USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > North Kingstown > Facts and fancies concerning North Kingstown, Rhode Island > Part 11
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Peter Phillips, another great grandson of Samuel Phillips, the founder of the North Kingstown family, was a member of the Convention Com- mittee to frame the Rhode Island Constitution at East Greenwich, No- vember 5, 1842.
The early Phillips families were staunch supporters of St. Paul's church and were buried in the grave-yard there until ISoo, when the Church was moved to Wickford. After this time they were laid to rest on their farm near their old slave burial ground, where twenty or more slaves were buried. The only slave graves marked were of Hannon and Hagor, two young negro servants of Christopher Phillips who died in 1727. On a broad table top marker in the old church yard at the Platform you may see this quaint and pathetic epitaph:
"Here-lyeth interred Christopher Phillips Esqe who departed this life August ye 10th 1753 in ye 60th year of his age Also Sarah his wife, who departed this life July ye 10th 1753 in ye 53rd year of her age Whereas one bed did both contain in life the constant husband and the faithful wife so doth the tomb their mortal parts confine in sure expectancy of the appointed sign when the arch-angel with shrill trumpets sound then shall their souls a resurrection see and reunited to their bodies be."
In late December, 1909, an unusual funeral procession passed from the old Phillips homestead along the cart path through the field to the family grave yard. In obedience to a last request, John S. Smith, husband of Honor Phillips, was taken to his grave in his farm wagon. The scene that afternoon as the casket was placed in the four wheeled wagon drawn by plum-red, glossy oxen was such as might have taken place in Colonial times. Their polished, spreading horns tied with crepe and driven by Warren
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Taylor, a bent old colored man, the beasts plodded along in a sort of solemn dignity bearing their late owner to his final resting place. The relatives and many friends and neighbors followed on foot. Mr. Smith never owned a horse, and prized the oxen highly. He had expressed the wish to his family that he might go to his grave behind them, and had refused more than one good offer for the animals that they might be used at his funeral.
CAPTAIN JIMMY'S NEAR ROMANCE HARRIET LANGWORTHY GARDNER
AFTER Captain Jimmy Hammond's marvelous experience, on the shore of Fox Island, when he saw a vision and heard a deep, firm voice command him to mend his ways and cease breaking the laws of God, he was a changed man. Where formerly he led a life of wickedness, he now became God-fearing and upright.
After his above mentioned experience. Captain Jimmy continued to have visions and apparitions, while walking the shores of his island home. In one of these visions, it was revealed to him that a certain comely and highly-esteemed spinster, named Rhody Baker, who lived in the nearby village of Wickford, was destined to become his bride.
Now to quote Captain Jimmy's own words: "I pleaded with the vision that there was some mistake, because Rhody Baker is a stranger to me, but to no effect, the voice kept repeating the words, 'Rhody Baker will become your wife, Rhody Baker will become your wife,' over and over again."
Now fortified with this assurance, Captain Jimmy went to the home of the spinster and revealed to her the substance of the vision which he had seen. The woman received his words with an icy stare and told him nothing of the kind had been revealed to her, and so it must be an hallucination of his mind.
Captain Jimmy claimed the visions continued to visit him and assured him the woman would relent and marry him.
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And so Captain Jimmy continued to visit the woman of his dreams, often with a token of his love in shape of a basket of apples from his trees, a few vegetables from his tiny garden or flowers gathered by the roadside, but they were always doomed to stony reception. Captain Jimmy said on one occasion: "It's the Lord's will, Rhody, that you will be my wife, and you can't go against the will of Providence." The seafaring man said, with tears in his eyes, that upon his approach to the entrance of the room in which Rhody was sitting, the spinster would beat a hasty retreat, often leaving the chair in which she was sitting in motion behind her. Captain Jimmy would place his tokens of appeasement upon the seat of the chair and leave the room in chagrin.
There was, however, an outlet to his wounded feelings in which the Captain indulged; he named his dearly-beloved catboat "Rhody Wouldn't."
To the end of his life, Captain Jimmy made periodic visits to Rhody Baker, begging her to be true to the vision he had seen and become his wife.
If Captain Jimmy had not met an untimely death, who can tell whether his ardent wooing of the spinster might not in the end have been fruitful of a real romance?
