The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 85

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

USA > Rhode Island > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island > Part 85

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

him. His abilities have been equal to his official duties, and his integrity has been equal, so far as we know or suspect, to every assault which the intrigues of professed friends have made upon it. He retires from an office which he did not seek, wholly unscathed, and wholly uncon- taminated with the slime which too often clings to men who dispense official favors." Governor Dyer was made a director of Swan Point Cemetery February 7, 1860. He was one of the founders of the Providence Aid Society, and was one of its board of managers from November 16, 1855, to October 1, 1859. On the 8th of November, 1849, he was elected an honorary member of the Board of Na- tional Popular Education, represented by Ex-Governor Slade, of Vermont. He was a member of the Rhode Island Horticultural Society, and one of the Committee on Fi- nance, in 1854. Governor Dyer has taken a prominent part in military matters. He joined the First Light Infan- try Company, of Providence, in 1838, was made an honor- ary member of the Newport Artillery Company in 1858, and an honorary member of the Providence Marine Corps of Artillery in 1859. During the Civil War he exhibited in various ways his patriotic devotion to the cause of his country. On the 25th of September, 1861, he was chosen Captain of the Tenth Ward Drill Company, of Providence, and May 26, 1862, his son Elisha having been disabled and prevented from continuing in the service, Governor Dyer felt it his duty to volunteer himself, and accordingly went to Washington and served for three months as Cap- tain of Company B, Tenth Regiment of Rhode Island Volunteers. This company was composed of about one hundred and twenty-five students from Brown University and the Providence High School. President Sears, of the University, consented for his students to enlist only on condition that Governor Dyer should go with them. He was a director of the Providence and Plainfield Railroad, and has been among the first in projecting and promoting various railroad enterprises in the State. He was the originator of the Providence and Springfield Railroad, known at first as the Woonasquatucket Railroad, and was one of the first movers in the proposed Ponagansett Rail- road. He drew the charter of the Narragansett Valley Railroad, and was one of its corporators. In 1851, he was a director of the Rhode Island Steamboat Company. The same year he served on a committee sent to Washington to secure the removal of the Providence Post-office. In 1852, he was elected a trustee of the Firemen's Associa- tion, Gaspé Company, No. 9. He was at one time one of the directors of the Rhode Island Sportsman's Club. In 1863, he was a delegate from the Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry to the Interna- tional Agricultural Exhibition at Hamburg, in July of that year, and made an able report of the same. He was Vice- President of the Roger Williams Monument Association, and Chairman of the Executive Committee. On the 24th of September, 1869, he was elected President of the First

378

BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

National Musical Congress, in Music Hall, Boston, be- cause of his musical ability, and his extensive acquaint- ance in musical circles. He was Commissioner for Rhode Island to the International Exhibition at London, in May, 1871, and made a valuable report of the same to the General Assembly. On the 20th of March, 1873, he was appointed Honorary Commissioner to the Vienna Expo- sition by President Grant, and while there rendered very important service to the Commission by reason of his large and varied experience, and excellent taste and judg- ment. His patriotie zeal led him to over-exert himself at the Exposition, so much to the injury of his health, that since then he has been obliged to retire altogether from public life and from business. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, being, with his family, con- nected with Grace Church, Providence. On the 8th of June, 1852, he was a delegate to the Diocesan Convention. Notwithstanding his active business and public career, Governor Dyer has been an invalid for the last thirty years, and very much of his work has been done under the burden of infirmity and suffering. Eighteen times he has crossed the Atlantic in search of health, and in 1854 visited Egypt. He has been in all the places of note on the usual routes of European travel, and though travelling for health, always had his eyes open, and note-book in hand, to glean whatever of value or interest he could pre- serve for others. He is an effective speaker, and has made a large number of public addresses on political, educational, musical, and miscellaneous subjects. In the Rhode Island Schoolmaster, of November, 1861, he published a charming sketch of his school-day experiences at " Black Hill," and in 1864, published a book entitled A Summer's Travel to find a German Home. Governor Dyer is a man who might have succeeded in almost any chosen line of work that he had selected.

