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 74
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"5th. Resolved ; that we will unite with all onr fellow citizens of this State and all other States in watching the movements of said Convention ; that we will co-operate with our said fellow citizens, and rally round our government in all measures to ar- rest and punish any attempts against the Union should they dare to make any."
The bugbear which stimulated the promulgation of these reso- Intions was born of that excess of party spirit which at that time waxed hot and high between the federalists and the republi- cans. The latter sustained the administration of President Madison, while the former opposed it and charged it with hav- ing brought on the war and being responsible for its conse- quences. It may be needless to say that the foregoing resolu- tions voiced the sentiments of the republicans. The Hartford convention, however, met and adjourned without disclosing any snch treasonable intentions as the republicans feared, but re- commended certain amendments to the constitution, which, however, were opposed by the townsmen of this town, who, on April 19th, 1815, voted, "That the Representatives of Middle- town be instructed to act and use all their influence in the Gen- eral Assembly against receiving, allowing, or adopting the proposed amendments of the Constitution of the United States, projected by the Hartford convention, so called. Also, Voted
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to instruct the Representatives to oppose pay being allowed, if asked for by the delegates to the Hartford convention." The four delegates who represented Rhode Island in that convention were Daniel Lynian, Benjamin Hazard, Samuel Ward and Ed- ward Manton.
In June. 1819, the town election time was changed to April. The line between this town and Newport was in 1823 run anew and defined by the committee as beginning "at the northwest end of the line, about ten rods above high-water mark,-said end is in Win. Roach's land, adjoining James Chace's farm, from thence we proceeded to run the line south 193º east until it strikes the corner of Asher Robbins house on the west side of the road, from thence 27° east of south nntil it strikes the creek on Easton's beach where the bridge formerly stood, and so on that conrse into the sea."
To the first convention to form a state constitution, in 1824, this town sent Joseph Rogers and William Bailey as delegates. The constitution framed by that convention was rejected by Middletown by a vote of ninety-six to one, that one affirmative vote being cast by Mr. George Irish. In 1826 the town sold the right to gather seaweed on the strand at auction, and agreed to defend the purchasers, In 1836 the line between common land and the land of N. Easton's heirs was determined, and the lat- ter were allowed to take sand from the beach. In 1828 the town gave seventy-eight votes for Adams against five for Jackson. In 1829 the town instructed its representatives to oppose the movement for the extension of suffrage. In 1839 the town in- structed its representatives to press the adoption of an act lim- iting the time of general assembly sessions to three weeks. To the constitutional convention of 1841 the town sent Benjamin Weaver and Pardon Brown as delegates. The "People's Con- stitution," framed by that convention, was adopted by this town by a vote of 152 to 6. Notwithstanding this vote, when the "Suffrage Party," with Thomas W. Dorr at its head, in 1842 attempted to take possession of the state government by its authority prematurely, Middletown took a bold stand in favor of sustaining the former order of things until the proper time for the new constitution to go into effect, and raised the second cavalry corps in the state for this purpose. This was com- manded by Colonel Nathaniel Greene, a grandson of the revo- Intionary general. To the constitutional convention which fol-
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lowed, the delegates of Middletown were Pardon Brown and Ab ner Peckham, and this town then gave its unanimous vote of one linndred in favor of the constitution. The vote also showed on the question of negro suffrage a majority of twenty nine in its favor. To the constitutional convention of 1853 the dele- gates of this town were Nathaniel Greene and Augustus Peck- ham. On the constitutional amendments of 1854 the town voted 42 against and 9 in favor. On the amendments of 1856 the town gave abont one hundred majority against. The amend- ment of 1863 was rejected in this town by a vote of 35 against 13; those of 1871 were likewise rejected by decided majorities, except that against maintaining sectarian schools, which was ap- proved by a light vote. Again, in 1876, the town repeated its conservative sentiment by rejecting proposed amendments to the constitution. The presidential vote in the town in 1876 was 148 republican and 22 democratic; that of 1884 was 131 repub- lican, 31 democratic, and 9 prohibition; and the vote for gover- nor in 1886 showed 123 republican, 16 democratic, and 20 pro- hibition.
