Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 51

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

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In 1909 the licensing of lobster fishermen had been limited to citizens of Rhode Island, thus to prevent what appeared to be a definite trend toward the elimination of Rhode Island fishermen by alien rivals. The large number of lobster pots, 35,000 in round numbers, in navigable waters near the entrances to Narragansett Bay, have occasioned legislation and regu- lation of location, and in recent years controversies have arisen with commanders of naval vessels who have ignored sometimes the rights of fishermen by running heedlessly through the buoys marking lobster pots, cutting many of them away, thus occasioning loss of buoys, pots and catches. An adjustment with the navy has been attained by the designation of lanes, in which no lobster pots are located, to be used by vessels during peace times.

RESEARCH STUDIES OF FISH-The research and experimental studies of fish conducted at or as part of the work of the hatcheries maintained by the Commissioners of Inland Fish- eries, have been exhaustive in detail and most complete as biological investigations. All have been related definitely to distinctly Rhode Island fishing problems. Of mollusks, the clam and scallop were studied through complete life cycles; the work with the former included the identification of favorable breeding grounds, and experiments as to the possibility of restock- ing depleted clam beds by transplanting seed clams. The experiments proved that artificial propagation is feasible, and that Rhode Island clam beds can be renewed by transplanting and closed seasons to permit reproduction and growth. With reference to lobsters, the impor- tance of the work of the hatchery attaches not only to the accurate biological studies of lobster

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culture, but also to the expansion of an industry which in the twentieth century yields a product worth three-quarters of a million dollars annually and which gives Narragansett Bay the dis- tinction of being the richest area producing lobsters. Much of the investigation and experi- mentation at the Wickford hatchery was conducted in cooperation with the department of biology at Brown University. The published reports include exhaustive studies of clams, lobsters and crabs, and lists of Rhode Island fishes, including nearly two hundred species, of which only twenty-four were fresh water denizens. Thus the wealth of Rhode Island fish- eries is principally in salt water fishes, and the explanation lies in the proximity of the Gulf Stream and the kindly protection against Arctic currents afforded by Cape Cod. In recent years the stocking of inland fresh water has been restricted to trout; in 1929 fifty brooks and ponds were stocked in Barrington, Charlestown, Coventry, Cranston, Cumberland, Exeter, Foster, Glocester, Hopkinton, Little Compton, Narragansett, North Kingstown, North Smith- field, South Kingstown, Tiverton, Warwick, Westerly, West Greenwich, West Warwick and Woonsocket.

Rhode Island fisheries in 1930 are in a prosperous condition, furnish employment to large numbers of citizens, and yield a product which is sold under highly remunerative condi- tions. The upland fishery in fresh water is principally for sport, and is maintained under conditions that satisfy the 15,000 licensed fishermen, by annual stocking of streams and ponds, and by stringent enforcement of statutes limiting the period of fishing. Commercial fresh water fishing is not licensed or countenanced. The shell fishery of mollusks includes oysters, clams, quahaugs, and scallops, all licensed except the clam fishery. While statistics are not collected which would warrant positive statements as to the volume of the mollusk fishery, the annual production of quahaugs is as large probably as at any time in the past. The scallop fishery is uncertain for reasons that are not known. Both clam and oyster fisheries have been restricted by the pollution of waters, but neither is in danger of extinction. The shell fishery generally is prosperous. The largest catch of salt water fish north of the great fishing grounds along the southern shores of Narragansett Bay and among the islands near the entrance is of eels, large quantities of which are captured in traps, and are sold at satisfactory market prices. Other deep water fish, including tautog, sole and scup, are caught in the spring and early summer, usually with hook and line. A prolific fishery of squeteague has abated within twenty years, although there is occasionally a good season for squeteague in the area between Nayatt and Conimicut Points and Prudence Island. In the Seaconnet River, in the West Passage, in the passages to Newport Harbor and between the lower islands, along the shore of Narragan- sett, and in the waters around Block Island trap fishing on a commercial basis yields rich returns. The fishery includes mackerel, scup, sole, squeteague, striped sea bass, sea bass, sea robins, kingfish, butterfish, of common varieties, besides cod and haddock. In the same waters is also a prolific lobster fishery, yielding a rich annual catch. Off Block Island swordfishing is a summer occupation ; the fish are sold in eastern markets at excellent prices. Tuna fishing, first promoted for sport, tends to become an important commercial fishery. The statute books include voluminous legislation intended to protect, promote and regulate Rhode Island fish- eries of all sorts, and the fisheries are not only almost the richest natural resource of the state, but also the resource to which in the past fifty years most attention has been given with the purpose of conservation. The legislation for the most part has been progressive, and the fish- eries have thrived consequently. Rhode Island not only supplies its own population with an abundance of fine, fresh sea food, but the supply is ample for shipment to other states, the far-flung markets reaching across the continent.

