The history of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, V. IV, Part 90

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

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In December, 1837, Mr. Bicknell was called to the death beds of his father, Joshua, and his wife, Harriet Byron. Mrs. Bicknell was a woman of unusual ability and excellence of character. Her home was made serenely happy by a joyous, hopeful, loving spirit. She was orderly and systematic in household matters, an hospitable hostess, entertaining her many warm friends by bright, healthful conversation, agreeable address and a generous table. She was a Bible student, a ready conversationalist on religious subjects and a strong debater on such subjects as will, predestination, immor- tality, Heaven, Hell, etc. On Sunday the Bicknell home, near the White Church, was the customary meeting place for lunches, a review of the sermon, and a free exchange of the last week's events. In the troublons times of the church, the family stood by the old ortho- dox faith and polity as against the violent activities of the new radical school, whose life was short.

Mrs. Harriet Byron Bicknell lived a pure, sweet, motherly, beautiful life, was the ruling spirit of her family in love and obedience to truth as revealed to her, and at the early age of forty-six, passed on to fulfill the incompleteness of a short but truly consecrated life.

In the spring of 1839, Allin Bicknell married his cousin, Elizabeth Waldron Allin, daughter of Gen. Thomas and Amey ( Bicknell) Allin. The second wife was a devoted and faithful mother in all her family relations. She was a woman of fine intellect, well edu- cated for her day, vigorous in thought, energetic in action. In 1844, the Bicknell family moved from the cottage home to the Allin estate in West Barrington, occupying a part of the Gen. Allin mansion, the four sons going out to other than farm life.

In 1867, Thomas built a house at West Barrington and took his father and step-mother to his new home to spend their last years with him, but their stay was short, for the mother, Elizabeth, died October 16, 1868, and the father, Allin, August 16, 1870, aged eighty-

three years and four months. Allin Bicknell and his tw wives, Harriet Byron Kinnicutt and Elizabeth Waldro Allin, were buried at the north end of the Princes Hil Cemetery in Barrington, near the banks of our beautiful Sowams river. Goldsmith's lines apply to them:

"Contented toil and hospitable care And kind, connubial tenderness are there; And piety with wishes placed above, And steady loyalty and faithful love."

THOMAS WILLIAMS BICKNELL, author o "The History of Rhode Island," is of ancient Normar stock. The family name was Pavilly, and is easily tracec to Pavilly, a town founded by this baronial family, situ- ated ten miles northeast of Rouen, France. Here Lorc Amalbert de Pavilly founded a monastery in 664 A. D Some of the family crossed the channel with William the Conqueror in 1060 A. D., and soon became a power- ful race in twelve counties in England. John de Pavilly died in 1281 A. D., seized of the manor of Byken-Hulle (Beacon Hill), in Somersetshire. Prior to his death, he had exchanged his baronial name, Pavilly, for that of the manor, and was known as John de Byken-Hulle. These two words were united in one, Biknell, in 1523, and was spelled Bicknell as early as 1585. The Bicknell, manor in Somersetshire has been subdivided, but the Beacon Hill and the Bicknell family are located in the village of Barrington and Bicknell ancestry sleep in the Barrington churchyard.

In 1635, Zachary Bicknell, his wife Agnes and son John, crossed the sea in Rev. Joseph Hull's company, and set up their new home at Weymouth, Mass., in June of that year. From Zachary and Agnes sprang the great majority of a numerous family, now scat- tered over the states, from ocean to ocean.

Zachariah Bicknell3 married Hannah Smith of Wey- mouth, and removing to Barrington, R. I. (then Swan -! sea, Mass.) about 1700, bought of the Sowams Pro- prietors, a farm of about two hundred acres on the west bank of the west branch of the Sowams river. This farm extended from the Sowams river to what is now known as the Middle Highway in Barrington, and, on a north and south line from Princes Hill to the north line, about one thousand feet north of the White Church, near the Barrington bridge. Zachariah3 Bick- nell and his wife Hannah, died and were buried in Ash- ford, Conn.

Mr. Bicktiell is in the eighth generation of American Bicknells, through Joshua4, Joshuas, Joshua6 and Allin7. His grandfather, Joshua6, fought in the Revolutionary War, was for eighteen years a deputy in the General Assembly of Rhode Island and an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1794 to 1819. He lived and died on the Bicknell farm, in Barrington.

