Rhode Island HistoryRhode Island HistoryThere has long been a mutually beneficial, and often colorful, association between the United States Navy and Rhode Island. This association goes back several hundred years, most notably on Aquidneck Island and with the city of Newport. Rhode Islanders in general, and Newporters in particular, have always been famous for wanting to go their own way. This was true in both matters of commerce as well as nation-building, as the early history of this free and autonomous colony would attest.
Roger Williams founded the first permanent white settlement in Rhode Island at Providence in 1636 on land purchased from the Narragansett Indians. Forced to flee Massachusetts because of persecution, Williams established a policy of religious and political freedom in his new settlement. Other leaders advocating freedom of worship soon established similar communities on either side of Narragansett Bay. These communities united, and in 1663 King Charles II of England granted them a royal charter, providing for a greater degree of self-government than any other colony in the New World and authorizing the continuation of freedom of religion.
The early 1700s was a period of prosperity for Rhode Island. Farming and sea trading became profitable businesses. Providence and Newport were among the busiest ports in the New World. Despite making profits from the slave trade, Rhode Island was the first colony to prohibit the importation of slaves.
It's what drove Roger Williams.
The two Narragansett Indian Sachems that deeded the land for Roger Williams' colony were Canonicus and Miantonomi. No money (or equivalent) for the Providence land was exchanged - the land deed for the Providence colony was essentially a grant from the two Sachems to Roger Williams. to come to Rhode Island in 1636, to get away from the repression of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Shortly thereafter William Coddington, Just as an historical aside, Anne Hutchinson, like Roger Williams, was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony because of her religious beliefs. Her sect was labeled "Antinomian", a word that meant against the law. This derisive name resulted from Hutchinson's belief that salvation came through faith, rather that through observance of church rules or civil law. In 1642, Anne's husband (William) died, and she moved her household to Westchester County in New York. She, and several members of her household, was massacred by Indians the following year. She has been labeled by some as "The American Jezebel" along with Anne and William Hutchinson, sailed down the bay and landed on the north end of Acquidneck Island. This area was called Pocasett by the Indians, but the settlers decided to call it Portsmouth. There was a price for Aquidneck Island. It was purchased from the Narragansett Indians for 23 broadcloth coats and thirteen hoes. Within a year, however, Coddington had had enough of the Hutchinsons, and moved to the southern tip of Aquidneck Island to get away from them. At the start of the Revolutionary War, Rhode Islanders were among the first colonists to take action against British rule by attacking British vessels. On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island was the first colony to renounce allegiance to Great Britain and declare independence. Although no major battles took place in the state, Rhode Island regiments participated in every major campaign of the war. Rhode Islanders such as General Nathanael Greene, second-in-command to General George Washington, and Commodore Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy, distinguished themselves as military leaders and heroes. The first Black regiment to fight for America made a gallant stand against the British in the Battle of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island's independent spirit was still in evidence at the close of the Revolutionary War. It was the last of the 13 original colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution, demanding that the Bill of Rights, which guarantees individual liberties, be added.
Following the Revolution, industrial growth began in Rhode Island. In 1793, Samuel Slater's mill in Pawtucket became America's first successful water-powered cotton mill. From this success, the Industrial Revolution in America began. In addition, the founding of the American jewelry industry by Nehemiah and Seril Dodge helped make Providence one of the chief industrial cities of New England by 1824. Jabez Gorham, jeweler and silversmith, was the forerunner of the world renowned Gorham Manufacturing Company.
As industrialization increased, Rhode Island's cities expanded with immigration. New citizens looking for job opportunities came from a score of countries, mainly Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, and French Canada. Over the years, as these workers became assimilated into Rhode Island's industrial structure, a tradition of manufacturing skill and excellence developed that is still an important asset for the state's economy.
It has been this Rhode Island trait of wanting to keep one's distance from authority that has driven many of the events that mark this State's maritime history. Ever since the Italian navigator Giovanni Verrazzano.
Verrazzano described Block Island as: "discovered an island in the form of a triangle, distant from the mainland ten leagues, about the bigness of the Island of Rhodes." He originally named the island Luisa, then the Queen Mother of France. In 1528 Verrazzano was killed by cannibals in the Caribbean. In 1614, the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block landed on Verrazzano's island of Luisa and, in a fit of modesty, renamed the island after himself. Roger William's people then later thought Verrazzano's reference to an island the size of Rhodes meant Aquidneck (they missed the part about it being ten leagues distant) - hence the mixup) first sailed into Narragansett Bay in 1524, Rhode Island has always been associated with access to and from the sea.
Even the name "Rhode Island", which at first referred to Block Island but later was mistakenly transferred to what we now call Aquidneck, denotes some separation from the rest of the country. But it was this easy access from the sea that also gave the early Newporters so much cause for worry. Residents standing on the hillside by the old stone tower, what we now call Touro Park, looked out on their magnificent harbor and imagined pirates, or, even worse, the Dutch, on the horizon. It was in 1658 when the Newporters Benedict Arnold, who was to become the first Colonial Governor of Rhode Island, and John Greene laid the groundwork for the first military defenses of Narragansett Bay.
These gentlemen purchased three small islands from Cachanaquoant, the Chief Sachem of the Narragansett Indians, for the equivalent sum of 6 pounds, 10 shillings.
These were Goat Island and Coasters Harbor Island, which control the approaches to Newport Harbor, "A topographical chart of the Bay of Narraganset in the Province of New England. with all the Isles contained therein, among which Rhode Island and Connonicut have been particularly surveyed.
