The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 125

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

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in the State House, and on the 20th of December, one week after the battle was fought in which he lost his life, it was laid away in its resting-place in the North Burying- Ground in Providence.

ILCOX, DUTEE, manufacturing jeweller, was born at Douglass, Massachusetts, June 22, 1834, and is the son of Dutee and Julia A. (Bowdish) Wil- cox. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors were remarkable for longevity. His mother is still living. He obtained most of his education at a country school. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to Wheeler & Knight, manufacturing jewellers, of Providence, with whom he remained for about four years, when the firm was dissolved, and he was released from his appren- ticeship. At the age of twenty-one he returned to the em- ploy of Mr. Wheeler, and as superintendent of the jewelry shop, remained until 1856, when he formed a partnership with Horace and Olney Thayer, and began the manufac- ture of jewelry, in a building on Steeple Street. This firm was dissolved in 1857, by the withdrawal of the Messrs. Thayer, and for a time Mr. Wilcox carried on the business alone. In March, 1859, he formed a partnership with Henry J. Battell, under the firm-name of Wilcox & Battell, and in the following December Seth A. Cheeney became a member of the firm. Their business rapidly increased, and they soon removed to No. 125 Broad Street. In January, 1868, Mr. Cheeney retired from the firm, and Mr. Battell died in 1871, after which time Mr. Wilcox carried on the business alone, under the old firm-name, removing, in 1873, to No. 19 Snow Street, where he now remains. January 1, 1880, he admitted Walter Gardner as a partner, and changed the name to D. Wilcox & Co. Mr. Wilcox is also connected, as general partner, with the well-known firm of Albert J. Smith & Co., manufacturers of fine gold jewelry. He has invented several articles of jewelry, among which is the " Wilcox & Battell Stud," patented in 1859, the annual sale of which has amounted to as high as one hundred thousand dollars. Ilis business career has been eminently successful, and is the result of faithful and constant appli- cation, great mechanical and inventive skill, and conscien- tious and conservative elements of character peculiarly his own. The faithful and efficient service he has rendered the city in various official capacities has given him a high place in public esteem. He was a member of the Board of Alder- men, of Providence, from the Ninth Ward, during the years 1877, 1878 and 1879. He has taken a deep interest in public education, having served on the School Committee of Providence in 1876, 1877 and 1878. In 1877 he was chosen one of the directors of the National Bank of Com- merce, one of the largest banking institutions in the State. He is also a trustee of the City Savings Bank, and a di- rector of the Providence Board of Trade. He has identi- fied himself with the religious interests of the city; has

been associated in an official capacity with the Young Men's Christian Association for several years; and for more than twenty years an honored and useful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On the 6th of January, 1859, he married Emma A. Locke, of Newport, Rhode Island, daughter of Nathaniel and Lydia S. ( IToward) Locke. Their children are: Emma Lula, Gracie M., and Howard Dutee, born respectively February 18, 1862, Feb- ruary 17, 1866, and April 5, 1871. In 1875 Mr. Wilcox erected one of the most magnificent and costly business buildings in Rhode Island, known as the " Wilcox Build- ing," fronting on Weybosset and Custom-House streets. It is a building of which the citizens of Providence may justly feel proud, and fitly represents the character, talents, and tastes of the owner, and indicates the public spirit and liberality of one who has chosen in this manner to exhibit his deep interest in all that may improve and adorn his adopted city.

@c OWEN, REV. WILLIAM HENRY, D.D., was born in Johnston, February 27, 1836. He is the son of Nathaniel and Hannah Paine Bowen. His father died in 1866; his mother still survives (1881). In 1841 the family removed to North Providence, and for many years resided in that portion of the town now in- cluded within the city of Providence. The son early evinced a love for study and a susceptibility of religious impressions. In 1853 he united with the Free Baptist Church in Olneyville, of which the late Rev. G. T. Day, D.D., was pastor. In the autumn of the same year he entered Brown University and graduated in 1857. Im- mediately after graduation he visited Europe in company with Dr. Day, his pastor. After teaching a year he studied one year in Andover Theological Seminary. He received ordination to the work of the ministry at Waterford (Black- stone), Massachusetts, in 1859. Previous to 1869 he was pastor of the Free Baptist Church in Waterford, Massachu- setts; and for four years of the Free Baptist Church in North Scituate, and with great usefulness and success. He was especially active in promoting educational interests, and acquired distinction as a writer in the Free-will Baptist Quarterly, of which he was one of the editors. In 1869 he became pastor of the Main Street Free Baptist Church, Lewiston, Maine. His education and experience had abundantly qualified him for this position of commanding influence. He is now (1881) in the twelfth year of his pastorate. In 1872 he was elected Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in Bates College, but declined it. He received his doctorate from Hillsdale College, Michigan, in 1874. He has held important offices in connection with the Free- will Baptist Education Society, and since 1875 has been its president. He is President of the Board of Overseers of Bates College, and is chairman of the School Board in the city in which he resides. In 1879 he again visited Europe

