This weekend ( August 18) there is a loosely based re-enactment of Campbell’s Raids on Warren and Bristol. The lectures, demonstrations and battle scenes were interesting and well done.
Going to School in Portsmouth: Interviews with people who went to one-room schools
August 12, 2024
Portsmouth History Portsmouth Schools 2 Comments
I’m going through Elmhurst memorabilia as I prepare for a special program at the Portsmouth Historical Society on September 8th – Going to School in Portsmouth. Each year my students worked on a different local research project.
What was it like to go to a one or two room school?
In 2005 Elmhurst 3rd graders interviewed Portsmouth residents who had that experience.
Here is a sample of some of the questions and answers from those interviews.
Interview of Mr. Douglas Wilkey
Quaker Hill School and other schools in the district
What did you wear? They wore knickers that went right under the knee and socks that pulled up and folded at the end.
How many students were in your class? There were from 32 to 36 students in the class.
How many classrooms were in your school? There were three classrooms at Newtown School. There were two rooms at Quaker Hill School. Anthony School had ten rooms. Anne Hutchinson and Coggeshall had four classrooms.
How were kids punished? We were whacked with rulers.
Mrs. Joy Schuur went to Coggeshall School
What were your teachers like? The teachers were single and when they got married they weren’t teachers.
What subjects did you have? We had more music than you do. They didn’t have library or gym. They had math, spelling and language.
What kind of holidays did you have? We had no spring break. There was a long Christmas and Easter break.
Miss Fay and Mrs. Powers went to Bristol Ferry School
What games did play at recess? We played hopscotch, jump rope and jacks. They had a morning recess which was fifteen minutes and afternoon recess after lunch which was an hour long.
How many grades were in your school? They had grade one to grade eight.
What did you wear to school? Girls wore dresses and cotton stockings. Boys wore pants or knickers.
What was the discipline like? If you got in trouble you would get sent out of the room, sent to the principal’s office or had to sit in the corner. The first thing they would do was have you sit in front.
What were the bathroom’s like? There was one outhouse.
Mrs. Wilkey went to Newtown School
Some information the students learned.
Newtown School had three classrooms.
The oldest students might have been 16 years old.
They had spelling bees and Mrs. Wilkey did well.
They had an art teacher and a music teacher, but no library or physical education class.
Ten or twelve students might not pass on to the next grade.
Girls were not allowed to play team sports.
If students were bad, the principal would call the parents and they were in trouble at home.
Revisiting the Elmhurst/Glen Nature Walk
July 28, 2024
Portsmouth History birds, Elmhurst, Glen, Glen Manor House, hiking, Nature Trail, travel, walking Leave a comment
As librarian at Elmhurst School, I liked to teach research skills by having my students work on a local project. Elmhurst is gone now, but the setting of our school offered spectacular subjects for study. In 1996 through 1997 my students worked on an Elmhurst/Glen Nature Walk. Today my husband and I revisited that walk and found that we can still enjoy the variety of habitats along the way.
The walk is about 3/4 of a mile long and is easy going most of the way. The path is not quite the same as it was over 20 years ago.
- Starting Point: This is the new parking lot for “Elmhurst Park.”
- Follow Frank Coelho Drive towards the Manor House.
- As you approach the old Elmhurst Circle, take the old Elmhurst Playground walkway toward the left.
- At the end of the walkway turn right. There are remains of a carriage path that was the way to the old Fogland Ferry. This was the “Along the Path” section of our booklet.
- Most of this is grass now, but throughout the warmer months it is a nice place to see some wildflowers. My students used to take pictures of them so we could identify them with field guides. Now you can identify them through a google information setting.
- Toward the water there are still some of the old trees from the days when the Taylor family lived at the Manor House. Mrs. Taylor was very particular about where each of these trees were planted in the 1920s. Our students studied the old trees as habitats in themselves. We called this “Up a Tree” in our guide.
- “By the Rocky Shore” explored the dock and rocky shoreline. We can see Sandy Point Beach in the distance to the right. Our town beach was a gift of the Taylor family. To the left is an oyster farm. Life along this shoreline depends on the constant cycle of the tides. The current dock is a replacement for the original “L” shaped dock that the Taylors used. You may see fishermen on this dock and it is a good place to watch for marine birds.
