Providence, Rhode Island Biographies

GARVIN, Lucius Fayette Clark, physician and surgeon, was born in Knoxville, Tenn., November 13, 1841, son of James, Jr., and Sarah A. (Gunn) Garvin. His paternal ancestors were among the early settlers of Vermont. His maternal ancestors, including the Gunn, Montague and Dickenson families, were settlers of Massachusetts and of English descent. He received his early education in the public schools of Enfield and Sunderland, Mass. He fitted for college in the New Garden School, now Guilford College, near Greenboro, N. C, having previously attended a private school in Greenboro, and entered Amherst College, Mass., at the age of sixteen. He was graduated in the class of 1862, thirty-one years after the graduation of his father from the same institution. In the autumn of 1862 he taught a public school in Ware, Mass., having previously taught in Sunderland during a part of his senior year in college. Immediately upon attaining his majority he enlisted in Company E Fifty-first Massachusetts Volunteers, recruited in Worcester county. The regiment served in North Carolina, under General Foster. The march to Goldsboro, the burning of the bridge at that place to cut off the communications from the south with Lee’s army, and the engagements at Kingston, Whitehall and Goldsboro were the chief features of his experience in the army. After the mustering out of his regiment he taught a select school in Leverett, Mass., where he began the study of medicine. Subsequently, he was a student with Dr. Sylvanus Clapp of Pawtucket. He was graduated from the Harvard Medical School, March 13, 1867, having passed a year prior to graduation as Interne at the Boston City Hospital. In May 1867 he began the practice of medicine in Ionsdale, R. I, where he has continued to reside and actively practice since. He has always taken an active interest in public affairs. He was a Republican until 1876, supporting Lincoln and Grant for the presidency, but in that year advocated the election of Samuel J. Tilden, and has ever since acted with the Democratic party. Since 1880 he has been active in the propaganda of what he believes to be much needed reforms in the state. Beginning with 1SS3 he has been elected ten times to represent the town of Cumberland in the General Assembly, and is a member of the present House of Representatives. During this period he has aided in the enactment of the following eight popular measures, four of which were introduced by himself: The Ten Hour law, the Labor Bureau, the Extension of Suffrage, the Australian Ballot, Weekly Payments, Free Text-Books, Plurality Elections, and Factory Inspection. He regards proportional representation as the most important organic reform, and the single tax as the most important social reform, within the bounds of practical politics. For the past fifteen years he has urgently advocated a complete revision of the state constitution by means of a convention of the people; but unless that is to be held at an early date, he favors as the next constitutional amendment the granting to registry voters in cities the right to vote for councilmen. He regards his efforts for the extension of the suffrage in Rhode Island from 1880 to 1888 as his greatest life work. He was the Democratic candidate for Congress from the second district in Rhode Island at the election in 1894. Upon the passage of the Medical Examiner Act in 1884 he was appointed by Governor Bourn. Medical Examiner for the Seventh District, which embraces the town of Cumberland, and in 1890 was reappointed for six years by Governor Davis. He is a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, of the Providence Medical Association, of the Grand Army of the Republic (Ballou Post, Central Falls) and of the Bell Street Chapel Society of Providence. He married, December 23. 1869, Miss Lucy W. Southmayd of Middletown, Conn.; they have three children: Ethel, Norma and Florence Garvin.

