USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 64
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"Dated August ye 14th : 1710."
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. The highway beside which the tavern was located led to Mendon in Massachusetts and thence to the neighboring towns in the Bay Colony. It was the only travelled road through that section, and no doubt a good share of the patronage of those who travelled along its winding course fell to the lot of Esquire Arnold.
One of the names which has designated this old house for generations is "The Stone Chimney House", and not only the chimney but the whole northerly end is constructed of stone. There is a tradition which suggests good reasons for this. At the time it was built the clearing in which it was located extended to the eastward, southward and westward, while to the northwestward, north and northeastward the primeval forest, as yet unmarked by the woodman's axe, almost
ELEAZER ARNOLD TAVERN NEAR QUINSNICKET, LINCOLN. Erected 1687.
touched its walls. It was to protect this exposed side of the house from fire arrows, which lurking Indians might direct against it, that it was built in such a fire-proof manner, and this seems to be cor- roborated in a measure by the fact that the roof was originally covered with shingles laid in mortar. These shingles being thus laid, lasted for more than a hundred years ere they were replaced.
There is also a tradition that the house was once used for a garrison, and a heavy oaken ladder is pointed out as being used to mount to a lookout on the roof to scan the neighborhood for hostile Indians. This story, although interesting in connection with the history of the
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old place, has probably no foundation ; for it is a faet that the relations between Eleazer Arnold and the red men were most friendly and cordial, while the necessity for garrison houses had passed long before Eleazer Arnold was laid away in the ground.
Unlike many of the houses of the early settlers, this had four rooms on the lower floor, the living room, kitehen and two other rooms, doubt- less sleeping rooms. This was more pretentious than others of this period, for few of them had more than one great room, which oeeupied the whole ground space of the house. The second floor had two rooms, chambers they were called, and one of these contained a fireplace.
The great room or living room was large and commodious with great fireplace. Extending lengthways along the ceiling and protruding through it was the great "summer" beam, making a convenient place on which to hang the guns, and even to-day in some of the old south county houses the farmer's gun may still be found oeeupying a similar resting place. Over the fireplace there was a great eye-bolt firmly fixed in the masonry, to which a block and taekle could be attached to haul the great logs to the fire. Mantel-pieees were no part of the interior furnishings of the early colonial houses. Whatever was arranged about the walls was hung on long hooks made of natural branches, fitted according to the ingenuity of the owner.
In the old chimney staek there may yet be seen the sear made when the stone Dutch oven was elosed up after long years of service, sug- gesting memories of the good things to eat which were there cooked in the days gone by.
When this home was built a primitive wilderness surrounded it on either side. Although it was in the town, it was many miles to the little eluster of houses that formed the Providenee settlement. Few habitations for white men were located in the neighborhood. Aeross the river was the dwelling house and lands which Eleazer Arnold had settled his "beloued son Eleazer Arnold down upon"; but the Indians were the nearest neighbors. In the elefts of the roeks at Quinsnicket Hill tradition tells us were the natural walls for the red man's winter home, and Quinsnicket in the Indian tongue is said to mean "stone- huts". Here on the southerly side of the hill, sheltered from the win- ter's northerly blasts and open to the winter's sunshine, may yet be seen openings in the rocks with perpendicular walls. Over these the Indians spread poles and eovered them with bark and thateh, and thus furnished comfortable homes during the cold winter months. But the Indians were not compelled to huddle in these smoky, roeky clefts. Eleazer Arnold was a friend to the red man and permitted them to enjoy the cheer and comfort of his home, and within the tavern when he died was "an old bed the Indians used to lie on".
The estate lias descended from generation to generation and the
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old house has been called successively the Eleazer Arnold house, the Martin Arnold house and the Sabra Arnold house, accordingly as the property has been owned. By the latter name it is perhaps better known to-day than by any other.
THE BULL HOUSE.
The Bull House is one of the historic houses of Newport. It is situated on the easterly side of Spring street, a little in the rear and fronting a short street running northerly and westerly to Broad street, which street was formerly called "Bulls gap"; the house, although changed somewhat by alterations which have from time to time been made, yet preserves enough of its ancient appearance to mark it as a venerable relic of the early days of Newport.