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The following paragraphs were taken from the paper on Elder Hammond of North Kingstown, the subject of the above article, written by Mary Kenyon Huling.
"As early as the winter of 1866 we hear of Elder James Hammond of North. Kingstown when he was invited by some friends to hold a meeting in the southern portion of Jamestown, on the Island of Conanicut. He became well known about the country-side for his spiritual arguments, touching prayers and deep sincerity and had many invitations to hold services in remote sections. Some times his meetings were held in churches or schoolhouses, but more often in the home of some Christian who felt deep concern for his neighbors.
"He was like many another itinerant preacher of his day who traveled about the country preaching, praying and expounding the Scripture with- out any remuneration except his entertainment and the feeling of satisfac- tion that he was doing the will of the Lord. Sometimes people showed their gratitude by presenting the preacher with farm produce, a peck of corn or meal, some dried beans, or a home-made garment with a silver coin tucked away in a pocket.
"In a newspaper clipping of November 13, 1873, we find the story of the Elder's untimely death. He had left his home on Fox Island and was on his way to hold a series of revival meetings in East Greenwich. He left the train at Davisville and accepted an invitation to ride with Mr. Constance Tourgee. Upon reaching the steep hill near the old Davisville mill, some part of the harness gave way, the horse became frightened, and Elder Hammond was thrown from the wagon against a bridge from which he fell into the river below. It was believed that his death was instantaneous.
"Even today some elderly people remember a story or two about his eccentricities, but they all agree to his genuine goodness and fine character."
THE LEGEND OF DEVIL'S FOOT ROCK ANNA STANTON NUGENT
O N THE west side of the highway leading from Wickford to East
Greenwich, where the railroad from Davisville to Quonset now crosses, is a ledge of rock known as Devil's Foot. The legend connected with the naming of this rock is quite fantistic.
In the early days of the Puritan Colony in Massachusetts, there lived an Indian squaw who, by some trickery, had forfeited her soul to the Devil. She afterward tried to escape from his presence by fleeing into Rhode Island. The Devil gave chase leaving the first print of his long foot in this ledge of rock. His second stride landed him on Chimney Hill and his third on Block Island. Here he found his victim and returned her to the Puritan Colony to answer for her treachery.
It is said that foot prints of the Devil's dog can be seen near by and that the Devil's chair made of rock stands higher up on the ledge.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: In 1941, this historic spot was thoroughly cleaned and . . enclosed by a low wall for preservation. Newport City Hall was built of .:: granite taken from Devil's Foot Ledge. Cornerstone laid Sept. 4, 1899.)
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THE NEWTOWN RANGERS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY CANNON
Unpublished. All Rights Reserved
J. EARL CLAUSON
S OME three years ago I started an inquiry into the story of that ancient
instrument of warfare, the Wickford Revolutionary cannon, with highly satisfactory results. I succeeded in irritating a number of excellent South Kingstown people, who wrote letters to the newspapers and to me, and was very happy about the whole affair, controversy being the only measure of whether or not a writer has succeeded in stirring interest. What especially infuriated the citizenry of our sister township was my suggestion that the canon at Kingston station, its muzzle pointed threateningly down the track to Narragansett on which the Mickey-dink now operates, was really the Wickford cannon and should be returned to its home port.
I shall return to review the reasons for believing the Kingston cannon and the Wickford cannon are one. It was, I suppose, because of my inquiry of three years ago that I am honored by the opportunity of speaking today, on the occasion of establishing a lasting memorial to the cannon and the patriots who operated it .*
As Louis Agassiz of Harvard was said to have the ability to take a fragment of bone and reconstruct therefrom the creature which once wore- it, fully equipped with skeleton, flesh, fur or feathers, so it would be possible- to take the cannon which once stood on this point as a nucleus and recon- struct around it the entire story of the American War for Independence .. That is far from my intention, but it is necessary in order to envision the story of the cannon and the Newtown Rangers to consider briefly the status of affairs in 1777, when the Rangers were chartered, working in back ground and some of the gilt frame. The act of incorporation of this North Kingstown command is dated April 22, 1777. Washington and the Army of Independence is then in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. The great: Jersey campaign has been carried out gloriously; Rhode Islanders had won their full share of the laurels; Gen. Nathanael Greene had proved his. genius and Col. Christopher Greeene had lost his life. The disastrous battles. of Brandywine and Germantown are yet to be fought. Howe is pounding: along stubbornly toward Philadelphia, nursing his error that if he captures. the cities he holds America.
