USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Lafayette, Rhode Island; a few phases of its history from the ice age to the atomic > Part 4
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
The name "Greene" given to four of these children, has continued to be used in successive generations. Patience, Nathaniel, Mary and Hannah each married a Gardiner, Ruth married a Nason, Sarah married a Smith, James married an Arnold, and Paul married Lydia Peckham Brown, a descendant of the original settler, Beriah Brown.
James Hendrick, the "orphan boy" father of this extensive family, died in 1860. The mother, Hannah Greene Hendrick, died in 1853. The most of their descendants have remained in North Kingstown or neighboring towns. They have been enterprising and
44
LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
substantial citizens, well educated as the times and facilities would permit, and have been quiet but force- ful factors in their respective communities. Among them have been prosperous farmers, skilled men in , various trades, merchants, teachers, salesmen, musi- cians, soldiers and sailors, mill owners and real estate operators.
Paul Greene Hendrick, who was a resident of this vicinity all his life, spent the most of his years on the Abigail Phenix farm, on the upper Shewatuck, living in the original Phenix house built in 1711. His wife, Lydia Peckham Brown, was born on this farm, and Paul acquired it through her. He cultivated it exten- sively and profitably. Lydia died in 1884 and Paul continued to live in the old house up to his death in 1908.
Paul and Lydia (Brown) Hendrick had 3 children, Charles Greene, Francis Marion, and Waity Anna.
Charles Greene Hendrick served in the U. S. Navy throughout the Civil War, was a member of the Provi- dence police force after the War, and retired to take up farming at Pleasant Valley (Scrabbletown). He married Abby Randall. They had no children. Charles died in 1922.
Francis Marion Hendrick married Helena A. Vaughn of East Greenwich. He acquired his father's farm and built a modern cottage house on the western part of the land, facing the Ten Rod Road. He carried on farming operations in an extensive way, with the newer ideas and equipment, and was most successful. Both he and his wife were active members of the La- fayette Advent Christian Church, and were highly esteemed in the community. In 1915, he sold a part of
45
THE HENDRICK FAMILY
his land, retired from active pursuits, and went to live with his son Nathaniel at Wickford Junction. He died in 1933. Francis Marion and Helena (Vaughn) Hen- drick had three children.
Waity Ann Hendrick, daughter of Paul and Lydia (Brown) Hendrick, married Charles B. Jones of East Greenwich. She died in 1899. They had no children.
Nathaniel Greene Hendrick, son of Francis Marion and Helena (Vaughn) Hendrick, was born in 1876. He married Helen W. James of Richmond, R. I. They have one child, a son, Paul J. While Nathaniel was reared in a farming family, his bent was more toward a business career. With a good education, finished off with a course in accounting, he entered the mer- cantile field for a time. He also did some building. Having acquired some parcels of real estate by inheri- tance and purchase, he embarked in the real estate and insurance business. To this he added the line of auc- tioneering and established a prosperous agency in all these lines. He has an attractive residence at Wickford Junction, on land formerly a part of the Abigail Phenix farm and maintains his business headquarters there. His wife was a teacher in the public schools for a while, but for some years has been a busy helpmeet for her husband in his real estate affairs. He and his wife now own a small part of the Abigail Phenix farm, which his grandfather, Paul Greene Hendrick, had acquired, and own and operate several pieces of rental property in other parts of the Town.
Susan Belle Hendrick, daughter of Francis Marion and Helena (Vaughn) Hendrick, was born in 1878. She adopted the profession of nurse, and never mar- ried. She owns a substantial part of the original Abigail
46
LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
Phenix farm on which she has a fine home. With Mary E. Pearce, she owns a spacious house and at- tractive estate occupying a further part of what was the Phenix farm. Both these properties are on the south side of the Ten Rod Road just above Wickford Junc- tion.
Francis Marion Hendrick, Jr., was born in 1887, and died January 21, 1917. He married Charlotte Brown. They had no children.
