The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 54

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

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gage in mercantile pursuits. He was chosen as a Repre- sentative of Providence to the General Assembly in 1826, and, with the exception of one year, filled this office till 1831. He was Governor of the State from May, 1831, to 1833, having succeeded Governor James Fenner in this office. During the " Dorr Rebellion " he was one of the Executive Council. Having changed his residence to South Kingstown, he was elected in 1845 Representative to Congress from the Western District, where he served one term. He died June 27, 1852, and was buried in Swan Point Cemetery. Mr. Arnold married, in June, 1819, Sally, daughter of Hon. Daniel Lyman, and great-grand- daughter of Governor Gideon Wanton. Their children were Louisa, who married Dr. William H. Hazard, of South Kingstown ; Lemuel H., who married Harriet, daughter of Edward S. Sheldon ; Sally, who married General Isaac P. Rodman, who was killed at the battle of Antietam ; General Richard Arnold, United States army; Mary Ly- man, who married George C. Robinson, of New York ; Daniel Lyman, killed during the late Civil War ; Mar- garet, who married Benjamin Aborn; and Cynthia, who married F. H. Sheldon. The wife of Governor Arnold, who was born July 14, 1799, died February 19, 1837. He married for his second wife, in June, 1847, Catherine Stennard, of Washington, D. C.

REENE, HON. ALBERT COLLINS, was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, in 1792. He was the youngest son of Perry Greene, a brother of General Nathanael Greene. After completing his studies at the Kent Academy, at East Greenwich, he read law with George Brinkerhoff, in New York, where he was ad- mitted a practitioner ; afterwards he returned to his native State, and commenced the practice of his profession in East Greenwich. He entered at once into the political contro- versies of the day, espousing with all the ardor of his youth the principles held by the friends and compatriots of Wash - ington, many of whom were at that time living in Rhode Island. His first appearance in public life was in 1815, when he took his seat in the General Assembly as a Rep- resentative from the town of East Greenwich. In 1816 he was elected Brigadier-General of the Fourth Brigade, and held his commission until 1821, when he was elected Major-General of the militia of the State, which office he held for two years. In 1822 General Greene was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, and was con- tinued in that place until 1825, when he was elected Attor- ney-General, without having received the nomination of any political party, but solely upon the strength of his own personal popularity. He continued in this office, by an- nual election, until 1843, the year of the adoption of the present Constitution. During this long period his arduous duties were performed with singular ability and fidelity,

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and with a blended courtesy and dignity that commanded universal approbation, securing for him an enduring popu- larity. He was the first Senator from East Greenwich under the new Constitution. While filling this office he was elected, in October, 1844, to succeed Hon. John Brown Francis as one of the Senators from Rhode Island to Con- gress. After serving a term of six years in the National Legislature, he again served East Greenwich as State Sen- ator. In 1857 he was returned as a member of the House of Representatives of Rhode Island, and at the end of that year retired from public life. He died in Providence, January 8, 1863. General Greene was remarkably fitted to win popular esteem. His manners were bland and affable, his temper kind and genial. He never forgot the amenities of the gentleman in the ardor of the partisan, or the zeal of the advocate. He was eminently suited, both by nature and education, for the practice of the profession which he had chosen in his youth, and which he looked upon with pride and reverence to the close of his life. He won reputation and fame; his integrity was never questioned; his honor was never tarnished. He was not only faithful to his clients and to his friends, but scrupulously observant of those higher and more solemn responsibilities and duties upon which rest the whole fabric of civil society. He was twice married-first, on the 16th of March, 1814, to Catherine Celia Greene, daughter of William Greene, by whom he had seven children, four of whom survive him. His second wife was Julia B. Jones, widow of Abel Jones, and daughter of Benjamin Bourne, one of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen in Rhode Island. There were no children by the second marriage.

OON, REV. DANIEL, son of Rev. Abram and Pru- dence (Edwards) Coon, was born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, January 9, 1792. He united with the Sabbatarian Church June 28, 1806. On the 25th of December, 1817, he married Fannie, daughter of Peleg Babcock, Esq. The Church licensed him to preach March 22, 1818, and ordained him to the ministry April 4, ISig. Prior to his ordination he resided one year in Ches- ter, Massachusetts. After ordination he was Pastor of the Third Sabbatarian Church in Brookfield, New York, and was occasionally engaged in missionary labor until his re- turn to Hopkinton in 1836, after which he filled the pas- toral office of the Mother Church till his death. Revivals attended his whole ministry. He was a man of fine pres- ence and of a genial, sympathetic nature. He spoke with ease, fluency, and vehemence, and was fervent and im- passioned in prayer. While argumentative and decided, he had a rich imagination. He died May 21, 1858, in his sixty-seventh year.

