USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > History of Providence County, Rhode Island > Part 2
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
says Hutchinson, 'one of the inhabitants of Rehoboth was fired upon by a party of Indians, and the hilt of his sword shot off.' The strife being precipitated thus prematurely, Philip was compelled in July to flee from his fastnesses toward the Nipmucks. His route lay within a few miles of Pawtucket, and, in crossing the great plain of Seekonk, he was discovered by some of the people of Rehoboth, and pursued by them. Rev. Noah Newman has the credit of leading his townsmen in the pursuit. Hubbard gives the following account of the matter: 'The Mohegins with the men of Rehoboth, and some of Providence, came upon their rear over night, slew about thirty of them, took much plunder from them, without any considerable loss to the English.' Who were these men of Providence? Very proba- bly Mr. Jenks and some of his neighbors by Pawtucket Falls; for they would be likely to hear first of the valor of their Rehoboth neighbors.
" For a few months there is a lull. The winter is burdened, how- ever, by anxious misgivings. The blacksmiths, the wood-cutters, the farmers around the Pawtucket, oft scan the horizon in apprehen- sion of the tempest. Many a father commends his household to God by prayer at night, not knowing but that the war-whoop will break their repose before the morning dawns; many a mother sadly rocks her babe to slumber, not knowing but that the tomahawk will hush that infant's cries ere another sun shall set. In a few months the fierce storm once more howls. Philip returns from his flight, rein- forced by stern warriors. He brings death to the very doors of our predecessors. One of the most tragical contests of 1676 occurred near Pawtucket. All the spring, roaming bands of Indians had dis- turbed the security of the settlements in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Marauding parties had carried ruin to scores of fire- sides, and applied the torch to many a home. Something must be done to check these forays, and Capt. Pierce of Scituate, with a force of 63 Englishmen, and 20 friendly Indians from Cape Cod, was ordered to follow the Indians toward Rhode Island. On the 24th of March he reached Seekonk. On the second morning after, he marched with his little band toward the river, and soon fell into an ambush. The thick forests which overhung the Blackstone formed a covert for the subtle red men, and they hovered round the doomed band like a pack of hungry wolves. For hours the contest raged on the banks of our stream between Pawtucket and Valley Falls, till, when the shadows of that Sabbath evening fell, they enshrouded the lifeless forms of almost all of that little force. They had sold their lives dearly, however, for 140 of their foes were slain."
" What effect had such a tragedy on the feeble settlement at Paw- tucket? Of course, it would breed the gravest alarm, were the inhab- itants still residing there. The probability is, however, that most of them had sought refuge on the island of Rhode Island. The general
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
assembly had been appealed to, to furnish garrisons for Providence and Warwick, but excused themselves from any such expense on the score of inability, and counseled the inhabitants of those towns to take shelter at Portsmouth or Newport. Most of the citizens of Providence removed their families and effects, therefore; but sturdy Roger Williams and about thirty others remained. The smallness of their number, however, invited, rather than repelled attack, and on March 30th, the town was set on fire. At that or some other time the forge in this village was given to the flames, and doubtless the torch was applied to the deserted cabins. Pawtucket for the hour was a lonelier solitude than when Williams 40 years before began his first settlement at Seekonk Cove.
" A few months rolled away, and a change took place. Philip was killed, his warriors were slain, captured, or scattered, and peace and security returned to the little colonies. Mr. Jenks undoubtedly comes back as soon as possible, and rebuilds his forge. About this time Mr. Jenks's eldest son reached manhood; but a large family,- four sons and six daughters,-were growing up like blooming olive plants about the father's table. Mr. Jenks seems to have been influ- ential in political affairs, no less than in business; for the title of assistant, -- answering to lieutenant governor or senator,-is always added in old writings to his name. His four sons also acquired dis- tinction afterward in the Colony. Joseph was governor of Rhode Island from 1727 to 1732; Nathaniel bore the title of major; Ebenezer was a preacher, and William a judge.
