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 8
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purchased and fitted for a voyage to the whaling-grounds in the Pacific Ocean. The Warren whalers were the last vessels of the class owned in Rhode Island. At one time the fleet numbered about thirty.
The ship-yards of the town in other days turned out some very remarkable vessels. The United States frigate " General Greene," of 600 tons burden, was launched from the yard of Cromwell & Child. Her cost, when completed and fitted for sea, was $105,- 492.32. She sailed from the port in 1799. In 1814 she happened to be lying at the Washington Navy Yard when that city was attacked by the British, and was destroyed, to prevent her from fall- ing into their hands. The United States sloop-of-war " Chippewa " was built by Capt. Caleb Carr. Captain Carr contracted with the Government to build this vessel in the shortest time possible. Fifty- seven days after her keel was laid he delivered her to Com. O. H. Perry, ready for her rigging and armament. From Captain Carr's yard was also launched the famous Bristol privateer, "Macdonough," of 300 tons burden. The "Macdonough " was celebrated for her wonderful speed. Her model was justly regarded as a marvel of beauty. During the war she made but one cruise. Although she effected many captures, all her prizes were retaken. She was finally sold in Cuba, and went to pieces in the harbor of Matanzas with a cargo of slaves on board.
The commerce of Warren has now entirely vanished. All the energies of the town are devoted to manufactures. In its three great cotton-mills more than a thousand operatives are employed. The annual value of their manufactured product is almost $1,200,000.
BARRINGTON. - The municipal career of Barrington has been more varied than that of any other town in Rhode Island. It was once a part of Swansea, Mass. Within its present boundaries the first English settlement in that ancient town was made in 1632. In 1717 it was set off from Swansea under the name of Barrington. For thirty years it was numbered among the towns of the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts, but in 1747, when the long-disputed " boundary question " was settled, it lost its identity completely, and became a part of Warren, R. I. In 1770 it was again awarded a separate existence, under the name it has ever since retained.
Of the early settlers of Barrington, Arnold gives this brief account in his History of Rhode Island, Vol. II., page 158: " Swan-
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Nayatt Point.
zea was settled by men whose views on the subject of religious free- dom were too liberal even for the tolerant spirit of the Pilgrims. Rev. John Miles, a Baptist minister from Wales, with his friends, had settled in Plymouth, where their dissent from the prevailing creed soon placed them under the ban of the authorities. They were required to remove from the immediate neighborhood, but were permitted to settle within the limits claimed by Plymouth. Soon afterward the Court granted to Capt. Thomas Willett, Mr. Miles, and others, all the land west of Taunton and Rehoboth, as far as the Bay, which included the present towns of Swanzea and Som- erset. The act of incorporation secured freedom of conscience to the settlers, who were thus left in the unmolested enjoyment of their religion. The place was called Swanzea from the Welch town whence Miles and most of his church had emigrated."
The Plymouth assumption of jurisdiction over this territory was the beginning of the boundary trouble. Four years before Swansea was incorporated, the charter granted to Rhode Island had conveyed to that colony jurisdiction over the country extending eastward three miles from the shores of Narragansett Bay. It seems most remarka- ble that the legal claim of Rhode Island to this territory should have been disputed for more than four-score years. . Yet in the face of the unusually explicit terms of the charter from King Charles II., the question was kept undecided during all that time. The northern boundary has not yet been finally settled.
The peculiar feature in the early history of the town was the division of its inhabitants into three "Ranks." The three Roman
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orders -the Patrician, the Equestrian, and the Plebeian -probably suggested the arrangement. The power to make the division was assumed by the five persons appointed in 1667 by the Court of Ply- mouth to regulate the admission of inhabitants to the town. It was afterwards exercised by committees appointed by the town, and by the selectmen. The committees were allowed to make promotions ' from one rank to another, and also to degrade whom they pleased. Sometimes degradations were made by request of the person de- graded. The amount of land owned by each man at first determined the rank to which he should be assigned. Nowhere else in America did such a strange system prevail.
