87 (&mu\\ Utttotjsitg Jilrt^tg THE GIFT OF .^. m......itttVt:v<... Ar a^ofcofc-s \s;[.\.f>X.s..%sxL, 453. Comell University Library F 87B6 L78 olin 3 1924 028 852 022 OLIN LIBRARY - CIRCULATION DATE DUE PRS . ...^ lUd Mioasa^ ■■ u^ itH^^^t^ -<_., CATLOnO PHINTKDINU.t.A. The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028852022 1/. tiCh'-vlAJ » i» » » 4* ¥ » » \hE BERMUDA OF THE NORTH LIVERMORE'S lUustratcd Bloch Island «• ¥ » * ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ; ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ^ Latest Edition BROUGHT DOWN TO DATE REVISED AND EDITED BY CHAS. E. PERRY FOR SALE BY C. C. BALL, BLOCK ISLAND, R. I. « PRICE 25 CENTS. C. C. BALL'S 5T0RE. The Largest Store and Best Assortment on the Island. DRY AND FANCY GOODS, GROCERIES AND MEATS, Always in large supply at lowest prices. Ladies', Gent's, atid Misses' BATHING SUITS AND SUMMER SHOES, Of all descriptions. HATS' CAPS, AND GENT'S FURNISHINGS. Yachting Caps a Specialty. Sole Agent at Block Island for MILLARD'S AND OTHER HNE NEW YORK CANDIES, Received weekly. A full line of TOBACCO, PIPES, CIGARS AND QGARETTES, Fruits and Nuts Constantly on Hand. California Fruit Received Almost Daily. Agent for ADAMS EXPRESS CO., Also for Butman & Tucker's Steam Laundry, Providence. Block Island Maps and Guide Books. A New Line of Souvenirs of Block Island. Large Assortment of Novels, Stationery, etc. Examine our new line of Souvenirs, with Block Island views, just received direct from Germany. Souvenir Spoons of Block Island. Tickets Bought, Sold and Exchanged. C. C. BALL. BLOCK ISLAND AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, MAP AND GUIDE BY REV. S. T. LIVERMORE, A. M. REVISED AND BROUGHT DOWN TO DATE I 90 I A LARGE NUMBER OF ILLUSTRATIONS, AND A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF NEW READING MATTER, METEOROLOGICAL DATA, ETC., HAVE BEEN ADDED Edited by CHAS. E. PERRY Published for C. C' BALL By Snow & F A R N H A M Printers, Providence, R. I. K-%OQ,0(^% Copyrighted By CASSIUS C. BALL, 1901. INDEX. Aborigines, . Page. 47 Grove Point, Page . 26 Arrests, 60 Golden Grove — brig. 100 Bay, Block Island, 42 Harbor, . 20 Bathing Beach, . 3! Harbor Hill, . 22 Breach, The, 42 Harbors, . 75 Briton's Rock, 41 Harbor Pond, . 36 Beacon Hill, 24 Hostilities, 52 Block Island Sound, 41 " Indian, . 53 " French, 55 Cemetery, The, 30 " English, . 53 Centre, The, 22 Hotels, 9 Cow Cove, . Clay Head, . Churches, . . . . 41 26 120 Inhabitants, . Indian-Head Neck, 50 . 27 Charlestown Wreck — poetry, Chagum Pond, CaB, First Minister's, . Chapel, 114 34 121 125 Life Saving Stations, Light Houses, liibrary, Legends, 12 9 119 88 Danielson, G. AY — steamer. 12 Location, 46 Dorry's Cove, Discovery, . . . . Dancing Mortar, . 43 46 89 Meeting Houses, Mohegan Bluffs, . Mails, 123 23 13 J'ort Island, .... 28 Mortar, 89 Fog Signal, . U Mill Pond, . . 37 Fresh Pond, . 34 Middle Pond, 35 Fisheries, .... 65 Moluncus — ^brig; . . 82 French, The, 55 Messer, Laura E., . 85 Grace's Cove, 43 Mays, The, . . 84 Great Pond, 32 Names of the Island, . 48 Greene, Gen. Nath'l, . 65 (3 ^ INDEX Page. Old Harbor, . - • • 42 Phrases, Sailor, ... 74 President Grant's Visit, . 120 Phantom Ship, • ■ 106 Palatine Legend, . . .92 Poetry, • .106 Pleasure Fishing, ... 38 Products, . . . .49 Possession, ... 57 Petition to R. I. Assembly, . .'57 Palmer, Rev. A. G., D.D , 106 Revolutionary, . ■ 58 Refugees, . • . .61 Sandy Hill, .... 25 Sandy Point, . . .26 Settlers, landing of, . 48 1 Sound, Block Island, Signal Station, Schools, Sands Pond, Surface, Springs, Steamer, First, Tempest, Sudden, Trimra's Pond, Whittier, Willey, Dr., Wrecks, Wrecking, . War of 1812, Whales, Warrior, wrecked, Williams, Roger, Page. 41 14 119 34 49 38 12 71 37 101 96 78 84 63 73 80 120 SUPPLEMENTARY INDEX. Average Temperature . . 137 Block Island Cottages . 44 Block Island, from June to September . . .141 Chronological History 154 Climatic Conditions . 149 Communications . 147 Distances from Block Island 135 Episcopal Chapel ]23 Hon. Nicholas Ball . lol Lite Saving Station . 149 Local Distances . 133 JIails ■. . 137 Places of interest 145 Quotation from Dana 8 Recent Wrecks . 1.32 Revised Map 7 Secret Societies . 137 Telephone Service 141 The Inlet 132 The New Boat . 148 The New Harbor 140 Travelling Accommodations on the Island . 141 Wharf Improved 1.37 PREFACE. In 1877, Rev. S. T. Livermore, at that time pastor of the Baptist Church at Block Island, published a history of Block Island, now out of print. Mr. Livermore was a gentleroan of liberal education and broad culture, and was gifted with a mind of that order which not only delights in the investigation of the rec(jrds, traditions, legends and myths of the past, but is able to sift evidence and to decide whether a story is only a charming bit of fiction or has a germ of truth which will repay investigation. After a residence of four winters and three summers at Block Island, and a careful study of the old town records, of private papers, long conversations with the oldest residents, and a search among the records of other towns for facts bearing on the subject, he published his original work. Subsequently he published an abridged edition of this work, with a map, revising it from time to time up to the time of his death. The plates have been purchased by Mr. C. C. Ball, of the Island, and the book has been brought up to the present time, 1901, by the addition of several pages of new matter. The value of the book has also been much enhanced by the insertion of a number of new cuts. This revision has been carefully and thor- oughly done under the editorship of Mr. Charles E. Perry, and it is believed that the new matter alone is well worth the price charged for the book. June, 1901. The Island lies nine leagues away, Along its solitary sliore, Of oi-agg3' rook and sandy bay, No sound but ocean's roar. Save where the bold, wild sea-bird makes her home, Her shrill cry coming tlirongh the sparkling foam. NEAR THE HARBOR. But when the light winds lie at rest, And on the glassy, heaving sea. The black duck, with her glossy breast. Sits swinging silently, How beautiful ! No ripples break the reach. And silvery waves go noiseless up the beach. — li. II. Dana. BLOCK ISLAND. HOTELS. The first hotel for boarders from abroad was opened in 1842 by Mr. Alfred Card, one hundred and eighty years from the first settlement by sixteen families. It stood where the Adrian House is now located. There Mr. Card "set the first excursion table for boarders of pleasure" ever furnished on the Island. His first party consisted of seven men from Newport, one of whom was Mr. Van Buren. They remained two days, and " they were the first party that ever employed, at Block Island, a boat and boat- men to carry them a fishing." Mr. Card says, — " John L. Mitchell and Samuel W. Eose carried them out." Fifteen years afterwards, in 1857, there were three hotels for the accommodation of visitors and boarders. These would lodge about one hundred. Since then they have in- creased in number and capacity until Block Island, as a summer resort, ranks among the first in popularity on the coast of the Atlantic. LIGHT HOUSES. The first Light Ilouftp on Block Island was located on Sandy Point, the northerly extremity, and was erected by the Government in the year 1829. Its keeper was Wilham Weeden, previously of Jamestown, R. I. It was serviceable less than ten years. The second light-house was built upon the same point, in 1837. It was a substantial building, located in a less ex- 10 HISTOHY OP BLOCK ISLAND. posed position than was the first, farther inland. It had two towers, and its lights were exposed from them by par- abolic reflectors. Mr. W. A. Weeden was its keeper until 1839, when he resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Simeon Babcock, who was succeeded in 1841 by Mr. Edward Mott by appointment of President Harrison. This house served about twenty years. The third light-house was erected on the point in 1851, was kept by Mr. E. Mott. This house stood the storms about ten years only. These three houses, all built within thirty years, were rendered useless by the shifting sands on which they were located. The fourth liijht-house, and the one now in use on Sandy Point, was built in 1867. It is stone, well built, and pro- tected so as to give promise of long and valuable service. Mr. Hiram D. Ball, brother of the proprietor of the Ocean View Hotel on the Island has kept the lights on the Point since 1861, then appointed by President Lincoln. This last light-house is a favorite resort of visitors who reach it by the Neck Road from the Harbor, and by Main Street and Cemetery Street. The new light-house is situated on the south-east corner of the Island which is triangular in form, as described by its first discoverer in 1524. At that angle the land is elevated, and the hght conspicuous far at sea. It stands on a bluff one hundred and twenty-feet above mean low-water. Its lant- ern is fifty-two feet above the ground, and two hundred and four feet above the sea. It is of brick, and was erected in the summer of 1874 by Mr. L. H. Tynan, of Staten Island, at a cost of $75,000. The glass of the lantern cost the Govern- ment $10,000, and consists mainly of prismatic lenses scientifically arranged to produce the best effect. Six per- sons at the same time can stand within this lantern. It has been seen thirty-five miles, and was first lighted February ^4 o o o 2 13 o THE FOG SIGNAL. 11 1, 1875. It consumes one thousand gallons of oil annually, burning four circular wicks, one within another, the largest about three and a half inches in diameter, the least seven- eighths inches in diameter. Aside from the attractions of the new light-house itself, whose first keeper was Mr. H. W. Clark, whose courtesy to thousands of visitors is remembered witli pleasure, the landscape scenery there, and while going and coming, and the extensive view out upon the ocean well repay the visit- ors. The route there from the harbor is southerly, up High Street and by Dodge Street nearly to Sands Pond, thence easterly by cart track and gates across several farms. Dis- tance from the harbor about three miles, and a good road most of the way. The light-house stands near the place wliei-e the Mohegan captives were starved by the Mani- se.xn3, long before the Island was settled by the English. There Mr. Clark has charge of the Light, the Fog Signal, and the Storm Signals. THE FOG SIGNAL. This, as well as the light-houses and life-saving stations, IS a Government institution, and is connected with the new light-house, separated from it about one hundred feet. It is under the superintendence of the keeper of the light-house, and is blown to warn mariners to avoid the Island in fogs and storms when the light is of little avail. It is sounded by the steam of a four-horse power engine, two of such being kept in readiness for service. The sound is made in immense trumpets, directed towards the sea, seventeen feet long, of cast metal. The trumpet does not make, but directs the sound which originates from the siren, or buzz in the small end of the trumpet, the larger end of which IS about five feet in diameter. The siren, made of brass, strong, is struck by the current of steam and made to re- volve with so great velocity as to make the sound that goes 12 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. out througli the fogs and storms over the sea to warn the mariner of his approach to danger. "Whoever stands near that fog-horn when sounding will not be surprised that ships are frightened away. It once made a deaf mute jump and run for dear life. LIFE-SAVINO STATIONS. Two of these are upon the Island, one at the harbor, and the other at Cooneymus, on the west side. The former was established in 1872, at an expense of about $2,000, including "gear," and the latter at greater expense was erected in 1874. Each accommodates seven expert sailors, one of them being captain, and they patrol the shores each night through the winter, Avatching for vessels in distress. These stations are furnished with cooking-stoves, tables, dormitories, beds, and the best modern appliances for sav- ing those in peril, on the sea, near the shore. Annual ex- pense about $3,000. FIRST STEAMEK. The first permanent Block Island steamer, the George W. Danielson, built by the Block Island Steamboat Company, was launched at Mystic, Conn., in May, 1 880. Her first trip on her regular line from Block Island to Newport and Providence was made June 15, 1880, and it was one of the great events of the Island when she took the place of the Island schooners and of the frail masted open boats in which passengers were exposed to all sorts of weather, to head winds and to calms. She was built with special re- ference to the heavy seas of winter and the comfort of pleasure-seekers in summer. She has proved herself very staunch and convenient. Her masts not only add to her speed, but are a means of safety in case of failure in her machinery. She is manned by the best of sailors. Her commander, Captain George W. Conley, a christian gen- THE MAILS OF BLOCK ISLAND. 