USA > Rhode Island > Picturesque Rhode Island : pen and pencil sketches of the scenery and history its cities, towns, and hamlets, and of men who have made them famous > Part 20
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" The first settlers of Hopkinton, puritanical though they were in many things, had their amusements. Muster or training days were special seasons of amusement and recreation, at which business was generally suspended, and both old and young went to see the ' trainers,' to hear the fife and the drum, and to feast on molasses candy and gingerbread. General or regimental and brigade train- ings would call together a large portion of the population from miles around. On these occasions all, with scarcely an exception, imbibed freely of cider, rum and cherry brandy, until story-telling and social hilarity became general. Temperance consisted in not getting drunk, but a little boozy. Stated holidays were special seasons of merry-making. In addition to these, the young people would have huskings, bush-cuts, quiltings, spinning-bees and apple-cuts. At all these there was some work and a good deal of fun, much of story- telling, of love-making, singing and joking."
Before the spread of intelligence had become general, many superstitious notions prevailed. One of the most common of these was a belief in witches and wizards. Tradition tells of two noted diviners who resided in Hopkinton. One was an old woman named
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Granny Mott, who lived in Hopkinton while it was still a part of Westerly. While on a hunting expedition, one of her neighbors was much troubled by a flock of heath-hens, one of which would fly close to him, but which he was unable to shoot. At last he cut a
A Bit of Hope Valley, Hopkinton.
silver button from his coat, and with it loaded his gun and shot the bird. Shortly after, Granny Mott was reported to be sick, and soon died, and as her daughter would not allow any one to assist in pre- paring the body for burial, it was at once surmised that the bird the sportsman had shot with the silver button had been the old woman in disguise. The other " uncanny " personage was a " little old negro man, jet black," who was supposed to have bewitched a young lady whose father would not allow him to fiddle at the marriage of her sister. The result of this refusal was that the young lady became subject to fits, which could only be alleviated by fiddling, and her father was obliged to engage a fiddler by the month, as the spasms occurred every evening. She was ultimately partially cured by the prayers of a man from Connecticut. Several peculiar religious sects have at times been found in Hopkinton. Toward the close of the last century a few Shakers were living here. Some years after, however, another sect, called Beldenites, arose. Those in Hopkinton, from one of their preachers, were called Morseites; in their meetings they went through a ridiculous performance of dancing, leaping, shouting and hooting. They also practiced what they called the " Holy Kiss," and were accused of great looseness in their manner of life. After a few years the sect died out.
CHAPTER X.
WESTERLY -THE NIANTIC INDIANS-THE FIRST WHITE SETTLERS-THE GREAT AWAKENING - WESTERLY GRANITE - FOUR NOTED MEN. CHARLESTOWN - NINIGRET'S FORT - THE CORONATION OF QUEEN ESTIIER. RICHMOND - THE FIGHT AT SIIANNOCK MILLS.
ESTERLY. - Centuries ago, before the white man had thought of seeking a home in these distant lands, when the broad Atlantic rolled its surf against a shore whose trackless forests, extending far inland, were the abodes of savage Indians and prowling wild beasts, Misquamicut, as the southern shore of Rhode Island was called, was the home of the aboriginal tribe of the Niantics. Their territory extended from Wecapaug in Charlestown to the Connecticut River, and reached back twenty or thirty miles from the coast. Their kings were the celebrated Ninigrets. When the first white settlers came hither the tribe was divided into the Eastern and the Western Niantics, the Eastern section holding Misquamicut and the Western having their home in Connecticut.
The history of the Niantics is interwoven with that of all of the present towns of Westerly, Charlestown, Richmond, and Hopkinton, which constituted the original tract of Misquamicut, which after its settlement by Europeans was called Westerly; and although the reservation upon which the remnant of the tribe lives is in Charles- town, it is as well, perhaps, that their story should be told as part of the portion which retains the name of Westerly.