His son, Allin7, father of Thomas W.8, was born in Barrington, April 3, 1878, and married Harriet Byron Kinnicutt, daughter of Josiah and Rebecca Kinnicutt, and granddaughter of Rev. Solomon Townsend, De- cember 23, 1817. Her grandfather was minister of the Congregational Church at Barrington, fifty-five years.

Four sons were born of this marriage: Joshua, George Augustus, Daniel Kinnicutt and Thomas Wil- liams. The mother died in December, 1837. Allin7

Allin Bicknell

80 Years Old When Taken Died 1870, Age 83 Years, 4 Months

----- -- ------ ---

Thomas For BicTrell

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BIOGRAPHICAL

married Miss Elizabeth Waldron Allin, daughter of Gen. Thomas Allin, April 13, 1839; no children; she died in 1868.

Allin Bicknell7 was a Barrington farmer, succeeded his father as deacon of the Congregational church, was Representative three years and senator four years in the General Assembly of Rhode Island, was colonel of the Bristol County Militia, and held many town offices. He died at the home of his son Thomas W., August 16, 1870, aged eighty-three years and four months. Princes Hill Cemetery, Barrington, is the family burial place.

Thomas Williams, the youngest son, was born in a small cottage, on the ancient Bicknell estate, near the west bank of the Sowams river, on Saturday, Septem- ber the 6th, 1834. He bears the given name of Thomas Williams-the name of the minister of the Congrega- tional church of Barrington, at the time of his birth. His mother died December 15, 1837, and his father married Elizabeth W. Allin, who proved to be a worthy wife and an excellent step-mother. He attended the short summer and winter terms of the district school from his sixth to his sixteenth year and a few sessions of private schools in the town. He does not remember when he could not read, write, spell and recite the four tables in arithmetic. He began the study of An- drews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar at the age of thirteen, under the teaching of Rev. Francis Wood, at his private school in Barrington.

Soon after his fifteenth birthday, Thomas had the good fortune to have for a district school teacher, Mr. Carlton P. Frost, a student in Dartmouth College. He was not only an excellent teacher, but opened the way for the schoolboy to enter Thetford Academy, Thetford, Vt., in March, 1850. This event was the turning point in the boy's life, when, for three years in a farmer- student career, he pursued the studies preparatory for college, holding an honor rank in all, graduating from the Academy, in July, 1853, with the Greek oration, a youthful feat in scholarship, never indulged in, before or since, at that institution, then the home of three hundred students from all parts of the country.

Young Bicknell, with others of his Academy class, was examined and admitted to Dartmouth College and, on his way to Rhode Island, was also matriculated at Amherst College. Freshman year was spent at Am- herst, but shortage of money led to teaching, a part of the time at Rehoboth, Mass., and a part at Elgin, Il1. In 1858, he entered the Sophomore class of Brown Uni- versity, graduating on September 5, 1860, with the de- gree A. M. Mr. Bicknell's preparatory career was broken by a three months term of teaching in Seekonk, Mass., in the winter of 1852-53; by winter terms at Rehoboth, Mass., 1853-54, 1854-55, a year at Elgin, 1855-56, and another year in teaching a private high school at Rehoboth in 1856-57.

In Mr. Bicknell's junior year at Brown, he was - elected as a Representative to the General Assembly of Rhode Island, by the electors of Barrington, his home town. His first speech was made in favor of the aboli- tion of the negro schools of the State, uniting the pupils with the whites in all the schools. While in the West, in June, 1856, Mr. Bicknell joined a company of seventy men to settle in Kansas, to help make it a free State.

En route, up the Missouri river, on the steamer "Star of the West," the company was disarmed at Lexing- ton, Mo., made prisoners at Kansas City (then Weston) by border ruffians under the command of David R. Atchison and Stringfellow, held for two weeks, and set adrift at St. Louis, Mo., by the Virginia and South Carolina sharpshooters.

At graduation, Mr. Bicknell was elected principal of the high school, Bristol, R. I., where he taught four years; then became principal of the Arnold Street Grammar School, Providence, for three years, returned to the Bristol High School in May, 1867, and closing his teaching career in April, 1869.