13 tleinan of great experience at sea, formerly master of a first-class coaster, is cautious, brave, and strictly tem- perate. No better man could be found for his position. In 1885, mostly in the summer, the G. W. Danielson carried about 10,000 passengers. She carries the mail between Providence, Newport, and Block Island. THE MAILS OF BLOCK ISLAND. One hundred and seventy years after Block Island was colonized by setibrs from Massachusetts its first regular mail was established. Previous to that letters reached its inhabitants through the post-ofEc.e at Newport, and the letters from the Island were mailed at various places visited by the Islanders while marketing their fish and produce. Their first post-master, William L. Wright, was appointed December 13, 1832, and his office was his bed-room. From that date up to 1876 the arrival of the mail was the great event of the Island. Then news by letters and papers was fresh "from America.'' As the mail was opened a circle of faces gathered around, and by a custom kept up more than forty years the whole Island was duly informed of the arrival of each letter, whether of love or business. For the postmaster proclaimed to the anxious listeners the name of each person addressed, and his hearers from all parts of the Island carried home and reported the news of the last arrivals. It was customary for one neighbor to answer for several others who were absent from the calls of the postmaster at the distribution. The first cuniractor for carrying the Block Island mail was Captain Samuel W. Rose, on a salary of $4 1 6 a year, leaving the Island on Wednesday morning at eight o'clock, 14 HISTOHY OF BLOCK ISLAND. and returning from Newport at the same hour on Thurs- day. Captain Rose was succeeded by his son Captain John E. Rose, who, rather than be underbid by his competitor, contracted to carry the mail to Newport for one cent a year, and after four years of faithful service to the Government he had received only one cent of the four due, and that one was paid by a Providence gentleman who wanted the honor of paying from his own pocket the whole expense of carry- ing the Block Island mail one year. Now, in summer, the mails are daily, and part of the time several each day, and the Islanders, by their own steamer and telegraph, are thoroughly identified with olher nations. THE SIGNAL STATION. This, like the Wolf Head Light off Land's End, has con- verted a place of former disaster into a means of safety. That light is founded upon a sunken rock which rises in deep water like a tower to the surface in low tide, and for centuries was the terror of all navigators of the English Channel. Now it supports the most valuable beacon of the channel. So Block Island, on which hosts of wrecks have occurred, now atones for her past offences by displaying signals of warning to the vast processions of vessels almost constantly in sight of her shores. The establishment of this station was an event of so much importance to the public and to the Island that a re- cord of its incipient steps is here deemed appropriate, the enterprise, like that of securing the Breakwater and the Life Saving Stations, and the New Light-House, originat- ing on the Island. The following letter, with accompanying petition, was for- warded to various commercial houses and cities along the Atlantic coast, and to the Chamber of Commerce, New York, besides to various boards of trade : — THE SIGNAL STATION. 15 Block Island, R. I., Oct. 20, ISTS. I wish to call your attention to the benefits to be derived from a Signal Station located upon this Island. The Station would probably be where the New Light now is, upon the southern bluffs of the Island. There are fre- quently 200 sail of vessels passing near these bluffs at one time, and there is no place on our whole Atlantic coast more exposed, or where the signal of foul or fair weather would be greeted by so many vessels. The cable, necessarily connected with it, might be used, in addition to its regular despatches, for the purpose of telegraphing news of vessels bound in or out, wrecks or disabled vessels, and such other news as would.be of na- tional interest. It also would be of local value, so much so as to probably be self-sustaining. Again : Since the Government Breakwater has been con- structed, the fishing interests have grown largely, so that during the fishing seasons of Spring and Autumn, a himd red or more fishing crafts are about the Island. To them the Signal would be of great value. In view of the above facts, will you please take some in- terest in having the inclosed petition signed by the com- mercial men in your city and then forward it directly to the Representative in Congress for your district ? Respectfully yours, NICHOLAS BALL. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled. We, the undersigned, who have a special interest in the shipping business transacted along the whole Atlantic Coast, do hereby petition the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States for the establish- ment of a Signal Station on Block Island, to be connected with the main shore by a telegraphic cable. The cost of such a station and cable would be but little compared with their great importance to the commerce of the country ; and we are assured that their necessity has already been recognized by various officials of the Govern- ment, among whom may be mentioned the distinguished President of the Light House Board, Professor Joseph Henry. 16 history of block island. Chamber of Commekce of the State of New York, New York, Nov. 5, 1875. Nicholas Ball, Esq., — Dear Sir, — Your note of the 20tli ult., with the enclosed Memorial to Congress in regard to the establishment of a Signal Station on Block Island, was submitted to the Cham- bej- of Commerce at its meeting yesterday, and referred for report to its Committee on Commerce and Revenue Laws. Your obedient servant, GEORGE WILSON^, Secretary Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York, Dec. 7, 1875. Dear Sir, — The petition to Congress for the establish- ment of a Signal Station on Block Island was unanimously approved by the Chamber of Commerce, at its meeting on Thursday last, and ordered to be transmitted to that body. In addition to the signatiire of the President of the Chamber to the petition, we have obtained the names of the Presidents of all the Marine Insurance Companies of this city, and of the leading shipping merchants engaged in the eastern trade. Your obedient servant, GEORGE WILSON, Secretary. Nicholas Ball, Esq. Chamber op Commerce of the State of New York, New York, Dec. 10, 1875. Dear Sir. — In response to your request of the 6th inst., I enclose herewith a copy of the proceedings of the Cham- ber at a meeting held on the '2d inst., relative to the estab- lishment of a Signal Station on Block Island. Your obedient servant, GEORGE WILSON, Secretary. Nicholas Ball, Esq. THE SIGNAL STATION. 17 Extract Irom proceedings of the Chamber of Comaorce, New York, at its monthly meeting, held December 2, 1875 : — The regular monthly meeting of the Chamber of Com- merce was held Thursday, Dec. 2, 1875, at one o'clock, P.M., at the rooms of the Chamber, No. 63 William St. Present : Samuel D. Babcock, Esq., and a quorum of members. sH ^ 4: 4: 4! :K 4: Mr. James W. Elwell, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Commerce and the Revenue Laws, to whom was referred at the last meeting of the Chamber the communi- cation of Mr. Nicholas Ball, with the accompanying petition to Congress for the establishment of a Signal Station on Block Island, submitted a report on the subject, which was unanimously adopted and ordered to be placed on file, and the petition forwarded to Congress as recommended by the Committee. [Attest.] GEORGE WILSON, Secretary. (4 copy of the Report and Memorial are appended lierewith,') To the Chamber of Commerce : Your Committee on Foreign Commerce and the Revenue Laws, to whom was referred for consideration at the last meeting of the Chamber the communication of Mr. Nicho- las Ball, with the accompanying petition to Congress for the establishment of a Signal Station on Block Island, beg leave to report, — That the subject has received their careful attention, and the Committee are of the opinion that the establishment of such Signal Station is a necessity, and would be of great benefit to the commerce of the country. The Committee, in response to the request of Mr. Ball, have obtained the signatures of the President of the Chamber, the Presidents of all the Marine Insurance Companies, and of the principal shipping houses of the city, to the petition which they now submit for approval and presentation to Congress. JAMES W. ELWELL, Chairman. New York, Dec 1, 1875. [A true copy.] GEORGE WILSON, Secretary. 18 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. THE CHAMBEK OF COMMERCE OF THE STATE OF NEW YOEK, By Samuel D. Babcock, President. JOHN D. JONES, Pres. Atlantic Mutual li,s. Co. F. S. LATHROP, Pres. Union Mutual Ins. Co. F. B. BLEECKEH, Jr., V. P. New Yo)k Mutual Ins. Co. ALFRED OGDEN, V. P. Orient Mutual Ins. Co. ALEX. MACKAY, K P. Gnat Western Ins. Co. J. P. PAULISON, Pres. Sun Mutual Ins. Co. JNO. K. MYERS, Pres. Pacific Mutual Ins. Co. DANIEL DRAKE SMITH, Pres. Commercial Mutual Ins. Co, ELWOOD WALTER, Pres. i/ercantile Mutual Ins. Co. JAS. W. ELWELL & CO., Shipping Agents and Owners. MURRAY, FERRIS & CO., Agts. N. Y. ^ Sav., A'as. ^- Piov. Lines. SNOW & BURGESS, Agents Sf Owners. OELRICliS & CO., Agents Bremen Line. BORDEN ftLOVELL, New York. OLD COLONY STEAMBOAT CO., per Borden Sf Lovell, New Y(yrk. FALL RIVER PROPELLER LINE, (iro. Ketcham, Agent, R. LOWDEN, Agent Blade Star Line nf Steamships. [A true copy.] GEOEGB WILSON, Secrelary. Office of the Boston & Philadelphia Steamships, Boston, Deo. 29, 1875. Me. Nicholas Ball, — Dear Kir, — Yours of the 27tli received. The petition which you sent me has been signed by the agents of our Southern coastwise steam hnes, and nearly all our Marine Insurance companies. Yours truly, E. B. SAMPSON, Agent. N^i the signal station. 19 Washington, D. C, Nov. 24, 1875. Mk. Nicholas Ball, — Sir, — Your papers relating to the establishment of a Signal Service Station on Block Island having been referred to me, I will be glad to have you furnish me with a map or drawing showing in detail the position of the Island to the main land, and the various distances, so that I can calculate the amount of cable required to connect them. Very respectfully, H. H. C. DUX WOODY, \st Lieut. Fourth U. S. Artillery. Office of Chief Signal Officer A. S. 0., Washinijlon. Office of the Chikf Signal Officer, Washington, D. C, Nov. 29, 1875. Mk. Nicholas Ball, — .SV)-, — Your communication relative to the establishment of a Cautionary Signal Station at Block Island has been care^ily considered by the Chief Signal Officer, who directs me to say that he regards the location as one which would doubtless prove of particular value as a Signal Station to both the shipping interests and the Signal Service. The Charts showing the coast line in the vicinity of Block Island have been examined with a view of supplying you with an approximate estimate of the expense of secur- ing telegraphic communication with the Island. The near, est direct line to the mam land passes from the north ex- tremity of the Island to a point about midway between Judith Point and Noys Point, a distance a httle less than ten miles. From cable landing to the railroad, where it is presumed telegraphic connection may be made, is about five miles more, and with the five miles of wire on the Island, will require for the entire line, ten miles of cable at SIOOO per mile, and say, twelve miles of wire at from §100 to S150 per mile. Very respectfully, H. H. C. DUN WOODY, Lieut. A. S. 0. and Asst. 20 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. The desired appropriation of $15,000 was made by Congress Dec. 19, 1879, and the cable was laid April 25, 1880, superintended by Lieut. James A. Swift, of the Signal Service, at the conclusion of which the Hon. Nicho- las Ball delivered a brief and appropriate address to his fel- low townsmen. Sergt. V/m. Davis, of the Signal Corps U. S. A., arrived upon the Island July 7th under orders from the Department to establish a full Meteorological Station, and on the 1 8th of July opened direct communication with Point Judith and Narragansett Pier, R. I. His first message was sent to Providence by Mr. C. E. Perry of the Island, and the first one received was from Capt. John E. Eose, also an Islander then at Narragansett Pier. The ofiice was opened in the store of Mr. J. T. Dodge, at the Harbor. On the first of Sept., 1880, Sergt. Davis began taking and send- ing weather observations to the Department at Washington, D. C. On the 11th of March, 1881, the Block Island cable parted — cause unknown. This Station displays its Signals on Harbor Hill, and at the New Light House, with which it has connection by telephone, and also with the Life Saving Station at the Harbor. This telegraphic communication is of great value to sum- mer guests, especially to business men, who can now regu- late their visits by their knowledge of daily affairs at home. Yachting parties and all classes now can report arrivals and departures and other matters without delay. THE HARBOR. This is to Block Island what Liverpool is to England. It is almost a village. Here for centuries the treasures of the deep have been landed for the support of successive generations of the inhabitants. Here the old fishermen look with tearful eyes upon a few relics of the past and sigh over the encroachments of modern inventions. Here THE HARBOR. 