Washington County Biographies

Source The History of Washington & Kent Counties
Written by J. R. Cole published in 1889 by W. W. Preston & Co.

Judge Stephen Arnold, of Warwick, was a descendant of the Pawtucket Arnolds and born September 3rd, 1732. He was the son of Philip, the son of Stephen, grandson of Stephen, and great-grandson of William, the first of the family in this state. Judge Arnold was married several times. One of his daughters, Elizabeth, married Christopher A. Whitman, of Coventry, who was for some years president of the Coventry Bank. He fell dead in the road in Centreville, May 19th, 1816, in the 84th year of his age. His son Benedict dropped dead from his horse while riding to Apponaug, and his eldest son dropped from his chair and expired just after he had eaten a hearty dinner.

Judge Stephen Arnold was the person who was charged by the people of East Greenwich with propagating principles unfriendly to American liberty, though it hardly appears he was guilty. He was at that time judge of the common pleas court, and denounced some of the leaders with much asperity. An account of this controversy is given in Chapter V. Judge Arnold was a tall, slim man, active in his habits, social and somewhat eccentric.

Colonel Harry Babcock, son of Doctor Joshua Babcock, of Westerly, was born in 1736. He entered college at twelve years of age, and took his degree at sixteen at the head of his class. At the age of eighteen he obtained from the legislature of this state a charter for an independent company of infantry and was appointed captain. At the age of nineteen he was appointed captain of a company in the regiment raised by this colony and marched to Albany, from thence to Lake George, and joined the army in the campaign of 1756, to dislodge the French from Canada. Sir William Johnson, commander-in-chief, detached four hundred men under Colonel Williams to reconnoiter. Captain Babcock, with sixty men, constituted a part of the corps. They were attacked by the enemy commanded by Baron Dieskau, and defeated. Colonel Williams and Captain Babcock had nineteen men killed and wounded. Baron Dieskau was taken prisoner. The next year Captain Babcock was promoted major; at twenty-one years of age he was promoted lieutenant-colonel; at twenty-two he commanded the Rhode Island regiment, consisting of one thousand men ; and in July, 1758, he marched five hundred of his men with the British army against Ticonderoga. He had one hundred and ten men killed and wounded and was wounded himself by a musket ball in the knee. He also assisted in other campaigns, and in all served five years in the Old French wars with great reputation. About the age of twenty-five Colonel Babcock spent a year in England, chiefly in London, where he was treated with as great respect by the nobility and gentry as any other American of his time. Soon after his return he married and settled in Stonington, in Connecticut, and commenced the practice of the law. When the revolution commenced he was a staunch whig, and 1776 he was appointed by the legislature commander of the forces at Newport. While commander at this time he had one opportunity to display his courage. On the open beach, with an eighteen pounder, he drove off the British man-of-war " Rose " by his own firing. He had practiced as an engineer at Woolwich, when in England. He was so severely affected by a spell of sickness in the winter following that he never entirely recovered. He was a man of fine person, accomplished manners, commanding voice and an eloquent speaker. The family mansion stood on the old country road one mile east of Pawtucket village in Westerly.

Richard Ward Greene, of Warwick, chief justice, was one of the honored names of the state. He was the son of Christopher and Deborah (Ward) Greene, and was born early in 1792, and died in the eighty-fourth year of his age. His mother was a daughter of Governor Samuel Ward. He was educated at Brown University, and at the time of his death was one of its trustees. He studied law at Litchfield Law School, an institution which graduated many eminent lawyers of the American bar. Judge Greene was stately and dignified, straight as an arrow, and was over six feet in height.

Rouse J. Helme.-The family of Helme were among the first settlers of Narragansett. Mr. James Helme of South Kingstown and Esther Powell of North Kingstown were married October 19th, 1738. They took up their residence at Tower Hill, and for many years Mr. Helme kept a large retail store there. In 1767 he was elected by the legislature chief justice of the supreme court of the state, and was re-elected as chief or associate justice until 1775. He died in 1777, and was interred in the burial ground on Tower Hill. His wife was the granddaughter of Gabriel Bernon, the Protestant Huguenot, and daughter of Adam Powell and Hester Powell, who before marriage was Hester Bernon. Rouse J. Helme, his son, was born at Tower Hill in 1744. He received a competent education, and became proficient in the learned languages. He early displayed a predilection for the study of the law, and became a distinguished citizen of the state. He took a course of study under Mathew Robinson, a learned lawyer, and subsequently opened an office at the village of Kingston, in his native town, where he soon obtained a large share of practice. He early embarked in politics, and was elected to many offices of honor and responsibility. He was a member of the council of war during the revolution, deputy secretary and a member of the general assembly for many years. In the legislature Mr. Helme boldly opposed the paper money system of 1786, and on the ascendency of that party, in the succeeding year, he was superseded as a representative, but he manifested great ability as a lawyer and as a statesman, and was subsequently re-elected. In 1788 he was returned a member of the legislature from New Shoreham under a law passed during the revolution authorizing that town, being an island, to choose its representatives among other towns, and he continued to represent that town for many years. He died in the meridian of his life, October 13th, 1789, aged 46.

