Arthur Wellington Dennis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_W._Dennis

Arthur Wellington Dennis (April 11, 1846 – November 19, 1920) served as Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1906 to 1907, and Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island from 1909 to 1910.

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ARTHUR WELLINGTON DENNIS, president of the International Braid Company, and half a century a notable figure in the cotton manufacturing industries of Rhode Island, was born in Providence, April 11, 1846, son of Captain John Robinson and Hope Ann (Rhodes) Dennis, privateer and captain of several vessels out of Newport (1745-1756).

John Dennis, the immigrant, came to the American Colonies from England and became a large land owner in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was the son of Arthur Dennis, an English gentleman, and sergemaker of Minehead, England. The family has held a prominent position among New England families of early Colonial date since the middle of the seventeenth century.

Captain John Robinson Dennis, father of Arthur Wellington Dennis, was born at Somerset, Mass., January 9, 1800, son of Arthur and Elizabeth (Robinson) Dennis, of Swansea. For about forty years he followed the sea, during half of this period commanding vessels plying between Providence and New York. He married, at Pawtucket, March 4, 1804 [sic], Hope Ann Rhodes, daughter of Captain Charles Rhodes, of the merchant marine service, who was captured with his vessel near Honduras by a British cruiser during the War of 1812, and subjected a great loss and privation.

Arthur W. Dennis was educated in the public schools of Providence, and was graduated from the Providence High School. During the year of 1863-64, he was a clerk in the office of the United States provost Marshal, in Salem, Ore., returning to Providence in 1865. From that year he was in the clerical service of J. L. Aldrich, cotton merchants. From 1884 to 1893 he was agent for the firm of Woodward & Stillman, of New York. In 1893 he founded and was elected treasurer of the Elmwood Mills, manufacturers of shoe laces, and held that responsible position until 1912, when he was elected president of the International Braid Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Massachusetts, with a capital of $1,648,000, for the manufacture of boot, shoe and corset lacings, and narrow goods for different purposes. Mr. Dennis is also a director of the Lawton Spinning Company, and a director of the National Exchange Bank of Providence, R. I. He has maintained the International Braid Company with its varied interests in a most prosperous state, and occupies a leading position among business leaders in Rhode Island.

Mr. Dennis a veteran of the First Light Infantry Regiment; member of the Rhode Island Society of Sons of the American Revolution,of which he was president; was governor of the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars; is a vice-president of the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; past master of What Cheer Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; past high priest of Providence chapter, Royal Arch Masons; past eminent commander of Calvary Commandery, Knights Templar. His clubs are the Pomham and West Side. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Dennis has been active in public life in Providence for many years. During the year 1888-89 he was president of the Providence Common Council; in 1900 he was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen; in 1906, Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives; and in 1909, Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island. Mr. Dennis has long been interested in historical research, and has a valuable collection of early Colonial relics and furniture.

On September 26, 1866, Mr. Dennis married, in Providence, Anne Isabel Smith, daughter of Simri and Sarah (Fuller) Smith. They are the parents of a daughter, Hope Ann, and a son, John Rhodes. Mrs. Dennis died on August 7, 1918.

Source:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/articles/172.html