According to tradition, the Niantics were comparatively mild in their manners, and disposed to live peaceably with the surrounding
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tribes. But the Pequots, who were not only cruel but also grasping, cast covetous eyes upon their fair possessions, and descended upon them from the head waters of the Hudson with such slaughter that the tribe was almost destroyed. The Eastern Niantics were glad to place themselves under the protection of the Narragansetts, an ancient and powerful tribe, which occupied almost the whole of the
A View on Broad Street, Westerly.
western part of Rhode Island. Now that the Niantics had become tributary to them, their sway extended to the ocean on the south and to the Pawcatuck or " Narragansett River " on the west. Historians always speak of the two tribes under the common name of the Nar- ragansetts, although the remnant of the two is largely Niantic, and dwells upon Niantic land, and although at the death of the Narra- gansett sachem, Canonchet, his sceptre passed into the hands of Ninigret, who with his descendants ruled the tribes until the death of George, the last of the Ninigrets.
The Ninigret who held sway when the first whites came to these
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shores, was a chief of great military reputation, haughty and spirited, but honorable in his dealings with the whites. In the year 1664, he was at war with the Montauks, who lived at the eastern end of Long Island, and whose king was the notable Wyandance. The latter was represented by his sachem, Ascassassatic. Of him and his opponent, Roger Williams says : " The former is proud and foolish, the latter proud and fierce." Victory perched on Ninigret's banner. The Connecticut settlers with some arrogance declared that they had taken the Montauks under their protection, and demanded peace in their behalf. Ninigret's answer to this demand was, "The Long Island Indians began the war, killed one of my sachem's sons, and sixty men. If your governor's son were killed, and several men, would you ask counsel of another nation how and when to right yourself ?" Incensed at this scornful reply, they straightway sent forces, horse and foot, against Ninigret, who, however, entrenched himself in a swamp, and the troops were fain to acknowledge them- selves outwitted and to return. This swamp, is doubtless the cedar swamp, near Burden's Pond, Westerly.
The feud between the two tribes continued in all its bitterness. At length each, without the knowledge of the other, determined to make an onslaught which should be final. It so happened that they fixed upon the same night for the purpose. It was a clear moonlight night. The Niantics starting out, saw the canoes of the Montauk warriors approaching their shores swiftly and silently. Immediately they fell back, and themselves unseen, awaited the landing of the enemy. As they were forming into line, the Niantics descended upon them like a tempest, and dealt destruction among them until there was scarcely a remnant of the invading host left. This slaughter took place near Watch Hill. Not content with this suc- cess, Ninigret embarked for Montauk, where Wyandance, weakened by the loss of his warriors and taken by surprise, fell an easy prey, and the strength of the Montauks was forever broken.
Ninigret remained a pagan all his life. Indeed, the practice of many of the whites went but little way to commend their preaching. When asked to favor the spread of Christianity among the Indians, he replied that it would be better to confine its preaching to the English until they brought forth some good fruits. One of his des- cendants, however, known as "King Tom," became a Christian, and during his reign an Indian church was established. The last of the Ninigrets was George, who was reigning during the American
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Revolution. By his untimely death at the age of twenty-two, the dynasty came to an end. Since this event the tribe has been ruled by a president or governor, elected annually, assisted by a council of four. Ever since the year 1707 they have been under the juris- diction of the State. They are allowed their own government, but it must harmonize with that of Rhode Island. The tribe has dwindled away to a very small number, and has lost most of its characteristics through intercourse with the whites. At present there is not a pure- blooded Indian among them.
The first Europeans who visited the shores of Misquamicut were Dutch traders, who came hither in search of furs. They made no settlement, they did not even set up any trading-houses, but came up the rivers and inlets and made exchanges with the Indians. Adrian Block, the Dutch navigator, explored the coast in his little vessel, the " Restless," in the year 1614, and the Dutch geographer, DeLast, sketched it in 1616, from the journal kept by Captain Block. The outline of the coast has changed quite materially since this first map of it was sketched. What is now Quonocontaug Pond, was formerly a harbor, open to the ocean, but which has since been cut off from the ocean by the filling up of its mouth during heavy gales.