James Mitchell Varnum was born in Dracut, Mass., in 1749. He graduated in 1769, at the age of twenty, from Rhode Island College, then located in Warren. He was in the first class that graduated from that institution. Soon after his college course he entered the office of Oliver Arnold, in Providence, then attorney general of the colony. He settled in East Greenwich, where his talents acquired for him an extensive practice and from his travels through the circuits of the state he reaped many honors of his profession. Mr. Varnum had a great taste for military life, and early joined the Kentish Guards, and in 1774 was appointed commander of that company, which from superior acquirements in military tactics became the nursery of many distinguished officers during the revolutionary war. General Greene, General Varnum, Colonel Greene, Colonel Crary, Colonel Whitmarsh, Major Dexter, Captain Arnold and others, making thirty-two in all, entered the patriot army as commissioned officers from this company. The state raised two regiments for the war of the revolution for the year 1776. Colonel Varnum commanded the first and Hitchcock the second. Varnum was shortly afterward raised to the command of a brigade, and the legislature of the state in May, 1779, in consideration of his national services, elected him. major-general of the militia, to which office he was unanimously re-elected during the remainder of his life. In 1780 he was elected to congress. In 1787 he was appointed with Samuel Parsons judge of the Northwestern territory.

In the spring of 1788, he left his native state and took up his abode in Marietta, Ohio, the seat of government, but in 1789 ill-health compelled him to cease labors, and in the month of March, 1789, he passed away, his death taking place at Campus Martius, a stockade built by the first settlers under Putnam. The career of General Varnum was active and brief. He graduated at twenty, was admitted to the bar at twenty-two, resigned his commission at thirty-two, was a member of congress the same year, resumed his practice at thirty-three, continued his practice four years, was elected to congress again at thirty-seven, emigrated to the west at thirty-nine, and died at the early age of forty.

From the memoirs of Elkanah Watson we give the following, as descriptive of Mr. Varnum's eloquence as a speaker: " James Mitchell Varnum was appointed a brigadier-general in the Rhode Island line at an early period of the revolution. He resided in East Greenwich, and was one of the most eminent lawyers, and distinguished orators in the colonies. I first saw this learned and amiable man in 1774, when I heard him deliver a Masonic oration. Until that moment I had formed no conception of the power and charms of oratory. I was so deeply impressed, that the effect of his splendid exhibition has remained for forty-eight years indelibly fixed on my mind. I then compared his mind to a beautiful parterre, from which he was enabled to pluck the most gorgeous and fanciful flowers in his progress, to enrich and embellish his subject.

" He marched into Providence, with his company on the evening of the 20th of April, on his way to Lexington. General Nathaniel Greene marched into Providence with General Varnum on that occasion, although it was as a private, and while he still held his connection with the Quaker Society, Greene and Varnum were soon after appointed brigadiers and attached to the army besieging Boston. Varnum continued some years in the army, and saw some service; he was a good disciplinarian, and invaluable in council. He held an excellent pen, commanding a rich flow of language and eloquence, embellished by all the ornaments and graces of rhetoric.

" While in command at Taunton, he addressed an admirable letter to the commanding officer of the Hessians, on Rhode Island, and sent it in by a flag of truce. The letter was a transcript of his views of the great controversy with England, and was considered an able argument on the subject. It was subsequently published in England, and reflected very much credit on the author. At the close of his military career, he resumed his professional attitude, and often came into conflict with Henry Goodwin, his great rival in eloquence, but of a totally distinct school. While Varnum's oratory was mild and conciliatory, and flowing in majestic and persuasive eloquence, Goodwin's was wrapped in fire and energy, mingled with the most burning sarcasm.

" In the year 1785, General Varnum formed the project of establishing a colony on the north branch of the Ohio river, and erecting a city at the mouth of the Muskingum. He urged me to unite with him in the adventure. He carried out his design and founded Marietta, which he named in honor of the queen of France."

 

 

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