USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 52
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two Colonies until about 1728, when Massachusetts neglected to appro- priate money for its repair. By 1730 it had become so unsafe that it was pulled down, but was rebuilt in 1731. It was partly carried away by a flood in 1738. From the time of the settlement of the boundary dispute with Massachusetts in 1746 that Colony would not contribute to maintain the bridge, but it was kept in repair by voluntary con- tributions and by grants from the Rhode Island Colony. May, 1772, the General Assembly appropriated £90 to rebuild the bridge, provided Massachusetts would build one of the abutments. The care of the bridge hereafter devolved almost wholly on the Rhode Island people. Sometimes the General Assembly voted money for repairs; at other times the town of North Providence footed the bills; and occasionally part of the cost was paid by the voluntary subscriptions of the in- habitants on both sides of the river. Finally, in 1840, the State of Rhode Island assumed the responsibility and from that time forward maintained the bridge.
The history of the Pawtucket bridge was typical, as the other important bridges passed through like experiences. The importance of the bridges and of the main highways was early recognized in the history of the Colony. In 1729 the General Assembly voted that one- half of the duty of £3 a head on all slaves imported into the Colony be appropriated to repairing bridges on the mainland. During the colonial period the chief bridges, especially those connecting two towns, were built and maintained at the colony's expense, and the same was truc of the main highways. The General Assembly, in 1713, ordered that "the great highway from Pawtucket to Pawcatuck should be repaired, and a new one opened from Providence to Plainfield, through Warwick and West Greenwich". This "great highway" be- tween the two places mentioned extended through the whole territory of the mainland of the Colony, and was the old road to which many references have already been made. The towns laid out and main- tained their own local roads and built their own bridges, and the regulations in regard to the laying out and maintenance of high- ways were enacted into a general law as early as 1725. Similar legislation was enacted at various times until the Revolution. By the highway act of 1771 the inhabitants in the towns were required to work four days annually upon the roads.
During the War of the Revolution the highways in all the States were improved to a greater extent than ever before, as a matter of military necessity, because traffic by sea was largely prevented through the presence of the British fleet on the coast. With the coming of
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peace the energy of the people found vent in new industries, and soon manufactures sprang up. Cotton spinning was the pioneer industry, and as it was first successfully started in Rhode Island at Pawtucket in 1790 by Samuel Slater, it had a marked effect on the community. In no particular was this more noticeable than in the improvement in the roads. When mills were started on the various streams throughout the State, their owners soon found that the existing roads were inade- quate to the requirement of their industry, and rendered very difficult the transportation of the raw material and the finished product. Consequently through the influence of the early manufacturers a movement to improve the roads set in about the beginning of the nineteenth century and resulted in the construction of a system of highways that ultimately traversed the State. As these roads were designed to aid manufacturing and general travel, and were not specifically of benefit to the rural population-at least that was the common view-the citizens along their lines did not feel called upon to build and maintain them. In order to meet these conditions the men engaged in manufacturing organized companies which built and maintained the roads. Frequently an old road was taken, rebuilt and improved, but not until a franchise had been obtained from the Legis- lature. The owners of the road, in order to recoup themselves, col- lected fees or charges, commonly known as toll, from carriages and wagons, so that travel and traffic had to pay, but pedestrians were usually allowed to pass freely. On toll bridges foot passengers had to pay as they did on the ferries.
The first turnpike, as these toll roads were called, established in the State of Rhode Island, was the Providence and Norwich, which was in existence before 1798, under a charter granted by the General Assembly. A charter was granted in 1798 for a road from Chepachet to Glocester, and the Glocester Turnpike Society was incorporated in 1800. The Providence and Boston Turnpike Company was incor- porated in October, 1800, and it was empowered to build a road from Jeremiah Sayles's, in North Providence, through the towns of North Providence, Smithfield, Cumberland, Attleboro and Wrentham towards Boston.1 The Rhode Island and Connecticut Turnpike Com- pany was incorporated in 1803, and it established a turnpike "from or near the west line of the town of Providence, through Johnston, Scituate and Foster". The same year the Greenwich Turnpike road was incorporated; it ran from East Greenwich through West Green- wich and Coventry to the Connecticut line. The Smithfield Turnpike 1R. I. Acts and Resolves, 1798, 1800.
