ALDRICH, Hon. Nelson Wilmarth, United States Senator, was born in Foster, Rhode Island, November  6, 1841, son of Anan E. and Abby (Burgess) Aldrich.   He is of old New England ancestry.    Senator Aldrich's early education was acquired in the public schools of Killingly, Connecticut, and at the East Greenwich Academy in Rhode Island.    Shortly after leaving the latter institution, in 1857, he came to Providence and secured a situation as bookkeeper with Waldron & Wightman, wholesale grocers.    His aptitude for business and his close application to the interests of the firm led to his admission as a partner in 1866, and the firm name was changed to Waldron, Wightman & Company.  The high mercantile standing which he early acquired, together with his public spirit and his reputation for sterling integrity, practical wisdom and sound judgment, soon led to his connection with other business enterprises and institutions, and brought him into prominence in public affairs.    He has been President of the First National Bank of Providence and a Director in the Roger Williams Bank, and has been President of the Board of Trade and a member of the Executive Committee.    Upon the organization of the Union Railroad Company, a few years since, formed by a consolidation of the various street-railway lines and interests of   Providence,  Mr.  Aldrich was called to the Presidency of that corporation, which   position he assumed and still holds.   To his intelligent direction, liberal policy and energetic methods is chiefly due the development of the superior street-railway system of Providence, which provides the public with accommodations and facilities not surpassed by those of any other city of its size in America, and which in itself is a successful and profitable enterprise for its stockholders. He has served as a Trustee of the Providence, Hartford & Fishkill Railroad, also as a member and director of the commission that built the Narragansett Hotel, and as a Trustee for the property. He has also been one of the Commissioners on Cove Lands since 1871. Mr. Aldrich made his first entry into public life in 1869, when barely twenty-eight years old, as a member of the Common Council of Providence from the Fifth Ward.   He served in that capacity two years, and was then elected to the Council from the Sixth Ward, serving from June 1872 to January 1875, and was President of that body from June 1871 to January 1873.   In April 1873 he was appointed a member of the Joint Special Committee of the Aldermen and Council to obtain plans for a public market.   He also served on the committee that built the Cranston-street bridge.  In 1875 he was elected Representative to the General Assembly, serving two years and as Speaker in the latter year. In 1878   he was   elected   Representative from the First District to the Forty-Sixth Congress, and in 1880 was re-elected for a second term by the largest vote ever cast for Representative in his district.  Mr. Aldrich's activity and keen grasp of public affairs soon made him an influential member of the House of Representatives, and he was instrumental in rendering his state valuable service in many ways.  In 1880 he was elected Senator, as successor to Senator Burnside, taking his seat at the beginning of the session of 1881, and has been twice re-elected, his present term expiring in March 1899.   In his Senatorial career, because of his especial business education  and  training, Mr. Aldrich's work has naturally been chiefly directed to practical rather than to purely political affairs.   He has been a diligent worker on the Finance Committee, the Committee on Transportation Routes, and in various other capacities in which his wide knowledge of commerce, transportation, finance and general business have brought him into national prominence and enabled him to establish an influence that at various times has rendered the country efficient and exceedingly valuable service.   His personal power in the Senate was signally shown upon the change in the political complexion of that body, by his retention at the head of the Committee on Corporations in the District of Columbia, when Democratic chairmen were in almost every instance substituted.  Yet his strong Republican partisanship has found abundant exhibition in his advocacy of the Force bill and his efforts to secure a modification of the rules, so that a majority could transact business, and in his Chairmanship of the Committee on Rules, which entitled him to leadership in many protracted and heated partisan contests.   He is a strong advocate of sound money and the Protection policy, and was a warm supporter of the McKinley bill when pending.   Senator Aldrich has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1866, and has held various offices in the order; was Eminent Commander of Calvary Commandery Knights Templar in 1879, and has served as Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He is a life member of the Franklin Lyceum of Providence, of which he was Secretary in 1864, Vice-President in 1866, and for a long time a member of the Lecture Committee. Mr. Aldrich was married, October 9, 1866, to Miss Abby P.  Greene; they have several children. Biographie Index

