Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 69

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

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Providence commerce had suffered less than that of Newport; wharves and shipping were not destroyed as in the instance of the Island seaport. Providence vessels were success- ful frequently in passing the British blockade. With the withdrawal of the British and the return of peace, commerce was revived. Vessels owned in Providence in 1789 numbered 10I sail, 10,000 tons, in large part employed in foreign trade or whaling. A list of Providence vessels in 1791 included II ships, 35 brigs, I scow, I polacre, 25 schooners, 56 sloops, 129 sail in all, total tonnage 12,000. Enterprising Providence merchants and ship owners had already opened a flourishing trade with the Orient. Companies were chartered in 1792 to

*Continued to 1796.

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build two toll bridges across the Seekonk River, approximately on the sites of the twentieth century Red Bridge and Washington Bridge, to facilitate travel and overland commerce between Rhode Island and Massachusetts through what was then called Rehoboth, and to shorten the travel line between Providence and the east shore towns of Bristol and Newport counties, and between Providence and the capital town of Newport. A bridge across the Seaconnet River at Howland's ferry, to connect the Island of Rhode Island with the main- land was under consideration and discussion. The Providence Bank, capital $250,000 to $500,000, was incorporated in 1791. Three fountain societiest in Providence were already supplying water, on the west side of the river, through underground wooden pipes. The census of 1790 showed that the population of Rhode Island had increased 30 per cent. in eight years, in spite of a migration from New England after the Revolution to new lands west of the eastern mountain ranges estimated at not less than 60,000. There had been migration from Rhode Island to Vermont, including Jonathan Arnold and Colonel William Barton, and to Ohio, including James M. Varnum and Abraham Whipple. Every town in the state gained in the eight-year period. Rhode Island was not growing, however, as Rome did in the days in which the city of Romulus on the Tiber opened its gates as a haven to fugitives from justice and outcasts of society, in such manner as to merit the reproach of the Sabines, when the latter declined intermarriage of their daughters with the Roman youth. A statute enacted in 1788 expressly forbade, and established penalties for landing convicts from British vessels on the shores of Rhode Island.

THE FOUR BROTHERS-The sober recital of substantial economic and industrial achieve- ment in the preceding paragraph omits the romantic story of the Brown family in Rhode Island, and its part in the building of Rhode Island prosperity before the Revolutionary War and in the reconstruction of prosperity after the war, save as it recalls the remark of Obadiah Brown, "If I should never venter nothing, I should never have nothing," in which the double negatives were used for emphasis and not to cancel each other, English grammar and rhetoric. to the contrary notwithstanding. Of ancient Rhode Island lineage, the progenitors of the Browns were adventurers, sailors, merchants, men of vision, initiative, resource, determina- tion, including Chad Brown and Nicholas Power, of the earliest settlers, and Pardon Tilling- hast, who built the first warehouse in Providence on a small piece of ground, twenty feet square, granted by the town, and with it the first wharf in the Providence River. Nicholas Power (3), grandson of Nicholas Power (I), early settler, and son of Nicholas Power (2), who was killed in the Great Swamp Fight, married Mercy Tillinghast, granddaughter of Par- don Tillinghast ; their daughter, Hope Power, in 1722, married James Brown (I), a sailing master employed by Nicholas Power (3), who was a Providence merchant. James Brown (I) was brother of Obadiah Brown, and subsequently partner of Obadiah in the first Brown commercial house. Both James Brown (I) and Obadiah Brown were ship owners and sail- ing masters, first for other owners, and afterward of their own vessels. Their voyages car- ried them to English, French, Spanish and Dutch ports in the West Indies and along the main- land of South America, perhaps to Africa. In those days water commerce was seldom on established lines, with regular sailings between named ports, the vessels serving principally as freight or passenger carriers; the owner filled up his hold with a cargo and went forth to sell it, with the prospect of reinvesting the proceeds in another cargo, to be sold on return to the home port. On some voyages several successive cargoes were disposed of ; a favorite Rhode Island venture was triangular, outgoing to Africa with rum, back to West Indies with slaves to be sold, and thence home with a cargo of molasses and sugar to be distilled into rum.

fField, Rawson and Cook Fountain Societies were incorporated in 1772.

R. I .- 26

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James Brown (1) and Obadiah Brown were great-grandsons of Chad Brown, who, like so many others who came to New England during the Puritan migration, found the atmosphere of Massachusetts soul-stifling and moved on, if he was not urged off, to Rhode Island to become one of the companions of Roger Williams. Hope Power was great-granddaughter of Pardon Tillinghast and great-granddaughter of Nicholas Power.