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Company, incorporated in 1805, built a road to Douglas, Mass. The Loisquissett Turnpike Company was also incorporated in 1805. The Providence and Pawtucket Turnpike Company was chartered in 1807; the Powder Mill road in 1810; the Coventry and Cranston in 1813; the Foster and Scituate in 1814; the Providence and Pawcatuck in 1816; the Wickford and Pawcatuck in 1823; the Smithfield in 1823; the Pawtuxet Turnpike Company in 1825. The last turnpike charter was granted in 1842 to the Peacedale Turnpike Company.
The principal turnpikes existing in Rhode Island in 1831, at which time the system was in the height of its development, were the East
SOCIAL STREET, WOONSOCKET.
One of the ancient highways forming a portion of the old Boston road.
Turnpike ; the Pawtucket; the Mineral Spring; the Douglas; the Loisquissett; the Norwich ; the Pawcatuck; the Rhode Island and Connecticut; the Central; the Smithfield; the Chepachet; the Slaters, and the Powder Mill.
The Providence and Boston Turnpike had the largest traffic of any of the roads, as it was a part of the old main highway. The rates on this road as established when the charter was granted in 1800 were as follows: "A wagon, cart, or ox sled not exceeding four cattle, 121/2c; a team of more than four cattle, 15c; a sleigh with more than
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one horse, 121/2c; a one horse sleigh, 61/4c; a coach, chariot or phaeton, 40c; a chaise chair or sulky, 21/2c; a horse and horse cart, 614c; a person and horse, 61/4c; draft horse, and neat cattle in droves, per head, 2c; swine in droves for every fifteen, 10c; for less number than 15, each, 1c; sheep and store shoat, each, 1/2c ; mail stage, 614c. And foot passengers shall not be liable to any toll, nor shall persons passing in said turnpike road for the purpose of attending public worship or funerals; nor persons living within four miles of the place of the turnpike, passing on said turnpike road for the purpose of attending town meetings or other town business, or going to or from mills, or for the purpose of husbandry."
An illustration of the important influence the cotton manufacture exerted on road building is afforded by the work in this direction performed by the Wilkinson family of Pawtucket, who may justly be said to have been leaders in this great industry for forty years after it was established. About 1804 Oziel Wilkinson built thirteen miles of a turnpike leading from Pawtucket towards Boston, which took the place of the old road previously used, and he made all the shovels and picks used in this work in his own shop in Pawtucket. This improved road afforded facilities for the stages that at that time and in the next few years brought passengers to Providence on their way to New York, either by packet or steamboat. The Valley Falls Turnpike was built by Isaac Wilkinson, the son of Oziel, about 1812. The Wilkin- sons also aided in improving many of the other highways in the vicinity, and the other pioneer manufacturers in Pawtucket were likewise interested in road building as members of the turnpike cor- poration, if not as actual road builders.
One of the most important of the turnpikes was the New London road, built and operated by the Providence and Pawcatuck Turnpike Company, which was chartered in 1816. The road was to be three rods wide, and extended from Providence southwesterly to West Greenwich, then southwesterly to Pawcatuck bridge in Westerly. The company was empowered to maintain six toll gates, and by various amendments to its charter was given permission to absorb portions of existing highways. This turnpike was not completed until 1820, when it became a great stage route over which the coaches from Boston passed on their way to connect at New London with steamers for New York.1 This road was an attempt to secure a shorter route than that afforded by the old highway developed from the Pequot trail, but it
1R. I. Acts and Resolves, 1816 and 1820; Staples's Annals of Providence, p. 610.
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was not a permanent success because it failed to follow the easy grades and conform to the natural principles of road evolution. Although used for stage travel for a time, it never became a popular through highway.
