USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLAN- TATIONS. A HISTORY
Gc 974.5 F45s v.II 1146738
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 8940
-
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/stateofrhodeisla02fiel 0
State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century: A History
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS, FAC-SIMILES OF OLD PLATES AND PAINTINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANCIENT LANDMARKS
EDITED BY EDWARD FIELD, A. B.
Volume Two
HOP &
The MASON PUBLISHING COMPANY BOSTON & SYRACUSE 1 902
COPYRIGHTED 1902 BY THE MASON PUBLISHING AND PRINTING CO.
1
Tyson - 10.00 (3Vo/5)
Contents
1146738
CHAPTER I.
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS
1-80
CHAPTER II.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES, THEIR HISTORY AND PRESENT CON-
DITION
81-214
CHAPTER III.
GROWTH OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
215-386
CHAPTER IV.
THE SEA TRADE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT .
387-560
CHAPTER V.
THE PRINTER AND THE PRESS
561-611
CHAPTER VI.
THE GROWTH OF THE LIBRARY 613-672
Illustrations
MAP OF TIIE TOWN OF PROVIDENCE IN 1803. 12
PLAN SHOWING THE ORIGINAL WATER LINE ON THE WEST SIDE OF PROVI- DENCE RIVER 15
SMALL-Pox HOSPITAL, LINCOLN . 30
SMALL-POX HOSPITAL AT FIELD'S POINT, PROVIDENCE 37
SMALL-Pox HOSPITAL, PAWTUCKET.
45
OLD MARINE HOSPITAL, PROVIDENCE. 59
HOSPITAL FOR SCARLET FEVER AND DIPHTHERIA PATIENTS
64
REV. JOHN CALLENDER (portrait)
88
FIRST BAPTIST MEETING-HOUSE IN PROVIDENCE. 91
BALLOU MEETING-HOUSE, CUMBERLAND, NEAR WOONSOCKET LINE. 98
OLD QUAKER MEETING-HOUSE, NEAR QUINSNICKET, LINCOLN. 113
OLD TOWN HOUSE, PROVIDENCE 132
TRINITY CHURCH, NEWPORT. 155
NARRAGANSETT CHURCH, WICKFORD, NORTH KINGSTOWN 157
THE GLEBE, NORTH KINGSTOWN . 158
THE BIRTHPLACE OF GILBERT STUART, NORTH KINGSTOWN 159
ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PROVIDENCE 163
RT. REV. ALEX. V. GRISWOLD, D. D. (portrait) 166
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, PAWTUCKET. 169
SS. PETER AND PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, PROVIDENCE 199
FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, PROVIDENCE. 207
FEMALE SEMINARY, NEWPORT. 227
PLAN OF A PROVIDENCE SCHOOL HOUSE OF 1819 ( fac simile) 231
PROVIDENCE PRIMARY SCHOOL BUILDING IN 1842. 239
PROVIDENCE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BUILDING IN 1842. 245
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE 248
OLD HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, PROVIDENCE 269
NATHAN BISHOP, LL. D. (portrait) 271
JONES SCHOOL HOUSE, PAWTUCKET. 317
OLD HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, WESTERLY 338
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS.
BROWN UNIVERSITY IN 1822 347
FRIENDS SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE. 354
PROVIDENCE CONFERENCE ACADEMY, EAST GREENWICII. 357
GREENE STREET SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE 364
WARREN LADIES' SEMINARY . 368
LAPHAM INSTITUTE, NORTH SCITUATE. 369
VIEW OF THE FOX POINT DISTRICT OF PROVIDENCE IN 1837 439
VIEW OF SOUTH WATER STREET, PROVIDENCE, ABOUT 1857. 446
VIEW OF PROVIDENCE AND THE UPPER HARBOR. 463
VIEW OF THE EAST SIDE OF PROVIDENCE RIVER. 466
VIEW OF THE HARBOR OF BRISTOL. 477
OLD WHALERS AND CASKS OF WHALE OIL. 482
A PORTION OF THE MAIN HARBOR OF PROVIDENCE, BETWEEN INDIA AND FOX POINTS 489
HARBOR OF THE CITY OF PAWTUCKET. 492
UPPER COVE, WICKFORD, NORTH KINGSTOWN 493
VIEW OF THE HARBOR OF WESTERLY. 496
AN OLD MERCHANTMAN AND WHALER 499
THE "EXPERIMENT" ( fac simile) 510
VIEW OF NARRAGANSETT PIER 525
Ross TAVERN, NEAR QUONOCHONTAUG, CHARLESTOWN 530
PAWTUCKET BRIDGE AND FALLS IN 1840 538
SOCIAL STREET, WOONSOCKET. 542
OLD UNION RAILROAD STATION, PROVIDENCE
547
THE PROVIDENCE COVE IN 1818.