Henry Bull, its first owner, was one of the early comers to Portsmouth. At the time of the settlement at Providence Henry Bull and his wife were at Roxbury, but two years later, on account of his connection with Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson, was ordered to depart from the Bay Colony and came to Portsmouth and with eighteen others joined in a compact of settlement of that town. He was one of the earliest military officers of the Colony being corporal of the Train Band which was organized at the settlement.
In January, 1639, he was elected town sergeant; the duties of this officer at this time included the keeping of the prison, and at the time of his appointment the town passed a vote that the prison, then in course of building, "should be finished and that it should be set near or joined unto the house of Henry Bull". Although there is no definite knowledge of the locality of this first prison at Newport, it is possible that it was located near this house, if not forming a part of it, for Henry Bull occupied the position of keeper of the prison for several years.
During his career he was one of the active men in the town of Newport and held various offices of importance and trust. He was three times married, but his children, of whom there were three, one son and two daughters, were the children of his first wife.
Jireh Bull, his son, took up his abode in Kingstown on the mainland and built a substantial house on Tower Hill, which was used as a garrison house during King Philip's war. During this disturbance, however, it was attacked by the Indians and all but two of its inmates killed and the house destroyed. Henry Bull lived to a very old age, and his death occurred in January, 1694. The Society of Friends, of which he was a member, has inscribed upon its records these words : "Henry Bull, aged about eighty four years; he departed this life at his own house in Newport (he being the last man of the first settlers of this Rhode Island), ye 22d 11mo. 1693-4".
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THE HOME OF HENRY BULL.
LOCATED ON SPRING STREET, NEWPORT. ERECTED 1639-40. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH MADE IN 1880 BEFORE IT WAS REPAIRED AND FORM OF ROOF. CHANGED.
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This old house is the only link now remaining between the beginning of the Newport settlement and the present. All the other houses of the early settlers have been destroyed, and the people of Newport should see that this ancient structure, within which the last of the first settlers of this city lived and died, is forever preserved.
THE ARTHUR FENNER HOMESTEAD.
Out on the meadow land near the Pocasset River in Johnston, almost under the shadows of the boulder-capped hill of Neutaconconitt, there may yet be seen the ruins of the cellar and rotting pieces of the wood work of the home of Arthur Fenner, sometimes called the "Captain of Providence."
Babbling and sparkling down through the meadows and only a few feet from where this historic house once stood, the brook called Ocquockomaug winds in and out until it joins the waters of the Pocasset.
'Tis a picturesque locality and in the summer time, when all nature is clad in its green vesture, with the towering Neutaconconitt on one hand, the irregularly rising and falling meadow lands on the other, and the great stretch of green fields before, no more quiet and peaceful spot could be wished for.
Here on the grassy knoll stood for generations the home of one of the most prominent and picturesque characters in Rhode Island colonial life.
It was only a few years ago that the old stone chimney, elaborately adorned with mouldings and pilasters, pointed to the sky, while not far distant a great white mulberry tree, its trunk full four feet in diameter, cast its shadows over the structure; but now all are gone; the scattered fragments are all that is left to remind one of the old Fenner Castle, a name which in late years was given to the old man- sion.
The ancient driftway, down which it was necessary to turn from the road leading to Plainfield in order to reach the house, passes the Larkin farm, situated on higher ground, and from this farmyard you may look down upon the tract which was once the homestead lands of Arthur Fenner, and where he lived and died.
Arthur Fenner is said to have come from a family of distinction in Old England. Tradition also affirms that he was a lieutenant in Cromwell's army, and there seems to be some reason to believe that this tradition is well founded, for his military qualifications early caused him to be chosen captain of the militia or Train Band.
Captain Fenner first appears in Providence "the 27 of the 2d month 1654"; from this time until his death he was constantly in the service of his fellow-men.
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HOME OF CAPT. ARTHUR FENNER, CRANSTON, R. I. ERECTED ABOUT 1655; DEMOLISHED IN 1886
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Arthur Fenner married Mehitabel Waterman, a daughter of Richard Waterman, who came to Providence from Salem in 1638; six children were the fruit of this union.
