History of Washington and Kent Counties,
Rhode Island

By: J.R. Cole W.W. Preston & Co., NY, 1889


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EXETER.

p. 683

The Exeter descendants trace their lineage from Nicholas Gardiner, who is thought to have resided in South Kingstown, but whose son Ezekiel located later in Exeter. Here Ezekiel reared his family, probably on the property since and to the present day known as the Gardner homestead. His son Zebulon became after him a thrifty farmer, and in the troublous days of the revolution bore arms in the common defense. Of him and of his generation very little of history or tradition is preserved in the records or memories of his descendants.

Robert (Gardner) was a thrifty farmer, occupying after his father the homestead property where, with his good wife, Marcy Tillinghast, of West Greenwich, he passed in rural peace the noontime and evening of his life until its close in 1845. His sturdy good sense and his position for some years as magistrate in the local court are both preserved in the title of "Judge Gardner," by which he was then known and is still remembered, and he was also a member of the legislature.

p. 683-684

His children were: John T., Hannah, Olive, Marcy, Zebullon, Robert,Dorcas, Fanny, Mary A., Catherine and Ann W. They were all born here and in here in the same house, still standing, as plain and substantial as were the men who built it, lives Ann W., the youngest of the eleven and the only survivor. The eldest of the eleven at the death of the father became in a sense the head of the family, and prior to his death in 1878 was one of the most prosperous farmers in the town.

Zebulon Gardner, the fifth of the eleven, was born in 1810, and married Eliza B. Lawton, of Fall River Mass. To them were born five children: Robert, in 1842; Fannie in 1844; Mercy T., in 1846; Ann Eliza, in 1847, and Z. Herbert Gardner, June 22nd, 1849.

p. 684

In 1850, Mr.. Gardner went to California, his family remaining in FallRiver, where his wife died soon after. In California he was again married to Mary Reddish, of Missouri and to them one son, Charles F. Gardiner was born. Zebulon Gardner was killed August 25th, 1861, on the Sacramento river in a steamboat disaster, but his son, Charles F. survives and after being educated in the East at Philips' Academy in Andover, Mass., and at Yale College, he located in California, became the head of a family and is an attorney-at-law in Sacramento city. He was appointed receiver of public monies there by President Arthur and held the position for six years.

Robert Gardner, son of Zebulon and Eliza B., native of Fall River, Mass., 48 years old, immigrated to California when 17 years of age. He was in the flour, grain and lumber business for ten years. He was a delegate from California to the national republican convention which met in Baltimore June 7th 1864, to nominate Lincoln for the second time president of the United States. He was appointed by President Grant in March, 1869, register of the Humboldt land office for Humboldt district, California. He was nominated for state surveyor general by the republican state convention in Sacramento, In June, 1871, on the ticket with Newton Booth for governor, and was elected for four years; renominated for state surveyor general in June 1875, on the ticket with Timothy G. Phelps for governor. the ticket was defeated, caused by a split in the republican party. He now lives in Oakland, California.

Mercy T. Gardner married William R. Dutemple, of Providence, and has a family. Her younger sister became Mrs. William P. Gardner and at her death, April 6th, 1880, left a daughter, Fannie C., now a miss of fifteen years.

When the family of Zebulon Gardner at Fall River was broken up by the death of the mother, the youngest boy, then but two years old, found a home with his father's brother, John T., above mentioned, and from then until now has lived at the Gardner homestead in Exeter, a part of which he inherited on the death of this uncle in 1878. As representing this old family---its only male survivor in the town---his portrait accompanies this sketch. From his uncle's home he had such meagre chances for an education as the small rural school might give until old enough to attend the seminary at East Greenwich, after which he was in Bryant & Stratton's school at Providence, and later in 1868, he graduated at Schofield's Commercial College in that city. In 1879 he was married to Martha A. Crandall of Phenix, R.I. They have three boys: John T., born August, 1882; Z. Herbert, Jr., born February, 1884; and Thomas C., born in February, 1887.

p. 685

On political questions, Mr. Gardner has always acted with the republican party, and as representing the principles of that party he has been frequently chosen to fill places of trust, and has served several years as chairman of the town republican committee. Besides filling several minor offices, he was three years commissioner of the town asylum, and in 1879, 1880 and 1881 he represented Exeter in the lower house of the state legislature. After an interval of one year he was promoted by his fellow townsmen to a seat in the state senate, and re-elected in 1884. For three of these five terms he was chosen without opposition. During his last year as senator he was a delegate to the republican national convention at Chicago. He is an officer in Exeter Grange. P. of H., and a director in the Landholders' National Bank of Kingstown, R. I.

