USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Lafayette, Rhode Island; a few phases of its history from the ice age to the atomic > Part 2
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As in the case of Beriah Brown, Huling apparently had already occupied a part of this land and had built a house thereon. For in 1703 he made a deed of gift of "half an acre of land to make use for building a meeting house for the worship and service of God, situated about 26 rods northeast of my now dwelling house in Kingstown." The church later built on this donated land is the Stony Lane Baptist Church, erected about 1710, and still standing. The Huling house men- tioned in this deed of gift must have been built before 1703, probably in part. It burned in 1906. Many of the older present generation will remember it as the home of "Jay" B. Wood, brother of the late Elder E. R. Wood.
Alexander Huling was prominent in the Town's af- fairs, his name occurs in many recorded land transac- tions, and he built several substantial buildings on his own property and on that of others. He had numerous descendants who have figured in the history of the Town, as well as in Lafayette's development from its beginning. He died in 172 5 and is buried in the church- yard adjoining his old home.
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LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
SAMUEL PHILLIPS is said to have migrated from Exeter, England, and was one of the early settlers to the south of Smith's Cocumcussoc. He built a house near the present Belleville railroad station, which came to be known as Phillips Castle and later as Mowbra Castle. The date of original construction is somewhere around 1700, and it is still standing, but additions and changes have materially altered its former appearance.
The land on which the Castle stands was purchased from the Colony Agents in 1709 by Samuel Phillips, Capt. John Eldred, William Cole, and John Carr. The deed covers 285 acres which extended from the present Post Road near the Belleville station, to the Ten Rod Road just above Collation Corners, then northwesterly along that highway to a "Rocky Swamp" in what is now East Lafayette. Some authorities designate this "Swamp" as the depression east of the Lafayette schoolhouse, locally known as the "Vale of Pero." But a swamp much more "rocky" is that on the land now owned by W. D. Kettelle. At the "Rocky Swamp," the Phillips purchase abutted on land of Abi- gail Phenix and John Hyams (Himes), of which men- tion will be made later. The tract was bounded on the south by the Annaquatucket (Shewatuck) River, the course of which had not then been obliterated by the overflowed area of the "Old Bog." It is likely that as in the cases of Brown and Huling, Samuel Phillips was already occupying the land he bought by this purchase.
Samuel Phillips was one of the early wardens of the old St. Paul's Church then located near Penderzeke's Corner, and was prominent in the Town's affairs. He died in 1736, at the age of 81, and was buried in the
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FAMILIES OF THE FIRST SETTLERS
historic churchyard of St. Paul's at the "Platform." He and his wife Elizabeth left several children, one of whom, Thomas, removed to the far western part of the Town. When that section was set off as a separate town in 1742, he, no doubt, was influential in naming it Exeter, in honor of the English home of his ances- tors. The line of descent from Samuel and Elizabeth Phillips shows some distinguished names in the civil, legal, and military history of the Town and Colony, with many families closely connected with the de- velopment of Lafayette's growth.
ABIGAIL PHENIX was the daughter of Thomas Sewall who is said to have been of Springfield and likewise said to have had a close relative on the May- flower. She married Alexander Phenix, presumably a Dutchman as he came from New York. He settled in Quidnesset and died there previous to 1687. Since her daughter had married Beriah Brown, it seems likely that the widowed Abigail lived with her daughter and son-in-law at the Beriah Manor, for a spell at least. Abigail is on record as saying of her grandson, Charles Brown, in later years, that she "had nussed him up from infancy."
This association with the Browns would have given her an insight into what was going on in land-sale bargains. So in 1709, she and John Hyams (Himes) bought from the Colony Agents 163 acres of land ex- tending all the way from a point on the Ten Rod Road just south of the first Rotary, along the south side of the Ten Rod, easterly through what is now Wickford Junction and Lafayette, to the "Rocky Swamp" where it abutted the land of Samuel Phillips on the east. On the south it was bounded by the Annaquatucket
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LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
(Shewatuck) River or Lafayette brook. Hyams (Himes) afterwards sold his easterly part of this land to Samuel Phillips.
