The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 63

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

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ERNOLD, SALMON AUGUSTUS, M.D., son of Sal- mon and Sclina (Wilde) Arnold, was born in Providence, June 26, 1797. He prepared for college at Mr. Patten's school in Hartford, Con- necticut, and graduated at Brown University in 1816, in the same class with Dr. Joseph Mauran, the late John Carter Brown, and Robert H. Ives. After studying medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, he received from that institution the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1821. He then began practice in his native city, and continued in active professional busi- ness for more than fifty years. For several years he was a partner with the late Dr. John Mackie. Dr. Arnold was identified with all that pertained to the progress and in- fluence of the medical profession in Providence. In 1822 he became a member of the Rhode Island Medical So- ciety, of which he was for twenty years Secretary, and at one time President. He took a leading part in the forma- tion of the Providence Medical Association, and was its first President. For more than twenty years he was the permanent Secretary of the Board of Trustees having con- trol of the fund left by Dr. Caleb Fiske, of Scituate, for prize dissertations, the Board being composed of the Presi- dent and Vice-Presidents of the Rhode Island Medical Society. His duties in these different official positions were discharged with marked fidelity and efficiency. Dr. Arnold was one of the most prominent and successful physicians in Providence. He was not disposed to adopt new methods in the practice of his profession, but ad- hered to those old ones which he believed time and expe- rience had proven safest to follow. Throughout his life he took a deep interest in educational matters, and for many years was a leading member of the Providence School Committee. In 1832 he married Ruth Sprague Rand, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, who died, Decem- ber 22, 1852. Dr. Arnold died in Providence, December 12, 1878. Two of his daughters survive him, Mrs. R. Becker, wife of Dr. Alexander Becker, of Providence, and Elizabeth A. Arnold. The announcement of the death of Dr. Arnold called forth expressions of deep regret throughout the entire community. The remembrance of his familiar form, as seen in the streets of his native city, will long remain in the minds of the generation now on the stage of action.

ACKSON, HENRY, D.D., the second son of Richard and Abby (Wheaton) Jackson, was born in Provi- dence, June 16, 1798, his father being a prominent citizen of Rhode Island, well known for the interest he took in the affairs of the State and of the city. He was prepared for college in the University Grammar School, and was a graduate of Brown University, in the class of 1817. Immediately on his graduation, he repaired to Andover, Massachusetts, to pursue his theological

studies, and graduated at that institution in 1820. His first settlement in the Christian ministry was at Charlestown, Massachusetts, where he was ordained November 27, 1822, and remained nearly fourteen years, ending October 19, 1836. Its result was the building up of a strong, efficient church. While pastor of this church in Charlestown, he was deeply interested in the cause of female education, and to his efforts was largely due the founding of the Charlestown Female Seminary, an institution which in its day accomplished an untold amount of good. A few weeks after resigning his pastorate in Charlestown he was installed the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Hartford, Connecticut. At the end of a little more than a year's service in this new relation, he resigned his office, and soon resumed his ministerial work by being installed pastor of the First Baptist Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts, January 1, 1839. Failing health forced him to resign in October, 1839. For a little more than a year he suspended all ministerial work, and devoted himself to the recupera- tion of his health. In January, 1847, he returned to the discharge of the duties he so much loved. A new church, called the Central Church, had been established at New- port, and he was invited to become its first pastor. He accepted the invitation, and entered upon his work with fresh zeal and recruited energies, and his ministry, averaging a period of not far from sixteen years, was instrumental in building up a large and flourishing church and congrega- tion. His ministry, extending through some forty years, was an eminently successful one. He received into the four churches of which he was pastor, during this time, about 1400 persons, administering, himself, the ordinance of baptism to 870 of this number. The cause of ministerial education was especially dear to him. Of the Theological Seminary, established at Newton, he was one of the founders, and a Trustee from 1825 to his death. In 1828 he was elected a Trustee of Brown University, and re- mained such through life. To both these institutions he bequeathed generous legacies in his will. His alma mater conferred on him, in 1854, the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. He married, in 1822, Maria T., daughter of Rev. Dr. Gano, who died in 1878. They had no children. Dr. Jackson died instantly, while travelling in the cars of the Stonington Railroad, March 2, 1863.

