USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island tercentenary, 1636-1936. A report by the Rhode Island Tercentenary commission of the celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations > Part 6
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A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
David A. Dorgan, chairman of the Providence City Council Ter- centenary Committee.
Col. Winfield Scott Solomon, president of the S. A. R., and Mrs. Arthur M. McCrillis, State Regent of the Rhode Island D. A. R. headed the reception line.
Speakers were the official guests, Dr. Gus W. Dyer, professor of economics at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., Spencer H. Over, president of the British Empire Club; Arthur M. McCrillis, past president general, National Society, Sons of the American Revolution; Col. Solomon and Mrs. McCrillis, the latter two presiding as dual toastmasters.
On the afternoon preceding the Tercentenary opening, a Forefather's Observance was held at the First Baptist Church in Providence, the oldest church of that faith in America. The pastor, Rev. Arthur W. Cleaves, D.D., read from a sermon on "Self Love", delivered at Plymouth in 1621 by Robert Cushman, a layman. This was the first sermon preached in New England and the oldest extant of any delivered in America.
After hearing the beating of a drum summoning them, the congregation filed into the church, the deacons wearing Colonial costume.
The service was opened with a prayer first used in 1621. The Scripture was read with interpolations gathered for the service from old church records. The hymn was chanted by a Presentor in Colonial garb who after each line paused while the congregation repeated it. While Dr. Cleaves preached and the others prayed, two tithing men with long poles, one bearing a rabbit foot, the other a rabbit tail, went among the worshipers keeping them awake in Colonial fashion. Musket men and Indians of the American Indian Federation, added Colonial color to the service, the first of several similar ones held during the Tercentenary, in other churches about the State.
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The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
ROGER WILLIAMS' WATCH IS SHOWN
T HE silver watch carried by Roger Williams was placed on exhibition in Providence as a feature of the opening ceremony of the Tercentenary. An inch and a quarter thick, two and one- eighths inches in diameter, fully 10 ounces in weight, with a swinging pendulum and a device that changes every 24 hours to mark the day of the month, the watch, still in order and still keeping good time, was one of the most interesting features of the anniversary.
The watch is owned by H. Russell Drowne, Jr., of New York, who brought it here for a public showing in keeping a promise made to Governor Green in 1935 at Camp Pine, N. Y. Even the works are of gilt, elaborately decorated. The pendulum is a curi- osity, seldom seen even in the oldest time pieces. The spring originally was wound with a catgut cord, but about a century ago this was replaced by a fine chain. It is wound by a separate key about an inch long, inserted in a slot in the back.
Hands of carved gold point to hours in letters and to minutes in numerals. Behind a thick rock crystal glass is the face of the watch in silver, ornamented in the centre with a Cupid blowing a bugle and following a stag pursued by a hound. The name of the maker, Cornelius Uyterweer of Rotterdam, Holland, is engraved on the face. Below this is the small opening through which may be seen a rotating disc telling the day of the month.
The case is thus described by Mr. Drowne:
"The outside case is silver, the work of the celebrated French repousee worker, Cochin, and is of remarkably fine workmanship, representing the parting of Hector and Andromache before the walls of Troy, as described in the Iliad. Hector is taking leave of his family before going to the battle in which he is killed by Achilles. His little son, Astyanas, is frightened by his father's shining crest and nodding plumes, and his mother is passing him to the nurse who is kneeling to receive him. There are a group of figures in the background. Beneath appears 'Cochin Sc.' The case has been worn until it is exceedingly thin but it still gives evidence of its former beauty."
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A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
Just when or where Williams came into possession of the watch is not known, although family documents and records prove he once owned it, Mr. Drowne said.
Probably before the turn of the Eighteenth Century, Dr. Williams Thayer, a lineal descendant of Roger Williams, received it as a gift or possibly an inheritance, from his mother, Betsy Williams, wife of David Thayer. About 1812, Dr. Thayer gave it to his son, William Thayer, Jr., who sold it to his friend, William Drowne. After carrying it for 51 years, William Drowne sold it to Henry Bernardin Drowne in 1865. Drowne died in Providence and in his time was best known as "the man with the Roger Williams watch."
Thence it went to Henry Russell Drowne and then to H. Russell Drowne, Jr., the present owner, who has refused to part with it.