Abigail built a house close to the river, far enough up to be in sight of the Beriah Manor, in 1711. She took her grandson, Charles Brown, to live with her. His mother, Abigail's daughter, apparently had died. The house, known to moderns as the Paul Hendrick house, was burned in 1936, and a new house was erected on its site by Nathaniel Hendrick, grandson of Paul. Abigail died in 1718, at the age of 70 or there- abouts, and was buried on her farm in what is now known as the Hendrick burying-ground. She left her estate to her grandson, Charles Brown, then a child, who grew to manhood, married, and raised quite a family. He located his sons on various farms he had bought in the vicinity, and at his death willed to son John the "old homestead farm" of his grandmother, Abigail Phenix.
From then on, in the development of Lafayette, this branch of the numerous Brown family had a con- tinuing and important part.
3.
A Primitive Eden in a Wilderness
THE TERRITORY OF which the foregoing pur- chases were a part was both a wilderness and a primi- tive Eden. It was not altogether trackless, for the
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A PRIMITIVE EDEN IN A WILDERNESS
natives had worn trails in many places in order to reach the Queen's Fort, the Great Plain, and their favorite spots for growing corn and other products. These trails radiated out from "headquarters," that is the dwelling-places of the sachems at Cocumcussoc and Devil's Foot, or such other centers of tribal authority.
Scattered through the region, especially on the Great Plain, one can picture clearings made by the natives for the cultivation of corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco. In season, the ripening of strawberries (Roger Williams says he has many times seen enough to fill a ship), chestnuts, walnuts, acorns, huckleberries, grapes, and other like bounties, testified to the fruit- fulness of Nature. Out of this her untutored native children made a joyous "Harvest Home" each year.
These lands also were well-stocked hunting grounds. There was an abundance of deer and other food game, while the fox, beaver, otter, raccoon, wolf, squirrel, and rabbit, besides the deer, furnished skins for cloth- ing and trade. Then, too, fish were a-plenty in the ponds and streams. Williams also says there were "many fowle upon the plains," such as geese, turkeys, cranes and pigeons. These birds furnished a variety of food as well as quantities of colored decorative feathers. There were springs and brooks of pure water, vast virgin forests of timber, and the possibilities of fertile meadow land in valleys.
Such were some of the features of the tracts upon which the English pioneers had located, with a keen sense of the advantages and possibilities of their pur- chases. But other eyes had been covetous of these lands, more particularly after the Indians had been ex-
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LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
terminated. For years, interests in Massachusetts and Connecticut had made claim upon what is now practi- cally all of Rhode Island. By 1709, the year of the sale by the Rhode Island Commissioners, a settlement of these disputes was well under way. The white settlers seemed to have had pioneers' confidence that all would be well in this regard, and so it proved to be.
4. Landlock and Wedlock
THE STRETCH OF LAND that was to become the site of the present village of Lafayette was split by the "Country Road," later to be known as the Ten Rod Road. For two miles on the north side of this highway, from Collation Corners to Huling's Corners, all the land was owned by Alexander Huling and his purchase associates. On the south side of the "Country Road," the ownership of the same two miles was divided between Samuel Phillips and his group, and Abigail Phenix with her Brown connections. At the western head of the highway, lay the Beriah Brown lands, while east of Collation Corners lay the vast land estates of Richard Smith. Thus the Lafayette site was landlocked by the holdings of a few families.
This community of land interest by these few fam- ilies was further cemented by wedlock. Alexander Huling had married a great-granddaughter of Richard Smith. Beriah Brown had married the daughter of
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LANDLOCK AND WEDLOCK
Abigail Phenix. His son, Alexander Brown, married the daughter of Alexander Huling, and Alexander Brown's daughter married Samuel Phillips, Jr.
Characteristic of the times, these interlocking wed- locks produced a numerous offspring whose bringing up and general welfare demanded necessities that to a large degree, had to be gained from the cultivation of the soil and the development of the natural resources of the region. And that was no mean job, even with the fertility of the soil and the family "riches" in other assets. As jolly old Moses Mawney said years after, at the christening and house-raising of a substantial building in a neighboring locality, "This place should have a name, and I christen it Scrabbletown because the folks who live here have to scrabble to make a living." The name has stuck to this day.
