USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 65
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EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
The circumstances attending his death were of the most horrible character, his body being shockingly mutilated. The Cole place is designated as being his birthplace. His home was at the village of Centerville, just north of the Bridge. Many years ago this house was destroyed by fire, and with it much material that would have shed additional light on the early life of this distinguished officer. The sword with which Congress honored him is now the property of his grandson.
THE GREENE HOMESTEAD.
On Potowomot Neck in the town of Warwick may yet be seen the home of Gen. Nathanael Greene. Here he was born and here his
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BIRTHPLACE OF GEN. NATHANAEL GREENE, POTOWOMUT, R. I.
boyhood days were passed. A short time before the outbreak of the Revolution he removed from the homestead beside the Potowomot River and settled in Coventry, where he operated with his brother a forge, "carrying on an extensive business in forging anchors", for in those days vessels from Rhode Island were found in all of the ports of the world. His forge is said to have been located at the spot where the railroad bridge at Quidnick now stands.
The services of Gen. Greene are too well known to be here repeated. When the Kentish Guards marched from East Providence in response
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
to the Lexington aların, Nathanael Greene was a private soldier; that was in April, 1775. "I viewed the company", says John Howland in his recollections, "as they marched up the street in Providence and observed Nathanael Greene with his musket on his shoulder in the ranks as a private. I distinguished Mr. Greenc, whom I had fre- quently seen, by the motion of his shoulders in the march, as one of his legs was shorter than the other". and this private soldier, carrying a musket in the ranks, a month later was a brigadier-general. Next to Washington he was the greatest military commander that the Revolu- tion produced. A few years after the war he removed to the State of Georgia, where he died June 19, 1786. Until within a few months his last resting place was unknown, his remains having been placed in a tomb and all memory or record of the spot lost.1 The Greene home- stead is now owned by Hon. William Maxwell Grecne.
THE WILLIAM GREENE HOUSE. -
The old Greene house at Coweset is another historic house of Warwick. It is an old house, too, for it was built, or at least a portion of it, by Samuel Gorton, jr., as early as 1685, and its substantial appearance to-day shows how well our fathers builded. The house has been the home of one of the historic families of Rhode Island. Here William Greene, who held the office of deputy-governor from July 15, 1740, to May, 1743, and afterwards that of governor for nearly eleven years, between 1743 and 1758, lived and died. It then became the home of his son William, jr. In the year 1777 its owner was elected to the office of chief justice of the Supreme Court, and in the following year to that of governor, a position which he ably filled for eight successive years. The war of the Revolution was then in progress and the west room became the governor's council room.
In it the Governor and his Council, with General Sullivan, Gen. Nathanael Greene, Lafayette, Rochambeau, and other notable per- sonages, both civil and military, held frequent consultations upon important national affairs. "Among the notable visitors of that and subsequent years was Dr. Franklin, who was on terms of intimacy with the family and usually made a friendly visit here whenever he came to New England". The west window overlooking a beautiful valley bears the name of "Franklin's widow", from the interest he is said to have taken in sitting beside it and gazing at the prospect it afforded. In the rear of the house is the old family burying-ground, "where
1 At the exercises attending the first celebration of the birthday of Nathanael Greene since that day was set apart by the State as a holiday an address was made by Hon. Asa Bird Gardiner, president of the Rhode Island State Society of Cincinnati, in which was told the story of the discovery of the remains of General Greene in a vault in the city of Savannah, Ga., on the 4th day of March, 1901. The story of this discovery is told in the Providence Daily Journal of June 7,1901.
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repose the deceased members of the family of several generations". It has another interesting association connected with it, for within its walls Gen. Nathanael Greene met the young woman who afterwards became his wife, and in the west room of this ancient dwelling they were married, July 20, 1774.
THE VARNUM HOMESTEAD.
Back of the court house in the town of East Greenwich, on what is sometimes called Pearce street, stands a large and substantial colonial mansion. On the south end of this grand old residence there is inscribed the date 1767, the year in which the house was built.
So well preserved and so well kept is this handsome structure that it is difficult to realize that it has stood so long upon the hill of Greenwich town. Surrounding it are spacious lawns filled with plants and flowering shrubs, while shading it stand magnificent elms.
