Hopestill Potter Dimond (1790-1857)

Portrait from "Charles D'Wolf of Guadaloupe, his ancestors and descendants", 1902.

    Certainly one of the oddest named legislators ever elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly, Hopestill Potter Dimond was a lifelong resident of the Ocean State, a state that was last visited here with our June 2013 write-up on state representative and Central Falls mayor Eastwood Eastwood. A descendant of a family long prominent in the affairs of Bristol, Dimond's surname was also spelled "Diman", "Diamond", and "Diament" by earlier branches of the family. Born in Bristol on November 16, 1790, Hopestill Potter Dimond was the eldest of six children born to Capt. Royal (1768-1820) and Elizabeth Moore Diman. 

   Little information exists on Dimond's youth or education, except notice of his marriage to Eliza Nichols Attwood (1797-1888) on April 17, 1815. The couple's forty-two-year union would see the births of eight children, who are listed as follows in order of birth: Montgomery (1816-1863), William Frazier (1818-1893), Mary (1820-1822), Hopestill (1823-1853), Charles Wesley (1829-1880), Francis Moore (born 1833), John Nichols (1836-1880) and Elizabeth (1839-1899).

   In 1818 Hopestill P. Dimond was elected to represent Bristol in the Rhode Island General Assembly and served during the 1819-20 session. In addition to his legislative service, Dimond also held the post of inspector at the U.S. Customs House at Bristol for three decades and died in Bristol on October 15, 1857, at age 66. He was survived by his wife and six of his children and was interred at the Juniper Hill Cemetery in Bristol. 

  Public service continued in the Diman/Dimond family in Francis Moore Dimond (1796-1859), the brother of the man profiled here. Francis M. Dimond served as U.S. Consul in Port-au-Prince Haiti from 1832-1835 and from 1842-49 was U.S. Consul in Veracruz. He was elected as Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island in 1853 and succeeded to the Governorship upon the resignation of Governor Phillip Allen, serving in that capacity until 1854.

Francello George Jillson (1841-1912)

From the Representative Men and Families of Rhode Island, Volume III.

   This oddly named public servant is Francello George Jillson, a man long prominent in 19th-century Rhode Island politics. Over the course of his life, Jillson served in a number of public posts, including three terms as Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and was later named a municipal judge for the city of Providence. In addition to his political and judicial activities, Jillson also distinguished himself on the battlefield during the Civil War, serving under the command of Ambrose E. Burnside.
   Francello G. Jillson was born on September 22, 1841, in Woonsocket, the son of Allen Bennett and Abby Hunt Jillson. He attended schools local to the Woonsocket area and later studied at the New London Literary and Scientific Institution.  During his studies, Jillson began a teaching career in New London, Connecticut, and continued in this vocation until the outbreak of the Civil War.  Soon after the firing on Fort Sumter, Jillson enlisted as a Corporal in the First Rhode Island Detached Militia. He served in this unit until August of 1861 and in the following year was made a First Lieutenant in Company G of the newly formed Ninth Rhode Island Regiment. 
  Jillson's service in the military concluded in September 1862 and soon after returning to Woonsocket resumed his teaching career, serving schools in both Blackstone and Woonsocket. He would serve as superintendent of schools in the town of Cumberland, and in 1864 he began pursuing a career in law. Over that year, he studied in law offices located in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, including one under the tutelage of future U.S. Senator George Frisby Hoar. In February 1865 Jillson passed the bar exam and shortly thereafter became clerk of the Woonsocket Court of Magistrates. Jillson later was named as town clerk of Woonsocket, serving in this position until the mid 187os. In 1868 Jillson married Emma Potter, a Burrillville, Rhode Island resident, and one son was born to the couple, Francello Albert Jillson (1869-1896).
   While still serving as town clerk Jillson was elected to the Rhode Island State Senate, serving from 1870-1871. After his Senate term, he returned to his earlier law practice and in 1876 was elected to a one-year term as the President of the Woonsocket Town Council. As his political career continued to rise, Jillson's name also became prominent in Woonsocket civic affairs. During the 1870s and 80s, he served as a trustee of the Harris Institute and was later secretary of the Woonsocket Hospital for several years.
   Francello Jillson reemerged on the Rhode Island political scene in 1880 when he was named as President of the Republican State Convention. The following year he was elected to the first of several terms in the Rhode Island House of Representatives and would serve as its Speaker in the years 1883, 1884 and 1885. 