In agricultural methods he has usually preferred to operate in tested rather than in experimental lines, and has found himself fairly successful; and while engaging exclusively in the arts of tilling as a business he finds, as do scores of the farmers of today, that th duties of the husbandman are entirely consistent with a style of living in the home, which in earlier days would have been regarded as the height of extravagance.

Music, painting and much of literary cultivation are finding their way to rural homes, where in the sterner days---the formative period---they were, even to people of as ample means, unknown as a luxury,and undreamed of as a possibility for their successors.

p. 686

CLARKE S. GREENE --- Since the honorable public service of General Nathanael Greene as an officer with Washington augmented the prestige of the family name, well established in the colony of Rhode Island by its deputy governor, John Greene, the blood and the fair fame of this old family have been transmitted through residents of nearly every town in the state.

The subject of this sketch, Clarke Sisson Greene, of Exeter, traces his descent from Peter Greene, who before the revolution was a resident of Warwick, being himself, as the family tradition has it, a descendant of the deputy governor. This Peter Greene died about 1765, and left at least two sons. The older, who bore his name, inherited by the English law his landed property; hence we find William, the younger son, the only other of which there is record, left at an early age to his own resources and to the care of the widowed mother. By her he was apprenticed to a blacksmith to learn that trade, but before he was seventeen his master had joined the continental army, and before the close of 1776, the young apprentice, against the protests of his mother, had enlisted for six months. Before the expiration of that period his knowledge of blacksmithing had rendered his services valuable, and he was persuaded to re-enlist for the remainder of the struggle, and served until the declaration of peace, when he was royally rewarded in his country's currency, of which thirty dollars served to secure a breakfast. He shortly after settled in Exeter, where he bought a small place of seven acres and began business at this trade, with which he was by that time familiar. Many of the houses of that day were built with nails from his anvil at the Hollow, and he married his wife, Marcy, a daughter of Pardon Tillinghast, a wealthy man of West Greenwich, whose lucrative business in rum and molasses gave him not only a fair estate, but a sobriquet which proved as lasting, and to his death he was known as "Molasses Pardon."

pp.686-687

To William and Marcy (Tillinghast) Greene were born four children: William, who died young; Pardon T., Ruth, who became Mrs. Benjamin Reynolds, and died in Ohio; and Christopher C., who resided many years in Exeter, where he was member of the general assembly and a long time president of the Exeter Bank.

Pardon T. Greene was born November, 1792, and spent most of his minority with his grandfather Tillinghast, whose name he bore. He became an influential man, married Deborah, daughter of Clarke Sisson, of Richmond, R. I., raised a large family, and died in May, 1858. widely known and greatly respected. The eldest of his children, Clarke S., is the only male survivor of the ten residing in the town. The younger of his generation were; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Benjamin Arnold; Marcy T., Ruth S., Mary Antoinette, William, Ascenath, and John T., besides two still younger, who died in infancy.

pp. 687-688

REVEREND DANIEL R. KNIGHT was born in Scituate, R. I., August 15th, 1805.He was the son of George and Mercy (Stone) Knight and grandson of Colonel Joseph Knight. Among his ancestors may be found the names of some of the most prominent the early settlers of Rhode Island, viz.: Ezekiel Holliman, Thomas Angell, Stukeley Westcott and Reverend Chad Brown of Providence and Samuel Gorton of Warwick. He possessed in a large degree the sterling traits of character for which his ancestors were noted. His opportunities for gaining an education were limited to the common schools of this native town, yet he gave himself with a rate devotion for many years, without pecuniary reward, to the performance of his duties as a minister of the gospel, laboring upon his farm during the week and preaching and exhorting upon the Sabbath. A brief summary of this life is given in the following extract from an obituary notice published in the annual report of the Rhode Island and Massachusetts General Six Principle Baptist Association for 1877, of which body he was a member.

p. 688

He embraced religion and was baptized by Elder Thomas Tillinghast March23d, 1828, in Scituate, but became a member of the Coventry Maple Root Church. He was ordained Deacon about 1833, and when the Scituate Union church was organized in 1841, he was one of its members, and continued in connection with said church until August 2d, 1859, when he united with the General Six Principle Baptist Church of North Kingstown. Brother Knight was ordained to the ministry in Scituate, October 18th, 1849, and was a very earnest worker in the cause to the Master. He left Scituate in the spring of 1844, and moved into the town of Exeter, where he resided until his death, which took place April 27th, 1877, in the 72d year of his age. He was steadfast in the faith, of industrious habits, of good character, and much beloved and respected by those who knew him. His last words, 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,' were a fitting expression of his earnest and blameless life.

