USA > Rhode Island > A history of Block Island : from its discovery, in 1514, to the present time, 1876 > Part 12
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 (link on the Part 1 page).
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
SANDS' POND.
The clearest, the handsomest, and the highest of all that may be considered large enough to be noted, is this gem in an emerald setting. It is southeast from the Fresh Pond, and near the residence of Dea. R. T. Sands, and his brother William C. Sands. It is remarkable for its beauty, and for the mysterious manner in which it is sup- ported. Located on some of the highest ground of the Island, with no water-shed of any account, more than a hundred feet above the sea, from which it is more than a mile distant at the nearest point, with gravelly shores, with but a few feet of average depth, why it never dries up is a question that remains to be solved. No volcanic appear- ances are in its vicinity to justify us in classifying it with the crater ponds on the main-land. We could imagine it to be the terminus of a vein from a southeasterly and higher ground were there a ledge on the Island, instead
14*
162
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
of the drift material of which it is composed. That it is fed from some source is evident from its clearness and its fish.
HARBOR POND.
Near the old pier or harbor is a small pond, northwest from the present harbor. This, like the Great Pond, and Chagum Pond, is fed from the sea, although separated from it perhaps twenty-five rods. It is of a peculiar color, owing to the great quantity of iron sand through which the water from the sea filters. At times its appear- ance is very rusty, and at a distance, in some reflections of the light, it has a purple tinge. Small sail-boats and row-boats on it, owned by Mr. Negus & Sons afford much pleasure to visitors. Its fleet of ice-boats in winter will long be remembered by the boys who have there enjoyed so many voyages, capsizings, and wrecks while accompa- nied by sisters, and other gentle-handed cousins and neighbors.
FORT ISLAND POND.
Only a narrow neck of land separates this from the south end of the Great Pond. It is distinguished chiefly by the little island from which its name is taken. It is a pretty sheet, covering several acres, of very irregular shape, bordered with green fields, and is an ornament to the landscape view from the Central House, and from Mr. Frank Willis'. For fifteen years it has been the home of a resident whose age is not known, but his race is notori- ous. He is evidently a descendant of ancestors living here while King Philip and his warriors were scalping the white people on the main-land. He is seen only once or twice a year, and when seen a few years ago by a sturdy young man, the latter hastened to the house faint and trembling and tried to describe the "old settler." Dur- ing the summer of 1876, he was seen again, and from
7
163
THE WEST SIDE.
the description given of him, his appropriate name seems to be, the Fort Island Pond Serpent. The above facts are easily authenticated. The serpent is evidently a large. old, black water-snake, entirely harmless, and as shy as the Indians who possibly worshiped his forefathers.
THE MILL POND.
We notice this, not for its size, but as the only one here known as a mill-pond, and as a historical relic. It was made by Capt. James Sands, and is now owned by Mr. Almanzo Littlefield, lying south of the old mill where corn was at first ground, and wool was subsequently carded. Here was the first case of drowning on the Island of which we have any account. Capt. Sands, one of the first proprietors, then had an only child, "a girl just able to run about and prattle a little." In an un- guarded moment she escaped from her mother's eye, fell into the pond near the house, and was there drowned before she was rescued.
THE WEST SIDE.
There are three natural, or recognized divisions of Block Island, viz .: The Corn Neck, the East Side, and the West Side. The latter two may be distinguished as sep- arated by the road that runs from the south end of the Great Pond to the east shore of the Fresh Pond and thence to the south end of the Island. The soil of the West Side differs from that of the East Side, and the people of the one side differ from those of the other side. Originally, Simon Ray, and after him his son Simon, at whose house the famous cheese was made which Benjamin Franklin wrote about to Miss Catharine Ray, and at which the unfortunate inmates of the Palatine were welcomed, honored the West Side; while James Sands, and his descendants, at the stone house and the Sands Garrison
164
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
were making the East Side famous in the vicinity of the " Sands Harbor." John Rathbone, also, was located on the West Side, little aware that the time was coming when his descendants would be reported heirs of $40,- 000,000 in the Bank of England.
