Trails to the Past

Providence County RI Biographies

Men of Progress of Rhode Island and Providence Part 1
Source:  Boston New England Magazine 1896
Page 5

 

SAWIN, Isaac Warren, homoeopathic physician, Providence, was born in Dover, Mass., December 30, 1823, son of Joel and Mary (Battelle) Sawin.  He comes of old New England stock, his ancestor Thomas Sawin having emigrated from Boxford, county of Suffolk, England, and settled in New England between 1647 and 1653. He received his early education in the public schools of Massachusetts, supplemented by private teaching and self-culture. He studied medicine under Dr. P. T.  Bowen of Providence, and Dr. C. W. B. Kidder, then of Providence but now located in New York, who was lecturer on surgery and demonstrator of practical and surgical anatomy at the medical college in Worcester, Mass. He graduated from the Western Homoeopathic College of Cleveland, Ohio, March 11, 1857  In 1875 and 1876 he took a post-graduate course of clinical study in Vienna, Austria. In 1857 he established himself in Centredale, R. I., and remained there until 1867, when he removed to Providence, where he has since continuously practiced, except for the season spent in study in Europe. He was an Assistant Surgeon in the Rhode Island Militia under the militia law enacted during the war of the Rebellion. He was appointed Visiting Physician of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Hospital in 1886 and has been a Consulting Physician at the same institution since 1892. He is also a Consulting Physician in the Providence Homoeopathic Dispensary. He is a member of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Medical Society and a senior of the American Institute of Homoeopathy. He married, January 1, 1849, Miss Olive S. Budlong; they have had children: Adaline Frances (deceased), Olive Ervina and Ida Estelle Sawin.


 

SENIOR, Daniel Widmer, manufacturer, Woonsocket, was born in Troy, N. Y., July 17, 1849, son of Francis and Elizabeth (Widmer) Senior. He comes from English stock on his father's side, and on the maternal side from Swiss ancestors. He was educated in the public schools of Troy, and prepared for college under the tuition of Rev. F.  Widmer, of Fultonville,  N. Y., following which he entered the office of the Troy Woolen Company.  After serving as clerk in the office a few years he went into the mill of the company, to learn the practical and mechanical end of the business. Afterwards he studied the art of fancy weaving and designing, and finally took up the manufacture of fancy woolen and worsted goods, rising from weaver to overseer and from overseer to superintendent. He was Superintendent of the Livingstone Mills, Bristol, Pa., from September 1884 to September 1887, and since the latter date has held the position of Superintendent of the Harris Woolen Company's mills at Woonsocket. He has just started in business for himself, as a member of the firm of Cole, Senior & Co., manufacturers of fine kerseys, meltons and fancy cassimeres.   Mr. Senior is vice-president of the Woonsocket Business Men's Association, and is a member of all the Masonic bodies, was Eminent Commander of Woonsocket Commandery Knights Templar from October 1893 to October 1895, High Priest of Union Royal Arch Chapter, and has passed  through the several offices of the Blue Lodge.   He is a Republican, but has never held political office.   He was married, May 12, 1870, to Miss Mary J. Button, of Schaghticoke, N. Y., who died July 8, 1884; two children were born to them, both of whom are living : Clare E. and Frank W.  Senior, the latter now a student at the Philadelphia Dental College.


 

SPRAGUE, Albert Gallatin, M. D., President of the State Board of Health, was born in Providence, November 22, 1836, son of Albert G. and Mary (Fiske) Sprague. His grandmother on the paternal side, Amy (Williams) Sprague, was descended in direct line from Roger Williams. He received his early education at Peirce Academy, Middleboro, Mass., and entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, graduating in 1859. He started the practice of medicine in Warwick, R. I., in 1866, and has since practiced there to the present time. Dr. Sprague is President of the State Board of Health, of which he has been a member since its organization in 1878. He was a Representative to the General Assembly in 1886-87, and has been Health Officer of the town of Warwick since 1887.

In the army he served as Assistant Surgeon in the Tenth and Seventh regiments Rhode Island Volunteers, from May 1862 to the close of the war in 1865.

He is a member of McGregor Post G. A. R.  of Phenix, R. I., also of the Warwick Club, the Providence Press Club and the Providence Athletic Association.   In politics he is a Republican. Dr.  Sprague was married, November 22, 1859, to Miss Ellen T. Duncan of North Brookfield, Mass.; they had two children: Albert D. and Mary E. D.  Sprague, both deceased.


