Trails to the Past

Providence County RI Biographies

Men of Progress of Rhode Island and Providence Part 4
Source:  Boston New England Magazine 1896
Page 5

 

 

PEASE, Leroy Bidwell, of Woonsocket, editor and proprietor of the Woonsocket Patriot and Woonsocket Evening Reporter, was born in Enfield, Conn., February 2, 1842, son of Walter Raleigh and Sophia (Bidwell) Pease, His paternal homestead has remained in the possession of the family since the settlement of the town, having been occupied by them for seven generations, and his father still resides on the land purchased by his ancestor from the Indians in 1680. On the maternal side also he is of Puritan ancestry, the Bid wells having been among the first settlers of Hartford, Conn. When he was but four years old his parents removed to Manchester, Conn., where his father, who was a contractor and builder, was engaged in the erection of buildings for the Cheney Silk Works, now of world-wide fame. Leroy attended the public schools of Manchester, and finished his educational period by a course at Professor J. C. Howard's private academy for boys at East Hartford. He then entered a drug store in Hartford, and began reading medicine, but after two years, experiencing a desire to learn the newspaper business, he entered the office of the Tolland County Gazette in Rockville, where he remained until the fall of 1859, Returning to Hartford he worked as a journeyman printer until the war times of 1861, when he enlisted as a private in the First Connecticut Light Battery and served until mustered out in the fall of 1862. He again returned to Hartford, and filled various positions on the newspapers of that city, New Haven and New York until November 1863, when he re-enlisted, in Company A, First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and served until mustered out in September 1865, several months after the close of the war. During a portion of his army term he was engaged in special service for the government. After the war Mr. Pease resumed newspaper work in New York and Hartford, and in the summer of 1870 went to Providence. After filling short engagements on the Journal and Herald of that city, he came to Woonsocket and entered the employ of Samuel S. Foss, publisher of the Patriot, with whom he remained until the fall of 1873, when he started the Evening Reporter, the first daily issued in Woonsocket.  Since then he has devoted himself to the publication of that paper and the advancement of his general newspaper business, having in the meantime purchased the Patriot and other competing journals.  Politically Mr. Pease is a Republican, but has never held public office. He has devoted much time to temperance and philanthropic work, and is interested in all matters relating to the public welfare and the promotion of the best interests of his adopted city. He was married, in 1874, to Miss Helen A., youngest daughter of Samuel S. Mosely of Hampton, Conn.; they have three children: Arthur S., Albert L. and Helen L. Pease. Biographie Index


