Rowland G. and Caroline (Newbold) Hazard Papers

Industrialist and philosopher of Peace Dale, R.I.

Papers, 1819-1888

Size: 27 linear feet

Catalog number: MSS 483 sg 5

Processed by: Rick Stattler and Bob Bellerose, May 1999

©Rhode Island Historical Society

Manuscripts Division

Rowland Gibson Hazard (1801-1888) was a Rhode Island renaissance man. He was significant on the national scene for both his financial activities and his work in philosophy. He also played an important role in state politics and was a dominant force in the industrialization of the southern part of the state. He was a vocal critic of slavery, corruption and railroad monopolies, and was one of the few investors to emerge from the Credit Mobilier railroad scandal with his reputation unscathed.

Hazard was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, the fourth of nine children of Rowland and Mary (Peace) Hazard. He was raised a member of the Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers. He attended Quaker boarding schools in Pennsylvania through 1818, and developed a taste for abstract mathematics. This was the full extent of his formal schooling, though he received an honorary L.L.D. from Brown University in 1845.

In 1819, he returned to South Kingstown and with his brother Isaac P. Hazard assumed control of their father's small woolen mill in the village of Peace Dale, and did business under the name of "R.G. & I.P. Hazard". With the addition of a third brother, Joseph P. Hazard, this partnership became "R.G. Hazard & Co." in 1828. Rowland seems to have had primary responsibility for marketing products to southern plantation owners in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Inexpensive shoes, cotton bagging, pre-cut garments and raw "Negro cloth" for slave use were the primary products sold. He wintered in New Orleans from about 1833 to 1842. His experience in the south, and his Quaker faith led him to work on behalf of kidnaped free blacks in Louisiana. He managed to secure the freedom of several unfortunate captives, which he regarded as the greatest of his many accomplishments.

The partnership was incorporated as the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company in 1848, which became one of the largest businesses in the southern part of the state. Hazard eventually expanded his operations to another mill in the western part of the state, naming it Carolina Mills in honor of his wife.

Hazard also authored a variety of books and articles, mostly on philosophical subjects (see list of publications). His work was well-regarded, and attracted the attention of prominent Unitarian clergyman William Ellery Channing (1780-1842); he also corresponded frequently with British philosopher John Stuart Mill.

In 1849, Hazard became a leading advocate of the regulation of railroad trusts, which led to a tumultuous series of state legislative hearings. He was elected to three one-year terms as a state representative in 1851 (serving on the finance committee), 1854 and 1880. He also served as a state senator from 1866 to 1867. He was present as a Rhode Island delegate for the founding convention of the Republican Party in 1856, and also in 1860 and 1868. His involvement in the Republican Party and in other abolitionist causes caused a collapse of his business with the southern states, and it became necessary to alter production to suit northern markets. During the Civil War, he played an unofficial but important role in planning the Union economy, and in creating faith in American bonds abroad.

In 1866, Hazard retired from the textile business, leaving it in the hands of his son Rowland Hazard II. That year, he became involved as an investor in the Union Pacific Railroad, with the understanding that his involvement would be purely financial, and would not interfere with his retirement. After the company fell into financial disarray, and became embroiled in the Credit Mobilier scandal, Hazard spent much of his final years in setting its affairs straight.

Other accomplishments to his credit were his role in the foundation of the Butler Hospital in Providence, and his endowment of the Hazard Professorship of Physics at Brown University. He also provided steady financial support to Rhode Island's temperance, free religion and woman's suffrage movements.

Rowland G. Hazard married Caroline Newbold (1807-1868) in 1828. She was a native of Bloomsdale, Pennsylvania, and the daughter of John Newbold. They had two sons: Rowland Hazard II (1829-1898) and John Newbold Hazard (1836-1900).

[Hazard, Rowland G.] "Autobiographical Notes," February 1874, in this collection.

Rogers, L.E., ed. Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Rhode Island (Providence: National Biographical Publishing, 1881), 268-271.

Of all the Hazard Family Papers, this subgroup is probably of the most general interest to historians. The correspondence files fill ten boxes, and include letters from a wide variety of the leading thinkers of Hazard's day, including philosopher John Stuart Mill, reformer Thomas W. Higginson, statesman Salmon P. Chase, and pioneering women's suffragists Elizabeth Buffum Chace and Paulina Wright Davis. In very general terms, the pre-1850 correspondence is largely related to Hazard's efforts to sell cloth in the southern states. His correspondence as a northern abolitionist doing business in the antebellum deep South is particularly interesting. After 1850, the correspondence includes a much broader mix of business, political, literary and personal affairs. The Southern business correspondents give way to business contacts throughout New England. Philosophy and national affairs become important topics in the 1860s. The correspondence file of Hazard's wife Caroline mostly relate to her family in Pennsylvania, and are a substantial example of the typical family correspondence of the period.

The subject files also contain a wealth of important material. His records regarding Credit Mobilier are one of the most important resources on that national scandal. The file of essays and publications demonstrates how deep and wide-ranging Hazard's interests were. The miscellaneous file includes diaries by both Rowland G. and Caroline (Newbold) Hazard, and also letters regarding the illegally enslaved men he helped free in New Orleans in 1840.

Hazard's financial records are also interesting because they relate largely to his partnership in R.G. Hazard & Co., which later was incorporated as the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company. Many of the receipts and bills of this important firm from 1828 to 1848 are found in this series, including a folder of accounts relating to the construction of the mill in 1828.