The natural points of interest on the West Side are not yet so well known as they will be at some future day. Nor is it easy to trace out the entangled legends concern- ing them. They have received but little attention from the naturalist, and perhaps less from the inhabitants. It is hoped that the few things here said may be an index, at least, to induce others to delineate more fully the pe- culiarities of the West Side.
Sandy Hill, there, arrests the attention of the visitor. It is near the Sound shore, with a base a quarter of a mile long from north to south, and half that distance east and west, rising about one hundred feet to a point on which half a dozen horses might stand, affording a fine view of the sea, of Montauk, and of Watch Hill, and also of the west shore of the Island. It is a pile of drift, and would be worth a fortune for sand and gravel if properly located. It is almost wholly destitute of vegetation, except the tuft of grass on the top which makes the tout-ensemble look somewhat like a Chinese head. Its base rests upon a bed of peat, which shows that it was thrown up after the Island had produced vegetation. At its eastern foot is a famous deposit of " firing," " tug," or peat, as it is called.
Grace's Cove is near Sandy Hill, and the place it occu- pies is sometimes call Grace's Point, and has been distin- guished somewhat as a place for landing small boats. It was there, probably, that the Mohegan Indians landed when they came by moonlight from Stonington, or Watch Hill, in force, to fight the Manisseans, and were so bar- barously destroyed at Mohegan Bluff.
Dorry's Cove is at the terminus of the road that runs
7
165
THE WEST SIDE.
from the Center to the west beach. It seems to have taken its name from an ancient owner by the name of Tormot Rose, whose name was sometimes written Dormut, or Dormud. He owned the land adjacent, and gave the cove, now partially filled up with sand, some notoriety by a little incident of dumping a cart-load of stone into the cove, and accidentally losing an ox by so doing-the team going back with the falling load. Mr. Rose mourned bitterly the loss of his ox. and was chided for it by a neighbor, who said to him, "Why, Mr. Rose, you mourn for your ox more than Job did for the loss of all of his; " whereupon the afflicted man replied that "Job never had so likely an ox !" The cove is now distinguished as a land- ing for fishermen, where they draw up their boats above the tide and seas, and where they have a few fish-houses.
Cooneymus is the name of the place where the West Side Life Station is located. It seems to be an Indian name. It is here spelled according to pronunciation, as the writer has never seen it written or printed, and in answer to inquiries how to spell it, he is informed that probably "it never was spelled." It is a very convenient shore for hauling up the boats of fishermen, as at Dorry's Cove, and is a well selected spot for the station from which men patrol the shores in each direction.
The Palatine graves are on the West Side. They are on the land owned by Mr. Jeremiah C. Rose, and are found by strangers most readily by going south from the Center until the first right-hand road is reached, thence by that to the gate of Samuel Allen, Esq., and thence to the house of Mr. Raymond Dickens. From his house it is but a few steps to said graves, and the old foundations of the ancient Simon Ray house, and Mr. Ray's deep old well are also near the house of Mr. Dickens. Indeed native timbers that were once in Mr. Ray's house are now doing good service in the house of Mr. Dickens, who.
166
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
during fifty years had an eye frequently upon the old dancing mortar mentioned in another place.
The Bluff scenery of the West Side, in some respects excels, especially that at the southern extremity. From it the vessels of the Sound, those " outside," Montauk, Long Island, and the Connecticut shore are conspicuous. Sites for summer residences, in time, will be selected, no doubt, upon the sightly points of the West Side, roads to which could be made with but little expense. The land is cheap.
Beacon Hill is the most conspicuous point on the West Side. It is the highest land upon the Island, and is nearly west from the Center. Its name originated from the beacon placed upon it in the Revolution, to warn the Islanders of the approach of the refugees. In making coast surveys, a beacon on this hill has been of service. It is visited by many strangers in the summer for the splendid view there obtained. From its summit the en- circling waters are seen except at one small point at the southeast, and the whole Island is spread out into a beau- tiful landscape of a thousand hills and hundreds of ponds, most of which are hid from the spectator, as they are in the little indentations between the hills. Beacon Hill is visited both on foot, and in carriages, by ladies and gen- tlemen. From it, in a clear atmosphere, distant views over Long Island, into Connecticut and Rhode Island, and in the direction of Cape Cod are obtained with a good glass. Access to it heretofore has always been free, by the kindness of the owner, Mr. William Dodge, but the increased number of visitors, and the trouble they have made him by opening his fence, and the damage to his field will justify him in future in making a small charge for admission. The hill is about three hundred feet high.
