The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 61

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

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with the philosopher John Stuart Mill, and his own philo- sophical productions have received attention from eminent minds both in America and Europe. One of the most wonderful things about his productions is that they have come from a mind constantly employed in business affairs. Dr. Channing had this in view when he said of the Essay on Language-Mr. Hazard's first literary production, and his first effort in composition : " I have known a man of vigorous intellect, whose mind was almost engrossed by the details of an extensive business, but who composed a book of much original thought, in steamboats and on horseback, while visiting distant customers." This Essay on Language was published in 1834, and in 1840 ap- peared an essay by Mr. Hazard on The Adaptation of the Universe to the Cultivation of the Mind. In 1841 was published his Causes of Decline of Political Morality, a treatise that had a great influence in abolishing lotteries from Rhode Island; in 1843 his Fourth of July Oration on Temperance ; in 1844, The Philosophical Character of Channing ; in 1845, The Character and Works of the Late Chief Justice Durfee, LL.D., of Rhode Island ; in 1849, The Relations of Railroad Corporations to the Public ; in 1855, The Duty of Individuals to Support Science and Literature ; in 1864, The Resources of the United States ; in 1866, The Freedom of the Mind in Willing, a 12mo of 455 pages, the second book of which is a review of Edwards on The Will. In 1869 he published his Causation and Freedom in Willing, a 12mo of 300 pages, consisting of two letters addressed to John Stuart Mill, which is now translated and published in the German, and there extensively and favorably reviewed in the leading periodicals, and is mentioned with much favor in the North American Review of 1869. In an article on some of his works, the reviewer, Mr. George P. Fisher, there says : " The admiration which the ability of Mr. Hazard's writ- ings has excited is by no means limited to those who co- incide with his philosophical opinions. The Two Letters on Causation and Freedom in Willing, which are addressed to Mr. Mill, and which have just been given to the public in a revised form, are sufficient of themselves to entitle the author to a place in the front rank of metaphysical writers." As an index to Mr. Hazard's intimacy with Dr. Channing and with the philosopher Mill, and also of their high estimate of his writings, see Miss Peabody's Reminiscences of Channing. His mental powers and acumen have the high esteem of President Robinson of Brown University, and of President Porter of Yale College, who has said, " All of Mr. Hazard's writings are emphatically fresh, acute, and original." The Rev. Dr. A. P. Peabody, of Harvard University says: " I regard Mr. Hazard's treatise on The Will as by far the most satisfactory exposition of the sub- ject with which I am acquainted. His theory of the will seems to me the only tenable one, and he has maintained it with unsurpassed ability." The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him in 1845 by Brown University. On the

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28th of September, 1828, Mr. Hazard married Caroline Newbold, daughter of Mr. John Newbold, of Bloomsdale, near Bristol, Pennsylvania. She was born at Quarry Farm, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, November 28, 1807, and died June 24, 1868. At the time of their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hazard were members of the Society of Friends. Their only children are Hon. Rowland Hazard and John Newbold Hazard, both of Peace Dale, Rhode Island.

ILLER, LEWIS LEPRILETE, M.D., the son of Dr. Nathaniel and Hannah (Boyd) Miller, was born in Franklin, Massachusetts, January 6, 1798. He was fitted for college at Day's Academy, in Wrentham, Massachusetts, and at the Leicester Academy, and was a graduate of Brown University, in the class of 1817. Among his classmates were Hon. William Greene, Hon. Charles Jackson, and Judge William Read Staples. He studied his profession with his father, and attended medical lectures at the Harvard Medical College. He became an associate with his father in 1820, and in the management of a private hospital which was under his father's charge. For seven years (1820-1827) he remained in his native place, and then removed to Providence. He was eminently successful in his business, and occupied a high place among the able men of his profession with whom he was associated. For forty years (1827-1867) he practiced medicine in Providence and its vicinity. He is remembered by his friends as possessing firmness of nerve and calmness of temperament, combined with great gen- tleness of manner. Over his patients he exercised a sin- gular control, and they readily yielded to the force of his will, and confided in his professional skill. The gratuitous attentions which he bestowed upon the suffering poor se- cured for him the affections of a multitude of unfortunate persons who had but little with which to reward him, except sincere respect and genuine love. As a surgeon, he ac- quired an enviable reputation, and his services as such were in constant demand. A physical system, severely taxed by long-continued professional labor, at length suc- cumbed. A paralytic shock, which he experienced in 1867, laid him aside from the active duties of his profes- sion. For two years he resided amid the scenes of his early life in Franklin, with the hope that by withdrawing from the cares and duties which had pressed upon him so heavily for nearly a half century, he might be restored to somewhat of his former vigor. In 1869 he returned to Providence, where for a few months he lingered in the home of his daughter, and died March 8, 1870. He mar- ried in December, 1822, Electra Smith, of Bristol, and survived her death but a few months. Their children were Nathaniel, Jane Leprilete, and Ellen De Forest. Nathaniel prepared at the Philadelphia Medical College, and travelled abroad for three years to perfect himself as an oculist, and after returning, having suffered from a

