The history of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, V. IV, Part 79

Author: Bicknell, Thomas Williams, 1834-1925. cn
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 978

USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > The history of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, V. IV > Part 79

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Fred Lincoln Sayles was united in marriage in June, 1888, at Pascoag, with Phebe M. Wood, daughter of Manning and Harriet A. (Copeland) Wood, old and highly respected residents of Pascoag. Of this union one child was born, Albert Leprelet Sayles, 2d., born Oct. 10, 1891, and died April 6, 1906.

MANNING WOOD-The Wood families of New England date from the early decades of the Colonial period, and have in numerous branches figured notably in Massachusetts and Rhode Island history since the time of their founding. Wood is one of the oldest of English surnames; it is of local origin, signifying lit- erally "at the wood," and derived from residence in the vicinity of a wood. Its source is the Anglo-Saxon "wode," meaning wood. Entries of the name are com- mon to every medieval English register, and we find the following forms recurring with great frequency in the first two centuries of the surname era: ate Wode, de la Wode, in le Wode, del Wode. The coat-of-arms of the family is as follows :

Arms-Argent, an oak tree vert, fructed or.

Crest-A demi-wildman, on the shoulder a club, holding In the dexter hand an oak branch all proper, wreathed about the middle vert.

Among the numerous Wood emigrants who sought in the New England Colonies a place of refuge and retreat from the tyrannies of civil and religious authorities in the Mother Country was William Wood. Despite the fact that he returned to England after a short residence here, William Wood is regarded as the founder of one branch of the Wood family in Rhode Island, and as the progenitor of a line of men who have played effective and in some cases brilliant parts in the life and affairs of the colony and State. The late Manning Wood, former president and one of the organizers of the Frank Wood Manufacturing Company of Valley Falls, was of the sixth generation in direct descent from Wil- liam Wood.

(I) William Wood, immigrant ancestor and founder was a native of England. The exact date of his coming to Rhode Island is unknown. Three sons, Charles, William and Marmaduke, accompanied him to New England; Charles Wood returned with his father after a short period. William and Marmaduke Wood be- came the founders of families.

(II) William (2) Wood, son of William (1) Wood,

married, on July 2, 1727, Ann Collins, daughter of Thomas Collins, of Warwick. They were the parents of nine children.

(III) John Wood, son of William (2) and Ann (Col- lins) Wood, was born October 26, 1740, and settled in what is now Burrillville, where they resided until 1795. His home in Burrillville stood on the site of the resi- dence of his great-grandson, Otis W. Wood, at Harris- ville. John Wood was a landed proprietor, his holdings embracing all of the present villages of Harrisville and Graniteville, and considerable of the surrounding terri- tory. He also owned land on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, where he resided for a period of years. In September, 1795, he left Burrillville to visit his prop- erty in Nova Scotia, but never reached his destination, and is supposed to have met his death at the hands of the Indians, who were known to have been in uprising at the time. John Wood married, January II, 1761, in Johnston, R. I., Sarah M. McDonald, who died Febru- ary 17, 1814.

(IV) Captain John (2) Wood, son of John (1) and Sarah M. (McDonald) Wood, was born in what is now Burrillville. He inherited his father's estate in Harris- ville and Graniteville, and in addition to farming on a large scale, he also conducted a general store and tavern and a blacksmith shop. He was an influential figure in the life of the community, and was known as "Squire" Wood. He was active in the local militia, in which he held the rank of captain. Captain Wood during the lat- ter part of his life resided on the place now owned and occupied by Francis M. Wood, at Graniteville, where he died September 9, 1827. On November 1, 1774, he married Roba Smith, who was born November 1, 1774, and died April 20, 1849, daughter of Arnold Smith. She and her daughters were members of the Free Baptist church, in the days when its services were held in what is called the "old town house" near their home.