ANTHONY, Frederick Henry, member of the firm of Anthony Brothers, architects, Providence, was born in Providence, November 4, 1846, son of Henry Edwin and Lucy Dudley (McKnight) Anthony. He is of old New England ancestry, on the paternal side belonging to the well-known Anthony family of Rhode Island, and to the Hunt family. His mother is a direct descendant of Governor Dudley, one of the earliest colonial governors of New England, and is also descended from the Stuart family. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Providence. He graduated at the Elm-street grammar school and was entered for the high school, but instead of pursuing his school course he entered the office of the American Screw Company, and shortly after became Paymaster, in which capacity he served three years or more, and then resigned to accept a position in the American Bank, where he gained valuable financial experience.   He resigned his bank connection to engage in commercial pursuits, representing a factory product in Boston, of which he had full charge, up to the period of the great Boston fire in 1872. He then went to New York, where he remained some twenty years, still successfully engaged in commercial business, and visited regularly all the cities of importance in the United States and Canada.  About 1893 he was invited to join the firm of Anthony Brothers,   the   well-known Providence architects, and assume the general management of the commercial portion of the business.   The firm are largely engaged in designing and superintending the construction of business buildings, residences and public edifices, one of the latter class upon which they are now engaged being the new Town Hall in Seekonk.   Mr. Anthony's position in the firm is that of general business manager, mainly looking after and conducting the details of the outside business, a work of no small magnitude and importance, and one for which he is especially qualified by natural adaptation and his long experience in commercial life.   In politics Mr. Anthony is a high-tariff and sound-money Republican, but has never sought nor held office. Biographie Index

ARNOLD, General Olney, banker and manufacturer, Pawtucket, was born in Newton, Mass., January 17, 1822, son of Dr. Seth and Belinda (Streeter) Arnold. The name of Arnold is one of the most ancient known in history. Thomas Arnold, born in 1599, in Cheselbourne, Dorset county, England, was a direct descendant of Cadwalader, the last King of the Britons, and of Alfred the Great, King of England. He came to America in the ship Plain Joan in 1635, settled first at Watertown, Mass., where he married Phebe, daughter of George and Susanna Parkhurst, and came to Providence in 1661, where he bought land and took up his residence; he was for years one of the Town Council, and represented the town in the General Assembly.  His son, Richard Arnold, was Speaker of the House of Deputies, and a member of that body for many years, was also for many years one of the Council of Governor Sir Edmond Andros, and was appointed to draw up the address of congratulation to King James Second on his peaceable succession to the crown. John Arnold, son of Richard, was the first President of the Smith field Town Council, was a Quaker in religion, and gave land and money to build two meeting houses, one at the northerly and the other at the southerly end of his farm, being nine miles apart; one was built at what was called Bank Village, and the other near Butterfly Factory.  The grandson of John Arnold was Nathan, captain of a military company from Cumberland, R. I., during the war of the Revolution, and who lost his life in consequence of exposure after being wounded at the battle of Rhode Island, which took place August 29, 1778. General Olney Arnold's line of descent from Thomas, born in 1599, died 1674, is as follows: Richard, son of Thomas, born March 22, 1642, died April 22, 1710; John, son of Richard, born November 1, 1670; Seth, son of John, born September 6, 1706, died 1801; Nathan, son of Seth, born October 18, 1735: Nathan, son of Nathan; Seth, son of Nathan, born February 26, 1799, died October 31, 1883 ; and Olney, son of Seth, born, as above, January 17, 1822. General Arnold is also descended in direct line from William Arnold, half brother of Thomas, who came from Cheselbourne with his wife. Christian Peake, first to Hingham, Mass., in 1635, and to Providence in 1636; he was one of the original proprietors of Providence Plantations, his name being second in the deed - this deed being from the Indian sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi, with Roger Williams. He is also descended from William Carpenter, one of the thirteen original proprietors of Providence Plantations ; Richard Waterman, also one of the original thirteen; Richard Carder, who represented the town in the Genera! Assembly for many years; Thomas Olney, another of the original proprietors, for many years one of the Governor's Council, the first Town Treasurer, and one of those named on the royal charter granted by King Charles Second, 1663 ; Thomas Angell, who was but eighteen years old when he accompanied Roger Williams in his landing at Slate Rock in 1636; Rev. John Myles of Swansea, Mass.. a noted preacher of his day; Rev.  