USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. IV > Part 22
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"THE OLD STONE BANK"
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HOTEL
PROVIDENCE CITY HALL IN 1890. NOTE OPEN HORSE CAR AND DIRECTION OF TRAFFIC.
ing, should not go into operation. The small majority in favor of a City Charter at first, undoubtedly led to the three- fifths provision. On February 15, the free- men again voted on the question, and this time, 383 were for, and 345 against; not quite enough Yes's for adoption under the provisions of the act. Providence was still just a town and would probably have remained as such, for a few years at least, had it not been for the so-called "riot" in September, 1831.
The first outbreak of popular feeling was on the night of September 21st, which seems to be a rather ominous date as far as Rhode Island history is concerned. A number of sailors from the waterfront visited Olney's Lane, now Olney Street, for the purpose of starting trouble; they were looking for a fight with the colored people who then lived in that section. After much shouting, cursing, and stone throwing, someone in one of the houses fired a gun. Most of the gang quickly
retreated to the west end of the lane, and five sailors who had not been mixed up with any of the disorders that night, ven- tured up the lane. One of the residents came out of his house and stood on the steps brandishing a gun, warning the five sailors to keep their distance. They in turn threatened to take the gun. This, they did not attempt, but started to move up the street. Again the defender of Olney's Lane warned the sailors to clear out or he would fire at them. They dared him to do it. He did fire and one of the sailors was instantly killed.
That was the signal. The mob waiting and watching down the lane rushed in, tore down two houses and smashed the windows of the rest. All through the night, and during the next day, the rioting continued, and the whole town was thrown into confusion. The sheriff of the county and other officials struggled to restore peace. Many of the rioters were taken into custody, some of these were rescued
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from the officers by the mob that con- stantly increased in numbers and in violence of language.
The sheriff then called for military aid, and the Governor ordered out the First Light Infantry. When the militiamen marched to the scene of action, they were bombarded with a barrage of rocks and brickbats. Finding the soldiers could effect nothing without firing upon the frenzied rioters, orders were given to with- draw from Olney's Lane, and then, left to their own pleasure, the fighting, cursing gang returned to their work of destruc- tion, and by three or four o'clock in the morning, had ripped down six more houses.
Early that morning, the 23rd, the sheriff expected an attack upon the jail where some prisoners had been locked up, and so he again appealed to the Governor for aid. His Excellency called out the Light Dragoons, the Artillery, the Cadets, the Volunteers, and the First Light Infantry, with orders to be in arms by six o'clock to defend the jail. The mob appeared only in small force and did little mischief; very likely, they were pretty well tired out by that time. The soldiers were dismissed until the next evening. At nightfall on the 24th, there was a great collection of people on Smith Street and vicinity, and soon they began to pull down houses.
Finding it impossible to disperse the rioters or stop their vandalism, again the authorities were compelled to assemble the armed forces of the community. And again the soldiers were assailed with stones and other handy objects as they marched up Smith Street and took post on the hill. Here, both the Governor and the sheriff remonstrated with the mob and endeavored to induce them to separate, warning them that the muskets of the military were loaded with ball cartridges. This being ineffectual, the riot act was read, but stones continued to rain upon houses and upon the heads of soldiers. The sheriff then attempted to dispel them by marching the Dragoons and Infantry among the milling crowds, but without success. He finally ordered the soldiers to fire, and four persons fell, mortally wounded. That was the end of the trouble; peace was soon restored.
During these four exciting evenings in Providence, eight houses in Olney's Lane, and nine, on or near Smith Street, were destroyed or badly damaged. On Sunday morning, a town meeting was called, but so great was the crowd in attendance, the meeting had to be held outdoors in front of the Old State House on North Main Street. At that meeting, several resolu- tions lamenting the occasion which had made recourse to the military necessary to the civil officers, sympathizing with the friends and relatives of the deceased, and endorsing the course of the civil magis- trates on the occasion, were passed with general approval. A large committee was appointed to prepare and publish a correct statement of facts relative to the riots.
