The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 92

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

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ness. He has a daughter and a son. The other brothers, Daniel Gordon, John Park, and James Monroe, each suc- cessively, as they closed their school studies and became of proper age, left the homestead and farm in Connecticut, went to Westerly, and engaged in the store with their brother, Horatio N. In 1848 Daniel G. removed to the city of New York, where for many years he was a success- ful drygoods commission merchant. In 1855 John P. and James M. left Westerly and settled in the city of Providence, engaging together as dealers in cotton and wool. In 1865 Daniel G. left New York and joined his brothers, John P. and James M., in Providence in their business. In 1876 Daniel G. and John P. purchased the factory property in the northern part of Westerly, known us the Potter Hill Mills, but now called the Campbell Mills, which they have so enlarged and improved as to make the establishment one of the best woollen manufactories in Rhode Island. Public spirit has been coupled with the private enterprises of these four brothers, and they have done much to pro- mote the welfare of society.

HADSEY, DEACON ALFRED BLAIR, son of Jeremiah G. and Avis (Wightman) Chadsey, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, September 13, 1815. His grandfather, Jabez, was a soldier in the Revolution. He is a descendant of William Chadsey, who was born in Wales in 1692, and in 1715 came to this country, landing in the South, and in 1716 coming to Newport, Rhode Island, but soon after crossed the Bay, purchased a farm, and settled in North Kingstown, three miles north of Wickford. In 1719 he married Susannah, daughter of Jabez Greene, and sister of the father of General Nathan- ael Greene. With her he lived sixty-eight years, having eight children, and both died within three months of each other in 1787, on the farm where they first settled. Their children all married and lived to old age, and two of their grandchildren died in their one hundredth year. The father of Alfred B. was born December 2, 1780, and died May 26, 1873. His mother was born October 7, 1780, and died September 20, 1874. They lived together sixty- eight years and nine months, and had nine children, six of whom-three sons and three daughters-survived their father. His parents having removed from Newport to Wickford in 1816, Alfred B. was educated in the schools of that village and at Washington Academy, securing a good education in the higher English branches. In 1834 he taught a district school, and in 1835 entered as book- keeper the store of his father in Wickford, who was en- gaged in general merchandize and in putting out hand- loom-weaving to about six hundred families in North Kingstown, South Kingstown, Exeter, Richmond, and East Greenwich. In 1837 he entered into partnership with his father, under the firm-name of J. G. Chadsey &

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Son, a business which continued till 1842, when his father purchased several tracts of land in and adjoining Wick- ford, in the cultivation of which he engaged successfully for many years, and largely benefited his fellow-townsmen by his scientific management and in giving new impulses to agriculture. In 1844, Alfred B. removed to Leicester, Massachusetts, and in company with Stephen Draper and John C. Brown engaged in the manufacture of scythes, under the company-name of Draper, Brown & Chadsey. The firm in 1845, after erecting suitable buildings at the State dam, across the Hudson River, at Troy, New York, removed their business to that city. In 1851, Mr. Chadsey sold his interest to his partners, and with his fam- ily returned to Wickford, where, in 1852, at the solicita- tion of his aged father, he undertook the management of the family farm, an occupation to which he became greatly attached, and in which, even while filling important public stations, he has had remarkable success, and has by his skill added to the agricultural knowledge and wealth of the State. For many years, in addition to the raising of ordinary farm crops, he has made a specialty of growing field and garden-seeds of superior quality and in great variety for the benefit of farmers and gardeners. He is now (1881) the President of the Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry, of which he has been a valued member for many years. The papers prepared by him are always listened to with profit, and many of them have been published. In 1854 he was elected by North Kingstown as Representative to the Gen- eral Assembly, and was President of the Town Council in 1858-59-60. During the Rebellion he was appointed by President Lincoln Provost Marshal of the Second District of Rhode Island, and served with ability till the close of the war. Politically he was a Whig, and then a Repub- lican, and was a pronounced anti-slavery man. He has been prominently identified with reformatory movements, being now a Prohibition-Republican, and as such was on the ticket as candidate for Lieutenant-Governor in 1876. At present he is a member of the Board of State Charities and Corrections, appointed by the Governor in 1877 to serve for six years. He united with the Baptist Church in May, 1832, and was ordained a deacon in September, 1836. As a Christian man and worker his name is held in prom- inent place throughout the State. He married (1), Sep- tember 14, 1835, Susan, eldest daughter of Captain John and Lydia Nichols, of North Kingstown. She was born October 18, 1813, and died August 18, 1879, having be- come the mother of three children-John A. (died young) ; Ellen A., who married James, son of Hon. J. J. Reynolds ; and Deodata. Mr. Chadsey married (2), October 27, 1880, Annie E. Avery, of Providence. Mr. Chadsey had two brothers, Euclid and Henry F., and three sisters: Emily, deceased, who married Henry H. Wightman, Frances L., who married Sheffield C. Reynolds, and Maria, who mar- ried Rev. C. L. Woodworth.

