USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Lafayette, Rhode Island; a few phases of its history from the ice age to the atomic > Part 8
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Meantime, the Narragansett settlements of white men spread inland from the shore-line of the Bay. The wiping out of the Narragansetts in the Great Swamp Fight gave further impetus to this movement. By the early 1700's, thought was given to the layout of roads into the interior. A projected road in the Pettaquams- cutt region, to run westward and to have a width of Io rods, was authorized. At what is now Allenton, a road was laid out, running westward from the Post
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Road (then a real highway) to the Great Plain, with an extension from what is now Slocum to Robber's Corner. This extension became known as the "country road to East Greenwich," running through Huling's Corners and what is now Scrabbletown. At Cocumcus- soc, a highway, first known as Church Lane, and later as the Stony Lane Road, followed an old trail to Scrabbletown and the Queen's Fort region.
At Collation Corners, a road variously described as the "road leading into the country from the sea," and as the "new road into the country," and following a "Pequot Path," was laid out in 1703. It ran westerly about 2 miles to Huling's Corners, then southerly to Robber's Corner, thence westerly toward Exeter Hill. This is none other than the eastern part of our now famous Ten Rod Road. It followed the "Pequot Path" through all of what is now Lafayette, but branched off at about where Hazard's Hall now stands, to run a straight course by what is now Wickford Junction to where the present first Rotary is located.
The white settlements in Connecticut were on the advance too. They had crept up into the rich Quine- baug Valley, so that by the time the boundary dispute was settled in 1728, when Connecticut was pushed back to the Pawcatuck River and to a line running north to Beach Pond, these settlements were shipping butter, cheese, beef, mutton, pork, and grain to other colonies and to the West Indies. At the same time, both Wickford and Newport were developing a thriving shipping trade with the West Indies and elsewhere, with cargoes of agricultural products grown in the near-by Narragansett country.
Such conditions favored a Connecticut idea that
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Wickford would make a handy transfer point for not only the cattle and sheep of Eastern Connecticut, but also for the ship-timber and pipe staves of the dense forests on both sides of the line. Besides, settlers were coming into western Rhode Island (Exeter had a popu- lation of 1200 in 1743) and they required roads. Agita- tion for a through road was started, with a plan to make use of the devious passage, with many crooks and turns, following the east-bound fairly-traveled trail to Exeter Hill. To make the highway suitable for the driving of cattle, ten rods, or 165 feet, was hit upon as about right for that purpose. The highway from Ex- eter Hill to Wickford, being practically all in the limits of North Kingstown, was a fairly good road, for the times, and could easily be widened where necessary to maintain the continuous width desired. Both ends of the proposed thoroughfare, Voluntown and Wick- ford, saw great advantages in it, while the settlers in between were just delighted. So the road was laid out as planned.
Just when this lay-out was completed is a bit hazy, but a deed covering land in the vicinity and dated in 1720, mentions the "Ten Rod Road" as a boundary. How much of the "ten rods" was on paper and how much was actually on land is equally hazy. But the name "Ten Rod" stuck. The use of the highway soon required a straightening and other changes in the Exe- ter section, while North Kingstown, on its part, lived up to the 165 requirement, in feet.
Business was good along the Ten Rod up to the time of the American Revolutionary War. Here and there a tavern was established for the accommodation and refreshment of the drovers. Pine Hill, where the Ten
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Rod crossed the New London Pike, became a thriving business center, with its stores and inns and post office (and later a bank). It was a sort of halfway house on the up-hill and down-dale route to the Bay. Farms were established in the more fertile places along the river valleys, and rough roads were opened up to con- nect with the Ten Rod. Many of these farm settlers no doubt sought a territory where they would not be exposed to the British raiders who ravaged the farms in the accessible regions near the Bay during the war. But the British also blockaded the shipping out of Wickford and Newport, closing the outlet for cattle in that direction. Any chance drover adown the Ten Rod took the risk of capture and the consequent loss of his herd. So the Ten Rod took a rest, except for purely local business.