Paul J. Hendrick, son of Nathaniel Greene and Helen (James) Hendrick, married Elizabeth J. Rec- ords, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence A. Records of the historic "Horn Heap Farm" in Exeter. They have two children, a son, Peter Cranston, born March 5, 1946, and a daughter, Marcia Beth, born May 22, 1948. Paul served a long term in the U. S. Merchant Marine in World War II. He is associated with his parents in the management of their joint real estate properties. After the burning of the original Abigail Phenix house in 1936, a new home was erected on the old foundations. The chimney date-stone of the old (1711) house forms the keystone in the stone facing of the huge fireplace in the modern house. Paul acquired ownership of this ancestral site and he and his family lived there for a time. Recently, he sold the property.
It is a curious twist in the course of time that the old Peter Phillips house which stood at the corner of the Ten Rod and Swamptown Roads, passed into the possession of Nathaniel Greene Hendrick in recent years, thereby restoring the ownership of the property to a Brown family descendant. It stood on land orig- inally owned by Abigail Phenix. Later, through the Brown descendants of Abigail, this land passed into
47
THE SHEWATUCK-MILL-MAKER
the ownership of the Phillips family. Peter Phillips built the house originally. While Nathaniel Hendrick was making repairs and alterations in this old house, after his purchase, it was so badly damaged by fire that it had to be torn down.
Today, Paul J. Hendrick, a later descendant of the Browns, has erected a handsome residence for himself and family on this old Phillips site, thereby further confirming and assuring the restoration of the land to the historic Brown line.
I2.
The Shewatuck-Mill-Maker
"Mid forests where Indian braves once roamed, There rings no hunter's shout;
But their name is on your waters, Ye may not wash it out."
-LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY
SOME AUTHORITIES TELL us that the Indian word "Shewatuck" has an equivalent English meaning of "The brook (or river) that comes from a spring. " Though there might be some disagreement over this translation, the fact is that the stream we are dealing with has its origin in what was known for years as "Goose Nest Spring."
The tradition is that this spring was never known to dry up except in one late spring or early summer. At that exceptional time, a farmer's goose, prone to
48
LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
"steal her nest," discovered the dry spring-bed, laid her eggs there, and hatched out her brood of goslings. The day after they "came off" their odd nest, water gushed forth therefrom and the spring has never been known to run dry since.
It was around this spring that the Showattuck tribe of Narragansett Indians had their village. An early white settler in the Swamptown district built a house just above this spring (many old houses were built near a spring or brook to obtain a water supply), and the well-worn path from the "Goose Nest" to the house could be traced in recent days. When the State of Rhode Island, in 1923, picked this spot as the loca- tion of a fish hatchery, the plant then established be- came popularly known as the "Goose Nest Spring Hatchery," while the road leading to it became Hatch- ery Road.
The local name of "Swamptown" applied to the territory surrounding this source of the Shewatuck is no jesting name of modern days. It is of early official record in a deed dated in 1709. Appropriately, the Shewatuck, outlet of the Goose Nest Spring, immedi- ately dived into a swamp, and in its long course to Narragansett Bay, passed through other swamps or swampy land. In a curving course, fed by small rills from other springs and pools, it passed the Bly farm, home of the famous Bly apple, fringing another swampy tract beyond its crossing of Hatchery Road (at the laundry site of modern days), and emerged at the Abigail Phenix (Paul Hendrick) house as a sizable stream. There it served the Phenix household as an unfailing water supply. It was just above the Phenix house where the ancient timbers were found
49
THE SHEWATUCK-MILL-MAKER
some years ago, betokening the existence of a saw- mill or grist-mill in the early days.
From the Phenix house, the Shewatuck flowed east, splitting into two streams now passing under arched tunnels beneath the main line of the New Haven Rail- road. Then, rejoined into a single current, it passed on through marshy land, making a turn to the north. At this turn, it formed a sizable pool, with sandy or gravelly bottom, which served as a swimming hole for Lafayette schoolboys during the noon recesses of late spring and early fall. Thence it flowed on under the Wickford Branch Railroad where, at one time, a water-tower, supplied from the brook, furnished water for locomotives of that line.
Beyond the Branch Railroad, the faithful current provided a water supply for the Benedict Brown house (now dismantled), on the George W. Phillips land, and turning sharply to the east again, passed back of the Noyes house, now occupied by the Anderson family. Another stretch of marshy land and the Shewa- tuck served the Phillips and Thomas houses located near the bridge-crossing of the Swamptown or Hatch- ery Road, at the head of the present Lafayette mill- pond.