VORLISS, HON. GEORGE HENRY, mechanical engi- neer and manufacturer, was born in Easton, Wash- ington County, New York, June 2, 1817. His father, Dr. Hiram Corliss, a native of the same town, was born in 1793, and died in September, 1877. Ilis mother, whose maiden name was Susan Sheldon, was born in Easton, in 1794, and died in 1843. Dr. Cor- liss was in the active practice of his profession at the advanced age of eighty in the adjoining town of Green- wich. The subject of this sketch, on leaving the village school at the age of fourteen, entered a country store in the last-named town as a clerk. After about three years' service in that capacity, having a desire for a more liberal education, he entered an academy in Castleton, Vermont. On leaving the academy, early in 1838, he opened a store at Greenwich on his own account. At the age of twenty- four he had never seen the inside of a machine-shop, nor exhibited any special inclination for invention. When but eighteen, however, he had shown some engineering skill in devising and successfully carrying out a plan for a tem- porary bridge across Battenkill Creek. From 1840 to 1844 he was occupied with the invention and manufacture of a machine for sewing boots, shoes, and heavy leather. Al- though the original machine was completed, and its practical utility demonstrated, want of capital to introduce it obliged him to suspend his efforts in the development of his plans in this direction, and he entered upon the manufacture of steam-engines. In 1844 Mr. Corliss took up his residence in Providence, Rhode Island, where he has since lived. He soon after became associated with John Barstow and E. J. Nightingale, under the firm-name of Corliss, Night- ingale & Co. In 1846 he began the development of his inventions of improvements in steam-engines, and in Feb- ruary, 1848, completed and successfully set in operation an engine which embodied the essential features of what is known the world over as the " Corliss engine." During the year 1848 the erection of the present works of the Cor- liss Steam-engine Company was commenced. The grounds have an area of nine acres, while the buildings, which have been enlarged from time to time, as an increasing business required, now have a floor space of nearly five acres. The works have a capacity for employing one thousand men, a statement, however, which fails to show the magnitude of the establishment, so effective are the labor-saving appliances introduced, most of which were devised by Mr. Corliss himself. Mr. Corliss's letters- patent for improvements in steam-engines were granted March 10, 1849. The great service he has rendered the world through his inventions is recognized by the several awards made to him by the highest scientific authorities. At the Paris Exhibition in 1867, he carried away the high- est competitive prize, although there were in competition more than one hundred engines-the masterpieces of build- ers in all parts of the world. Mr. J. Scott Russell, a dis- tinguished English engineer, and the builder of the steam-

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ship " Great Eastern," was one of the British commissioners to this exhibition. In a report to his government he gave his impressions of the Corliss engine in the following terms : " A mechanism as beautiful as the human hand. It releases or retains its grasp on the feeding-valve and gives a greater or less dose of steam in nice proportion to each varying want. The American engine of Corliss every- where tells of wise forcthought, judicious proportion, sound execution and exquisite contrivance." The Rumford inedals were awarded to Mr. Corliss January 11, 1870. On the occasion of the presentation of these medals Dr. Asa Gray, the President of the Academy, said that the founder of the trust required that the invention should be " real, original, and important. . .. . That the Academy rejoices when, as now, it can signalize an invention which unequivocally tends to promote that which the founder had most at heart -the material good of mankind." Dr. Gray, in stating the grounds upon which the award had been made, said that Mr. Corliss " had shown conspicuously his mastery of the resources of mechanism," and that " no invention since Watt's time has so enhanced the efficiency of the steam- engine as this for which the Rumford medal is now pre- sented." An interesting fact worthy of mention is, that when the medals were voted to Mr. Corliss, it was pre- cisely a century since James Watt first patented his im- provements of the steam-engine. The award of the Grand Diploma of Honor from the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 was a distinction exceptionally noteworthy, from the fact that Mr. Corliss sent neither engine nor machinery there, nor had he any one to represent him. Foreign builders had sent engines claimed to be built on his system and placed his name on their productions. Hence the jurors awarded to Mr. Corliss " the Diploma of Honor " as "a particular distinction for eminent merits in the domain of science, its application to the education of the people, and its conducement to the advancement of intellectual, moral, and material welfare of man." Mr. Corliss was the only person who received a diploma without being an actual exhibitor. On the Ioth of March, 1879, the Institute of France bestowed upon Mr. Corliss, by public proclama- tion, the Montyon prize, for the year 1878, which, in the Old World, is the highest honor known for mechanical achievements ; and it is a very remarkable coincidence that the day fixed for this award was the thirtieth anniversary of the date of Mr. Corliss's original letters-patent. In February, 1872, Mr. Corliss was appointed a Commissioner for the State of Rhode Island at the Centennial Exhibi- tion in Philadelphia, and chosen one of the executive com- mittee of seven who were intrusted with the preliminary work. The organization of the "Centennial Board of Finance," a suggestion of Mr. Corliss's, proved to be a most important measure for securing the success of the great enterprise. Mr. Corliss's great Centennial engine increased his already world-wide fame. After submitting plans for furnishing motive power for the Machinery Hall

