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 86
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99
The next business of general interest here in 1710 was the lay- ing ont, on the 10th of June, the mill lot having been definitely located, of fifteen small lots east of it. Twelve of these were each six rods wide on the west end, adjoining the mill lot, and extended east fifty-five rods, to a road running north and south. South and west of the four corners, bounded on the east by the highway leading to Seconnet, and on the north by the road to " The Neck," fifteen other lots were plotted. Each of these was four rods wide at the north and south ends and forty rods long. They were bounded west by the pond and south by the mill lot.
These thirty building sites were to constitute the nuclens of the village of Tiverton Four Corners. The pond on the west, and which now separates " The Neck" from these lands to the east, had then the enphonious name, Nomcot, as it was spoken
914
HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
and written in that day. This name became the local appella- tion of the village, and the mill, the foundation of its growth, took the designation of the Nomcot mill.
After Stephen and Joseph Taber, the mill was owned for years by Taylor and Ebenezer Davenport. The Wilcoxes owned it when it was abandoned some time prior to 1847. To think of a mill of so much importance in the economy of a commu- nity as was this, and then to know that its capacity was to grind not more than two bushels of corn in an hour, gives a vivid im- pression that those were verily the days of small things.
A litigation regarding the mill owners' claim received the at- tention of the conrts for four years prior to 1812, when it was concluded favorably to the mill interests.
During several years, including the above date, a factory for the manufacture of hats was in operation here. One Lindall Tompkins was the artisan in the enterprise, which was carried on just south of the residence of the late Holder N. Wilcox.
Sometime about 1847 William Pitt Bateman bought the mill site of the Wilcox family and built the grist mill and store, now the property of Charles H. White. Mr. Bateman built also a wheelwright shop, with snitable lathes and machinery, and in the revival of enterprise here, this immediate vicinity-in allusion to Mr. Bateman-has since been known as Pittsville. The mill and store, with the tenement and the shops, passed, in 1866, into the hands of Charles H. White & Bro. Four years later the real estate became, as now, the property of the senior partner-the junior, Andrew P. White, taking the business in charge until the close of 1876.
In the southwest angle of the intersecting highways, which suggested the name, Tiverton Four Corners, is an old ruin, which marks the site of what was probably the first store at l'un- catest. Here is the stone work of the old bake-oven, where bread was made for the early dwellers at Fall River. Here Mr. Stod- dard made those delectable compounds of sweetened dough and ginger, that his fair good customers were so gallant as to call cakes. "Stoddard's cakes" became a common household term, and it shared the fate of nearly every other phrase, soon or late: it was shortened and corrupted, and when the old baker was no more, other men made "Stodercakes." and other boys and girls ate them, knowing that cakes, however it might be with roses, were just as sweet by another name. Frederick
915
IHISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Brownell and Ezra Crandall are two other proprietors of the old bakery whose names are still remembered.
There were two old stores here in 1798, known then by names of doubtful propriety, as "The red store" and "The white store." These were the days of decorative exteriors. These structures had been once painted the respective colors that then remained only in their names. Captain Gray had painted red. Father Lake had painted white. Father Time had painted brown, and the years, as they passed by, touched the shingles' ends with mossy green.
The northwest angle included the old Wilcox corner, where descendants of the old first proprietor lived for many years. Southwest of the house-useless, and armless and gray-stands all that is left of the wind-mill, which bore arms, like a hero, in 1776. This corner belongs now to A. P. White, who erected the store and dwelling in 1876, and began business in it at the close of the year. On the northeast corner is the store of Wil- liam H. Davol (123). This is the stand where Captain Cornelius Seabury did business in his lifetime, and where, in succession, two of his sons-in-law, Andrew Cory and Oliver Hicks, did business after him. George Almy, Isaac Gray and a Mr. Man chester, familiarly known as "Captain Jim," are among the others who have tried their skill at buying for cash and selling for credit at "The Corners."
The old account books, so rich a source of definite impres- sions on the subject and methods of business, give us a quaint picture of the times to which they relate. One of these, prob- ably belonging to Burroughs & Davenport, a day-book of 1798, with its entries in pounds, shillings, pence and farthings, re- cites on its first page that it is B. & D's. book, and that the modest men, known nowhere in it by any other or fuller name than these two initials, did, on Thursday, March 21st, begin business in the white store. "Store bout the 7th of March. Possession took the 20th."