YORHAM, JABEZ, original founder of the Gorham Manufacturing Company; son of Jabez and Catherine (Tyler) Gorham, was born in l'rovi- dence, Rhode Island, February 18, 1792. IIe was a lineal descendant of Captain John Gorham, a na- tive of Bennefield, England, who came to Plymouth, Mas- sachusetts, in 1643, being then nineteen years of age, and married Desire, the eldest daughter of John Howland, who came in the Mayflower. His ancestors, in England, ac- companied William the Conqueror from Normandy, and for services at the Battle of Hastings, received a manorial estate at a place afterward called Gorhamsbury. Many members of this family have been prominent in the various walks of life, and, to use the words of an English work on genealogy pertaining to them, " have added something to the theology, literature and civilization of England." In 1645, Captain John Gorham removed to Marshfield, Mas- sachusetts, and in 1651, to Yarmouth (now Yarmouth Port), where he purchased a tract of land and built a house. In 1654 he purchased an additional farm in Barnstable, where he resided until his death, February 5, 1676. He was commander of the military of the town, an important po- sition in those days, and was noted for his ability, industry and integrity. He commanded a portion of the Plymouth forces in King Philip's War, being accompanied by his son John, and was a prominent participant in the perilous and exciting scenes of that memorable contest, which have be- come matters of history. Captain Gorham died while in command, from the effects of exposure during the cam- paign, and was buried with military honors at Wanna- moiset. His son John then returned to his widowed mother, at Barnstable. Soon after the war, the govern- ment granted to the heirs of Captain Gorham, and one hundred and nineteen of his surviving comrades, a tract of land located about ten miles from what has since become Portland, Maine. This was first called Narragansett, but is now known as Gorham. A granite monument, erected by the town, records its origin. Captain Gorham had eleven children, all of whom became prominent citizens. In 1703 his sons, John and James, were the wealthiest men in Barnstable. Among his descendants, John Gor- ham, in the fourth generation, was the hero of the capture of Louisburg, in 1745, during the French War; Nathaniel, in the fifth generation, was a Judge in Massachusetts, Presi- dent of Congress under the Confederation, a leading mem- ber of the convention which framed the present Constitu- tion of the United States, and of the Convention of Massa- chusetts that adopted it, and who was frequently called upon by President Washington to fill the chair when he left it. Of his descendants, one was the wife of Peter Chardon Brooks, a millionnaire of New England, whose daughter was the wife of Edward Everett; another was the wife of George Bartlett, whose daughter is the wife of James Walker, President of Harvard University ; and an- other is the widow of Hon. John Phillips, who liberally

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supported Massachusetts literary institutions. The subject of this sketch attended the common schools of his native town until he was fourteen years of age, at which time his father died, and he was soon afterward apprenticed to Ne- hemiah Dodge, a jeweller, with whom he remained during his minority. Soon after attaining his majority, he formed a partnership with Christopher Burr, William Hadwin, George G. Clark, and Henry G. Mumford, with whom he engaged in the manufacture of a variety of gold jewelry, in the second story of the building at the north west corner of North Main and Steeple streets. They built up a large business, and became widely known as leading manufac- turers in their line. At the expiration of five years, the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Gorham continued the busi- ness alone, at the same place. He visited Boston and New York twice a year in the interests of his business, and among the articles manufactured by him, the " Gorham Chain" was quite celebrated. About 1828 he bought property on the south side of Steeple Street, which now forms a part of the establishment of the Gorham Manufac- turing Company, to which he removed. In 1831 he added the manufacture of silver spoons to his business, and asso- ciated with him Henry L. Webster, of Boston, with whom he continued, under the firm name of Gorham & Webster, until 1839, when Mr. Gorham retired from the firm, but continued the manufacture of the "Gorham Chain." In August, 1841, he repurchased the silver interest, took his son John into partnership, and began to manufacture spoons and silver-ware, the firm-name being J. Gorham & Son. The spoons were made by forging them, and two men by hard work could make but two dozen per day. In 1847, Mr. Gorham retired from active business, and his son con- tinued alone, at the same place, under the same firm-name. Mr. Gorham was also one of the original projectors of the Eagle Screw Company, and was influential in promoting the interests of that corporation until it attained a prosper- ous condition. Although accustomed to give close atten- tion to his business, Mr. Gorham found time to serve the public very acceptably in various official capacities. For several years he represented the city of Providence in the General Assembly of Rhode Island, and from 1842 to 1844 was a member of the Common Council of Providence from the First Ward. In politics he was formerly a Whig, and was afterward identified with the Republican party from its organization until his death. In early life he commanded a militia company for several years, and was familiarly known as Captain Gorham. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and also of the Charitable Mechanics Society. He was twice married ; first, December 4, 1816, by Rev. Stephen Gano, to Amey Thurber, daughter of Samuel and Mehitable (Dexter) Thurber, of Providence. She died November 26, 1820, in the twenty-sixth year of her age. On the 16th of April, 1822, Mr. Gorham was married, by the Rev. Henry Edes, to Lydia Dexter, daugh- ter of Lewis and Lydia (Comstock) Dexter, of Smithfield,