The position of the town during the late civil war is given by Honorable Samuel G. Arnold in his "Historical Sketch" in the following language:
"The great Southern rebellion aroused the spirit of the people in defence of the national government, as nineteen years before they had rallied to preserve their domestic institutions. Recruiting for the Union army was active, and military organi- zations were formed. A company of infantry was organized, commanded by Captain Benjamin Howland. In October, 1861, a bounty of twenty dollars was given to each recruit for the national forces, and, if married and having a family, ten dollars were given to the wife and three dollars for each child under fourteen years of age. In July, 1862, $125 bonnty was voted to each one of the town's quota of eighteen men, and this sum was doubled two weeks later. The full quota was received and paid on 15th August. On the President's second call for 300,000 men, a bounty of $350 was voted."
ROADS AND BRIDGES. - The present bridge over the creek at Easton's beach was built in 1855, at a cost of $550, the expense being borne by Middletown and Newport conjointly. The high- ways of the town are ample, and are kept in order under the highway regulations of the state. For the greater part of the
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year, the roads having good material of which to be made, are in excellent order for driving upon. In regard to this subject as well as to the matter of public improvements generally, Mr. Arnold says:
"In a town wholly occupied in agricultural pursuits there are few public works or private enterprises to require notice. In 1850 leave was granted to a telegraph company to erect poles along the east or main road, and in 1862 the Old Colony Rail- road Company built a line of railroad down the west side of the island from Fall River to Newport, skirting the western shore of the town. In August, 1864, a tract of eight acres was bought for $2.500 to be laid ont as a cemetery, and $1,500 were appro- priated for this purpose during the year. In April, 1869, $500, from the sale of lots, were voted for further improvement of the grounds."
" The town has never sought to avail itself of the great natural advantages which it possesses. With a soil and climate which two centuries ago gave to this island the name of 'the Eden of America;' with a surface so diversified by hill and valley that every few rods presents a new and delightful pros- pect of land or water, and opens to the view fresh surprises of hill and dale, rugged rocks or sandy beach; with the broad Atlantic on the sonth, the beautiful island on the north, and the fine expanse of Narragansett bay washing either shore, while the fair old city of Newport, now the loveliest watering place in the world, rises close at hand, it needs but a little of the enterprise of commercial communities to make Middletown an ideal home for all that is refined and elegant in our civili- zation. New roads are projected to give access to spots whose beauty has been too long concealed. A broad avenue extend- ing north from Tonomy hill, near the western shore, and an- otlier along the beaches, sweeping close under the Hanging rock, to connect with Indian Cliff avenne on the eastern side, are already planned, and when completed will throw open to the public the most superb villa sites to be found in America. The fifty years which Bishop Berkeley assigned as the period when this vicinity would 'blossom as the rose' in the sun- light of prosperity, have long gone hy; but it seems less rash at the present time to fix that limit as one within which Middle- town will become a permanent resort for those who value the
50
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beanties of nature, and the enjoyment of rest, above the excite- ment of city life."
It seems fitting in this connection to insert the following, which appeared in the Newport Daily News May 11th, 1887:
" There was, upon Saturday last, conveyed by Samuel W. Rodman and Benjamin Crowninshield, trustees, to Messrs. John C. Bancroft, Benjamin Kimball and Charles D. Wainright, trustees, for a syndicate of Boston investors, a large tract of land in Newport and Middletown, R. I. The estate consists of something over two hundred acres, lying upon the slope of Easton Point at the end of the famous Newport bathing beach, a portion of which is included in the purchase. These lands have already been extensively improved and additional work is in progress, and the estate is in the direct line of the further growth of Newport. The syndicate has been organized as the Newport Land Trust, with an actual capital of 80,000 shares at a par value of $10 each, and will, as it is understood, be soon listed upon the Boston Stock Exchange."
