USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. III > Part 31
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Business was good in Rhode Island; things seemed to be on the upgrade along the shores of Narragansett Bay. The sound of flying chips and rumbling drays spelled activity at the shipyards, in the workshops, and on the wharves. Ships' keels were being laid by the score; the warehouses were filled to the rafters; and no threatening cloud appeared on the bright horizon of world-wide business and prosperity.
On the 22nd day of September, 1815, the old so-called "line storm" appeared for its annual Fall mischief. When Rhode Islanders went to bed that night they anticipated the usual results; the wind was in the northeast corner and rain fell heavily. During the night the wind in- creased in force, and dawn found the blow coming from the east. Increasing with frightful force, the wind gradually worked around to the southeast, from which
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quarter it blew with hurricane force, now possible for those of this generation to describe with accuracy.
At noon, after two hours of lashing dev- astation, the wind suddenly changed to the southwest, calmed rapidly, and the sun shone upon now believable ruin and destruction. During the height of the Great Gale of 1815, the water had climbed approximately twelve feet above the average limit of flood tide. Swirling, rushing, irresistible waters had extended well up toward Benefit Street to the East, and nearly as far as Aborn Street to the West. When this hurricane lunged up Narragansett Bay, a great East India ship, the "Ganges," owned by Brown & Ives, a craft of more than 520 tons, parted from her moorings and crashed into the bridge at Market Square. Through the bridge she hurtled in mad flight, followed by a panicky procession of small boats and wreckage. The bowsprit of the "Ganges" pierced the upper story of the Washington Insurance Company building on the Square, and she finally ended her sudden voyage on the shores of the old Cove, a hopeless wreck, never again to raise her sails.
Smith Hill, just back of the Cove, and the banks of the Moshassuck River, were littered with wreckage carried inland by the flood. Twenty-seven ships of various types and sizes also went through the bridge, little of which remained after the waters had receded, and the wind had abated. One sloop went as far as North Providence, and another made its way up Eddy Street somewhere between West- minster and Weybosset Streets, and re- mained there when the waters receded like a ship in a drydock, its proud mast towering above a three-story building.
The entire Rhode Island coastline suf- fered untold destruction, but the fury of the 1815 catastrophe inflicted most dam-
age upon the wharves which then lined Narragansett Bay's busy waterfront. Valuable cargoes, loading gear and ships' stores were swept into oblivion. In Providence, very few of the business es- tablishments that lined the shores escaped the deadly force of the wind and the power of the waves. All downtown streets were blocked with an impassable accumu- lation of casks, lumber, spars and scows. Many homes were carried from the foun- dations, while from other dwellings, every article of furniture, clothing and food was lost. In all the towns and hamlets of Rhode Island the wreckage of roofs, chimneys and fences cluttered the streets, strewn with fallen trees and tangled foliage.
Here and there, tall steeples were dashed to the ground under the force of the express-like gale, but, in Providence, the tall graceful spire of the First Baptist Church wavered, bent to the blast, but did not fall. This noble landmark is today standing nobly erect, the survivor of two devastating hurricanes and of the gale of slightly lesser intensity that pounded upon these shores in September, 1869. Fortunately, the loss of life, in 1815, was comparatively small, but that may be accounted for by the fact that, in those days, few people resided along the unpro- tected shores of Rhode Island where so many met their fate during the disaster in 1938.
It has been observed that, in spite of the terrific loss sustained by the enterprising citizens, in 1815, active steps were taken immediately to clear away the wreckage, repair damage and start afresh. New business organizations were founded, man- ufacturing took on a new lease of life, and stunned communities entered another era with hope and with courage. Now we know of at least one instance where his- tory has certainly repeated itself.