James Brown (I) died prematurely in 1739, after an adventurous career as sailor and master, merchant and storekeeper, leaving his widow, then Hope Brown, who lived to the ripe old age of ninety years, and died in 1792. Her tombstone records that she was the mother of Nicholas, Joseph, John and Moses Brown. The eldest son of the marriage, James Brown (2), died in 1751, after a notable career as a sea captain and merchant, in spite of its brief duration. The elder generations of Browns, Powers and Tillinghasts had witnessed, participated in and contributed to the development of commerce and shipbuilding in and about Providence that had made the northern town even before the Revolution a promising rival of Newport, already past meridian of the golden age and jealous of the rising import- ance of Providence, politically and commercially. Obadiah Brown, after the death of his brother, James (1), took Nicholas, Joseph and John Brown, as they became of age, into the family partnership, which was reorganized in 1761, following the death of Obadiah Brown, as Nicholas Brown & Co. Moses Brown, youngest of the four brothers, was admitted to the firm in 1763, and the business was continued for ten years to 1773, when Moses retired. It was characteristic of this family, and the loyal coherence of its members, that Nicholas Brown declined to accept the double share of the family estate lawfully his as eldest surviving son, and divided the property equally with his brothers. The firm, Nicholas Brown & Co., achieved distinction and commercial leadership before the Revolution. As early as 1763 it had estab- lished a "trust" controlling the distribution of the entire production of sperm oil by the com- bined whaling fleets of continental North America, the largest share of all oil brought in by whalers being allotted to the Providence firm. It had established spermacetti works; the Brown name appeared in most of the large commercial enterprises of the period, including the founding of Furnace Hope in 1765, afterward a most important producer of heavy cannon and shot for the Revolution. The firm built ships in Rhode Island shipyards to carry its own commercial adventures, or to sell in trade. The ships owned and controlled by the Browns, in whole or in part, according to the current practice of ownership in shares as insur- ance against total losses, employed large numbers of sea captains sailing from Narragansett Bay, whether the enterprises were peaceable commercial voyages or privateering expeditions. Politically the family supported Stephen Hopkins in his ventures in government; he was allied with them in many commercial enterprises, including Furnace Hope.

John Brown, most daring and active of the brothers in the earlier years of the firm of Nicholas Brown & Co., was the instigator of the destruction of the "Gaspee," if he did not actually join the party, which he probably did. Yet so well was the secret of his participation in it kept that Moses Brown, youngest of the brothers and as cautious as John was audacious, when John was held in Boston early in the Revolution as a member of the "Gaspee" party, ignorant of John's part in the enterprise, with Quaker frankness and truthful plausibility, convinced the British that John could not be guilty and obtained his release. The firm of Nicholas Brown & Co. was active in supporting the Revolution, though it risked the lives of its members and the family fortune as a total loss, should the movement fail. Joseph Brown retired from the firm at the end of the war, and accepted the chair of experimental philosophy in Rhode Island College. Nicholas and John Brown dissolved the partnership in 1782 and set up separate establishments out of which developed the firms of Brown & Francis; Brown & Benson ; Brown, Benson & Ives; and Brown & Ives.

