The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 96

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

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State, and Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encampment of Rhode Island. For four years he was Grand Representa- tive to the Grand Lodge of the United States. Ile is a member of St. John's Lodge, No. I, of Providence, of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He married, April 3, 1843, Adeline Matilda Lawrence, daughter of Walter and Jane (Stewart) Lawrence, of Providence. They have had three children : Emma Louise, Oscar Mason, deceascd, and Jane Stewart, deceased.

ATERMAN, RUFUS, son of Henry and Sarah (Thurber) Waterman, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, May 20, 1817. He is a lineal descendant of Richard Waterman, who was an associate of Roger Williams in the settlement of Rhode Island. He had one brother, Edward Thurber, who died at the age of seventeen. Mr. Waterman was educated in private schools in his native town, and for about four years attended Charles W. Greene's Academy at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. He next served as clerk for three years in the counting-room of Grinnell & Sons, dealers in hardware, paints, and oils, and for one year with Jonathan Congdon & Sons, iron merchants. In 1838 he engaged in the iron business with Charles H. Mason, on Canal Street, Providence, under the firm-name of Mason & Waterman. He subsequently carried on business alone for some time, and then associated with him Henry T. Cor- nett, with whom he continued as Rufus Waterman & Co., until he retired, in 1848, to take a prominent part in the business of the Providence Tool Company. This business was first organized in Pawtucket by William Field, Rufus Waterman, and others. On the 30th of October, 1846, William Field, Freeman Foster, Rufus Waterman, and Henry T. Cornett organized the Rhode Island Tool and Machine Company, and removed to Providence, the name being changed to the Providence Tool Company, April 2, 1847, and a charter obtained July 12, of the same year. Mr. Waterman was one of the directors, and the next year he was elected treasurer of the company, both of which positions he continued to fill until he resigned, March 5, . 1853. Soon afterwards, with S. A. Nightingale, George H. Corliss, and others, he organized the Providence Forge and Nut Company, and built the works near the Corliss Steam Engine Company, now owned by the Providence Tool Company. He served as director and treasurer of the same until the consolidation of these two corporations, April 5, 1856, under the name of the Providence Tool Company, when he was elected a director of the latter, and continued to fill that position until December 28, 1875. Besides their regular business, they manufactured twenty- five thousand Springfield muskets for the United States government, and filled other contracts with forcign govern- ments, and subsequently made six hundred thousand " Mar- tini Henry rifles" for the Turkish government, being one

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of the largest contracts for fire-arms ever executed by a single corporation in this country. Mr. Waterman was one of the original stockholders of the Union Oil Company, of Providence, among the first to engage in the pressing and refining of oil from cotton seed, and served as Presi- nent and Treasurer of the same for nearly twenty years from its organization, in 1856. This company was first organized with a capital of $150,000, and is now a flour- ishing corporation with two mills, one being located in Providence, and the other near New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr. Waterman was also connected with many other manu- facturing and commercial enterprises. He was elected a director of the Exchange Bank, Providence, February 25, 1841, in which capacity he served for thirty-four years, and was President of the same from 1868 until 1875. He was an original stockholder and director of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company from its organization in 1867 until 1875; also a director of the Providence Institution for Savings since October 5, 1863; was Vice-President and a member of the Standing Committee of the same for three years; and has served as a director of several insurance companies. Since 1858 he has been a trustee of the Butler Hospital for the Insane; is a trustee of the Swan Point Cemetery, and for more than thirty years has been a trustee of various estates, including those of Sally Thompson, Par- don Bowen, Richard Waterman, and others. Mr. Water- man has been prominently identified with many public en- terprises, especially the laying out and widening of streets and the erection of business blocks. It was mainly through his exertions that Waterman Street was straightened from Prospect to Governor streets, about 1839, and North Main Street widened and straightened from Market Square to Smith Street, in 1869 and 1870, involving the removal of several brick buildings. He was also prominent in secur- ing the improvement of Governor, Angell, Brook, and other streets. Among the buildings which he was instrumental in erecting were those of the Providence Tool Company, on Wickenden and West River streets, the Elizabeth Build- ing and Waterman Building, on North Main Street, dwell- ing-houses on Waterman and Benefit Street, and the brick business block on Exchange Place and Exchange Street. He took an active part in politics during the political troubles of 1842, which ended in the Dorr War, and served on the staff of the Quartermaster-General of the Law and Order party. When the new Constitution was adopted, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives from Providence, and re-elected for a second term. He was afterwards identified with the Whig party, and has since been a Republican. Mr. Waterman has been twice married. On the 13th of August, 1838, he married Eliza- beth Bowen Greene, daughter of Franklin and Anna E. (Bowen) Greene, of Providence. She died July 9, 1848, in the thirtieth year of her age. By this marriage there were six children, four sons and two daughters, two of whom died in infancy. Of the others, Henry is a manu-

