USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. IV > Part 10
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and complaints heard. In the large room at the rear stood the type cases, the old wooden hand-press with the marble bed, the piles of paper, the pots of ink, the flat tables where the forms were assembled and tightly locked; where the master printers, the journeymen printers and the apprentices labored from daybreak to bed- time, sorting, setting, picking up type, cutting, jogging, folding paper, smearing on the sticky ink with leather balls, peal- ing off the wet printed sheets, the whole place reeking of that carbon-like odor common to all print shops.
Into Carter's establishment "At the Sign of Shakespeare's Head," often rushed that sedate, influential statesman, Stephen Hopkins, carrying in his pockets a message of momentous import to be printed in the Gazette or distributed as a proclamation to mould and guide public opinion in the direction of defiance to tyranny. There, too, clamored the Tories demanding edi- torial allegiance to His Majesty. John Carter supplied the mechanics of publicity for his community from the late sixties until 1814 when he retired and died. In this house which accommodated a success- ful printing and publishing business for nearly a half century, one can no longer find a single evidence of the activity that brought it fame. The old sign has long since disappeared; the smell of ink has vanished; even the books in the northwest room are no more.
After generations of neglect and misuse on the part of occupants, Shakespeare's Head now belongs to an association of public-spirited citizens who came to the rescue generously and enthusiastically. Careful research and expert craftsmanship completed the task of faithful restoration. At this writing the Providence-Cranston Girl Scout Council, Junior League of Providence, Inc., and Federation of Rhode Island Garden Clubs occupy the premises. "Merrily, Merrily, shall I live now," wrote the greatest of all the poets by whose name present and future genera- tions will come to know this place of simple Colonial beauty and of important historical associations.
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COLONIAL SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLDAYS
TT was long after the founding of Provi- dence before any attention was given to schools. Parents instructed their own children in all necessary rudiments. How- ever, we may conclude that this sort of education only concerned itself with very practical instruction, and, in short, might well be compared to the sort of training a craftsman in one of the mediaeval guilds gave his apprentice.
In Providence, land was set aside for a schoolhouse by 1663 but there the matter rested for a long while. In 1684, William Turpin, a professional schoolmaster, ar- rived in town and, by 1687, succeeded in bringing about the erection of a school house on Stamper's Hill, the junction of North Main and Stampers Streets. Pre- vious to this he had been giving lessons to private pupils who lodged with him or to whom he paid regular visits. As an ex- ample, he instructed one Peregrine Gard- ner, giving him board and schooling for one year for the sum of six pounds, one- half paid in beef, pork, and corn and the rest in silver. The instruction consisted of training in reading and writing with per- haps a little arithmetic thrown in.
By 1735, another schoolmaster had come to Providence. He was George Taylor who secured the permission of the Colonial Assembly to keep school in one of the chambers of the Colony House on North Main Street. In return for the privilege he was bound to keep the glass in good repair and tend the sun dial out in front.
It is amusing to look at the Cipher Book of a scholar of that period. In the one belonging to John Brown and dated 1749 we find things like the following:
"Addition Is an Arithmetical gather- ing of Divers Sums together to Produce one Total."
"How Many Sparrows at 10 a Penny will buy a Yoke of Oxen at £10 Price?
"Suppose it 45 miles to Boston, How many Barley Corns will Reach there?"
These are a few of many problems, all solved concisely with the added remark written out - "John Brown the Cleverest boy in Providence Town."
More important than accuracy in spell- ing was penmanship. The scholars of the day were children of ship merchants and storekeepers, and the need for them to learn how to keep legible records was para- mount. Because, in most instances, they were to follow their elders in business, their school problems were based on the needs of the coasting trade and the shops. They learned "Rules in Trett and Tare, etc."- Tare being the weight of a bag, barrel, or chest, Trett referring to the allowed amount of loss on such goods as sugar and treacle. Since Providence at that time was a bartering community, they learned the rules of barter. And be- cause the coasting trade was flourishing, many of the problems they had to solve dealt in such things as latitude and ships' tonnage.
