USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. IV > Part 5
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During the first years, the voyages and excursions of the settlers were not ex- tended farther than between Towne Street and certain points around the headwaters of the Bay. And as the highways in those days were mere bridle paths through the woods, boats and canoes furnished the speediest forms of transportation. The crude craft belonging to the settlers lay along the beach in front of Towne Street; a man either fastened his canoe or his boat to stakes or iron rings or he beached it high and dry in front of his dwelling. Roger Williams is believed to have journeyed by water to his trading post later established near present Wickford,
for, on one of his business trips, his canoe was overturned, his goods lost and he narrowly escaped with his life. There was little need for wharves then, for Massa- chusetts merchants and occasionally Dutch traders were depended upon for the sources of all manufactured articles, and they had or could purchase but few of these.
Days were spent in the fields or in some activity that would improve living con- ditions. Perhaps, in the cool of the eve- ning, some of these pioneers would sit in front of their dwellings and smoke their pipes while they contemplated the results of their endeavors and mused upon what the future held in store. They may have visioned in their mind's eye the great thriving city that was destined to grow and expand upon the marshy lands on the opposite shore, but little did they realize that they were a vital part of an immortal experiment that was the direct forerunner of the establishment of the first true democracy. They were probably more concerned with the outcome of their next harvest, with the discouraging attitude of their bitter Massachusetts enemies, with the dangerous prospect of an Indian war or with the clouds of mosquitoes that arose from the marshes on the shoreline across the way, from the very area that is now the heart of downtown Provi- dence.
At any rate, these are just a few of the sidelights upon life and times immediately after the coming to these shores by Roger Williams. Such items as these rarely appear in the ordinary history books although a satisfactory comprehension of the evolution of a people is impossible unless some intimate details are included with the highlights, and most of the high- lights treat of political development.
THE GOOD EARTH
TN spite of its limited area, Rhode Island was originally an agricultural settle- ment, and that fact is indicated when we note that the official name includes the term "Plantations." The agricultural
stage of Rhode Island society extended from the original settlement in 1636 down to the close of the seventeenth century, and, during the following century, the soil provided the chief means of sustenance,
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and was the chief activity, although com- merce and manufacturing grew steadily, particularly in Providence and other coast towns.
Many of the first white people to come to these shores, the Pilgrims, were farmers, one reason why they did not remain in Holland where there were few opportunities to follow agriculture. When they arrived on these shores, they must have found their tasks in the fields most difficult since much of the land was heavily timbered, and the few tools they brought with them were crude and inade- quate for the rugged work of clearing and tilling. The Indian natives encountered by the pioneers had developed a primitive form of agriculture that answered their meagre needs, but the practise was con- sidered degrading by the men folks of the tribes and the task of tilling the soil, tending the crops and harvesting fell to the squaws and the children. It must have surprised the chiefs and braves to see the white men, claiming to be of a civilized race, shouldering the heavy tasks in the fields while the lighter work in the open was left to the women and to the children of the colonies.
In order to raise corn, the Indians in these parts first cleared the ground by bruising the trees near the ground and then burning the trunks and roots, thus killing them off and admitting enough air and sunshine to grow patchy crops of corn, beans, pumpkins, peas and sun- flowers. In the spring, the dead trees on the corn plots were cut or broken down and burned to furnish ashes for the soil. Indian style cultivation was largely a practise of scratching the ground with sticks or bones and making hills about four feet apart, and this was probably accomplished with wooden or stone hoes, or with clam shells. The corn was dropped into the hills and covered. It is recorded that the natives knew the value of fer- tilizer and that dead fish, especially crabs and other forms of shell-fish, were often used to stimulate the growth of their crops.
Not unlike modern procedure these corn hills were "hilled up," as the stalks lengthened, and the planting area re- quired constant observance because of the
ravages of birds and beasts, a considerably greater problem in those days when a corn field was not much more than a clearing in a dense forest infested with wild ani- mals and hungry birds.