This ancient house was the former home of Gen. James Mitchell Varnum, one of Rhode Island's brave officers. It was built by him in the year which is noted upon it, and the elm trees which throw their shadows across it were set out by the general's direction years before that great crisis which brought his great qualities to the fore had commenced. James M. Varnum was not a Rhode Islander by birth, but was born in the little town of Dracut, in the Massachusetts Colony, in 1749. Instead of being sent to Harvard College, where most of the youths of Massachusetts received their education, Varnum was enrolled as a student at the Rhode Island College, located at Warren, and he was of the first class to be graduated at this institution which has since become Brown University.
In this class was the Rev. William Rogers, afterwards chaplain in the Continental army from 1776 to 1781; Richard Stiles, a captain in the Continental army who was killed at the battle on Long Island, August 27, 1776, and the Rev. Charles Thompson, also a chaplain in the Continental army from 1775 to 1778.
In 1771, having studied for the profession of the law, Varnum was admitted to the bar and settled in East Greenwich. A few years after he had taken up his residence in that town a number of the young men who had a taste for military affairs petitioned the legislature of Rhode Island to incorporate them into a company by the name of the Kentish Guards, and a charter soon followed. The name of James Mitchell Varnum was the first name mentioned in the charter, and he became its first commander.
When the news of the affair at Concord reached East Greenwich Varnum assembled his company and immediately set out for the relief of his countrymen. When they reached Pawtucket they learned that the fight was over and the company returned home. The next week Varnum was commissioned colonel of a regiment to be raised in the
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"County of Kent and Kings". In 1777 he was made a brigadier- general, and then followed his service in the Continental army, where he distinguished himself on many occasions. He was at Red Bank, Fort Mifflin, Monmouth and at Rhode Island; he also was with the American army during that winter of suffering at Valley Forge. The house that he occupied for his headquarters, the Stevens house on the Port Kennedy road, is yet standing.
In 1779 he resigned his commission in the army, but was almost immediately appointed major-general of the State militia. A year later he was elected a delegate to Congress. In civil life his services were as brilliant as his military life had been distinguished. Varnum married in early life Martha Child, a daughter of Cromwell, of War-
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THE JAMES (FONES) GREENE HOUSE, BUTTONWOODS, WARWICK. Erected about 1715.
ren. He died in Ohio, January 10, 1789, at the age of forty years, after a brief but active life. He left no descendants. The house that he lived in in East Greenwich was the former home of Judge Brayton of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and is now owned and occupied by Dr. Bowen.
THE FONES GREENE HOUSE.
The old Greene house in Warwick is located on a little stream which flows into the head of Brush Neck Cove near Buttonwoods in Warwick. Near by can yet be seen the depression in the ground
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EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
forming the cellar of the old home of Fones Greene, which was erected in 1687, but which was doubtless demolished before 1715, when the present house was built. For many years the present house was supposed to be the original house at this location, but the exhaustive researches of Messrs. Isham and Brown, who have done so much to preserve the details of early Rhode Island houses, has fixed definitely as it is possible to fix it the time when the present house was built.
Visitors to this ancient dwelling for years were hospitably enter- tained by its venerable occupants, the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Whitnian Greene. The house was well stored with many interesting family relics and articles of domestic use in the early days of the Colony, and they never tired of showing these curious articles to the scores of visitors who found their way to this quiet country home. It was perhaps the best known old house in the State.
THE THOMAS FENNER HOUSE.
In the woods beyond and to the south of "Neutaconconitt", back from the road leading to Plainfield, stands the former home of Major
CIDER MILL AND PRESS, NORTH KINGSTOWN.
Thomas Fenner, the eldest son of Capt. Arthur Fenner, the "Captain of Providence".
Major Fenner was a man of note in the early days of the Colony. He was born in Providence, in September, 1652, and was thus a young man at the outbreak of Indian hostilities in 1675. In the old town records, written by the hand of Roger Williams, he is listed as one of those who stayed and went not away while the town was in danger, and later was a member of the garrison established at the house of Nathaniel Waterman. He married Alice Ralph, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Ralph, but the date of the marriage is unknown.
