The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 34

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

USA > Rhode Island > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island > Part 34

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

HERBURNE, COLONEL HENRY, whose name is in- timately connected with the history of Rhode Island from the opening of the Revolution till long after the war, was commissioned as Major of the Fifteenth Regiment, commanded by Colonel Thomas Church, July 1, 1775, his commission being signed by John Han- cock, President. Almost immediately he marched to Boston, and his detachment of troops was one of the first to invest that town. There he was attached to Colonel John Pat- terson's command, and he remained in that vicinity till the following spring, when he was ordered to Canada, to rein- force the garrison at the Cedars, in the neighborhood of Montreal; but before reaching the point of destination, the commanding officer of the garrison ingloriously surrendered. Major Sherburne was then but a few miles from the Cedars

151

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

with one hundred men. The enemy having no longer to contend with the garrison, turned upon his command, and soon he was surrounded by British troops and Indians, to the number of five hundred men. After fighting them gal- lantly for forty minutes, Sherburne was forced to surrender. The prisoners were turned over to the Indians, who sub- jected them to every indignity. Many of the men did not live to return. No blame was attached to Sherburne by Congress for the discouraging result of this attempt to relieve a distant post. After his return and he had recovered from the rough treatment he had received at the hands of the Indians, Colonel Sherburne was ordered to join the Com- mander-in-chief, who was with the shattered remnant of the army in New Jersey. The day after the arrival of his regi- ment, all the forces present combined and made the mem- orable attack on the Hessians at Trenton, which was fol- lowed up with equal success at Princeton. A few days later Congress ordered sixteen new regiments to be raised. Colonel Sherburne was given the command of one of these regiments, and he at once entered upon the duty of recruit- ing. His letter of instructions over the signature of Wash- ington, and a long letter to him on the same subject, in Washington's own hand, are preserved in the cabinet of the Newport Historical Society, where may also be seen Colonel Sherburne's belt and cartridge-box. The latter still contains three pistol cartridges. The above regiment was commanded by Colonel Sherburne till 1781, when the time for which the men had enlisted expired. During the war Colonel Sherburne lost everything that he pos- sessed, and feeling the need of some office by means of which he could maintain his family respectably, he ac- cepted the appointment of commissioner, to adjust the ac- counts between the State of Rhode Island and the United States. While holding this office, he received, through the influence of General Varnum, the appointment of Commis- sioner, to settle the accounts of the State of New York with the government, as appears by a letter to him from Robert Morris. A year later, finding it would be some time before he could complete the work of settling the accounts of Rhode Island, he wrote to Governor Clinton, under date of October 14, 1783 : " Your Excellency was pleased some time since to approbate the recommendation of the Hon. Robert Morris, Esq., in my favor, as Commissioner of Ac- counts for the State of New York. The appointment I re- ceived with pleasure and now acknowledge with gratitude. Exceedingly sorry am I to say, that after endeavoring for several months to arrange my secular concerns in such a manner as to be able to enter upon the duties of the office, I find it impossible, without doing myself the greatest in- justice; and to ask a further indulgence of time before I proceed forward (and that not absolutely in my power to determine) would be a request rather unreasonable, as I am certain that the State of New York is anxious to have its accounts closed and the citizens their demands ascer- tained. From these considerations, sir, I am constrained

to say that I must relinquish the appointment, although I consider it is honorable and the salary ample, and have ac- cordingly wrote to Mr. Morris on the subject. It gives me pain to add that it has not been in my power to give the in- formation sooner, that a suitable person might be appointed." In October, 1792, Colonel Sherburne was appointed Gen- eral Treasurer of the State of Rhode Island, which office he held up to 1808. In one of the reports of the Auditing Committee are these words : " And it is with pleasure we declare that the state of the office is such as to do honor to the State and its Treasurer." Colonel Sherburne held a number of other offices in the course of his active life, but the one from which he derived the greatest satisfaction was that of a mission to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, in 1817, which was so successful as to gain for him a vote of thanks from Congress; a recognition of his services that was very grateful to him. He also took great interest in the Society of the Cincinnati, of which body he was Secre- tary. He died in Newport, May 31, 1824, aged 77 years.

