The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 44

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 44

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).

ALLERY, ABRAHAM REDWOOD, was the son of Ben- jamin and Mehetabel Ellery, and the grandson of Abraliam Redwood. He was educated at Har- vard College, and after graduating entered the office of Chief Justice Parsons, where he studied law. In settling the estate of his father it became neces- sary for some one to go to Antigua to take possession of some property that belonged to his grandfather Redwood's estate. This duty was assigned to Mr. Ellery, who, through his brother-in-law, Christopher Grant Champlin, obtained a passage to Dominica in the United States ship Ports- mouth, Captain McNeal, then about to join the squadron in the West Indies under Commodore Barry. This was in December, 1798; and when the Provisional army was raised under President Adams's administration he was ap- pointed, January 3, 1799, Assistant Adjutant-General. On his return from Antigua he entered upon his new duties, but soon after resigned, for he had no taste for the pro- fession. In April, 1803, Mr. Ellery married Sarah Char- lotte Weissenfels, daughter of the late Charles Frederick Weissenfels, of New York, and sailed for New Orleans, from which place he pushed his way by land to Natchez. This overland journey from New Orleans to Natchez oc- cupied three weeks, and it was said that it was the first time it had ever been made by a white family. In 1804 he returned to New Orleans, where he soon attained to eminence in his profession, and became identified with the city. He died at the Bay of St. Louis, November 1, 1820, aged forty-seven years.

LDREDGE, CHARLES, M.D., son of James El- dredge, Esq., who did good service for his country in the Revolutionary War, was born in Brooklyn, Connecticut. He was the father of thirteen children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the ninth. His medical studies were carried on under the tuition of Dr. Thomas Hubbard, of Pomfret, Connecticut, and at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1810 he settled in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and had an extensive practice in this and the adjacent towns. Dr. Eldredge was a public- spirited citizen, and for five years was a Senator from East Greenwich in the General Assembly. He was fond of agricultural pursuits, and took special pleasure in watch- ing the growth of the fruits of the earth. He was well fitted, by the coolness of his temperament and great self- possession, for the practice of surgery, and his services in this department of his profession were in frequent demand.

---- ---

Eng by Geo E Perme, Il York

Nathan Bishop

195

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

We are told that it was his pride to avoid rather than to per- form heroic operations, and many times he was heard to speak with much satisfaction of the limbs he had saved after those frightful lacerations and fractures which so often happen in the cotton-mills of Rhode Island. He was chosen President of the Rhode Island Medical Society in 1834, and held the office for three years. Yale College conferred upon him the degree of M.D. in 1835. His last years were greatly embittered by pecuniary embarrass- ments. He had invested his capital in a manufactory, the company of which became bankrupt and involved him in the loss of all his property. He died September 15, 1838.

B BISHOP, NATHAN, LL.D., was born in Oneida County, New York, in 1808. His father was a farmer, and he spent his youth on his father's farm until he was eighteen years of age, when he commenced the work of preparation for college. Owing to his straitened circumstances, which obliged him to suspend his studies from time to time to earn the money to defray his expenses, it took him eleven years to complete his aca- demical and collegiate studies. He graduated at Brown University in 1837, and was a Tutor in that institution one year, 1838-39. About this time the subject of the improve- ment of the system of public schools in Providence awakened a deep interest in the community. A majority of the alder- men and councilmen for 1837-38 were in favor of a com- plete reorganization of the system, and shortly after the new city government came into power, a joint committee of both boards was appointed to consider the subject of such reorganization. This committee chose a sub-committee, whose special duty it was made to visit prominent places in New England and gain such information as might be of service to them in carrying into execution the proposed plan. This committee subsequently reported among other things that." it is expedient to establish a superintendent of the public schools," and they recommended that " he be paid a salary of eight hundred dollars." The meeting for election of a superintendent was held July 8, 1839, and Mr. Bishop was chosen to fill the office, being so far as is known the first superintendent of public schools elected in any city in this country. Mr. Bishop presented his first report November 22, 1839. He held this office for thirteen years, when he retired from it to enter upon the discharge of the duties of a similar position in the city of Boston. The reports of Mr. Bishop during this long period of thirteen years indicate the character and the amount of the work he did for the cause of popular education in the city of Provi- dence, the influence of which was not confined to this place, but permeated the whole State, and gave an impulse to the common schools which carried them far towards the elevated rank which they have reached. The interest which he took in higher education in the State is indicated by the

