Trails to the Past

Washington County Rhode Island Biographies

Men of Progress of Rhode Island and Providence Part 2
Source:  Boston New England Magazine 1896

BABCOCK, Albert Stillman, merchant, Rockville, was born in Ashaway, R. I., November 15, 1851, the son of Welcome B. and Mary (Rogers) Babcock. His ancestors on both sides are of well-known Rhode Island families. He received his early education in the Hopkinton Academy, and was pursuing the highest course of studies, alone in his class, at the closing of that institution.   He then at once entered the employ of the Ashaway Union Association as a clerk in the general store, and succeeded as general manager at the close of one year.  Shortly afterward, at the age of eighteen, he taught school for a while in the Quarryhill district of Westerly. He removed to Rockville in the spring of 1871, and was engaged in the Rockville store of which he became the proprietor April 1, 1878.  He has since continued in business there, combining with other work considerable real estate business. He was Postmaster in Rockville from June 1877 to June 1893, when he resigned to enter the State Senate, of which he has been a member since that time. He married, May 4, 1878, Miss Lantie A. Burdick, daughter of Gardner and Betsey Burdick of Rockville; they have one daughter, Lyra A.  Babcock.

CHAMPLIN, Christopher Elihu, was born at the homestead of his grandfather Rose on the easterly side of Block Island, September 24, 1860, the son of John P. and Lydia M. (Rose) Champlin. He comes from old Rhode Island families on both sides, his great-grandfather, Nathaniel E., being the first Champlain to settle on Block Island, and the Rose family having been long identified with its history.   He received his education in the public schools of New Shoreham and at East Greenwich Academy, where he was prepared for Brown University in which he studied.   He adopted the law as his profession and received his early training in the office of Edward H. Hazard and Col. C. H.  Parkhurst of Providence.   He studied in the Boston University of Law, from which he graduated in the class of 1884, and was admitted to the Suffolk County bar of Massachusetts in July 1884, and to the Rhode Island bar the following year. Immediately upon admission to the Rhode Island bar he opened a law office in Providence, where he has acquired a valuable practice. Although practicing in Providence he has retained his residence in New Shoreham, and has been its Town Solicitor for the past ten consecutive years. In 1887 he entered into politics and was elected a Representative to the General Assembly from New Shoreham, and was unanimously re-elected the following year, serving upon the Judiciary Committee for both terms. In 1888 he was Secretary of the Democratic State Central Committee of Rhode Island. In 1890 he was elected a Senator to the General Assembly from New Shoreham, and has been continuously re-elected each year since, serving upon the Judiciary and Corporation committees. From the beginning of his legislative career he interested himself strongly in securing an appropriation for the construction of a harbor of refuge in the Great Salt Pond of Block Island, and it was due chiefly to his exertions that the work was accomplished. At the formal dedication of the new harbor, September 21, 1895, Senator Champlin made the address of welcome to the Executive, Judicial and Representative bodies of the State. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of New Shoreham, and of Atlantic Lodge of Masons. He was married, October 14, 1891, to Miss Joannah Hayes; they have no children.

CONGDON, William Washington, retired business man, Wickford, was born in North Kingston, R. I., February 22, 1831, the son of Stanton W. and Izette (Hammond) Congdon.   He comes of old Rhode Island ancestry, his grandfather being Daniel Congdon, and his grandmother Hannah Stanton.  He received his early education in the common schools, and engaged in active business life when quite young.   For thirty-five years he conducted a livery business and stage route, and for fifteen years was conductor on the Newport & Wickford Railroad, retiring from active business in 1892. He has been a Deputy Sheriff of Washington county, member of the Town Council of Wickford in 1891-92, Representative in the General Assembly in 1894, and a Director in the National Bank and Savings Bank of Wickford. In politics he is a Republican. He married, in November 1856, Miss Frances A.  Gardner, daughter of George and Mary A. Gardner; they had one daughter, who died in infancy. 