At harvest time some of the green corn was roasted or boiled, and some of it was dried in the husks over fires or in the hot sun. Then the dried corn was husked, shelled, packed in birch bark boxes and deposited in earth holes lined with more bark for protection against freezing and moisture. Of course, some of the best ears were saved for seed. How did the Indians use this corn? Many local museums containing Indian relics include excellent specimens of stone mortars and pestles commonly used in this section of the country. The mortars are generally about the size of a common kitchen mixing bowl and the pestles average ten to fifteen inches in length. They were used exactly as the old-time drug store utensil of the same name and universally used when hard chemicals had to be reduced to powder by hand. The kernels of corn were broken up in these stone mortars and boiled, or pounded into meal and baked in hot ashes. Succotash was made of corn with some other ingredients such as pumpkins, berries, fish, or the flesh of deer, bear or raccoon.
Cornmeal mixed with maple sugar and seasoned with dried berries was baked and served as a special delicacy for tribal® gatherings and harvest feasts. The more one reads about such customs and in view of the fact that the Indians participated in the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth, the more it appears that the first Ameri- can day of Thanksgiving may have been suggested to the Pilgrims by the friendly tribesmen who taught the white new- comers how to wrest wholesome food from the rocky fields and from the rolling New England timberlands. At any rate, the settlers were dependent upon the in- digenous plants and animals for food and they were not slow to learn the Indian agricultural methods and to improve upon them.
As soon as the Rhode Island colonists began to reap reasonable returns from their farming, they attempted extensive cultivation of corn, pumpkins, squashes,
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beans and some imported grains. They were not completely successful in all en- deavours because of the climate and soil conditions, but, on the whole, agriculture progressed and soon became the most important phase of early Colonial life. Some tobacco was raised but none of this "vile" weed could be planted in the imme- diate vicinity of the meeting-houses. Horses, swine, cattle and goats roamed at will in the close-at-hand woodlands, and this custom gave rise to many heated dis- cussions, and was the cause of endless court litigation because of the damage caused by the roving herds. Further crop damage was caused by such pests as rabbits and squirrels, for which bounties were paid, and by wolves and panthers that lived in the woods in these parts only three centuries ago, making it necessary for Roger Williams and others to keep a large part of their sheep and swine herds down the bay on Prudence Island. Long before the Revolution, what is now Rhode Island was widely settled and many of the great problems of agriculture and cattle raising had been fairly well solved. An early writer said: "Rhode Island Colony in general is a country for pasture, not for grain; by extending along the shore of the ocean and a great bay, the air is softened by a sea vapour which fer- tilizeth the soil; their winters are shorter and softer than up island; (by the way, this was written in 1760) it is noted for dairies whence the best cheese made in any part of New England is called abroad Rhode Island Cheese.'"
The raising of neat cattle two hundred years ago in old South County naturally produced a surplus of milk, particularly during the summer months, and since the perishable nature of the product made shipment impossible under the conditions then prevailing, it was not long before the settlers began to convert some of this surplus milk into cheese. By the middle of the eighteenth century unbelievable quantities were made and exported, not only to the other American colonies, but to all parts of British America and to Europe .... It seems hardly possible that cheese-making on a large scale was a fact at such an early date, but by the middle of the following century it was cer-
tainly well established and cheese con- tinued to be the principal product of the Narragansett Country until after the Napoleonic Wars. Cheese continued to be pre-eminent until the price of butter increased, and it became more profitable to use the cream for the latter product ... Robert Hazard, of South County fame, had as many as twelve negro slave women, each with an assistant, in his extensive dairy and it was said that these women produced twelve to twenty-four cheeses a day. The cheese presses were of many sizes and types, some made one cheese at a time while others were of the multiple type, and were developed at a later date. Pressure was applied, in most cases, through a combination of pulleys and levers. A weight was attached to the end of the lever to give a constant pres- sure. One small table press, preserved today, was operated with wooden screws. The cheese was pressed over-night with moderate pressure, then it was turned over and pressed on the reverse side. It was removed from the hoop and thor- oughly coated with butter and salt and placed on a cheese ladder to ripen. The ripening took several months and during this period the cheese had to be turned over and buttered daily. Much of this product was made during July and August, but the daily turning and butter- ing continued until cold weather.
