USA > Rhode Island > Kent County > Greene > A history of Greene and vicinity, 1845-1929 > Part 8
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Squire G. Wood, 3rd
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The Wood-Nichols Family
Squire G. Wood, 3rd
and down west of the second brook. After this came the huckleberries, which we used to pick to eat and also to sell at the store to trade for groceries and other things which were needed. I have picked them and sold them for five cents a quart. They would only take black ones then, as swamp berries were not thought fit to eat. Now they want nothing else, and the low black ones are not picked at all. In the fall we had the fun of picking cranberries for three or four weeks, usually beginning the last week in August, and sometimes it would be October before we finished. Some job to work on your knees in wet or dry for two cents a quart from seven until five each day with a few minutes at noon for dinner. I did it for three or four seasons, as we all did, to help Mother to get by with us the next winter. We then could set snares and catch partridges and rabbits. The rabbits we ate, and the birds we used to sell for about fifty cents a piece on the train at Greene. How little I knew of the world then! A trip to Greene was an event to be talked about for some time, and Summit and Oneco I only knew by name, and they seemed a good way off from my old home, and then I never dreamed I should ever see any big towns or cities, much less that I should live in them. Narrow- lane and Greene was my world then, small, but real to me. Since then I have seen quite a large part of this country and have lived in several cities and towns and villages, but I have never been much happier than I was over at the "South Farm" from 1861 to October, 1871, when I left it, never to go back to stay. To be sure, we had some sickness. One winter we all had whooping cough and the next winter I had rheumatism all winter besides colds and so forth, but still we enjoyed living at the old farm. Our nearest neighbor was three quarters of a mile east, a mile or more south and west, and a mile and a half on the north,-no one living at the cranberry house after Henry Dixon went away. Only once in a while would a team go by, and then we
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would wonder who it was, and where he was going. We had few callers except the Waite Brothers who came too often looking for news.
After about three weeks in the house where John Burke and Bud Gorsline lived afterward, in April, 1872, we moved three miles east to Sharpstreet Corners in West Greenwich, there to start on seven years of the happiest part of my life. At that time there were many boys and girls about my age in a radius of two miles, and most of them went to the school during the two years I lived there, and many friendships were started then which have been broken by death or by selling out and going elsewhere. Also during the years 1872 and 1873 I received most of my schooling from the text books. During those years I learned about arithmetic, both mental and the higher books, also algebra, grammar, geography and all the other studies usually taught in the public school. United States History being one of the studies my mother liked to teach, we were drilled in that quite thoroughly, which was a great help in our reading in later years. Sharp- street and its surrounding neighborhood was really a Christian community. The church located about a mile east of Sharpstreet on the road to Weaver Hill had services every Sunday, with a Sunday school in the forenoon at 10:30 A. M., during the summer, but preaching at 12 noon all the year round by different preachers. Rev. Benedict Johnson had been their pastor for several years but had died the year before I went to live there. Rev. Charles Shippee was the pastor when I first began going there. He came to us once a month on the second Sunday of the month. Other preachers were Rev. Caleb Greene, who lived just south of Sharpstreet on a farm,-Rev. Silas Matteson, who lived where Fred Arnold afterward lived and where Louis Knox now owns, was also our preacher once a month. Rev. Benjamin Moon, who lived at Washington, a mill owner, and considered well off for
Squire G. Wood, 3rd
Sharpstreet Corners
Sharpstreet
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The Wood-Nichols Family
Squire G. Wood, 3rd those days, came to us on the third Sunday for many years. He was a good man and a good preacher, although pretty lengthy sometimes. The second year I lived there Rev. Charles Shippee resigned, and Rev. William Crooker of Providence became our pastor, to remain so as long as I lived there and for several years after. In the fall of 1873 a great revival came to that community and some twenty or more joined the church that winter, and this continued for several years until a large part of the community were members of the church. During the revival I have spoken of I went forward on the last night of 1873 at a watch night service, and that night was the starting point of my life as a Christian. I wanted very much to join the church at that time, but my mother was opposed to it on account of my age, so I had to wait two years before I could join the best organization in this world. The church was a Free Baptist Church, and as all of my people on both sides were Baptists I thought it was the only church to join, but how much I have learned since. I have found out long since that no one church has all the good things, but that all of the churches are simply different roads and ways to go toward the Great City of Heavenly Rest, each striving in his own way to reach that place where there will be only one requirement, and that one, have you tried to live a Christian life while here on earth. We had a very happy time with these good people in West Greenwich. I joined the church on the second Sunday in December, 1875, with three others,-Samuel D. Peckham, Arthur B. Dexter, Joseph A. Tillinghast were the others who that day promised to be true to the Church, and that day I first partook of the Lord's Supper, or of communion, as most of the churches have named it.