He married first, in March, 1825, Susan Colvin, daughter of Moses and Olive Colvin. She died July 2d, 1858, and he married second Mrs. Ruth E. Johnson of Exeter, R. I. His children, all by the first marriage, are: Alvin Lloyd, Cynthia Ann, Daniel Bradford, Jane Frances and Sheldon Tillinghast.

pp. 688-689

THE LEWIS FAMILY ---This family, for fully two hundred years identified with the slow and tedious growth of agricultural interests in Exeter, traces its descent from John Lewis(1) , of Westerly, R. I., where he was October 29th, 1668, admitted a freeman and where he died prior to 1690. The fourth child in his family of seven was James Lewis (2). He was born in the same town and there married Sarah Babcock, daughter of James and Sarah (Brown) Babcock, with whom he removed to Exeter, where he died in 1745. He probably passed most of his life in Exeter, where his eight children were born. The eldest of the eight was James Lewis (3). He was married February 27th, 1742, to Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Kenyon, of Charlestown, R. I., and died in 1776. the eldest of his seven children took the name James also, and on December 2d, 1766, at the age of twenty-one, was admitted a freeman of Exeter, where he was born.

p. 689

This James Lewis (4) married Nathan Barber's daughter, Thankful, of Westerly, and at this death in 1825 left fourteen children, each of whom reached maturity. The eighth child in this large family was given the name of his mother's father and is still remembered in Exeter as Nathan Barber Lewis. He was born March 5th, 1790, and died June 5th, 1830. With his descendants, constituting the sixth, seventh and eighth generations of the family in Rhode Island, the remainder of this sketch will have mainly to do.

His wife was Sally Richmond, a daughter of Stephen Richmond, of Exeter. She was two years his senior and survived his early death for nearly forty-two years. To them were born six children: James, Lucy, Thankful (deceased), Esther, Nathan Barber and Sally Ann, five of whom are still living.

pp. 689-690

We have noticed the early death of the father of this generation. Out of that calamity came a great blessing in the development of the life and character of James, the eldest son, to whom fell the burdens and the responsibilities of the household. He was born on the 11th of October, 1810, and had not seen twenty years when, with a widowed mother and five younger children largely dependent upon his industry and prudent management, he was driven to the development of those rugged qualities of mind which have since become the great mainsprings of his success in life. He still lives, at a ripe old age, in the full enjoyment of mental and physical vigor, the wealthiest man in Exeter whose fortune, developed by a single generation, has been wrung entirely from the unfriendly face of the earth.

His early days were contemporary with the primitive schools of the rural town in which three months in the winter for a few years was all a poor farmer's son might hope to enjoy. His early religious training was under Methodistic influences and he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Rockville, where his first wife Mary Sisson, also belonged. This society subsequently removed its church building to Locustville, and Mr. Lewis found it more convenient to worship nearer home with the Baptist Society at Woody Hill. Although this change in his church associations did not indicate any change of faith or creed on his part, yet he was made a deacon in the Baptist Church and maintained that relation for fifteen years or more. When the Woody Hill church was disbanded Deacon Lewis and his second wife, Fanny M. Hall, became members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Locustville where he now worships.

pp. 690-691

Deacon Lewis was first married September 2d, 1838, to a daughter of Lodowick Sisson, of Hopkinton, R. R. This union was blessed in the birth of seven children: James Harrison, who died young; Nathan Barber, now known in the state as Judge Lewis, of Wickford; James Cortland, who died young; Mary Frances, now Mrs. George F. Barber of Exeter; John Nelson, Peleg and Saunders.

Judge Nathan B. Lewis was born at the homestead, February 26th, 1842. The deacon, with habits of ceaseless industry firmly anchored to nature, bent all the forces at his command to the acquisition of wealth, and thus his boys, so long as they remained at the farm, were safely shielded from forming idle habits, and a brief interval in winter was the natural limit of their school advantages at first. On the intellectual development of Judge Lewis the private select school and the seminary at East Greenwich exerted positive and permanent influences, and when seventeen years old he taught his first term at Griswold, Conn., where his father's brother, N. B. Lewis, a prominent and wealthy farmer, resided. On August 15th, 1862, Judge Lewis enlisted as a private in the Seventh Rhode Island Regiment, and without a day's absence for any reason he shared the fortunes of the Seventh until mustered out with the regiment, June 9th, 1865. At the battle of Cold Harbor, where Greeley says ten thousand men were cut down in twenty minutes, Sergeant Lewis was one of only seven men in Company F, who came out of the fight unhurt.