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The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
RHODE ISLAND BOUNDARIES
A LASTING memorial of the Rhode Island Tercentenary is the publication "Rhode Island Boundaries, 1636-1936" by John Hutchins Cady, Consultant to the State Planning Board, issued late in the Tercentenary year by the Rhode Island Tercentenary Commission. This is a 32-page cloth bound book, 81/2 by 11 inches page, with six full sized page maps showing the territorial bounds of the State at various periods in its history. Like the other pub- lications by the State Tercentenary Commission, it was printed for gratuitous distribution to libraries, historical societies and other organizations and individuals interested in Rhode Island history.
It is the first publication on a most interesting phase of this history. The text and maps are descriptive of the boundaries of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and of her counties and towns, as they have been developed from the first settlement by the English up to her Tercentenary year, Nineteen Hundred and Thirty-six.
"Rhode Island Boundaries" was first issued in mimeographed form June 15, 1936 as a special report of the Rhode Island State Planning Board. The maps were designed by the author and drawn by William A. Perry, a staff artist of the planning board, whose services were made available by the Works Progress Administra- tion. The value of the work was at once recognized and it was issued in permanent form by the State Tercentenary Commission in December of that year, as one of its last services.
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A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
THE ROGER WILLIAMS MEMORIAL
W HEN Roger Williams, man of peace, was buried in 1683 with the honors paid a soldier, his grave on the rear of his home lot, now the Sullivan Dorr estate 109 Benefit street, corner of Bowen, was left unmarked and in the course of time its exact location was almost forgotten. It was finally identified by the recollection of one who as a child had been present at the interment of another member of his family, and who had then been shown its location.
In later years the stone base of a broken pillar intended for the Arcade was placed at its head. This has remained the only marker of what since 1860 has been an empty grave, for in that year it was opened with the idea of removing the dust of the founder to a suitable memorial. No traces were found of any coffin; no bones remained; nothing more than a strata of earth somewhat darker than that which surrounded it. This was care- fully removed and placed in the tomb of Stephen Randall of Providence, a direct descendant of the founder.
In this old tomb in North Burial Ground, the city's oldest cemetery, what was believed to be the dust of the founder re- mained for 72 years in an old soap box until again its location was almost forgotten. Then it was rediscovered, placed in a steel chest and removed to a second tomb in the old cemetery, to wait further progress in the effort to erect a suitable memorial.
This effort, begun in 1850 by the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, once one of the most outstanding of Rhode Island organizations for culture and progress, but now only a memory, is being brought to success at long last in this Tercentenary year by the Roger Williams Memorial Association and the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Tercentenary Committee, Inc.
From the first effort by the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, $100 was raised by a course of ten lectures and by subscription. This was deposited in the Providence Institution for Savings where it had grown through subsequent additions, to $250 by 1867.
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The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
At a meeting attended by nearly two hundred citizens and held in 1860, in Westminster Hall, the Roger Williams Monument Association was organized. This association raised $50, deposited it in the Union Savings Bank and later in the Providence Institu- tion for Savings. This fund, with subsequent deposits and interest, had increased by 1878 to $1,156.02.
Both efforts having ceased and public interest having died out, Stephen Randall of Providence, proud of his direct descent from Roger Williams and indignant at the neglect, deposited $1,000 in the Peoples Savings Bank on January 5, 1865 as the nucleus for a fund for a monument. He executed a deed of gift in which he stipulated the size, type and a description of the monu- ment he desired erected, stipulating also that it should be placed on Prospect Terrace, the highest point of land in Providence, and should be visible from Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
The trustees of the fund were by the deed of gift authorized "Whenever this sum of one thousand dollars with such deposits, accumulations, collections and subscriptions of responsible parties appropriated . . . shall amount to a sum sufficient . . . to buy the land required and erect and complete such monument . . . to pay the entire sum . . . to the Roger Williams Monument Asso- ciation ... or to some other responsible body incorporated for the purpose of erecting a monument to Roger Williams."
Mr. Randall's $1,000 had grown by 1886, the year of the 250th anniversary of the founding of Providence, to $4,353.11
Mr. Randall died in 1874 without seeing further action and the suitable recognition of the founder for which he had planned, was forgotten. The State of Rhode Island placed in Statuary Hall in the Capitol at Washington, a marble statue of Roger Williams, executed by Franklin Simmons of Maine. The City of Providence erected in Roger Williams Park in accordance with a stipulation in the will of Betsy Williams presenting the old Williams farm to the city for a public park, a bronze statue on a marble base, also executed by Simmons.