It worked well enough at first, but in 1681 the committee of admission granted to five persons and " their heirs and assigns for- crer," the full right and intent of the highest rank. This step of the committee of course made the rank hereditary, and disclosed to the eyes of the people of the town the dangers of the path in which they were treading. Secret dissatisfaction quickly broke out into open revolt ; the action of the committee was by unanimous consent declared to be void and of none effect, and the uncouth remnant of feudalism soon faded away.
The first name in the first rank was that of Capt. Thomas Wil- lett. Captain Willett was one of the most noted men in the colony of Massachusetts. The story of his life belongs to the town of Bar- rington.
Thomas Willett was one of the last of the "Leyden Company " who came to this country. He arrived at Plymouth in 1629 ; although but nineteen years of age, he had already won an enviable reputa- tion for business ability. The people of Plymouth had some time before established a trading-post at Kennebec. Almost immediately after his arrival in the colony young Willett was sent thither to take charge of it. Resolute, ambitious, and independent, he was just the man for the place. His previous mercantile career had given him an unusual knowledge of the ways of men; he was an excellent linguist ; he possessed rare executive ability. For six years or more he remained at Kennebec. This singular anecdote concerning him is related in Governor Winthrop's Journal.
" At Kennebec, the Indians wanting food, and there being store in the Plymouth trading-house, they conspired to kill the English there for their provision ; and some Indians coming into the house, Mr, Willett, the master of the house, being reading the Bible, his
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countenance was more solemn than at other times, so as he did not look cheerfully upon them as he was wont to do; whereupon they went out and told their fellows that their purpose was discovered. They asked them how it could be. The others told them that they knew it by Mr. Wil- lett's countenance, and that they had discovered it by a book he was read- ing. Whereupon they gave over their design."
In 1647 Mr. Wil- lett, having returned to Plymouth, was chosen to the com- mais The Old Watson House. mand of its military company . Miles Standish, the intrepid warrior who had asked for but eight men with which to subdue all the Indians of Massachusetts, had held the office before him. Advancing years had compelled the fiery captain to lay his sword aside. No higher testimonial could be afforded of Willett's worth than this election. In 1651 he became an "Assistant" in Plymouth, and was annually re-elected until 1665, when he declined to hold the office longer.
A more important office was to be forced upon him. The prov- ince of New Amsterdam had lately become a part of the British possessions, and Captain Willett had been summoned to New York by the English Commissioners to act as their official interpreter. His thorough acquaintance with the language and customs of the Dutch rendered his services invaluable. No other Englishman in the coun- try was so well fitted for "modeling and reducing the affairs in those settlements into good English." So admirably did he perform the duties assigned him, that after the reorganization of the prov- ince had been perfected, he was elected the first Mayor of New York City. At the close of his first term he was re-elected. His integrity was so highly esteemed by the Dutch that they appointed him their umpire to determine the disputed boundary between New York and New Haven. About the year 1667, he returned to Plymouth Colony, and continued until the end of his life to reside
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upon his plantation in Swansea. His sword, and one of the doors of the house in which he dwelt, are in the possession of the city of New York.
The principal associate of Willett, in the founding of Swansea, was the Rev. John Miles. Mr. Miles had been the pastor of the Baptist Church in Swansea, Wales, and had been ejected from his living for " non-conformity." With a very large portion of his flock he came to this country, and in 1663 founded at Rehoboth the fourth Baptist church in America. This action of the Baptists being offen- sive to the Congregationalists, the former were advised to remove from the town. The settlement at Swansea was the result. It took its name from the Welch Swansea. (Its name is also written Swan- sey and Swanzea - Swansea, the sea of Swans, is the original 'spell- ing.) In the northern part of the present town of Barrington, the first Baptist church in Swansea was erected. Mr. Miles' own house was near the residence of the late Mason Barney, at " Barneysville." The bridge near his house was called Miles' Bridge. The house was used as a fortress in Philip's War, and was often called " Miles' Garrison." Mr. Miles was the school-master, as well as the pastor, of the new settlement. In 1673 the town voted to establish a school " for the teaching of grammar, rhetoric, and arithmetic, and the tongues of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, also to read English and' to write." Mr. Miles was elected school-master. For his services in conducting his scholars through this simple curriculum, he received the munificent sum of " forty pounds per annum in current country funds." Notwithstanding his double employment, Mr. Miles did not acquire great wealth. A portion of the people considered it unnec- essary to pay his salary as a minister ; another part held learning in light esteem. Strange to say, the son of this Baptist who had fled to America for the enjoyment of his religious beliefs, took orders in the Church of England, and came back to assume the charge of King's Chapel, in Boston.
