For more than three decades Frederick P. Church has ably served the people of Barrington, Rhode Island, as town clerk, and he is one of the outstanding citizens of that community.
Frederick P. Church was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, September 18, 1856, son of Samuel T. and Clarissa C. (Clark) Church. The father, born in Bristol, Rhode Island, was in early life a mariner, and he became a ship’s carpenter at the Charlestown Navy Yard, where he remained until his death. The mother, also deceased, was born in Cumberland. The son was educated in the Barrington public schools, at Cady’s Academy, and at the Bryant & Stratton Business College.
His business career began by employment with the R. D. Horton Company, manufacturing jewelers of Providence, with whom he remained for seventeen years, advancing to more and more responsible posts. For a year he was in the office of the Old Colony Cooperative Bank, and in 1898 he received the appointment which has since been his year after year to the office of town clerk of Barrington. Mr. Church served as a’ member of the Barrington School Committee and as superintendent of schools from 1883 to 1886, and from 1893 to 1896 as moderator of Barrington. He is an independent in politics, keenly interested in men and measures which seem promising for the community, rather than in political parties. He is a member of the New England Town Clerks Association, and a communicant of the Barrington Congregational Church, which he serves as deacon and as chairman of the finance committee. For twenty-five years Mr. Church has been superintendent of the Sunday school conducted by his church. Reading and gardening are his favorite forms of recreation.
Frederick P. Church married, November 14, 1883, Florence N. Heath, born in Barrington, where she died December 10, 1928.
Source: Carroll, Charles. Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, vol 3 of 4. New York: Lewis historical Pub. Co., 1932.