facturer, Richard a lawyer in Chicago, Illinois, Rufus, Jr., who was educated at the United States Naval Academy, and served ten years in the United States Navy, resigning his commission as lieutenant December 8, 1871, has since been engaged in business as a manufacturer, and Anna B., who resides at home. On the 27th of October, 1852, Mr. Waterman married Emily Greene, sister of his first wife. They lived in Providence, on Benefit Street, until 1878, since which time they have resided at their beautiful coun- try seat, " The Grange," at Potowomut, near East Green- wich, Rhode Island.

GAUGHAN, SYRIA H., son of Ambrose and Robey (Brayton ) Vaughan, was born in Coventry, Rhode Island, March 30, 1817. His father was a dea- con in the Baptist Church, and highly esteemed for his integrity and religious character. Mr. Vaughan received a common-school education, and at the age of six- teen went to Newport to learn the business of manufactur- ing cotton goods. He remained there eight years, and sub- sequently spent about three years at Paterson, New Jer- sey, where he was one of the first in the country to engage in the manufacture of muslin-delaines. From Paterson he went to Birmingham, and thence to New Haven and Ansonia, Connecticut, to introduce into those places the manufacture of cotton goods, being thus employed about three years. In 1847 he began the same business in com- pany with Christopher Allen, at Potowomut, Rhode Island, in the old Forge Mill where General Greene worked when a boy. Here he remained until 1849, and then commenced the same business at Hamilton, Rhode Island. In 1875 he removed to Wickford, where he has since been en- gaged in the coal business. He introduced the manufac- ture of narrow fabrics at Hamilton, where it is now ex- tensively carried on by the Hamilton Web Company. In 1860 he took the lead in establishing the Newport and Wickford Steamboat Line, and is still a member of the Executive Committee of the same. He fitted up " Vaugh- an Hall," in 1870, the first place for public entertainments established in Wickford, and in 1868 took an active part in founding the Wickford Public Library. Mr. Vaughan was for one term a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and has served the public in other capac- ities. He married, July 3, 1843, Loisa Hamilton, daugh- ter of Anthony and Elizabeth F. Hamilton, of Warwick. They have had three children, Willie, deceased, Loisa, deceased, and Hattie, who married William Gregory, of Wickford.

STEERE, GENERAL WILLIAM H. P., son of Enoch and Rhoda (Peck) Steere, was born in Providence, May 5, 1817. His early education was obtained in the private schools of his native place. For fifteen 3 years previous to the Civil War he was in the employ

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of the Boston and Providence Railroad Company. Ile | discharged the duties of his office with fidelity, and to the satisfaction of the company. When the Civil War broke out Mr. Steere offered his services to the government. Soon after General, then Colonel, Burnside left for the seat of war in command of the First Rhode Island Regi- ment, it was proposed to raise a second regiment. In this regiment Mr. Steere received a captain's commission. The company of which he had the command was one of his own raising. From the day of the opening of the armory of the National Cadets he was constantly busy in drilling from five hundred to a thousand men, among whom were not a few well-known citizens of Providence, including several clergymen, who were ready to serve their country in such ways as they might make themselves useful. The Second Rhode Island Regiment, in which Captain Steere was an officer, was mustered into the United States service June 5th, 1861, Colonel Slocum being its commanding officer, and left Providence for Washington on the 19th of June. On arriving at the Capitol, it pitched its camp near that of the First Regiment. A few weeks passcd and then came the first Bull Run battle with its disastrous defeat. For his bravery on that memorable occasion Captain Steere was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In Sep- tember, while in camp in the old camping-ground, Colonel Steere was prostrated by a severe attack of what proved to be chronic diarrhea, and was so reduced that he was not expected to live. He rallied, however, sufficiently to be able to return to Rhode Island, and in a few months had so far recovered that he returned to his post of duty. Dur- ing the early months of 1862, he saw very hard military service. " The hardships of one of its marches," says one of its officers, " were among the most severe the regiment had ever experienced ; for days and nights neither men nor horses had rest; they were often without food, and the constant skirmishing with the enemy told severely on them." Colonel Steere, on the 12th of June, 1862, was promoted to the colonelcy of the Fourth Rhode Island Regiment of Volunteers. During this year he took part in several im- portant engagments, especially the famous battle of Antie- tam, where he showed the most undaunted bravery, re- ceiving a severe wound, which so disabled him that he was removed to Philadelphia, and found a home in the resi- dence of Colonel Peter Fritz. Here he remained until his wound was so far healed as to render it possible for him to return, in April, 1863, to his regiment, although against the advice of his physician. From July, 1863, to March, 1864, his headquarters were near Portsmouth, Virginia. The brigade with which he was connected saw much hard service during this period. From the time of his return to the front, until his final return home, he was in com- mand of either a brigade, division, or post. He relieved General Smith at Yorktown, in March, 1864, and was placed in command of that post, consisting of Yorktown, Gloucester Point, and Williamsburg. This was a position