A chopping-bee, similar to a quilting bee, or a husking bee ("bee " signifying a sort of community cooperation), was a common method of clearing land among the pioneers. The "drive" which brought the day's work to a climax, consisted in felling a great tree on top of a large num- ber of smaller trees half cut through the trunks, thus breaking down a whole group of trees at once. This wholesale method of felling trees was dangerous, especially in windy weather, and accidents were common. A large part of the Colo- nial farmer's energy was spent in building rail fences and stonewalls when it was found more advantageous and economical to enclose horses, goats, cows and pigs on home property.
The women, like some of their descend- ants today, pickled, dried and preserved fruits in the Fall, and according to early
.
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Courtesy, Earl R. Davis
THE OLD MARKET HOUSE IN THE SIXTIES - ERECTION COMMENCED IN 1773. CITY BUSINESS ADMINISTERED HERE FOR MANY YEARS BEFORE OPENING OF PROVIDENCE CITY HALL IN 1878.
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accounts, the preserves put away for the winter were so rich and spicy that there was little need of sealing the jars and containers air-tight.
At the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury agriculture in Rhode Island was the mainstay of ninety percent of the inhabit- ants, although it was conducted in a very careless way. The implements were still clumsy, the livestock neglected, the fer- tilizers wasted, and rotation of crops was not practised. Under these conditions the land at length became exhausted or failed to respond to poor cultivation. One au- thority laid these conditions to deficiency in the quantity of labor necessary to pre- pare the ground for seed, insufficient
fertilizing, the want of good crop rotation and laxity in clearing the ground. The farming tools consisted of hoes, rakes, harrows, pitch-forks, shovels, plows, carts and lumber wagons.
That in general is a brief picture of an early activity that flourished as long as it was the chief means of sustaining life and earning a small profit. Agriculture rapidly ceased to be an important phase of gaining a livelihood when migration to the more fertile mid-western areas began, when young men looked to the sea for more profitable and more adventurous occupa- tion, and when this particular area rose in importance as a manufacturing and commercial center.
THE FAMILY TABLE
B EFORE the coming of the first white settlers to what is now Providence, the natives who resided there depended al- most entirely for their sustenance upon the visible bounties of nature, upon all things edible which were near at hand, easy to get and simple to serve in primi- tive fashion. The local Indians did prac- tise a simple form of agriculture, which amounted to not much more than planting kernels of corn in holes and hilling up with stone implements, but the Narragansetts, Wampanoags and Sagonates and other Southern New England tribes principally ate what could be killed with arrows and clubs in the forest, what could be dug from the soft mud and sandy shores near- by, what could be speared or clubbed in shallow inland waters, and what grew in season on trees, bushes and vines. It was truly self-service around here in Indian days, except that those who wanted to eat, had to work for it, and harder than we have been accustomed.
One of the first things we know about Roger Williams after he paddled his canoe across the Seekonk River and around Fox Point to land on a sandy beach near what is now the west side of North Main Street, Providence, is that he was welcomed by the Indians and invited to partake of a meal consisting
of boiled fish and succotash. The fish may have been mackerel, herring or even scup, but, no matter, boiled fish of some kind thus became the number one item on the all-time Rhode Island menu, along with the succotash, which was undoubt- edly a cooked mixture of corn and some type of pod bean. From that great mo- ment in history, the fare of white men expanded in variety, as the size of the settlements grew, as firearms and farming implements became more plentiful and as those who had previously lived in Eng- land and later in Massachusetts and elsewhere on this side, discovered the sources of fish, flesh, fowl, fruits, berries and herbs, close-at-hand in their new- found home. These they secured from forest, field and from the waters of rivers and bays, and prepared for eating accord- ing to the customs and manners of their mother country. And, later, when "These Plantations" developed into actual prod- uce-raising farms, and beef, cattle and swine were imported from England, the founding fathers and their families had as much to eat as we have had. The only difference lies in the relationship of Rhode Islanders to their food supplies, then and now. For a long, long time after Roger Williams had his reception and meal on the shores of the headwaters
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of Narragansett Bay, in 1636, practically everyone living here actually worked at the business of procuring food. Most of the colonists were engaged in agriculture all year round and they shared in the eat- ing of what they raised. What was raised and could not be eaten by themselves was sold to others within and without the colonies, and, so, some folks began to make money as well as keep their stom- achs full. And, then, as Rhode Island evolved into a ship-building and export- ing colony, and later into a manufacturing state, less and less of its population actually put its hands into the dirt to bring forth things to eat. And this has gone on steadily in one direction until the hurried return to the soil during World War II.