BENDLETON, CAPTAIN WILLIAM CHAMPION, mer- chant, was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, No- vember 2, 1798. His father was for fifty years a sea-captain and a shipowner. His grandfather, Benjamin Pendleton, was also a sea-captain, for many years sailing from Westerly. His great-grandfather, Colonel William Pendleton, was a Colonel of militia in the Revolution. The first ancestor of the family in this coun- try was Major Brian Pendleton, who was born in 1599,

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came to America in 1630, and settled in Watertown, Mas- sachusetts, was made a freeman of the Massachusetts Col- ony in 1634, and served for six years as Deputy to the General Court prior to 1648. Ile was a member of the famous artillery company of Boston. About 1651 he rc- moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and was Deputy of that town for five years. In 1658 he purchased two hundred acres of land near Winter Harbor, Saco, Maine, and settled upon it in 1665. He finally returned to Ports- mouth, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1681. He was an eminent man in his day. Captain James Pendleton, the only son of Major Brian Pendleton, removed from Watertown to Sudbury, Massa- chusetts, and thenee, in 1669, to Westerly, Rhode Island. He was the great-great-grandfather of Captain William C. Pendleton. The latter was educated in a public school in Westerly. When he was about twenty years of age he went to sea occasionally until 1830, and then became cap- tain of a coasting vessel. Since 1840 he has been engaged in general merchandise business in Westerly, and for the past fifteen or twenty years has been largely interested in settling estates. He has been a Director in the National Phoenix Bank since 1846, and for several years has been a Director in the Mechanics' Savings Bank. For some time he has served as a member of the Committee of Accounts for the town. He married, December 23, 1819, Phebe Hall, daughter of Captain Lyman and Phebe (Palmer) Hall. They have had twelve children, nine of whom are living : John P., Charles P. W., Edward B., Albert P., Martha C., Adelaide, Harriet N., and Marcelia J. Captain Pendleton has been a member of the First Baptist Church in Westerly for forty years, and still takes an aetive inter- est in the welfare of that communion.

EADER, JOHN, minister and missionary of the Society of Friends, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Meader, was born in Rochester, New Hamp- shire, November 11, 1797. He was brought up in the principles and practices of his devout pa- rents, and at the age of eighteen publicly pronounced his faith in the Friends' Meeting. In 1824 he was acknowl- edged and recorded a minister by the Sandwich Monthly Meeting, and was immediately moved to engage in the ministry in different places among neighboring Quarterly Meetings. In 1829, accompanied by his talented and de- voted wife, who was also an approved and effective speaker in the Friends' Meeting, he began his wider sphere of mis- sionary labor, and travelled in New York, portions of Penn- sylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Indiana, visiting Yearly and other Meetings. For two years he thus labored to preserve the threatened integrity of the Friends' Society and to pro- mulgate their distinctive sentiments In 1831 he labored chiefly in Berwiek and Dover Monthly Meetings. In 1837 he removed to Rhode Island and was connected with the

Providence Monthly Meeting, where his testimonies were numerous and highly valued. In 1841 he made a mis- sionary tour among the Indians west of the Mississippi River, bearing introductory and eommendatory letters from the officers of the government at Washington. He also labored in Ohio, Indiana, and what was then the Territory of Iowa. His mission was executed in a manner highly honorable to himself and to the Society he represented. Rhode Island counted herself favored in the character and ministry of such a man. In 1850, with his wife, he visited England, Ireland, and portions of the Continent, seeking to avert divisions and innovations among Friends, and to establish them in the truth. In 185t he returned and re- sumed his ministry in Rhode Island. Again, in 1857, he made a missionary tour in New York, Ohio and Indiana, and in 1858 onee more visited Baltimore. His testimonials and certificates were from all the principal Meetings of the Friends in this country. He married, Mareh, 1819, Eliza- beth Taber, daughter of Joseph and Huldah (Hoag) Ta- ber. He last spoke in the Providence Monthly Meeting, March 3, 1860, and died June 7, 1860, aged sixty-two years.