OTTER, HON. ELISHA R., JR., was born at Kings. ton, Rhode Island, then called Little Rest, June 20, 1811; graduated at Harvard College Septem- ber, 1830; admitted to the bar October 9, 1832; was Commissioner of Public Schools 1849-1854; Adjutant-General, 1835-6; member of Congress, 1843-5 ; and for some years member of the State Senate and House of Representatives; member of the Constitutional Conven- tions of 1841 and 1842, the latter of which proposed the Constitution which was adopted, and is the existing Con- stitution of the State; elected Associate Justice of the Su- preme Court, 1868. Publications: 1. Early History of Narragansett, Providence, 1835, I vol., 800 pp., 315 of which is volume 3d of Rhode Island Historical Society's Collections. 2. A Brief Account of the Emissions of Paper Money made by the Colony of Rhode Island, 8vo., 1837. This has been reprinted in 1880, with large addi- tions by Sidney S. Rider, and with illustrations of the old

paper money bills, and makes No. 8 of Mr. Rider's valua- ble series of Rhode Island Historical Tracts, I vol., small 4to., pp. 229. 3. Considerations on the Question of the Adoption of the Constitution and the Extension of Suffrage in Rhode Island. (Dorrism.) Boston, 1842. Reprinted 1879. 4. Report on Abolition Petitions, January, 1840. 5. Report on Religious Corporations, January, 1834. 6. Address before Rhode Island Ilistorical Society. Provi- dence, 1851. Reprinted. 7. Report on Public Schools, Bible and Prayer in Public Schools. 8. Account of the French Settlement in Rhode Island (including an account of the treatment of the early settlers of Rhode Island by the Massachusetts Puritans), small 8vo., Providence, 1880, being No. 5 of Mr. Rider's Rhode Island Ilistorical Tracts. 9. Speech in the United States House of Repre- sentatives on the Memorial of the Democratic members of the Rhode Island Legislature. (Dorrism.) 10. Rhode Island Educational Magazine, monthly, 1852-4, 2 vols., 8vo.

GAMMELL, PROFESSOR WILLIAM, son of Rev. Wil- liam and Mary (Slocomb) Gammell, was born in Medfield, Massachusetts, February 10, 1812. In 1823 his father removed to Newport. He pursued his early studies at a classical school in that town, of which the Hon. Joseph Joslen was then the Precep- tor, and entered Brown University in 1827, where he graduated in 1831. He was appointed a Tutor in the University in 1832. In 1835 he was made Assistant Pro- fessor of Rhetoric and English Literature, and Professor in the same department in 1836, on the resignation of the late Professor William G. Goddard. In this Professorship he continued till 1851, when he was appointed to the Profes- sorship of History and Political Economy, then just estab- lished in the University-a position which he held for nearly thirteen years, resigning it in 1864. His official connection with the University, as an instructor, thus con- tinued through nearly thirty-two years. Professor Gam- mell has written much for the press. IIe has contributed numerous articles on educational, literary, and historical subjects to periodical magazines, especially to the Chris- tian Review, of which, for several years, he was one of the editors. He was for a considerable period a regular con- tributor to the Examiner and Chronicle, a weekly news- paper printed in New York, and for a still longer period to the editorial columns of the Providence Journal, in which have appeared obituary sketches from his pen of many of the eminent men of Rhode Island. He has also delivered discourses on public occasions which have been published. He wrote a life of Roger Williams, and a life of Governor Samuel Ward, which were published in the volumes of Sparks's American Biography, second series. The life of Roger Williams also appeared in a separate edition. At the request of the Managers of the Baptist Missionary Union he prepared a History of the Baptist Missions, which

379

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

was published in 1849. For more than thirty years he has written the annual necrology of the graduates of Brown University, which is printed every year in the Providence Journal on commencement day. In 1859 he received from the University of Rochester the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He has held the office of President of Providence Athenaeum since 1870. He is President of the Rhode Island Bible Society, and First Vice-President of the Rhode Island Historical Society. He is also a cor- responding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. In 1870 he was elected a member of the Board of Fellows of Brown University, a position which he still holds. He is also officially connected with various charitable and financial institutions of Providence. In October, 1838, he married Elizabeth Amory, daughter of the Hon. John Whipple, who died in November, 1839. In September, 1851, he married Elizabeth Amory, daughter of Robert H. Ives. They have six children, three sons and three daughters.