21 from cMdliood they have gone up and down the banks in the steps of their forefatliers, have counted and dressed their fish as they did, and thence have wended their weary way homeward. Here they have enjoyed an excite- ment that could well dispense with the theater, the club- room, the rat-pits of cities, the race course and the regatta. Here, in spring, fall, and winter their fishing ileet have been launched and moored. Here many a race homeward has been sailed — not for a cup of gold, but for dear life, with a crowd of kindred upon the shore to rejoice over the safe landing of those pursued by the violent tempest. Now, in summer, all is changed, as by the turn of the kaleido:cope. The fifteen-hundred -feet Government Break- water, the wharf, the many steamers arriving and depart- ing, with bells ringing and whistles blowing, the crowds of visitors coming and going, the rustling of silks and wav- ing of white handkerchiefs from the high decks, the car- riages now passing and repassing where the old fish houses once stood, the zealous information from the employees of a dozen hotels, the yachting parties hoisting sail, or coming into the basin, fishing parties arranging for "the banks," and the Island '■ High-hook " men exhibiting their twelve hundred blue fish just caught in their seine, while others with a less number taken with a troll are furnishing mater- ials for the hotel tables, while the Bathing Beach is alive — all of this is a glimpse of the Harbor, near which are most of the hotels for summer visitors. At the Harbor are stores, mechanic shops, the post ofiice, the signal station and telegraph, halls, and saloons, life sav- ing station, etc. Here nearly all the shipping of the Island is transacted, and here a chapel for accommodation of summer visitors is built. 'i'i HISTOEY OF BLOCK ISLAND. THE CENTER. This is located about a mile west of the Harbor. Here the people from all parts of the Island come for various purposes. The stores here do a large business. One of them, as well as one at the harbor, is an ornament to the Island, and attractive to visitors. At the Center are the town hall, the high school, the library, and the First Baptist Church. Here, too, is the old wind mill that has done good service since 1815 with its four arms, each thirty feet long, and here the people of the West Side market their fish, produce, eggs, poultry, sea-moss, etc. The Centre may be visited directly from the harbor by Main Street, or by a drive down the Neck Road to Ceme- tery Street, and thence by the (Jreat Pond and the Ceme- tery ; or by High Street to Dodga Street, thence by Dodge Street to Coe's Gate, thence by cart track to the F^esh Pond, and thence by Centre Street to the Center. This last route affords very fine landscape, and distant water views. HARBOE EILL. But a part of this once-noted hill now remains. It is in the rear of the gothic cottage built by Mr. Darius Dodge a little west of the Harbor, on the right-hand corner as one turns from Main Street to go down the Neck Road. Much of that hill has been carried away by frosts, rains, and heavy seas. On it was a lieavy battery in 1740 and previously to protect the Island against French and Spanish invasions. That battery commanded the Bay. Edward Sands was then " Captain of the Island," and had com- mand of the quota of soldiers there. It was in reference to this battery on Harbor Hill that the R. I. Legislature enacted " That the six great guns at New Shoreham be mounted on carriages, in the most convenient manner, as shall be judged by the inhabitants ; and that they, at their own charge, procure two barrels of gunpowder, one hund- MOHEGAN BLUFF.S. JIOliEGAN fiLD:^FS. 23 red and twenty great shot and forty pounds weight of musket balls." These great guns, and the military stores were removed to the main land at the beginning of the revolution. One of the cannon balls lingered upon the Is- land, was made a part of a wooden anchor for a light ves- sel in the Great Pond, after having been lost many years, was iished up there many years ago, and is now in the pos- session of the writer. That part of the Hill where the battery and earth works were probably located, was where the tide now ebbs and flows, and has disappeared like thous- ands of other strongholds that have been carried by the waves and tides of time into oblivion. From what re- mains of Harbor Hill one of the finest views may be had of the Bay and Harbor. There the Storm Signals of the Island are now displayed. MOHEGAN BLUFFS. These have been improperly called the cliffs. But Block Island never had any cliffs. Not even a ledge there has yet been discovered, without which there is no foundation for cliffs. These high bluffs are like those of Clay Head, with less impregnation of iron. "When viewed from a short distance at sea they make a weird and pleasing impression, but are not comparable with those along the upper Missis- sippi, and in the vicinity of Omaha. Yet, to those not fa- miliar with the more imposing heights the Mohegan Blufis may well be considered grand, and pleasing, well repaying for a yacht excursion to the south-east of the Island, or for a walk to them at low tide along the east shore ; or for a ride to them by the road to the New Light House, viz. : by High Street, Dodge Street, and Cart Track from Sands' Gate. These Bluffs took their name from the Mohegan Indian warriors who invaded the Island many centuries ago, were driven to these bluffs, cornered up there, and starved by L% JllSTOKY OJf JiLOUK. ISLAMJJ. the Manisseans, or Island Indians. This name applies to them all along the south shore from the New Light House to the vicinity of Black Rock. In the waters at their feet have been found very iine places for catching large bass with pole and reel. Expert fishermen have caught them there that weighed over sixty pounds. Favorable boulders can be reached at low tide. BEACON HILL. This is the highest land upon the Island, and is a minia- ture sugar loaf mountain. By a circuitous drive its sum- mit can be reached with carriages. Many visitors, ladies and gentlemen, prefer to go there on foot. A strong, cool breeze will at all times give them an agreeable greeting. Its name originated from the light there used from time immemorial to warn the inhabitants of approaching ene- mies, especially during the old French and the Eevolution- ary wars. It was the rendezvous for Indians when they had their pow-wows and war-dances. There they assembled from time to time, drank rum, and bade defiance to their enemies at Montauk, and at Watch Hill where the fierce chief Sassacus and his bloody warriors looked with covetous eyes towards Manisses. It was there, evidently, that Thomas Terry by his strategy and fluent use of their language vir- tually disarmed them of their scalping knives as they were drinking rum and thinking of the sixteen families of white- faced intruders who were monopolizing their lands and fisheries. Mr. Terry knew they got their cask of rum of the trader Arnold then on the Island, and ingeniously, in their own tongue, wrought up their indignation towards the trader. When he had sufficiently fired their prejudice, as they made their wrathful, half-drunken protestations, seeing their cask of rum was on the verge of the " long descent to the bottom " of the hill, and that the bung was out of the cask, managing to have a strong Indian, then SANDY HILL. 25 partially intoxicated, stand the upper side of the cask while Mr. Terry said to him, — "If you dislike Mr. Arnold, as you pretend, prove it by saying — Tuckisha, Mr. Arnold, and by giving his cask a hard kick.'' With a savage yell the Indian exclaimed, — '^Tuckisha! (I don't care for you) Mr. Arnold," and gave the cask so violent a kick that it went rolling down the hill and the rum escaping until it was all out, and that made the Indians sober, but not discerning enough to perceive the trick of wasting their rum. From its summit the best view of the Island is obtained. One looks down upon it in all directions, and its undulating surface is very conspicuous, interspersed with its scores of ponds. The spectator sees the encircling waters of the ocean all around the Island, except at a small point near the new Light-house. There, too, one may see, in a clear atmosphere, with a good glass, Montauk, Stonington, Watch Hill, Point Judith, and Newport, and vessels in great num- bers far at sea. The hill is about three hundred feet high. To visit Beacon Hill from the Harbor, go to the Center, thence by Main Street to the foot of the hill on the right, where the bars are lowered for footmen, and removed for carriages. SANDY HILL. This is on the West Side, a Httle south of Grace's Cove, near the Sound shore. It is a pile of sand and gravel, in the form of a sugar-loaf or cone, rising about a hundred feet, with room on the top for a small pic-nic party, where there is a tuft of tall coarse grass in summer, and a con- stant sea breeze. It rests upon a thick bed of excellent peat, and is a study for the naturalist. It may be visited by following the shore north from Dorry's Cove, or by Cart-track from Main Street near the west foot of Beacon Hill. 26 HISTORY OP BLOCK ISLAND. SANDY POINT. This is the northern extremity of the Island, and is pure sand. On it have been four successive light-houses. The first three were of brief service on account of their sandy foundation, which was disturbed by winds, waves, and tides. Too many have inferred that because it is sand all the Island is sandy and barren, which is a great mistake. GROVE POINT. This is a short distance easterly from Sandy Point, and many years ago projected much farther and more sharply into the sea than at present, and then made Cow Cove more distinct than it now is. Its name originated from the brig Golden Grove, which was wrecked upon it about a century ago, or about the time the Palatine visited the Island, not long before she was wrecked in the Bay of Bengal, accord- ing to authentic records. The Golden Grove was from Halifax, laden with pork and lard. Her captain, William Chitty, and his crew remained upon the Island, and when they and the Islanders wanted a barrel of pork they went to the wreck and helped themselves. Her crew made up some doggerel poetry about their voyage, two lines of which are, — "From Halifax, that frozen shove, On rhristmas day we made the shore On Block Island, etc." This " Christmas day " corresponds with the legend that the Palatine came ashore about Christmas. The crew frequently celebrated their wreck, while repeat- ing the following couplet: — " Since on lUock Island we saved our lives, Here's health to our sweethearts and our wives." CLAY HBAD. This is the high, corrugated bluff seen on the northerly part of the Island while approaching it from Newport, and INDIAN-HEAD-ITEOK. 