The military career of Captain Fenner in the Providence settlement commenced in 1654, when it was "Ordered that Lieutenant Thomas Harris, Thomas Hopkins, Corporall, James Ashton, Corporall, and John Sayles Clerke of the band, John Browne & Arthur Fenner are hereby authorized to order the matter of taking the ffines from absent souldiers wch are listed in the Clerks Book"; but it was not until 1665 that he began to be called captain; from this time on for more than thirty years he was the leader in the rude military organization of the times.
It was a custom of many of the early settlers to have a dwelling house in the town proper and besides this a "house in the woods". This house in the woods was for the purpose of shelter during the season of planting and harvest, for their planting lands and meadow lands were mostly located in the outlying districts; they were also used during the hunting season, and in some of the settlements they were called hunting houses.
In the town of Scituate there is to-day a brook which derives its name, "Hunting house brook", from the fact that such a retreat was built upon its bank for the convenience of sportsmen from Providence while hunting deer in that wild unsettled region in the eighteenth century. These lodges were rudely furnished, containing only such articles as were necessary for cooking and sleeping purposes.
Resolved Waterman's house "in ye woods", in 1670, was valued when he died at £10, just the same amount that was placed upon his "ffifty acres of land & a share of meadow in the new division", but he was a carpenter and a skillful builder, and doubtless had prepared a substantial house for his purposes.
William Harris called his a cabin, and the only furnishings appear- ing connected therewith was "1 feather bed", "1 small Rugg & a piece of a blankett belonging to ye Cabbin bedd".
Perhaps the Fenner homestead was originally a house in the woods, for the elaborate work on the mammoth chimney stack was a later addition to the original, and the great fireplace in the lower room was built against a very small one. The timbers with which the old house was framed were heavy and massive, some of them more than twelve inches square and all of native oak. When the old structure finally fell apart from decay and the action of the elements, one of these hidden timbers showed plainly where fire had once charred its edges; this had suggested that perhaps not all of the house was destroyed by the Indians, but enough remained to be used in rebuilding. The window panes were diamond shaped and very small; parts of these
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and two of the old hinges used on one of the doors may be seen among the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
By his second wife, Howlong Harris, daughter of William Harris, he had no children, but there is reason to believe that she made an affectionate mother in his household.
On the 27th of August, 1703, Arthur Fenner, while "very sick", made his will.
He was a long sufferer, his illness continuing from June until October, when, on the 10th of the month, he died and his long and useful life ended. He was then eighty-one years of age. His will disposed of his large estate among his wife and all his children.
Upon the death of Arthur Fenner the house became the home of his son Arthur, the other son, Major Thomas Fenner, having already been provided with a home only a short distance away.
Arthur Fenner the younger lived and brought up his family at the old homestead. He married Mary Smith, and died April 24, 1725.
Curious stories are told of many of the later generations who occupied this old homestead; of Daniel Fenner, the conjurer; of Samuel Fenner, who was lame and made pounders for use in the laundry barrels on wash days and other useful articles, and who disliked to wear boots or other covering for his feet; of Benjamin Fenner, who in early youth resolved never to use the words "yes" or "no", and who is said to have accomplished this heroic undertaking; and last of all, Polly Fenner, who delighted her hearers with the stories and tradition interwoven with the mouldering old mansion and who boasted of having been honored by a kiss from the noble Lafayette.
Polly Fenner was the last of the line to occupy this ancient home- stead, and upon her death in 1861 it ceased to be occupied as a dwelling; gradually from lack of care the winter storms and summer suns wrought sad havoc with the old structure and it began to tumble apart. It afforded shelter for the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, however, for it was many years before it became useless as a shelter, testifying to the good work of its early builders.
THE ELEAZER WHIPPLE HOUSE.
When Eleazer Whipple gave to his son James the homestead which he had occupied for many years, he stated in the deed of conveyance that the "land lieth on both sides the highway from Providence towards Wensoket and is bounded on the North west with an Elme tree which is now fell down and gone".