- Heading back to the trail we see the Glen Manor House and its gardens. Landscaped gardens are a different kind of habitat. The Olmsted Brothers did the original landscape architecture. Mrs. Taylor loved fresh flowers and varieties were selected that would bloom while the Taylors were in residence during July and August. The “In the Garden” section suggested that as you look at the gardens from a distance, you can look for geometric shapes in landscape designs.
- A walkway of stones leads you “Through the Woods.” Where there are stones in the paths is easy walking, but as the path heads up the trail it is narrower.
- You have to watch for tree roots, but the woods habitat is full of interesting things. My students suggested a scavenger hunt for types of fungi, bark beetle tunnels, woodpecker holes, green moss, and tree holes that were homes for animals.
- You come out of the woods to “Over in the Meadow/Field.” When we did our habitat study the fields were allowed to grow tall so we could find flowers and seeds and look for signs of animals. Today it is mostly mowed. This field is a reminder that it used to grow crops to feed the 25 families who lived and worked on the farm.
- Cross the Meadow/Field towards the Trail sign that marks a longer Brown House/Glen Farm Trail. That trail is over 2.5 miles and is a good one for a longer hike. To the left of the sign is a rocky cut in the stonewall that leads you to the old Elmhurst parking lot. Cross the lot to the North entrance.
- Outside the parking lot entrance, notice the stonewalls. “Around a Stone Fence” was our last natural neighborhood. The rock walls and fences are a reminder of the way this land was used in the past. They are a sign of cleared land and they were used as boundaries between pasture and cropland. The Glen area was used for farming from the 1640s (Thomas Cook) through the 1950s (Taylor family).
- Stonewalls are man-made, but nature takes them over. Look for lichen (a crusty fungus growth over the rocks), and evidence of spots were animals might hide.
You are back at the parking lot.
Discover Your Portsmouth: Brown House/Glen Farm Trail
July 8, 2024
If you would like to take a long and beautiful walk, try the Brown House/Glen Farm Trail. This route was developed as an Eagle Scout Project by Chace Little and is about 2.7 miles in a loop. Hikers describe it as “fairly easy, some small hills.” There is parking off of Linden Lane after the Brown House and near the entrance to the Sakonnet Greenway Trail and the kiosks for the two trails are close together. The Brown House/Glen Farm Trail is mostly paved, but there are sections over grass. The trail is not well marked so I am trying to give some visual clues as trail markers.
- You will be walking down Linden Lane passing the polo fields and beautiful stone walls. You continue straight pass the Red Cross House where the women of Glen Farm would meet to roll bandages and support the war effort in World War II. The trail leads you to Glen Farm Road where you will turn left.
- On your right is “The Glen” – a favorite spot to enjoy nature during the early 1800s. That is private property, but from the road you can view the mill stream. Through the years waterpower from mills ground corn, washed and pull strands of wool (carding and fulling) and even produced a course fabric called “Negro Cloth” in a factory. Up a hill and to your left is the Glen Barns complex.
- Down Glen Farm Road you view the Gardener’s Cottage to the left and on the right by the gateposts is a house that dates from the 1700s.
- Turn right through a cut in the stone wall to the Glen Park area. In a short distance find your way across the brook on a bridge built by another scout as his Eagle project. (Jameson Harding did the bridge and his friends did the other trail markers).
- Walk up Barker Road through to Glen Park. There are picnic grounds here and the area is used for special events like the 4H fair.
Continue south to the stalls used for the livestock and head South along the tree line. - Turn East with the tree line and skirt around a field that holds the foundation to the old sheep shed.
Turn North with the tree line until you come to a cut in the stone wall. You will see a second kiosk for the trail. 
Once you have reached that, head back up the field and past the ball field until you come to the livestock stalls again. - Turn right down Barker Lane and retrace your steps across the bridge and out the stonewall cut to Glen Farm Road.
- As you head back, take a right turn through the barn complex.
From the 1880s to the 1950s, Gentleman Farmer H.A.C. Taylor, his son Moses Taylor and daughter-in-law Edith Taylor Nicholson raised championship horses, sheep and cows. Glen Farm was a self-sustaining farm with 25 families, its own electricity, telephone and fire department. This is still a working equestrian area, but you can carefully explore the barns. Most of the stone barns date from early 1900. - Follow the dirt road to the left to come back to Linden Lane at Red Cross House. This should take you back to the trailhead and parking.