circumstance that he was a Tutor in Brown University one year, a Trustee from 1842 to 1854, and a Fellow from 1854 to 1861. His entire residence in Rhode Island was from 1832, when he entered college, until 1851, a period of nine- teen years. After leaving Providence he resided in Boston for several years, during nearly the whole of which period he was Superintendent of schools. In 1858 he removed to New York, where he became well known as the friend and generous supporter of many religious and philanthropic enterprises. While acting as Indian Commissioner he con- tracted the disease which eventually terminated his useful life. His death occurred at Saratoga Springs, August 7, 1885.

BARING, EDMUND THOMAS, M.D., the fifth son of Thomas Waring, a planter of South Caro- lina, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, December 25, 1779. He was a student, for a time, under the tuition of Rev. Dr. William Staughton, then residing in Georgetown, D. C., and after- wards President of Columbia College, Washington. From Georgetown he went to Providence and was a private pupil of President Maxcy, of Brown University, and sustained relations of intimate friendship with many of the students of the college, although he was not a graduate. On leav- ing Providence Mr. Waring took up his residence in New- port in order to pursue the study of medicine with Dr. Isaac Senter. Having completed his medical education he opened an office in Newport. Business began at once to come to him, and he was a favorite physician, especially among those from the South, who were drawn to Newport to enjoy its balmy climate and the comforts found in the most agreeable watering-place in the country. He mar- ried, in 1803, Sophia F., daughter of Hon. Francis Mal- bone, United States Senator from Rhode Island, by whom he had ten children, all of whom were born in Newport. He died in 1853. During nearly the whole period of his thirty years' practice in Newport Dr. Waring was the Phy- sician of the United States Marine Hospital. He was one of the founders of the Rhode Island Medical Society. His health failing, he was persuaded to go South in the latter part of 1834. The disease from which he was suf- fering baffled all medical skill, and he died January 21, 1835. His remains were brought back to Newport and laid in the same tomb in which those of his wife had been placed, in Trinity Church-yard, where for many years they had been worshippers. "With a high sense of honor and a dignity which commanded the respect of his brethren, a skill as a physician which won the confidence of his pa- tients, and a gentlemanly character which attracted the regard of all his fellow-citizens, he lived in the home of his adoption universally beloved, and died universally lamented."

196

BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

EBB, REV. DANIEL, a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Can- terbury, Connecticut, April 13, 1778, in the gloomiest period of our Revolutionary history. Ile was converted through the instrumentality of a pious young woman, who addressed to him some words of cxhortation in 1797, and thus entered upon a rc- ligious life, which continued without faltering through a period of seventy years. On the 19th of September, when but twenty years of age, he joined the New England Con- ference, at its session in Granville, Massachusetts, with five others, among whom were Rev. Billy Hibbard, Rev. Epaphras Kibby, and the eccentric Lorenzo Dow. Rarely have six men made a deeper impress upon the religious life of the Eastern States than these young itinerants. The New England Conference then embraced the whole of New England and the State of New York to the Hudson, including the city of New York. Mr. Webb was appointed to the Granville circuit with Rev. Ezekiel Canfield. This primitive circuit then included all Southern Massachusetts, was two hundred miles in extent, and the preachers had to cross the Green Mountains twice in their rounds, which in the depth of winter was sometimes a perilous undertaking. Mr. Webb rose rapidly in his new vocation, and at the session of Conference held in Boston June 2, 1807, was appointed to Boston with Rev. George Pickering. The Bromfield Street Church, then the best Methodist church in New England, had just been finished, and Bishop As- bury selected him as one of the men to fill its pulpit, and continued him the second year. The Boston University subsequently rose out of this church. In 1809-10 he was stationed in Newport, Rhode Island. The church in this place was built in 1807. It was the first Methodist church in the world with a tower and bell. " Towers and bells !" exclaimed Bishop Asbury, at his episcopal visitation the next year-" towers and bells ! Organs will come next." In 1811 and 1812 he was made a supernumerary, and con- tinued in Newport. In 1814, in the great public distress occasioned hy our war with Great Britain, he supplied the pulpit at Newport, and taught a school in the vestry of the church. Here, during the succeeding ten years, and hefore the present system of common schools was established, many of the old residents of Newport were educated by him, and now hold his memory in veneration. At the session of the New England Conference held in Providence June 12, 1823, he was readmitted to the itinerancy, and again sta- tioned in Newport, making fourteen years in all spent in that town. In 1815, Mr. Lemuel Sisson, then a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Newport, removed to Little Compton, and took charge of the large farm at Seaconnet Point, now owned by his grandson, Hon. H. T. Sisson, late Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island. Mr. Webb was accustomed to cross the bay in a boat from the island and to preach at Mr. Sisson's house, and thus organ- ized the present Methodist society in Little Compton,