Mohegan Bluff, proper, belongs to the West Side accord- ing to tradition. It is the high point next to the sea
.
167
THE EAST SIDE.
where the Mohegan warriors were penned up and starved by the Manisseans. The former in coming to the Island would naturally land on the West Side, at Grace's Cove, Dorry's Cove, or Cooneymus, as the " Moheague country " was lying to the northwest of the Island. Soon after they landed, Niles says, the Manisseans "drove them to the opposite part of the Island, where, I suppose, the cliffs next the sea are near, if not more than two hundred feet high." This account seems to locate Mohegan Bluff near the new light-house. But as a compromise the name may well apply to the entire bluff range across the south end of the Island. "Bluff " is more appropriate than " Cliff," as there are no rocks.
THE EAST SIDE.
East and West are correlative terms, designating points that may be the farthest possible from, or the nearest pos- sible to each other. Indeed, in respect of direction they contradict the philosophical dogma that no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time. To this fine point, however, it is not our intention to reduce the two sides of Block Island. They differ, and yet are parts of a unit.
On the East Side the natural attractions are varied. The Bathing Beach is not only a place of pleasure, but also of study. The mineralogist may there find a field for thinking. Anciently that beach was more bold. Banks twenty-five feet high covered with grass, and unbroken, save in one or two narrow gullies, stretched from Clay Head nearly to the Old Pier. The foot of that low bluff was bathed winter and summer by the rising and falling tides, and by the dashing spray of the storms from the east. Mrs. Margaret Dodge, now eighty-six years old, recollects well her sports in childhood with other children along that steep bank next to the sea, up which it was
168
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
difficult for them to climb, it was so steep and sandy. When they could not leave the beach and climb up the bank, they reached the latter place by going to the little deep cut in the bank through which they ascended. Now that bank has all disappeared, and a few sand-hills in the back-ground remain as relics and monuments of a former period. That bank has been carried away principally by the strong winds of winter, which have moved its sand as though it were snow. The millions of tons thus moved in twenty-four hours, if stated, would be incredible. Imagine a thin sheet of sand drifting past your feet like water gliding over a smooth surface, and then look upon a surface a mile in length and a quarter of a mile in breadth, thus moving to the sea whose receding waves and surf carry off the sand as fast as it is deposited. Such has been nature's process of making the bathing beach from the fine sand of the once beautiful bank that bordered the bay of Block Island.
The Black Sand of the bathing beach has attracted considerable attention. It was once a part of the bould- ers which nature ground up to sand in some of her great mills or mortars long ago. After that it was commingled with the common sand of the Island. It is iron, too heavy to be blown off into the sea and drifted about, and hence it remains forsaken by its old comrades of "little grains of sand." Several acres of this, very fine, and containing a large percentage of iron, are covered by a lease in the hands of a New York party who contemplated shipping it to some foundry. Much of the northerly part of the bed has sand very beautiful under the microscope, which reveals particles resembling jasper, amber, and dia- mond. Before the invention of blotting-paper this sand was sold quite extensively for sand-boxes, and one of the Islanders made quite a business of it.
The bathing beach thus beautifully constructed by
169
THE EAST SIDE.
nature is one of the chief attractions of Block Island. The sand is fine, clean, and compact, and unless disturbed by some unusual storm, its descent into the sea is gentle, and the surf is moderate, yet sufficient to produce the desired excitement for the bathers. There the words are verified :
" On smoother beaches no sea birds light, No blue waves shatter to foam more white."
It is near enough to all of the hotels of the Island, for while it is a source of health and pleasure its scenery of little houses, queer dresses, and unusual positions and movements should be somewhat retired from the more refined associations of the piazza, the dining-room, and the parlor. A little walk, or a longer ride before and after bathing adds to its enjoyment, and carriages are readily obtained when desired. The ox-team of two yokes attached to the great wagon from the Ocean View, with the colored man Jack, a descendant from the Palatine, for driver, will not soon be forgotten by the ladies and gentle- men who thus rode to the beach, all attired for a bath so grotesquely that one hardly knew the other.