SIXON, HON. NATHAN FELLOWS, JR., son of Hon. Nathan F. and Elizabeth (Palmer) Dixon, was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, May 1, 1812. He pursued his preparatory studies in Westerly and at Plainfield Academy, in Connecticut; entered Brown University in September, 1829, and graduated in the class of 1833. Among his classmates were Hon. Henry B. Anthony; Rev. Edward A. Stevens, D.D .; Rev. Arthur S. Train, D.D .; Lemuel W. Washburn, M.D .; Nehemiah Knight, and others. He studied law in his father's office in Westerly, attended a course of lectures at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut, and in order to prepare himself fully for practice, spent considerable time in the office of the late Lafayette S. Foster at Nor- wich. He was admitted to the bar in New London in 1837, and settled in his native town for the practice of his profession. He immediately hecame prominent as an ad- vocate, and his practice soon extended widely in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. It is said by one who knew him well, that " from the time of his admission to the bar until his death, with the exception of the period when he was in Congress, there was never a term of either of the courts at Kingston which was not graced by his presence," and that " no man at the bar in Rhode Island was ever more cordially welcomed by court, jury, counsel, clients, and friends than was Mr. Dixon through all these years." Both his qualifications and tastes fitted him for the efficient discharge of public duties. He was elected a member of the General Assembly in 1840, and served con- tinuously until 1849. During the "Dorr War" he was chosen by the General Assembly as one of the Governor's Council. In 1844 he was appointed a Presidential Elector. He was elected by the Whig party a Representative to Con- gress in 1849, and served until March 3, 1851. In 1851 he was again elected to the General Assembly ; re-elected

in 1852 and 1855, and served until 1863. After the Whig party had been merged into the Republican party, the latter elected him as Representative to Congress in 1863, where he remained until 1871. Having served five terms in Con- gress, and having seen the country safely through the perils of the Civil War, he declined a re-clection to the national Legislature. But he was again immediately called to serve the State in the General Assembly, and was a member of the House from 1872 to 1877. He married, in June, 1843, Harriet Swan, daughter of Rev. Roswell R. Swan, of Stonington, Connecticut, a talented and popular Congre- gational minister, who died in the meridian of life. Five children were the issue of the marriage: Nathan F., Ed- ward H., Annie P., Walter P., and Harriet S. At the announcement of his death a writer in the Providence Journal, after referring to Mr. Dixon's public record, spoke of him as follows: " In each sphere and at all times he was admittedly a strong, fearless, genial, an honest, and most useful public servant. His convictions were clear and intense, but he respected a sincere opponent, and his ways were open as the day. Perfectly versed in the methods of advocacy, his prominent and predominant characteristics were a common sense which scorned pre- tensions or disguises, and a kindness of disposition which prevented undue aggressiveness. In a deliberative assem- bly he debated a subject so as to show that he understood it, and so as to enable others to understand. He took no snap judgments. As an individual, Mr. Dixon was one of the most pleasant, hospitable, and agreeable of men. Ile was a Rhode Islander in every fibre of his mental con- stitution. Generous in whatever regarded his personal affairs, he was prudent for the State. Accepting office both as a privilege and a duty, he never sought it by illicit means. An able lawyer, a good farmer, a steadfast friend, and an honorable opponent, he stood in every respect a man."

BROWN, COLONEL NATHANIEL WILLIAMS, was born at Dighton, Massachusetts, February 22, 1811, and was connected with the family of Brown conspic-

32000 uous in Rhode Island history. He was taken to Providence when quite young and placed in school, where his proficiency in his studies was so marked that his parents decided to give him a full collegiate course. When, however, he was eleven years of age, a severe in- flammation of the eyes disabled him from study, and the plan of a college education was abandoned. He entercd the counting-room of his father, Isaac Brown, in 1825, where he remained until 1833, when he undertook busi- ness on his own account, devoting himself especially to the wool trade. In 1839 he entered into partnership with Mr. Jacob Dunnell. The firm was subsequently known as the Dunnell Manufacturing Company. In the great commercial crisis of 1857 the company met with disas- ters, and Mr. Brown retired from business and took up his

380

BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

residence in Dighton, in the house in which he was horn. Colonel Brown's interest in military matters was developed when he was comparatively a young man. He held the office of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Providence First Light Infantry Company for several years, and for a short timc was in command of the company as its Colonel. When the Civil War broke out he accepted the command of Com- pany D, in the First Rhode Island Regiment. He was in the first Battle of Bull Run, and bore himself with great gallantry and honor upon that disastrous day. Returning to Rhode Island with his regiment, Captain Brown once more repaired for rest to his quiet home in Dighton. His next appointment was Colonel of the Third Rhode Island Regiment, his commission dating September 17, 1861. After a stormy passage the regiment reached Hilton Head, November 5, and took part in the famous hombardment of the rehel forts, under Admiral Dupont, which resulted in their surrender. The regiment of Colonel Brown re- mained in command of the captured post for some time, and were engaged in different attacks on the encmy which were made on the mainland and the islands in the neighborhood of Charleston. He returned to his home n the summer of 1862, and in the fall went back to his command. He was at once appointed Chief of Artillery in the department by General Mitchell, which position he held only a few weeks. A reconnoissance of the rebel forces near the village of Pocotaligo having been deter- mined upon, General Terry, with Colonel Brown as Chief of Artillery, was intrusted with the command of the ex- pedition. Having reached their destination, the troops were attacked by the enemy, and were obliged to retreat to their transports. On his return to Hilton Head, Colonel Brown was attacked with a fever, and died October 30, 1862. His remains were finally brought to Providence and buried, January 30, 1863. He was married, June 5, 1834, to Sophia S. Frothingham, of Boston.