A statue was erected at Geneva, Switzerland, a bust was placed in the Hall of Fame in New York, but no further move was made toward a monument to Roger Williams in the city and State he founded, until 1934 when the General Assembly incorporated the Rhode Island Roger Williams Memorial Association. This was an
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A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
organization of leading citizens in all parts of the State, with the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the State, the Mayors of each of its five cities, the presidents or heads of historical societies and of the hereditary and patriotic organizations of the State as ex- officio members.
In October of the Tercentenary year the various funds in the two savings banks, accumulated for the erection of a monument, totaled about $44,300. These funds were placed to the credit of the newly organized association, and to them were added about $15,000 from the funds of the so-called Jubilee Committee, the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Tercentenary Commit- tee, Inc.
While the stipulations in the original deed of gift by Stephen Randall have, through action by the State, the city and the courts, been so altered as to remove the impossible restrictions he imposed, his desire to have the Williams monument on Prospect Terrace has been respected and the design finally accepted by the association will rise from the commanding height off Congdon street, over- looking the entire west side of the city. The statue will stand within a short distance of the spot where he was buried with the honors due one who was a leader in war as in peace.
The design is by Ralph T. Walker of New York, a noted architect and a Rhode Islander by birth and heritage, who led 15 competitors. The statue of Williams will be 14 feet high, mounted on a column of Rhode Island granite. Immediately behind the statue will be deposited the remains of Williams, sealed in a steel casket 14 by 20 inches.
The statue will be atop a smooth granite retaining wall which will rise from the lower level, above Benefit street, to the upper terrace, which is nearly level with Congdon street. An arch will rise behind the statue, 25 feet above the upper terrace and 52 feet above the lower level.
The architect also submitted plans which the association hopes to see carried out eventually, calling for a much more imposing memorial. The statue, arch, retaining wall and the rest of the con- struction planned for the present would remain, but it would be materially enhanced by an imposing entrance at North Court Street, with massive granite steps and landings; a mosaic walk
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The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
along the front of the retaining wall and an approach by graded flights of steps to the upper terrace. A pool would extend along the front of the statue and arch.
Under the present plans the retaining wall of rough granite will be rebuilt with smooth granite and on its face will be the inscription:
1636
Roger Williams purchased these lands from Canonicus and Miantonomo, sachems of the Narragansett Indians and founded PROVIDENCE in the spirit of tolerance and brotherly love and democratic responsibility. Here they continue to endure.
1936
To the right of this inscription will be the figures of two Indians in bas relief representing Canonicus and Miantonomo, with arms outstretched.
Work on the statue and its surroundings will be pushed to completion in 1937, as early as the weather permits.
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A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
THE ROGER WILLIAMS SPRING
O NE of the results of the Tercentenary has been the marking and preservation for posterity, of the spring where Roger Williams made his first settlement in the country of the Wampa- noag Indians after fleeing from Salem in January, 1636 when he received advance news that the decree of banishment from the Bay Colony passed in October, 1635 by the General Court of the Colony, was to be enforced.
Although located just off Wilson Avenue in the Phillipsdale section of East Providence, hardly half a dozen miles from Provi- dence and in one of the most thickly settled sections of the State, this spring was yet as Williams found it, flowing in a meadow as it has flowed for the last three centuries. As late as a half-century ago when Providence celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding, remains of the cellar holes of the houses of Williams and his few companions, might still be seen in its vicinity.
The Rhode Island and Providence Tercentenary Committee, Inc., provided the funds to buy the spring and a section of the land surrounding it. The East Providence Tercentenary Commit- tee of this body raised an equal amount with which to beauty these surroundings.
The spring flows from a hillside just north of Wilson Avenue and running under Roger Williams Avenue, empties into Omega Pond. The East Providence committee has terraced and beautified the parcel of land 50 by 170 feet, which surrounds the spring. A stone retaining wall has been built on the side of the hill and through an opening in a large stone once a grindstone, the water can be seen flowing to the outlet in front of the wall, thence to its natural course to the edge of the highway. At the street boundary a rustic fence has been erected.
The spring was dedicated by the committee, Sunday, Novem- ber 8, 1936. The deed for the property, purchased for $600 from Mrs. Gertrude Koehler, was presented to the Town of East Provi- dence and accepted by Leon E. Smith, president of the Town Council.
