USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Westerly > Some papers delivered before the Westerly Historical Society 1916-1927; and a list of the members Jan. 1927 > Part 3
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The name first applied to this place took its name from an Indian named Shattuck who put a weir in the river at this place. A weir is a row of piles driven diagonally part way across the river and interwoven with brush or reeds. and with a net stretched from the end of it to the shore one was quite certain to catch more or less fish. At that time the law compelled the dam owners to open a gap in their dams for a few weeks in the spring so that fish could go up into fresh water to spawn. For many miles above tide water the Indians and early settlers liberally supplied their table with abundant catches of buckies, ale-wives, shad and river salmon.
From tide water at the Broad Street dam to its fountain-head the river is shallow. narrow and crooked and is crossed by many dams and bridges so that it is navigable only by small boats. With the breaking up of winter. the spring rains and the melting of the ice and snow caused freshets, which overflow the river banks thereby causing much damage and discomfort. This was particularly notice- able at and about Stillmanville where the low flat offered very little resistance to freshets. and as a result many cellars were flooded, and vards and streets were overflowed. In later years the town built dykes at the river banks, raised the streets and enlarged the culverts very much, so that in an ordinary freshet things were quite normal. Even these were of no avail in the big flood of 1886, which was the most severe and destructive one ever known in this vicinity. The forepart of February had been very cold with much snow falling. On the eleventh of the month a warm rain set in and continued steadily for three days and at times quite severe. The ground being frozen the rain and melting snows went to the river or stayed above ground. As a result. Stillmanville and adjacent low lands was practically from two to six feet under water. Boats were used to take the families from their immediate homes to dry land. One family con- sisting of John Hanney and wife, an old worthy couple, were at first unable to be moved but afterwards were taken from the attic window and cared for at the home of our lamented late president, Ethan P. Wilcox.
At the gas house the fires were extinguished, and the gas cut off. and from its fountain-head all the way down to West Broad and Mechanic streets it was a vast lake of rushing water overflowing many thousand acres of land, resulting in much damage. As the flow
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came rushing down in its mad haste to the sea, and came to the rail- road bridge and embankment, its flow was divided with one part coming through Coggswell Street and the other finding its way to Liberty Street with the two torrents pouring into West Broad and extending quite a distance down Mechanic Street. From the Broad Street bridge to and beyond the railroad dry bridge West Broad was a whirling torrent of water from two to five feet deep. It was sevreal days before the flood subsided so that teams could pass along. Much damage was done to roads and property while gullies and washouts were numerous. At the junction of West Broad and Lib- erty Streets, there was an excavation fifteen feet deep, large enough to take in a small house. For two days mails were held up as the railroad for a mile beyond Burden's Pond was under water from two to five feet deep, and it was many days before things were at their normal state. At the bridge near the first Hopkinton cemetery the previous high water mark (cut in the rock at the river side in 1784) was exceeded by more than a foot. which goes to show that it was quite a wet time in the old town at the great freshet of 1886.
The filling in of the old canal (which formerly took one-third of the water from the river above Stillmanville. carried it around and discharged it into the river below the Broad Street dam) added much to the overflow of the river banks. From Potter Hill to its mouth the Pawcatuck forms the boundary line between Rhode Island and Con- necticut and is navigable from the Broad Street dam down to Long Island Sound, a distance of about seven miles. At the upper part of the navigable portion of the river it was formerly much wider than at present. As commerce increased more room was needed and the abutting owners extended their wharfs farther out into the stream so that it has reduced the width nearly if not quite one third. Joshua Thompson, Jr., was the first to encroach about fifty feet. Gradu- ally others followed his example and now there is an unbroken bulk- head line on the Rhode Island side (with the exception of a short gap at Vincent Lane) from the Stone Mill to the upper end of Margin Street. This filling in is more pronounced on the Rhode Island side than on the opposite shore where the principal filling in is at the Cottrell and Lorraine properties.
