USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 63
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
any unlawfull Game he shall not Play where by the said master may haue damage in his own Goods or others he shall not Cummit fornica- tion nor Contract Matrimony with in the said term ; he shall not absent himself day nor night from his sd masters seruis without his Leaue, Nor haunt aile house or Tauerns: But in all things behaue himself as a faithful apprentis ought to do dureing all the said term". And the master would promise and "Jngage for himself and his Executors and administrators to Learn and Jnstruct said Apprentis Jn the trade mistry or art of a Joyner in the best manner that I Can within the said term; and also Instruct him in the trade of a House Carpenter as I haue oppertunity : and not put him to any other servis dureing the sd term without his Concent; and also Learn or Cause him to be Learned or taught to Reade English and wright and Cypher so far as to keepe a Booke : and to find and Prouide for him sufficient meate Drink ap- parril Lodging and washing befiting an apprentis dureing all the said term: And when the said term Js Exspired to sett him ffree: with as Good apparrill in all Respects fit for his body throughout as he now is in at his first Entrring into his seruis".
These latter conditions sometimes varied in the different indentures, and the master was to instruct him "in Reading and Writing and Arithmetic so far as the rule of three", "to work the rule of division", "to learn him to read a chapter in the bible if he shall be capable of learning", or "to teach him so far as to keep a book".
While many of these apprentices were children of poor parents and even town charges, yet children of well-to-do parents were thus "bound out". In 1716 William Potter was bound an apprentice to Daniel Cook. A list of the clothing which he brought with him to his new master shows that he was well and comfortably supplied; besides this it gives a most perfect description of the wearing apparel of a boy in early colonial times :
"First that which was new ; a Loose bodyed Coate a streight bodyed Coate and Jacket all Casy and faced with soloone : a wosted Coate and two wosted jackets all Lined the Coate and one of the jackets Lined with solloone a paire of druget Briches Lined: a washed Paire of Leathor Briches a Caster hat three shirts two home spun ones and one fine one three paire of stokins one paire of them wosted three neck Clothes two of them silk and a paire of shoes and a paire of washed Leather Gloues : next his wareing apparril now worn but whole: A hatt Coate briches stokins and shooes. Memorandum that Cloathing which was Casy was home spun."
Soon after the settlement of the northern portion of the Colony the townsmen had discovered the great ledges of lime rocks that lay within the boundary of their purchase. This was a most necessary article for their use and contributed much to their comfort, without
588
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
which they were under the necessity of preparing lime from the shell along the shore.
William Hawkins in 1648 was granted liberty by the town to burn lime on his own lot during the pleasure of the town, and so far as the records show the privilege yct remains.
In 1661 one Hackelton was granted liberty to burn lime upon the common and to take stone and wood for this purpose. Four years later it was ordered by the town that those "Lime Rocks about Hackle- tons lime Killne shall be petually Common and that no land shall be laide out on the north East & south East of the saide Kilne within 6 poles nor upon the other sides, or pertes of the saide Kilne within 60 poles. This said Kilne being att or neere a place Called Scoakeganoc- sett", probably the locality now called Socanosset.
Lime rocks wherever located, "of any considerable quantetye according to the judgement of the Surveiors", were by order of the town in 1665 to remain common or to be considered as common land.
In 1656 William White of Boston, a bricklayer, was in Providence, and by order of the town was to be accommodated with a house lot; two years later a share of meadow was granted to him. In 1662 he sold his possession in Providence to Benjamin Herenden, and it is stated in the deed that he was then of "Boston in New England". He doubtless found little opportunity to follow his trade in the Providence Plantations, for brick making at that period had not been conducted to any extent, if at all; but in Boston for more than twenty years before this time brick making had been carried on by several persons. In 1636 Thomas Mount was granted a piece of marsh "for the making of brick in", and in 1644 Jasper Rawlins was granted liberty to make bricks "at the Eastern end of Sergeant Hues, his corne field neere Roxsbury gate".
But it was not until 1698 that bricks are found mentioned in Providence.