Shewing the true position and bearings of the Banks, Shoals, Rocks etc. as likewise the Soundings To which have been added the several Works & Batteries raised by the Americans. Taken by Order of the Principal Farmers on Rhode Island. By Charles Blaskowitz. Engraved & Printed for Wm. Faden, Charing Cross, as the Act directs, July 22nd, 1777." and Dyers Island, which splits the Flint passage between Prudence Island and Coggeshall Point. Several years later the colony became very alarmed at the possibility of invasion by the Dutch Fleet, as England was at war with Holland in 1664. The colonists petitioned the English government to erect defenses in Narragansett Bay for protection. Their request was ignored by the Crown. This was an important lesson that would not be forgotten by Rhode Islanders. The town of Newport then purchased the islands from Arnold and Green, with the intention of creating fortifications to protect the Newport inner harbor themselves. In 1703 the first constructed fortification was erected on Goat Island,
(The somewhat star-shaped outline on Goat Island at the bottom of the image represents the ramparts of what was originally called Fort Anne, named after the then reigning Queen of England (1703). Note Long Wharf immediately above Goat Island in the image)
and was given the name Fort Anne, after the then reigning Queen of England. Earthwork ramparts did little to make Newporters feel more secure, however.
A stone fort, with a battery of cannon, was in place by 1738. And they had a new king as well, George II. And Fort Anne was quickly renamed Fort George.
Even then people knew what side their bread was being buttered on. By the mid-1700s relations between the Rhode Island Assembly and the Crown were beginning to sour, however. Newporters began to look at the fort on Goat Island with some suspicion, and were becoming uneasy with having an armed garrison controlling access to their harbor.
What was probably the first act of open resistance to British rule occurred on July 9, 1764. Crewmembers from the British schooner ST. JOHN attempted to carry off an alleged deserter from Newport. The townspeople forcibly resisted this act, and took the opportunity to seize Fort George. The fort's cannon were then turned upon the British frigate SQUIRREL and eight shots were fired.
Newport attacked another British ship in 1769, the armed sloop LIBERTY. This time, however, they seized the ship and scuttled it off Gravelly Point, at the end of Long Wharf. In 1772 Rhode Islanders in the west bay caught the British ship GASPEE and burned her to cinders, just a few miles from the city of Providence.
The British had long ceased to be amused by the actions of Rhode Islanders in general, and Newport in particular. Newport had been the fifth most prosperous commercial center in the original thirteen colonies. It was exceeded in size and importance only by Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Charleston. But the Crown was determined to hammer Rhode Island back into submission. Besides impressment and seizure of private property, they exacted their revenge by vigorous enforcement of the Navigation Acts. This really put a crimp in maritime trade, especially smuggling, which (at the time) was Newport's lifeblood. In 1775, the situation was becoming desperate enough that the Rhode Island Assembly decided to take matters into their own hands, so to speak. On 12 June, the general assembly of the Crown Colony of Rhode Island met at the Kent County Courthouse in East Greenwich and created the very first Navy in the Western Hemisphere.
Now many recognize that Narragansett Bay is often referred to as the "Cradle of the American Navy." Well, if the Bay was the cradle, then Newport has to be considered the womb. For it was here, in Newport Harbor, that the seed for the concept of America as a maritime power was planted. This Rhode Island Navy consisted of two armed vessels - the sloop KATY, with 12 guns, and the galley WASHINGTON, with six guns. It was created for the express purpose of stopping one particular ship, the 24 gun frigate ROSE.
The replica ship 'HMS' ROSE, a 24 gun frigate and the bane of Narragansett Bay. The ROSE wreaked havoc in the bay, seizing stores and goods along the coast, and implementing a blockade against all shipping. This led to the first purely naval engagement of the Revolution, in June of 1775, when the Rhode Island sloop KATY,
under Captain Abraham Whipple, engaged the Royal Navy Schooner DIANA. The DIANA was subsequently driven onto Conanicut Island, off the Jamestown beach. The Rhode Island Navy never did accomplish its initial objective of driving off the ROSE, which finally met her end in Savannah, Georgia when she was scuttled in 1779.
The Rhode Island delegates to the Continental Congress next moved to create a Federal navy. The Colony's General Assembly instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress to introduce a resolution in favor of a continental navy. The Congress adopted this resolution, and authorized the fitting out of two vessels to interdict British trade. The so-called "Rhode Island Plan" to construct thirteen frigates for the new Continental Navy was enacted in December of 1775. One of these ships was the aforementioned KATY, which was then renamed PROVIDENCE.
PROVIDENCE, engaged in battle with HMS CERBERUS. The legend below the painting reads: The Continental Sloop "Providence" Captain John Paul Jones - June 13, 1776 (This is the ship that became the first command of a young John Paul Jones,
(Captain John Paul Jones. This bust is on exhibit at the U.S. Naval War College Museum) acknowledged as the "Father of the American Navy."
The PROVIDENCE was also noted for being the first ship to land U.S. Marines for combat, in March, 1776. Unfortunately, the original ship was scuttled in Penobscot Bay in August, 1779. Those who frequent Narragansett Bay today often see a replica of this vessel.
(The contemporary replica of the Continental sloop PROVIDENCE, sailing in Narragansett Bay with the American Naval Frigate USS VALDEZ. The U.S. Navy's Surface Warfare Officers School (SWOS) is in the background. The web site for the replica ship PROVIDENCE can be found at http://www.sloopprovidenceri.org)the pride of the Yankee navy, making its way up and down the Bay in the summer months. 1776 was notable for many things, not the least of which was Rhode Island's Renunciation of Allegiance to King George III on May 4 of that year. However, that springtime celebration gave way to a winter horror, as Newporters realized their worst fears in December when the British seized and occupied the city.
Their original fear of vulnerability from the sea, which had led to the purchase and fortification of Goat Island more than 100 years earlier, had come to fruition. The main difference was that originally the Newporters, principally of British stock, had feared attack by the French or the Dutch. It was ironic that the invasion, when it finally did come, was led by a British commander, Sir Henry Clinton. The Continental Navy mounted a blockade and siege of Aquidneck Island in an effort to roust the English, which culminated in the large but inconclusive Battle of Rhode Island in 1778.
The Continental Navy, circa 1775-76; Esek Hopkins, Commanding.
This contest was the first combined effort of the Americans and their new French allies. Unfortunately, reinforcement of the Newport garrison by a large British fleet, coupled with an ill-timed hurricane in April 1778 which severely damaged the French fleet commanded by Comte Charles Hector D'Estaing, left the British still in control of Newport.