The most noted dwelling in Barrington is the house which for six generations has been the home of the Watson family. The "Old Watson House" was built of brick, made by hand upon the " plantation " just north of it. Its mortar was mixed with lime obtained by burning the heaps of oyster-shells that numberless gene- rations of Indians had left scattered about. Matthew Watson, first of the name in America, was its builder. It was finished A. D. . 1660. The house, as first constructed, was one of the " lean-tos,"
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so dear to the hearts of the early settlers of Massachusetts. Two stories high it was in front; in the rear its roof terminated in a wood-pile. "Modern improvement" took away its second story a great many years ago. It was the first dwelling of brick erected in the county, and was an unusually elegant mansion for its day. Its hearths, chimney-jambs, and mantels were all of imported marble. Quaint Dutch tiles, imported from Amsterdam, were freely employed for decoration. A generation or so ago a fire destroyed some of the partitions of the old building, but its exterior walls remain firm as of yore. Upon one of its floors was laid the first woolen carpet known in Barrington. The first wall-paper seen in the town was also hung in the same room. One of the Matthew Watsons of the family " was born in the seventeenth, lived through the eighteenth, and died in the nineteenth century, at the age of 107 years." Some of his descendants aver that he lived to be II0 years of age, but the inscription upon his tombstone made him but 107. The additional three years do not matter much. Almost to the very last he retained his unusual muscular vigor. When 100 years old he was able to place his foot in the stirrup and mount his horse with more than the ordinary ease of a man of fifty. He lived a life of great energy and usefulness, and amassed what was considered at the time of his death to be an immense fortune.
Barrington abounds in delightful bits of scenery, but by far the most beautiful spot within its borders is Nayatt Point. No one gazes upon it from the waters of the bay, or drives quietly past its well-kept lawns, without bestowing a spontaneous tribute of admira- tion. Nature has done much for Nayatt; the art of man has been employed mainly to carry out the plans her lavish hand suggested. Its little cluster of houses has not been allowed to grow up in the careless, hap-hazard way that has marred the beauty of so many American towns. Upon the most picturesque sites the tasteful villas have been erected. The grounds about them have been laid out according to a simple but well-ordered plan. The owners of the little peninsula do not intend that it shall become only a summer camping-ground. It is meant to be a home, a place to which one can flee for shelter when the snow-flakes are covering all the land- scape with a fleecy pall, as well as when city streets are stifling those who dwell upon them with a pent-up volume of heated air. Happy would the State be, if all its villages were managed under the excel- lent system which has done so much for this favored community.
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CHAPTER V.
EAST PROVIDENCE -SILVER SPRING -OCEAN COTTAGE-SQUANTUM- A RHODE ISLAND CLAM-BAKE-TRISTAM BURGES. PAWTUCKET FALLS - THE FIRST SETTLERS-TIIE JENKSES-CAPT. PIERCE'S FIGHT- THE FALLS AT VARIOUS TIMES -SAM PATCHI -SAMUEL SLATER AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MANUFACTURES. NORTH PROV. 1DENCE. LINCOLN.
T is quite probable that not one-tenth part of those who have visited EAST PROVIDENCE during the nineteen years of its existence, are aware that their feet have ever been placed upon its soil. And yet there are few towns in the State more frequented by visitors during the warm summer months. The numerous trains of the Bristol railway are often stopping at its stations ; excursion steamers, " decked with flags and streamers gay," are ever landing great loads of human freight upon its bending piers. Silver Spring is the destina- tion of most of these excursionists. Some of them stop at Ocean Cottage. A few favored mortals enter the well-kept grounds over which the flag of the Squantum Club waves enticingly. The steps of all are turned towards one common goal. Some, to whom the spot is already familiar, press confidently on with poorly-concealed eagerness. Others advance with the air of hesitation which is always so becom- ing to the neophyte. A " genuine Rhode Island clam-bake " is the magnet which draws them forward. Your pardon, reader, if we attempt a feeble description of this world-famed production of our glorious State.
