USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 47
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
the settlement. The first house was built by Nicholas Easton, on what is now Farewell street. It was destroyed by fire, kindled, as the records have it, by Indians in the woods near by, in 1641; Callender says, it was thought, by Miantonomi, but there does not appear to have been any just cause for such sus- pieion. Peter Easton, in his diary, says that his father, Nicho- las Easton, with his two sons, himself and his brother John, came down from Pocasset by boat to an island, where they landed and to which they gave the name of Coaster's Harbor, which it has since retained. This island is now the property of the United States and the site of the War College and the Naval Training school. The Eastons were soon joined by others of the company, and the rude beginnings of a town were made in the neighborhood of the present state house, on the two sides of the spring which descended to the cove. The mill was on Marlborongh street.
It may be here observed that all these names of localities are of later date. It was evident that it was the purpose of the settlers to found a seaport town. The cove was the natural harbor. The depth of water admitted of the passage of vessels of one hundred tons. The land was, however, marshy, and it was only by continued effort that the shores were prepared for the purposes of trade. As the population increased the town grew in a southerly direction, following the line of Thames and Spring streets. The earliest authoritative account of the con- dition of the town is found in the answer of Rhode Island, Peleg Sanford, governor, to the inquiries of the board of trade in 1680, which says "that the principal town for trade in the colony was the Towne of Newport; that the generality of the buildings was of timber and generally small."
The first survey was made in 1712 by John Mumford, sur- veyor, on the order of the townholders, granted in response to a petition of John Hammett, the town clerk. It ran as follows: " Whereas, it is universal and orderly custom for all towns and places throughout the world when grown to considerable degree of maturity by some general order to name streets, lanes and alleys thereof and this town having of late years been so prospered as to increase the number of buildings the which is to the admiration of the neighboring towns so that it is the Met- tropolitan of the said government and trade and yet, notwith- standing to our great reproach persons at a distance are not
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capable to demonstrate when occasions require in what street in this town they dwell. And also it being no small difficulty to the scrivener in obligatory writings to give such plain and ample demonstrations of the bounds of lands and houses bounding on any of the streets of this town."
A map, known as the Mumford map, was drawn in conform- ity with this survey. For many years it was out of sight but in 1860 was mounted and hung up in the office of the city clerk, where it is to day preserved. On this map the main street is called, as it is now, Thames street. It had been previously known, certainly as early as 1699, as the Strand. the general name for the water front. Spring street began at Grif- fin, now Touro street, and stopped a little south of Mary street (so call- ed in memory of the wife of Governor Wal- ter Clarke). The part of CLARK Spring street from Griffin northerly was called Bull and stopped at Broad street then as now. THAMES STREET, NEWPORT. The only streets which ran easterly, rising to the crest of the hill, were Griffin and Mill-which took its name from the old stone mill. These were connected by a short street on the ridge called Jews street, now the northern end of Bellevue avenue. The compact part of the town was from the town pound, at the head of Broad street, to Thames street. The public buildings at this time were the town school house between Queen and Ann streets, now the parade, Governor Bull's house, built in 1639 and still standing (the oldest house in
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
the colony), on Spring street near its junction with Broadway. The northern part of this, a stone building, was used as a jail, Mr. Bull having began his official career as the first jailer or " Gen- eral Seargeant of the Colony." The only meeting house was the Friends', erected in 1699, still standing on Farewell street. The principal private residences were the Coddington house, the governor's dwelling on the north side of Marlborough street near Duke, built in 1641; the Nichols house, dwelling of John Nichols, later deputy governor, afterward known as the White Horse Inn and still standing on the northwest corner of Marl- borough and Farewell streets, and the Wanton houses, residences of the two gov- ernors, William and John, on each side of Thames street. The first census of the col- ony was taken in 1708. The total population was 7,181, of which 1,015 were free- men, 56 white and 426 black serv- ants. Of this Newport had twenty-two hun- dred and three all told. Provi- THE OLD CODDINGTON HOUSE. dence at this time had only fourteen hundred and forty-six inhabitants.