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John Brown was still the daring spirit, though "all the brothers were courageous." Early in the war, vessels sent out by him raided British stores of powder and shot in the West Indies ; a supply thus obtained by John Brown reached the Americans at Bunker Hill too late for use in the battle. Throughout the long struggle he was resourceful in "finding" the commodities most needed by the Americans. Though he was chided once at least because he did not become a soldier, his services as a civilian were invaluable. At the end of the war his was the initiative in reviving commerce, and he undertook first direct trade with the Orient. His ship, the "General Washington," 1000 tons, Captain Jonathan Donnison, cleared from Providence, December 24, 1787, with a cargo of anchors, cannon shot, bar iron, ginseng, tar, Jamaica spirits, New England rum, Madeira wine, brandy and spirits, and reached Canton, China, ten months later, on October 28, 1788. On the outward voyage the "General Washing- ton" visited Madeira, Madras, Pondicherry and Canton; on the return, St. Helena, Ascen- sion and St. Eustasius. The vessel reached Providence after a voyage of 32,758 miles, one year and six months, on July 5, 1789, with a cargo of teas, silks, china, cotton goods, lacquered ware, flannels, and gloves, valued at $99,848. The "General Washington" cleared again from Providence on December 26, 1789, for India, returning June II, 1791. Other voyages were to Canton, China, 1792-1793; to India, and to Russia. On the return from the Russian voy- age to Cronstadt, 1803, the ship and cargo were sold as part of the estate of John Brown, then deceased. John Brown built also the ship "President," which was on the stocks in John Brown's shipyard when President Washington visited Providence in 1790. The "President" was launched early in 1791, a "most elegant coppered ship" of 950 tons. The "President" made one voyage to Calcutta for Brown & Francis, and was sold there to a Dutch company for $60,000 in specie. A third ship from the Brown yards, the "George Washington," sailed from Providence in the India trade, via Madeira, in January, 1794. After a second voyage to China and Batavia, the "George Washington" was sold to the United States government for conversion as a cruiser. The "George Washington," cruiser, 624 tons, mounted 24 guns, of which 14 were nine-pounders cast at Furnace Hope. The price was $10,400 cash. The "George Washington," Captain Bainbridge, carried presents to the Dey of Algiers, as tribute for protection of American shipping from the Barbary pirates. Captain Bainbridge was requested to carry the Dey's ambassador to Constantinople, and, in defiance of orders that he sail under the flag of. Algiers, Bainbridge hoisted the American flag when near Constantinople. The "George Washington" was the first ship to show the American flag in Turkish waters. To this period also belongs Captain Robert Gray, of Tiverton, who in 1787 sailed the ship "Washington" to the northwest coast to trade with Indians, and returned via the Cape of Good Hope on the "Columbia," which had sailed with the "Washington," being the first Amer- ican captain to circumnavigate the globe under the American flag. On another voyage to the northwest Captain Gray, on May II, 1791, discovered the mouth of the Columbia River and named it. The claim of the United States to Oregon rested in part on Captain Gray's discovery.

John Brown was described by a French traveller in America, thus: "The richest mer- chant in Providence is John Brown, brother of Moses Brown, the Quaker. In one part of the town he has accomplished things that, even in Europe, would appear considerable. At his own expense he has opened a passage through a hill to the river, and has there built wharves, houses, an extensive distillery, and even a bridge by which the road from Newport to Providence is shortened by at least a mile." The reference here is to John Brown's devel- opment of wharves at India Point, so named from the East India trade, and to the bridge at Tockwotton Point, called the Washington Bridge, built under a franchise granted in 1792. The French relation continued: "At his wharves are a number of vessels, which are con- stantly receiving or discharging cargoes. ... The trade of Providence employs 142 vessels

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belonging to that port, and very little of it is shared with foreign ships, even by those of other states. The trade .... consists in the exportation of oxen, live hogs, salt pork, butter and cheese, barley, timber, onions, rum, whiskey, gin, flaxseed, wrought iron and the commodities imported from the East and West Indies. . . " Other projects fostered by John Brown included the Providence Bank, chartered in 1791, of the capital stock of which he was a large holder, and a canal from Providence to Worcester. A corporation to construct the canal was chartered in Rhode Island, but the enterprise failed for want of cooperation, the General Court of Massachusetts refusing to grant a charter for the line within the common- wealth. John Brown served as a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly, was elected to the Congress of the Confederation but did not take his seat, and served one term in Con- gress under the Constitution, 1799-1801. He was described in his later years as weighing 350 pounds, and occupying the full width of the seat in the carriage in which he drove from home to visit his enterprises at India Point.

