He was a strong, robust, fine looking young Quaker with no inconsiderable influence with his associates. At the age of 22, April 8, 1766, he was married to Lydia Smith, daughter of Ed. Smith of Smithfield, by Jeremiah Whipple, Esq., and immediately record was made of the important event in the Town Clerk's office of Cumberland.

He continued his business with unabated vigor and success, and his reputation as a mechanic secured him patronage from Attleboro, Providence, and all parts of the country. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, Oziel had six children, and belonging as he did to the Society of Friends, whose principles will not allow strife and bloodshed, his name does not appear upon the Military rolls of that eventful period. He was needed, however, in his shop, and served his country as well there, as he could have done in the field; for many articles were manufactured there which were serviceable in the contest for freedom. Having a great deal of work from the merchants in Providence, and obtaining the principal of his stock from them, it seemed more convenient to transfer his business to the "Falls of Pawtucket" where there was a more permanent water supply. He purposed sic this movement first, in 1775 or 6, but as the British held possession of Newport, and the southern part of Rhode Island, his friends dissuaded him from making any change for the time being, alledging sic the probability of the capture of Providence and the destruction of his shop by marauding parties in case of such an event taking place. He very prudently concluded to remain in Smithfield, and at the conclusion of the war, and the restoration of peace—about 1783-4, he perfected his project, and established himself permanently at Pawtucket. Here he was greatly prospered; and rapidly increasing his property, resources, and business, he became a leading man in the town, and one of the most enterprising manufacturers of America. He may with propriety, be called the Father of American manufactures and manufacturers—as Samuel Slater married into his family, and his own sons and sons-in-law are the beginning of that industrial enterprise in America.

It is somewhat surprising, when we consider the labors of this man, and the various establishments he erected, and the kinds of work he turned off, that his name has so humble a place in history. However, his works speak for him, and the time is coming when his own unostentation will heighten, rather than obscure public regard. It was at his shop in Smithfield that many important kinds of labor were performed, and where some useful inventions were commenced which are now perfected, and bring no small gain to hundreds of manufacturers. Here it was in 1775, that Eleazer Smith made the machine to manufacture card teeth for Daniel Anthony of Providence. Smith had worked for Jeremiah Wilkinson of Cumberland, a relative of Oziel, and there obtained his knowledge of card making. When he had finished his machine he surprised the men of the shop by asserting he could make one that would punch the leather, make the tooth, and set it, all at one operation. It appeared like the visionary scheme of an enthusiast to bystanders; but with us, at this late period, it is a very common matter of fact eliciting not the least surprise. Oziel's shop was a school of invention, and although some of the machines were unshapely things, still they were the Genesis of greater improvements, and will always be remembered as the beginning of many important branches of industry. Jeremiah Wilkinson of Cumberland in 1777, had, when driven by necessity, discovered how to obtain nails, though England should not allow them to be imported. Oziel took the hint, and made a small machine with different sized impressions to head the nails, which had been cut with common shears with plates of iron, drawn under his trip-hammers. This invention was a simple affair, but it wrought a great work at that trying time of our country's necessity. It will be remembered that Lord Chatham had said "He would not have the Americans make a hob-nail." Upon this suggestion or others similar, England acted in 1750, when Parliament passed "A law to prevent the erection of any mill, or other engine for slitting, or rolling of Iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel in any of said Colonies." The Original Bill sent to America is on file in the Secretary of State's office;—"Letters, 1746-59," Providence, R. I. This was all done under the plea of benefitting the Colonies. It seems Providence creates necessities in order to develop the resources of the human mind. If everything should be furnished at hand, there would be no intellectual work—no invention. This machine, or "pinch press," as David Wilkinson called it, was placed on an oak log and he was set astride, and with his foot in the stirrup for the purpose, the work of heading nails was performed by a child. Here we see an important trait in Oziel's character and practice, which is too much lost sight of now-a-days. Children were kept busy about some useful employment, some kind of labor that brought a return as well as kept the hands from mischief.