After the war, he completed a mathematical and commercial course at East Greenwich, and was variously engaged until the spring of 1869, when he began three years of farm life near his birthplace, in Exeter. that spring he was elected to the legislature, and held the seat three successive terms.

In May, 1872, he purchased a farm at Pine Hill, near the center of Exeter, where he resided until the summer of 1888. In these sixteen years the course of public affairs in the town was modified and moulded vary largely by the acts and influence of this young man, who had many of the town offices during that period, and it is safe to record it here that at the end of his sixteenth year as town clerk of Exeter that town had not another man so popular as he. His services as superintendent of schools, assessor of taxes, postmaster, coroner and trial justice at various times made him intimately acquainted with the people, and he has very often been named in wills or otherwise to settle private estates.

In May 1886, on the establishment of the district court system in Rhode Island, he was elected by the general assembly to preside over the Second Judicial district of the state.

p. 691

" Judge Lewis has cultivated his social tastes through membership with the orders of Odd Fellows, Masons and Patrons of Husbandry, and in the Charles C. Baker Post, G. A. R., he has been quartermaster since its organization.

He has been twice married. his present wife is Nettie, daughter of O. B. Chester, of Westerly, R. I. They were married August 15th, 1880. Mrs. Lewis (deceased), was Rowena K. Lillibridge, of Exeter, who died July 5th, 1879, after being married but little more than ten years. Only her oldest son, Aubrey Clifford, survives, the three younger ---Agnes Mabel, Howard and Nathan Richmond---having died in infancy. Aubrey Clifford Lewis thus represents the eighth generation included in the sketch. he was born in Exeter, April 7th, 1870, and is now a student in the classical course at the Westerly High School, with the class of '90. John Nelson Lewis, the Judge's only brother living, five years his junior, was educated in public and private schools, and took a commercial course at Schofield's Business College at Providence. Since 1872 he has been bookkeeper at Voluntown, Conn., for Ira G. Briggs & Co., manufacturers. There he was married some two years later to Nettie Lee of that place. He was postmaster under Grand and Arthur, has held several local offices there, and in the last election was elected by a very flattering majority to the Connecticut house of representatives.

Of the youngest of Deacon Lewis' children, Peleg, who died at twenty years of age, had just entered upon a career as a teacher, and Saunders, who died three years later at the age of twenty-three, had established a medical practice at Usquepaug, after graduating in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The mother of this seventh generation was an estimable woman of remarkable good sense and to the close of her life, May 3d, 1849, she bore her part in the plans and purposes of her husband, whose schemes for accumulating property were then beginning to be realized. To her family of young children in February of the following year another mother came, under whose care they were reared to manhood and womanhood. She died in April, 1888.

Mr. George F. Barber, who married the only daughter of Deacon Lewis, is a man in the prime of life, has been constable and member of the town council for several years, and has held other responsible positions. He is engaged in farming an lumbering. Their marriage has resulted in eight bright, intelligent children---four boys and four girls.

The home of Deacon Lewis is in the western part of the town here his ancestors have lived and died for two centuries. here by the most persistent industry, untiring vigilance and careful financial management he acquired a competence almost exclusively by farming on the sterile soil of Exeter. A man of remarkable individuality, strong religious convictions and unswerving honesty, he enjoys the respect and confidence of the community in a high degree. Never having time and perhaps little inclination to social enjoyment and for the formation of a large acquaintance with men, in the circle where he is known he is nevertheless regarded as a man of marked financial ability and moral worth.

pp. 692-693

PHILLIP A. MONEY---In the records and the traditions of the early residents of Exeter we find the name of Samuel Money, from whom descended all who are known to have borne this family name---a name never widely represented in New England, and now nearly extinct in Exeter. Some of his posterity are among the substantial residents of New York, in the upper valley of the Hudson river, and one was recently in Congress from a western state.