"It has already been said that the house of the father stood on the present East avenue. It had the reputation of being the first frame house reared in the town. All of the sons built houses also, which were long landmarks here, and three of them are partially standing now. One of them stands on Mill street, and is said to have been enlarged by the addition of a part of the house wherein the elder Joseph Jenks lived. Tradition reports that in his old age his house was removed to Mill street, and annexed to the building named, and that he spent the evening of his days there. Old citi- zens have declared that in their boyhood figures were visible on the stone chimney of the edifice on Mill street, and that three of them were legible. Some who in their childhood climbed up to decipher them, averred that they read the numerals 168 -; but the final figure was illegible. This was the house of Major Jenks. Dr. C. F. Man- chester has long occupied the house which was for years the abode of Governor Jenks, though it has been so modernized that the Gov- ernor would fail to recognize his old home, could he return to earth. A third one of those houses stood till within a few days near the rail- road track, between the station and Dexter street.
* * * *
"The hamlet near these falls continued to grow for the next
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
quarter of a century. The Jenkses had obtained possession of much of the land on the western side of the river in this neighborhood, and had extended their operations. Judge Story, in giving his decision about half a century ago in an important case before the circuit court, rehearsed the following facts as proved in the trial:
"' The lower dam was built as early as the year 1718, by the pro- prietors on both sides of the river, and is indispensable for the use of these mills respectively. There was previously an old dam on the western side, extending about three-quarters of the way across the river, and a separate dam for a saw mill on the east side. The lower dam was a substitute for both. About the year 1714 a canal was dug, or an old channel widened and cleared on the western side of the river, beginning at the river above the lower dam, and running around the west end thereof, until it emptied into the river, about ten rods below the same dam. It has been long known by the name of Sergeant's Trench, and was originally built for the passage of fish up and down the river. But, having wholly failed for this purpose, about the year 1730 an anchor mill and dam were built across it by the then proprietors of the land; and between that period and the year 1790 several other dams and mills were built over the same, and since that period more expensive mills have been built there. In 1792 another dam was built across the river at a place above the head of the trench, and almost twenty rods above the lower dam; and the mills on the upper dam, as well as those on Sergeant's Trench, are now supplied with water by proper flumes, &c., from the pond formed by the upper dam.'
"This brief extract shows that early in the last century the buzz of machinery and the clangor of hammers prophesied that this would be in due time a manufacturing centre. Enterprise and skill were converting a wilderness which Williams and Gregory Dexter had so disparaged as 'most of it barren and rockie, without meadow,' into a thriving village. But the pioneers who had built their cabins higher up the Blackstone, and the farmers and fishermen of this neighbor- hood, were jealous of the obstructions at the falls. Shad, alewives and some other kinds of fish had been wont to spawn near Woonsocket, and the general assembly of Rhode Island, in 1761, authorized that sovereign helper in all public enterprises in those days, a lottery to raise £1,500, old tenor, for the purpose of making a passage around Pawtucket Falls, 'so that fish of almost every kind, who choose fresh water at certain seasons of the year, may pass with ease.' This legis- lation, however, did not fully secure the end, and about a dozen years later the general assembly passed another act, making it lawful for any one to break down or blow up the rocks at Pawtucket Falls, to ' let fish pass up,' and ' the said river' was ' declared a public river.'
