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GILBANE, William, senior member of the firm of William Gilbane & Brother, carpenters and builders, Providence, was born in county Leitrim, Ireland, September 21, 1844, son of Thomas and Bridget (O'Brien) Gilbane. His father and mother were both natives of county Leitrim. They came to this country in 1845 and located at Limerock, in the town of Lincoln, R. L, where the father engaged in farming and also worked for the Harris Limerock Company. The family moved to Providence in June 1868. William Gilbane, the subject of this sketch, received his early education in the Limerock district school, working meanwhile at farming and for a time in the box shop of the Lonsdale Company at Lonsdale. In 1862 he came to Providence and apprenticed himself to learn the carpenters' trade with George A. Brown. While serving his apprenticeship he attended the Providence Evening School, also drawing school, and took courses at the Bryant & Stratton Business College and the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1870 he went into business for himself as a carpenter and builder, and continued alone until 1883, when the present firm of William Gilbane & Brother was established by the admission of his brother, Thomas F., to partnership. The firm have built up an extensive business and have been connected with some of the largest building enterprises of Providence and vicinity. Among the large contracts they have executed may be mentioned : Carpenter work on Manual Training School, Hodges Building, Champlin Block, Art Museum at Roger Williams Park, State Normal School, Home for Aged Men on Broad street, and Athletic Club building on Weybosset street; carpenter and mason work on St. Joseph's Hospital, Joseph Banigan's house and stable, also P. T. Banigan's house, East and West Side high schools, and Holy Name Church on Camp street. Mr. Gilbane is a member of the Catholic Knights of America, also of the Brownson Lyceum Literary Society. In politics he is an Independent. He was married, February 17, 1870, to Annie Frances Martin; they have six children: Annie Josephine, Mary Alice, William Henry, Jennie Ursula, Elizabeth Veronica and Helen Martha Gilbane. Biographie Index
GILBANE, Thomas Francis, of William Gilbane & Brother, carpenters and builders, Providence, was born in Limerock, Lincoln, R. L, November 5, 1854, son of Thomas and Bridget (O'Brien) Gilbane. His parents were born in the county of Leitrim, Ireland, and came to this country in 1845, locating at Limerock, where the father worked for the Harris Limerock Company and also at farming, until their removal to Providence, June 10, 1868. His early education was acquired in attendance at the Limerock district school and at evening school in Providence. Later he attended both day and evening commercial school at the Bryant & Stratton Business College in Providence, and also studied drawing at a school on Fountain street and for six winters in evening class at the Rhode Island School of Design. In June 1868 he went to work in the Allen Print Works in Providence, where he remained two years, and then worked for the Providence Tool Company until in July 1871 he entered upon an apprenticeship with his brother William to learn the carpenters' trade. In 1883 he became associated in partnership with his brother, under the firm name of William Gilbane & Brother, which relation has continued to the present time. The firm have built up a large business in their line, and besides their building and construction work, which is mentioned in greater detail in the preceding biographical sketch of William Gilbane, they operate a large factory for getting out building finish and material, and for general woodworking. Mr. Gilbane is a member of the Brownson Lyceum Literary Association, and is an Independent in politics. He was married, January 27, 1886, to Miss Mary Josephine McGuinness: they have two children : Catherine Josephine and Miriam Attracta Gilbane. Biographie Index
GOEF, Lyman Bullock, manufacturer, Pawtucket, was born in Rehoboth, Mass., October 19, 1841, son of Darius and Harriet (Lee) Goff. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of his native town, and held prominent and respected positions in the community. His parents moving to Pawtucket in 1847, he received his early education in the grammar and high schools of that city, after which he entered Brown University and graduated in the class of 1862. He commenced his active business career in connection with the firm of D. Goff & Son, manufacturers of worsted and cotton goods, and was admitted into the firm in 1872. In 1880 he was made Treasurer of the Union Wadding Company, of which his father, Darius Goff, was President, and on the death of the latter became its President, which office he now holds. He is also President of the Excelsior Building Company of New York, and is largely interested in many of the manufacturing industries of his state