USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > History of Providence County, Rhode Island > Part 70
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
The town is watered by two streams, one of which rises in the northeastern section, near the Moswansicut pond; the other has its source in the Ponaganset pond in Glocester, runs through Foster, and entering this town upon its western border, unites with the first men- tioned stream to form the north branch of the Pawtuxet river.
Scituate is a manufacturing town, there being, besides saw and grist mills, some ten or twelve cotton mills, shoe and corset lacing fac- tories, and other works. There are also a number of stores, churches, hotels, &c., in the town. Following is a list of the principal places of historic interest in Scituate:
Villages .- Elmdale, Glenrock, North Scituate, Saundersville, Ash- land, Ponaganset, Rockland, Clayville, Richmond, South Scituate, Kent, Hope, Fiskeville (Scituate side), Jackson. Hills .- Rocky, Bea- con Pole, Chopmist, Bald, Burnt, Tunk, Round, Mount Misery. Brooks .- Chapamistcook, Westconnaug or Westquodnoid, Musquito- hawk, Cat Swamp. Ponds .- Moswansicut, Ponaganset. Woods .- Rocky Hill, Chopmist, Tunk Hill, Bettey. Historic .- Deputy Gov- ernor West house, 1775, on the site of the illustrious Hopkins family residence-still in a good state of preservation; Angell Tavern, 1710, where Washington and Lafayette were guests; at Hope Village can-
587
HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
non were cast during the revolutionary war from material obtained at the Cranston iron mine.
The settlement of this town was made by settlers who came from Scituate, Mass., and adopted that name for this town, which is of Indian origin. It probably took its name from the stream which flows from "Scituate pond," in Cohasset, which is a swift flowing one, or was, and hence the name by which the Indians designated it.
Tradition gives John Mathewson the credit of building the first white man's house-if it may be so called-in Scituate. It was a hovel or hut put up in the northeastern part of the town, within a quarter of a mile of the Great pond, Moswansicut, within a few rods of the boundaries of Scituate, Smithfield, Johnston and Glocester, almost on the line of junction of the four towns. The place lies about six rods from the road, and is indicated by a depression and raised banks. It was six or eight feet square, four or five feet deep, and raised above the ground by logs and branches of trees, some three or four feet. There was only one way of entrance, and holes were left in the upper part, through which a gun might be pushed to shoot bears, wolves, foxes, wildcats or other animals that might approach with design to enter the premises.
Tradition says that Boston was at that time the nearest trading town, and thither, on foot, through Indian or other paths, John would make his occasional journeys, stopping at houses on the way. He made the acquaintance of a Miss Malavery at one of these houses where he stopped on his route, and offering marriage, was accepted. He built him a house a hundred yards or more from his cave, and culti- vated a good farm. He died there, suddenly, aged about 40, leaving a widow and children. John, one of his sons, was the direct ancestor of the late Honorable Elisha Mathewson, senator in congress.
Daniel, another son, when a boy of ten years, about the year 1700, was sent with a cart load of oak wood to Providence to sell. Two yokes of oxen and a horse were put in to draw the load over the rough and hilly road, and after driving all over the town to find a customer, he sold the load for five shillings, the most he could get. There were three houses only at that time on the north side of Westminster street, between the pumps and the forks of the road, by the bridge.
Thomas Mathewson and others of this name came to settle round this pond, one of the most beautiful ponds in the state, and having good lands around it. Elder Samuel Winsor owned a tract a little farther east of the pond, and his lands were said to reach to Providence. John Waterman, Dean Kimball and others were neighbors.
Mr. Stephen Smith kept tavern at the Four Corners, North Scituate, and as there was a great deal of teaming past his house, going to and returning from the furnaces of Smithfield and Glocester, to get iron ore at Cranston, his half-way house was well patronized.
588
HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
Daniel Mathewson, the boy already spoken of, lived to about 1776, when he died at an advanced age. Noah, the son of Daniel, died Sep- tember 17th, 1824, aged 89 years, and was buried by the side of his parents on the family lot. His widow, Judith, deceased January 28th, 1827, aged 87 years. The house that Daniel built was occupied suc- cessively, after his death, by his son Noah and his grandson Daniel. Its height was one story, with four rooms on the ground floor, and a cellar underneath. In the old stone fire-place were seen hanging from a piece of timber, placed horizontally, high up in the chimney, two very long iron hooks or trammels, five or six feet long, for hang- ing kettles and other vessels over the fire. These were hoisted or lowered by means of little holes in the upper piece. They had no barns in these old times when this house was built, but there were little shanties or hovels where they stored many things.