of grave responsibility, and his appointment to which was an indication of the place which he held in the csteem of his superior officers. Subsequently he took part in the battles in front of Petersburg, Virginia. While thus en- gaged he was attacked by his old complaint, and once more so completely prostrated that the only hope of saving his life was to remove him to his home in Providence. While confined by his sickness, his term of service ex- pired, and he was mustered out of the service October 15, 1864. " Of no officer," says Hon. J. R. Bartlett, " sent by Rhode Island to the field, has she reason to be more proud than of Colonel Steere. Through the entire three years of service, during which he filled the various positions of captain, lieutenant-colonel, colonel, brigadier- general and department commander, he made the record of a brave and efficient officer." Colonel Steere re- moved to Johnston in 1868. He was appointed Post- master of that place several years since, which position he now (1881) holds.

ARKIN, HON. DANIEL FRANKLIN, son of Daniel and Rhoda Maria (Sheffield) Larkin, was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, June 10, 1817. Ilis father was a farmer; and his grandfather, Abel Larkin, was a prominent citizen of Westerly. He worked on a farm and attended school until sixteen years of age, when he went to Mystic, Connecticut, and served an apprentice- ship with Greenman Brothers, prominent ship-builders of that place. After acquiring a thorough knowledge of his trade he began to work as a journeyman, and was thus em- ployed for about thirty years. In 1861 he was appointed keeper of the Watch Hill Lighthouse, which position he held until 1868. In that year he built a hotel at Watch Hill Point, called the Larkin House, which he conducted for several years in partnership with Harvey and William Chapman, of Westerly. Mr. Larkin and Harvey Chapman finally purchased the interest of their partner, William Chapman, and have since carried on the business. The hotel having been enlarged is now capable of accommoda- ting two hundred and sixty guests. In 1874 Mr. Larkin went to Palatka, Florida, on the St. John's River, and bought a half interest in the Putnam Hotel there, which he sold in the spring of 1875, and the following year built in that vicinity a new hotel, called the Larkin House, which he still owns, part of his time being spent there and the remainder at Watch Hill. For several years he was inter- ested in coast fisheries at Watch Hill, being a member of the Watch Hill Fishing Company. He was for some time a member of the Town Council, and represented Westerly in the General Assembly in 1857, 18,8, 1859, 1860, and I873-74, serving two years in the lower House and three years as State Senator. He is a member of the Seventh- Day Baptist Church in Westerly, and has been prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent

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Order of Odd Fellows. He married, October 19, 1843, Martha Hiscock, daughter of Clark and Mary (White) Hiscock. They have had five children, Franklin, Martha Jane, Sarah E., Albert Clark, deceased, and Daniel Way- land.

@LOCUM, STEPHEN P., Mayor of Newport, was born in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, March 16, 1818. In childhood he received an ordinary common- school education, and in early boyhood began to provide for himself by honest industry. At the age of nineteen he learned the trade of a tinsmith, which he followed for several years. Being diligent in business and prompt in the discharge of all his obligations, he early won the respect of the community, and has been called to fill important offices of trust and honor. His prominence as a citizen, and his political influence, secured for him in 1852 the appointment, by President Pierce, of Custom- House inspector of Newport, which position he filled with efficiency for four years. In 1858 he began the market business in Newport, in which he has continued success- fully to the present time .. In 1872 his townsmen elected him a member of the Board of Aldermen, and in 1873 he was chosen Mayor of Newport, which office he filled three terms in succession. In 1880 he was the Democratic can- didate for Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island, when the Republican party elected all of the State officers. In the same year, soon after his party's defeat, he was again elected Mayor of Newport, which office he still holds. In February, 1851 he married Frances D. Lawton, daughter of James and Ann Lawton, of Newport.

