Month: March 2025

A Rhode Island Woman Goes from Rags to Riches

Eliza Jumel (nee, Elizabeth Bowen) was born in Providence on April 2, 1775 the daughter of Phebe Kelly and John Bowen, a sailor. After her parents separated, Phebe lived in poverty. To survive she worked in a mixed-race brothel in which her two young daughters, Betsy, and Mary, were raised. In 1785, when the town

Matthew Smith

In the 20th century, South Providence produced two governors and a chief justice, but the most constitutionally powerful position in state government eluded it until 1980 when Matt Smith became Speaker of the House of Representatives. Raised by Irish immigrant parents on the second floor of a modest home at the corner of Potters Avenue