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as a delegate to the Evangelical Alliance held at Bale, Switzerland. Dr. Bowen is a sound scholar, a vigorous writer, an able preacher, and a judicious pastor. He is qualified both in temperament and character for a leader, and his influence is widely recognized and felt. As indi- cated by the positions which he holds, he stands in the front rank of the ministry of the denomination with which he is connected. He married, in 1860, Jeanette, daughter of Captain Richard W. Greene, of Warwick. From this union there are two surviving children. " The Memoir of Rev. George T. Day, D.D.," is his leading published work.

HOPKINS, LIEUTENANT STEPHEN MANCHESTER, son of Augustus and Hannah (Brayton) Hop- kins, was born in Burrillville, Rhode Island, Feb- ruary 28, 1837. He received the rudiments of his education in the public schools of his native town, and at a later age prosecuted his studies at the seminary in East Greenwich, and at New Hampton, New Hampshire. He evinced a high order of intellect, and possessed a joy- ous, affable disposition, which made him a great favorite with old and young. On completing his academic studies he engaged with his brothers in the manufacture of spin- dles, in which he continued until September, 1862, when he enlisted in the Twelfth Regiment of Rhode Island Vol- unteers, receiving a lieutenant's commission. In spring preceding his enlistment, the citizens of his native town, reposing great confidence in his abilities, sent him as one of their Representatives to the lower house of the Gen- eral Assembly, of which body he was a member at the time of his death, which occurred in Washington, D. C., De- cember 27, 1862, from the effects of a wound received in the battle of Fredericksburg. At the time his regiment was ordered from Washington to Falmouth, Virginia, he was suffering from a slow fever, and was carried to Fal- mouth in an ambulance. From this illness he had not fully recovered when General Burnside crossed the Rappa- hannock and attacked Lee at Fredericksburg. The captain of his company being ill, Lieutenant Hopkins bravely assumed the responsibility of leading the company into action, which he did to the admiration of his colonel and to the honor of himself as a gallant officer. Early in that fatal engagement a shell struck and mangled his left foot, which was afterward amputated and he removed to Wash- ington, where he lingered for two weeks, suffering from an increasing fever, and died at the time before mentioned, his wife and brother being with him at the time of his death. Lieutenant Hopkins united with the Free-Will Baptist Church at an early age, and was a sincere and de- vout Christian. He married, December 7, 1858, Mary Frances, daughter of John and Frances (Dudley) Warner, of Millbury, Massachusetts, the issue of the marriage being a daughter, Ellen Louise. Soon after the death of Lieu- tenant Hopkins a tribute to his memory appeared in the

Providence Evening Press, in which his patriotic self- sacrificing spirit is referred to as follows : " No one sacri- ficed business interests and the companionship of a dear family with greater patriotism than he. First of the little band that went out from his native town to put his name upon the roll of his country's defenders as a private, and without promise of position, the first to fall in her glorious defence while gallantly leading his men upon the bloody battle-field of Fredericksburg. No young man in New England has gone to the war with a more brilliant prospect before him, or with more to entice him to stay at home. But a stern sense of duty caused him to turn his back upon affluence and luxury, and to hazard his life, and all he held dear, for the sake of his country. During this whole war, Rhode Island has not lost a truer patriot or a braver sol- dier than Lieutenant Hopkins."

