USA > Rhode Island > A history of Block Island : from its discovery, in 1514, to the present time, 1876 > Part 15
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The fourth, on Sandy Point-the well-built, stone struc- ture now standing, was erected in 1867, and is likely to be serviceable to navigators of the sound for many years to come. During this succession of light-houses on said Point the keepers have held their positions according to the successive changes of politics. Mr. Babcock, above- mentioned. held his appointment from 1845 to 1849, when Mr. Edward Mott was replaced under President Taylor. In 1850 Mr. Enoch Rose, Jr., was appointed keeper under President Filmore, and held his position under President Pierce, until he died, and was succeeded by Mr. Nicholas Littlefield, who continued as keeper through Mr. Buchanan's presidency. In 1861 Mr. Hiram D. Ball was appointed keeper of the Sandy Point light- house, under President Lincoln, and still retains his posi-
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
tion, one of far more responsibility, and strictness of attendance than those are aware of who are not familiar with light-house regulations.
This last-named house is a favorite resort for visitors, both on account of the natural scenery, and the agreeable- ness of the respectable family of Mr. Ball, the keeper, whose ample mneans could furnish him a far more pleasant home, especially in winter.
THE NEW LIGHT-HOUSE.
The fifth is the new light-house. This is situated on the southeast end of the Island, on a bluff one hundred and fifty-two feet above mean low-water. The lantern is fifty-two feet above the ground, making a total height above water of two hundred and four feet. It was built in the summer of 1874 by Mr. L. H. Tynan, of Staten Island. It is a two-story brick dwelling, attic, with octagonal tower, accommodating two families, and cost the govern- ment $75,000. The glass of the lantern cost $10,000, and consists mainly of prismatic pieces too pure to be touched by the visitor's fingers, for the greater the per- fection the more perceptible and injurious the soiling. Six persons can stand at the same time within this lantern, which is of the first order of lights. It has been seen thirty-five miles, and is examined with interest by multi- tudes of summer visitors, who are courteously waited upon by the keeper, although he is not required to do this It
by the government. It was first lighted Feb. 1, 1875.
consumes from nine hundred to one thousand gallons of lard oil annually, burning four wicks at the same time, one within another. The largest is about 32 inches in diameter; the next, 3 inches; the next, 2} inches, and the inmost ยง of an inch in diameter.
Mr. H. W. Clark, keeper of the light-house, has held that position from the first, on the moderate salary of
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LIFE-SAVING STATIONS.
$600. Mr. Nathaniel Dodge, first assistant, has a salary of $450, and Charles E. Dodge, second assistant, has $400.
The fog-signal is one hundred feet southeast of the new light-house, and is under the superintendence of the keepers of said light-house. It is blown by the steam of a four-horse power engine, there being two such that one may be used while the other is under repairs. The sound is made in immense trumpets directed towards the sea, seventeen feet long, of cast metal. These do not make, but direct the sound which is made by a siren, near the small end of the trumpet, inside, made of brass, like the buzz in the striking part of a clock, and is ten inches in diameter. Upon this siren the steam strikes and causes it to revolve with so great velocity as to produce the warning sound which is heard from two to ten miles, according to the condition of the atmosphere.
LIFE-SAVING STATIONS.
These are houses built by government for men, and the necessary apparatus for saving the lives and property of shipwrecked vessels. There are two such on Block Island, one on the West Side, at Cooneymus, and the other at the Harbor. The former was established in 1872, at an expense of $1,400 for the building. The latter, at greater expense, was built in 1874. Each accommodates seven expert sailors, one being captain, and they patrol the shores each night through the winter, on the watch for wrecks. They have cooking-stoves, tables, closets, dormitories, beds, boats, ropes, life-preservers, rubber suits for inflation and floating, &c., &c., all that is needful for their business. The two stations employ fifteen men, one of them being paymaster, and they draw pay to the amount of $2,700 yearly.
Had these stations been here in 1831 when the War-
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rior was wrecked on Sandy Point and all lives lost, twen- ty-one, many might have been saved by the use of the mortar which throws a line far out over seas in which no boat can be managed. The Cooneymus station has such a mortar, and one is expected for the Harbor station. These, with the two light-houses, and the two wrecking companies, and the fog-signal, are a great protection to commerce. They lack the supplementary signal station.