    Following the conclusion of his last term in the house,  Jillson returned to active involvement in the civic affairs of Woonsocket, being a founding member of the city's Water Works Company (including drafting the company charter) as well as serving on the Board of State Charities and Corrections. Long an active Mason in Woonsocket, Jillson was honored as a past grand high priest of the M.E. Grand Chapter of Rhode Island. 

   In 1910 Jillson resumed political office when he was appointed to the judgeship of the Municipal Court of Providence, holding his seat until his death on November 6, 1912. Jillson had earlier been stricken with pneumonia in October 1912 while still on the bench, and later succumbed to blood poisoning following the initial onset of pneumonia. Jillson was survived by his wife Emma and was subsequently buried in Woonsocket, although an exact cemetery name couldn't be found at the time of this writing. The portrait of Jillson shown above was featured in his obituary, originally published in the Providence Evening News on November 7, 1912. A portion of that obituary has been provided below.

                                                                       From the Providence Evening News.

Jerothmul Bowers Barnaby (1830-1889)

From the History of Providence County, 1891.

    A prominent 19th century businessman and civic leader in Rhode Island, Jerothmul Bowers Barnaby was a Democratic candidate for Governor of Rhode Island in 1877 and in the following year made an unsuccessful run for Congress. I have to extend a hearty thank you to my cousin Chris for locating Barnaby's name via the Congressional Quarterly Guide to U.S. Elections, which received mention in an earlier posting on Pennsylvania politician Rhamanthus M. Stocker (1848-1917).

    Jerothmul B. Barnaby was born on October 27, 1830 in Freetown, Massachusetts. His parents Stephen and Lucy Hathaway Barnaby had a total of 14 children and were a family descended from early New England settlers. After attending local schools in the Fall River area Barnaby took work as a clerk in his brother-in-law's store. Barnaby relocated to Providence, Rhode Island in 1852. It was here that he started a clothing business that he ran for seventeen years. Jerothmul Barnaby married on September 15, 1857, to Josephine Reynolds, and the couple became the parents of three daughters, who are listed as follows: Mabel, Hattie Alena (1864-1879), and Josephine Maud.

   In 1869 Barnaby founded the J.B. Barnaby & Company, and within a few short years, it grew to become one of the largest stores in Rhode Island, having moved to larger accommodations on more than one occasion. Barnaby also began to dabble in politics during this time, winning election to the Providence City Council in 1870 and would hold that seat until 1879. He furthered his political career in 1875 by winning a seat in the Rhode Island General Assembly (serving one term) and towards the end of his tenure mounted an unsuccessful candidacy for the Governorship of Rhode Island. When the votes were tallied Barnaby came out on the losing end, being defeated by incumbent Republican Charles C. Van Zandt's 12, 455 votes to his own 11, 783.

   Even though he lost by only a few hundred votes, Barnaby didn't let defeat curb his political aspirations. Within a year of his gubernatorial loss, he launched a campaign for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional district. Barnaby was subsequently defeated in that election by another oddly named man, Latimer Whipple Ballou (1812-1900), who triumphed with 5,572 votes to his own 4,520.

                                                  Portrait from the Boston Daily Globe, September 18, 1875.                                                           

    Following his two losing candidacies, Barnaby achieved some political success when he was named to the Democratic National Committee from Rhode Island in 1882, succeeding his brother Abner. Barnaby would serve in that capacity until his death seven years later. He continued with his business pursuits and remained the head of  J.B. Barnaby & Co. until his retirement on January 1, 1889. He died later that same year on September 19th and was subsequently buried in the Swan Point Cemetery in Providence. The 1891 History of Providence County makes note that soon after his death the Providence Board of Trade lowered its flag to half-staff to honor Barnaby's memory.     
   While Jerothmul Barnaby's life and unusual name are of note, his widow Josephine's remaining years are also worth mentioning! Josephine Barnaby suffered a peculiar demise in Denver, Colorado in 1891 when she was poisoned with arsenic (via a tainted bottle of whiskey mailed to her) by Dr. Thomas Thatcher Graves, who had been Josephine's physician. Graves' motive was a large sum of money left to Mrs. Barnaby in her husband's revised will, and after being convicted of the poisoning in 1892, committed suicide the following year while in police custody! An excellent write-up on this case was written some years later by a grandson of Jerothmul Barnaby, under the title A Revolting Transaction. This case is also notable in the annals of American crime for being the first recorded murder case committed in the U.S. by mail!

                               A death notice for Barnaby appeared in the Boston Globe in 1889.