E WOLF, HON. JAMES, United States Senator from 1821-25, the son of Mark Anthony and Abigail (Potter) De Wolf, was born in Bristol, Rhode Island, March 18, 1764. His father was a native of Guadaloupe (one of the West India Islands), the son of American parents who had emigrated thither from Con- necticut. Mark Anthony De Wolf's means were small and his family was large. Only exceedingly limited opportuni- ties for education were therefore afforded James De Wolf in his youth. During the Revolutionary War, while he was yet only a child, he left his home and shipped as a sailor- boy on a private armed vessel. He participated in several naval encounters, and was twice captured by the enemy. He was confined for some time upon the Island of Ber- muda, and never forgot the treatment there received. His zeal and ability quickly brought him into notice. Before he was twenty years old he had been made the master of a ship. Before he was twenty-five years old he had ac- quired a fortune. His earliest voyages as captain were made to the coast of Africa in the slave trade. His em- ployers were Providence merchants of the very highest com- mercial and social standing. Mr. De Wolf retired from the sea at an early age, and engaged in extended commer- cial ventures that soon made him one of the wealthiest men in the United States. In the place of his birth he fixed his residence, and from thence he sent out his ships to all quarters of the globe. His principal business was with Cuba and the other West India islands. He also built up a large trade with the ports of both Northern and Southern Europe, especially with those of Russia. He entered some- what into the China trade, and reaped a goodly share of the harvest from the fields opened to commerce by the enterprise of Boston merchants on the Northwest Coast.

152

BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

When the whale fishery was revived in the second quarter of the last century, many of his merchant ships were quickly transformed into whalers. In 1804 the ports of South Car- olina were opened for four years for the importation of slaves; and of the two hundred and two vessels that en- tercd the port of Charleston during those four years, ten and their African cargoes belonged to Mr. Dc Wolf. When the War of 1812 broke out Mr. De Wolf plunged eagerly into it. For years he had been suffering losses at the hands of British cruisers, and had been longing for an opportunity for retaliation. Eleven days after the war was proclaimed his private-armed brig of war the " Yankee " was ready for sea. Never was a privateer more successful. In three years the " Yankee " captured British property amounting in value to very nearly a million of pounds. She sent into Bristol a round million of dollars as the profit from her six cruises. Mr. De Wolf was one of the pioneers in the busi- ness of cotton manufacturing. In 1812 he built in Coventry, Rhode Island, the Arkwright Mills. Like all his enterprises they were immediately and continuously successful. Every- thing seemed to change to gold in his hands. For nearly thirty years Mr. De Wolf represented Bristol in the General Assembly of his native State. In 1821 he entered the United States Senate as one of the members from Rhode Island. In the Senate his unequalled business experience made him the recognized authority in all matters purely commercial. He was a strong Protectionist, and was the first to propose the " Drawback System," which has since become so popular. The dull routine of the Senate soon became distasteful to him, his own business kept demanding more and more of his time, and he resigned his seat in 1825. Until his death he continued to represent Bristol in the General Assembly of Rhode Island. As a citizen he filled a position in Bristol no one had ever held before. It may be questioned whether the interests of a town were ever more completely identified with those of an individual than were those of Bristol with his. Mr. De Wolf married a daughter of Wm. Bradford (Deputy-Governor of Rhode Island from 1775 to 1778, United States Senator from 1793 to 1797). He died in New York city, December 21, 1837. To Mr. Wilfred H. Munro, author of the History of Bristol, we are indebted for this sketch.

ILCOX, REV. ASA, the successor of Rev. Isaiah Wilcox in the " Wilcox Church," in Westerly, began to preach soon after his predecessor's death, but did not accept ordination till Febru- el ary 18, 1802. A valuable ecclesiastical paper on The Character of a Church of Christ emanated from his pen in 1798. At his full induction into the pastorate, Jesse Babcock and Wells Kenyon were ordained, June 23, 1802, as " helps in the church " and " evangelists "-min- isters abroad. Mr. Wilcox preached often to the " Hill

Church" and others in the vicinity. He held an enviable rank as a preacher, and his good name and influence still survive in all the churches to which he ministered. He was of medium stature and pleasing address, and noted for his readiness and fluency of speech. He finally removed and labored in Connecticut, and dicd in Colchester in 1832. About twenty years afterwards his remains were removed to Essex, a field of his labors, where a handsome monu- ment was erected to his memory.