(V) Fenner Wood, son of Captain John (2) and Roba (Smith) Wood, was born in Burrillville, January I, 1798, and inherited the farm of his father, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until failing health made it imperative that he retire. He died February 11, 1876, and was buried in Pascoag Cemetery. Fenner Wood was widely known and eminently respected in Burrillville, and for many years took an active part in local affairs. On July 7, 1821, he married (first) Sarah Arnold, who was born October 1, 1801, and died Janu- ary 14, 1822. On November 9, 1826, he married (sec- ond) Sarah Sayles, who was born March 27, 1801, and died September 28, 1880, daughter of Elisha and Lydia (Angell) Sayles. Fenner and Sarah (Sayles) Wood were the parents of the following children: I. Lorenzo, born April 27, 1828, died Aug. 20 of that year. 2. Mary Ann Frances, born June 6, 1829, died June 19, 1829. 3. Francis Marion, born Dec. 11, 1831, a resident of Graniteville; for many years Mr. Wood was active in public life, and for four years was a member of the Rhode Island Legislature. 4. Manning, mentioned be- low.

(VI) Manning Wood, son of Fenner and Sarah (Sayles) Wood, was born April 5, 1834, on the home- stead in Graniteville, died at his home, March 19, 1919. He was educated in the local school, after the prevailing fashion for the farmer's son of the period-attending

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school during the winter months, and during the spring and summer assisting in the work of the farm. At the age of seventeen years he began his business career as a clerk in the store of Remington & Colby at Granite- ville, where he remained for about a year. He then went to Glendale as a clerk in the store of Jerome A. Salisbury. In the following year he accepted the posi- tion of assistant bookkeeper at the Graniteville Mill, then operated by J. T. Seagraves & Company. Three years later, in partnership with Charles H. Sayles, under the firm name of Sayles & Wood, Mr. Wood established a general store at Pascoag, which he con- ducted successfully for about a year. He then disposed of his interests in this business and purchased the store of Remington & Colby, at Graniteville. About three years later he sold this establishment, and purchased a store at Glendale, where he remained for a few years. He next settled in Otter River, where he engaged in business for a short time before removing to Pascoag, where he purchased and for six years conducted the store of Duty S. Salisbury, in partnership with his brother, Francis M. Wood. At the end of this time the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Wood for a time engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods at Happy Hollow, in the town of Uxbridge, Mass. He was later identified with the firm of Sayles & Nichols, and for fifteen years with William H. Sheldon, who conducted a box factory and planing mill at Pascoag. After the death of Mr. Sheldon, Mr. Wood continued to manage the property for the heirs, and was virtually its head until his retirement from his responsibilities in 1901. In the same year he became connected with the Fred L. Sayles Company. In 1903 he retired from active busi- ness life, in his seventieth year. Mr. Wood was presi- dent and one of the organizers of the Frank Wood Manufacturing Company, the first concern started in the United States for the exclusive manufacture of fancy and feather-stitch tapes. Mr. Wood's business career was remarkable not only for the variety of enterprises in which he engaged, but for the uniform success which attended all his ventures. A constant desire for change and the opportunity for constructive building led him from one enterprise to another. For several decades he was well known in business circles in Rhode Island as a man of fine executive and organizing ability. From 1903 until his death Mr. Wood lived in retirement at his home in Pascoag. Fraternally he was a member of Granite Lodge, No. 33, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, of which he was one of the founders, and in which he filled all the chairs. He was active and well known in the ranks of the Republican party in Rhode Island from the time of its formation until his retire- ment.

On November 23, 1854, Mr. Wood married, in Burrill- ville, Harriet A. Copeland, who was born September 13. 1834, daughter of Lyman and Phebe ( Thompson) Cope- land, and member of a long established and prominent New England family. Their children were: I. Hattie, born Oct. 25, 1857, died Dec. 16, 1857. 2. Grace, born Dec. 25, 1860; married William Hinchliffe, secretary and superintendent of the Frank Wood Manufacturing Com- pany. 3. Phebe Maria, born Jan. 3. 1863; married Fred L. Sayles, of Pascoag; Mr. and Mrs. Sayles were the

parents of one son, Albert L. Sayles, who died Apri 6, 1906, in his fifteenth year. 4. Frank, born May 4 1865. 5. Charles, born Aug. 13, 1867, died Nov. 3, 186g

WALTER EUGENE RANGER, the seventh son and fourteenth child of Peter and Eliza M. (Smith Ranger, was born in Wilton, Me., November 22, 1855 His paternal grandfather, Nehemiah Ranger, and wife whose maiden name was Adams, settled in Carthage Me., about 1800, and subsequently removed to Wilton His mother's people came from Plymouth county, Mass. and among their family names were Smith, Jones and Sampson. His maternal grandfather fought at Platts burg and elsewhere in the War of 1812. The Ranger family has been noteworthy for its mechanical skill.