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THOMAS POYNTON IVES
T THOMAS POYNTON IVES was born in the town of Beverly, Essex County, Mas- sachusetts, on April 9, 1769. When he was only four years old, his father died, leaving him to the care of his mother. She did not long survive and the son was committed to the care of relatives, who resided in Boston, and these kindly people gave the lad a comfortable and pleasant home. In one of the public schools of Boston, Thomas acquired the rudiments of an English education, but it was only through a persistent struggle for knowledge in his earlier years that he became, in maturity, a striking example of self-cultivation and an unusually well-informed man. Despite the fact that he enjoyed far from perfect opportunities for the acquisition of an education in his youth, Thomas Poynton Ives became a master of the English language. Few practised writers, disci- plined by the strict rules of rhetoric, clothed their thoughts in language more pure and terse, or arranged them in a clearer order. In writing upon the most complicated subjects of business, he was seldom obliged to alter or amend the wording of his original draft.
His style, both of conversation and writ- ing, seemed to be the natural expression of a clear and direct mind, of a mind never confused by imperfect conceptions, and never diverted from its track by what is either subsidiary or irrelevant. He fully exemplified the spirit of Quintilian's in- junction: "We must study not only that every hearer may understand us, but that it shall be impossible for him not to under- stand us."
In the year 1782, and when only thir- teen years of age, Thomas Poynton Ives was withdrawn from school and placed by his friends as a clerk in the counting-house of Nicholas Brown, Esq., then an enter- prising and wealthy merchant in the town of Providence. So free was he from what were then, and are today, the pardonable levities of youth, and so faithful and intel- ligent was the young clerk in the discharge of his duties, that he soon won the com- plete confidence of Mr, Brown, and the
latter assigned to him the most responsible trusts and ultimately gave him practically an exclusive direction of the mercantile affairs of the firm. Mr. Brown died in 1791 and the following year, Mr. Ives married the only surviving daughter, Hope, and became associated in business with the only surviving son, Nicholas Brown. It was about then that John Brown, who laid foundations for the great shipping firm of Brown & Ives, took John Francis of Philadelphia as a first partner, and he continued as a member of the firm until his death in 1796. A Mr. Benson who was also a member of the firm retired the same year and then his place was taken by Thomas Poynton Ives. Thus was formed the powerful commercial firm which was destined to push its enterprises to every quarter of the globe and to spread afar the fame of Providence as a center of world commerce and ship building.
Early accounts contain high praise for Mr. Ives for he was regarded as a benevo- lent, courteous and cultured citizen be- sides enjoying the reputation for shrewd- ness, good judgment and fair-dealing in his many business ventures. His entire life was remarkable for his patient, untir- ing industry. He performed, year after year, an amount of labor which would have been far beyond the powers of an ordinary individual, but he did it all with- out the flutter of haste or the weakness of indecision. It was said that he could be hospitable without display, and that, around his liberal board, he loved to gather, not only his family and friends - but the intelligent, the learned and the pious - the fellow-citizen whom he had long known, and the stranger from far off lands. And, upon such occasions he knew well how to shape his discourse, so as to draw forth the intellectual resources of those around him. The story was told of him that as several friends whom he had invited to dine at his house were sitting at their meal, he received news of a very great loss to his firm through failure of a correspondent, but that he sat with them in his usual mood of equanimity and none
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of the guests saw the least shade of anxiety on his countenance or suspected that he had received unfavorable tidings.