Rhode Island. She died September 4, 1873, at the age of seventy-six. By the first marriage there were three chil- dren, Benjamin, Amanda, and John, of whom the two last named are living. The children by the second marriage were Benjamin, Amey, Susan, and Charles Field, of whom the two last named are living. In early life Mr. Gorham resided at the corner of Benefit and Star streets, but about 1858, he built the brick dwelling at the corner of Benefit and Bowen streets, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred March 24, 1869, at which time he was seventy-seven years of age.

RANSTON, HON. JOHN DYER, manufacturer, was born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, August 31, 1816. He was the son of William S. and Lydia (Carr) Cranston. He was a descendant of Lord Cranston, whose marriage with a daughter of the distinguished Earl of Buccleugh is immortalized by Scott in his " Lay of the Last Minstrel." Lord Cranston's family was descended from the ancient Earls of Crawford, Bothwell, and Traquair, and through them related by blood to the present royal family of Great Britain. Lord Wil- liam Cranston, who received his title of nobility from James VI., King of Scotland, November 19, 1609, had a son, James Cranston, who married Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of Sir Francis Stuart, Earl of Bothwell, and grandson of James V. James Cranston had a son John, who married Christian Stuart, daughter of Sir Robert Stuart, predecessor of the Earls of Traquair, also descended from the royal family of Stuart. This John Cranston, in early manhood, came from Scotland to Newport in the time of Oliver Cromwell, and married Mary Clarke, daughter of Jere- miah Clarke. He was one of the petitioners for the char- ter granted by Charles II., and was afterwards Governor of the colony, which office he held at the time of his death, May, 1680. He was the father of Governor Samuel Cran- ston, whose gubernatorial career extended over a period of twenty-nine years, being in office at the time of his death, April 26, 1727. The town of Cranston, Rhode Island, takes its name from this family. John D. Cranston, the subject of this sketch, received a common-school educa- tion, and early developed a taste and aptitude for business. He removed to Providence in 1838, and afterwards became prominently identified with the manufacturing interests of that city. In 1846 he commenced buying and selling cot- ton waste, then a new business, and in 1859 formed a co- partnership with Darius Goff and Stephen Brownell, under the firm-name of Goff, Cranston & Brownell, manufacturers and dealers in paper stock and wadding. Mr. Cranston displayed remarkable tact, energy, and perseverance in his business career, and despite many reverses, accumulated a large estate. For some years he was President of the Citi- zens' Savings Bank of Providence, and greatly contributed to the prosperity of that instiuttion. In order to gratify his

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taste for country life and rural pursuits, he purchased, in 1869, an estate at Wickford, North Kingstown, which hc greatly improved. This he made his permanent home, re- moving to Providence temporarily during the winter. He admired fine stock, and had a special fondness for fast horses, of which he always owned and raised a number. In 1873 and 1874 he was elected State Senator from North Kingstown, and served with great satisfaction to his fellow- citizens. He was a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and took an active interest in the temperance cause, being a member of the Temple of Honor and the Sons of Tem- perance. He married, first, Amy S. Aldrich, daughter of Lyman and Sarah Aldrich, of Scituate, Rhode Island, the issue of the marriage being one child, John Henry Cranston. His first wife died March 30, 1858, and in 1859 he married Carrie Gardiner, daughter of Captain Beriah and Frances Gardiner, of North Kingstown. She died August 29, 1873. On the 11th of October, 1875, Mr. Cranston married Amelia W. Ham, daughter of Ed- ward I. and Almira T. Ham. There were two children by this marriage, Milton Morse and Helen Wardsworth. Mr. Cranston's son, John H. Cranston, who was born Sep- tember 28, 1843, married, September 26, 1871, Clara Wil- kinson, daughter of Jeremiah A. and Catharine E. Wilkin- son, of New York City. John D. Cranston died January 15, 1880. He was one of the incorporators and chief pro- moters of the Washington Agricultural Society, and at a meeting of the Standing Commitee, to take appropriate action in regard to his death, the indebtedness of that so- ciety to the zealous efforts of Mr. Cranston was expressed in a memorial which appears on the society's records.

