USA > Rhode Island > Kent County > East Greenwich > History of the town of East Greenwich and adjacent territory, from 1677 to 1877 > Part 5
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The Narragansetts, or some other race who inhabited this country previous to the Indians, manufactured articles of earthern ware from this same deposit of clay, Directly opposite the village of East Greenwich is a tract of land called Potowomut, and at the north end of this tract are
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vast quantities of quahaug shells. It is evident that these shells were carried to this spot by the former inhabitants of this continent, as they still bear the marks of fire. Among these shells are found great numbers of stone ar- row heads and fragments of ancient pottery. These pieces of pottery contain the same coarse gravel which is found in the clay from Gould's Mount, showing that the people who made this carthern ware, were not possessed of the conveniences for sifting and grinding the clay, as the moderns do when preparing it for use. The articles thus made were unglazed, and evidently made from the clay in the same state as when dug from the deposits. The writer of this history has a number of fragments of this pottery in his possession, and once had a complete jar or vase found in an Indian grave, which is now in the possession of Dr. Parsons. The late Dr. Usher Parsons said it was made by covering a crookneck squash with a coating of clay and then baking in a wood fire until it was sufficiently hard to retain its shape. In this deposit of shells are found quanti- ties of arrow and spear heads of stone. These arrows and spears are made of a kind of flint called horn-stone, which is not found in Rhode Island, and we believe nowhere south of New Hampshire or Maine-where it is very abun- dant. The race, therefore, which used them, must have had some traffic with those who inhabited these northern regions, or otherwise they must have traveled a great distance to procure them. One great mystery is to know how they were able to cut such hard stones into such thin sharp-pointed arrow heads, as they certainly did not possess those fine steel hammers such as were used to make gun flints.
CALICO PRINTING.
Extract from Judge Staples's " Annals of Providence : ".
" About the year 1788, John Fullam worked a stocking loom in Providence, and in 1794 Messrs. Schaub, Tissot and Dubosque, were engaged in printing calicoes ; they used cotton cloth imported from the East Indies and wooden blocks to impart the desired figures and colors. Previous to this however, by several years, calico printing in the same manner was carried on at East Greenwich; this it is supposed was the first calico printing done in America. The Rhode Island Historical Society have, in their cabinet in Providence some of the calico first printed, and some of the blocks first used."
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It appears, then, that our village has the credit of estab- lishing the first calico printing works on this continent. A man by the name of Dawson first set up the business of printing calico in East Greenwich, and the print works were in an old building which formerly stood on the lot now be- longing to Mrs. Phebe Davis and Mrs. Ruth Brown, at the north end of the village, and which was torn down within a few years. The printing was done on linen cloth, which was spun, woven and bleached by the women of our village and its vicinity. The linen thread of which this cloth was made, was spun by hand on the small linen wheel operated by the foot, then woven into cloth on the common hand- loom, and then bleached in the sunshine. This bleaching was a long and tedious process, and entirely different from the chemical bleaching of the present day. The long web of linen cloth was laid on the grass, stretched out and fastened to the ground by wooden pegs, and then constantly sprinkled with water, until the sun's rays, acting on the cloth, changed the brown tow-cloth into pure white linen, ready for the calico printer. A calico, or as it was then called a chintz dress, was at that time a rare and costly article, and ranked as high in the scale of fashion as the silks and velvets do now. As there was little or none of the calico in the shops for sale, every family made their own cloth and then carried it to the printing establishment to be printed, each person selecting their own pattern and colors. The patterns were very neat and pretty, and the colors remarkably brilliant, much more so than the calico of the present day; but those brilliant tints were owing to the material on which they were printed, as linen will take color better than cotton. There are a number of specimens of this linen calico printed here more than ninety years ago, in this village at the present time.
An old lady, who was living here until within a few years, and who spun, wove, and had printed a number of pieces of this calico, gave me an animated description of the man- ners and customs of the people of those times, their amuse- ments and social pleasures. She said that when a family had a piece of cloth printed it would be kept for a long time before it was made up into dresses, so that they could exhibit it to their friends and neighbors, and it was made the excuse for many an afternoon visit, to drink tea, and to talk over and admire.
