The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 93

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

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with his other business, acts as solicitor and attorney in patent cases for others. He has also acted conspicuously in other affairs. He was elected a Justice of the Peace in 1856, and Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for Wash- ington County in 1857. He served in both of these offices until 1858, when he was chosen town clerk of his native town, which office he has held from that time until the present (1881). In 1867 he was appointed and commis- sioned, by Governor Burnside, Commissioner from Rhode Island to the World's Exposition, in Paris, France, and on his return made a valuable report to the Government, which was published by the State in 1868. He has served on the School Committee of South Kingstown for twenty- seven consecutive years, and for twenty-five years of the time as clerk of the Committee. He has been associated with all the interests of the town and has done much to promote its welfare and prosperity. In the discharge of his official duties he has acted with impartiality towards all. In 1881 he was the Democratic nominee for the office of Secretary of State, and at the ensuing election stood for that office, running ahead of his ticket. He has been a member of the First Baptist Church of South Kingstown for the past forty-two years, and for fifteen years served as leader of the choir and instructor in vocal music. He compiled and published a manual of hymns entitled The Bible Harp, and composed several of the hymns and tem- perance songs therein. For more than forty years he has been an active worker in the temperance reform. His travels, mainly on business, have taken him extensively over this country and to Europe. He married, March 12, 1843, Harriet Theresa Hazard, daughter of Bowdoin and Theresa Clarke Hazard. They have six children : Harriet E., who married Clarence E. Thomas, a merchant of Wickford ; S. Emma, who married Herbert J. Wells, now Secretary of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Com- pany, of Providence; Oliver H., now in the hardware trade in Providence; John E., a graduate of the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons, of New York, who married Elnora Etheline Crawford, of East Douglass, Massachusetts, and is now practicing medicine in Wakefield ; Millard F., now clerk in the bank at Kingston; and Howard B., who is deputy town clerk in his father's office in Wakefield.

ILBUR, WILLIAM HALE, M.D., was born in Hop- kinton, Rhode Island, March 10, 1816. He was the son of John and Lydia (Collins) Wil- bur. In this volume will be found a sketch of his father, who was a celebrated minister of the Society of Friends. Dr. Wilbur received his rudimentary education in the common schools of his native town and in the Friends' School in Providence, and was in part a self-educated man. In the early part of his life his time was spent in assisting his father on his farm, in teaching, and in prosecuting the study of Latin and the higher

mathematics. In both these branches he was a proficient, and continued the pursuit of the latter with zeal and de- light throughout his whole life. He studied medicine with his brother, Thomas Wilbur, M.D., in Fall River, Massa- chusetts, after which he entered the Medical College of the University of New York, graduating in 1847; he then went abroad, and perfected himself in the knowledge of water-cure at Priessnitz's establishment in Germany, and on his return conducted.a hydropathic institution in Paw- tucket two years. He married, April 20, 1849, Eliza S., daughter of Major T. S. and Eliza S. Mann, and a niece of Hon. Horace Mann, the distinguished educator. They had three children : John Wilbur, M.D., a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Sarah Mann; and Caroline Eliza, deceased. Dr. Wilbur commenced the practice of his profession in Westerly, Rhode Island, in which he con- tinued with marked success until the fall of 1862, when he entered the Union army as Surgeon of the First Rhode Island Cavalry, joining the regiment December 16, imme- diately after the battle of Fredericksburg, and performing his duties with such skill, promptness, and fidelity as to win the confidence of all. At the battle of Kelly's Ford, in the spring of 1863, he remained on the field under fire of the enemy, performing surgical operations, and proved himself an intrepid soldier as well as a skilful surgeon. At this time he assumed the duties of Brigade Surgeon, and rendered invaluable service. He was with his regi- ment at Chancellorsville and Middleburg, where he was constantly in the saddle ; and although his horse was hit by a piece of shell, yet no danger drove him from the spot where duty called. On the re-enlistment of the regiment in 1864, he returned to the active service of camp, hos- pital, and battle. Of Dr. Wilbur's character nothing more fitting can be said than the following tribute of a friend, called forth by his sudden death, which occurred October 12, 1879: " At the close of his service in the war Dr. Wil- bur returned to Westerly and resumed his practice ; and here, after all, must be said his life-work was done. Deeply absorbed in his profession, and having a just estimate of its high mission, he gave to it the full wealth of his knowl- edge, his experience, and his life. He was exact in his habits of thought, methodical in his investigations, studious in keeping pace with the progress made in the science of medicine, holding his opinions tenaciously when matured; and being thus critical and thorough in his own culture, he was intolerant of pretence and sham in others. Dr. Wilbur was a man of rare purity of character. He never patiently listened to the voice of scandal, and was disposed to make charitable allowance for the errors and frailties of his fellow-men. On all the great questions of life he thought for himself, and while firm in adhering to his con- victions, he never obtruded his views upon others. He was too human to be faultless, yet where sickness and sorrow dwelt, there could his ministering hand be found. Such was the sympathy and tenderness of his nature, that he