When Mr. Ives associated himself with the shipping firm there began a still further enlargement of the sphere of oper- ation of the house, for the new member soon became the leading spirit. He di- rected the course of the house during the hey-day of the ever-widening East India trade, and the success of the ventures then projected was the result, in a great measure, of the methods he put in prac- tice. The following extract from an old account well describes a few of these methods:
"The mode of transacting business of this firm was different from that of pre- vious times and entirely different from any now in use. A vessel would be fitted out with a cargo to the East Indies and placed in charge of a supercargo (some- times two), who sailed on the vessel and was sent out with a 'roving commission,' namely, to any port he saw fit to enter in that part of the world. The supercargo would go in the vessel to a given East Indian port, and, if he deemed advisable, sell the cargo there. If he judged, from advices there obtained, that some other port or ports would furnish a more desira- ble market, he would proceed to such port or ports, and sell there the cargo, or so much of it as he deemed expedient, replac- ing it with merchandise there obtainable, with which he would proceed to still other ports, selling the rest of the original cargo or portions of it, as he deemed best, till he obtained a cargo suitable for some other portion of the globe, to which he would then sail, there re-exchanging cargoes, and start thence for the home port. The selling of cargoes and purchasing new ones was subject to general instructions, left en- tirely to the supercargo. It was no un- usual thing for a vessel to go to Batavia, in that neighborhood sell out its cargo, take a new one for the Russian North Pacific ports, there take on a third cargo for Copenhagen or St. Petersburg in Europe; then at these ports take a fourth cargo of European products for Provi-
dence, and arrive home after a voyage of two years, during which time the super- cargo and the owners would have no com- munication with each other except at long intervals. It will be seen that an immense power and responsibility rested on the supercargo; and it was largely on their skill in the discernment of human nature and the choice of men for such posts that the firm of Brown & Ives depended for success."
This firm also extended its business by having fleets of smaller vessels in for- eign countries, whose business it was to take lesser cargoes from some central port to smaller markets, exchange these for the merchandise in such markets, and return therewith to the central ports, at which the larger vessels of the firm would call at stated periods to receive the gathered cargoes and transport them to other parts of the world. Brown & Ives was the first Providence house to introduce this sys- tem, and it is to Mr. Ives that the incep- tion of the plan was due.
Mr. Ives remained active in business and in the life of the growing community until his death in 1835, and the pages of Rhode Island history contain ample refer- ences to his official relations to several public institutions. For twenty-four years he was the president of the Providence Bank and he had the distinction of being the first president of the Providence Institution for Savings, "The Old Stone Bank," which office he held from the time of the bank's founding, in 1819, until his decease. An early newspaper reference to Mr. Ives' association with this savings bank reads: "In the prosperity of the Providence Institution for Savings, of which, from the period of its organization, he had for fifteen years been the president, he felt a peculiar interest; and its unques- tioned stability and extensive usefulness may, in no small degree, be ascribed to his vigilant and wise supervision."
Thomas Poynton Ives left to Provi- dence, with which he was so long identi- fied, a splendid example of unblemished honor and of faithful service for the good of others.
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ZACHARIAH ALLEN
0 N the first Monday in October, the officers, trustees and members of the corporation of the publisher of this volume meet in the banking rooms on South Main Street and perform their respective duties prescribed in the bylaws for the holding of an annual meeting. Reports are read and approved; new officers elected for the forthcoming year and the president presents his annual message. For nearly a century and a quarter the familiar scene in "The Old Stone Bank" has been repeated annually. Its occur- rence once a year brings to mind the original meeting of public-spirited Rhode Island citizens who decided, in the year 1819, that the proper time had arrived to formulate plans for the establishment, in Providence, of a bank which, acting as a community servant, would afford the people a plan for the safekeeping of their savings, with the added advantage of accumulating interest.
Among the founders, emulated in these days by a large group of public-spirited citizens who have been elected as mem- bers of the corporation, were many whose names are revered in local history for their accomplishments in the interests of public service. There was one among that original Board of Trustees, that first met in the office of the Washington Insurance Company on November 4, 1819, who deserves to be classed among the immor- tals of Rhode Island. His talents were so varied; his interests so widespread; his contributions to human progress so unique, that present and future genera- tions should know of him, and of the public benefits conceived, developed and made practical by him.
When the first founders of the Provi- dence Institution for Savings met to organize a savings bank, one of their number was but twenty-four years old; his name was Zachariah Allen. He was born in Providence, September 15, 1795, the son of Zachariah Allen, a prominent ship owner and land holder who had the distinction of being the first printer of calico in New England - this original
cotton print coming, in 1790, from Mr. Allen's mill somewhere in the town of East Greenwich.