OPKINS, MAJOR AUGUSTUS, son of Timothy and Sarah (Carver) Hopkins, was born in Scituate, Rhode Island, June 6, 1792. He is a lineal de- scendant of Thomas Hopkins, one of the associates of Roger Williams, who came with him from Mas- sachusetts, and became a large landowner in Rhode Island. The genealogy of the family has been traced as follows : Thomas Hopkins, son of William and Joanna ( Arnold) Hopkins, was born in England, April 1, 1616, and married Elizabeth Arnold ; Thomas Hopkins, son of the last-named, married Mary Smith, daughter of John Smith, died April 21, 1718, and had a son Thomas, who was married in 1707, his wife's given name being Elizabeth ; Timothy Hopkins, son of Thomas Hopkins, married Lillis Simmons, and had a son Timothy, born in 1751, married Sarah Carver, daugh- ter of Joseph Carver, whose son, Augustus, is the subject of this sketch. Sarah Carver was a lineal descendant of John Carver, the first Governor of Plymouth Colony. Augus- tus Hopkins spent his early years on the farm at home, and received a common-school education. In 1824 he removed from Scituate to Burrillville, and was apprenticed to Andrew

Harris, a spindle manufacturer. He soon became general manager of the business, in which capacity he served for several years. On the 26th of May, 1834, he engaged in the same business in company with Horace W. Hopkins (his nephew), in Laurel Ridge, having bought the interest of Asa Churchill. On the 2d of June, 1835, they purchased the interests of Cornelius Foster and Levi Lapham, since which time the manufacture of spindles and fliers has been carried on under the firm name of A. Hopkins & Co. Their facilities for manufacturing have been greatly increased, and their factory has the reputation of furnishing the best work of its class made in this country, and for more than a quarter of a century has furnished the larger part of the spindles used by the leading manufacturers of spinning machinery. In 1845 Mr. Hopkins became sole proprietor, and although now in his eighty-ninth year, he still visits the factory regularly, and takes deep interest in the business, which is now conducted by his son-in-law, James A. Pot- ter, and his grandson, Addison S. Hopkins. He is a man of great energy, and by his indomitable perseverance suc- ceeded in building up a large and successful business. He was a member of the first chartered military company in the State, known as the Captain-General's Cavaliers, in which he held the office of Major. He married, in 1814, Lydia Harris (daughter of Charles Harris), who died August 23, 1832. Major Hopkins's second wife was Han- nah Brayton, daughter of Lodowick Brayton, to whom he was married May 7, 1834. She died in September, 1871. December 16, 1874, Major Hopkins married Eliza Mathew- son Baker Hopkins, now living. There were seven chil- dren by the first marriage, Watty P., Horatio Lawson (a sketch of whom appears in this volume), Lemuel Slack, William Augustus, Mary F., who married James A. Pot- ter, Charles Harris, and Andrew Augustus. The issue of the second marriage was a son, Stephen Manchester (a sketch of whom will also be found in this volume), who served with distinction in the Union army in the war of the Rebellion, attaining the rank of Lieutenant, and died in Washington, D. C., in 1863, from the effects of wounds received at the battle of Fredericksburg.

6 GREENE, HON. RICHARD WARD, LL.D., son of Christopher and Deborah (Ward) Greene, was born at Potowomut, Warwick, Rhode Island, January 21, 1792. He was prepared for college under the tuition of Joseph L. Tillinghast, principal of the academy at East Greenwich, and was a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1812. He studied law in the law school at Litchfield, Connecticut, and for a short time was in the office of Hon. Ebenezer Rockwell, in Boston. He com- menced the practice of his profession in Boston, having been admitted to the bar in the summer of 1816 .. Shortly after, September 9, 1816, he was admitted to the Rhode Island