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The history of the clam-bake has never yet been written. To unfold in fitting terms its mysteries, to describe the successive steps through which perfection has at last been reached, requires a pen of more than ordinary ability. Frankly we confess ourselves to be incompetent to perform the task. Had Charles Lamb lived in this most favored land, his unequaled fancy might, perhaps, have done justice to the fruitful theme. Had the gentle Elia been a Rhode Islander, the " succulent clam," rather than the " tender crackling," would have held the place of honor upon his never-to-be-forgotten page.
A little encyclopædic information may not be out of place just here. Mya arenaria, is the scientific name of the common " long clam" of Narragansett Bay. The "long clam," or, as it is some- times called, the " soft clam," must not be confounded with the qua- haug. The latter is a very different creature. Scientific men call it Venus mercenaria. Those who have not penetrated the secrets of its mechanism are often greatly puzzled when they attempt to extract it from its hard, round shell. All along the shores of the bay the my@ are found. Thousands of bushels are dug each year, but the supply does not seem to diminish. The distinguishing feature of the clam is the "siphon." The American Cyclopedia describes it thus : " The siphon is neither head nor tail, but a double retractile tube for respiratory and feeding purposes." This "siphon " is a perpetual joy to those unfamiliar with the bivalve. Not long ago a learned doctor of divinity from one of our Western States came to the shores of the Narragansett for a short visit. All his life he had sighed for an opportunity to " entrap a clam in its lair." At last he realized
Silver Spring.
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the object of his ambition. The " siphon " drew out his unbounded admiration. Upon its admirable adaptation of means to an end, he enlarged with eloquent tongue, and seemed never to weary in the expatiation. Hastening to the railway station, after a stay far too brief for those who had enjoyed his genial society, he espied a basket of clams exposed for sale in front of a market. Never again could he hope to possess a more favorable opportunity for observing the " siphon." Stopping short in his walk, at the risk of losing his train, the grave and dignified divine tested for the last time with eager fin- ger its wonderful powers of contraction, then with visions of luscious myd dancing before his eyes, and their fragrant odors tantalizing his olfactory nerves, went sorrowfully back to the unromantic routine of his city life.
Upon nearly all the shores of New England the clam is found. Several times, in the early history of Massachusetts, the white settlers would have perished but for this lavish food-supply which nature had provided for them. From the Indians the English learned the way in which it should be cooked. Upon the shores of the Narragansett the " clam-bake" has gradually been brought to its state of perfec- tion.
The modus operandi of a "bake" is as follows: In the first place a rude floor of stones is laid. Upon this floor a pile of ordinary " cord-wood" is thrown .. The wood is set on fire and allowed to burn until the stones beneath begin to crack with the heat. The half- burned brands are then pulled away, and a thin layer of sea-weed -the ordinary "rock-weed" of the shore-is thrown upon the heated stones. (This first layer is not absolutely essential. It serves to prevent the lowest clams from being burned or discolored by the too great heat.) Next the clams are thrown upon the pile in a layer of uniform thickness, and another coating of "rock-weed" is placed over them. A piece of old canvas is spread over the whole (to keep in all the steam), and the fragrant pile is left to itself for about forty minutes. Then the "bake" is opened and the repast begins. Sometimes ears of green corn, baskets of potatoes and other vegetables, lobsters, fresh fish rolled in corn-husks, and various other edibles are deposited in the midst of the rock-weed. The steaming vapors from the clams permeate the whole mass, and impregnate everything with their rich odor. Many men would, any day, willingly leave the well-appointed table of the " Narragansett Hotel " to partake of such a feast. The relish for it seems to increase rather than to diminish, as it becomes more familiar.
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Squantum.
