Portsmouth and Aquidneck Island maps are valuable sources of information on who had what property and where important features were located. When I looked for answers to a reference question on the mill that would have been on Old Mill Lane, the 1870 map didn’t show one in the area. When I went to the 1850 Walling Map I was able to locate it on a stream.
I searched the map for other mills in Portsmouth in 1850. How many more could I find? Heading North toward the Glen (Map calls it Gleen) there was a woolen mill and a gristmill. Those are mills I have come across in my study of the Glen over the years.
The Slocum gristmill from colonial days is sold to James Sisson. James Sisson then sells his mill and 46 acres around the brook to Joseph Cundall. What we call “the Glen” becames commonly known as Cundall’s Mills. In 1706 Joseph Cundall had left his native England to become an indentured servant in America. Becoming an indentured servant was a way a young person could learn a trade and get an education in exchange for working for seven years or more. Cundall seems to have learned his trade well and was in a good position to buy land as an adult. Water from the stream powered the carding and fulling mills to wash and pull woolen fibers. Joseph Cundall added almost a hundred more acres to his land around the Glen before he died in 1760. Old local history books tell the tragic story of his son Joseph who got lost in a Christmas Eve snowstorm and died on his way home from the mill. His gravestone is easily read in the old cemetery with a death date of December 24, 1811.
By 1815 the mills and the land are in the hands of Judge Samual Clarke, whose wife Barbary was a Cundall. The mill was still known as Cundall’s Mills and he advertised that he bought a new carding machine and could dye wool. He advertised that he could manufacture cashmeres, flannels and satinets. The land transfers are hard to follow, but by 1823 the mills were on the auction block and the inventory lists a gristmill and clothier works with looms and spinning machines. We think of Slater and his mills in Pawtucket, but Portsmouth had these too. Factories constructed of stone were located in the Glen until the Civil War but no trace remains. The stone structure in the Glen now is a later Glen Farm building.
Local historian Rev. Edward Petersen wrote in 1853: “Cundall’s Mills is one of the most romantic spots on the island, and has become a general resort of strangers, who visit Newport in summer, to enjoy the salubrity of its climate and its picturesque scenery.” Artists Currier and Ives even illustrated a picnic at the Glen in 1860. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s diaries record an 1852 visit: “Then we drove to the Glen, and walked down a lovely little valley, with a brown brook threading it and a silent mill, to the sea shore; a charming secluded nook.” The Glen was a popular spot to enjoy nature, take a walk, paint and even write poetry. Visitors would often enjoy a stop at Mrs. Durfee’s Tea House on the way home.
A “mill” building can be seen from Glen Farm Rd opposite the entrance of the barn complex. It has been beautifully restored as a private home. This building was raised on the foundations of an older mill site, but it does not date from mill days. The mill buildings appear on various maps as located on either side of the brook. We have a few images of some of the mill structures and we can imagine the mill pond through drawings and photographs. What is left today is the stonework mill runs that channel the brook down to the river. Unfortunately this beautiful part of the Glen is in private hands now.
Glen Mill Painting in Portsmouth Historical Collection.
Link to Walling Map in the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2013591358/