The average rise and fall of the tide is about two and one-half feet, but at the full and change of the moon the tides begin to spring or increase. After a brief period they begin to neap or diminish and are called spring and neap tides, during which period the rise and fall is more pronounced. Occasionally with a heavy easterly blow the water is driven up the river to such an extent as to overflow most of the wharfs and banks, and at rare intervals flow back over the Broad Street dam
It is said that the river was discovered about 1614 by Capt. Adrian Block, a Dutch navigator and explorer who ascended the river as far as Pawcatuck Rock. The deepest and narrowest navigable part of the river is at this point where formerly the salt and fresh
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water met and the passage being narrow it created a little Hell Gate. but after the channel was deepened the water was brackish much further up stream.
In the early days there was a fairly good depth of water from tlie mouth of the river to Pawcatuck Rock, but above there the river was narrow, the channel shallow and crooked. and with many rocks and shoals, so that it was difficult to bring much of a load up to the head of navigation. Kenyon's Bar was a great obstacle, and at low tide there was hardly a foot of water on it. As stream dredges were not then in evidence and government appropriations an unknown quantity there was little prospect of making the river navigable above Pawcatuck Rock. About this time the firm of Blodget, Simmons & Stafford owned the water privilege on the Rhode Island side at White Rock, Stillmanville, and the Stone Mill property on Main Street. Under the name of White Rock Company they contemplated building an extensive manufacturing plant at White Rock. There was then no steam railroad at all. and the transportation facilities were very crude and limited. Perhaps foreseeing future growth of the manufacturing industry in Westerly this firm in 1827, petitioned the general assembly of Rhode Island showing that the Pawcatuck River was navigable for vessels of about seventy-five tons as far as Champlin's wharf. and from there to Boom Bridge it was obstructed by dams and sand bars. As the petitioners contemplated utilizing the above mentioned water privileges for manufacturing purposes, petitioned for an act of incor- poration under the name of the Pawcatuck Navigation Company for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a canal from Boom Bridge south until navigable water was reached. As Mr. Stafford died soon after, the project did not materialize.
In later years the Stonington Railroad was opened and still later the deepening of the river channel was inaugurated. which furnished the necessary transportation for which the canal would have been used, It was about this time. 1827. that the canal was constructed under the supervision of Ray B. Burlingame which took the water from above Stillmanville dam and brought it down to the mill property on Main Street.
Until about 1860. it was utterly impossible to bring a vessel load of freight up the river without breaking bulk. Cargoes of coal or lumber were brought as far as Pawcatuck Rock and part of it trans- ferred onto flat bottomed scows, and the vessels thus lightened were enabled to come up to the wharfs. In April. 1856, a meeting of citizens was held at the Union Meeting House for the purpose of making a move towards deepening the channel of the river. A com- mittee consisting of Charles Maxson, Orlando Smith, Silas Green- man, Harry Sheffield al J. Thompson, Jr., was appointed to ascer- tain the cost of digging and to build a dredge. The Pawcatuck River Dredging Company was formed and a fund of $5.000 was raised. The dredge was built by Silas Greenman and launched the following month. The machine was operated with four horses and was officered
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by Spicer Tefft and his son Avery. It deepened the water along the wharves and on the shoal spots in the channel. As there were no scows to take away the mud it was necessary to dump it back into the river along side the channel thus forming a ridge in the middle of the river, a good deal of which washed back again into the channel. Since then at various times our Representative in Congress has en- abled us to get various appropriations for surveys and excavations so that at the present time there is a fairly good channel from ten to twelve feet deep at high tide.
. Along in the middle of the last century our merchants' needs were small and it was customary for them to make an occasional trip on the vessels which freighted between Westerly and New York. As there were always spare berths on the boats they could eat and. sleep on board, and after purchasing a few weeks' supply of goods return with the vessel. Usually the round trip was made in a week or so.
The freightage on the river sixty years ago was quite small as there was not much coal or lumber used, but as the demand increased as the years went by, it grew larger and at the present time the yearly amount of brick, lumber, coal, molding, sand, and the like, can be numbered in the hundred of thousands tons. Formerly all freight was brought up the river in vessels built, owned and manned by West- erly men and were of the schooner and sloop variety and ranged from fifty to one hundred tons burden. At the present time all freight is towed up the river in barges and not a single sail vessel remains of Westerly's former navy.
