, 1841, and educated in the schools of Bristol. At the age of fifteen he became totally blind. In 1864 he began the business of yacht building in Bristol, and for some time was associated with Mr. Dexter S. Stone, under the firm-name of Herreshoff & Stone. For several years the business has been carried on under the style of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. The sailing-vessels built soon after the business was commenced were famous for speed and thoroughness of construction. Prior to 1874, Mr. Herreshoff built 250 yachts of all sizes and 1000 boats of other descriptions. About the year 1873 the character of the business was changed to that of building steam-yachts. While building sailing-vessels John B. Herreshoff modelled the fastest boats with his own hands. Since he began to build steamers his brother, Nathanael Greene, has managed the outside business of the company. These brothers have improved the " coil boiler," before mentioned, and brought it to its present state of perfection. The Herreshoff Company now employs one hundred men, and for several years has been doing work for the United States, English, Russian, Spanish, and Peruvian govern- ments. The steamers built by this company have attained the greatest speed of any in the world, and are equally noted for their fineness of construction and seaworthiness. John Brown Herreshoff married, October 6, 1870, Sarah Lucas Kilton, of Boston. His brother Lewis was born February 3, 1844, and was educated in the schools of Bristol. Na- thanael Greene Herreshoff was born March 18, 1848. He was educated at the Institute of Technology in Boston. At an early age he showed a talent for mechanical inven- tion. After leaving the Institute of Technology he was for nine years, from 1869 to 1878, in the employ of George H. Corliss, of Providence, during which time he obtained several patents for regulators for steam engines. In 1877 he procured a patent for a jointed boat, or catamaran, which soon became very popular, and has attained the greatest speed under sail of anything on record. Since 1878 he has occupied the position of superintendent of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. The success of the company is largely attributable to the fact that the boats

and engines made by it are modelled by him. John Brown Francis Herreshoff was born February 7, 1850. He was educated at Brown University, and after graduating, was for two years assistant professor of chemistry at the Uni- versity, under Professor John H. Appleton. In 1874 he removed to New York city, where he was engaged as a chemist. In 1876 he became the Superintendent of Laurel Hill Chemical Works on Long Island, and soon afterward invented a remarkable process for the manufacture of sul- phuric acid. The business under his direction has become the largest of the kind in America. He married, February 9, 1876, Grace Eugenia Dyer, of Providence, who died December 2, 1880. Julian Lewis Herreshoff was born July 29, 1854, and was educated in the schools of Bristol. He married, September 11, 1879, Ellen F. Taft, of Bristol. John Brown Herreshoff, son of Charles Frederick and Sarah (Brown) Herreshoff, was born in Providence, and died in Bristol, June 11, 1861, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He graduated at Brown University in the class of 1825. The necrology of that institution for the academ- ical year 1860-61 says : "On the maternal side he was the grandson of John Brown, one of the founders of the Uni- versity, and one of the four brothers of that name who in their day contributed so largely to the prosperity of their native town. On leaving college he studied law with Hon. Samuel W. Bridgham, and was admitted to the bar in Providence, but never engaged in practice. His consti- tution was always delicate, and he evinced no taste for the cares of business. He was never married. He resided the greater part of his life in Providence, but ten or twelve years previous to his death removed with his sisters to a family estate at Point Pleasant, near Bristol, and there he spent the remainder of his days. He was quiet and re- served in his habits, but warm-hearted and devoted to his kindred and friends."

SOUTHWICK, JAMES MCKENZIE, son of Pitts and Mary (Eldred) Southwick, was born in the home- stead of his father and grandfather, and the last residence of Solomon Southwick, " the printer," corner of Washington and Walnut streets, Newport, Rhode Island, November 25, 1830. His great-grandfather, Joseph, the elder brother of Solomon, was born in 1719: and died in Newport, in 1780. His grandfather, also named Joseph, was born in Newport, in 1746, and died there in 1829. He was a man of strong resolution and intrepidity, who prosecuted with remarkable energy and determination whatever he undertook. In early life he engaged in boat-building, and while the British fleet was entering the harbor escaped from the Island in one of his boats, with his wife and two infant children, and such ef- fects as he could gather. He went to Dartmouth, Massa- chusetts, and after the Revolutionary War returned to Newport, where he resumed his former business, occasion-