27 is that part nearest to Point Judith. It is the bold shore mentioned in Whittier's "Palatine," in the line, — " The false lights over the Eocky Head ! '• It is not rocky, but consists almost entirely of clay and sand, in which are a few boulders. Very fine qualities of blue, red, and white clay are found there, and some fantastic combinations of iron, clay, and sand, e. g., a mix- ture of clay tinged with iron forming itself around pure sand, from a gill to half a peck in quantity. The clay, with a small opening, hardens, the sands in time gradually escape out of the said opening, leaving behind them a few pebbles like birds' eggs, and these pebbles cannot pass out where the sand did, and these clay formations become simply stone shells, colored with iron, with pebbles rattling inside. The Islanders call the place where such have been abundant, — ^' Pots and Kettles" of Clay Head. This name sounds about as well as the more scientific geode. One of the most pleasant walks of the Island, in the cool morning of summer, is from the Harbor along the Bathing Beach to the northerly part of Clay Head. To do this the visitor needs no guide — no directions more complex than the Boston boy gave to the English gentle- man, as he replied to the latter, — " Keep this street and folliw your nosey During this beautiful walk, you may see strange birds, shells, minerals, breakers, the sun rising out of the sea, and hear many strange sounds. INDIAN-HEAD-NECK. This narrow little bluff on the east shore of the south end of the Great Pond is a historic point of considerable interest. Here the Indians anciently buried their dead, and filled the graves with an ample supply of shell-fish from the adjacent Pond. The writer collected more than half a bushel of scallop shells from one grave opened by 2 28 HISTORY OP BLOCK ISLAND. the frost in the bank facing the Pond, while spending a winter upon the Island. Some of the shells had never been opened, but were full of fine earth and sand, needing a little lime to make a petrifaction. Here, east of the road, lived the heroic Thomas Terry. On this Neck he disarmed, alone, thirty strange Indians, putting their guns in his house until they should leave the Island. This Neck took its name from circumstances only par- tially understood. There, for some crime, ' anciently, two heads of Indians were placed upon stakes, sharpened at the top, and they remained in that condition. Tradition informs us that these two Indians were Mohegans or Pequots, and hence their heads were placed upon the stakes with their faces looking homeward, towards Stonington or Watch Hill. Prom their position the early settlers gave the bluff the name of Indian- Head- Neck. It is not far from the Bathing Beach, and is visited from the Harbor by going down the Neck Road to Cemetery Street on the left, and the bluff of the Neck is but a short distance from this intersection. From that old burjring-place a fine view is had of the Great Pond and its surroundings, and of the ocean stretching far away with its many sails of commerce. FOET ISLAND. This little historic place is located a short distance south of the south end of the Great Pond, from which Trimm's Pond is separated by a narrow isthmus, on which Cemetery Street passes towards Indian-Head-Neck and Sandy Point. From this isthmus Fort Island is separated by a narrow channel but a few rods in width, vihile a considerable body of water is on its other sides. It is an elevated plat of about five acres, and is the property of Mr. Samuel Mott, who3e house is the one nearest to the Island. It was occu- pied for a fort two hundred years ago, and how many centuries previous no record announces. It was doubtless FOKT ISLAND. ' 29 a rude structure, consisting mainly of a breastwork around the little Island and elevated some distance from the water. To this the Manisseans could retreat when hard pressed by their invaders. The bloody battles there with the Mohegans, or with the Pequots long before the murder of Oldham and the capture of Block Island by Endicott, and its settlement by the English can easily be imagined. But in none of them, we are sure, was there ever displayed such heroism as the first settlers there exhibited, when neither a gun was fired, nor an arrow shot, nor a blow struck. Three hundred native warriors, with guns, bows and arrows, scalping knives and tomahawks were still claiming homes on Block Island. It was aggravating for them to see their old corn plantations and fishing grounds monop- olized by a few pale-faced foreigners, to have their lands and liberties taken from them without compensation, and to be made slaves. They knew their greater numbers and yet stood in awe of the greater sagacity of the white man. But their hostile feelings increased, and occasionally broke out in "insults, with threatening speeches, and offering smaller abuses," as reported by one intimate with eye-wit- nesses. "With such feelings in three hundred savage breast? sixteen men and a boy had to contend, and they bravely challenged the whole Indian forces of the Island to meet them for a field fight. The Indian warriors accepted the challenge, and on the day appointed assembled on Fort Island. The defiant little army of seventeen marched bodly to the conflict. They were none the less brave though not a blow was struck. They expected to overawe their enemies by defiance, or were resolved to use their weapons to the best of their ability. Says Mr. Niles, one of the earliest inhabitants of the little colony, ■' Thither they came with utmost resolution, and war- like courage, and magnanimity." During this procedure at Fort Island we can but laintly OU HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. imagine another scene which the historian cannot well de- scribe. It was that assemblage of wives, mothers, and chil- dren at the Sand's Garrison, or stone house where there must, have been the most painful anxieties over the issues of the day. If there were to be blood shed at Fort Island, what less than the scalping knife and the tomahawk could be expected by the helpless inmates of that garrison ? But happily the prayers and tears and agonies there were all turned to rejoicing when the good news was heard of the peaceful capitulation. (See Hostilities.) To visit Fort Island, now a cultivated field, go from the Harbor to the Center, thence by Cemetery Street to the south shore of the Great Pond, a short distance south of which the place of the ancient Fort is accessible. THE CEMETERY. The Block Island Cemetery, a quarter of a mile north of the Center, is on an elevation that overlooks much of the East Side, and of the Neck, and from it a fine water view is had of the Great Pond, Block Island Sound, Block Island Bay, and the Atlantic eastwards as far as the eye caii reach. In this cemetery may be found some of the graves of the first and most prominent settlers. On a hori- zontal slab in the upper and central part of the grounds may be seen this Epitaph, — HERE LYES INTERRED THE BODY OF MR. JAMES SANDS SENIOR AGED Y3 YEARS WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE MARCH 13 A. D. 1695. Near it is the grave of the venerable Simon Ray, desig- nated by a gray stone slab on which is a long and honora- ble record of his virtues. He died in his one hundred and second year. There, too, may be seen the cen- THE BATHING BEACH. 31 tenary grave of Ackers Tosh, and near the northwest corner of the cemetery are the seven graves of the passengers lost by the wreck of the Warrior on Sandy Point, and near them is the little grave of an unknown infant drowned and floated ashore from the wreck of the steamer Metis off Watch Hill. The cemetery is visited by many, and is reached from the Harbor by going to the Center, and thence by Cemetery Street past the Wind Mill and Central House. THE BATHING BEACH. This is one of the principal attractions of the Island. The sand is fine, clean, and generally so compact when kept moist by the gentle surf that the inhabitants prefer the beach to the Neck Road while passing between the Neck and the Harbor with buggies. Unless the beach has been greatly disturbed by a storm its descent is gradual, but not so much so as to make a long wade necessary to obtain suitable depth. Here the elements combine their efforts to afford a luxury and a vigor that cannot be obtained in the cities. Here fashion drops her ornaments and seeks na- ture's health-giving freedom. Here the most delicate may experience the truth of the saying, " On smoother beaches no sea birds light, No blue waves shatter to foam more white. And the thousands who have enjoyed the amusing inci- dents of the Beach among the temporary Mermen and Mer- maids have found the social element to combine with those of the sea and air to fulfil the promise of the poet, — "And the pale health-seeker findeth there The wine of life in its pleasant air." The Bathing Beach is on the east shore, and is distinguish- ed by its many little houses seen from approaching steamers. It is near enough to the hotels, for going and coming, either 32 mSTOBY OF BLOCK ISLAND. on foot by the vigorous, or in carriages by others, is a ne- cessary part of the enjoyment, giving a previous and sub- sequent circulation of the blood quite essential to health. Facilities for bathing are increasing annually, such as con- veyances, suits, houses, etc. Up to the present time this beach has been remarkably free from accidents, and this may be owing in part to the required depth being found near the shore, and thus keeping the bathers from the greater force of the undertow, also keeping them nearer together. In the vicinity of the bathing houses Mr. G. McCotter, from Brooklyn, has an interesting process of separating the black or iron sand from the other sand. This is done by magnetic attraction. The iron sand is used for the manu- facture of steel, and large quantities are exported to New York. THE PONDS. These are among the remarkable features of Block, Island. "While thousands of tracts of land, high and low, uneven and level, may be found without lake or pond — each of these tracts larger than the Island, here a hundred may be counted that do not become dry once in ten years, none of them connected with a stream large enough to be called a brook. They are of all sizes and shapes, from the little duck pool to the great pond which is said to cover one thousand acres. They are of incalculable value to the little farms into which the land is divided, nearly, if not quite all of which are thus favored. Only the more important of these can here be described. The principal ponds are stocked with bass, and fine ones have been caught. THE GREAT POND. This, like the Island itself, has had various names. But the one most appropriate is the one here given. It is the oldest, and is probably the English of the Indian name BEACH DRIVE, BLOCK ISLAND, E. I. Down the Beacli. SURF BATHING, BLOCK ISLAND, R. I. THE PONDS. 33 given it by the Manisseans " time out of mind." This, too, is the name applied to it by Roger Williams, the noted In- dian interpreter, in 1649. There is no good reason now for calling it " Salt," for it is fresh, too fresh for clams, scallops, and oysters. Many years ago it was properly a gulf, when it was connected with the ocean at the Breach. Its depth is variable, and its bottom is uneven, like the surface of the Island in general. Twelve fathoms are its maximum on the side nearest the sea, from wliich it is se- parated by a narrow rim of sand, especially as seen from Beacon Hill. It abounds with fish which furnish sport to visitors who prefer its quiet surface to that of the rolling sea. It is a large and beautiful sheet of water, and very attractive to pleasure seekers who are fond of fishing, swimming, rowing, and sailing. Free from the swells and dangerous surf of the sea, several miles in length, and wide enough for long tacking in any wind, it will doubtless continue to increase in attractiveness. Besides, it is a study for the naturalist, for whence is its supply ? If from the surrounding ocean, why is it fresh ? Perhaps it illustrates Bacon's saying that " sea-water passing or straining through the sands leaveth the saltness." How visited. From the harbor there are two routes. One is by Main Street to the Center. There turn to the right, pass the Littlefield Wind Mill, the Cemetery, and this is near the Great Pond. The other route is to leave Center Street at the Woonsocket House, turning to the right, and passing down the Neck Road, until Cemetery Street is in- tersected, where the Great Pond is soon reached, and the carriage may be driven along its water's edge, at the foot of Indian-Head-Neck, or it may follow the carriage way over Indian-Head-Neck towards the Cemetery, thence to the Center, and thence to the Harbor, making a pleasant hour's drive. 