The Baker Library at the Harvard University Business School possesses a large Peace Dale Manufacturing Company Collection, which includes four boxes of Hazard's personal legal files and some of his personal financial records, as well as extensive records of the textile business from its days as R.G. Hazard & Co. The Wellesley College Archives holds six boxes of correspondence, account books and other papers of Rowland G. and Caroline (Newbold) Hazard as part of their Caroline Hazard Personal Papers. The University of Rhode Island holds a very small quantity of Rowland G. Hazard's papers, including five letters received in the early 1880s, two textile account books from 1823-1824, an 1826 receipt, and a sheet of Babylonian seal impressions.

Most of the early business records of the Hazard family were originally donated by the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company to the Baker Library at the Harvard Business School in 1927. In 1955, the Baker Library culled out the personal correspondence and donated it to the R.I. Historical Society. The business account books and other records remain at the Baker Library today. The Baker Library also distributed a few items to other libraries, including photographs of the Narragansett Railroad locomotives, which were given to the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society; a circular regarding John Quincy Adams, given to the Harvard archives; and miscellaneous printed material distributed through the Baker and Widener libraries at Harvard.

Another large collection of early Hazard papers was originally donated by Caroline Hazard to the John Carter Brown Library in 1934 and 1937. This entire collection, comprising 78 0.5-foot archives boxes, was then given to the R.I.H.S. in 1973. These records that were transferred from the John Carter Brown Library constitute the bulk of the RIHSL holdings on Rowland G. Hazard I, including almost all of the Credit Mobilier, lawsuit and financial records.

About two linear feet of important correspondence and other papers had been retained by the family. These additional papers were deposited at the RIHSL by the Hazard family in 1983, and donated in 1985. The 1854 draft resolution regarding Hazard's expulsion from a train was a gift of William Sweet in 1976. Two items were donated by great-great-grandson Oliver C. Hazard in 2001: an undated mathematical problem titled "To describe a hyperbole," and a flier showing American gold prices dated 1866. Twenty-six financial documents dated 1825-1868 were purchased from Julie Bright in 2001, and interfiled in series 3.

This collection is part of the Hazard Family Papers, which were processed with support from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, the Beinecke Foundation, and the extended Hazard Family.

Hazard's grandchildren, Caroline Hazard and Rowland Gibson Hazard II, were the first to work with this collection. They provided typed transcriptions of what they deemed the most interesting letters, and attached brief pencilled summaries of many others on small scraps of paper. Many of the letters were sorted out by subject matter, including folders marked "Publishers, Editors, Translators," "Literary Work," "Southern," "Letters on RGH's Book with Philosophical Views," "Literature and the Arts," "Politics and Financial," "Charity - Good Works," "Mine la Motte," "Family Interest" and "General Historic Interest".

Much of the collection was then organized at the Baker Library in the 1950s, before its transfer. Circa 1985, after the papers were donated to the RIHSL, Harold Kemble and Michael Costello began reprocessing the collection, but never finished. In 1998, Rick Stattler organized the collection into its present form. All correspondence was integrated together and arranged in chronological order; the items sorted by Hazard's grandchildren were carefully examined for content, and many of them have been listed individually in this inventory.

One problem with this collection was the difficulty of drawing a firm line between Hazard's personal and business papers. A large amount of textile-related accounts and correspondence for the firm of R.G. Hazard & Co. were found mixed in with a smaller quantity of personal papers. Some items, like the frequent letters from his brother and partner Isaac Peace Hazard, contain both personal and business content, especially during the 1820s and 1830s. The task of sorting out the two categories was seen as daunting and perhaps counter-productive, and so the business records were left in. Thus the collection contains a large quantity of material relating to the firms that led up to the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company. Only a small number of letters addressed specifically to Isaac P. Hazard were removed. The supplies used in the 1998 reorganization were purchased with the assistance of the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities.

The correspondence files before about 1850 consist largely of business letters from southern "Negro cloth" customers. After 1850, the correspondence begins contain a broader mixture of business, political, literary and personal affairs. The business letters become more oriented toward Rhode Island, and New England as a whole. Philosophy and national affairs become dominant in the 1860s.

Box 8, folder 16. 1876-1877, transcripts of letters from son and grandchildren in Europe.

Box 9, folder 31. Undated, from Paulina M. Davis; Elizabeth Churchill; Eliz. B. Chace; William Rotch; and Sarah H. Whitman.

Box 9, folder 39. 1840 - 45, letters rec'd from agents Thomas Lesesne; Robert Sanderson; Henry R. Green.

Box 9, folder 40. 1847 - 80, transcripts of correspondence re William E. Channing.

The large majority of these letters are from friends and family in Pennsylvania. There are a few scattered letters from Hazard in-laws, though none were noticed from her husband Rowland G. Hazard. A few other personal papers are included in the miscellaneous subseries of the subject series, including a journal and several poems.

Box 12, folder 27. 1873, February - Annotated copy of "Affairs of the Union Pacific Railroad Company."

Samson Almy vs. Peleg Wilbur. Involves Christopher Lippitt's Jewett City mills.

Boston & Providence Railroad / Stonington Railroad. Regarding their alleged combination to destroy Hazard's business in 1853.

Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company, as administrator of estate of John G. Copelin. An extended suit relating to Mine La Motte, the Hazard family mining property in Missouri. These files include numerous records relating to related suits.