The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 15

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

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public service had been rendered gratuitously by civil officers. It was now enacted that the Governor should have ten pounds a year, the Deputy Governor six pounds, and the Assistants four pounds each. Governor Carr did not live long enough to reap much reward for the dis- charge of his duties as chief magistrate. He died in New- port, December 17, 1695, being the fourth governor who died while in office. He was buried in a small family burying-ground on the north side of Mill Street, between Thames and Spring streets, Newport.

ASWELL, ALEXIS, D.D., LL.D., the sixth Presi- dent of Brown University, was a twin son of Sam- uel and Polly (Seaver) Caswell. He was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, January 29, 1799. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of his native place, the name of Thomas Caswell being found in the list of the householders and proprietors, most if not all of whom came from Somersetshire, England. His early childhood was spent on the farm of his father. Anxious to obtain an education he entered the Academy of Taunton, and, having passed through the necessary preparatory train- ing, entered Brown University, and was graduated with the highest honors in the class of 1822. While in college he became a decided Christian, and in July, 1820, connected himself with the First Baptist Church in Providence, from which he never severed his relations, and his interest in everything that concerned its prosperity remained un- abated till the close of his life. On leaving college he entered upon the duties of tutor in what is now known as Columbian University in Washington, D. C., then in its in- fancy and under the charge of Rev. Dr. William Staughton, with whom he pursued a course of theological study. Five years of earnest work were spent in Washington. The embarrassed pecuniary condition of the institution was the occasion of Mr. Caswell's resigning his position in the col- lege and retiring to his New England home. He did not wait long before his serviees were in demand. At this time, he expected, without doubt, that his life work would be the preaching of the Gospel. A Baptist church, composed of a few families who had become dissatisfied with the Epis- copal church with which they had been connected in Halifax, N. S., had been formed in that city, and he was invited to take charge of the new organization. He was ordained in Halifax, October 7, 1827, and entered at once with the earnestness and zeal of a young preacher, upon the diseharge of his ministerial duties. He continued to act as pastor of the church for nearly one year, and, as the event proved, it was his only settlement as a Christian minister. He returned to Providence in the summer of 1828, and while supplying the pulpit of the First Baptist Church, made vacant by the death of Rev. Dr. Gano, he

Alexis Caswell,

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was elected by the corporation of Brown University Pro- fessor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. It was at an important stage in the affairs of the University when Professor Caswell was called to take his place in the faculty of the college. Dr. Wayland had been president for a year and a half, and was beginning to leave the im- press of his own marked character on the institution. The new officer at once entered with heartiest sympathy into the spirit and plans of the president. If there was a de- mand for extra work he was ready to meet that demand. In addition to instruction given in the studies in his special department he taught the college classes in chemistry, in ethics, in natural history, and constitutional law. The state of the funds of the University was anything but encourag- ing, and he took up the task of making appeals to the citizens of Providence and the friends of the institution everywhere for needed pecuniary aid, a task which he cheerfully and successfully assumed at different crises in the affairs of the institution until his relation to it was brought to a close by his lamented death. His connection with Brown University as a professor covered a period of a little more than thirty-five years. During this long period there was nothing which had reference to the welfare of his Alma Mater in which he did not take an interest. To his efforts in securing subscriptions the library fund of twenty-five thousand dollars is largely indebted. He was a member of the library committee for twenty-three years, its secretary eleven years, and its chairman four years. In addition to instruction given in all the departments of natural science prescribed in the college course, for several years he taught Butler's Analogy. Perhaps his favorite branch of investigation and teaching was astronomy. He delivered at the Smithsonian Institution at Washington in the winter of 1858 four lectures on astronomy, which were published in an appendix to the annual report of that year. For more than forty years, with few interruptions, he kept tables of meteorological observations, which were published monthly in the Providence Journal. In the twelfth vol- ume of the Smithsonian Contributions of Knowledge may be found the results of twenty-nine years of these mete- orological observations. His reputation as a scientific scholar brought with it the usual rewards. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected him an Associate Fellow in 1850. Of the American Association for the Advancement of Science he was an active working mem- ber. At the meeting of the Association which was held in Montreal in 1857 he was called to preside. " He sus- tained the credit of his country on a foreign soil," says Professor Lovering, " by his d gnified presence and his manly eloquence, to the great satisfaction of all his associ- ates." When in 1863 Congress established the National Academy of Sciences, he was one among the fifty original corporators chosen by the government. The usual uni- formity which characterizes the life of a college professor was occasionally broken in the case of Professor Caswell.