Thomas Roberts, John Whipple, sr., and Resolved Waterman were all carpenters. They were the men employed by Thomas Harris, sen., and Valentine Whitman, the committee appointed in 1664 by the town of Providence to see about "mending the Bridge att Wayboysett", about where is now located the Great Bridge. The brief contract and specifications for doing this work provides that :
"they shall mend vp that pt of the bridge that is downe in this manner following they are to make Timber workc in the forme of a square, diamond fashion which shall serve in the steed of those two Tressells that are downe, and shall rare it vp in the riuer to make up the Bridge and lay sufficient Gice ouer the said diamond vnto the other Tressells next it on both sides and to planke wth plankes vntill it be sufficiently planked and if there be not old plankes enough then to find plankes to finish it and to mend all the defects of the rest of
1
VIEW OF FEDERAL HILL FROM CANAL STREET, NEAR MARKET SQUARE. TAKEN IN 1829. FROM AN OLD PAINTING BY GEORGE W. HARRIS, IN THE POSSESSION OF THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
590
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
the plankes that are faultye, and also to procure posts and rails and raile vp the Bridge where the defeets arc, and also to set vp new posts where they are wanting at the end of the Bridge as well at the onne end as the other, and their Timber is to be carted by the Towne to the end of the said Bridge."1
Such were the specifications for building one of the greatest pieces of engineering which the early townsmen were called upon to provide, and is the earliest contract for a public work found among the town records. The spot where this original bridge at Weybosset was located can only be conjectured. It was probably not far from where the Great Bridge is now located; here was a strong current, both by reason of the force from the two rivers, the Mooshausiek and Woonasqua- tucket, inereased from time to time by the rush of the spring tides and freshets. Although the water was not deep even at full tide, the great rush of water and ice in the springtime kept this bridge con- stantly under repair and sometimes carried it away completely.
The builders, having completed their work, were to be paid for their services thus rendered, "ffourteene Pounds Ten shillinges" "to be paid vnto them equally". But real money was scarce, and so the committee in their contract provided that they should receive their compensation in "wheat at fiue shillings p bushell pease at foure shill- ings p Bushell and Jndian Corne at Three shillings p Bushell and what peage is paid is to be at sixteene p penney white and eight a penney Black".
Thomas Roberts, like John Clauson, came to the town sick and destitute, being wounded during the Pequot war. He was taken into the home of Roger Williams and tenderly nursed and cared for by Mrs. Williams during his sickness. He belonged in Massachusetts and after his recovery took up his residence in the town and married a daughter of William Harris. He died in Newport in 1676, to which place he had fled for safety during Indian hostilities.
John Whipple had formerly lived in Dorchester; he was an appren- tice to Israel Stoughton, who built the town mill at that place, and doubtless learned his trade in Dorchester, where he resided for more than twenty years.
The cost to the early settlers for the services of the skilled carpenters and other craftsmen is difficult to obtain, nor is it strange that so little information on the subject is at hand. Such expenses were no part of the town's affairs, and it is only by accident that references to such matters appear among the musty town records. From old memoran- duin books and other private writings now and then some facts may be found bearing on this subject, but such books and papers are diffi- cult to obtain.
It has been possible, however, to ascertain some information of these 1 Early Records of the town of Providence, vol. xv, p 109.
591
EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
expenses, for among the Providence Town Papers are found brief memoranda, without name or date, relative to the cost of a "leanto". These old papers are in the handwriting of John Whipple, one of the earliest carpenters in the town, and this fact shows that they must have been written previous to 1685. The first is for the construction of the "leanto" itself, and is as follows :
"To makeing of ye leaneto
and worke aboute it 06-00-00
To makeing of ve Seller Roufe
& Shinglin it
01-05-00"
The second is for work on the interior of the structure and is :
"To makeing of a doore and Shelves in ye Leantoo 0-8-6"
For whom this work was done there is nothing to show.
The working tools of the early craftsmen were of a much greater variety than might be expected.
Nearly every one of the colonists had in their possession the instru- ment or tool called the "fro" or "froe". It was used in making staves, shingles and clapboards. It is now more generally classed as a cooper's tool. But the use made of it in those early days was for the purposes mentioned. By placing its keen edge upon the end of a sec- tion of a log and striking upon the back of the blade it cut with the grain such widths and lengthis as their necessities required.
John Whipple, senr., in 1685 had "a Rye bitt" and an iron square, besides a great number of the usual carpenter's tools.
Benjamin Beers in 1714 had a lathing hammer, which shows that the period of daubed walls had passed and that the interiors of the houses were lathed and naturally plastered, for there was no end of material for plaster, both from the lime rocks and from shell, quantities of which were at the command of the people, and laths, in 1729, cost £4 10s. for "four thousand & a halfe". He also had a pair of com- passes, nippers, and "spike gimblett".