James Aldrich removed to Scituate from Smithfield in 1775, and purchased of the heirs the estate of Mr. Ishmael Wilkinson, deceased. This was in the northwest part of the town, and in the vicinity of Beacon hill. When Mr. Aldrich came to Scituate himself and family traveled on horseback, that being the usual mode of conveyance. Attempts were made to discourage him from leaving Smithfield by representing the lateness of spring, it being the middle of May, but as the land was good he declined to stop. Soon after his arrival he sent back to Smithfield to get a cheese tub made by a celebrated worker in wooden ware, Jesse Inches, who was known far and wide for his skill in manufacturing churns, pails and tubs. This cheese tub, made of cedar, held twenty pailfuls, which gives us some idea of the dairy of Mr. Aldrich, and of the cows about his premises. A stout man brought it on foot, and upon his back, all the way from Smithfield. It was sold at auction some seventy-five years after, on the breaking up of housekeeping by his son John, having been in the family three-quarters of a century.
James Aldrich took the land made vacant by the death of Mr. Wilkinson, on which he planted a fine orchard. He is said to have introduced the first cherry trees in the town. He was a great politi- cian. He represented the town of Scituate in the general assembly for nineteen consecutive years. Elisha Mathewson, John Harris and Colonel Ephraim Bowen were often at his house. The governor used to come out from Providence on horseback with his gun to have a good hunt with Mr. Aldrich, and would ride home with the foxes and squir- rels that he had killed strung over his saddle.
Gideon Harris is a very prominent man in the history of Scituate. He married Damaris Wescott, a noted maiden in her day. He died in 1777, at an advanced age, and was buried in the Quaker burying ground. For many years he filled the office of town clerk. It was a common saying that everybody who was poor, in distress, or wanted employment, resorted to Mr. Harris, on account of his property, influ-
589
HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
ence and benevolent disposition. His house was in' a place called the "Old Bank." It was enlarged and made into two stories by his son, and pleasantly situated on ground rising from the road, with its stately and ancient buttonwood and elm trees, making an imposing ap- pearance.
About the year 1703, Mr. Joseph Wilkinson, a son of Captain Sam- uel Wilkinson, Esq., of Providence, came to live in the northwest part of Scituate, known by its Indian name. Chapamistcook. He married Martha Pray, a granddaughter of one of the first settlers in the town. There was a crooked road leading from Providence to this neighbor- hood at this time. The first barn built in what is now Scituate was erected by him. He also brought the first cow into the town, and a piece of meadow where he pastured his cow, a little north, running into Foster, where the first hay was cut, had been created, it is sup- posed, by a beaver dam in the vicinity, causing an overflow of water and rotting the trees so that they fell down and gave an opportunity for the grass to grow.
Mr. Wilkinson was a surveyor, and much employed in this work in the town. In a deed of 1738 the surveyor's return was made under his hand. His residence was on the estate improved afterward by his great grandson, John Harris, Esq. At the raising of his barn men came from Smithfield and Glocester to assist the Scituate people in its raising. When they had raised it they all sat down upon a large log and drank metheglin, a beverage made of honey and water and fer- mented, often enriched with spices. Mr. Wilkinson appears promi- nent in the first town meeting of Scituate after it was set off from Providence. He is called Lieutenant Wilkinson, was elected a mem- ber of the town council and chosen deputy.
Mr. William Hopkins, the only child of Major William Hopkins, of Providence, married Ruth Wilkinson, daughter of " Capt. Samuel Wilkinson, Esq.," as he was styled in public records, and immediately after his marriage removed to a farm in Scituate in the neighborhood of Lieutenant Joseph Wilkinson, the brother of his wife. His house was small, but the land was good-probably not much cleared for till- age-in 1765, or thereabouts, when he took the place.
He is not much spoken of in the town records, and probably did not seek office, but gave himself steadily to the work of his farm and the care of his family. His memory is chiefly connected with some of his children, who became illustrious and reflected great honor on their parents, and on the state and nation. William was the first born. He went abroad, and was presented at the court in England, and so took the favor of the king from his fine manly appearance, that he was appointed major by him. A part of the coat he wore at court has been preserved by his descendants. His other children were: Stephen, John, Eseck, Samuel, Hope, Abigail and Susanna.