paralytic shock, was obliged to relinquish practice. His death occurred May 5, 1866. Jane L. married William C. Beckwith (died October 7, 1868), a physician and surgeon in Providence. Ellen D. married John B. Anthony, Agent and Treasurer of the Providence Tool Company.

BREENE, SIMON HENRY, merchant and manufactu- rer, was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, March 31, 1799, and is a lineal descendant of John Greene, one of the first settlers of the town of Warwick, and the second son of Job Greene, the eldest son of Colonel Christopher Greene, a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary army. Job Greene was active in obtaining a charter for the military company called the Kentish Ar- tillery, and was elected the first Colonel of the company. He was a land surveyor ; and for some time represented his native town in the General Assembly. He died in 1808, in the forty-ninth year of his age, leaving a widow and four children, two sons and two daughters. The mother of the subject of this sketch, whose maiden name was Abigail Rhodes, was born in Stonington, Connecticut. On the death of her husband she was left with the respon- sibility of managing his estate, and of providing for the maintenance and education of her children, in the success- ful discharge of which duties she exhibited great force of character. Mr. Greene entered upon his business career at an early age. He attended the village schools of his native town until his twelfth year, and then spent six months at a boarding-school at Woonsocket Hill, Rhode Island, taught by David Aldrich, a graduate of Brown University. He pursued his studies with a view to enter- ing college, but untoward events prevented any further attendance at school, and at the age of thirteen he was obliged to seek employment which would enable him to contribute to the support of his mother's family. In 1814 he went to Hartford, Connecticut, where he was for two years in the employ of his brother-in-law, Abner M. War- riner, who was the first commission merchant in that city for the sale of domestic cotton manufactures. Early in 1815 he returned to his mother's home, and in April of that year obtained a position as clerk in a retail grocery in Providence, where he remained a short time, and then entered the service of the old commercial house of Aborn & Jackson, owners in the Lippitt Manufacturing Company, of which they were the commercial agents. In due time he became associated with Aborn & Jackson in their com- mercial marine business, as well as in the management of the Lippitt Manufacturing Company, under the style of Aborn, Jackson & Greene, Agents. In 1828 he formed a partnership with Edward Pike, to carry on the bleaching and finishing of cotton cloths, at a water-power site below the Lippitt Mill, belonging to the Lippitt Manufacturing Company. In 1832 Greene & Pike purchased that site of the Lippitt Company, and the improvements thereon, sub- sequently erecting other buildings and providing improved