EYNOLDS, HON. JOHN J., son of Jonathan and Mary (Spink) Reynolds, was born in Wickford, in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, December 7, 1812. His father, for many years a prominent mer- & chant of Wickford, was born in North Kingstown, March 31, 1774; represented the town in the State Sen- ate, and was Town Clerk over thirty years. His mother was a native of North Kingstown, the date of her birth being March 25, 1773. In 1835 he began mercantile business, succeeding his father, in Wickford, in which he has successfully continued until the present time. In 1851 he was chosen a member of the House of Representatives of Rhode Island, and served two terms in the State Senate, 1852 and 1853. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island in 1854, and at the expiration of his term of office, withdrew from public life. From 1851 to 1865 he was President of the North Kingstown Bank. In the year

last mentioned he was elected President of the Wickford National Bank, which originated from the consolidation of the North Kingstown and Narragansett Banks, and still holds that office. Hc married, April 9, 1840, Hannah Congdon, daughter of Benjamin and Phebe ( Bailey ) Cong- don, of North Kingstown. They have had five children, three sons and two daughters.

DAMS, HON. JOHN A., manufacturer, son of Ezra and Susan (Aylsworth) Adams, was horn in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, June 20, 1815. His C father was a seaman by profession, and died in the Island of Trinidad when his son John was but seven years of age. The fatherless boy found himself doomed to comparative privation in childhood, and early learned the virtue of self-reliance. At the age of twelve he worked on a farm. The common-school system had not been in- augurated in his boyhood, and he had to gain the elements of his education in a private school. With his scanty re- sources he could not pay much for tuition, but he wisely supplemented the instruction of the school by hard study in the evening, after the wearisome labor of the day. At the age of seventeen he entered a factory store as a clerk, in Franklin, Massachusetts, and also assisted in the post- office. Being ambitious to become the manager of a cotton- mill, he went to work in a factory at the age of eighteen, with a resolution to learn all the details of the business. To this determination he inflexibly adhered, and was em- ployed as laborer and subsequently as overseer for eight years. Meanwhile, in 1837, he removed to Central Falls, where he exhibited such industry, sagacity, and skill that hc attracted the attention of a capitalist, who proposed to accept him as a partner in business. In 1842, therefore, a new firm started, under the style of Willard & Adams, They manufactured yarns and thread. After carrying on busi- ness for three years this partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Adams became associated with Mr. Joseph Wood and others in the manufacture of cotton goods, which partnership con- tinued from 1845 to 1848. Two of the partners died during the latter year, and the firm style was changed to Wood & Adams. These gentlemen were associated together until 1863, when they sold their mill and privilege to the Paw- tucket Hair Cloth Company. On the death of Rufus J. Stafford, Messrs. Wood and Adams transferred their cap- ital to the establishment which had been carried on by him, and took charge of the business. The successors of Mr. Stafford, in conjunction with the new partners, took the name of the Stafford Manufacturing Company. During Mr. Wood's life Mr. Adams acted as Agent of the corpor- ation, and part of the time as President. On Mr. Wood's death, which occurred in 1873, Mr. Adams being the only active partner remaining, became Treasurer also, and since that time has continued to hold the offices named. In ad- dition to the mills mentioned, Mr. Adams has been inter-

A. Accanto

John .

