HISTORY

Notable Persons Interred at Swan Point Cemetery

A walk through Swan Point evokes memories of the past and provides a history of some of Rhode Island’s most prominent citizens.

Civil War Veterans interred at Swan Point Cemetery

This is only a partial listing. There are over six hundred persons interred here who served their country in which many of their epitaphs call “The Great Rebellion.” Some of these men gave the ultimate sacrifice for “The noble cause of vindicating the constitution and laws of this country.” (Charles M. Read: fell at Antetiam, 1862)

 Full Name Rank Regiment Biographical Info Group Lot
Feeney, Thomas Co. F. 5th ME Vol.374104
Field, George W. Co. B. 4th Reg. RI Vol.KIA Petersburg VA FUS 326
Fletcher, Calvin C. Batt. B. 1st RI Lt. Art.159A4
Foster, Henry A. Co. D. 10th RI Vol.FUS 16
Foster Samuel KIA, 1st Battle of Bull Run 7/21/61FUS 128
 Full Name Rank Regiment Biographical Info Group Lot

Medal of Honor Recipients

NAMELOTGROUP
Benjamin Ham Child14161
George Warren Potter52374
Edward Parsons Tobie8178

Union Brevet Brigadier Generals Interred at Swan Point Cemetery

NAMELOTGROUPTERMRANK
William Ames242Born: Providence, RI 05/15/1842
Died: 03/03/1914
Lt. Col., 3rd Rhode Island
Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
Richard Arnold168FUSBorn: Providence, RI 04/12/1828
Died: Governors Island, NY
11/08/1882
Joseph Pope BalchRBorn: Providence, RI 08/09/1822
Died: Providence, RI
12/02/1872
Major – 1st Rhode Island Det Mi, Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
Charles Ray Brayton11294Born: Apponaug, RI 08/16/1840
Died: Providence, RI
09/23/1910
Col., 3rd Rhode Island Hvy
Arty, Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
Ambrose Everett Burnside3286Born: Liberty Union County, IN 05/23/1824
Died: Bristol, RI
09/13/1881
John Gardner Hazard3283Born: Exeter, RI 04/15/1832
Died: Providence, RI 05/15/1895
Col., 5th Us Veteran Vols.
Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
Herbert Lefavour8309Born: Pawtucket, RI 05/03/1837
Died: Pawtucket, RI 02/25/1878
Col., 22nd Michigan Infantry
Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
Horatio Rogers, Jr.7207Born: Providence, RI 05/18/1836
Died: Providence, RI 11/12/1904
Col., 2nd Rhode Island
Infantry, Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
David Hammond Vinton4115Born: Providence, RI 05/04/1803
Died: Stamford, CT 02/21/1873
Lt. Col., Deputy Qm
Bvt. Bg, Usa 03/13/1865
Francis Laurens Vinton267Born: Fort Preble, ME 06/01/1835
Died: Leadville, CO 10/06/1879

Governors of Rhode Island Interred in Swan Point Cemetery

NAMETERMLOTGROUP
William Jones1811-18177204
Lemuel Hastings Arnold1831-1833168FUS
William Sprague1838-1839163
Thomas Wilson Dorr18422215
Henry Bowen Anthony1849-18515311
William Warner Hoppin1854-18574A192
Elisha Dyer1857-18591196
William Sprague 2nd1860-1863273-1/2
James Young Smith1863-186659
Ambrose Everett Burnside1866-18693286
Seth Padelford1869-18731Central
Henry Lippitt1875-1877S
Alfred Henry Littlefield1880-18834287
Augustus Osborn Bourn1883-18852176
Royal Chapin Taft1888-1889287
Herbert Warren Ladd1889-189077
Daniel Russell Brown1892-18954394
Charles Warren Lippitt1895-18971260
Elisha Dyer, Jr.1897-19001196
Charles Dean Kimball1901-190311394
Lucius Fayette Clark Garvin1903-190541394
Norman Stanley Case1928-193350403
Theodore Francis Green1933-193785

Other Notable Persons Interred at Swan Point

Industrialist and 14th Governor of Rhode Island, he was also a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator.

The founder of Swan Point Cemetery, he was a preceptor at a private classical school in Providence. He spent the last few years before his death as a clerk at Swan Point.