By the answer of 1680 to the board of trade it appears that at this date " There was no shipping belonging to the colony but only a few sloops." The governor must have been modest in this statement for the town records show the existence of Long Wharf in 1685, at which time a privilege was granted for building another "wharf into the sea." Long Wharf is on the Mumford map called Queenhithe, an old English name for a haven for boats, and the next street north was Shipwright street, all of which show a considerable shipping and shipbuilding in- terest. It is curious to notice how the English colonists clung
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
to home names. Even the fish market, which was at the foot of Mill street, was called Billingsgate, after the famous London mart. Hammett, in his bibliography of Newport, which is of special valne for its treatment of newspapers and maps, says "that in the division of the island among the early settlers it is probable that there was some kind of a survey, but the divisions seem to have been described by reference to prominent objects." The records show that there was a survey and the allusion to prominent objects is adhered to even in surveys of the most ac- curate kind. In 1729 Dean Berkeley wrote "The town of New- port is the most thriving place in all America for bigness;" a comparative but not otherwise instructive description.
In 1745 the assembly ordered a plan of Fort George and the harbor for the instruction of the British Board of ordnance. The plan was drawn by Peter Harrison, the architect of the Redwood Library. In 1758 Dr. Ezra Stiles made a map which he annotated with his own hand. It is one of the treasures of the Redwood Library. From his notes it appears that from the bars below Captain Collins (the south end of Thames street) to the tree at upper end of Main street was 1,900 paces or one mile. There were 17 wharves to the Long Wharf. On the Point 188 dwelling houses and 110 stores, including the buildings on the west side of Thames street; 148 of these dwelling houses two stories high, 48 one story high; 110 stores, still shops, stables, etc. In 1761 Newport contained SSS dwellings, 439 warehouses and other buildings.
Descriptions of the city at later periods, during the English and French occupation and after the revolution, have already been given in the chapters relating to those periods, and ob- servations also of sundry visitors to the town during the lat- ter part of the century. Maps were made for military purposes, one on a survey by Charles Blaskowitz in 1777, engraved and published by William Farden, Charing Cross, London, in Sep- tember of that year. A fac simile reduction accompanied Mr. Stevens' " French in Rhode Island " in the Magazine of Amer- ican History for July, 1879, of which he was the founder and then the editor. Blaskowitz also surveyed Narragansett bay, and a chart was published at London in 1777, and republished in France for the use of the navy by order of M. de Sartine, minister of the marine, in 1780. De Barres, in 1781, included a map and chart of Newport in the splendid collection entitled
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
" Atlantic Neptune" published by the London admiralty for the use of the royal navy. By the description of Newport which Doctor Morse published in his " American Gazetteer" of 1797, it appears that the town then contained one thousand houses built chiefly of wood, and ten houses for public worship.
Newport was long in recovering from the effects of the war of 1812 and the total suspension of her commerce. "For thir- teen years," says Mr. Dow in his interesting sketch of New- port in four epochs of her history, from 1815 to 1828, "not a house was built upon the island, and for the ten succeeding years the merchants watched and waited in vain for a revival of commerce." From one of the first, the glorious port had be- come the most insignificant of shipping places. Perhaps it was owing to this very repose and tranquility that Newport owes her later prosperity. The relations between Newport and South Carolina were always intimate, and after the revolution, the union of the states bringing their people into closer com- panionship, travel greatly increased. The charm of the summer chi- mate of the "city by the sea " soon at- tracted num- bers of the richer class, who yearly sought relieľ from the op- pressive heat of the lower FMG latitudes. Nor was this desire HOUSE OF CHARLES W. SHIELDS, NEWPORT, R. I. confined to the gentlemen of South Carolina. New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore families followed their example, and northerners and southerners met in this Eden of America in peace and harmony.
About 1825 the Brinley House on Catharine street was opened
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
as a hotel, and by 1830 quite a number of boarding houses regu- larly received summer guests. The wave of real estate speen- lation, which followed the withdrawal of deposits from the Bank of the United States and the consequent expansion of the currency, touched Newport in 1836, but no considerable pur- chasewasmade until 1845, when Charles Hazard Rus- sell, a Rhode Island gentle- man of fortune established in New York, with some friends, bought 77 three hundred acres of land lying south and east of Touro street, and later asso- ciated with THE TOOKER COTTAGE, NEWPORT, R. I. them Mr. Alfred Smith, an enterprising native of the island, who had acquired some property in New York. Mr. Smith fore- saw that the hill could be made attractive enough to secure the fortune of Newport as a watering place. Before this date the Brinley House had been enlarged and its name changed to the Bellevue. In 1844 the first Ocean House was built, but was de- stroyed by fire in the summer of the next year.