,9 ALLOU, GEORGE C., manufacturer, son of Oliver and Abigail (Colburn) Ballou, was born in Cum- berland, Rhode Island, February 2, 1798. His opportunities for an education were limited. He learned the trade of a house-carpenter of his father, from whom, and an elder brother, Dexter, he also learned the business of manufacturing cotton goods. At the age of twenty-eight he entered into business with his brother, Hosea Ballou, at Waterford, Massachusetts, and began to make satinets. This partnership continued until 1827, and he carried on the business there until 1829, when he re- moved to Woonsocket. Here he was very prosperous, and in 1839 extended his works, and continued successful until January, 1846, when his factory was destroyed by fire, his loss being $24,000, while his insurance was $14,000. With undiminished energy he erected on the same site the mill now standing. In April, 1845, he, with Oren A. Ballou, son of Dexter, and with James T. and Peleg A. Rhodes, bought of John H. Clark the land on which stood the Clinton Mill, and, in May, 1854, they be- came an incorporate company, of which Mr. Ballou was chosen President, which office he held until his death. The mill was enlarged, its capital stock increased from $75,000 to $120,000, and the number of spindles became 15,000. It was named after Governor De Witt Clinton, of New York. In 1864, Mr. Ballou became owner of the Globe Mill in Woonsocket, and in 1868 he invested in the American Worsted Company in the same place-a company incorporated that year with a capital stock of $50,000-of which corporation Mr. Ballou was President. He was also a large owner in the Peabody Mills at New- buryport, Massachusetts. In 1868 the Globe Steam Mill

Clark Hayley

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Company became embarrassed, but was reorganized, and Mr. Ballou and his son David took one-half of its stock, put new machinery into the mill, and increased its spindles from 14,000 to 22,000. In 1873 the Ballou Manufactur- ing Company was organized with a capital of $500,000, and while Mr. Ballou was the principal stockholder, the rest of the stock was owned mostly by his relatives. He was President of this company until his death, and his son David was its Treasurer and Agent. In 1873 the new mill on the Globe Estate was built, with a capacity of 40,000 spindles, under the supervision of Mr. Ballou. In his latter years Mr. Ballou gave less attention to his fac- tories, and devoted much time to the cultivation of his farms. The success of the enterprises with which he was identified affords ample proof of his great financial ability. He was a Representative in the Rhode Island General Assembly for some time, and served one year as State Senator. He belonged to the Masonic order over fifty years, and was highly esteemed in his business, public, and social relations. He married Ruth Eliza Aldrich, daughter of Caleb Aldrich, of Smithfield, son of Judge Caleb Aldrich, and grandson of Moses Aldrich, a cele- brated Quaker preacher. His children were Celia Ann, who married Cyrus Arnold; Alpha, who married Peter H. Brown, of Providence; Abby, who married Charles D. Robinson, of Green Bay, Wisconsin; and David Bal- lou, before mentioned as partner with his father.

PRAGUE, GOVERNOR WILLIAM, son of William and Anne (Potter) Sprague, was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, November 3, 1799. In 1836 on the death of his father, by whom he had been educated to be a manufacturer of cotton cloth and a calico printer, 9 he united with his brother Amasa in the firm of A. & W. Sprague, for the conduct and enlargement of the business first established by his father in Cranston and the adjacent towns. But prior to his father's death he had taken an active interest in the affairs of the town and of the State. He became a member of the General Assembly, and was Speaker of the House of Representatives from October, 1832, to May, 1835. In 1835 he was elected State Repre- sentative in Congress and served until 1837. He was then elected Governor of the State, and served in 1838 and 1839. He was finally elected Senator to Congress in 1842, and served till 1844, when he resigned on account of the death of his brother Amasa, which threw upon him the weight of the extensive business of the firm of A. & W. Sprague. Governor Sprague was alike capable in political and business affairs, but he now confined his energies to the super- vision of his factories and immense calico works. He was chosen Presidential Elector by the State in 1848. He married Mary Waterman, of Warwick, Rhode Island, and had a daughter, Susan, who married Edwin Hoyt, of New York; and a son, Byron, who, with his cousins Amasa and

William (sons of Amasa), continued the firm of A. & W. Sprague, and assisted in carrying on the large business established by his father and his uncle. Governor Sprague died October 19, 1856, at the age of fifty-six. His son Byron inherited large property, and besides taking his place in the firm of A. & W. Sprague, the chief management of the busi- ness being left to his cousins, he became a large dealer in real estate, and made extensive improvements in the noted property at Rocky Point, in Warwick. In the calico works his attention was given chiefly to the department of machinery. He died July 31, 1866. Governor William's brother, Amasa, devoted himself with energy and success to the management of the factories of the firm and to the oversight of his lands. It was believed that his opposition to the sale of intoxicating liquors in the vicinity of one of the factories of the firm provoked the madness of a liquor dealer, who planned his death. He married Fanny Mor- gan, of Groton, Connecticut. His children were Colonel Amasa, Hon. William, Almira, who married Hon. Thomas A. Doyle, Mayor of Providence; and Mary Anna, who married first John E. Nichols, and second Frank W. Latham.