SPRAGUE, Nathan Brown, musician and composer, Providence, was born in Greenville, R. I., April 25, 1864, son of John S. and Lelotina (Phetteplace)   Sprague.    He received his early education in the public schools and in the English and Classical schools of Providence. He was early attracted to musical studies and pursued them in Providence, Boston and New York, and under leading masters in England and Germany, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the principles of both vocal and instrumental harmony. Since 1881 he has taught the pianoforte, organ, the cultivation of the voice and musical theory in Providence, having a large clientage. As a composer, Mr. Sprague has produced four complete operas, two of which have been performed, about fifty songs, some of which have been very popular, a large amount of church music, and many pieces for violin, piano and orchestra. He is the organist and director of music at Grace Episcopal Church, Providence, conductor of the Narragansett Choral Society of Peacedale, R. I., President of the Rhode Island Music Teachers' Association, also a member of the executive committee and organist and pianist of the Arion Club, the leading musical association of Providence. He is a member of the Athletic and Press clubs of Providence, the Boston Cadet Club, and of the Masonic order. He married, June 24, 1884, Miss Lydia A. Irons; they have one son, Stanley Sprague.


SMITH, Charles Sherman, M. D., Providence, was born in Douglas, Mass., October 16, 1863, son of Dr. John Derby and Susan (Anthony) Smith. He comes of good medical ancestry. His grandfather, Dr. Nathan Smith, founded the Medical School of Dartmouth College, filled for nearly twenty years the chair of surgery in the Medical School of Yale College, and gave large aid as a lecturer in establishing similar schools at Bowdoin College and at the University of Vermont. Nathan Smith was a farmer's son, and at sixteen shouldered a musket to protect Vermont homesteads from Indian attack during the Revolutionary war. At the close of that period he found a fitting mate in Sarah, daughter of General Jonathan Chase who fought with Stark at Bennington and drew up the terms of surrender for Burgoyne after the battle of Saratoga, and granddaughter of Samuel Chase who joined the Continental army when near seventy years of age. Dr. Nathan Smith's practice extended throughout New England and Canada. He was the second American surgeon to perform ovariotomy, and his method was the one that is best approved at the present time. He had four sons, all of whom followed the profession of their father. Dr. David S. C. H. Smith was formerly a practicing physician in Providence, and was an accomplished botanist and entomologist. Dr. Nathan R. Smith, of Baltimore, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the University of Vermont at the youthful age of twenty-eight, was soon called to the chair of anatomy in Jefferson College, and later to the chair of surgery in the University of Maryland, where he remained until the ripe age of eighty. He counted among his early pupils, Drs. Gross and Atley. In lithotomy alone he performed successfully three hundred operations. His Baltimore students affectionately styled him the " Emperor of Surgeons," and his exhaustive treatise on the surgical anatomy of the arteries is of itself an enduring monument to his name. Dr. James M. Smith was a beloved and successful practitioner in Springfield, Mass., for nearly twenty years; he met his death in the Norwalk railway disaster, and was succeeded by his son, Dr. David P. Smith. Dr. John Derby Smith was a Vale graduate of 1832, and studied both theology and medicine; he never engaged in private practice, but during the Rebellion served as surgeon at Fairfax Seminary Hospital, and after the war, became surgeon in the navy.   At the age of sixty-two he was placed upon the retired list, and spent the remainder of his days in private life at his country home in Bridgewater, Mass. Of Dr. Nathan Smith's fifteen grandsons, nine became physicians, of whom the older and more widely known are Dr. Nathan Smith Lincoln, of Washington, D. C.; Dr. Allan Smith of Baltimore, Md.; and the late Dr. David P. Smith, of Springfield, Mass., the latter occupying at his death the same chair of surgery that his grandfather had filled so many years before him. Of the third generation six have already been added to the medical profession. Dr. Charles Sherman Smith's mother came from a Rhode Island family even more numerously supplied with physicians than was his father's. The subject of this sketch is therefore, in three generations, one of twenty physicians on his father's side, some of whom were of national fame, and one of twenty-five on his mother's side.