Pardon Tillinghast, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Providence in 1681 and many years after; Edward Smith of Rehoboth, for many years a member of the Governor's Council: Benjamin Smith, of Providence, one of the Governor's Council and Deputy to the General Assembly for many years; Edward Freeman, Commissioner and Deputy many years ; and John Johnson of Boston, Commander of all the Arms and Ammunition, Chairman of the Committee on War, and Deputy for twenty years. General Arnold is also descended from many other lines of first-comers, who have helped make Rhode Island history. His grandparents on the maternal side were Jonathan and Patience Mason, both descendants from Sampson Mason of Rehoboth, through the Rev. Pelatiah, Charles and Benjamin Mason. Jonathan Mason was a farmer of Cumberland, Rhode Island, and a member of the Town Council. The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where his early life was spent, and at Bushee's Academy in Smithfield. His first business training was in mercantile pursuits, but in a few years he became cashier of a bank in Woonsocket, and in 1853 he removed to Pawtucket, having been elected Cashier of the People's Bank of that place. From that time he has been prominently identified with many of the enterprises that have made the present city of Pawtucket and given it the rank and reputation in the business world which it now holds. In 1855 Mr. Arnold was tendered the position of Cashier of the newly organized Bank of Mutual Redemption in Boston, but declined the offer, on account of his business interests and associations in Pawtucket. In 1863, when the national banking system was established, he organized the First National Bank of Pawtucket, the first national bank in the town and the sixth in the state, and became its Cashier. Two years later the People's Bank was merged with it, and in 1875 he was elected President, which office he has since held. Soon after coming to Pawtucket he was elected Treasurer of the Providence County Savings Bank, and has since continued in that office. Under Mr. Arnold's management the net earnings of the People's Bank and its successor, the First National, have averaged more than twelve per cent, yearly for upwards of forty years. Naturally his services have been constantly in requisition as financier and manager of trusts, and in the settlement of estates, and he has served and is still serving as treasurer, director and trustee of a great number of corporations, societies and institutions. In 1858 he engaged with David Ryder, A. H. Littlefield (afterwards Governor) and a few others in an attempt to perfect the manufacture of haircloth by machinery, in which he succeeded after numerous discouragements in establishing a large and successful industry. He is also Managing Director in the Cumberland Mills Company and the Dexter Yarn Company, and is variously interested in other manufacturing and industrial enterprises. In a public capacity he has served as President of the Town Council, Town Treasurer, Water Commissioner, Trustee of Schools, Trustee of the Public Library, Moderator, and in various other town offices. For several years following 1846 he was a Representative to the General Assembly from the town of Cumberland, of which the village of Woonsocket was then a part. After his removal to Pawtucket, then in North Providence, he was Representative and subsequently Senator from the latter town. Politically he is a Democrat, of the Jeffersonian type, and he has been the candidate of his party for Governor, Representative to Congress, United States Senator, Presidential Elector and other prominent positions, always leading his ticket largely in popular elections.  He has been Railroad Commissioner, Commissioner for the Organization of State Banks, State Prison and Jail Commissioner, has served upon numerous important state committees and the most prominent committees of both branches of the Legislature, and has received civil or military commissions from nearly every Governor of the state for the last forty years. Always taking a deep interest in military affairs, Mr. Arnold has served in nearly every position from private to Major-General. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was appointed one of the aides to Governor Sprague, and did efficient work in organizing companies for active service in the field. On account of his energy, ability and knowledge of military affairs he was retained in the state, and was promoted to Major-General of the militia. During the war he was Commissioner and Superintendent of Drafts in Rhode Island for the United States. By the Rhode Island veterans of the war , General Arnold is held in th e highest esteem, and he is an honorary member of the First and Second Regiment Veteran Associations, also of Slocum Post Grand Army of the Republic. He is also a prominent Mason, and a member of many charitable associations, historical societies and other organizations. He organized the Pawtucket Electric Lighting Company, and was one of the leaders in se-curing the introduction of municipal waterworks and the fire-alarm system. He is prominently identified with the Universalist church, has been president of its national organization, is trustee of its publishing house, treasurer of its state convention, and has been treasurer and trustee of the Pawtucket parish. General Arnold was married, January 23, 1844, to Miss Phebe Dudley, of Providence. Mrs. Arnold was born in Douglas, Mass., December 17, 1824, and died in Pawtucket, March 5, 1895. They had no children. Biographie Index