Isaac Bull in 1716 had six foot of glass, not likely in length, but in several pieces, and a set of cordwiner's tools; the word cordwainer and cordwiner are both used indiscriminately, but whichever way it is spelled the signification was the trade of shoemaker.
Obadiah Brown in the same year had a joynter stock, "square & Compassis", and a froe.
Epenetus Olney in 1698 had a great variety of carpenter's tools- a saw, small joynter, a carving toll, small froe, iron square, axe, clear- ing plane, whetting steel, wimble stock and bits, a "Soding iron", pair of compasses, and a "brass roule for a chalk line".
Arthur Fenner in 1703 had a joynt rule, "a trowell', a froe, "cedar clapboards & shingles". Benjamin Whipple in 1704 had a froe.
1
592
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
William Harris, at his death in 1681, had the largest assortment of instruments and tools of any of his contemporaries. Besides ear- penter's, blaeksmith's, cooper's and shoemaker's tools, he had survey- ing instruments, brass compasses, "2 sights for surveyor's work belonging to an index", a brass table, a brass pen, "2 other brass instruments". It would seem as though he had at one time, if not at this date, a lathe for wood turning, for there were two turning ehisels, and "screw hook for a lath", among his effects.
William Carpenter, one of the earliest builders, had when he died in 1685, among other tools, "one wenseutt plough", "Ten augers greater & smaller", "three elevises & two pinns", "one shave & one Gennett".
Among the artieles mentioned in the inventories of this early period
THE OLD ARK, WARREN.
This house formerly stood on Main street. Its site is now occupied by St. Mary's In- stitute. The ancient boundary line between Warren and Bristol ran through the front door of this house. It was demolished in 1894.
may be found listed other tools, and from these aneient writings most of our information relative to them must be obtained. Years of use finally wore them out and they have disappeared like those who once used thein, and it is seldom that there ean be found examples of the working tools of the early eraftsmen.
Some idea of the kind of houses which were oeeupied by the substantial yeoman of the middle of the eighteenth century may be derived from the following agreement, made in 1743 by Jeremiah Field with Israel Young. This house was to be built on the Scituate farm, which Jeremiah Field had received from his father in 1743, and
593
EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
in 1746 had contracted with Israel Young to build him a house on this land. The old contract, a portion of which is now preserved, will convey a very good idea of the homes of the well-to-do farmers at that period ; it was as follows :
"Ye said Jsrael Young Doth hereby agree for himself &c to Procure or Cause to be Procured at his own Cost and Charge a Good and sufficient Quantity of Timber for a Dwelling house for ye said Jeremiah field of one story high and of ye following Dimensions (Viz) Jn Length Twenty one foot and in wedth twenty four feet and Eight foot and half stud the Great Room to be fourteen foot one way and fifteen feet ye other way the bed Room to be Nine foot one way and fourteen feet ye other ye Roof of said house to rise Eleven foot from the beam and ye said timber so by him to be Procured to be framed
AN ANCIENT RHODE ISLAND FARM HOUSE, NORTH KINGSTOWN.
Erected and set up by ye said Jsrael Young at his own Cost and Charge upon a Part or Place of a Certain Tract of Land situate in ye township of Situate &c and said frame when Erected to Jn Close with good and sufficient bords and to Clapboard and find ye Clapbords and Nails for ye same to say to Clapbord ye front and East End with good white Pine Clapbords and ye West End and back side with good Red oak Clapbords and to shingle and find ye shingles and Nailes with good white Pine shingles and also to find (s) tuff and make four good Plain Doors and hang them to be made of good yellow Pine and one door for ye selar &". Such were the houses of those who were classed as substantial yeomen along in the middle of the eighteenth century.
38-3
594
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
The floors of the dwelling house of the carly settlers in Rhode Island were sanded ; carpets in those days were not floor coverings, they were for a more dignified purpose and reposed on tables or chests. The action of the sand on the hard wood floors, with its constant grinding by many feet and frequent sweepings by the proverbially neat colonial housewife, soon made the floors smooth, a result which the early builders failed to produce.
There was little furniture to be found in the early colonial homes in Rhode Island. It was not until some time after the development of the carrying trade by Gideon Crawford that the townsmen began to add such to their domestic comforts.
OLD LANDMARKS.
CAPT. STEPHEN OLNEY HOMESTEAD.