550
VIEW OF EXCHANGE PLACE AND THE COVE BEFORE THE RAILROAD IMPROVE- MENTS 552
THE FIRST PAGE OF THE FIRST NUMBER OF THE FIRST NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED
IN NEWPORT. 567
THE FIRST PAGE OF THE FIRST NUMBER OF THE FIRST NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED
IN PROVIDENCE . 573
LOWER WEYBOSSET STREET AND POST-OFFICE NEWS AGENCY, PROVIDENCE, IN 1857. 584
REDWOOD LIBRARY BUILDING, NEWPORT. 617
PAWTUCKET PUBLIC LIBRARY. 635
WESTERLY PUBLIC LIBRARY AND PARK. 638
PROVIDENCE ATIIENZUM, ERECTED 1837. 646
PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY . 668
Epidemics and Medical Institutions.
CHAPTER I.
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
Sickness and death must always follow closely in the footsteps of the pioneer, and the gentle offices of the physician are soon needed wherever a home is founded. At many points along the New England coast some person, having at least more medical learning and experi- ence than his fellows, came with or soon after the earliest settlers. Such was the case in the Providence Plantations and on Rhode Island, and Roger Williams had scarcely secured a permanent foothold here before men bearing the title "Doctor" followed. But there was a comparatively long period during which many of the settlers must have found it difficult or impossible to procure medical attendance. In such cases sickness was treated by the administration of a few simple remedies brought in by the immigrants, and with decoctions, ointments, and oils of various kinds, made by the unlearned hands of neighborhood nurses and housewives, whose duty it was to regularly hoard a store of medicinal roots and herbs as faithfully as they did their fruits and vegetables. Most of the early settlers were strong and healthy men and women, and they found here a region which bore every indication of salubrity as far as could be compatible with the somewhat trying climate in certain months of the year. Their occupa- tions were in the main conducive to good health, and the simple and efficacious remedies kept in every household were promptly and boldly administered. These, with careful nursing, were sufficient in very many cases to ward off or cure disease. Whatever trials and sorrows were endured by the pioneers of the Providence Plantations, through sickness and the lack of prompt medical attendance during the very early years of settlement, will never be known to us; but it need not necessarily be assumed that they were much greater than would be suffered by an equal number of persons at the present day, dwelling where physicians are not within immediate call.
The regulation of the practice of medicine, by the licensing of physicians, has been recently strenuously resisted here in Rhode Island
4
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
as a dangerous innovation and an unjustifiable interference with in- dividual liberty. But it is no new thing, as the following extract from records of the proceedings of the General Assembly in 1664 will show : "Whereas the Court have taken notice of the great blessing of God on the good endevers of Captayne John Cranston of Newport, both in phissicke and chirurgery, to the great comfort of such as have had occation to improve his skill and practice, &c. The Court doe therefore unanimously enacte and declare that the said Captain John Cranston is lycenced and commistioned to administer phissicke, and practice chirurgery throughout this whole Collony, and is by this Court styled and recorded Doctor of phissick and chirrurgery by the othority of this the Generall Assembly of this Collony." Capt. John Cranston was born in Scotland in 1625 or 1626, and died in Newport March 11, 1680. He had a varied career ; was a drummer in 1644; at one period was attorney-general, and in 1676-8 was deputy governor, and governor in 1678-80.
The date of the issuance of this license was March 1, 1664, new style. While this is the earliest record of a license to an accredited physician to practice in this colony, he was not the first medical prac- titioner.1
One of the immigrants arriving in Boston in 1631 was Dr. John Clarke, who remained there until 1638, when he removed to Ports- mouth and in the following year to Newport. Of his medical ex- perience there during the next ten years little is known, but, in 1651, he went to England, where he aided Roger Williams in procuring the revocation of Governor Coddington's commission as governor of the Islands in Narragansett bay. Dr. Clarke remained in England twelve years and was instrumental in procuring the charter of Rhode Island. Returning to Newport, he officiated in the pulpit of the Baptist church, at the same time continuing practice, until his death, April 20, 1676, at the age of sixty-six.2
The records mention "John Green, surgeon", who was probably the first physician in Providence Plantations, and was contemporary
1In the year 1859 a committee, consisting of Drs. Usher Parsons, Isaac Ray and George L. Collins, was appointed by the Rhode Island Medical Society to gather all the accessible material relating to the previous history of the profession in the State, with especial reference to the archives of the society, with the purpose of having it published in a pamphlet for preservation. The task was well performed and a pamphlet issued, which has constituted the basis of most of the later writing on the subject. From this pamphlet, which is now quite rare, some of the biographic matter relating to early physicians has been drawn for this chapter. The pamphlet is in possession of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
2See also memoir by Dr. David King, Library R. I. Hist. Soc.