CHAPTER XXXI. RHODE ISLAND TRADE AND COMMERCE.

NFRIENDLINESS of Massachusetts toward Rhode Island in the seventeenth century precludes the probability that Rhode Island depended upon the former as a source of supply for articles of European production which were badly needed in the wilderness in which the pioneer settlers found themselves. Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson and Samuel Gorton were interdicted exiles who had not the liberty to return to Massachusetts had they wished to do so. When Roger Williams went to England to seek a charter he traveled via New Amsterdam, because Massachusetts would not permit him to cross her territory for departure from Boston, and he returned with a warrant from the English government authorizing his landing at Boston, and a safe conduct for a peaceful, unmolested journey across Massachusetts to the headwaters of Narragansett Bay. Such were the amenities of the times in New England. That Rhode Island, under the circumstances, as her enemies in Massachusetts, no doubt, in a metaphorical sense, devoutly wished, should in practice "go to the Dutch" was only to be expected. The latter were established in trading posts at Dutch Island and along the south shore, and, although their purpose had been barter with the Indians, they were far too keen as merchants to neglect opportunity for other trade. Through the Dutch Rhode Island obtained merchandise that could not be produced on the plantations at Providence and on the island of Rhode Island. The market was convenient, inasmuch as it could be reached by water from any and all of the Narragansett Bay settlements. The mutual advantage in the commerce which was devel- oped between Rhode Islanders and Dutch traders is proved by its continuance on a friendly basis even while England and Holland were engaged in war in Europe and on the seas. The Dutch trade ceased when England seized the Dutch possessions in North America, but the inclination of Rhode Island toward New York that has continued through three centuries had been established, and Boston had lost with reference to southern New England both the "central position" and the ascendency which the ancient city of the Puritans maintained for northern New England, which gravitates toward Boston. In the eighteenth century Newport became a greater seaport than Boston, maintaining its own transatlantic lines. In the develop- ment of coastwise trade the route to the mouth of the Hudson, for the most part through the sheltered waters of Long Island Sound, was preferable to the long water journey to Massa- chusetts Bay, exposed to both the wild storms of the North Atlantic Ocean and the treacher- ous coast from the Seaconnet River to Nantasket.

That other Rhode Islanders than Roger Williams and Richard Smith, though these are mentioned in history, maintained trading posts for barter with Indians may not be questioned. The former's place in history was not established forever by achievements during the few years that he was a storekeeper at Wickford; the store is remembered only because of the keeper and his deeds in other years. Nor would the name of Richard Smith be recited in the annals of Rhode Island were it not that his blockhouse was the meeting place associated with events which were momentous in the history of the colony, and that he became an opponent of Rhode Island in the controversy with Connecticut arising from the latter's ill-founded claim to the King's Province, which included most of Washington County. Trading on town market days, appointed to promote trade, preceded the establishment of shops. Governor Sanford reported in 1680, in reply to inquiries from England: ". ... As for foreigners and Indians we have no commerce with, but as for our neighboring English, we have and shall

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endeavor to keep a good correspondency with them. . ... We have several men that deal in buying and selling, although they cannot properly be called merchants. . ... As for mer- chants we have none, but the most of our colony live comfortably by improving the wilder- ness. We have no shipping belonging to our colony, but only a few sloops. The great obstruction concerning trade is the want of merchants and men of considerable estate among us. In the lexicon of Governor Sanford the word "merchant" connoted wealth as well as the occupation of buying and selling. If there were no "merchants" in Rhode Island in 1680, there were "traders," and commerce was rising, with the first wharf and warehouse already under construction in Providence. Permission to construct nine other wharves and warehouses was granted in Providence within three years following, and the northern town was even then far behind Newport in importance as a commercial center and as a seaport.