BALI.OU, Henry Clay, merchant, Providence, was born in Cumberland, R. I., August 22, 1844, son of Isaac Chauncy and Sarah Aldrich (Cook) Ballou. His ancestry is Anglo-Norman, and traces back to Guinebond Ballou, a marshal in the army of William the Conqueror, who fought at the battle of Hastings in the year 1067. Descendants of Guinebond Ballou emigrated to America in the early period of the country's history, and from one of them, Maturin Ballou, a co-proprietor with Roger Williams in 1646, the Rhode Island Ballous are descended.   Mr. Ballou is of the eighth generation from his American progenitor, on both sides, his mother being a niece of Dr. Ariel and the Rev.  Adin Ballou. The line of descent is: On the paternal side, Maturin, James, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Levi, Esq.. Flavius J., and Isaac Chauncy Ballou; and on the maternal side, Maturin, James, James, Ariel, Deacon Ariel, Abigail and Sarah Aldrich Cook. His early education was that of the com-mon schools, and his youth was passed on the ancestral farm. After working a few years in a grocery store in Woonsocket, he commenced his business life in Providence at the age of twenty-one with Flint & Company, house furnishers, and continued with them twelve years. In 1877 Mr.  Ballou associated in partnership with Dennison G.  Markham, under the firm name of Ballou & Markham, in the same line of business, at 101-111 Eddy street, continuing in this relation until 1891, when on account of failing health Mr. Markham sold his share in the business to E. L. Johnson. In 1893 Albert J. Nichols, a trusted salesman who had been twelve years in their employ, was admitted to partnership, and the firm was changed to its present name of Ballou, Johnson & Nichols, wholesale dealers in kitchen furnishing goods and grocers' supplies, Mr. Ballou being the buyer and general manager.  The firm of Ballou & Markham did a large retail and jobbing business up to 1890, when a pressure of business decided them to drop the retail part of it, and they have since done a strictly jobbing business. They are today the leading jobbing house in their line in Rhode Island, buying direct from the manufacturers in large quantities and thus being enabled to compete with the largest houses in Boston and New York. Mr. Ballou is very methodical in all his business relations, and to this especial characteristic is due a large measure of his success.  He is a member of the Universalist Club of Rhode Island, and of the Elmwood Club, Providence In politics he is a Republican, but he has never held public office, although he has recently been nominated for Alderman from the Sixth Ward, and the election is soon to take place. Mr. Ballou was married, July 4, 1867, to Miss Frances Eveline Williams; they have two sons: Myron Clarence and Henry Welcome Ballou. Biographie Index

BARTON, Nathan Bowen, manufacturing jeweler, Providence, was born in Warren, R. I., Augusts, 1853, son of Alfred and Ann Elizabeth (Bowen) Barton. He is of old New England ancestry, and distantly connected with General William Barton of Revolutionary fame. He received his early education in the public schools of Warren, and  prepared  for college in  the high school, but owing to force of circumstances was unable to carry out his intention of pursuing a collegiate course. In September 1869, at the age of sixteen, he entered the employ of Belcher Brothers, hardware dealers in Providence, and remained with them until July 1879, when he left to engage in the manufacturing jewelry business with E. C. Ostby, under the firm name of Ostby & Barton. This relationship continued until in August 1893 a charter was secured from the Legislature and the business was incorporated under the name of the Ostby & Barton Company. Mr.  Barton was elected Treasurer of the company at its formation and has since held that position to the present time. The factory employs from two hundred to two hundred and fifty hands, with a product of nearly a million dollars yearly. The head office is at Providence, with branches in New York and Chicago. Mr. Barton has been a Director in the Manufacturing Jewelers' Board of Trade since December 28, 1885, and has been a Director in the High Street Bank since 1893. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, also of the West Side Club and the Providence Athletic Association.  He was married, September 21, 1874. to Miss Lillian Fisher; they have one child, a daughter: Annie Florence Barton. Biographie Index