After the first Court and Colony House had burned down in 1758, a wave of agita- tion began for several new schoolhouses. When their cost was revealed, the enthu- siasm suffered a blight and only one was built. This was known as the "Old Brick Schoolhouse " and was located on Meeting Street, near the second Colony House. Part of its cost was met by the town, the rest by private subscription. Here two hours a day were spent "in perfecting the scholars in reading and properly under- standing the English tongue" while what time remained was given over to "writing, arithmetic, and languages." This was the school attended by the children of the East-Siders. The West-Siders had erected a school of their own four years earlier at the corner of Mathewson and Chapel Streets.
The year 1768 saw the erection of Whip- ple Hall, a private schoolhouse of con- siderable local fame. It was located in the North End of Providence, a one-story building with a hipped roof and a belfry. Two schools were kept here, the higher being in charge of George Taylor. About forty pupils attended, the tuition being 4 shillings sixpence apiece.
Meanwhile attention was turning to a different type of school, one that James Manning had begun at Warren. This
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same gentleman, destined to be the first president of the college for which he was already agitating strongly, had opened a Latin School to prepare pupils for the college once the latter had been founded. Strangely enough in those very practical days, his school was a huge success, and he had to import textbooks from London for his many scholars. In 1770, after Brown University had been founded, Manning's Latin School moved into new quarters at the head of College Street and took the new title of the "University Grammar School."
James Manning's first efforts in Warren bore quick fruit indirectly in Providence, for in 1766 a certain Benjamin Stelle, in- fluenced by the former, opened a school here for the "instruction of young ladies in the knowledge of writing and arith- metic." There were two sessions a day, the first from 6 A.M. to 7:30 A.M., the second from 4:30 p.M. to 6 P.M., hours that no girl of today would willingly keep. Yet, as in the case of James Manning, Benjamin Stelle's enterprise was received with favor and he prospered.
All during this century the schools had been private in nature, the pupils paying for their tuition. The idea of free schools had been in the minds of prominent men for many years but not until 1800 did they come into existence in Providence. But Jet us leave Providence for the while and turn to Narragansett, that very prosper- ous section of colonial Rhode Island.
Here, according to the reminiscences of Thomas Robinson Hazard, the first school- masters were three Irishmen of great cul- ture and refinement, Masters Kelly, Ridge, and Slaurter. They traveled about visiting the farms and communities around Boston Neck Point, Point Judith, and Tower Hill, imparting instruction to the children but, particularly, exerting their good influence on the rough manners and characters of the country folk.
After they had passed away, a new type of schoolmaster arrived, one who made no pretense to the polite attainments of his predecessors, but believed in more rugged methods of teaching. He was Master Robert Noyes who kept school on the Tower Hill road. He believed in the rule and spared it not. After a few of his pupils
discovered that his wooden rod might be split if they crossed two hairs in their open palm, Master Noyes made a new one of leather with a wooden handle. He en- joyed such sport so much that he used one of the older pupils, by the name of Gust Tift, as a spy to procure him victims. This traitor in the ranks watched the boys constantly and if they so much as lifted an eye from their books dragged them forward to Master Noyes and his ruler. Punishment was always administered on the left hand in order to keep the right fit for writing lessons.
In conclusion, just as evidence that school boys then were no different than those of today, we might cite an incident or two from the school days of this par- ticular Hazard who later became known as "Shepherd Tom" and who wrote the famous "Johnny-cake Papers." He had the small boy habit of stuffing pockets with every conceivable odd and end. Master Noyes caught him one afternoon and made him lay the contents of his jacket pockets on his desk. They were worthy of Tom Sawyer himself. The following items he remembers were in one side alone: "One bunch of hair pulled from Deacon Brown's old horse's tail, to make snares of for quails; two rusty board nails; one shingle nail; two small eels, which I caught in Indian Run; three live crabs, got in Narrow river; a piece of beefsteak, left from my dinner; one pin hook; one white-faced bumble bee; four tadpoles; and one bottom fish; besides several other items." From this episode he derived the nickname "tadpole," but it did not affect him half so much as the humiliating recol- lection of hearing Sally Brown, his school girl sweetheart, snicker aloud as he laid his treasures out before the teacher's astonished eyes.