which has one of the handsomest and best-appointed country churches in the United States. In 1824 he was appointed in charge of Portsmouth and Little Compton with Rev. Joel W. McKee as colleague, he residing at the latter place. In 1833-36 he was Presiding Elder of the New Bedford district, which then extended along the shore from Newport to Provincetown, including the islands of Martha's Vincyard and Nantucket. The Methodist pre- siding elder is a suffragan bishop, whose district is his diocese, in which he exercises all episcopal powers with the exception of ordination, and that he controls by his personal and official influence. This district contained eighteen charges, with twenty-two preachers and 3237 inembers. His administration in this important charge was able, useful, and acceptable. The camp-meeting at Mar- tha's Vineyard, which has become so large and popular, was commenced under his administration in 1835, and at first consisted of nine small society tents. Mr. Webb also filled important stations in Providence, Fall River, Spring- field, Lynn, and Nantucket, in every place " making full proof of his ministry." Finally, in 1856, when he had been in the work for fifty-eight years, he was stationed in Barn- stable, where he was received with great respect and affec- tion, and continued, by successive appointments, until 1863, when, after sixty-five years' service, he was returned super- annuated for the first time. He was then said to be the oldest effective Methodist preacher in the world. He con- tinued to reside in Barnstable and to preach until his death, March 19, 1867, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, and in the sixty-ninth of his ministry. He was a member of the first delegated General Conference, which met in New York May 1, 1812; that of 1832, in Philadelphia ; that of 1836, in Cincinnati, famous for the anti-slavery conflict, Mr. Webb being one of the " immortal fourteen " who boldly stood up for freedom and humanity on that important oc -. casion. When he was seventy-four years of age his breth- ren of the Providence Conference elected him to the Gen- eral Conference, which met in Boston in 1852, in the very church of which he had been pastor in 1807. Mr. Webb was twice married. By his first wife he had eleven chil- dren, two of whom, Captain Otis Webb, of Newport, and Mrs. Harriet Sisson, of Little Compton, now matron of the Friendly Home, Rutland Street, Boston, survive him. His name may be seen in one of the memorial windows of the Metropolitan Church, Washington, D. C. Mr. Webb was over six feet in height, well proportioned, with a deep, sonorous voice, well adapted to the pulpit.

RHODES, GENERAL CHRISTOPHER, the third son of Robert and Phcbe (Smith) Rhodes, was born at Pawtuxet (Warwick) August 16, 1776. He was a descendant from Zachary Rhodes, who is men- tioned by name in a letter written by Roger Wil- liams to the General Court of Magistrates and Deputies of

197

BIOGRAPIIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

Massachusetts Bay. For a few years before the subject of this sketch reached his majority he was in the coasting business, and afterwards was in a store with his father, at Pawtuxet. With his brother William Rhodes, as a part- ner, he engaged in manufacturing at Bellefonte Mill, about a mile from Pawtuxet. So successful were the brothers that they extended their business to Natick. Sub- sequently they became owners of factories in Wickford and Albion. Mr. Rhodes was elected Brigadier General of the Fourth Brigade of Rhode Island Militia in May, 1809. He represented the town of Warwick in the Gen- eral Assembly from May, 1828, to October, 1831. " He interested himself, at an early period, in the substitution of penitentiary punishments in the place of the whipping-post and pillory." The General Assembly appointed him, in Oc- tober, 1835, one of the Building Committee for the erection of the State Prison. When the building was completed he was chosen one of its inspectors, and held that office until May, 1847. The death of General Rhodes occurred at Pawtuxet, May 24, 1861, and he was buried in the old family burial-ground at Pawtuxet, where his ancestor, Zachary Rhodes, and his wife were buried. The wife of General Rhodes was Betsey Allen, of South Kingstown. Their children were George A., Christopher S., who mar- ried Olive B., a daughter of Joshua Mauran, of Providence ; Eliza A., who married Hon. John R. Bartlett, Secretary of State from 1855 to 1872; and Sarah A., who married Hon. Henry B. Anthony, Senator to Congress. General Rhodes survived all his children, his son Christopher S. having died January 17, 1861, about four months previous to the death of his father.