Bitters and biscuit, rum, tobacco, cider and bread appear to have been the necessaries of life which their customers minst have, even if they could not pay for them.
Their Adamsville neighbors at the southeast had had a post office sixteen years, and the people at Howland's ferry had en- joyed a similar privilege more than half that time, when, on the 4th of February, 1820, Alexander H. Seabury was appointed
58
916
HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
first postmaster at Tiverton Four Corners. The successive in- cumbents, with the dates of their respective appointments, are appended: Arnold Smith, October 24th, 1832: Benjamin F. Sea- bury, July 9th, 1863; Emily Seabury, June 9th, 1865; Samuel G. Pierce, June 3d, 1868; William H. Pierce, March 30th, 1874; Frank E. White, April 6th, 1877; Andrew P. White, March 22d, 1878.
The Southern Massachusetts Telephone Company have a sta- tion at Tiverton Four Corners, and the two steamers plying be- tween Seconnet point and Providence have a landing at White's wharf. These furnish the people here with valuable facilities. The Fall River and Little Compton stage, a daily mail service each way, completes the public means of transit.
Some of the first settlements of the Pocasset purchase were in what is now the northern district of Tiverton, and which has recently become known as North Ticerton. The original set- tlers were ancestors of the well known families, Borden and Gardiner, who are at present identified with and interested in the growth and prosperity of the thriving new community which lies just north of their homesteads.
James W. Counsell was the projector of the recent building enterprise in this fast growing community, and seems to have given it, from the beginning, an impetus from which it is not likely to recede. Mr. Counsell was born in England in 1845. He came to Rhode Island in 1869, and building his present res- idence in 1874, he became the first house owner among that in- creasing number of sober and industrious people, not of Ameri- can birth, who are making for their families song and comfort- able homes in this suburb of the city. These terms may not be applicable to all the mill workers, but are distinctively true of the neighborhood to which we apply them. In the beginning of 1866 Mr. Counsell entered into partnership with Greenwood Robertshaw, in the firm now doing a grocery business here un- der the style of Counsell & Robertshaw. Mr. Counsell, in 1886, was elected district collector for the sixth time, and the follow- ing year became member of the town council.
His partner, Mr. Robertshaw, was also born in England. IIe came to Fall River in 1873, and in 1877 he removed to this town. He has been in the board of assessors seven consecutive years, and is now serving his fourth year as its chairman. The Rhode
917
HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Island legislature, at the May session of 1886, appointed both these gentlemen justices of the peace for Tiverton.
Another merchant here of English birth is Austin Walker. He was born in 1837, came to the United States in 1862 and to New England in 1868. He was a mill operative from 1875 to 1882, when he began a dry goods business in Fall River. Three years ago he opened a store here, where he has resided since 1875. He built his present store building in 1886, and has a good business, in which he is assisted by his sons, William and Anstin, Jr.
Peleg S. Stafford (90), an old resident, carries on a store and has been postmaster at North Tiverton since June, 1886, at which time the post office was established.
As far back as 1870 an nndenominational chapel and Sunday school room was erected, opposite what is now the North Tiv- erton post office, on land donated for the purpose by Mrs. Eliz- abeth Gardner. This was called Benefit hall. During the year 1885 this building was moved to a lot given by Benjamin C. Borden, and enlarged, and is at present a commodions building called Temple Hall chapel, valued at $3,000. It is under the patronage of the Second Baptist church of Fall River. Re- ligions services are held morning and evening each Sabbath, conducted by the pastor, Rev. George W. Gile. A flourishing Sunday school of one hundred pupils, supplied with a good library, is under the superintendence of Joseph U. Carr.
In 1881 sixteen men conceived the idea of providing their community with a place for entertainments and secular instruc- tion. They took the title of the Garfield Hall Library and Reading Room Association. Two of their number, as trustees, took deeds of a site, and in December a free hall was finished, with a seating capacity of two hundred and fifty. It was formally opened on Christmas eve. Mr. Counsell was the first president; Joseph Stark the next; Jonathan Robertshaw the next. John Beardsworth is the present incumbent. They have a library of four hundred volumes, some of which have been donated, Joseph Church, Jr., giving sixty-eight new volumes. G. Robertshaw was the first librarian, and has been succeeded by J. W. Counsell and Richard Jennings, who is now librarian.