as well as in mills in the South and Canada. He is a Director in several banks in Providence and Pawtucket, is Vice-President of the Pawtucket Street Railway, in which, as well as in other electric railways and electric companies of his state, he has large holdings. Mr. Goff has been three times elected President of the Business Men's Association of Pawtucket, and has taken a prominent part and a warm interest in the improvement of his city. A Republican in politics, he has always declined office. He is a member of the Athletic and Hope clubs of Providence, and of the Union League and Athletic clubs of New York. He was married, December 14, 1864, to Miss Almira Thornton; they have two children : Lyman T. and Elizabeth Lee Goff. Biographie Index
GORMAN, Charles Edmund, United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, was born in Boston, Mass., July 26, 1844, son of Charles and Sarah J. (Woodbury) Gorman. On the maternal side he is descended from John Woodbury, one of the original settlers of Cape Ann, Mass.. in 1622. His father was a native of Ireland. His early education was acquired in the public schools, until the age of eleven. He came to Providence in 1848, and when eight years old commenced active life as a newsboy, continuing in that occupation until about sixteen, when he engaged in mercantile pur-suits. He studied law with Ex-Chief Justice Greene, and was admitted to the bar December 12, 1865. Entering at once upon practice in Providence, Mr. Gorman was very soon recognized as a leader in his profession, and his marked and versatile abilities led to his being early called into public life. He was elected a member of the School Committee in 1867 and served until 1872, was chosen Common Councilman in 1874, and Alderman in 1879-80-81 and 1890. In 1870 he was elected to the House of Representatives, and again in 1885 and 1887, serving in the latter year as Speaker of the House. In 1895 he was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, which office he fills with signal efficiency and ability. In 1896 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Georgetown University. Mr. Gorman was President of the Brownson Lyceum, and is a member of the Athletic Association, the Country Club and the Franklin Lyceum of Providence, also of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is interested in military affairs, and has served as Adjutant of the Rhode Island National Guards. In politics he is a Democrat, and has been the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Mayor. From his entrance into public life he was an earnest agitator and worker for the removal of the real-estate requirement imposed upon naturalized citizens as a requisite of the suffrage in Rhode Island. After twenty-five years of agitation, during which time Mr. Gorman devoted persistent labors to the cause, the reform was accomplished by an amendment to the constitution. Upon its final adoption he was presented by citizens of the state with a silver tea service, "in recognition of twenty-five years' service in behalf of equal rights." Mr. Gorman is a prominent and eloquent speaker in the cause of Democracy, and has participated on the platform and stump in every Presidential campaign since 1864. He was married, July 8, 1874, to Miss Josephine C Dietrich: they have had five children: Charles Woodbury, Edward J., Joseph, Clara J. and Clement Dietrich Gorman, of whom only the first and last named are now living. Biographie Index
HALLER, John Frederick, M. D., Providence, physician, inventor, journalist and musician, was born in Smaland, Sweden, October 16, 1862, son of Anders Peter and Anna Gustafva (Peterson). His father was a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music at Stockholm, a teacher of music and other branches in the High School, and a fine organist His ancestors on both sides were well-to-do people, whose antecedents can be traced back to the earliest history of Sweden. His mother's progenitors belonged to the higher nobility of Sweden six generations ago, and many of his ancestors have distinguished themselves in the wars of Sweden. Dr. Haller early manifested a taste for music, literature and invention. He received his preliminary education in the public schools of Sweden and later under private tuition, and entered college with a view to preparing for the study of medicine. Circumstances necessitating a change of plan, however, he graduated from the Commercial Department of the University of Norrkoping in 1880, receiving the equivalent of the English degree of A. B., and became a bookkeeper and office clerk until in 1882, at the age of nineteen, he emigrated to the United States. His parents were opulent until he was thirteen years of age, since which time he has depended upon his own resources, serving as organist and as tutor in private families while pursuing his college course. After coming to this country he was a music teacher, and organist of the First Lutheran