He acquired his early education in the district schools and at the Bridgewater High School.  He graduated from the Medical College of the University of New York in the spring of 1892, being among the twenty selected for an honor list from a class numbering one hundred and sixty members. Following his graduation he stood first among nine in a competitive examination for the position of Interne at the Rhode Island Hospital, remained in that institution until May 1894, and three months later opened an office in Providence. An unusual amount and variety of surgical work has come to his hands during his three years' residence in that city, requiring and testing all the qualities of a true surgeon.   As he has said, water will boil and bi-chloride will destroy germs anywhere, and some of his best use of the surgeon's knife has been in the treatment of hernia and appendicitis in the midst of surroundings that might well dismay the looker on. Dr. Smith was so fortunate while Interne as never to lose a typhoid patient, a result which he attributes largely to a discreet, and yet a more than usually persistent, treatment by the sponge. In devising ingenious appliances for the relief and cure of spinal and hip diseases he has brought into play inherited mechanical skill. He is an ardent believer in the possibility of arrest of lung disease in its earlier stages, and the sufferings of motherhood have led him to study closely how to reduce them to the greatest extent possible. Lately he has made a successful debut as a laparotomist. He is intensely devoted to his profession, and waits patiently for the larger successes which come slowly but surely to those who set for themselves a high standard of professional and personal honor. Dr. Smith is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Providence Medical Association and the Rhode Island Medical Society.   He is unmarried.


STEVENS, Grenville Smith, homoeopathic physician. Providence, was born in Raynham, Mass., July 10, 1829. His father was a merchant, and he spent his early youth on the farm and in attendance at the public schools. In 1848 he entered Brown University from which he graduated with the degree of A. M. in 1852. He had early adopted medicine as his profession, and during the vacations of his college course he pursued his preliminary studies in the office of Drs. Barrows and Graves, eminent physicians of Taunton, Mass. Immediately after his graduation he entered the office of Dr. A. Howard O'Kie, Providence, as a student. In 1853 he attended a course of medical lectures in Pittsfield, Mass., and afterward entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, from which he graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1854. His first service as a physician was in Chicago during the cholera epidemic, when his health gave way and he returned East. In August 1854 he opened an office in Providence, where he soon gained a successful practice. After thirteen years of practice his health again failed under his exacting labors, and he retired to his farm, where he remained for two years. In 1869 he returned to Providence and resumed the practice which he has continued since.  Dr. Stevens has been much interested in religious matters, and was the originator and one of the founders of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Providence. He is a member of the Masonic Order, and of various medical associations. He was one of the founders of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Society and its first Secretary. He married Miss Hannah Wheaton Smith, and subsequently Mrs. Lydia Browning White ; he has no children.


