USA > Rhode Island > A history of Block Island : from its discovery, in 1514, to the present time, 1876 > Part 13
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175
THE CENTER.
been found on the east, and on the west shores. The diminution of the Island is rapid in some places.
Sandy Point is the extreme north end of the Neck. On the extremity of the Point was anciently a peninsula called the Hummuck. It was an elevation of land on which small trees and bushes grew, and at low-tide was reached on foot. The old inhabitants now speak of hav- ing gathered wild plums there. It was washed away long ago. The Point as a sand-bar, extends several miles from the Island, and is a waymark for sailors.
Chagum Pond is a part of the Neck, and is distinguished as the place where the English vessels in times of war got their fresh water. It is supplied from the sound, and by filtering through the sand, from the sound to the pond, the water becomes fresh.
THE CENTER.
Here the people from all parts of the Island frequently come for various purposes. Here the greater part of the local trading is done, at the three stores, two of which are at the four corners, and the other but a little distance north. Hither most of the sea-moss is brought from the west shores, and here the West Side fishermen market their fish, and here the greater part of the poultry, butter and cheese, eggs, and much of the oil find a market. Here the town council meet and the town elections are held at the town hall. Here, too, the Baptist church is located, which can seat three hundred, leaving over one hundred of its members outside, were all to assemble there at one time. At the Center the first high school of the Island has been conducted successfully over a year by Mr. A. W. Brown.
The Center is the least bleak in appearance of any part of the Island. Mr. Lorenzo Littlefield's fine residence, adorned with ornamental trees, walks, shrubs and flowers,
176
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
and productive fruit trees, is an ornament to the Island, which it is hoped others will imitate. His pond of full- blooded wild geese should be seen by visitors. Hon. Ray S. Littlefield's new two-story, French-roof house also adds to the improving appearance of the Center. Mr. Alvin Sprague's enlarged and modernized store, accom- modating a family in the upper part, adds much to the improved appearance of the Center. The wall about the Church lot, and the grading of the Church grounds in 1875, materially changed the pasture-like appearance in front of the house where, during seventeen winters, so many slipped and fell after meeting. Nor should the new blacksmith shop at the Center, built in 1875, be over- looked-built by Mr. R. B. Negus, and used for a paint shop by Mr. Andrew Dodge, in the summer of 1876- the first paint shop on the Island. There many old car. riages were made new in appearance. One of the best of common schools is also kept at the Center, lacking only a new house, soon to be had, doubtless.
The Block Island Cemetery is near the Center, at the north of it, and on an elevation that overlooks much of the East Side, the Corn Neck, and the waters at the north and east. Its centenary graves, the multitude of others with their brown-stone, slate, and marble monuments, and its perfect destitution of tree or shrub, in an enclosure of about ten acres, render it an object of interest to strangers. An imposing monument, in the highest part where are the remains of the ancient Rays, and Sandses, and others should be erected in honor of the first settlers whose record there is now hardly legible.
MISCELLANEOUS.
THE POUND.
This important keeper of the peace as well as of stray cattle claims a brief notice, for it has doubtless prevented many a feud between neighbors by keeping their animals from trespassing. The following is a record of the first pound upon Block Island.
"At a meeting at the hous of Mr. Simon Ray, Sr., October 14, 1701, the being greatly sensible of the greate want of a common pound, wee the wardin and town counsell with the rest of the free inhabitants of New Shorum have concluded and agreed upon that there shall be a comon pound erected of thurty futs square sefesiant of seven futs high with a good sefesiant gate fit to pas and Repas out and in with a sefesiant lock and kee, and to be erected and fenced by the last of November next insuing the date hereof and to be placed neere to William Daudge's new dwelling house, and the charge to be leved by proporshon of a rate by the hole estate of said Island."
" Entered according to Ordur pr
NATH'LL MOTT,
Town Clerk."
Its location was near the north end of Fresh Pond. It was in bad proportion, its walls being nearly one-fourth as high as they were long, and it was found to be too small, and consequently, in 1707, another was erected, in place of the former, forty feet square, six feet high, at a cost of £7. In 1708, the keeper received two pence “ pr
178
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
head for turning the key." The same fee was continued in 1709.