Tradition and poetry, neither of which can be relied upon in mat- ters of history, have preserved an account of the first colonists of Westerly. With that disregard of strict accuracy which character- izes them, they have both overlooked the date of the event which they commemorate. But it was probably somewhere near the year 1630. In those days there came to Newport, then a hamlet, a young man by the name of John Babcock, who entered the employ of Thomas Lawton. Mr. Lawton had a daughter Mary, and the two young people fell in love with each other. Mary's father refused his consent to their marriage, but they, nothing daunted, determined to marry without it, which they accordingly did. So far the story is commonplace enough. The romance of it is found in their journey - or voyage, rather - to the mainland, to escape the wrath of the angry father. They embarked in a small boat and sailed past Point Judith, out upon the stormy Atlantic. Turning westward, they skirted the coast until, having passed Watch Hill, they came to the mouth of the Pawcatuck. They sailed up the river as far as Pawca- tuck Rock. Here they landed, and were cordially welcomed by Nin- igret, and here founded the first home of white men in this wilder- ness. Such is the tradition sacredly preserved among the early fam-
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ilies of the town, dearer to them, no doubt, than the strictest truth would be, if it were possible to know it.
The first really historic white men who ever penetrated the primeval forest of the town, were the heroes who marched through it to the aid of their brethren and the discomfiture of the terrible Pequots, in the year 1637. They came with Capt. John Mason as their leader from the shores of the Narragansett, halted over night at Ninigret's Fort, and persuaded him, although he had determined to preserve a neutral position, to send some of his warriors against the Pequots. When they reached the Pawcatuck, they rested and refreshed themselves at the ford, and then pursued their march into the enemy's country, to'aid in what proved to be a war of extermina- tion upon the Pequots.
A reliable date meets us at 1660. In this year Misquamicut became the property of a company organized in Newport for its pur- chase. The principles of the Rhode Island colonies forbade that land should be acquired from the Indians in any other way. Efforts had been made as early as 1658, to obtain a deed of this tract. In 1660 the purchase was made of Sosoa, a renegade Pequot, who, for conspicuous services rendered to the Rhode Island tribes in one of their many fierce battles, was rewarded by Miantonomi and Ninigret with the title-deeds of Misquamicut. Some doubt was felt as to the legality of Sosoa's claim and consequent right to make the transfer, which was set at rest by a document signed by Wawaloam, widow of Miantonomi, confirming his claim. The company forming the other party to the transaction consisted of William Vaughan, Robert Stan- ton, John Fairfield, Hugh Mosher, and James Longbottom. They organized a colony the next year, which was incorporated as a town in 1669, although it then contained but thirty white families. The town was called Westerly, from its position. A portion of it was erected into a new township in 1738, under the name of Charlestown. In 1757 another portion was set off and called Hopkinton. In the year 1747 Charlestown was divided, the new township thus formed receiving the name of Richmond.
In the year 1740 there occurred a remarkable religious move- ment, known as the "Great Awakening." Its influence extended throughout the settlements of the land, but was especially felt in New England. In Westerly, it produced great results, leading to the for- mation of no less than five religious societies within the limits of the original town. Previous to this revival the Sabbatarians had held
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regular services, and a missionary had been sent by the New England Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to preach to the Indians and such English as chose to attend upon his ministrations. As he was, in his own words, " a moral religious person, but awfully in the dark as to the way of salvation," it is fair to infer that his mis- sionary efforts were not specially productive of good. The revival owed its immediate origin to the eloquent preaching of George Whitefield. He had spent three days in Newport, preaching and praying for a land waiting and longing for spiritual relief. When the awakening came it spread like wildfire over the land. It was viewed with disfavor by the churches already established, which, indeed, were sore shaken and torn by it. The Sabbatarians or Seventh Day Baptists were, by their own showing, especially opposed to it, and spoke scornfully of it as the "New Light Stir." It pro- duced a particularly happy effect among the Indians of Westerly, bringing many of them out of pagan darkness into the light of the Gospel. "The movement resulted in the separation of scores of churches from the standing order, and in the general renovation of the State churches themselves. In fact, the revival was the blow that, in its consequences, led to the separation of Church and State, and resolved the Presbyterians into Congregationalists. And how much the American Revolution owes to the Great Awakening, as a preparation, both in spirit and principles, might well engage a chap- ter of our national history. If the old churches of Massachusetts had cordially accepted the New Light diffused by the Spirit, through the testimony of Whitefield, Tennent, Backus and the Separatists, they would have been spared the pain and loss that finally came upon them, through their half-way covenants, in the apostasy of multitudes in the bosom of the churches and societies, who, under the plea of liberalism, went over to the ranks of Unitari- anism, and rent the churches and societies, and bore away from them much of their invested property." (The passage just quoted is from the Rev. F. Denison's History of Westerly.)