The first shops in both Newport and Providence were opened probably by ship owners or ship chandlers, who catered to vessels fitting out and taking on food and other supplies, and who sold also to the general public the goods offered to the latter including the cargoes of vessels returning from voyages. Gideon Crawford was admitted as a resident in Provi- dence in 1687 and permitted "to follow his way of dealing in goods." Both he and his son, John Crawford, engaged in foreign trade, importing and selling, among other commodities, "Holland muslin, calico, Bangall tape, cambric kenting, cherry derry, silk stockings, edging laces, silk fereting, combs, gloves, swanskin, alamode remaul silk, romaul moheaire, canta- loons, crape, calaminco, checks, drugget, camblet, baize, broadcloth, poplin, silk crepe and shalloons." The stock in trade in the Crawford store in 1719 included "indigo, glassware, tobacco, boxes, axes, brushes, pewter, knives, bolts, treacle manna, beeswax, ginger, alum, nails, powder, gun flints, sugar and halters."

SHOPPING CENTRES-The trading centre for Newport rested on the intersection of Thames Street with Long Wharf, extending westward into the harbor, and the Parade, after- ward called Washington Square, leading easterly to the Colony House. At the southwest corner the Newport market house was erected .* Along Thames Street, fronting water and wharves or tying places for vessels smaller than those which docked at Long Wharf, were warehouses and shops. Thames Street and the Parade were paved at Colony expense early in the eighteenth century in a manner befitting the principal streets of the "Metropolitan" of the colony. Newport before the Revolution attained its zenith as the leading American town. Its streets were thronged with well-dressed gentlemen and ladies, and its shops in their offer- ing of wares and merchandise reflected the prevailing fashions, which were so resplendent in color and in trimming and accessories that the present seems a sombre age in contrast. There was nothing, probably, which was sold in the smart shops of London and Paris that could not be bought in Newport.

Town Street in Providence, now North and South Main streets, was the first shopping centre. A town market building was erected in Market Square in 1773, the money being obtained through a lottery. A third story was added to the Market building in 1797 by St. John's Lodge of Masons, the addition to serve as a hall for the fraternity until the town paid for the improvement and took possession. The building served afterward as a city hall, and in 1930 is occupied by the Chamber of Commerce. A public fish market was built in 1819 north of Weybosset Bridge, extending over the river and facing Canal Street, which was called Water Street at that time; it was removed farther north in 1828. A market was incorporated in 1826, and located at the junction of North Main and Mill streets. In the fol- lowing year a third market was incorporated and built on the West Side at the junction of Broad and High streets, now Weybosset Street. North and south of Market Square, front-

*Restored in 1930 to colonial appearance inside and out.

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ing on the west side of the Town Street were warehouses and wharves. The town had been laid out originally in narrow lots fronting westerly on Town Street and extending easterly up and over the East Side hill, back toward the common land in the Seekonk Valley. The earliest houses faced the Town Street, and the life of the town centred in the street, the river oper- ating to check the normal westward movement until the Weybosset bridge was constructed. North of the Market Square the favored retail shopping district developed, and the section nearest the Market was known as Cheapside. South was the commercial centre of the increasing shipping trade, coastwise and foreign, and it continued to be there until John Brown in 1787 began to develop India Point. The south water front, on the Seekonk River, from India Point to Fox Point, with railroad connections in subsequent years, became centre of the largest sea trade.

Brown had grasped the possibility of developing foreign trade, particularly with the East Indies and Asia. The "General Washington," ship, owned by Brown & Francis, in which John Brown was the senior partner, sailed from Providence on December 24, 1787, with a cargo of cannon shot, anchors, bar iron, tar, ginseng, Madeira wine, brandy and spirits, Jamaica spirits and New England rum, for a voyage including stops at Madeira, Madras, Pondicherry, Canton, St. Helena, St. Ascension and St. Eustasia. She brought back tea, silks, china, cotton goods, lacquered ware, gloves and flannels. The "Warren," ship, owned by Brown & Francis, from Calcutta, brought "printed calicoes and chintzes of every kind; muslins and muslin handkerchiefs of all sorts; long cloths of different qualities and many other cotton cloths, which from their durability have been found very profitable for family use, either as shirting or sheetings ; also Bandano and Pulicat silk handkerchiefs, Persians, taffetas, ginghams, dor- cas, bastas, East and West Indian cottons, excellent saltpetre, a few chests of the best Bohea, Hyson and Souchong teas; window glass, an assortment of Manchester cotton goods and many other new goods which would not be generally known by their names therefore we have omitted the particulars ; all which will be sold and in such lots and quantities as may best suit the purchasers." So read the advertisement of sale in the "Providence Gazette." Only a few years later the same firm, which carried on what was a profitable foreign trade, closed out its investments in ships and shipping, and was engaged in manufacturing cotton fabrics equalling, if not surpassing, in quality the finest cloths brought from abroad.