The Harbor, a historical sketch of which is given else- where, is the most important place on the East Side. There, after an effort of centuries, a safe and permanent protection to vessels has recently been secured. There the first steamboat wharf of the Island was established. There the treasures of the deep have been landed for the support of many generations. There the old fishermen see to-day relics of the past, in the shape of large casks, that remind him of remote ancestors. There, from child- hood, he has gone up and down the bank in the steps of his forefathers, has counted and dressed his fish as they did, has carried them to the fish-house and salted them as they did, and thence has wended his weary way home- ward to eat and sleep under the roofs and by the firesides
15
170
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
which they erected. When an old man now can no longer "go to the Harbor," his earthly enjoyments are considered very limited, and his work about finished, When they could go there, they needed not the excite- ment of the theater, the saloon, the club-room, and the rat-pits of cities, nor of the American race-course, nor of the bull-fights of Spain; for at the Harbor, each fall and spring, and occasionally in winter and summer, scenes a hundred-fold more exciting than the gay regatta sailing fancifully for a cup of gold, were witnessed by the Block Islanders, as fathers and brothers repeatedly stood there and watched their dearest kindred far out on the sea struggling in the tempest against wind and tide, to gain the shore in their little open boats. Not cups of gold, but lives were there at stake, when the tumbling billows tossed those boats here and there with the white foam until by wonderful skill the harbor was gained, and that, too, sometimes anciently by selecting the biggest of the " three brothers," and coming ashore high and dry on his back. To do this is one of the most dangerous and skillful tricks of the seaman, for to get in advance, or to be too far back of this highest wave, would almost surely swamp his boat in the surf and drowning would follow. Such exciting scenes, where so many hearts have been pained with anxiety, and then thrilled with rejoicing over kindred safely landed, have made the Harbor a place of dearest associations in the memories of the Islanders. The hotels at the Harbor are mentioned in another place.
The Shores of the East Side do not differ materially from those on the West Side. They have sightly points, ravines, and coves, and bowlders suitably distributed to make a border of pleasing variety.
The Old Harbor Landing, about midway from the Ocean View to the Mohegan Bluffs, is one of the old landmarks of Block Island passing into oblivion. It was once a .
171
THE EAST SIDE.
place of similar note to that of Cooneymus on the West Side. It obtained some distinction from a wreck which occurred there many years ago, and also for the drowning there of a galley of refugees, nine in number. It is adja- cent to Old Harbor Point.
The land rises gradually from the National Harbor to the south end of the Island where the highest and most picturesque bluffs are to be seen. They can hardly be called grand by one who has sailed from St. Paul down the Mississippi to Prairie du Chien, or has stood at Omaha and looked across the plain to Council Bluffs, or has looked from the dizzy heights of the Yosemite, but they will justify many of the eulogies which they have received. To gain a full impression of their power the visitor must stand on their brows and gaze far out upon the sea, and also at their feet by the water's edge and look up to those frowning brows, a wink from which might be more dan- gerous to the spectator than was the nod of Jupiter's head on high Olympus.
The New Light-House is one of the noted objects of the East Side, of which special mention is made elsewhere. The greater advantage of its having been located on the West Side on a high bluff at the south end, will be dis- cussed as long as the greater number of wrecks continue to occur at this latter place. Vessels coming from the south, after passing Montauk, fall into a dangerous current that passes between Montauk and Block Island, and are thus carried from their course and wrecked on the latter for want of light and a fog-signal on the southwesterly part of the Island. Three valuable vessels have been wrecked there since the new light-house was erected, but wrecks have hardly ever occurred near said light-house.
172
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
THE CORN NECK.
This is the northerly part of Block Island, and contains about one thousand acres. The soil is naturally produc- tive, with more clay at bottom than elsewhere on the Island. No doubt it took its name from the great amount of corn which it produced, both for the natives and for the subsequent settlers. For many years after the set- tlers came they designated it by the above name, which is now shortened by dropping the "Corn," and calling it simply "The Neck." But the original name seems the more appropriate, distinguishing that part more clearly from the Harbor Neck, and Indian Head Neck. It is naturally separated from the main part of the Island by the small pond that nearly connects the ocean on the east with the south end of the Great Pond, or by a line run- ning nearly east and west, and passing across the south end of the Great Pond a little north of Samuel Mott's residence.