Afternoon and evening parties were not then so formal
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and exclusive as now ... Our village was not divided into so many different circles as at present, but consisted of only two divisions-those who behaved with propriety and those who did not. It was unnecessary also to send out cards of invitation, as manners and fashions were very plain.
The dress of the men consisted generally of cloth man- ufactured in their own houses. Laborers of almost every description wore leather aprons, but the best suit of the opulent was of English manufacture made in a plain style. Some who were a little flashy would wear a cocked hat and have their hair powdered, with their hair clubbed or queued. Sometimes they would buy extra hair for the pur- pose of giving the club or queue the better effect. Women of the same neighborhood would visit each other wearing a checked apron, a striped loose-gown, somewhat resembling the modern sacques, a handkerchief over the shoulders, and a sun-bonnet. Then they would divert themselves over a cup of Bohea tea, with those delicious short biscuits and cakes. A few who considered themselves a little superior would wear a silk or calico gown, with a long ruffle cuff, a lawn apron, a little roll of wool something like a pin-cush- ion on the head, with the hair smoothly combed over it, which they called a " commode."
On the infrequent holidays the young men amused them- selves in the lots, playing ball, shooting at poultry, or at a target, or now and then at wrestling and jumping for a wa- ger. But the highest frolics were the large quilting parties. After the quilt was finished and rolled up out of the way, a dance was next in order. The music was supplied by the violin of an old negro named Prince Greene, one of the servants of General Greene. Reels, contra-dances, and a dance called " fore and after," were popular at that period. Quadrilles, polkas, and waltzes were then unknown. At harvest time, the young men would gladly travel the long miles to a husking party on a pleasant evening, as the farmers generally made a great feast on such occasions.
Among the curiosities to be seen in the State Genealog- ical Rooms at Newport is an antique spinning-wheel, that was made and used more than a century prior to the inven- tion of the spinning-jenny, which now whirls so busily in our great factories, performing so speedily and so well the work of hundreds of hands. In its construction the old wheel tells of its antiquity. It is made of oak and maple, and it is finished with so much care as to indicate that it
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was not made by machinery, but carefully and laboriously wrought out by hand. Its early history is unknown. It was no doubt made either in England or Ireland. Some time ago it came into the possession of E. H. Pease, Esq., being a gift from its former owner, Miss Eleanor Fry, a lady of East Greenwich. In a letter addressed to Mr. Pease, she gives the later history of the old wheel :
" In 1754, it came to my father's house in East Green- wich, from Narragansett; it had been in America nearly one hundred years when it was brought here; in 1777, 1 spun on it linen yarn enough to weave one piece of lawn handkerchiefs, twelve in number, as good as those imported from England; the ladies here were emulous to excel, and were so patriotic that they chose the fabrics of their own country, and toiled with their own hands to spin lawn for their own dresses; the wheel was given me by my father, Samuel Fry."
In a subsequent letter, Miss Fry, who was more than eighty years old when she wrote it, says, in relation to a spinning party : "It was done in 1789, to celebrate the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and to encourage manufacturing in Rhode Island. On that occasion forty- eight patriotic ladies assembled at the Court-House in East Greenwich, with their own wheels, their own flax, and for their own use spun one hundred and seventy-three skeins of linen yarn, in one day, from sunrise to sunset. One lady spun seven skeins and one knot-that being the most spun by any one of the company.
" The young lady who spun the most yarn on that day was Miss Lydia Arnold, afterwards Mrs. Lydia Greene, wife of Dr. Jeremiah Greene; there were several who spun six skeins in the same time; the usual amount was two skeins in a day for cach to spin."
How interesting is this reminisence of a custom in vogue in the carly times of our country, and patriotically observed in the midst of the stirring scenes and important events of the Revolution. These "spinning matches " were of an- cient date and of long continued observance throughout New England, and annually attracted much attention. Doubtless they aroused the deepest kind of excitement among our grandmothers. And how patriotic they were ! They preferred fabrics of home-growth to foreign manufac- tures. Even the simple finery in which they choose to in-
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dulge must be of native production, and in their publio trials of skill and activity they forget not their beloved country. That "good old time," as well as nearly all of those noble souls who stamped upon it the imperishable impress of their characters, has passed away forever, and all is changed.