As the river was usually closed by ice about December 1st, it was customary to lay up the vessels about Thanksgiving until March 1st when the river would be clear of ice. As there was no stream tug- boat at that time to break up the ice, skating and sleigh-riding was en- joyed most of the winter. At the present time the demands of com- merce is so great that it is necessary to keep the river open nearly all winter. The first regular towing was done with the steamer Florence which was commanded by Capt. John F. Hall and did good service from 1866 to 1878, also at intervals carrying passengers to Watch Hill. In 1878, Westerly No. 1 was built at Mystic, and under com- mand of Capt. Wm. Greenman commenced towing in the spring of 1879. After serving eighteen years, Capt. Greenman retired in favor of Capt. Frank Robinson, who was as good a boatman as ever was raised on the banks of the Pawcatuck. When the Westerly No. 1 had passed her usefulness she was replaced by the present Westerly No. 2. which under the same commander .makes a very powerful boat. and with a powerful commander manages to keep navigation possible all winter.
Nearly all the hemlock and spruce lumber, also shingles and laths come from Nova Scotia and are unloaded onto scows at Stonington and towed to Westerly, although some light-draft schooners can come up the river without breaking bulk. Formerly it was customary to put
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the lumber overboard and make large rafts. With a fair wind and tide and the aid of a sail they managed to get them up the river to shoal water where, with long poles, they were finally floated to their destina- tion.
In the matter of steamboats Westerly in the latter part of the last century has had her share. The first boat propelled by steam was called Novelty, and was not of much account although after she was lengthened and remodeled and renamed, Martha Jane, she did some service to and from Watch Hill. Afterwards Capt. Nelson Brown ran a boat called John R. Vinton. In the early fifties H. & F. Sheffield who had a shipyard at the head of navigation, built two steamboats. Water and Tiger Lily, which for several years formed the Lily line between Westerly, Watch Hill. Stonington, Mystic, New London and Norwich, also stopping at points on the Thames River. These boats together with the Liberty operated successfully for a number of years until the connecting railroad between Stonington and Groton was built, when their business ceased. At low stages of the water these boats were compelled to stop at Thompson's wharf (below the ceme- tery), from whence their passengers were transported to Westerly in Buddington's omnibus. . At a later stage of the tide the boats would proceed up to their wharf and discharge their freight.
Our merchants at that time purchased quite extensively in Nor- wich which gave quite a lot of freightage to the boats. At that time there was much agitation in Westerly on the prohibition question and the Maine liquor law ( so called). Quite a little of the freight on these boats at this time consisted of jugs and demi-johns which were sent to Norwich (at that time a license town) to be filled. These were sent by heads of families ( including some prohibitionists) and it was a standing joke that the Norwich molasses was much sweeter than that in Westerly, and you can draw your inferences.
In the late sixties, after the Dixon House was opened. Babcock and Moss had the steamer Belle constructed, which operated success- fully to and from Watch Hill for a number of years. Afterwards Or- lando R. Smith and George S. Greenman built several steamboats and operated them until 1896, when the advent of the trolley put them out of commission.
Years ago the sailboat was quite a factor in transporting passen- gers up and down the river, and for fishing and sailing parties. Among the boats that I remember was Washington. Capt. Ned Clark : North Star, Capt. A. Pr Owen : Frances E. Coon. Capt. Abe Coon. There was a class of open boats of quite good size such as Wing of the Wind. Capt. Timothy Gavitt : Mohegan, Capt. Geo. Wilcox ; Mechan- ic. Capt. Hall ; and Wild Irishman, Capt. Pardon Thompson. These were used mostly For transporting seaweed from Fisher's Island. It was a long and laborious job to get a cargo of weed. Starting in the middle of the night they would go over to the Island. anchor off in deep water, take their skiff, row ashore, and fill their skiff with weed from
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the land wash, then row out to their boat and pitch it aboard. After three or four trips their load was completed, and they would sail for home, making the round trip in about twenty-four hours. After being landed on the wharf it was loaded into carts and carried away to enrich the land. It was handled over four or five times, with much backaching work, but it brought good money.
