The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 8

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

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BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

and heroic determination than he. One of his chief diffi- culties was in getting mechanics who could execute his plans. His machine cards were made by Pliny Earl, of Worcester. On attempting to use them they proved to be a failure. The cards were rude, and the holes in the leather being pricked by hand were too large, allowing the teeth to fall back, thus causing the cotton to roll up. A gloomy period of a few days followed, the lookers-on regarding the whole thing as a failure. Pliny Earl was sent for; he came, and pounded the teeth forward by hand, and machine carding was secured. And now came another trouble. The water-wheel which carried the machinery was in so exposed a situation that it was frozen every night, and as no one else could be induced to break the ice in the morning to start the wheel, it devolved on him to do it, and we are told that he spent two or three hours breaking the ice before breakfast, till he was wet and cold, and limbs benumbed, and thus were laid the foundations of chronic disorders from which he suffered so much in the latter part of his life. These obstacles and others were, one by one, overcome. For a period of twenty years after the establishment of the first cotton mill by Mr. Slater, almost all the mechanical and manufacturing skill was furnished in all new enterprises by men who had been in his service. In 1793 a mill was com . pleted in Pawtucket which still stands, somewhat altered, and bears the name of the " Old Slater Mill." About this time another most important step was taken in the utilizing of cotton for domestic purposes, and the foundation was laid for the development of what has proved to be one of the greatest and most useful industries of the world. Up to this time, thread for sewing purposes was made of linen or flax. Mr. Slater had succeeded in spinning some very smooth and even yarn from Surinam cotton, resembling, in length of staple and quality of fibre, that which at a later date was produced from the Sea Island cotton. The hint was thrown out by his wife that it would make a good sewing thread. Some of it accordingly was twisted by her and her sister on a common spinning-wheel, and the re- sult was a 2-ply No. 20 sewing thread. This is supposed

to have been the first sewing cotton ever made. We are told that on testing this with linen thread, by sewing a

seam of cloth with each, the cotton thread was found to be the stronger. About five years after this, i. e., in 1798, Mr. Slater entered into a second partnership, his business rela- tions with Messrs. Almy and Brown remaining unchanged.

Ilis new partners were Oziel Wilkinson, his father-in-law, and Timothy Green and William Wilkinson, the husbands of his wife's sisters. They erected a mill on the other side of the Pawtucket River, which at that time came within the bounds of Massachusetts. After several years of successful prosecution of business, the attention of Mr. Slater was turned in another direction, where rare facilities were pre-

sented to him for carrying on the manufacture of cotton. The place which he had in his mind was known as " Ox- ford South Gore," a locality about thirty miles northwest

of Providence. Icre was a large supply of water, which would furnish sufficient power to run all the factories he might see fit to erect. Already onc part of the business in the locality where it was originally started seemed to have reached its limit. The power-loom had not been invented, and cotton yarn only was manufactured by the then exist- ing machinery. The yarn in skeins was at first sold in all parts of the country, wherever a market could be found for it. Afterwards it was chiefly dyed at the mill, put up into webs, and sent for many miles around to be woven in fami- lies. The cotton was also picked by families. At the time of which we now speak, 1811, it was not easy, so large was the amount of manufactured yarn, to find a sufficient num- ber of families to take this yarn and weave it into cloth, and to pick the cotton by hand. For this reason Mr. Sla- ter resolved to go back into the farming region in Massa- chusetts, and commence operations in what is now known as East Webster, the town of Webster, being since so called in honor of Hon. Daniel Webster. Having taken into part- nership one of his former clerks, Mr. Bela Tiffany, the new firm, under the style of Slater & Tiffany, proceeded to erect the first cotton mill in what is now the flourishing village of East Webster. For several years improvements were made by different individuals upon French River, in which Mr. Slater took a deep interest. Woollen as well as cotton mills were built in various localities, three villages springing up where, but a few years before, there was only a forest. These villages, in connection with sections taken from the towns of Dudley and Oxford, were, in 1832, incorporated into a town, as already intimated, and named Webster, as before stated. Passing over some other enterprises in which Mr. Slater was interested, we come down to the year 1822. Some time during this year his attention was directed to the great capabilities of the Amoskeag Falls, on the Mer- rimac River. For the purpose of making a personal exami- nation of these Falls, he visited them, with his wife and son, Horatio N., who was then a lad of fourteen years of age. Passing through Chelmsford, he saw laborers blast- ing rocks and laying the foundation of what is now the flourishing city of Lowell. Reaching the place of his des- tination, he was so impressed by what he saw, that he de- cided to purchase the property which would control the water-power, and to commence manufacturing operations at the Amoskeag Falls. Out of this comparatively humble beginning have grown the immense manufacturing indus- tries of the city of Manchester, N. H. Almost uninterrupt- ed success followed Mr. Slater in the prosecution of what had now come to be his very large and extended business, until the year 1829, when, during one of those great finan- cial revulsions which, from time to time, visit the country, he met with heavy pecuniary losses, amounting in all to nearly a quarter of a million dollars. By his excellent management, and his rare financial ability, although he made large sacrifices, he passed through the fearful ordeal with unimpared credit, and with no stain upon his repu-