Washington Bridge connects East Providence with the city of Providence, On the brow of the first hill the traveler surmounts as he drives away from the river and through the well-cultivated fields that border the road which leads to Bristol County, stands, at a little distance from the broad thoroughfare, a somewhat pretentious man- sion. It is guarded on every side by a row of sentinel columns, like one of the heathen temples of the olden days of Greece. Almost every one who has passed by must have noticed it, and admired its commanding position. The view from its upper windows to-day is wonderfully fine. Much more charming it must have been half a century ago, before the long lines of city streets and the monotonous array of tenement-houses crowded themselves into the landscape, to the exclusion of the waving branches and the emerald banks kindly Nature had provided. In this house one of Rhode Island's most eminent men once lived. The little State can claim for its own an unusually large number of famous names. As a soldier of the Revolution the fame of Nathaniel Greene is second only to that of Washington ; as a sailor the name of Oliver Hazard Perry shines with unequaled lustre ; as an orator hardly a man throughout the length and breadth of the land was better known, as a debater no antagonist was more greatly feared, than Tristam Burges.
Mr. Burges was born in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, in February, 1770. His father was by trade a cooper, and the future lawyer's early years were full of the severe manual labor which usually falls to the lot of the children of the poor. He was taught to
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read by his sister : his father gave him, according to his ability, scanty instruction in mathematics, but at twenty-one, he had been at school but twelve weeks during his whole life. In 1792 hie became a student in the Academy at Wrentham, Mass., and there he made his first appearance as an orator. The attempt was almost a complete failure. A natural impediment in his speech was intensified by the unfamiliar circumstances of his position; he found himself uttering but a succession of unintelligible syllables, and was com- pelled to retire in confusion from the rostrum.
As he was returning to his home, one of his companions sug- gested to him, in a rather unfeeling way, that he "ought to get some one to do his speaking for him." The words were like gall to the ambitious young man, but they spurred him on to success ; like the late Lord Beaconsfield he resolved that his sneering associates should one day listen with respect to whatever he had to say. The difficulties in his path seemed almost insurmountable ; with resolute will he set himself to work to overcome them. Day by day, amid the cool shades of the neighboring forest, he labored to change his stammering utterances to distinct articulations. After a long time he was successful, so successful that at the graduation of his class he was chosen not only to speak for himself, but for the class also, as its valedictorian. In 1793 he entered Brown University as a member of the sophomore class, and at once assumed a leading position among the students. His unusual powers of application made him facile princeps whenever he chose to be so. He was the orator of his class, and was chosen a second time to deliver a valedictory oration, at its " Commencement Exercises."
In 1799 Mr. Burges was admitted to the Rhode Island bar. Able lawyers then adorned it, but the young advocate was immediately accorded an unusually prominent place among them. To every case entrusted to his charge he devoted himself with an enthusiasm that was remarkable, even in that age of hard work. Whenever he rose to speak, he was sure of a most attentive audience. His pro- found knowledge of the law, his apt illustrations, and his exquisite command of language, rarely failed to win for him a favorable verdict. In 1825 he was elected a Representative to Congress, and his fame at once became national. The National House of Repre- sentatives afforded him an ample field for the display of his wonder- ful skill as a debater. It was the fashion at that time for the men from the South to revile New England, and the Northern members
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JA RA REID
A Bodwell
Del.
The Falls at Hunt's Mills.
were, perhaps, not so ready in debate as they should have been to resent the insults cast upon their states. After Mr. Burges took his seat the insults were not offered with such frequency. Not a man in the House could cope with Rhode Island's representative when once his wrath had been aroused. Even the proud spirit of John Randolph, of Roanoke, could not withstand the torrent of fiery indignation and the terrible bursts of sarcasm which the " bald eagle " of Rhode Island poured out against those who had dared to slander his friends and neighbors. Mr. Burges served but two terms in Congress. He had espoused the losing side in politics, and thus was forced to retire from active political life before his work was half accomplished. The last years of his life were spent in com- parative retirement upon his farm. He died in 1853.
East Providence became a town of Rhode Island in 1862. Before that date it formed a part of Seekonk, Mass. It will, doubt- less, in course of time become one of the wards of the city of Prov- idence. Every day its relations with the principal capital of the State become more intimate. Its final annexation to its powerful neighbor is only a question of years.
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