The Providenee and Pawtucket Turnpike, incorporated in 1807, became, in 1833, the property of the State of Rhode Island, which from that time continued to collect toll on this highway until 1869, when it was surrendered to the city of Providence and the town of North Providence, and became a free road. Thomas Burgess was State agent for this turnpike from 1833 to 1850. The income from October 24, 1835, to October 25, 1836, was $4,044.02, and the expense of maintenance during the same period was $878.33; but after the railroads were well established the revenue from the turnpike de- ereased greatly. The original charter of the Boston and Providenee Railroad Company gave that corporation the right to acquire this turnpike, but the railroad people declined finally to avail themselves of this privilege.
The first mention of stage coaches in Rhode Island was in 1736, when Alexander Thorp and Isaae Cushno petitioned the General Assembly for permission to run a stage to Massachusetts. They were granted the right to do so for seven years. Judge Staples says that "this stage, if it ever run, went from Newport to Boston", but if it did, how did it get aeross Howland's Ferry? Thomas Sabin ad- vertised in July, 1767, that he would run stage coaches between Providence and Boston, and that one would "start every Tuesday morning from the house of Richard Olney, innholder, to earry travel- lers to Boston on the most expeditious and cheap rate". The return trip was made from Boston on Thursday. Previous to this time stage coaches had been run between Providence and Boston, but at irregular intervals, and only when a load of passengers had been promised. "In those times it is said that the owner of a stage eoach occasionally gave notice a week or ten days beforchand, that on a given day he would start for Boston if sufficient eneouragement offered, taking eare to give notiee so that his passengers eould scttle all their worldly affairs and make their wills before commencing such an arduous and dangerous journey". Col. William Brown, who owned a "eurricle", drawn by two horses, at this period earried people to Boston from Providence, and about three days were taken on the round trip. Travel inereased after the Revolution so that two stages a week ran between Boston and Providence, and before the end of the eentury
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they were running in eonneetion with the paekets that plied between Providenee and New York.1
The development of industry and the consequent improvement of the roads by the turnpike system after the beginning of the eighteenth eentury brought stage eoaehes mueh more largely into use than form- erly. The larger part of the travel between New York and Boston passed through Providenee. A great impetus was given to this travel by the improvement of the Providenee paekets, as these vessels earried passengers so much more comfortably than any other existing eon- veyanees. The stage eoaeh business was finally highly organized in order to aeeommodate the traffie. Many wayside inns were established for the entertainment of travelers and for the purpose of providing the relays of horses requisite to seeure the speed that had beeome neeessary.
When the sailing paekets were sueeeeded by the steamers, after 1820, the business of the stages was largely inereased. "During a part of the summer of 1829 there were 328 stage eoaelies a week to and from Providenee, not counting the local stages running to points within a dozen miles of the eity".2 The turnpikes were then in ex- eellent condition, and on the journey from Boston horses were ehanged four or five times. Very exciting raees often oeeurred between eoaehes of opposing lines when they happened to come together on the road. The arrival of a number in Providenee at onee, as was usual, to eonneet with the New York boats, was a daily event of great interest. It eould not be otherwise, when ten or twelve large coaches, each drawn by four horses, all filled with passengers and their tops loaded with freight, eame lurehing and swaying down the street at a furious paee.
The railroads in a few years after their advent drove the long distanee stages off the main highways, and utterly killed the patronage of the wayside inns; but for two deeades thereafter, stages, then known as omnibuses, were very generally used for loeal transporta- tion, and continued to perform that serviee in eenters of population until the beginning of the street ear era in the '60's. Sinee that time they have only been in use in remote localities, and have now almost wholly disappeared.
The general introduction of railroads after 1835 ultimately did away with the necessity for turnpikes maintained by private com- panies. They continued, however, in existenee as toll roads for many
1Staples's Annals of Providence, pp. 605, 608, 610.
2Dow's History of Steam Navigation between New York and Providence, p. 10.