Vague and indefinite were the boundaries in those early times; they were perfectly understood then, no doubt, but it would involve much search to find now the location of the "Sharpe peece of land lying
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neere the place where Rich Watermans Great Cannoo was made", "the white oake tree marked which is now turned up by the roots and is down", the land "lying on ye top of a hill between three hills". They are as indefinite now as though reference was made to a red cow standing in a brook.
From other evidence we know where the elm tree, "now fell down and gone", was located, for the homestead lands of Eleazer Whipple were in the Louisquissit country and near the Lime Rocks. Here his mansion house is yet standing on the road to Woonsocket, at the top of a gently rising hill overlooking the Moshassuck valley.
Eleazer Whipple, who built this house, was the son of John Whipple, who came to Providence from Dorchester, Mass., and was received by the proprietors of Providence as a purchaser, July 27, 1679. He was born in Dorchester in 1646, and married, January 26, 1669, Alice Angell, the daughter of Thomas Angell, who came to Providence when a mere lad with Roger Williams and was one of his associates at the planting of the little settlement around the spring where the Moshassuck emptied into the salt water. He was by trade a house- wright.
Although his name is not included in the list of those twenty-seven men who stayed in the town during King Philip's war, it was no fault of his, for he had seen service and was wounded many months before the others were called upon to make any sacrifice ; but he shared in the spoils of war and received his part of the proceeds from the sale of the Indians that were captured. Like his companions in arms, Capt. Andrew Edmonds, who was granted a tract of land near the water side at Narrow Passage for "ye building of a house and ye keeping of a fferry", Whipple received from his fellow townsmen the reward for his "services done in ye warr time."
Four years after the war he addressed this letter to the "town mett":
"I desire ye Towne to take Some Care speedyly that I may have ye mony that I stand obliged to pay for my Diett when I lay under Cure being wounded by ye Indians in ye late troublesome warr my neces- sitte Calleth for it, being often called upon for ye same, Saying they have great need of ye same.
"Yor ffriend Eleazur Whipple".
Those were times of plain and homely speech : there was no long preamble and pleadings, the simple statement of few unembellished words telling their wants and asking for favors.
It is hoped that he was able to liquidate the claims that were charged up against him, although there is no reply to this request found on the records of the time, but in the records of the Colony it appears that his claims were recognized, for it was "Voted, That upon the
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petition of Eliezer Whipple, the General Assembly doe allow unto the said Whipple the sum of tenn pounds in or as money to be paid unto him or his order, out of the General Treasury."
After the war was at an end Whipple returned to his lands in Loquasqussuek, where lay the ashes of his former home and rebuilt his house.
On August 25, 1719, Eleazer Whipple died, being then seventy-three years of age. A life of hardships and sufferings was ended, and he was laid away in the grave down in his meadow in front of his house.
The Whipple house was built between the years 1676 and 1684, for in that year he purchased of his brother Samuel five acres of land, lying northwesterly from Providence town and a "little to the north- ward of ye said Eleazer Whipple his dwelling house"; the bounds of this tract show that it was in the Loquasqussuck country. The house
ELEAZER WHIPPLE HOUSE NEAR LIME ROCK, LINCOLN. Afterwards known as the Mowry tavern, erected 1677.
may be safely stated to date from this latter year, and there is a continuous line of references to it in deeds and other conveyances to the present day. It was a grand old mansion house in those times, and there is even now a stately dignity to it that cannot but attraet the attention of those who reverence and respeet these old relics of former days.
Like most of these aneient habitations, changes have been made from the original structure, but the great stone chimney stack, extend- ing nearly the whole width of the house, built of solid and well constructed masonry, still remains to evidenee its antiquity; perhaps a portion of this may have survived the fiery ordeal that the first house built upon this site went through.
The doorway and hall is in the middle of the house, with a great
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room on either side; the south corner is the older part, this being built by Whipple himself. Here in the center of the ceiling the great "summer" may be seen, showing to those of to-day how well our forefathers builded.