So far in its course, the Shewatuck was more than a water supply for the households of the early settlers. In the spring, it overflowed to enrich the meadows along its edges, to the cattle pastured along its rougher stretches it offered a long line of drinking-places, for wild animals whose meat and furs and hides served the settlers in many ways, it was a habitat with an ever- present water supply, natural trout and other fish were plentiful in its pure waters, while water-cress, brought
50
LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
over from England by the colonists and planted in its clear cold water, flourished extensively. Not so many years ago, enterprising Lafayette citizens gathered from the brook, in season, bushels of water-cress to ship daily by express from Wickford Junction to Providence markets.
Continuing on from the present Hatchery Road to the location of what is now the old Lafayette mill, the Shewatuck made a drop or fall which prompted the idea of utilizing that spot for the purposes of in- dustry. The idea was carried into effect by building a dam and creating a pond which developed into the present Lafayette mill-pond. The first structure prob- ably was a saw or grist-mill, or both, while tradition has it that a snuff mill and a tannery were next in order of establishment. The tannery is said to have made a specialty of tanning the hides of porpoises (then prevalent in the Bay) to provide a durable leather for hard-worn saddle seats. Then came a mill for spinning cotton which gave the place the name of "North Kingstown Cotton Mills," about the year 1800. Successive owners used the plant for cotton spinning and the manufacture of cotton goods, until 1848 when Robert Rodman purchased the property, changed it over to a woolen mill, and laid the founda- tion of a fortune for himself and the development of a thriving village and countryside.
The course of the Shewatuck from here on was in a southeasterly direction, through woods and swamp- land where its present identity has been lost by the building of the "Old Dam" (another famous swim- ming place at one time), and the flooding of a big area by the "Old Bog." With current greatly ampli-
51
THE SHEWATUCK-MILL-MAKER
fied, the Shewatuck persisted onward to help in power- ing a large brick mill (Belleville) built by William E. Pierce at the time of the Civil War. Thence on to the Narragansett cotton mill (previously operated by Pierce), now demolished, at a point on the Post Road a short distance south of the Belleville railroad sta- tion. Still seeking the Bay, the stream was again har- nessed by another cotton mill known as the Annaqua- tucket Mill where the spinning of cotton yarn was engaged in by Asa Sisson and some associates in the 1850's. This mill was located just above the present village of Hamilton and took its name from that given by the Indians to the lower course of the Shewatuck.
The first grist-mill in the Town of North Kings- town had been built at the mouth of the stream as early as 1686. Later, an iron works was operated on the same site. About 1850, Asa Sisson had formed the Hamilton Web Company and operated the first mill of that company on the site. It was at his suggestion that the location was named Hamilton. Afterward, the company erected a modern mill and developed a prosperous village.
So the title "Maker of Mills" is more than an hon- orary one in the case of our Shewatuck. In the words of Tennyson, "it sparkles out among the ferns," "clat- ters over stony ways," and "curves and flows," giving life and energy every few miles to a turning wheel that has brought prosperity and happiness to un- counted families in hamlet and Town. And by no means the least of its bounty has been bestowed upon Lafayette.
52
LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
13. The Coming of the Iron Horse
THE NARRAGANSETT INDIANS who dwelt here at the arrival of Roger Williams had only trails or paths through the woods for travel by land. And Roger says: "It is admirable to see the paths their naked feet have made in the wilderness in most stony and rockie places." The most prominent of these paths was the Pequot Trail which led from what is now Providence, down through South County, to New London. It was a link in a chain of similar Indian trails extending from what is now New York to the present Maine. Other trails branched off from this path to reach the various Indian villages located in the more interior country.
The first white settlers in this region found it much easier to travel by water in going from one colony to another, as the most of their settlements were on the seashore or on the rivers that led down to the coast. But the land trails came to be used for travel on foot and for the transportation of goods by pack-bearers, mostly natives who were eager for the recompense of an awl or a few bright-colored buttons or an old coat. Then horses were brought into use along the trails, making bridle-paths for travelers and goods. In 1704, a certain Madam Knight made the journey from Bos- ton to New York and return, on horse-back. She has left us a diary of her journey. She was two months
53
THE COMING OF THE IRON HORSE
in making the trip south and a little more than three months in returning. One of her many stops for resting was at Havens' Tavern near Wickford. She had a rough journey both ways, sometimes waiting for flooded streams to subside, and many times hunting up guides to show the way.