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allowed no pecuniary considerations to swerve him from the performance of what he deemed a professional duty. Ilolding high rank as a surgeon as well as physician, hc has spent his life in this community responding to the call for help without regard to the source from whence it came, and by his skill restoring life and light to many a stricken home. Spreading his heart out to embrace all that was human, through toil and self-sacrifice day and night, he sought to bring the ministries of his profession where hu- man suffering most needed them; and being summoned to the ' undiscovered country' in the midst of his usefulness, the record of his life has left the injunction, ' Write me as one who loved his fellow-men.' "

BENCKES, HON. THOMAS ALLEN, LL.D., was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, November 2, 1818. He was the son of Thomas B. and Abigail W. (Allen) Jenckes, a name found among the earliest settlers of Rhode Island. He was fitted for college by Rev. Adin Ballou, of Cumberland, and graduated at Brown University in 1838. He studied law with the Hon. Samuel Y. Atwell, at the same time acting, for one year, as tutor of Mathematics in Brown University. Having been admitted to the bar, September 24, 1840, he com- menced the practice of his profession in Providence, his law partner being Edward H. Hazard, Esq. At once he entered upon a most successful career, and rose to the high- est distinction among the lawyers of Rhode Island. His commanding talents were called into requisition in giving shape to the legislation of the State, and for several years he was a Representative in the General Assembly. In 1857, he was a member of the commission which revised the statutes of the State, and in 1862 was chosen to repre- sent his native State in Congress, serving in this capacity eight years. As a Representative in Congress, he occupied prominent positions. He was a member of the Committee on the Judiciary and Chairman of the Committee on Pat- ents. His efforts in behalf of the Civil Service Reform, and in carrying through the Bankrupt Law, have made his name famous throughout the country. Although for three sessions he labored most untiringly to secure the passage of bills having reference to a reform in the civil service, his expectations of securing all that he aimed to accom- plish in this direction were not realized. He succeeded so far as to ohtain the passage of a bill which made the ap- pointment of cadets to the Military School at West Point dependent, not on the favor of Representatives whose in- terest the friends of the candidates might desire to secure, but upon competitive examinations. At the close of his connection with Congress, he resumed the practice of law in Providence and New York, where his services were in constant demand in some of the most important cases that were tried in both the State and United States courts. Among the able lawyers of the country he took the first

rank, and was regarded as authority in matters to which he had directed his special attention. From Brown Uni- versity he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1873. He married, in June, 1842, Mary Jane, daughter of Zelotes Fuller, of Attleborough, Massachusetts. Their children were four daughters and one son. He died in Cumberland, November 4, 1875.

STEE "LATER, HON. WILLIAM SMITH, son of John and Ruth (Bucklin) Slater, was horn in Slatersville, North Smithfield, Rhode Island, March 7, 1817. His father, the brother and business partner of Sam- uel Slater-" the father of American manufactures," -is elsewhere sketched in this volume. Well educated, and thoroughly trained by his father in the mechanical principles and operations of manufacturing staple fabrics, he, with his brother, John F., early engaged in business. On the death of their father, in 1843, the brothers con- tinued to operate the mills in Jewett City and Hopeville, Connecticut, under the firm-name of G. & W. Slater. In March they sold the Hopeville property. In 1849, already owning their father's interest in the Slatersville property, they purchased the rights of the heirs of Samuel Slater, and, in 1853, on the expiration of the lease held by Amos D. and Moses B. Lockwood, put the whole property in ex- cellent condition, with new machinery. In 1862 they, with Estus Lamb, Henry S. Mansfield, and George W. Holt, formed a special company, and leasing a mill below Slaters- ville, carried on business under the style of the Forestdale Manufacturing Company until 1872, when G. & W. Slater bought out the other partners and managed the property themselves. In October, 1872, by mutual consent, they dis- solved their long and successful partnership and divided their company property. John F. received the mills and estates in Connecticut, which he has continued to manage with remarkable success, his place of residence being in the city of Norwich, Connecticut. William S. received the factories and estates in Rhode Island, the chief of which is the Slatersville property. The village of Slaters- ville, with its large mills, neat tenement houses, commodi- ous church edifice, and park and shaded trees, testify to the enterprise, taste and benevolence of the chief proprie- tor of the place. Mr. Slater also owns a portion of the mills and estates at Forestdale, where the same public spirit and thrift are manifest. His residence proper is in Slatersville, North Smithfield, but for many years he has also had a house in Providence,-the well-known Whipple homestead on College Street. He is prominently identified with various business enterprises in Providence and in dif- ferent parts of the State and of New England. He suc- ceeded his father in the presidency of the Slatersville Bank, and still fills that position. For six years he was the President of the Providence and Worcester Railroad Company, in which he is still a director. He is now both

