Original Proprietors
Descendants of the Redwood

     The last issue of the newsletter carried an announcement about the project to contact living descendants of Redwood Library's founders in order to invite them to attend a ceremony celebrating our 250th anniversary in 1997 [since changed to 1998]. This effort is moving ahead at a steady pace. Project coordinator Robert Behra made a brief presentation at a meeting of the newly formed Newport County Genealogical Society in June and will speak at the Rhode Island Genealogical Society meeting in Middletown on October 21. 
     The summer issue of The Anchor, newsletter of the Rhode Island Historical Society, carried an announcement about the project, and other possibilities for publicizing it are being investigated. Committee members Robert Bowerman, Frank Carpenter, Richard Dunlap, and Bertram Lippincott have been joined by Robert Elmer. Other volunteers interested in helping with the research are welcome. 

  So far, descendants of the following Original Proprietors have been contacted: Jahleel Brenton, John Channing, Ebenezer Gray, the senior and junior James Honymans, Jonathan Nichols, Abraham Redwood, Samuel Rodman, William Vernon, and Samuel Ward. 

     The process of identifying living descendants of the founders involves genealogical research in both primary and secondary sources. A by-product of the research has been the discovery of a number of prominent deceased members of the extended Redwood family. 
     Among them are the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," Julia Ward Howe; novelist Francis Marion Crawford; Unitarian clergyman William Ellery Channing and his nephew, the poet and transcendentalist of the same name; author, artist, and architect George Champlin Mason, who designed the 1875-76 addition to the Library; Amey Vernon, wife of Newport portrait painter Samuel King, whose pupils included Gilbert Stuart and Charles Bird King; Mary Elizabeth Channing, wife of abolitionist and women's rights advocate Thomas Wentworth Higginson; Margaret Mason Perry, wife of artist John La Farge; Mary Channing Wister, wife of Owen Wister, author of The Virginian; Elizabeth Champlin Mason, wife of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (USN); and Alice Frances Hammond, wife of clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman. 

     The names of the 46 founders were listed in the last newsletter. The descendants of the Original Proprietors, whether members of the Library or not, are encouraged to contact Robert Behra. One way in which you can help is by providing names and addresses of close family members who are not members of the Library. Each person thus identified will be sent an announcement about the project and will be kept up to date on its progress. In this way we hope to ensure a large turnout at the event in 1997 [now 1998]. 

Original 46 Founders 
Descendants of the Redwood 
Update III 
Update IV 
Update V 
Update VI 
Update VII