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machinery. In 1842 Mr. Pike died, and the whole care of the business, commercial, mechanical, and manufac- turing, devolved upon Mr. Greene. In 1845 he purchased the interest in the estate vested in the heirs of his deceased partner, increased his manufacturing facilities, and contin- ued to carry on the business successfully. In later years he associated with him his sons, Edward A., Henry L., Christopher R., and William R. Greene, who now consti- tute the firm of S. H. Greene & Sons, their father having retired from active business. Mr. Greene's home was in Providence until 1838, when he removed to Warwick, and has since resided near the Clyde Bleachery and Print Works. In 1835 he was elected a member of the Provi- dence Common Council, from the Fourth Ward, to fill a vacancy made by the resignation of Mr. George Baker, and was re-elected and served in that capacity until MAIS removal to Warwick. While he was a member of that body the new system for the management of the public schools, substantially as now exists, was introduced and adopted, and Mr. Greene and his colleague, intimate friend, and cousin, Mr. John L. Hughes, also a grandson of Col- onel Christopher Greene, were greatly instrumental in se- curing the creation of the office of Superintendent of Pub- lic Schools of Providence. The first incumbent of this office was Nathan Bishop, LL.D., a distinguished educa- tor, whose biography will be found in this volume. Soon · after his removal to Warwick Mr. Greene was solicited to take part in the conduct of public affairs, and in 1839 was elected as one of the Representatives of the town to the General Assembly. He also served as a member of the School Committee for about fifteen years, acting for a great part of the time as Clerk of the Committee, associated with the late Governor Francis, then President. He was elected Moderator of the Town Meeting, and as Chairman of conventions and committees acting in minor capacities in the transaction of the public business of both the town and State. He was a member of the State Committee of the Republican party, of which he was for some time Chairman, and was the nominee of his party for the office of Lieutenant-Governor. In 1858 he was elected a State Senator, and served in that capacity for two terms, and then declined a re-election. In 1860 he was a delegate to the National Convention of the Republican party which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States, and in 1864 was a member of the Board of Presi- dential Electors, and with his colleagues voted for the re- election of Mr. Lincoln. During the " Dorr Rebellion " Mr. Greene was a member of the General Assembly, and a firm adherent of the principles maintained by the " Law and Order" party, and also served as a member of a mili- tary company in the effort to quell the disturbance. In early life Mr. Greene was greatly influenced by the reli- gious views of his mother, who was a devoted member of the Methodist Church. At about the age of thirty he be- came strongly imbued with the principles of belief and

practice of the Society of Friends, and in 1835 embraced the views of Emanuel Swedenborg, to which he has since adhered. On his removal to Warwick, in 1838, the authori- ties of the Bridgewater Society of the New Jerusalem ap- pointed him leader for the members residing in Warwick, to conduct the services for public worship, in which ca- pacity he officiated until advanced age and attendant in- firmities obliged him to abandon that labor, in 1878, when he was succeeded by his son, Henry L. Since then a Society of the New Jerusalem has been instituted in War- wick, Mr. Henry L. Greene being its leader, and ex officio President, and religious services are held regularly. Mr. Greene married, March 13, 1822, Caroline Cornelia Aborn, the eldest daughter of Edward Aborn, and niece of his partner, Benjamin Aborn. They had eleven children, four of whom died in infancy. Of the others, Edward A., the eldest, was born in Providence, and has always resided there. Henry L., Christopher R., William R., and John W. A., were born in Providence, but removed with the family to Warwick in 1838. George F. was born in War- wick, and married in Mississippi, where he now resides. Francis C., who was also born in Warwick, was a volun- teer in Company H, Second Rhode Island Regiment, and was severely wounded in the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, taken prisoner, and carried to Richmond. He was exchanged, and on repairing to headquarters at Wash- ington, was honorably discharged, January 17, 1862, when he returned home. He never regained sound health, but was able to engage in business for awhile with his brothers in Missouri. His health finally became so impaired, in consequence of his wound, that he returned to the home of his parents, where he died of a lingering pulmonary dis- ease, December 27, 1865. Although now eighty-two years of age, Mr. Greene exhibits great vigor of body and mind, and is alive to all matters of public interest. His brother, Christopher Rhodes Greene, who was born September 19, 1786, and died in South Carolina, November 6, 1825, was for many years engaged in mercantile pursuits in Provi- dence, and in the cities of Savannah and Charleston, in the South. He possessed a decidedly literary and poetical mind, as evinced by numerous contributions to the news- papers and in other ways, especially by an oration deliv- ered in Charleston on the 4th of July, 1815, by invitation of leading citizens of that city, a copy of which was pre- sented to the Athenaeum in Providence.

OBINSON, REV. EZEKIEL GILMAN, D.D., LL.D., President of Brown University, son of Ezekiel and Cynthia (Slack) Robinson, was born in Attleborough, Massachusetts, March 23, 1815, being a lineal descendant of George Robin- son, one of the original purchasers from the Indians of the adjoining town of Rehoboth. Several members of his grandmother's family were prominent physicians.