Believing the whole disaster to have arisen from the inefficiency of a town gov- ernment, at a subsequent town meeting held on October 5, the freemen, without a dissenting voice, resolved that it was expedient to adopt a city form of govern- ment. They appointed a committee to draft a Charter, and this committee reported a few days later.
The next step towards city government was the adoption of a resolution that if three-fifths of the freemen voting favored a City Charter, the General Assembly would be urged to pass an act granting the same. On October 22, 1831, 646 voted, 471 for, and 175 against the change. The representatives of the town, therefore, according to their instructions, presented the subject to the consideration of the Assembly. Some citizens living in the westerly part of the town presented a petition to the Assembly at the same time, requesting that, if the City Charter should be granted, it should extend no farther westward than Broad Street, and that the rest of the town might be set off and formed into another town.
Under these circumstances, the Assem- bly granted the Charter to go into effect on the first Monday in June, 1832, if three- fifths of the freemen voting at a town meeting in November should be in favor of it. On November 22, 1831, 647 freemen voted on the question - 459 for, and 188 against the City Charter. Thus was sealed the death warrant of the Town of Providence.
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The first election of City Officers was held on the fourth Monday in April, 1832. Samuel Willard Bridgham was elected first Mayor, which office he held by suc- cessive elections until his death, a little less than a century ago. He was succeeded by the Hon. Thomas M. Burgess. The first Aldermen were, Dexter Thurber, Charles Holden, John H. Ormsbee, Wil- liam T. Grinnell, Henry R. Greene, and Asa Messer.
There are many oddities in the annals of this City and State, but this, it appears, was one of the most unusual of all the noteworthy events and episodes in the complete story - it took a riot, with bloodshed, death, and destruction, to graduate Providence from the limitations of town government to the form of mu- nicipal organization that best befitted a growing, ambitious, industrious, and promising community.
THE FIRST MAYOR OF PROVIDENCE
H IS HONOR SAMUEL WILLARD BRIDG- HAM, first Mayor of the City of Provi- dence, admonished the new city council members to conduct themselves, individ- ually and collectively, with prudence, temperance and virtue, thereby setting examples for their fellow-citizens to live quiet, peaceable and moral lives. A full century has passed since Providence grad- uated from the designation of town to that of city, and since Mayor Bridghan first addressed the city's legislative body and outlined his theories of municipal government, and told of his high hopes concerning the future of the community. Many changes have transpired during these comparatively few years; great industrial centers have risen upon what was then undeveloped countryside; resi- dential areas have moved from point to point as the business of the city expanded and changed in nature; busy streets a century ago are now forgotten; and former cowpaths are today humming thorough- fares; downtown Providence now bears little resemblance to the ambitious little town that became a city in June, 1832. . All of the Mayor's prophesies and hopes have come about, and it is pleasant to observe that the first incumbent of the highest public office in the life of the city was a strong, popular and efficient admin- istrator, a most worthy example for the long line of distinguished men who have had the privilege of succeeding him.
Samuel Willard Bridgham was the son of Joseph and Martha Bridgham and was born on May 4, 1774, the day of the year
which was destined to be regarded in this century and hereafter as Rhode Island Independence Day. He lived with his parents and worked for them on the farm, and as a youth he attended the public schools in Rehoboth and Seekonk. He was unusually studious, and as he grew older, he became strong in his determina- tion to go to college and enter the profes- sion of law. He realized his ambition and entered Brown University at the age of sixteen but he had to keep on with his farm work and with his daily chores at the homestead which was then in Seekonk, about four miles from the college. In those days, a father was entitled to the services of his sons until they were twenty- one, in return for food and maintenance, and no father was called upon to pay for more than an ordinary common school education. Young Bridgham was there- fore obliged to defray his own expenses in going through college, and this he suc- ceeded in doing very successfully by teaching school in Seekonk during his vacations. An old report says "that the large boys of his school once revolted for trying to lord it over them" just because they happened to be the pupils and he their master. He finished his course "on the hill" but it was many years before he was finally out of debt and square with everyone in all education obligations which he had taken upon himself. He held the highest honors in his class when he graduated in 1794, and he had the dis- tinction of delivering the class valedictory address. Following that, Samuel studied
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law in the office of Judge David Howell, and within two years he was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar, and began his legal career dependent entirely upon his own resources and exertions.