Meanwhile the boarding honses did a thriving business. Among the most noted hosts was Captain llazard, who kept the Perry House, on the Gibbs farm, where the old trees and well may still be seen on the avenue of that name. Here the writer spent the summer of 1839, and well remembers the fine plover shooting on Easton's point, the old Tea House, about five miles out on the main road leading to the stone bridge, where the high fashion met of an afternoon, and the bathing beach then amply supplied with bath houses on wheels, which were run far into the surf.
By the year 1852 twelve handsome residences had been
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
erected, fonr by gentlemen from Boston, and eight by gentle- men from the Middle and Southern states, and there were three great hotels -the Bellevue, Fillmore and Atlantic-and a large boarding house on the Bateman farm. The writer well remem- bers that toward the close of the forties there were nine gates to be passed between Bateman's and the town.
The summer of 1854 was famous for the gathering of beauti- fnl women-the Marquise d'Aldama, New Orleans born, Miss Groesbeck of Cincinnati, later the wife of fighting Joe Hooker, and the lovely Dulaney sisters, one of whom was later married to Mr. Howland of New York, the other to Mr. Cushing of Boston ; and there were many bright stars of lesser magni- tude.
Since 1854 there has been a steady growth. Bellevue avenue has been macadamized and lighted, the ocean drive of eight miles completed, and nearly its whole length is now bordered by handsome villas, while the growth north and east within the last five years is no less striking.
From the middle of the last century Newport has been cele- brated for the taste and elegance of its private mansions, both in exterior appearance and in their interior arrangement and adornment. Many of the finest of these were on farms or country places beyond the town limits. Of these, that erected by Godfrey Malbone near Wonnumetonomy hill in 1742 and de- stroyed by fire in 1766 is said to have been the most sumptuous. Whitehall, built by Dean Berkeley in 1729, is in sad decay. Many of the fine residences within the town limits are still standing but altered and disfigured to snit the demand of later occupancy. The brick house south of the custom house in Thames street was the home of the Malbones. The Wanton house on the west side of Thames street is now the Boston store. The Wanton house on Washington street, the residence of Colonel Joseph Wanton, Jr., is still one of the finest specimens of colonial architecture, though sadly changed since it passed out of the hands of the Hunter family, who resided there in this century. The Tillinghast house on Mill street, later the resi- dence of Governor Gibbs, has been entirely remodelled within a year. Of those which remain unaltered are the Vernon house on Clarke street. the Cheeseborongh, late Champlin house on Mary street, the Brenton house on Thames street and the Ban- nister honse on Pelham street. The walls of most of these are
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THE BREAKERS
RESIDENCE OF CORNELIUS VANDERBIL 1
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lined with wainscots, the halls are broad and the staircase, models of gracefnl architecture, notably those of the Wanton honse on Washington street, which has been copied again and again in the late return to colonial forms.
In the Vernon house there is a corner cabinet of great beanty. The rich furniture which they once contained has been dispersed but gems may be seen even in modest dwellings, charming specimens of Chippendale and elaborately carved chairs of Newport make. Not the least graceful are the bean- tiful inlaid pieces now styled Hugnenot, the work of the French colony which took refuge in New England after the revocation of the edict of Nantes and later removed from Boston to the Narragansett colo- ny. Nor was the minor furniture, the house orna. ments, the table ware of porcelain, crockery or delft, confined to English importations. The Newport mer- chants traded far and near, and their privateers brought RESIDENCE OF GORDON MCKAY, NEWPORT, R. I. home many a rare addition to their owner's treasure.
The wills of the seventeenth century are full of curious de- tails. One before us of Governor Caleb Carr, who died in office in 1695, makes special disposition of his " Silver Possett and the cover belonging to it," of his three gold rings and of "his great Bible and Seal Ring and little cabinet." The seal ring bore the coat of arms of his family. The governor had a dwelling house in Newport and two gardens with " pale and wharfeage," and a farm and dwelling on Conanient. (Mr. William H. Carr, the courteous elerk of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, is the fifth in descent from this colonial worthy.)
