The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 56

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

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and was, always opposed to slavery. Religiously, he has been associated with the Methodists, yet occasionally at- tending the meetings of the Friends. Ilis ancestors were Baptists and Congregationalists. He married, January 6, 1820, Lucy Ann Greene, daughter of Captain Benjamin Greene, of Warwick, Rhode Island. She was of the sixth generation from John Greene, of Aukley Hall, Salisbury, Warwickshire, England, who came to this country in 1636. She was born October 25, 1798, and died October 15, 1879. Mr. Wilbur's children have been, George Gooding, Marcy Gooding (deceased), Lucy Ann (deceased), Oliver Crom- well, Jr. (deceased).

PIMMONS, HON. JAMES FOWLER, manufacturer, son of Davis Simmons, was born in Little Compton, Rhode Island, September 10, 1795. His early years were spent on his father's farm and in New- port. He attended the public schools in winter, and while living in Newport was a pupil for three months in Mr. Tower's private school. In 1812 he came to Provi- dence, and soon after removed to North Scituate, where for a time he was bookkeeper for the Scituate Manufac- turing Company. Having closed his engagement with the company whose employé he had been, he not long after received an appointment as Superintendent of the Rockland Factory in Scituate, and subsequently had charge of the Wanskuck Mills in North Providence. Here he commenced the manufacture of yarns. After this he went to Manville, and then to Olneyville. In 1822 he built a mill in Simmonsville, Johnston, and here he suc- cessfully carried on the business of manufacturing. Early in life Mr. Simmons began to take an interest in politics. He was chosen to represent the town of Johnston in the General Assembly every year from 1827 to 1840, with the exception of the years 1830 and 1834. Among the Rep- resentatives were some of the ablest men of the State. He took high rank among these, his speeches being listened to with respect, and his judgment on matters which he had made the subject of special examination being deferred to by candid men of all parties. When committees were sent to Washington from manufacturing corporations in New England to look after their interests and to urge the necessity of a protective tariff, Mr. Simmons occupied a prominent place on such delegations. So also in the great financial crisis of 1837, when committees chosen from the large cities were sent to New York to consult on the. state of affairs, he was Chairman of the committee sent from Prov- idence. In 1841 he was elected Senator to Congress from Rhode Island, and remained in office until 1847. He iden- tified himself with those who were in favor of protection as against free trade, and was the warm personal friend of Henry Clay. When his term expired he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated in consequence of his having advocated the liberation of Thomas W. Dorr from

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prison. Subsequently, in 1851, he was again defeated, but in 1857 he was once more chosen to represent his native State in the councils of the nation. In August, 1862, he resigned his office and returned home to look after his private affairs, which had become deranged while he was in Washington. Mr. Simmons was twice married. His first wife was Eliza, daughter of Judge Samuel Randall, of Johnston, whom he married October 21, 1820. They had five children,-Wal- ter Cook, James, Seabury, Samuel, and Eliza. Mrs. Sim- mons died April 12, 1832. The second wife of Mr. Sim- mons, whom he married in 1835, was Sarah Scott, daugh- ter of Major Simon Whipple, of Smithfield. They had four sons,-Frederic Fowler, Simon Whipple, Charles Winfield, and William Woodbridge. After a life of great activity, during which he was as prominently before the community as almost any citizen of the State, Mr. Simmons died July 19, 1864, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, leaving a widow and seven sons.

YMAN, HENRY BULL, manufacturer, was born at Newport, Rhode Island, November 13, 1795. He was a descendant of Richard Lyman, who came to this country from England, in the ship Lyon, in 1631. The ship's passengers consisted of about sixty persons, among whom were Eliot, the celebrated apostle to the Indians; Martha Winthrop, the third wife of John Winthrop, at that time Governor of New England; the Governor's eldest son and his wife and their children. The Lymans in Great Britain trace their ancestral lineage back to the Norman Conquest. From the Genealogy of the Lyman Family, published in 1872, we learn that Richard Lyman first became a settler in Charlestown, Massachu- setts, and with his wife united with the church in what is now called Roxbury, under the pastoral care of Eliot. He became a freeman at the General Court, June 11, 1635, and on the 15th of October, 1635, took his departure with his family from Charlestown, joining a party of about one hundred persons, who went through the wil- derness from Massachusetts into Connecticut, the object being to form settlements at Windsor, Hartford, and Weth- ersfield. His name is on the list of the original proprietors of Hartford in 1636. His descendants number over seven thousand, many of whom have been distinguished in the various walks of life. Daniel Lyman, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a graduate of Yale College, in the class of 1776. He served as Colonel in the Continen- tal army ; assisted at the capture of Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and St. John's; was at the battle of White Plains, and had a horse shot under him ; was a lawyer, judge, and for some time Chief Justice of the Supreme Court ; member of the Hartford Convention ; and a President of the Society of Cincinnati. Many years before his death he retired from the law, and engaged in the manufacture of cotton cloth,