5
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
with Roger Williams; but lie soon (1641) removed to Warwick. Robert Jeffries, also, was given governmental authority in 1641 "to exercise the functions of surgery."
In the north part of the State no names of physicians are found among those of settlers prior to 1700. Roger Williams wrote to his friend Winthrop, in 1648, thanking him for advice and medicine. In that region dependence must have been placed mainly upon simple home remedies, or the occasional calling of a physician from a long distance. It should be remembered that at that date there were in Providence county only about one hundred persons capable of bearing arms, so that the number of cases of sickness at any one time could not have been large for some years. Newport was within a few hours by water, and doubtless some of those above named occasionally jour- neyed northward to attend the suffering. When the inhabitants re- turned to their former homes, after having been driven away by the Indians in 1676, their medical necessities were supplied by Dr. Richard Bowen, who settled at Seekonk, about two miles from Providence, and was there as early as 1680.
Those early physicians often found themselves surrounded by con- ditions that called for professional heroism and their best skill, when the country was swept by epidemics that were appalling in their viru- lence and merciless in fatality. Small-pox was an early visitor to the settlers of this State previous to the time when the discovery of the immortal Jenner had mitigated its terrors, causing death and mourn- ing in many families. Another disease, which was then called by such names as "malignant fever", "black vomit", and yellow fever (and which was probably the latter), fell upon the inhabitants, particularly those in Newport and Providence, and many died. Through the broader knowledge gained in the passing years and under the light of modern medical science, the old-time terrors of such epidemics long ago passed away.
The first severe visitation of small-pox to this colony took place in 1690 and the disease raged with great violence. Public affairs were neglected, the Assembly, then sitting in Newport, did little business, and private trade operations were neglected through the winter of 1690-91. Newport was the greatest sufferer. In 1712 the first efforts were made to combat the disease by legislation, a quarantine act being then passed ; it was, however, not very effective, for in 1716 the disease again made its appearance in several parts of the colony. Newport held a special election at which a hospital was ordered built on Coaster's Harbor Island. Bristol then largely escaped the epidemic,
6
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
but in 1732 the town authorities there were constrained to procure a house for small-pox patients. Providence had its first small-pox hos- pital in 1751, when the General Assembly made an appropriation for its establishment.1 Inoculation was introduced into the colony in 1772, and in that year the General Assembly attempted to legalize the practice, which had developed intense opposition; the proposed legis- lative measure was defeated, but the operation was continued by intel- ligent physicians. In 1776 the matter was again brought before the Assembly, which voted to establish a hospital in each county where persons could go to be inoculated.2 In addition to these many private hospitals were opened, and the practice, which had been bitterly opposed, became a popular movement. The first one that was patronized by Rhode Islanders was established on Ram Island, near New London, Conn. Later many were opened on the shores of the lower bay, some of which advertised hunting and fishing facilities and other attractions to mitigate the unpleasantness of a patient's stay. The disease continued to afflict this locality during a number of years and demanded a good deal of attention from the authorities.3
1There had probably been earlier cases of the disease in Rhode Island. Providence town paper No. 066 is a protest by Joseph Turpin and nine others against their detention on board a vessel where they were "all well except ye boye", and they were "very loath to stay on board with him any longer". This protest was dated June 6, 1752. In the same year Thomas Kinnicut presented a bill (town paper 195) for damage to his house through its use for a pest house. There must have been a large number of cases in that year, as the Town Council, at a meeting on April 11, gave a large number of orders for various kinds of supplies, and for making coffins, cleansing clothing, attendance on sick, etc. These orders covered the period from 1751 to 1761. (See Prov. town paper 219.)
2On July 2, 1776, Ambrose Page, Benjamin Man, Jabez Bowen, Nathaniel Wheaton and Barnard Eddy, in Providence, were appointed a committee "to find out the most suitable place for Erecting an Hospital to Innoculate in for the small pox, and to draw up the Rules and Regulations" for it; they report- ed in favor of "the place called high Bank lying to the Northeast of Great point", as "the most propper place that we can find". (Providence town paper, No. 995.)