In 1840, when President Wayland was in Europe, Professor Caswell performed the duties of President, and when dur- ing the last three years of Dr. Wayland's connection with the University he was relieved of the disciplinary care of the college, Professor Caswell acted as Regent. In 1860 he went abroad, and was absent a year from his college du- ties. The formation of the acquaintance of scientific scholars, his visits to renowned observatories, and his at- tendance upon the meetings of the leading scientific asso- ciations of Great Britain and the Continent were, to a man of his warm and generous sympathies and his lifelong interest in science, a source of constant delight. His connection with the University continued until the autumn of 1863, when he resigned. He was stillin the vigor of a ripe manhood, and in the University in which he had so long lived there was a constant demand for his services. Among other offices which he held were those of President of the National Exchange Bank and of the American Screw Company. On the resignation of President Sears, in 1868, Professor Caswell was elected President of the University, and held that position for four years (1868-1872), thus making the whole term of his service in an official capacity cover a period of thirty-nine and a half years. That his connection with the University might remain un- broken, he was elected in 1872 a member of the Board of Trustees, and in 1875 a Fellow of the Corporation. The University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1841, and that of Doctor of Laws in 1865. He was twice married, first, May 7, 1830, to Esther Lois, daughter of Edward K. Thompson, of Providence. She died June 25, 1850. On January 31, 1855, he married Elizabeth Brown, daughter of Thomas Edwards, of New- ton, Massachusetts. He had six children by his first wife, and of these three survive him, viz., Sarah Swoope, wife of President James B. Angell, LL.D., of Michigan Uni- versity, Dr. Edward Thompson Caswell, physician of Providence, and Paymaster Thomas Thompson Caswell, of the United States Navy. He died at his residence on Angell Street in Providence, January 8, 1877.

ENCKES, GOVERNOR JOSEPH, son of Joseph Jenckes, was born in Pawtucket, in 1656. His grandfather of the same name is supposed to have come from England with the emigrants led by Governor Winthrop, who reached Boston in June, 1630, and settled in Lynn, Mass. In his history of Lynn Mr. Lewis thus alludes to him : " Joseph Jenckes deserves to be held in perpetual remembrance in American history as being the first founder who worked in brass and iron on the Western Continent. By his hands the first models were made, and the first castings taken of many domestic implements and iron tools." The following order, ex-

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pressed in the quaint language of the times, was passed May 6, 1646, by the General Court of Massachusetts : " In answer to the peticon of Joseph Jenckes, for liberty to make experience of his abilityes and inventions for ye making of Engines for mills to go with water, for ye more speedy despatch of work than formerly, and mills for ye making of Sithes and other Edged tools, with a new in- vented Sawe-Mill, that they may be afforded cheaper than formerly, and that for fourteen yeeres without disturbance by any others setting up the like inventions.

This peticon is granted." Several years later he obtained a patent for a scythe, which substantially was similar to the scythes of modern times. The exact date when the father of the subject of this sketch came to Pawtucket is not known, but is supposed to be 1655. He was drawn to Rhode Island to avail himself of what were in those times the thick forests on the shores of the Blackstone River, from which charcoal could be obtained to be used in his blacksmith business, and also to use the fine water- power of the place for the mills his father had been de- vising. We find but scanty information concerning the experience of the father of the future Governor, his son. Goodrich, in his historical sketch of Pawtucket, says : "It is known that Mr. Jenckes, or Jenks, as he writes the name, soon erected a forge; perhaps he quickly found out that bog iron existed near what has long been styled Mineral Springs, for before the Revolution a forge stood near the Moshassuck, where the ore was converted into blooms." A ready market was found for all the manufactured arti- cles which were offered for sale. For twenty years things moved on peacefully and prosperously, and then came King Philip's War, of which mention is so frequently made in this work. The battle which is known in history as " Pierce's Fight," so called because Captain Pierce, of Scituate, Massachusetts; had command of the English force, was fought Sunday, March 26, 1675, on the river between Pawtucket and Valley Falls, not far, it is supposed, from the place where the Providence and Boston Railroad crosses the river. Out of the eighty-three men who went into this fight, fifty-five English and ten friendly Indians were killed. So alarmed were the people of Pawtucket that the place was vacated, the forge of Jenckes was burned, and, without doubt, the larger part of the humble cottages of the inhabitants shared the same fate. After the war was ended Mr. Jenckes, with his family, returned to his former home, he rebuilds his forge, the people came back and again erected their cabins, and the old prosperity returns to Pawtucket. Amid such scenes as these the younger Jenckes was trained. Seven children were in his father's family, four sons and three daughters. Both his father and three brothers acquired distinction in the colony. The former bore the title of Assistant, answering to Lieu- tenant Governor or Senator. Of the latter, Nathaniel be- came a major, Ebenezer a minister, and William a judge. Like his father, the subject of this sketch comes into the