Zachariah Allen, Jr., or the one whom we are to describe more fully, graduated from Brown in 1813, after completing his early education, at first in a private school at Medford, and later in Phillips Academy at Exeter. Mr. Allen attended the medi- cal school at Brown following his gradua- tion, but shortly thereafter he entered the law office of Senator James Burrill, and was admitted to the bar in 1815.
There is no accurate picture of this young man who, barely reaching his majority, had completed a full course in early nineteenth century intellectual, cul- tural and professional training, but, from a later-in-life portrait we can deduce that he was tall, erect, deliberate, methodical, reliable, agreeable and versatile. The record of his accomplishments bears out the accurate selection of the foregoing adjectives describing the characteristics of Zachariah Allen.
Too young to serve his nation in the fighting forces on land or sea during the War of 1812, Mr. Allen contributed his share by assisting a committee consisting of James B. Mason, John Carlisle and William Blodgett, appointed to fortify Field's Point, Kettle Point, Fox Point, Fort Hill, and other places around the head of the Bay where breastworks could be thrown up and guns mounted. This so-called "Committee of Defense," of which Mr. Allen was secretary, met almost daily from September 19, 1814, to January 16, 1815, and a considerable amount of work was accomplished. Mr. Allen's record of the amount of labor expended in constructing fortifications in the vicin- ity of Providence, during September and October of 1814, is an interesting memo- randum. Out of a grand total of 3100 days of labor contributed for this phase of preparedness for war, " the United Train of Artillery performed about 145 days; the students of Brown University, 140 days; the local Freemasons, 200 days; the inhabitants of Johnston, 190 days;
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the Gentlemen of the Bar, 28 days; and the Free people of color, 96 days." To prevent an invasion by water, a line of hulks was anchored off Pawtuxet, ready to be scuttled at a moment's notice to block the harbor channel, and communi- cations were established down the Bay to spread the alarm throughout the State if any hostile movements of the enemy should be discovered. Happily though, no British ships entered these waters. On the 12th of February, 1815, Providence church bells were tolled, and the artillery fired salutes of victory; the news of peace reached Rhode Island on that day.
Apparently, Zachariah Allen devoted but little of his life to the practice of law, but he did become an active public serv- ant, holding various offices in the Town Council, in the city government as Judge of Probate, and as a representative in the General Assembly. Providence first learned of his advanced ideas and progres- sive ambitions when, in 1821, he proposed at a town meeting that a fire engine be purchased for the better protection of the citizens and their property. He proposed that the Town acquire, as he termed it, " a forcing hose engine for the extinguish- ment of fires," and he promptly found himself a member of a special committee instructed to report on the project. The following year the town purchased an "Hydraulion" engine from a Philadelphia concern, thus introducing to Providence its first fire engine and hose equipment, replacing the hand buckets previously used. This new engine was so powerful that it required thirty-six firemen to man and operate it, and with it were secured 1000 feet of copper-riveted hose. Mr. Allen designed a copper suction pipe with folding joints which was put into use, thereby making it practical to draw water from the river at any point, and throw a stream upon a blaze hundreds of feet away. The first fire, where the new equip- ment was given a practical test, was in a large stable on Westminster Street, near or on the present site of the new Indus- trial Trust Building. The hose was laid to the cove, north of the present railroad station, which cove, of course, is no longer there, and little time was lost in throwing a strong stream upon the raging fire. The
blaze was quickly quenched; no bucket brigade was required; and Mr. Allen's idea was universally approved, completely establishing the new, and abolishing the old system of fighting fires. Incidentally, at "Hydraulion No. 1's" first bath of fire, smoke and water, a Mr. James, de- scribed as a venerable citizen, became so excited that he fell dead at the scene.
At about the same time, Zachariah Allen made another important proposal, that of platting the Town. Under his able direction, the first scientific survey of Providence was made; besides, he exerted a leading influence in the movement which resulted in a geological survey of the State. In 1825, he formed a company and built the Powder Mill Turnpike, a toll road now called Smith Street. This early highway was surfaced with gravel taken from the quarry on Mr. Allen's farm in Centerdale, in which village the Revolu- tionary War powder house was erected, the source of the original name of the Allen company's turnpike.