In 1784 or 5, Oziel put his anchor shop in operation, and furnished a large number of anchors for ships which were being built at Pawtucket, Providence, Boston and elsewhere. Vessels of six and eight feet draught were built at Pawtucket, and, at this period, it was quite a port, having a considerable shipping; and Providence, being only four miles away, kept up a demand. Oziel was now situated where he could enlarge his works and engage in all kinds of labor which the necessities of the market demanded. He therefore purchased of Israel Wilkinson, Jr., of Smithfield, the machinery for cutting iron screws, called the Fly Screw, for pressing paper, for oil works, and for clothiers. This machinery had been used for a number of years by the senior Israel Wilkinson, who built the Hope furnace for the Browns of Providence, but as Pawtucket had great natural advantages, and was rapidly increasing in importance, the business farther up in the country was becoming less and less lucrative. Everything was turning towards Pawtucket, and, as Oziel was prospering his relatives were not envious of his prosperity, but contributed their patronage, and co-operation. The purchase of the screw machine proved a profitable investment, and an extensive business was carried on in this department, and Taunton and New Bedford, Massachusetts, and other places, were supplied with them.

In addition to making nails, screws, and anchors, Mr. W. about, 1791, tried the experiment of manufacturing iron into steel, and succeeded beyond his expectation. He also, made shovels and spades,—the first in America,—and other farming utensils,—also different kinds of machinery which was sent to all parts of the country, north and south. In 1793 or 4, he built a rolling and slitting mill, and thus greatly increased his business. The venerable Moses Brown in a letter to a friend in 1791, speaks of these improvements, and industrial enterprises as follows. "The manufacture of iron into blistered steel, equal in quality to English, has been begun within about a year in North Providence, and is carried on by Oziel Wilkinson. I thought of speaking, also of pig and bar iron, slitting it into nail rods,—rolling it into hoops and plates,—making it into spades and shovels,—hot and cold nails, anchors, &c., all in this district."

But he was not confined to this kind of business. He, in company with others—(the company name being—"Samuel Slater and Co." and afterwards "Wilkinson, Greene and Co.") purchased the flouring mill of Thomas Arnold, and furnished the staff of life to the surrounding community. He purchased his grain in Albany, N. Y., and shipped it in sloops down the Hudson river to Pawtucket via New York. The Rev. Massena Goodrich in his centennial address, 1865, says—"The claim can be justly put forth that the first flouring mill in the state was erected in this town."

About this time a new enterprise began to be in vogue. The high prices upon English manufactured cotton goods, and the abundant supply of the raw material in the southern states, suggested the propriety to some of our enterprising men, of erecting establishments, constructing machinery and manufacturing their own cotton cloth. Oziel was one of the first to make a practical demonstration of this matter. In 1790, or 91, a building was rented, and cotton yarn spun. This was done in the old fulling mill, which stood at the end of the bridge—the south side. When Samuel Slater arrived in Pawtucket under the patronage of Moses Brown and others Oziel took him into his family, and aided him constantly by his enlarged experienced and wise counsels. Slater had had superior opportunities, and is entitled to the credit given him as the first successful manufacturer in America, and he was on the best of terms with Wilkinson notwithstanding the latter was at first opposed to his matrimonial alliance with his daughter Hannah. Later years proved his second sober thought was the best. The first cotton mill was built at Pawtucket in 1793, by Almy, Brown, and Slater, and was set in motion July 12th of the same year with only seventy-two spindles. No sooner was it determined that cotton yarn could be spun in America, than extensive operations were made to supply the demand. In 1799, Oziel and his three sons-in-law, Samuel Slater, Timothy Greene, and Wm. Wilkinson began the second cotton mill in Pawtucket on the Massachusetts side of the river, known as the "White Mill." It was four stories high, next to the river, built of wood, and was burnt down in 1823. A stone building was erected on the same foundation which still stands as a monument to the industry and perseverence of its founders.

We ought to have mentioned ere this that scythes, guns, and cannon were made by the son of Oziel, and quite an extensive traffic was carried on in these implements of war. It is said that the first solid cannon ever made in the world was cast here, but as Oziel was a Quaker, and never used such carnal weapons, he certainly cannot consistently have the credit of this exploit, though it was all in the family.