" But it is time to cross the river and make a little inquiry about the eastern part of the town. Traditions are less definite about the
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
early inhabitants of this section than those pertaining to the Jenks family. A few settlers were evidently allured here nearly two centuries ago. The navigable stream made journeying easy for the pioneer; the abundance of fish near the falls readily supplied an im- portant article of food; the iron business afforded employment. On what is known as South Bend, not far from Hammond's pond, stands an old stone chimney house. The name of its builder has not been handed down to posterity, but its style of architecture shows that it was reared about the time when the Jenkses reared their ambitious edifices. Somebody, therefore, was residing in that part of Pawtucket early in the last century. Another stone chimney house of similar style was standing near North Bend about three-quarters of a century ago, which was probably equally ancient. And the fact that many of the old deeds of land lying east of the river refer to a Mr. Smith as a. former owner of the land, justifies the belief that, as there were men bearing that name among the first settlers of Rehoboth, one or more of them obtained possession of much of the territory of the eastern part of Pawtucket. Thus, in the year 1738, Samuel Smith is repre- sented in an old deed to have bought of Henry Smith 48 acres of land on the east side of Pawtucket Falls, 'bounded on land where the grist mill stands.' Nine years later (in 1747) one or both of the Smiths conveyed the grist or ' corn mill' to James Bucklin. And twenty-nine years later James Bucklin conveyed this mill to his son John. In fact a still earlier mention is made of a Mr. Smith, in an ancient re- port to the legislature of Massachusetts. The first bridge across the Pawtucket seems to have been built in 1713, and in 1716 the following document appears in the Massachusetts Colonial Records:
"'The report of the committee appointed to consider and compute the charge of a highway to Pawtucket bridge, viz .: In pursuance of the written vote or order, we, the subscribers, on the 28th of May, 1716, went to the bridge at Pawtucket, where we met with the per- sons that were interested in the lands where the highway should go; and, having discoursed with them, and viewed the same, do report that a way of two rods wide be left on the north side of the land belonging to Joseph Buckland, Jr., beginning at the foot of the bridge, and so to run through the land of Henry Smith, till it comes- to said Smith's house, being in length ninety-two rods, is about two- acres and a half, only allowing a turn to be made to the northward, about fifty rods from the bridge, to escape a great rock, which land, we are of opinion, is worth £3 per acre; and the making of a fence the length of the said way, if made of stone wall, will be 5s. per rod, to be allowed to the owner of said land; which way then to run from said Smith's house northward a quarter of a mile, when it will meet a way that was formerly laid out by Rehoboth, which leads into the country road by the great plain. The land, being two acres and a half, we value at 20s. per acre, without any charge of fence.
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
"'Given under our hands, the 14th of June, 1716.
"' NATHANIEL PAYNE, " ' MOSES READ, "'JOHN ROGERS,
Committee.'
"These facts render it very likely that some of the ubiquitous family of Smith were the first owners of the eastern district of Paw- tucket. And the conjecture may be hazarded that John Smith reared one or both of those ancient houses named. Judge Story's decision implies that a saw mill was built on the eastern bank of the Paw- tucket early in the eighteenth century.
" Perhaps an incidental circumstance helped the growth of the vil- lage in the earlier part of the eighteenth century. It has already been mentioned that the eldest son of the founder of Pawtucket became governor of the colony in 1727. The frequency with which his name occurs in the colonial records shows that he was eminent for some- thing beside his stature. As early as 1705 he was appointed a com- missioner in the vexed boundary question, and was reappointed again and again to assist in running the line. In 1715 he was chosen deputy governor, and re-elected at subsequent times. In 1720 he was sent to England to bring the boundary disputes between Rhode Island, on the one hand, and Connecticut and Massachusetts, on the other, be- fore the king. In all these matters he showed such integrity and sagacity that, on the death of Governor Cranston, who had held the office of governor for 29 years he was elected chief magistrate of the colony. He continued to hold the office till 1732; but as, on his elec- tion in the previous year, he had given notice that he should not again be a candidate, he retired after five years' service. At the request of the general assembly he removed to Newport while he held the gov- ernorship; but, doubtless, during those years he was wielding his influence to promote improvements in his native village, and secure the investment of capital there. And an examination of some of the dates given by Judge Story proves that some of the most important conveniences secured were attained during Governor Jenks's public life. He died on the 15th of June, 1740.
" It were interesting to recount the successive establishment of different forges and mills, but only results are known. Governor Jenks and the other descendants of the enterprising man who laid the foundations of this town, emulated the energy of their ancestor. The frequent wars in which the infant colonies were engaged with both the French and the Indians, oft turned the attention of the iron-workers in this country to the manufacture of firearms. Doubt- less such were made at some of the mills on the Pawtucket, and Captain Stephen Jenks is expressly mentioned as having manufac- tured muskets here in 1775. It is likely that, through the whole period of the revolutionary war, his skill was often laid under requi- sition. Hints are found occasionally of the existence of other kinds.
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
of business. Mr. Ephraim Starkweather removed to the hamlet on the east of the river in 1770, and in buying a certain tract of land, purchased also a potash establishment of certain merchants of Bos- ton, who had long carried on the manufacture of potash here. Mr. Hugh Kennedy also came to the same hamlet about the middle of the last century, and began the manufacture of linseed oil. About the same time, Mr. Sylvester Bowers, a ship carpenter by trade, re- moved to Pawtucket and set up the business of ship-building at the Landing. On the western side of the river also the same business was quite extensively carried on.