Discover Your Portsmouth: Glen Barns
July 6, 2024
Portsmouth History Glen Barns Leave a comment
In 1989 the people of Portsmouth made a bold move. They voted to purchase the Glen Farm barns complex and what is now the Gardner Seveney Sports Fields. Together with the 1973 purchase of previous Glen Farm land around the Glen Manor House and Glen Park area, this gave the town a remarkable piece of open space for recreation. It also gave the town a special piece of Portsmouth history to enjoy and to preserve.
What were the beginnings of Henry Augustus Colt -“H.A.C.” Taylor’s famous Glen Farm? Taylor was one of the wealthy bankers and railroad owners who came to summer in Newport. The Vanderbilts and others had their Portsmouth farms, but Taylor was sincerely interested in breeding the best animals. On September 28, 1882 Halsey P. Coon sold his “Glen Farm” to H.A.C. Taylor. The land evidence records note that it was a parcel of land with “two dwelling houses, a grist mill, two barns, two cribs and other out buildings” The tract of land was about 111 acres of land. The “Glen” is a traditional name for the area and Taylor continued to call it “Glen Farm.” In the hands of the Taylor family, the farm grew in value, prestige and land area.
Below is an older birds eye view of the barn complex. Note some wooden barns have been torn down.
- Pump House: This was home to the equipment that pumped water from the stream to supply the farm with water.
- Stone Horse Barn: Built in 1911. During World War II the stalls were removed and it was outfitted as a field hospital.
- Silo: This stone silo is attached to the stone barn with a stone passageway. It was probably built before 1926. There was a wooden silo, too, but it has been removed.
- Stone Cow Barn: Built in 1907, this barn was for dairy cows. This is where the Glen dairy was located.
- Stone Bull Barn with Bull Pen: This barn is dated 1910. There was a fire in this barn in 1926, but no animals were injured.6. Frame Cow Barn: The is one of the oldest of the barns and is the model for the barn architecture.
- Frame Horse Barn: Built in 1902, this barn may have had a fire at the south end in the 1940’s.
- Tool House: Wooden barn built before 1907.
- Wagon Shed: Wooden structure built before 1907. The Wagon Shed has now been removed.
- Garage: Stone structure built after 1907. Held Taylor cars until a garage was constructed at Stanton Farm.
- Slocum-Cundall Cemetary: Slocum graves from 1713 on are on the northeast corner. Cundall stones beginning with Joseph in 1811 are on the west side. Slocums and Cundalls had mills in the Glen.
- Mill: This mill is in the same spot as the original grist mill. It was probably built on the old mill’s foundation and was used as the carpentry shop for Glen Farm. This building has been restored as a single family home.
The barns are arranged to provide courtyards of shelter from bad weather.
Discover Your Portsmouth: Leonard Brown House Area at Glen Farm
July 5, 2024
Farm Heritage, Glen Area, Portsmouth History, Portsmouth Landmarks, Stone walls, Whose Home Is It? Glen Farm 3 Comments
This blog is one of a series on historical and recreational lands owned by the Town of Portsmouth. We (the Portsmouth Conservation Commission and I) hope that October will be a month when Portsmouth residents will visit and enjoy the properties they own as taxpayers.
As you drive down Linden Lane through the Gardner Seveney Sports Complex, you will notice a golden yellow house at the end of the row of trees. This is the Brown House, the Leonard Brown House. It is newly restored and is the home of Portsmouth’s Parks and Recreation Department. It is a useful house, because twenty years ago an organization (Friends of Leonard Brown House) worked to save it and the town finished the process to restore it.
These recreational fields were once part of the property grants of John Cooke. It was passed down to Cook Wilcox who was part of Portsmouth’s militia in the Revolutionary War. After Wilcox died the property came into the ownership of Leonard Brown through his wife, Sarah Wilcox Brown.
Who was Leonard Brown? Brown was considered one of the best farmers in Portsmouth. He raised poultry and pigs and brought them to market in New Bedford. Along with farming, Brown served as a wheelwright and a blacksmith. Leonard Brown represents the Yankee farmers, the descendants of the original English settlers. Brown and the farmers like him were the backbone of Portsmouth. They served in political offices, farmed and were the skilled craftsmen of the town.
When Leonard Brown died in 1896, the Brown farm was sold to H.A.C. Taylor and became part of the Glen Farm. It was always painted yellow because the Taylor’s chose that color for their Glen Farm buildings.
Location: From East Main Road take a turn onto Linden Lane. There is a new traffic light at that corner. There is parking by the soccer fields to the right as you drive down Linden Lane and also parking by the Brown House.