Eseck, soon after the death of his father, in the summer of 1738, a
590
HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
stout, tall and handsome young man, then in the 20th year of his age, bid adieu to the old homestead and journeyed to Providence and became a sailor, soon rising to the position of captain. He married when he was 25 years of age, Miss Desire Burroughs, daughter of Mr. Ezekiel Burroughs, of Newport, and took up his residence there. His conspicuous services in the war of the revolution, as the first commo- dore of the navy, are well known. His fleet, consisting of the ships " Alfred," Captain Dudley Saltonstall, and the "Columbus," Captain Whipple, the brig " Andrew Doria," Captain Nicholas Biddle, and the " Cabot," Captain John B. Hopkins, son of Eseck, and the sloops " Providence," " Fly," " Hornet " and " Wasp," put out to sea February 17th, 1776, with a smart northeast wind, and cruising among the Ba- hama Islands, captured the forts at New Providence, Nassau. This was a very fortunate affair, for the heavy ordnance and stores taken proved quite acceptable to the country. He captured two British armed vessels on his return.
The Commodore, or Admiral, as Washington addressed him, met with difficulties in creating an efficient navy, and his force was wholly inadequate to protect the long line of coast and meet the vessels of the English navy, and he soon resigned and engaged in private armed vessels, as did his lieutenant, the famous John Paul Jones. He was successful in capturing many British vessels. In the collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society is a French engraving of him, which has a splendid figure and a handsome open countenance. It was circulated in France and this country in the early part of the war. The commodore's family clock has been presented to Brown University, by his granddaughter, Miss Elizabeth Angell. He died in 1802, and was buried at North Providence.
Stephen Hopkins was still more distinguished than the commo- dore. He was born March 7th, 1707. But little is known of his boy- hood, but he must, with the other sons of William, have been early taught to labor on the farm. There were no schools in his day, but his mother was a woman of marked talents and character, and no doubt instructed him in many things. It has come down to us that he inherited his abilities from her. His uncle Wilkinson, the sur- veyor, probably instructed him in that art, for we find him, still a youth, engaged in surveying. A strong passion for reading chacter- ized his mature life. He was also a ready writer. Besides his brill- iant correspondence with distinguished patriots in various parts of the land, and the able papers this signer of the declaration of inde- pendence wrote, he also penned a few lines which, being pertinent to our subject, we insert here, as it shows in poetic verse the pitiable condition of the first inhabitants of this town:
" Nor house, nor hut, nor fruitful field, Nor lowing herd, nor bleating flock,
Or garden that might comfort yield,
Nor cheerful, early crowing cock.
591
HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
" No orchard yielding pleasant fruit, Or laboring ox or useful plow; Nor neighing steed or browsing goat, Or grunting swine or feedful cow.
" No friend to help, no neighbor nigh, Nor healing medicine to relieve;
No mother's hand to close the eye, Alone, forlorn, and most extremely poor."
Stephen Hopkins married, June 27th, 1726, Sarah, the youngest daughter of Major Silvanus Scott, of Providence. He married early, being only 19 years of age, and his wife was about the same age. To create a home and a support for the newly married ones, his father gave him 70 acres of land, and his grandfather, Thomas Hopkins, bestowed upon his "loving grandson," as the will reads, an additional grant of 90 acres. The grandfather of Sarah was Mr. Richard Scott, of Provi- dence.
Four years after this marriage, the portion now Scituate, was set off from Providence, and Stephen Hopkins, then only 23 years of age, was the moderator chosen. This fact is significant of the very high opinion entertained of him in his native town, as a man of business and competent to preside over public meetings. Joseph Brown was chosen town clerk for the first year, an office which included the reg- istration of deeds, and Stephen Hopkins was elected the year after, and this office he held for ten successive years, and then resigned.
Mr. Hopkins removed to Providence in 1744, and purchased an estate on South Main street, at the corner of what is now Hopkins street, named after him, but formerly Bank lane, because the first bank in Rhode Island was located at the foot of it. He engaged in commerce at Providence, but was soon called to fill important places in the state, as chief justice and governor-appointed to the judgeship in 1739. No man was so often chosen as moderator of town meetings in Providence. He assisted astronomers in making observations on the transit of Venus, at Providence, having a high mathematical repu- tation. His zeal for liberty led him in early life, and later, to write and publish papers on the " Rights of the Colonies," and to hold cor- respondence with distinguished patriots in various parts of the land. His memory was very retentive, and his capacity great. He died July 13th, 1785. In the North Burial Ground, of Providence, is his grave; and there his state has erected a monument to his memory, on which, with other commendations, is inscribed these words: "His name is engraved on the immortal record of the Revolution, and can never die."
