USA > Rhode Island > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island > Part 26
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in the Colony of Rhode Island, under the chief direction of the Baptists ; wherein education might be promoted, and superior learning obtained, free of any sectarian religious tests." Mr. Edwards was authorized to make collections for the new institution, and for this purpose went to Eng- land, leaving this country in February, 1767. He was fa- vorably received, and his errand approved by the Baptist ministers and churches. It was, however, no easy task which he had undertaken. In a letter to President Man- ning, under date of London, April 26, 1768, he writes : "There have been no less than six cases of charity pushed about town this winter, viz., two from Germany, two from the country of England, and two from America. The un- wearied beneficence of the City of London is amaz- ing! Your newspapers, and letters from your govern- ment, have hurt me much,-your boast of the many yards of cloth you manufacture, etc. This raises the indignation of the merchants and manufacturers. I
have been not only denied by hundreds, but also abused on that score. My patience, my feet, and my assurance are much inipaired. I took a cold in November, which stuck to me all winter, owing to my tramping the streets in all weather." During the latter part of 1768 he returned to America, the net proceeds of the subscriptions which he had obtained for the College having been £888 Ios. 2d. sterling, which he thought was doing "pretty well, con- sidering how angry the mother country then was with the Colonies for opposing the Stamp Act." By a vote of the corporation at its annual meeting, September 7, 1769, the interest of the money obtained by Mr. Edwards was " forever to go to pay the salary of the president." The original subscription-book of Morgan Edwards is now in the archives of Brown University, having been presented to the College in 1849, by Mr. Joshua Edwards, his son. Rev. Dr. William Rodgers, in his funeral sermon, says of him : " Honor, Mr. Edwards certainly had, both in Europe and America. The College and Academy of Philadelphia, at a very early period, honored him, as a man of learning and a popular preacher, with a diploma, constituting him Master of Arts. This was followed by a degree ad eundem, in the year 1769, from the College of Rhode Island, being the first commencement in that institution. In this semi- nary he held a Fellowship, and filled it with reputation, till he voluntarily resigned it in 1789, age and distance having rendered him incapable of attending the meetings of the corporation." One of his sons, William, is thus referred to in the Providence Gazette, in its account of Commence- ment, 1870: "The business of the day being concluded, and before the assembly broke up, a piece from Homer was pronounced by Master Billy Edwards, one of the grammar-school boys, not nine years old." A large num- ber of the manuscripts of Mr. Edwards are in the archives of the Rhode Island Historical Society, one of which, " Materials for a History of the Baptists in Rhode Island," is published in vol. vi of the Society's Collections.
OPEZ, AARON, a Portuguese Jew, was born in 1731. Soon after the great earthquake at Lisbon he came to this country, and, in company with a large num- TO ber of persons of the Hebrew faith, took up his residence in Newport. Many branches of industry were introduced into the town by these Jews, which were pursued with such zeal and success as to add very materi- ally to the prosperity of the place. In 1753 we find that the General Assembly granted to Moses Lopez, a nephew of Aaron, a patent for ten years upon an improved method of making potash. A year or two previous to this he had been excused from all other civil duties, " on account of his gratuitous services to the government in translating Spanish documents." In 1763 the number, wealth, and social position of the Jews in Newport had become such as to render them an important element in the population of Newport. At this period there were more than sixty Hebrew families in the town, " many of whom were dis- tinguished for their wealth and commercial enterprise." On the 3d of December of this year they dedicated their beautiful synagogue, which is still kept in a high state of preservation, to the worship of the God of their fathers. The war of the Revolution was attended with most disas- trous results to the Jews of Newport. Aaron and Moses Lopez, owners at one time of twenty-seven square-rigged vessels, several of which were whale-ships, lost nearly all of them during the war. All the Jews left the town. Lopez removed to Providence, and subsequently to Leices- ter, Mass., where he resided nearly to the close of the war. It was his intention to return to Newport after the war, and was carrying out his purpose, but, unfortunately, riding along the edge of Scott's Pond, in Smithfield, his sulky was overturned and he was drowned. The event occurred May 28, 1782. The inscription on his tombstone states that " he was drawn from this transitory existence to eternal rest the 14 of Sivan, A. M. 5542 " (May 28, 1782). He was a merchant of eminence, of polite and amiable manners. Hospitality, liberality, and benevolence were his true characteristics ; an ornament and valuable pillar to the Jewish society of which he was a member. His knowledge in commerce was unbounded, and his integrity irreproachable. Thus he lived, and died much regretted, esteemed and loved of all. The son of Aaron, Joseph Lopez, was almost the only one of the Jews who engaged in business in Newport. After the war, and a few years before his death, he removed to New York. After his decease, his body was brought to Newport, and buried in the Jewish cemetery.