PECK, George Bacheler, M. D., Providence, was born in Providence, August 12, 1843, son of George Bacheler and Ann Power (Smith) Peck. He is descended in the eighth generation from Joseph Peck, who came in 1638 from Hingham, Norfolk county, England, and settled at New Hingham, Norfolk county. New England, with three sons, a daughter, two men-servants and three maid-servants ; the descent is through Joseph's eldest son, Joseph, Jr. His paternal grandmother was a daughter of Reverend William Batcheler of Sutton, Massachusetts, fourth in descent from Joseph Batcheler, the original immigrant and founder of that family in this country. Through his mother he is connected with the Wilbur and  the Sayles families. He acquired his early education in the public schools of Providence, entered Brown University and graduated in 1864 with the degree of A. B., receiving an additional diploma for a course in civil engineering extra to the regular college course. In 1867 he also received from the university the degree of A. M. Soon after leaving college he was mustered in, conditionally upon raising a company, as Second Lieutenant of Company G, Second Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers, December 13, 1864. He was on recruiting service and waiting orders until some time in January, and then on duty at the United States draft rendezvous, popularly known as the Conscript Camp, at Grapevine Point, Fairhaven (now part of New Haven), Conn., until March 13, when he sailed with his company to City Point, Va. He participated in the siege of Petersburg and the pursuit of Lee, and having at the battle of Sailor's Creek received a bullet through his left side, he resigned and was honorably discharged July 5, 1865. After his return from the war he filled a position as bookkeeper in Peck & Salsbury's coal and wood office four years, but finding business distasteful, he took a summer and winter course in the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1869-70, followed by a winter and summer course in the Medical Department of Yale University in 1870-1, receiving a diploma from President Woolsey in June of the latter year. He then took a one-year post-graduate course in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale,  devoting attention to practical chemistry, determinative mineralogy, as-saying, stockbreeding, and military and physical geography. He was Assistant Chemist at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport in 1872 4, was temporarily in charge of the Chemical Department of the University of Vermont in the fall of the latter year, and in June 1875 he commenced the practice of medicine in Providence, which he has prosecuted unremittingly ever since. For upwards of fifteen years his office was in the house where his mother was born, and on the exact spot where his grandfather, John Knowles Smith, kept an old-fashioned grocery and gunsmithery during his entire life; but his increasing and overwhelming cares necessitated the removal of his office to his home, where he and his father were both born, the house being built by his grandfather, Benjamin Peck, in 1803. Dr. Peck has been Admitting Physician to the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Hospital since the opening of that institution in 1886, declining a regular staff appointment, and has served as a Trustee ever since that date. He was admitted to membership in the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Society in April 1875 ; was Secretary from August 1875 to January 1883, Vice-President 1883-4, President 1885-6, Censor 1887-8-9 and Treasurer 1890-1-2, his period of official since covering seventeen and a half years.  He became a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy in 1879, was Acting Chairman of the Section in Obstetrics in 1880, Chairman in 1881, 1886, 1888 and 1892, Secretary in 1887, 1889 and 1890, and in 1895 was elected Censor for a term of five years and appointed Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Correspondence, to which latter position he was reappointed in 1896. He was Vice-President of the Western Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society in 1886-7, and is an honorary member of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York and of the Missouri Institute of Homoeopathy. He is one of the thirteen founders of Prescott Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was Surgeon in 1881-3 and 1890-6, was Medical Director of the Department of Rhode Island G. A. R. in 1894-5-6, is a Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, was President of the Rhode Island Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society 1892-6, and was Vice-President for three years at an earlier period, and has been Adjutant and ex-officio neurologist of the Marine Artillery Veteran Association since 1875.    After service as a private for brief periods in the First Ward Light Guard and the University Cadets, volunteer wartime organizations, he was enrolled in the Providence Marine Corps of Artillery in March 1863, and during the eight subsequent years he held nearly every official position, having a Major's commission the last two years. He was also Surgeon of the Battalion of Light Artillery Division, Rhode Island Militia, from 1876 until its disbandment in 1879. Dr. Peck has also held civil office, having served on the School Committee of Providence from April 1881 to December 1895. He is a member of What Cheer Masonic Lodge of Providence, Washington Commandery Knights Templar of Newport, and Rhode Island Sovereign Consistory, Thirty-second Degree, Scottish Rite. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Newport, member of the Board of Managers of the Rhode Island Baptist State Convention since 1876, Treasurer of the Narragansett Baptist Association since 1877 and Clerk from 1877 to 1886 and since 1892, and in 1889 was Moderator of that association, composed of twenty-seven regular or associate Baptist churches in the south part of the state, being the only layman that has ever held such a position in the state. He is also a member of the Rhode Island Baptist Social Union. Dr. Peck has a ready pen, and has contributed to the publications of the Rhode Island Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society some interesting sketches under the titles of "A Recruit before Petersburg," and " Camp and Hospital." He is also the author of a " Historical Sketch of the Narragansett Baptist Association," " Pabula Neonatorum," annual reports of original investigation to the American Institute of Homoeopathy, and other professional articles contributed more particularly to the Hahnemannian Monthly, the Southern Journal of Homoeopathy and the American Homoeopathist, besides a series of " Pencil Jottings" furnished the Providence Daily Journal between 1868 and 1872, with other articles and reports at divers times, also a few papers to the Christian Secretary, of Hartford, Conn. Dr. Peck claims to have never had any politics, in the general meaning of the term; but he has been an unswerving Republican in principle since the days of " Fremont and Jessie," and is a Monometallist and a Protectionist.   He is unmarried. Biographie Index