for a steam-engine of fourteen hundred horse power, he was induced to withdraw them on finding that there was opposition. At his suggestion circulars were then issued to builders of steam-engines, boilers, and shafting, invit- ing proposals for furnishing the machinery required. After waiting for several months it was found that the combined power of all the machinery offered fell short of the requi- site amount. The commission now, by unanimous vote, requested Mr. Corliss to renew his original offer to furnish the engine and its accompanying appurtenances; when, in view of the exegencies of the situation, he came forward and assumed the burden of this great work. The engine was completed and in successful operation within a very brief period. The cost of this undertaking, over and above other aid furnished, amounted to over one hundred thou- sand dollars, making it the most princely contribution ever made by one individual to an international exhibition. All this vast and complicated system was the result of Mr. Corliss's personal labor. He originated and gave definite lines to every design, and fixed the proportion of every detail. Professor Radinger, of the Polytechnic School of Vienna, in a work on the Machinery Department of the Centennial Exhibition, places Mr. Corliss's Centennial en- gine as one of the greatest works of the present day- ".systematical in greatness, beautiful in form, and without fault ; : in every detail a masterpiece." The latest efforts of Mr. Corliss have been directed to the adaptation of his engine to the pumping machinery of water-works, and unprecedented practical results have already been achieved by these efforts. In 1868, 1869, and 1870, yield- ing to the wishes of his townsmen, he represented North Providence in the Senate of Rhode Island. In 1876 he was chosen a Presidential Elector on the Hayes ticket. In January, 1839, he married Phebe F. Frost, a native of Can- terbury, Connecticut, who died in Providence, March 5, 1859, leaving a daughter, Maria Louisa, and a son, George Frost. In December, 1866, he married Emily A. Shaw, a native of Newburyport, Massachusetts. He is a member of the Charles Street Congregational Church, which he joined at its formation, and is a liberal contributor to his own and other religious denominations.

PRAGUE, SAMUEL STEARNS, merchant, son of Eli- sha Leavens and Clarissa (Day) Sprague, was born at South Killingly, Connecticut, July 3, 1819, at the old homestead of his ancestors. Elisha Leavens Sprague was a well-to-do farmer, who had inherited the estate and learned the trade of his father, who was a blacksmith. The first progenitor of the family in this country was Edward Sprague, of Upway, county of Dorset, England, whose sons Ralph, Richard, and William landed in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1628, and it appears from the genealogy of the family that Ralph was the father of Samuel, of Malden, Massachusetts, who was the father of