In gazing upon this old spinning-wheel-this curious and venerable relic of almost two hundred years-our im- agination reverts to the match spoken of by Miss Fry, when forty-eight young ladies of East Greenwich assembled in the Court House, and, in the presence of an excited mul- titude, all day long plied their quick and nimble fingers in the old-fashioned accomplishment of spinning. From the rising of the sun to its setting their wheels revolved merrily ; and what a buzzing there must have been in that room, and how interesting to witness such a scene under such circumstances.
The Miss Eleanor Fry mentioned above was well known and affectionately remembered by many people of this vil- lage as Cousin Ellen Fry, who was in her later years a rigid Quaker, and a strict observer of the discipline and customs of that society; always known as a kind friend and comforter in times of illness and affliction. In her earlier years she was a gay young lady in the high-toned society which then existed in East Greenwich, mingling in festivities of the day, and dancing with grace the stately minuet. Music was then a rare accomplishment, though two pianos were owned in this village previous to the year 1800-one belonging to Mrs. Ray Greene, mother of the present Governor William Greene, and the other to Mrs. Anne Greene, widow of Nathaniel, son of General Greene.
Cousin Ellen, in conversation, mentioned that she once drank tea at General Varnum's house on Pearce street, with Lafayette and other French and American officers, at the time of Sullivan's expedition to Rhode Island, and that one of these officers paid her a very delicate compliment. A yellow slip of paper in faded ink was found carefully folded away in an old receipt book, which came into the possession of one who valued it for the sake of its former owner. These lines were written upon it, and it is quite probable that we now read the delicate compliment to which she alluded :
" For man to bow to man below Is called Idolatry I know, But when Angelic forms appear Like thine, 'tis duty to revere."
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The ancient dame who, in her gray age had become the universal Cousin Ellen of her quiet village, had not for- gotten the time of her brilliant youth, when as the beauti- ful Miss Eleanor she shone in the polished society that as- sembled in the congenial centre afforded by the spirited little town, so deeply stirred in sympathy with the changes and chances of Revolutionary fortunes. The homely lines with their well-worn compliment, were perhaps penned and presented by some honest provincial volunteer, and glorified to girlish imagination by the halo of patriotic devotion. This scrap of crumbling paper, with its faintly traced lines, was a magical link which still bound her to the lingering past. It was the potent talisman which called up about her, as she sat, lonely in the shadows of age, shining vis- ions of the power, the triumphs and the glories of youth.
SALTPETRE WORKS.
During the Revolutionary War, saltpetre became a very scarce article. Previously all the nitre used in this coun- try was imported from Europe; but at the beginning of hostilities the supply from this source was cut off. Nitre being an essential ingredient in the composition of gunpow- der, the general government gave its attention to the encour- agement of the manufacture of saltpetre. Richard Math- ewson united with others in the undertaking of manufact- uring it. The saltpetre works were erected near the old windmill grounds on Division street, on a lot still called the saltpetre lot. The earth which produced the nitre was col- lected from cellars and from the dirt under the foundations of the old buildings in the village.
CARD MANUFACTURE.
About the time of the erection of the saltpetre works, Richard Mathewson began the business of making wire. The war preventing the importation of the article, wire was very scarce and expensive. Mr. Mathewson used horse- power for drawing the wire, and the building occupied by him for this purpose, stood on the lot at the corner of Main and Meeting streets.
About the year 1790, Richard Mathewson and Earl Mowry commenced the manufacture of woolen cards in East Greenwich, and this was the first establishment of the kind in this country.
