Thomas Robinson Hazard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 3, 1791 |
| Died | March 26, 1886 (aged 95) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Spouse | Frances Minturn (m. 1838;died 1854) |
| Children | 6 |
| Parent(s) | Rowland Hazard Mary Peace Hazard |
| Relatives | Rowland G. Hazard (brother) |
Thomas Robinson "Shepherd Tom" Hazard (January 3, 1797 – March 26, 1886) was an American author, social reformer, and advocate of Modern Spiritualism.
Hazard was born on January 3, 1797, in the village of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, the second-eldest son of textile industrialist Rowland Hazard and Mary (née Peace) Hazard. [1] His mother was raised in Charleston, South Carolina and spent a year studying in London as a girl. His father founded the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company in Peace Dale, Rhode Island in 1802. [2] Among his siblings was older brother Isaac Peace Hazard and younger brother Rowland G. Hazard. [3]
A descendant of an old New England Quaker family, Hazard was a fifth-great-grandson of Thomas Hazard, one of the nine founding settlers of Newport on Aquidneck Island in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. [3] His paternal grandparents were Thomas Hazard and Elizabeth (née Robinson) Hazard, herself a daughter of William Robinson, the Deputy Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. [3]
At twelve, Thomas enrolled in the Friends’ School at West Town, Pennsylvania but left to assist in the operation of the family's wool carding manufactures at Peace Dale. After a gift of two ewes sparked his interest in agriculture and livestock, Hazard acquired the nickname “Shepherd Tom.” [3]
In 1844, Hazard became one of the original twenty three incorporators of the Rhode Island Hospital for the Insane, later Butler Hospital. [4] The facility was the first of its kind in the state; responsibility for the care of destitute and mentally handicapped citizens at the time fell largely upon local governments.
Owing to his extensive record as an outspoken champion of the rights of the “insane poor,” Hazard was appointed by the state to conduct a survey of Rhode Island's poor houses and insane asylums. The Report on the Poor and Insane in Rhode Island: Made to the General Assembly at its January Session, 1851 provided a detailed census of “insane paupers” at thirty-three local facilities. The abuse of disabled Rhode Islanders in rural localities exposed in the report helped abolish state policies which treated mental illness as a crime. [5]
Hazard was also a committed antislavery activist and published dozens of tracts in support of the American Colonization Society and the Republic of Liberia. From 1840 to 1841 he served as a Vice President of the ACS. Other causes for which he labored included the abolition of the death penalty in Rhode Island and public education. [6]
Following the death of his wife in 1854, Hazard became interested in spiritual communication and began visiting mediums in Providence and Boston. The author Maud Howe Elliott, a neighbor and childhood friend of the Hazard children, recalls Shepherd Tom's grief and subsequent obsession with “materialization, spirit life, mediums, psychic photographs.” [7] Hazard penned numerous firsthand accounts of spirit materializations and séances held in a dedicated room at his Portsmouth estate, Vaucluse. After two of his daughters died of tuberculosis and a third drowned herself in a river on the family's property, he dedicated himself exclusively to the defense of mediumship. [5]
Hazard authored two books of local folklore, the latter of which became the subject of controversy when Dr. Leroy Vaughn used the work as evidence of Thomas Jefferson's African Heritage, which the Thomas Jefferson Foundation has since dismissed. [5]
On October 12, 1838, he married Frances Minturn (1813–1854), daughter of New York merchant Jonas Minturn and Esther (née Robinson) Minturn. She was also a niece of Robert Bowne Minturn (who later went into business with Henry Grinnell as Grinnell, Minturn & Co). Together, the couple had five daughter and one son: [8]
Hazard died in New York City on March 26, 1886. [3]
South Kingstown is a town in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 31,931 at the 2020 census. South Kingstown is the second largest town in Rhode Island by total geographic area, behind New Shoreham, and the third largest town in Rhode Island by geographic land area, behind Exeter and Coventry.