But what might have served to keep the former savage Indians alive, out of the primitive productive- ness of the territory, would never do for an English- man. He had a familiarity with other and better things in the way of seeds and tools and cattle and horses, in the mother country, or in more advanced settlements in the new country. Likewise, the elder housewives had become accustomed to household appliances of the simpler sort. (An idea of their variety and use may be gained from a visit to the South County Museum at Scrabbletown.) Consequently, they supplied them- selves at the trading places within reasonable reach. The village of Wickford had not yet become a market. In fact, its first house had not been built when these western settlements were already on their way to de- velopment of their lands and resources, and had built substantial houses and other buildings. Cocumcussoc,
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LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
Quidnesset, and East Greenwich, all earlier settle- ments, were near-by and available by well-established trails for limited trading. Tower Hill was farther off, and farther still were the thriving markets of Provi- dence, though accessible by the Pequot Trail.
5. Food the First Essential
CORN WAS A staple food already established by the Indians and its virtues extolled by Roger Williams. But the crude cultivation by the savages produced only meager crops considering the acreage used. The Eng- lish soon bettered its production by a ratio of 80 to I. Some of the cornfields in the Lafayette area were amazingly large for the early days. The Brown fields to the north and west of the Manor were extensive, while the western part of the Huling purchase was a rich source of the grain, as well as a good part of the land of Abigail Phenix. An old gentleman, now near- ing his nineties, recalls that as a boy he heard an old aunt say that when she was a girl a huge cornfield on the Phillips land extended along the south side of the Ten Rod Road from the Vale of Pero nearly to Colla- tion Corners. Large families and large herds required such extensive cultivation. Later, crops of rye and wheat added to the cereal supply for house and farm and market.
For the conversion of grain, several grist mills were
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FOOD THE FIRST ESSENTIAL
set up. Many of these have disappeared in fire and flood and storm, or from just plain decay. One of these was at Davisville and another at Scrabbletown. Farther off, was the grist mill at Pettaquamscutt, operating be- fore 1700. Preceding the Tourjee mill at the edge of Quidnesset, was a grist mill, and the Greenes were operating a grist mill at Potowomut in the early 1700's. At Bissell's (Hamilton), a grist mill was built as early as 1686.
More pertinent to our topic, however, is the state- ment of Nat Hendrick in commenting on the Abigail Phenix farm. It will be recalled that she built her house in 1711, on the upper reaches of the Shewatuck. In clearing out the brook some years ago, just above the old house, he says several large hand-hewn timbers were dug out of the swampy borders. No person then living had memory of any such structure as the heavy timbers implied. So it was guessed that the "find" com- prised the relics of a grist mill or a saw mill of very early days. That would mean that the Shewatuck was "blessing the land with its charity" almost from the start of the western settlement.
With grain a-plenty, the early settlers soon reveled in beef, pork, mutton, bacon and ham and eggs, milk and cheese and butter, johnnycakes, rye and wheat bread, with native and cultivated fruits and berries and nuts, flesh of game animals, wild and tame fowl, fish from the brooks and ponds, and shell and other fish from short trips to the shores of the Bay. From such a fare and a vigorous life in the open for most of the year, one can easily establish a connection with the "ripe old age" attained by many of these settlers and their descendants.
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LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
6. The Housing and Help Problems
SHELTER FOR BOTH man and beast in this primi- tive region was another prime necessity. Doubtless, many of the earliest buildings have disappeared owing to their hasty and simple construction and the make- shift character of the materials used. Substantial build- ings for homes, as families increased, became more and more imperative. In some cases, this emergency was met by piecemeal construction or by the complete replacement of former rude structures as materials and tools became more readily available. Such of the old houses as have been preserved show surprising in- genuity in planning and arrangement, as inspection will reveal. Their survival, after more than 200 years is a tribute to the skill and thoroughness of the builders. The Beriah Manor, the West (Josie Brown) house, and the Fones (John Phillips) house are still standing. The Alexander Huling house was burned in 1906 while still occupied, and the Abigail Phenix house burned in 1936, was occupied at the time of its de- struction. These all testify to the skill and thorough- ness of the men who tamed the wilderness.