A gifted architect who contributed a great deal to Providence’s finest building projects including the Arcade, the Beneficent Congregational Church, Manning Chapel at Brown University and the Rhode Island Historical Society Cabinet.

Politician, attorney and reformer, Dorr’s family owned the Bernon Mills, a textile mill in Woonsocket. Dorr was best known for his role in The People’s Convention, a group pushing for a new state constitution, and the Dorr Rebellion, a short-lived movement (1841-1843) led by Dorr to abolish property requirements for the right to vote. In 1843, after an unsuccessful attempt to change the constitution by an armed insurrection, Dorr was arrested, tried for treason and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. After serving 20 months, he was pardoned and released. His civil rights were restored in 1851.

A daughter of abolitionist Arnold Buffum, her home in Central Falls was one of Rhode Island’s few documented stops along the underground railroad. After the Civil War, she was very involved with temperance, women’s voting rights and higher education. She was active in securing admission of women to Brown University.

Founder and creative genius of the country’s most important precision tool company, Brown and Sharpe.

Providence physician, textile mill owner, and member of the Rhode Island State Senate.

The 25th Governor of Rhode Island, he was a graduate of Brown University, a member of the Providence School Committee and President and Director of the Exchange Bank. He was a member of the U.S. Agricultural Society, the Rhode Island Art Association and an active member of the Freemasons. After his administration, Dyer captained a company of Rhode Island volunteers for the Civil War.

A textile manufacturer, he served as governor of Rhode Island from 1875-1877.

Henry’s wife, she became an advocate of the deaf following their daughter Jeanie’s affliction during a bout of scarlet fever at the age of four.

One of the most important industrialists of the nineteenth century, Corliss developed and manufactured the world’s most powerful and almost universally employed steam engines.

Burnside was a politician, a soldier, an inventor and an industrialist. Rhode Island’s 30th Governor, he served as a U.S. Senator and was a Union General in the Civil War. His distinctive style of hair is now known as sideburns, derived from his last name.

john-slocumActive abolitionist and attorney, Slocum was a well-respected veteran of the War with Mexico and led the Second Rhode Island Regiment in the Battle of Bull Run where he fell on July 21, 1861.

A gifted architect and graduate of Brown University, Tefft was the architect most associated with the Swan Point’s early years.

Founder of Wanskuck Mills, he was one of Rhode Island’s leading industrialists.

Jesse Metcalf’s wife, she founded the Rhode Island School of Design. She was praised as a benefactor of the poor, even extending generosity to striking workers at her husband’s company.

Descendants of the Metcalfs include a United States Senator and publishers of the Providence Journal.

Longtime schoolteacher and principal, she was a charter member of the corporation of the Rhode Island School of Design, leader of the Rhode Island Society for the Collegiate Education of Women, which sponsored the establishment of Pembroke College at Brown University, and an ardent, early supporter of women’s suffrage.

Industrialist and 27th Governor of Rhode Island, and a U.S. Senator, he participated in the First Battle of Bull Run in the Civil War.

A highly successful dry goods merchant, he served on the Providence City Council from 1870-1879 and served in the Rhode Island legislature for one year.

Providence architect and founding partner of the Stone, Carpenter and Willson architectural firm, he designed many prominent Providence area buildings including the Providence Public Library, Union Station and several buildings on the Brown University campus. Stone had a keen interest in land use issues and played a key role in guiding Swan Point Cemetery’s late nineteenth century expansion, continuing the precepts of the original design. Stone served as the cemetery Director and the last 12 years as President, from 1876 until his death in 1908.

A prominent banker, industrialist, U.S. Army officer, state senator and philanthropist, Robert Hale Ives Goddard was the son of Professor William Giles Goddard and Charlotte Rhoda Ives Goddard. Born in Providence, he was a graduate of Brown University. After leaving Brown, he began his business career with the Goddard Brothers, a Lonsdale, R.I. textile manufacturing firm. Goddard served with distinction in the Union Army in the Civil War, attaining the rank of Colonel. In 1865 at the end of the war, he resigned from the army and served as a military aide to four governors from 1874-1883. In 1870, Goddard married Rebekah Burnet Groesbeck of Cincinnati, Ohio. Together they had two sons and a daughter. Goddard served in the RI Senate from 1907-1908 as a member of the finance committee and as chairman of the education committee. He was a director of the RI Hospital Trust Company and owned a controlling interest in the Providence and Worcester Railroad. In 1927, Goddard’s family deeded his 489-acre estate in Warwick, RI to the state of RI. It is now the grounds of the Goddard Memorial State Park.