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tation. At this time he became the owner of the Provi- dence steam mills, and of the mills at Wilkinsonville, in Sutton, Mass. While his mind was occupied with all the

great material interests of which he had charge, he was not forgetful of the domestic comfort and the intellectual and moral wants of his employés. It was his aim to reproduce in this country what he had witnessed in the manufactur- ing villages of Derbyshire in England. The children and young people connected with the families, which, as busi- ness increased, clustered about the factories, were gathered into schools, and it is believed that Mr. Slater established the first Sabbath-school that was formed in New England. Among the first teachers of this school in Pawtucket was William Collier, then a student in Brown University, and afterwards well known as a city missionary in Boston. Not only Sunday-schools, but common day schools were estab- lished and supported by Mr. Slater in his manufacturing villages, in some cases he assuming the whole expenses con- nected with the department of instruction in these schools. So, also, regular public worship was maintained on the Sabbath, to the support of which he liberally contributed. Thus we are told that "hundreds of families, coming originally from places where the general poverty had pre- cluded schools and public worship, brought up illiterate and without religious instruction, and disorderly and vicious in consequence of their lack of regular employment, were transplanted to these new creations of skill and enter- prise, and by the ameliorating effects of study, industry, and instruction, were reclaimed, civilized, Christianized." Although the residence of Mr. Slater, during most of his active business life, was in Pawtucket, in which place he re- tained his citizenship to the last, he passed nearly all his time, in his last years, at his home in East Webster, now oc- cupied by his son, Horatio N. Slater, Esq. Here he died, April 21, 1835, at the age of 66 years, 10 months, and 12 days. The story of his domestic life may be told in few words. He married, October 2, 1791, Hannah, daughter of Oziel Wilkinson, of Pawtucket. Their children were; William, born August 31, 1796, who died when young; Elizabeth, born September 28, 1801 ; Samuel, born Septem- ber 28, 1802 ; George Basset, born February 12, 1804 ; John, born May 23, 1805 ; Horatio Nelson, born March 5, 1808; William 2d, born October 15, 1809; and Thomas Graham, born September 19, 1812. Mrs. Slater died shortly after the birth of her last son, and Mr. Slater married, a second time, November 21, 18r7, Mrs. Esther, widow of Robert Parkinson, of Philadelphia. In personal appearance he is described as having been " tall, fully six feet, his usual weight being about two hundred and sixty pounds. He was of light complexion; his features were regular, his forehead was broad and high; his expression intellectual, and his presence and bearing were commanding." As the " father of American manufactures," Mr. Slater occupies a position which will always keep him in the front rank of the " Representative Men of Rhode Island."