No opportunity for advancing the business and welfare of the place was allowed to pass unimproved. Whatever was conducive to public utility, either for peopling the country, or facilitating the mode of the conveyance and travel, he was always ready to lend a helping hand, and further the enterprise. In 1804, when it was proposed to construct the "Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike," he had charge of building thirteen miles of said road, and furnished spades, shovels, and picks from his establishment in Pawtucket for the laborers. He was not above his business, and though he had become wealthy, he was not purse proud, and could carry his own nails which he had made to Boston, and sell them in quantities to suit purchasers at sixteen cents per pound.

He aided at a later period, in establishing the "Manufacturer's Bank" at Pawtucket, which has since been removed to Providence, and was its first president. Its Directors, of which he was one till his death, were the first men in the State.

Oziel, as we have already said, belonged to the Society of Friends, was a worthy member, always present at the semi-weekly meetings, and exemplified the principles which they profess in Godly walk and conversation. He and his wife were elders in that Church, or Society. He interested himself in everything that tended to the good order and welfare of the community. His influence was great over the active business men of the place, and even the youth of the village readily submitted to his advice and direction. Moses Pierce, Esq., on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration of the Town of North Providence, remarked, "I remember when Oziel Wilkinson was the nine o'clock of this village. Many a time have I played with the companions of my boyhood between those elm trees that stood in front of that dwelling, and when nine o'clock came, Oziel came to the door, saying—"Jeems! Jeems! does thee know it is nine o'clock?" That was the signal for us boys to find our homes."

His manufacturing operations were not confined to the state of Rhode Island. With his sons-in-law he purchased a water power on the Quinnebaug River in Conn., and commenced building a cotton factory, and Pomfret to-day bears the marks of his enterprise and public spirit. It is difficult for us at this period to place ourselves in imagination even, back to the times of which we are speaking, and view the state of affairs as it actually was. Dependent as the people had been upon the mother country for nearly all supplies in the clothing line,—the excessive imposts, or taxes upon every foreign article, and the probability of continued extortion in every trying emergency, it was no trifling occasion for rejoicing when finally the secret had been discovered, and the machinery actually in operation, which was to manufacture our own fabrics. Edward S. Wilkinson a grandson of Oziel, says "I have frequently heard my grandmother (the wife of Oziel) say, that she wove cotton shirting on a hand loom from some of the first yarn spun by Mr. Slater on his water frame. The warp and filling was all of No. 6 yarn. She made shirts from the same cloth for her husband, and he took great satisfaction in wearing them and talking about them. He also, took a specimen of the cloth and exhibited it on Cheapside in Providence. It attracted a great deal of attention, and every one seemed to be very much pleased to think that we could now manufacture yarn and cloth for ourselves, and no longer be dependent on England for a supply." Mr. Wilkinson continues—"The first case of colored goods my grandfather made, was sent to Samuel Haydock, commission merchant, Philadelphia. He used to say, that from the day he purchased the cotton to the time he put his goods into market, if no more than a year was consumed, he thought he had done very well."

It was his custom to send his goods to Baltimore with teams, which would bring back flour then selling for sixteen dollars per barrel in Pawtucket. He built a dye-house for coloring yarn, and a bleaching house for cotton fabrics. Pawtucket at this time was one of the most thriving business places in New England.

Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College, in his travels in 1810, Vol. II, pages 27-28, says,—"There is probably no spot in New England, of the same extent, in which the same quantity or variety of manufacturing business is carried on. In the year 1796, there were here three anchor forges, one tanning mill, one flouring mill, one slitting mill, three snuff mills, one oil mill, three fulling mills, and clothiers' works, one cotton factory, two machines for cutting nails, one furnace for casting hollow ware—all moved by water—one machine for cutting screws, moved by a horse, and several forges for smith's work."

Oziel died in Pawtucket—the scenes of his life's labor—in 1815, aged 71 years, and with his wife, is buried at the Friend's Meeting House in Smithfield, about a mile west from Lonsdale. A plain slab marks his last resting place.