The children of Stephen Hopkins were: Rufus, born February 10th, 1727: John, born November 11th, 1728: Ruth, born in 1729, named after her grandmother Hopkins, died in infancy in 1731, and was buried in Scituate; Lydia, born in 1732, and probably died young; Silvanus, born October 16th, 1734; Simon, born August 25th, 1736, and George, the
592
HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
seventh and youngest child, born in 1739. All the sons except Simon, who died while a lad, were sailors, going to sea while boys, and all became masters of vessels but Silvanus, who became mate at eighteen, and would have been captain soon after, had he lived. Rufus was so far successful that he invested £500 in the Hope furnace, Scituate, in 1766, and became its superintendent. This furnace cast cannon which were used in the army and navy during the revolutionary war. There were two cannon usually cast at one time, and they were afterward bored.
While living at the furnace he received the appointment of judge, which he held for several years. He was one of a committee appointed by congress, December 14th, 1775, to superintend the building of ves- sels of war. He was concerned in the first cotton factory put up near the Hope furnace in 1807. Silvanus, one of his sons, was the first agent of the Hope Manufacturing Company. Rufus Hopkins died in August, 1809, at the house of Mr. Andrew Ralph, and was buried in the North Burial Ground, Providence. He is said to have greatly re- sembled his father, and the likeness in the picture of the signers of the declaration of independence, purporting to be that of Governor Hopkins, is his.
Captain John Hopkins, the second son of Stephen, in 1753 sailed for Cadiz, Spain, and died there July 20th, with the small-pox, aged 24 years. Silvanus, the third son of Stephen, was killed by Indians after he was cast away on the Cape Breton shore. Of the remaining chil- dren, Simon died at Providence, at the age of seven years, and George, the youngest, who married Ruth Smith, was lost at sea in the year 1775, with the vessel he commanded.
John Hulet and Berenice, his wife, resided in the northwestern part of the town about 1740. His grave is pointed out in a pasture back of the house of John Harris, Esq., a short hillock, marked by two wal- nut trees, and lying on the westerly side of the most northern one. Two rough moss-covered stones, one at each end of the grave, and without inscription, designate the last resting place of one who owned large tracts of land in the vicinity, but now sleeps unnoticed and un- known by the living generations about him. His transactions in deeds were numerous, and run from 1743 to 1763. In 1744 he bought 150 acres of Stephen Hopkins for £300, land commonly called "Oyster- shell Plain."
Benjamin Gorton, of Warwick, married John Hulet's daughter, Avis, July 18th, 1762. His son Mason married, the year following, October 23d, 1763, Elizabeth Mathewson, of Johnston. Mason Hulet removed to Vermont and settled at Wallingford, on the Otter creek, and has left numerous descendants in that state. John Hulet, in March, 1761, sold to Colonel William West the farm of 200 acres which he bought of Stephen Hopkins. He sold it for £40,000, a price not to be accounted for, except, we admit, the great depreciation of the cur-
.
593
HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
rency. Mr. Hulet was appointed, with Thomas Angell, pound keeper, in 1747. He is called "Captain " in his appointment of fence viewer in 1750. He was undoubtedly a man of considerable property for those days, and quite a dealer in lands. He sold to Boylston Brayton, of Smithfield, May 28th, 1763, two tracts of land, -- one lying in Gloces- ter, according to the deed, " the half of a farm whereon Ralph Well- man did formerly live, and bounded as in deed of William West to Eliphalet Eddy, Feb. 16, 1760, and also more particularly by the said Eddy to me, the said John Hulet, containing three hundred acres, more or less. The other tract is in Scituate, and is my homestead farm, and the same whereon I now dwell, and contains about two hun- dred and fifty acres, bounded northerly on land of James Wheeler, easterly on land of the same, and on land belonging to Capt. John Whipple, southerly on land of William West and westwardly on land of Charles Hopkins and Barnes Hall, and on land belonging to heirs of Joseph Wilkinson." This homestead farm would seem to have been very near the place of his burial. We find him buying at the same time of Benjamin Anthony, of Swansea, for 1,800 Spanish milled dollars, 2293 acres of land, where Thomas Knowlton once dwelt in Scituate, in part bounded by territory of heirs of Joseph Wilkinson. Mr. Hulet must have died soon after these last transactions, as we find no further mention of him in the town records. He is said to have died of fever after a very short illness.