at Providence, where he died, in 1830, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. In Fowler's History of Durham he is spoken of as an "able advocate, a firm, intelligent, and high-minded man." His wife, Mary Wanton, was a daugh- ter of John Wanton, of Newport, a brother of one of the Colonial Governors of Rhode Island. Their son, Henry Bull Lyman, spent the early part of his life at Newport; but when he was eleven years of age the family removed to Providence. He was educated at home and in the schools of that day, and though prepared for college, pre- ferred to enter business life, which he did in company with his father, when about twenty-one years of age, the firm being known as the Lyman Manufacturing Company of North Providence. They were among the first to intro- duce the use of the power-loom in this country, the weav- ing at that tinie being all done by hand. Mr. Lyman also became interested, with his father-in-law, Elisha Dyer, in cot- ton manufacture, at Dyersville, Rhode Island, but disposing of that interest about 1845, he built two cotton mills at Che- pachet, Rhode Island, where he continued in the business until within a few years of his decease, still retaining his interest in the Lyman Manufacturing Company, which he bought in 1844, and owned at the time of his decease, which occurred in Providence, April 4, 1874. He was also identified with manufacturing interests at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and at one time was a large owner of that town. For nearly twenty years he was a director of the Providence Dyeing, Bleaching and Calendering Company ; also a director of the Union Bank, of Providence, and for many years a trustee of the Rawson Fountain Society. He was a Captain in the State Militia, and in the Dorr troubles, in 1842, was identified with the Law and Order party. Though always interested in, and identified with, the lead- ing public enterprises and improvements of his day, he could not be induced to accept public office. He was a man of large general intelligence and classical taste, and an honored member of the Athenaeum Society of Provi- dence. Mr. Lyman was a member of the First Congrega- tional Unitarian Church of Providence. He took an active personal interest in the various religious and benevolent enterprises of the day, and was noted for his quick sympa- thies and generous, practical charities. He married, March 2, 1829, Caroline, daughter of Elisha Dyer, of Providence, and left one son, the Hon. Daniel Wanton Lyman, a gen- tleman of culture and leisure, and an honored citizen of North Providence.

LDFIELD, JOHN, horticulturist, eldest son of Wil- liam Oldfield, was born in Bradford, England, April 9, 1796. His taste for scientific gardening was early developed. When he was about twenty- one years of age he came to this country, and took up his residence in Philadelphia, where for several years

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he devoted himself to his profession. After residing for a time in New York city, and in Charleston, South Carolina, he removed, in 1824, to Providence. IIere he was em- ployed for four years by Thomas P. Ives, Esq., as his gar- dener. IIe is said to have first introduced the tomato as a table vegetable in Rhode Island; also, the egg plant. He also introduced the linden as a shade tree, planting with his own hands those which add so much beauty to Brown Street. Mr. Oldfield was in the employ of Mr. Ives for four years, and then embarked in the lumber business, his yard being on what is now Canal Street, on the corner of a narrow lane opposite Meeting Street. Here he carried on business for twenty-five years. The capital with which he started was the accumulations of a sum of money, given to him by his father when he left England, which he had safely invested in Philadelphia, and which, with the savings from his earnings, amounted to a sum sufficient to com- mence business with. He was fortunate as a lumber mer- chant, and secured for himself a handsome fortune. On retiring from business he purchased a farm in Cranston, where he was able to gratify his early love for agricultural pursuits. Subsequently he moved to his former residence, Providence, which was his home for the rest of his life. He had a great love for travel. In 1845, and in 1862, he visited the Old World, and gathered much interesting in- formation, which it was always his pleasure to communi- cate to his friends. He married, in June, 1834, Martha K., daughter of Earl Sampson, of Massachusetts, who with two sons and one daughter survive him. For much of his life he was connected with the Episcopal Church, but for a number of years he was a Swedenborgian. His death occurred in Providence, January 8, 1880, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