Following the War, business on the Ten Rod bub- bled up again, with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep now grazing along fertile spots on the highway bor- ders, and now kicking up clouds of dust as their drovers urged them on toward the waiting ships at Wickford. Farm and forest products, in slow-moving ox-carts, mixed in with the bustling live-stock. Local travel to and from saw mill and grist mill and country store filled in chance spaces in this ever moving line. With the turn of the century, small textile mills sprang up and dotted the river courses with settlements which had well-known names in the State's early textile his- tory. A Revolutionary soldier named William Greene had a nail factory and a trip hammer at Exeter Hill. He and his sons operated this for many years. Tan- neries were built, the needful blacksmith shops dotted the roads, and primitive industry found power in the
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sharp fall of Exeter streams. All this served to enliven the activity along the Ten Rod, and made its traffic so attractive that a turnpike company was organized for the collection of tolls along the thoroughfare. But the plan fizzled out after vigorous opposition.
The building of the Stonington Railroad in 1837 wrought many changes in the communities along its line. Ultimately it affected the small mills tucked away in the distant hills, and opened up outlets at its dif- ferent stations over other highways. The cattle trade fell off, and the Ten Rod had a spell of comparative quiet until the time of the Civil War. For a few years then and immediately thereafter, a big trade sprang up in wood, charcoal, hoop-poles and tan-bark. By the 70's, this had petered out, and the Exeter section of the Ten Rod gradually depreciated into a common country road, with rough going in many places, and a constant narrowing due to the "taking in," by abutting owners, of land that was once a part of the prescribed "ten rods."
While the original width of the highway had been pretty well maintained in North Kingstown, traffic conditions, even there, did not require the full former width. At successive times in the next few years, there was an agitation for the abandonment of a part of what had become excessive width. Finally, in the early 1900's, the North Kingstown Town Council aban- doned, as a highway, about a third of this width. This applied, however, only to the stretch between Colla- tion Corners and Wickford Junction. Most of the abutting owners in Lafayette moved out their front fences to take in this windfall of land.
Like most country roads of the post-Civil War
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times, the Ten Rod's North Kingstown section was a plain dirt highway, sandy in summer, muddy in the spring, slushy or icy in the winter, and always rutty. Through Lafayette there were bad spots in it, notably at the Vale of Pero (east of the present schoolhouse), on the stretch from the present Hazard's Hall to the Junction, and at the depression in "Florida," along by what is now the Kettell property (Rocky Swamp). Hard-surfaced roads had not yet come into use in this vicinity, and even a graveled surface existed only in spots where a roadside gravel bank was handy.
District highway supervisors made good the damage of frost and floods of winter and spring, with dirt fills and surface grading, repaired bridges, cleared drains on the sides, and took care of contingencies such as tree-falls, wash-outs, and cave-ins, at all seasons. This system followed an ancient custom. For in 1799, Gould Thomas was appointed supervisor for the district on the Ten Rod "from Major Gardiner's house (at what is now Collation Corners) to the widow Phillips house at the corner of the Swamptown Road." The money for these repairs and maintenance came from a special road tax that was laid for the purpose. Property owners could "work out" the tax by contributing their labor to the "road gang," if they desired to do so. This road work was not extensive since the level country in Lafayette did not get the heavy wash of the hilly country to the westward. So it had few "thank-you-ma'ams," a term applied to the cross-bars built in roads to drain off rainfalls before they could reach torrent size and wash out the road-bed com- pletely. In the crossing of Mount Tom, in western
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THE TEN ROD ROAD
Exeter, the Ten Rod had 127 "thank-you-ma'am" ridges, by actual count, as late as 1910.
It was not until 1923 that the Lafayette section of the Ten Rod was rebuilt and hard-surfaced, although automobiles had become numerous and the State had begun to issue bonds, the proceeds of which were applied to the building of modern roads. In that year, the local stretch of the Ten Rod, from Wickford Junction to Collation Corners, was reconstructed under the immediate supervision of the late Col. Robert F. Rodman. It was a splendid job of road- building, for after 25 years of heavy traffic, the high- way is still in good serviceable condition.
The State supplemented this improvement by build- ing a new through highway from the northwestern part of the State to Wickford. This joined the Ten Rod at a point just east of Pine Hill and followed the route of the old road to Wickford Junction. It was officially designated as the "Victory Highway," and replaced, by decree, the name of the portion of the old Ten Rod it covered. Locally, however, the historic old name prevails in the vernacular.