Lieutenant-Governor West, who purchased the old homesead which Governor Hopkins sold to John Hulet, had for some time previous to 1761 been living in Scituate, and had resided a little west of said farm, where his son John afterward lived. He removed from North Kings- town to Scituate, and was chosen deputy. He was also elected to represent the town in a general convention held at East Greenwich, September 26th, 1786. In the appointment by the governor in 1775, of Eseck Hopkins to be general of troops to be raised for the defense of the shores of the Narragansett, Colonel West was placed second in command. We find him very active in town affairs during the revo- lutionary war. In May, 1777, he was made chairman of a committee to ascertain the number of effective soldiers still wanting to complete the continental battalion, then raising by the state. He was several times chosen as moderator of the town, and was a man of intelligence and enterprise, infusing energy and courage in the people.
In 1775 he put up the largest and most showy house that had ever been erected in Scituate. This house is on the Providence and Hart- ford turnpike, three miles west of the village of North Scituate. It is a gambrel-roofed house of two stories as it fronts the road, and of four stories on the end opening to the east, including the basement and the attic story. The house built by Lieutenant-Governor William West in 1776 was the one occupied a century afterward by Richard A. Atwood and his brother-in-law. Governor West was quite a farmer
38
594
HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
and kept a great many cows. He would often set off with a load of cheese to sell, valued at $1,500. He married Ellen Brown; his children were: William, Charles, John, Samuel, Hiram, Elsie, Olive, Ellen, Sally and Hannah. Job Randall married two of his daughters-Ellen for his first wife, and Sally for his second. Jeremy Philips married Elsie West, and Hannah married Mr. Gideon Smith, father of Mr. Russell Smith, of North Scituate village. The depreciation of conti- nental money ruined Governor West financially, as it did many other patriots of the revolution who trusted the government, and made his last years afflictive.
Edwin and his brother John Howland, living on and owning exten- sive portions of land in the northerly section of Scituate, sold to Jere- miah Smith of Providence, in 1788, 175 acres for $2,100, who put up on it a one-story gambrel-roof house, and died in 1816, aged 92 years. Mr. Martin Smith, his great-grandson, occupied a large two-story house, built by his father in 1817.
Richard Brown, living in Providence, attracted by the fine situation of the land for hunting grounds, procured, so tradition says, at about the cost of laying out and registering, a large tract of land. Richard Brown, Jr., June 5th, 1765, gave to his son Jesse 200 acres, saying: "it is the lot of land given to me by my grandfather, Richard Brown, April 28, 1744, and is on Mosquito Hawk Plain." Jesse settled on the spot, and also his brother Samuel. Mr. William Brownell, and after him Isaac S. Devereaux, of Providence, bought and lived there .. Richard Brown the senior lived to be an hundred years old.
At a town meeting held at Scituate, March 18th, 1730-31, the fo !- lowing officers were elected: Stephen Hopkins, moderator; Captain Thomas Angell, Lieutenant Joseph Wilkinson, Ezekiel Hopkins, Ben- jamin Wright, Benjamin Fish, Edward Phelon, councilmen; Lieutenant James Wilkinson, town treasurer; Thomas Barnes and John King, constables; Christopher Smith, fence viewer; Edward Sheldon and Thomas Harris, hemp viewers; Lieutenant Wilkinson, town sealer; Joseph Browne, town packer; Abraham Lockwood, Joseph Guile and Isaac King, surveyors of highways; Samuel King and Joseph Hopkins, overseers of the poor; Lieutenant Wilkinson and Benjamin Fish, deputies; Thomas Harris, grand juror; Jeremiah Hopkins, petty juror; Joseph Browne, clerk. Meetings were held at the dwelling house of Thomas Angell.
In the war of the revolution Scituate took a conspicuous part. On Sunday, December 8th, 1776, the British landed and took possession of Rhode Island and remained until October 25th, 1779. during which time the inhabitants were greatly oppressed. Joseph Knight acted an important part in the revolutionary war. He took command of a company in April, 1775. A list of his company April 20th, 1775, the day after the battle of Lexington, is here given: Joseph Knight, cap- tain; Samuel Wilbor, Benjamin Wood, Isaac Horton, John Hill,
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.