On the highland overlooking what in early days and even now is called Wanskuek,' on the road in North Providenee which is the continuation of Admiral street, stands the house where Capt. Stephen Olney, one of Rhode Island's heroes of the Revolution, lived and died. The appearance of the house is somewhat changed now from that in the illustration, for it has undergone some renovation in the past few months.
Captain Olney died within this house on the 23d of November, 1832, at the age of seventy-six years, and was buried within the little graveyard on the homestead farm where his fathers sleep. A sub- stantial stone is reared over his grave on which is inseribed his honorable reeord.
Stephen Olney was born in the town of North Providence, in the old homestead that formerly stood near the site of the house in which he died, on September 17, 1756.
He was a descendant in the fifth generation of Thomas Olney, an associate of Roger Williams. A year or so before the war of the Revolution, when the North Providence Rangers was organized in that town, he enlisted as a private, but in May, 1775, upon the organization of the three regiments for the defence of the Colony, he was selected as ensign in Capt. John Angell's company of the second regiment. From that time on to the surrender of Cornwallis, Stephen Olney was in active service. At the battle of Yorktown his company led the assault on one of the British redoubts; in this action he was badly wounded, and his military career ended and he retired to private life. His townsmen, however, would not permit him to remain in obscurity, and they manifested their confidenee and esteem by eleeting him to the State Legislature and to the office of president of the Town Couneil. When Lafayette visited the United States in 1824, a play entitled "The Siege of Yorktown" was performed in New York in
595
EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
honor of the nation's guest, and in this Captain Olney was made to appear as a prominent character, and when the gallant Frenchman was triumphantly escorted through the streets of Providence, upon alighting at the State House he was met on the steps by Captain Olney, whom he instantly recognized, and with all the warmth of the French feeling folded him in his arms and kissed him on each cheek, a scene that is well remembered to-day by Mrs. Rachel Peck, widow of Horace M. Peck, who is doubtless the last survivor of that merry party of young women who strewed flowers in the path of the distinguished Lafayette at the time he made this visit to Providence.
HOME OF CAPT. STEPHEN OLNEY, NORTH PROVIDENCE.
Captain Olney was severly wounded while leading the storming party at the Battle of Yorktown.
THE FIELD HOMESTEAD.
Pumgansett was the ancient Indian name for that neck of land now known as Field's Point. It was a famous gathering place for the red men before the English came here to settle. Underneath the turf, along by the water side, shells of the oyster, clam and muscle have been found in great quantities, and even now on the sand blows these broken bits remain to recall the former feasts and powwows of the ancient heathen. Here also have been found numbers of Indian stone implements, arrow-heads, axes, gouges, and other curiously fashioned articles for the red men's use.
Not many years ago there was turned up by the plough a stone mask with hideous carvings upon it; and an iron spur and sword of peculiar size and shape, covered with the rust of many years. The former is of Indian origin and is a rare specimen of Indian stone work; the
596
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
latter relies are of more uneertain origin; perhaps they may have belonged to some adventurer or trader who sailed into the Narragan- sett Bay long before a settlement here was thought of, and then again they may have belonged to one of the early settlers in the plantation, for they are a type far different from those used at the time of the Revolution.
Here was the home of Thomas Field and his deseendants. This old house was a eonspienous landmark for many years. During the years it has stood on the Field's Point highlands it has been loeated in three different jurisdictions : Providenee, Pawtuxet, Cranston, and finally in Providenee again, as the lines marking the boundaries have been ehanged about.
The location of this farm, in the early days of the Colony, was a
4%
RUINS OF THE THOMAS FIELD HOUSE AT FIELD'S POINT. Erected 1694, demolished 1896.
most desirable one. It was not many years after the settlement that the townsmen began to build their homes near their meadows, for within the little traet along which ran the Town street there was little opportunity for eattle to graze. It was this, undoubtedly, that led Field to acquire this property. The very earliest reference to the ter- ritory calls it "old eleare ground"; there were few sueh traets near the settlement, but here at Pumgansett were ample meadow lands covering many aeres, while on the shores of this highland farm were marshes and thateh beds.
There is an instrument preserved among the Field papers in the
597
EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
Rhode Island Historical Society which shows that Thomas Field, jr., was living in the house in 1712; this is the earliest date found on the records showing that a dwelling house was there located. But the house itself indicates a much earlier construction, the diminutive size of the old part, the stone chimney, the arrangement of the frame and the chamfers on the beams all show a much earlier period of workman- ship and style. This would give reasonable grounds for assuming that the house was built for Thomas Field at the time he was married, and this was about 1694 or 1695.
