USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. IV > Part 19
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practiced baptism by immersion through- out the year, breaking the ice in winter, if necessary, in order to carry out the rite. Thus, one can now estimate how much of the city is built upon made land, and how important to the flow of traffic is the cov- ering or bridging over of the extensive area now known as Market Square.
So much for the general appearance of the community in which the Providence Institution for Savings began doing busi- ness, a century and a quarter ago. What about life in Providence in 1819 - partic- ularly business life? First of all, the pop- ular organ of news was the Providence Gazette and Moral, Political and Com- mercial Register, printed and published . by Hugh H. Brown, Esquire, near the southeast corner of the Market House. In the same issue of this four-page weekly that announced the opening of a savings bank in Providence, publisher Brown made a frantic appeal to those who were a little behind in their debts to him. Evi- dently willing to settle accounts by taking it out in trade, so to speak, the editor made it known that he would be pleased to accept either Wood, Cider, or Vege- tables, figured at prevailing market prices, in payment for accounts in arrears for Gazette subscriptions or for any kind of printing.
For a short period, between 1833 and 1837, the bank's treasurer received de- posits at 41 South Main Street in a build- ing occupied by a firm that traded in a va- riety of commodities rivalling the modern super-drug store. From its advertise- ments, it would appear that the firm of P. Grinnell & Sons was a glorified hardware and ship chandlery, for its stock included everything from patented cooking stoves for ships to water colors. It takes but little imagination to picture some of the early depositors of the Providence Institution for Savings proudly pocketing their precious passbooks and stopping on the main floor of the building to inspect the tools, rig- ging, household utensils, paints, glue, spy glasses, slates, pencils, bunting, glass, whale oil, and even elephant oil, that P. Grinnell & Sons displayed inside the building behind brick walls and iron shuttered windows.
For news along the waterfront at that particular time, old maritime records
MAP OF PROVIDENCE WHEN THE PROVIDENCE INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS WAS FOUNDED.
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show that the ship Patterson had entered the port from Amsterdam, the brig "Union" from Honduras, the schooner "Hallet " from Savannah, the sloop "Ann Marie" from New York - and that the brig "Eagle" had just cleared for Sa- vannah, the brig "Fame" for Havana, the "Argus" for Alexandria, and the schooner packet "Oscar" for Wilmington, North Carolina.
Another surprising phase of life in Prov- idence, in 1819, was the apparent suscepti- bility of the public to the claims of patent medicine advertisers. Modern radio has revived somewhat the testimonial method of inducing people to try this or that on the recommendation of strangers, but, one hundred and twenty-five years ago, long before the days of Food and Drug restrictions and regulations, were used the same publicity approaches that are now pretty much confined to soaps, cough drops, and remedies for acid indigestion. For example: "Mrs. S. of Boston - was three years seriously afflicted with con- sumption, pain in the side, great difficulty of breathing, perpetual cough, spitting of blood, universal debility. In this distress- ing state, unable to sit up and expecting not to live many days, she was advised to consult the proprietor of these (Dr. Relfe's Asthmatic Pills) who prescribed them, together with Dr. Tebb's Celebrated Liniment (for the pain in the side), when to the astonishment of everyone, in ten days, she was perfectly restored to health."
Along the same line, we find that Provi- dence apparently had great faith in Hahn's Anti-Bilious Pills, Hamilton's Worm De-
stroying Lozenges, Lee's Infallible Ague and Fever Drops, Hahn's True and Gen- uine German Corn Plaster, and good old Dr. Relfe's Botanical Drops for salt rheum, scurvy, scrofula, St. Anthony's Fire and Leprosy - and these and other cure or kill panaceas were on sale in the apothecary shop of one Hercules Whitney just three doors south of the Market House. Is there anything new about so and so lotion for beautifying the complex- ion and softening the hands? In 1819, the ladies of Providence bought many a bottle of The Genuine Persian Lotion, guar- anteed to cleanse and clear the skin. The gentlemen of the town selected their hats, made of the best imported wool, at the store of David Whipple at No. 12 Market Place - and for those who liked poetry, the local composers of rhymes and lyrics advertised their compositions in the columns of the weekly Gazette.
Inland transportation was improving rapidly at this time, and a new faster stage service made the trip from Boston to New York in three days with Providence and Hartford the principal stopping places. The "Firefly," the first steamboat to round Point Judith, had already started to run between Providence and New York on a regular schedule, and palatial packets, as they called them, were making the trip in two days, sometimes in two weeks.
The neighborhood where the pioneer savings bank has long since continued to do business was in the very center of a fast growing hopeful and prosperous com- munity. What a pity that we must de- pend upon words alone to recreate visions of much that has gone before.