For a long, long time Rhode Islanders were close to other sources of food sup- plies besides plowed fields, grazing pas- tures and fruit orchards. On the tables of the pioneers could be found bear meat, venison stew, and coon pie, all products of the long blunderbuss suspended, when not working, on the mantel over the fire- place. The ale-wives, cod and mackerel in the salt barrel were products of the homespun seine hanging to dry over the wall out back and the hand-made hook and trusted flax handline kept in a con- venient place for the after-supper sail down the Bay. Butter came into being with a little patience and a strong right arm, and cheese, likewise, evolved out of good luck with the cows and hard work in the buttery. As to flour for bread, biscuits and flap-jacks, there was the town miller a mile or two up the road, but the heavy sacks had to be hauled to the side of the great revolving stones, hauled back again and carefully stored to keep away moisture and mice. Stuffed par- tridge, baked duck or roasted pheasant were not supplied by any fancy meat market, but found their way to the table by way of long hours in tangled under- brush, and by way of a dependable gun and a keen eye. Anything in the way of variety, especially in the line of meat and fish, came from someone's ingenuity, patience and time.
Very nearly gone are our abilities to procure what we eat, and gone too are
many of the things once relished by our ancestors. In our times, especially for Sunday dinners, anything outside of beef, lamb, pork or chicken, and turkey occa- sionally, has come to be a novelty, a breaking of the tradition, looked upon by the eaters with disappointment if not misgivings. But, from the private collec- tion of Mr. Albert E. Lownes, of Provi- dence, widely regarded as an authority in most things of New England antiquity, and from other reliable sources as well, have been discovered some very tempting dishes, common hereabouts a long time ago, and these are passed on to present and future generations of perplexed house- wives who will, no doubt, be pleased to know what the "Fanny Farmers" of the 17th and 18th centuries recommended for good eating.
Have you ever tried pickled mush- rooms? All you do is "put the mushrooms into spring water, rub them with a flannel, then take them out of the water and put in a pan with a little salt. Boil them in their own liquor over a fire half a quarter of an hour - then drain them and put in a cloth to dry - take a quart of white wine vinegar and a quart of white wine - boil it and let stand to be cold. Put your mushrooms in a bottle. Just cover them and put in a good deal of spiced nutmegs - tie them down very close - they will keep a year."
Do you know how to make a white soup from a knuckle of veal; how to ragout a buttock of beef, souse a pike, fricassee a hare; how to make cowslip wine; how to prepare potted fish; and would you know how to go about mixing up a Hunter's pudding? It's hard to believe, but, there was a time when folks who once lived right here would take, no more, no less than "a cow's udder and first boil it well; then stick it thick all over with cloves; then when it is cold, spit it, and lay it on the fire, and apply it well with basting of sweet butter, and when it is sufficiently roasted and brown, then dredge, and draw it from the fire, take vinegar and butter, and put it on a chafing dish and coals, and boil it with white bread crumbs, till it be thick; then put to it good store of sugar and cinnamon, and putting it into a clean dish, lay the cows udder therein, and
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trim the sides of the dish with sugar, and so serve it up."