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ally building large vessels. Pitts Southwick, father of the subject of this sketch, who was born in 1795, is still living, and until recently has been actively carrying on the business established by his father. He has often been engaged in marine enterprises. For some time during the War of 1812 he was one of the garrison at Fort Adams. James Mckenzie Southwick enjoyed good school advantages. In 1849 he went to California, where he engaged in mining, and while there was a director in the Deer Creek Water Company, until he left that State, in 1854. On his return to Newport he commenced the cordage, netting, and twine business, in which he has since continued, recently adding to it house-furnishing goods. In 1855 he was elected a member of the City Council of Newport. In the discus- sion of the fishery question in the State, he from the first took a decided stand in defence of the rights of fishermen, and in 1871 prepared a paper upon that subject that was published in the Report of the United States Commissioner for that year. In 1873 he was chosen a representative from Newport to the General Assembly, and served efficiently as a member of that body. He married, July 21, 1856, Mary A. Goodspeed, daughter of Isaiah and Mary A. (Carr) Goodspeed, of Newport. Mr. Southwick's business career at Newport extends over a period of twenty-five years, during which time he has done much to advance the prosperity of his native city.

GARDNER, HON. JOHN A., lawyer, son of Dr. Johnson and Phebe Lawton (Sisson) Gardner, was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, April 10, 1830. He was prepared for college by Messrs. Merrick and Emory Lyon, in the University Grammar School, in Providence, and was a graduate of Brown University, in the class of 1852. After pursuing the study of medicine for a time he concluded to enter the profession of law, and became a student in the office of Hon. Wingate Hayes. He was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1855, and soon after was appointed Clerk of the Supreme Court, which office he held for ten years (1855-1865). He rep- resented Providence in the House of Representatives of the State two years (1866-1867). For about four years he was the legal adviser of Messrs. A. & W. Sprague. In 1871, upon the resignation of Hon. Wingate Hayes, United States District Attorney, he was elected to fill his place. He held the office for six years (1871-1877), performing its duties with fidelity, and rendering acceptable service to the government. In 1877 he resigned his office, and re- sumed the more general practice of his profession. While thus engaged he had a return of heart disease, to which he was subject, and after lingering a few months died, in Providence, March 26, 1879. " Mr. Gardner left behind him," says Professor Lincoln, " a good and honored name among his professional brethren and his elients, for his legal knowledge and his cautious and patient method of

investigating his legal cases, for his high sense of profes- sional obligation, and his sincerity and integrity." He was twice married ; first, to Mary Anna, daughter of John A. Field, of Providence, in 1855; and second, to Gertrude, daughter of William E. Bowen, of Philadelphia.

GARDINER, JEREMIAH BRIGGS, Superintendent of the New York, Providence, and Boston Railroad, son of Henry and Mahala (Briggs) Gardiner, was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, July 15,

1831. He received his early education in the schools of his native place, and came to Providence in 1845. Until 1849 he was a lad in the family of Governor William Sprague, Sr., who this year placed him on board of the ship " William Sprague," of which he was one-quarter owner, to learn navigation, and fit him to become in time a well-trained master of a vessel. He was absent from home a little less than two years, making a voyage round the world. The second mate of the ship having been displaced, at Manilla, early in the fall of 1850, Mr. Gardiner was appointed to take his place, and held the position during the remainder of the voyage, which ended in New York in February, 1851. Finding that a sea life was not in accordance either with his tastes or his health, he decided to abandon it, and to enter the business of railroading. Soon after the close of his first and only sea voyage, he received an ap- pointment in one of the subordinate departments of the New York, Providence, and Boston Railroad, and by fidel- ity and his own merit has worked his way up through the different offices which he has held in this company until he has reached his present responsible position. He was chosen Agent of the " Neptune " Line of steamers, plying between Providence and New York, in 1869, and held this office four years and a half, when he was appointed agent of the " Stonington " Line of steamers, which office he still holds. In 1873 he was chosen Assistant-Super- intendent, and in 1878, Superintendent of the New York, Providence, and Boston Railroad. He was married, April 11, 1852, to Eliza Antoinette, daughter of Tolland and Rhoda Ann Benson. They have had five children, three of whom died in infancy, and two are now living,- Antoinette Augusta, born January 14, 1855, and Gran- ville Sharp, born August 22, 1859, and is now (1880) a student of law in the office of Hon. N. F. Dixon, United States District Attorney.

IMAN, PROFESSOR JEREMIAH LEWIS, D.D., second son of Byron and Abby Alden (Wight) Diman, was horn in Bristol, R. I., May 1, 1831. In his early youth he enjoyed superior advantages for mental culture and discipline, which he diligently improved. He was, says a fellow-townsman and schoolmate, a bright,