34 HISTORY OP BLOCK ISLAND. CHAGUM POND. This is next in size to the Great Pond. Its name is com- monly pronounced Shawgum, and it probably originated from an Indian who lived on the Island in 1711, was then a slave to some lordly master, stole a boat, ran away, lost the boat, was captured, and was punished by the wardens by six months added to his former period of servitude. Part of the Pond is in Sandy Point. Its water is fresh and clear, and on its northerly side is separated by a narrow Isthmus from the sea, over which the sea has been known to break into the pond, as it did in the great gale of 1S15, passing over so deep, so suddenly, and with such force a^ to carry a footman, Edward Gorton, then passing, into the pond where he was buried so deep in the sand as never to be recovered. This pond is visited by the Neck Road, which leads to the Sandy Point Light House located near this pond. THE FRESH POND. It covers several acres, is free from the brackish taste of other ponds, is clear, and abundant in perch, and bass have been caught in it. Here visitors enjoy the game of "high hook," as the one is proclaimed who catches the most, and also the luxury of bathing. Near the shores of this pond, more than a century ago, was the central place of business, east of the north end. Here stood the first school-house, the first church, the parsonage, and the Honeywell Wind Mill. This pond is reached by passing from the Harbor to the Center, and thence south about a mile. A short distance south or west of the pond visitors have fine views of the Atlantic, and of Montauk, by the aid of glasses. SANDS POND. This gem in an emerald setting is a curiosity as well as a thing of beauty. Its location is on some of the highest land THE PONDS. 35 of tie Island, and has no watershed of any account, and neither inlet nor outlet now known. It is the clearest, and most regular shaped, has but a few feet of average depth, and never becomes dry. It is not easy to explain why a pond is there any more than in a thousand other places. No vol- canic appearances suggest that it is an extinct crater with an invisible connection with some source of supply more elevated. This pond ought to furnish much of the ice of the Island. It takes its name from Dea. R. T. Sands and his brother William C. Sands who live near, and own land around its shores. In it are bass. Visitors find the Sands Pond by passing from the Har- bor up High Street to its junction with Dodge Street bearing to the right, and Dodge Street, passing Noah Dodge's fine residence, from which one of the best landscape views of the Island is had, leads to the Sands Pond. Thence, by cart track passing through a few gates, visitors may enter Center Street, near Fresh Pond, and thence enjoy good roads and fine prospects by the Center back to the Harbor. THE MIDDLE POND. This is on the Neck, near the west shore, south of Cha- gum Pond a short distance, and about midway between that and Wash Pond, a small body of water a little south of Middle Pond, and named as it is because around its shores, during the war of 1812 with England the British vessels often anchored near, and the marines came ashore there and washed their garments. At the middle pond they re- plenished their ships with fresh water — made fresh evi- dently by filtering from the sea through the sand. Here the Islanders bartered with the sailors, but were not allowed to sell rum, although they did it sometimes on the sly. Benjamin Sprague, now about ninety, says he was on his way there with barter, and met some English ofiBcers coming in elegant uniform on horses towards the Harbor. One said S6 HISTORY OP BLOCK ISLANB. to Mr. Sprague ''What have you to sell?" "Ducks, chickens, and beans," was the reply. " What's in that jug ? " said the officer. Instead of answering, Mr. Sprague says, — = " I looked him up in the face. He laughed, and said, ' I'll buy your ducks, chickens, and beans, and go on, and let my steward have them, and let my men have a drink apiece, but don't let them get drunk.' They went on, and so did I. Now, said I, there's good sailing, and I'll make a good voy- age. So when I arrived at the Middle Fond the steward paid me for my ducks, etc., and I told him about the rum, and he nodded assent. I then went near the marines, put up two fingers, and beckoned them to follow me. I went down by the bank, behind some willows, and two came. The rum was half water, and I sold each a pint for a dollar a pint. After they went back two more came, and so on until I sold all out to them at a dollar a pint. As it was then about noon they urged me to dine with them, and I did, and they had their English rum with their rations. They asked me to drink some, and I did ; and they asked me if I did not think their rum was better than mine. I told them, yes, but did not tell them how much of mine was water." By watering' it he obeyed the commander's order — ■ " Don't let any of them get drunk." Middle Pond will long be remembered as a favorite rendezvous for the English fleet in 1812. It is visited only by cart paths from the Neck Road. THE HAHBOB POND. A little at the north of the "Woonsocket House, and at the left while passing from the Harbor down the Neck Road, lies this body of brackish water, made so by its nearness to the Bay, and by the great amount of black or iron sand in its vicinity. At times its appearance is very rusty, and sometimes has a purple tinge. Its row boats, sailing boats, and fishing aiiord much pleasure. It is connected with Indian Head Pond, and the latter with Trimm's Pond. the ponds. 37 trimm's pond. This pond takes its name from Godfrey Trimm who used to live on its west shore near Wm. P. Bail's, and at that house the woman almost gave a refugee " his quietus " with her scissors. In it is Ford Island, a little south of the south- ern extremity of the Great Pond. This pond straggles around more than any other, and does much to beautify the location of the Seaside House, and the landscape in front of the ^Central House, stretching from near the Neck Road to Cemetery Street. Its waters for many years have been noted for eel-fishing in winter, and as the home of the Island " Sea-serpent." He is so large that when seen a few years since by a sturdy young man, the latter hastened to the nearest house, trembling with fear, and tried to describe the "old settler." He was seen during the summer of 1876. The serpent is evidently a very large water-snake; harmless, and as shy aa the ancient natives who, perhaps, worshiped this one's forefathers. The part of this pond east of Indian-Head-Neck is sometimes called Indian Head Pond. THE MILL POND. This is the only one of the kind on the Island, and is seen at the bridge between the Harbor and the Center. Here a mill for grinding corn anciently stood, and was built by Capt. James Sands. Here his only child at the time, "a girl just able to run about and prattle a little," was drown- ed. Here, too, was the "Sands Garrison," and an old, miniature earth-work still remains across the street from the pond. Here, since the memory of the present older generation, was also a " carding machine " for making "rolls" of wool. It is fed by a rill from a swamp south- west of the pond. It is a pleasant border to the school, house lot near the pond, and a great convenience to Mr. Almanzo Littlefield, 38 HISTORY OP BLOCK ISLAND. THE SPRINGS. The most noted springs of the Island are near the shore, southeasterly from the spring house to which their water is forced by a hydraulic ram. They boil up from the ground beautifully, and are a favorite resort, as they are furnished with cups, insulated, and surrounded by seats by Mr. B. B. Mitchell their owner, and the proprietor of the Spring House. They are found by a short stroll from the Break- water southerly along the beach until one reaches the rill from them descending to the ocean. A few steps up this rill in a gentle gulley bring one to the springs. Or they may be reached by way of Spring Street and the Spring House. One is clear, cold, and palatable ; the other is strongly impregnated with iron. PLEASURE PISHING. This is of comparatively recent origin on Block Island, and is an institution established and maintained entirely by visit- ors. For what Islander ever thought of catching a fish sim- ply for the fun of it ? Money or hunger has always been his motive for fishing. So while he enjoys his outlays for yacht, finely furnished for capturing the gamy blue fish and his neighboring denizens, supplying " gear '' of all needed vari- eties, all in hope of revenue, the parties whom he serves enjoy the lively ocean sails about the Island, the graceful rocking of the vessel at anchor, while men are baiting hooks for gentler hands which have been thrilled there per- haps for the first time by a modest shake of a new acquaint- ance at the lower end of the line. The skipper thinks of his pay, and of the little accommodations he can afford to win the patronage of a second, and future voyages of the same gay party who seem to be as free with their money as with their jokes, laughter, and merriment of various descriptions. Now and then the heads of parties seem sur. prised to find that the sober Islander has learned and prac- PLEASURE FISHING. 39 tices some of tlie tricks of business so common on the main land, and they wisely conclude that next time they will have a definite understanding before going aboard. This is an important prerequisite to a pleasant sailing party, preventing a temptation to the skipper, and also an unpleas- ant settlement, in some cases. The amount of pleasure, however, experienced by such excursionists depends mainly upon their own dispositions. If they expect that fisher- man's yacht to be furnished with all the appointments of an elegant home or hotel ; if they expect to be free from the unavoidable color imparted by the sun and sea breeze ; if they cannot endure the necessary fish odor that so much heightens by contrast the value of perfumery ; if they can- not pleasantly accept a little dash of spray over the bow occasionally ; if their clothing is too good to be soiled a little ; if they are too stiff necked to avoid the shifting boom, and thus get their hats, if not their heads smashed ; if they have no patience to endure the brief calm that de- prives them of their dinner or tea ; if they are so unjust as to complain when no one is to blame ; if they have no sense of the ludicrous, and no skill for entertaining them- selves and others they may be a party, but not a pleasure party while sailing and fishing together. Pleasure fishing, therefore, for its highest enjoyment at Block Island, re- quires a pleasant party, all of whom expect and prepare for inconveniences, expecting to "rough it" for a few hours, unanimously resolved to neither give nor take offence, but to assist each other in deriving all the amusement possible from the little voyage at sea with hook and line and bait for a little practice in " hauling." The Pond Fishing is rapidly increasing in popularity. Here is less exposure to sea-sickness. Here a depth of water can be chosen that would afford no excuse for drowning, and at the same time the pleasures of boating, and fishing can be enjoyed. Here the women and chil- 4U HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. dren can participate in safety, and it would require volumes to describe the amusements of pond fishing where fond parents watch the excitement among the boys and girls hauling the shiny perch in rapid succession. The happy days of childhood while fishing on the ponds of Block Island will form many bright and pictured pages in the memory of many in old age as they shall look back upon their excursions to, and summer life on the " little isle of the sea." Nor will the novelty and relish of eating the fish of their own catching be soon forgotten, and in the more sober thoughtf ulness of riper years it will be better understood that these innumerable fishes were given us, not to school us in cruel insensibility, but "richly to enjoy." This is indicated even by the silence of the fish when cap- tured. Were he to utter a cry of distress, like a rat in a steel-trap, or a pig in the hands of its owner — if a hun- dred fish in the boat were to do this at the same time we can imagine how great would be the temptation of sensitive persons to jump overboard. But as it is, all is pleasurable. The love of fishing is to be gratified on the same principle of gratifying the love of seeing. Light is for the eye, and so are fish for the fishermen. Pond-fishing, like that in the yacht upon the sea, must be free from the etiquette of the drawing-room, in some re- spects, to have it pleasant. Too strict a regard for one's toilet can spoil all the amusement of- the boat and tackle. Clothing should be worn that creates no painful anxiety about its being soiled or torn. If the feet, hands, and arms get wet — if the face is browned in the sun and wind, this is a part of the business and should occasion no fretting, but rather ■ innocent jokes and laughter. Persons whose habit, or pleasure is that of spoiling the pleasures of others should never find a place in the party fishing for pleasure. A good rule to act upon at Block Island is, " Let us laugh when we may, be sober when we can, But vindicate the ways of God to man." SURROUNDING WATERS. 