Nature had furnished much raw material in the abundant forests and ledges, as well as in the common field stones and rocks which turned up in the process of clearing. The humble axe and crowbar and sledge
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THE HOUSING AND HELP PROBLEMS
played a laborious part in the shaping of this material. Then came the saw-pit, where boards and timbers were equally laboriously fashioned, to be followed by the saw mill, usually the twin accompaniment of the grist mill. Power came from the Shewatuck and other streams in the neighborhood. Lime was available from the burning of clam shells and later from the lime- stone kilns to the north. Bricks were early obtained from Massachusetts and from clay banks at Point Judith.
In the early 1700's, we have, from an old account book of a Warwick merchant, a list of building hard- ware and supplies that were sold. Most likely, the trad- ing posts at Cocumcussoc and other near-by places had similar stocks. The list includes board-nails, scythes, shears, bricks, hair and quahaug shells (for plaster), shingles, clapboards, window frames, etc.
Workmen for the more skilled jobs could be re- cruited in limited numbers from the increasing popula- tion of the Town. Common labor was performed by the more or less strolling and adventurous whites, by negroes (some as slaves), and stray Indians, both men and women, of depreciated native blood. By 1730, after the setting off of South Kingstown, the Town had a population of 2105. The development of the western part of the Town, as land was bought, farms established, and the original settlers' families multiplied, must have accounted for a large part of this increase.
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LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
7. Women and the Winning of the Wilderness
WHILE THE MEN of the early 1700's were pre- occupied with the clearing and cultivation of land, with the construction of homes and other buildings, the care of flocks and herds, the harvesting of crops, and the trading and marketing of their produce, the women of the times surely had their hands and minds full in the cares of the household.
First of all, were the numerous children in nearly every family. The care and up-bringing of these was an every-day task the year round. Then the cooking for adult and child alike kept the huge fireplaces in operation almost continually, from the break of day till the darkness fell, and into the night. There were butter and cheese to make, wool to card and spin and weave, all by hand, clothing to make and mend, ele- mentary instruction of the children, nursing and care of the sick and aged, with the selection, preparation, and administration of medicinal herbs, and the thou- sand and one other items of women's household work "that is never done," while "men's work is only from sun to sun." And all this with only the few and simple gadgets obtainable.
Housewives of those days, here in western North Kingstown, were home-bodies. They had to be. In
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THE WINNING OF THE WILDERNESS
some cases they were helped in their housework by transient women, mostly negroes or Indians, who per- formed many of the menial tasks. Possibly a slave negress or two might be found indoors, just as a few male slaves might be found in the outdoor work. But none of these families had the luxurious living com- forts, in either help or household equipment, that was already beginning to appear in the richer families of the Boston Neck, Pettaquamscutt and Point Judith regions to the south.
Still, a few "luxuries" had crept in up this way. Traveling shoemakers appeared on the scene, making short stops at each house, where they plied their trade to fill existing needs for new footwear or for repair- ing the old. At times, an expert traveling weaver might make his rounds to do some more fancy job on a hand loom than the home folks were capable of doing. The wife of Richard Smith of Cocumcussoc brought with her from England the recipe for making the celebrated Cheshire cheese. In the making and sale of the product, she started an industry that was a mainstay of in- come on every sizable farm in the neighborhood. Much of this cheese went by vessel to Newport, whence it was shipped abroad and created an unfill- able demand. The secret was that the full cream con- tent of the milk was used instead of using part of it for butter. Neighborhood carpenters, unknowingly advertising relief to weary, cheese-making housewives, took up the manufacture of cheese presses. These at once became the indispensable equipment of every cheese-making household.
As the decades of the 1700's deepened, the life of hardships and bare necessities of the wilderness slowly
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LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
proceeded on its way to forgetfulness. Population and houses increased, roads were improved, carriages, though crude, lifted the region out of semi-isolation, comforts of home and person were multiplied, social contacts became closer, and the care-burdened house- wife, once a recluse in the wilderness, came to enjoy a share of the leisure and pleasure of the oncoming period of prosperity her own sacrifices had done so much to bring about. Though "older grown," she had the satisfaction and the pride of beholding her sturdy sons and daughters already entering upon careers, even if humble, that would add to the luster and strength of the Colony, and of the Nation that was to be.
