Trails to the Past

Kent County, Rhode Island Biographies

Personal Paragraphs of Warwick

A - B

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

John B. Allen was born in 1845 in Warwick, and resides in that town. He is a son of John Allen. Mr. Allen kept a variety store at River Point twenty years under the firm name of Nichols & Allen. He has run a general variety store at Anthony about one year in the new building owned by the Coventry Company, built on the site where the Mattesons were burned out one and a half years ago. He was married in 1876 to Martha L. Bowen. They have three children : Mary B., Bessie W. and John B., Jr.

Charles A. Angell is a son of Abraham S. Angell of Coventry, and grandson of Abraham S. Angell of North Scituate, who was probably a son of Joshua Angell. Charles A. Angell was born in Scituate in 1837. As a boy and a young man he worked several years in the woolen mills at Coventry Centre and at Spring Lake. He kept a livery stable at Hope and one at Lippitt, and in 1877 he began a meat business at Lippitt, which he still carries on. In 1884 he bought a farm at Old Warwick, where he now resides. His business at Lippitt is managed by his only son, Charles H. Angell. Mrs. Angell is Paulina Potter of Scituate. Their only daughter, Annie A., is Mrs. Leonard Myrick.

Ann E. Arnold is the only child of Colonel John Waterman Arnold, who died at his farm near Pawtuxet in 1872. His father Israel was a son of Simon and grandson of Israel Arnold (1649-1717). This Israel was the son of Stephen Arnold who died in 1699, and grandson of William Arnold who was born in England in 1589 and settled near Pawtuxet in 1636. Miss Arnold's home was the original home of Stephen Arnold, whose dwelling was on the site of her present house. Miss Arnold's mother was Eliza, daughter of John Harris of Cranston. Colonel Arnold was one of seven children, there having been two brothers younger and one brother and three sisters older than he. The older brother, Israel, and the youngest of the family, George G., settled near Penn Yan, New York. The other brother married and always lived in the house built by his father. The family is descended from Roger Williams.

John Q. Arnold was born in 1826 and has lived since his earliest recollections in the house he now owns, which was the home of his father John B., son of William Arnold. John B. Arnold was a tailor in the early days of Centreville, acquired a fair property and was for several years a director of the bank. John Q. is a director in the Centreville National Bank. His wife is Anna B. Holden of Providence. They have one daughter, Harriot Hazard Arnold, and one son, William B. Arnold, M.D., who graduated in a class of 144 members from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in March, 1888, taking fifth place in the competitive examination for appointment to hospital practice in the city, where he is now practicing under that appointment.

Malfred A. Arnold was born in 1838. His father, Sion Arnold, was a son of Sion Arnold of Old Warwick. Mr. Arnold began business as a boot and .shoe dealer in Arctic in 1870. In 1877 he extended his business by buying out a boot and shoe store in Phenix, the store which Brigham Deane had carried on for two years. Here Mr. Arnold does some manufacturing (1,000 or 1,200 pairs per year) and carries a stock of shoe findings for the local shops in this vicinity. He served four years in the late war with the Ninth New York Cavalry as a non-commissioned officer. He is now a member of McGregor Post, No. 14, G. A. R.

William H. Arnold was born in 1836 at Crompton, where he lived thirty-eight years. There he kept a hotel and livery six years prior to 1873, when he removed to Arctic Centre. Twelve years prior to 1867 he worked at the River Point foundry. He was deputy sheriff three years under Governor William Sprague, and has been high sheriff of Kent county since May, 1887. His father, Oliver Arnold, was a son of Peleg Arnold of Coventry. His wife is Dorantha M. Love of Coventry. They have one son, William L. Arnold, and one daughter, Dora. ,

William Rhodes Arnold was born in Providence in 1839. His father, George C, was born 1803, died 1885. His grandfather, James Utter Arnold, was a son of George, who was of the sixth generation of Arnolds in America. This George Arnold in 1771 resided at Posnegansett, in Warwick, where W. R. Arnold now has a farm and a summer home. Near his house, built in 1771, is the site of the first Arnold homestead in Rhode Island. Mrs. W. R. Arnold is a daughter of James Carpenter (deceased), a founder and former president of the Valley worsted mills, at Providence. Since 1885 Mr. Arnold has been treasurer and general manager of these mills. George C. Arnold's wife was a daughter of William Rhodes, of Pawtuxet, a descendant of Zachariah Rhodes.

Nathan Atwood died in 1886. In the early history of this part of the town of Warwick the name of Atwood was prominent among the large land owners. As early as 1747 Charles Atwood bought a tract including the present site of the Lippitt and the Phenix mills. In 1783 the present site of the Lippitt mill passed by deed to Nehemiah Atwood, who used the water-power for a grist mill. His old ledgers, now kept by Joseph Atwood, the only child of his son Nathan, show him to have been a merchant in a day when general merchandise meant nails, shoes, candles, cloth and rum. This grandson, Joseph, born in 1868, succeeds to the homestead where his father, Nathan, died in 1886. Nathan was a sergeant in Company C, with the First Rhode Island cavalry three years and seven months. He was a carpenter by trade, and worked at Providence for the Corliss Engine Company. His widow, Mary A. Atwood, survives.