In the matter of steam yachts Westerly has been well represented through our esteemed citizen, the late Stephen Wilcox. His first boat was named Delight. and was commanded by his brother-in-law. Capt. John Hoxie. Although not very large, being about sixty feet long, it was quite fast. He had her here in 1877, and many of our citizens enjoyed trips on her. Three years later Mr. Wilcox had built a larger and more elegant yacht called Sophia. After two sea- sons' service, during which time his friends enjoyed his hospitality on her to a great extent, he traded her with H. C. Osgood of Nor- wich, for a small boat called Arrow. He soon had constructed for him a still larger and faster boat, which was called Reverie. This. like the preceding ones, was used more for the pleasure of his friends than for his own benefit, and was greatly appreciated by those who enjoyed the sails which he gave on her. In 1892. Mr. Wilcox sold the Reverie to Frederic Bourne, president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. At the time of Mr. Wilcox's death he had plans made for a larger and faster yacht than he had previously owned. At a later period his nephew, Wm. D. Hoxie, followed in the footsteps of his uncle and has owned and sailed two or three large pleasure yachts.
Ice for commercial purposes was first gathered from the river. and in the fifties J. Latham Thompson had a small ice house on the bank of the river opposite his house on Main Street, and sold ice to families and fishermen. James E. Gavitt later built a house a little below Greenman's shipyard and still later Capt. George Bliven built one on the Connecticut shore at lower Mechanic Street. As the im- purities in the river increased the river ice was abandoned and ice from ponds was substituted.
Before the automobiles were as common as they are at the pres- ent time there was built and used on the river many motor boats. both large and small, and some of them almost palatial. At the present time most of them have been disposed of and the pleasure seeker uses the automobile instead.
Westerlyproper lies on both sides of the river. In early days be- fore bridges were in evidence, and old ford was used by the Indians to get from one bank to the other. This ford was a few rods below the Broad Street dam and connected the old Indian trail at each side of the river. y appropriate bronze tablet has been erected on the Rhode Island side of the river by the society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the site of the ford. The Broad Street and Stillmanville bridges give ample facilities for teams and foot
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travel in the central and upper part of the village. Below the Broad Street bridge there is no bridge, although it is needed very much as many operatives who live on the Rhode Island side work at the Clark thread mill, at Cottrell's and at the Lorraine. Most of the year they are transported in skiffs, as it would be too costly to build and main- tain a drawbridge. The operatives obtained permission from the war department to install a temporary floating drawbridge for four months in the year from December 1st to April 1st. This is a great convenience to the operatives as well as to a great many outsiders.
In the early days the commerce on the river was small as the population of the town was small and their needs were not large. The dwellers along the shore gained a few dollars by seining and catching fish in the river and bay while others in fishing craft of moderate size sailed to the New Foundland and Labrador Coasts and, having fairly good success, would dispose of their catch at home or at New York. generally at good advantage. The fishing in the river in those days although laborious and damp as a general thing yielded good returns, and furnished employment to many persons, also it gave much sport to juveniles who with hook and line and worms for bait would sit on the river banks and haul in catches of eels, perch, pumpkin seeds. suckers, bullheads and sometimes pickerel. The older fishermen with their seines would sweep the river for shad, buckies and smelts. At intervals along the banks of the river could be seen large reels which were used to dry the seines when not in use. The method mostly used was to drive a few piles at the channel bank and stretch the seine to the shore. At flood tide the fish generally swam up the river and then as the tide turned the fishermen would take skiffs and drift down the tide, and with long poles whack the water and thus scare the fish into the nets. This method is entirely done away with now and pounds and phykes have been substituted.
Among the fishermen of recent years the name of Babcock is prominent with Ezra, Emery and Oliver as older ones and their de- scendants, Tristam. James and Courtland as of the younger genera- tion. James B. Thompson and sons, Matthew Barber and sons, Will and Fred Burdick also were in the swim. Capt. Prentice Lamphear was the owner of three fishing sloops called Ville. Bee, and Liberty, with which he fished in Vineyard Sound and sold his catch in New York.