Regarded as one of the most influential politicians of his time, Aldrich was a businessman, investor, and U.S. senator from 1881-1911 and served as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He also served as President of the Providence City Council and Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives.

A wealthy meat provisioner who played a significant role in Providence’s art community, he was a Director of Rhode Island School of Design and President of RISD from 1910-1913.

Founding organizer and President of the New England Cemetery Association, he served as Swan Point Cemetery’s third superintendent for 35 years.

Co-founder of Ostby and Barton Jewelers of Providence, Ostby was born in 1847 in Oslo, Norway, where he worked as a successful jeweler. In 1869, he emigrated to America and settled in Providence. In addition to being recognized as a successful businessman (Ostby and Barton became the world’s largest producer of gold rings), Ostby was well-known in Providence for his charitable acts. He was also a director of the High Street Bank and the Industrial Trust Company and a trustee of Citizens Savings Bank. Ostby and his wife Lizzy Macy (Webster) Ostby had 4 sons and a daughter. After his wife’s death at age 45, Ostby raised his youngest children with the help of his mother. In January 1912, Ostby and his 22 year-old daughter Helene traveled to Europe to take a vacation and survey the European jewelry markets. While in France, they boarded the Titanic as first-class passengers to make their journey back to America. After the ship collided with an iceberg, Ostby went back to his room to get warmer clothes for himself and his daughter. In the meantime, Helene was forced to board a lifeboat and survived. Her father’s body was subsequently recovered and identified in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was buried at Swan Point Cemetery on May 11, 1912. When Helene died in 1978 at the age of 89, she was buried close to her father.

Financier, utilities and transportation magnate, and art collector, he lived in the John Brown House from 1902 to 1935. Marsden’s tomb at Swan Point reproduces, full-scale, the principal entrance of the John Brown House.

Burleigh was an artist known for his watercolors, oil paintings, illustrations and building and furniture designs. He was the founder of the Providence Art Club, taught at Rhode Island School of Design and served on the school’s board of directors and trustees.

A philanthropist and art collector, she was the eldest child of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Aldrich. Having traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, she was a major collector of Orientalia. She donated most of her collection to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

lownes-angel-monumentA Providence industrialist, philanthropist, and supporter of educational institutions, Lownes founded the American Silk Spinning Company. He was involved in a number of fraternal organizations and community enterprises including the Providence Music League, the Visiting Committee of Brown University and the Textile Committee of Rhode Island School of Design. He served as Director of the Providence Institution for Savings, the Industrial Trust Company, the Narragansett Puritan Life Insurance Company, the Church House of Providence, the Narragansett Pier Improvement Society and the Shannon Copper Corporation.

In an era where few women enjoyed higher education, Hunt was a graduate of Classical High School and Wellesley College. After ten years of teaching, she dedicated her life to reform. Her pet project was children’s welfare and the results of her efforts brought about child labor laws and the state juvenile court system.

One of the best and often overlooked architects of the early twentieth century, Aldrich was a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He had a thriving practice in country house design and also designed museums, government buildings and academic buildings on college campuses including the Rhode Island School of Design, and Harvard University.

hp-lovecraft-graveOften credited as H.P. Lovecraft, Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Born in Providence in 1890, the son of Winfield Scott Lovecraft and Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft, he is regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century. Lovecraft died in 1937 at the age of 46 and was laid to rest in the Phillips family lot at Swan Point Cemetery. Lovecraft, along with his parents, is listed on the Phillips family monument. In 1977, a group of loyal Lovecraft fans raised money to buy him a headstone of his own on which they had inscribed Lovecraft’s name, the dates of his birth and death, and the phrase “I AM PROVIDENCE,” a line from one of his personal letters.

A descendant of Jerothmul Barnaby, he was President of Brown University from 1955-1966.

paul-krotFounder of Sprint Systems of Photography, he was an applied chemist, an inventor and a legendary photography instructor at Rhode Island School of Design.

© 2024 Swan Point Cemetery