In May, 1869, Mr. Bicknell was elected Commissioner of Public Schools of the State of Rhode Island and held the office until January 1, 1875. We may mention a few of the many accomplishments of his administra- tion; the reorganization and building of the R. I. In- stitute of Instruction; a system of teachers' institutes in all parts of the State; school officers conventions; the creation of a State Board of Education ; terms of school committees extended from one to three years; the creation of the office of superintendent of schools for each town in the State; the creation of the State Nor- mal School; the founding of free evening schools; town libraries were established; the school year was made longer than in any other State; laws were enacted to compel the attendance of factory workers, under fourteen, at school for six months in the year; teachers salaries were advanced; more than fifty new school houses were dedicated, and a large number rebuilt and refurnished; industrial drawing was introduced; the school laws were revised; town and State appropriations were increased manifold and an universal interest in public education was awakened; the Commissioner de- livered more than five hundred educational addresses and secured twice that number from others; he restored and edited the "Rhode Island Schoolmaster."

During his term, he was appointed delegate to the Vienna Exposition in 1873, and in a long European trip, compassing Italy, Greece and Constantinople, he studied educational work from Ireland to Asia Minor. The Board of Education expressed deep regrets on Mr. Bicknell's departure from the State and placed on record their high valuation of his services.

As founder of the "New England Journal of Educa- tion," Mr. Bicknell chose Boston as his field of work, with Mr. C. C. Chatfield as publishers of the educational weekly. On Mr. Chatfield's death, in 1876, Mr. Bicknell assumed the publishing work. He later brought out the "Primary Teacher," "Good Times," now the "Pop- ular Educator," and the bi-monthly magazine, "Educa- tion." All have found popular favor and have a profit- able circulation after nearly fifty years. The New England Bureau of Education, now Winship's Teachers' Agency, was founded and built up by Mr. Bicknell.

In 1877 and in 1878, Mr. Bicknell was president of the American Institute of Instruction, and in the latter year holding a great meeting at Fabyans, White Moun- tains, attended by more than three thousand persons. From the proceeds, the "Bicknell Fund" of $1,000 was set apart. At this meeting Prof. A. E. Dolbear, in- ventor, gave the first public illustration of the telephone.

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HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND

The fundamental principles of American Education were publicly set forth in a great meeting on the sum- mit of Mt. Washington.

In 1880, the National Council of Education, a philo- sophic department of American education, was founded at Chautauqua, N. Y., of which Mr. Bicknell was the anthor, holding the presidency for three years.

In 1884, at Saratoga, N. Y., Mr. Bicknell was elected president of the National Education Association of the United States. In July of that year, fully ten thousand persons met at Madison, Wis., as the result of the president's organizing ability, to discuss the principles and methods of many departments of American Educa- tion. An exposition was also held in the State House. Booker T. Washington began his public speaking career at that meeting. The permanent fund of the N. E. A. was started from the surplus proceeds. The great in- fluential meetings of this Association began at Madison. The president declined a unanimons and very urgent renomination.

In 1886, at the solicitation of Dr. J. H. Vincent, Mr. Bicknell was made the organizer and president of the Chautauqua Teachers' Reading Union. In 1887, he was chosen president of the New England Colony Associa- tion for Dakota, and in this capacity, founded a town in North Dakota, called New England. It is now a grain center and an incorporated city.

From 1888 to 1890, Mr. Bicknell was chosen as a Representative of Ward 24, Boston, in the Massachu- setts General Court and was chairman of House com- mittees of education and suffrage.

In 1879, he organized and was chosen president of the Bicknell Family Association and still holds the office. In 1913, he edited and published the Genealogy of the Family in a quarto of about 600 pp., fully and beautifully illustrated. It is styled "a live book."

As an author, Mr. Bicknell has written a large num- ber of books and pamphlets. The principal of these are: "The Life of William Lord Noyes," "Historic Sketches of Barrington," "Sowams," "History of Bar- rington," "Story of Dr. John Clarke," "History of Rhode Island Normal School," "The Governors of Rhode Island," "The Dorr War," various pamphlets on family history and educational subjects. A volume of poems also appears. "The History of Rhode Island," four volumes, is his latest and most extended work. He estimates that his publications total one billion 12 mo. pp., or a library of five million 200-page books. He has been a member of more than one hundred organi- zations, president of over thirty and vice-president of as many more.

Mr. Bicknell was nominated by the leading educators of the United States to be chief of the Department of Education and Fine Arts, in the Columbian Exposition of 1892-93, but was set aside, as late revelations show, for local personal and political reasons.