That may have looked tempting when served in all its glory, with the sides of the dish well trimmed with sugar, but those who annually study the enticing pictures in the seed catalogs may find more help with their home garden plans in a listing of the very vegetables that were being successfully grown right here not so many years after the settlement of Providence. For a long, long time in Rhode Island, people lived well, ate well, fought hard battles, gained precious victories, estab-
lished a good way of life and gave us all we have. In their wide fields and on the sunny hillsides, in the rich, fertile, God- given soil, upon which we are now privi- leged to walk, they raised and ate cabbages, lettuce, sorrel, parsley, chervel, winter and summer savory, thyme, sage, carrots, parsnips, beets, radishes, turnips, wheat, rye, barley, oats, peas of all sorts, garden beans and corn. With very few exceptions all that Nature generously provided the first settlers for sustenance, is still here somewhere if we will but take it.
"A LITTLE KEY "
T THE Rhode Island Historian is often asked: "What are the meanings of Indian words such as Narragansett, Co- cumcussoc, Seekonk?" or, "How do you translate Kickamuit and Pettaquams- cutt?" Answers to such and similar ques- tions would not be complete unless some explanation of the Indian language in these parts were given along with the requested English translations. There- fore, in order to answer all common que- ries of this nature, the following account treats of the local Indian language in gen- eral, although it would be correct to refer to this subject as the "Indian tongue," inasmuch as the natives who resided in New England conversed and used some form of sign communication with each other, but did not practise any form of writing.
Thirteen years after he came to America, and seven years after he founded the settlement of Providence, Roger Williams, in 1643, returned to England for the pur- pose of securing a charter of government for his colony. On board a Dutch ship that carried him across the Atlantic, Wil- liams composed, or compiled, the manu- script for a publication containing much that is known up to the present about the language spoken by the Narragansett, Wampanoag, Pequot, Nipmuc, Penobscot and other New England tribes. The full title of this publication is a lengthy one, but it should be quoted: "A Key into the
Language of America or An help to the Lan- guage of the Natives in that part of America called New England. Together with briefe observations of the customes, Manners, Worships etc., of the aforesaid Natives, in. Peace and Warre, in Life and Death. On all which are added Spirituall Observations, Generall and Particular by the Authour, of chief and special use (upon all occasions,) to all the English Inhabiting those parts; yet pleasant and profitable to the view of all men "!
The author dedicated his book, or "Key," to "My deare and Welbeloved friends and Countrey-men, in Old and New England," and he referred to this literary effort as a vocabulary and phrase- book, and not in any sense, a grammar. It was intended for use as a quick reference for persons desiring to converse with the natives and reminds one of those "Easy- to-Speak-in-French" handbooks for tour- ists, containing phrases such as "Have you seen the gentleman's umbrella?", "The walking stick of the man is lost," printed side by side in English and French. Additional information concern- ing the native tongue also comes from the literary labors of John Eliot, sometimes called "The Apostle to the Indians," who was born in England in 1604, and edu- cated at Jesus College, Cambridge. Eliot came to America in 1631, and shortly thereafter became pastor of the church in Roxbury, where he remained until his
A KEY into the LANGUAGE OF AMERICA: OR, An help to the Language of the Natives in that part of AMERICA, called NEW ENGLAND.
Together, with briefe Observations of the Cu- ftomes, Manners and Worfhips, &c. of the aforefaid Natives, in Peace and Warre, in Life and Death.
On all which are added Spirituall Observations, Generall and Particular by the Anthour, of chiefe and fpeciall ufe (upon all occafions, )to all the Englijb Inhabiting thole parts ; yer pleafant and profitable to che view of all men :
BY ROGER WILLIAMS of Providence in New England.
LONDON, Printed by Gregory Dexter, 1643
TITLE-PAGE TO ROGER WILLIAMS' "KEY TO THE INDIAN LANGUAGE."
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death, in 1690. From the first he was deeply interested in missionary work among the Indians. He learned to speak their language, often preaching to them, using their words, and he performed an amazing work in the way of translation, including the complete Bible. A society was formed in England to support mis- sionary efforts among the New England natives, and at the expense of this organ- ization, Eliot's translation of the Scrip- tures was printed at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, in 1663, becoming the first Bible published in America. An essay by John Eliot entitled "The Indian Grammar Begun " is just what the title implies "an elementary grammar intended," as he said, "to bring the Indian language into rules, for the help of such as desire to learn the same, for the furtherance of the Gospel among them."
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