S AYLES, CLARK, master builder and merchant, son of Ahab and Lillis (Steere) Sayles, was born in Glocester (now Burrillville), Rhode Island, May 18, 1797. His father, son of Israel Sayles, was a substantial farmer of mechanical ability, and was for many years President of the Town Council of Gloces- ter, and, during the war of the Revolution, served in the patriot army under General Sullivan. Clark's mother was the daughter of Samuel Steere, a good representative of a worthy Rhode Island family. Mr. Ahab Sayles had five brothers, Rufus, Nicholas, Samuel, Joseph, Robert, and a sister, Martha, who married, first, Alfred Eddy, and second, Augustus Winsor. The Sayles homestead lands were situated between Pascoag and Chepachet, in the line that finally, in 1806, divided Burrillville from Glocester, leaving the family mansion in Burrillville. The children of Ahab Sayles were, Azubah, Lusina, Mercy, Nicholas, Clark, Welcome, Lillis, and Maranda; only Clark and Maranda are now living (1881). The ancestors of this family, on both sides, were industrious and honored farm- ers of the old type, some of them being Friends, and others Baptists, in their religious convictions. Clark was educated at home, on the farm, and in the common schools. His teacher, for many years, was William Colwell, after- wards Cashier of the Glocester Exchange Bank. Both at home and in the Chepachet Library he found and eagerly read good books, not missing a " library day " for years, as testified by Mr. Blackman, the librarian. When about eighteen years of age he engaged to work for Mr. Elias Carter, a master-builder of Thompson, Connecticut, with whom he labored in Thompson, and finally went to the

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State of Georgia and worked in constructing the Burke County Court-housc. Returning, he assisted in building the Congregational Church in Milford, Massachusetts. Finally, he began as a master-builder for himself; erccted a residence for his brother Nicholas; again went to the State of Georgia, and constructed dwellings for planters, and completed the large hotel at Wayncsborough. Re- turning from the South he built the meeting-house in Greenville, Smithfield, Rhode Island. In the spring of 1822 he removed to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and settled as a master-builder; erected houses for David Wilkinson, added a middle'section to the First Baptist Church, plan- ned and erected, in 1828, the first Congregational Church in Pawtucket; built a church edifice in North Scituate, and also one in Attleborough, Massachusetts. During all this time he was also engaged in the lumber and coal trade, being the first man to introduce coal into Pawtucket by vessels. He associated with himself in business Mr. Daniel Greene, and in the great financial panic of 1829, the firm of " Clark Sayles & Co." assumed to a great dis- advantage, as the issue proved, the business interests pre- viously carried on by Mr. Greene, who had failed. Mr. Sayles was chosen Director of the New England Pacific Bank, of whose board of thirteen directors, eleven failed, while Mr. Sayles stood through the storm. Chosen Presi- dent of this bank, as successor to Dr. Asa Messer, Mr. Sayles stood at the head of the institution for seventeen years, and, " by most remarkably skilful financiering," brought the bank through all its difficulties. In 1837, closing most of his large business relations in Pawtucket, he again went South and engaged in the wholesale lumber trade for the firm of which he was the head, and also as agent of another company; operating stcam-sawmills, one on an island at the mouth of the Altamaha river, and one on the Savannah river, opposite the city of Savannah. After remaining South in the lumber trade (having his family with him during some of the winters), for about twenty years, he returned to Pawtucket. Not entering again largely into business for himself, he assisted his sons, William Francis and Frederic Clark, in purchasing ma- terials, and in the construction of the buildings added to their extensive Moshassuck Bleachery, in the town of Lin- coln. He was also the general superintendent in the erec- tion of the beautiful Memorial Chapel in Saylesville, near the Bleachery. Politically, he was an " Old Line Whig," and was finally identified with the Republican party, but would accept only town offices, as his object was service rather than honors. In the tempcrance reform he has held a foremost place from the first. Near 1832 he united with the Congregational Church, of which he has since been an active and consistent member. He early won for himself, and has always maintained a high and honorable place in society, and is now deservedly esteemed in his ripe years. He married, December 25, 1822, Mary Ann Olney, daugh- tc rof Paris Olney, of Scituate, Rhode Island. She was a

member of the Congregational Church, and noted for her strength of mind, gentleness of spirit, soundness of judg- ment, decision of character, and the purity of her Christian life. She died September 11, 1878, in her seventy-sixth ycar. Mr. Sayles had five children, William Francis, Minerva Winsor (died young), Charles Ahab (died young), Mary Ann (died young), and Frederic Clark.