WILSON, REV. JAMES, once the honored pastor of the Beneficent Congregational Church in Provi- dence, was born in Limerick, Ireland, March 12, 1760. His paternal grandfather, James Wil- son, was from Scotland. His maternal grand- father, Philip Guier, was a native of Germany. His pious parents trained him in the fear of God, and he was early the subject of deep religious impressions, though he failed to yield to his convictions and fully accept the gospel until he was nearly twenty-two years of age. Having but few school advantages, and being afflicted with an inflamma- tion in his eyes at the age of ten, which lasted two years, he was obliged in later years to apply himself to study with great assiduity, and he became a self-educated man. His abilities and zeal and his power as an exhorter com- mended him to the founder of the Wesleyans, who ap- pointed him a preacher in that connection. After la- boring with success for years, he was induced to emi- grate to America. His studies finally led him to ac- cept the views and practices of the Congregationalists, though he always cherished a tender regard for the Metho- dists. He reached Providence, Rhode Island, in 1791, when the city had about five thousand inhabitants and four churches. The only church on the west side was the Beneficent Congregational, then called the " New Light" or " Tennent Church," a fruit of the " Great Awakening," and then under the pastoral care of Rev. Joseph Snow. As Mr. Snow was aged, Mr. Wilson was engaged as his assistant, and his preaching was very popular and effective. For nearly two years he assisted Mr. Snow, and for about six months preached a part of each Sabbath for St. John's Episcopal Church. Being an eloquent man he had many warm adherents. He was ordained pastor of the church in October, 1793, and from that time to his death was de- voted to its interests. The church and society were remarkably prospered. A powerful revival was experi- enced in 1804, affecting the whole town, and about one hundred and fifty were added to the church, many from a large school also conducted by the pastor. The new meeting-house was dedicated in January, 1810. Revivals also occurred under his ministry in 1814, in 1816, in 1820 -one of great power-and in 1832. For ten years he conducted a public school, and for four years a private

153

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

school. Everywhere he was eminently successful. He was beloved for his ability, piety, ardor, and many labors. The church never had a more indefatigable worker. On the completion of his seventy-fifth year he asked for an assistant, and in June, 1835, Rev. Cyrus Mason, of New York, became associate pastor. Mr. Mason was followed, in May, 1837, by Rev. Mark Tucker (afterwards Doctor of Divinity), of Troy, New York, who remained as co-pastor till Mr. Wilson's death. The aged pastor continued to work with his wonted fervor and love to the very last. He was eloquent with his pen as with his tongue. He left in print A Discourse on Woman, a funeral address, in 1819; a sermon at the ordination of Rev. Stephen Hull, in 1802; a theological discussion, The Trinity Defended, a volume in ten chapters, in 1835. Having passed his seventy-ninth year, full of labors and honors, and sustained by the consolations of the gospel, he suddenly died, sitting in his chair, September 14, 1839.

ROCKER, NATHAN BOURNE, D.D., son of Eben- ezer and Mary (Bourne) Crocker, was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, July 4, 1781. He pur- sued his preparatory studies at the Academy, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of Harvard College, in the class of 1802. After his gradua- tion, the parish of Christ Church, Gardiner, Maine, en- gaged him to read prayers for three months. About this time he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Leon- ard of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was his purpose to place himself under the tuition of Dr. Jeffries of Boston, but circumstances prevented, and he came to Providence. On the 31st of October, 1802, he commenced his duties as lay-reader in St. John's, and was ordained as a Deacon by Bishop Edward Bass, in Trinity Church, Boston, May 24, 1803. At this time there were but four parishes in Rhode Island. Providence had a population of six or seven thousand inhabitants, with six houses of worship. King's Church, as it was originally called, now St. John's, had been standing eighty years. Mr. Crocker's connection with the church, in the early part of his ministry, was in- terrupted by the state of his health, which was so feeble that he resigned his Rectorship, and, on the 7th of June, 1804, embarked for Lisbon, with the hope that he might be benefited by the change. He was absent from the par- ish three years, for most of the time occasionally sup- plying the pulpit, for a few weeks at a time, as his strength permitted. Early in the year 1808, he resumed his duties as Rector, and was ordained Priest, May 18, 1808, by Bishop Benjamin Moore, in Trinity Church, New York. Although Mr. Crocker had been inducted into the sacred office by the solemn rites of his church, at the times re- ferred to, he did not regard himself as having become truly a Christian until the year 1815. The story of his conver-