Perhaps Lotteryville, or Avondale as it is now called, has produced more hardy mariners than any other place along the banks of the Pawcatuck. Other localities have produced brave sailors who have sailed to distant shores. From the jey shores of the Arctic to the sun- ny lands of the Fast Indies they have braved the dangers of the deep. Among the earlier sailors who followed the sea in the whaling indus- try were Paul and Christopher Pendleton. Saxton Berry, Acors Barns, John P. Lyman and Palmer Hall, James Wilbur, Hezekiah Dickens, Albert and Nathan Barber, Jared Crandall, Nathan Wilcox, George Bliven, Ellery Nash and others who sailed to the distant seas
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in search of whales and seals. These captains sailed from Stonington. Greenport, New London, Sag Harbor and New Bedford and were gone from two to five years. They generally made good voyages which yielded them good returns. If they had exceptionally good luck in the first part of their voyage they would go to some Pacific port and ship their oil and bone home by some homeward craft and then stay another season.
The outside fishing along the Watch Hill shore, although now carried on with pounds, was formerly done with nets or seines, which were hauled on the shore and large quantities of scup and shack-fish were captured. Among the many fishermen who were engaged in this industry were Albert Crandall, Nash Brothers, John Harvey, Daniel F. Larkin and York Brothers.
When scups were plenty many were shipped to New York by steamboat while sailboats took on loads and went to Norwich, New Haven and Bridgeport to dispose of them and the balance was brought up the river and sold for two shillings ( 33 1/3 cents ) per hundred and when they had passed the eating stage they were sold for fertilizing purposes at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents per thousand. In those days if a neighbor wanted a mess of fish for dinner he was wel- come to it without giving their weight in silver. When bluefish were running plentiful, it was customary to take a sailboat, go down the river and after passing Osbrook throw out a hook baited with a white rag, and by the time you arrived at the Folly you were generally sure of a good catch of bluefish. Many made a fair living by digging clams at the Old Kitchen near Watch Hill or at Sandy Point or raking oysters from the river bed or from the rocks, also in spearing eels through the ice. This industry for the last few years has been on the wane. Among those who made a partial living at it were Jesse, Stephen and Asa Lamphear, Charles and Elisha Hall, Budde Sisson and Alfred B. Stanton. No doubt many of you remember the school of porpoise which came up the river in the summer of 1892. It was a very unusual sight to those who saw them as they disported them- selves in the water. For two or three days they raced up and down the river and many thought they were so bewildered that they failed to find their way out. About twenty-five of them were driven ashore at Cemetery Cove and killed for their oil.
During the 19th century the shipbuilding industry was carried on in this vicinity quite extensively, and the woods for miles around were called for timber to be used in that industry, and the banks of the Pawcatuck has been the birthplace of many crafts, from small sloops of a few tons to schooners with from two to four masts. steamboats, brigs, barks and stately ships of many hundreds of tons. The largest of these ships sailed to all parts of the known world. Among the com- manders of sone of these ships may be mentioned the three Saunders Brothers, William. Perry and Peleg. The latter one. Peleg. was lost with his ship and all hands, with Erastus Bliven as mate, on a voyage from Cork, Ireland, to New York. The two Greenman brothers were
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also deep sea sailors. Capt. William commanded, among others, the brig Lavacca, bark J. M. Hicks, Cold Stream and Favorita. His last deep sea voyage was in the transport Constitution which was left on Lookout Shoals in 1864. Capt. Greenman drifted ashore on a piece of wreckage but his brother Charles, who was mate, was lost. His other brother Silas, was captain of the Mailory steamer City of Waco when the vessel and all the crew met with a fatal disaster. The steamer arrived at Galveston Bar on the evening of November 8, 1875, signaled for a pilot, and waited for daylight, to go over the bar. About midnight she was seen from the shore to be in flames, and an explosion was heard, which indicated she had been blown up. As the sea was very rough no assistance could be rendered. Of all the passengers and crew not a body was ever recovered, with the exception of Capt. Wolfe the pilot who had gone off to her the previous evening. It was gen- erally supposed that the Waco was struck by lightning and set on fire, which communicated to the petroleum, a part of her cargo.
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