On October 20, 1798, Mr. Bridgham was married in Taunton, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Paine, only daughter of Stephen Paine and the young couple went to live in the newly purchased home at No. 1 Covert Street in Providence. Samuel Wil- lard Bridgham rose rapidly in general popularity and he was regarded by all as an able lawyer and as a citizen of great value and ability. His political career started with his election as a representa- tive from Providence to the General As- sembly and he continued in that office for ten years until 1817 when he, with every other Federalist in the state, lost the elec- tion by a small majority. He had political disappointments in 1820 when he ran for representative in Congress and was de- feated, and the following year he ran for Governor but was not successful. Pre- vious to that, he had been appointed by the General Assembly as inspector for the Second Brigade of the Rhode Island militia, and the next year after that ap- pointment, he was elected Adjutant Gen- eral, which office he held by annual elec- tion until 1809 when he was elected Brig- adier General of the Second Brigade, a position which he retained for five years. During this phase of his career he acquired the title of "General," and he was there- after popularly referred to as such.
From 1823 to 1826 General Bridgham was again representative to the Rhode Island General Assembly and, following that, he occupied the speaker's chair for two years. In his political opinions he was an old school Federalist, refusing to pledge himself to any prescribed course of conduct in the pursuit of public office elevation, and hence, when a change in politics came, he was defeated. In 1832, when Providence first became a city, he was chosen to be its first mayor, also the commander-in-chief of the Rhode Island military forces, and he was annually re- elected to this office during the remaining eight years of his life.
General Bridgham's views on education were naturally very liberal and, for many
years, he was president of the school com- mittee, besides being a member of the Board of Trustees of Brown University. Later he was made Chancellor of the insti- tution from which he had graduated with high honors. In his legal activities he was thrown much in contact with Daniel Webster and gradually they became friends, carrying on a personal corre- spondence for some little time. One of these letters from Webster, dated Decem- ber 27, 1830, reads as follows: "Dear Sir - I hope you recollect that the Court is approaching and I hope that the parties concerned have spoken to you to favor me with your views on the case of Porter and Gardiner as it now stands. Yours with much regard, D. Webster."
For many years he was president of the Congregational Benevolence Society and he educated his family in the strictest observance of religious worship. He had six children, all of whom with the excep- tion of one who died in infancy, either married well or became distinguished in various fields of endeavor in their own right. In December, 1839, he had a slight attack of paralysis, and when serious complications followed a year later, he died and was buried in the family lot in the North Burial Ground. ~ Today there is a large monument over his grave properly inscribed, and the lot, a gift from the City of Providence to him, is kept in perpetual care. An excerpt from an early issue of the Providence Journal describes the first mayor as follows: "One of the finest men socially, and a fluent and very fine speaker, one that court and jury paid the strictest attention to was General Samuel Bridg- ham. Although of noble and commanding figure, being about six feet tall and well- proportioned, with light complexion and very smiling countenance (smiling through the eyes) there was nothing haughty about him, and he could be approached by the lowest of the lowly. He visited the courts here until he was called to preside over the city affairs as the first mayor, with credit to himself and great satisfaction to his constituents."
Mayor Bridgham kept a complete diary during his terms of office and this record, in his own handwriting, offers an interest- ing study of affairs in Providence a cen-
WEYBOSSET STREET (WHEN IT WAS BROAD STREET) JUST ABOVE SNOW STREET, ABOUT 1869. DOME OF ROUND TOP CHURCH APPEARS BEYOND TREES AND HORSE CAR IS ON ITS WAY DOWNTOWN.
Courtesy, Town Criers of Rhode Island
VIEW DOWN PRESENT WEYBOSSET STREET, PHOTOGRAPHED SHORTLY AFTER THE ERECTION OF NARRAGANSETT HOTEL IN 1878.