PECKHAM, Charles Henry, Secretary of the State Board of Charities and Corrections, was born in North Scituate, May 11, 1833, son of Abner W.  and Patia F. (Harris) Peckham. He is of old Colonial and early Rhode Island ancestry on both sides, and on the paternal side is a descendant of Stephen Hopkins, one of the founders of Rhode Island and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His early education was acquired in the public schools of his native town, and later he attended Fruit Hill Seminary in North Providence.  At about the age of twenty he came to Providence, where he was clerk in a bank for two or three years and then entered into a business partnership under the firm name of Spicer & Peckham, stove manufacturers. This relationship continued thirty-two years, and the firm was long known as one of the leading houses of its line in Providence. Mr.  Peckham served three years in the Legislature, as a member of the House in 1885-6, and of the Senate in 1886-7-8. In the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Corporations one year, and on the Finance Committee two years. He was for eleven years President of the Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry, now the Rhode Island State Fair Association, and under his executive management the finances of the society were increased from an annual loss of about eighteen hundred dollars to a profit of fifteen or sixteen thousand dollars a year. Mr. Peckham was also largely instrumental in founding the State Agricultural College; while in the Legislature he introduced a resolution making inquiry as to the Hatch fund, providing government aid for such institutions, was appointed chairman of the committee of inquiry and afterwards was made chairman of the committee on locating the school. In 1888 he was appointed a member of the Board of State Charities and Corrections, and in 1893 was made Secretary and Purchasing Agent, which position he now holds. In politics he is a Democrat. Mr. Peckham resides in Providence winters, but his summer home is in North Scituate, the place of his birth.  He was married, February 27,1862, to Miss Celia S., daughter of George T. Spicer of Providence ; they have no children living. Biographie Index


SAYLES, William Francis, one of the most distinguished and successful manufacturers that the manufacturing state of Rhode Island has produced, was born in Pawtucket, September 2, 1824, son of Clark and Mary Ann (Olney) Sayles, and died May 7, 1894. On the paternal side he was a lineal descendant of Roger Williams, in the sixth generation; his mother was of the Olney family, long and prominently identified with the history of the state, and who also trace their ancestry back to the founder of Rhode Island. His father was a master-builder and merchant of Pawtucket. William was favored with the advantage of a good classical and mercantile education. He attended the Fruit Hill Classical Institute and the Seekonk Classical School in Rhode Island, then spent about two years in Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., upon leaving which, in 1842, he entered the Providence commercial house of Shaw & Earle, serving first as bookkeeper, then as salesman, and finally being entrusted with the management of the concern's financial affairs.  In the latter part of 1847, he embarked in business for himself, as a manufacturer. A small print-works establishment in the town of Lincoln, near Pawtucket, was sold at auction, and Mr. Sayles became the purchaser. He at once erected additional buildings and converted the plant into a bleachery for cotton cloth, and started it with a capacity for turning out about two and a half tons daily. He was without previous knowledge of the business, and labored under the disadvantage of insufficient capital, yet his indomitable spirit and remarkable business capacity made the enterprise a success, and he steadily enlarged the works until in 1854 the capacity of the establishment was four tons daily, and his reputation for superior work had become so well established that he was at that time bleaching about three-fourths of all the fine grades of white