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President and Treasurer of the Rhode Island Locomotive Works. As stock-owner and director he is identified with the American Ship Windlass Company, and several other thriving business interests of Rhode Island. Politically of the old Whig school, he is now a Republican. He was a State Senator from Smithfield in 1861-62, and was a Presidential Elector both for Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Hayes. Of the Congregational Church in Slatersville he is a constant and liberal supporter. For business purposes, and occa- sionally for relaxation, he has travelled extensively. He was with his cousin, John Slater, in the West Indies when he died. He married, December 7, 1842, Harriet Morris Whipple, daughter of Hon. John Whipple, of Providence, and has had four children : John Whipple, who married Elizabeth Hope Gammell; Harriet Whipple, who married George W. Hall; Elizabeth Ives, who married Alfred A. Reed; and Helen Morris, who married Rufus Waterman, Jr.

HEPARD, THOMAS PERKINS, M.D., son of Michael and Harriet (Clarke) Shepard, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, March 16, 1817. His studies, pre- paratory to entering college, were pursued at Sa- lem, and he was a graduate of Brown University, in the class of 1836. Among his classmates were Judge J. P. Knowles, Professor J. L. Lincoln, and W. H. Pot- ter, Esq. Immediately on graduating he was appointed tutor in Latin. One year only was devoted to the duties of this office. He commenced the study of medicine in 1837, and received his medical degree from the Harvard Medical School in 1840. The same year he went abroad to perfect himself in his professional studies, and was ab- sent four years (1840-44). During his absence he travel- led extensively in the Old World. Chemistry was his favorite study, and when he returned, instead of devoting himself to the duties of a medical practitioner, he engaged in the business of manufacturing chemical agents, with special reference to meeting the wants of the manfacturing institutions of New England. In the enterprise in which he embarked, and to the prosecution of which he gave his best energies, he was eminently successful. In 1848, after he had for some time the sole management of his manu- factory, he formed a partnership with the Hon. Edward D. Pearce, and the business continues to be carried on under the style of T. P. Shepard & Co. A man of such marked ability as was Dr. Shepard was sure to be pressed into the public service. For three years (1848-51) he was a member of the Common Council of Providence, and one of these years its President. He represented the city one year, 1853, in the State Senate. In 1851 he was chosen a trustee of Brown University, and in everything which had reference to the department of science in that institu- tion he was greatly interested. The excellent results reached in the erection of the chemical laboratory are largely due to his good taste, and his appreciation of the

wants of students of chemistry. The Rhode Island Hos- pital found in him one of its warmest friends. He con- tributed generously to its funds, and superintended the erection of its building, in every part of which may be traced the evidences of his good judgment and knowledge of the needs of such an institution. He was one of its trustees, . and was chosen to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of its President, Dr. Caswell. How deep and abiding was his concern for its prosperity is indicated by the fact that by his will he bequeathed to its funds a legacy of eight thousand dollars. His experience in the erection of the buildings to which we have referred, led to his appointment by the General Assembly as a member of the commission for the erection of the new court-house for the county of Providence. The completed work will, so long as it stands, be a monument of his taste and minute acquaintance with the details of architecture, which are everywhere seen in the new structure. Dr. Shepard's death, which occurred in Providence, May 5, 1877, was sudden, and occasioned by inflammation of the brain. In June, 1856 he married Elizabeth Anne, the second daugh- ter of Professor William G. Goddard.