The Primitive Methodist Society held service in Garfield hall until the spring of 1886, when they completed their sung church building here.
918
HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Several localities in Tiverton have business or historical in- terests which have made them known by distinctive titles in the local geography of the town.
Nanaquacket .- This Indian name and its modern corruption, "Quacket," are applied to a peninsula south of the stone bridge, partially surrounded by the river on the west side and Nanaquacket pond on the east. It is the tract said, in the re- cords of Plymouth, to have been granted by the town of Ply- month to Richard Morris, prior to the grand deed to the Pocas- set settlers in 1679-80. The grant of Plymouth colony to Plymouth town was revoked, and if any possession was ever taken by Morris, it must have been for a short time only.
Boat building was carried on here at one time, and some of the vessels launched from this point were ships of no mean dimensions. Mr. Roach of Nantucket made a large offer for this neck as a site before he established his immense whaling business at New Bedford. This tract belonged to Andrew Oli- ver before the revolution, and is the property mentioned as having been confiscated by the state. Before it was finally settled it was measured as four hundred and forty seven acres, in 1785, and contracted to be sold to William Humphrey at $27 per acre. This William Humphrey was a resident of Tiverton in 1799, and in 1782 was addressed as Captain Humphrey of the Rhode Island Regiment, stationed at Philadelphia. Only the northern portion of the neck was finally deeded to Mr. Hum- phrey, and at his death it passed to his youngest son, George WV. Humphrey. The next generation, the Humphreys of to- day, reduced to practice what must have been long and favor- ably considered by the farmers of Nanaquacket, a bridge at the north end of the neck to connect their several farms by a more direct route with Fall River, which was becoming their principal market. Agreeably to a petition from the parties in interest, the Rhode Island legislature passed the enabling act, thus:
"George W. Humphrey, Joseph D. Humphrey, Peleg D. Humphrey, Daniel T. Church and other associates and succes- sors are hereby authorized and empowered to construct and maintain a bridge over and across the strait which is at the en- trance from the sea to Nanaquacket Pond in Tiverton with the consent of the owners of the land upon which the abutments for the said bridge will be erected. Provided however, that the
919
111STORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
said bridge shall be constructed at a place and upon a plan to be approved by the Town Council of said town of Tiverton."
Considerable opposition was manifested at first by the sea- faring men principally, who frequented the pond with numer- ous small craft, especially when a plan was submitted withont a draw, but as the question was agitated the opposition ap- peared to die away, but not until April 4th, 1881, was a loca- tion and plan submitted to the council that obtained their approval and which resulted in the erection of the present bridge. With the exception of a fifty feet opening covered with hard pine, it is built exclusively of stone, the foundation being heavy rocks riprapped to low water, and from beginning to end was the result of private enterprise, the contributors, Joseph D. Humphrey, Peleg D. Humphrey, Nathaniel B. Church, A. B. Durfee and Mrs. Mary West, contracting with Cap- tain C. A. Davis to build most of the stone work. This contract being completed November 4th, 1883, the work was continued by the contributors. On the 10th the structure was made passable, and after inspection by the council was approved March 3d, 1884. Heretofore only a private way existed along the point running through several farms, but in August, 1883, a committee was appointed by the council to mark out a public road, and in the latter part of that year a road was built and March 17th, 1884, it was accepted by the town council and at once became a popular thoroughfare, and has now become a stage road. The cost of the bridge, including 8420, paid for the south end of Bridgeport wharf for a landing, exceeded $4,000.
Eagleville, while it existed, was southeast of the swamp which has been mentioned as the scene of the battle of Pocas- set. This is doubtless the exact site of the Pocasset Indian village. The outlet of Stafford pond furnished a desirable water power, and Silas Cook bought the Pocasset Great lot, including it, and built a saw and grist mill here in the early days of the settlement. The mill property was bought about sixty years ago by George Durfee and Asa Coggeshall, who took down the two mills, or what remained of them, and erected a cotton l'ac- tory and a woolen factory, which they operated for several years. They were substantial stone buildings, one of which is still standing, though unoccupied. The woolen mill was burned. The old stone house north of the highway was built as a part of this mill enterprise.