STINESS, John Henry, Providence, Justice of the Supreme Court, is a native of Providence, where he was born August 9, 1840, son of Philip Bessom and Mary (Marsh) Stiness.   Judge Stiness is descended from sturdy English stock; the name originally being Staines, pronounced in two syllables, and changed to Stiness in America. The family settled in Marblehead, Mass., and during the Revolutionary war Samuel Stiness, the great-grand-father of Judge Stiness, served in the famous regiment recruited mainly among the fishermen of Marblehead and vicinity, called " The Amphibious Regiment," commanded by Colonel - afterward Brigadier General - John Glover.   The grandfather of Judge Stiness was a sea-captain and during the war of 1812 served as sailing master in the two-gun schooner Growler, attached to the squadron under command of Capt Isaac Chauncey in Lake Ontario.  After the war Capt. Stiness removed to Smithfield, R. I., where he died in 1816. Philip Bessom Stiness, the father of Judge Stiness, was born in Marblehead, and in his early business life served as a clerk to the firm of which Samuel Slater, the famous founder of the cotton manufacturing industry in the United States, was a member at Slatersville, R. I. He afterward engaged in the business of calendaring cotton goods at Woonsocket, and in a few years became interested in the manufacture of gimlet-pointed screws under a patent obtained by Cullen Whipple. He and Mr. Whipple founded the business in Providence in 1838, which resulted in the formation of the New England Screw Company.  Mr. Stiness died in 1878. Judge Stiness's mother was Mary Marsh, daughter of John and Lucy (Blake) Marsh of Sutton, Mass., and a sister of George W. Marsh, a former Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island. Judge Stiness received his early education in the Providence public schools and at the University Grammar School.  He entered Brown University in the class of 1861.  At the close of the Sophomore year he took charge of the Hopkins Grammar School, North Providence (now the Branch Avenue Grammar School of Providence, and remained two years. At the outbreak of the civil war he received a commission as Second Lieutenant in the Second Regiment New York Artillery and served a year and a quarter, acting as Adjutant and occasionally as Judge Advocate. He did not graduate from the University but received the honorary degree of A. M. in 1876 and that of LL. D. in 1893.   After his service in the army he studied law in the office of Thurston, Ripley & Co., and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar March 31, 1865, and to the United States Supreme Court in January 1875.   In 1874-75 he was a Representative in the General Assembly from Providence, and was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court on April 13, 1875.   Among the important decisions rendered by Judge Stiness was the one sustaining the validity of the trust deed given in behalf of their creditors by the A. & W. Sprague Company.  The Court of Errors in Connecticut had decided that the deed was invalid and this decision had been followed by Judge Shipman in the United States Circuit Court. Judge Stiness's opinion, however, was sustained in the United States Supreme Court, where it was contested by General Butler in the case of Evan Randolph vs. the Quidnick Company, and the Court of Errors in Connecticut modified its opinion so as to hold the mortgage valid for the assenting creditors, which was the main point at issue. Judge Stiness was one of the commissioners for the erection of the Providence County Courthouse in 1876-77. In 1882 he was elected a trustee of the Providence Public Library and is a member of the library committee. In 1893 he was elected President of the Brown University Lecture Association. He is President of the Rhode Island Historical Society, and member of the Churchmen's Club, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and other social and fraternal organizations. In politics Judge Stiness is a Republican.  He married, November 19, 1868, Miss Maria E.  Williams; they have two children : Flora Brown, wife of Henry C. Tilden, and Henry Williams Stiness.


STUDLEY, John Edward, manager of real estate corporations, Providence, was born in Worcester, Mass., November 13, 1852, son of John Moore and Julia Ann (Gill) Studley. The Studley's are an old English family found in Kent and Yorkshire, the seat of the family in the latter county being Studley Park. There were two families of this name in New England at an early date, one in Boston and one in Sandwich, Mass. The Providence Studley's descended from the Boston branch, and among their ancestors was Benjamin Studley who was a lieutenant in the Massachusetts troops during the war of the Revolution, and was a Selectman in Hanover, Mass., in 1778. The subject of this sketch received his early education in the public schools of Worcester, Mass., Brooklyn, N. Y., and Providence, R. I.  He graduated from the high school in Providence, May 5, 1869.   His early training was all of a business character.   Much of his spare time out of school was employed in a grocery store in the vicinity of his home, and later in vacations and on Saturdays he was employed in the store of Eddy & Studley.  In September 1869 he was engaged as clerk in one of the freight offices of the New York, Providence & Boston Railroad.   A few years later his employer accepted an important office with the Providence and New York Steamship Company, and at his request he accompanied him as a cashier, and later was appointed head clerk of the company.   In 1877 he took the position of book-keeper and confidential clerk of Amos D. Smith & Company, then a large cotton manufacturing firm operating the Franklin Manufacturing Company and the Providence Steam Mills.   While in their employ he married the eldest daughter of William H. Low. a man who in his line of business of leasing and improving real estate had done much to build up the business centre of the city.  

In 1881 Mr. Low died suddenly and at the request of his heirs Mr. Studley resigned his position with Amos D. Smith & Company, and assumed the management of the estate of William H. Low. This management has been very successful and the estate has grown largely in value, so much so that it was deemed advisable to incorporate it. Consequently in 1889 The William H. Low Estate Company was chartered, and since then the business has been carried on under that name.   At the present time he holds the office of President and Treasurer of the company.   In 1895 the Studley Land Company was incorporated  and he was chosen President and Treasurer; a large business block was erected on Weybosset street known as the Studley Building.  He is also President of the Weybosset Investment Company, and Director in the Providence Gas Company, the Manufacturers' National Bank, the Atlantic National Bank and the Atlantic Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Providence.   He has always been so deeply engaged in business that he has uniformly declined to accept public office, although for years solicited to do so, until 1894, when he accepted the nomination for Representative in the General Assembly, to which he was elected, and re-elected the succeeding year, serving on the Judiciary Committee.  On his nomination the Providence Daily Journal said : " J. Edward Studley of Ward 9 is the strongest man on the ticket, and could have had the party nominee for Mayor long ago had he desired."   In politics he is a Republican.   He is a member of Adelphoi Lodge A. F. & A. M., in which he has held all the offices, including that of Master, also a member of Providence Royal Arch Chapter, of Providence Council Royal and Select Masters, and of St. John's Commandery Knights Templar. He is a Scottish Rite Mason, thirty-second degree, and a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also a member of the Providence Press Club, the West Side Club, the Providence Athletic Association, the Pomham Club of which he was Treasurer for one year and President for two years, the Squantum Association and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is a Companion of the second class of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Massachusetts Commandery. He married, November 21, 1878, Miss E. Lillie Low; they have had three children : Ethel, Earle Stowell (deceased) and William Low Studley.