ENNETT, MESSADORE TOSCAN, son of Martin and Eliza T. (Butts) Bennett, was born in New- port, Rhode Island, November 20, 1815. His great-grandfather, Stephen Bennett, was born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, about the year 1742, and died on the Island of Nantucket, in 1817. His grandfather, Cornelius Bennett, was sailing master in the United States Navy, and with Commodores Bainbridge and Perry was engaged in some of the most mnemorable naval battles of the war of 1812. Mr. Bennett's father was a very successful ship-master, and died of yellow fever on a voyage from Savannah to Liverpool, in Sep- tember, 1835. Mr. Bennett received his education in the schools of Bristol, Rhode Island, and in 1833 entered the store of Monro & Gifford of that town. In 1834 he went to Mobile, Alabama, where he remained until the death of his father, when he returned to Rhode Island. He soon after removed to North Dighton, Massachusetts, where he carried on the manufacture of cotton cloth, until 1840, when he returned to Bristol and engaged in the grocery business. In 1843 he was elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Bristol, and served in that capacity for sixteen years. As an evidence of his efficiency and popularity it may be stated that during his connection with the court, while Hon. Philip Allen was governor, the Democrats removed every State and county official except Mr. Bennett. In 1849 he was elected Clerk of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island for Bristol County, and held that office together with the office of Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for twelve years. In April, 1861, he was appointed Surveyor of Customs for the port of Bris-

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tol, which office he held until 1869, when it was abolished. In 1858 he became superintendent and agent of the Bris- tol Steam Mill, which position he held until 1863, since which timc the concern has been under the direction of the Richmond Manufacturing Company of Providence, and he has continued to act as its superintendent, having been connected with that mill for more than thirty-six years. For many years he was Colonel of the Bristol Train of Artillery, and during the Civil War, though not in the field, did much for the comfort of the Rhode Island troops. He was chairman of the building committee for the Rogers Free Library of Bristol, and has been President of its Board of Trustees since its completion, 1877. In 1858 he repre- sented the town of Bristol in the General Assembly. He has been Moderator of the Bristol Town Meeting for twen- ty-four years, which office he still holds. Mr. Bennett has been a member of the Congregational Church of Bristol for thirty-eight years, and had the principal management in building the beautiful house of worship now occupied by that society. On the 8th of April, 1838, he married Martha F. Maxwell, daughter of David Maxwell, of Bris- tol. Their eldest son, Messadore T. Bennett, Jr., married Anna Dunn, daughter of T. C. Dunn, M.D., of New- port, Rhode Island, and now (1881) resides in Hoboken, New Jersey. Rosina F., the eldest daughter, married Walter Pierce, General Ticket Agent of the Western Con- necticut Railroad, Hartford, Connecticut. Ermina P., the youngest daughter, married Philip D. Brownell of Provi- dence.

LINCOLN, PROFESSOR JOHN LARKIN, LL.D., son of Ensign and Sophia Oliver (Larkin) Lincoln, was born in Boston, February 23, 1817. He was fitted for college chiefly in the Latin School of Bos- ton, and was a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1836. Immediately after he graduated, he was elected a tutor in Columbian College, Washington, where he remained during the academic year 1836-37. In the fall of 1837, he entered the Newton Theological Institu- tion, and continued his relation with the institution two years. In 1839, he was elected tutor in Brown University, and was in office two years. Wishing to perfect himself in his studies, by availing himself of the superior advantages of the German universities, he went abroad in company with Pro- fessor H. B. Hackett, in the fall of 1841, and was absent from the country three years. The first year, 1841-42, he spent at Halle, as a student of theology and philology, taking lectures in the one of Tholuck and Julius Müller, and of the other, in Hebrew, of Gesenius, and in the clas- sics, of Barnhardy. The two months vacation of July and August, at the close of this academic ycar, were spent with Tholuck in an excursion through Switzerland and Northern Italy. The second academic year, 1842-43, was spent in Berlin, where he studied Church History with Neander, Old Testament History with Hengstenberg, and the elas-

