Rhode Island's Great Road

I'll write more about this road in my RoadLog blog, but for right now, I'll give a short history of it here since I mentioned that the Hearthside House is located on the Great Road.

The Great Road was a major transportation route through the Blackstone River Valley until the early 1800s with the completion of the Louisquisett Pike and Blackstone Canal took away much of its traffic.

It connected Rhode Island with Massachusetts, to the north.

Several small mills operated along it, but the limited power of the Moshassuek River prevented the development of larger mills like those along the Blackstone River. The Great Road remained an agricultural area until well into the 1900s.

The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor has a driving tour guide of it "Great Road-- Lincoln, Rhode Island-- Travel Through Three Hundred Years In Three Miles.". The road dates to 1683 and would definitely have been used during the War of 1812.

Oh, That Great Road. --Brock-Perry

Lincoln, Rhode Island

From Wikipedia.

I was wondering how a Rhode Island town came to be named Lincoln since the man did not become president until considerably after the colony and state of Rhode Island was founded. This town is where the Hearthside House is located and I have written a lot about it and its connection to the bell of the HMS Guerrire this past week.

The town is located in Providence County and has a population of 21,105 and is north of the city of Providence.

It was settled in the 17th century and several colonial stone-enders are still located there. (In case you're wondering, a stone-ender is a house with one wall made up entirely of a chimney, a unique style of architecture to Rhode Island.)

Limestone quarrying was a big early industry.

To answer the Lincoln question, it was part of the town of Smithville until 1871 when the town split off and was named for President Lincoln.

It was an important mill town in the late 19th century with many of them located along the Blackstone River.

Lincoln was recently ranked #63 in Money Magazine's "Best Places to Live" list.

Now You Know Lincoln, Rhode Island.  --Brock-Perry

Some More on the HMS Guerriere Bell-- Part 1

From the USS Constitution Museum.

Tradition has it that the HMS Guerriere's bell was removed from the ship on August 19, 1812, to replace the Constitution's bell which had been destroyed in the battle.

A story in the Boston Daily Advertiser in 1897 claimed the bell "was sold among a lot of condemned naval stores between 1812 and 1816. The purchaser was S.H. Smith, who took it to Providence [RI] and placed it in the belfry of the factory in Lincoln [the 'Butterfly' cotton mill in Saylesville, RI, built around 1815] where it hangs today."

Other sources say the bell was removed from the USS Constitution in 1835 during a complete refit, but there are no documents to confirm it.

Doing Some History Sleuthing. --Brock-Perry

Rhode Island's Hearthside House: The House That Love Built-- Part 2

According to folklore, Stephen Hopkins Smith, a Quaker from a prominent agricultural family in Lincoln, Rhode Island, lived a simple life as a good Quaker should, but also circulated in social circles of the rich and famous as far away as Providence.

During this time, he met the love of his life, a socialite. She told him that he certainly was handsome, but she wanted to marrry a rich man so she could live a life of wealth. Poor Stephen Smith was not that. And that should have been that If a girl is going to be like that, best to leave her well enough alone.

The story goes on that he won $40,000 in a lottery, the equivalent of $8,600,000 today, and kept the winnings secret but had the mansion (now called Hearthside) built to sweep the love of his life off her feet.

When the home was finished, he went to Providence to take her on a horse and buggy ride along the Great Road. Not knowing the mansion was Stephen's, she was amazed with its beauty but added who would want to live so far out in the wilderness. Heartbroken, Stephen drove her back to Providence and (wisely) never saw her again.

What We Could Say About That Girl. --Brock-Perry

HMS Guerriere Bell on Display in Rhode Island-- Part 1

From the September 4, 2012, (Providence, R.I.) Valley Breeze " "Ship's Bell from War of 1812 on display at Hearthstone this weekend" by Marcia Green.

The bell is from the HMS Guerriere, involved in the famous fight with the USS Constitution, is on loan for a month from the USS Constitution Museum. It will be on exhibit at the Hearthside Museum in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

The bell was taken in the battle on August 18, 1812, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Newfoundland. It and a scale model of the USS Constitution arrived at the Hearthstone.

The Heartstone has three connections to the Guerriere's bell, which is larger than most ship's bells from the era and made out of bronze instead of the usual brass. Many consider a ship's bell as the heart of the ship.

More to Come. --Brock-Perry