SPENCER, WILLIAM, merchant, eldest son of Christo- pher and Celia (Westcott) Spencer, was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, March 20, 1817. He was employed on his father's farm and in his store until he was nearly fifteen years of age, when he went to Providence and served for five years as clerk in the store of P. W. Gardiner, grocer. Subsequently for a year and a half he was employed in the same capacity with J. F. Pond, and then commenced the grocery business on his own account May 1, 1838, buying the store of William L. Field, on Weybosset Street, where the Equitable Insurance Building now stands. In 1866 he removed to No. 63 Dorrance Street, where he has since been engaged in the wholesale grocery business. Mr. Spencer's mercantile career through- out has been attended with success. He has been called upon to fill prominent official positions. He was a member of the Common Council of Providence from 1856 until 1862, and from 1869 until 1871, serving most of that time as chairman of the Finance Committee. He was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen in 1871, and served until 1873, when he declined to be a candidate. In 1874

he was again chosen a member of the Common Council, and re-elected until 1877, when he was elected to the Board of Aldermen, of which he was a member until 1885. In the latter year he was a candidate for the office of Mayor of Providence, having been nominated by the Citizen's Con- vention and the Democratic party, but was defeated by the Republican nominee, Hon. Thomas A. Doyle. Mr. Spencer received 2635 votes. While a member of the Common Council and of the Board of Aldermen he served on many important committees, and his public service throughout was marked by a prompt and faithful discharge of his duties.

GREENE, ALLEN, was born in Glocester, Rhode Island, May 21, 1818. He is a descendant, in the eighth generation, of John Greene, who came from Salisbury, England, to Providence in 1642; settled in Warwick in 1643; and whose eldest son, John, was a Deputy-Governor of Rhode Island. Mr. Greene's parents were William and Phebe (Brown) Greene. His father was a thrifty farmer and a member of the Society of Friends .. His mother died when he was an infant. At the age of fifteen he went to Providence and was appren- ticed to Charles Smith, a carriage-maker, with whom he served five years and three months. Before entering upon his apprenticeship he resolved to abstain from the use of intoxicating drinks, which he regards as the turning-point of his life, as the temptations to which he was then sub- jected were very great. Having acquired a thorough knowledge of his trade, he bought a small shop, and in 1838 commenced the business of carriage making on his own account, which he has carried on successfully until the present time. He early established a reputation for good work, which he still maintains, and has built up a large and profitable business. Specimens of his work may be seen in various parts of the country. About the year 1859, the Khedive of Egypt having ordered a representa- tive carriage from the different nations of the world, Mr. Greene was selected to build the representative American carriage, and chose the New England chaise. There be- ing no limit to the price, it was finished in the most elab- orate manner. Besides being a successful business man, he has been prominent and efficient as a public official. He was a member of the Common Council of Providence from 1863 to 1864, from 1866 to 1867, from 1873 to 1875, and re-elected in 1879. In this branch of the city govern- ment he has served on the Committees of Education, Police, and Highways. He is now a member of the Committees on Claims and Water. While on the Committee of Edu- cation, the school-houses on Jackson Avenue, Messer Street, and Summer Street were built. He was also appointed a member of the Joint Special Committee to build the Doyle Avenue school-house, and was chiefly instrumental in its successful and economical completion. All of these build-