As a public lecturer, Mr. Bicknell has interested public audiences for more than sixty years. In the Civil War, his addresses were magnetic and con- vincing. In the educational field the scope of his dis- cussions is broad and progressive. In historic debate, he is accurate in scholarship, clear in statement, full in details, imaginative, and logical in conclusions. His six

lectures before the Brooklyn Institute on "The Evolu- tion of Democracy" through Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Medieval, English and American ideals were highly commended for scholarship and comparative conclusions. After a series of lectures on Alaska, he was invited to write a book on the country, by an eminent Boston publisher. In 1892, he prophesied the coming anto- mobile, in lecures in Boston on "The Horseless Car- riage," and he was an officer of the company that built the first auto in Rhode Island.

Mr. Bicknell's American ancestors held Puritan ideals of the conservative Congregational faith. The son joined the church of the fathers in 1852 and at the age of eighty-five holds very liberal views, in the old communion. He has been a leader in church and Sun- day school organizations for more than sixty years, serving as superintendent in Bristol, Barrington and Dorchester, Mass. He was founder of the Rhode Island Congregational Sunday School Union, and its first president; co-founder and president of the Boston Congregational Sunday School Superintendents' Union: co-founder and president of the Massachusetts Sunday School Union; and president of the International Sun- day School Association. He was leader and co-founder of the Harvard Congregational Church, Boston, as well as of the Congregational Church at New England, Da- kota. He has taught large bible classes, held all church offices and often occupied the pulpit and conducted all church services.

The limits of this article forbid reference to many of Mr. Bicknell's activities along social, civic, educational, reformatory, political and religious lines. When his life work ends, a full biography will be worthy of study.

On September 5, 1860, Mr. Bicknell married Miss Amelia D. Blanding, daughter of Christopher and Chloe (Carpenter) Blanding, of Rehoboth, Mass. Three children were born to them, one, Martha Eliza- beth, living five years. Mrs. Bicknell died at the end of a very active christian life, at Boothbay, Me., Au- gust 13, 1896.

THOMAS WILLIAMS, son of Joseph and Lucy (Witter) Williams, was born at Pomfret, Conn., Nov. 5. 1779. At the age of sixteen he entered Williams College, spending two years, and graduated from Yale College in 1800.

He spent three years in teaching, and in 1803 was licensed to preach. In 1804, he studied theology under Rev. Nathaniel Emmons, the celebrated preacher and representative of the Hopkinsian theology. A life- long friendship was established, and Dr. Emmons chose Mr. Williams to preach his funeral sermon. While preaching at Providence, his earnest and forci- ble manner and eccentricities of person, dress and style, drew large audiences, among whom were many college students, of whom were Judson, the missionary, Drs. Burgess, of Dedham, and Ide, of Medway.

Mr. Williams preached at Barrington at the time of the birth of our historian, and so satisfactory was the preacher to Mr. Bicknell's parents, that he was given the name of the congregational minister of the town, Thomas Williams Bicknell.

Mr. Williams' biographer writes of him: "He was

Thomas Williams

1-3

Cha Signey

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BIOGRAPHICAL

an earnest, forcible preacher, and his style was marked by occasional eccentricities of manner and speech that served to make his sermons more striking and power- ful. His prayers often made so deep an impression on the minds of his hearers that they were remem- bered and spoken of years afterwards. His self- sacrifice and kindly spirit secured for him the respect and confidence of all and he was familiarly known as 'Father Williams.'"

By marriage with Ruth Hale, they gave to the world seven children, one of whom, Nathan, becoming a Congregational minister. Mr. Williams died, at Providence, Sept. 29, 1876, in the ninety-seventh year of his age, honored and beloved by all who knew him.

JUDGE FELIX HEBERT-Prominent in legal circles and in the general life of Providence, and the town of West Warwick, is Judge Felix Hebert, whose career as an attorney and judge and as the holder of several other important public offices has won for him the respect and esteem of the community, and made him an influential man in local affairs. Judge Hebert is the son of Edouard and Catherine (Vandale) Hebert, both of whom were early immigrants to this State from Canada, coming here respectively at the ages of fifteen and seven years. The elder Mr. Hebert was the son of a prosperous farmer in the Province of Quebec, and in spite of his early age was himself engaged in that occu- pation before coming to the United States. Upon first coming to this country, the parents made their home at Coventry, where the young man took up mill work for a time, and was later in business as a custom boot- maker. Eventually he engaged in the boot and shoe business at Anthony, in the town of Coventry, and while living there was one of the founders (1870), and a trustee for thirty years, of St. Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic Church. Mr. and Mrs. Edouard Hebert were the parents of thirteen children, one of whom is the subject of this sketch.