Peace Dale is a village in the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Together with the village of Wakefield, it is treated by the U.S. Census as a component of the census-designated place identified as Wakefield-Peacedale, Rhode Island.
Eli Whitney Blake, Sr. was an American inventor, best known for his mortise lock and stone-crushing machine, the latter of which earned him a place into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
William Russell Sweet was an early American artist, painter and sculptor.
The Narragansett Pier Railroad was a railroad in southern Rhode Island, running 8 miles (13 km) from West Kingston to Narragansett Pier. It was built by the Hazard Family of Rhode Island to connect their textile mills in Peace Dale and Wakefield to the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad at Kingston Station as well as to ocean-going steamboats at Narragansett Pier. Passenger service ran on the line from 1876 to 1952; the line continued freight operation as a Class III railroad until 1981. Most of the right-of-way has been converted to the William C. O'Neill Bike Path.
Rowland Gibson Hazard was an American industrialist, politician, and social reformer.
The Hannah Robinson Tower is a 40 feet (12 m) tall wooden tower at the interchange between U.S. Route 1 and Route 138 in the community of South Kingstown, South County, Rhode Island. The tower was built in 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and was rebuilt in 1988 using the same pillars. The structure is named after Hannah Robinson (1746–1773), a colonial Rhode Island resident and daughter of a wealthy Narragansett society man, Rowland Robinson. Hannah fell in love with a local teacher, Peter Simon, but the relationship was deemed unsuitable by her father. Despite her father's disapproval, Hannah Robinson married her suitor and lived in Providence, Rhode Island. The family became estranged from Robinson, who was enveloped in poverty, leading to a fatal decline. Robinson's father ended his opposition and left his community of Boston Neck to bring Hannah home. As Rowland Robinson brought his daughter home, she requested a chance to visit nearby McSparran Hill, where she considered a view of her homeland. Robinson died soon after.
Members of the Hazard family were among the first settlers of the State of Rhode Island. Descendants have been known for military achievement, business and political success, philanthropy, and broad social activism spanning such causes as abolition of slavery, treatment of the insane and alcoholics, family planning, and innovative employee programs.
Thomas Fry was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
George Hazard was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
William Robinson was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Robert Hazard was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Samuel Wilbore was one of the founding settlers of Portsmouth in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He emigrated from Essex, England to Boston with his wife and three sons in 1633. He and his wife both joined the Boston church, but a theological controversy began to cause dissension in the church and community in 1636, and Wilbore aligned himself with John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson, signing a petition in support of dissident minister Wheelwright. In so doing, he and many others were disarmed and dismissed from the Boston church. In March 1638, he was one of 23 individuals who signed a compact to establish a new government, and this group purchased Aquidneck Island, then known as "Rhode Island", from the Narragansett Indians at the urging of Roger Williams, establishing the settlement of Portsmouth.
Caroline Hazard was an American educator, philanthropist, and author. She served as the fifth president of Wellesley College, from 1899 to 1910.
Moses Brown Ives was a businessman and philanthropist from Providence, Rhode Island who was partner in Brown & Ives and was President of Providence Bank. He also served as a trustee of Brown University, nd was treasurer of Butler Hospital.
Thomas Poynton Ives was an American merchant and banker from Rhode Island.
George Brown was a Rhode Island politician and judge who served as a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from May 1796 to June 1799, and as the first lieutenant governor of Rhode Island from 1799 to 1800.
Grafton Irving Kenyon was an American businessman, politician, and military officer from South Kingstown, Rhode Island, who served as a member of both the Rhode Island House of Representatives and the Rhode Island Senate. Kenyon was the first Scoutmaster in Rhode Island, serving as the first Scoutmaster of Troop 1, Wakefield, the oldest Boy Scout Troop in the state.
William Coddington was a colonial American politician and merchant.
Major Randall Holden Jr. was a colonial Rhode Island politician.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