SCHOOLS .- As early as the year 1701 we find the people of Middletown making provision for the education of their chil- dren. At a meeting held on February 11th, of that year, they set apart school lands in the common known as "Lintal's Plaine" six acres for the benefit of the proprietors in this part of the town, and six acres more "for the like use in ye common be- yond Daniel Gould's land for ye benefit of ye proprietors in that part of the town." If either parcel should not be appro- priated to the nse for which it was thus set apart, it was to be used for "ye maintainance of the poore till put to that use." The lot on Lintall Plains was surveyed July 20th, 1702. The income of it is applied to the benefit of all the schools of this town. In 1715 the proprietors' committee ordered that persons owning land adjoining the school lands should maintain the line fences between.
In an early school history of Newport, it is written that at the quarter meeting, held April 24th, 1723, it was ordered that twenty pounds apiece be paid out of the town treasury for the building of the school houses in "the woods," in accordance with the petitions of the freemen. At a quarter meeting April 26th, 1732, it was ordered "that the town school-masters in the woods part of the town have ten pounds apiece out of the treas- ury for their good services to that part of the town for the time past."
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Such was the provision made for the canse of education be- fore the incorporation of the town of Middletown, but nothing definite is given in the records as to the location of these school houses. After the year 1743, however, the school houses are referred to as the "eastermost" and the "westermost." The locations of these were probably the same, or nearly the same, as the former sites. The "eastermost" was probably on the site of the present Wyatt school house, and the "westermost" was about where the Oliphant house now stands. The first town meeting of the freemen of Middletown was held at the "Easter- most school house," and here the public meetings were held for the most part until the building of a town house in 1813-14.
" The school houses, if they had not long been built, demanded repairs soon after the organization of the town, and the subject was brought up at a town meeting held March 7, 1743." At a meet- ing held May 9th, 1744, James Barker and John Clarke were appointed a committee to repair the "Eastermost" house. At a town meeting held August 27th, 1745, Peter Barker, John Green and John Clarke were appointed a committee to hire a good schoolmaster to keep school by the year or by the month, as the committee thought best. The school was to be kept one half the time in each school house, and five whole days in each week. This committee was directed to pay the income of the school lands to the schoolmaster. It was also provided that said committee should agree with the schoolmaster, and set a price what the weekly schooling should be of the several sorts, of which weekly schooling the schoolmaster was to keep an account, and if the amount received from the school land and the weekly schooling should not equal the amount of the school- master's wages, then the balance was to be paid from the town treasury.
In 1746 the east school house was repaired, at a cost of £125, 13s., 11d. In town meeting, May 13th, 1747, it was voted to abolish the school committee as it was established by the town August 27th, 1745. The schools were then put into the hands of the town council, but in Angust following the management was taken from their hands, and the town in public meeting hired a teacher for its schools. The next year the business was again intrusted to the hands of a committee, and this arrange- ment continued until August, 1754, when it was decided that the town should " be divided into two squadrons, one house in
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each squadron, and that each squadron shall have the sole power of managing their own school house and lands by leasing out the same, and employing school masters as it shall be most agreeable to them, and the dividing line between the squadrons shall be along the highway from the south end of Moon's lane and so northward along the east highway to Portsmouth, by James Mitchell's shop."
The arrangement thus established continued in operation un- til the school system of the state was re-organized, in 1845. Town meetings were held alternately in the east and west school houses. They were at first called by personal notices served on each freeman by the town sergeant until the year 1752, when the plan of posting notices in public places was adopted, and this has since been followed. Notices thus advertised were required to state the objects of the meeting, and to be given fifteen days in advance.
In 1789 the act of 1754 for the management of schools was re- pealed, and it was also further voted that "all persons who send children to school to the west honse shall have the full power of chuseing a Schoole master to keepe schoole in said house, and all other persons who has no children to send shall be excluded from any vote in chusing said school master."
Upon application of Alanson Peckham and others, liberty was granted them, by the town meeting, August 31st, 1819, to erect a school house on the common adjoining the 7th District.