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ings are models in their construction. He was clected to the General Assembly of Rhode Island in 1872, 1875, 1876, and 1877. While a member of that body he served on numerous important committees, and was chairman of the Joint Special Committee to revise the prison laws of the State relating to charities and corrections. These laws were all changed, and the management placed under the direction of one board instead of two, as formerly. Feb- ruary 28, 1877, he was appointed by Governor Lippitt to fill a vacancy on the Board of Commissioners, to build the new Rhode Island State Prison, and was selected by the Board as Agent to manage the entire financial department, including the payment of workinen (the pay-roll then amounting to nearly six thousand dollars per month), and was intrusted with the purchasing of material and a gen- eral oversight of the whole business. In July, 1844, he married Miss Maria B. Cook, of Boston. Their children are Lewis A., Forrest, Emma R., and Josephine. Mr. Greene is a member of the Westminster Unitarian Society. Soon after his arrival in Providence, in early life, he joined the Young Men's Lyceum. This society resolved itself into the Franklin Lyceum, of which he was a member for more than twenty-five years, and to which he is largely in- debted for his education, as it afforded very superior means for intellectual improvement. Mr. Greene is a man of strong convictions, and an earnest advocate of right.

HOWARD, EZRA WILLIAMS, son of Thomas and Mary (Humphrey) Howard, was born in Provi- dence, March 13, 1818. His preparation for col- lege was made, first, at the Mt. Pleasant Academy,

+0. Amherst, Massachusetts, where his instructor was Thatcher Thayer, now Rev. Dr. Thayer, of Newport, and was completed under the tuition of Professor George W. Greene, at the University Grammar School in Providence. He was a graduate of Brown University in the class of 1838. On leaving college he commenced the study of law in Providence, in the office of Peter Pratt, Esq. He pur- sued his studies for three years, and was admitted to the bar of Rhode Island in 1841. The state of his health and his distaste for the details of his profession, led him to de- cide not to enter upon the practice of law. In his pecu- niary circumstances he was independent, and able to follow his own inclinations. Accordingly, he devoted some time to such improvement as is gained by travel, and when at home he was engaged in various employments by which he might make himself useful to others. When young, he became a communicant in St. John's Church. For fifteen years he was the superintendent of the Sunday-school of that parish, and for nine years one of the wardens of the church. For the long period of nearly twenty-eight years he was the treasurer of the dioscesan convention. In all the offices which he held he was singularly faithful, and rendered essential service in directions where the best ser-

vice is not always secured. Mr. Howard, as was said of him, " was one of those men who do a vast deal of work for others' benefit, and are greatly esteemed and relied upon in the circles of private life in which they move; the noisy world hears little of them, but they are well known among the poor and the unfortunate, in the associations of active benevolence, and in the Christian Church." He died in Providence, December 9, 1869. In 1857 he mar- ried Elizabeth Styvesant Neilson, of New York, who with two sons and a daughter survived him.

ILLER, WILLIAM JONES, son of James and Re- becca Smith ( Monro) Miller, was born in Bri-tol, Rhode Island, January 19, 1818. His grand- father, Nelson Miller, served six years in the Revolutionary army; was in the battle of Bunker Hill; was under Washington at Trenton and Princeton, and during his memorable retreat from New York; expe- rienced the terrible hardships with the army at Valley Forge ; was present at the surrender of Cornwallis, and in midwin- ter walked home from the army, then at Yorktown, Vir- ginia, to Rhode Island. He received a pension for his services. At the time of his death he was in his eighty sixth year. Mr. Miller's father and mother were descend- ants of Richard Smith, the first town-clerk of Bristol, who entered upon the duties of that office in 1684. In Mr. Mil- ler's possession is an ancestral tree, from which it appears that he is connected with a large number of the old and respected families of Bristol. Some of his ancestors occu- pied prominent public positions and served as representa- tives in the General Assembly. One very memorable char- acter among them was Hope Nelson, who died in 1782, at the remarkable age of one hundred and five years, and probably knew personally one or more of the little com- pany that came over in the Mayflower. Mr. Miller received his education in the Bristol schools. At the age of fifteen he began to learn the printer's trade in the office of the Bristol Gazette, where he remained one year. In 1836 he commenced work as a compositor in the office of the Prov- idence Journal, where he remained about three years. In 1842 he became associated with Low & Miller in the publication of the Providence Daily Express and New Age, the organs of the suffrage and constitutional party, and took an active part in the political excitement of that year, known as the " Dorr War." Soon after the State election in the spring of 1843, the publication of these papers was discontinued. In the fall of 1843 he entered into a con- tract to print the Providence Gazette and Chronicle for Joseph M. Church, and continued the same until the year 1845, when he was appointed Collector of Customs for the Port of Bristol and Warren, by President Polk, which posi- tion he held for four years, the shipping of the port in the West India trade being quite extensive at that time. Early

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 96

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