forcground when he reaches the age of manhood as a man prominent in civil affairs. He was appointed as early as 1705 a commissioner to aid in the settlement of the per- plexing question of what should be considered as the boundary line between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Again and again is he reappointed to assist in running the line. In 1715 he was elected Deputy Governor, and held the office until May, 1721. While in office he was sent to England in 1720 to bring the boundary disputes between Rhode Island as the one party, and Connecticut and Massa- chusetts as the other, directly to the notice of the king. On his return to his home he was re-elected Deputy Gov- ernor in 1722, and was in office until 1727, when Governor Cranston, who had been Governor twenty-nine years, dying, Mr. Jenckes was chosen as his successor, and held the office for the next five years, residing for the larger part of the time in Newport, at the request of the General Assembly. An amusing tradition is preserved concerning Governor Jenckes to the effect that when he was elected, feeling a desire to maintain the dignity of the station, and to wear a garb like that of the other colonial governors, he sent an order to England for a cloak. From some blunder, however, on the part of his correspondent, the order was made to read for a clock instead of a cloak, and a clock was sent. This clock remained in the possession of his descendants for more than a century, and, so far as we know, is still in existence, although it has passed out of the family. Governor Jenckes died a few years after he ceased to be the chief magistrate of the State, the event taking place June 15, 1740 He is said to have been the tallest man of his time in Rhode Island, standing seven feet and two inches without his shoes. His body was exhumed June 2, 1831, and the skeleton was found entire. Eighteen inches was the measure of his thigh-bones. The inscription on his tombstone was as follows : " In memory of Hon. Joseph Jenckes, Esq., late Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island, deceased the 15th day of June, A.D. 1740, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He was much Honoured and Beloved in Life, and Lamented in Death. He was a bright Example of Virtue in every Stage of life. He was a zealous Christian, a Wise and Prudent Governor, , a Kind Husband and a Tender Father, a good Neighbor and a Faithful Friend, Grave, Sober, Pleasant in Beha- viour, Beautiful in Person, with a soul truly Great, Heroic and Sweetly Tempered." The wife of Governor Jenckes was Martha, daughter of John Brown, eldest son of Rev. Chad Brown. It would be impossible to mention the names or even the families of those that have sprung from the early founder of Pawtucket. Somewhat more than half a century ago the descendants of Joseph Jenckes, the father of the Governor, amounted to about ten thousand. In early times a branch of the family was prominent in building up Central Falls. Daniel, a son of Ebenezer, the brother of the Governor, became a wealthy merchant of Providence. For forty-eight years he was a member of the First Baptist

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Church, being of the same denomination with his uncle Joseph. For forty years he was a member of the General Assembly, and for nearly thirty years Chief Justice of the Providence County Court. Nicholas Brown, father of Hon. Nicholas Brown, married his daughter Rhoda, May 2, 1762. There have been other distinguished persons who bear the honored name of Jenckes, and the posterity of the Governor is represented still in Pawtucket and its neigh- borhood.