Sir Clinton left Aquidneck of his own accord one year later, when he decided that his troops would be more militarily useful in pacification of the southern colonies. When the war ended, Newport faced devastation like nothing ever seen. The city's timber wharves had been burned as firewood. Businessmen and trading firms moved their headquarters to Providence or Boston.
One would think that, in the attempts to recover from the ravages of war, all things naval would have had a bright future in Narragansett Bay in general and Newport in particular. This was not the case, however, and Rhode Island played almost no part in the growth of the American Navy after the revolution. There was an attempt to build a Navy shipyard at Newport in 1798. The politicians of the day were unable to persuade the Federalist Congress, however, and shipyards were built in Boston and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Political pressure was no less a factor then, as it is today. In 1799, the town of Newport ceded Goat Island to the federal government for $1,500, with the express purpose of maintaining a military fort to defend Newport Harbor. The fortification had been named Fort Wolcott, in commemorate the services of Rhode Island's War Governor, Oliver Wolcott. The fact that his son was then Secretary of the Treasury of the United States didn't hurt, either.
Things remained pretty quiet in Newport up until the time of the Civil War. Fort Wolcott, along with Fort Adams
(The coastal defense emplacement at Fort Adams, Newport, RI., ca. 1850) across the harbor, had fallen into disrepair in the intervening years. Tension and apprehension among coastal residents again began to rise in the middle of the 1800's, however, as it became more and more apparent that discord between the states on the subjects of slavery and state's rights would not be settled peaceably.
It was on the 8th of May, 1861, that the calm of the afternoon was shattered by the sound of heavy cannon fire. All Newport rushed to the wharves and hills, concerned that the often-rumored rebel attack on Fort Adams had begun. But much to their surprise they saw that it was the old frigate
CONSTITUTION
(The U.S. Naval Academy training ship CONSTITUTION at anchor in Newport Harbor, 8 May, 1861. Fort Adams is in the background. To the left of "Old Ironsides" is the steamer BALTIC; this ship was carrying everything the faculty and students could strip from the Academy facilities in Annapolis in their hasty flight from the advancing Confederate forces.)
"Old Ironsides," her guns thundering an answer to the 24-gun salute from Fort Adams. On board were 130 midshipmen from the recently evacuated Naval Academy at Annapolis.
A few hours later the steamer BALTIC entered the harbor; on board were the professors, their families, and every book and piece of equipment that they could carry from the Academy. They were supposed to go to Fort Adams, but the staff took one look at the place and quickly began looking for a location in Newport, in a nicer part of town.
In August of that year, the Naval Academy leased the Atlantic House Hotel,
(The Atlantic House hotel in Newport, wartime home of the U.S. Naval Academy during the Civil War. The Academy returned to Annapolis in September 1865. This hotel was destroyed in a fire some years later)which was at the corner of Bellevue Avenue and Pelham Street, just up the street by Touro Park. There the Academy remained for the duration of the war. It was no accident that the Navy chose Newport as the wartime location of the Academy. George Bancroft, who as Secretary of the Navy founded the Academy at its original location in Annapolis in 1845, was a life-long summer resident of Newport. To Secretary Bancroft, Newport seemed to be the perfect wartime location for the Academy.
Life in Newport...
(The U.S. Naval Academy class of 1864), on the lawn outside the Atlantic House, Newport, RI. for the students was memorable, though there were certain misgivings on the part of the citizenry in the beginning. But they soon came around, and it wasn't long before many of the upperclassmen and faculty soon found themselves involved in the Newport social scene.
Many of these Naval Academy Midshipmen (The U.S. Naval Academy class of 1863. In the background is the famous "Touro Tower" in Newport, the exact origin of which has been lost to antiquity) at Newport did make a name for themselves, as they continued in their naval careers.
The first military governor of Guam, Benjamin Tilley, was also a resident of Bristol. Charles V. Gridley, who at the battle of Manila was given the famous order by Admiral Dewey: "You may fire when ready, Gridley." Rear Admiral Charles Sperry, class of 1862, would later go on to be President of the Naval War College, and was directly responsible for the establishment of the first Boy Scout troop in Newport in 1911.
The CONSTITUTION was soon joined by the USNA school ships MACEDONIAN and SANTEE, (U.S. Naval Academy school ships (l-r) MACEDONIAN, CONSTITUTION, and SANTEE; 1861-1865) and these tall ships soon became a familiar part of the Newport skyline.
At the end of the Civil War, however, political reality reared its head and the Naval Academy was returned to its original site in Maryland. Politics, then as now, played a decisive role in determining who got what after the war.
Any fears that the Navy would abandon Newport altogether were quickly dispelled, however. Soon after the war a series of events were set into motion which has led to more than a century of continuous Navy presence as part of the Newport community.
In 1869 the Navy gently shoved the Army off Goat Island and built the Naval Torpedo Station (The original Torpedo Station did its best to fill the topography of Goat Island, but there needed to be quite a bit of room between the Officer housing units (on the left) and the facility itself. Explosions and other mishaps were par for the course in this brave new world of undersea warfare) in its place. The original mission for the Torpedo Station was to serve as the Navy's experimental center for the development of torpedoes and torpedo equipment, explosives, and electrical equipment. The Navy's initial presence in those days consisted of a few wooden buildings and three civilian employees.
Newport had also gained some important advocates in the Navy while the Academy was here. Chief among these was Admiral Stephen B. Luce, who had agitated long and hard for some sort of naval training facility in Newport. In 1882 the Newport Poor House and Farm
(A stereograph image of the original Newport Poor House, ca. 1873, on Coasters Harbor Island. The building is still in use today, serving as the home of the Naval War College Museum) on the 92-acre Coasters Harbor Island was donated to the Navy by the City of Newport and the State of Rhode Island. This was done on the condition that the site be used for the training of recruits.