Church in Jamestown, N. Y., and at the same time bookkeeper for a wholesale house, until 1884, when he commenced the study of medicine. During his four years course of medical study he earned a living for himself and mother, as organist and as publisher of a Swedish newspaper which he bought in 1884, and by working for a time in a piano factory at Jamestown, as tuner and regulator. In the meantime he attended the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo, where he was Pro-sector to the Chair of Anatomy in 1886-7-8, and from which he graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1888. He then sold his paper and removed to Providence, R. I., where he engaged in practice and has since remained. While his practice has been general. Dr. Haller has devoted especial attention to maladies peculiar to women and children, in the treatment of which he has been very successful. In November 18S8, shortly after his removal to Providence, Dr. Haller started the first Swedish newspaper published in Rhode Island, The Tiden, and in 1892 he started the Rhode Island Medical Science Monthly, the first medical journal established in that state. Both of these journals are still published under other names, the latter being changed in January 1895 to the Atlantic Medical Weekly, of which Dr. Haller continued editor-in-chief until his resignation in April 1895, owing to increasing professional duties. He is a member of the Providence Medical Association and the Rhode Island Medical Society, and since 1890 has served as a member of the Committee on Legislation of the last named; was Assistant Surgeon of the United Train of Artillery with rank of First Lieutenant 1889-92, and is now Surgeon with the rank of Major of the United Train Artillery Veteran Association; and is Medical Examiner of Enterprise Lodge Knights of Pythias, Unity Lodge of Foresters, Rhode Island Lodge of United Workmen and several life-insurance companies. He is also a member of Mount Vernon Masonic Lodge; the Press and Athletic clubs of Providence, being one of the Executive Committee of the former: and the Graduate Students' Association and German Seminary of Brown University. He is at present taking a post-graduate course at Brown for the degree of A. M. Dr. Haller has always been interested in all public affairs, and has been particularly active in urging foreigners in the United States to become good and useful American citizens. He was President of the Swedish-American Association 1888-90, has been lay reader in the Protestant Episcopal Church since 1890, and was Chairman of the Building Committee of St. Ansgarius Church in 1890-1. He has also been active in medical and other literary work, being a contributor to various newspapers and periodicals, and a frequent speaker at public meetings upon temperance, church matters and political questions. He has written over two thousand articles for medical journals, besides speeches, addresses and remarks delivered before medical, religious, social and political organizations, on various topics, particularly on sanitation, hygiene, state medicine and public health. Among his principal papers, which have attracted widest notice, are "Cholera, its History', Diagnosis and Treatment," delivered by invitation at the one-hundredth anniversary of the Windham County Medical Society of Windham, Conn., in May 1893 ; a speech before the Senate Committee on Special Legislation in 1891, on " Medical Legislation in Rhode Island," published in the Boston Medical and Surgical journal the same year; an address before the Rhode Island Medical Society on "Physical Deterioration"; " Our Water Supply," published in the Providence News in 1890; "Cholera in Hamburg," Providence Journal, 1892; "Pure Milk," Providence News, July 1895 ; and an address before the Brown University Graduate Students' Association, on " Modern Medicine," in April 1895. In 1892 Dr. Haller visited England, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, for professional study. He has recently invented a surgical and gynecological table which, for simplicity of operating, durability, neatness and usefulness, compares very favorably with, if it does not excel in many respects, any similar table now in use. Dr. Haller is not only an accomplished musician, but is a composer of more than ordinary talent. He has published a number of songs and pieces for the organ that have met with much favor, and his most recent published composition, a song, "The White Rose of Killarney," is an established favorite : in refined musical circles wherever known. Biographie Index