In Rhode Island five miles back from the salt water, life goes on as usual except that the burden of the farm work has fallen on women whose husbands are at the front. But the long coast line is an armed camp, with defenses from Watch Hill at the west to Sakonnet Point at the east. The island of Aquidneck is held by the British, and their ships of war com- mand the waters.
Especial efforts are put forward to protect Providence, a community of 4500 and overcrowded with refugees from Newport, from expected enemy attack. Forts are thrown up at Fields Point, Sassafras Point and Pawtuxet on the west shore, at Fox Point and Fort Hill on the east, and a log and
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chain boom is thrown across the river from Fields Point for hindrance of any British vessel tempted to attack. On the height at Prospect and Meeting streets a great beacon is erected for a warning to the countryside if the British come. It is at the top of a mast 80 feet high, with cleats for climbing, the lantern in an iron cage at the end of a spar. When it is lighted experi- mentally it is seen from Cambridge to the north, Pomfret westward and other far places. Countrymen deep in the back towns who had not received notice of the experiment shoulder their flintlock and set out for Providence.
There are other beacons in Scituate and Cumberland, and a watch is maintained on Tower Hill and elsewhere. By night the whole water front is patrolled to give warning of the frequent enemy forays.
Three vantage points in North Kingstown are established. A battery is set at Barber's Heights, presumably with breastworks, which would have been only a reasonable precaution. At Quonset Point there is a similar one. On this point in Wickford are placed a cannon and a guard.
The cannon may have been one of a lot of 28 ordered by the state from Hope Furnace at Hope village in the Pawtuxet Valley. It is marked "H. F.", as is the one now standing on the grounds of the Crompton grammar school, which is said to have been dredged from the bottom of the Paw- tuxet River.
It was one of three guns originally allocated to South Kingstown (but whether for service at Point Judith or elsewhere I have not been able definitely to learn) and was detoured for the protection of the village here. These guns were 18-pounders, field pieces mounted on heavy oak carriages so that they could be moved from place to place by men, horses or oxen. The gun itself, taking that at Kingston station as a sample, could be lifted and carried by four stout young men any dark night after the last train has gone through-although I would not like to put improper ideas in your heads.
An 18-pounder is so-called because it throws a solid shot weighing 18 pounds, about the size of a 15-cent canteloupe at Mr. Ryan's store in August. Compared with the weapons of today it is a fairly crude affair, with no likeness whatever to the Big Bertha gun which during the World War bombarded Paris from a distance of 70 miles or some such incredible thing. It had the advantage, however, of not requiring logarithm tables for its aiming, which was fortunate in one instance as we shall see, and was effective at point blank range. How far that was depended on the amount of powder exploded behind the ball. When one hit, it hurt; the human frame is not constructed to withstand the impact of a chunk of metal the size of a bath sponge moving at high speed.
North and South Kingstown were about of a size, 2700 apiece, at the time of which we are thinking. Wickford, it is hardly necessary to say, was a far different place from the village of today. On this side of the bridge which joins Brown and Bridge streets there were only farm lands, Elam's and Boone's. Main street had become the principal thoroughfare, but on it stood only ten or a dozen houses. Among those which remain are Miss Shippee's the Baptist Sunday School building, the Wickford House, the Congdon house and the house Capt. Rollin E. Mason owns between Fowler and Pleasant. Two or three others which stood then have disappeared.
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Pleasant and Bay streets had a few, and there were one or two on Washing- ton street. It was a tiny place, yet the principal center of a wide country- side; Tower Hill its nearest neighbor to the south, East Greenwich to the north-and no automobiles.
At high tide Wickford was an island, the water overflowing the road at the low spot on West Main street. To get to Bissel's Mills, now Hamil- ton, for a grist of corn or a pound of snuff it was necessary to make a long trip around the head of the cove, or use a boat.
It was a small community, its feet in the water and its relationships in . the back country. Many of the able-bodied men by the spring of '77 had left for the front, but a new crop was growing up, and in addition there were the older ones not yet called to service. These were the material of which the Newtown Rangers were constructed.