On June 4, 1883, the U.S. Naval Training Station was formally established; this eventually evolved into the Naval Education and Training Center, or NETC. The Naval War College was established on Coasters Harbor Island a year later.
It was originally located in a recently vacated public asylum. An interesting point here is that, since the fleet was not located in close proximity to the College, the school had to come up with some method to test theories and concepts. This was how what we now call "war gaming" was born, and it has evolved into a highly sophisticated analytical and educational tool. War gaming continues to be part of the College's curriculum. The association between the Navy and Newport, which had all but disappeared after the end of the revolution, now began to blossom during the second half of the 19th century.
In 1885, the nation's first torpedo boat, the STILLETO,
(The torpedo boat STILLETO, in Narragansett Bay, ca 1893. The crew has just fired a Howell steam torpedo from the single bow tube) was built at the Herreshoff boat yard
(The Herreshoff Construction Shops, Bristol, RI, ca. 1890) in Bristol. These torpedo boats were the progenitors of today's fast destroyers and frigates. Another Herreshoff-built torpedo boat, the PORTER,
(This picture is actually of the torpedo boat MORRIS, sister ship of the PORTER. The crew has just fired a Whitehead MK 3 torpedo from the deck launcher.) made history in 1897 when it made a record breaking run from New York to Newport in six hours. In that same year the first US Naval Hospital in Newport was built on Coasters Harbor Island. The hospital subsequently moved to its present site, just off Admiral Kalbfus Road, in 1909.
There was also a very large naval presence that was just up the coast on Aquidneck Island, at a site called Melville, near the town of Portsmouth. Established in 1901 as the Navy's first coaling station
(first known as the Bradford Coaling Station The Bradford Coaling Station, Melville, RI; ca. 1905), the site at Melville grew rapidly in size and importance in the first half of this century. This growth culminated in the establishment of large Motor Torpedo Boat training center (Entrance to the U.S. Navy Motor Torpedo Boat Training Center, Melville, RI; ca. 1942. Note the Quonset Huts on the left.) in World War II, where a young John F. Kennedy trained in PT Boat
(PT Boat training operations in Narragansett Bay, which took place on a nearly round-the-clock basis from 1941 to 1945. Watching these fast boats racing up and down the bay soon became something of a spectator sport to the local population.) operations in the fall of 1942. Coincidentally enough, an equally young Richard M. Nixon was undergoing basic officer training earlier that same year, spending two months at the Quonset Point Naval Air Station just across the Narragansett Bay.
What is even more remarkable is that around that same time period, one of the Navy's youngest aviators, George H.W. Bush, was undergoing flight training at Charlestown, south of Quonset Point. LT Bush proposed to his future wife Barbara while he was stationed there.
It is doubtful that any of these three men - Kennedy, Nixon, or Bush - ever met face-to-face during their time here. But when you consider how small Rhode Island is, it's not unreasonable to think that their paths may have crossed at one time or another. The requirements of the fleet and world events soon dictated that expansion of the Torpedo Station on Goat Island would be necessary, and by 1906 the Navy Torpedo Factory
(Newport Naval Torpedo Factory, Goat Island; ca. 1940. Those who are familiar with Narragansett Bay will quickly note the absence of the Newport suspension bridge that connects Newport with Conanicut Island and Jamestown on the far left. Goat Island and the Torpedo Factory are in the center of this image, with Newport's Long Wharf on the right. The small island to the left of Goat Island is Rose Island. Compare this photo with the illustration from half a century earlier) was established, also on Goat Island. This industrial facility became the sole manufacturer of torpedoes for the fleet, and Newport soon found itself to be the Navy's headquarters for torpedo research, development, and overhaul. The first half of the 20th century saw a period of unprecedented growth in the Naval presence in Narragansett Bay. World Wars I and II resulted in a huge influx of military and civilian employees in Rhode Island, with a peak of more than 162,000 personnel
(The effect of wartime expansion upon the Naval Training Station is in evidence in this photo. Off in the distance is the Miantonomi Tower. This tower, a memorial to Newport's fallen dead from World War I, is itself 80 feet tall, and sits on a 120 foot hill that overlooks Narragansett Bay and the Newport (Pell) Bridge. The tower, and the park in which it is located, are named after Miantonomi, a Sachem (Chief) of the local Narragansett and Wanumetonomy tribes who inhabited Aquidneck Island before its settlement by William Coddington and his followers) in 1944. The reader is encouraged to think about that last figure for a moment. This is Rhode Island -- where in the world did we put them all? One of the largest commands during this period was the Quonset Point Naval Air Station,
(A young Richard M. Nixon went through basic officer training here in 1942. The picture's caption reads: Quonset Point, R.I. -- August 22, 1946 Above is the recently released Navy picture - the first aerial view ever provided Rhode Island newspaper readers - of the (conservative estimate) $75,000,000 Quonset Point Air Station and its neighboring Navy establishments. Earlier release of such a picture, if you could get one, would have brought the firing squads - well, almost.
Located alongside the home of the Seabees, the Naval Base at Davisville (The famous U.S. Naval Construction Battalion "Seabee" at the entrance to Davisville; the Seabees trained at Camp Endicott on the base. Their motto: "With willing hearts, with skilled hands, and with compassion for others, we build and we fight for peace and freedom.").
These commands, combined with the cruiser and destroyer commands based in Newport, resulted in over a hundred capital ships being homeported in Narragansett Bay in the 1960's. And that doesn't count all the innumerable support vessels, oilers, tenders, and the like, all manned by thousands of hot-blooded young men, many of whom passed through the Naval Training Station.
