USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Westerly > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 15
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Charlestown > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 15
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Hopkinton > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 15
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Richmond > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 15
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"Jun. 24, 1697-8. - The Sound was frozen to Fishers Island.
" Mar. 24, 1701-2. - Six Indians were drowned at Pawcatuk.
"July 4, 1702. - A great storm of thunder and hail that was not melted in three days, and killed much corn and other grain and some cattel and fouls," etc.
" July 19, 1702. - The privattears went from Roadisland.
" Sept. 25, 1702. - The privateers came home with their prizes.
" June 2, 1706. - French took a sloop.
"3. The town in arms.
"4. Capt. Wanton took the sloops both again.
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".Jan. 23, 1707-S. - Wolf hunting day.
"June 18, 1708. - The French at Block Island.
" May 16, 1700. - Soldiers presed for Canadee."
The war of England, with the French, Indians, and Spaniards, known as " Queen Anne's War," began May 4, 1702, and continued till March 31, 1713. It pressed with great weight upon New Eng- land. The expedition against Port Royal, in Nova Scotia, was fitted out in the spring of 1707, and sailed from Nantucket in twenty-three transports, under convoy of a man-of-war and a galley.
How the site of the present village of Westerly and the ford of the river appeared at the opening of the eighteenth century, will be sufficiently evident from an extract taken from the private journal kept by Madame Knight, on a journey from Boston to New York. She traveled " on horseback under direction of a hired guide, with frequent risks of life and limb, and sometimes without food or shel- ter for many miles." We read : -
" 1704, Wed., Oct. 4. - About one p. M. came to Paukataug River, which was about two hundred paces over, and now very high, and no way over to t'other side but this. I dared not venture to ride thro; my courage at best in such cases but small, and now at the lowest ebb by means of my weary - very weary, hungry and uneasy circumstances.
"Stopt at a little cottage just by the river to wait the waters falling, which the old man that lived there said would be in a little time, and he would conduct me safe over. This little hut was one of the wretchedest I ever saw a habitation for human creatures. It was supported with shores enclosed with clapboards laid on lengthwise, and so much asunder that the light came through everywhere: the doore tyed on with a cord in ye place of liinges; the floor the bear earth; no windows but such as the thin cover- ing afforded; nor any furniture but a bed, with a glass bottle hanging at ye head on't; an earthern cup; a small pewter basin; a box with sticks to stand on instead of a table; and a block or two in ye corner instead of chairs. The family were the old man, his wife, and two children; - all and every part being the picture of poverty. Notwithstanding. both the hutt and its in- habitants were very clean and tydee, - to the crossing the old proverb, that 'bare walls make giddy hous-wifes.' An Indian like animal came to the door on a creature very much like himselfe in mien and feature, as well as ragged cloathing.
"But hee being, as I understood, going over the river, as ugly as hee was, I was glad to ask him to show me the way to Saxton's at Stoningtown, which he promising, I ventured over, with the old man's assistance, who having rewarded to content, with iny tatter-tailed guide I ridd on very steady thro Stoningtown, where the rode was very stony and uneven. I asked the fellow, as we went, divers questions of the place and way," etc.
The first bridge across the Pawcatuck at the old ford, called the Indian trail, at the head of tide-water, was built near 1712, by con- tribution. From this we discover how little public travel had been previously known in this region. Finally the New England mail route, conducted in the saddle, was laid along the coast, and con- nected New London with Newport. The next bridge was erected
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in 1735; the east half at the cost of Rhode Island, the west half at the expense of Stonington. The commissioners appointed by this colony were Col. Joseph Stanton and Capt. Oliver Babcock, the same that laid out, in the same year, a portion of Ninigret's land for the use of a church.
Early in this century the wild beasts began to retire from the cabins of the settlers. English muskets were more exterminating than Indian arrows. Some of the carnivora, however, lingered in the swamps, ledges, and thick woods. Bear Hill, - the highest bluff near Watch Hill, -then covered with heavy oaks, was the scene of an encounter, in which a bear rushed upon his assailant, one of the townsmen, and was shot at the distance of but ten feet. The rock crowning the hill was the hunter's shield.
There survives only the briefest mention of "the great earth- quake, the night after the Lord's Day, Oct. 29th, 1727, when the Almighty arose, and so terribly shook the earth through this great continent."