Activities: For the casual walker or dog walker, Linden Lane is ideal. The trees provide shade in summer and the road is paved. The walk from the top of Linden Lane to the “Red Cross” house and back is a little over a mile. Right now you can watch the reconstruction of the stone walls along the way. The setting at Brown House – house, stone wall, flowers and trees – is ideal for sketching or painting.
Tracing the Last Days: Butts Hill Fort Ends Its Service
June 22, 2024
Portsmouth History Butts Hill Fort Leave a comment
What happened to Butts Hill Fort after the French left? I am re-exploring the timeline I originally wrote a couple of years ago. When I see references sited, I check them out. It is not that I don’t trust the historian, I do. However I like to see the primary source for myself. I am using a digital version of Rhode Island records. I’d like to thank Steve Luce of the Portsmouth Historical Society for giving me a way of searching the records.
“We, the subscribers, being appointed by the Honorable the General Assembly to point out the best measures for the defence of Rhode Island, do report: That it is necessary to have five platforms laid down at the fort at Easton’s Point; that there be immediately removed from Butts’s Hill, five eighteen-pound cannon, with their carriages, ammunition and apparatus, belonging to the same; and that there be a company, under the command of a captain, stationed in or near the said fort, where a constant and vigilant guard is to be kept.
We do further recommend that two field pieces be kept in the fort at Brenton’s Point, with proper ammunition; and a subaltern’s guard, composed of persons that understand the use of cannon, always to be on the ground. These, being supported by the garrison of Butts’s Hill, and occasional suecors from the main land, we doubt not will be able to repel any attack that may be made on Rhode Island in the present situation of the enemy.
We also recommend that the whole militia of the state be kept in readiness to march on the shortest notice; and that a conductor of military stores be appointed, to take charge of all the military stores on Rhode Island, and at Bristol and Tiverton.
All which is submitted by your Honors’ most obedient, humble servants,
JABEZ BOWEN, THOMAS HOLDEN, JOHN COOKE, THOMAS TILLINGHAST.
JOSEPH BROWN,
Newport, August 25, 1781.”
The suggestion was accepted so Rhode Island Records state:
“And the said report being duly considered,
It is voted and resolved, that the quartermaster immediately hire a sufficient number of teams to remove five eighteen-pound cannon, with their carriages, necessary ammunition and apparatus, from Butts’s Hill, to be placed in the fort at Easton’s Point, agreeable to the report of the committee appointed to advise the best measures for the defence of Rhode Island; and that in case he cannot hire, to impress the same. “
The garrison at Butts Hill Fort and the equipment at the fort were being assigned elsewhere as the threat seemed to come more from the South toward Newport than to North Portsmouth.
Discover Your Portsmouth: Melville Park
June 15, 2024
Portsmouth History Melville 1 Comment
It has been a while since I hiked in the Melville Park Recreation Area, but I intend to go back. My favorite parts of the trail were viewing the waterfall and hopping across concrete circles across a water way. The trails are considered “Easy” but I would carry a walking stick to keep me steady. There are three miles of trails – designated as Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow and Red. The Blue Trail was first created by Boy Scouts and goes around Lower Melville Pond and takes you closest to the Narragansett Bay. It includes picnic tables.
What to do: Hiking, birding, wildflower viewing. Dogs are welcome on leashes.
How to get there: 181 Bradford Avenue in Portsmouth. West Main Road to Bradford – go past the Camp Grounds and Dog Park to a small parking lot for the Trailhead.
Melville Park chair Stephen Luce provides some background:
“Melville Park certainly does have much unique and interesting history. Part, but not all of it, was included in the 100 acre grant to Adam Mott Sr. in 1640. He called his estate ‘Matapurcetti’ in his will of 1661. That name has recently been granted by the Town Council for the brook that runs through the Park.. Also, the cellar hole by one of the trails is not the original Adam Mott home that was dismantled in the 1970’s. That extant cellar hole is from a house built post 1670 by one of the Jacob Motts. Additionally, the U.S. government already owned much of what is today Melville Park prior to WWII. For example, they owned the land where the tall water tower/standpipe stands. That water tower was built by the government to provide water to the steam ships that came to the Bradford Coaling Station. The brook also provided the water for Lovell Hospital during the Civil War. The federal government transferred ownership to Portsmouth in 1978.”
Before World War II the area was cleared agricultural land, but it was taken by the US Government for military purposes.