OLE, JUDGE JOHN, son of Elisha Cole, of North Kingstown, R. I., was born about the year 1720. His father was one of the largest landholders in the county. Having acquired the rudiments of a good education, being instructed in the Greek and
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Latin languages by a foreign tutor, he commenced the study of law in the office of Daniel Updike, Esq., at that time Attorney-General of the State, whose daughter hc subsequently married. On being admitted to the bar, he began the practice of his profession in Providence, where he secured a good share of legal business. He was elected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the colony in 1763, and in 1764 the General Assembly appointed him to the chair of Chief Justice, in the place of Judge Bannis- ter, who had resigned. The resistance of Rhode Island to the infamous " Stamp Act " was, from the outset, posi- tive, and even violent. The General Assembly, at their session in 1764, appointed Judge Cole a committee to re- pair to Boston, and to express to the Massachusetts Legis- lature their sympathy with them in their pronounced hos- tility to the act, and to obtain from them a copy of their spirited remonstrance to the obnoxious doings of the home government. Subsequently, Mr. Cole was placed, upon a committee " to act and correspond, during the recess, with the committees of the legislatures of the other colonies, and to remonstrate against the present burthens, and espe- cially against the Stamp Act." It is a matter of well- known historic record, that the remonstrances of the colo- nial legislatures were unavailing, and the Stamp Act bill was passed in the House of Commons, by a vote of two hundred and fifty to fifty, and adopted almost unanimously in the House of Lords, and the royal sanction given to it March 22, 1765. Judge Cole, who had resigned the office of Chief Justice, was elected a Representative from Provi- dence to the General Assembly, and in all the discussions having reference to the alleged grievances with the mother country, took a most decided and patriotic stand. He was appointed to act on important committees, whose duty it was to prepare such papers and recommend such actions as were befitting the emergencies of the times in which they had fallen. At the May session, 1765, of the Gen- eral Assembly he was elected Speaker of the House. In 1775 he was appointed Advocate-General of the Mari- time or Vice-Admiralty Court for the State, which office he held during the remainder of his life. Judge Cole is spoken of as an advocate of respectable talents, a sound lawyer, and a person of fair and honorable character. He was a man of large stature, six feet in height, inclined to corpulency, and troubled for some time with the gout. Having entered a hospital to be inoculated for the small- pox, the disease proved fatal, and he died in October, 1777, and was buried in the hospital grounds.
GARDNER, CALEB, an active and energetic Merchant in Newport during the latter half of the eighteenth century, was born at Newport, January 24, 1739. He entered into business early in life, and soon gained a prominent position. He was a skilful
navigator, having at one time followed the scas. June 3, 1770, he married Sarah Ann Robinson, daughter of Dr. James Robinson, by whom he had five children. After the death of his first wife he married Sarah Fowler, daughter of Samuel Fowler, by whom he also had five children. His third wife was Mary, daughter of Governor John Collins, who bore him four children. At the time of his death he owned and occupied the house on the corner of John and Spring streets, now owned by the heirs of the late Dr. Daniel Watson. During the Rev- olution Captain Gardner had the confidence of the leaders of the American and French forces, and for some years after peace was declared he was recognized as the French Consul at this port. At his house he entertained Washing- ton, Lafayette, Rochambeau, and other French and Amer- ican officers, and when the French fleet, under the Che- valier de Ternay, sought to enter Newport harbor, he went out to meet them, and acted as pilot. This service was fittingly acknowledged by the French government, as is shown by the following letter : " Versailles, November 3, 1781. Sir: M. Le Comte de Barras, commander of the King's squadron in North America, informs me, sir, of the distinguished proofs you have given of your zeal and at- tachment to the common cause, and of the service you have rendered, as well to the squadron as to the army of M. de Rochambeau, and formerly to the squadron com- manded by M. le Comte D'Estainge. I have given an account of it to the King, and his Majesty hath ordered his ambassador at the United States to send to you with this letter a present from him, as a particular testimonial of his satisfaction. It is with pleasure that I inform you of it. I am, sir, wholly yours, Castries." This letter was ae- companied by one from the Chevalier de la Luzerne, who presented to Captain Gardner, in behalf of the King, the sum of three thousand livres. The following letter of in- troduction, addressed to Governor Blanchard at Tobago, may be taken as further evidence of the high esteem in which Captain Gardner was held by the French in America : " Philadelphia, October 9, 1783. Permit me, sir, to rec- ommend to your kindness Captain Gardner, who will have the honor to deliver to you this letter. The service that he hath rendered to the French fleet and army have given him a well-founded title to the protection of govern- ment. I have been charged by M. de Castries to make him a present on the part of his Majesty, and to make known to him how much the Court were satisfied with his services. A very interesting affair for his fortune leads him to the island where you command. I dare hope that you will do everything that law and justice will permit. I dare assure you that he is worthy of it, by the sentiments that he has possessed since the commencement of the Rev- olution, and still more by the real service that he has ren- dered to France. I shall have a particular acknowledg- ment of it, and I pray you to be convinced of it, as well as of the sentiments of very sincere and very perfect attach-
George Mail
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ment with which I have the honor to be, sir, your very humble and very obedient servant, Le Chevalier de la Lu- zerne."
