Please note:  The individuals shown below are listed chronologically in birth order.

At eighteen he obtained a clerkship in a store for a year, retaining his entire wages, when another was obtained in a store were jobs of weaving by hand were giving out to the people of the vicinity. The failure of this trader gave him the opportunity of entering upon business for himself. He was twenty years old, and just married to Miss Martha Bennett, a lady of admirable character, and member of the Christian denomination. He had a capital of one hundred and forty-nine dollars. He purchased a building, and with the help of the neighbors, in country fashion, moved it to the desired location, where it was literally placed "on a rock." When completed, it had cost one hundred and eight dollars, to be paid" in goods." He then went to Providence and sought the counsel of Mr. Randolph Chandler, an old merchant of the city, whose wise advice he implicitly followed, and returned home with a thousand dollars' worth of goods, mostly bought on credit. He worked hard, sometimes starting at two o'clock in the morning with butter, eggs, and other produce, for Providence, returning at night with a load of new goods. The business was so well managed that the first year's profits amounted to nine hundred dollars. For four years his house-rent cost him six dollars per annum. Mrs. Aylsworth was his most efficient helper, even bringing her cradle to the store that she might the more readily serve as clerk. For eleven years his stock of goods embraced a supply 'of liquors, as was at that time the prevalent custom of country merchants. But he noticed the mischievous effects of drinking habits upon the community. His children were growing up around him, and he determined that they should not be drunkards. So he sold out the business, and soon afterward opened a strictly “temperance store," which at that period was a novelty in trade. From that time he has been an uncompromising foe of intemperance.

Mr. Aylsworth thus became one of the substantial men of the' town. He did some farming and also something in buying and selling real estate. His neighbors and townsmen trusted him. He was made a justice of the peace, and deputy sheriff, and held other offices. In 1838 he was made Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Providence County, being associated with the Hon. Thomas Burgess, and Judges Daniels, Potter, and Armstrong. Meanwhile, as wealth was increasing and honors were falling upon him, he was called in 1837 to the loss of the wife of his youth. and the mother of his nine children. Three years later he married Maria Fairman, a lovely and excellent woman, and a member of the Baptist. Church.

In 1841 Judge Aylsworth sold his store and removed to North Foster and settled on a farm. But he soon found it expedient to, in order to save a debt of seven hundred dollars, to purchase three lines of stages running between Providence and Danielsonville, Conn, which rendered necessary his removal to the latter place. After six months he removed again to Brooklyn, just across the river.

There was then but one church in Danielsville, the Congregational. The place was growing, and there was ample room for another. It so chanced that a Methodist local preacher, by the name of Wheeler, came into the town and opened a series of meetings in the conference room of the church, which resulted in about two hundred professed conversions. It soon became manifest that a large number of the converts desired to be organized into a Methodist Society, and another place of worship must be found. Tbe Judge, though not a Methodist, promptly gave them sympathy and help. He at once hired for their use the ballroom of the hotel, the only available room in the town that was of suitable size, stipulating for the closing of the bar on Sundays and at all times of service. But the room proved not large enough, and for a time the depot freight house was secured. He resolved on the erection of a Methodist Church. He found four men of like spirit with himself who joined him in the work. A lot was bought, the lot on which the present church stands, and a contract was made by which the edifice was to be erected, and, when completed to the turning of the key, the price agreed upon was to he paid. This was done. The pews were then sold, and the proceeds were enough to reimburse the projectors of the enterprise and leave a surplus which was turned over to the young society. It is only just to say that for this fine success the Methodists of Danielsonville are chiefly indebted to Judge Aylsworth. He was made one of the first Board of Trustees, and was kept in that position for some years after he left the State.

In July 1842 he was called to mourn the loss, by consumption, of his devoted wife, and remained fourteen months in lonely widowerhood. He then married Miss Eliza S. Angell. of Scituate, R. I., a lady of a beautiful character and well fitted for her new position. She has been for many years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and still lives to bless his home.

In 1850 Judge Aylsworth removed to Providence, R. I., where he was well known and had many friends. His excellent judgment and judicious management of the interests entrusted to him, soon brought him plenty of business. He was for a year a director of the Atlantic Bank, and was the first president of the Jackson Bank. In the same year, 1854, he became a member of the first board of directors of the Mecanic Savings Bank, and of the loaning committee, and for nearly twenty years he was its vice-president. His directorship continued until 1878, when he declined a re-election. During this entire period, in full compliance with the spirit of the law of the State forbidding officers of savings banks becoming indebted to the bank, he would allow no paper bearing his name even as endorser to be accepted. In three years the bank was flourishing and successful, standing in the first rank of such institutions; and it is only just to say that much of its high character was due to his careful guardianship.

In 1856 he was elected president of the Westminster Bank, which position he still (1887) holds. At that time the stock, with a par value of 50, was worth only 40. It is now worth 60. The capital has increased from $109,000 to $200,000, and the bank has a surplus of $60,000. The president modestly attributes a large share of this success to a good board of directors. And tbe Judge asserts, with a becoming pride and satisfaction, that in the thirty-one years of his connection with these several institutions he has not borrowed a dollar from anyone of them. He has been engaged in many real estate transactions, and has, as assignee, executor, or administrator, settled about thirty estates, some of them very large, and one of over a million dollars. He, as agent, has invested a large amount for other people, and has loaned some hundreds of thousands of dollars on western farm lands, and has given advice and assistance in these and other matters to many of his friends without money or price.

In political life Judge Aylsworth has held few ambitions. Yet in 1854, 1866, and 1867, he was honored with a seat in the General Assembly of Rhode Island, and in the last two was a member of the important committee on finance.

He has always been on the side of liberty and right. In the presidential election of 1824, the first after he attained his majority, he cast his vote for John Quincy Adams. He affiliated with the Whig party, as in his judgment the most in accordance with human freedom and the best interests of the country. He was always an anti-slavery man, and when pro-slaveryism entered on its struggle for the control of the nation, his whole soul revolted, and he heartily joined the Republican ranks at the organization of the party in 1856. In temperance, he has been all his life a habitual abstainer from intoxicating drinks, and is recognized as a non-partizan prohibitionist, willing to accept the restraints of a stringent, properly enforced license law. He is an intense hater of tobacco in all its forms.

On coming to Providence he connected himself with the Matthewson Street Methodist Episcopal Congregation, of which he is still a member. He was a member of the finance committee that in 1873 undertook successfully the task of removing its debt of nearly ten thousand dollars, and is a contributor to every good movement of the church.

A full list of Civil War Medal of Honor Recipients, as well as citation information, can be found at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_Medal_of_Honor_recipients

Click here to access a link to Biographical Sketches. "Town of Foster" from the History of Providence County, vol. I and II, Edited by Richard M. Bayles, 1891.