GORTON, William Arthur, M. D., Superintendent of the Butler Hospital for the Insane, Providence, was born in North Brookfield, Madison county, N. Y., June 21, 1854, son of Tillinghast and Adaline M. (Rice) Gorton. He is descended on the paternal side from Samuel Gorton, one of the early settlers of Rhode Island, and on the ma-ternal side from the Wight family, prominent among the early residents of Massachusetts. His education was acquired in the public and in private schools. He completed a classical and scientific course in Whitestown Seminary, Whitestown, N. Y., graduating in 1873, and entered the Medical Department of the University of the city of New York in 1874, from which he was graduated in 1876, having completed two full courses of lectures, an intermediate course and a course of instruction by Dr. J. E. Winters of New York city. In April 1S76 he entered Bellevue Hospital in New York city. and after serving the regulation period of eighteen months in that institution went to Cooperstown, N. Y., and commenced practice in partnership with Dr. L. H. Hills, now of Binghamton. A few months later he was offered a position in the New York State Asylum for Insane Criminals, which he accepted in June 1878. In January 1882 he was appointed Assistant Physician to the Danvers Lunatic Hospital, Danvers, Mass., of which institution he was chosen Superintendent in 1886. He resigned in May 1888 to become Superintendent of the Butler Hospital, Providence, which position he holds at the present time. Dr. Gorton deems it the chief honor of his professional career that he has been chosen to succeed such men as Isaac Ray, John W. Sanger and William B. Goldsmith at the Butler Hospital. The last named was his intimate associate and warm friend; and he is mindful of the great benefits he derived from this association, while the many important plans for the development of the Butler Hospital that were devised by Dr. Goldsmith, he has endeavored to further promote and carry out. Of Dr. Gorton’s note work at the Butler Hospital the least that can be said is that he has endeavored to maintain the high standard of the institution established by his predecessors. Dr. Gorton is a member and first Vice-President of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and a member of the American and the Boston medico-psychological associations. He is also a member of the St. Botolph Club of Boston, and of the Providence Athletic Association. He was married, June 8, 1877, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Langley of Danvers, Mass.; they have had four children: Mary Putnam (deceased), Janet Langley, Miriam Rogers and William Tillinghast Gorton. (transcribed by Marie Miller)

GOULD, Miss Ellen M., philanthropist, born at The Hope, near Providence, R. I., 7th January, 1848. Her father, Daniel Gould, was born in Middletown, R. I., where his ancestors settled in 1637. Her mother, an Earle, descended from the Chases, who were the earliest settlers of Nantucket, was born in Providence. Both parents are of unmixed English lineage, and both are by birth and education Quakers. The father of Ellen in the eighth in the direct line of descent who has borne the name of Daniel Gould. In 1852 the family removed to Providence, where they remained till 1857, when they made a final remove to Davenport, Iowa. During the stormy decades in the middle of the century, Mr. and Mrs. Gould took an active part in the progressive movements of the time, especially the abolition of slavery. Their three daughters have inherited a like interest in the philanthropic efforts of the present. This has been especially the case with Ellen. Although naturally of a strong literary bent, a systematic training in that direction was rendered impossible by delicate health in early youth and by the imperative nature of home duties. Yet, so eager has been her thirst for knowledge and so persistent her efforts in making the most of every opportunity for self improvement offered, that no one but herself can discover any deficiency. She has contributed short stories to children’s magazines, and has also contributed able papers to the various societies of which she is a member. Her sympathies were enlisted during the Civil War in a Soldier’s Aid Society. She was the only young girl member, and she was sent as a delegate to one of the large sanitary fairs. She has been a member of the Unitarian Church of Davenport from its first organization and at a critical period in its history did much to restore its prosperity. Always an advocate of woman suffrage, she has done all in her power to promote its interests. With the help of a friend she organized the first and only suffrage association in Davenport. She has been for many years a member of the Library Association and also of the Academy of Science, but circumstances have hindered her from taking an active part in the work of either. She organized a literary club for young women, which had a very successful course for six years. It was called the Bric-a-Brac Society, and it aided in a very substantial way several important enterprises. She has been a most energetic member of the Ladies’ Benevolent Society, and also of the Association for the Advancement of Women, and the Ramabai Association. For six years she was directress of an industrial school for poor children, having worked as a teacher for two years. After a careful personal examination of the working of such schools in the East, she was able, with the aid of others, to systematize and give to the school such plans that few changes have since been necessary. In 1887, with the aid of a generous friend, she organized a cooking school, which proved so successful that in the following year it was incorporated into the public school system. To the two last mentioned enterprises she has given much time and strength gratuitously. Circumstances in her home have obliged her of late to give up all public work with the exception of that connected with the church, called the Post-Office Mission, the duties of which can be performed quietly at home. In this mission she has been a pioneer worker.

GRANT, Robert Alexander, M. D., Crompton, was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, December 24, 1870, came to Providence in October 1871, son of William and Jessie (MacDougald) Grant. He acquired his early education in the Providence public schools, fitted for college at the College Hill School in Providence, pursued a course at Union College, and finally graduated from the Albany, N. Y., Medical College. His medical training was received in the Albany City Hospital and in dispensary practice, and he entered upon the practice of his profession in Providence, June 1, 1895, removing to Crompton in September following. He is Chan-cellor Commander of Narragansett Lodge K. of P., being the youngest “ C. C.” in the state, and is a member of Washington Lodge No. n I. O. O. F., Howard Encampment I. O. O. F., and one of the leading college secret societies. He is unmarried.