On another occasion, when he arrived at the school wet from having waded in a stream he was ordered to hang his breeches on a line outside and was then placed be- tween two girls in his embarrassing condi- tion. It happened that he was on pre- carious terms with both young ladies and one of them improved her priceless oppor- tunity by inserting a pin a half-inch into his bare thigh, making him yell and jump about three feet in the air. For this he
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was collared by Tift and hustled before Master Noyes. He was not whipped but had the worse punishment of having to stand before the whole school reading his primer, his nether parts exposed.
Such were school days in colonial times. The change has been great with the pas- sage of years, but the school boy of today still manages to find ample opportunities for his mischief.
BETTY BOWEN
T HOSE who assume the delicate task of selecting the greatest American women in history rarely include the name of a Rhode Islander although this small but extremely important state, from the standpoint of historical significance, has not been completely lacking in fair sex contributions during its more than three centuries of existence. Perhaps the his- torians have been guilty of female belittle- ment in the telling of the Rhode Island story, or, it may be that the ladies of Rhode Island, who might have been logical candidates for the national Hall of Fame, have suffered by comparison with their more aggressive and better-adver- tised male contemporaries. At any rate, it remains for someone to do better by the illustrious women of Rhode Island than has yet been performed. All this may suggest that you are about to read a glorified review of the life of Ann Hutchin- son, Mary Dyer, the Indian Princess Weetamoe, Ida Lewis, or some other one of the great and the important "on the distaff side." Quite the contrary, for the reader is about to learn something of the life of a Rhode Island adventuress who brought fame to herself, and not through the usual channels of immortalization, such as sacrifice, leadership, wisdom, character or heroism.
Following rather closely Albert Payson Terhune's interpretations of what few facts are available to the historian, it is told that, sometime in the year 1769, a child was believed to have been born on a ship bound from the West Indies to Nar- ragansett Bay, and that the mother died a few hours after her baby girl first saw the light of day. There seems to be no record of the identity of either the child's mother or father, but it is believed that the tiny orphan started off in life in
Providence. It has been said that soon after the ship came into port, a trades- man's wife was so attracted by the beauty of the lonely little waif that she adopted the baby, and, after the customary reli- gious ceremony, gave the child the name of Eliza Bowen.
Those were rather strait-laced days when customs were not too far removed from the must-not-smile-in-church, speak- not-unless-spoken-to rules which pre- vailed hereabouts during the early genera- tions of local history. Young people had a hard time of it trying to comply with pre-Revolutionary Emily Post dictums, and, apparently, young Miss Bowen had her particular adolescent difficulties. At the age of fifteen she was not only con- sidered both the prettiest and the clever- est girl in the Colony - which combina- tion at that age is enough to give any parent or guardian something to worry about - but, she was also popularly re- garded as the worst. At least the super- pious folks said Betty was the worst, probably meaning the worst-behaved. No doubt it was comparatively easy to gain that reputation then, either by a bold show of independence, or by simply failing to conform to all of the ideas of the blue law devotees. It should not be recorded that she was bad, in the strict sense, but it might be better to describe her, at this dis- tant point of vantage, as a youngster with unusual beauty and an exceptional mind, one who had in full measure, even in girl- hood, the irresistible charm of a super- woman. Doubtless, she realized her advantages over other girls of her own age, and, if true, she probably made excel- lent use of such superiorities. That might account for her early reputation among the over-modest, conservative people of her time. It can be surmised that she was
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Courtesy, Town Criers of Rhode Island
VIEW FROM WEYBOSSET BRIDGE LOOKING SOUTH IN THE 1860'S, BEFORE BUILDING OF CRAWFORD STREET BRIDGE.
reckless, high-spirited, impatient of re- straint, and, who may say now that she did not encourage compliments and attentions of the young men of the town who struggled to lay their hearts at her feet? There's nothing new, or old, in that and nothing unusual.