GASTON, GOVERNOR NICHOLAS, was born in Wales in 1593. By trade he was a tanner. He came to this country and landed in New England, May 14' 1634, accompanied by two sons, Peter and John. For some months his home was in Ipswich, Massa- chusetts. In the spring of 1635 he commenced the settle- ment of Agawam, now Newberry, Massachusetts. In 1638 he built the first English house in Hampton. In conse- quence of the Antinomian controversy, which produced so much excitement in Massachusetts, and reached even the most remote hamlets of the colony, Mr. Easton decided to cast in his fortunes with those who removed to Rhode Island. We find his name among the nineteen settlers of Aquidneck who signed the civil compact which was formed at Providence, by which the parties pledged them- selves to be governed. The compact was as follows : " The 7th day of the first month, 1638. We whose names are underwritten do here solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politik, and as he shall help, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of his given us in his holy word of truth to be guided and judged thereby. Exod. xxiv. 3, 4; 2 Chronicles xi. 3; 2 Kings xi. 17." The signature of Easton must have been affixed considerably later than January 7, 1638, as it was in this year that he built his house in Hampton, and was not admitted as a freeman into the little colony of Pocasset until August 20. In November a water-mill was projected by Mr. Easton, or, as the name was written, Esson, and his two sons, for the use of the plantation, and a grant of land and timber was made to him for that purpose. Six months later the father and his sons built the first house in Newport. He was elected an "Elder " to assist Judge Coddington in his official duties, etc. So rapid was the growth of Pocasset that it was decided to commence an- other colony on the southwest side of the island, where now Newport is, and the name of Nicholas Easton appears second on the instrument by which the parties agreed to start the new settlement. All the members of the Pocasset government were among the emigrants. Mr. Easton and his sons went to Newport, and, as has already been said, proceeded to erect the first house that was built in the place. The house was on the east side of Farewell Street, a little west of the Friends' meeting-house. By the care- lessness or malice of some Indians, who kindled a fire in the woods near by, it was burned down in 1641. How modest in their expectations of growth the early settlers of Newport were, appears from the circumstance that they concluded that the territory selected by them for settlement " might reasonably accommodate fifty families." Four acres were assigned for each house lot. The town soon began to be in a flourishing condition, and it was not long before the two governments, that of Pocasset and that of New Port, as the name was-spelled, were united ; and at

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the first "General Court of Election," held at Newport March 12, 1640, Nicholas Easton was chosen " Assistant " from that town. The four towns of the State were united under a charter or patent in 1647. Under this patent he was President from May, 1650, to August, 1651, and a second time from May, 1654, to September 12, 1654. From May, 1670, to May, 1671, he was Deputy Governor, and Governor under the Royal Charter from May, 1672, to May, 1674. His death occurred at Newport, August 15, 1675. For many years hefore his death Governor Easton had been a member of the Society of Friends.

ORTON, GOVERNOR SAMUEL, the first settler of Warwick, was born in England, not far from the commencement of the seventeenth century. He sprang from a good family, had resided in London, and came to this country in 1636, and landed in Boston. Here he remained about a year, and then went to Plymouth. While in Boston he gave expression to what were considered very heretical doctrines, and made himself very obnoxious to the ecclesiastical powers; and in Plym- outh, so great was the prejudice against him on account of his peculiar views, that he was subjected to corporal punishment on their account. Backus, the historian, tells us that he " evidently was a man of smart capacity, and of considerable learning, and when he pleased, could express his ideas as plainly as any man; but he used such a mysti- cal method in handling the Scriptures, and in speaking about religion, that people are not agreed to this day (1777) what his real sentiments were." Mackie, in his Life of Gorton, says that had he lived in these days he would not unlikely have been denominated a " Transcendentalist." Gorton left Plymouth in 1638, and removed in June of that year to Rhode Island. While residing in Newport he made enemies by the utterance of his peculiar notions, and finding it uncomfortable to live any longer there, he went across Narragansett Bay, and in January, 1641, pur- chased land near Pawtuxet River, in the south part of Providence. Encroaching, as he was charged with doing, upon the lands of others, under cover of his purchase, com- plaints were made against him, and he was summoned to appear before the Massachusetts courts to answer to the charges brought against him. He treated the summons with contempt, and that he might protect himself against the attack which he had reason to anticipate would be made upon him, he, with eleven associates, purchased of Miantonomi, the Narragansett sachem, a tract of land in Shawomet, afterwards called Warwick, in honor of the Earl of Warwick. For this land he paid one hundred and forty- four fathoms of wampum. The contemptuous answers of Gorton to the Massachusetts magistrates aroused their anger, and forty men were at once selected for an expedi- tion against him. On reaching Shawomet they found that the place had been fortified, and although the attacking