AIL, GEORGE, son of Barnard, and grandson of Deacon Amos Hail, was born in Warren, R. I., June 12, 1793. In his childhood and early youth he attended the village school, but his opportuni- ties for study and mental improvement were very limited. At twelve years of age he left home, and for some time worked on a farm in the adjoining town of Bristol. Thence he removed to Providence, where he se- cured employment as a grocer's clerk, and soon won the confidence of his employers by his integrity and habits of industry. He subsequently carried on the grocery business successfully for many years in Providence. In the course of his business transactions he came into possession of a few shares of stock of the Eagle Screw Company, which proved so profitable an investment that he finally turned his attention to the development of that branch of industry. On the consolidation of that company with several others of a similar character, under the name of the American Screw Company, Mr. Hail became one of the largest stock- holders, and thereafter devoted much time to advancing the interests of the company. To his foresight, tenacity of purpose, and ability to inspire confidence, may be at- tributed, in a large measure, the wonderful success of that corporation, which has a world-wide reputation. He was prominently identified with the religious interests of the community. For some time after his removal to Provi- dence he attended the First Congregational (Unitarian) Church, on Benefit Street. About 1832 he united with the First Baptist Church, of which for many years he was an active and devoted member. In 1855 he, with others, united in the formation of the Brown Street (now the Union) Baptist Church. He was Chairman of the Build- ing Committee for the erection of a house of worship, to- ward which, and for the payment of current expenses, he contributed liberally. At his decease he left twenty thou- sand dollars as a fund, with the provision that the income therefrom should be expended for the support of preaching in the Brown Street Church. Mr. Hail's first wife was Mary Ann Gibbs, daughter of John and Mary Gibbs, of Newport. She died August 6, 1857. They had several children, most of whom are now living. On the 20th of August, 1861, Mr. Hail married Mrs. Martha N. Arnold, of Warwick, daughter of Robert and Mary Perry, of South Kingstown, who survives him. During his last years Mr. Hail returned to his native town to live, and here, in the retirement of a quiet village, surrounded by his family and friends, he died December 6, 1873.
OWRY, JUDGE DANIEL, son of Captain Daniel Mowry, was born at Smithfield, Rhode Island, August 17, 1729. In early life he learned the trade of a cooper, and his educational advan- tages were limited to an attendance of three months at a district school. He supplied the deficiency, however, by private study, and thus succeeded in acquiring a valuable fund of knowledge. Being possessed of supe- rior intellectual ability and strong common-sense, his worth was soon appreciated, and in his early manhood he was called upon to act in various public capacities. He rep- resented his native town in the General Assembly most of the time from May, 1766, until October, 1776, when he was chosen Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. IIe discharged the duties of his judicial office with great effi- ciency, and was re-elected to that position in 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780. He was a member of the General As- sembly in May, 1776, when that body passed the famous "Independence Act," just two months before the adoption by Congress of the Declaration of Independence. While a member of the General Assembly he served on some of the most important committees. He was one of the fore- most men of Northern Rhode Island during the Revolu- tionary War, and the years immediately preceding. His well-known ability and experience caused him frequently to be called upon to act as advocate for parties having cases before the courts. In 1780 he was elected, with James M. Varnum, Ezekiel Cornell, and John Collins, to represent the State in Congress. In May, 1781, he was re-elected, and at the expiration of his second term was again solicited to be a candidate for re-election, but de- clined the nomination. For twenty years he held the office of town clerk, and his son Daniel continued to serve in the same capacity for thirty-five years, father and son hold- ing that office for fifty-five years. He was thrice married, first to Anne Phillips, daughter of Richard and Anne Phillips. She died September 18, 1753. August 19, 1756, he married Nancy, widow of Thomas Arnold. His third wife was Catharine Steere, daughter of Anthony and Ra- chel Steere. She died April 4, 1827. Seven children were the issue of these marriages. Judge Mowry died July 6, 1806. He is described as tall and thin in person, with blue eyes, remarkably sharp and piercing, and a light complexion. He was a clear and forcible speaker, and the sincerity and earnestness with which he uttered his con- victions enabled him to wield a great influence over his auditors.