sion is thus related by Dr. Alexander H. Vinton. "On one occasion, at a bookstore, he took down a volume of Edwards's works from the shelf with a sort of half malicious curiosity, and, in order to gather material for fresh dislike to the system of religious faith of which he was a repre- sentative, he opened it at hazard, and found his attention so fastened, that he stood reading for a long while, uncon- scious of the lapse of time. At length he bethought himn- self that it was long past his dinner hour; but, unwilling to part with his book, he bought the whole set, and took them home with him, reading, without intermission, till he had finished the volume on Redemption. He rose from his task possessed and overpowered by the conviction that he had known nothing hitherto of the gospel of salvation, and had lived a mistaken life. With this conviction began a revolution in his religious life, which he was accustomed to speak of as a conversion, and with it an entire change in his style of preaching." Immediately the fruits of this remarkable change began to manifest themselves. The services of the pulpit were more solemn and impressive, and the religious life of the parish put on new power. Large additions were made to the number of the commu- nicants, and church work was carried on with a zeal and earnestness, such as had, perhaps, never before been wit- nessed. Out of the missionary labors of Mr. Crocker, there came the best results, among which may be reckoned as one of the most important, the establishment of St. Paul's Church in Pawtucket. The various offices of honor and trust which Dr. Crocker filled (he received the hon- orary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Geneva College in 1827) indicate the rank he held in the respect and affec- tion of those who introduced him into these offices. For many years he was the President of the Standing Com- mittee of the Diocese. He was chosen a delegate to nine- teen triennial conventions. From the year 1808 to his death he was a Fellow of Brown University, and for fifteen years the Secretary of the Corporation. A few ycars be- fore his death, gentlemen representing various religious denominations in Providence wishing to have some per- petual memorial of the regard in which Dr. Crocker was held in the community, proposed, by general subscription, to raise a sum sufficient to procure a portrait of the vener- able clergyman, to be placed in Rhode Island Hall, with the portraits of other distinguished Rhode Islanders. The plan was successful, and the portrait, executed by Hunt- ington, of New York, now hangs on the walls of the pic- ture-gallery of Rhode Island Hall. " It possesses not only great fidelity to the form and features it was designed to portray, but superior excellence as a work of art; and it will not fail to commend itself, to those who may look upon it, as a beautiful specimen of artistic execution." The life of Dr. Crocker was prolonged to a period of eighty- four years. For seven years before his death he was the oldest Presbyter of the Episcopal Church in the United States. He died, October 19, 1865. In the year 1810, he

154

BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

was married to Eliza Antoinette, daughter of Dr. Isaac Senter, of Newport, by whom he had four children, three of whom survived their parents.

GING, SAMUEL, was the son of Benjamin King, who came to Newport from Boston, and here followed the calling of mathematical instrument maker. He was sent to Boston at an early age to learn the trade of a house painter. But he had higher aspirations, and when he returned to Newport gave himself up to por- trait painting, having been encouraged to do so by Cosmo Alexander, an English artist, who, during his stay in America, passed a portion of his time in Newport. Mr. King acquired a certain degree of proficiency, and at the time that he painted in Newport had all the patronage the place afforded. He devoted himself to both portraits in oil and miniatures on ivory. Among other portraits; from his pencil may be numbered those of Governor Mumford and his wife, Abraham Redwood, which picture is at " Red- wood," in Portsmouth, but a copy of it, by the late Charles B. King, may be found in the Redwood Library, Dr. Isaac Senter, which picture is now in Providence, Stephen De Blois, and others. But even a monopoly of work of this kind was not enough to occupy all his time, and he added to his gains by manufacturing mathematical instruments, having acquired a knowledge of the business in his father's shop. When his father became infirm he took the entire charge of the shop, and was so employed when he gave Washing- ton Allston and Edward G. Malbone lessons in drawing. He then occupied a shop where now stands No. 130 Thames Street. At another time he had a shop in the brick building on the corner of Pelham and Thames streets, and every morning he was seen bringing out a carved figure holding a quadrant, which he placed as a sign on a shelf by the side of the door. 'A generation later the same figure had a place over an engine house, where the quadrant gave place to an engine pipe. Those who remem- bered Mr. King spoke of him in after years as a man of great respectability. The service that he rendered Allston is recognized in the biography of that artist. Mr. King was not of a social disposition, and he had but little taste for books, but he was fond of his profession, which he fol- lowed under many disadvantages. He died at Newport, December 30, 1819, in the seventy-second year of his age.