4
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Earl Mowry invented and constructed all the different machines necessary for the business; those for puncturing the holes in the leather and those for cutting and shaping the teeth. Although at the present time machines are used for this purpose, which puncture the leather, cut, shape and insert the teeth in the card, yet at that time a number of different processes were required to produce a card. First, the leather, after being cut into suitable dimensions, for the cards of different sizes, was put into the machine which made the holes for the reception of the teeth. These teeth were made by another separate machine, which cut, bent and shaped the wire into the proper form of card-teeth. The wire, which was of different sizes, suitable for cards which were to be used for fine or coarse wool, came in the form of skeins like skeins of yarn. It was placed on a reel, whence it was wound off by the machine as it made the teeth. The machine itself was a very complicated and curious affair, and five or six of this description were re- quired in the business of card making, which was then a tedious process, while at present the requisite apparatus occupies a space of only two or three feet. Then, after the leather was prepared, every card-tooth was inserted separately, by the fingers of women and children. This card factory at that time furnished employment for a num- ber of persons in the village and vicinity, and many families depended on it as their only means of support. They were paid by the dozen cards for inserting the teeth into the leather, or, as it was called "setting cards."
So common was this employment then, that when the women went out to " spend the afternoon," or evening with their neighbors, instead of their sewing, embroidery or knitting, they carried their cards and tin-pan of teeth. A number of young girls also found constant employment at the factory, occupied in examining the teeth, pulling out all that were crooked and defective, and inserting perfect ones in their places.
When Messrs. Mathewson and Mowry commenced the business of card making they made what were called " hand cards," used principally by the farmers' families for straight- ening the fibres of wool, and forming it into rolls, ready for spinning. But when the carding machines, driven by water power went into operation, and still later when the business of carding and spinning cotton was begun in this country, they turned their attention to making the larger
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and more expensive kind of cards required for this purpose. They furnished all the cards used in this country for a number of years after the cotton manufacture was intro- duced, and indeed until the machine which does all the work itself was invented.
The card manufactory was in the dwelling house now owned by Mrs. LeBaron, nearly opposite the Updike House.
TANNERIES.
As early as 1780 a number of tanneries were established in East Greenwich. The earliest one was by Nathan Greene, on the lot now owned and occupied by Dr. James H. Eldridge ; another, owned and worked by Caleb Greene, was located a short distance above the Orion Mill, on the stream which supplies the fountains for the use of the mill ; another on Queen street, between Marlboro and Duke streets, was owned by Martin Miller, and another at the north end of the village on Main street belonged to Robin- son Pearce. The process of tanning at that period was entirely different from the present method. It is now done in a short time by the use of chemicals and machinery; then it required several months by hand labor to complete the process. Most of the bark used in tanning was brought from Maine and sold by the cord like fire-wood. The man- ner of grinding the bark, was a very clumsy and inefficient one. A circular platform with a deep groove on its outer edge was laid down, then a large heavy stone shaped like a grindstone was made to revolve on its axis, with its edge in the groove, until the bark was crushed sufficiently for use. Afterwards a bark mill was invented similar in its operation to the old-fashioned coffee mill, which ground it much finer, with less time and labor. The tan-vats were wooden tanks sunk into the earth level with its surface, filled with alternate layers of bark and hides, and left to soak until the salts of tannin had converted the skins into leather. The process was completed by saturating the leather with a horrible smelling oil, called gurry, the same which is now used for medicine, under the name of cod liver oil. These tanneries supplied the surrounding country with all the leather then used.
ยท HATS.
There were three extensive hat manufactories in East Greenwich prior to 1800. The principal one was owned
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by John Casey, who employed a number of workmen, and the building was located on the lot now occupied by the large brick block belonging to the firm of Browning & Fitz. Another hat shop owned by Daniel Davis was on the lot where the Greenwich Bank Building now stands, and the other, owned and managed by Ezra Simmons & Sons, was in the house on the corner of Main and Queen streets, now owned by Miss Lydia Simmons, the only remaining descend- ant of the once large family of Ezra Simmons. This family will be remembered by the people of this village for their talent and eccentricity. Chaloner Simmons possessed a taste for painting and a genius for caricature, which had it been cultivated, would have made him celebrated ; but intemperance, that bane of genius, killed him at middle age. The other two brothers, Caleb and Harry, were steady, in- dustrious men, and assisted their father in the hat business, until the invention of machines for making hats destroyed their trade. The old man and his two sons would make up a quantity of hats, (all of the same shape), and then with as large bundles as they could possibly carry in their hands, they would trudge off (single file, one behind the other) among the factories on the Pawtuxet, until the hats were all sold.