Under the act of January, 1828, the first school committee was elected at town meeting, April 16th, 1828. This committee was composed of nine members, as follows: Gideon Peckham, George Gould, Joshua Coggeshall, George I. Bailey, Samuel S. Peckham, William Peckham, Peleg Peckham, Jr, Jethro F. Mitchell and Peter Barker.
Another school house was built on the Oliphant site in 1823. The money required to do this was raised by leasing school land to Stephen T. Northam for twenty-four years for the sum of $225. The building which now occupies that site was erected in 1882, at a cost of about $2,200.
The first tax for the support of public schools was voted April 21st, 1830, and amounted to 8119. In 1847 the school tax was $125. The income derived from school lands for a number of years prior to 1883 was 8695, the proceeds of which were applied to the erection of the Oliphant school building. The taxable property of that district is assessed at $450, 000.
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ILISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
"In 1845 bonnds were set up on the line between Newport. and Middletown, and in 1860 on the Portsmouth line. In 1846, school district number five was set off, and the next year the schools and school houses were placed under the supervision of the school committee, who, if they were opposed by the dis- trict committees, were to appeal to the State Superintendent under the new law of 1845, reorganizing the schools. The last serions disagreement in regard to the schools took place in 1853, when on 20th June the school committee petitioned the Council against the management of the two six-acre school lots, alleg- ing an unfair distribution of the proceeds of these lands. in that the north lot was applied solely to district number one, leaving the south lot alone to the other four districts. In reply, the Council, on the 15th of Angust, decreed that the rents derived from these lands ' shall be appropriated to the schooling and educating of all the children of all the citizens and inhabitants of the town.' An appeal from this decision was taken in behalf of distriet number one. The decree of the Council was over- ruled and the appeal sustained by the Supreme Court."
During the year 1885 the schools of this town received from different sources as follows : State appropriations, 8757.68; town appropriations, 81,800 ; registry tax. 832 ; all other sources, 856.03; total, 82,827.51. The expenditures for the same year were as follows: buildings, furniture, &c .. $57.53 ; teachers' wages, 82,227.25 : fuel, $136.65 ; miscellaneous, $85.05 ; contin- gent, including printing, &c., $40: total, $2,533.48.
CHURCHES .- The first church in the town of Middletown was Sabbatarian, or Seventh Day Baptist. The building ocenpied by them was near Easton's pond, at Green End. The early set- tlers held services there a long time, but after the dissolution of this society a hundred years passed before the erection of another meeting house. The people in the interim met in school houses and in private dwellings. In the year 1829 the "Swamp " meeting honse was built. It cost about seven hundred dollars. During the year 1828 Elisha Peckham, Stephen Barker and John Ward, with fourteen others, withdrew from the First Bap- tist church at Newport, and were organized into a church on October 14th of that year. New members were at the same time received, and the membership of the new church was thus at once swelled to thirty-two.
Rev. Henry Sullings was the first pastor of this church. IIe
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came hither from New Bedford, Mass. He was followed by Revs. James Taylor, Elijah W. Barrows and Isaiah W. Graff- am. Rev. James Taylor began his second pastorate in 1844, and continued six years. He was succeeded by Revs. William E. Hathaway, Frederick P. Snow and Richard Eldridge. The latter closed his pastorate in 1853.
The first Methodist class in the town was organized in 1856, under the supervision of Dr. Frederick Upham. Prior to this time the Methodists had held occasional or more or less regular services in the swamp meeting house since the year 1829. Upon the organization of the first class the Rev. John F. Fogg com- menced preaching at this place. The annual conference held April 14th, 1857, sent the Rev. Charles Merrill, and during that year the First Methodist Episcopal church of Middletown was organized under his ministerial labors June 21st, 1857. This church at its organization was composed of four members in full connection and twenty-five probationers. Rev. William V. Morrison was the second pastor, and during his ministry the board of trustees was incorporated by the state legislature, and in accord with the discipline of the Methodist Episcopal church. Some improvements were made in the church building at the same time. Further improvements were made during the pas- torate of Rev. William Lindsay, at which time a pipe organ costing $450 was put in, and a debt of $400 paid off. This oc- curred during the centennial year of American Methodism, at which time a new communion service was presented to the church.