Alfred Wilkinson was born in Cumberland, R. I. July 6, 1786. When he was four years old his parents moved to Troy, [Rensselaer Co.,] N. Y., and eight years after moved to Skaneateles, [Onondaga Co.] and settled on the farm one mile east of the village, where he resided till his death; and upon which his parents, himself and several other members of the family are now buried.

Living thus for more than sixty years upon the same premises, and pursuing his honest, quiet, faithful life, he secured the respect and confidence of the whole community. Endowed with a mind of no common order, he was noted for the breadth and expansiveness of his views, and the thoroughness of his philosophy. Indeed such was his acuteness in that direction, that his friends who knew him well, were often in the habit of calling him the Socrates of their acquaintance. He read very extensively the literature of the day, but was more especially interested in whatever pertained to human progress and reform; and his heart and hand were always open in behalf of any cause that promised improvement or amelioration, in the condition of his fellow-men. No cause could be so unpopular as to deter him from its support, if he saw in it a prospect of benefit to any. No opposition could hinder him from living fully and completely up to the convictions of his own conscience. With the most enlarged spirit of liberality, he examined all that was, or professed to be, new:  yet, amidst all the theories to which his attention was continually called, by his reading and reflection, he remained always eminently practical in his actual life.

His religious convictions were of the deepest and most abiding nature; and while the form of his religious manifestation changed somewhat with the development of his spirit in the school of life, the substance remained always, and uniformly the same. His religious nature was one of peculiar interest. Along with the highest reference for Deity, he combined an entire disregard of whatever would fetter the aspirations of the spirit after freedom; and while he was always tolerant of the opinions of others, he would never allow any questioning of his own. When about thirty years of age he became connected with the Baptist denomination, remained in that connexion sic until his spirit required a larger latitude than was allowed by the formulary of that sect; and the really democratic government of that church, was always in harmony with his notions of individual freedom. Politically, he was always a democrat; not in name only, but in fact.

His tastes were always pure, his habits of life exceedingly simple and plain, his word always as good as any man's bond; and so he lived serene and noble, but never indifferent and apathetic, until at a good old age, he was gathered to his fathers, a noble example to those who may follow him.

The accompanying song which was a special favorite of his, may appropriately close this notice.

See, p. 168.

Mrs. Vienna (Sheldon) Wilkinson was the eldest daughter of David Sheldon and Vienna sic (Wilkinson) his wife. On her mother's side she was a lineal descendant of Lawrence Wilkinson, through his second son John, the descent being as follows—John, Jeremiah, Simon, the last mentioned being her grandfather. She was born in the town of Cumberland, Rhode Island, July 24, 1794. Her father was a farmer and a boat-builder and lived at the old homestead near the residence of _____ Whipple in said town.

Her opportunities for an education were confined to the common schools of that day, and the quiet home life amid warm hearted neighbors was unbroken. To other sources of information from the world at large were added the narratives of the youth of the vicinity who had returned from long and perilous voyages at sea.

At the early age of sixteen June 10, 1810, she was married to James Wilkinson, a distant relative who was also a lineal descendant of Lawrence Wilkinson through his oldest son Samuel, the descent being as follows; Samuel, Samuel, Jr., Israel, Israel, Jr., the latter being his father.

She immediately accompanied her husband to her new home in the town of Smithfield. Here she was installed as mistress of the household consisting of seven persons and the oversight of all the labors, cares and duties incumbent upon the wife of a farmer possessing a well cultivated domain of about 150 acres. This farm was part of the premises formerly purchased by Samuel Wilkinson, Senior, upon the original right of Richard Scott, Gentleman, the sharp and spirited, Quaker opponent of Roger Williams.

The last part of the present old red house was built by the elder Israel about the year 1744, more than one hundred and twenty years ago. Here were born Hannah, Huldah, Jacob, Israel, Robert, Wait, David and Martha—children of the first Israel, the staunch old Quaker of Smithfield, and inventor of the screw-cutting machine. Here, also, lived Israel, Jr., and after his marriage with Silence Ballou there were born unto them in this house, Abigail, Mary, Martha, James, Israel and Silence, besides three others, who, dying at birth, were never named.