HITMAN, CHRISTOPHER A., son of Judge Elisha Whitman, was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, May 25, 1795. His father was a well-known citizen in Kent County, having for some time filled the office of Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of his county, and acted as a local magistrate. The subject of this sketch received such an education as could be obtained in the public schools of his time, and at the early age of seventeen commenced business on his own account. He engaged in the business of cotton manufac- ture, in the infancy of that department of labor, which has done so much to build up Rhode Island. We are told that in those early days, before the introduction of power- looms, the yarn spun in the factory was put out to be woven all over the country, and every farm-house had its hand-loom, on which the busy fingers of the female mem- bers of the family were engaged, while the men were at work in the fields. Mr. Whitman, although cautious and conservative, was ready to make use of all the improve-

ments in the manufacture of cotton which he felt were worthy to be introduced into his business. Regarded as a safe adviser in pecuniary matters, he was chosen to fill the office of Director in several money institutions, the Bank of Kent, the Merchants' and Weybosset Banks of Provi- dence, and the Warwick Institution for Savings. Of the Coventry Bank he was the originator, and its President until his death. He was the counsellor of widows and orphans, and largely interested in the management of the estates of his deceased fellow-citizens. His wisdom and prudence in the discharge of these functions saved many a patrimony from being wasted by speculation. He rep- resented the town of Coventry for several years in the Gen- eral Assembly, and was greatly respected in that body. His long and useful life, adorned by many virtues, termi- nated May 30, 1869. His funeral was solemnized in the meeting-house of the Society of Friends, with whom, al- though not a regular member, he had fraternized for many years. He was twice married. His first wife was Betsey, daughter of Thomas Arnold, of Warwick, and his second, Mary, daughter of Daniel Arnold, of Coventry, who, with a son and three daughters by his first wife, survived her husband.

CARLE, GEORGE BROWN, one of the founders of the express business in New England, was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, January 28, 1811. His parents were William and Abby Greene (Dexter) Earle. He was a descendant, in the fifth generation, of Ralph Earle, who came from Exeter, England, in early Colonial days, and settled at Portsmouth, Rhode Island. His father was a seafaring man, and died at Savannah, Georgia, about 1813. His mother was the daughter of Benjamin G. and Mary (Dexter) Dexter. Benjamin G. Dexter was a descendant of Gregory Dexter, the fourth pastor of the First Baptist Church, in Providence, who was born in Olney, Northampton County, England, in 1610, and in 1644 accompanied Roger Williams on his return from England to Providence, where he died in 1700. Wil- liam Earle had three children, Benjamin D., George B., and Martha T., who married William Simmons, of Provi- dence. At an early age George B. was employed on the steam-propellor from Providence to New York, and after- wards, with his brother, engaged in the business of a ship- chandler, in Providence, and acted as Bank Messenger be- tween Boston and Providence, for the Merchants' Bank of Providence, and the Suffolk Bank, Boston. The trips be- tween Providence and Boston were made by stage until the opening of the railroad between those two cities, in 1835. Mr. Earle and his brother performed any errand intrusted to them, and gave special attention to the de- livery of packages, thus laying the foundation for that method of transportation carried on so extensively by the various express companies now in existence. On account

noBl Tearle

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of the rapid increase in this branch of their business, Mr. Earle and his brother sold their store in Providence, and devoted their entire attention to the conveyance of pack- ages and messages. On the death of Benjamin D. Earle, George B. continued in the business alone until he and Freeman M. Cobb, William B. Lawton, and others organ- ized the "Earle Express Company." This corporation was succeeded by the " Merchants' Union Express Com- pany," and finally William H. Earle, son of George B. Earle, formed a copartnership with Henry Prew and es- tablished the " Earle & Prew Express Company," which is now engaged in an extensive business. Mr. Earle's sons, John D. and George W., have also become members of the firm. Mr. Earle was a Director of the old National Bank, and otherwise identified with the business interests of Provi- dence He was a member of the Common Council from 1866 to 1868, and an Alderman from 1868 to 1875. He was a member of the Marine Society of Providence, a Freemason, and a Knight Templar. For about twenty years he was a member of the Central Congregational Church. He married, June 14, 1836, Cornelia Arnold Rhodes, of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island. They had seven children, John D., George W., William H., Charles R., Cornelia A., deceased, Hope A., and Benjamin D. Mr. Earle died July 10, 1878.