.B.Gardiner

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healthy, and ingenuous lad, better prepared with his lessons than most of the boys, and always ready for a game of ball, a swim, or a frolic. He was fitted for college by the Rev. James N. Sikes, a Baptist clergyman settled in the place, and at the age of sixteen entered Brown University. Even at this early period he manifested a taste for historic pursuits, publishing in the Bristol Phenix a series of papers entitled " Annals of Bristol," his material having been gathered from the town records and from conversations with the old inhabitants. His career in college, says his associate and eulogist, was marked by steady growth in intellectual power, rather than by extraordinary brilliancy of scholarship. He enjoyed the classical studies of his freshman and sophomore years, but when the later years of the curriculum were reached, it was evident that in lit- erary, historical, and philosophical studies, his tastes and superior abilities would in after-life assert themselves. He was graduated in 1851, having had assigned to him "The Classical Oration" for Commencement. His theme, as announced in the published programmes, was " The Living Principle of Literature." Among his classmates may be mentioned the lamented Daniel J. Glazier, who died just as he was about to enter upon the work of the ministry in Fall River, Hon. Judge Hamilton B. Staples, of Worcester, Hon. John S. Brayton, of Fall River, Rev. Dr. James B. Simmons, of New York, Rev. Dr. Warren Randolph, of Newport, and Hon. Frederic Mott, LL.D., of Iowa. During his college course Professor Diman became a mem- ber of the Congregational Church in Bristol. In his ad- mirable notice of his friend and instructor, President Way- land, published in the Atlantic Monthly for January, 1868, is one passage which Dr. Murray, in his memorial discourse, quotes as a chapter in Diman's own experience. "In the most difficult task of dealing with young men at the crisis of their spiritual history, Dr. Wayland was unsurpassed. How wise and tender his counsels at such a time ! How many who had timidly stolen to his study door, their souls burdened with strange thoughts and bewildered with un- accustomed questionings, remember with what instant ap- preciation of their errand, the green shade was lifted from the eye, the volume thrown aside, and with what genuine hearty interest the whole countenance would beam. At such an interview he would often read the parable of the returning prodigal, and who that heard could ever forget the pathos with which he would dwell upon the words." Having chosen the Christian ministry as his vocation in life, Professor Diman wisely determined to spend a year in general study, and accordingly he entered the family of the Rev. Dr. Thatcher Thayer, of Newport, under whose superintendence he pursued a course of philosophy, theol- ogy, and classics. In the fall of 1852 he entered the The- ological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, where he remained two years. In the summer of 1854 he sailed for Europe, having decided to pursue a course of study in the German universities. He travelled on the Continent,

and studied theology, philosophy, and history under the great teachers of Halle, Heidelberg, and Berlin, spending a spring vacation at Munich in the study of art. Return- ing in the spring of 1856, he again resumed his studies at Andover, from which institution he was graduated in the ensuing summer. In the fall of this year he was settled as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Fall River, where he remained four years, gaining a widespread repu- tation for eloquence and learning, and securing friends among all denominations by his kindly spirit and his broad, liberal views. In the summer of 1858 he was invited to settle over the Congregational Church in Hartford as a colleague with the celebrated Dr. Bushnell. This invita- tion he felt obliged to decline. In 1860 he accepted a call to Brookline, Massachusetts, as pastor of the Harvard Con- gregational Church. Here he remained until 1864, when he was appointed, through the influence of the late Presi- dent Sears, Professor of History and Political Economy in Brown University, filling a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Professor William Gammell, LL.D. In this new and important position he soon distinguished himself by devotion to his work and by his rare scholar- ship and attainments, being in the words of his eulogist : " The embodiment of what the occupant of the chair of history in our leading colleges should be ;" possessing an enlarged and comprehensive conception of the philosophy of history and of the relation of divine to human affairs, and being withal " apt to teach," he magnified his office until his department became without question the best and most effective of any chair of history in all the institutions of education in the land. In 1870 he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, conferred upon him by the Board of Fellows of the University. In 1873 he was elected a corresponding member of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, an honor of which he was deservedly proud. Professor Diman was often called upon to deliver sermons, addresses, and lectures on important occasions, many of which have been published. Among these may be men- tioned a sermon delivered October 16, 1867, in the chapel of Brown University, at the request of the Faculty, in com- memoration of Rev. Robinson Potter Dunn, D.D., for many years Professor of Rhetoric in the University. " The Method of Academic Culture," an address delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Amherst College, July 6, 1869, and afterwards published in the New Englander. " Historical Basis of Belief," one of the Boston lectures delivered in 1870. " The Alienation of the Educated Class from Politics," an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa So- ciety, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, delivered June 29, 1876, and afterwards published by Sidney S. Rider. An address delivered at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, July 10, 1877, at the Centennial Celebration of the capture of Gen- eral Prescott by Lieutenant-Colonel Barton ; this was after- wards published with notes, forming No. I of Rider's Rhode Island Historical Tracts. An address delivered

