Rowland G. Hazard

Rowland Gibson Hazard (October 9, 1801–June 24, 1888)

Early life Hazard was born on October 9, 1801, in South Kingstown in Washington County, Rhode Island. He was one of nine children born to the former Mary Peace (1775–1852) and Rowland Hazard (1764–1836). 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. Among his siblings was older brothers Isaac Peace Hazard and Thomas Robinson Hazard.

Hazard grew up in Bristol, Pennsylvania, in the home of his maternal grandfather, merchant Isaac Peace and Elizabeth (née Gibson) Peace, who were both originally from Barbados, but relocated to Charleston before eventually settling in Bristol. His mother was almost exclusively in Bristol from 1807 to 1820, helping to care for her grandfather until his death.

Career In 1819, he returned to Rhode Island to join his elder brother Isaac in the management of the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company. A third brother, Joseph P. Hazard, became a partner in the Peace Dale operation in 1828, and the business took the name "R.G. Hazard & Co." One of Rowland Hazard's responsibilities was selling the company's products to planters in the southern United States, particularly Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

In 1843, Hazard acquired a textile mill complex at the village now known as Carolina, Rhode Island, and renamed the mill and its surrounding village in honor of his wife. The Carolina Mills Company remained in family ownership until 1863 and was operated by his son Rowland II until at least 1877.

After an 1845 fire destroyed one of the mill buildings, The action later led to charges being filed against several public officials who were responsible for the illegal detentions. Brown awarded him an honorary A.M. degree in 1845 and an LL.D. degree in 1869. The couple had two sons: John Newbold Hazard (1836–1900), who first married Hortense DeHuys in France. He later married Augusta G. Gurloff (1850–1917) and built the Narragansett Pier Railroad. and was buried at Oak Dell Cemetery in South Kingstown. Caroline Hazard (1856–1945), Frederick Rowland Hazard (1858–1917), Helen Hazard (1861–1925), and Margaret Hazard (1867–1940). and Rowland (father of Rowland Hazard III) and Frederick were both executives with the Solvay Process Company. Frederick is today known for hiring noted architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee to build Upland Farm, his 1899 residence built in Solvay, New York. Helen married Nathaniel T. Bacon and Margaret married the economist, statistician, inventor, and Progressive social campaigner Irving Fisher.

Through his son John, he was the grandfather of Mary Peace Hazard (1874–1958), who married Rowland R. Robinson (1862–1934).

Published works

Language or Essay on Language (1835) Causes of Decline of Political Morality (1841) Freedom of Mind in Willing (1866) Causation and Freedom in Willing (1869) The Duty of Individuals to Support Science and Literature (essay; 1885)