There was much discussion over the subject of inoculation at this time; petitions for and against it were circulated and public meetings held to con- sider the subject. Providence town paper 1031, dated July 26, 1776, is a bill of William Compton, covering several dates, for "worning a town Mitting by Drum for Enocalation"; six shillings for each warning.
3Providence town paper 2775, dated August 27, 1782, is an address to the "Moderator and Freemen" of Providence upon the necessity of having a build- ing for a small-pox hospital, "and being desirous of obtaining permission to carry on the Innoculation in your vicinity", proposed to buy about six acres of land "on the West side of the River partly within the Limits of Providence and partly in those of Cranston", whereon to erect suitable buildings, and have "one room properly furnished containing 40 square Feet to your town", etc. For this concession he wanted "the full and exclusive Right of carrying
7
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
In 1792 Newport set apart the old quarantine building for a small-pox hospital; to this large numbers resorted, and thereafter the private institutions rapidly declined. The introduction of vaccination into this country by a Newport physician, Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, was met with nearly as much opposition as the preceding practice of inoculation, and this opposition exists to some extent to the present day. Providence, in 1810, employed Sylvanus Fansher to vaccinate the public, the town paying the expense; he vaccinated 4,305 persons and rendered a bill of $233.25, or about five cents for each operation- which certainly was cheap enough. The alarm over the expected ap- proach of the disease in 1815 and 1822 led to other public vaccinations, which doubtless greatly reduced the mortality. A report in 1855 stated that there had been only seventy-five deaths from small-pox in the State in the preceding seventeen years ; but in the following winter there were one hundred and thirty cases, and much alarm was felt. The next visitation of the disease took place in 1858-9, as a result of a visit of a merchant to New York city, where in some manner he was exposed ; he was taken with varioloid on Christmas day, 1858, and soon recovered. No precautions were taken to prevent the spread of the contagion. The second case was that of a child nearly three years old, who had never been vaccinated, and who showed the eruption on January 9, 1859 ; the disease was not recognized until the eighth day of the eruption. The child died January 20, the first death from the disease since May 16, 1856. The number of cases that followed during the season up to June, were three of small-pox and seven of varioloid in January ; three of small-pox and three of varioloid in February; nine of small-pox and twenty of varioloid in March; four of small-pox and thirteen of varioloid in April; two of small-pox and nine of varioloid in May, the last case in the city at that time being one who was taken on May 25 and reported cured on the 15th of June. The whole number of cases of small-pox was twenty-one, eight of which were confluent and severe, and four died. Of the cases of distinct small-pox and of varioloid none died.1
Radical measures were adopted at that time to prevent the spread of the disease, with good effect, and the inestimable benefits of thor- ough vaccination were well shown.
on Innoculation of the Small Pox". This matter was considered in town meet- ing, but no action was taken.
1"Small Pox in the City of Providence from January to June, 1859", by Edwin M. Snow, Superintendent of Health, in possession of the Rhode Island Hist. Society.
8
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Providence was almost wholly free from small-pox until 1864, when there were one hundred and forty-five cases. From that year there were very few until 1872-3, when there were twenty-seven cases in that city, while in Newport, in 1881-2, there were twenty cases, with six fatalities. Since that year the State has suffered only in slight degree from this malady.
It will be of interest to note briefly some of the public proceedings in connection with this disease in its early manifestations. In Provi- dence on March 16, 1690, jurymen on criminal trials in the General Court were publicly notified "That because of the Small pox in this Town there may be excuse for Jurymen and any concerned in Action or Criminall causes, not then to appeare"; they were, however, in- structed to hold themselves in readiness for duty.
The people of Providence were warned to "meet at the Town House", in that city, on June 12, 1729, "to consider whether it may not be convenient to draw money out of the town treasury, for ye building a small house where people may be secured yt are Rendered dangerous of Spreading ye Small Pox, or any other contagious dis- temper amongst us".
In the year 1748 the Providence town records show that bills were rendered for supplies and services on board the privateer Reprisal, in connection with this disease. In 1752, as again shown by the town records of Providence, the people were warned to meet to consider the prevention of the spread of small-pox, then "prevalent in the town of Boston, and people are daly coming from thence". On March 30, 1752, the following ordinance was adopted :
"Be it Enacted by the moderator and freemen of this town that no person whatsoever coming from Boston or other place infected with the Small pox Shall enter into the limits of this Town within Twenty Days from the time of their coming from Boston", etc.1
1The following references regarding the small-pox epidemic of 1748-52 will be found among Providence Town Papers:
Warrant to warn town meeting to prevent introduction of small-pox. (1752, paper 0834.)