The coast of Westerly is a very dangerous one, being partly sand and partly rock. Watch Hill Point runs far out into the ocean, and with its out-lying reefs has been the scene of many a dreadful dis- aster. Napatree and Sandy points are a continuation of this prom- ontory. They curve around, enclosing a portion of the sound called Little Narragansett Bay. Watch Hill looks down upon the scene of many a bygone event. Its elevation makes it a good point of
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lookout. From it, Ninigret watched the Pequot canoes stealthily approaching for his destruction, and at its foot is the old battle-ground, where he and his warriors descended upon them, surprised in their turn, and vanquished them. During the dreadful French and Indian wars, a watch-tower stood here and a signal station, the signal being fire by night and smoke by day. The tower was renewed during the Revolution, and from it the coast guardsmen kept watch for the coming of British vessels. The neck which connects Napatree Point with the mainland was then so broad that it contained a swamp and a pond, and was so well wooded that it would have been easy for an enemy to land there unseen. A story which the incredulous might look upon as a "yarn," is told of this vicinity, celebrating the exploit of an old negro man named Vester. He was of huge stature and proportionate strength. It is said that he could lift a tierce of molasses. He was in the habit of swimming off to the Spindle at low tide and fishing until the returning flood drove him off, when he would swim ashore with the products of his labor. One day he was captured by a party of British foragers, who took him to Fisher's Island and compelled him to work as a slave. He, however, had no mind to waste his strength in slavery, when by a proper exertion of it, he might recover his freedom. One evening, at ebb-tide, he plunged into the waters of the sound, swam out to the current, turned over upon his back and floated until opposite Watch Hill, where he resumed his swimming, and so reached the shore and regained his liberty.
From this same promontory, the awe-struck gazers watched the ghostly burning of the phantom Palatine. On its shores tradition tells that some of Captain Kidd's ill-gained riches were buried. But treasures far surpassing any of the pirate-king lie at the bottom of the ocean that washes its base, where many a good ship has gone down with its freight of precious lives. Some of these have gone to wreck in storm and darkness, some in broad day and smooth waters. " In 1850 a brig and a schooner bound eastward on a calm morning were swept by the tide upon a reef west of the light, and were lost." The story of the ill-starred " Metis," which was wrecked here in 1872, is too fresh to need more than a passing allusion. A lighthouse was erected upon Watch Hill in the year 1802. Its first keeper was Mr. Jonathan Nash, who guarded the light for twenty-seven years. In May, 1806, a vote of the town transferred the jurisdiction of Watch Hill Point and light to the general government at Washington. There is a good beach upon the shore, and this, with its fresh breezes
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from the ocean, has earned for it a fine reputation as a sum- mer sea-side resort.
The inhabitants of Westerly have found in its rugged and un- sightly rocks a mine of wealth far exceed- ing any foreign treas- ure which their wild- est imaginings could picture as hidden in caves and recesses with mysterious cere- monies, and under the cover of dark- ness. There is no granite in the coun- try, if indeed there is in the world, which in fineness of grain, beauty of coloring, susceptibility to pol- ish, and strength of resistance to the de- stroying power of time and the natural elements, surpasses that quarried in Westerly. Its "crush- ing power" far ex- ceeds that of other granites, for while they vary from six thousand to thirteen thousand pounds to a square inch, this will not be acted upon by less than nineteen
A View of Westerly.
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thousand pounds. There are seven quarries of granite in the town, and the varieties produced are the white, red, blue, and maculated or mottled. Their fame has spread abroad in all directions, and " Westerly granite " is as familiar a phrase as ever " Carrara marble " was. It has in a great measure superseded marble, which although very much more easily chiseled, is wanting in the enduring qualities of the former. The block which is Rhode Island's contribution to the national monument at Washington was taken from the Westerly quarries.