41 SURROUNDING WATERS. Block Hand Sound is the name applied by tlie U. S. Coast Survey to tlie body of water lying north of the Island, and separating it from the Charlestown and Watch Hill vicinity, and 'also approaching Point Judith. The narrowest place in this Sound, opposite Sandy Point, is a little less than ten miles in width. Cow Cove, north of Chagum Pond, was once much more distinct than at the present. Then Grove Point projected much farther, but like Sandy Point has been worn away by the heavy seas, until but little appearance of a bay remains. According to tradition the first settlers landed at Cow Cove, which is said to have taken its name from the fact that there they put overboard the first cow ever upon the Island, and in presence of the excited Indians compelled her to swim ashore. Britonh Rock designates the water off Clay Head where a very dangerous rock is concealed in deep water, the top of which rises nearly to the surface. One of the most seri- ous accidents in the history of the Islanders occurred there on the 9th of February, 1 797. Gideon and John Rose, brothers, Samuel "Wright and John Wills, while in their boat laden with perch for New York, were passing Clay Head in a fair southerly wind, and are supposed to have struck upon Briton's Rock, for they were there all drowned, and by a change of wind were all driven on shore and buried by their friends. A similar calamity to the Island occurred on the night of Feb. 18, 1880. Then Captain Archibald Millikin, com- mander of a three-mast coaster, Captain George Addison Rose, and Elihu W. Rose, were drowned in Providence River between Fox Point and Mill Harbor. They were in a small yawl boat, the night was dark and windy, and they are supposed to have been capsized. Their bodies were recovered and buried by their many mourning friends. aiDiUttl vv JiLiUUii. IHLiAND. Block Island Bay is the body of water making almost a semicircle of the shore from Clay Head to the Breakwater. It has the finest beach upon the Island, and in its waters all manner of vessels anchor with safety, except when the wind comes into the northeast. Then there is danger of being land-locked, or of going ashore. This bay affords a beautiful view, as seen from the prominent points along the eastern shore south of the harbor. Old Uarlor is opposite a section of the eastern shore ex- tending from the Breakwater to Old Harbor Point. Many years ago, before the Pole Harbor was made, it was a place of frequent landing in fair weather. In that harbor was the origin of the " Harbor Boys " legend, as related in the account of the Refugees, and one of their ghosts reappeared not many years since, as an old Islander was near the springs of the Spring House, and listened with trembling to the solemn voice which was a little more grum than in his younger days. It was the first time he ever heard a hydraulic ram, and little imagined that his "Harbor Boy" was carrying water up to that hotel. The Atlantic Ocean is the designation for the water from Old Harbor along the eastern shore to the south shore, and thence to Sandy Point. The Breach, which was once of so great importance to the Island, does not now properly exist. At no time, now, does it connect the Great Pond with the sea, except by mechanical labor to reduce the high water in the Great Pond, and this is done by the town to keep the Neck Road passable. The easterly storms sometimes drive the heavy seas from the Block Island Bay over into the Great Pond, and when this occurs in connection with spring rains and thaws the Neck Road becomes impassable until the Breach is opened. During those storms of high water innumerable fish in the Great Pond have escaped into the ocean, and thousands SUBnOUNDIKG WATERS. 43 have been left on the sand between the Great Pond and the Bay, as the water has suddenly receded. grace's cove. This is on the west side of the Island, and is formed by a small projection of land into the sea, and this projection is known as Grace's Point. The Cove is not far from Sandy Hill, and has long been a place for landing small boats. Here the Mohegans landed, it is supposed, when they came, many centuries ago, from Stonington or Watch Hill to in- vade the Island by moonlight and were overpowered and starved on the Mohegan Blufis. Here the brig Moluncus came ashore in 1855, and while her captain and crew were ashore bantering with wreckers she was got off by wind and tide in the night, and in the stormy night found by the wreckers. dohby's cove. This also is on the west side, and probably took its name from Tormot Kose who was also called Dormot, and from Dormot came Dorry, and the cove was named after him either because he owned the land adjacent, or because of an incident which there occurred. The bank was precipi- tous many years ago, when he lived there, and he was clear- ing his land of stones by carting them with his oxen to the bank of the cove where he dumped them down into the sea. One day while backing his oxen for a dump he backed them too far and the cart loaded with stones went over the bank and took the oxen over too, and one was lost thereby. Mr. Kose mourned his loss so much that a neighbor said to him, — '•■ Why, you mourn for your ox more than Job did for the loss of all of his.'' The afflicted man replied, — " Well, Job never had so likely an ox." The Cove is at the western terminus of Main Street. 44 BLOCK ISLAND COTTACES. BLOCK ISLAND COTTAGES. The most magnificent of these, and indeed one of the finest of its kind in the world, is the elegant mansion of Mr. Edward F. Searles, of Methuen, Mass., who has here exhausted all the resources at the command of almost fabulous wealth in the erection of a stately pile of orien- tal splendor. Every stranger approaching the Island asks many questions about the imposing structure, whose noble dome glistens in the sunlight on the southern slope of the Corrugated Bluffs of the Neck. On an eminence north of Surf Hotel is the charming residence where Mrs. C. T. Salisbury and her daughters, of Providence, R. I., make their abode through the sum- mer, and sometimes linger through the bright and balmy Neapolitan weather of Block Island's September and October, leaving only when the surly blasts of Novem- ber sweep sullenly over the hills. Nestling under the edge of the bluff at Southeast Point, reminding one of the eyrie of an eagle among the mountains of Switzerland, is the cosey cottage or chalet of Hon. F. W Miner, of Providence, R. I., noted for several years as the home from June until October of one of the most enthusiastic and successful of fishers for the gamey striped bass. Westward, a mile or so, stand the ideal hygienic cot- tages of Miss Dr. A. E. Vaill, of New York, who, with her sister, has here established a model sanitarium known as the Mecca of many former invalids. They have here breathed anew the breath of life and health that floats over these towering bluffs in the eternal breezes born of the near Atlantic. To the west, half a mile as the bird flies, is the beauti- ful villa of Mr. Everett N. Barlow, of which it is sufficient to say that it was selected by the Scientific American as HISTOET OF BLOCK ISLAND. 45 the subject of an illustration in its architectural supple- ment of a model American seaside cottage. Near Black Rock and almost at the jumping-ofE place of creation is the Ultima Thule of Block Island's sum- mer dwellings, the cottage of Mr. Thomas E. Tripler, of New York. Here nature seems to have made one supreme and final attempt to achieve perfection, appear- ing at her best in all her varied moods. Amid ocean scenery of the most romantic kind, one is fanned from May until October by zephyrs soft as those of Tempe's fabled vale, while, when storms are abroad in winter, he will almost need to hold his hair on, as is indicated by those four massive chains by which Mr. Tripler has found it necessary to anchor his cottage to masonry set deep in the earth. Other beautiful villas there are, only less than the above in attractiveness and interest, and the number is steadily increasing. II. AN ABRIDGED HISTORY QF BLOCK ISLAND FROST 1524 TO 1882. BY REV. S. T. LIVERMORE A.M. 46 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. LOCATION. Block Island is located directly south of the central point on the southern coast of Ehode Island, twelve miles out at sea, connected with the main land by a submerged bar well known to navigators. It is southwest from Newport about twenty-five miles, and about eighteen miles north of east from Montauk, which is the' east end of Long Islana. By the Coast survey its position is in latitude 41° 08' north, longitude 71° 33' west. It is sufficiently remote from the main shore, and small enough to be wholly exempt from the sultry land breezes of summer when its refreshing cool- ness is most enjoyable. i ■ \ • . • DISCOVERY. "When this Island was first discovered by the civilized world no one can state with certainty. Its first inhabitants known -Were a branch of, the Narragansett Indians. The earliest record known of its discovery was in 1524, by Verrazano, a French navigator. He made a record of its location as being about fifty leagues east of New York, and three leagues from the main land, and described its shape as triangular, "full of hills, covered with trees." Ninety years afterward the Island was visited by Adrian Block, a Dutch explorer, whose name is supposed to have been given to it by his crew, or by himself. They were probably the first civilized men who landed upon its shores. Their French predecessors seem to have sailed about it, as their account of it speaks of their having seen " tires all along the coast " of the Island. In 1636 Captain John Oldham, a trader from Boston, visited the Island where he lost his life by the savages who, the ancient record says, " came into his boat, and having got a full view of commodities which gave them good con- tent consulted how they might destroy him and his company, to the end they^ might clothe their bloody flesh with his law- ITS POSSESSION. 47 ful garments." By his death the Island became extensively known throughout New England and Europe. ITS POSSESSION. 1. By the Aborigines. 2. By Massachusetts. 