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bar, having removed to Providence, where it was his purpose henceforth to practice his profession. He soon obtained clients and was successful in his vocation. He received the appointment of District Attorney of the United States for Rhode Island in 1826. This office he held for nineteen years (1826-45). For two years (1847-48), he represented the State in the Senate of the General Assembly. He was elected in May, 1848, Chief Justice of Rhode Island. After a service of one year he resigned, but was immediately re- elected, and was in office until June, 1854. Wishing to resume the practice of his profession he resigned a second time. For seven years (1865-72), he represented his native town (where he had taken up his residence) in the General Assembly. For over half a century (1823-75), he was a * Trustee of Brown University, which institution, in 1848, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. " He was a typical Rhode Islander, ever watchful for the interests of his native State, and ever loyal to the college in which he was educated." The wife of Judge Grecne, whom he married in November, 1854, was Celia Larned, daughter of Hon. Albert C. Greene, of Providence. He died in Providence, March 14, 1875, in the eighty fourth year of his age.

SHEPARD, THOMAS, D.D., was born in Norton, Mas- sachusetts, May 7, 1792, and was a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1812, and of the Andover Theological Seminary in the class of 1816. Having completed his studies in these institutions of learning he accepted from the American Home Missionary Society an appointment to enter their service, the field of his Christian labor being in the State of Georgia. He devoted four years to this work, and then returned to New England. He was ordained at Ashfield, Massachusetts, June 16, 1819, as pastor of the Congregational Church in that place. Here he remained until 1833, and then resigned to enter the ser- vice of the American Bible Society as a Bible Missionary, and continued in their employ for two years. At the end of this period he received a call from the Congregational Church in Bristol, Rhode Island, to become their pastor, and was installed April 30, 1835. For the unusually long period of thirty years he continued in office. He resigned in the spring of 1865. He remained " pastor emeritus " during the rest of his life. His long residence in Bristol and the prominent part he had taken in the affairs of the place, caused him to be greatly respected and beloved in the village which for so many years had been his home. He belonged to the old school of clergymen, and came to be regarded as a religious patriarch. He was elected a Corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1846. Brown University conferred on him in 1853 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. His long and useful life was ended by a peaceful death, October 5, 1879. Dr. Shepard married, May 8, 1821,

Sarah Williams Barrett, daughter of John and Martha Dickinson Barrett, of Northfield, Massachusetts. Mrs. Shepard died in Bristol, January 17, 1864. Of the nine children, the issue of this marriage, only three are now (1880) living : Abby, the wife of Lafayette Burr, Melrose, Massachusetts; and two unmarried daughters at home, Charlotte Maria, and Helen Southworth.

ENSHAW, RT. REV. JOHN PRENTISS KEWLEY, D.D., first Bishop of Rhode Island, was born at Middletown, Connecticut, June 13, 1792. When he was about nine years of age the family removed to Middlebury, Vermont, where his father, Daniel Henshaw, engaged in mercantile business. His mother's maiden name was Sally Prentiss. Young Henshaw made such rapid progress in his studies as to enter Middlebury College when he was twelve years of age, and graduated at sixteen. The same year he was admitted ad eundem gradum at Harvard University, where he spent the follow- ing year as a resident graduate. During this time, while on a visit to his native place, he received his first deep and abiding religious impressions. Soon afterwards he was baptized by the Rev. Mr. Kewley, at that time the honored rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Middletown, Connecticut, in token of respect for whom he assumed his name as part of his own. He at once became a zealous worker in the church of his adoption, and was desirous of entering the work of the ministry; but he found his father and the family, who were Congregationalists, seriously op- posed to his taking such a course, and that they had planned a different career for him. After his return to Vermont, however, by daily contact with the family, his burning re- ligious enthusiasm not only overcame all objections to his course, but led them to give up their hereditary faith, and embrace the truth as taught by the church into which they were afterward received by Mr. Kewley, who visited them for that purpose. In a short time Bishop Griswold, then recently consecrated to preside over the Eastern Diocese, embracing all of New England, except Connecticut, went to Middlebury to extend the work begun there. He com- missioned young Henshaw as a lay-reader, and by his labors in that capacity several congregations were estab- lished in different parts of the State. Feeling the need of better preparation for his work, he entered on a course of study under the direction of his venerable Bishop at Bristol, Rhode Island, where, still officiating as lay-reader, he was instrumental, in the absence of the Bishop, in bringing about a great religious awakening, in 1812. In 1814-1815, though still a lay-reader, he was established for a time at Marble- head, Massachusetts, where he labored with signal success in building up an expiring church. He was ordained Dea- con by Bishop Griswold, in St. Michael's Church, Bristol, Rhode Island, June 13, 1813, on his twenty-first birthday,

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 54

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