USSELL, CHARLES HANDY, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, September 13, 1796. He is the son of Major Thomas Russell, an officer of the Continental army, and grandson of Charles Handy, a distinguished merchant and landowner in the last century. Mr. Russell lived for many years in Providence, where he received his mercantile education as a clerk in the employ of Charles Potter, with whom he afterward became associated in partnership in the foreign importing business, spending several years abroad between 1817 and 1823. In 1825 he removed to New York, where he continued in active business for a period of over twenty years, during which time the house of Charles H. Russell & Co. became prominently known both at home and abroad. His brother, William Henry Russell, was his associate and partner in business, living in Europe for a considerable time as the resident foreign partner of the house in Eng- land. Both during his active business life and since his retirement Mr. Charles H. Russell has taken an energetic part in many undertakings of important public interest. He was one of the early directors of the Boston and Prov- idence Railroad, a pioneer railway company of New Eng- land, and one of the managers of the Steam Transporta- tion Line, making the connection of that railroad with the city of New York, which positions he held for nine years, and has subsequently been, at different periods, a Director of the Hudson River Railroad, the New York Central Railroad, and the Pacific Mail Steamship Companies, and

of various other associations and institutions. He was one of the original projectors of the Bank of Commerce in New York in 1838, and has ever since continued to be a mem- ber of the Board of Directors. In 1866 he accepted the presidency of this bank, whose capital had been increased to $10,000,000, and which had become a national bank. He resigned this office in 1868. He was for thirteen years a Commissioner of the New York Central Park, under the first appointment of the Commission. He became a mnem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce of New York in 1828, and of the New York Historical Society at about the same time, and has been for nearly fifty years a Trustee of the Atlantic Marine Insurance Company. He was also for more than twenty years a Trustee of the Redwood Library at Newport. In 1842, at the commencement of the insurrection in Rhode Island, since well remembered as the " Dorr War," Mr. Russell volunteered his services to his native State, and, at the request of the Governor and Council, accepted a position on the staff of the general commanding the " Law and Order" forces, where he served during the continu- ance of that short-lived outbreak. In politics Mr. Russell was a Whig, from the formation in 1834 of that party, and during its existence, and has since been an active Republi- can. In that year he was placed on the ticket for Congress with Gulian C. Verplanck, Ogden Hoffman, and James G. King, but declined to accept the nomination. Although repeatedly tendered nominations for political positions, he has always declined such honors. During the Civil War he contributed of his time and means to the support of the government, and, as a member of the " Union Defence Committee of New York," gave, with other prominent citizens of New York, a prompt and energetic support to the administration and measures of President Lincoln. He married first Ann Rodman, daughter of Captain William Rodman, of Providence, April 13, 1818, who died August 18, 1842, and second, Caroline, daughter of Samuel S. Howland, of New York, October 29, 1850, who died March 7, 1863. Mr. Russell spends his winters in New York City, and his summers at his country home, " Oaklawn," at Newport-the place of his birth.

ENGELL, HON. JOSEPH KINNICUTT, only son of Nathan and Amey (Kinnicutt) Angell, was born in Providence, April 30, 1794. Among the ori- ginal companions of Roger Williams was a lad who, according to tradition, was Thomas Angel or Angell. His name appears in the original com- pact signed by the thirteen associates of the founders of Rhode Island, who became proprietors of the soil of which they had become possessors. The subject of this sketch traced his lineage back to the early settlers of Pro- vidence. . He entered Brown University in 1809, and graduated in 1813, having as classmates Z. Allen, LL.D., Judges Drury and Durfee, Professor Romeo Elton, D.D.,