The primary motivation of that command must have been the arrival of the British fleet on December 5, 1776. We may imagine, although dimly, the feelings of dwellers along the lower bay as, gathered on this point and on every beach and headland, they watched that formidable armada swing slowly up the West Passage. There are seven great ships of the line, brist- ling with cannon, four frigates, and in their train 70 transports crowded with troops, the British in their scarlet coats, Hessians in blue. The ships majestically round Conanicut Point and pull into line in Newport Harbor; the troops are unloaded, some at Long Wharf, Newport, others at Middle- town. Nor are the forebodings of the Rhode Islanders unwarranted, for that first night ashore is given over to pillage and destruction.
There followed a series of raids and burnings on the west shore and the islands of the bay. A watch at the gun said that from his point he saw one night the blaze of five fires at one time. Every house on Prudence Island save one was destroyed. The torch was set to most of the houses along Ferry Road, Conanicut, perhaps in revenge for the one man battery of that quaint character, Eldred, who amused himself taking potshots at British ships and one day sent a ball through a sail.
So the youths and older men of North Kingstown got together and 'sent to the General Assembly a petition reading in part as follows:
"Your petitioners having the welfare of their country at heart and willing to support it with their lives have seen by a small manoeuvre of the ministers and hirelings who now invade this state that they are determined to make some excursions on the mainland and as your petitioners, well knowing that there is not a sufficient number of men to guard the town of Updike's Newtown where there remain a number of persons who are incapable of moving out with their effects, your petitioners have raised a company that at present consists of 36 men including officers," and wind- up by asking for a charter.
The petition is signed by George W. Babcock, Joseph W. Taylor, John Slocum and Christopher Pearce.
There are two points in the wording of this document worth a mo- ment's consideration. The phrase "ministers and hirelings" is suggestive. The statement that there remain a number of persons who are incapable of moving out with their effects suggests that arrival of the British had been
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the signal for an exodus from Wickford, but who left and who stayed we cannot know.
The names of the 36 charter members of this command are interesting, including as they must many ancestors of those here today, and the names of families still active and numerous in the town. They were as follows:
George Waite Babcock, who had been elected captain according to the custom then prevailing; Joseph Taylor, first lieutenant; John Slocum, second lieutenant; Christopher Pearce, ensign.
Privates -- John Cozzens, Roger Rathbun, Oliver Whitman, George Fowler, Isaac Fowler, Gilbert Cooper, Updike Cooper, James Cooper, Leonard Cozzens, Saumel Slocum, Bial Briggs, James Whitman, John Jeffers, Joseph Pearce, Aaron Vaughn, Thomas Bucklin, Stephen Northup, George Congdon, Samuel Phillips (son of Thomas), Benjamin Brown, James Boon, Samuel Babcock. Edward Dyre, Godrey Sweet, Robert Whea- ton, Ichabod Holloway, Phillip Tillinghast, James Chappell, Oliver Hall, Jeremiah Whaley, Christopher Gordon, Jr.
The charter was granted as we have noted, April 22, 1777. It is not necessary to give the text of the incorporation, but I would call attention to the phrase, "having the welfare of their country at heart, and willing to support it with their lives, and having reason to think that the enemy are determined to make some excursion on the main."
We would like to know what that reason was. The petition speaks of "some small manoeuver" observed. It is important to remember that there were plenty of Tories infiltrated throughout the patriot population everywhere, mostly silent but lending aid, comfort and information to the enemy whenever possible, some loudly proclaiming their loyalty to the British king. The latter quickly got into trouble. In this township as else- where large tracts of alien enemy land were confiscated, including the George Rome farm on the Neck at the Gilbert Stuart road corner, where this blatant supporter of His Majesty had a fancy place with wonderful gardens, fish ponds, a fine house with disappearing beds and whatnot, and was in the habit of entertaining his Newport friends in bachelor grandeur. This went into the state's holdings. So did the Gervas Elam farm, but it was later restored to his nephew, Samuel Elam. The widow Sarah Slocum, living on a farm owned by Lodowick Updike, could not keep her sym- pathies to herself and was ordered moved to some place at least two miles from .the coast, an order amended later to read ten miles.
