Providence, Rhode Island Biographies

JONES, Augustine, Principal of the Friends’ School, Providence, was born October 16, 1835, in China, Me, the son of Richard M and Eunice (Jones) Jones. His father’s and mother’s families, both Jones, were united some generations previous. The family, which is of Welch origin, settled in Hanover, Mass., where his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Jones, a Quaker, was residing in 1730. His father’s mother was Susannah Dudley, descended directly from Thomas Dudley, the second Governor of Massachusetts, who fought as a captain under Henry IV of France. He received his early education at the district schools, at the Friends’ School in Providence, and at Yarmouth Academy, Me. He entered Bowdoin College and graduated in the class of 1860, the largest the college ever had. Among his classmates were Hon. Thomas B. Reed, Hon. YV. W. Thomas, United States Minister to Sweden, Judge Joseph YV. Symonds of Portland, Me, and Gen. John M. Brown. As a boy he worked on the farm until the age of sixteen, and supported himself during his educational course by teaching district schools and academies. He entered the Harvard Law School and graduated in 1867. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar the same year, and began practice in the office of Gov. John A. Andrew, with whom he had previously been a student for a year and a half. He continued in practice there for twelve years, until 1879, when he came to Providence to become Principal of the Friends’ School. He was administrator of the estate of Governor Andrew, and, with his associate Albert B. Otis, took into the office Hon. John F. Andrew, the eldest son of the governor, recently deceased, who remained there three years and a half, and with Mr. Otis retained the office after 1879. He had great fondness for the law and good success in it, but was induced to give himself for the remainder of his life to the instruction of the rising generation. In 1874 he was named by John G. Whittier, at the request of Rev. James Freeman Clark, to deliver an essay at the Church of the Disciples, on the Society of Friends, it being the eighth’ in the series by different denominations upon the “Universal Church.” This essay was published, and vigorously attacked by certain orthodox Friends, but Whittier said, “There was nothing to be added to it or taken from it as a statement of Quaker doctrine.” He read a paper on Nicholas Upsall before the New England Historical-Genealogical Society, which was printed in the Register for January 1880, and published in pamphlet form. Whittier wrote of this, “Thou hast done an essential service to truth and justice.” He was a Representative in the Massachusetts Legislature from Lynn, Mass, in 1878, but the next year was beaten by Gen. Benjamin F. Butler and the green-back craze in an exciting election after receiving more votes than in his previous election. In 1890 he was sent by the Friends’ Society and the American Peace Society as a delegate to the Ixmdon Peace Congress. Regarding his work in the Friends’ School, the following is an extract from the Phoenix Park, published by the students of the Friends’ School in 1889 : “The school goes on, old students yielding their places to the new and ever carrying with them the remembrance of the kindly influence and true examples of the good old school. But a history of the school would not be complete without some mention of its Principal, to whose influence and energetic efforts its success in latter years has been due. Augustine Jones, LL. B., was formerly a law student of the late John A. Andrew, the War Governor of Massachusetts. In answer to the need of the school he became its Principal in 1879, leaving a flourishing law practice in order to do so He devoted himself with all his powers to the advancement of the school, and the improvements of the last few years have been in a large part due to his earnest endeavors and personal assistance. His views of education are broad and liberal and his every thought is given to the advancement and progress of the institution. Beloved as he is by all who have felt his influence, and honored by his pupils, I can only echo the wish of one of the alumni who has said : —“The old fifth century bad its saint, Augustine, pure and wipe; May troops of students nurtured here His namesake canonize.”By personal influence he has brought over one hundred thousand dollars in funds to the institution. He has published several pamphlets on moral, religious and other topics, among them one on “ Parks and Tree-Lined Avenues;” one on “ Peace and Arbitration,” which has been published in several editions, reaching more than one hundred and ten thousand copies, and largely distributed at home and abroad; one on “ Moses Brown,” the founder of many institutions in Rhode Island, read in 1892 before the Rhode Island Historical Society and published by its direction; and one the same year on Robert Burns, before the Advance Club, which drew the following letter from Mr. Whittier: —My Dear Friend : Newburyport, 3d me. 7, 1892. 1 thank thee for sending toy eloquent and just address on Burns. Read it with great satisfaction. There is nothing illiberal or bigoted in it. Burns was not a Quaker; he had faults; but he did a noble work for Scotland and humanity. He sweetened an atmosphere bitter with Calvinism. Again thanking thee, I am Thy old friend, John G. Whittier. He is a member of the Society of Friends, of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Bowdoin Chapter, New England Historical-Genealogical Society, President of the Advance Club and the Public Park Association of Providence. He has been a Republican from the start to the present time, having cast his firs1 vote for Fremont. He married, October 10, 1867, Miss Caroline Alice Osborne; they have two children: Caroline R. and William A. Jones.