The pound regulations in 1714 were very strict and minute. The keeper's fees were sixpence for the ad- mission of a horse or cow. About the year 1860 the present pound was built at the Center, near the church, where it is too likely to remain. Mr. Rathbone Littlefield made it useful in the summer of 1876.
CROWS AND BLACKBIRDS.
In 1693, at a town meeting, an act was passed by which a bounty on crows was established. They were desig- nated as "crows or ravens," and were doubtless then here, as they have been elsewhere, very destructive to the corn crop as it sprang up soon after planting. The bounty was sixpence each for the heads exhibited to the town treas- urer between the first of January and the middle of June following. Very respectable names appear among the sportsmen and claimants of bounties. Over ninety crows were killed that season.
From their abundance on the Island at the season of nesting, those acquainted with their habits could safely infer the existence here then of forest timber, for they nest only in forests of large trees.
In 1717, a bounty on blackbirds was established. Either because their heads were less destructive, or because they were more' numerous and easily obtained, it required twelve of their heads to draw as much from the treasury as did one crow's head, the bounty on them being only half a penny each. No crows trouble the corn fields here now, since no trees for nesting remain. Black- birds are abundant still.
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POULTRY .- MARKING SHEEP.
POULTRY.
It is doubtful whether another territory can be named in our country, of equal size with Block Island, where so much poultry is produced, and so many eggs are first marketed, as here. No better facilities for raising geese, ducks, hens, and turkeys could be desired. Hardly· a farm is so small as to be destitute of one or more little ponds. The fields furnish ample range for all, and the women and children excel in raising the young for the early market, and for the Thanksgiving and Christmas demands. Hardly a family is so over-nice as to exclude from its firesides in the 'chilly days of March and April the tender brood in the comfortable basket. There the visitor may hear notes quite as musical to the Islander as are the sharp warblings of the canary to others whose pets only please the eye and the ear.
The Eggs that are exported from the Island may be estimated at an amount not less than twenty-five thousand dozen annually.
The dressed and live poultry exported and consumed at the Island hotels amounts to more that twenty-five tons annually. Mr. Lorenzo Littlefield has had on hand at a time 1,000 geese; at another 1,000 turkeys.
MARKING SHEEP.
An Island law requiring sheep to be marked, and the owner's mark to be registered in the town clerk's office was enforced in 1680; e. g., " John Niles his Mark. A cropp off ye right ear and a hapenny under (ye cropp to be high upon ye eare): a slitt in ye left ear and hapenny under."
SHEEP-FOLD.
In 1696, many sheep ran at large on the Island a part of the year, and an act was passed by the town requiring them to be folded, or to be put into the "common pen,''
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
each night, probably for safety, on account of the Indians, and this rule was enforced by a penalty of £5. Goats were then kept upon Block Island.
The Island is well adapted to the raising of sheep, and in 1776, as well as at the present time' some farms were well stocked with them. They are mostly of the larger kind, with wool not the finest. The January and Febru- ary lambs become very large for early market. The sheep are remarkable for the number of lambs which they raise. In the spring of 1875, five ewes belonging to Edward Mott raised ten lambs, three having twins, one having a triplet, and another having one. About the year 1700 many sheep and lambs were taken from here to New York.
HIDDEN TREASURE.
About eighty years ago a small vessel anchored in Cow Cove, and from it three men came ashore. They entered the carriage road that leads from Sandy Point to the Har- bor, and after proceeding some distance, stopped and com- menced digging in the middle of the road. This was towards evening, and as they were strangers the Islanders viewed them only at a distance. During the night they disappeared. The next morning Mr. Isaiah Ball went to the place named in the road, and there discovered that they had dug up an earthen pot that held about eight quarts. Suspecting that it had contained money, Mr. Ball moved the fresh earth about with his hands until he found a piece of silver of the value of ten cents. This coin has been examined by one skilled in numismatics, and by him is described as "Spanish Cob Money, issued by a Bourbon family of Spain, previous to 1753, in the eighteenth cen- tury." Its date seems to be given in the Roman and Arabic numerals, thus : M 94. This coin is in the pos. session of Mr. Lorenzo Littlefield, and was presented to
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CHRISTMAS TREE .- THE HOUSES.
him by Mr. John S. Ball, the son of the said Isaiah Ball who related the above circumstances to the said donor.