09 ICHARDSON, ERASTUS, son of John S. and Izanna (Lewis) Richardson, was born in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, April 10, 1837. His mother died during his infancy, and he became a member of the family of his grandfather, John E. Richard-

son. His great-grandfather, John Richardson, of Attle- borough, Massachusetts, was one of the pioneers in Ameri- can cotton spinning, and a descendant of John Woodcock, one of the first settlers in Attleborough, a noted man of his time. Upon the failure of his father in 1814, John E. Richardson engaged in business with the late Martin Stoddard, of Providence, where he remained a short time. About the year 1820 he removed to Valley Falls, where he was employed as clerk by the late William Harris. Upon the failure of Mr. Harris he engaged in the grocery business, in which he continued until his death, October 30, 1845. He was highly respected by all who knew him. His children were John'Strowbridge Richard- son, the father of the subject of this sketch, and William Augustus. His youngest sister, Rowena, now living at Augusta, Maine, is the wife of Hon. Anson P. Morrill. When his grandfather died, Erastus Richardson continued to live with his grandmother, Sylvia (Drake) Richardson ; and the resources of the family being very limited, he was obliged to commence work in a cotton-factory in order to contribute to the necessities of the household. Although thus early thrown upon his own resources, he made the best of his opportunities, and developed a capacity for busi- ness which secured him permanent employment, and Har- vey Chace of Valley Falls, and his sons, James H. and Jonathan, took a deep interest in his welfare, and gave him a position in their counting-room, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of bookkeeping, in which calling he has been engaged until the present time. He remained in the employ of Messrs. Chace until 1863, when he en- gaged with Edward Harris at Woonsocket. Since 1865 he has been bookkeeper for the Lippitt Woollen Company.

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Mr. Richardson has devoted his spare time to literary pur- suits, and is the author of a history of Woonsocket, pub- lished in 1876, and a translation of the /Eneid, now ap- pearing in the Woonsocket Patriot, both of which have been highly commended. lle served for nine months as a private soldier in the War of the Rebellion, being a member of the Twelfth Regiment of Rhode Island Volun- tecrs, with which he remained until the expiration of his term of enlistment, when he was honorably discharged. His first vote for President of the United States was cast for Abraham Lincoln, and he remained an ardent Repub- lican until the nomination of Horace Greeley by the Lib- eral Republican and Democratic parties. In 1873 he was elected a member of the School Committee of Woonsocket, and, excepting one year, has retained that position until the present time, being now chairman of the board. On the Ioth of November, 1863, he married Mary N. Carpen- ter, of Smithfield, Rhode Island. They have had three children : John Everet, deceased; Charles Francis, and Martha Frances.

ERRISH, REV. AURA L., was born in Nottingham, New Hampshire, September 10, 1837. His parents were Edward F. and Fanny Tuttle Gerrish. The father was a farmer, and for many years justice of the peace and quorum. The son was educated in a course preparatory for college at the Nottingham Union Institute, taught by Rev. Bartholomew Van Dame, and by private instructors. He also gave attention to scientific studies. He early commenced the work of teaching, and gave several years consecutively to it in the public schools of New Castle and Exeter, New Hampshire. At the age of sixteen he became a member of the Free Baptist Church in his native town. Choosing the ministry for his life- work, he entered the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1863, and graduated therefrom in 1866. During this course of study he supplied churches in the vicinity of Bangor. Im- mediately upon his graduation he became pastor of the Free Baptist Church in Pittsfield, Maine, the place of the location of the Maine Central Institute, a school of a high order, under the patronage of the Free Baptists. He was ordained there August 17, 1866. He held this position ten years. During this time his services were of great value to the church, the school, and the community at large. He was President of the Board of Trustees of the Institute eight years, and principal of the normal de- partment one year. He did much in raising funds for its benefit. He served on the School Board of Pittsfield six years. He became pastor of the church in Olneyville, R. I., in February, 1876, and fills with great acceptance the posi- tion which was honored by the services of Rev. Martin Cheney and Rev. George T. Day, D.D. Mr. Gerrish was for a period a member of the Executive Board of the Free- will Baptist Education Society. Since 1877 he has been a member of the Executive Board of the Freewill Baptist

Home Mission Society, and is its corresponding secretary. He is the President of the School Board of the town of Johnston. Ile is a bold and earnest preacher, a safe and judicious leader, and exerts a large and beneficent in- fluence. lle married, in 1859, Lizzie V. Holbrook, of New Castle, New Hampshire, who died some two years later, leaving an infant daughter. In 1863 he married Lucinda A. Rondlett, of Exeter, New Hampshire.