CRUMB, Alexander Green, of Westerly, granite manufacturer, was born in Charlestown, R. I., November 2, 1830, son of Gardner and Hannah Hoxsie (Hazard) Crumb. His education was obtained in the common schools of his native town.  He worked as a farm hand during his youth, afterward learning the granite cutter's trade, embarking in the granite business for himself in 1857, and in which he has continued to the present time. With him are associated his three sons in the business, under the firm name of A. G. Crumb and Sons their quarry and works being located at or near Niantic, in the town of Westerly.   Mr. Crumb has been variously honored by his fellow citizens by his election to public office. He was a member of the Town Board of Assessors for eight years, and in 1888 was elected a member of the Town Council, which office he has held continuously since, serving as president of the council in 1893-94. In April 1895 he was chosen to represent the town of Westerly in the General Assembly of the state, in which capacity therefore he at present serves. He is a member of the Business Men's Association of Westerly, but belongs to no other important social, business or fraternal organization. In politics he is a Republican. He was married, January 15, 1857, to Miss Sarah Frances Hines;  they have five children: Erskine A., Edward S., William A., Susan E. M.  and Eugenia A. The three sons, as has been stated, are established in business with their father.

LEWIS, Nathan Barbour, Justice of the District Court of the Second Judicial District, was born in Exeter, R. I., February 26, 1842, son of James and Mary (Sisson) Lewis. He is a direct descendant of John Lewis, who settled in Westerly about 1650.  His father, commonly known as Deacon Lewis, was a captain in the state militia, and took an active part in the bloodless campaigns of the Dorr war; he was the son of Col. Nathan B. and Sally (Richmond) Lewis. His mother was the daughter of Lodowick and Mary (Saunders) Sisson of Hopkinton, R. I. He received his early education in the public schools, working on the farm summers.  He subsequently spent several terms in private schools, and took a commercial course at East Greenwich Academy. He taught school for several terms beginning in the autumn of 1859. During the war of the Rebellion he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers, August 13, 1862, and served until June 9, 1865, participating in all the campaigns of the regiment, and acting for the greater part of the time as company clerk and regimental postmaster, and serving in the color guard. Although not robust he was not absent a single day from the regiment., and when the regiment came from the field after the battle of Cold Harbor, he was one of only seven in his company who reported for duty.   During the last three years he has been President of the Seventh Rhode Island Veteran Association, an organization composed of the survivors of that regiment.   After a term  in Greenwich Academy he  taught school winters until 1867.   In the summer of 1866 he canvassed in Maine for the Henry Bill Publishing Company of Norwich, Conn., in Ohio in the summer and autumn of 1867, and in New York the following year.    In 1869 he bought a farm in Exeter and followed farming for three years. In June 1872 he was elected Town Clerk of Exeter, and held that office   continuously   until 1888.  While Town Clerk he was connected with a great many legal cases, there being no lawyer in the town, and this induced him to study the law, which he did in the office of ex-Senator Nathan F. Dixon, of Westerly, and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1890.   While Town Clerk of Exeter he wrote most of the deeds and wills executed in the town.   At the May session of the General Assembly in 1886 he was elected Justice of the District Court of the Second Judicial District, which embraces the towns of Exeter, North Kingston, South Kingstown, and the District of Narragansett.   On account of the distance from railroads he sold his farm on Pine Hill, Exeter, and removed to Wickford in 1887, where he resided until 1894, when he removed to West Kingston.   At the last May session of the General Assembly he was for the third time re-elected to the office of Justice of the District Court. In July 1890 Judge Lewis opened a law office in Westerly, R. I., where he enjoys a large practice for a country squire, and has been engaged in settling a large number of estates.   He was a member of the Commission appointed to build the new County Court House of Washington county. In 1895 he was appointed by the Supreme Court a standing   Master   in   Chancery  for Washington county.    He was Postmaster at Pine Hill, R. I., from July 1, 1872, to April 1876, when he resigned to accept a seat in the General Assembly, and was re-appointed in 1879, holding the office until 1888. He was a member of the School Committee of Exeter from June 1866 to June 1887, and Superintendent of Schools for the greater part of that time.  He was a Representative in the General Assembly from April 1869 to April 1872, and from April 1876 to April 1877. He was Assessor of Taxes from June 1875 to June 1888, was Trial Justice of Exeter previous to the establishment of the District Court, was Coroner of the town of Exeter from July 1873 to June  1886, and   was Moderator   of North Kingston from 1889 to 1892 and Auditor of Town Accounts from 1890 to 1894.   He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Past Commander of Charles C. Baker Post of Wickford, and was Judge Advocate of the Department of Rhode Island 1890-1893.   He is a member of Exeter Lodge I. O. O. F. , having been through all the chairs, and is a member of the Grand Lodge; is a Past Chief Patriarch of Uncas Encampment I. O. O. F. of Wickford; a member of Orilla Lodge D. of R., Peacedale, R. I.; of Exeter Grange P. of H. and Washington County Pomona Grange; of Charity Lodge A. F. & A. M., Hope Valley; of Franklin Chapter Royal Arch Masons, Hope Valley, and of Narragansett Commandery K. T. of Westerly. In politics he is a Republican.   He married, March 7, 1869, Miss Rowena K. Lillibridge, who died July 5, 1879; they had four children: Aubrey C, a graduate of Dartmouth College and now studying law, Agnes Mabel, Howard and Nathan Richmond Lewis, the latter   three dying in infancy. He married, August 15, 1880, Miss Nettie Chester.  He resides in West Kingston.