3. By four men. 4. By the iirst settlers and their descendants. Its first owners of whom we have any account were the Narragansett Indians, and as they were a powerful tribe, occupying the main land nearest to the Island, we may sup- pose them to have held it for centuries previous to its dis- covery. Soon after the murder of Oldham it was subju- gated by Colonel Endicott, under authority from Massachu- setts, as a punishment for that murder, and its possession by that colony was acknowledged to Governor Vane in 1637 by the Chief Miantinomo, the great Sachem of the Narragansetts. Of this transfer Governor Winthrop said in 1637, — "Miantinomo, the Narragansett Sachem, came to Boston. The governor, deputy, and treasurer treated with him, and they parted upon fair terms. He acknowl- edged that all the Pequod country and Block Island were ours, and promised that he would not meddle with them but by our leave." But what had that chief to do with the Pequod country ? Eoger Williams was intimately acquaint- ed with the natives of Block Island before it was settled by the English, and in 1637 wrote to Governor Winthrop that they had obligated themselves to pay a tax to Massachu- setts, and its subjects, of one hundred fathoms of beads or wampum annually. In 1658 the Island was transferred from said colony to John Kndicott, Richard Bellingham, Daniel Dennison, and William Hawthorne, and in 1660 they sold it to sixteen individuals for £400, and these last pur- chasers had the Island surveyed and apportioned to each buyer in 1661, and in 1662, with their families, their sailing vessels built at Brain tree, near Boston, having been sailed around Cape Cod to Taunton to meet the emigrants, there 48 III.STOUY OP BLOCK ISLAND. embarked, passed down the Taunton River, and thence to the Island where they and their descendants have since remained and prospered. ITS NAMES. Manisses was its original and Indian name, signifying "Little God," or " Little God's Island." This also was the name- of its first inhabitants of whom we have any knowl- edge. Its origin and first application to the Island will ever remain one of the hidden mysteries of the Aborigines. Claudia was its first civilized name, given to it by Ver- razzano in 1 524 in honor of the mother of Francis I, king of France. Adrian's Eyland was the name put upon the Dutch maps in 1614. This is essentially the same as the name now in use, and was modified by the colonists to Block Island. This name continued in use, unaltered by its English occupants and others until 1672, and will prob- ably never be supplanted, unless the more euphonic and ancient Manisses shall be resumed. New Shoreham, alias Block Island, was the name incor- porated into the town charter of the Island in 1672, and for about two hundred years this prefix had the monopoly. It was adopted in said charter as a reminder of places in England dear to the memory of the Islanders, or as they expressed it — " As signs of our unity and likeness to many parts of our native country." The final syllable ham, meaning house, farm, or village, is very common in England. The Ministerial Lands is another name of the Island that was somewhat common anciently, and is very significant of the character of the little colony there who, when they surveyed the land for themselves in 1661, also apportioned a part for the support of the gospel among them, and that land they said should " continue for that use for ever.'' Block-house Island, on an old map in the State Library at ITS SUHFACE AND PRODUCTS. 49 Albany, printed in Augsburg in 1777, originated from the "topographical observations of C. J. Southier," and he probably imagined its origin to be from that kind of a house then common in the colonies, and upon his own au- thority appended the word house. The last modification of this name has been the recent change in the Post Office Department where it is now sim- ply Block Island. ITS SURFACE AND PRODUCTS. "It was full of hills," was the French navigator's de- scription in 1524, and none better, perhaps, can be given. A more uneven surface but few, if any, have ever seen. It will be very difficult to find its equal, except as one looks at the ocean when its surface is covered with one tidal wave followed by another, on and between both of which are in- numerable regular and chop waves of all dimensions. Be- tween these little hills are hundreds of ponds, while the Great Pond in relation to the Island is an inland sea. The multitude of walls which now fence the httle farms there indicate the inconvenience of cultivating the soil by the early settlers. No ledges there have yet been discovered, but granite boulders and pebbles without number, in a soil naturally quick and productive. Three and a half centuries ago the Island was "covered with trees." When taken from the Indians in 1637 it was well timbered and had two large cornfields protected on all sides by forests. One of these was on the southerly part, and the other on the northerly part known by the early settlers as the "Come Neck," and now called The Xeck. The first settlers for sixty years had timber sufficient for buildings, fences, and fuel, but peat was almost the only material for "firing" from 1760 to 1860, and it is still abundant in many of nature's pockets between the hills of the Island, while of but few can it now be said, — 50 HISTOEr OF BLOCK ISLAND. " Old wives spinning their webs of tow, Or rocking weirdly to and fro In Knil out of the peat's dull glow." The products of the Island during the last hundred years have not been sufficient to give support and thrift io its dense population, although its soil has been well nourished with fish oflEal and about 10,000 loads of sea- weed annually. Its noted fisheries have ever been a principal support and source of revenue to its inhabitants, who have found a ready market in many cities along the neighboring coast, until its attractiveness as a summer resort has created a large home demand in the watering season. A detailed account of its resources — grain, fish, sea-moss, poultry, eggs, etc., may be seen in its history published in 1877. THE INHABITANTS. They are of English descent, of the Eoger Williams stamp, and have maintained their identity as a colony with remark- able tenacity. In 1877 their population was 1,147; 1, 1 38 of whom were American born, and 1,032 were born upon the Island. Where is there another such a locality ? The men are hardy, industrious, and brave sailors. They live better than the average of country people. In 1877 there were 110 in 619 adults who were over 60 years old. Intellectually the men are in advance of those in country towns generally. Their trading excursions along the main coast from Portland to New York have given them good opportunities for observing men and things, and in latter years much of the outside world in various phases has come to them in pursuit of health and pleasure. They are all skilled in the art of driving a good bargain, and have the faculty of keeping what they have gained, which with their industry makes them a very independent people. They are rapidly improving in educational interests, as evinced by their new and well appointed school bouses. They are Bi^ Onward she dashed, till struck the rock : Shivering beneath the stunning shock. She foundered in the fatal lock — And then, the booming signal gun Out on the air its message flung, Telling the horrid crime was done. The wreckers, at the lurid flash. As if possessed of Demons rash, Plunged to the shore with headlong dash : Swift to their boats and oars they flew, Cutting the crested billows through — This outlaw, bandit, wrecking crew. They pushed their keels, with oars astrain, And with strong sinews, swept the main, In hungry haste to clutch the gain — And as they near the stranded wreck. Their speed, with oars reversed, they chock. Sweep up her sides and pour on deck. THE PHANTOM SHIP. Ill The crew and passengers, without Misgivings or suspicious doubt, Receive them with a cheer and shout. But, as the flickering lights reveril Dark brutal faces, o'er them steal Grave apprehensions, for their weal. The pirates now with manner rough, And oaths, their courtesies rebuff. And rifle them of all their stuff — Wardrobe and every precious thiuf.'. Necklace of gold and diamond ring Into their bags, iu haste, they fling. The ship's rich freight and merchandise, Her stores and plentiful supplies. Of wealth a mingled saciiflce. They smuggle hastily ashore. Amid the breakers' dash and roar. Till the last load is ferried o'er. And then, 'mid shrieks, despairing wild, From husband, wife, parent, and child, Young man and maiden undefiled, Wliilc knees were bent, in anguished prayer. And women witli disheveled hair. Wailed fiercely out their blank despair, They fired the ship ; the flames shot high, Flaring against the frowning sky, Tinged to an angry fiery dye — Tarred rope and sail and yard and spar Threw up their ghastly streams afar, The whole ship one huge blazing star. And as the rigging burned and fell Upon the deck, all helped to swi 11 The flaming of this floating hell. 312 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. No lives were spared ; none left to swear What deeds of horror were done there, Under that night of black despair. She burned down to the water's edge. Then as if riven \>y a wedge, Bilged on the underlying ledge. So perished in that fearful night. Not by neglect or oversight, But by the wreckers' treacherous light, By foul and murderous design, And crime blood red in every line, That goodly ship the Palatine. The next year as the autumn nearcd, Leading the equinox, appeared The staunch old ship, full rigged and steered Boldly on to the fatal shore, Where she had struck, the year before. And sank, 'twas thought, to rise no more. And, yearly, while one mutineer Snrvived, did that old ship appear. As the autumnal storm drew near. Coming at dark amid the haze. Of thickening tempest, all ablaze. To meet the wrecker's guilty gaze ; Throwing, afar, her ghastly light. As on that un forgotten night. Then sinking, hissing out of sight. But when the last old wrecker died, The tempest howled and dashed the tide Ashore with rage intensified. The island with its wrath was shook. In every corner every nook; All faces wore a pallid look — THE PHANTOM SHIP. 113 The thunder bellowed, lightniipgs flashed, And billows in thuir fury lashed The shore, and o'er the island dashed. It seems as if each element Of vengeance were the complement. Charged with some direful punishment. The dying wrecker raved and swore Horrid blasphemies, 'mid the roar And crash of tempest, on the shore. Peering into the blackened night. He started back in palsied fright, As maddened by some monstrous sight— His eyes blood-fevered, wildly turned. As memory's fiery record burned, I'lto his soul the grace long spumed. Writhing as if a demon's stare Fastened on him its scorching glare. Ho crouched and wailed in wild despair. And then the Phantom Ship once more, Down on the island, blazing, bore. And boldly swept towards the shore. But when the wrecker breathed his last. The tempest madly shrieked Avast ! And all the storm was hushed and past. And never since that woeful night When took that guilty soul its flight. Has come the Phantom Ship to sight. 114 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. Setting false lights on tlie main land opposite Block Island, and the wreck thus caused there, ought to have had a fire-ship to punish the guilty deacon whom the poet thus describes: THE CHAELESTOWN WRECK. By Charles H. Denison of San Francisco. " Below some rocks on Charle.stowii buacli, Almost as far as eye can reach, Within the sweep of rolling surf, And distant far from emerald turf. Embedded deep in shifting sand That fringes all the Township's land. Are remnants of a noble ship, Around whose ribs the algae drip, In graceful streamers, each ebb tide, Like Erin's banners flaunting wide ; While gurgling through her timbers .stout, The briny sea goes in and out, Hissing and spouting all day long In low, sad tones, a shipwreck song. "Beyond the reach of swelling tide. And just below the green hillside, In years gone by an old house stood. Its beams were made of white oak wood. Where hard wood pins with sharpened point. To hold more firmly mortised joint, Were driven through the tenon's side To keep such joints from opening wide ; While at its end outside, alone A chimney stood, of gray-wacke stone, To keep the mansion house upright Through heavy tempests day and night. Fixed in its top a stone of slate Informed you of the builder's date. The outside oven a child in 'teens Might know was used for baking beans. " The heavy outer oaken door Directly opened on the floor ; THE CHAELESTOWN WRECK. No vcstilmle or ' entry ' there Protected from the gusty iiir. Yet suiiiiuer's suu or winter's rain, Against its panels beat in vain. Within its clicerfnl owner sat; Beneath his chair the purring cat ; In front, and glowing at his feet, Was piled on high the burning peat. Diffusing warmtli about the room And dissipating winter's gloom. Each chimney corner held a boy. His father's pride, his mother's joy ; And cuddling there, with Haxen curl And azure eye, a laughing girl, Reflection of the mother fair Who sat in her creaking old arm-chair. "All through that day the murky skies Had taught a lesson to the wise, And every dweller on that shore Had listened to the surge's roar ; Had seen with dread each hissing wave High up the tiny sand hills lave ; Observed the breakers foam Far seaward w'ith their snowy comb. And dashing on with thundering shoclcs. Break into spray on ' Noyes' Rocks.' " In leaden sky went down the sun. Just as the tempest had begun. And now came fiercely o'er the main. In dreadful gusts, the blinding rain. " Througli darkness deep, lit up by spray That faintly showed the dangerous way, Reeling before the dreadful gale, Without the vestige of a sail, A noble ship came driving fast. Her voyage finished, at last. "As avalanche from mountain height. When moving with majestic might. Takes up the crag amid the snow. And hurls it thundering deep below — 13 5 116 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. So this doomed ship on crested wave Was hurled resistless to her grave, Striking the outer bar of sand A half mile distant from the land. O'er which the breaking waves ran high And threw their billows to the sky. " Describe the scenes that there occurred, Repeat the prayers their Maker heard, I cannot ; it would make you pale Ere I recited half the tale : Imagine it, all ye who can, 'Twas never told by living man. If any heard that dreadful crash They reckoned it the breakers' dash ; If any heard that dying wail. They thought it shrieking of the gale — No intermission of the roar Of dashing rollers on the shore Gave evidence beneath the waves A score of men had found their graves. Abont the middle of the night The tempest reached its utmost height, ■ But never failed that light to gleam. Or from that friendly window stream, Until the wind had died away At ushering the ' break o' day,' When Deacon Wilcox sought his bed And laid to rest his nodding head. "Like all the dwellers on the shore, The Deacon did a wreck deplore. With tenderness his heart o'erflowed Toward those who on the billows rode ; His house was e'er at their command. To them he had an open hand, His candle on tempestuous night Became to them a beacon-light, A refuge also, well they knew Was offered there to shipwrecked crew — But inconsistency again In Deacon's character was plain : THE CHAELESTOWN WRECK. 