" It is probable, however, that the eight weary years of the revo- lutionary war retarded the growth of Pawtucket. North Providence furnished some of the boldest soldiers of the war, and Captain Olney doubtless had in his company recruits from this village. Some, too, of the inhabitants of this place were serving in the little navy which our nation had called into existence. The return of peace, however, was a signal for new activity. A family, whose energy, talents, and skill, were to contribute largely to the prosperity of Pawtucket, moved hither from Smithfield. Oziel Wilkinson was the father of five sons, all of whom were blacksmiths. For years, though living in Smithfield, he had done a great deal of work for the merchants of Providence. As he obtained his stock from that town, it had long seemed desirable for him to transfer his business to Pawtucket Falls, where he could obtain ample water power, but 'prudence for- bade the step for a time. The British long held possession of the southern part of the state, and might at any time seize Providence. In such a case a maurauding party could easily come up the Paw- tucket river, and destroy the mills and forges at the falls. His cus- tomers, therefore, advised him to delay. But peace released him from the peril, and Mr. Wilkinson and his sons removed hither. Al- ready the family had given evidence of inventive power. Mr. Wilkin- son is said to have made cut nails at an early date, and is supposed to have anticipated every manufacturer of these useful articles in the world. The father and sons quickly turned some of the unused power of the stream to account. Providence long continued, indeed, to look to Pawtucket for all the heavier implements of iron. Anchors and such articles were manufactured here; screws in abundance were made; and the heavy oil presses of Nantucket and New Bedford were constructed at the shops in this place.
"Bishop, in his History of Manufactures, speaks in the following strain: 'Manufacturers of iron, including bar and sheet iron, nail-rods and nails, farming implements, stoves, pots and other castings, and household utensils, iron-works for ship-builders, anchors, and bells, formed the largest branch of productive industry in Rhode Island toward the close of the eighteenth century. A slitting-mill was built on one of the branches of Providence river. Another slitting and
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
rolling mill, three anchor forges, two nail-cutting machines, and sev- eral other mills and factories carried on by water, were soon after erected at Pawtucket Falls. A screw-cutting machine, hollow-ware furnace, and several forges were also in operation.' Indeed, the iron business at this time gave Pawtucket its chief fame. Steam engines had not yet made their advent into Providence, and all the heavy work for that place which needed water power and trip-hammers, must be done here.
" The Wilkinsons were long household names in Pawtucket. Their activity and enterprise expanded the business and increased the population of the town. The fame of the father is pleasantly preserved in the park which he left unenclosed on the present Park place. Cities need lungs, and the town has fitly enclosed that park with an iron fence, and adorned it with trees which will in coming years fling their cooling shadows abroad. Four of his sons made Pawtucket their home for years. They constituted a couple of co- partnerships-Abraham and Isaac, David and Daniel. One of these sons, however, won more than a local reputation; and Pawtucket may justly claim a share in the fame of David Wilkinson. From child- hood he possessed a singularly observant mind. What seemed trifles to others, were to him the germ of some valuable invention. In a letter of his, where he is describing a new screw-machine, which he invented as early as 1794, he says, 'the perfection of it consists in that most faithful agent, gravity, making the joint, and that almighty perfect number, three, which is harmony itself. I was young when I learnt that principle. I had never seen my grandmother putting a chip under a three-legged milking-stool; but she always had to put a chip. under a four-legged table to keep it steady. I cut screws of all di- mensions by this machine, and did them perfectly.' Thousands of other lads had seen their kinswomen sitting on similar stools milk- ing, without noticing the consequent steadiness, or dreaming of any great mechanical invention based on the firmess of the tripod.
" Besides the branches of business thus described, farming was car- ried on to considerable extent. A large part of the land on the east- ern side of the river in what now constitutes Pawtucket was held by families bearing the name of Bucklin. The Buckland already men- tioned was probably their ancestor. Their farms extended from the river to Seekonk Plains; and tradition speaks of an immense corn- field that stretched almost from the margin of the stream to Bucklin's brook. It is probable, however, that the farms were poorly cultivated. Colonel Slack came here about a hundred and ten years ago, and Mr. Starkweather just afterward, and found the land in this condition.