MEETING-HOUSES.
The first of these erected upon the Island was located near the north end of the Fresh Pond, and easterly of it. That was then a central point for the inhabitants. There, too, the only Island school-house was then located, also a pound, and a windmill. At that time, according to a memorandum made by the Rev. Dr. Stiles, the houses were located, " all but two or three, within two and a half miles of the meeting-house." This was said of them in 1756.
The second meeting-house, after the first had done good service about half a century, was built in 1814, and was located on Cemetery Hill, and was described by Mr. Henry T. Beckwith, of Providence, in 1857, as being " similar and equal in appearance to those of others of the country towns of the state," and as containing "the old square pews and sounding board." This house was built by the town, as was its predecessor at the Fresh Pond by the First Baptist church of New Shoreham. Subsequently the town appropriated the house for a town house, exclusively, and moved and fashioned it into the town hall, now located at the Center.
The third meeting-house was located on " Graves Hill," east of the Center, and near the road thence to the Har- bor, and by the lane leading from said road to the house of Mr. Joshua Dodge. It was built "on shares," and
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was occupied by the First Baptist church until the year 1857.
The fourth house of worship on Block Island was erected by the Free-Will Baptists, on the West Side, in the year 1853, and was burned in 1863.
The fifth house of worship was the one at present occu- pied by the said First Baptist church, and was dedicated on the 25th of August, 1857. Its erection was chiefly due to the Rev. Mr. Gladwin's untiring devotion to the enterprise, encouraged by the liberality of Mr. John G. Sheffield and other active citizens, who set an example of Christian sacrifice which the rising generation will do well to imitate. To some who still speak tenderly of Mr. Gladwin, who has gone to his reward, and who labored for the present house against much bitter and blind oppo- sition, his success seems almost superhuman.
When this house was dedicated the steamer Canonicus brought from Providence and Newport eleven hundred passengers, then said to be "one of the largest and most agreeable steamboat excursions ever known." The house cost $2,500, and was paid for promptly. Since then it has been improved, and its grounds graded and walled; the latter was done in 1875. During the same year a furnace was placed in it, the first furnace ever brought upon the Island, and hence it was a novelty to many that elicited sailor phrases quite novel to the pastor, as those phrases were applied to the furnace.
In this house was placed the first and only bell ever hung upon Block Island. Though small, it is far better than none, and its clear notes are undisturbed by car wheels, whistles, and tramping on pavements.
Here it should be added that the present good condi- tion of this house is due in a great measure to the good care it has received from its first and almost only sexton, Mr. Samuel Ball. This good care has been equaled also
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by his promptness for nearly a score of years to his post, and that, too, when business cares and domestic duties have pressed their claims upon his attention. But few boys are now upon the Island who, when they are old, will fail to remember some of the wholesome talks of " Uncle S. Ball."
The sixth meeting-house of the Island was built on the West Side, in the year 1869, by the Free-Will Baptist church. Before it was completed it was demolished by the great "September gale" of that year. It was intend- ed to be similar in size and finish to the one at the Cen- ter. Its loss was a sad calamity.
The seventh house of worship is the one at present occupied by the Free Will-Baptist church, and is located on the West Side of the Island, from which the landscape and ocean scenery is very beautiful.
HOTELS.
Previous to 1842, no public houses for boarders were kept upon Block Island. If any persons came from the main on business they stopped among the inhabitants wherever they could find accommodations.
In 1842, Mr. Alfred Card opened his house at the Har- bor, where the Adrian House is now located, for boarders or excursionists. He says: "There I set the first excur- sion table for boarders of pleasure," ever furnished on the Island. The first party consisted of seven men "from Newport," one of whom was Mr. Van Buren. They stayed two days, and "they were the first party that ever employed, at Block Island, a boat and boatmen to carry them a fishing." "John L. Mitchell and Samuel W. Rose carried them out." For twenty years Mr. Card's popularity was increasing, and with it his patrons increased in numbers, and his accommodations were greatly im- proved. During this period two other houses for visitors were opened, and another was needed.
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HOTELS.
THE SPRING HOUSE.