Fort RALL, EDWARD BROOKS, D.D., was born in Med- ford, Massachusetts, September 2, 1800. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Rev. Edward Brooks, of North Yarmouth, Maine. He fitted for college under the tuition of Mr., subsequently Dr. Convers Francis, who was then teaching in Medford, and graduated from Harvard College in the

elass of 1820. Among liis classmates were Rev. Drs. Fur- ness and Gannett, both of them distinguished clergymen in the Unitarian denomination. IIe devoted a year to teaching, partly in Baltimore and partly in Beverly, Mas- sachusetts, and then entered the Divinity School at Cam- bridge, where he was graduated in the class of 1824. He was ordained at Northampton, Massachusetts, August 16, 1826, as pastor of the Unitarian Church in that village, where he remained a little more than three years, when failing health obliged him to resign. The winter of 1829-30 he spent in Cuba, returning to the United States in the spring of 1830, and for a year preached in Cin- cinnati, when he returned to New England and estab- lished the Unitarian Society in Grafton, Massachusetts. He was installed as pastor of the First Congregational Society in Providence, November 14, 1832. He con- tinued to perform the duties of his office for five years, when his overtasked system again called for rest and re- cuperation, which he once more found in the milder cli- mate of the South. Returning with new strength, he took up the work he so much loved, and was able to prosecute it for thirteen years more, when, in the summer of 1850, he was so reduced in health and strength that a voyage to Europe was deemed desirable. In change of scene, and in the recreation found in foreign travel, his strength was restored, and again he returned to the pleasant labors and cares of his ministerial life. During the many years of his residence in his adopted home, Dr. Hall took a deep interest in the various educational and philanthropic institutions of Providence. He was a wise counsellor in matters affecting the prosperity of the public schools. His connection with the Athenaeum was of the most friendly character. The "Shelter Home," by his death lost a " personal friend, and efficient member for many years, of. its Advisory Board." From the first organization of the " Children's Friend Society," he was one of the Board of Advisers, and " for thirty years was, in word and deed, its constant friend and judicious counsellor." The " Prov- idence Employment Society" expressed the sense of be- reavement which they felt in the death of one, who for twenty-nine years ever gave to it his " warm sympathy and support." In like manner the trustees of the Benefit Street Ministry, at large, gave utterance to their sentiments of sor .- row in the loss of one "to whose earnest advocacy the Ministry largely owes its efficacy and success; who for many years presided over its work with a thorough fidelity and an unwearied spirit of well-doing, who was ever known throughout the entire community as the friend of the wretched and the destitute, and in whose example of Christian charity the members of the Board gratefully recognize an encouragement and stimulus to their obedi- ence to the great laws of Christian duty and love." Reso- lutions of a like character were passed by the Providence "Seamen's Friend Society," the " Home for Aged Women," and the " Washingtonian Temperance Society." For seve-

E. B. Hall

155

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

ral years Dr. Hall was President of the American Unitarian Association, and a Professorship founded in Antioch Col- lege, in Ohio, by donations from persons in Providence, was called the " Hall Professorship" in honor of him. He was an opponent of the system of slavery, and an advocate of peace principles. When he was abroad, in 1850, he attended the World's Peace Convention at Frankfort, as a delegate from the American Peace So- ciety. The strength of his convictions, however, as the friend of peace, did not hinder him from throwing the full weight of his influence on the side of the government in the Civil War. Dr. Hall gave some of the results of his in- tellectual labors to the public through the press. Several of his theological discourses and addresses were published: Through the columns of the Providence Journal he made earnest appeals in behalf of the charitable institutions in whose welfare and success he took so deep an interest. He also compiled a " Memoir of Mrs. Mary L. Ware," the wife of his brother-in-law, Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., of Bos- ton, a work which passed through seven editions. He was married twice, his first wife being Harriet Ware, daughter of Dr. Henry Ware, of Cambridge. They had six children, of whom the only survivor is Rev. Edward H. Hall, of Worcester, Massachusetts. His second son, William Ware, was in the army in the Civil War (see sketch of him). The second wife of Dr. Hall was Louisa Jane Park, daughter of Dr. John Park, of Boston, who, with her daughter, Harriet Ware Hall, survived her husband. In 1848 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Di- vinity from Harvard College. He was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of Brown University, in 1841, and held that office until his death, which took place March 3, 1866. He was buried in the " Pastors' Rest," a spot in Swan Point Cemetery, set apart by his society for the burial-place of its pastors.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 34

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