The other branch of the Brown family, headed by Nicholas Brown, followed John Brown into the India trade. Brown, Benson & Ives built the ship "John Jay," which was launched late in 1794. In December the "John Jay" sailed for Bombay with pig iron, bar iron, rum, gin, pork, candles and tobacco, valued at $34,550, and returned two years later with teas valued at $250,000. The "John Jay" made other voyages, to Russia, to Batavia to procure a cargo "of the best Java coffee," to Canton, to Amsterdam to load a cargo of beef, pork, wine, burgundy, champagne, gin, pickles, smoked tongue and Bologna sausages for Sumatra and China. The "John Jay" was captured by a British war vessel on this voyage, was released, and on her final voyage from Batavia was wrecked. Brown & Ives built the ship "Ann and Hope," which sailed for Canton in July, 1798. The "Ann and Hope," 550 tons, was one of the fastest commercial sailing vessels ever constructed. On the first voyage the "Ann and Hope" reached Canton in five months and one day, counting four days spent at Australia ; the vessel returned from Canton in 126 days with a cargo of 3165 chests of tea, 130 boxes of china, 50,000 pieces of Nankins, 392 pieces of assorted silks. The "Ann and Hope" made a second voyage to Canton; a third voyage to Canton via London, carrying tobacco, coffee, logwood and silver dollars to London, and watches, glassware, cutlery, pork, beer, ale and broadcloths from London to Canton. On a fourth voyage the "Ann and Hope" sailed for Batavia, Amsterdam and Cronstadt; on a fifth to Batavia. The sixth and final voyage was to the East Indies via Lisbon; after various misfortunes, both outgoing and returning, the vessel was wrecked on Block Island, January 10-II, 1806, with a cargo valued at $300,000, practically a total loss. The Brown & Ives firm was also interested in the construction of a bridge across the Seekonk River, with Moses Brown named as the first incorporator; and in the Providence Bank. Such major ventures as those related in this paragraph, while indicating tremendous profits, out of which great fortunes were established, and also some losses, were important as community enterprises of vastly greater significance than the immediate rewards to those who planned them.

It is characteristic of prosperity that it spreads itself without loss to the individual who initiates it, and that the community as a whole generally profits from it. The Brown enter- prises drew wealth to the state of Rhode Island from beyond the borders; they diffused and distributed wealth within the community. They revived commerce and extended it into new fields. As cargoes for their outgoing argosies the Browns purchased the products of others in the community; their enterprises gave employment to thousands. The success of the Browns encouraged other merchants in Providence, in Rhode Island, and in the United States, to undertake the development of commerce, which had no small part in the building of that prosperity in the early years of the Constitution, which convinced the American people of the value of the Union.

OLD SLATER MILL, FIRST COTTON MILL IN AMERICA, PAWTUCKET

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SAMUEL SLATER-Moses Brown, youngest of the four brothers, next to Samuel Slater, was most influential in laying the foundation for textile manufacturing under the factory system, an innovation that transformed Rhode Island from a commercial into an industrial commonwealth. Moses Brown contributed the capital ; Samuel Slater contributed mechanical skill and ingenuity. So early as 1785 Brown had become interested in textile machinery, and had begun to purchase and experiment with machines made in America in attempts to repro- duce the Arkwright processes, which were carefully guarded by England, lest other nations derive profit from the improvements. While Moses Brown's interest at first was related to the success of the firm of Almy & Brown, of which he was a member, eventually the pursuit of the project led him to invest his own money outside his interest in the partnership. In December, 1789, Moses Brown received a letter from Samuel Slater, thus: "A few days ago I was informed that you wanted a manager of cotton spinning, etc., in which business I flatter myself that I can give the greatest satisfaction, in making machinery, making good yarn, either for stockings or twist, as any that is made in England; as I have had opportunity and an oversight of Sir Richard Arkwright's works and in Mr. Strutt's mill upward of eight years." Moses Brown replied : "If thou thought thou couldst perfect the machines and con- duct them to profit, if thou wilt come and do it, thou shall have all the profits made of them over and above the interest of the money they cost and the wear and tear of them." Slater accepted the offer, and on his arrival in Rhode Island pronounced the machinery accumulated by Almy & Brown practically of no value. One year later, after he had driven Moses Brown almost to despair through waiting and expenditures, Slater had succeeded in reproducing machinery of the Arkwright pattern and was operating the first successful cotton factory in America. Slater himself sometimes doubted success, but held firmly to the project. Slater's improvements were principally in carding and spinning; weaving was still principally by hand. The increased production in Almy & Brown's factory was indicated by a record of 7823 yards of cloth in nine and one-half months over 4556 yards in eighteen and one-half months before Slater came to Pawtucket, or practically multiplying the output by three. Eventually the spinning of yarn exceeded the amount that could be used in Almy & Brown's mill or sold to other manufacturers, who bought the Slater yarn for warp. Moses Brown, fearing the accumulation, ordered : "Thee must shut down thy gates or thee will spin up all my farms into cotton yarn." Samuel Slater married Hannah Wilkinson, daughter of Oziel Wilkinson, with whom he boarded. Hannah Slater made the first cotton thread for sewing by twisting on an ordinary spinning wheel strands of the cotton yarn produced by her husband, and thus laid the foundation for another new enterprise. Not until the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, and the production through it of clean cotton from the southern states, could Slater be persuaded to use North American cotton.