TAFT, Royal Chapin, A. M., banker and manufacturer, is the son of Orsmus and Margaret (Smith) Taft. He was born in Northbridge, Mass., February 14,1823. His parents removed to Uxbridge, Mass., when he was less than one year of age, where he remained until his removal to Providence, R. I., in July 1844, in which city he has since resided. He is a descendant in the seventh generation from Robert Taft, one of the original settlers of the town of Mendon, Mass., who moved to that town from Braintree, Mass., at the close of King Philip's war, in 1680. Robert Taft originally came from Scotland, and was a householder while in Braintree, was chosen one of the selectmen of Mendon in 1681, and he, with his five sons and their descendants, has had an important influence upon the history and affairs of Mendon and Uxbridge.   His grand-father, Jacob Taft, appears with the rank of private on Lexington alarm roll of Capt. Joseph Chapin's company, which marched from Uxbridge on the alarm of April 19, 1775.   He appears with rank of Sergeant on muster roll of Captain Seagrave's company, Col. Joseph Read's regiment, May 1, 1775, as also on September 25, 1775, having served in that capacity at the battle of Bunker Hill.   The subject of this sketch had the usual common-school instruction in the town of Uxbridge, and the benefit of a two-years' term in Worcester Academy.   Upon his removal to Providence he entered as clerk in the office of Royal Chapin, who was engaged in business as a woolen manufacturer and dealer in wool.  After five years' service he was admitted as a partner with Mr. Chapin, under the firm name of Royal Chapin & Co.   In 1851 he started in the wool and manufacturing business with S. Standish Bradford, of Pawtucket, as a partner under the firm name of Bradford & Taft, which was continued as Bradford, Taft & Co., and Taft, Weeden & Co., until 1885, when he for a while retired from active business.   He is now engaged in manufacturing both cotton and wool.   In 1888 he purchased the interest of the late Henry \V. Gardner in the Coventry Company.   He is Treasurer of the Bernon Mills at Georgiaville, R. I., and President of the Quinebaug Company, located at Brooklyn, Conn.  He has been for many years prominently identified with the financial affairs of the state, as President of the Merchants National Bank of Providence since 1868, as Vice-President of the Providence Institution for Savings, and one of the directors of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company.   He is also President of the Boston & Providence Railroad, and a director of the New York, New Haven & Hartford  Railroad Company.    It may be truly remarked in this connection that few men have had more influence upon the financial affairs of the state than Mr. Taft.   Originally a member of the Whig party, he has, since the dissolution of that party, been a Republican.   He was, during 1855 and 1856, a member of the City Council of the city of Providence; a Representative to the General Assembly from that city in 1880, 1881 and 1882, and for six years one of the sinking fund commissioners for the state.    In April 1888 he was elected by the people Governor of the state of Rhode Island upon the Republican ticket. He held the office one year, and declined a re-nomination on account of the increasing demands of his private business.   He has held many positions of trust and honor in the city and state.   He is now President of the Rhode Island Hospital, has been a member of the board of trustees of Butler Asylum for the Insane since 1865, and is Vice-President of the Providence Athenseum.   He was associated with the late Hon. George H. Corliss as one of the Commissioners from the State of Rhode Island to the Centennial Exposition of 1876 held in Philadelphia.   He received the degree of Master of Arts from Brown University in 1891.   He married, October 31, 1850,  Miss Mary Frances, daughter of George B. Aimington, M. D., of Pittsford, Vt.; their children are: Mary E. (now Mrs. George M Smith), Abby F., Robert W. and Royal C. Taft, Jr.