AY, SIMON, one of the first settlers of Block Island, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1635. His father was a native of England, and died in Braintree in 1641. The subject of this sketch in- herited a large portion of his father's estate, and at the age of twenty-five became the leader of the brave little colony of sixteen families that settled Block Island in 1660- 62, at a time when Indian hostilities were alarming, and many were compelled to leave Massachusetts on account of persecution. Mr. Ray devoted his best cnergies and his fortune to the settlement of Block Island. He paid one- half the expense of building a shallop to transport the settlers ; was instrumental in having the island properly apportioned among them, and in obtaining from his fel- low-colonists a grant of about fifty acres of choice land to be used forever for the support of a minister on the island. His life was devoted to promoting the temporal and spiritual welfare of the natives and colonists. During a period of ninety years he and his son Simon did the princi- pal part of the preaching for the colony. His old age having been attended with loss of sight, his townsmen manifested their appreciation of his worth by holding their meetings at his house, which was remote from others, and continuing to elect him to the office of Chief Warden. For about thirty years he was their representative in the Rhode Island Gen- eral Assembly. Mr. Ray died at the advanced age of one hundred and two years, and left a large estate. His grave at the Island Cemetery is marked by a large gray stone slab bearing an affectionate inscription. The children who sur- vived him were Sybil, Mary, Dorothy, and Simon. Simon became a prominent citizen, and at his house there were occasional gatherings of the highest dignitaries of Rhode Island. At his death, which occurred March 19, 1775, the Rays disappeared from the island, as he was an only son and had no male issue. His children were Judith, Cath- arine, Anna, and Phobe. Judith married Thomas Hubbard, of Boston ; Anna married Governor Samuel Ward, of Rhode Island; Catharine, with whom Franklin corresponded freely, married Governor William Greene, of Rhode Island; and Phœbe married William Littlefield, of Block Island, and became the mother of Catharine, who became the wife of Major-General Nathanael Greene, and was an intimate friend of Martha Washington.

YFIELD, HONORABLE NATHANIEL, son of Rev. Richard Byfield, was born in England in 1653. His father was an eminent divine, one of the oldest of the ejected ministers in the county of Surrey, England, and one of the celebrated " Westminster Assembly " that prepared the well-known compendium of religious faith known as " The Shorter Catechism." The subject of this sketch was the youngest of twenty-one children. He came to this country in 1674. In 1675 he married Miss Deborah Clarke. His business was that of a merchant in Boston, in which he met with great suc- cess, acquiring considerable property, a part of which, at the close of Philip's War, he invested with three other per- sons in the purchase of the township now known as Bristol, and shortly afterwards moved to that place, then but little better than a wilderness. He resided on the beautiful peninsula opposite the village known as Poppasquash Point, his farm embracing nearly all the peninsula. By his wife he had five children, three of whom died young, and of the other two, who were daughters, one married Lieutenant-Governor Taylor, of Massachusetts, and the other Edward Lyde, Esq. Three of their children lived to grow up and leave descendants. Mr. Byfield was a man of a decided religious character, giving generously to the cause which he loved. " To his wisdom, foresight, and liberality," remarks the Rev. J. P. Lane, of Bristol, " are we chiefly indebted for our broad and regular streets, our large and beautiful common, and especially the school lands, which were chiefly his own gencrous gift to the town, the income from which has been a material help to the cause of educa- tion here and a perpetual public charity." The service of communion of the First Church in Bristol was enriched by him with the gift of two cups of solid silver, bearing the inscription, " The gift of Nathaniel Byfield, 1693." But not only in the church and in the town was he active as a worthy member of the one, and a good citizen of the other, but his influence had been felt in the affairs of the colony in which he lived before his removal to Bristol. He was con- spicuous both in military and in civil affairs. The differ- ent positions he filled are thus summed up : " In the field he quickly arrived to one of the highest places of power. In the province of Massachusetts he was honored with many betrustments ; was in commission for the Peace and Judge of Probate; was several times chosen Speaker in the Hon- orable House of Representatives; sat chief thirty-eight years in the Court of General Sessions of the Peace and Common Pleas for the County of Bristol, as afterwards he did two years for the county of Suffolk ; was one of His Majesty's Council for the province of Massachusetts Bay a great number of years, and had the honor of receiving five several commissions for Judge of the Vice-Admiralty from three crowned heads: from King William in 1697, from Queen Anne in the years 1702, 1703, and 1709, and from King George in 1728." He remained in Bristol until 1724, where his influence was felt for good in a multitude

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of ways. Soon after the organization of the church in that place his first wife, to whom allusion has been made, united with it, and for the remainder of her life was " one of the most valuable and useful of the femalc members, a fit associate and helpmeet to her worthy husband." She died in 1717. In 1718 he married Mrs. Sarah Leverett, youngest daughter of Governor Leverctt, of Massachusetts, with whom he lived till 1730. She died in Boston, De- cember 31, 1730. In 1724 Mr. Byfield left Bristol, and for the next nine years resided in Boston, where he died June 6, 1733, leaving a large property, the bulk of which was bequeathed to his grandson, Byfield Lyde, Esq. As one of the four original proprietors of the beautiful town of Bristol, his name deserves honorable mention among Rhode Island worthies.