force outnumbered the besieged three to one, the occupants of the fort determined to defend it. Several times the fort was on fire, but the defenders of it succeeded in quenching the flames. At last, in spite of the most heroic resistance, the fort was taken, and nine of the besieged were carried to Boston, three of them having had the good fortune to escape. On the arrival of the party in Boston, great demonstrations of joy were made over the successful ter- mination of the expedition. The Governor caused the prisoners to be brought before him, and " laid before them their contemptuous carriage and how obstinately they had refused to do right to those they had wronged, against all the fair means and moderation we have used; that now the Lord had delivered them into our hands." Gorton and his companions were all sent to prison. In the record of the events which transpired, we find a curious illustration of the character of the times, and of a state of feeling in the community which we should think bordered somewhat on bigotry. The prisoners, not sympathizing with the religious opinions of those among whom they found themselves, peremptorily refused to attend public worship on the Lord's day. Not having much respect for the rights of conscience, the officers of the law took the prisoners by force and com- pelled them to go to the church and listen to " the Word," which, under the circumstances, must have been very edi- fying. Such proceedings seem very strange to us, and it would be impossible to believe in their occurrence if the facts were not vouched for by the most reliable authorities. If, however, the sum of the trials to which these "Shawo- metites " were subjected was their compulsory attendance upon preaching which they did not care to hear, we might pardon the Puritans for the course which they pursued. But this was only the beginning of their sorrows. After a month's imprisonment, they were brought before the General Court, and after undergoing a kind of trial, the following sentences were passed upon them : The principal offender, Gorton, was sentenced to be confined in Charlestown, at the discretion of the Court, and kept at hard work, " and to wear such bolts or irons " as would prevent his escape ; that if, in the mean- time, he should speak or write "any of the blasphemous and abominable heresies wherewith he had been charged by the Court, upon conviction thereof, he should be con- demned to death and executed." Seven of the companions of Gorton were sentenced to be sent to seven towns in Massachusetts, and there put to hard work, and wear irons upon one leg, on the same conditions as were awarded to Gorton. Among familiar Rhode Island names which we recognize as being among the prisoners are those of Ran- dall Holden, Robert Potter, and Richard Waterman. The reaction against these severe measures at length came, and Gorton and his friends were released from their imprison- ment and commanded to depart out of the coasts of Massa- chusetts. Motives of policy exerted an influence in this case, as they have done in many others of a similar charac- ter. It seemed very desirable to conciliate the favor of the

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Earl of Warwick, who was the special friend of Gorton, and, accordingly, he was released from his hard bondage. To guard himself against persecution in the future, Gorton at once went to England, carrying with him a deed from the Narragansett Indians, transferring their territory to the king. An order, securing to him the peaceable possession of his lands, was obtained from Parliament. He returned to Boston in 1648, and repaired at once to his home in Shawomet, where he became the religious teacher of those who sympathized with him in his views. He died between November 27 and December 10, 1677, the precise date of his decease not being known. Among his published writings are Simplicity's Defence against the Seven-Headed Policy, Antidote against Pharisaical Teachers, Saltmarsh returned from the Dead, and A Glass for the People of New England.

OLDEN, RANDALL, was born not far from the year 1600, and came to this country from Salisbury, Wilts County, England, the date of his arrival not being known. When, precisely, he came to Rhode Island we are not informed. Early in 1638 we find him a citizen of Portsmouth. He must, therefore, have come to the colony not long after Roger Williams commenced his settlement in Providence. In the year 1638, he was a witness with Roger Williams to the deed of the island of Rhode Island, which was purchased by the early settlers of Aquidneck of the sacheins of the Nar- ragansetts. Not long after this he removed to Warwick. When, in 1643, the famous controversy arose with regard to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts over the territory of Shaw- omet or Warwick, Samuel Gorton and his friends, among whom was Holden, were taken by an armed force of forty men and carried to Boston, where they were imprisoned, and subsequently put on trial for their lives. A majority of two votes only saved them from death. Gorton was sent to jail in Charlestown, and Holden was imprisoned in Salem. Each of the eleven prisoners was " compelled," as we learn from Knowles, "to wear an iron chain, fast bolted round the leg, and in this manner to labor. If they spoke to any person except an officer of church or state, they were to suffer death. They were kept at hard labor during the winter, and were then banished from Massachusetts, and from the lands at Shawomet, on pain of death." Gorton, with his friends, Holden and Greene, subsequently went to England and were successful in obtaining an order from the Earl of Warwick, and his associate commissioners, dated August 19, 1644, forbidding Massachusetts to disturb the settlers at Warwick. We are told " Massachusetts re- luctantly complied, and Mr. Gorton and his followers oc- cupied their lands in quiet." Under the Parliamentary Patent, Holden was General Treasurer for two years, May, 1652, to May, 1654. In 1653 he was elected General Assist- ant for the town of Warwick, and again in 1654. A Court