TANGUAY, John Baptist Antony, physician and surgeon, Providence, was born in St. Rosalie, county of Bagot, Province of Quebec, Canada, April 3, 1846, son of Joseph and Eulalie (Yon) Tanguay.  He is descended from old and respected Canadian families.   He received his early education at the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe, P. Q.   He adopted medicine as a profession, and studied for three sessions at McGill Medical College, Montreal, and one session at the Victoria College, from which he graduated in 1869.   He first practiced in St. Hyacinthe, and removed to Providence in 1882, being the first French physician to establish himself in the city.    He is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, the Canada Medical Society, a member and one of the founders of the Massachusetts Canadian   Medical  Society, the St. Louis Medical Society, the North American Physician and Surgeons Protection Society, of Court Thomas A. Doyle Ancient Order of Foresters, Providence Sanctuary A. O. of  S of A., the St. John Baptist Society, Naturalization Club, and Catholic Knights of America.   He married, February 8, 1875, Miss Vitaline, a daughter of Prosper Cloutier, Esq.; they had children: J. A. Edgar, J. B. P. Raphael, Marie Antoinette Blanche, Marie Corinne, and two others who died in infancy.


TANK, John Thomas, contractor and railroad bridge builder, was born in Newton, Mass., June 22, 1843, the son of John and Caroline Elizabeth (Stevens) Tank. His father was born near Truro, Cornwall, England, and came to this country at an early age. His mother is a native of East Brookfield, Mass., and of old New England stock. He received his early education in the public schools, and at early manhood entered the service of his father, who was a prominent railroad contractor. He served in various capacities in this work and was early put in charge of a gang of men in the construction of railroads. In this capacity he was employed for several years on the Boston, Hartford & Erie, now the New England, Railroad. In 1870 he became clerk and afterward superintendent for Dawson, Tank & Co., who were general contractors and owned a large granite quarry in Connecticut.  He remained in the employ of this company about four years, when it discontinued business, and he removed to New York, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits at Chatham until 1883. He then came to Providence, R. I., and engaged in the contracting business under the firm name of Ingerson & Tank. This partnership continued four years, when it was dissolved, and he has since carried on the business alone. His contracts are usually of heavy masonry stonework, and the erection of dams and bridges for public works. He is also a dealer in granite. In 1889 he leased the Plumer quarry at Northbridge, Mass, and the following year purchased the property; the output of the quarry has been about twenty thousand tons since he took possession of it. He is also the owner of the quarry formerly owned by Dawson, Tank & Co. Among the contracts which he has completed have been the construction of bridges on Smith, Gaspee, and Francis streets for the new terminal plan of the Consolidated Railroad, and at Elmwood avenue, Broad street, and Reservoir avenue for the proposed Belt Line in Providence, and one at Broad street, Lonsdale. He also rebuilt several of the Stonington railroad bridges, and did considerable grading for a second track between Providence and New London.  He built a well in Waltham, Mass., considered the largest in the United States. It is fifty feet in diameter and was constructed by the city for water supply at a cost of $15,000. He has now completed, at Lonsdale, a dam and bridge across the Blackstone River for the Lonsdale Company, which cost $150,000, and another at Ashton for the same company which cost $75,000, and has just completed the new Central or Red Bridge across the Seekonk River, at Providence. He is a member of the New England Granite Manufacturing Association, and is Secretary of the Granite Manufacturing Association of Rhode Island. In politics he is a Republican always. He married, in 1868, Miss Euphemia Shufelt of Chatham, N. Y.; they have one son: Morton Richard Tank.