The first of these, which is also the largest and whose products are considered the most valuable, was discovered in 1845, by Mr. Orlando Smith. Certain boulders and rubble stones upon the sur- face caused him to suspect the existence of valuable stone beneath. Mr. Smith bought the farm containing these indications, which was formerly the property of Dr. Joshua Babcock. He opened a quarry at the top of Rhodes' Hill, between the old Babcock house and the site of the old Hill Church. This was in 1847. Since his death, a few years ago, it has been worked in the interest of his estate by a firm called the Smith Granite Company. The monument erected to Roger Williams, at Roger Williams Park, Providence, was cut by this company from granite obtained from their quarry.
In 1866 Mr. George Ledward opened a second quarry, which proved, however, to be a continuation of the first. It is operated under the name of the Rhode Island Granite Works, the head- quarters for business being at Hartford, with the New England Gran- ite Works. Immense quantities of the stone have been quarried here for building, monumental, and ornamental purposes. Perhaps the most famous work of this company is the " Antietam Soldier," for the battle-field of Antietam. It was cut from a single block which, when lifted from its bed weighed sixty tons, but which was reduced by cutting to half of that weight. The figure was designed by Carl Conrads, and with its pedestal measures forty-five feet in height. It represents a Union soldier of the Rebellion, standing at parade rest.
Half a mile north of the second quarry, a vein of red granite, much prized for building purposes, is worked. On Vincent Hill there is a deposit of blue and white granite, with here and there a vein of red. East of these two, in the line of the railroad, are two quarries which produce fine building material. The seventh is situ- ated on Cormorant Hill. The stone which it yields is of a very fine
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quality, but lying as it does mainly in thin strata, it is used for curb- ing, flagging, and such other purposes as require thin stones.
There is also in the town a small quarry of soapstone, which is not worked at present. The aborigines prized this quarry highly,
Congregational Church, Westerly.
and obtained material from it for such rude implements as they could fashion.
In the list of noted men whom Westerly holds in grateful remem- brance should be especially mentioned the two Wards, father and son, of Revolutionary times, and the Dixons, father and son, of our own day. The elder Ward was the son of Governor Ward of New- port. He removed to Westerly when he was about twenty. He was three times chosen governor of the colony. In the exciting times which ushered in the Revolution, his pen did good service in inciting the colonists to resist the aggressions of England. In 1774 he was chosen as colleague of Stephen Hopkins to represent Rhode Island in the first Continental Congress at Philadelphia. He was re-elected to the position the next year, and while in discharge of his duty died at Philadelphia, March 25, 1776.
Samuel Ward, his son, was born in Westerly in 1756. He fought in the Revolutionary War, having risen to the rank of captain when he was nineteen years old. He joined in the siege of Boston, and accompanied General Arnold in the expedition against Quebec. He was taken prisoner, but was soon after exchanged. He helped defend Rhode Island under Generals Greene, Lafayette, and Sullivan. He commanded a regiment here, and received a commission as lieu-
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tenant-colonel. Afterwards he joined Washington's army in New Jersey. At the close of the war he became a merchant. He died at Jamaica, Long Island, in the year 1832.
No name upon the public records of Westerly is more familiar, not only to the town itself, but also to the whole State, than that of Nathan Fellows Dixon, a name borne by a father and son whose public careers were very similar. Both were leading lawyers ; both represented their town in the General Assembly of the State, one for seventeen and the other for eighteen years, and both sat in the councils of the Nation at Washington, the one as a Senator and the other as a Representative. Their names will always be held in proud esteem by the town and State they served so long and faithfully.
Westerly is one of the most thriving and enterprising towns in the State. Here are located many cotton and woolen factories, machine-shops, and manufacturing establishments of various kinds. It is also a business centre and a depot of supplies for the manufacto- ries throughout the surrounding country.
The principal cotton-factories are those of the Moss Manufactur- ing Company, situated on Mechanic Street; and the establishment of B. B. & R. Knight, at White Rock village, about a mile above, on the Pawcatuck River. Among the companies and firms in the town engaged in the woolen manufacture are the Phenix Woolen Com- pany, the Stillman Manufacturing Company, the Westerly Woolen Company, Latimer Stillman & Co., and at Stillmanville, O. M. Stillman & Co.
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