This was opened to the public in 1852. Though at that time only an unpretentious cottage it was an improve- ment on its predecessors in location and conveniences. Of the hotels in 1857, a competent judge and writer said :
" The hotel accommodations at the Island consist of three small houses, lodging altogether about one hundred persons, and situated near the landing. Of these the Spring House, as it is called, is the most desirable, as it possesses much the finest situation upon the hill, over- looking the other two. The view of the ocean from it is very fine; the house being situated some sixty or seventy feet above the sea, a very little back from it, and with the land sloping down so as to give an uninterrupted view, the prospect is one upon which the visitor dwells with never-failing pleasure."
After having been kept twelve years by Mr. Card, the Spring House, in 1870, was sold to Mr. B. B. Mitchell, the present proprietor. It has received many improvements in size and otherwise. In the early part of 1877 its ele- gant addition fronting the north was erected, indicating an enterprise that anticipates the wants of many and first- class boarders. Its name is taken from its boiling springs one of which has mineral qualities.
THE OCEAN VIEW HOTEL.
The proprietor of this large and beautiful structure had no sooner witnessed the success of the Harbor enter- prise, in which he had taken the deepest interest for seve- ral years, than his large plans were laid to meet the demands of visitors to the Island. The beauty of its loca- tion, and the elegance of its architecture are too well known by its many patrons to need description. The building was erected in 1873, opened in 1874, and en-
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larged in 1875. The proprietor, Hon. Nicholas Ball, by his activity in securing a harbor, formed acquaintances with many persons of distinction, and thus has done much to attract first-class patrons, whom he endeavors to retain by ample accommodations now existing and plan- ned for the future. The name of the house-Ocean View- indicates one of its chief attractions, as well as its spa- cious and beautiful grounds.
In addition to those already mentioned, which have been pioneers in hotel enterprise, there are several others that have done a fair business; some have been recently completed, and still others are in process of construction. The Adrian House, kept by Mr. Charles Willis, near the Harbor; the Beach House, M. M. Day, proprietor; the Woonsocket House, kept by Mr. Alanson Rose; the Rose Cottage, a boarding-house, kept by Mrs. Matilda Rose; the Sea-Side House, Frank Willis, proprietor, recently en- larged; the Central House, kept by Hon. Ray S. Little- field, new and commodious; the Littlefield House, kept by Halsey Littlefield, and nearly completed; the Providence House, A. D. Mitchell, proprietor, and Samuel Mott's resi- dence at the south end of the Great Pond, have all been proved by their many respectable patrons to be comfort- able and pleasantly located homes for summer visitors to Block Island. Besides these still others are soon to be built and opened.
The High-Land House, Mr. Alonzo Mitchell, proprietor, a new and beautiful structure, located on a high point south of the Harbor, to be opened in the summer of 1877, has its attractions.
The Shore Saloon, opened in the summer of 1875, located near the steamboat landing, kept by Mr. Ellery Barber of Westerly, accommodates many who come to the Island to remain only a few hours. Its tables seat about one hundred and twenty-five.
RAPID IMPROVEMENT.
Those who visited Block Island ten years ago now see in it a marked change from its condition then to that of the present. Now, instead of throwing out tons of ballast, unstepping masts, packing away sails, and hauling up boats at midnight, in cold storms, with oxen, and a score of men to steady the boats, and instead of the slow work of getting said boats back, rigged for fishing, consuming time, they pass into a safe harbor, and as soon as desired, hoist sail, and go direct to the fishing grounds. This and other improvements are well represented by the following extract from an address of Hon. Nicholas Ball, delivered in November, 1876. He says:
" Let us see what has been done for us within the last seven years, for surely our memory ought to carry us back over that short space of time. Government has appro- priated the sum of $265,000, for a harbor at Block Island, and all but $62,000 Qr $63,000 has been expended here, and well and economically expended, too. I have: not time to enumerate the benefits afforded by the works thus paid for, not to any one person or family alone, but to every family upon the Island. Without fear of con- tradiction, I will say that it saves to every consumer of a ton of coal, one dollar per ton; to every consumer of a. cord of wood, one dollar and fifty cents per cord; to every purchaser of a thousand feet of lumber, one dollar and fifty cents per thousand; for every sack of salt used, fif- teen cents; for every barrel of flour brought here, fifty cents per barrel, considering the former risk in bringing
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it in open boats, liable to get wet on the passage; and on all our imports, the gain is in proportion to the above. Our exports are large and various, and in former days when we could use only open boats, were exposed to great risk from water and frost. I have known many a boat- load to be sold at a great sacrifice to escape a coming storm. We were thus frequently placed at the mercy of foreign purchasers, who might make almost any bargain with us, well knowing that we could not wait and run the risk of our freight getting damaged by rain. Now, we can safely trust our merchandise in the hold of our schooners, and wait until a good market is found. Add to the above that the fishermen get more fishing days each year, than they did under the old system of hauling up the boats every storm, and you may safely say, where the fishermen formerly caught three quintals of codfish, they get five quintals now, the fish, of course, to be as plenty in one case as in the other. Our mail comes to us now three times per week instead of once, as formerly. Then it came in a small, open boat; now it is brought in a commodious schooner, with deck and cabin. During July and August of the past summer, the mail came five days out of the seven, and on three of those days in each week, we received two mails.