OURTELLOT, ABRAUM. In the Rhode Island Tracts, No. 5, bearing the title, " Menioir Con- cerning the French Settlement in the Colony of Rhode Island, by Elisha R. Potter," may be found a plat of the French settlement in what was called Rochester, subsequently Kingshire. Among the names of persons holding lots in this settlement we find the name of Abraum Tourtellot, who must have been in this country as early as 1686. He seems to have been in partnership with his brother Benjamin in mercantile pursuits. This brother died at sea, on his way from London to this coun- try, September 25, 1687, and Abraum administered on his estate. The subject of this sketch, who lived in Roxbury, Massachusetts, had, by his wife Mary, two children, Gabriel Tourtellot, who was born September 24, 1694, and Esther, born June 12, 1696. Gabriel married Marie, daughter of Gabriel Bernon. Her name is mentioned in Bernon's will, dated February 16, 1727. Tracing down the pos- terity of Abraum Tourtellot, it appears that Gabriel and Mary (Bernon) Tourtellot had three children, two sons and a daughter. His residence was in Newport, from which place he sailed as master of a vessel, and was, with his eldest son, lost at sea. His son, Abram, married Lydia Ballard. He settled in Glocester, where he was the owner of a large landed estate. They had seven chil- dren. The fourth child was a son, who received the name of his father, Abram. He was born February 27, 1725, and was twice married, first to Miss Harris, and second, to Mrs. Hannah Corps, a widow, whom he married January 29, 1743. They had five children. The first, Stephen, died young. The second, William, who married Phebe Whitman, of Providence, and settled in Glocester. They had a large family of children, twelve in number, four sons and eight daughters. The third, Jesse, who married an Angell, and settled in Meriden. They had ten chil- dren. The fourth, Daniel, married Urana Keech, by whom he had three children, the first of whom was Jesse, who married a Steere. They had twelve children,

one of whom was Hon. Jesse S. Tourtellot, an honored Rhode Island namc. The fifth child of Abram, son of Gabriel, was Anna, who was twice married. By her sec- ond husband, Ebenezer White, she had six daughters, the youngest of whom, Mary, was the second wife of her cousin, Jesse, who also was her second husband. In its different branches, the Tourtellot family, which is of Hu- guenot descent, is a large one, and comprises in it some of the well-known families of Rhode Island.

ILES, REV. JOHN, like his contemporary, Roger Williams, was born in the principality of Wales. In 1649, he became pastor of the Baptist Church, in Swanzea, in the county of Glamorganshire, where he distinguished himself as a clerical leader, and, in 1651, was sent as a representative to the Baptist Ministers' Meeting in London. Under his ministry his church was greatly prospered, receiving two hundred and sixty-three members, when, at last, in 1662, by the intol- erant Act of Uniformity, Mr. Miles and some two thousand ministers lost their lawful livings, and were ejected from their parishes. Immediately, with many of his church and the church records, he removed to America. Not pleased with the Puritan restraints of Boston, he first settled in Rehoboth Here he reorganized the Swanzea Church, first meeting in the house of John Butterworth. The body being fined five dollars a member " for setting up a meeting without the authority of law," the church was removed to Wannamoiset, south of Rehoboth, now in Barrington, where they built a meeting-house, about three miles northwest of the village of Warren. In 1667, Mr. Miles and Captain Thomas Willett were the leaders in founding the town of Swanzea, named after the church and town which Mr. Miles had left in Wales. Mr. Miles was an excellent scholar and an able preacher. His residence was near Barneyville. In 1673, he was chosen by the town, at a salary of forty pounds per annum, to be " master of a school for teaching Grammar, Rhetoric and Arithmetic, and the tongues of Latin, Greek and He- brew, also to read English and to write"-what would now be called an academy. It was broken up by Philip's War. On the 20th of June, 1675, the people gathered into gar- rison houses, and military forces were intrenched in Mr. Miles's mansion, which was termed Miles's Garrison. It stood about fifty rods west of Miles's Bridge. The war laid half the houses of the settlers in ashes. About 1680, a new meeting-house was built at Tyler's Point, just below Kelly's Bridge, but in 1700 was removed to North Swan- zea. Mr. Miles's wife was Ann Humphrey, and his chil- dren were John, Susannah, and Samuel. He sometimes prcached for the Congregationalists, and was held in uni- versal esteem, both for his attainments and piety. His pulpit talents won him high reputation also in Boston.

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 15

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