Robert Money was a son of Samuel, and at one time resided near Pine Hill, in Exeter, where his son Samuel was born, he being of the third generation of the family of which definite data is obtainable. The next generation is represented in Exeter to-day by Daniel Lyman Money, who was born in 1813. His first wife, who died within a year of their marriage, left no issue, and in 1842 he was again married to Mehitable J. Smith, a lady ten years his junior. Her parents were Norris and Waity (Locke) Smith, of Exeter. Her father, who died when she was but three years of age, was a son of James Smith of Exeter, some of whose collateral relatives of the same family name are among the present residents of Newport.

To Mr. and Mrs. Money, both still living at the homestead in Exeter, have been born two sons and three daughters: Norris C., born November 27th, 1842, died at twelve years of age; Priscilla A., born in 1845, died in 1850; Deborah, born in 1850 and lived to see her twenty-second year; Philip A., born April 28th, 1852, the only survivor of the five, his sister, Ellen six years younger, having died in 1872.

pp. 693-694

The year Philip A. was born his father represented Exeter in the general assembly , where he became an ardent admirer of the then Governor Philip Allen, and indicated his faith in the sturdy old democrat by giving his entire name to his infant son. The next year Mr. Daniel L. Money was again chosen to the legislature; for he has always been esteemed by his fellow townsmen as a fair minded, substantial citizen, and several times before and since he has been able to serve his town in the discharge of lesser public duties. in 1876 he was again called to take the Exeter seat as representing the democratic party, to which he has always adhered.

The almost complete extinction of the Money family in Exeter has been noticed. Joseph Money, a cousin of Daniel L., was a captain of militia here after the revolution, and is represented here now by one grandson, George E. Money, a promising lad of fourteen. The homestead where the subject of this sketch saw his first April morning is one of the few old structures of pre-revolutionary days, which in their original form serve well the purposes of modern times. Its huge stone chimney, standing on a hundred square feet in the center of the building, bears no testimony to the names of its sturdy builders who thought only to chisel its date---1753. The half dozen fire places, the spacious cellar, overlaid with smooth-hewn white oak, the roomy apartments, all cased with cleanest pine, held fast well into their second century by the hand made nails of that period, all serve to give the old manse a historic air, which is duly appreciated and highly prized by its present occupants. The well worn flax spinning wheel in the garret is a record of a custom and branch of farming, both of which have passed away with the generation which practiced them.

p. 694

In this home the usual round of rural sports and toil filled up the boyhood days of the young man, and the impulses he received at the district school contributed their share toward the intellectual force which by careful observation and reading he has since developed. One of the teachers whom he pleasantly remembers as teaching the first and also the last of the terms he attended school is Albert B. Richmond, now a prominent resident of Richmond, R. I.

In 1873, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Money found himself, as the only survivor of this father's children, invested with the care and responsibilities of the farm and the family. On the 23d of June of that year he was married to Ellen L. Sweet, whose father Albert is mentioned elsewhere as the only survivor of the children of Deacon Daniel Sweet. Her mother, Clarrissa D., is a daughter of Asaph and Elsie (Whitman) Vaughn.

To Mr. and Mrs. Philip A. Money have been born a son, Allen, now living, and a daughter who died in infancy. Their son was born June 8th, 1876, and his development of mind and character at the school and at the farm gives promise that in him of the sixth generation, under the broader opportunities now to be obtained, the best characteristics in both the families are to be developed.

He keeps with strictest care the trusty old fire-lock, an heirloom in the Money family, which his grandfather's grandfather carried on the shores of the Narragansett in 1776, and which also saw service in the old French war. In his religious views the subject of this sketch is in accord with the great Baptist denomination, and both he and his wife are members of the First Baptist Church of Exeter. In its Sunday school work Mr. Money is deeply interested, and has been the superintendent for the past eleven years.

pp. 694-695

In 1881 he was one of the five charter members of Exeter Lodge, I .O. of O.F., and six years later took the same relation to the establishing of the Exeter Grange, P. of H., which is now in successful operation.

His political ties are with the democratic party. In his public as in his private life he has steadily kept the confidence of his townsmen, and is not regarded as a radical party man. His first term in the legislature was in 1882 as state senator. This was followed by two terms in the lower house, to the latter of which he was elected without opposition. He is now a member of the democratic state central committee.

In 1874 he became a member of the Washington County Agricultural Society, and the following year was put on its executive committee, and by annual elections still fills that position. The diversified farming interests of the people of Exeter are each represented on Mr. Money's farm, but he has found sheep and wool growing the most satisfactory.