Under date of Sept. 26, 1748, in the case of a person, styled " a transient " man, who had disregarded the public warning to leave the town, it was, " Voted, That the officer shall take the sd (person) forthwith to some publick place in this town and strip him from the waist upward & whip him twenty strypes well laid on his naked back, and then by sd officer transported out of this town," etc.
Mention should be made of the famous " hard winter " of 1740-1. Dr. McSparran remarks, " The elements have been armed with pier- cing cold and suffocating snows"; " the grazier groaned to see the severity of the season, to hear his herds and his flocks making moan for their meat, and, after a few fruitless complaints uttered in ac- cents peculiar to their kind, drop down and die." It has been stated that during this winter "a man drove a horse and sleigh on the ice from Hurlgate, near New York, to Cape Cod." It is certain that persons " passed and repassed from Providence to Newport on the ice," and from the main shore of Connecticut to Montauk Point. The snows were many and heavy. One annalist says the " three days of snow, Jan. 28, 20, and 30, fell full three feet deep, in addi- tion to what lay on the ground before. The tops of the stone-walls and other fences were covered. The prevailing winds were from the north, northwest, and west. . . There were more than thirty snow-storms, besides small flights not worth men- tioning. . There was a great loss of both cattle and sheep.
. The snow in the woods, where it had fallen on a level, was supposed to be three feet deep on the tenth of March." Some of it " continued to lay in drifts by the fences till the fifteenth of April."
It was peculiarly destructive to the game of the country : " Squirrels and birds were found frozen to death ; the deer
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were found dead near the springs ;" some "came to the plantations and fed on hay with the other creatures."
The proclamation of war between England and Spain summoned troops from the New England colonies in 1740. This stimulated the enlistment of soldiers and the launching of privateers. France `united her arms with Spain against England in 1744. An expedi- tion was fitted in the colonies in 1745 to attack Cape Breton. On the 13th of April, troops, enlisted on this part of the coast, left New London for the seat of action. The capture of Louisburg was an- nounced here early in July following. The war closed in 1748.
What is commonly known as the " French and Indian War" was declared May 18, 1756, and continued till 1763.
Of slaves in Westerly we find but little mention in the town records. In the inventory of the estate of Capt. Isaac Thompson, in 1738, two are named with their values annexed.
" Moses Humphrey
£15-0-0 13-5-0." ·
In the inventory of Gov. Samuel Ward, rendered in May, 1776, w efind -.-
"1 Negro Woman named Peggy £12-0-0 1 Negro Boy, James by name 12-0-0."
The bridge at the Neck (now Boom Bridge) was first erected in 1766 ; one half by Westerly, and one half by Stonington.
" Apr. 20, 1774. - Voted, That Oliver Crary be paid out of the town treasury thirteen Shillings lawful money for his making a pair of stocks (by order of the town) and setting them up near Pawcatuck Bridge."
It is due to the character of Rhode Island to mention the fact, that slavery " was never countenanced by the Legislature or by pub- lic opinion in the State," but was introduced and sustained wholly by the force of English law and the customs of the other colonies. " All children of slaves who were born after March 1, 1784, were by law declared to be free." " In 1780, the number of slaves in the State, between ten and fifty, was estimated to be 518"; the census of 1830 mentions only 17. During the Revolution, "slaves were allowed to enlist into the army, and were declared free upon enlist- ing." " In June, 1774, an Act was passed prohibiting the importa- tion of negroes into this colony." "In October, 1787, an Act was passed ' to prevent the slave trade, and to encourage the abolition of slavery.'"
In the file of almanacs kept in the Potter family, in Hopkinton, containing, after a custom of the good fathers, brief jottings of im- portant events, supplying a record for reference, we read, under date of " May ye 19, 1780. - Dark and yellow day." This was the
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famous " dark day," that gave its marvelous shading to the stories of the past generation, and imparted to easy, credulous minds the very color of doom.
In the same file we read, " April ye 9, 1785. - Snow 4 feet 73 inches deep. . May 29, 1790. - Constitution adopted by Rhode Island. Aug. 12 & 13, 1795. - Heavy rain, which carried away bridges and dams."