HEATHCOTE, John, manufacturer, Providence, was born in England, near Manchester, April 30, 1833, son of Luke and Mary (Ferguson) Heatcote. He came to Providence in boyhood, in 1842, and his associations therefore have always been in that city. He received his education in the public schools of Providence, and at seventeen was apprenticed to the machine business with the Franklin Foundry & Machine Company, at that time one of the leading concerns of its kind in the country. He served his apprenticeship of four years, and soon after entered the employ of the Corliss & Nightingale Engine Company, with whom he remained two or three years and then went to Lawrence, Mass., to help fit up the machinery for the Pacific Mills. After that he was two or three years with Brown & Sharpe, the founders of the now famous manufacturing company of that name, in a little old shop in South Main street, when the firm employed but seven or eight hands. After leaving them he held an official position in one of the departments of the Franklin Foundry & Machine Company for a time, and about 1866 he
started business for himself in steam, gas and water piping and brass finishing, with a partner, under the firm name of Brown & Heathcote. A few years after, Mr. Heathcote bought out the patent of the J. S. Winsor Tenting and Drying Machine, and went into manufacturing under the same partnership: and in 1874 he bought out his partner's interest and prosecuted the business by himself. This drying machine, patented in 1861, which Mr. Heathcote has made a specialty of his business ever since, was for a long time the only chain dryer in use for woolen or worsted goods, blankets, shawls, etc. Many years after, the machine was copied, in another form (horizontal), by foreign builders, and later the foreign-built machine was copied by others in this country. In 1870 Mr. Heathcote bought all the patent rights and entirely remodeled the machine, since when improvements have been added from time to time, strengthening its parts and adding two new patterns for heavier work. At the time of writing this sketch Mr. Heathcote is putting up a machine of twenty-three tons, the largest and the first of its style ever made in this country, for a large felt manufacturing concern in New York state. Mr. Heathcote is also Treasurer of the Russell Electric Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of mast-arms for electric street-lighting. The special feature of their device is that it provides facilities for trimming lamps without lowering, and as many lamps are required in positions where it would be impossible to lower them, these mast-arms are largely used. About two thousand are in use in Providence, and the company, who are the only authorized manufacturers in the United States, have also supplied Pawtucket and various cities in Massachusetts and other states. Mr. Heathcote is well-known socially in Providence, and is a member of the West Side and Pomham clubs. He is prominent in Masonic circles, being Past Master of Adelphoi Lodge, and Past Commander St. John's Commandery Knights Templar, the oldest Templar organization in the United States. He is also a member of the Veteran Firemen's Association. In politics he is strongly Republican, but has steadfastly declined to accept public office. Mr. Heathcote was married, August 20, 1856, to Miss Jane Barbour, daughter of George Barbour of Providence; they have two children: Ella J., and George H. Heathcote, who is associated with his father in business. Biographie Index
HILL, Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Providence Machine Company, and for more than half a century at the head of one of the most important iron industries of Rhode Island, was born in Pawtucket, R. L, March 4, 1805, son of Cromwell and Cynthia (Walker) Hill, and died in Providence, July 24, 1894. His father was a blacksmith, and a resident of Rehoboth, Mass., until his removal to Pawtucket about the year 1800. The boy Thomas was unable to fully avail himself of even the limited opportunities for education furnished by his native town. He attended school until the age of fourteen, after which he worked two years in his father's shop, and then served an apprenticeship in the machine shop of Pitcher & Gay, Pawtucket, where he remained as apprentice and journeyman nine years. In 1830, at the age of twenty-five, he came to Providence and took charge of the machine shop connected with the steam mill owned and operated by Samuel Slater, and four years later purchased an interest and became associated with his employer under the name of the Providence Machine Company. This was the beginning of the business which Mr. Hill in after years developed to extensive proportions, and which is today, under the same name, one of the leading manufacturing industries of Rhode Island. In 1835 Mr. Slater died and his interest was sold to other parties. Mr. Hill continued at the head of the business however, and under his management the industry expanded and increased until in 1845 larger and improved quarters and facilities were imperatively demanded. Accordingly new buildings were erected and equipped, and the succeeding year Mr. Hill became the sole owner of the plant and business, manufacturing all kinds of cotton and woolen machinery. Continued prosperity and success followed, and in 