cotton goods manufactured in the United States. In June 1854 the whole plant was destroyed by fire, and the results of years of labor were swept away in a few hours. But William F. Sayles was not of the stamp to succumb to a single stroke of misfortune, however severe. The work of rebuilding was immediately undertaken, on a larger scale and with structures of a more permanent character, and in the fall of that year the bleachery was again in operation, with its daily capacity increased to six tons. From that time enlargement and extension have gone on year by year, until the capacity of the works reached fifty tons or three thousand yards of bleached goods daily, and the Moshassuck Bleachery, whose origin has been thus briefly narrated, became widely known as the largest and most complete establishment of its kind in the world. In 1863 Mr. Sayles was joined in partnership by his brother Frederic, the firm name becoming W. F. & F. C. Sayies, and the present great industrial establishment at Saylesville in the Moshassuck Valley stands as a living and imposing monument to the brother's combined enterprise, energy and business ability. In 1877 the Messrs. Sayles built the Moshassuck Valley Railroad, connecting Saylesville with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad at Woodlawn, which, besides a passenger service, transports the supplies and products of the bleachery and also those of the noted Lorraine Woolen Mills, likewise the creation of the Sayles Brothers. These mills and their surrounding village of Lorraine are also situated in the Moshassuck Valley, about midway between Saylesville and the junction of the branch railroad with the main line.  From his unbounded enterprise and great ability as a financial manager and adviser, Mr. Sayles naturally became associated with many manufacturing corporations and business institutions outside of his extensive interests at Moshassuck and Lorraine.  At the time of his death he was President of the Slater Cotton Company, Pawtucket, of which he was the originator; a Director in the Ponemah Mills, the largest cotton manufacturing concern in Connecticut and one of the largest in New England ; and a Director or stockholder in various mills and enterprises in Massachusetts and elsewhere. He was also President of the Slater National Bank of Pawtucket, and a Director in the Third National Bank of Providence. Although a staunch Republican in politics, he was only once prevailed upon to enter political life, when he served two terms as Senator from Pawtucket in the General Assembly.  He was for a number of years President of the Pawtucket Free Library, and a member of the board of trustees of Brown University. For a time he served as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Pawtucket Light Guards, and during the war of the Rebellion he was a constant and liberal contributor to all patriotic ends. In 1878 he donated the sum of fifty thousand dollars to Brown University, for the erection of a building as a memorial to his son, whose untimely death occurred in 1876, during his Sophomore year in the college. Subsequently the fund was increased to a hundred thousand, and the Sayles Memorial Hall, a large and beautiful stone edifice, was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies in June 1881. Mr. Sayles was a man of high personal character as well as strictest commercial honor, upright in all dealings with his fellowmen, and active and public-spirited as a citizen. The termination of his busy, useful and instructive life, which took place May 7, 1894, at the age of about seventy years, was an event that occasioned keen regret and sincere mourning, not merely in the community in which he had always resided, but through-out his widely-extended circle of business friends and associates, by whom he was universally honored and revered. Mr. Sayles was married, October 30, 1849, to Miss Mary Wilkinson Fessenden, daughter of the late Hon. Benjamin Fessenden of Valley Falls, R. I.; she died September 20, 1886. Three children are now living: Mary (Mrs. Roscoe S.  Washburn), Martha F. and Frank A. Sayles. Biographie Index