The land on which the house of Thomas Fenner was built belonged to his father; on the old stone chimney there is rudely cut figures 1677, which serves to fix the year in which it was built. No doubt
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Arthur Fenner contributed largely to the erection of this new home for his son, for when William Harris died in 1683 there is mentioned in his inventory as one of the debts due to him the item "of Clabord nayles lent to Capt. ffenner 1500 to be pyd in nayles againe", and these "nayles" perhaps were used in the construction of the house.
Thomas Fenner was appointed by the General Assembly, in 1712-13, "Major for the maine", a position of considerable military conse- quence, for he was by this appointment commander of all the military forces on the mainland.
During his occupancy of the homestead he carried on both a tavern and what would pass for a country store. There are preserved among the manuscript collection of the city of Providence many hundreds of papers and documents which were once the property of Arthur and Thomas Fenner, and from these a very good idea of the life at the old Fenner tavern may be derived. He also kept curious books of accounts in which were detailed the family expenses and his dealings with his neighbors; thus: "In the yeare 1698 lent to Joseph Latham in silver moni 00-17-00", "Receved of my ffather fouer pounds in monni more Receaved in Shepes woll nineteene pound". He had many transactions with his relatives and others in which all sorts of commodities formed the subject of trade. A popular quality and a considerable quantity of cider was produced on his farm and was bought extensively by his neighbors. "In the yeare 1696" he "de- liuered to William Randall
to one quarter of bef 00-06-00
more 2 bariles of Sider
00-16-00
more 2 bariles of Sider 00-13-00"
Down on the meadow lands of his farm, herds of cattle fed on the sweet grass; and the butter and cheese which this farm produced show the industry of the Nutaconconet farmer.
"The Acount of butter and Cheese that mr Moses Reaid had of me in the yeare 1700 delivered to the aboue said Reaid 1227 pounds of Cheese and of Butter 353 pound and in the year 1701 more Butter 337 pound and more Cheese 850 and in the year 1703 more butter 2 firkines and 10 Cheeses not wayed".
All manner of chroniclings appear among his writings, even that always engaging subject, the weather, and he has preserved the record of a wonderful happening: "In the yeare 1703 Theire fell a Snow apone the 28th of September and apone the nouember following one the 2d day of the month therre fell a frezeng halle Snow with Son Raine which froze one the trees very much and apone the 9th day of the fore named nouember theire fell a nother snow and one 15th day thiere fell a nother snow and apone the 27th day and the 28th day theire fell a greate Snow then theire did not fall much more Snow
HOME OF CAPT. THOMAS FENNER, CRANSTON, R. I. ERECTED 1677.
618 . STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
until the 25th and 26th of the December following the 26th day was a Exstreame Storme of Snow with a very hi winde".
It would be of additional interest if the Major had given us a more detailed aeeount of this "Exstreame Storme" and "hi winde".
There are also other meteorological reports from the tavern with their varying statements of "Cleare and Coole", "Sumthing Cloude" and "indifferent worme for the Season".
Publie offiee always fell to the lot of the tavern-keeper, and Thomas Fenner was no exception to the rule; and no wonder that it was so, for the influence of the tavern-keeper, consulted and advised with by all the neighbors as he was, could not but make him a eonspieuous personage and his serviees valuable to his fellow men. As eaptain and major in the militia, deputy, assistant, surveyor, pound-keeper and tavern-keeper, he ran the whole gamut of publie trusts.
Thomas Fenner died on the 27th of February, 1717-18, being then sixty-six years of age. In his will, executed only a few weeks before his death, he says that "being very siek and weake of Body yet through the merey of God of a Good understanding with Respect to a disposing mind and memory and not Knowing how Shorte my time may be here on Earth", he devised his estate, amounting to £433 19s. 09d., besides his houses, and lands and meadows, to his wife and children.
His "beloved wife Dinah ffenner" was to have the "old parte of my dwelling house during her life". One hundred and fifty acres of land and also the half of the "Housing" which he received by will from his father, was given to his son, Thomas Fenner, and the prop- erty sinee that day has never been out of the family, being owned now by one of his deseendants, Mr. Samuel A. Hazard. The house is more generally known to-day as the Sam Joy place.