As for the grandiloquent name the new command chose, it was in the fashion of the times. Certainly the company had no intention of ranging; it was essentially a home guard. To the south were the Kingstown Reds, to the north the Kentish Guards, and North Providence and Scituate had their Rangers.
Our own Rangers and the cannon very presently had a job of work which showed their fear of a raid on the village was justified. The date is lacking, but one day the watch at the gun saw a well manned British barge pulling toward Wickford Harbor, with intent to burn the village, says David S. Baker in his centennial address. The enemy evidently had no suspicion of the cannon whose muzzle followed their every movement as they pulled
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toward the harbor. The watch crouched close, waited coolly, and when the moment arrived, as the barge was close inshore, applied the match.
It was a fair hit. Splinters flew, one man was killed, and the rest backed their oars and pulled madly away. No further attempt to destroy Wickford was made during that war.
That may have been in April or early May. It also may have happened that after that, the Rangers, tired of or perfected in drilling and busy about their farms, neglected the cannon.
On a day in November, six or seven months after the affair of the barge, a messenger on a breathless horse reached Wickford with a tale of British ships ashore at Point Judith. "Come quick. Bring the cannon." " And the Rangers, responding promptly to the call, found that some unknown Tory had spiked it.
It was a serious situation-the big call and they unprepared-spike or file or whatever it was, was driven fast and tight into the priming hole. The gun was useless. There was a hasty conference, as a consequence a mes- senger was dispatched by the quickest way to Samuel Bissell at Bissell's Mills, and another for oxen to get the cannon going.
Bissell, who ran a grist and a snuff mill where now is the Hamilton Webb Company, was a cunning man with tools. Before he had responded to the call the cannon was on its way to Point Judith, the oxen making the best time oxen could under the lash, probably a messenger sent ahead to prepare fresh relays of cattle.
Bissell had no great trouble in catching up with the gun, and while it was underway set about clearing the priming hole. And there is a fine subject for an artist-the little group of excited men, probably thirteen in number; the oxen dragging the lumbering gun carriage along the dusty road, Bissell astride the cannon, in breeches and buckled shoes, his coat off, his hat off, his long hair flying, working away to get that spike out of the priming hole. He succeeded, and the Wickford cannon made history.
It is safest to consider this history soberly. The facts, well established, are that the British frigate Syren, 28 guns; the ship Sisters, size not known; and the schooner Two Mates, sailing too close inshore in a November gale . were caught by the hungry rocks which lie along Point Jude and held fast. Tossed inshore by the billows, the Syren lay on her side, part of her guns pointing to the sky, the rest to the water, her decks aslant. She was far enough in so that at low tide after her capture it was possible to cut down her masts and use them as a bridge to the land.
In this dilemma she was brought under the cannon fire and after a few shots surrendered. Officers and crew to the number of 166 were taken prisoners, ordered ashore, and with squads of guards from the aroused countryside were marched to Providence. The ship Sisters and the schooner Two Mates proved equally easy prey.
The Syren was commanded by Capt. Tobias Furneaux. She had been a prison ship, and it is a fair inference that Furneaux was a humane man because no stories of abuse were circulated about him or his ship by exchanged prisoners. At Providence his parole was taken and he was sent to Daniel Mowry's house in Smithfield, with leave to take a walk of not more than five miles in any direction.
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The other prisoners were interned in Providence. There are still extant bills for their rations, a pound of bread and a pound of beef per day for each man. The ordinary American consumption of food is five pounds a day so it is safe to assume the British seamen did not have to practice reducing.
If it were not too far from the path of our inquiry and I were not conscious of having taken already too heavy a toll of your time and patience I should like to paint a picture of the scenes which followed the taking of the three British vessels. The countrymen flocked in from all quarters with ox carts like buzzards to a dead buffalo. Anything they could get was a souvenir, especially an anchor, a few fathoms of chain, rolls of sail and canvas. Some of it was quickly carried over the Connecticut line outside the jurisdiction of the Rhode Island Maritime Court. Some went to Abijah Babcock's store at Westerly. A considerable amount was sold at a vendue at Henry Greene's on the Point. A complicated tangle of suits followed which it woud require more than the patience of the late Mr. Job to unsnarl and we won't go into today.
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