Five years before he died Eleazer Whipple gave to his son, James Whipple, "for good consideration me Thereunto moving But more especially for the natural love and affection I have and do beare unto iny son James Whipple All that parcel of land which I had of my father John Whipple both upland and meadow being at Loquassus- sett", also other land, and "my mansion house which I now dwell in standing on the above said land with orchards gardens edifices and buildings excepting only that my wife Alice Whipple shall have the privilege of that part of my dwelling house which I built which is the southern part during the term of her natural life". This grant was inade with certain conditions of payments to his other children.
Upon the death of Eleazer Whipple it became the homestead of James Whipple and here he lived during his lifetime.
In 1731 the new town of Smithfield was incorporated. This terri- tory included the lands on which the Whipple homestead was located.
After the death of James Whipple his heirs sold the property to Jeremiah Mowry, and in the conveyance the property is described as being the "Homestead farm of James Whipple of Smithfield deceased, lying on both sides of the highway which leadeth from Providence town to the place called Wansockit and on Loasquiset brook".
There was also included in the deed this memorandum: "Before signing this deed the grantor reserves to himself the old Burying place containing four Roods square with liberty to pass and repass at any time".
Across the road in the meadow opposite to the house is this old burying-place. It is surrounded with tall evergreens, a distinguishing inark for country graveyards, and enclosed with a substantial fence. Here, amid creeping vines and brambles, are the graves of Eleazer Whipple and his wife, both of whom attained to a ripe old age, he being seventy-three years old at his death, while his wife was ninety- four. Here also is buried their son, James Whipple, whose children were the last of the name of Whipple to own the ancestral estate. With this transfer of the farm the property passed out of the Whipple family and was purchased by Jeremiah Mowry, whose family had intermarried with the Whipples. It yet remains in the Mowry family and many of them are buried in this ancient graveyard opposite the house.
In 1825, when the eastern part of the house was built, for the house stands with the road nearly east and west, it became a tavern, and
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doubtless became an attractive place in the days of the lumbering, clattering stage coach. The curiously contrived little table, whereon were displayed the articles of refreshment for the thirsty travellers, may yet be seen in a corner of one of the lower rooms.
The whole region hereabouts is a picturesque and interesting country ; only a few rods distant are the white cliffs of the lime pits and beyond this an undulating country of hills and vales.
The view from the Whipple house is a commanding one. Below to the castward the Blackstone River like a thread of silver winds its way through green meadow land and gently rising hills, while the spires of churches and the chimneys of many mills rise above the tree- tops. But in the days when these men built their homes and sought to provide for their families, it was one vast wilderness of primeval forests and hills.
Descendants of many of the original settlers yet live on the original homestead farms about the neighborhood. But all is changed; the shrieking locomotive and the tolling factory bell all give unmistakable evidence of the change that has come over the Louisquisset country.
THE CHRISTOPHER GREENE BIRTHPLACE.
The old town of Warwick abounds in historic houses and localities. It was the scene of many interesting events in colonial history, and its people were influential and active in the affairs of the State. It would be a long list to include all of the men claiming Warwick as their home who won honor and fame during the years when the war of the Revolution was fought.
Not far from Cole's station on the railroad which winds down through old Warwick is the house where Col. Christopher Greene was born. It is now owned by Edward A. Cole and is one of the ancient houses of Rhode Island, having been built, it is stated, while the ashes of many of the homes of the colonists were yet smouldering from the fiery ordeal of King Philip's War.
Col. Christopher Greene was the son of Philip Greene, an associate judge of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. He was one of the incorporators of the Kentish Guards, that military organization which furnished so many brilliant officers for the Continental line. In 1775 he was a lieutenant in that body and his rise in rank was rapid and merited. The services of Colonel Greene were of the highest char- acter; his bravery at Red Bank won for him the approbation of Con- gress, which voted him a sword for his gallant defense of the fort. He did not live, however, to receive it, for in May, 1781, he, with Major Flagg, another Rhode Island officer, were cruelly murdered by a party of the enemy consisting of two hundred and sixty cavalry, who forded the Croton River at Points Bridge, where Greene was quartered, sur- prised his camp and killed him.
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