(This photo taken sometime during the training heydays of World War II shows Coddington Point, just across from Coasters Harbor Island. The Naval Training Station on the Point saw tens of thousands of sailors pass through its gates, both during and after World War II. Hardly a scrap of all the buildings that you see here remains today) in Newport. Long time residents and old salts will recall that Newport used to be considered the stereotypical old time Navy town - with places like "Leo's First and Last Stop" at the end of Long Wharf, the "Blue Moon", and the infamous "Blood Alley" of West Pelham Street. The stuff legends and tall tales were made of. When the Fathers of Newport kept a close eye on the daughters of Newport. All of that is gone now, and the Naval military and civilian population that exists today is quite different from that of the previous era. The military presence throughout Rhode Island began to decrease in the 1960s, with a dramatic change resulting from the closure of Quonset Point in the early 1970s. Today, the total population of all the Naval commands in Narragansett Bay has now decreased to less than a tenth of what it was during its heyday (now approximately 15,000 military and civilian employees remain). One could look at the current situation and conclude that Rhode Island has managed to keep the cream of what was, so to speak. The major Naval commands that remain are all located on Aquidneck Island - the Naval War College, where the best and brightest of the Navy come to enhance their command and management skills; the Naval Education and Training Center (NETC), with its Officer Indoctrination School, the Chaplain School, and Surface Warfare Officer School, among others; and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), the Navy's premier research and engineering facility for submarines and undersea technologies. It is notable that NUWC
(The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Newport, RI. The NUWC complex contains the Headquarters Command of the Warfare Center, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport) has just recently passed the significant milestone of 125 continuous years of naval undersea research and development in Narragansett Bay. So, all in all, quite a colorful history. Since the establishment of the town of Newport by Nicholas Easton and William Coddington in 1639, the presence of military forces of one kind or another has been a fact of life on Aquidneck Island. The Navy has been proud to call Newport its spiritual home. Historic Places There's so much history here, that Rhode Island is virtually a living museum. For one so small, the state boasts one of the nation's largest concentrations of historic landmarks. The most famous, of course, are our palatial Gilded Age Newport mansions that were once the summer "cottages" of New York's wealthiest families. Just how many? It's interesting to find out. Try using the interactive map of Rhode Island's historic places on the National Register at the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission website. Historic Faces: Famous Rhode Islanders
George M Cohan: Singer, dancer, producer, actor, playwright, and composer - the first artist/entertainer to be honored by Congress. In 1936, he received a Congressional Gold Medal in recognition for his patriotic songs "Over There" and "A Grand Old Flag." Gilbert Stuart: Foremost painter of portraits of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. The state capitol houses the historic painting of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart which appears on the $1 dollar bill.
Nathanael Greene: Revolutionary War general, second-in-command to George Washington.
Esek Hopkins: First Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy.
Anne Hutchinson: The first woman to establish a town in America - Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
Nap Lajoie: The American League's first batting champion and an inductee in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Oliver Hazard Perry: Hero of the Battle of Lake Erie (1813).
Samuel Slater: Father of the American Textile Industry.
Geography
Rhode Island is bordered on the north and east by Massachusetts, on the west by Connecticut, and on the south by Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. It shares a water border with New York. Narragansett Bay is a major feature of the state's topography. Block Island, known for its beaches, lies approximately 12 miles off the southern coast of the mainland. Within the Bay, there are over 30 islands. The largest in the state is Rhode Island, also known by its former name: Aquidneck Island. Among the other islands in the Bay are Hope, Prudence, and Despair. Rhode Island is mostly flat with no real mountains. Rhode Island's highest point is Jerimoth Hill, which is only 812 feet above sea level.
Economy
Rhode Island's 1999 total gross state product was $33 billion, placing it 45th in the nation. Its 2000 per capita Personal Income was $29,685, 16th in the nation. Rhode Island's agricultural vegetables, dairy products, and eggs. Its industrial outputs are fashion jewelry, fabricated metal products, electric equipment, machinery, shipbuilding and boatbuilding, and tourism.
Demographics
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2003, Rhode Island's population was estimated at 1,076,164 people.
Rhode Island is part of the second largest venture capital market in the U.S.: New England. New York and New England account for 23% of venture capital financing nationwide.
Rhode Island ranks first for industry investment in R&D as a percent of gross state product. (New Economy Index).
Rhode Island is in the top ten states for overall R&D intensity. (NSF)
Because of the Slater Centers, Rhode Island earned a 2nd place ranking for university spin-out ventures and also a top ranking for entrepreneurial energy as measured by IPOs. (CFED 2003). Thanks for visiting... 1600’s Noyes Neck was known as Musquetah Neck. Pequot Territory. (1, p.7) 1611 Dutch West Indies Company explores the east coast of America. Evidence in written records from the company and archeological excavation that Fort Ninigret was in existence and used by them as a trading fort. (4, p.76) 1637 Written records of fort at Fort Neck in existence. Location is "about eighty rods to the southeast of Cross’ Mills at the neck of land on a wide inlet." (from Cole’s History, 1889 as reprinted in 4, p.75) 1637 Narragansetts and English fight against Pequots, decimating the Pequots. (from Potter’s, as printed