of Commissioners had been appointed to see what could be done towards perfecting a reunion of the towns on the island and on the mainland, an amicable adjustment of pending difficulties was made, and the four towns, viz., Portsmouth and Newport, Providence and Warwick, agreed "to order this colony by the authority of the charter granted to us by the honored Parliament of the Common- wealth of England, bearing date the 14th day of May, 1643." Among the six commissioners from Warwick was Randall Holden. For several years after tliis he was Gen- eral Assistant from Warwick. Mr. Holden died August 23, 1692. His wife was Frances, daughter of Jeremiah Clark, of Newport. Their children were Frances, Eliza- beth, Mary, John, Sarah, Randall, Margaret, Charles, Bar- bara, Susan and Anthony. Charles, son of Randall, mar- ried Catherine Greene, daughter of John Greene, of War- wick, who became Deputy-Governor of the colony, being in office from 1690 to 1700. Another son, Randall, married Bertha Waterman, and had six children, John, Randall, Waite, Mary, Frances, and Susanna. The descendants of Mr. Holden are very numerous, and representatives of the family are to be found in different sections of the country. As a friend and associate of Samuel Gorton, in whose fortunes, prosperous and adverse, he shared, he fills a conspicuous place in that part of Rhode Island history which relates to the early settlers of Warwick. The proceedings against these men furnish us a fair illustration of the temper of the times in which they lived. Professor Knowles well says : " The conduct of Massachusetts none will now defend. It was a manifest usurpation and a cruel abuse of power. It is a profitable example of the manifold evils of erecting the civil government into a court of inquisition. It was the alleged heresies and blasphemies of Mr. Gorton and his friends against which the edge of this persecution was di- rected; and those unhappy men narrowly escaped the fate which, a few years later, befell the Quakers. The rulers and clergy of Massachusetts undoubtedly thought that they were impelled by an honest zeal for the purity of religion and the glory of God. Their conduct proves that a being so fallible as man is unfit to be intrusted with power over the conscience."

EXTER, REV. GREGORY, the fifth pastor of the First Baptist Church in Providence is said to have been born in London early in the seventeenth century. He followed the stationery business in his native city with one Coleman. For printing a piece that was offensive to the government he was com- pelled to flee the country, and came to Providence in 1643. The same year he was received into the church, of which he subsequently became the pastor. That he soon became a person of some importance in the infant colony is evi- dent from the circumstance that he was elected town clerk a few years after taking up his residence in Providence. He was also among the fifty-four persons to whom " town

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lots " were assigned. In 1648 he was chosen a " commis- sioner " to represent the town in the General Assembly, and again in 1650. He was President of the two towns of Providence and Warwick one year, 1653-54. In Sta- ples's Annals may be found, pp. 106-8, an interesting letter of Mr. Dexter's to Sir Henry Vane, in reply to the charge which that gentleman had made, that there were " divisions, disorders, etc., in the colony which had sorely troubled him, their loving and steadfast friend." In the subsequent history of the state, the name of Mr. Dexter occasionally appears, as taking part in the civil affairs of the colony. He was chosen Pastor of the First Church in Providence to succeed Rev. William Wickenden, who died February 23, 1669. Morgan Edwards says of him : " Mr. Dexter, by all accounts, was not only a well-bred man but remarkably pious. He was never observed to laugh, sel- dom to smile. So earnest was he in his ministry that he could hardly forbear preaching when he came into a house or met with a concourse of people out of doors." The exact date of his death is not known, but it must have been not far from the close of the century in which he was born. He lived to be over 90 years of age. "The wife of Mr. Dexter was Abigail Fullerton, by whom he had three sons and one daughter, Stephen, James, John, and Abigail."

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 8

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