The town retained its heavy forests throughout the last century. They were gradually consumed by the immense chimneys of the planters and the axes of ship-builders. Many of the primitive trees were overturned by gales; the last of them on the coast fell before the hurricane in September, 1815. Providence purposely concealed the boundless coal-beds in our country till the old forests had been subdued by the ax and plow, till the sun had been let in upon the soil, highways had been opened, rivers had been bridged, and machines, especially the steam-engine, had been invented.
. In earlier times the estates of the planters were very large. " The great estate of the Champlins," inherited from Christopher Champlin, "contained 2,000 acres." This land is now in Charles- town. "Hezekiah Babcock, of Hopkinton, improved 800 acres. James Babcock, of Westerly, owned 2,000 acres, with slaves, horses, and stock in proportion. Col. Joseph Noyes had 400 acres ; kept 22 horses and 25 cows. His son afterwards kept 52 cows on the same farm."
.Stanton was a large land-owner, and held title to his land through his ancestors from the Indians. The expression used was, that "he owned a lordship in Charlestown." He lived on the farm at the Cove, owned by the late John Foster. His influence in the town was commanding, and he often represented it in the colonial Legis- lature. When the Federal Government was formed, he was elected one of the first senators in Congress. They were elected, one for six years, and the other for three years, and drew for terms. Stan- ton drew the short term. In consequence of opposing some meas- ure of Washington's administration, he became unpopular, and was not re-elected to the Senate, but was afterwards elected to the House of Representatives. Well educated, of fine person and distinguished manners, he seems to have been a man of note and influence in the State. But " the web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together." In the later years of his life, his wealth was dissipated, and his faculties lost their original vigor. It is thought he was buried in a burying-ground now at the west end of the lane on the Governor Wilcox farm, which farm is now owned and occupied by Asa T. Hoxie.
Col. Joseph Stanton " owned one tract of four and a half miles long and two miles wide ; he kept forty horses, as many slaves, and made a great dairy, besides other productions. After his death, his son Lodowick kept thirty cows on one hundred and fifty acres of it."
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In 1782, the ratable property of the town was only $97,000.
Moral science was so imperfectly understood at this period, that it was not uncommon for even the best of men to consent to seduce men into the paths of benevolence and public benefactions by an appeal to their covetousness. They stimulated cupidity to produce charity. We copy from the records of the General Assembly in May, 178) :-
"Whereas, divers inhabitants, of the town of Hopkinton, preferred a petition and represented unto this Assembly, that in the place in said town called Hopkinton City, and within about a mile thereof, there is a consider- able number of inhabitants, calling themselves Protestant Baptists; that there is no Baptist meeting-house nearer than about five miles; that the said inhabitants are generally poor, and unable to build a meeting-house without assistance; and that by reason thereof the public worship of the Supreme Being is in a great measure neglected; and thereupon they prayed this Assembly to grant them a lottery, to raise the sum of four hundred pounds real money, or produce equivalent, for the express purpose of build- ing a meeting-house, under the direction of Messrs. George Thurston, Thomas Wells, and Henry Clarke. That the said directors be also a com- mittee to complete the said building; and that they have the care thereof when built. And whereas they further prayed this Assembly to order and enact that the said meeting-house shall belong to the said inhabitants and their successors, in the following manner, that is to say, - the people called Sabbatarians or Seventh Day Baptists shall have a right to improve the said- meeting-house every other, or one half of the Sabbaths, or seventh days; and those other people called Separates or New Light Baptists, that observe the seventh day as a Sabbath, have a right to the other half of the Sabbaths or Seventh days; and that those called First Day Baptists have a right to the said meeting-house all the Sundays, or so often as they have need, or a preacher, on the first day of the week." etc.
The petition was granted. A rude house was erected. In 1805 a second lottery was obtained for its benefit. It finally fell into the hands of the Sabbatarians. It is only strange that it was not fore- seen that such a compound enterprise would inevitably fail. All images of iron, gold, and clay are doomed to perish.
In every generation society will have its annoyances and blem- ishes. As an ignoble few would sometimes disturb the devotions of the upright, the General Assembly, in 1792, passed an " Act to pre- vent horse racing and the selling of spirituous liquors near the Seventh Day Baptist meeting-house in Hopkinton."