by 5, p.5) 1638 "mention is made of a great tempest which lashed the New England coast by its fury and sent up the tide fourteen feet above the level of the usual spring tides." (from Potter’s, as printed by 5, p.62) 1650 "Thomas Stanton established a trading post on the ford of the Pawcatuck River. …He had a farm in Quonochautoge, 5 miles from his trading post." (4, p.15-16) Mr. Thomas Stanton “owned another farm at Quanacontaug, where Major Tallcott had his headquarters in 1676.” (5, p.34) 1650’s or 1660’s James Babock (born in 1641) manufactured iron from "bog ore and from the black sand gathered upon the seashore." (from Babcock Genealogy, printed in 5, p.77) 1657 Major General Daniel Gookin of Cambridge, MA awarded 500 acres east of Pawcatuck River for services to Massachusetts (1, p.8) 1660 "In Newport five men in 1660 organized a private company to purchase and settle an area called Misquamicut. This grant was purchased by Will Vaughn, Robert Stanton, John Fairchild, Henry Moshur, and James Longbottom." They purchased it from an Indian Captain of the Niantics. "It was 20 miles long and 10 miles wide; bounded on the west by the Pawcatuck River; on the east and north by a place called Weecapaug or Passpantauage; joining Niantic land and on the south by the whole sea." (4, p.13) 1661 "Colonel Stanton owned in one tract land 4 and 1/2 miles in length and 2 miles in width, Colonel Champlin, about 2,000 acres." (Mason, George C., 1900) 1669 Westerly was named and incorporated 1670 "This country was divided into great estates, and these in turn into farms of about 300 acres each. On these estates resided the landed aristocracy of the colony. In a letter to the commissioners of Connecticut during the long dispute as to the right ful position and boudnaries of the King's Province, the writer, under date of August 3, 1670, says: `Those places that are in any way considerable are already taken up by several men in large farms or large tracts of land, some having 5, 6, and 10 miles square--yea, and some I suppose have much more, which you or some ofyours may feel hereafter.'" (Mason, George C., 1900) "These estates were worked by negro slaves and Indian laborers. The slaves and horses owned on each estate were in numbers about equally divided. Corn, cheese, and wool were the staple articles produced, while large numbers of horses--the famous Narragansett Pacers--were bred for export." (Mason, George, C., 1900) 1670’s major warfare with Indians; reports that all houses were burned up to Warwick (4, p.14) 1675 Gookin sells land to Simon Lynde (1, p.8) December Great Swamp Fight or "The Indian War of 1675" 1676 August 14, Indians from fight are sold into slavery (4, p.24) 1676 Old Sheffield farmhouse built Late 1600’s "much trading was carried on with the Indians, also the Dutch" (4, p.18) Late 1600’s John Cross settles colony at Cross Mills; serves as only village in the are for many years (4, p.20) 1685 William Stanton, third son of Thomas Stanton, builds house about one mile west of the location of the Sheffield House on Quonochontaug Neck. This house is thought to be "the first house on this land." (4, p.18) 1696 African slave trade begins in Newport Rhode Island; doesn’t spread to rest of state until 1736; slavery law prohibited importation of slaves in 1774; slaves who enlisted for service in the Revolutionary War were freed and owners compensated in 1778; slavery abolished and freeing of slaves enacted in 1784 (4, p.24-25; 5, p.59). "By 1755 the large plantations in Narragansett country had slaves. One of three were slaves." In Charlestown, there were “712 white settlers to 418 slaves.” (from Bartlett, as quoted by 4, p.25). "It is said that Christopher Champlin owned some two hundred slaves on his large 2,000 acre farm; also the Stantons owned many slaves who worked on their many large farms." (4, p.25) 1701 Simon’s son Benjamin sells 300 acres to Reverend James Noyes (1640-1719), a Stonington preacher who married General Thomas Stanton’s daughter Dorothy in 1674 (1, p.8) 1702 Post Road from New London to the Pawcatuck River extended to Haversham and then to Newport 1709 John Cross purchases Davill’s Mill, a grist mill for grinding "Indian Corn". The brook the mill is on empties into Ninigret salt pond (4, p.20) 1713 Joseph Stanton (grandson of Thomas Stanton) deeds land on Quonochontaug Neck to his son, Thomas. He describes it as "a certain parcel of land…being a part of my farm I now live on called Quonocontoge Neck and also my dwelling house I now live in." The "'Sheffield Farm" so called now, is on the "Old Town Road" (West Beach, Quonochontaug). There is evidence in old records that it was quite a large farm. (4, p.18) 1720’s Colonel Samuel Ward married Anna Ray (whose sister Catherine had connection to Benjamin Franklin); their son Col. Samuel Ward married Phoebe Greene and had daughter Julia Ward Howe (1, p.9) 1727 Christopher Champlin is listed as a freeman in the Town of Westerly. He owns land the NALF was built on, and developed a "quite famous" farm: the Champlin Farm. "This farm was one of then-called ‘plantations’ as Christopher Champlin had one of the largest farms with many slaves." (4, p.20) 1731 September 24, Haversham property purchased by "Ezekial Gavitt for twenty pounds from Charles Ninigret, chief Sachem of the Narragansett country." (1, p.73) 1736 Dodge brothers build "Hussocks" – possibly first house in Weekapaug; located near present Chapman Farm on Noyes Neck Rd. (1, p.9) 1737 August 22, "a large tract (36.3 miles) of the Town of Westerly was separated and incorporated and named Charlestown." (4, p.25) 1740 Babock House, also known as "Whispering Chimneys" built. Was originally part of Sheffield farm and was run as a farm. "Story has it that Lafayette spent the night in the old house. Also we have beentold that it was at one time used as an old Indian trading post. At that time there was an outside entrance from the pond side into the kitchen and Inidans came in canoes to dock on the pond. We have been told that sailing ships came trhough the old breach and anchored in the pond!" (5, notes) 1747 incorporation of Richmond 1755 Benjamin Franklin visits, stays with Col. Samuel Ward, meets Katy Ray (1, p.11) 1757 incorporation of Hopkinton Revolutionary War Land and buildings served as military headquarters for Westerly (1, p.8) 1778 "My aunt told me of her grandmother watching British ships in 1778 sail into Quonochontaug Pond." (1, p.75) -- Philip Gavitt 1800 Charlestown census lists 1,454 people…"an increase of over 200 since 1770." (4, p.33) 1815 "A major event of nature may well have caused the cessation of Quonochontaug Pond as a navigable harbor. On the 23rd day of September, 