When General Lafayette returned to the United States, in 1824, for his tri- umphal tour of the nation which he helped to establish and preserve, Zach- ariah Allen was elected as a representative of the Town Council to meet the distin- guished French military leader at the Connecticut border and escort him to Providence. Mr. Allen was only twenty- nine at the time, but he was then regarded as an outstanding and representative citizen, and, too, he could converse in French. Ephraim Bowen, the only sur- vivor of the "Gaspee" expedition then living, also had the honor of accompany- ing Lafayette who had a pleasant stay here, renewing all acquaintances and recalling exciting days in Rhode Island when he was an important factor in the struggle for liberty a half century before.
There is a lot more to tell about Zach- ariah Allen and his many-sided career, but here is just a brief outline of some of the other things he did. He was the father of evening schools for the working people in New England, organizing two of them, in 1840, and placing them in operation in Providence, thus establishing the first system of its kind in the country. He
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built a mill in Allendale on the Woonas- quatucket River, and, when he saw that the water supply for his mill wheels be- came scanty in the summer, he proposed a system of reservoirs to protect manu- facturers and employees during seasons of drought. For this plan he procured a charter, the first act of incorporation for making reservoirs in New England. He devised revolutionary methods of dyeing and finishing cloth; and he changed the old system of slowly transmitting power, by discarding the massive shafts, with cog wheels of rough and heavy castings of wood, and substituting light shafts with balanced belt-driven pulleys traveling at high-speed.
Zachariah Allen shared honors with George Corliss, and received a medal for an important improvement in steam boiler design, and, most interesting of all, he introduced hot-air furnaces in the basements of houses when he was only twenty-five years old. At his own home, then located at what is now 118 North Main Street, Mr. Allen constructed a metal jacket around a furnace in the basement, drawing the fresh air from a flue at one of the basement windows.
The fresh air was then heated and con- ducted to registers in the floors of the rooms above. Up to that time, the nearest approach to central heating was a crude system whereby heat was carried into the upstairs rooms through stove-pipes that connected the furnace and the chimney on the upper floor by the roundabout way of stairways and halls. Zachariah Allen was one of the first men in the country to practice systematic forestry, and, in 1841, he undertook and carried out the first scientific measurement of the flow of Niagara Falls and the power to be derived therefrom. Besides, he wrote many books, gave many scholarly lectures and spon- sored many progressive movements in this community.
He was the founder of the widely-known system of Factory Mutual Insurance; he was one of the original incorporators and president of the Rhode Island Historical Society; one of the founders of the Provi- dence Athenaeum and he was a life long member of the Board of Trustees of Brown University. He married Eliza Harriet Arnold, and had three daughters. He died on March 17, 1882, at the age of eighty-six.
HORACE MANN
NE of the children of Thomas and Rebecca Mann, respected and cul- tured residents of Franklin, Massachu- setts, was named Horace, the third and most distinguished son. He was born May 4, 1796, about half a mile from the center of Franklin on what was known as Mann's Plain, the site of the family home- stead where, years before, Thomas Mann, the great-grandfather of Horace, had cut down the forest trees to make a clearing for the construction of a home. The par- ents of Horace were people of simple tastes, but they were well educated and responsive to all the influences of those exciting after-the-war times; and they were active in the support of church and town affairs. In short, the Mann family was cultured, loved and respected, and thus created the proper home surround-
ings and influences for the advent of one who was destined to direct the course of public education in America and in many other countries throughout the world.
This boy grew up in an atmosphere of learning, although he admitted in later life that, until the age of fifteen, he had never been to school more than eight or ten weeks in a year. Influences other than the classroom, however, helped him to lay the foundations of a well-balanced educa- tion. His brothers and sisters helped him with his elementary lessons, and soon he was reading books far beyond his years. Besides, the village store and other com- munity establishments were fountains of knowledge for him; the tavern and the post-office resounded with talks about politics; public and private affairs were
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