" Up, then, to the close of the last century iron was emphatically king in Pawtucket. But ere the 'century closed a rival appeared, which was destined to contest the throne. Cotton appeared on the stage. An interesting tale might be told of the early attempts to spin
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
cotton by water power in our land. Suffice it to say that, immediately after the Revolution, statesmen, capitalists and artisans sought to es- tablish new manufactures in the United States. The whole country was burdened by debt; importations from foreign lands were impov- erishing us still more, and relief was sought from the necessity of de- pending on foreign spindles and looms. In Worcester and Beverly, in Massachusetts, in Providence and other towns, in Rhode Island, experiments were making previous to 1790 to find out whether the cotton needed in our land could not be spun beside our own streams. A few spinning frames and various rude machines had been brought from abroad to facilitate the experiment, and Moses Brown, of Provi- dence, had purchased some of them and removed them to Pawtucket. Vain the attempt, however, to drive them by any of the water-wheels here. Why not obtain from England, then, some of the machines that were working so successfully there? Alas! that was interdicted. About the time of the unsuccessful attempt of Mr. Brown, however, to set his machines in operation in this place, a young man in England was meditating emigration to the new republic. He has seen by the newspapers of his native land that bounties are offered, encourage- ments promised, for establishing the manufacture of cotton goods in some of the States in our country. Pennsylvania, in particular, is very generous in her proffers. He brooded over the matter for a while, till his imagination was fired, and he resolved to cross the ocean. But he knows the peril of arousing the jealousy of the authorities, and he conceals from even his family the step he is about to take. No model, drawing or plan does he dare take with him, lest it reveal his purpose and cause his arrest.
" He makes the weary journey across the ocean, reaches New York in due time, and finds employment with a manufacturing company. The water power of the neighborhood does not suit him, however. The business wherein he is engaged is less agreeable than that to which he has been accustomed, and the fond dreams he had cherished seem unlikely to be realized. While thus perplexed, God directs his steps hither. Samuel Slater providentially meets the captain of a Providence packet, and learns by conversation of the attempts that Moses Brown had made to introduce the manufacture of cotton into Rhode Island. Without any delay the young Englishman writes to Mr. Brown. 'I flatter myself,' says he in his letter, 'that I can give the greatest satisfaction in making machinery, making good yarn, either for stockings or twist, as anything that is made in England, as I have had opportunity and an oversight of Sir Richard Arkwright's works and in Mr. Strut's mill for upwards of eight years.' Had Mr. Slater simply announced his ability to run machines already erected, or to make machines by the help of patterns wherewith he was famil- iar, one would not wonder at his confidence; but it manifested no
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
small amount of assurance to profess to be able to make the requisite machinery. And this, when he had neither models nor drawings!
"But Mr. Brown, though anxious to succeed in his new under- taking, is too candid to foster extravagant hopes. He tells the young man that he has transferred the business to Almy & Brown, and ex- presses his fear that those gentlemen can hardly give such encourage- ment as the youth can reckon on in his present place of business. (Mr. Almy was a son-in-law of Mr. Brown.) This is the strain, there- fore, in which Mr. Brown writes: ' As the frame we have is the first attempt of the kind that has been made in America, it is too imper- fect to afford thee much encouragement; we hardly know what to say to thee; but if thou thought thou couldst perfect and conduct them to profit, if thou wilt come and do it, thou shalt have all the profits made of them, over and above the interest of the money they cost, and the wear and tear of them. We will find stock and be repaid in yarn, as we may agree, for six months. And this we do for the in- formation thou can give, if fully acquainted with the business. . We have secured only a temporary water convenience, but if we find the business profitable, can perpetuate one that is convenient. If thy present situation does not come up to what thou wishest, and, from thy knowledge of the business, can be ascertained of the advan- tages of the mills, so as to come and work ours, and have the credit as well as advantage of perfecting the first water-mill in America, we should be glad to engage thy care, so long as they can be made profit- able to both, and we can agree.'
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