PRICE, Walter, druggist, Westerly, was born in Plainfield, Conn., June 18, 1845, the eldest of three children. His father was a native of Wales and his mother of Bristol, England; they came to America in 1838. He was educated in the public schools, leaving school at the age of sixteen to enlist in the war of the Rebellion. He served three years in the army, and after receiving an honorable discharge returned to his home, then in Mystic, Conn., where new duties and responsibilities awaited him, his father and mother having died during his absence. On his return he found it necessary to obtain immediate employment of some kind, with-out waiting for a choice in entering upon a career, in order to educate his two younger brothers. He obtained a position as purser of a steamship running to Southern ports and later to the West Indies, which berth he held until he was made Agent of the Steamship Company and located at Samana Bay, Santo Domingo, W. I. This was in 1870, and during that period, in connection with his business as steamship agent, he was naval storekeeper for the United States, and also acted as commercial agent for our government. He was at Samana Bay during all the period of agitation concerning the proposed annexation of the island to this country. Mr. Price returned to the United States in the fall of 1874 and engaged in the drug business at Westerly, R. I., which business he has carried on at Nos. 26 and 27 Main street continuously for the past twenty-one years. In politics he has always been a Republican - is serving his second term as Town Councilman of Westerly, also his second year as a member of the Republican Town Committee, and this year was elected a member of the General Assembly. He is in no sense a club or society man, having led too active a business life to find time for such form of recreation; he is a member of the Pawcatuck Seventh-Day Baptist Church, Hancock Post G. A.  R., and the Westerly Business Men's Association.  His life has been a busy one, with many severe struggles through early years of poverty and privation, until now he is entering upon his second half-century with the satisfaction of having reached a point of comparative ease and competence. Mr. Price was twice married : October 24, 1872, to Miss Laura Adelaide Greenman, and February 14, 1877, to Lucia Annette Greenman. His first wife and second wife were sisters, daughters of the late George Greenman of Mystic, Conn., for more than fifty years a noted shipbuilder of that place. His first wife died at Samana Bay, Santo Domingo, W. I., March 17, 1874, leaving no children. Four children were the fruit of his second marriage : Abby C., Fanny Annette, Walter Smith and Catherine Greenman Price, all now living except the firstborn, who died January 10, 1882.

UTTER, George Herbert, editor Westerly Daily Sun, was born July 24, 1854, at Plainfield, N. J., the son of George B. and Mary Starr (Maxson) Utter. His father was born in Oneida county, N. Y, where his father had emigrated from Hopkinton, R. I. His mother's father was John Maxson, a direct descendant of Newport's first settlers; and her mother was a Starr, the daughter of Jesse Starr of Newport, a Revolutionary soldier, and a grand-daughter of Vine Starr, another Revolutionary soldier.  On this branch the line is unbroken to Elder William Brewster, who came in the Mayflower.  George H. received his early education in the private schools of Westerly, and for two years in the preparatory department of Alfred University, Alfred, N. Y. Then for two years in the Westerly high school. He entered Amherst College, Mass., and graduated in the class of 1877. He had learned the printer's trade before entering college, and after graduation he became associated with his father and uncle, publishers of the Westerly Weekly.  On the death of his uncle in 1886 he became a member of the firm, and on the death of his father in 1893 sole owner. In August, 1893, he started the Westerly Daily Sun. He has always taken an active interest in public affairs. He has been a Trustee of School District No. I, Westerly. He was colonel on the staff of Governor Bourne from 1883 to 1885.  He was elected a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives 1885 to 1889 and was Speaker the last year. He was a member of the Senate from 1889 to 1891. He was elected Secretary of State in 1891 and re-elected two times, when he declined a re-nomination. In politics he is a Republican. He married, May 19, 1880, Miss Elizabeth L. Brown of Allston, Mass.; they have children: George Benjamin, Henry Edwin, Mary Starr and Wilfred Brown Utter.

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