The major was buried in the family ground on the farm of his father adjoining.
This old Fenner house was more than a hundred years old when the Freneh army marehed by it that June day in 1781, on the way to Yorktown, to take part in that memorable engagement which settled the elaim of England to the United Colonies.
Around this old house have congregated all of the men who laid the foundation for this little commonwealth, and within its walls all the thrilling episodes in our national life have been diseussed.
THE ROGER MOWRY TAVERN.
One by one the old houses which were connected with the early history of the town have been demolished, and the Roger Mowry Tavern, the only house which dated baek to the dark days of King Philip's war, was demolished within the past few months. It was originally a little house with a huge stone chimney, but from time to
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EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
time as years rolled on additions were made to it, so that to a stranger's eye there would appear nothing venerable about it, until he entered the house or, proceeding up the hill, turned and viewed the old chimney stack extending up on the outside of the structure, or, pausing for a moment, considered the extreme age of the graceful elms which shaded its yard. The house was situated on Abbott street at the north end of Providence, only a few steps from North Main street, and was often resorted to by those who were interested in studying such venerable relics of early days.
It was in May, 1655, that Roger Mowry was granted a license to
THE ROGER MOWRY TAVERN.
Sometimes called the Abbott House, situated on Abbott street Providence. Built about 1653. Demolished 1900.
keep a house of entertainment and was directed to "sett out a con- venient signe at ye most perspicuous place of ye saide house thereby to give notice to strangers that it is a house of entertainment".
It is unfortunate that no record exists as to the name or device which must have appeared upon this sign so conspicuously displayed. In Old England the tavern sign was a most important appendage to the tavern; they were elaborately and ingeniously designed, nearly always
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
with some device illustrating the name by which the tavern or inn was known. In later years tavern signs were numerous enough throughout Rhode Island, and they remained, swinging idly on their rusty hinges, until well along in the present century.
In the early days of the town's life this house was a conspicuous płace, as the tavern always was. It served many purposes, too; besides being the first hostelry in the town, its rooms were used for town meet- ings and for council meetings. Here, too, prisoners who had been apprehended for alleged crimes were kept in confinement. Here the Indian Waumanctt was brought and confined in irons after his mur- derous assault on Clawson, the Dutch carpenter, and tradition says that Roger Williams held service for the worship of God within its walls.
Roger Mowry, who is so identified with the old house, came to Providenee in 1643 from Salem. He had formerly resided in Ply- mouth, in all of which places Roger Williams had been located for a greater or lesser time. It is mainly from this fact that a tradition has been based that the two Rogers were kinsmen. If, however, no rela- tionship existed, Mowry seems to have been a devout follower of his more illustrious namesake. Mowry first appears in Salem in 1636; a year later he was appointed by that town to the office of "neat herd" and had the keeping of all the town cattle; the custom of the time being to drive the common herd afield during the day and returning them at night during the season when the grass was suitable for feed. His term of office commencing the "fifth of the second month" and to continue eight months; "another sufficient man" was associated with him. A stated time was fixed when each townsman should have his cattle ready to be driven with the common herd, and those who from various circumstances neglected to have theirs ready at the appointed time and place were obliged to bring them themselves after the herd. For this duty the price was regulated at 7s. a head for "all except bulls"; this was ordered by the town "to be paid in four equal payments and always one quarter before hand".
His life in Salem seems to have been, with this exception, an uneventful one, and in 1643 he joined his lot with the men who had established in Providence a free government. But it was not until 1655 that he comes prominently to notice, and in that year everything came showering down upon him at once.
He was selected by the General Assembly to the important and honorable offices of tavern-keeper, constable and "Serwaier", but his connection with the tavern was the most important; in point of fact, if the truth could be known, it was this that brought to him his official preferment, for after a lapse of nearly twenty years, during which time no public house had been a part of the town's institution, he came and filled a long felt want.
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EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
In the early days of colonial life the habit of drinking liquor was indulged in by all classes-men, women, and even children; large quantities were brought into the town, while, besides this, some of the townsmen had all the paraphernalia necessary to make such liquids.