Thomas Field lived to be eighty-two years of age and died July 17, 1752. Several years before his death his son, Jeremiah Field, entered into an agreement to "find and provide for Thomas Field and Abigail his wife sufficient house Roome in his the said Jeremiah's now dwelling house or in some other suitable place and also to keep for the said Thomas one horse and one cow and also to find Provide and Furnish for the said Thomas and Abigail good sufficient and Suitable Provision and Drink of all sorts
both in Health and Sickness also good decent and Con- venient apparel of all sorts also good fire wood Sufficient to maintain one fire and suitable attendance both in Health and Sickness for and during the full term of the Natural Life of the said Thomas Field".
Jeremiah Field lived with his father at the homestead until November, 1752, when he and his brother Nathaniel exchanged the farms which they had received from their father.
Within a few years the old "sheep run" under the road, through which the cattle passed from one side of the farm to the other, could be seen, but when Eddy street was rebuilt this old landmark was obliterated.
Early in the Revolution, Field's Point was fortified. Its position was such that it was of great consequence to the protection of the town from any attack by water.
During the stay of the French officers in Rhode Island the Field homestead is said to have been the scene of many brilliant assemblies, in which Lafayette and other French officers and the social element of the town took part. As one views this old ruin, it is hard to realize that within its walls such social assemblies have met and such distinguished characters once merrily danced upon its floors.
Beyond the house a little to the eastward was the family graveyard ; four granite bounds serve to-day to identify this spot. Here were buried the generations of the Fields of Pumgansett. When the prop- erty passed into other hands, the remains there buried were removed to the North Burial ground and inclosed in a lot with granite curbing, on which in plain but elegant letters is inscribed the "Fields of Field's Point".
598
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
THE ELEAZER ARNOLD TAVERN.
The old homestead of Justice Eleazer Arnold stands on the road which skirts the Moshassuck River, formerly called the "road leading to Mendon"; and a little more than half a mile southerly from the historie Butterfly factory in the town of Lincoln. Eleazer Arnold was the son of Thomas Arnold, who came to America in the ship Plain Joan in May, 1635, and settled in Watertown in the Massachusetts Colony, where doubtless Eleazer Arnold was born. He appears to have been located at this house on October 2, 1708, for by a deed signed on that day he gave to Thomas Smith and six others certain land, as the old deed recites, "scituate in the Township of Providence near his dwelling house on the north side of the highway that leads from the town of Mendon to said Providence, containing about one-half of an acre and being that Piece or percell of land on which stands a certain Meeting house of the people called Quakers". This "meeting house" is yet standing on the land conveyed in 1708 and is "near his dwelling house", being distant only a few hundred feet. Eleazer Arnold married Eleanor Smith, the daughter of John Smith, jr., the mason, and ten children were born to them. On the 14th of August, 1710, the Town Council granted Eleazer Arnold a license to keep a public house, and the formal record of this privilege is thus quaintly ex- pressed :
"Whereas the Lawes do Provide that no Person Jnhabiting on our Collony shall keepe any Publick house of Entertainement for strangers, Travilers or others, nor Retale Strong drinke, vnless they have a licence from the Councill of ye Respective Towne whereunto they do belong; And Whereas you Justice Eliezer Arnold Jnhabitant of this Towne of Providence, in ye Colloney of Rhode Jsland & Provi- dence Plantations in New England haveing desired of ye Towne Councill of sd Providence that they Would Grant unto you a licence in order to that Purpose, whereby you might be in a Capacitye to keepe a house of that Order, & for that imploy : The Towne Councill of said Providence being mett, & haveing Considered your Request, and to ye end that strangers, Travilers & other Persons may be ac- comodated with suteable Entertainement at all times as Ocation Requires do by these presents Grant un to you ye abovesd Justice Eliezer Arnold licence & libertye to keepe a Publick house of Enter- tainment in sd Providence Towneshipp at your dwelling, for the Entertaineing of Strangers, Travilers & other Persons, both horse & foote, Carters, Drovers, &c: at all times for & duiring the full & just Terme of one yeares Time forward from ye day of the date of these presents : And that at all times duiring the said Terme of time you do (within your Prescinks) well & truely Observe, do & keepe good Orders according as ye lawes do Require Persons Who are licenced to keepe such houses to do & Performe.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.