There has been considerable effort by the Islanders to find hidden treasures on their shores. Marvelous stories have been told of sights seen, and of sounds heard while · prospecting for the imagined pots of gold and silver. These stories have served well as scape-goats for the follies of those who have wasted time and strength in searching at random for what is only imaginary, while the legitimate pursuits of gain have been neglected.
CHRISTMAS TREE.
Christmas had visited the Christian people of Block Island more than two hundred times before its children were cheered with the presence of a Christmas tree. The first one ever seen here was in the winter of 1875, brought by the pastor of the First Baptist Church from his home in Bridgewater, Mass. It was a beautiful fir, one of his ornamental trees, at the roots of which he laid his axe for the sake of the pleasure and good it might afford the children of Block Island. It was placed in front of the pulpit, and rose to the wall above. The ladies adorned it finely with stars, tapers, and presents. The burning tapers on its branches, the glittering stars in the evening, and the gifts on it and under it, produced a fine effect, and gave a happy expression to many bright young faces. That tree was well planted in the memory of the chil- dren, most of whom had never seen a fir tree before. It also attached them to the Sabbath school to which it was given.
THE HOUSES.
The houses of Block Island have their peculiarities. Those built by the inhabitants are all wood, with one exception; that is stone. They are of convenient size on the ground, but why they are so low it is not easy to 16
182
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
ascertain. But a very few are over one and a half stories high, and the one story is much lower than usual in such houses. Perhaps there has been a precaution against their being blown over by the strong winds. They are mostly shingled on the sides, as this covering endures the storms best. They are nearly all white, and newspaper and mag- azine writers have reported them painted, when in truth not one in twenty was painted. They were whitewashed, and this is done annually, in the spring, and thus the houses are well preserved.
The inside structures indicate economy. The rooms are so numerous that they are necessarily small. They are plastered, mainly, and papered with bright colors and showy figures. Almost every family has more or less of papering and inside whitewashing each spring. The doors, cupboards, and what ceilings there are have uni- form colors, either blue or green, with few exceptions. They are generally comfortable.
The location of the houses arrests the attention of the observing. They are scattered so much that at no place can there properly be said to be a village on the Island. Nearly all are connected with farms ranging from one acre up to three hundred. They are most densely located at the Harbor, but not more numerous, perhaps, than in the vicinity of the Center. Nearly all, too, are so located as to have an extensive view of the sea, and from their windows and doors, the departure and arrival of vessels are studiously observed, and generally with telescopes that cost about ten dollars each. It might be well for some visitors to remember these far-seeing instruments, espe- cially at the bathing beach.
A few dwelling-houses of good taste have been erected during the past few years on the Island. Mr. Darius Dodge's Gothic cottage near the Harbor, Mr. Aaron Mitch- ell's, and others, and Mr. Noah Dodge's soon to be com-
183
THE STORES.
pleted, and the best, are an improvement on the older houses, and these will soon be excelled by others, prob- ably.
Flower-gardens are a recent ornament to the grounds about the houses. Mrs. Lorenzo Littlefield's at the Center, is very attractive in summer, and silently reminds the Islanders of the fact that God makes flowers to be seen as well as fish and vegetables to be eaten, and that Adam and Eve were first placed in a garden and commanded to " dress it and to keep it."
THE STORES.
It would be difficult to tell how many stores there are upon the Island if we were to enumerate all the places where a little tea, tobacco, and candy are sold, and a few eggs and fowls are bought. But there are five dealers who have stores, properly so called. At the Harbor where the post-office is kept, the firm of Ball & Willis has done a thriving business; on Paine street, Mr. J. T. Dodge is doing likewise, while Messrs. Lorenzo Littlefield, Alvin Sprague, and Wm. P. Ball are buying and selling largely at the Center, each in his own store. If any doubt that all of these five merchants are models of patience and business tact, they have only to observe the endless rou- tine of barter to which they are subjected in order to realize any profits in money. A boy with a hen under each arm; a woman with a bag of sea-moss; a farmer with a cart-load of dressed turkeys; a one-horse wagon with cheese and butter; another with jugs of fish-oil; tons of cod-fish; bundles of paper-rags; old junk; potatoes and oats; and frequently a child with an egg in each hand; these are daily customers and commodities that keep up a large mercantile business in dry-goods and groceries and a few fancy articles, amounting in all to about one hundred thousand dollars annually.