BHIPPLE, COMMODORE ABRAHAM, U. S. N., was born in Providence, September 16, 1733, and rendered most acceptable service to his country during the war of the Revolution. Bred early in life as a seaman, he became the Captain of a merchant vessel in the West India trade. Towards the
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close of the French and Indian War he was placed in command of a privateer, which bore the cxpressive name of " Gamecock." Twenty-three French prizes were cap- turcd by him in a single cruise. He headed the expedition which, in 1772, attacked and burned, in Narragansett Bay, His Majesty's schooner Gaspé. His cool courage and enterprising spirit pointed him out as a most suitable per- son, at the opening of the Revolutionary War, to conduct those enterprises which called into exercise the peculiar qualities of his character. It has been said that he fired the first authorized gun which was fired on the water during that struggle. With the title of Commodore he commanded, in 1775, two armed vessels and two war galleys, fitted out by Rhode Island. This squadron captured one of the tenders to the British Frigate Rose, off Newport. From 1775 to 1779 he had command of the schooner Providence. In this vessel he took and destroyed more prizes than any other commander in the navy. The Providence having been taken at length by the British, her loss was'more than made up by the construction of a new frigate, which bore the same name, and was placed in the command of Com- modore Whipple, who was commissioned to be bearer of dispatches to France. Her passage out of Narragansett Bay to the ocean, evading the watch of the British naval force on the lookout to capture her, was one of the most brilliant exploits of the Revolution. He accomplished his mission to France, and returned in safety. He had com- mand of a squadron during the remainder of the war. " Some of his achievements," we are told, " were so singu- lar and extraordinary as to appear more like romance than reality, and on one occasion the prize-money from his cap- tures amounted to more than $1,000,000. Perhaps the most eccentric and daring of his exploits was performed in July, 1779, when he encountered the homeward-bound Jamaica fleet, of nearly one hundred and fifty sail, convoyed by a seventy-four gunship and some smaller vessels. He con- cealed his own guns, hoisted British colors, and joined the fleet as one of their number. Thus he sailed in their com- pany several days, and each night he captured a vessel, which he manned from his own crew and sent to American ports." Eight out of ten richly laden merchantmen thus taken were brought to this country. While endeavoring to save Charleston, South Carolina, in 1780, his squadron was captured, and he was held as a prisoner of war until the end of the Revolutionary struggle. After the war he re- tired to his farm in Cranston. He removed subsequently to Ohio, and on his little farm of twelve acres, near Mari- etta, spent the last years of his life. The government al- lowed him a pension of thirty dollars a month from 1811 to the time of his death, which occurred May 29, 1818. A full length portrait of Commodore Whipple may be seen in the picture gallery of Rhode Island Hall, Brown Uni- versity. It was copied by the artist Heade from an origi- nal in the possession of his grandson, Dr. William Whipple Comstock, of Middletown, Mass.