381

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

ested in other establishments, and intimately associated in business undertakings with prominent merchants and man- ufacturers in Providence. He has also been for many years a Trustee in the Franklin Savings Bank, and a director of the Slater National Bank. Since the forma- tion of the town of Lincoln he has been a member of the Town Council, and has served six years in that capacity. He has also represented the town in both branches of the General Assembly of the State. For two years he was a member of the Lower House, and for two years was in the Senate. He has also filled the position of School Trustee. Mr. Adams has done much to promote the public improve- ments which have benefited and beautified Central Falls. Since 1848 he has been a member of the Congregational Church, and has given freely for the furtherance of the enterprises of that denomination and for the general good of society. He married, in 1836, Sally M. Crowell, daugh- ter of Nathan and Annie Crowell. They have had eight children, only two of whom, John F. Adams and Stephen L. Adams, are living. Their son, Albert E., was in the Union army during the late war, and after escaping the perils to which he was subjected, came 1.ome to die from disease contracted in the service.

KERRY, HON. AMOS, the youngest but one of ten children of Elijah and Mary (Jones) Perry, was born in South Natick, Massachusetts, August 12, 1812. He is a descendant in the sixth generation of John Perry, who came from England in 1632, and settled in Roxbury, where he died in 1642. He is also a descendant in the fifth generation of Lewis Jones, who came from England and settled in Roxbury about 1640, and in 1650 removed to Watertown, where he died in 1684. His paternal grandfather, Samuel Perry, who was born in 1740 and lived to the advanced age of ninety-one, witnessed deeds of savage ferocity occasioned by the French and Indian war, and shared in the trials of the Revolutionary struggle. His maternal grandfather, John Jones, born in 1716 and mentioned in Mrs. Stowe's Oldtown Folks as " Sheriff Jones and member of the House of Lords," was remotely related to the royal governor, Jonathan Belcher, and held under the Colonial government the offices of Militia Colonel, Justice of the Peace, Land Surveyor, and Proprietor's Clerk. He was a deacon of the old Eliot Badger Church with an Indian colleague. He surveyed, in 1762, under a commission from the royal governor of Massachusetts, Mount Desert, the original drawings of which are deposited in the archives of the Maine Histori- cal Society. After the close of the Revolutionary War he was reinvested with magisterial and judicial powers, which he exercised till near his death, which occurred in his eighty-fifth year. The frame of the house in which he lived for about sixty years is still standing near its old site, and some of the numerous manuscripts and surveyor's plats

which he left, including a unique diary and a record of judicial decisions from 1767 to 1794, have found their way into historical cabinets and private libraries. At the age of sixteen two incidents occurred that resulted in turning the current of young Perry's life, and in subsequently re- moving him from a good home in a charming rural district to the academic grounds of Harvard University. One of these was the reading of a book from a neighboring parish library, entitled Degerando on Self-Education, the leading doctrine of which was that moral and intellectual culture is a matter of primary moment ; and the other incident was that while moved by this principle and in a quandary in regard to its practical application he came across a guide-board in- scribed, "To Cambridge Colleges." This was, as it were, a hand from above to direct his way, and it had this effect, deciding, in connection with the book, his career. Five years afterward he was admitted a member of the Freshman Class of that institution, on condition of passing a satisfactory examination in Latin prosody. The examination terminated in an interesting discussion on the general laws of versifica- tion, in which Charles Sumner, who was then a member of Harvard Law School, took a leading part; and this inci- dental meeting in the class tutor's room was the begin- ning of a life-long acquaintance and friendship with the future senator and statesman. During his collegiate course he had the privilege of seeing and hearing many of the most eminent men of the country. He was present on a memorable commencement when President Quincy ap- peared as the grand central figure, and on either side of him were Dr. Ware, Judge Story, Professor Greenleaf, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, Jared Sparks, John Quincy Adams, Noah Worcester, William Ellery Channing, Nathaniel Bowditch, Washington Irving, and other persons of scarcely less distinction. It was, doubtless, regarded a greater privilege to look upon that assemblage than to see, as he did nearly twenty years later, the Duke of Wellington addressing the House of Lords, or than having as he did a personal interview with Baron Alexander Von Humboldt in his study at the Sans Souci Palace. During his Junior year in an animated discussion before the Institute of 1770, Mr. Perry took decided ground in favor of general cmancipation, in opposition to the colonization scheme, then at the height of its popularity. He maintained a respectable standing as a scholar and graduated in 1837, since which time his life has been mainly devoted to literary pursuits. On leaving Cambridge he became the principal and proprietor of a classical school at Fruit Hill, North Providence, Rhode Island, where he also held the office of Postmaster, under a commission from the Hon. Amos Kendall, then Post- master-General. In 1840 he removed to Providence, where he has since had a home, though he has passed much time beyond the limits of the State. He served the cause of education many years as the Principal of a public grammar school; as the Principal of a young ladies' public high school ; as a member of the school committee ; as a County

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 85

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