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years thereafter. The General Assembly passed an act, March 23, 1864, authorizing turnpike and toll bridge corporations to sell their franchises to the towns in which their property was situated upon such terms as might be agreed upon. A joint special committee on toll bridges and turnpikes made a report to the May session of the General Assembly in 1870, which showed that there were then in existence three toll bridges, namely: The Stone Bridge between Tiver- ton and Rhode Island, and the two bridges at Warren, one over the Warren and one over the Barrington River. At the same time there were six turnpike roads, namely: Glocester to Chepachet, eight miles ; Chepachet to Conneetieut line; Rhode Island and Connecticut turnpike, from Olneyville through Johnston, Scituate and Foster to Connecticut line, eighteen miles ; Loisquissett turnpike; Powder Mill Road, Providence to Greeneville, seven miles; Farnum road from Centredale to Mowry's tavern in Smithfield, five miles. These roads and bridges, the eommittee reported, could be purchased at nominal figures. The Rhode Island and Connectieut turnpike was purchased by the State in 1872 for $1,500, and the other roads all soon after ceased to be private property.
The railroad cra began in Rhode Island with the building of the Boston and Providence Railroad, over which the first locomotive ran from Boston to Providence in June, 1835. This road entered Provi- dence by a bridge over the Seekonk River, near the old location of Fuller's ferry, and just below the Washington toll bridge, and its terminus and station were on the wharves at India Point. By this arrangement the railroad made elose connection with the New York steamers, and in a short time it consequently totally displaced the stage coach traffic from Boston.
The New York, Providence and Boston Railroad Company, ehar- tered by the Rhode Island Legislature in 1832, built a line fron Providence to Stonington, Conn., which was opened for travel Novem- ber, 1837. The road ran along the west side of Providence harbor, and its passenger station was directly across the entrance of Provi- denee River from Fox Point; soon after this road was opened a steam ferry boat was put on to eonneet with the Boston and Providenee Railroad, and by this means a through route was established between Boston and Stonington, where eonneetion was made with the steamers running from that port to New York.
The next railroad to enter Rhode Island territory was the Providence and Woreester, which was opened for travel in October,
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RODADE ROOM
OLD UNION RAILROAD STATION, PROVIDENCE.
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1847. This road entered Providence near the center of population, on the south side of the cove. The other two railroads, recognizing the value of this location, united with the Providence and Worcester in building a union station to be used conjointly and into which all the roads entered. This station was completed in 1848. The Boston and Providence Railroad, in order to avail itself of this station, was obliged to build a road from East Junction to Central Falls, a distance of about five miles, where a connection was made with the tracks of the Providence and Worcester. This was of great benefit to Paw- tucket, as it brought that place into direct connection with Boston, whereas the original line of the Boston and Providence had passed some miles to the eastward. The New York, Providence and Boston Railroad also built an extension to secure entrance to the Union station, and this new track led from the present location of Roger Williams park through Cranston and Olneyville in a semi-circle into the center of Providence. The freight stations of the three roads were grouped in the immediate vicinity of the passenger station. These improvements, when completed in 1848, may be said to have furnished the "mainland" of the State of Rhode Island with first class railroad facilities, and to have inaugurated the modern system of travel and transportation.
A railroad from Providence to Hartford, which had been in process of construction for several years, was opened in 1854. It was known as the Providence, Hartford and Fishkill Railroad until 1873, when it became part of the New York and New England Railroad. This road also entered the Union Station, but had no ownership in the structure.
The Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad was opened for travel July, 1855, and at first its trains were hauled by horses from its tracks in East Providence through the streets of the city to the Union station. Two years after the opening of the road a passenger station was erected at Fox Point. In 1860 a connecting line, known as the Fall River, Warren and Providence, was built from Warren to op- posite Fall River, to which a steam ferry conveyed passengers across the harbor of that city. An all rail connection was secured to Fall River in 1875 by the erection of a bridge at Slade's Ferry across the Taunton River. The Old Colony Railroad Corporation, which had been in existence for a score of years, and owned lines in southern Massachusetts, opened the railroad from Fall River to Newport in February, 1864. This road crossed the Seaconnet River on a bridge similar in character to the Stone Bridge, and was about a mile north of the latter structure. It likewise had a drawbridge in the center of
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the causeway for the passage of vessels. For the first time, by means of this railroad, Providence and Newport were connected by rail, but the steam ferry transfer existed at Fall River until the opening of the Slade Ferry Bridge in 1875.