ALISS, MAJOR GEORGE NEWMAN, son of James Leonard and Sarah Ann (Stafford ) Bliss, was born in Eagleville, Tiverton, Rhode Island, July 22, 1837. He attended the schools of Fall River, Massa- chusetts, and the University Grammar School in Providence, and in 1856 entered Brown University, where he remained two years, and then entered Union College, Schenectady, New York, where he graduated in 1860. His decision of character and courage in adhering to his convictions were manifested in his college course, leading to the change of colleges rather than to submit to what he deemed rigid discipline. In September, 1860, he entered the Albany Law School, from which he graduated in May, 1861, and was admitted to the bar of the State of New York. Returning to Providence, lie continned the study of law in the office of Samuel W. Peckham. After the first battle of the Civil War, July 21, 1861, his patriotism led him to espouse the cause of his country, and in September, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the First Rhode Island Cavalry, the first command of the kind ever raised in New England. He was soon promoted to quartermaster-ser- geant, and then to first lieutenant, in which rank for a time he became quartermaster of the regiment. In July, 1862, he became Captain of Troop C., in which office he. performed efficient service in the most trying days of the war. He was with his brave regiment in Virginia, along the Potomac, Rappahannock, Rapidan, and James Rivers, over the Bull Run, Blue Ridge, and Catoctin Mountains, and through the Shenandoah Valley, participating in the battles of Front Royal and vicinity, Cedar Mountain, Rap- pahannock, Groveton, Bull Run, Chantilly, Chancellors- ville, Brandy Station, Middleburg, Rapidan Station, below Front Royal, Opequan, Winchester, Waynesboro, and others. His heroic conduct in the Waynesboro Battle, Sep- tember 28, 1864, with the famous Black Horse Cavalry of the enemy, forms one of the thrilling chapters of the war. After cutting down four of his foes and having his horse shot under him and receiving wounds in his head and side, he became a prisoner. His valor was handsomely acknowl- edged by his enemies. One of the men struck down by his sabre was the color-bearer of the Fourth Virginia Cavalry. Captain Bliss was incarcerated in Libby Prison under pe- culiarly trying circumstances, suffering from his wounds, and once for forty-five days in a basement-cell as a hostage doomed contingently to death. On being exchanged he

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returned to the service in February, 1865, and was appointed to court-martial service at Annapolis, Maryland. During the war he was on five courts-martial, once as junior mem- ber; once as judge advocate, once as president. While for a time assisting in the recruiting service he visited various portions of the army front in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. No truer, braver soldier and officer was found in the Union Army than Major Bliss. After the close of the war he returned to Providence and resumed the practice of his profession. Residing in East Providence, he has an office in that town, and also one in Providence. In 1866 he was chosen a member of the School Committee of East Providence, and has served, with the exception of three years, until the present time (1881). He was elected a Representative to the General Assembly in 1868, and was re-elected for five years. In 1879 he was commis- sioned, by the State, Major of Cavalry, and now com- mands in the State militia the entire cavalry force of Rhode Island. In 1869 he was unanimously elected by the General Assembly Commissioner of the Shell Fishery for five years, and in 1874 was unanimously re-elected for a like term. In 1873 he was chosen Trial Justice of East Providence, and has been regularly re-elected, his present term reaching to 1882. He was particularly active in the General Assembly in securing the rebuilding of Central (old Red) Bridge on its old site. In 1872 he united with the Congregational Church in East Providence, of which he is an esteemed member. For many years he has been prominently identified with the Masonic order, in which he has held various official positions. His attachment to this fraternity was strengthened by his being saved from death as a Mason when he lay wounded in the battle of Waynes- boro, through the interposition of Captain Henry C. Lee, a Confederate officer, and brother of Fitz Lee. Ile is a member of the Cavalry Veteran Association, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Soldiers' and Sailors' His- torical Society of Rhode Island. Evidences of his literary ability appear in chapters of the History of the First Rhode Island Cavalry, and other important historical papers, including the Historical Sketch of East Provi- dence, July 4, 1876. He married, January 1, 1872, Fanny A., daughter of Hon. William A. Carpenter, of East Provi- dence, and has five children : Gerald Morton, William Carpenter, George Miles, Helen Louise, and Carlton Sears.

