Appointment Signed by Sam'l P. Colt - Autograph

Appointment issued to and signed by Sam'l P. Colt.

Samuel Pomeroy Colt (1852-1921) Colt was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on January 10, 1852, the youngest of six children born to Christopher Colt (brother to arms maker Samuel Colt) and Theodora Goujand DeWolf Colt of Bristol, Rhode Island. His friends and family called him "Pom".

In 1875, at the age of 23, he was appointed military aide-de-camp to Rhode Island Governor Henry Lippitt and was commissioned as a colonel in the Rhode Island Militia. He would use this title for the remainder of his life.

In 1876, he graduated from Columbia Law School and at the age of 24 was elected to represent Bristol in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. He became involved in efforts to regulate child labor and advance women's property rights. He left the legislature in 1879 to become Assistant Attorney General for Rhode Island. In 1881 Colt was elected Attorney General of Rhode Island and was re-elected to three one year terms. He served in office from May 1882 to May 1886.

In 1881, Colt married Elizabeth Bullock, also of Bristol. The marriage produced three sons: Samuel Pomeroy, Jr., Russell Griswold, and Roswell Christopher. Samuel and Elizabeth separated in 1896, and neither remarried. Russell Colt went on to marry actress Ethel Barrymore.

In 1886, Colt founded the Industrial Trust Company, a financial organization; he served as its president until 1908. Later, it became Industrial National Bank, then Fleet Bank, and was ultimately merged into Bank of America.

In 1887, Colt was appointed as a receiver for the bankrupt National Rubber Company, based in Bristol. He reorganized the company and reopened it in 1888 as the National India Rubber Company. In 1892, he merged it with several other companies he had acquired to form the United States Rubber Company. Later called Uniroyal, it became the largest producer of rubber goods in the world. In 1901, he became president of the company, serving until 1918, when he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

He was one of the founders of the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the Revolution in 1896. The following year, he helped found the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars, and was assigned state society membership number 1.

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