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
THE CARRIAGES.
The improved roads of Block Island naturally became an inducement for better carriages. The need of any better than the cart for oxen has been felt here but recently. The distances were short, and easily walked by the active men and vigorous women. It is within the memory of the older inhabitants that the first wagon was owned upon the Island. Mr. Ray Thomas Sands is said to have introduced that improvement, an article then new to the eyes of many, for people did not travel abroad then as now. Indeed, there are those now upon the Island who were never beyond its shores, and one of them told the writer that she was "just as well off as if she had been on the main, and now she was so old she never wanted to go away." In the year 1875, there was but one span of horses frequently driven here, that of Mr. Hamilton Ball, Mr. Lorenzo Littlefield having driven a span previous to 1875. Single carriages, however, had then become quite numerous, and about sixty were counted at the funeral of Mrs. Frederick Rose in the summer of 1875. At the present time fashionable buggies are quite com- mon, and there are a few good carryalls. That of Mr. John G. Sheffield will be remembered by the children as one of the first of their knowledge. In the summer of 1876, covered carriages were frequently seen going to noted points of the Island, and the visitors at the hotels for the first time here had ample accommodations of car- riages. Mr. Howard Mott then opened the first livery stable of Block Island, kept at the Ocean View. Many who are now in childhood will remember how much atten- tion Mr. Mott's barouche attracted, as part of its occu- pants rode backwards so indifferent to the horses and driver. They will remember, too, how odd it looked, on " steamboat days," to see one seat, two seat, open and covered buggies, and two-horse carriages thickly stationed
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185
THE ROADS.
around the Harbor, with "To Let," pasted on some of them, and all waiting for passengers to the various hotels and to different parts of the Island. All of this took place, for the first time, two hundred and fourteen years after the first settlers landed and saw no other houses than the wigwams of the Manisseans.
The ox-cart is still the principal vehicle for business. One man is making his mark in the memories of the ris- ing generation, not only by his singing, but by the one animal, which became an ox when he was several years old, and which the owner prides, or humbles himself in driving in thills attached to a short wooden yoke on the animal's neck. He is tolerably well represented in Har- per's Magazine for July, 1876, except as his horns there are a little too upright and delicate.
The olden time for horse-back parties is gone for ever. Nice buggies and carriages have superseded the saddle, except as it is used occasionally by men and boys. The old side-saddles may now be seen in barns and sheds gathering dust and rust. These are steamboat times; no fears of the railroad on Block Island.
THE ROADS.
For two hundred years the inhabitants of Block Island enjoyed the principal luxuries, or perhaps it should be said necessaries of life without having the trouble and expense of making one mile of turnpike, or graded car- riage track. There was hardly any use for them-no market, no factories, no commerce to require any amount of teaming, and no special desire to ride in carriages, not enough certainly to stimulate the people to the construc- tion of roads. As a cart and an ox-team could go anywhere, and as no wagons were in use, lanes here and there, and cart tracks across the meadows and pastures answered every purpose. If there were gates to open, and bars, 16*
186
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
and fences to be taken down, what mattered ? Nobody was in a hurry. "Time enough," the last words said now, as one leaves his neighbor's house, where he is urged to stay longer, seems to have been then the motto on the cart and oxen, on the rough roads, on the hand-cards, and spinning-wheels-yes " time enough " was one of the rich possessions of those days too soon forgotten.
The roads, such as they were, the lanes, the bridle and foot-paths of the Island, until within a few years, may be illustrated by the threads of a large, circular spider's web. As such, especially in winter, they may be seen to-day. Fifty years ago the only mode of riding faster than the slow pace of oxen was on horseback. The principal roads then, and previously, were those that cross each other at the Center, at right angles; the one extending from the Harbor to the west beach, and the other from the south end of the Great Pond to the Fresh Pond, and thence to the southerly and southwesterly parts of the Island; and also the road from Sandy Point to the Harbor, and the one thence to the vicinity of the new light-house. Many houses are still inaccessible, except by lanes and gates. There is no public road to said light-house, while one is greatly needed for the accommodation of citizens, and for the pleasure of summer visitors who desire so much to see the bluffs on which the light house is located.