Ordinance of town to prevent small-pox. (1752, paper 0835.)
This ordinance quarantines all persons not immunes coming from Boston or other infected places for twenty days before entering town.
Warrant to prevent spread of small-pox by proclaiming by beat of drum ordinance against negroes being out after 9 o'clock at night, and an act to prevent any gun, squib, rocket or pistol being fired in any town or street in the Colony. ( Nov. 4, 1751, paper 185.)
Warrant as to proceedings before releasing person cured. (Nov. 19, 1751, paper 190.)
Warrant to call council "to confer" regarding the small-pox. (1751, paper 176.)
Warrant to isolate dwelling of patient. (1751, paper 288.)
9
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
Persons were ordered appointed to warn travelers and to arrest offenders against the ordinance, and were offered a reward of £20 for the apprehension of each culprit. Landlords were required to ask their guests whence they came. This ordinance was in force six months. A list of "orders Given by order of the Town Council held at Providence for the 11th Day of April, 1752, on account of the Small pox", amounted to more than £500 up to February 17, 1753.
Coming down to the Revolutionary period the Providence records contain much that is of interest in this connection. For example, a bill dated July 8, 1776, was rendered by Dennis O'Brien, as follows :
"To my service attending 2 Black Persons with the Small Pox in the Pest House, 23 days at 3s, pr. Day, £5, 15. 0."
To this is attached a certificate of payment signed by Theodore Foster, council clerk. Again, Nathan Arnold rendered a bill for attending "the people on Bord the Sloop Enterprise and the Pest house, sick with the Small Pox from June 6, 1776, to June 29, at 6s per day". Other bills were rendered for making coffins, etc., all serving to indicate that the authorities were not backward in their efforts to mitigate the public distress.
It has already been mentioned that the introduction of inoculation throughout the State caused much opposition, the masses of the people fearing to voluntarily assume the risks which they ascribed to the operation. This matter received public attention, as seen in the following :
"Providence, Tuesday, July 19, 1776.
"Sir
"I am ordered by the Town of Providence in Town Meeting on this Day assembled to write to request you to take proper Measures to call together the Freemen of the Town of Johnston on Thursday next, to know their sentiments of admitting Inoculation for the Small Pox into that Town. The Town of Providence have appointed a Com- mittee to wait upon the Gentlemen of Johnston at their meeting Thursday next if one is called to consult and advise upon Measures respecting inoculation for the Good of the public in General," etc.
The following bill has reference to the pest house that had been established at North Providence :
"July 9, 1777.
"Samuel Chace Esq. to the Town of Providence Dr.
"To Proportion of Expence occasioned by your Negro Servant Rose having the Small Pox at the Hospital in North Providence 22 days at 8/6 pr Day as Settled and Adjusted by the Town Council."
10
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
A credit of 16s. 2d. stood against this charge. An invoice of accounts "occasioned by Small Pox at Tockwotton, July 9, 1777", amounted to £104, 8s. 8d. Between June 24 and August 1, 1776, bills were rendered for "warning town meetings by Drum for Enockela- tion". Dr. William Bowen's bill for attendance on small-pox patients from August 18, 1776, to February, 1777, was a little over £13.
A bill, not before noticed, which was rendered against the town of Providence in 1752, for damage for using a private house as a pest house, led the authorities to provide against a recurrence of similar charges by establishing small-pox hospitals, and in 1776-7 there were three; one of these was situated at North Providence, one at Tock- wotton, and the third at Field's Point. One of these, at least, appears to have been erected in 1755, as shown by a bill of August in that year for £30 for building a pest house. George Law was appointed its overseer.
These extracts from the old town records, which have been made so easily accessible by the efficient work of the Record Commissioners, will be closed as far as they relate to small-pox, by the following:
"Providence, Oct. 12, 1787.
"This certificate that I, Daniel Bucklin, agreeable to an order of the Town Councel have bin on Bord the Brig Providence Capt. James De Wolf from Cape Francis-and Being all Day yesterday on Bord and find that there is onley one Person on Bord But what hath had the Small Pox Before they belonged to said Brig-and this one haveing been Iniculated abought 18 days past and appears to be as well as any Man on Bord, having had the Small Pox in the most easy manner that any person has it by inoculation and lie being yesterday thor- oughly Smoaked and Cleansed together with his Clothing and the Vessel also being well smoked & clensed & Dried with all the People and thair clothing-together withi everething on Bord in such a man- ner that it is my opinion no Dainger nor risque of communicating the Small pox can accrue from her coming up to the Whorf and Dis- charging her cargo. Daniel Bucklin.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.