The method of making hats at that period was a long and difficult process. The hat body as it was then called was formed in this manner : a block of wood in the form of a cone, wet, was placed on a large table, then the workman, holding a long bow suspended from the ceiling, in one hand, would snap the string of the bow among the wool on the table, until the wet block was covered with the fibres of the wool of a sufficient thickness to form a hat. The block with its covering of wool was then placed in boiling water, until the wooly fibres became felted sufficiently to remove it from the block. A large copper kettle set in brick with a furnace beneath for heating water was placed in the centre of the room with a wooden frame around the kettle similar in shape to the hopper of a grist mill, only octagon, in- stead of square. The workmen, standing around with the palms of their hands covered with sole leather to protect them from the hot water, would roll and squeeze the hats until they were firmly felted. The hats were then shaped on blocks until they assumed the desired form; then lined, bound and trimmed, they were ready for sale. Among other eccentricities, whenever Mr. Simmons saw a stranger
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in the street wearing a hat whose shape was new to him, he would take it from his head, and after examining it thoroughly, would replace it on the man's head, as if it was nothing singular.
COTTON MANUFACTURE.
The first cotton mill in the Town of East Greenwich was in the western part of the township, about three miles from the village. It was built, I have been informed, by Dr. Tillinghast, and was called the Tillinghast Factory. It was on a small stream at the head of Hunt's River, and is still there although enlarged. It was built as early as 1812 or 1814, and the cotton yarn spun there was woven into cloth by the farmers' wives and daughters, who resided in the vicinity, on hand-looms. The mill is now owned, I believe, by a Mr. Moon.
In the year 1827 a company under the name of "The East Greenwich Manufacturing Co.," built a steam mill at the foot of King street near the Jail. It was a stone building four stories in height, and in size about fifty by a hundred feet. The company consisted of Daniel Harris, Agent ; Ezra Pollard, Superintendent ; and Dr. Charles Eldridge, Albert C. Greene, Fones and Wicks Hill, C. W. and Daniel Greene and James P. Austin. The mill contained about seven thousand spindles and one hundred and twenty looms. The enterprise was not a success, and in a few years the company became bankrupt. Previous to the failure of the concern, Ezra Pollard left it, and built a woolen mill on Duke street. The cotton mill was destroyed by fire February, 1839. The ruins, with the site, were pur- chased by J. C. Sanford, of North Kingstown, and Waterman & Arnold, of Providence. After laying the foundation for the present mill, they abandoned the con- cern and sold it to the firm of Pierce, Salisbury & Co., who erected the mill now standing there. The present mill when first built, was about the same size as the first one, but it stands in a reversed position. In 1845, Pierce, Salis- bury & Co. sold the mill with the other property connected with it, to J. C. Peckham, of Providence, who filled it with machinery and worked it about four years, and then, after removing the machinery to Olneyville, sold the whole concern to Thomas J. Hill, who is the owner at this present time. Mr, Hill afterwards built an addition on the south
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side nearly as large as the original building, and named the factory "The Bay Mill."
In 1836 C. W. and D. Greene, Wm. P. Salisbury, and others in New York, built a large brick mill on Main street, at the south end of the village-then outside of the com- pact part-it was filled with machinery for the manfacture of fine broadcloths and called "The Union Mill." The company, being unable to compete with foreign produc- tion, soon failed, and after removing the machinery the mill was closed for a number of years, when it was pur- chased by Benjamin Cozzens. Mr. Cozzens built a large addition on the west end of the mill, and importing ma- chinery from England put it in operation as a cotton mill. After Mr. Cozzens failed in business, the property was purchased by Adams & Butterworth, who now operate it for the manufacture of print cloths. The mill is now called " The Orion Mill," and runs about 15,000 spindles.
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