One of the greatest hardships which the early settlers in America were called upon to endure was their inability to procure liquor. Good old Governor Bradford has left us the evidence of the troubles of the Pilgrims in this respect, and Parson Higginson, of Salem, said in 1629: "Whereas my stomach could only digest and did require such drink as was both strong and stale I can and ofttimes do drink New England water very well"; another early chronicler says that it was "not accounted a strange thing in those days to drink water".
But they were not long destined to be deprived of the drinks of the mother country, for the records contain references early in the Planta- tions' existence of sack, Dutch brandy, Spanish wine, rum, and "Jona- vah", which was their method of spelling Geneva and what we call gin. Liquor legislation was as bountiful then as now, and it would seem that the reason for it was just as great. Notwithstanding the fact that all liquors brought into the town should be regularly entered upon the town books, there was the same inclination in those days to disregard the liquor laws that is found to-day.
It seems that on the 4th of July, 1655, a day certainly celebrated for illegal liquor transactions, Roger Mowry, the constable, and Sam Bennett, the town sergeant, had their attention brought to certain irregularities in this respect, and so they instituted a search, which resulted in the following record being made by the town meeting :
"Whereas there was search in ye Town made by Roger Moorie & Sam : Bennet & there was found in the possession of mr ffouler Marie Pray Mr Sayles wine & liquors wch for theire diffect of non entrie of it it was the halfe of it forfeit to ye Towne. But they all pleading ignorance in the law made to yt purpose were By the Towne remitted freely".
Our ancestors were of a forgiving nature and the early records contain many entries where misdemeanors of various kinds were "forgiven freely", if the offender appeared before the forgiving body with a contrite heart.
The excise of liquors required that "all Spanish wine that is retailed in this Towne shall be sold at 22d. P qrt & all liqrs at 3s. P qrt & in case any who doe retaile exceede these prices upon proofe thereof the parties offending shall forfeit for everie qrt not sold at ye price aboue sd the summ of 5s. at 8 P d."
As the town grew and opportunities increased, the townsmen were enabled to gratify their desires for alcoholic stimulants. When suffi- cient time had elapsed for the apple and peach trees to bear fruit, attention was directed to making cider, peach juice and
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
peach brandy ; apple mills, apple pounders, cider mills, cider presses and cider troughs are found frequently named in the old inventories along with summer cider, winter cider and peach juice.
Roger Mowry died January 5, 1666. His widow, Mary Mawrey, as the name is spelled in the records, was made the executrix of his will, but owing to the loss of the earliest book of probate records, we are unable to ascertain how his estate was divided or of what it consisted. The inventory of his personal effects would have no doubt shed muclı light on the character of the caravansary over which he presided with dignity for many years.
On the fifth day of September, 1671, Mary Mowry, "late wife of Roger Mowry", sold to Stephen Paine of Rehobath, "The dwelling licuse and out housing with three house Lotts, or home Shares of Land adjoyneing to the said hovseing the which formerly belonged unto my said husband Roger Mowry scituate lieing & being in ye north part of ye afore said Town of prouidence near the Towne Street".
The boundaries given in this deed and subsequent deeds of the property show the location of the house and the old driftway (now called Abbott street) which originally led from the town street to the tavern yard.
The next transfer was from Stephen Paine, who conveyed the prop- erty thus acquired to Samuel Whipple. Herc he lived for nearly forty years until his death in March, 1711.
There was a "leanto" connected with the house at this time, having two rooms, one up stairs and one down, the lower one being a sleeping room.
By the will of Samuel Whipple, made three days before his death, when "sick & weake of Boddy", he gave his homestead or dwelling house with all the "lands & orchard thereunto adjoyneing Reaching from the Town street & Extending Eastward to the land which be- longed to the deceased Daniell Brown", to his wife, Mary Whipple, during her lifetime, and after her death to his daughters, Abigail and Hope. About ten years previous to the death of Samuel Whipple a portion of the tract of land now known as the North Burying Ground, and then the "most desolate sand hill in the plantation", had been selected as the town burying-place; here Whipple was buried, being the first interment that was ever made in these grounds.
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