SEXTER, REV. SAMUEL KING, pastor of the Baptist Church in Warren, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, September 6, 1837. He prepared for col- lege at Peekskill Academy, on the Hudson, and after pursuing a collegiate course at Madison University, at Hamilton, New York, entered the Theological Seminary at Newton, Massachusetts. After his ordination at Sheldon- ville, Massachusetts, where he remained one year, he was installed pastor of the Baptist Church in Windsor, Vermont,

in the fall of 1865, where he remained three years, and then accepted a call to Bennington, Vermont, remaining there two years. His pastorate at the latter place continued until the fall of 1870, and on the Ist of January, 1871, he returned to Rhode Island and became pastor of the Baptist Church in Warren, where he has since continued to labor. This is one of the oldest churches in New England, having been built in 1764. It was burned by British soldiers in the Revolutionary War, and rebuilt in 1786. The present structure occupies the site of the first two churches, and a portion of the ground on which it was intended to locate Brown University. Rev. Dr. James Manning was its first pastor, and many eminent preachers have since ministered to its people. On entering upon his pastoral duties at Warren Mr. Dexter immediately identified himself with the educational interests of the town, and has been a member of the School Board since 1870. From 1871 to 1875 he was Superintendent of the Public Schools of Warren. For many years he has been connected with the Board of the Baptist State Convention and the Baptist Educational So- ciety. He married, May 9, 1865, in Providence, Henrietta D. Allen, daughter of Deacon Sandford Allen, of Belling- ham, Massachusetts. They have had six children, of whom but two, Walter A. and Alden B., are now living. Mr. Dexter's religious labors at Warren and elsewhere have been marked by great earnestness and zeal, and his present work is in a most prosperous condition. Although closely devoted to the interests of his own church he has exerted a wide influence, and been largely instrumental in promot- ing the general religious and moral welfare of the com- munity.

WAN, LYMAN L., M.D., son of William Swan, of Smithfield, was born December 16, 1838. His early studies were pursued in the public schools of his native town and at the East Greenwich Semin- 6 ary. Subsequently he completed his academic and O classical course in part at Hanover, New Hampshire, and in part at Andover, Massachusetts. He pursued his medical studies in the offices of Drs. Daw and Howard W. King, and at the Long Island Medical College, from which in- stitution he received his diploma. Soon after the comple- tion of his medical studies he commenced practice at River- point. It was not long before he received an appointment as Assistant Surgeon in the Third Rhode Island Cavalry. He was for some time at the South in the discharge of his professional duties, the larger portion of this period being spent in Louisiana. On the termination of the war he re- turned to Rhode Island, and opened an office in Provi- dence, where his services as a physician were highly ap- preciated and his practice steadily increased. He took special interest in one form of the application of morphia for the alleviation of pain,-the subcutaneous injection of that article. In a valuable paper which he prepared on that subject he alludes, as indicating his confidence in the

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use of morphia, to nearly three hundred cases in which he had been successful in his treatment of his patients by this method. Dr. Swan kept up his intimate connection with his military associates during his residence in Providence. At the time of his death he was Surgeon to Prescott Post, No. 1, Grand Army of the Republic, and Assistant Sur- geon-General of the State Militia. He was also a member of Eagle Lodge and Moshassuck Encampment Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows. Not long before his death he became a communicant in Grace Church, Providence, and was an active member of the " Bishop Griswold Society " in that church. He died September 21, 1872, " calm and happy, in a full faith in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ, and expressed himself willing to die." Dr. Swan was never married.

ENGELL, EDWIN GORHAM, President of the Amer- ican Screw Company, son of William Gorham and Ann R. (Stewart) Angell, was born in Prov- idence, February 25, 1837. His early education was acquired in the excellent public schools of his native city. In 1852 he entered the service of the Eagle Screw Company, where he remained nearly eight years, during which period he obtained the knowledge and ex- perience which were to be of so much use to him in the important position to which he was subsequently called. He was elected treasurer of the American Screw Com- pany, January 1, 1860, his father being the President of the company. This office he resigned in 1864, and moved to New York, where he became a member of the firm of Eagleton, Angell & Co., who were agents for the Eagleton Manufacturing Company of that city. He continued a member of this firm until 1867, when it dissolved, and he returned to Providence, where he became the assistant of his father, whose ill health demanded that he should be relieved in part from the weighty burdens connected with the discharge of his duties as president of a corporation whose business had become so widely extended. Upon the death of his father in 1870 he was appointed his suc- cessor, and has held the office of president of the Ameri- can Screw Company up to the present time (1881). He married, February 14, 1861, Sarah S. Southwick, of New- port. They have one child, Grace.

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 125

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