Providence was settled on the east side of the Moshassuck and Providence rivers, and the expansion was first north and south from the centre along the Town Street. Later the movement was westward, although in 1732, twenty-two years after the building of the first bridge, seventy-two of eighty-four houses in the compact part of the town were east of the river. Weybosset Street, across the bridge, was practically an island not connected with the mainland further west until 1739, when a bridge connected Weybosset with Broad Street. The West Side grew rapidly in population, having 911 inhabitants and 102 houses in 1768. A proposition to create a new town of Westminster west of the river by partition from Provi- dence failed in the General Assembly in 1768. Beginning in 1772 water was piped to the lowland section west of the river in hollow wooden logs. By 1820 the population of the town was nearly equally divided by the river, with 5118 of 11,767 residents on the West Side. Westminster Street, extending westward from Market Street, the old name for the street from the bridge to the junction of Weybosset and Westminster streets, rivalled Cheapside as a shopping district. "A number of shops have lately been fitted up in superb style for the retail drygoods trade," said the "Providence Journal" of April 8, 1823, referring to West- minster Street, and "the pleasant promenade on the north side of the street will probably be more frequented than ever by our belles and beaux." The centre of retail shopping had not yet crossed the river, as it soon would in the course of the march westward that progressed through the nineteenth century. Cheapside was still favored and Market Square was centre

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of a flourishing retail trade in fruit and produce; thither the citizens repaired with baskets to buy fresh vegetables from the farmers.

The Arcade, still standing and fronting on Weybosset and Westminster streets, was erected in 1827-1828 by the Arcade Corporation and Cyrus Butler, each owning one-half. The building is of granite, 216 feet long between the streets, and 74 feet wide on each street. Broad granite steps rise to the level of the first floor between huge blocks of granite at either end, which in earlier days supported lamps. Each approach resembles the front of a Greek temple ; massive granite pillars, six on each front, said to be with only one exception the larg- est granite monoliths in the world, support a façade, carried gracefully because of fine pro- portioning, three stories above the level. A broad avenue passes through the centre of the building from street to street, and along the avenue are stores, with glazed fronts for the dis- play of goods. Granite steps at both sides of both ends rise to first and second galleries, along which also are rows of stores. Above the roof is glazed for 188 feet of length and 32 of width, affording daylight lighting, and covering three promenades against the stormiest weather. The Arcade cost $145,000, was when constructed a marvel of enterprise, and is, in the twentieth century, a unique landmark. In its masterful conception of housing a large number of small stores under a single roof, from one to another of which a shopper might pass without exposure to weather, the Arcade anticipated the modern department store, which, though in its relations to the public operating under a central and single administration, is many times a combination of stores or departments owned and controlled in leased quarters by different individuals or corporations. In well-organized department stores the lessees of concessions rotate in window displays and share space in newspaper advertising under the store name. In the Arcade the stores are separately controlled and managed.