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
TOWN GOVERNMENT .- Although settled in 1639 Newport was not permitted to regulate its domestic affairs until 1705. The seat of government being here it was not held necessary. On the 7th of May of this year this power was granted to the town of Newport by special statute. At this time the outlying country northward of the settled district was known as "the woods." In 1742 the freeholders inhabiting this wooded country petitioned the assembly for a separation from New- port. The petition was at first rejected, but being renewed in 1743 was granted, and the township of Middletown, the name indicating its position between Newport and Portsmouth, was set off.
CITY GOVERNMENT .- Newport remained under its primitive form of government by the freeholders in town meeting assem- bled, regulated by a moderator, until 1784, when on June 1st it was incorporated as a city. and divided into four wards. At the first meeting held under the charter the officers elected were: Mayor, George Hazard; aldermen, Francis Malbone, Christo- pher Champlin, Samuel Fowler and Oliver R. Warner. In 1787, on the petition of a minority and in disregard of the protests of a large majority the city charter was repealed and a return made to the old town meeting form of government which was long sustained. Arnold terms the repeal "an act of despotic authority."
In 1846 a committee was named by the town to report as to the need and cost of a city government. In 1853 a new charter was obtained under which Newport has been since governed. Its chief difference from that of 1784 is that the numbering of wards is geographically reversed-the First be- coming the Fourth and Fifth. The present mayor is Colonel John Hare Powel in whose favor partisan and political oppo- nents have united, and under whose judicious initiative the city thrives and prospers. The problem to be solved is the harmonious settlement of the economic questions which dis- turb watering places, the population and the interests of which so widely differ in the winter from the summer season.
Newport clung long to its old customs and there are many who regret them still. The office of town crier was not discon- tinued until 1885. He was an important personage in the olden time. The first bellman was appointed in 1681. His name was
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Richard Barnes. The last was Henry Lincoln. There has been no appointment since 1885.
MAYORS OF NEWPORT .*- George Hazard. 1784-5, 1785-6, 1786-7. He was engaged in mercantile affairs, and held many offices of honor and trust during his active life. In 1762 he was one of a committee to prepare an address of thanks to his majesty for giving his royal consent to the repeal of the stamp act. He represented Newport in the general assembly for more than thirty years, and was chief justice of the court of common pleas for Newport county twelve years; resigned 1776. When Newport received its first charter in 1784 he was elected mayor. He was a member of the state convention that adopted the constitution of United States. Died August 10th, 1797, aged 73 years.
Robert B. Cranston. First mayor under the charter of 1853. Qualified June 9th. 1853; resigned same day.
Thomas R. Hunter. By virtue of his position as alderman, acted as mayor until October, 1853.
George Henry Calvert. October, 1853, to June, 1854. Born in Baltimore, Md., January 2d, 1803, he was a great-grandson of Sir George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore. His mother was a lineal descendant of the painter Rubens. Graduated from Har- vard 1823, and studied at Göttingen. On his return to America he was for several years editor of the Baltimore American. Mr. Calvert's long and busy life has been ocenpied principally in literary pursuits. He has been a citizen of Newport since 1843, and is still living.
William C. Cozzens. June, 1854, to June, 1855. Born in Newport Angust 11th, 1811, died in Newport December 17th, 1876. Established the dry goods business of W. C. Cozzens & Co., in 1832. "During his administration the cholera visited Newport, and he devoted himself with great fidelity to meet the scourge by carefully guarding the sanitary condition of the city." He represented Newport in the general assembly sev- eral years. In 1863, while senator for Newport, he was chosen president of the senate. Governor Sprague was elected to the United States senate, Lieutenant Governor Arnold having been previously elected to the same body, and Mr. Cozzens, by vir- tue of his office, became governor, which position he held from March to May, 1863. lle was president of the Rhode Island Union Bank and director of the Redwood Library. He took an *Contributed by Mr. R. H. Tilley.