As one might expect from the foregoing, Betty Bowen fell in love quite seriously when she was rather young, only seven- teen, in fact, and the handsome Lothario who dashed the hopes of not a few local boys was a retired British officer named Peter Croix. The Colonel was at least middle-aged and lived in New York at the time. He had ample funds, and that, of course, helped. After a short but exciting affair, Betty and the Colonel eloped from Rhode Island leaving a long trail of broken hearts up and down the fashion- able streets of the town, and out over the hills among the farm lands as well. The Colonel, best described in this day and age as a "man about town," took the strikingly-beautiful Betty to New York and there made her mistress of a stately
country home, located at present 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. Naturally, Betty loved clothes. In New York she paid more for a single gown than a year's wardrobe had cost her in Providence, and, as far as jewelry was concerned, people back home simply refused to be- lieve what they were told of Betty's diamonds and rubies. The indulgent Colonel "decked her out like a Christmas tree," as author Terhune has written, and "he proudly invited friends from far and near to come and behold the bedecked, bejeweled prize he had plucked from Providence." The word was not used in those days but New York then had a real "glamour girl," around which gathered a surrendering, admiring host of attention payers. Betty's charms attracted many of the same type as her husband - the gay, profligate, the fat, and the plain, ordinary, idle, beauty lovers. She also attracted men in high places in the affairs of the nation. That led to trouble.
For example, one of her most ardent admirers was a brilliant, magnetic young
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statesman whose name was already begin- ning to ring throughout America. His name was Alexander Hamilton. He had an attractive wife and several children, but that, apparently, did not deter him from paying humble tribute to the ruling queen of beauty in Manhattan. Another who came a-courting was a contemporary statesman of equal fame. His name was Aaron Burr. He too became infatuated with Betty, and, although Hamilton and Burr often met at the home of Colonel Croix, it was never at the wish of either. Someone has related that each hated every bone in the other's body. Accord- ing to history, Hamilton and Burr were always at loggerheads when they served on General Washington's staff during the Revolutionary War. This enmity was undoubtedly heightened when they found themselves as rivals for the favor of Betty. As everyone knows, this hate came to a head when, in the gray mist of a chilly morning, the lifelong rivals faced each other, pistol in hand, on the field of honor beyond Weehawken Heights. At the first volley, Hamilton sprang into the air and then sprawled upon the earth, mortally wounded.
This famous duel took place in 1804, and it was then, or perhaps before, that Betty happened to meet one of her hus- band's business friends, Stephen Jumel, an enormously wealthy French wine mer- chant. Jumel was fifty and Betty, thirty- five. Realizing that beauty was not eternal and that her fortunes depended upon her physical attractions, this oft- called super-woman deliberately put aside the aging Colonel, and there is consider- able doubt concerning the legal status of their particular matrimonial arrangement, and accepted the infatuated wine mer- chant's offer of marriage.
One thing is certain, Betty and Jumel were actually married in New York in April 1804. Society, exhibiting its usual ability to remember and keep alive certain things, made it rather uncomfortable for the Jumels, and, as an easy way out, a trip to Europe was suggested, or urged, by the Madame. There's much to relate of what happened to the wealthy wine merchant and his vivacious wife in France, but, briefly, they became involved in the
political upheaval that ended in the exile of Napoleon. Monsieur Jumel, practically bankrupt, finally returned to America and here he found his wife an able partner in the long struggle to regain his fortune. One daring and lucky venture followed another. In an incredibly short time the Jumels were again numbered among the richest people in this country. Once more Betty launched upon a career of luxury, but, this time, she kept within the limits of her husband's resources.
Outstanding in the program of celebrat- ing the recovery of the Jumel fortune was the purchase of the famous estate built some years before by Colonel Roger Morris. There the Jumels brought a retinue of servants to amaze all of New York, and there they installed an array of furniture and furnishings that caused gasps of admiration. Gifts from Napo- leon, from the Sultan of Turkey, from the Empress Josephine, cypresses from Greece, cedars from Mount Lebanon, exotic flowers from South America were soon on display for the benefit of New York's four-hundred, the leaders of which "let by-gones be by-gones," as one says, and promptly schemed and maneuvered for dinner invitations. The list of those who partook of the Jumels' luxurious hospitality is a nearly complete "Who's Who" of the early nineteenth century. Bonaparte after Bonaparte came, and so did many other greats and near-greats of both America and Europe.