WALKER, General William Russell, architect, Providence, and Deputy Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery Knights Templar of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, was born in Seekonk, Mass.  (now East Providence, R. I.), April 14, 1830, the son of Alfred and Huldah Bardeen (Perry) Walker.  He-is a descendant in the third generation of John Walker of Rehoboth, Mass., who was a Sergeant in the Minute Men from Rehoboth in the Lexington alarm and in service during the war of the Revolution.   John Walker was descended in the fourth generation from the Widow Walker, who came into the Plymouth Colony at a date unknown, and who was previous to 1643 one the purchasers and proprietors of the town of Rehoboth.   Who her husband was, or what part of the old country she came from, is unknown; but that she and her two sons were the founders of the family of Walker in Southern Massachusetts is unquestionable.   The subject of this sketch attended the public schools of his native town, and after graduating from the Seekonk Classical Academy in 1846, went to Providence and became a builder's apprentice, serving for a term of three years, during which time he continued his studies and began mechanical and architectural drawing at the Schofield College.   After completing his apprenticeship he removed to Augusta, Ga., remaining there for about a year, and then returned to Rhode Island and located in Pawtucket, where he has since resided. In 1864 he established himself as an architect in Providence, in which profession he has ever since been engaged. He has been closely identified with public life in his adopted city and the state, having served as a member of the Town Councils of both North Providence and Pawtucket, and also having served both towns as a member of the General Assembly of the state.   At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company C, First Regiment Rhode Island Detached Militia, and served until the mustering out of his regiment.   He was a commissioned officer of the state militia for more than twenty years, retiring with the rank of Major General in June 1879.   He is Past Commander of Tower Post G. A. R., and is at the present time a member of the Board of Park Commissioners of the city of Pawtucket.   In politics he is a Republican, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1888.   General Walker became a member of Union Lodge No. 10, A. F. & A. M., in 1857, received his capitular degrees in Pawtucket Royal Arch Chapter No. 4, was knighted in Holy Sepulchre Commandery No. 8 in 1871, and has served three terms as Eminent Commander of that He is a member of Providence Consistory Body Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and of Palestine Temple Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic  Shrine.   In  the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of  Massachusetts  and Rhode Island he has filled the offices of Grand Lecturer, Grand Standard  Bearer, Grand Junior Warden, Grand Senior Warden, Grand Captain-General and Grand Generalissimo, and at the annual session of that body in October 1895 ne was elected Deputy Grand Commander, which office he now holds.  General Walker was married in 1852 to Miss Eliza Billings Hall, daughter of Nathan Hall of Providence ; she passed away February 21, 1896; they had two children: George Clifton, born November 7, 1853, died June 1, 1883 ; and William Howard, born January 19, 1856, who resides in Pawtucket and is associated in business with his father, under the name of William R. Walker & Son, as architects in Providence.


WILCOX, George Dawley, physician and surgeon, Providence, was born in West Greenwich, R. I., August 28, 1825, son of John and Dorcas (Tanner) Wilcox.   He came from Revolutionary ancestry on both sides.   He received his early education in the common schools, and graduated in medicine from the University of New York in 1849.   He began the practice of medicine in his native town in the spring of 1849.   In 1852, he removed to Phenix Village, Warwick, R. I.   In 1856, he became associated with Dr. A. Howard Okie, in Providence.  In 1858 he went to Germany and pursued his medical studies in Vienna, Prague and Leipsic for two years, and then went to London, where he was appointed Medical Interne to the London Homoeopathic Hospital, Great Ormond Street.   He resumed practice in Providence in 1860.   In 1870 he became associated with Dr. Ira Barrows, with whom he remained in partnership until the death of the latter in 1882.   From that time he has been associated with  Dr. Annie W. Hunt,  a former pupil.    In  May, 1862, he  was commissioned Surgeon of the Tenth Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteers, and served with the regiment in the field.   In July 1884 he was appointed by Governor Bourne one of the two Medical Examiners for the city of Providence for six years, and was re-appointed at the end of that time, and resigned after serving a year. He is a member of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Medical Society, honorary member of the Medico-Legal Society of Rhode Island and the British Homoeopathic Medical Society of London, and Corresponding Mitglied des Homceopathischen Central Vereins of Leipzig.  In politics he is a Republican, but has not taken an active part in public affairs. In 1854 he married Miss Mary Fry. who died September 17,1857 ; they had one son, Frank Howard. In 1862 he married Miss Mary Caroline, daughter of Rev. Daniel Leach, of Boston, Mass.; by this union were two children : Mary Lawton and Alice Palmer Wilcox.