THE FIRST PRESIDENT
T THOMAS POYNTON IVES, first President of the Providence Institution for Sav- ings, was born in the town of Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts, 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 rela- tives, 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
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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, disciplined 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 writing, seemed to be the natural expres- sion 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 injunction : "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 thirteen 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 enterpris- ing 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 responsi- ble trusts and ultimately gave him prac- tically an exclusive direction of the mer- cantile 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 wasabout then that John Brown, who laid foundations for the great ship- ping 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 enter- prises 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, un- tiring 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 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 operation of the house, for the new member soon be- came the leading spirit. He directed 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 practice. The follow- ing 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
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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 desir- able market, he would proceed to such port or ports, and sell there the cargo, or so much of it as he deemed expedient, replacing it with merchandise there ob- tainable, 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 suit- able for some other portion of the globe, to which he would then sail, there re-ex- changing cargoes, and start thence for the home port. The selling of cargoes and purchasing new ones was subject to gen- eral instructions, left entirely to the super- cargo. It was no unusual thing for a ves- sel to go to Batavia, in that neighborhood sell out the cargo, take a new one for the Russian North Pacific ports, there take on a third cargo for Copenhagen or St. Peters- burg in Europe; then at these ports take a fourth cargo of European products for Providence, and arrive home after a voy- age of two years, during which time the supercargo and the owners would have no communication 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 their 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 Insti- tution 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 fif- teen years been the president, he felt a peculiar interest; and its unquestioned stability and extensive usefulness may, in no small degree, be ascribed to his vigilant and wise supervision." Successors in office to Mr. Ives have been chosen on the basis of his fitness and character.
THE BANK'S FIRST TREASURER
IT was a cold and stormy day in the fall l'of the year 1620, a strong wind was blowing and a bleak, cheerless sky hung over the mid-Atlantic. A little square- rigged sailing vessel, the "Mayflower," was being swirled and beaten unmerci- fully by mountainous waves. Orders had been given to "furl the canvas and lay to." Below decks a hundred bedraggled souls prayed fervently, - on the wave- lashed main deck several stout-hearted
amateur mariners clung to their posts. Suddenly the boat rolled and dipped, an onrushing wave surged over the gunwales. "Man overboard, man overboard," was the wild cry scarcely audible above the whistling gale as it swept through the rig- ging. Who was he? What happened to him? According to the words of Governor William Bradford, he was "a lustie yonge man" who "in a mightie storm coming above the gratings, was, with a seele of
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the shipe thrown into ye sea: but it pleased God yt. he caught hould of ye top-saile halliards which hunge over heard and rane out at length; yet he hild his hould (though he was sundrie fadoms under water) till he was hild up by ye same rope to ye brime of ye water, and then with a boat hooke and other means he got into ye shipe againe and his life saved; and though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member, both in church and commone wealth."
But now let us pass over four genera- tions of the Howland family and focus our attention upon another John Howland, the namesake and great-great-grandson of the John Howland of "Mayflower " fame. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island, October 31, 1757, of humble Christian parents. He was a bright active youngster craving travel and high adventure, but stronger than these was his yearning for knowledge. Being denied the opportunity to attend school, there being no public school in Newport during this period, he was obliged to seek an education for him- self. While not engaged in doing chores on his father's little farm, John could be seen down at the Newport docks quizzing sailors about foreign countries, and listen- ing intently while some weather-beaten old salt related a weird yarn about the mysteries of the South Seas or the giant ice flows of the North Atlantic. At home he busied himself with the elementary studies of reading and writing, and before he was ten years of age he had read a number of books in his father's library, and before he was thirteen his love for reading had led him through three dif- ferent editions of the Bible. His favorite book during his boyhood, however, was an illustrated copy of John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress " that his father pur- chased for him in New York. This he read over and over again until he could quote a number of passages by memory.
About the middle of his thirteenth year, Benjamin Gladding, a cousin of his father's, visited the Howland farm in Newport. Mr. Gladding was the owner of a hair-dressing parlor in the town of Providence, and during his visit to New- port he urged Mr. Howland to allow one
of his sons to return with him and become an apprentice in his shop. Young John was eager to go. He pictured himself on the streets of Providence, a man of the world; he swelled with pride when he thought that some day he might powder and curl the wig of the governor of the colony or some famous traveling general or statesman, perhaps even Washington himself. After a considerable amount of coaxing, his parents reluctantly gave their consent and John, "fitted off with a new pair of leather breeches of sheepskin for Sundies and Striped Trowsers and other articles composing the common dress of boys" of that period, "embarked at Bannister's wharf on the eighth day of April, 1770, "in a packet bound for Providence. In Providence, which was then only half the size of his native town of Newport, he went to live at the little home of Mr. Gladding, located on the present site of the Grosvenor Building. John did the chores about the house, worked faithfully at the hair-dressing parlor learning the trade, and on Sundays donned the leather sheepskin breeches and accompanied the Gladding family to Reverend Snow's "new light Meeting House." One Sunday morning John was seated, with four or five other boys, in a pew near to the one occupied by church- man Joseph Martin, the gentleman who, with the aid of a long walnut cane, kept peace and quiet among the congregation during the lengthy services. One of the boys with whom John was sitting sud- denly dropped a handful of chestnuts on the floor, a signal for the rest to slide from their seats and "scrabble," causing not a little noise and confusion. John did not participate, but sat quietly, listening in- tently to Reverend Snow. Joseph Martin, hearing the noise, glanced over, and seeing no other head but young Howland's above the top of the pew administered a sharp crack with the walnut cane and growled a threatening "be still there." John, look- ing somewhat perplexed and surprised, merely rubbed his head in silence, but the next Sunday morning found him at Doctor Rowland's Congregational meet- ing house on College Street, and strangely enough he continued to worship at the First Congregational Church as long as he lived.