During the two years of 1875 and 1876, more expense, and more improvements were made upon the roads of Block Island than had been made upon them during the previous two hundred years. They were widened and straightened by removing long stretches of stone wall, and were graded, sluiced, guttered, and freed from stones. They are now inviting to the carriages of visitors, and furnish beautiful drives for landscape and ocean scenery. The Islanders, too, have, for the first time, learned the value of good roads in time-saving, in the greater loads drawn,
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187
HORSEBACK RIDING.
saving the wear and tear of wheels, and in the comfort of riding. There is still room for improvement. No one can imagine how much better the roads are now than they were three years ago, unless he then saw them so narrow in places that teams could not pass each other, with numerous hills as sharp as house roofs, and with mud and water that had to be forded, while the wheels were jolting over little bowlders almost constantly.
HORSEBACK RIDING.
For two hundred years this has been one of the pleas- ures and necessities of this Island. Twenty years ago Mr. Henry T. Beckwith, in his excellent historical sketch of Block Island, said: "The people are fond of horse- manship, and raise excellent saddle-horses for the purpose. I saw one afternoon at the close of the day a party of a dozen of them, young men and women, starting out for a moonlight ride. The women also go a-shopping and visiting in this way, though not so absurdly arrayed as ours are with dresses which almost reach the ground when they are upon the horse, and impede them when they get off so that they cannot walk. Twenty years ago [in 1830] this was the only mode of riding, and some of the roads are now better adapted for it than for any vehicle, but open wagons have been introduced to a con- siderable extent. There is but one covered vehicle on the Island, a chaise owned by the doctor." On horseback was the only riding for speed or pleasure until recently.
In this manner the Islanders in olden times enjoyed as merry hearts as ever graced the costliest vehicle. Riding parties were frequently had when the young men and maidens vied with each other in horsemanship. Fine horses, good saddles for both sexes, and winding roads and paths animated by fifty horses and riders, some with continental light breeches and stockings adorned with
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
bright knee-buckles, others in gracefully flowing riding dresses of home manufacture, and all with health, vigor, and cheerful spirits galoping around the hills, through the ravines, sometimes two abreast and racing, then trail- ing in single file, jumping fences and leaping ditches, with merry laughs and shouts that no one was afraid to utter, and at last all coming to a halt and dismounting at the house designated, where the well-furnished table and the fiddler were in waiting for a pleasant evening in No- vember, were some of the enjoyments over the ancient highways of Block Island. If a horse for each of the party was not convenient, there were saddles with “pil- lions," and on one of these the fair one rode while her reinsman rode in front, and although their faces were not then vis a vis as ladies and gentlemen are now seen in their fine carriages, yet their voices and feelings were none the less happy, except when, in the time of haunted houses, frightful ghosts gave them a race in the night like that of Tam O'Shanter's gray mare.
POPULATION.
The following may be considered a nearly accurate statement of the population of the Island from its settle- ment, at different periods, to the present year, 1876.
Year.
White.
Colored.
1662
30
400 Indians.
1700
200
350
1730
290
200
Negroes 20 30
1748
300
150
1755
378
115
. (
40
1774
575
51
66
42
1776
478
50
66
66
43
1782
478
30
66
45
1790
682
20
66
66
47
1800
714
16
66
45
189
OFFICERS FOR 1876-7.
Year.
White.
Colored. 13 Indians. Negroes 43
1810
722
1820
955
10
66
46
1830
1,185
5
66
66
47
1840
1,069
6
6.
66
45
1850
1,262
3
44
1860
1,320
1
66
28
1865
1,308
1
66
66
30
1870
1,113
1
1875
1,147
1
66
66
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OFFICERS FOR 1876-7.
HON. RAY S. LITTLEFIELD, Senator.
HON. J. T. DODGE, Assemblyman.
William P. Lewis, First Warden.
Almanzo Littlefield, Second Warden.
George Jelly, Third Warden.
Ambrose N. Rose, Town Clerk.
Jeremiah C. Rose, Town Sergeant.
ASSESSORS.
Marcus M. Day, Ambrose N. Rose, Edward H. Champ- lin, William P. Lewis, George J. Sheffield.
William P. Lewis, Chairman of all the town, and Town Council meetings.
MASONIC LODGE.
The Atlantic Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of Block Island, was constituted July 12, 1876, with a new and commodious hall at that time first occupied.
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