JENNER, GOVERNOR "JAMES, LL.D., the son of Governor Arthur Fenner, was born in Providence, January 22, 1771. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of the State, and his father was Governor of the State from 1790 to 1805. Having received a thorough preparatory classical education, he entered Brown University in 1785, under the presidency of Rev. Dr. Manning, and was graduated with the highest honors of his class in 1789. Among his classmates were Hon. J. B. Howell, Senator to Congress from Rhode Island, and Professor Thomas Clark, LL.D., Professor of Lan- guages in the College of South Carolina. The circum- stance of his association with his distinguished father, added to his own abilities, early brought him forward into public life. He was a born politician, and as a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school, he did as much as any man of his time to control and give shape to the politics of the State. For several years he was a prominent and active member of the General Assembly, in which he represented his native town. When he was not far from thirty-four years of age, he was chosen a Senator to Congress, and served from December 2, 1805, to the spring of 1807, at which

time he was elected Governor of the State, and held the office until May, 1811. Again he was elected in 1824, and re-elected each successive year until 1831. During the troubles in Rhode Island in 1842, Governor Fenner took a strong, decided stand with the " Law and Order " party, and was called to preside over the Convention which met at East Greenwich, November 5, 1842, to act upon the present Constitution of the State, the question of the adoption of which was submitted to the people November 21, 22, and 23, and decided in the affirmative, there being 7032 for it to 59 against it. Mr. Fenner was elected the first Governor under the new Constitution, and held the office two years, 1843-45. The whole term of his office as Chief Magistrate of the State, was fourteen years. The closing year of his life was spent in the quiet retirement of his pleasant mansion, on his " What Cheer " estate, where he died April 17, 1846. He was buried with civic and military honors, such as have been accorded to few, if any, citizens of Rhode Island. The record of the event says : " Such demonstrations of respect for one whose life has been spent in the service of his State, and who has ever been conspicuous for his zeal and energy in advancing the true interests of his fellow-citizens, cannot fail to exert a beneficial influence upon our com- munity. While we would not overlook his faults and infirmities we cannot forget that they were the almost ncc- essary attendants of the iron will, the inflexible resolution, the vigorous intellect and the unconquerable energy which caused all eyes to turn to him when the State was threat- ened and in danger, as one in whose hands power could be reposed without fear that it would be perverted to selfish purposes." Mr Fenner married, in November, 1792, Sarah, daughter of Sylvanus and Freelove (Whipple) Jenckes, born in Providence, June 12, 1773; she died May 24, 1844. Their children were Almira, Sarah, Freelove, and Arthur. Governor Fenner received from Brown University, in 1825, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

RANDALL, JUDGE SAMUEL, son of Joseph and Esther (Fuller) Randall, was born in Sharon, Massachu- setts, February 10, 1778. He was fitted for col- lege under the tuition of Rev. William Williams, of Wrentham, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1804. On leaving col- lege he commenced the study of law in the office of Judge Howell, and remained his pupil for one year, when he re- moved to Warren, where he took charge of the academy in that place. During many years he was at the head of this institution, and trained a large number of young men for positions of honor and usefulness which they filled in subsequent life. Under the administration of President Madison he was appointed, in 1811, Postmaster of Warren, and filled the office for thirty-three years, until removed

198

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

under the administration of President Polk. IIe was ap- pointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Bristol, in 1822, and in 1824 was made one of the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court of the State. He re- mained in office until 1832. Ile was admitted to the bar of Rhode Island in 1834. For fifty years he was the Town Clerk of Warren, and at different periods was the editor of the newspaper published in the village. Few lives have been more crowded with constant activity, reaching on through a long term of years, than was the life of Judge Randall. In 1809 he married Martha, daughter of James Maxfield, of Warren. They had several children, the eldest of whom was R't Rev. George M. Randall, D.D., Bishop of Colorado, and Mrs. Otis Bullock, of Warren. For forty-four years he was a prominent and consistent member of the Baptist Church in Warren. He died in Warren, March 5, 1864, aged eighty-six years.