The history of this old homestead goes back to the first settlement of the country, and the reminiscences are of the most pleasing character. The people called "Friends" had been its occupants from time immemorial, and here the oppressed found shelter, and the poor charity. In descending from father to son, its ancient hospitality was not ignored, nor its practice discontinued. Neither were the pattering of little feet hushed within the old mansion. As in days of yore, so now the premises were made vocal by a new generation of which the subject of this sketch was the mother. Fifteen children enlivened the scene and made the old halls ring with their merry peals of laughter.

At one time superstition got the better of some of their good neighbors judgment, and it was declared that the old Wilkinson house was haunted. By placing the ear near a window in the north-east corner of the kitchen, the beating of a drum could be distinctly heard at certain seasons of the year. Many had listened and heard the invisible spirits of the air beating a tattoo near the haunted corner and retired with wonderful confirmation of the fact. For years these sounds were heard and their cause remained a profound secret. The inmates of the house were not alarmed at the harmless noise, and Mr. Wilkinson, himself, being a man of military turn of mind and holding a Captain's commission, was not at all displeased with this display of martial music. Some were bold in declaring "they would not live in such a house!" and much philosophical speculation was lost in the vain attempt to account for the invisible drummer.

At length the secret was revealed. Mr. Wilkinson while listening to the mysterious sounds one evening, beating louder than ever before, accidentally placed his hand upon a pane of glass in a window—the noise suddenly ceased—he removed his hand—it commenced again. Replacing his hand, the sound again stopped. The secret was discovered, and the mystery explained. It was nothing but the rubbing of the edges of a broken pane of glass produced by the jarring of a neighboring waterfall on the Blackstone River during high water! Similar causes may have haunted many a house in the dark days of ignorance and superstition.

For twenty-one years Mrs. Wilkinson resided at this primitive homestead and formed a large circle of acquaintances in Smithfield and Cumberland, Pawtucket and Providence. The intercourse with the Scituate Wilkinsons had become less and less frequent, and all knowledge of a large number of their descendants entirely forgotten by their Smithfield relatives. So distance and time make strangers of blood relations, while contiguity of time and place makes friends of strangers.

But the ties which bound her to relatives and friends in New England were severed in 1831, by her husband's removal to New Berlin, Chenango Co., New York. Here, during a period of more than twenty years, she met with great reversals of fortune and finally returned to her native town of Cumberland, where she died the 26th of April, 1859.

The excellence of her character is attested by all who knew her; patient amid the trying vicissitudes of life, kind and forbearing to a fault; never manifesting the least resentment whatever the provocation; with an eveness of disposition that might well be coveted, she lived greatly beloved by all the circle of her acquaintance. As a wife she was faithful and confiding—as a mother most loving and affectionate—as a neighbor obliging, sympathetic and charitable. Being the mother of fifteen children her hands and heart were always full, and no person ever labored more incessantly from early life to a good old age. The Lord gave her strength according to her day, and few were the hours of sickness she suffered in her earthly pilgrimage.

Her love and care for her children did not end with their minority, but her anxious heart followed them after they had united their fortunes with suitable partners and moved away to seek homes in the new states of the far West.

Although not the member of any Church, yet in all that constitutes the practical life-work of the Christain sic she was far in advance of many who make a public profession. She loved the Savior and oftentimes have we heard her sing his praises at her daily labor. The following stanzas which were found carefully preserved among her papers sometime after her death, fully express her acceptance of the precious invitation therein contained.

—Anon.

To one who had labored incessantly through a long life is not such an invitation from the great fountain of love and life—the giver of every good and perfect gift—most sweet and consoling?

The following paper like the preceding was found among a few precious relics which she highly esteemed. It conveys her sentiments upon the subject of religion. Who has ever appreciated more fully the fundamental principle of the Gospel as expressed by the Apostle Paul?

Such was her view of religion, and such her practice. The following obituary notice which appeared in a Mass. paper is a fitting close to this brief sketch.