The birth of Felix Hebert occurred December II, 1874, at St. Guillaume, in the Province of Quebec, Canada, during a sojourn at that place made by his father and mother on account of the former's health. Shortly after, they returned with their son to Coventry, and it was at the public schools of that place that the lad secured the elementary portion of his education. He afterwards attended La Salle Academy at Provi- dence, from which he was graduated with the class of 1893. Upon completing his studies at the latter insti- tution, the young man sought for and secured employ- ment as a stenographer with the New York and New England Railroad Company, where he was rapidly pro- moted to positions of responsibility. He remained with this concern for about three years, when he became secretary to the late General Charles R. Brayton. An- other period of three years was spent by him in this · capacity, and he then received an appointment as clerk in the office of Treasurer Walter A. Read, where he worked for one year. In the year 1899 he was appointed deputy insurance commissioner of the State of Rhode Island, and held this responsible post continuously until 1917. During this long term he not only discharged his duties to the entire satisfaction of the department,

but also took up the study of law, and was admitted to practice at the Rhode Island bar in 1907. In the year IgIo he was chosen judge of the District Court of the Fourth Judicial District, and continues to occupy that important and responsible post. Judge Hebert has made a specialty of insurance law. He is a Republi- can in politics. Judge Hebert is a Roman Catholic and is a member of the parish of St. Jean Bap- tiste, Arctic Centre, of which his father was one of the founders. He is a member of various societies and clubs, including the Catholic Club, and the Turk's Head Club of Providence.

Judge Hebert was united in marriage, September 18, 1900, with Virginia M. Provost, a daughter of Octave and Virginie (Deslauriers) Provost, of Ware, Mass., where the wedding was performed. Four children have been born to Judge and Mrs. Hebert, as follows: Cath- erine Virginia, who is now attending Sacred Heart Academy at Fall River: Adrien Warner, a pupil in the West Warwick High School; Marguerite Rosalie, and Edouard Felix, both of whom attend the public schools of West Warwick.

C. IRA BIGNEY-Coming to Providence ap- proximately thirteen years ago, a country lad with nothing more than a stout heart and a wealth of ambi- tion, Charles Ira Bigney, president and treasurer of the C. I. Bigney Construction Company, has attained success seldom, if ever, equalled. A Nova Scotian boy with natural keenness of the boy of the Provinces, he has successfully climbed the ladder of success. To-day his name is a by-word in the construction bus- iness of Rhode Island and nearby States, and many handsome and substantial structures will stand in the years to come as a monument to his thrift and appli- cation to what he selected as his life's occupation.

Success is attained only by dint of great effort, and Mr. Bigney may well look back upon the years of his youth, when, without the usual time allotted to the growing youth for play, he began to build up a future that to-day stands far and away ahead of those who were satisfied to take life as it came. But thirty-eight years of age, he is what might well be termed a "self-made man." From a Nova Scotian vil- lage to a metropolis like Providence is a broad space, but Charles Ira Bigney had the ambition. Backed by a brilliant and creative mind, together with a wiry frame, the sun gradually broke through the clouds that darkened his early days of long labor. To-day he stands in the heyday of his career. The future holds nothing but greater success, and Mr. Bigney has surrounded himself with an organization composed of men who assume part of the great responsibility which rests on his shoulders.

The C. I. Bigney Construction Company, of Provi- dence, R. I., is the keynote of everything that stands for the best in construction. Modern construction methods are employed throughout. This company en- joys the distinction of being the only construction company in this great metropolis of the East which handles the entire work itself from the time the authority is given to build until the finished work is turned over to the owner. The business is conducted

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HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND

on a strictly ten per cent. basis, the only concern operating entirely in this manner in Providence. Vol- umes might be said of Mr. Bigney's rapid rise in the construction business. A keen business sense and a pleasing manner in meeting people have been his big asset.

Charles Ira Bigney first saw the light of day in Millvale, Nova Scotia, November 14, 1881, in that little town that sets among the grandeur of the Nova Scotia scenery, and one of the delightful little towns which abound in that section. He is the son of John Marshall Bigney, now deceased, and Olive E. (Fisher) Bigney, who still lives. He appeared just an ordi- nary sort of child in those early days of his existence, but the future has already stamped his destiny.

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The history of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, V. IV, Part 90

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