BATES, William Lincoln, M. D,, Providence, was born in North Kingstown, R. I., January 1, 1855, son of Benjamin Sanford and Lucinda (Howland) Carr. His father was of New England parentage, and was a contractor and builder. His mother was a descendant of the Howland family of Rhode Island, of noted Quaker stock. On the death of his mother, October 7, 1861, he was adopted by his relatives, John and Hannah Fowler Bates, being then under seven years of age. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Newport, supplemented by an academic course at Willimantic, Conn. After taking a special course at Brown University, he went to Philadelphia to pursue his regular medical studies, having determined to adopt the medical profession. During the next few years he studied at the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Polyclinic, and the Philadelphia Electropathic Institute, graduating from the latter in December 1891, and receiving the degree of M. E.  (Master of Electro-therapeutics), and afterwards taking a post-graduate course, completing his studies in 1892.   Having thus made himself familiar with the science of electricity in its relation to medicine.  Dr. Bates returned to Providence and established himself as a medical electrician, and within a short time his reputation for skill became so well known that patients came to him from all parts of New Eng-land. Realizing the need of a suitable sanitarium, where patients could be afforded the care and comforts they needed and be constantly under his oversight during treatment, Dr. Bates examined all the available places in and near Providence, and finally secured for his purpose the old Professor Chace mansion on Benefit street, which under his direction has been remodeled and refitted into an ideal Sanitarium and Medical Home. The house is situated in the midst of large grounds, with handsome lawns, fruit and flower gardens, and is richly but unostentatiously furnished, everything about the establishment having been devised for pleasing, quiet and soothing effect, and for the comfort and permanent benefit of visiting invalids and patients. In his position as electrical specialist Dr. Bates has gained the confidence, not only of the general public, but of the medical fraternity as well, many patients being sent to him by practitioners whose limited knowledge of electricity, or lack of facilities, prevent them from applying it under satisfactory conditions. He is called to work at  the Homoeopathic Hospital, besides being compelled to make frequent trips out of town and to other states, for consultation and advice in different cases. Dr. Bates is a member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Providence Franklin Society and the Rhode Island Horticultural Society. He has followed in the footsteps of his maternal ancestors by accepting the principles of the Society of Friends. He was married, July 5, 1895, to Miss Martha Boyce of New York, an accomplished lady, well fitted to adorn the position which she has chosen to fill; there are two children: Carrie L. and William P. Bates, by a former marriage. Biographie Index

BLODGETT, William Winthrop, lawyer, Pawtucket, was born in Randolph, Vermont, July 8, 1824, third son of Eli Blodgett. He received his early education in the public schools, prepared for college at the Orange County grammar school in Randolph, and in 1843 entered the University of Vermont at Burlington, from which he graduated with the highest honors in 1847. Soon after graduation he became Principal of the Academy at Keene, K. H., which position he filled for a few months, and then commenced the study of law in the office of William P. Wheeler of Keene. Afterward he studied with Hon. Isaac F. Redfield, Chief Justice of Vermont, and in the office of Wires & Peck at Burlington, and was admitted to the bar of Vermont in June 1850. In the following October he removed to Pawtucket, Mass., and in November was admitted to practice in that state by the Supreme Judicial Court then sitting at New Bedford. Mr.  Blodgett has continued to practice his profession in Pawtucket to the present time. He has been frequently, and of late years continuously, honored with positions of public trust and responsibility. In 1859-61 he represented the towns of Attleboro and Pawtucket in the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1861 the long pending controversy between the states over the boundary culminated in a com-promise line agreed upon by the counsel of the respective states and submitted to the legislatures for ratification. The proposed line, arbitrarily drawn, was unsatisfactory to Rhode Island, not giving due regard to natural division, and giving many advantages to Massachusetts, and was certain of being rejected by the Rhode Island legislature.  A new line was proposed by Mr. Blodgett, and was finally adopted; and March 1, 1861, the town of Pawtucket, and that part of Seekonk lying on the Providence and Pawtucket rivers, now known as East Providence, became a part of the state of Rhode Island. On the day of transfer Mr. Blodgett was elected to the Rhode Island Senate - the first time in the history of the state that a member of the General Assembly was elected without the constitutional requisite of a year's residence. Mr.  