Next came the rebuilding of the old Ten Rod from west of Pine Hill to the Connecticut line at Beach Pond. This eliminated many of the old curves, all "thank-you-ma'ams," cut through ledges and hills, and scalped Mount Tom. It completed the transforma- tion of the trail-born Ten Rod into a modern, cross- State, straightaway highway, from the historic "Gore" of Voluntown to the equally historic Updike's New- town or Wickford.
Then followed the building of the South County Trail, over the old-time "country road to East Green-
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wich," continuing on through Robber's Corner to West Kingston and the south shore at the Ocean. This gave further modern connections with the lower Ten Rod. It relieved the growing jam of traffic on the old Post Road over Tower Hill, and over the Shore Road. It joined in giving to Lafayette the benefit of first-class highways, north, south, east and west.
May 16, 1938, is a historic highway date for the Lafayette community. On that day, work was started on the underpass at Wickford Junction. Huling's Crossing was to be eliminated from the landscape although remaining an important spot in the history books. First of all, this erasure was for safety's sake. It was a grade crossing and had taken its grisly toll like other death-traps of its class. And this in spite of "gates" and signals and other supposedly protective features. For both the rail and highway traffic had vastly increased to make it one of the most dangerous railroad crossings in the State. Then there was the element of convenience. The highway traffic was stopped, or slowed-up, when long freight trains crawled up the grade of "Wickford Hill," or other conditions blocked the crossing. With highway auto- mobile traffic at the rate of 1000 cars an hour, at rush hours on Sundays and holidays, a crossing block for even a few minutes damned up a solid line of auto- mobiles back to the Rotary or down to the Lafayette mill, or farther.
Preliminary work, such as surveying, borings for foundations or water-levels, negotiations for property acquisitions or removal, plans for drainage etc., had taken months of time. The only detour possible for handling even normal highway traffic in the cramped
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field of operations was the removal of the crossing a short distance north. The old "gates" were set up at the new location, and short spurs of temporary ap- proaches made on each side of the tracks. The scheme worked well. It left the old crossing free for uninter- rupted work except for the slowing-up of trains at cer- tain critical times in the operations.
Wickford Junction surely had its "face lifted." Three general stores were removed from adjacent sites and a dozen other buildings were removed or de- molished. Abutments were built to protect the "cuts," and these project each side of the railroad tracks to give the underpass a length of 500 feet and a width of 52 feet. The roofed-over area under the tracks has a length of 120 feet and nearly 500 tons of steel were used in its construction. The actual "dip" in the road, through the underpass, is 1000 feet long. A drainage system takes care of any possible accumulation of water from storms. A lighting system operates on a 24-hour basis, being self-regulating for darkness or sun- light. A 5-ft. sidewalk on each side of the 42-ft. road- way is provided. At the ends of the underpass, the old narrow road was rebuilt into a four-lane highway, from some distance back, following through beneath the tracks.
The underpass was opened to traffic on June 17, 1939. Its cost was given as $200,000.
Thus endeth our story of the Ten Rod Road-a tracing of this historic artery of traffic from Indian trail to modern boulevard.
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I8. A Memory Stroll Adown Lafayette's Main Highway
HULING'S CORNERS USED to be a 4-way center -the Ten Rod from Wickford, the road from Stony Lane and Davisville, the road from Scrabbletown, Frenchtown, and East Greenwich, and the Ten Rod from Exeter. It is still that, but how changed in name and aspect! As Cranston's Corners, it is a memorial to the man who built the roomy, modern house, the spacious barn, and otherwise improved the choice land holdings of the Huling family. Today, the enter- prising "Art" Whitford owns the estate, and carries on his extensive business of farming, trucking, and a general service of utility for the whole countryside.
Above the Corners, the Beriah Manor still stands with its great stone chimney projecting over the tree tops. The Browns and Halls are gone. It is still a dwell- ing house for more modern families, however. Across from it is a modern wayside inn which almost hides the "tan vat" house where "Picker Bill" Arnold, the famous sheep-shearer once lived and reared a sizable family. The Lebbeus Whitford house between the "vat" and the corner is gone. A new house has been built across the road from the old Lebbeus site, on former Beriah Brown land. The expansive Rotary is bordered on the east by a house and filling-station, be- yond which, in the days of yore, one might catch a
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glimpse of the truly colonial house of Abigail Phenix. Just below the Corners is the modern house built by Elder E. R. Wood in 1888, while the house of Thomas Curry, owner of the Belleville Mills, and the new house of Violet E. Tingley, give life to the landscape. A great change from the open spaces of the 70's.