In 1689 the town, as a body, occupied and controlled the Corn Neck, as seen by an act then passed as follows: " That all the cattle shall be brought out of the 'Corne Neck' yearly, at or before the first of May, only working oxen to remain until the 10th." In a still older record, dated Nov., 1676, the town council ordered all the swine to be removed from the Corn Neck by the 10th of Dec., and any man had liberty to kill those not " fetched out " by that date specified. This also indicates that this part of the Island was not inhabited.
In October, 1692, a similar ordinance was passed, re- quiring their removal by the 21st of that month on a penalty of "two shillings and sixpence for the first defecte, and for the second defecte five shillings." At that time there was probably a town fence separating the Corn Neck from the main part of the Island, as such a fence certainly existed in 1705. It was about ninety-six rods
4
173
THE CORN NECK.
long, was maintained by all who owned land on said Neck, and was spoken of as "against the Corne Neck." This fence was so nicely apportioned for maintenance by the proprietors of the Island that it was divided off to each man interested by rods, feet, and inches.
It seems quite certain from the above facts that there were no inhabitants on the Corn Neck for the first forty or fifty years after Block Island was settled. Thomas Terry, some time after the settlement, lived on Indian Head Neck, and he was there "remote from the other English inhabitants," who, in 1756, with the exception of two or three families, were all within two and a half miles of the meeting-house at the Fresh Pond. The first indications which we have of settlers on the Neck is the record of the laying out of a road there in April, 1707. As that record is instructive on several points it is here given verbatim.
"For the convenience and privilege of the Queen's Majesties subjects.
" Therefore we, the authority and town council on this instant have ordered and determined that there shall be forthwith a highway of forty feet in breadth laid out through the undivided lands, beginning at the old high- way from Charlestown fence holding the breadth of forty feet and so running to Sandy Point and from Sandy Point to Captain Edward Sands' bars, and from the pond by the end of the land of Nathaniel Dickins, deceased, from thence to the harbor, which highway to remain and continue a public highway free and clear from fence, bars, or gates, being made across said highway, only the fence by the harbor to stand, and also the fence at Charlestown likewise to stand."
In 1812, during the war with England, there were prominent families on the Neck, such as Ray Thomas Sands, who lived where Mr. George Sheffield now resides,
15*
174
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
.
and Mr. John Gorton, commonly known as "Governor Gorton," who lived where Mr. John G. Sheffield's resi- dence stands. It is now thickly populated by an intelli- gent, enterprising, and moral class of citizens, who have a good school-house, in which they hold religious meetings a considerable portion of each year. They carry on farming successfully, and secure considerable income from their pound fisheries.
Clay Head, is the most prominent part of the Neck, and is conspicuous for its high bluffs as seen by the spec- tator approaching the Island from Newport. On those bluffs are sightly and beautiful locations for summer resi- dences. Its clay is of three qualities, mainly blue, other red, and some white, and it seems a pity that such beauti- ful material is not utilized.
A note should here be made of a phenomenon at Clay Head in the winter of 1876-7. Its first appearance was in Sept., 1876, soon after a smart shock of an earthquake in the night. Near the edge of the high bluff on Mr. John Hayes' land was a cart road where sea-weed had been carted many years. Soon after said shock a fissure an inch wide, about one hundred feet long, ten feet from the edge of said high bluff, was seen, and instead of an avalanche, that earth outside of the fissure, including the cart track, began to settle down perpendicularly, settling some days nearly a foot, and this settling has continued until the broken-off mass 100 feet long and 10 feet wide has gone down 15 feet, leaving a perpendicular bank mostly of sand intermingled with clay. That mass is settling daily, March 16, 1877. Why, or how it can set- tle perpendicularly is mysterious. Is there a portion of the Island sinking ? Has a cavern been forming there by the escape of clay or quicksand ? A larger portion of Mohegan Bluff has settled similarly. Has there been a crushing of coral beneath the Island ? Native coral has
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.