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JOHN HOWLAND, FIRST TREASURER OF THE PROVIDENCE INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS.
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While at work in the barber shop shav- ing the town worthies, powdering wigs and twisting pig-tails, young Howland heard fervid discussions in opposition to the duty on tea, the Stamp Act, and the searching by the British of American vessels in Narragansett Bay for contra- band goods. One afternoon news spread about the town of Providence that the "Gaspee," one of the British ships en- gaged in this latter practise, had run aground several miles down the bay. Excitement ran high and "before dark eight boats were manned, and the boys of the town took another boat and chose for captain Ben Hammond, a fear-nothing fellow with a lock of knotty red hair stand- ing up through the crown of his hat." John was seated in the bow of Ham- mond's boat and had just received orders "to cast off the painter and shove off the Bow," `when who should arrive at the wharf but Mr. Gladding. Spying John in the boat he reached out, grasped him by the wrist and "halled" him to the wharf saying "you shant go with these fellows to get your head broke." Thus young John Howland was deprived of taking part in the famous expedition, when the British schooner "Gaspee" was burned by the irate citizens of Providence.
On the afternoon of April 19th, 1775, a messenger arrived from Boston, shouting, "War, war, boys there is war, The Regu- lars have marched out of Boston a great many men Killed - war, War Boys!" The next day John was an interested spectator as Colonel Varnum and his well- trained Greenwich Company marched through the streets of Providence amid the huzzahs and bravos of the entire pop- ulation, on their intended march to Bos- ton. Young Howland took particular notice of "Nathaniel Greene with his shouldered musket in the ranks of a pri- vate" as he limped courageously along, little thinking he was watching the man who would one day bear the title of Com- mander-in-Chief of the Southern Army.
The young barber was stirred with the thrill of war, and when the first call for volunteers reached Providence, John Howland, then only eighteen years of age, was one of the first to enlist. He served fourteen months as a private in the army
which followed Washington from New York to Delaware, suffering the tortures of starvation and exposure to the cold blasts of winter. Howland's enlistment expired when his regiment was quartered near Morristown, New Jersey, and, not receiving any allowance from the Con- tinental Congress for traveling expenses, he set out on foot for Providence and reached his destination hungry and almost barefoot, after experiencing twenty-one days of sickness enroute. He then re- turned to complete his apprenticeship with Mr. Gladding and several years later opened a very high class hairdressing parlor of his own on what is now lower North Main Street. Here he became a close friend of the leading politicians and professional men of the town, and their influence inspired him to take an active part in public affairs.
In 1789, Howland became associated with the newly organized Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufac- turers, and used this influential body as a medium to accomplish one of the greatest desires of his life, - free public schools in Rhode Island. It was John Howland who petitioned the General Assembly and rallied sufficient political support to secure the enactment of the state free school law in 1800. He was immediately appointed a member of the Providence School Com- mittee, - an office which he held with great success for twenty-one years, retir- ing only when the demand upon his time by other interests became too great. In 1818, he was elected to the important office of treasurer of the Town of Providence.
In October of the following year, through the efforts of Mr. Howland, a group of public-spirited Rhode Island citizens assembled to formulate plans for the establishment in Providence of a sav- ings bank which, acting as a community servant, would afford the people of this locality a place for the safe keeping of their savings with the additional advan- tage of accumulating interest. Accord- ingly, on November 20, 1819, the first savings bank in Providence commenced business under the name of the Providence Institution for Savings. Mr. Howland was chosen the first treasurer and under the conservative management which he
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inaugurated, the deposits grew rapidly during his twenty-one years of faithful service. He resigned at the age of eighty- three.
Although being a soldier in the Revolu- tion and a volunteer to defend Rhode Island in the War of 1812, he was a strong advocate of peace, believing that inter- national differences could be successfully settled by arbitration. He openly opposed the Mexican War in several newspaper articles published in Providence, and was one of the founders and leaders of the Rhode Island Peace Society.
Another activity which John Howland crowded into his busy and fruitful life was his membership in the Rhode Island His- torical Society. Although not being a charter member, he was one of its earliest leaders, and due to his unfailing efforts and wholesome influence the society grew rapidly both in size and importance.
When he was thirty-one years of age he married Mary Carlisle and became the father of fourteen children. A sizable family, no doubt, but not at all uncom- mon to the period in which he lived.
In 1835, this man who, by his own ad- mission, had never seen a grammar book during his boyhood, was honored by the Corporation of Brown University by hav- ing conferred upon him the coveted degree of Master of Arts.
Such were the accomplishments of John Howland, whose honored name has been given to a Providence public school, a sturdy, independent, patriotic New Eng- lander of the finest type, who, starting out in life as a barber's apprentice, and com- pletely lacking in schooling, became one of the most highly successful and best- loved citizens of Providence, where, in early life, he hoped it would be his privi- lege to curl the wig of an important man.
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