For amusements and sports, a portion of the people would always seek occasions. Muster or "training " days were ever famous ; all business was usually suspended to join the muster or to witness it ; old war stories, freshly colored, were repeated, and eulogies were pronounced upon the brave ; cider, rum, and punch lent spirit to the scenes ; fresh wounds were sometimes won upon the field or at the tavern.
Weddings were the grand exhibitions of fashion and occasions for the display of rank; to have a great wedding was to win a name
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in society. A story is told of one George Babcock, who was as shrewd as he was eccentric. Wishing to enforce the idea of family concord among the people, he at a certain time threw a rope over his house, and stationing his wife on the side opposite to himself, called to her, " Pull, Betty, pull!" Both pulled, but nothing was gained. He then asked Betty to join him at his end of the rope, remarking, "See now, my dear, how easily two can accomplish, when united, what is impossible to them when divided." The story has been a legacy of good to the town.
THE REDEMPTIONER.
Both before and after the Revolution, the poorer class of emi grants, in the lack of ready money, secured a passage to this country through shipping companies specially organized for that purpose, by signing a negotiable obligation for the amount of their passage ticket, whereby they were " bound to service for a term of years," - more or less, according as the persons were single or had families. This class of persons was included in the famous rendition clause of the Constitution of the United States, Art. IV, Sect. 11, 3. They were familiarly known as " Redemptioners."
One of these was " held to service " by a planter in Westerly who had duly bought his paper. After serving very cheerfully and hap- pily in his new relation for a season, he took occasion to express to his master or employer his entire satisfaction with his situation, and seriously averred that he wished his written obligation extended through his life. He was disquieted and depressed with the idea that he should finally, on the expiration of his service, be obliged to plan and toil for himself in a land of strangers. The farm to him was an Eden, and his employer was a father. He therefore pro- posed to have his obligation made perpetual in a new writing.
The appropriate paper for his life service, at his request, was duly prepared and presented for his signature. On taking the pen to sign the instrument, he hesitated, saying that he did not under- stand how the obligations of the old and new papers harmonized, as the time in the new in part overlapped the time in the old. . Expla- nations were in vain. Finally the master proposed to destroy the old paper and thus clear the way. This was satisfactory. The old instrument was thrown under the forestick. The redemptioner again took his pen, but again hesitated. He seemed to be in a brown study. The employer inquired for the reason of his embarrassment. Was the paper satisfactory ? Was it not just what he himself had pro- posed and dictated? It was allowed that the instrument was ex- actly what he had desired. "But," said the redemptioner, "I was thinking of some advice that my father once gave me. He gave me good counsel, and I only wish I had followed it more closely. He once said to me, 'My son, never sign your name to a paper of
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any kind.' As I have signed one paper, but have just got rid of it, I think I shall not sign another. So, sir, I kindly bid you a good-by." The redemptioner walked away a free man, and left the employer counting up his wits.
THE PRIVATEERSMAN.
A story, not without its good lesson relative to the comparative standard of wealth, is preserved in regard to a citizen of Westerly during the early wars of the country. His name was Harry B. Prompted by patriotism and other passions, he enlisted in the perilous, severe, and uncertain business of privateering, in which visions of gold usually burnish human courage. His cruise was long and checkered. On returning to his home, where he was thankfully greeted by kin and anxious friends, his mother, with suitable ma- ternal solicitude, inquired, -
" Well, Harry, how have you made out? Did you get much money?"
"O, yes, mother; good luck. I am rich. I shall have enough, with prudence in the care of it, to carry me through life, I hope."
" I am glad, my son ; but how much did you get ?"
"Well, I don't know exactly ; but I think, when we settle up, I shall have as much as thirty dollars."
Burden Pond is so called from Abraham Burden, Esq., for we find he was a justice of the peace in 1767, who purchased one half of the pond upon the condition that he should drain it, and keep it in a state for cultivation. His house stood on the north side of the pond, between the present track of the railroad and the new car- riage road; the old cellar being still apparent. He drained most of the pond, and planted the land with corn and potatoes, and intended, says tradition, to plant rice. The ditch that divided the pond bed may still be traced. The raising of the Potter Hill dam destroyed Mr. Burden's crops and drowned his hopes; hence his title reverted to the estate of Mr. Samuel Chapman, with whom he negotiated.