Walter E. Ranger was reared on a farm, where he wa: trained in all sorts of work, agricultural and mechanical and in a home, where to be "brought up to work" wa: synonymous with true training and the promise o: worthy living. The habits of intense application thu: formed and an inexhaustible energy have always char. acterized his life, as revealed in his great capacity for work. In a large family of bright boys and girls he early manifested scholarly tastes. He quickly masterec the subjects of the common school, and at the age of ten was sent to a private high school. At twelve he entered Wilton Academy and began the study of Latir and algebra. Here he prepared for college by attend. ance during brief fall and spring terms, interspersed by work and later by teaching in the winter. For his sup- port in college he taught school for a year before enter. ing college and taught several terms during his college course. In spite of these interruptions he maintained a high standard and was graduated in the first rank from Bates College in 1879, his favorite subjects being psychology, philosophy, civics and ethics.

Immediately after his graduation he was made acting. principal of the Nichols Latin School, Lewiston, Me. a feeder of Bates College. A year later he became principal of the high school, Lenox, Mass. During this time he did considerable literary and journalistic work In 1883 he declined a unanimous election to the princi- palship of the North Adams (Massachusetts ) High School, to become principal of Lyndon Institute at Lyndon Center, Vt., where he remained for thir- teen years. Mr. Ranger's record at the head of this institution was one of remarkable success. During the first ten years of his principalship the institute grew from a school of fifty-three students and four teachers to one of two hundred and forty students and ter teachers. New departments were added from time to time, until in 1896 the institute offered five four-year and three one-year courses, one of the latter being a teacher's course. Graduates of the school entered twelve leading colleges, while many students were fitted either for teaching or for business. During these years Mr Ranger was often called upon to teach in summer schools and to address educational gatherings. He alsc acted as superintendent of the Lyndon common schools It was but natural therefore that when, in 1896, the State Normal School at Johnson was without a prin- cipal, Mr. Ranger should be called to the vacant position and that the school under his management should be

Hatte. Canger

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BIOGRAPHICAL

very successful. Mr. Ranger remained principal of the school at Johnson for four years and one term. In December, 1900, he resigned to assume the duties of State superintendent of education for Vermont. Re- garding his work as principal at Johnson, one of Ver- mont's leading educators has written as follows :

Mr. Ranger became principal of the State Normal School at Johnson at that critical period of transition incident to its development as an institution for purely professional training. Under his management the highest professional standards were established, the training school was made a vital feature of the entire course, and the whole spirit of the work was charged with genuine enthusiasm. To Mr. Ranger's rare pedagogical insight the school is in a large measure indebted for its present high rank.

Mr. Ranger was unanimously elected State superin- tendent of education for Vermont by the General As- sembly in October, 1900, and was unanimously reelected in 1902 and in 1904. He resigned in 1905 to become commissioner of public schools and secretary of the State Board of Education of Rhode Island. As State superintendent for Vermont he reorganized the State office with a view to improving the administration of State and local official school agencies and revised the arrangement and presentation of educational statistics. He correlated agencies for improving teachers in serv- ice and the preparation of teachers for service in the public schools. Under his leadership a teacher's insti- tute or a summer school for teachers was conducted in every county in the State at least once a year. The extent of his own participation in the work of improv- ing teachers may be indicated in the fact that he aver- aged more than one hundred addresses at teachers' meetings annually. When the federal government reimbursed the State of Vermont for war claims, Mr. Ranger realized an opportunity to rehabilitate the State's permanent school fund. The General Assembly was persuaded to apply the money received from war claims to the permanent school funds. The General Assembly recognized Mr. Ranger's educational leader- ship. His few years in the State office were productive of an unusually large number of legislative measures for the improvement of education. Incidentally he wrote mandatory high school laws for both Vermont and Rhode Island. Of his work in Vermont a leading Vermont educator wrote:

Mr. Ranger's varied and remarkable successful teaching experience is a record of steady progression toward the important office which he now most ably fills as state superintendent of education for Vermont. Mr. Ranger has long been closely identified with the broadest interests of the State and of the country, having held many important positions in educational and other organizations. He is a brilliant and popular speaker, and his lectures on pedagogical themes have been warmly received by the most dignified educa- tional assemblies in the United States.