The four railroads first established and now forming the lines to Boston, Worcester, Hartford and New York, are still the leading roads, and all the other railroads in the state are branch lines which have been built to form connections or to reach points off the main lines of travel. From this generalization the road through Warren and Fall River to Newport should perhaps be excluded, as it is independent in a measure of the general railroad system of the state, and is a local route nearly all within the territory of the state. The road from Boston forms with the one to New York a great trunk linc, -the only one traversing the state,-as the line from Worcester is now simply a connecting or local road. This great railroad, strange as the asser- tion may appear, parallels substantially the old Indian trail leading from Providence to the southern extremity of the state.
The railroad to Pascoag, 23 miles in length, which crosses the state from Providence in a northwest direction, was originally projected as a through line to Springfield, Mass., with the idea of thereby obtain- ing a western outlet from Providence independent of existing lines. On this account the road was named the Providence and Springfield, and was opened for travel in 1873. In 1893 it was extended from Providence to a connection with the New England at East Thompson, Conn. The Woonsocket and Pascoag Railroad was built in 1892, and connected with the Providence and Springfield at Harrisville, and with the New England system at Woonsocket, thereby forming a con- tinuous line from Pascoag to Boston.
The Rhode Island and Massachusetts Railroad Company constructed a line seven miles long from Franklin, Mass., to Valley Falls, R. I., which formed a connecting line between the Providence & Worcester Railroad and the New York & New England system. It was opened for travel in 1872, was leased to the New York & New England in 1877, and thereafter in conjunction with the Providence & Worcester Railroad from Providence to Valley Falls and the main line of the New York & New England from Franklin to Boston, formed a through line from Providence to Boston, which is still in use.
The most important branch road in the state is the Pawtuxet Valley. It reaches the factory villages in the Pawtuxet Valley for a distance of fifteen miles from Providence. The company was incorporated in 1872. The railroad to Hartford passes through a portion of the Paw-
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THE PROVIDENCE COVE IN 1818.
FROM AN OLD PAINTING BY ALVAN FISHER, IN THE POSSESSION OF THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
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tuxet Valley, and the Pawtuxet Valley branch was originally a short line three miles long from the station at River Point on this line to the village of Hope on the north branch of the Pawtuxet river. In a short time, however, this branch road was united with a road con- necting at Auburn with the main line of the New York, Providence & Boston, and running from thence through Pontiac and Natick to River Point, and the connection at that station with the New York & New England was thereafter discontinued.
The Warwick & Oakland Beach Railroad, built in 1874, and running from a half a mile to a mile from the shores of Narragansett bay, from below Pawtuxet to Warwick Neck, and terminating at Oakland Beach, was not at first a success, and was discontinued after running two summers. In 1880 it was reopened by the New York, Providence & Boston Railroad Company, extended to Buttonwoods Beach, and has since that time been operated continuously. By means of this road an impetus was given toward the erection of residences on eligible sites along the adjacent shores, and as a consequence the region has been developed to a considerable extent and now contains many sumn- mer and permanent homes, scattered in various groups. The road has been operated by electricity since early in 1900, and is now under the control of the Rhode Island Suburban Railway Company.
The Newport and Wiekford Railroad and Steamboat Company, organized in 1870, operates a railroad about three and a half miles long, from Wickford Junction on the main line of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, to Wickford Landing, where connection is made with a steamer that plies between that landing and Newport. By these means a through line of travel is maintained with Newport in either direction, and this route fulfills the same function as the ferries did in the colonial and ante-railroad and steamboat days.
The Narragansett Pier Railroad Company, organized in 1875, oper- ates a railroad eight and a half miles long from Kingston, on the Shore Line Division of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, to Narragansett Pier. The Wood River Branch Railroad, organized in 1872, runs from Wood River Junction on the Shore Line Division, to Hope Valley, a distance of nearly six miles. The Moshassuck Valley Railroad two miles in length runs from Woodlawn, Pawtucket, to Saylesville, and has been in operation since 1877. It was built by W. F. & F. C. Sayles to reach their extensive bleacheries. The Providence & Worcester Railroad constructed a branch road from Valley Falls to tide water at East Providence in 1874, and this line is largely used for coal transportation.
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