According to Melville Park Vice President Ed Rizy: “A waterway transiting the area, long used by farmers, was expanded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) into a nine-pond system, two large reservoirs and seven intervening ponds, including one previously built by locals. The seven smaller ponds are believed to be silt traps removing detritus that could significantly reduce the lowest pond. The government’s estimates of pond capacities in 1942 were about 125,000 gallons for the upper and lower ponds, with the intervening ponds varying from 15,000 to 22,000 gallons each. The pond dams used to contain WPA medallions, all of which have been removed.”
In the 1970s, the Navy transferred ownership to the Town of Portsmouth. Melville Park was created for passive recreation.
Resources:
Howland Ferry Area- Beginning and End
June 13, 2024
Ferries, Portsmouth History, Revolutionary War Battle of Rhode Island, Lafayette Leave a comment
Howland Ferry was an important entry and exit point for the Rhode Island Campaign, but I haven’t spent much time researching what happened there. Today our eyes are on the relic of the Stone Bridge and it is hard to imagine the Revolutionary site.
In colonial times the main roads in Portsmouth led to the ferry landings. What we call East Main Road was known as the Path to Howland’s Ferry. This site is one of the narrowest points on the Sakonnet River between Tiverton and Portsmouth. Use of this land as a ferry landing may date back to 1640. The name Howland Ferry comes from the family that ran it between 1703 to the British Invasion in 1776. Howland’s Ferry played an important part during the Battle of Rhode Island. American forces used the location to pour onto Aquidneck Island to fight the British who occupied it. When they were forced to retreat, many of the American forces used that route to make their escape.
Arranging for transportation for thousands of soldiers from Tiverton to Portsmouth was a major undertaking. The British knew an American invasion would be coming, so they had already destroyed many of the flatboat boats the Americans had constructed in the Fall River area. The Americans had to secure the wood mills in Fall River and Tiverton to rebuild the flatboats that would be needed. Silas Talbot oversaw the building of 85 flatboats. Every carpenter in the army was put to work and every piece of boards and plankings in the area were used to make the transport boats. General Sullivan called out to New England mariners to come and operate the flatboats. On August 9, 1778 Howland Ferry was teeming with boats shuttling Americans to Portsmouth.
The path to Howland’s Ferry was the escape route when the Americans had to evacuate on August 29th and 30th because the French had left. According to Christian McBurney, Captain Samuel Flagg of Salem and the boatmen from Salem, Marblehead and other New England towns worked day and night to ferry equipment and men off the island. William Whipple and Jeremiah Olney of the 2nd Rhode Island oversaw the embarkation. After the retreat John Laurens wrote – .”.we had a water passage of 1/4 mile to cross from the island to the main – a vast quantity of stores, heavy baggage, ammunition and cannon to transport. You will be filled with admiration at learning that the retreat was effected without the loss of a single man or even an entrenching tool”. Silas Talbot and John Laurens were among those holding off the British to give the Americans more time to retreat. At 11 PM Lafayette arrived from meeting with the French in Boston. He had taken the 70 mile journey and was disappointed that he had missed the action. Lafayette did have a role in bringing the piquets off the Island.
I have many questions about the preparation of the flatboats and Silas Talbot’s role. A biography I have of Talbot doesn’t even mention his supervision of the boat construction. In many ways this successful retreat was one of the most amazing parts of the Campaign and showed the professionalism of the budding American Army.
Discover Your Portsmouth: Town Pond
June 4, 2024
Portsmouth History Discovering Your Portsmouth, Town Pond Leave a comment
Portsmouth has a unique history and we are fortunate to have historical landscapes that remind us of our history. It is import for us to preserve and enjoy these landscapes that are town owned. I am working on a driving guide for these places, so my next few blogs will focus on them.
Town Pond.
The Town Pond area was important to the early settlers of Portsmouth. They landed near the area in 1638 when they first settled the area. The pond allowed entry to the settlement area from Narragansett Bay and it was close to a brook for drinkable water and a cove for entry to the Sakonnet River. It was a salt (tidal pond) until 1949. At that time it was filled with dredged material and became a mudflat. With the help of Senator John Chafee, Congress authorized a “Narragansett Bay Ecosystem Restoration Study” that included restoration of the pond. The work of restoring the pond took 3 years (2005 to 2008).
Location: There is a parking lot off of Anthony Road near Boyd’s Lane.
Activities: You can walk along the pond to the shore. There are beautiful views for photography around the railroad bridge. You might imagine what the pond looked like in colonial days.
portsmouthhistorynotes 