Samuel SApragul

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Samuel, 2d, of the same place, whose son John removed to Killingly, Connecticut, in 1752. The latter was the father of John, 2d, who was the father of Daniel, whose son Elisha Leavens was the father of the subject of this sketch. Clarissa Day was the daughter of the Rev. Israel Day, a prominent Congregational minister, who was for many years settled at South Killingly, Connecticut. She died November 2, 1831, leaving two sons, Elisha Rodolphus and Samuel Stearns, whose father married again, in No- vember, 1833, his second wife being Bathsheba Bliss, of Warren, Massachusetts, who is now in the ninety-fourth year of her age, and resides with Samuel S. Sprague. Elisha L. Sprague died in 1834, leaving his sons the farm and other property. Samuel S. received his early educa- tion in the common schools, and at the academy at Brook- lyn, Connecticut. His only brother having already begun to prepare for college, Samuel, who was then fourteen years of age, took charge of the farm and afterwards bought out his brother's interest in the estate. With the proceeds derived therefrom his brother was enabled to complete his collegiate education. The other property left them by their father was lost during the financial crisis of 1837. On the 8th of November, 1842, Mr. Sprague married Esther Pierce Hutchins, daughter of Simon and Lydia Hutchins, of Killingly, Connecticut, who belonged to a large and influential family. He continued to carry on the farm until the spring of 1852, when, desiring to change his business and better his prospects in life, he sold the homestead, which had then been in possession of the family over one hundred years, and built a house at Dan- ielsonville, Connecticut, to which he removed his family, while he went to Providence, Rhode Island, and the first of September entered into the flour and grain business, in company with Daniel E. Day, on Peck's wharf, Dyer Street, near the foot of Clifford Street. In May, 1853, he removed his family to Providence. About two years thereafter the firm removed to the corner of South Water and Crawford streets, where they remained about twelve years, during which time they built up a large and profit- able business. Until 1866 they had occupied stores owned by others, but in that year they purchased the large brick store and lot on Dyer Street, formerly owned and occupied by Messrs, Spellman & Metcalf, who were engaged in the same business. To this store they soon after removed and continued to carry on business there until July, 1876, when Mr. Sprague sold his undivided interest in the real estate to D. E. Day, the company dividing the stock in trade, and the partnership of Day, Sprague & Co. was dissolved. Mr. Sprague then formed a copartnership with two of his sons, Charles H. and Henry S., and the firm is still known as S. S. Sprague & Co. This new firm temporarily occu- pied a store adjoining the one formerly occupied by Day, Sprague & Co., where they continued in the same line of business until October, 1877, when they removed to the Columbia Elevator and Mills, built for their use by Alex-

ander Duncan, which property they leased for a term of ten years, and now occupy. The business of this firm is more extensive than any in which Mr. Sprague has ever been interested. They have several grain elevators in Christian County, Illinois, where their agents purchase grain and ship to Providence and other markets. In all his business connections Mr. Sprague has been from the first an active working partner, in buying, selling, and general management. In 1879 he became interested in valuable real estate investments in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and other places. He is a director of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company; also one of the directors of the Rhode Island National Bank, and for five years has been one of the Board of Commissioners of the State Sinking Fund. Mr. Sprague has been closely devoted to the in- terests of his business, and although he has consented to fill official positions, has never sought, and has often de- clined such positions. From 1868 to 1870 he served as a member of the Common Council of Providence, from the Sixth Ward, and was also one of the Board of Aldermen from 1871 to 1873. He is one of the original members of the Union Congregational Church, from the Richmond Street Society; was an active member of the Building Committee, and is now chairman of the Society Committee. He manifests a general interest in the public enterprises and benevolent institutions of the day, and is a generous supporter of all good works. His successful career is at- tributable to his rare business capacity, industry, perseve- rance, and prudence, combined with that uprightness of character upon which all true success is based. He has been twice married. Ilis first wife, already mentioned, died June 29, 1865, and on the 22d of October, 1866, he married Adeline M., daughter of Deacon Lucius F. and Lydia E. Thayer, of Westfield, Massachusetts. By the first marriage there were four children: Charles Hutchins, Henry Shepard, Frank Elisha, and Alida Esther.

ARTWELL, DEACON JOHN BRYANT, merchant, son of Samuel and Abigail ( Holbrook) Hartwell, was born in Alstead, New Hampshire, October 17, 1816. His boyhood was spent upon his father's farm, the management of which was intrusted to him when he was eighteen years of age. After acquiring a knowledge of the branches of study usually taught at a district school he pursued a preparatory course at Ludlow Academy, Vermont; and in 1839 entered the Freshman Class of Brown University, having his thoughts then directed towards the Christian ministry. He left his collegiate studies before graduation, and entered upon a business career in Providence, engaging at first as a clerk with Deacon James H. Read. He afterward opened a store for himself in the third story of the Arcade, and accepted Mr. Benjamin Cragin as a partner. He next occupied the store No. II in the lower story of the Arcade, where after the