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tury ago. It is evident, from this daily review, that the Mayor spent considerable time going about the city, inspecting property and institutions for which he was responsible to the citizens whom he had been elected to serve. The diary also discloses this interesting notation by "His Honor": "(Thursday August 27, 1840) James Barnes was before the city marshal from watch house taken up in Old- field's lumber yard, intoxicated - he says he belongs to Fall River - was reprimanded and dismissed. Attended to various and im- portant duties at the office during the day."
Under date of May 5, 1834, this entry is recorded by the mayor: "I was born on the fourth day of May 1774 and was there- fore sixty years old yesterday and the recur- rence of the anniversary suggested the fol- lowing impromptu
I'm three score years of age today, And have but few more years to stay -
May follies past be all forgiven, And sins erased from Book of Heaven."
The diary record under date of Au- gust 5, 1836, is probably the most inter- esting of all the documentary pieces which Samuel Willard Bridgham's proud de- cendants have preserved :
" Attended meeting of the Board of Alder- men in the morning and spent the rest of the day in the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the settlement of the City of Providence. May the principles, both civil and religious, inculcated by Roger Williams and preserved and maintained to this day, remain as long and continue as pure as the stream which flows from the refreshing and exhaustless spring at which he first perma- nently landed and which has ever since been called the "Roger Williams Spring."
THE STONINGTON ROAD
O' N an afternoon in November, 1937, the pleasant little Borough of Ston- ington, Connecticut, observed, with ap- propriate exercises, the one hundredth anniversary of an important event in the history of that community, - the opening, in 1837, of the Stonington and Providence Railroad, commonly referred to as the "Stonington Road." Of as great, if not greater, significance in Rhode Island his- tory than in Connecticut annals, all the celebrating seemed to have taken place at the western terminal of this pioneer American railroad, in spite of the fact that today, after a century of American railroad expansion, Providence is an im- portant terminal, while Stonington is now just a dot on a timetable map, with one train each way stopping there daily.
So, why did Stonington observe this anniversary that finds the village virtually ignored by the railroad line that once brought prominence and hope, and whose streamlined expresses and fast freights now speed by around the long curve that rims the northern end of the little village? Because, and the author knows whereof
he writes, the place of his birth, Ston- ington, genuinely patriotic, justifiably proud, and eternally hopeful, wanted as many as possible of the present genera- tion to know that, once upon a time, the village was important.
The folks of Stonington also live in the hopes that some day another great wind- fall, like the building of the railroad line to Providence, a century ago, will bring back the old-time prominence, and make the community something more than a beautiful, unspoiled, hospitable and homey New England community. Some who live there today naturally hope for greater industrial and commercial renown; many who once lived there, and many who go there for vacations or occasional visits, prefer that Stonington remain as it has been since the railroads found it advan- tageous to run their tracks all the way from Providence to New York, or since it was no longer convenient and profitable to take passengers by train from Provi- dence to Stonington, and from that an- cient seaport, by steamboat to New York City.
FIRST LOCOMOTIVE RUN FROM PROVIDENCE TO STONINGTON.
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What did the building of the long-ago absorbed Stonington line have to do with the history of transportation in Rhode Island?
Today, in the United States, there are approximately 250,000 miles of railroads; in 1830, there were 23 miles, and when the pioneer Stonington and Providence line was opened, there were only 2,000 miles in this entire country. The first railroad line in Rhode Island connected Provi- dence with Boston, for the construction, equipment, and operation of which a charter was secured in 1831. But the first trains that ran over those tracks were not drawn by steam locomotives. Then, it was a railroad turnpike, and every indi- vidual was expected to provide his own carriage and horsepower, and pay tolls for the privilege. However, steam for locomotive power rapidly became more practical at that time, and by 1834, en- gines drew cars from Boston to Canton, Massachusetts, connecting there with stage coaches - and in June of the fol- lowing year, 1835, locomotives ran the whole length of the road to its terminus, then at India Point in Providence, and the doom of the turnpike and stage coach was sounded in the shrill whistle of the smoke- belching locomotive.