1815, a most terrific storm, accompanied with thunder and lightning, visited the coast of New England and spread desolation and dismay in every direction. A violent southeast wind arose and continued to increase until it became a frightful hurricane. Buildings were blown down and the tunnels of the chimneys were swept away. Even the white oak, called the monarch of the forest, was prostrated to the ground. The spray was driven twenty miles from the sea. Vessels were wrecked and a number of seamen were drowned. Six men went to the beach to secure a boat, but becoming frightened by an enormous wave (which was thought to be forty feet high when it broke by those who saw it) took refuge in an ox cart, but were swept away and drowned." (1, pp.75-76) "Old salts said that 'the Misquamicut strip of land was a gift from the sea during a gale in 1815, and what the sea gave, the sea might take away.’" (3, p.43) "The contour of the beaches changed. Some beaches lost land but some gained land with the sand from the sea. As farmers and fisherman have always known: the sea gives and the sea takes!" (4, p.34) "The gale of Sept. 23, 1815 inundated the countryside for miles around and did much damage to the fields and meadows." (5, 62) 1848 Ocean House built by James and George Ward (4, p.50) – is this where "Ocean House Marina" is on Ninigret Pond? 1855 Coastal survey map shows Charlestown breachway was "wide and much nearer the Pond" than in 1979. (4, p.80) 1875 Albert B. Langworthy house built on Ward land (1, p.10) 1876 Founding Fathers conceive summer resort at "Cream Puff Picnic" – C.C. Maxson a contractor and his daughter Abby; Court Bentley, Abby’s cousin who was "well-off and smart." Court bought the land and C.C. built the cottages (1, p.4) 1876 first regattas on Ninigret (RI Historical Preservation Commission, 1981) 1877 9 cottages on Noyes Beach (1, p.5) 1880 Thomas Edison set up an iron separator on the Rhode Island shore. "More than one thousand tons of concentrated iron ore of fine quality was separated from the seashore and sold." (from Meadowcroft as printed in 5, p.78) "The work on Quonchontaug Beach apparently started early in the summer of 1881 …and was discontinued about December, 1882." (from a letter from Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated to Fr. Crispin Jones, reprinted in 5, p.79) 1880 14 cottages built on Quonochontaug Beach (RI Historical Preservation Commission, 1981) Late 1800’s "pollution from the Peacedale mills and from town waste became increasingly evident in Point Judith Pond. The need for flushing of mill waste from the pond was emphasized by local citizens in their argument to construct a stabilized breachway." (Lee, 1980, p.59) 1880’s Weekapaug Yacht Club has sailing races on Quonochontaug Pond (1, p.31) "All these boats, or the majority of them, were moored in the small pond – originally call Whale-house Cove because whale boats used to come in through a breach located near the old Inn, in the 1800’s, to transfer their oil and try out some of their blubber." (1, p.37) 1888 March 11, blizzard with drifts 10-12 feet high (4, p.49) 1891 Coast Guard Station built near Quonochontaug Breachway; it was destroyed in the 1938 hurricane (5, p.55-56) 1893 Seaweed comprised about one-fourth of all the fertilizer used on Rhode Island farms (from Parker, 1976 in Lee, 1980 p.57) 1893 First house at Charlestown Beach (Reflections of Charlestown, 1876-1976) 1895 First houses at Charlestown Beach (4, p.56) 1896 Weekapaug Improvement Society formed (1, p.20) 1898 first bridge across breachway (1, p.20) 1898 Weekapaug Inn built by Frederick C. Buffum (1, p.20) 1899 Noyes Beach renamed Weekapaug, meaning "at the end of the pond" (1, p.13) 1899 Weekapaug Inn opened; yacht club in boathouse (1, p.20) 1900 Charlestown census lists 975 residents (4, p.54) 1900-1905 Quonochontaug development around the Life Saving station (4, p.55) 1904 original channel of Ninigret beach stoned up, 200' jetty built (Reflections of Charlestown, 1876-1976) 1905 Thomas Lyman Arnold builds his Arnolda house on Foster and Greene farms (former Champlin farm land) (4, p.55) 1906 Weekapaug Chapel Society founded (1, p.28) 1910 first paving of Route 1 (Lee, 1980, p.59) (this contrasts to Mandeville account that first paving was done in 1913; Reflections of Charlestown claims 1907) 1912 electricity to Weekapaug (1, p.21) 1912 tidal wave at Quonnie beach; many homes damaged and the beach "shortened by some 20 feet" (Westerly Sun, August 9, 1927; in 5, p.62) 1913 first paving of Route 1 from "Umbrella Factory" to Prosser Trail (4, p.54) 1914 Westerly water to Weekapaug (1, p.21) 1917 Weekapaug Chapel built (1, p.28) 1917 electricity to Charlestown (Cross Mills) (4, p.57) 1920 Charlestown census lists 756 residents; number not indicative of summer residents (4, p.60) 1930 Charlestown census lists 1,113 residents; this number doubled in the summertime (4, p. 62) 1930’s first motorboat on Quonchontaug Pond (1, p.78) 1930’s "the federal government launched vigorous sales campaigns to convince farmers to convert to using chemical fertilizers" (Lee, 1980, p.57) 1933-1954 Weekapaug Day Camp (1, p. 60) 1936 final year of Weekapaug Improvement Society (1, p.23) 1937 Weekapaug Fire District initiated (1, p. 23) 1938 First volunteer fire station in Cross Mills (4, p.63) 1938 September 21, hurricane (1, pp. 24-26) " …the barometer was falling. At five, it touched bottom at 27.94." (3, p.34) "All the land from the ocean to the north shore of the pond was covered by a raging sea." (1, p.25) "A small breach opened east of the Inn and a large terrifying one on the west side." (1, p.26) "So strong were the wind and the waves that they carried cottages and debris across the pond to the Haversham Shore." (2, p.17) "They could not get across the raging 60 foot breachway which, by this time, was ten to fifteen feet deep and flowing at an estimated eight to ten knots out into the ocean, releasing the enormous quantity of water which had overflowed the Pond to a depth of twelve feet above normal." (3, p.40) – this breach was just to the west of the old Inn "Thankfully, we had no loss of life in Weekapaug." (3, p.41) Above quotes are from a letter Frederick C. Buffum wrote to Inn clientele on October 5 or 8, 1938. The letter is entitled, "The Hurricane as Witnessed at Weekapaug." However, the books 1 & 2 recount his story with slight differences. The storm originated around the Cape Verde islands, moved north of the Bahamas, started northward somewhere south of Hatteras, crossed Long Island, New England, and Canada. "Rain had been falling for about a week in many parts of New England so that, with the additional heavy rains resulting from the hurricane, record floods on many New England brooks and rivers resulted." Over New England the barometric pressure was around 28. The storm was about 500 miles in diameter. Sustained storm winds were in excess of 120 miles an hour, with gusts over 150 miles an hours. The storm lasted less than 12 hours in New England areas. "The storm tide at Providence was 13 feet 9 inches above mean high tide. This exceeded the previous record of September 23, 1815 by 1 foot 11 ¾ inches." On the south shore, it was estimated that the storm tide was between 10 and 15 feet above mean high tide. According to a Red Cross report of October 21, 1938, 488 people were killed, 1754 were injured, 1991 permanent dwellings, 6933 summer dwellings, and 9807 other buildings were destroyed. 