920
HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Bliss Four Corners received its name from Cyrenns Bliss, who was born in Rehoboth, Mass., in 1807. Mr. Bliss came here in early life and found, as all men find who make from the wilderness a home, that hard work must be done ; he cleared the land and in the place of forest trees fruit trees were soon growing; in- stead of a hut in a forest, a home in a civilized community was enjoyed. In 1827 the wants of the people were met by the gro- cery store which Mr. Bliss opened. Later on dry-goods, and goods for those who were dry, were added to the stock. In ad- dition to his mercantile business he carried on farming. In 1857 a post office was established here, supplied from Fall River. The first postmaster, Cyrenus Bliss, was appointed January 15th. Cornelia J. Bliss succeeded him, being appointed on the 7th of April in the same year. Laura A. Bliss was ap- pointed December 7th, 1860, and the office was discontinned April 8th, 1864. Mr. Bliss made Bliss Four Corners all that it has ever been. His home is still there. He has been several times elected to the state senate. His deceased wife was Sarah, a daughter of Isaac Rounds.
Fogland .- Fogland point was a point west of Nonquit or Nomcot pond, in the Puncatest tract, extending into Seconnet river. Prior to the revolution, a ferry was established between this point and the island of Rhode Island. A building used as a kind of depot was standing here in those early days, and the fact that Job Almy was the first white man who owned this land supports the tradition that he owned and ran this ferry. At a later period it was owned by John Almy and operated by Thomas Wilcox, who is elsewhere mentioned as maintaining a system of signals with Isaac Barker on the island. The ferry must have been in operation during the war of the revolution, for Arnold mentions that on the 22d of September, 1777, the British had possession of the Rhode Island end of a ferry con- necting here.
Bridgeport is a point south of Stone Bridge, containing one of the oldest buildings in the town used for business purposes. A grocery store here is kept by Pierce & White. William Gray, Mr. McCurry, Albert Gray and Henry Brown are some of the men who have done business at this landing. A fish packing business was carried on here to a considerable extent at an ear- lier period than that of either of the men mentioned, and the landing was important in the days of the rum and molasses business.
921
HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
White's Wharf .- In the early part of the present century Peleg Corey, an old coaster, owned a tract of land north of Fog- land point. He built there a wharf and from this point he ran a sloop to Providence, and in this way the people of Tiverton Four Corners and vicinity secured their supplies in the way of merchandise. At Mr. Corey's death he left one-fourth of his estate to his son Thomas, who, for over twenty years, with oc- casional intervals, sailed the sloop as his father had done. Af- ter Thomas Corey, Benjamin Wilcox sailed a packet boat to and from Providence. Then Holder N. Wilcox put on a freight and passenger boat, "The Temperance." Christopher White and Captain J. A. Petty owned a boat which plied on this ronte for several years, and subsequently Captain Petty, buying ont Mr. White, conducted the sail packet until, in 1887, the " Queen City," owned by a stock company, was put on this line. This steamer makes a trip from Seconnet to Providence daily. The " Dolphin," an older steamer, is also run on this line by Holder Wilcox. These steamers both stop at White's wharf on every trip.
About twenty five years ago Isaac G. White bought that part of Peleg Corey's estate which was left to Thomas Corey. Alex- ander S. Pierce (76) owns the balance. Mr. White has enlarged and greatly improved the wharf, and White's wharf is now of considerable importance. Mr. White was early in life engaged in purse and trap fishing, and in 1862 established the oil busi- ness at his wharf, where the business was continued until re- cently. The coal business, established here in 1862, is still car- ried on, supplying this part of the town, and amounts to about five liundred tons per year.
MILLS .- Besides the mills mentioned at Tiverton Four Cor- ners and Eagleville, in the eastern portion of the town, is another known as the "Borden Mill," situated on the Crandall road, between Adamsville and Fall River. It was built by Benajah Borden (109), and was for many years the grist mill for the people in this part of Tiverton and in Massachusetts to the eastward.