John H. Aylesworth is a brother of Judge Eli Aylesworth, of Providence, and a son of Arthur Aylesworth. He has been a traveling photographic artist for the last fifteen years. His wife, Lucina, is a daughter of Thomas Reynolds, of Greenwich, R. I. Their children are: John H., Jr., Minnie and Winona. Politically he is a republican. He has served as assessor three years. Starting without capital, Mr. Aylesworth has now a nice land property in addition to his business as a photographer.

Ebenezer Bigelow was born in New Brunswick. In 1872 he removed to Newport, and five years later to Warwick, where he was engaged one season with William R. Arnold at farming. The next year they began the Posnegansett ice business in the northeast part of the town of Warwick. This partnership is to continue through the season of 1889. In the mean time Mr. Bigelow, in 1885, purchased Norwood lake (Sand pond) and the land adjacent, and is erecting there a plant for a large business. His family consists of his wife and two children, Eddy D. and Mira E. The first year of the ice business three thousand tons of ice were cut. In the season of 1888 they used eighteen thousand tons. Mr. Bigelow has operated since 1884 the Arnold farm as tenant.

Allan A. Black was born in Scotland in 1844. His father was a cousin of Neil Campbell. When Allan A. was a small child he came to East Greenwich, R. I., and to River Point in 1850. He learned his trade in Providence, worked three years in Apponaug, and afterward at Anthony and Lippitt. In 1870 he came to River Point to work in the blacksmith shop of the Greene Manufacturing Company. In 1879 he bought the business, and has carried on this shop since. His wife (deceased) was a Maine lady. Mr. Black has three children.

Bowen Briggs was born in 1823. His father. Palmer, was one of the ten children of Sweet Briggs. His early days were passed as operative in a cotton factory, after which he was a grocer at Newport. Since 1862 he has resided at Apponaug, engaged in market gardening, occupying about thirty acres of land in the business. His residence is a house built by one Standish about sixty years ago.

Pierre Brouillard was born in Lower Canada in 1836, and came to Rhode Island in 1853. In 1856 he went to California, where he resided ten years. Returning to Connecticut, he was engaged in the grocery business there three years. He was in business at Woonsocket from 1870 to 1876, and in 1877 he removed to Arctic Centre, where he has since carried on a bakery. Since February, 1880, he has also engaged in a meat business. Mr. Brouillard was two years vice-president of the Societe St. Jean Baptiste de Centreville. Mr. Brouillard is one of a large number of French people who have become citizens and successful business men near here.

Henry Bryant was born of French parentage at St. Albans in 1832, and came to River Point in 1848. He worked in cotton mills until the breaking out of the civil war. He was exempt from service, having lost an eye July 4th, 1855, but he enlisted in 1862 in the Seventh Rhode Island Regiment, and served three years. During this time he was wounded, and is now a pensioner. Since the war he has been in the restaurant business here. His first wife died, leaving three sons and three daughters. The sons are: Joseph, a barber at River Point; Henry J., a barber in Boston; and John F. One of the daughters is Mrs. Peter J. Gough, here. His present wife is Susan, daughter of Michael Carroll.

Henry W. Budlong, son of Benjamin Budlong (1790-1865), was born in 1849. His mother, Roby K., is a sister of Henry W. Greene. Henry W. Budlong's paternal grandfather was Benjamin Budlong, a son of John and a grandson of John or Pearce Budlong, whose home was the old house, still standing, on the Budlong farm at The Buttonwoods, where Henry W. now resides. Hattie W. Budlong, of Providence, is a sister of Henry W., of The Buttonwoods. Their father, Benjamin, was one of the eighteen children of Benjamin and Almy Budlong.

George W. Budlong, who was born in 1830, was the fourth of the nine children of George W. Budlong, who died in 1879. His farm is the Budlong homestead near Norwood, where his grandfather. Reverend John Budlong, a Baptist preacher, was well known. Reverend John's father was John Budlong. The present George W. married Emily Hopkins, of Providence. They have one daughter living—Helena E. Budlong.

Henry C. Budlong, born 1836, is also a son of George W. (deceased). He has a farm near Norwood. He is a member of the  state police and has been complaining officer under the liquor law for Warwick five years. As auctioneer, justice of the peace and in other minor positions, he has been an officer in the town during the past eighteen years. His wife is Mary E. Fisk, of Providence. They have five children.

Byron L. Burlingame is a son of Gorton Burlingame, who died at the age of 74 years, and was a son of George W., who lived to his 95th year. Byron L's wife was Lucy E., a daughter of George W. Williams, a descendant of Roger Williams. Their children are Mabel A. and Lucy E.

Benjamin W. Burlingame was born at Natick Hill in 1837. Mr. Burlingame learned the carpenter's trade with his father and has worked at this business thirty years, twenty years of this time as a contractor. He served as a soldier in the civil war. His wife was a daughter of Daniel Bowen, of Coventry. They have eight children.

The information on Trails to the Past © Copyright  2024may 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!