2605 boats were wrecked and 3369 were damaged. The total economic loss is between $250,000,000 and $330,000,000. (Nichols & Marston, pp. 1359-1362) "In some places channels were cut through the fore-dune; in others where the dune was low, it was completely washed away. Behind these breaks there have been deposited great scallops of sand, which extend out over the marsh as much as 750 feet from the eroded fore-dune." (Nichols & Marston, p.1364) Around the partially destroyed Weekapaug Inn "at least four inlets. A small tidal delta has been built on the bayward side of the inlet immediately behind the inn. …only a few days after the hurricane the inlet had already started to heal on the ocean side." (Nichols & Marston, p.1364) Several inlets cut through Charlestown Beach during the hurricane. (Nichols & Marston, p.1365) "Watch Hill Pond has been converted from a fresh water pond into a salt water bay." (Nichols & Marston, p.1366) "…the salt water ponds formed during the storm are reverting to their former fresh water condition" (Nichols & Marston, p.1370) "A much larger inlet has been cut in Misquamicut Beach. …the inlet is 70 feet wide on the bay side and approximately 400 feet wide on the ocean side. …the inlet on January 7, 1939, was at least 14 feet deep at high tide." (Nichols & Marston, p.1366) "The inlet at Misquamicut has shown no tendency to fill in since it was formed. On January 7, 1939, a current carrying sand in suspension and having a velocity between 4 and 5 miles per hour was running through it." (Nichols & Marston, p. 1369) "The most important factor in the localization of the inlets was the narrowness of the beach." (Nichols & Marston, p.1367) "That the beaches were eroded by water which passed over them from the ocean side is proved by the following facts: (1) In many cases the beaches were extended bayward; (2) houses were carried from the beaches far inland; and (3) the bays and ponds in back of the beaches were considerably shallowed by deposition of material eroded from the beaches." (Nichols & Marston, p.1367-1368) "Prior to the hurricane, Winnapaug Pond had one inlet; it now has two. It seems reasonable to suppose that when these beaches are again stabilized it will have but one. Since the new inlet is closer to the main body of the water in the pond, it seems likely that if there is no artificial interference the new break will maintain itself and the old one will be filled in." (Nichols & Marsten, p.1369) "They (Helen and Ruth Corey) got over the narrow bridge (from Charlestown beach to the mainland) and as they did, Ruth looked back just in time to see a dark wall or cloud over the edge of the beach. It was the huge (some say 50 feet) wall of water about to wash away everything and all who stayed on the sandbar of a beach. In just a few minutes not a house was left from Green Hill to Central Beach!" (4, p.63) "Thirty-two perished in Charlestown and many were the tales of some who survived. Some lived to ride the tidal wave across the pond amidst the wreckage of houses, and some who did not survive were found near the north shore of Charlestown Pond among the wreckage." (4, p.64) "The beach lay open and no one built for many years. There were no dunes or beach grass to protect any who might dare to build!" (4, p.64) "In Quonchontaug the death toll stood at eight persons drowned." (5, p.64) "A memorial tablet on the wall of the Old Market House in Market Square gave ominous evidence of the shape of things to come. It bore a recording that the flood water of the hurricane of Sept. 1815, had risen to a height of eleven feet, nin and a quarter inches, whilst that of Sept. 1938, had reached the thirteen feet, nine inches mark." (5, p.65) 1939 new Weekapaug Inn built (1, p.37) 1939 Weekapaug Yacht Club gets its own building (1, p.37) 1939 potato boom in Charlestown, through the 1940’s (4, p.64) 1942 Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field built (4, p.66) 600 acres of Champlin farmland purchased for the purpose (RI Historical Preservation Commission, 1981). NALF closed in 1974. 1945 Charlestown census lists 1185 residents (4, p.67) 1940’s Route 1 "upgraded to a macadam two-lane highway, which made the land around the ponds easily accessible to commuters and tourists for residential development" (Lee, 1980, p. 59) 1950’s "the real burgeoning of development started in the 1950’s and continued to increase through the present (1977)." (Lee, 1980, p.59) 1950 Weekapaug tennis club founded "with the expansion of Weekapaug" (1, p.38) 1951 Dec 1951 to April 1952 State dredges Ninigret breachway. "Channel is 100' wide and was recently improved by dredging
and construction of stone jetties and riprap along sides of tidal breachway." (Providence Sunday Journal, 8/3/52) 1952 government paid many farmers to destroy potato fields in Charlestown; potato boom over (4, p.64) WWII watchtower at Chapman Farm, torn down in 1954 (1, p.63 & 67) 1954 August 31, Hurricane Carol (1, p. 70) "The 1954 hurricane occurred at a time when increasing numbers of houses were being built along the shore. The enormous destruction of property caused by the hurricane persuaded the towns along the South Shore to adopt floodplain zoning and the federal flood insurance program. The National Flood Insurance Program has had the unexpected effect of accelerating development in flood-prone areas in coastal lowlands and barrier beaches by subsidizing development in these hazardous areas." (Lee, 1980, p.59) 1960 Charlestown census lists 1,986 residents 1962 "was the first year the mute swans raised a family at Weekapaug"(3, p.53) 1974 NALF closed 1978 903 slips available at 15 salt pond marinas (Lee, 1980, p.59) <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> 1980 Charlestown census lists 4,793 residents |