A railroad from Boston to Providence seemed very necessary in those days, not principally for the want of better inter- communication facilities between the two important New England centers, but because an overland connection between Boston and the steamboat line out of Providence was wanted to avoid the slow and dangerous water route to New York around Cape Cod. That, of course, was long before the days of the Cape Cod Canal. And a similar desire to avoid hazardous water travel prompted the plan to build a railroad from Providence to Stonington, the latter being provided with an excellent deep water harbor, at the very entrance to the sheltered, calmer waters of Long Island Sound.
At least once, a century ago, a steam- boat out of Providence made the run to New York in the then remarkable time of fourteen hours and twenty-nine minutes, but Point Judith remained as much of a navigating problem as Cape Cod, and so,
even before the opening of the Boston and Providence road, and before anyone had any idea of using steam for locomotive power, sometime in 1832, the first charter was applied for, and five years later Prov- idence was united with Stonington by rail, and New York bound passengers could take the once popular, and roman- tically-named "Boat Train " for the thriv- ing, bustling Connecticut village, and there board a palatial side-wheeler and be lulled to sleep on the gentle, friendly waters leading to Hell Gate, and the won- ders of a great metropolis.
James A. McNeill Whistler, eminent American artist, famous for his "White Girl"-"Gold Girl," and portrait of Thomas Carlyle, but probably more fa- miliar to most people as the creator of the immortal portrait study "My Mother," spent some years of his early boyhood on quiet, elm-shaded Main Street in Stoning- ton, just a few doors down the street from where the Rhode Island Historian spent his happy childhood days in Stonington. Whistler's father, Major George Whistler, a prominent engineer of the times, a con- sulting expert for several canal, lock, and railroad companies, was assigned the responsibilities of building the proposed railroad from Stonington to Providence. It may be interesting to learn that James, who became the world famous artist, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1834, where his father was engineer of locks and canals, and that the Whistlers moved to Stonington in 1837, remaining there until 1840, when they moved to Springfield, . Massachusetts, where Major Whistler was engaged in building the Boston, Spring- field and Albany Railroad.
One more point about the Whistlers - in 1842, Czar Nicholas I of Russia sent commissioners through Europe and Amer- ica to find the best method and the best man for the construction of a railroad from St. Petersburgto Moscow. Major Whistler was chosen, which accounts for the fact that his selection of the route for the road to Providence remains unchanged today.
Leading from the harborside in Stoning- ton, the right of way extended easterly across the village past the old Congrega- tional Church, to the open country and Westerly. From there, it touched the
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points today known as Bradford, Shan- nock, and Kenyon, crossing the winding Pawcatuck River several times, and then plunged boldly through the great miry Kingston Swamp. The construction of the roadbed through the swamp and other low, wet areas that distinguish much of South County, was a triumph in engineer- ing skill in those days of hand shovel and wheelbarrow labor. The shining rails that sweep along the diagonal of Rhode Island today, resting securely on solid, firm ground, and crossing bridges whose foun- dations and abutments are still master- pieces of masonry, these steel arteries of modern transportation stand as a monu- ment to Major Whistler and his railroad- building associates.
There was no Union Station downtown in the early days of railroading. The trains from Boston discharged passengers and freight at the India Point terminal, just below present Washington Bridge on the Providence side. The bridge there then was called India Bridge, and the span at the present location of Red Bridge was called Central Bridge. The Providence terminal of the Stonington Road was on the west side of the harbor or Bay, op- posite India Point, and the original road to that terminal ran across or near present Roger Williams Park after coming through East Greenwich and Apponaug. Through traveling passengers were ferried across the harbor between the two terminals, and the original ferry boat was appropriately named the "Stonington."
The distance to Stonington, a little less than fifty miles, was covered by the first wood-burning engines in two hours and twenty minutes. Unbelievable speed to those who were brought up to think that express stage coaches with galloping steeds were the fastest moving vehicles on earth. And, the first cars, if they were anything like the few relics of that period that have been preserved by some railroad companies, offered little traveling con- veniences or comforts to all who dared to trust their lives behind the screeching, hissing, smoking, and flaming demons that awakend the whole countryside and sent . frightened horses and startled cattle scurrying for protection. The early rail- road cars were modeled after stage
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