ATSON, WILLIAM ROBINSON, son of John J. and Sarah (Brown) Watson, was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, December 14, 1799. He was a descendant of some of the oldest, most. respectable and distinguished families in Rhode Island, among whom may be named the Watsons, Haz- ards, Robinsons, and Browns, who, at a period anterior to the Revolutionary War, were the largest landed proprie- tors in the southern portion of the State, and noted for dispensing an elegant and princely hospitality and furnish- ing a genial and polished society, when the city of Provi- dence was yet but a small village. Mr. Watson pursued his early classical studies at Plainfield (Connecticut) Academy, and was graduated at Brown University in the class of 1823. Among his classmates were Chief Justice Ames, of Rhode Island, Rev. Dr. Crane, George D. Prentice, the distinguished editor of the Louisville Journal, and Judge Mellen, of Massachusetts. Professor Gammell, in an article on the necrology of Brown Uni- versity for 1863-64, states, that " having pursued his legal studies in the office of Hon. Samuel W. Bridgham, in Provi- dence, he was admitted to the bar, but engaged to only a very limited extent in the practice of his profession. His life was devoted pre-eminently and almost exclusively to politics, and in his chosen sphere he was sagacious and in- fluential." For nearly forty years he was one of the most active and prominent politicians in Rhode Island, and probably no individual ever exerted a greater influence in its local politics. In June, 1827, he was chosen by the General Assembly, then controlled by the National Re- publicans, to the office of Clerk of Common Pleas for the County of Providence, at that time the most lucrative office. in the State, and, in consequence, a place much contended for by political parties and their rising favorites. This office he held until May, 1833, when he was displaced by a combination of opposing parties. He, however, regained the office in 1835, but held it only for a single year. From 1836 to 1841 he was cashier, in succession, of the Bank of North America and the City Bank of Providence, and in 1841, on the accession of President Harrison, he was appointed Collector of the Port of Providence, which office he held till the beginning of President Polk's ad- ministration, in 1845. In 1849 he was again appointed to the same office by President Taylor, and retained it four years, till he was removed by President Pierce. Through his influence, while Collector of the Port of Providence, a

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construction is now given to a provision of the tariff of 1833, relating to the compensation to certain collectors, adverse to the written opinions of John J. Crittenden and Reverdy Johnson, both given while these eminent lawyers were holding the office of Attorney-General of the United States. In 1854 he was chosen Secretary of State in Rhode Island, but was defeated at the election the following year, when the " Know-Nothing," or National American party, of which he was not a member, swept the State by immense majorities. In 1856 he was chosen by the General Assem- bly State Auditor, and continued in that office until May, 1863. His last official relation to any institution was that which he sustained to the City Insurance Company, of which he was appointed President nearly a year before his death, which occurred in Providence, August 29, 1864. Mr. Watson was also, during much of his life, a writer for the political press, and in several instances, usually at sea- sons of election, for brief periods, conducted, as editor, certain papers with which he was politically connected. His writings were almost invariably of a political charac- ter, and in the interest of the Whig party, of which he was a devoted champion in Rhode Island. The most elaborate of these were a series of papers, first published in the Providence Daily Journal, in 1844, under the pseudonym of " Hamilton," which were afterwards col- lected and printed in pamphlet form. The doctrines then held by the Whig party were there explained and vindi- cated with remarkable force and vigor. IIe was distin- guished alike for the integrity and ability with which he discharged the duties of the many and varied public offices which he filled; for the elegance and force with which he wielded a facile and not ungraceful pen ; and for a kind- ness of heart and dignified urbanity of manner, which at- tached to him the warmest friends, who appreciated his agreeable qualities as a citizen in private life. He married Mary Anne, daughter of Hon. Caleb Earle, of Providence. His children were William Henry Watson, a graduate of Brown University, in the class of 1852, now an eminent physician, who has held the highest rank in his profession, and been honored with the most important trusts in its gift, who resides at Utica, New York, of which State he is the Surgeon-General ; Eleanor, who married Dr. Charles Judson Hill, of the same place; Amey, and Anna, deceased.

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 63

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