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The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
Here, after gaining permission from Massasoit, who gave him a grant of land, Williams made his home and planted his first crops. Here he remained until warned by Winslow that he was yet within the limits claimed by Plymouth Colony. From here he left on the canoe trip down the Seekonk river around the Tockwotten bluffs and up the fresh river to that other spring "beside the Mooshassuck" where he found his final refuge and founded Providence Plan- tations.
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A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
TERCENTENARY ROAD MARKERS
F ALL the features of the Rhode Island Tercentenary, none is more distinguished for lasting worth, beauty and usefulness than the 120 Tercentenary road markers set beside the roadside where town lines meet on main travelled highways. They are unique, their appearance is most striking, they stand as an ever present lesson in Rhode Island's early history. For they give on tablets set in cement, the origin of the name of each town, the date of its founding and in most cases some short summary of its history.
They are a reminder whose worth will grow with the years, of the three hundredth anniversary of an event which like the markers that commemorate it, was a new departure from the established order. They have proved perhaps the most popular feature of the anniversary celebration.
These town line markers were designed by Alfred E. Tickell of Warwick. The historical inscriptions were written by Howard M. Chapin, Librarian of the Rhode Island Historical Society. The armorial designs were reproduced from drawings by Dr. Harold Bowditch, published in "Rhode Island Municipal Arms", a brochure by Mr. Chapin issued in 1931 as Publication Number Three of the Pavillon Club, Providence. Dr. Bowditch's rendi- tion of the arms of the 39 Rhode Island cities and towns has been described as "in the finest heraldic style of the best period of Gothic art."
The castings for the coats of arms and the shields of historical data were made at a foundry established by the Rhode Island Tercentenary Commission at Oakland Beach, where the markers themselves were poured from the finest waterproof cement, rein- forced with steel rods. Here the armorial designs were also sculp- tured and modeled by graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design or former bronze foundry workers.
The work was done as a Works Progress Administration project, the United States Government allotting $9,030 for labor, the Tercentenary Commission $3,397 for materials. Their final cost was somewhat higher than this, for the project exceeded the original estimates both in time and cost of execution.
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The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
The markers are five feet four inches in height, triangular in shape, tapering toward the top which has a triangular form of 30 inches at the plinth, which is slightly dome shaped. The base of the triangle forms the rear, the two sides each having near the top a shield of aluminum bearing in relief the coat of arms of the town it faces.
Below these shields, which are 61/2 by 81/4 inches in size, is an aluminum tablet 14 by 18 inches, inscribed with historical data of the town, the lettering being a pleasingly artistic design easily read, cut in and outlined in black. The surface of the metal is coated with a special lacquer to resist the weather. The back of the marker is plain. Each marker weighs about 800 pounds.
The markers stand well back from the right of way, replacing in the same locations the wooden posts with arms showing the names of the two towns, formerly maintained by the State Divi- sion of Roads and Bridges to designate where town lines cross the main roads. The lettering on the historical plates is large enough to be read from a passing automobile and as each marker on a road differs from another, they form a succession of his- torical reminders, most interesting to travelers and townsmen alike.
Nothing quite like this was ever done before. Several cen- turies ago Spain placed on roads in the Philippines, cement markers to serve as mile posts. During the Pilgrim Tercentenary of 1920, stone posts were set by the roadside in the various towns in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, bearing the arms of Plymouth Colony in metal, but these were all alike in design and in the arms they bore.
In the Rhode Island markers every one of the 39 towns and cities is represented by its individual arms, the few towns which had not previously adopted arms being supplied with a suitable design which later was adopted by the town. For the shields on the markers the carving of the coats of arms has followed with one or two slight exceptions, the artistic treatment of Dr. Bowditch.
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A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
TERCENTENARY ROAD MARKERS
PLACED, TO THE NUMBER OF 120, WHERE TOWN AND CITY LINES MEET ALONG MAIN TRAVELLED ROADS.