A long stretch of dense woods used to fringe the Ten Rod on both sides, nearly down to the Junction. Now the Joslin store marks the clearing of the forest on the north side, and Jamesville, with its pretentious houses and other buildings, is centered in a deep clear- ing where Nathan James pioneered in storekeeping and other pursuits in earlier days. Further on, old Barrel Grove has disappeared. It was the scene of many gatherings in its partly cleared and summer- time shady spaces. The name was given because of its having been a dumping ground for old barrels, boxes, and like wooden containers, from the neighborhood stores. These deposits prevented the growth of under- brush and young trees. So when somebody thought- fully pushed back this debris and cleaned up the ground, a goodly space was provided for out-door meetings, religious and otherwise, in the proper sea- son, with plank seats and tables. Many of the pushed- back containers formed a high barricade on the back and sides. Barrel Grove is no more. Neat bungalows have taken its place.
Just beyond the "Grove" was a small shop, at one time kept by Hiram Huling, and a lane led to the little settlement of Gardiner C. Huling, more particularly mentioned in the Huling panel. Most of the Huling houses still remain but they are overshadowed by other structures, larger and more imposing, devoted
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to business and more modern living quarters. Next to the shop and fronting the Ten Rod, was a large square house in which Burrill Huling lived at one time, and beyond that the railroad freight house. The shop and house and freight house are gone. In their place is one of the abutments of the modern underpass.
On the opposite side of the Ten Rod, just above the railroad crossing, stood a few houses and other buildings. One or more of these were owned or oc- cupied by descendants of the Brown and Hendrick families. Then a cottage, with ell, owned and occupied by Joseph Arnold, with his wife Hannah (Mawney), and two sons, "Ed" and Frank. Next a store, one time kept by Joseph, with a tenement above, and a barn and carriage shed, the latter abutting the railroad tracks. A few handsome old oak trees had been left in clearing the forest on both sides of the Ten Rod in this section. One summer evening in the 70's, a crowd gathered here to witness a tight-rope walking feat by Joe Potter, brother of "Mack." The rope had been stretched across the road from one big oak to another, not too high, but sufficient to allow the road traffic to pass. Joe climbed up a ladder placed against a tree on the south side, his balancing pole was handed up to him, and he ventured out, in his stocking-feet, on the stretched rope. He had proceeded in true professional style, some 15 or 20 feet, when-the rope broke! Joe was precipitated into the dusty ruts of the old Ten Rod. By good luck, he escaped with only a sprained ankle. But the pain of that was soothed somewhat by the jingling contents of the hat that was passed around through the crowd of disappointed but sympathetic spectators.
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Today all these buildings in this section have been removed. In their place is the trim modern home of Nathaniel Hendrick and his wife, adjoining the spa- cious estates of his sister, Belle, and Miss Mary E. Pearce. The Joe Arnold cottage has been moved back to the edge of the woods, where it is now occupied. Some of the space thus cleared was absorbed by the abutment of the underpass. A glance along the tracks, brings to mind a small cottage once standing on the west side of tracks opposite the depot. This was oc- cupied by Nathan Fiske, at one time a Rodman hos- tler. He had a son James and a daughter Serena. Later, the house was occupied by Charlie Collins and his wife.
To the east of the railroad, on the north side of the Ten Rod, were two houses, one a two-family house, afterward converted into a store with a tenement above, and a cottage occupied many years by Morton Perry, assistant baggage-master at the Junction. His wife, Mary Jane, was an active member of the Advent Church and a singer in the choir. They had two daughters, Clara and Bertha. The latter married Angus Macleod, coal dealer at Belleville Station, and former Senator from North Kingstown in the General As- sembly. Next along the Ten Rod was the shop of James E. Phillips, now replaced by the larger store of the late Gillette Franklin, with the face of the landscape greatly changed by one of the east abut- ments of the underpass. The Phillips shop was bought by Leonard Joslin who moved it across the railroad tracks to the rear of his People's Supply store, added an ell and porch, and later moved it, with the People's Supply store building, to the new location near Hu- ling's Corners. The enlarged shop has been used as a '
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dwelling house. The house and barn of James Phillips remain next in line. James and his wife had two sons, Walter, who became a prominent musician in Provi- dence, and Fred, who was a Providence bank clerk, but found time to clear the land and make a park on the shores of the Old Bog. Will Phillips, brother of James, and his sister Addie lived in the house next to that of James, on the Ten Rod front.
