Year Inducted: 2026
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Ward, Jr. - Governor Samuel Ward’s second son, Samuel Jr. (“Sammy”) was born November 17, 1756 in Westerly. He graduated from Rhode Island College (Brown University) in 1771 at the age of fifteen. His military career began when he was commissioned a captain in the Rhode Island Army of Observation in May, 1775, at the age of eighteen.…
Major General John Sullivan - John Sullivan (1740-1795) was born in Somersworth, New Hampshire, the third son of Irish settlers from County Cork who, as Catholics, fled Ireland because of the English Penal Laws. After studying law as a teenager, Sullivan began its practice in 1763. Because of his increasing professional prominence and his opposition to British policies, he became…
Reverend Dr. Roderick Terry - Rev. Roderick Terry was willing to use his wealth to support institutions such as the Redwood Library and Athenaeum and the Newport Historical Society. This did not simply consist of his monetary donations and gifts of hundreds of volumes of books or artifacts from around the world, but also acres of valuable land. In 1922,…
Reverend Henry Wight - In 1747, Rhode Island settled a long-standing boundary dispute with Massachusetts for a new line of demarcation extending from Cumberland in the north to Little Compton in the south. Bristol was Rhode Island’s prize acquisition in that transaction. The former Plymouth Colony town, dating from 1680, came with two Massachusetts traditions – a town common…