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Rev. Drs. Joel Hawes, Enoch Pond, and Thomas Shepard, and Hon. John Ruggles, M.C. On leaving college, having decided to enter the legal profession, he became a student in the famous Law-school at Litchfield, where he formed the acquaintance of several gentlemen who reached emi- nent distinction in their chosen callings. He completed his studies in the office of Judge Thomas Burgess, and in the month of March, 1816, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in his native city. So far as appears he was regarded rather as a counsellor than as an advocate during the early years of his practice. In the winter of 1819 occurred an event which had a marked influence on all his future career. A letter had been written to him by Mr. Chalmers, an English counsellor, residing in London, conveying to him the intelligence that, before the Courts of Chancery, there was, at that time, under discussion the question as to the heirship of a large estate in England, and expressing the belief that he was the person entitled to this estate. He decided that it was worth his while to make a personal investigation of the matter thus brought to his notice. He left his home early in February, and proceeded to New York, where he embarked on board the ship Amity, and after a voyage of twenty-six days, arrived at Liverpool, and in due time reached London. Immedi- ately he found himself fully engrossed with the business which had taken him over the water. The ground of his supposed title to the estate in England is set forth as fol- lows : " By the will of John Angell, made in 1778, he gave and devised to the heirs-male, if any such there were, of William Angell, the first purchaser at Crowhurst, and father of his great-grandfather, John Angell, Esq., and their male heirs forever, all his lands and estates both real and per- sonal, in Surrey, Kent, and Sussex, nevertheless subject and liable to such conditions as should be thereafter men- tioned, and should not be otherwise disposed of and given." The claim which was advanced by Mr. Angell was that he was the male heir by collateral descent, his ancestor, Thomas Angell, being the only brother of William Angell. Hav- ing collected what he conceived sufficient evidence to establish his title, he returned to this country to lay the whole matter before his friends, and, if they advised it, to return to England and renew his efforts to make good his titic. In the spring of 1822 he filed a bill in the Court of Chancery. Without going into the details, it must suffice to say that he did not succeed in securing the English estate. Returning to Rhode Island, he once more resumed the practice of his profession, making a specialty of law-writing. The first production of his pen being a treatise on the law relating to watercourses. The volume was issued from the press in 1824, and had an extensive circulation. In 1826 appeared a second volume, entitled The Right of Property in Tide Waters and in the Soil and Shores thereof. Both these works became standard authority upon the subjects of which they treat. Eleven years elapsed and Mr. Angell once more appeared before the

public as an author. llis third work was An Inquiry into the Rule of Law which creates a Right to an Incor- poreal Ilereditament by an adverse Enjoyment of Twenty Years, with Remarks on the Application of the Rule to Light, and in certain cases to a Water Privilege. The same year, 1837, was published, An Essay on the Right of a State to Tax a Body Corporate, considered

in relation to the Bank Tax in Rhode Island. Mr. Angell commenced, in 1829, the publication of the United States Law Intelligencer and Review. After being pub- lished in Providence for one year it was transferred to Philadelphia, its editor having charge of it for two years longer. Three volumes only were published. Amid the pressure of all his other work he found time in 1829 to put to the press another volume, A Treatise on the Limi- tations of Actions at Law and Suits in Equity. Six edi- tions of this valuable work were published. A copy of this work was sent to Lord Brougham, who in acknowledging its receipt says he had " found it to be by much the best treatise on this very important subject." Jointly with the late Judge Ames he published in 1832 a Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations Aggregate. More than twelve thousand copies, embraced in ten editions of this work, have been sold. Not far from three years later appeared his Practical Summary of the Law of Assignment in Trust for the Benefit of Creditors. For several years he published no new law book, but contented himself with the revision and re-publication of works already given by him to the public. In 1849 was printed an octavo of more than eight hundred pages on the Law of Carriers of Goods and Pas- sengers by Land and Water, a volume which he dedicated to his friend, John Carter Brown. For a short time he acted as reporter of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. Two more works were prepared by him, one in 1854, a Treatise on the Law of Fire and Life Insurance, and the other in 1857, a Treatise on the Law of High- ways. In 1842 appeared an article in one of the daily papers of Providence which awakened much interest in the community. It was published in the March 16th number of the Daily Express, and is now preserved in a more per- manent form at the close of No. 11 of the Rhode Island

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 56

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