In the course of time, the main trails were improved and widened to permit the use of ox-carts and horse- drawn vehicles, largely devoted to the transportation of merchandise, for most travelers continued to ride horseback. While "chaises" and "chairs" were in use in a limited way, in the early 1700's, the first coach appeared in Providence about 1750. Yet as late as 1791, a Madam Lee made a long journey from South Kings- town to Connecticut, riding a Narragansett pacer on a ladies' side-saddle. She said the most of the roads were not even then suited for comfortable journeying by carriage. She covered a route of 190 miles to Hart- ford, New Haven, New London, and back to Narra- gansett, in 5 days of riding, and adds that she experi- enced no sensible fatigue. Quite a tribute to both the rider and her steed.
The first regular stage line between Providence and Boston was established in 1767, and about that time, a stage line was started between Providence and New York, via the old Pequot Trail, a trip that took a week. After the Revolution, with improved roads, the New York trip was reduced to 3 days.
Other lines sprang up, and teaming lines were estab- lished for freight. However, the localities through which these lines passed were not much inclined to better the roads for the benefit of strangers or foreign stage owners. On the other hand, the owners of the
54
LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
stage lines were not eager to improve the roads for the benefit of the local residents along the lines.
This situation led to the introduction of the turn- pike system, by which a corporation assumed the care of a particular road and was authorized to charge a fee, or toll, for the use of it by any and all, neighbor or stranger, on each occasion of its use. The first Rhode Island turnpike was the Providence and Nor- wich, via Plainfield, authorized about 1800. This con- nected with the Boston and Providence turnpike, and by 1805 had shortened the stage coach time between Boston and New York to 50 hours. In the next few years, turnpikes to East Greenwich, Wickford, Pawca- tuck (New London), Smithfield, Pawtucket, and various other points were in operation. For 40 years after 1800, turnpikes were incorporated in Rhode Island at the average of one a year.
The turnpikes, with their improved highways, rapidly developed the infant stage coach industry. In the early 1800's, it was no uncommon sight to see a dozen or more coaches, each with six horses, drawn up in front of the Manufacturers' Hotel in Market Square, in Providence, bound for Boston, New York, Taunton, New Bedford, Worcester, and the Rhode Island country towns. As they were laden and de- parted, other coaches drew up with arriving fares. A great stable was built on Orange Street, Providence, for hundreds of relay horses. Taverns and inns arose along the stage lines, as well as stables and black- smiths' forges, wherever horses were replaced or stage stops were scheduled. In the summer of 1829, there were 328 stage coaches a week between Providence and Boston, besides the numerous coaches to near-by
55
THE COMING OF THE IRON HORSE
parts of the State. The time made on the Boston run caused the editor of the Providence Gazette to pro- claim proudly, in 1832, "We were rattled from Provi- dence to Boston last Monday in four hours and fifty minutes, including all stops on the road. If anyone wants to go faster, he may send to Kentucky and charter a streak of lightning, or wait for a railroad, as he pleases."
This boasted stage coach efficiency was furthered by a merger of most of the lines operating in New England, under the name of Eastern Stage Company. Before this merger, there had been an intense rivalry between the individual lines, which resulted in a spec- tacular instance of price-cutting. One company met the lower fare of a newcomer on the Boston-Provi- dence route by announcing it would carry passengers free. The new rival made a similar free-fare offer, and added a free dinner at the end of the trip. The old company came back with a free bottle of wine added to the dinner. This gave rise to the story that a "Promi- nent Boston Socialite" enjoyed two free trips to Provi- dence, including free dinner and wine, and then induced a party of gay young blades to join him for a week of this free frolic. This caused the companies ยท to compromise, and a fare of two dollars a trip was written into a contract.
As the editor of the Providence Gazette had in- timated, the talk of railroads was in the air. The stage coach syndicate gave little heed to the warning, but soon found that a new and real traffic competition was upon it. The railroad became more than talk. It was beginning to obtain charters, to lay rails, and to run coaches on them. The assets of the Eastern Stage
-
56
LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
Company began to dwindle with the actual operation of trains. The wayside taverns, the brick stables for hundreds of horses, and the huge blacksmith's shops began closing, until they became mere ghosts of a once flourishing transportation activity.