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death of Mr. Cragin in 1847, he received in 1848 Mr. Charles Dudley as a partner, and in 1849 Mr. II. F. Richards became a member of the firm. In 1851 he re- moved to Nos. 66 and 68 on the south side of Weyhosset Street, where he opened a wholesale drygoods store that soon became widely known. In 1849 the firm-name was Hartwell, Dudley & Co. On the retirement of Mr. Dud- ley in 1861 was formed the well-known and successful firm of Hartwell, Richards & Co. Mr. IIartwell also be- came interested in manufacturing woollen yarns at Coventry Centre, Rhode Island, and was President of the Peckham Manufacturing Company, which office he held until his death. He occupied a prominent position in business cir- cles of the city and the State. He was one of the origina- tors of the Third National Bank, and becoming one of the first directors filled that position during the rest of his life. He was also a director in the Atlantic Bank. In 1853 he purchased a rural home in North Providence, and for many years represented that town in the General Assembly as a member of the House of Representatives. In 1866 he was elected a trustee of Brown University, and served in that relation during the remainder of his life. For many years he was a deacon in the Central Baptist Church in Provi- dence, and in matters spiritual and temporal served that body with constant devotion and efficiency. To all Chris- tian and benevolent causes he was a systematic and large contributor. In politics at first a Whig he became a Re- publican, and manfully stood by the nation during the struggle with slavery and treason. He married, March 21, 1842, Harriet Hall, a woman of rare excellencies, daughter of John and Patience ( Peckham ) Hall, of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. His children were Anna L., who married Mr. Jeffrey Hazard, of Providence; John S., who died at the age of seventeen ; Mortimer Hall, a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1870, and who succeeded his father in business ; and George Arthur, who died at the age of three years and five months. Deacon Hartwell died December 9, 1872. He was noted for his nohleness of nature and hroad public spirit, and was greatly trusted and esteemed. Dr. E. G. Robinson, President of Brown Uni- versity, truly said of him, " It is the testimony of those who knew him most intimately that he was a man of deep reli- gious convictions, gentle in spirit, persistent in purpose, active in life, and ready for death."

KERRY, JOHN GOULD, son of John Robinson and Sally (Gould) Perry, was born on the Governor Brown Farm in Boston Neck, in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, June 2, 1817. His maternal ances- & tors came from Scotland. John Gould, his grand- father, was one of the first clerks of the First Baptist Church in South Kingstown, which office he held from 1782 to 1811. Mr. Perry's paternal ancestors came from England and settled in Sandwich, Massachusetts. They

had a son Samuel, who came to Rhode Island and settled in Perryville (which place was named for him), in South Kingstown. He was the progenitor of the Rhode Island Perrys, among whom were Commodore Oliver II., the hero of Lake Erie, and Commodore Matthew C., renowned for the Japan treaty. Samuel Perry lived and died in Per- ryville. He left to his family a large estate, including about two thousand acres of land, with buildings, be- sides personal property. Hc was the father of James Perry, whose son, James, Jr., was the father of John, whose son, John R., was the father of the subject of this sketch. John G., when young, attended the best schools of his native town, and then by self-application became proficient in the various branches of an English education, including natu- ral philosophy, chemistry, mechanics, and music, having a peculiar talent for the latter. Early developing mechanical taste, he entered the woollen mill of William A. Robinson & Co., in Wakefield, at the age of sixteen, to learn the business, and devoted twenty-five years to that branch of industry, acting much of the time as superintendent of the finishing process, and instructing others therein. He wrote a treatise entitled The Woollen Manufacturer's Practical Companion, and though it has never yet been published, he has given copies of its pages of directions, which have proved of great value to beginners in the art of finishing. While engaged in the mill his leisure hours were spent in some useful study, and when the mill was stopped on ac- count of a crisis in the business he engaged in teaching, and thus became one of the teachers in the public schools in his native town under the present school system. While in the manufacturing business his inventive genius was de- veloped, his first invention being the power cloth-rolling and measuring machine, now generally used by manufac- turers in this and other countries. It took the place of the slow, difficult, and inaccurate mode of doing the work by hand. His next invention (for which he secured a patent in 1850) was a meat-cutting machine, which also came into general use. He has also invented and patented many valuable improvements in mowing-machines, hay-tedders, feed-cutters, sausage-fillers, and other mechanical devices, upon which he has expended many thousand dollars, from which altogether he has received a remuneration over and above all costs. His inventions excel for simplicity, durabil- ity, and ease of operation. The " Perry Mower " has taken the prize over all others at the great fairs and competitive trials for several years in succession in this country, and a medal over the " McCormick Mower" at the World's-Fair trial upon the Emperor's farm, at Vincennes, near Paris, in France, in 1867. Mr. Perry's experience in procuring his own patents, and his connection with the patent business generally, has been such that he has become well versed in patent law and the rules and practice of the Patent Of- fice, and familiar with the state of the art of the various classes of inventions, so that he is able not only to conduct his own cases before the Patent Office, but in connection

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 92

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