1874, a charter having been secured some years previously, the business was incorporated and organized with Thomas J. Hill as President and Treasurer, his son Albert Hill as Secretary, and his foreman George Hazard as Manager and Agent, retaining the old and widely-known name of the Providence Machine Company. Although in his later life engaged in many other large business enterprises, Mr. Hill made this one a special object of his careful attention and oversight, and his personal interest in its welfare and progress continued up to the time of his death. Mr. Hill was a man of great enterprise and public spirit, and besides his energy and mechanical skill possessed remarkable powers of organization together with rare executive capacity and financial ability. Few men have done more individually to promote and develop the business interests of his town, state and section. In 1837 he bought the Lee Mill at Willimantic, Conn., and ran it seven years as a thread mill. In 1850, having his attention drawn to the grand opportunity for manufacturing at Lewiston, Me., he associated a number of Boston capitalists with him in the purchase of the Androscoggin waterpower at that place, organized the Bates and the Hill manufacturing companies, and built extensive cotton mills there. He also erected a foundry and leased a machine shop in Lewiston, to aid in supplying the new mills with machinery, and this enterprise, afterwards organized as the Lewiston Machine Company, has continued to manufacture cotton machinery, for mills all over the country, to the present time. In 1859 he bought the Peckham Mills at East Greenwich, R. I., and ran the plant for a time as the Bay Cotton Mills, afterwards giving them to his two sons. He founded the village known as Hill's Grove, seven miles out of the city, and in 1865 started there a twenty-thousand-spindle cotton mill, which in honor of his wife he named the Elizabeth Mill. He organized in 1866 the Providence Dredging Company and in 1867 the Rhode Island Malleable Iron Works, and in 1874 he organized the Providence Pile-Driving Company, which built the Crawford street bridge and constructed other public works of magnitude. Notwithstanding the demands of his extensive and varied personal business interests, Mr. Hill found time to devote a share of his services to some of the city's financial institutions, and was long prominently identified with various banking and insurance corporations. He was for nearly forty years President of the Limerock National Bank, and twenty-five years Vice-President and Trustee of the City Savings Bank. He served in the City Council for the years 1848-52, 1855-56 and 1878, also represented the city in the General Assembly. Mr. Hill was an active and prominent member of the Slater Club of Providence and the Home Market Club of Boston, also of the Rhode Island Agricultural and Historical societies. In 1857 he traveled extensively in Europe for his health, and again in 1867 he made a European tour on business. At the time of his death, which occurred July 24, 1894, he was Vice-President of the Rhode Island Veteran Citizens Historical Association, and as a fitting close to this sketch, a few words or brief extract may be quoted from the resolutions passed by the society as a merited tribute to his memory. Among other resolutions referring to the high character and distinguished ability of their departed friend and associate, and to the loss sustained by the society and the public, it was resolved: " That in his death Providence has lost an honorable and upright citizen, whose word was his bond, and who was ever loyal to the city's best interests and success." Mr. Hill was three times married : first, October 12, 1825, to Miss Betsey Brown, daughter of Sylvanus Brown of Pawtucket, whose death occurred May 9, 1859; second, December 9, 1861, to Miss Olive L. Farnham, daughter of Stephen Farnham of Canterbury, Connecticut, who died November 16, 1866 : and third, August 9, 1869, to Miss Elizabeth C Kenyon, daughter of John H. and Ruth Kenyon of Warwick, Rhode Island, who is now living. Of three children that reached maturity, but one is now living, a daughter, Mrs. Charles M. Pierce of New Bedford, Massachusetts; she has six children, the elder son, William C. Pierce, being the present head of the Providence Machine Company, of which he was the Superintendent for several years during the lifetime of his grandfather. Biographie Index