Are the results of these appropriations of any advant- age to the Block Island people? Who can be so ungrate- ful as to say " No, we did not want them?"
During the same space of time the government has appropriated money for two Life-Saving stations, in which are employed fourteen men, drawing pay to the amount of $2,700 per year. There has also been built, at a cost of $75,000, a new light-house, wherein are employed three men, who together receive $1,250 per year, besides some $150 expended yearly for hauling supplies to the building.
In 1854, this town then had the following persons
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employed by government; one light-house keeper, one postmaster, and one inspector of customs. Government positions were not increased in number until within seven years. Now we have four light-house keepers, one post- master, one inspector of customs, one man in charge of the government breakwater, and fifteen men employed in the life-saving service. The pay of the three men in 1854 amounted to about $840 per year; the pay of the twenty- two men now employed amounts to $6,145 per annum."
Nor are the above financial improvements all that have recently been made on Block Island. The great achieve- ment of obtaining a harbor has given a grand, living impulse to everything else. Since then, of necessity, the roads of the Island have been straightened, widened, graded, cleared of stones, at an expense that would have startled the people ten years ago. Buggies and fine car- riages have superseded the ox-cart, the saddle and pillion. Beautiful and staunch yachts and smacks with decks and comfortable cabins, as the "Dixon," the "Anthony," and the "Hattie Rebecca," are owned by the Islanders, and used for carrying mail, passengers, freight, and for fishing instead of the open boats, many of which are still in use. Within the past five years, more new, modern buildings have been erected here than were built during the fifty years preceding, and at a greater cost than all the houses here of the two hundred years previous. The frequent arrival of steamers in the summer has infused new life and enterprise into all kinds of business, and into all grades of society. Even deaf and dumb " Blind Henry " has felt the impulse, and with his cane picks his way from the West Side to the Harbor, at the risk of his life, to hold out his hat for a pittance from the passing stranger. For the accommodation of the multitude of visitors brought here by means of the Government Harbor, large and beautiful hotels have been multiplied, market in-
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creased for the delicious fish direct from the sea, and employment furnished for many who would otherwise be absent from the Island, and still more new and beautiful hotels and private residences are under contemplation. Mr. Noah Dodge's residence, just completed, so sightly, large, and convenient, will incite others to imitate his example. The schools, also, are receiving increased atten- tion. The new and commodious school-house on the West Side, the new ones contemplated at the Center, at the Harbor, and at the Gulley, together with the estab- lishment of the High School, the first of the kind on the Island, and the rapid increase in number and variety of newspapers and periodicals, and the infusion of intelli- gence and refinement from visitors, are all evidences that the Islanders have no intention of being rated as "degen- erate sons of noble sires." Nor is the least of this rapid improvement here the newly realized luxury of having friends abroad, as well as at home. The Island is no longer, socially, a cart-wheel with some one leading man for a hub, around which the rest of the inhabitants, like spokes, revolve. The rim is broken: the spokes are out. No one moves with others unless he chooses to do so. Many have been to the Centennial. Many have formed pleasant acquaintances with boarders, living abroad, and have learned that if one does not receive merited honor " in his own country, and in his own house," he may obtain it elsewhere. This advantage, formerly denied, in a great measure, to the Island so remote from the main, is now enjoyed by means of safe and ready transit to near and distant towns and cities. Nor should the rapid im- provement in the churches of the Island be passed without notice. Instead of the stove, there is the furnace; instead of the smoke of tug commingled with that of kerosene to stifle the preacher, in winter, now the fresh air from the furnace warms the main auditorium; instead of the church
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grounds lying as left by the farmer, uneven, steep, where for successive winters there were many ungraceful slips and falls, now the lot is graded, walled, and suitably fur- nished with steps; instead of the short-lived Sabbath- school in summer, nipped by the first frost of autumn, now it continues the year round, with such concerts, monthly, and Christmas festivals as the children will not soon forget; and instead of the $750 salary paid a few years ago, now one of $1,200 is paid promptly, and the church is abundantly able to pay more. While the most of this is said of one of the churches, the same ratio of improvement has been in the other, whose numbers have been less and means more limited, but their zeal and im- provement, perhaps, none the less commendable.