Blodgett has since continued the practice of law in Rhode Island. In 1868 he was elected Judge of Probate for North Providence, and held the office by annual election until 1874, when the town and village of Pawtucket were consolidated into one town under the same name. He has continued in the office for the town and city of Pawtucket, with the exception of two or three years, until the present time, a period of more than twenty-five years. Mr.  Blodgett has also represented the towns of North Providence and Pawtucket and the city of Pawtucket in the Rhode Island Legislature, of which he is now a member, more than twenty years. He was also at one time Commissioner of Insolvency in Massachusetts, and a Bank Commissioner in Rhode Island. He has been for many years a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Pawtucket, a member of the Diocesan Convention and of the Standing Committee of the Diocese. Mr.  Blodgett was married, in 1855, to Miss Salome W. Kinsley of Pawtucket; they have had six children : Ellen H., Edward W, Lloyd Morton, John, Chauncey Hayden and Kinsley Blodgett. Biographie Index

BRICE, Harry Beggs, Superintendent and General Agent for Rhode Island of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, was born in Washington, Warren county, N. J., December 15, 1864, son of Alexander Lawrence and Amelia (Beggs) Brice. His father, the Rev. A. L. Brice, was a Methodist clergyman in the state of New Jersey for forty-five years, located in Newark sixteen years, Presiding Elder twenty-four years, a member of the Newark Conference and of the New York Missionary Board of the Methodist Episcopal church; he died in 1892, at the age of about seventy years.  His grandfather, Alele Reise Brice, was a Frenchman, a paper manufacturer, and at one time associated in business with Cyrus W. Field. His maternal grandfather, Hugh Beggs, came to this country from Wick, Scotland, and settled in Paterson, N. J., where he became proprietor of the Union Machine Works of that city. The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of his native city, graduating from the grammar school and attending the high school until the age of sixteen, when he was apprenticed to the printing trade. After learning his trade, in 1880 he went into the printing business for himself, continuing until 1887, when he took up the insurance business, in which he has since been engaged. In 1895 the Prudential Insurance Company of America, whose home office was in Newark, became desirous of extending their business in the Rhode Island field, which they had only entered in June of the previous year.   A capable man was needed to take charge of the Providence office of the company, and Mr. Brice was appointed to the position, under the official tide of Superintendent and General Agent of the Prudential Insurance Company of America for Providence. He came to Rhode Island and assumed charge of his present office April 29, 1895, since which time the company, which has attracted the attention and gained the confidence of the people by its liberal and sound methods, has largely increased its business in the state. The company which Mr. Brice represents ranks as one of the great financial institutions of the world, and in the twenty years of its existence has built up $15,780,000 of assets, $12,500,000 of annual income and $3,300,000 of surplus, has paid to policy holders over $22,000,000, and has now, at risk, insurance amounting to more than three hundred millions of dollars Although its principal field has been outside of New England until within a comparatively recent period, it is already doing a very large business in life and endowment policies in this section. Mr. Brice has been active in politics and public life in his native state, and served in 1894 as Document Clerk of the House of Assembly, and as Secretary of the Committee on Municipal Corporations. His politics are Republican.   He is a member of the West Side Club of Newark, also of the Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order United Workmen, and the Typographical Union. On his departure from Newark he was given a farewell dinner by his friends, which was attended by a large number of public officials and prominent men of the city.  Mr. Brice was married, May 9, 1889, to Miss Zilla Alverta, daughter of Lieutenant Lorrin Bundy, of the Maine Cavalry; they have two children: Lorrin Smylie, aged six, and Harry Danforth Brice, aged four years. Biographie Index

The information on Trails to the Past © Copyright   may be used in personal family history research, with source citation. The pages in entirety may not be duplicated for publication in any fashion without the permission of the owner. Commercial use of any material on this site is not permitted.  Please respect the wishes of those who have contributed their time and efforts to make this free site possible.~Thank you!