HOLDEN, Frank Eugene, coal merchant, Woonsocket, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, November 17, 1861, son of Thomas B. and Sarah (Stone) Holden. His ancestry is English. He was educated in the common and high schools of Newton, Mass., and began work in Woonsocket as a freight clerk for the New York & New England Railroad in 1880. Resigning the position of Freight Cashier in 1888 to enter the retail coal business, in 1890 he became a Director in the Woonsocket Spool & Bobbin Company, to whom he sold his coal business but continued in charge of the same as a special department of their plant, with enlarged accommodations and facilities. In May 1894 he bought back the business, and in partnership with H. C. Card, Jr., conducted it under the name of the New England Coal Company, doing a large retail and wholesale business. The latter department of the business has been personally cared for by Mr. Holden, and included supplying many of the largest manufacturing plants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. At a quite recent date Mr. Holden sold his retail business, and under his own name is extending his manufacturing trade all over New England. The peculiarities of different coals, and the varying conditions under which they are used, are matters of much concern to the consumer. Mr. Holden is successful in supplying his customers with the coal that is best adapted to the particular conditions, which undoubtedly accounts for his success in this line of business. Mr. Holden served as President of the Common Council of Woonsocket in 1890 and 1891, as Chairman of the Board of Sewer Commissioners 1893-6 inclusive, and as Representative to the General Assembly three terms, 1894-6. He is a Director in the Citizens' National Bank of Woonsocket, and First Vice-President of the Woonsocket Business Men's Association. He is a prominent Mason, being a member of Morning Star Lodge, Union Royal Arch Chapter and Woonsocket Commandery, is a Thirty-second Degree Mason and a member of Palestine Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows, Royal Arcanum, Ancient Order of United Workmen and United Order of the Golden Cross. Mr. Holden is a great lover of music, and has been for two years President of the Woonsocket Choral Association. He is a member of the Woonsocket Baptist Church, was Secretary of the Building Committee which had in charge the erection of its new brick edifice within a few years, and is President of its Bible Class Number Two, taught by Colonel Amos Sherman, which has a membership of nearly three hundred. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Holden has a beautiful modern residence with spacious grounds at Prospect and Winter streets. He was married October 18, 1884, to Miss Hattie A. Devere ; they have one child, a daughter: Grace Beatrice Holden. Biographie Index
HUNT, Simeon, M. D., East Providence, was born in Seekonk, Mass., April 27, 1837, son of William D. and Lydia (Chase) Hunt. He received his early education in the public schools, prepared for college at the Friends School in Providence, entered Dartmouth in 1858 and graduated in 1862 with the degree of A. B. Having commenced the study of medicine in the winter of 1861 with Dr. Phineas Spaulding of Haverhill, N. H., and continuing later under the preceptor ship of Dr. A. B. Crosby of Hanover and Dr. William D. Buck of Manchester, he took two courses of lectures at Dartmouth Medical College and was graduated as M. D. in October 1864. For a short time following graduation he practiced medicine at Corry, Pa., and then, in the spring of 1865, was engaged in practice at Springfield, Erie county, that state. After two years he returned to his native state and town, locating in East Providence, where he has since resided, in extensive and successful practice. Dr. Hunt is an active member of the Providence Medical Association, the Rhode Island Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and a charter member and now an honorary member of the Rhode Island Medico-Legal Society. He is a charter member and Past Master of Rising Sun Lodge of Masons, also a member of the chapter, commandery and A. A. S. rite, thirty-second degree, and of the Veteran Masonic Association. Dr. Hunt has served his town as Health Officer several years, 1885-7, and as a member of the School Committee, 1886-8. He was appointed State Medical Examiner by Governor Bourne, and held the office six years, 1885-91. Prior to graduating in medicine, Dr. Hunt taught school, select and public, for several years, 1857-63. In October 1864, shortly after graduation, he was commissioned by President Lincoln, after a competitive examination, Assistant Surgeon of the Sixty-ninth United States (colored) Infantry, but did not muster, on account of ill health. Dr. Hunt was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Dartmouth in 1862, and was honored by the degree of A. M. from that institution in 1887. He was married October 25, 1865, to Miss Anna M., daughter of Samuel W. Balch of Lyme, N. H.; they have had five children : Charles Balch, born September 2, 1866, died in infancy; William West, born April 22, 1868, graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, 1890, and now associated in practice with his father: Charles Balch, born July 24, 1869, died in infancy; Fred Balch, born January 8, 1872, drowned August 10, 1882, and Archie John Hunt, born November 3, 1878. Biographie Index
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