Similarly, the turnpikes suffered from the loss of tolls. The thousands of passengers and thousands of tons of freight they had carried in their heydays of prosperity were lost to the cheaper rates, faster time, and the comparative greater passenger comfort of the rails. Many turnpikes were abandoned, some were forfeited to or purchased by the towns or the State, and a few, here and there, like the New London "Pike," operated into the 1860's, with their steadily diminishing tolls paid to the towns or the State.
The first railroad in this region was the Boston and Providence, originally chartered in 1831, and operated as a "turnpike railroad," with horse-drawn coaches running on iron rails. There was no thought of a steam locomotive at first, for it was expected that an individual might use his own personal carriage and horse-power on the road, by paying toll. In fact, the original charter so provided, the railroad company having the power to determine whether the individual carriage was equipped with wheels suitable for run- ning on rails.
Here again, the editor of the Providence Gazette, noting the growing use of steam power on boats, pro- claimed: "We hope before many years to see a steam carriage on a railroad between this city and Boston." But there was still some doubt and derision about the idea of a boiler and engine mounted on wheels. Even
57
THE COMING OF THE IRON HORSE
the great Daniel Webster expressed his doubts of the feasibility of such a contraption.
Meantime England had developed the steam loco- motive to the practical stage, and America had im- ported two or three of the English engines for trial tests by one or two enterprising transportation com- panies. In addition, American ingenuity met the chal- lenge of this foreign innovation and turned out such early specimens as Peter Cooper's "Tom Thumb" for the Baltimore and Ohio, the "Best Friend" for the South Carolina Railroad, the "De Witt Clinton" for the Mohawk and Hudson (later the New York Cen- tral), and others.
All these had been produced in American shops in the early 1830's. Matthew Baldwin, of Philadelphia, founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, built his first locomotive in 1832. And so the Boston and Provi- dence line had ordered locomotives from Philadelphia for use on its first through train to Providence in 1835. But delivery of the engines was delayed and the first train came through into Providence, drawn by horses. The locomotives were delivered shortly thereafter and the editor of the Providence Gazette saw his hopes fulfilled.
The first Providence railroad depot was at India Point where the Boston and Providence crossed the Seekonk River on a drawbridge. This point was near the docking place of steamboats from New York, which brought many passengers destined for Boston. Previously, these boats had been great feeders for the stage coaches that swarmed about every steamer on its arrival, with particular and loud solicitation of Boston-bound fares. Naturally, the near-by new rail-
58
LAFAYETTE, RHODE ISLAND
road absorbed the greater part of this traffic, to the added business grief of the decaying stage coach opera- tion at this and other points where the Iron Horse was vigorously competing.
Even before the Boston and Providence was under construction, thought had been given by a body of capitalists of the day, to the construction of a railroad running out of Providence to the south and southwest. These far-seeing gentlemen apparently reasoned that such a line might ultimately reach to New York. So they secured a Rhode Island charter under the name of New York, Providence and Boston Railroad Com- pany, as early as 1832. This grant covered only a route inside the State limits, that is, from Providence to Westerly. Curiously, as it seems, the State of Con- necticut, at about the same time, authorized the build- ing of a railroad from Stonington to Westerly, under the name of the New York and Stonington Railroad Company. Shortly after, the Legislatures of the two States authorized the union of the two companies under the name New York, Providence and Boston Railroad Company, thus making a continuous author- ized route of about 50 miles, between Providence and Stonington.
One feature of this legislative authorization was the obligation of the merged companies to operate a con- necting line of steamers between Stonington and New York. Another requirement was that a ferry should be established between the west side of Provi- dence harbor (where the New York, Providence and Boston planned to locate its Providence terminus), and the proposed terminus of the Boston and Provi- dence at India Point. This latter feature would pro-
59
THE COMING OF THE IRON HORSE
vide a new route for passengers between Boston and New York, alternative to the contemplated Boston and Providence rail line connection at Providence with the already operating steamers from Providence to New York, around Point Judith.
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.