TINGLEY, Frank Foster, architect, Providence, was born in Providence, October 7, 1844, son of Henry F. and Lucy A. (Draper) Tingley. He is descended from Samuel Tingley, who came from Maiden, Mass., to South Attleboro, that state, where he died in 1714, and from Isaac Draper who came from Dedham, Mass, to South Attleboro. His ancestors on both sides were long-lived people; in one family of fourteen, four lived to be over ninety, seven over  eighty, and two over seventy.   His father was born in Providence, and his mother in South Attleboro. His grandfather Sylvanus Tingley, in connection with Samuel Tingley his brother, the style of the firm being S.  & S. Tingley,   established himself in the marble business in Providence in 1811, and was the  first to apply steam power for sawing marble in the United States.    His grandfather Isaac Draper, who lived to the age of ninety-two, was one of the pioneers of the modern tanning industry, the beginning of the extensive tanning interests of Pawtucket, R. I., having sprung from the tanneries in South Attleboro.   Belonging to a race of tanners, Isaac Draper followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, himself and the latter being the inventors and original manufacturers of picker string and lace leather, used for belting purposes.   Frank Foster Tingley acquired his early education in the public schools of Providence.   On leaving the High School he entered the architect's office of Alpheus C. Morse, where he studied and worked two years, and afterwards was engaged with James C. Bucklin, also a prominent architect, for two years, since which time he has devoted himself largely to monumental architecture.  For three years he was engaged in the monumental business with his father, one of the proprietors of the Tingley Marble Company, Providence. He then went into architecture on his own account for a while, but not liking it particularly well, again took up the monumental business, as agent and designer for the Smith Granite Company of Westerly, R. I., in which connection he remained nine years, 1874 to 1883, working up a large business for the company in designing and selling. From 1883 to 1886 he was engaged in the work of developing the Chapman Quarry of Westerly, and since that time has been in business for himself. Mr. Tingley is a thorough and expert architect, and has designed some noteworthy buildings, among which is the large Kent & Stanley building in Providence, since called the Manufacturers' Building, seven stories, covering an acre of ground, and costing with the land over a half-million dollars. But as has been said, he has made a specialty of monumental work, in which line the originality and beauty of his designs have extended his reputation throughout New England and beyond, and brought his professional services into extensive demand.  Among notable examples of the monumental art, which stand as representatives of his genius and skill in designing, are the Barnaby monument in Providence; the Ames monuments at North Easton, Mass.; the Governor Padelford monument and the Abell   tomb at Swan Point, Providence; several of   the  Whitin family monuments at Whitinsville, Mass., and others in nearly all the principal cemeteries of New England.   Mr. Tingley is also distinguished as an amateur musician.    He has been a church organist ever since he was fifteen years of age.   He was organist of Grace Church, Providence, at eighteen, when Bishop Clark was in the height of his fame for pulpit oratory, and has held engagements in nearly all the churches of Providence, also at Dr. Putnam's in Roxbury, nearly thirty years ago, when that famous divine was in the height of his power as a preacher, and at the Shawmut Church, Dr. Webb's, in Boston, in the palmy days of this famous preacher.   At Dr.  Putnam's church in Roxbury, Mr. Tingley's choir was composed of Dr. C. A. Guilmette basso, Sarah Bar-ton soprano, Matilda Phillips contralto, and William Macdonald tenor, - a quartet of famous soloists and artists.  It has often been remarked in musical circles of Boston that never in that city, before or since, has the musical part of a church service been more faith-fully and exquisitely rendered than by this renowned quintet of artistic and finished performers that constituted the regular choir organization of the noted Roxbury Church.   He is an accomplished pianist and accompanist, and years ago, in the sixties, traveled with the Camilla Urso Concert Company.  For many years he has ranked as the first organist and  pianist  of  Providence, his work especially excelling in nicety of execution, and in delicacy and power of expression.   His most effective work may be regarded in his playing of the church service and choir accompaniments.   An extract from a newspaper criticism of a concert given by Mr.  Tingley and his wife in the Beneficent Congregational Church, Providence, in 1885, may not be out of place in this sketch, as showing how his musician abilities were regarded in his native city: "Mr. F. F. Tingley, the organist of the church," said the critic, " gave on this occasion a recital to a large invited company, and although he disclaims being, and really is not, in the profession, yet it must be conceded that he played with the skill, judgment and taste of a decidedly able professor.  His regular profession, as is well known, is that of monumental architect and designer; and to this his time is mainly devoted.   Having manifested, how-ever, even in boyhood, remarkable aptitude for music, and having subsequently attained a high degree of skill as an excellent on the organ, he has steadily been pressed into service," as we may truthfully say, in different churches, here and in Boston, for years past, and has consequently had large experience.   Mr. Tingley is noted for being a very clean and sure player.   Mrs. Tingley is well known and esteemed in our city as a church-quartet soprano and soloist of superior quality. Her voice is one of great purity and sweetness as well as of good volume and compass.   On one occasion in later years, on an Easter Sunday, Mr. Tingley being in Boston, just as he was leaving the hotel for church, he was requested, on account of the sudden illness of  the  organist of the New Old South Church, to take his place at the organ.  Mr. Tingley reluctantly consented to play the elaborate Easter service at sight, and upon one of the largest organs  in the country, with which he was not familiar.   The pastor apologized to his audience for the new organist who was to officiate at such brief notice, but the latter went through the service without any trouble, and was warmly congratulated on all sides for the successful performance. Mr. Tingley is a member of the Rhode Island Chapter of Architects, and of the Congregational Club of Providence.   In politics he is a Republican. He enlisted in the Tenth Rhode Island Regiment, in the war of the Rebellion.    The  regiment was detailed to guard the defenses of Washington.  After being with his regiment for two weeks, and before it was mustered in, he was found to be a minor and was discharged and returned home. He was married, in Providence, July 9, 1867, to Miss Orlena A. McConkey of Stonington, Conn.; she died May 9, 1895, leaving no children.   Mrs. Tingley was a noted singer, possessing a highly cultivated voice of remarkable purity and sympathetic qualities.   For many years in church and oratorio music she was recognized as the first of Providence singers, and her untimely death was deeply and widely lamented. Biographie Index

 

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