Fryes District
In 1875, in the month of April, we moved to Fryes District, about two miles farther southeast on a cross road to Nooseneck by way of what was then known as Robin Hollow, where a small mill was located at the
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The Wood-Nichols Family
western side of Nooseneck Hill. It is now gone, having burned down in the early part of the 80's in the last century. At Fryes Pond we had a very pretty home and a chance to do some real farming for ourselves, for we had a cow, some pigs, hens and so forth and plenty of land to take care of, so we had plenty of all kinds of garden stuff,-and as our wood cost us nothing but the trouble to cut it we got along very fine and for five years we hardly knew anything about trouble. Our neighbors were all good Christian people and we had five very pleasant years among them. The church and the community gatherings were our world. Our weekly Journal gave us the news of the outside world, and so we lived, at peace with our neighbors and trying to serve the Lord to the best of our ability. The first year I went to school there, and the next spring went to work for Charles Capwell on his farm. He owned our place and also a large farm on the main road between Sharpstreet and Weaver Hill. Most of the next four years I worked through the spring, summer and fall, using the winter for studying and reading, besides doing what work needed to be done at home. All the outside reading we had was from our small library at the Sunday school, to which a few new books were added each year, part of the collections being used for that purpose. We had quite a library at home which came from my grandfather on my mother's side, but they were mostly religious works such as commentaries on different parts of the Bible, and some biographies of missionaries and so forth. Some of these I read through several times, and some of them I would have liked to have kept for my own, as they are now out of print and cannot be had at any price. And so I lived, happy and contented, until March, 1879, when we decided to make a change to where I could have a chance at some higher schooling to fit me for some life work. My mother's great desire for me was to see me become a preacher of the Gospel as her father had been,
Squire G. Wood, 3rd
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The Wood-Nichols Family
Squire G. Wood, 3rd
but I had up to that time felt no especial call to the greatest work on earth and the most responsible, and I have never felt this call. If I had, I should have answered the call and fitted myself as best I could for that kind of work. I believe a man called to that high work needs a special training such as was not to be had then without great expense both as to time and money, neither of which we could afford at that time.
Phenix
About the 10th of April, 1879, we arrived in Phenix, which was to be my home for six very pleasant years. We moved into what was formerly the Baptist Church, before the new one was built, on this side of the river. Soon after we got settled I began going to school at the Phenix School in what was then called the grammar grade, but it was really more than that, as it carried many studies now taught in the high school. At that time very few were sent to the High School, as most of those who graduated had to go to work. A few took a short course in the State Normal School and began teaching. I went through the spring and fall terms,- and then, an uncle of my mother's by marriage, who was a partner in the largest grocery store in the place, offered me a place in the store. At that time all con- cerned had to work long hours in any of the stores, and Hoxie's store was in line with the rest of them. We went to work at 5:30 in the morning, went to breakfast at 6:30 for half an hour, then worked until 12:30 for dinner, until 6:30 for supper, and then until 9 P. M. six days a week. We then had no half holidays off, and no evenings except on holidays such as Decoration Day, Fourth of July, and so forth, when we worked until about IO A. M. I worked in the store at Phenix about a year, and then went to Arkwright, where they had a store with only two of us to do the work, but the hours were somewhat shorter,-from 7 A. M. to 8 P. M., -but I had to walk a mile and back and carry dinner and supper, so for a year I saw my home folks very little except Sundays and legal holidays. At the end of
Arkwright
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The Wood-Nichols Family