The success achieved by Slater led to expansion, and the firm, to which Slater was admitted as a partner, built in 1793 the mill now known as the Old Slater Mill, preserved in Pawtucket as seat of the first successful American cotton factory. The second Rhode Island cotton mill, erected in Centreville in 1794, became successful after purchase by Almy & Brown, and the introduction of Slater machinery and methods. Samuel Slater and others organized a new mill on the Massachusetts side of the Blackstone River, now within Rhode Island, in 1799, while continuing his employment as superintendent of, but not as a partner, in the original Slater Mill. The introduction of these factories prepared Rhode Island for the transformation into an industrial state that marked the nineteenth century. Losses in shipping through disaster such as befell the "Ann and Hope," and through the encroachment on legitimate commerce by both England and France during the Napoleonic wars induced Rhode Islanders to seek as investment for their capital in less hazardous enterprises. The textile industry was favored liberally under the protective tariff, and developed rapidly in

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Rhode Island, which offered abundant water power and also abundant clean water for textile processes. The movement from commerce to industry was well underway before the intro- duction of steam transportation promised to supplant commerce in fast clipper ships of the Rhode Island patterns. Two Rhode Island inventors made significant contributions to the development of successful steamboating.

ELIJAH ORMSBEE --- The first Rhode Islander who obtained a United States patent was Elijah Ormsbee, whose invention, a hand fire engine, proved too heavy to be moved up and down the seven hills of Providence, and never came into practical use. Ormsbee invented also a power loom to replace the hand looms that were continued in use long after the application of power to carding and spinning; a power loom was needed to supplement power-driven carders and spinners and place the manufacture of textiles on a completely mechanical basis. The Ormsbee loom was practical, and was introduced in mills at Olneyville and Blackstone. John Thorp, inventor of a ring spinning machine, also invented a power loom. Neither Ormsbee nor Thorp profited much from their looms; imported Scotch looms of superior type soon supplanted them. Ormsbee invented also a mortising and tenon machine, the secret of which he guarded carefully, and tools for making window sash. He was a carpenter by occupation, but so ingenious and competent about machinery that he was employed to repair a steam engine operating a pump at the ore bed in Cranston, chief source of iron for Furnace Hope, and also to build a steam-power plant for pumping out the vats at Bowen's distillery. He built a house in Providence at the corner of Wickenden and South Main streets, and occu- pied a shop on Bridge Street, the latter of which was swept away by the river during the Sep- tember gale of 1815. Some time during the last decade of the eighteenth century Ormsbee invented, built and operated a steamboat in the waters near Providence, of curious design with "duck-foot" paddles as propellers. Tradition records that, while working at Albany or Lan- singburg on the Hudson River, Ormsbee "conceived the idea . . . . that if vessels could be constructed to be propelled by steam power, the difficulties of navigating the Hudson would be done away with; he having occasionally been employed at the ore beds in Cranston, where steam power was applied to pump the water from the mine, while the ore was raised from the shaft by oxen."

Following is part of the relation of Captain John H. Ormsbee, who steered the Ormsbee steamboat on one occasion : "Mr. Ormsbee undertook to apply the power of steam to a boat. To effect this he obtained from Messrs. Clark & Nightingale the loan of a long boat, belong- ing .... to the ship 'Abigail,' then lying in Providence. The boat he took to a retired place about three and a half miles from Providence, known as Winsor's cove. A copper still, of from 100 to 200 gallons capacity, owned by Colonel Ephraim Bowen, used by him in his distillery in the south part of the town for the distilling of herbs, was also loaned him by Colonel Bowen. The cylinder and castings were made at Pawtucket, I believe at the furnace of the Wilkinsons. All the woodwork and most of the wrought-iron work was done by himself in a shop near the cove where the boat lay. This cove was selected for its little expos- ure to travelers by land or water, that he might not be disturbed at his work, and in case of want of success in his undertaking, he would not be subject to the derision of the community. He, however, succeeded in getting his machinery in operation, and on a pleasant evening in the autumn he left Winsor's cove in the first boat propelled by steam that ever floated on the waters of Narragansett Bay .... and arrived in safety at ... . Providence. The next day he left on the boat for Pawtucket, to show his friends in that village the success that had attended his enterprise. At Pawtucket the boat remained a day or two, and then returned to Providence. At Providence, he employed several days in going down and up the river, and experiments on the management of the machinery. The writer of this accompanied him to

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 69

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716