In securing for themselves and for their posterity better churches, school houses and places for public meeting, the people of Exeter have sacrificed much of their labor and their means, and in this respect as well Mr. Money has gladly and fully borne his part.

p. 695

JOHN T. G. SWEET---The Sweet family of western Rhode Island, for many years numerous in North Kingstown, Exeter and adjacent towns, are understood to be of English extraction. The Exeter branch of this old family are descended from John Sweet, who with his father John, came to the Narragansett country before the American Revolution, when but two years of age. The name John had descended to them from direct male ancestors, and has been transmitted with various initials to every generation since.

This John Sweet, who came to Exeter when a child, had a descendant, either son or grandson, who bore his name and served in the colonial army in 1776. One of the sons of John Sweet of the revolution was Daniel, who afterward was known, and now remembered in Exeter, as Deacon Sweet. The homestead in Exeter had descended to the oldest son in each generation under the English rule of primogeniture until after the war, when it was passed to Deacon Daniel Sweet. He had six children, of whom only Albert, the youngest, survives. The home place passed to the Deacon's son John G., who became a man of property, married Hannah, daughter of Robert Gardiner, and raised a family of three, all of whom are living. He was a plain, substantial farmer in his time, and twice represented Exeter in the state senate as a member of the American or Know Nothing party. His children are John T. G., Daniel and Mercy Ann. She married Jeremiah Fenner, of Providence, who died leaving one daughter, Lena S. Fenner. Daniel Sweet, twice married to two daughters of Isaac Arnold (Betsey and Phebe), has four children: Mercy O., Daniel R., John G., and Mary H.

The oldest of these three is John Tillinghast Gardiner Sweet, the subject of this sketch. He was born July 12th, 1828, in Exeter, at the farm mentioned as the Sweet homestead, a portion of which he now owns, whereon is the original Sweet home, much remodelled. His early days were passed in the routine ways of a farmer's boy, and when he was nine years of age his parents removed to the Robert Gardiner place, which Mr. Sweet now owns and occupies, and during the ten following winters and two intervening summers he obtained whatever he could in rudimentary education from the public school. This was supplemented with a few months at Wickford Academy, and how the chances were improved may best appear when we find the young man teaching for three succeeding winters in his native town.

On the 22d of November, 1852, at the age of twenty-four, he married Patience M., daughter of Samuel Whitman, of East Greenwich. She has three brothers, James, Horace and Albert, and two sisters, Emeline and Hannah, still living, herself the youngest of the six.

To Mr. and Mrs. Sweet have been born six children: Mary Addie, August 7th, 1856; Hannah E., August 28th, 1859; Annie W., September 27th, 1862; Emma P., September 9th, 1866; John T. G. Jr., November 17th, 1870, died January 27th, 1875; and Stephen A., November 24th, 1873. Of this number, Mary A. is Mrs. Z. A. Swan, of Providence, and has one child ---Bertha A. Swan. Annie W. is Mrs. Bradford D. Kenyon, and has two children---Cora B. and Willis B.

p. 696-697

Soon after his marriage in 1852, Mr. Sweet rented a farm of this father and began that system of mixed husbandry which he has found both agreeable and profitable. Later he was two years on the Hammond farm in North Kingstown, after having been one year in Cranston, and finally returned to Exeter and bought the farm where he now resides, which has been the home of his grandfather Robert Gardiner. This he leased to others for twelve years while he operated the Jenks farm in South Kingstown six years and resided an equal time in Providence.

Though never a politician in modern acceptation of the term Mr. Sweet has always acted with the republican party and has been for several years and still is, a member of the Exeter town council.

In religious matters he is a Baptist, and with his wife and two daughters, is a member of the Liberty Baptist church. He is a member of the Exeter Grange, P. of H., and as an Odd Fellow is a member of the Exeter lodge, Uncas Encampment, and Orilla Lodge, D. of R. He was first lieutenant in Company D, of the Thirteenth Rhode Island Militia, a company composed mainly of Exeter men in 1861-65, who wee not called into active service.

In his chosen avocation Mr. Sweet has generally been content to follow well-tried and approved methods, but in a few respects he has chanced to be the pioneer of progress. In 1861 he brought to Exeter the first mowing machine ever owned in the town, and by practice has demonstrated the profitable utility of commercial fertilizers for the soil peculiar to some parts of Exeter. Today, at the ripe age of sixty, he is in the enjoyment of a reasonable competence, the fruits largely of his having practiced the gospel which he has always preached---of industry and economy.