Next to the east, was a house built by Erie W. Huling, who lived there for several years. Later, Daniel Webster bought the house, moved the main part of it to the rear of the lot, and rebuilt and lived on the old site. Erie continued to live in the old house in its new location. He is spoken of at length and his family given in the Huling panel. Now, the former Erie Huling house is occupied by Ralph Myers and wife Pearl (Northup). They have rebuilt and mod- ernized it extensively. Daniel Webster was a former boss-weaver and retired to give his time to watch repairing, and running a carriage service at the Junc- tion. He and his wife had three daughters, Harriet, who married Ernest L. Rodman, Mary, and Flora. Harriet died in 1922, and Mary deceased recently. Next to the Webster home was a small house formerly owned by John Sherman, father of Mrs. Gideon Brown. This house was moved from across the Ten Rod when the Wickford Branch Railroad was built. Gideon occupied it for a time before removing to the Charles Brown farm west of the Abigail Phenix house. He and his wife had six sons, Albert, Robert, Brayton, Jesse, Beriah, Samuel Percy, and a daughter Mabel.
An odd occurrence created the next two houses. Heirs to a single long house agreed on cutting the
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house in two, and moving one-half a short distance to a new foundation. Samuel Huling and wife Sarah lived in the western half. They had four daughters, three of whom, Edna, Lottie and Mattie, married and moved to other towns. Ella (now the widow of Charles Worden), lives in her father's house. She had seven children. Her son Reginald lives in the other half of the separated house. Another of her sons, Walter, owns the Burrill Davis house across the Ten Rod, and her daughter Gertrude, and husband Donald Campbell, live in the house next to Walter. Her four other children were Ralph, Fred, Harold (who mar- ried Ruth Eccleston), and Delbert. Freeborn Shippee and his wife Emma formerly lived in the eastern half of the separated house. They had a son Edwin and a daughter Susie who married John Baker. Farther along to the east is a house at one time occupied by William Wilcox, and later by Rowland Dyer.
Odd occurrences seemed to favor this locality. At one time, four Sarahs lived close together here. They were distinguished by the added nicknames of their husbands-Sarah Sam (Huling), Sarah Gid (Brown), Sarah Deed (Erie Huling), and Sarah Ike (Gardiner). What's more strange, Sam Huling married a Sarah Tourgee, and Erie (Deed) Huling married another Sarah Tourgee. Each of these Sarahs had twins, a boy and a girl, within a few months of each other.
Across the Ten Rod, and adjoining the tracks of the Wickford Branch Railroad, was a string of houses, beginning with a cottage occupied by William Tracy and his wife Susan. He was a cloth finisher. Adjoining the Tracy house was a small dwelling built by Elder Rowland Perry. A hard-working widow, Mrs. Eunice
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Beasley, lived here a while. She had two sons, Herbert and Elmer, and a daughter Belle. Elder Perry had a small shop here too. The Matteson family built a siz- able house along this stretch. A Matteson daughter, Ann, was telegraph operator at the Junction a long time. A son, James Matteson, a train baggage master, married Hannah Hazard. They had two sons, Calvin and James, Jr., Calvin marrying Bessie Hazard. They have a daughter Gertrude and now live at West King- ston. James, Jr., married Kate Arnold, daughter of Josiah. They have a son James who married Jennie Arnold. Both the father and son live in the Matteson house.
For a while, the Hazard family were co-tenants in the Matteson house. Isaac was the oldest of the Hazard sons and Elmer the younger. The latter was a freight supervisor for the railroad for many years. A Hazard daughter, Marion, married Charles Warbur- ton, Jennie married Herbert Worden, and Joanna married Pardon Sherman as his second wife. Pardon was boss-carpenter at the mill. His first wife was a sister of Mrs. Robert Rodman. Burrill Davis, clerk and later a partner in the Lafayette store where he served several terms as postmaster, lived next to the Mattesons, with his wife Emma (Brown). He bought the house from John Gardiner who lived there and ran a barber shop before moving to East Lafayette.
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