E. G. Robinson.

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His uncle, Dr. Samuel Robinson, was one of the earliest mineralogists of our country, being the author of Robinson's Catalogue of Minerals, a valuable work published in 1825. Of the children, but two are now living, the subject of the present sketch and Ruth S. Robinson, a highly accom- plished woman, for many years Principal of the Townsend Female Seminary, in Massachusetts, and afterwards, until the breaking out of the Rebellion, Principal of the Female Seminary at Norfolk, Virginia. She is at present living on the homestead, comprising one hundred acres and upwards of land, which she and her brother own conjointly by in- heritance. The old mansion-house was burned down in 1826, and important family papers were then consumed. Young Robinson enjoyed the ordinary advantages for edu- cation of a lad of that period, and early gave evidence of a superior mind, which could only be satisfied with thorough discipline and culture. From the common school he was accordingly sent to Day's Academy, in Wrentham, Massa- chusetts, then to the academy at Pawtucket, and finally to New Hampton, New Hampshire, where he was fitted for college. In the fall of 1834 he entered Brown University, an institution then rapidly increasing in reputation, under the presidency of the distinguished Wayland. Among his instructors were the lamented Goddard, Elton, Hackett, Caswell, and Professors Gammell and Chase, who are still living. He was graduated with honor in 1838. Many of his classmates have since attained high distinction in their several professions and callings. Soon after graduating he entered the Theological Seminary at Newton, Massachu- setts, from which institution he was graduated in 1842. He was at once ordained and settled as pastor of the Bap- tist Church in Norfolk, Virginia, where he remained three years. For one year during his labors here he was Chap- lain of the University of Virginia. He was next settled as pastor of the Baptist Church in Old Cambridge, Massachu- setts, where he remained until 1846, when he was chosen Professor of Hebrew in the Theological Institution at Cov- ington, Kentucky. The duties of this new position he discharged with fidelity and zeal until 1849, when he was called to the pastorate of the Ninth Street Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1852 he was appointed to the Chair of Christian Theology in the Theological Seminary at Rochester, New York. During the first year of his professor- ship here he delivered, in the First Baptist Church, a series of discourses on modern skepticism, which attracted large congregations, and were the means of accomplishing great good. In 1853 he received from his alma mater the hon- orary degree of Doctor of Divinity, which nineteen years afterwards was supplemented by the degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1860 he was elected President of the Seminary. This high position he filled with distinguished ability and success for twelve years, during which time scores of young men were graduated under him, and ordained to the work of the ministry, who, by their spirit and zeal, show plainly the impress of a master mind. Upon the resignation of

Dr. Sears, in 1867, as President of Brown University, Dr. Robinson was earnestly solicited to become his successor. Subsequently, on the resignation of Dr. Caswell, the re- quest was repeated, and this time with success. In 1872 he was accordingly elected by the corporation to the Pres- idency, and also to the Chair of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics. The announcement of his election called forth, from various quarters, the highest encomiums on his personal character, and his rare qualifications for an office that had been filled successively by Manning, Maxcy, and Messer, Wayland, Sears, and Caswell. He was most cor- dially welcomed at the University, and the commencement of his official duties was marked by enthusiasm. In his opening address before the students, faculty, and members of the corporation, he struck the keynote of his coming administration. " The duties of this office now assumed impose grave responsibilities; but they are duties not lightly assumed. They are not wholly unknown or un- tried. They are entered upon with reliance on that Provi- dence which shapes institutions and men alike. It is not forgotten that great, and good, and devout men have stood in this place. May the same spirit rule in this institution which has so deeply impressed itself on its affairs, and made the University what it now is. The curriculum of studies, established by the wisdom and the experience of generations, will continue unchanged. We shall ever bear in mind that the aim of the college should be the development and improvement of the whole man, including his physical, intellectual, and moral natures." The manner in which he has discharged the duties thus assumed has more than re- alized the most sanguine expectations. During his admin- istration thus far the new Library Building, Slater Hall, and Sayles Memorial Hall have been erected, an addition has been made to Rhode Island Hall, and the college funds have been increased. Besides his regular services in the University, and his baccalaureate sermons, which are listened to by immense congregations, he has delivered series of lectures in Manning Hall, on the History of In- tellectual Philosophy and Metaphysical Science. He has preached in the various pulpits of Providence and vicinity with singular acceptance, and on great and special occa- sions his services have been solicited from far and near. Several of his discourses and addresses have been published. He has contributed articles on theological and educational subjects for some of the leading quarterly reviews. He was the editor of the Christian Review from 1859 to 1864, when it was merged into the Bibliotheca Sacra. His translation of the fourth edition of Neander's Planting and Training of the Christian Church, with a careful re- vision of the whole work, was published in 1865. In 1877 he was elected President of the American Baptist Mis- sionary Union. This distinguished honor he received for three successive years, when he declined a further election. In 1880 he was made an honorary member of the Rliode Island Baptist Social Union, being the first and only one