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In the pleasant, though laborious, work of tracing out the history of the town, forming an acquaintance with the generations that pre- ceded us and laid the foundations whereon we are building, we have met with numerous incidents of touching interest. Some of these are so brief in themselves, and emanated from such humble personages, as hardly to command a conspicuous mention in a work that precludes a record of all the minute circumstances of the past. An incident of this kind, pleasing in itself, and containing a phase of past life in the town, is presented below in a form perhaps best suited to its nature. It relates to an esteemed member of the IIill Church, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, -a stalwart and noble slave belonging to one of the prominent families in the
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south part of the town. The story of this good black man has tempted the author's pen into the province of easy rhyme, as fol- lows : -
ORSON.
The deathless love of liberty, As panoplied of God, Has worn its angel livery, Wherever man has trod ; Has borne itself with bravery, Defying rack and maec, And mid the woes of slavery, Revealed its regal faee.
A man, from Afrie's palmy plains To chill New England's shore Reluctant brought, enwrapped in chains, His heavy burdens bore ; Whose stalwart limbs and open brow Gave proof of princely blood, -
A nature that could illy bow Beneath the pressing load.
The hills and plains whereon he toiled O'erlooked the rolling sea, That, like his soul, from bonds recoiled, And throbbed for liberty ; With tenderest remembranees, He gazed far o'er the deep, And breathed his patriot elegies, As stricken exiles weep.
Oft, bending o'er the plow and spade, Unbidden tears would rise, To share again the cocoa's shade, 'Neath Afric's sunny skies. The frosty wind and changing eloud, And life of toil and smart,
Were round him as a galling shroud, That pierced both flesh and heart.
By Christian law, no wife had he ; No cabin conld he clann ; The children dandled on his knee Grew not to bear his name : All counted with his master's fold, As items in the list, To toil, or be to strangers sold, Until by death dismissed.
He faithfully served an honored man, A leader in the state, Who nobly stood in freedom's van, Among the good and great. The snows and suns of ninety years Had blanched and thinned his locks, Yet hope, at heart, mid smiles and tears, Had met the heavy shocks.
He saw the flag of freedom raised By ranks of yeomen brave, Who loud the rights of all men praised, But then forgot the slave. The glint of sword, the cannon's peal, The tramp of bannered host, Swept through the land, as ocean gale Sweeps billows o'er a coast.
He heard the shouts of freedom's clan, Saw freedom's pledge displayed, And, sighing for the rank of man, Thus eloquently prayed :
"Good master, when I'm ninety-nine, May I be counted free ?
Pray let my hundredth year be mine, To taste of liberty.
" My fathers, in their native land. Were all as free as yours ; No mark of crime is on iny hand. No league with evil-doers. How ean the color of iny skin The deathless spirit stain, And so degrade myself and kin To wear an endless chain ?
"You give your sons to freedom's shrine ; Yourself hath led the way ;
The love of freedom is divine, And God ordains its sway. My hands are worn, my head is white, From service long and true : Pray let me now share freedom's light, And die as glad as you."
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The master heard the argument, And felt compassion rise ; And, as his bosom gave consent. Thus spake with moistened eyes : "Thy manly prayer may not be spurned ; As asked, so let it be ; More than thy freedom hast thou earned, And Heaven approves thee free."
The boon the aged slave received With tears of ecstacy, And felt life's losses nigh retrieved. To boast his liberty. His heart and lips, in thankful strains, Were open to his God, That from his limbs were struck the chains That bound him as a clod.
He lived and served, the free among, Beyond his hundredth year, And all his days were filled with song, And lit by Christian cheer. From door to door, with heart upborne, He passed to sing and pray, And neighbors filled his serip and horn, And blessed him on his way.
Rehearsing Seripture he had heard, With stories of the past, He charmed the people by his word, Where'er his lot was cast. At length he bowed his head in death, As bows an aged oak, When autumn's chilly, rising breath, Brings on the final stroke.
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His manly form was tearful laid In freedom's guarded ground, Where due respect should e'er be paid To Orson's humble mound ;
And all may hear this voice confessed, From Orson's lowly grave, That man, however long oppressed, Would never die a slave.
Tradition says of Orson, that he walked to Lyme, and returned on the same day; and on the day following, pulled, bound, and shocked an acre of stout flax.
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