The greatest of all material improvements on Block Island, indeed, the mother of all others, has been the con- venience of landing secured here by the construction of the Government Harbor. As evidence of this, consider the following contrast. Previous to the Harbor, behold that cloud coming swiftly, darkening, and accompanied by a sudden roughness of the sea that puts the fisherman's boat into great peril. He hastens from the Bank home- ward, but before he reaches the Bay his frail masts can hardly weather the gale. By the most skillful exertions he skims over the enormous waves until he has neared the old landing-place, but there he sees the waters leap- ing upon the shore and gliding back in such fury as to threaten his open boat with sinking. He dares not attempt to land. His kindred stand upon the shore in dismay. The boat is tacked this way, and that way, while its inmates are pumping and bailing for their lives, and liable to be sunk any instant, while the gale increases in fury and the waves toss, dash against, and into the boat so as to make death by drowning seem inevitable. Then, in the moment of desperation hear the captain say: "Boys,
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
we shall be drowned if we stay here, and we may as well take our chances going ashore !" The vessel is now seen headed for the landing. Rapidly she glides either to safety or to destruction. Eyes upon the shore fill with tears, lips quiver, and in agony friends interpret the fear- ful crisis. There is just one way, and only one in which it is possible for that boat and crew to land in safety, or in other words to escape immediate destruction. She must ride upon the shoulders of the largest of "three brothers "-the wave that will carry her so high upon the shore that the next wave will not reach her, and thus afford the crew a moment in which to escape. "Steady ! Steady ! Not too fast," says an old sailor on the shore. For if the boat gets too far upon said " brother's " shoul- ders she will pitch over and be buried in an instant. Neither must the boat lag behind his shoulders, for if she does the receding wave will swamp her. Her sail is raised or lowered, by the inch, to keep balanced on that giant wave. "She rides ! She rides !" says another, while others stand in breathless silence, and the critical instant of life or death hastens-the great wave breaks upon the shore amid the howling winds-the fisherman's boat is left there, and the crew are saved, while the "big brother " retires to the deep, like the whale that landed Jonah.
Such, for scores of years, had been the perilous landing, at many times, on Block Island. But now how changed ! The boats are more safe in going to a distance, for if a storm arises they fly to the Harbor like doves to their windows, and such joyful expressions as have been seen there no pen can describe, as the frail boats have reached the quiet water and anchored, or tied up in safety. There, too, the steamboat moors at the wharf, and tens of thou- sands visit the Island now, instead of the occasional stran- ger in years previous to the Harbor.
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THE FIRST STEAMBOAT EXCURSION .- SCHOOLS.
Not the least improvement on the Island is one of the latest-the removal of the old fish houses, in the winter of 1877. For nearly a century they had stood on the bank in front of the Pole Harbor, and had done too good service to be despised. In them, generations now gone did much to rear the present inhabitants, as well as to feed millions abroad. But they were no better than their occupants who grew old, retired, and disappeared from the places afterwards occupied by those more youthful. So the modern spirit of improvement has freed the bank from what was latterly deemed an eye-sore and a nuisance by visitors, to whom the first impression on visiting the Island hereafter will be much more pleasing than formerly. The new houses erected under the bank west of that Basin will be more convenient for the fishermen, and far less offensive to strangers. It is hoped that Mr. Nicholas Ball may live many years to continue his improvements.
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