1 Burrillville and Burrillville Wallum Lake Road (Hospital)
2 North Smithfield and State Line. Louisquisset Pike
3 North Smithfield and State Line. Road to Millville
4 Woonsocket and State Line. Harris Avenue
5 Woonsocket and State Line. Road to Milford
6 Cumberland and State Line Wrentham Road
7 Woonsocket and Cumberland Mendon Road
8 North Smithfield and Woonsocket Park Avenue
9 North Smithfield and Woonsocket. Providence Street
10 North Smithfield and Woonsocket South Main Street.
11 Burrillville and North Smithfield.
Route 102
12 Burrillville and North Smithfield
Douglas Pike
13 Glocester and State Line.
Putnam Pike
14 Glocester and Burrillville
Lake Road
15 Glocester and Burrillville.
Harrisville Road
16 Glocester and Burrillville
Victory Highway
17
North Smithfield and Smithfield
Farnum Pike
18 North Smithfield and Smithfield. Providence Pike
19 North Smithfield and Lincoln Louisquisset Pike
20 Smithfield and Lincoln. Washington Highway
21 Cumberland and Lincoln Albion Road
22 Pawtucket and State Line Newport Avenue
23 Pawtucket and State Line Broadway
24 Central Falls and Cumberland.
Broad Street
25 Central Falls and Lincoln
Lonsdale Avenue
26 Cumberland and Lincoln. Mendon Road
27 Pawtucket and Central Falls Lonsdale Avenue
28 Pawtucket and Lincoln Smithfield Avenue
29 North Providence and Lincoln Charles Street
30 North Providence and Smithfield.
Douglas Pike
31 North Providence and Smithfield
Farnum Pike
32 Johnston and Smithfield. Putnam Pike
33 Johnston and Smithfield. Fountain Spring Road
34 Johnston and Smithfield
Winsor Road
35 Glocester and Scituate
West Greenville Road
36 Glocester and Smithfield
Putnam Pike
37 Glocester and Scituate Victory Highway
Hartford Pike
39 Scituate and Foster Hartford Pike
40 Scituate and Foster Danielson Pike
41 Foster and State Line
Danielson Pike
42 Foster and Scituate
Victory Highway
43 Johnston and Scituate
Hartford Pike
44 Johnston and Scituate
Plainfield Pike
45 Cranston and Scituate. Scituate Avenue
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38 Glocester and Foster
The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
46 Coventry and Foster Plainfield Pike
47 Coventry and Foster. Victory Highway
48 Coventry and Scituate. East Road
49 Cranston and West Warwick New London Turnpike
50 Cranston and Warwick Bald Hill Road
51 West Warwick and Warwick Quaker Lane Road
52 West Warwick and Coventry.
New London Turnpike
53 West Warwick and Coventry Nooseneck Hill Road
54 Warwick and East Greenwich Quaker Lane Road
55 Coventry and West Greenwich Victory Highway
56 Coventry and West Greenwich Nooseneck Hill Road
57 Coventry and State Line. Plainfield Pike
58 Exeter and State Line. Beach Pond
59 Exeter and Richmond. Nooseneck Hill Road
60 Exeter and West Greenwich .Victory Highway
61 Exeter and West Greenwich Nooseneck Hill Road
62 Hopkinton and Richmond. Nooseneck Hill Road
63 Hopkinton and State Line. Nooseneck Hill Road
64 Westerly and State Line. Post Road, Route 1
65 Hopkinton and Westerly Bradford Road
66
Hopkinton and Richmond
Alton-Carolina Road
67 Westerly and Charlestown. Shore Road
Post Road
69 Narragansett and South Kingstown
Old Point Judith Road
70 Richmond and Charlestown
Carolina
71 Richmond and South Kingstown.
South County Trail
73 Exeter and South Kingstown
South County Trail
75 North Kingstown and Narragansett
Boston Neck Road
76 Exeter and North Kingstown.
South County Trail
77 Exeter and North Kingstown.
Ten Rod Road
78 East Greenwich and North Kingstown. Quaker Lane Road
79 East Greenwich and North Kingstown Post Road
80 East Greenwich and Warwick Post Road
81 Cranston and Warwick Elmwood Avenue
82 Cranston and Warwick
Warwick Avenue Bridge
83 Cranston and Providence Narragansett Boulevard
84 Cranston and Providence
Elmwood Avenue
85 Cranston and Providence. Reservoir Avenue
86 Cranston and Providence. .Cranston Street
87 Johnston and Providence Plainfield Street
88 Johnston and Providence. Hartford Avenue
89 North Providence aind Providence Woonasquatucket Avenue
90 North Providence and Providence. Smith Street
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