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October 16, 1877, at the request of the municipal authori- tics of Providence, upon the occasion of the dedication of the monument in commemoration of the life and services of the venerated founder of the State, in Roger Williams Park. An address at the dedication of the Rogers Free Library at Bristol, delivered January 12, 1878. Twenty lectures on the " Thirty Years' War," delivered in 1879, before the professors and students of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, Baltimore, Maryland. Twelve lectures on " Im- manent Finality," before the Lowell Institute, Boston, de- livered in the spring of 1880. These lectures he had engaged to repeat at Baltimore, and the programme had already been printed at the time of his lamented decease. He delivered before an immense gathering the historical address at the two hundredth anniversary of his native town, in the fall of 1880, which address has since been pub- lished with the proceedings. Professor Diman also furnished leading articles for the Providence Journal, the North American Review, the Nation, and other papers and peri- odicals. His article entitled " Religion in America, 1776 -1876," published in the January number of the North American Review, attracted universal attention. He edited " John Cotton's Answer to Roger Williams," in the second volume of " Publications of the Narragansett Club," and also " George Fox Digg'd out of his Burrowes," constitut- ing the fifth volume of the same set. He also furnished one of the sketches in the memorial volume entitled " Brown University in the Civil War." In the midst of his fame and usefulness, and while in the enjoyment of perfect health he was attacked with malignant erysipelas, and after a sickness of less than a week died Thursday afternoon, February 3, 1881, in his fiftieth year. The intelligence of his sudden decease was speedily spread throughout the city, causing everywhere expressions of profound sorrow and regret. College exercises were at once suspended until after the funeral, which occurred on Monday following. On the morning of that day the General Assembly met, and after suitable remarks on the part of various members, ad- journed, as a tribute of respect for an eminent scholar and divine, who had reflected honor on the State of his birth by his distinguished services and his personal character. The HIon. Mr. Sheffield, of Newport, in his opening re- marks said : " An eminent citizen has died, eminent in learning and eminent in the purity of his character. Though a private citizen he occupied great eminence in philosophy, and his connection with our principal seat of learning af- fected him with a public interest which was deep and wide- spread. . ... I am oppressed by this great loss as a personal grief, and am unfit for important legislative duty to-day. To allow the members of the Assembly who have the physical ability to do so to attend the funeral, I now move that this House adjourn." In accordance with his own expressed wishes he was buried from his home, with the forms of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. J. W. Colwell, rector of St. Stephen's Church, where of late years the

deceased with his family had worshipped, conducting the services. In reference to his religious views as developed in his maturer life, Rev. Edward J. Young, in a memorial tribute read before a meeting of the Massachusetts Histori- cal Society, and published in the proceedings for February, 1881, thus eloquently remarks: " Since he dissented from many of the dogmas and methods of New England Con- gregationalism, and disproved the negative attitude of those who rejected what to him was essential to Christianity, it was but natural at last, while keeping his independence, he should have been drawn to the services of that historic church which, holding the doctrines of faith, allows a large liberty in the interpretation of them, combines established order with progress, and appeals to the devout feelings of the worshipper by the symbolism of its architecture, and by the impressive ritual of its Christian year." A memorial service in honor of Professor Diman under the auspices of the University was held in the First Baptist Meeting-house, on Tuesday, May 17, 1881, when an impressive commem- orative discourse was delivered by his intimate friend and associate in college, Rev. James O. Murray, D.D., Professor in the College of New Jersey, at Princeton. Professor Diman married, May 15, 1861, Emily G. Stimson, of Provi- dence, only surviving daughter of John J. and Abby M. (Clarke) Stimson. A son and three daughters were the fruits of this union.

PRAGUE, HON: WILLIAM, Governor of Rhode Isl- and from 1860 to March, 1863, son of Amasa and Fanny (Morgan) Sprague, was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, September 12, 1830. He was edu- cated in the schools of his native town, and in East Greenwich, Scituate, and Irving Institute, at Tarrytown, New York. At the age of fifteen he was employed in the factory store at Cranston, connected with the extensive cot- ton manufacturing and calico printing business of his father and his uncle, Governor William Sprague, who constituted the firm of A. & W. Sprague. At sixteen he entered the counting-house of the firm in Providence as an assistant, and two years thereafter was promoted to the position of bookkeeper. In 1856 he became a member of the firm, as the large estate left to him and his brother Amasa on the death of his father, in 1843, was largely in the firm property. When his uncle, Governor William Sprague, died, in 1856, he rose to occupy the leading place in the business transactions of the company. The business plans of the firm were now much enlarged and extended in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and soon afterwards Messrs. A. & W. Sprague became the largest calico-printing com- pany in the world, running nine mammoth mills capable of weaving eight hundred thousand yards of cloth and print- ing one million four hundred thousand yards of calico per week. They enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity until 1873, when their interests being seriously affected by the general monetary reaction of that year, their immense estate and

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 117

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