Another teacher in 1900 paid him the following trib- ute :

In Walter E. Ranger, the newly elected superintend- ent of education, the Green Mountain state has a serv- ant possessing ideal qualifications for the work he has been called to do. Having been engaged in educa- tional work since boyhood, and in all grades from the primary to the normal school, he brings to his new position not only the scholarly habits and the admin- istrative ability that won the respect of educators, but also a peculiarly warm sympathy with the needs of our common schools.

When Rhode Island in 1905 invited Mr. Ranger to become commissioner of public schools, the State was itself following an earlier precedent. In 1843 Rhode Island called Henry Barnard to conduct a survey of the State school system, choosing for this purpose a recog- nized expert who had been successful in a similar field in another State. So in 1905 Rhode Island sought for its chief educational officer a man who had been a successful chief administrative officer in another State. After a year devoted to careful study of educational conditions in Rhode Island, Mr. Ranger recommended ten major improvements: Pensions for teachers, State support for traveling libraries, a State home and school for the feeble minded, State certification of superin- tendents of schools, a minimum salary for teachers, equalization of educational opportunities through ex- tension of high school education and more skillful supervision, trade and industrial schools, improved school sanitation and sanitary standards, reasonable term of teachers and superintendents, and a State sum- mer school for teachers. Under his leadership all of these recommendations and a great many others have been established in law. As he was in Vermont, Com- missioner Ranger is in Rhode Island, the confidential advisor of the General Assembly in formulating legis- lation for the improvement of schools. During his term of office the State's annual contribution to public education has increased from $385,000 to $860,000, while total expenditures for public education, State and town combined, have increased from $2,272,900 to $4,534,827. The number of children enrolled in public schools has increased from 70,000 to 00,000. Increased public ex- penditure has provided not only school education for larger numbers of the public's children, but also greatly improved the more extensive educational opportunities for all the children of the State. In making additional State appropriations for the support of public education, a clearly defined policy of promoting improvement has been followed. The General Assembly from time to time has selected specific projects for encouragement, almost invariably at the suggestion of Mr. Ranger or after consultation with him. He has been recognized as an educational leader, ripened in experience, and prophetic in his vision.

Mr. Ranger has been active as a speaker and a writer. He is frequently called to visit other States to address educational, social, religious and other organizations. His official duties include the preparation for publica- tion of about five hundred printed pages annually. Under him the functions of his office have been devel- oped and enlarged by legislation and administration. He has published educational circulars for teachers and school officers, has promoted or secured much im- portant legislation, has been active in educational move- ments and progress, and has in other ways increased the efficiency and influence of the State educational office.

Mr. Ranger is an active member and officer of many organizations, educational, fraternal and religious. He is a member of the American Historical Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and several other organizations. He is a director of the National Educational Association. He has held offices of president of the Vermont State Teachers' As- sociation, president of the Vermont Schoolmasters'

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Club, president of the Rhode Island Institute of In- struction, president of the Barnard Club of Rhode Island, president of the American Institute of Instruc- tion, and of many other organizations. In Masonry he has taken the degrees of Knights Templar and of the Scottish Rite to the Thirty-third degree. He served several years as an officer of the Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Vermont, and was grand master when called to Rhode Island. He was presiding officer of the Scottish Rite bodies in Vermont, includ- ing commander-in-chief of Vermont Consistory, thirty- second degree. He is a member of other fraternal or- ganizations. In politics he is a Republican, and in religions preference is a Congregationalist.

He was graduated from Bates College in 1879 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and became a Master of Arts in 1883. In 1904 the University of Vermont conferred upon him, pro meritis, and for distinguished service, an honorary degree of Master of Arts. Bates College, in 1907, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Dr. Ranger is a member of Maine Gamma Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa.