SINTURN, WILLIAM, Merchant, a name distin- guished in mercantile circles, was born in South Kingstown, about the year 1734. Early in life he developed those qualitics which give him distinc- tion, and led to his future great success in his vo- cation as a merchant. Not content to remain at home on his father's farm, he made several voyages from Newport in a ship of which he soon became mate. During the French War the vessel in which he sailed was taken by the French and carried to a French port. The commander of the ship which had captured her offered to ransom her on the payment of a certain sum. Mr. Minturn was allowed to proceed to London, where he found the firm from whom he hoped to procure the ransom-money, was successful, and having recrossed the Channel, he paid the stipulated sum; the vessel was released, and brought back in safety to Newport. The owners of the ship were so much pleased with the course pursued by Mr. Minturn, that they placed him in command of the ship which he had saved, and he was so fortunate as to meet with such success in his voyages that he soon became an owner of ships himself, and a lead- ing merchant in Newport. He was selected by some of the first citizens of Rhode Island and Massachusetts to lead off in the founding of a city on the Hudson River. The site selected was where now is the city of Hudson. Mr. Minturn sailed with his family from Newport in one of his own vessels for the appointed locality. It sounds to us a little strange in these days of rapid locomotion to be told that it took him thirteen days to go from Newport to Hudson. He did not remain long there, satisfied that in a commercial point of view New York city was a more advantageous place for him to take up his residence in than a place so far from the sea as the proposed city was. Accordingly, he established himself in 1791 in New York, where, as the result of his skill and sagacity as a merchant, he amassed a large fortune. In 1799, Mr. Minturn finding his health failing, felt a strong desire to return to the home of his earlier life. A commodious house was secured for him in Newport, in which he residcd, however, but a short time, his death occurring in August. His wife was Pe- nelope, daughter of Benjamin Greene, and a near relative of General Nathanael Greene. Mrs. Minturn returned to New York, where she died, much respected for her many virtues, in 1821. They had ten children : (1) Penclope, wife of John T. Champlin ; (2) Benjamin Greene, husband of Mary Bowne; (3) Hannah, died in 1817; (4) William, the husband of a sister of Mary Bowne ; (5) Jonas, hus- band of Esther, daughter of William T. Robinson ; (6) Mary, wife of Henry Post; (7) Deborah, wife of Robert Harris, Jr .; (8) Nathaniel G., husband of Lydia, daughter of Samuel Coates, of Philadelphia; (9) Niobe ; (10) John, who, in 1817, removed to New Orleans ; his wife was Lydia, daughter of James Clements, of Philadelphia. Updike tells us that at one time the descendants of William Minturn numbered one hundred and forty-six persons.
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OTTER FAMILY, OF POTTER HILL. POTTER, MARTIN, is reported to have been a son of one of
the Regicides-judges that condemned Charles I.
On the restoration of the monarchy he fled to this
country, and took shelter with his cousins in South Kingstown, R. I., where he lived till his death, leaving a large estate in North Shields, on the banks of the Tyne, in England, in the coal region, having leased it for ninety nine years, and which was valued, in 1835, at nine million dollars, but has not been recovered by his heirs. He was always reticent in regard to his history. POTTER, GEORGE, son of Martin Potter, purchased, January 10, 1775, of John and William Davis, the grist-mill, saw-mill, fulling- mill, two houses, and sixteen acres of land, at Potter Hill, on the Pawcatuck, for three hundred pounds, and was known as " the honest miller." He also opened a store, which was continued by his son, and afterwards by his grandsons. He here built several small vessels. His son, Captain George, engaged in shipbuilding and cod-fishing, and is said to have been the first man from the United States, after the Revolution, to go to Green Island, in the Bay of St. Lawrence. All his sons became useful and in- fluential citizens. He died August 29, 1794, in his sixty- third year, leaving three sons, George, Jr., Joseph, and Nathan. Captain George died October 25, 1801, in his forty-fifth year. POTTER, JOSEPH, son of George Potter, Ist, was born in 1759. For several years he engaged in foreign trade, and sent vessels to the West Indies and to Barcelona, in Spain. In 1810 he began the first manu- facture of cotton in Westerly. His factory, built in 1812, cost nine thousand dollars. His business was damaged by the embargo. With his brother Nathan he built boats for the Green Island fishery, constructing from ten to fifteen per year. The brothers also built sloops, schooners, and, at one time, a ship, framing them at Potter Hill and put- ting them together at Westerly. During the War of 1812 they built the sloop-rigged gunboats No. 91 and No. 92, under the superintendence of Captain Phipps. Joseph was also engaged in mercantile business, and about the year 1791 his store, in a wing of his dwelling, was broken open by Thomas Mount, William Stanton, and James Williams, for which Thomas Mount was tried and hung at Kingston. Burglary of that sort was then a capital crime, and this was the last instance of capital punishment in Washington County. He left five sons, Thomas W., Joseph, Henry, Robert T., and William, all men of char- acter and note, to whom he left his property, and by whom the Potter Hill mills were operated till 1843, when they sold the mills and privilege to Messrs. Edwin and Horace Babcock. He was a member of the old Sabbatarian Church when it numbered nearly a thousand members. Mr. Potter was noted for his industry, integrity, gener- osity, and piety. He died December 14, 1822, at the age of sixty-three. Thomas Wells Potter died July 10, 1854, in his seventieth year. Colonel Henry Potter died No-
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