Early in the development of this section of the two states a saw mill was built above the grist mill on the same stream, at a point west of the present Crandall school house. One Stephen Crandall moved this mill down stream to be supplied by the same dam which supplied the Borden grist mill, and both mills
922
HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
on the same mill lot subsequently came into the possession of Benjamin H. Waite. The enlargement of the pond, according to rights previously vested but not asserted, led to the long series of litigations which is a part of the history of almost every water power privilege. Mr. Waite built the present mill, and after him the owners were, in 1865, David W. Simmons and Philip J. Gray; then Philip J. Gray, in 1867, and five years later Otis L. Simmons bought it and operated it for years. The Wilbor family are the owners of the mills at the present time.
The carding mills mentioned as the principal business of Christopher Brownell in his lifetime are south of the "Borden Mill," on the same highway, known from the name of an early family as the Crandall road.
Two of the cotton mills of the Fall River system are located in this town. The Bourne mill was built in 1881-2 by a stock company incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts. Ed- mund Chase was first president. The board of directors were, besides the president, Jonathan Bourne, Charles M. Shove, Charles E. Vickery, George A. Chace, Lloyd S. Earle, Danforth Horton and Frank S. Stevens. The capital stock was then $400,000. The mill was built at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It is a granite structure. five stories high, with basement. The dimensions are 339 by 80 feet, with an L 80 by 30 feet. It contains one thousand and eighty looms and forty-three thousand and eight spindles. The machinery is operated by one pair of engines of nine hundred horse power, being supplied with water from Laurel lake. The total cost of the machinery was 8600,000. Five hundred persons are em- ployed in making all kinds of odd goods, any width and any count. Since the company was incorporated three of the direc- tors, Edmund Chase, Charles E. Vickery and Danforth Horton have died. Two have since been elected, their names being Nathaniel B. Ilorton and Stephen A. Jenks. The capital stock is at present $400,000, $700,000 having been actually paid into the treasury. At Mr. Chase's death Jonathan Bourne was elected president. W. S. Barker is clerk, and Raymond Murry superintendent.
In 1872 another company called the " Shove Mills Stock Com- pany" was also incorporated under the Massachusetts law. The first president was Charles O. Shove. He was succeeded by John P. Slade. The present incumbent is Charles M. Shove.
923
HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Isaac W. Howland, of Little Compton, is one of the directors. His son, William W. Howland, is clerk. This company, in 1880, built what is known as " Number 2" mill in Tiverton. This mill is of granite, three stories high, dimensions 194 by 75 feet. The building, together with the machinery, cost $200,000. The mill runs twenty-two thousand two hundred and eight spindles, employing one hundred and twenty-five people. The company owns another mill known as "Number 1," which is situated in Massachusetts. In "Number 2" the spinning and earding are done for five hundred of the looms in " Number 1." The company's stock is $500,000.
TAVERNS .- One of the first public inns in Tiverton-probably the first-was on the highway leading east toward Dartmonth from the Puncatest settlement, now Tiverton Four Corners. The first authenticated date is September 11th, 1749, when the " Puncatest Proprietors" met at the house of William Manches- ter, inn holder (66). The old hostelry was on the north side of the road mentioned, and was a very old structure in 1776, when it was used as a place of rendezvous by one of the com- panies of the Tiverton militia. Opposite the tavern, on the place now owned by Ephraim Sanford, was the parade ground, where the militia as early as 1749 met for drill.
At a later date a tavern was built about one mile north of the ferry. This building still stands near H. C. Osborn's, owned and occupied by Mr. Bennett. It was at one time known as the "Jew House." It is believed that Allen Durfee was the first proprietor. About 1816 he enlarged the original structure by adding what is now the north part, and at the same time building the row of sheds. It is now known as the old " Dur- fee House."
In the early days of the present century a hotel was standing near the eastern end of the stone bridge, on the mainland and fronting the bridge. for many years known as the "Stone Bridge Honse." The most reliable information is that it was built about 1790 by Captain Lawton, and was a famons resort in its early history. In 1847 it was destroyed by fire, but a new house was soon erected on the same location by Gardner Thomas. This house was opened July 4th, 1848, by Grant & Alexander. They were the proprietors two years, and during that time they planted the shade trees that are now shading the old grounds. In 1864 Asa T. Lawton, of Newport, purchased it, enlarging
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.