The commercial centre of Providence was still Market Square in 1835. Fronting on the square, besides the city market building occupying the middle ground, were the Blackstone Canal, Eagle and Roger Williams Banks. On South Main Street, north of Crawford Street, were the Providence Bank, the Providence branch of the Bank of the United States, and the Providence Institution for Savings. The Mechanics and Manufacturers Bank was in Cheap- side, at 54 North Main Street. On lower Westminster Street, between the river and Dor- rance Street, were the American, Commercial, Exchange, Lime Rock, Merchants, Union and Weybosset Banks. The Arcade Bank was on Custom House Street. The City, Globe, Mechanics and Old Banks, and the Bank of North America were on lower Weybosset Street. Only the High Street Bank was located out of the compact financial district, within which were also the insurance companies. The Providence Washington Insurance Company occu- pied its imposing building fronting the lateral bridge called Washington Row, which the insurance company had built to connect the great bridge and the bridge farther north. Cheap- side, the name given to North Main Street south of Steeple Street, was lined with retail shops, including dry goods stores and others in which silverware and jewelry, boots and shoes, hats and other articles, were offered for sale. The centre of the jewelry trade, manufacturing and selling, was Cheapside, and the factories mostly were east of the river. Farther up North Main Street, at the junction with Mill Street, was the north market. Most of the hotels and inns were east of the river, although new hotels constructed after 1835 were west of the river. Across the great bridge, westward from the market building, lay a great Y formed by the junction of Weybosset with Westminster Street. Upper Westminster Street was a residential section, in which a number of fine houses had been erected, and the devel- opment promised continuance westward on High Street, which was the name of the street above what is now Jackson Street. Below Dorrance Street Westminster Street was commer- cial principally. Besides the banks, there were retail shops rivalling the shopping attractions of Cheapside. Across the Y, connecting Westminster and Weybosset Streets, lay the Arcade

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with its covered passage lined on either side by three tiers of shops. Weybosset Street was commercial also, but the shops were older than those on Westminster Street and not so attrac- tive. The Arcade occupied a site from which a miscellaneous collection of dilapidated build- ings had been removed, these including some of the earliest constructed, while Weybosset Street was practically an island except at extremely low tide. The West Side market stood at the end of the Weybosset Street branch of the Y, at Broad and High streets.

Along the river rows of warehouses lined the approach to the Blackstone Canal. South along the river were warehouses and wharves, some musty with disuse because the sea trade had been declining gradually for a score of years, and in 1835 consisted principally of coast- wise shipping. In volume the coastwise trade was probably not less than the older ocean trade, for it included cotton and pig iron incoming as raw materials for factories, and cotton cloth and iron and steel tools and machinery outgoing. The odor of the Far East and the romance of long voyages to distant and strange lands had departed ; cotton and iron were commonplace. The town no longer turned out and frequented the water front to greet home- coming relatives and friends and to satisfy its curiosity as to the nature of the cargo brought by a returning ship, which had been away for months. The arrival and departure of coast- wise vessels was a matter of ordinary routine, and the cargoes were well known. The coal trade, later to bulk large in coastwise shipping, had barely started in 1835. India Point also had lost the trade with the Far East, which had given it its name, but was in 1835 the ter- minus of the railroad from Providence to Boston. Across the river was the northern terminus of the railroad to connect Providence with Stonington, which was under construction in 1835.

The developments at Cheapside, at the Arcade and on lower Westminster Street, were significant for the time, and prophetic, because out of them were to emerge some of the largest mercantile establishments of later years. Gladding's in 1930 rounded out 125 years as a drygoods store, having been established under the firm name of Watson & Gladding at Cheapside in 1805; the Gladding store still displays the sign of the bunch of grapes which was familiar to Providence shoppers in Cheapside. The drygoods business conducted for more than a century and known as Taylor, Symonds Company was started by George Taylor in Cheapside in 181I, and remained there until 1861, when it was removed to Weybosset Street. The Gladding and Taylor establishments are almost unique in the fact of continua- tion of a name for so long a period of years, particularly through the era of partnerships. The more typical case is illustrated by the bookstore, printing office and book bindery started by William Marshall & Company at 29 Westminster Street in 1830. In fifty years the organization had borne successive names as follows: William Marshall & Company, John E. Brown, Isaac H. Cady, Cady & Brown, Gladding & Proud, Gladding Brothers, Gladding Brothers & Tibbitts, Tibbitts & Randall, Tibbitts & Shaw, Tibbitts, Shaw & Company, Shaw & Company, Shaw & Swarts, and W. B. Swarts. In corporation control, although the corporate name in the charter remains unchanged, the changes of personnel may be even more frequent than in the instance of a partnership. The characteristic of mercantile enterprises is consistent change. Under partnership administration a firm name was quite likely to be altered with the retirement of an old member or the admission of a new member; in a corporation "men may come and men may go," but the company continues-not in perpetuum, however, for corpo- rations are as mortal as the men who create them.

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 51

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