the year, as there were to be some changes in the help at the big store and a vacancy at Lippitt Store I asked to be changed to that store, so that I could be nearer home and could have my meals at home. They agreed to the change, so I went to Lippitt, but did not stay there very long. For some time I had been thinking of going into business for myself. There was a small store close to where I lived which ran a stock of cigars, tobacco, candy and so forth, and the man who owned it wanted to sell out and move to Moosup, Connecticut, to go into the grocery business for himself. So I bought him out and ran the store for a year and a half and then sold out. The Mill Company owned the building and they had decided to turn the store into a tenement, which they did, and it is still there today. I passed it a few weeks ago, and the sight brought memories of those days, for it was while running this store that I became of legal age and cast my first vote as a Republican. Governor Van Zandt of Newport was elected that spring, for the State election came on the first Wednesday in April in those days. We also elected a Senator and a Representative to our General Assembly. I voted in Warwick for three years from 1882 to 1885. Henry L. Greene of the Clyde Print Works was elected Senator. I have forgotten who was the candidate for Representa- tive, but I think he was from Phenix, but perhaps from down Apponaug way, as Warwick was a very large town then, with four or five voting districts. In 1884 I voted for my first President, J. G. Blaine, and got trimmed, as Grover Cleveland won out by New York State going Democratic by some 1,200 votes.
After selling out my store I went to work for James Ward, a dealer in paints, wall paper and all painters' supplies. At that time he was the only dealer in sup- plies of this kind, so he had a very large trade in the Valley. He also did house painting, and while I was with him, at times he had twenty men at work for him in his shop and on outside work. It was while I was
Squire G. Wood, 3rd Lippitt
Elections
James Ward
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The Wood-Nichols Family
Squire G. Wood, 3rd Edward E. Arnold
with Mr. Ward that I met Mr. Edward E. Arnold, who at that time was bookkeeper for Mason, Chapin & Company and who had charge of the shipping of all goods from there. They had at that time a drummer by the name of Byron Joslin, a fine young man who came to see us every week to take orders for such goods as we needed, for at that time Mason, Chapin & Company carried about everything in that line. So we used to buy a good deal from them. In those days everything was bought on credit, with plenty of time to pay. So we had run up a bill of some five or six hundred dollars, and having completed one or two large jobs Mr. Ward wanted me to take it into Mason, Chapin & Company and pay up what we owed and put in an order for more stock which we would need. This seemed a very large sum for me to handle all alone, and as I had never been in there I hardly knew just what to do, but I went to the store in Providence, and they showed me to Mr. Arnold's office and told him who I was and where from, and Mr. Arnold told me who he was and asked what I wanted. He was somewhat surprised when I took out my roll of money and handed it over and asked him to give us credit for it. "Well," he said, "they must know you are all right to trust you with that amount and I'll give you credit, and you can order what you want and all you want." We have quite a chat about my folks, and he told me then he hoped some day to come back to the old farm, which he did a few years after. I went in several times afterward, but I did not see much more of him until I came up here to live, and he also began to come back to the farm for the summer months.
I had to leave there on account of my health, as the doctors said leave, and so of course I left.
I then began my first railroading, as a spare agent on the Pawtuxet Valley Branch, working for those who wanted a vacation, and this was work I liked. While it was long hours, yet I had all my evenings and Sun-
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The Wood-Nichols Family
days to myself. The pay was not large those days, but it was sure to come every month, so we enjoyed the work very much,-but the folks had decided to move to Greene, so I expected to go to farming once more. We did come, but our best friend was leaving us. We came up into the house near the camp ground, now owned by a firm, and lived there from the last of April until about the middle of October of 1885. We then decided to store our goods in the old schoolhouse at Hopkins Hollow, and go to Providence to work. I went to Washington for a few weeks, on a farm this side of the village, and then went to the city about the first of the new year. I went to work for Andrews & Son on Dyer Street, who then carried on a wholesale fruit store.
Squire G. Wood, 3rd
REMINGTON PRESS PROVIDENCE
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