Papa Jumel died in 1830, in his late seventies, and his widow then claimed she was fifty-three. However, she still held sway over the hearts of men. Another has observed rather quaintly, "Betty made sentimental mush of men's brains." Once more New York buzzed with reports of her daring flirtations. But, this all came to an end when her old lover, a former Vice-President of the United States, the victor in a love quarrel over her affections, Aaron Burr, returned to New York after several years of misfor- tune and political exile. Betty, rich, powerful, still beautiful, and Aaron Burr, old, discredited and half-impoverished, were united at last, in July 1833. How- ever, this match which appeared to be the natural happy ending for two dynamic,
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adventurous careers failed to bring hap- piness to either one. Squabbles over money, disagreements of many kinds, soon parted the two. Burr died in 1837, alone in a Staten Island hotel. Madame Jumel, given the name of Eliza Bowen by
a charitable tradesman's wife in Provi- dence, and who attained the distinction of being New York City's all-time record holder for breaking hearts, died in the famous mansion in Harlem, in 1865, at the age of ninety-six.
UNIVERSITY HALL
T THE reopening of restored or, rather, reconstructed University Hall, Brown's original college building, was marked with appropriate ceremonies on Saturday May 4, 1940, the 164th anni- versary of the signing of Rhode Island's Declaration of Independence. Erected in 1770, the familiar Providence landmark is now ready for many more generations of practical use, and, more important, for the inspiration its hoary walls and ancient halls will continue to provide those
destined to follow in the long train of men of Brown. Not yet do "U.H.'s" walls have the appearance of being hoary, nor are its halls truly ancient, but, gradually its fresh paint and plaster will mellow, and the rains will eventually wash away all traces of new mortar. The strange rooms, the unfamiliar halls and stairways, and even the startling changes and mod- ernized rearrangements will slowly blend themselves into an harmonious interior, perfectly suited to its unchanged, simple
UNIVERSITY HALL IN RECENT YEARS - BUILT IN 1770 AND USED AS A BARRACKS AND HOSPITAL FOR FRENCH TROOPS DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR,
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but substantial exterior. Like a human frame, at the height of physical perfection, the structure now completely refurnished with everything new, still has the same old soul.
University Hall, henceforth to be used chiefly for administrative purposes, is only one of a great many structures main- tained by the institution, although for many years it was Brown's only building, in fact, it was at one time popularly re- garded as "the College" in the same sense that a house of worship maintained by a religious group is often regarded as "the Church." James Manning, Brown's first president, writing to a friend for financial aid, not long after the erection of the building, said, "The college edifice is erected on a most beautiful eminence, in the neighborhood of Providence, com- manding a most charming and variegated prospect, a large, neat, brick building, and so far completed as to receive the students who now reside there, the whole number of which is twenty-two, to which we have the prospect of some further addition, although this be probably small until we are better furnished etc."
Even today, the structure appears to be rather large for a student body of twenty- two, at the time having a faculty of two, a library of two hundred and fifty vol- umes, not very well chosen according to the views of President Manning, and, for instruction in the sciences, apparatus comprising a pair of globes, two micro- scopes and what was described as "an electrical machine." However, the orig- inal sponsors of a college in Providence held high hopes for future growth. The college building was erected with an eye to expansion of the student body, and those who did the planning were right, despite the sneering prophecy made by a Boston editor who observed at the time, "The Corporation has built - a College near as large as Babel; sufficient to con- tain ten Times the Students that ever have, or ever will, oblige the Tutors of that popular University with opportunity of educating, or instructing them."
Perhaps, the building's size at the time of its erection had some relation to the present location of the University. Brown was finally established in. Providence fol-
lowing a spirited contest among several Rhode Island communities desirous of securing its presence, and since Provi- dence proved to be the successful bidder, no doubt the local promoters offered the most, hence the erection of a structure far too large for the needs at the time. Fol- lowing are the events that led to the planning and building of the now famous and precious edifice.
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