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ever elected to this honor. He married, February 21, 1844, Harriet Richards Parker, a graduate of Townsend Female Seminary, and a niece and adopted daughter of Deacon Caleb Parker, formerly of Roxbury, Massachusetts. Mr. Parker is largely interested in educational matters, and he has long been a friend and supporter of Newton Thco- logical Institution. Of their six children, but two, a son and a daughter, are living. Previous to his election to the Presidency of Brown University, Dr. Robinson visited Europe, accompanied by his wife, and spent a year abroad, travelling and pursuing special studies.

INTON, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, D.D., fourth son of David and Mary (Atwell) Vinton, was born in Providence, May 2, 1807. His father came to Providence when he was a young man, and established himself in business as a goldsmith. Here he spent his life engaged in traffic. He was a promi- nent member of the Masonic Fraternity, and while on a visit to Kentucky to attend to some business relating to that order, he died, about the year 1830. The mother of the subject of this sketch was a woman of rare abilities, and possessed great force and dignity of character. To her good management is "chiefly due the fact that not- withstanding the want of family influence and of ample pe- cuniary means, every one of her children obtained a good education and rose to a desirable position in society." Alexander spent three years as an undergraduate in Brown University, where he took high rank as a scholar. He studied medicine at Pomfret, Connecticut (where he re- sided with his mother, who had purchased a beautiful estate, which received the name of La Plaisance, and received the degree of M.D. from Yale College, in 1828. For the next three years he practiced his profession in Pomfret. While thus occupied, his mind became deeply interested in the careful perusal of Butler's Analogy, and the result was so decided a spiritual change, that he de- cided to abandon the profession in which he was obtaining marked success, and enter the Christian ministry. It is an interesting circumstance that a few years later, his brother, then Captain, afterwards Major John R. Vinton, should have come to a similar decision, which, however, he did not carry out, and that about the same time his brother Francis should have left his chosen profession to enter the minis- try. Having pursued a three-years' course of theological study at the General Seminary of the Episcopal Church, in New York, he was ordained Deacon at New York, in 1835. For a few months after his ordination he preached in Portland, Maine, and was then called to Grace Church, Providence, whose pulpit had became vacant by the resig- nation of Rev. Dr. John A. Clark. In 1836 he was ad- mitted to priest's orders in Providence. His relation to Grace Church continued six years (1836-42), and his min- istry was accompanied with the richest of spiritual fruits.

In 1842 he was called to St. Paul's Church, in Boston, where marked success attended his labors. It is said that " the most thoughtful and cultivated citizens of Boston gathered around him, and when he left, it was generally felt that his place could not easily be filled." His next settlement was in Philadelphia. Here he gave himself " for a series of ycars to the work of building up a new church, under circumstances which tested to the full his peculiar powers, and where his success was in some re- spects more striking and conspicuous than it had been either in Providence or Boston." From Philadelphia he was called to St. Mark's Church, in New York, and subse- quently returned to Boston, where he became Rector of Immanuel Church. Having reached the age of threescore and ten years, he resigned the charge of the church, and retired to his farm in Pomfret, where he passed the re- mainder of his days. Having gone to Philadelphia to preach the sermon at the consecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity, of which he was the first rector, after performing this service, he was stricken down by a fatal disease and died Tuesday, April 26, 1881. He was one of the ablest and most accomplished preachers of his own church, or any denomination of Christians. Dr. Vinton married, October 15, 1835, Eleanor Stockbridge Thomp- son, oldest daughter of Ebenczer Thompson, Esq., of Providence, by whom he had several children. In 1836 he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Brown University, and in 1843, the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from New York University, and the same degree from Harvard University, in 1853. In 1851 he was appointed a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education. In 1855 he published a volume of sermons of great merit, which he dedicated to his parishioners of St. Paul's Church, in Boston.

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 61

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