In the year 1871 a lot was leased from the "Charity Farm," and on it was erected a parsonage at a cost $2,500, two-thirds of which was raised by subscription at the time. In 1877 a " Re- form Club" was organized, having for its officers, W. J An- thony, president ; F. Lawton, vice-president; C. H. Ward, second vice-president; W. H. Thomas, treasurer; Rev. Edward Ilyde, chaplain; and Giles Peabody, marshal. It enjoyed a season of prosperity, secured a course of lectures in this church, and in due time subsided.
Rev. J. W. Willett has been pastor of the church since the year 1885. The church, in 1887, had a membership of one hitn- dred and fifteen, and is in a very prosperous condition.
The first Protestant Episcopal church of Middletown was not a parochial organization, but a society of worshippers who have
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depended entirely npon St. Mary's church of Portsmouth for support. An interest here was first awakened in the year 1842, through the zealous and healthful influence of Mr. John A. Gil- liatt and Mrs. Gibbs, who did much toward the formation of the society and the erection of the church building, which was completed in 1846. The late venerable Hobart Williams, rec- tor of St. Mary's, was the pastor of the new society from the year 1842 until his death, which occurred in October, 1884. Probably no better history of the struggles of the Church of the Holy Cross can be given than in the following words of one of the vestrymen, Albert L. Chase, who was appointed to convey the message of the church to their pastor on the occasion of celebrating the fortieth anniversary of his pastorate over this church, December 14th, 1883. In his address Mr. Chase said :
" Reverend father in God : I am directed by my associates, the Wardens and Vestrymen of your Parish, to explain to you the purposes of our visit this evening. This day makes the for- tieth anniversary of the beginning of your work in this place as a missionary of Christ and a pioneer of the Church. For forty consecutive years you have ministered unto us and our people with unremitting constancy and steadfastness of purpose. This fact standing alone, as an extraordinary period of continuous, unremitting labor, would be deserving of recognition at our hands, affording as it does an example worthy of emulation in an age so conspicuous for change and instability in every rela- tion of life. But there is even a greater reason why we should observe this anniversary. The annals of the Church furnish a few instances of a longer ministry in one locality than yours, but so far as we are advised they furnish extremely few cases like your own, where one, subordinating all personal considera- tions, and abnegating every selfish claim, even to his rightful dnes as a minister at the Lord's altar, devotes his best days to the cultivation of a field alike unworthy of his theological learn- ing, and unpromising in its returns.
" Sir, your pastorate is distinguished more by its self-sacrifice than by its great length. It stands out pre-eminently a rare illustration of real faith and genuine Christian devotion. That you have your reward in the consciousness of duty well done and in the approval of that Divine Master whom you have served with a single eye we doubt not, and you need no word of commendation from us. But Sir, ont of a sense of duty to
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ourselves, to the world and church at large, we have deemed it proper and fitting to note this event, and we have come hither this evening to convey to you a testimonial of gratitude and friendship from your parishioners in the form of a metallic purse containing thirty-one golden eagles, accompanied by a congrat- ulatory address. This testimonial itself we are aware is very inconsiderable and far from commensurate with the importance and significance of this occasion, but we ask you to accept it with our sincerest regards and congratulations upon this your memorable anniversary day."
WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION .- The following account of this institution and its work has been kindly fur- nished by one of its leading members, Mrs. Alfred W. Chase:
The W. C. T. U. of Middletown was organized July 12th. 1882. The following officers were elected: President, Mrs. James Mather; vice-presidents, Mrs. D. C. Smith, Mrs. Mary B. Cong- den, Mrs. Charles Peckham, Mrs. Alfred W. Chase; corres- ponding secretary, Miss Ellen Smith; recording secretary, Miss Sadie Peckham; treasurer, Miss Annie P. Smith. Thirteen names were secured as regular members, and three as honorary members. During the years 1882-3 the four departments of evangelistic work, Sunday school work, relations with the press and scientific temperance instruction were adopted, with a super- intendent at the head of each.
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