8. Beriah Brown of the Third Generation
Sheriff of King's County and a Politician of Parts
THIS NOTED BROWN of the third generation was born in 1715. He was the son of Alexander and Honor (Huling) Brown, and grandson of two of the original settlers, Beriah Brown and Alexander Huling. His early youth was spent in the Beriah Manor, for his father inherited that estate when the boy Beriah was
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BERIAH BROWN
2 years old. His education was the usual household in- struction, aided by the talents of a traveling tutor or "boarding-around" teacher. The latter luxury indicates that the Brown family had acquired substantial means through its land and farm operations. That he was educated beyond the ordinary run of his time is re- vealed in his books and papers, both as farmer and as Sheriff.
His land interests were extensive for he inherited from his father not only the Beriah Manor estate but some 50 acres of fertile land that his father had bought from Alexander Huling. This latter was located at Huling's Corners, as it was known for many years. More recently the locality has been known as Cran- ston's Corners from its ownership by the late George T. Cranston. Some of this 50 acres is still owned by Huling descendants.
Such extensive interests called for this third genera- tion Beriah's active participation in the growing affairs of the Town, which resulted in an early training in politics. Thus came about his appointment as County Sheriff. No doubt his maternal relationship with Daniel Updike, County Attorney and later Attorney Gen- eral of Rhode Island, helped materially.
He served as Sheriff for 40 years, traveling exten- sively on horseback throughout his jurisdiction, and entertaining lavishly, for those days, at the Beriah Manor. In this way, he acquired a wide and influential acquaintance with the prominent people and officials of the Town and Colony. An outstanding historical event in his Sheriff's career was his connection with a celebrated murder case in 1751 when one Carter was convicted of the slaying of a trader named Jackson.
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LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
The details of this crime have been written into many history books. The death warrant in the case, with its four black seals intact, was carefully preserved by Sheriff Brown and handed down to posterity.
The Sheriff's business-like system is evidenced by numerous paid bills that were filed away, with numer- ous court documents, wills, deeds, marriage certificates, and the like. His grocery account with George Northup has many, many items of "one gallon rum," a prevalent beverage of the period. The frequency of such items indicates an equal frequency of guests at the Manor. Several inventories of prize ships captured during the Revolutionary War are among the papers. These show that from one seizure alone, 500 pun- cheons of rum were taken, the equivalent of around 40,000 gallons of modern measure.
And with the coming of the Revolution, the Sheriff was indeed a very busy man. He received, and pre- served, a copy of Governor Wanton's proclamation offering a reward of 100 pounds for the arrest and conviction of the persons who "feloniously destroyed His Majesty's Ship Gaspee," in 1772. He received various other proclamations having to do with prepar- ing for and carrying on the War. There were notices and descriptions of deserters, warrants for seizing contraband goods on the highways, and warnings for the apprehension of criminals wanted for various offenses. In one of these latter, the Sheriff was directed to "raise a hue and cry."
The Sheriff's diary shows him as a great traveler on both personal and official business. He was one of a party that took a horseback trip to the famous Susque- hanna purchase in Pennsylvania. The number of times
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BERIAH BROWN
the party "stopped and oated" is a frequent item of this journey. Other travel appears to have been on political jaunts, judging from the people seen and the discus- sions held. There is much correspondence on politics of the day, with applications for appointment as deputy sheriffs, jailers, and like positions which were more or less at the Sheriff's command.
Governors of the Colony sought his political aid. His close friend, Governor Stephen Hopkins, writes that "our enemy is using that mortal weapon, money." But later, a political associate of the Governor in Providence writes to urge the election of Hopkins for another term as Governor, and incloses $100 to further the cause. The same letter asks the Sheriff to raise additional funds in King's County. Governor Fenner writes a letter of consolation on the death of the Sheriff's father and regrets his inability to attend the funeral "on account of a severe pain in the stom- ach."
Sheriff Brown was a frequent traveler along the highway that traverses the whole length of the present village of Lafayette. In his later years, he must have sensed the signs of a closer-knit community developing there. Land, in smaller lots, was changing hands all along the road, and a house, now and then, was being built. At the natural fall in the Shewatuck at the pres- ent mill dam, some primitive industry was being talked about, if not in actual operation.
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