WILLIAMS, Alfred Mason, journalist and author, was born in Taunton, Mass., October 23, 1840, son of Lloyd Hall and Prudence King (Padelford) Williams. His remote ancestry on both sides were Welsh. His ancestor, Richard Williams, came from Taunton, Somersetshire, England, and founded the town of Taunton, Mass. His great-grandfather, James Williams, was a captain during the Revolutionary war, and for a long series of years town clerk of Taunton. His great uncle, John Mason Williams, was Chief Justice of the Common Plea Court of Massachusetts. His maternal ancestors for several generations were seafaring men. He received his early education in the public and private schools of Taunton, and was fitted for college at Bristol Academy.   He entered Brown University in the class of i860, but was compelled to leave before the completion of the course on account of weakness of the eyes brought on by over use. During the civil war he enlisted in Company K, Fourth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, and took part in the Louisiana campaign under General Banks.

Having written some letters from the war to the newspapers, he was invited, on his return at the expiration of his term of service, to accept a position as reporter on the Taunton Daily Gazette. In 1865 he was appointed by the New York Tribune to report the Fenian disturbance in Ireland. On landing at Queenstown he was arrested on suspicion of being a Fenian emissary and detained a week, while his papers were being examined in Dublin. When it was discovered that he was no more dangerous a personage than a newspaper correspondent, he was released, and he reported the trials of O'Donovan Rossa and other Fenian leaders in Dublin, besides giving sketches of the people and country for several American newspapers. On his return he took the position of city editor of the Gazette, and was afterward managing editor. In 1868 he was elected a Representative to the Massachusetts Legislature and re-elected the following year by unanimous vote of both parties. In the fall of 1869 he went West and established the Neosho Journal in Neosho, a town in the southwest corner of Missouri near the Indian Territory. While there he spent much time with the Indians in the Territory, and was secretary pro tem.  of the last grand council of all the tribes held at Okmulgee in the Creek Nation. Camp life and exposure during a peculiarly wet season brought on a severe attack of fever and ague, which compelled him to abandon his enterprise and return East.   He obtained a position on the local staff of the Providence Journal, and after about six months was promoted to the position of chief editorial writer, which he held until the death of George W. Danielson in 1884, when he became editor-in-chief.   He held this position, acquiring also a share in the corporation, until 1891, when he resigned while on a visit to Europe.   Since his retirement he has contributed a large number of articles to magazines and newspapers on literary and kindred subjects.   He has published " The Poets and Poetry of Ireland " with Historical and Critical Essays and Notes, Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1880; an introduction to the popular edition of the poems of Sir Samuel Fergerson, Dublin, Seeley, Bryers & Walker, 1887; "Sam Houston and the War of Independence in Texas," Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; "Studies in Folk Song and Popular  Poetry," Houghton, Mifflin & Co., London, Eliot Stock, 1894.   In 1882 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from Brown University.   In 1888 he was elected a trustee of the Public Library of Providence and has held that position since, serving on the library committee and as chairman of the committee to purchase a site and procure plans for a new building.   He was one of the charter members and an early Commander of William H. Bartlett Post 3, G. A. R., Department of Massachusetts, and has been Vice-President of the Fourth Regiment Veteran Association.   He was the founder and the first President of the Providence Press Club.   He is a member of the English and American Folk-Lore societies, of the Irish Literary Society of London, of the American Historical Society, of the Indian Rights Association, of the Sons of the American Revolution, and the United States Veteran Volunteer Association of Rhode Island.   He married, July 5, 1870, Miss Cora Allen Leonard of Taunton, Mass., who died December 11, 1886; he has no children.

 


WILLIAMS, Horace Newell, physician and surgeon, Providence, was born in Uxbridge, Mass., January 2, 1861, son of Nicholas B. and Charlotte E. (Newell) Williams.   He received his early education in the public schools and the High School of Uxbridge.   Adopting medicine as his profession he entered the Bellevue Medical College, New York, from which he graduated in 1882.   He then served in the surgical department at Bellevue Hospital, from which he graduated in 1884.   In that year he established himself in Providence, where he has secured an extensive and lucrative practice. In 1885 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the First Light Infantry Regiment and served until 1888.   He is a member of the Rhode Island State Medical Society, the Providence Medical Association, and of the Society of the Alumni of Bellevue Hospital. He is a member of Solomon Temple A. F. & A. M., of Uxbridge, of Providence Royal Arch Chapter and St. John's Commandery. He married, April 30, 1890, Miss Carrie L. Peirce; they have one child, Charlotte Peirce Williams.
 
 

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