BURRILLVILLE – This Saturday, the public is invited to turn back centuries and look into lives—and faces. That is, visitors can peer at a portraits of people of the past and learn about them at the Notable People of Burrillville Historical Slideshow and Artist Demonstration at 1 p.m. at the Bridgeton School in Pascoag.
The new, permanent display will continue to offer guests to 16 Laurel Hill Ave. a lesson bringing together art and local history following the event.
This week, Burrillville Historical & Preservation Society President Betty Mencucci will present the slideshow, and after a brief break and refreshments served, artist Roy Collins will explain and demonstrate how he created the paintings of town notables, explained Mencucci.
The school building serves as a museum that has an old-fashioned classroom with antique furniture and other artifacts of the town from yesteryear. Now, portraits of the town’s founding fathers have been hung in the classroom, where they’ll remain, as if keeping a watchful on those who pass. Perhaps fittingly, particularly in this year of America’s 250th birthday, the display sits near to an image of the nation’s founding father, George Washington.
Artist Collins brought 12 previous residents of Burrilville to life in paintings he created from antiquarian sources.
Collins “searched through old books and newspapers and chose 12 sketches of people in Burrllville that helped shape our history,” explained Mencucci in the current issue of her organization’s newsletter, The Historian.
The artist said he’s sad that no women are included in this particular group of his paintings, noting that thus far he has been unable to find any images of females in the town’s history to re-create as paintings.
Collins said one impetus for his paintings was that the walls of the museum were relatively bare. He said while the museum has old books and papers, it had lacked portraits of townspeople.
And so, for contemporary people to get to know and hand down history of some of the small town’s notable individuals, Collins decided the walls needed paintings.
“I’m really excited about this talk,” said Collins, who is from Chepachet, of the Saturday event.
A genealogist who has written books on family history, he has also penned books about the I-Ching and wild plants. Collins holds a master’s degree in painting, and studied with renowned teachers in New York and at Rhode Island School of Design, and has also written books of poems.
The writer-artist owns a studio and restoration workshop and has restored more than 110 paintings for clients including museums and libraries.
Among the group of paintings on display is one of James Burrill, Jr., who Collins said was a remarkable person: a senator, judge, poet, poet, and abolitionist.
The notables have now taken their rightful place at Burrillville Historical & Preservation Society; for their portraits stand watch in old gold frames and plaques, an intentional detail making them appear older than they are. Frames, plaques and paintings were all crafted by Collins and are all waiting for the public to take a look into the faces of the town’s past.
Left to right:
Ara M. Paine (1806-1894) Was in the family lumber business, and was on the Burrillville Town Council, and a Methodist preacher.
Deacon Duty Salisbury (1766-1859) Carpenter and inventor. With son-in-law, Thomas Slack, operated the first woolen mill in Pascoag.
Benedict Lapham (1816-1883) During the Dorr Rebellion was part of the militia. He was an industrialist, laborer, farmer, as well as a member of the Rhode Island Gneral Assebly.
William T. Tinkham (1823-1914) A blacksmith, he was also a manufacturer with Job S. Steere. Other accomplishments includ he was a member of the RI General Assembly and president of the Providence & Springfield Railroad Co.
Jesse M. Smith (1834-1889) A horse trader. He was a member of the RI General Assembly. His wife Mary E. Tinkham’s donation built the Jesse Smith Library.
Hardin Sayles (1797-1861) With his brother Pitts Aran, he operated the family woolen factory in Pascoag.
Sumner Sherman (1830-1899) His father Ezekiel Sherman with S.I. Sherman built the Granite Mill. The son was a mason, and he was highway supervisor for the town of Burrillville.
Dr. Benjamin Joslin (1821-1884) Physician and advocate for the poor.
James O. Inman (1829-1880) President of Pascoag National Bank. Director of the Providence and Springfield Railroad.
Addison Hopkins (1844-1902) Was on the Burrillville Town Council, a three term senator, and partner in the A. Hopkins & Co.
James Burrill Jr. (1772-1820) He is the “Burrill” in the name Burrillville. Was a US State Senator and RI Attorney General.
Sylvester Angell (1838-1923) Among other duties, he was overseer of the Burrillville Poor-House.
A hugely notable but forgotten Burrillville woman who deserves a portrait—right beside him—is Ara M. Paine’s daughter, Dr. Henrietta Paine Westbrook. She was a writer, a lecturer, a physician of the first cohort of college trained female doctors in the United States, and a suffragist of such importance that she served on the Executive Committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, President; Susan B. Anthony, Corresponding Secretary; Lucretia Mott, First Vice President. Henrietta began her education at the one room Round Top school, finished it at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, died in 1909, and is buried in one of the Paine family burial plots in Burrillville.