ORR, SULLIVAN, son of Ebenezer and Abigail (Cummings) Dorr, was born in Boston, October 12, 1778. He was descended from Joseph Dorr, who came to this country about 1670. Joseph Dorr's son Edward had a son Ebenezer, who married Mary Boardman. They had ten children, among whom was a son, Ebenezer, who married Amy Plympton. They had thirteen children, one of whom was Ebenezer, the father of the subject of this sketch, whose name ap pears in an honorable position in the early annals of the Revolutionary War. When the intended attack of the British on Concord was known, Paul Revere started out on that midnight ride, which Longfellow has immortalized in his charming verse. About the same hour Ebenezer Dorr rode off in another direction, and passed over Boston Neck, and through Roxbury, everywhere rousing the in- habitants and calling on them to be ready to meet the foe. We are told that, by trade, Dorr was a leather-dresser; that he was mounted on a jogging old horse, with saddle- bags flapping behind him, and a large flapped hat upon his head, to resemble a countryman on a journey, to be suspected at the time, and afterward mentioned in history, as a peddler. He arrived about the time Paul Revere reached the house of Rev. Jonas Clark, in Lexington, and brought a dispatch from General Warren, to the effect that the " regulars " were on their way to seize and destroy the military stores deposited at Concord. Soon after leaving Clark's house, Revere and Dorr were captured by a recon- noitring party of the enemy. Becoming alarmed by hear- ing the ringing of bells in the distance, the British officers parted with their prisoners, and set off, at full speed, for Boston. A little more than three years after this, the sub- ject of this sketch was born. When he was about twenty years of age he went to Canton, China, and engaged in '

mercantile pursuits. Returning to his native country, he took up his residence in Providence in 1805, where he be- came a prosperous merchant. We are told that he was a man of remarkable system, punctilious in all his engage- ments, industrious and prudent, of the highest integrity, and of scrupulous fidelity to all his obligations. He did not flatter, he did not deceive. After devoting many years to mercantile pursuits, he was chosen, in 1838, to succeed Hon. Richard Jackson, as President of the Washington Insurance Company. Twenty years of his life were de- voted to the interests of this corporation, which, under his faithful administration, achieved success, and saw it stand- ing in the highest rank among institutions of a similar character in Providence. He was a trustee of Brown University from 1813 to the end of his life. His death occurred March 3, 1858, when he had nearly reached eighty years of age. "No man among us," said a writer in the Providence Journal, " enjoyed or deserved a higher reputation for the sterling qualities that make up a manly character. Inflexibly honest, courteous in his manners, kind in his feelings, he was respected by all who knew him, and beloved by all who knew him well." He mar- ried, October 14, 1804, Lydia Allen. Their children were Thomas W., Allen, Ann H., who married Moses B. Ives, Mary T., the wife of Judge S. Ames, Sullivan, Candace Crawford, wife of Edward Carrington, and Henry.

AURNER, WILLIAM, M.D., son of Daniel Turner and nephew of Dr. Peter Turner, was born in Newark, New Jersey, September 10, 1775. He studied medicine in the office of Dr. Jabez Camp- field, of Morristown, New Jersey, and having com- pleted his term of study, was admitted a Fellow of the New Jersey Medical Society. He did not long remain in his native State, but removed to Rhode Island and formed a partnership with his uncle in East Greenwich, Dr. Peter Turner, whose daughter he subsequently mar- ried. His health somewhat failing, he obtained a com- mission as Assistant Surgeon in the Navy, and went on a cruise, in the United States ship " General Greene," to the West India Islands. The voyage was of great service to him, and he returned to the practice of his profession with his health restored, and settled in Newport, where he gained great distinction, especially as an operative sur- geon. As a general practitioner also he secured an envia- ble reputation, In September, 1812, he was commissioned as a Surgeon's Mate in the Army, and every day during the remainder of his life, he attended the soldiers at Fort Wolcott, opposite Newport. His death, which occurred September 26, 1837, was sudden, and his loss was be- moaned by a large circle of friends. Dr. U. Parsons says, that as " an operator and dresser, Dr. Turner was remark- able for neatness and dexterity, and would lead a spectator

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 44

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