In 1879 Mr. Ranger married (first) Mary M. Snow- man, of Portland, Me., who died in 1885. From this marriage were born two children, neither of whom sur- vives. In 1889 Mr. Ranger married (second) Mabel C. Bemis, of Lyndonville, Vt., who is a gifted musician. They have three children, two sons and a daughter: Arthur Forest, born in Lyndon, Oct. 10, 1892; Ruth Mabel, born in Johnson, Nov. 23, 1897; Robert Walter, born in Montpelier, Feb., 19, 1903.

JOSEPH ELLIS COFFEE FARNHAM-Thirty miles in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Cod, Mass., lies the Island of Nantucket, a resort for artists and lovers . of the solitary; ideally beautiful in nature, an island of rich, historical memories, quaint people, customs and manners, but true, honorable and brave.

Joseph E. C. Farnham, president and treasurer of the Snow & Farnham Company of Providence, R. I., has his ancestry in those sturdy people. He is a son of William Henry and Lydia Hussey (Parker) Farn- ham, and was born at Nantucket, Mass., January 18, 1849. His father was born in Boston, where he received his brief education, where he learned his trade, where he was married, and where his first child was born. Having acquired the trade of a pump and block maker he, in early life, left Boston for a home and business at Nantucket, the then great whale fishing industry offer- ing special inducements to him to establish himself in vocational service in connection with the fitting of whale ships for the pursuit of the leviathan of the seas. Two other children were subsequently born to him, when his wife died, leaving him a widower with three small children. Subsequently he married a Nantucket woman who bore him nine children, of which Joseph E. C. Farnham is the sixth. With the decline of the whal- ing industry the business of his father was swept away, and the large family of children each had to begin an early career of activities for self-support.

Finishing his education on his thirteenth birthday in the public schools and the Coffin School Academy of his native town, Joseph E. C., on March 1, 1862, went into the farming section of his native town, seven and a half

miles from the town proper, and engaged in service with one of its leading farmers on one of the largest farms of the Island. There he spent one season and part of another, when a position was given him in the local printing office of the town, where was published the Nantucket "Mirror." Here, beginning March I, 1863, he spent fifteen months acquiring the fundamentals of the printing trade. At the age of fifteen he left Nantucket for Providence, where, since June 2, 1864, he has been constantly identified with the art preservative. In years of association with it he is now the dean of the Providence printers. When he began in the print- ing trade at Nantucket there were then two offices there, each printing a weekly paper, the Nantucket "Inquirer" and the Nantucket "Weekly Mirror." In 1865 the "Mirror" bought the "Inquirer," merged the two offices, issued one paper under the title of "The Inquirer and Mirror," which has ever since continued.

In 1912 the Nantucket "Inquirer and Mirror" pub- lished a Christmas souvenir number containing articles of reminiscent interest to men and women, scattered variously, who were once boys and girls at Nantucket. This appealed to Mr. Farnham and, responding to its inspiration, he wrote for the next issue of that paper an article entitled "By-gone Days Fraught with Haly- con Memories." Because of the interest this awakened among those once boys and girls with him in his native town, and because of their expressed desire, he wrote a number of similar articles for the local paper, which ran through several months.

On coming to Providence, R. I., June 2, 1864, a lad of fifteen, he secured employment with A. Crawford Greene until the spring of 1865, when he entered the employ of Knowles, Anthony & Company (then known as the Journal Job Office) on Washington row, where he continued one year. In the spring of 1866, he went with the Providence Press Company, remaining with them until March, 1869, when he entered the service of the newly-organized firm of Millard & Harker, one year being spent with that firm. He then returned to the Providence Press Company, and there continued until October 1, 1888, when, with Edwin H. Snow, he pur- chased the business of the Providence Press Company, and constituted the firm of Snow & Farnham. The Snow & Farnham Company was incorporated Septem- ber 12, 1905, of which Mr. Farnham is president and treasurer. The company is one of the successful houses of New England, their product being books, legal forms, loose leaf devices, pamphlets, and every variety of com- mercial and general printing. Their offices are at No. 45 Richmond and 169 Pine streets, Providence.

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The history of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, V. IV, Part 79

Author: Bicknell, Thomas Williams, 1834-1925. cn Publication date: 1920 Publisher: New York, The American Historical Society Number of Pages: 978

Author: Bicknell, Thomas Williams, 1834-1925. cn
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 978