sics with Boeckh. The summer vacation of this year was also spent in pleasant travel. In the early fall of 1843, Professor Lincoln went to Geneva, where he spent some time in the study of French, and then went to Rome, where he passed the winter of 1843-44, and a large part of the spring of 1844, studying the classics and archaeology. He enjoyed the rare privilege of attending every week the meetings of the Archæological Society on the Capitoline Hill, having among his fellow-students Grote, Preller, of Gotha, Professor G. W. Greene, then American consul at Rome, Theodore Parker, William M. Hunt, Francis Park- man, and many other eminent scholars. He left Rome in May, 1844, and came to Paris, where he remained several weeks, then came to London, and thence to the United States. He entered upon his duties as Assistant Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in Brown University, in 1844, and was appointed full Professor in 1845. In consequence of ill health, Professor Lincoln went abroad in 1857, and was absent from his duties six months. He extended his trip as far east as Athens, where he remained six weeks, enjoying what that classic city furnishes in such rich abundance to gratify tastes which, for so many years, he had been cultivating. In the summer of 1878 he again went abroad solely for rest and recreation, and returned to his duties with new strength in the fall. Professor Lincoln has found time, amid the pressure of his work, to prepare two well-known volumes, connected with his special de- partment, his Livy and his Horace. He has also written articles of value and interest for the North American Re- vier, the Christian Review, the Baptist Quarterly, and the Bibliotheca Sacra. He has written, also, much for several weekly papers, and prepared lectures, etc., which have been delivered before literary societies and other or- ganizations. He was married, July 29, 1846, to Laura Eloise Pearce, of Providence. They have five children now living : William E., Arthur, John L., Jr., Laura, and James Granger.

BESTCOTT, HON. AMASA SMITH, Judge of the Municipal Court of the City of Providence, was born in North Scituate, Rhode Island, September 21, 1818. His parents were John and Cecilia (Owen) Westcott. He is a lineal descendant of Stukly Westcott, one of the first settlers of Providence and Warwick, who, with Roger Williams, was expelled from the church of Salem, and became one of the distinguished founders of the Rhode Island Colony. Judge Westcott's grandfather served in the Revolutionary War, and received an honorable discharge. The subject of this sketch spent his carly years in Scituate, where he pursued the ordinary studies of the public schools, and afterward attended the academies at Brooklyn and Plainfield, Connecticut. He finished his preparatory studies with the late Judge Bos- worth, of Warren, Rhode Island, and in 1838 entered

Amara J. Werteilt>

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Brown University, where he graduated in 1842. He studied law with Judge Bosworth ; was admitted to the bar in 1844, and for one year thereafter remained in the office of his preceptor. In 1845 he removed to Providence, where he engaged in the practice of his profession until 1852. In this year he was elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Providence County, to which position he was re- elected annually, with the exception of one year, until 1867. He was then elected to the office of Judge of the Municipal Court of the City of Providence, being ex-officio Judge of Probate, in which position he still continues. In the dis- charge of his official duties Judge Westcott has secured a well-earned reputation for judicial ability, geniality of dis- position, and urbanity. In 1854 he was elected a member of the Common Council of Providence from the First Ward. He is an active member of the Republican party, and prior to its organization was a Whig. Judge Westcott, married, April 7, 1845, Susan C. Bosworth, daughter of Daniel Bos- worth, of Warren, and sister of the late Judge Bosworth. They have had three children, all of whom died in infancy.

er TOCKBRIDGE, REV. JOHN CALVIN, D.D., second son of Calvin and Rachel ( Wales Rogers) Stock- bridge, was born in Yarmouth, Maine, June 14, 1818. His ancestors on both his father's and his mother's side came from England, and were among the earliest settlers of the old colony, Massachusetts. The name originally was Stokebridge or Stokebraegh. His paternal ancestor, John Stockbridge, being then twenty- seven years of age, with his wife Anne, then twenty- one, and his son Charles, aged one, came from England in the " Blessing," John Leicester master, in June, 1635. His father was a lineal descendant from " Elder" William Brewster, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and his mother, from John Rogers, the famous Smithfield martyr. The home of the early ancestors of the subject of this sketch was Scituate, Massachusetts. In 1656 Mr. Stockbridge built what was known as the "Stockbridge Mansion House," which in King Philip's War was a garrison. When, some years since, the venerable building was torn down, there were found in some of its timbers bullets which had been fired at the inmates by the Indians. Benjamin, the great-grandson of John Stockbridge, suc- ceeded to the Stockbridge Mansion in Scituate on the death of his father, who reached the great age of one hundred years. His son, also named from his father, Benjamin, was the second regularly bred physician set- tled in Scituate, having been educated by Dr. Bulfinch, of Boston, and having a practice extending all over the Old Colony, and even to Worcester and Ipswich He

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 93

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