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active part in bringing the Old Colony railroad to Newport. He was a member of Zion church, and for many years one of the wardens.
William J. Swinburne. June, 1855, to June, 1857. Born in Newport January 23d, 1822. Member of the school commit- tee many years; spent ten years (1836-46) in Virginia; lieu- tenant in volunteer service in Mexican war; many years (is now) in the coal business. During the civil war he was exten- sively engaged in the milling (flour) business in Newport. Member of the state legislature 1886-7, 1887-8.
William Henry Cranston. 1857-66. (See Chapter XI.)
Samuel A. Parker. June, 1866, to June, 1868. He was state treasurer 1855 to 1866, and from May, 1868, until his death, Feb- ruary, 1872.
James Atkinson. 1868-9, 1869-70, 1870-1, 1871-2, 1872-3. Stephen P. Slocum. 1873-4, 1874-5, 1875-6, 1880-1, 1881-2. Born in Portsmouth, R. I., March 16th, 1818, received a com- mon school education, came to Newport in 1831; 1852-6 was custom house inspector of Newport; in 1858 began the market business, in which he has continued successfully to the present time; alderman 1872; 1880, candidate on democratic ticket for lieutenant governor.
Henry Bedlow. 1876 to 1879, inclusive.
J. Truman Burdick. 1879-80, 1880-1. He was in the common council two years, and is at present treasurer of Newport hospital.
Robert S. Franklin. 1882 to 1885, inclusive. He was born in Newport August 4th, 1836, and is self educated. Firm of R. & W. Franklin, bakers. He was a member of common council from 1871 to 1881; six years president common council, director Aquidneck Bank, a prominent mason.
John Hare Powel. 1885-S. Term expires January 1st, 1889. (See Chapter XI.)
FIRE ENGINES, 1736. - The first fire engine, Engine No. 1, was imported from London by Colonel Godfrey Malbone, and pre- sented to the city of Newport in 1736. The records of Engine No. 1 are complete. By them it appears that the first fire at which it was used was in December, 1749, "Ellery's house on the hill." From this date to January 21st, 1861, there were 217 alarmıs.
A steam fire engine was introduced into the service by the
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THE CHALET. RESIDENCE OF HUGH L. WILLOUGHBY
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
mayor and aldermen, on petition of the fire department, in 1806. The present department consists of four steamers, seven hose carriages, one hook and ladder truck, all drawn by horses, and one hundred and twenty-four paid men, including chief engineer and four assistants. Newport has never greatly suf- fered from the scourge of fire. The losses from this cause in 1887 bnt slightly exceeded eight thousand dollars, a trivial sum when the great value contained in many of the residences even is held in mind.
GAS, 1806 .- It is claimed that lighting by "hydrogeneous gas or inflammable air, produced from pit coal," was first in- troduced into the United States by David Melville at Newport, where he was then residing, in 1806. He had a street gas light in Pelham street, and his residence was lighted in a similar manner. In 1813 he obtained a patent for the invention, and in 1817 a contract from the United States for the Beaver Tail light house. It was finally introduced into Newport, and placed on the streets about 1852.
In the month of April, 1888, the committee of the common council nnanimonsly recommended to the board to adopt the proposition of the Newport Incandescent Electric Lighting Company to light the streets. Seventeen hundred and fifty lights will be put in operation, and the cost will not exceed $16,000 a year.
PUBLIC PARKS. - Touro Park. Judah Touro, the most honored of the Jewish natives of Newport, died in New Orleans, where he was then residing, in 1854 ; it is said withont surviving kin- dred. By his will he "bequeathed to the City of Newport the sum of ten thousand dollars, on condition that the said sum be expended in the purchase and improvement of the property in said city known as the ' Old Stone Mill,' to be kept as a public park or promenade ground." The bequest was accepted by the city authorities, and the sum being increased by subscrip- tion from those holding estates contiguous thereto and other generous individuals, of five thousand dollars additional, the entire property known as the " Old Stone Mill " lot was pur- chased and suitably laid out for the purpose indicated by Mr. Touro. The selection of this site was most happy.
There is, perhaps, no subject of American archæologic inter- est which has excited so much curiosity as to its origin as this circular structure, once romantic with its close fitting garb
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