117 ' Whatever comes from out the sea,' He always said, ' belongs to me; ' — A godsend was a stranded cargo. On which his conscience laid embargo; — " His golden rule was thus applied To waifs upon the swelling tide : — ' The ownership by him is lost Whose goods in ship are tempest-tossed, The ownership in him remains Who rescues them, and who regains.' •■ The Deacon slept while I've told this In form of a parenthesis. And ere he wakes return with me To his old mansion by the sea. The dreadful night at length had passed, And cheerful daylight came at last — Ah ! never will the night be o'er To those who floated on the shore. The gale had sensibly decreased. The shrieking of the wind had ceased. But still the scuds drove through the sky, The thundering surges yet dashed high, Though now to all 'twas evident The storm its force had nearly spent. " What treasure-trove the Deacon gained That day before the sun had waned, I never knew, I cannot tell, He kept his business close and well. But aftenvard his oak sideboard Had silver plate within it stored. And oft in his spacious pocket A watch appeared, with golden locket ; When asked if these were heirlooms old, This story Deacon Wilcox told. And when it was no longer new He might have thought it almost true, — " 'As I one day walked on the beach. The line of waves just out of reach, I heard a strange and curious noise. At first I thought it was my boys 118 HISTOHY OP BLOCK ISLAND. Who imitate the call of birds, The grunting swine, the lowing herds, But looking closer at the matter I saw it was a silver platter, Which every time the waves did wash Gave out the sound ' ' slop swash ! slop swash ! " " 'Another day I walked along The sandy beach and hummed a song, Heard something go ' tick, whiz ! tick, whiz ! ' Looked down and saw a watch-like phiz; I snatched it from the moistened sand, And when I had it in my hand I saw a time-piece, quaint and old, Its face and csises, British gold. And well it was I came that way. It had been spoiled another day.' " These stories of the watch and platter Were always sure to end the matter — The questioner polite receded — He had the information needed." In the foregoing extract from Mr. Denison's poem entitled "Rhode Island,''^ we find it strongly insinuated that on the main shore of Block Island Sound, as well as "over the rocky Head," false lights were set for wrecking vessels. Supposing this to be true, may we not also suppose it to have been a cunning shift in the Charlestown people, to say of the Islanders, as Mr. Congdon did, — " Nobody doubted her [the fire-ship] being sent by an Almighty Power to punish those wicked men " ? "Was she not sent to pun- ish the "wicked men" of Charlestown who saw her so frequently, and had such deep convictions of her awful mission ? Perhaps some wicked man over there died a few minutes before the Palatine Light went out for the last time. SoaoOLS.— LIBRARY. Il9 SCHOOLS OF BLOCK ISLAND. The first one of which we have any account was located a little east of the north end of Fresh Pond, and was a common school in which were taught the alphabet, spell- ing, reading, writing, and arithmetic. It existed when it was a frequent occurrence for men to sign a paper by each making his "mark.'' The next school was opened on the Neck, and according to tradition was quite largely attended, and was conducted in the usual manner of schools on the main land. These have been followed by others, one on the West Side, one near the Harbor, and one at the Gulley. All the old houses of these five schools have disappeared, and new ones with modern improvements have been substituted. But few populations of less than twelve hundred have sustained five schools in a better condition. In 18.57 in the School Commissioner's Keport it was said of them: — "They arc as good schools as those in any of the country towns in the State." The Island High School, at the Center, was opened for the first time Nov. 29, 1875, by Mr. Arthur "W. Brown, of Middletown, R. I., with sixteen pupils during the first term. After several terms of successful studies under its first principal, as he left the Island, highly esteemed by many warm friends, the school has continued to prosper under the management of its present principal, Mr. C. E. Perry, a native of the Island. As an act of encouragement the town gave to the school the free use of the Town Hall. One of its graduates, Mr. Clarence Littlefield, is now a student in Brown University, and others have become teachers, and are preparing for college. THE ISLAND LIBEARY. The first action for its establishment was on March 6, 1875, by the inauguration of " The Island Library Associa- 120 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. tion," at the office of Dr. T. H. Mann, who was chosen president. By the efforts of friends of the enterprise, especially of Mr. A. W. Brown, its librarian, contributions of money and books were obtained within two years to make the number of volumes on its shelves in the Town Hall more than five hundred. Donations of books from visitors of means and friends of learning would be weD appropriated on this Island, by increasing its library. PBESIDENT grant's VISIT. "While many men of eminence have visited Block Island, no one has done it more honor by a brief stay there than did President Grant, on the 18th of August, 1875. In compli- ance with an invitation from Hon. Nicholas Ball, of the Island, extended to him through Senators H.B. Anthony and MaJ.-Gen. Burnside, the President, accompanied by his Secretary Bristow, Attorney-General Pierrepont, and Sena- tors Anthony and Burnside, spent a few hours on the Island, dining at the Ocean View Hotel, where he shook hands with a respectable number, and after riding about some time went aboard the revenue cutter Orant, which steamed and sailed off at 3 v. m. with her tall and grace- ful three masts for Cape May. ISLAND CHUHCHES. No church was immediately organized at the time the Island was settled by its little colony of sixteen families from Massachusetts. But they carried with them the fun- damental principles of a Christian society. Before they set foot upon the Island they united in setting apart a con- siderable portion of it to be forever known and used as the " Ministers Land," and for more than two centuries it has been devoted to the support of the Christian religion. They were kindred to Roger "Williams, spiritually, and 9,fterward by marriage, and he frequently associated with ISLAND OHDECHES. 121 its early settlers. During a period of ninety years the venerable Simon Eay, and his son Simon, Jr., as lay preachers, without ordination, without salary, or meeting- house, conducted public worship among their townsmen, during a part of .which time the same was done by the influential Capt. James Sands. His grandson, Samuel Niles, in his accounts of the first settlers of the Island, where he was born, has incidently given the religious characteristics of those settlers. He, as the first student from Rhode Island to enter college, after graduating at Harvard, returned to the Island a Congregationalist, and there, a licentiate, officiated as the first settled minister. Mr. Niles, fifty years pastor at Braintree, Mass., said of his grandfather Sands: — "He was the leading man among them." ''He also was a promoter of religion in his bene- factions to the minister they had there in his day, though not altogether so agreeable to him as he might be desired, as being inclined to the Anabaptist persuasion.'' By this is meant that Mr. Sands was a Baptist, and disagreed witli his Congregationalist preacher, his own grandson. " He devoted his house for the worship of God, where it was attended every Lord's day or Sabbath," and the Hon. Wm. P. Sheffield of Newport, a native of the Island, says of Mr. Sands that "he did not differ in religious belief from the other settlers." As their " belief " at that time was very uncongenial to the prevailing "belief "in Massachusetts whence they emigrated, and where there was an abundance of land for them, we find the probable reason for their going to a remote Island then inhabited only by savages. There they were safer than in the colony from which they saw others banished. There they could enjoy more in the possession of "soul liberty" than they could at Braintree and Boston where men and women were persecuted for their religion. The first call to a minister, on the Island, was made in 122 HISTORY OP BLOCK ISLAND. March, 1700, not by a church but by the town, at a regular meeting, where a preamble equivalent to a brief sermon was signed by twenty-eight freemen, ten by "his mark," This preamble deeded to him ''five acres, giving the right and disposition thereof to Samuel Niles and his heirs forever." He accepted the call, accepted the land, but either he as a disciple of Harvard College was not acceptable to his Baptist hearers, or they were not congeniaJ to him, and he sold his land and settled in Braintree, where he was ordained May 23, 1711. A missionary period of about fifty years, with perhaps short pastorates, seems to have intervened between the resignation of Mr. Niles and another permanent settlement of a minister. In 1756 Eev. Samuel Maxwell, a Baptist ordained in Swansea, Mass,, Apr. 18, 1733. received part of the rents of the "Ministry Lot," and in Sept, 1758, he received from the Island £124, "old tenor," " for his serving as a minister in said town the last four months." This was by vote at a town meeting. The "Ministry Lot," in 1756, rented for "£400, old tenor," and this sum was equivalent to $50.00, and Mr. Maxwell's appropriation from the town in 1758 was $15.50. The Island religion was indicated in a town vote Aug. 28, 1759, to employ Rev. David Sprague "so long as said Sprague shall serve the inhabitants of the town by preach- ing to them the gospel of Christ according to the Scriptures of truth, making them, and them only the rules of his faith, doctrine, and practice." He complied with these terms fifteen years, until he moved from the Island in the summer of 1775. The first church on the Island was organized under Mr. Sprague's ministry. He had been ordained on the 12th of July, 1739. At an adjourned meeting, Oct. 3, 1772, the organization was affected. They had previously drawn up articles of faith and practice. Their services, though brief, ISLAND CHDRCHES. 123 were compreliengive and solemn. The minister, four brethren, and three sisters were assembled, and "then read the articles of fellowship with one another, and then the church gave Elder Sprague the right hand of fellow- ship to administer the ordinances of God as an evangelist." Three months afterward, for the appointment of a deacon, the pastor, at a meeting, called upon each brother " to pass single before the Lord to see whether there was one in the church that was called of God to the ofBce of a deacon." Thomas Dodge, in doing so, expressed the conviction of his call to that service. Then the pastor " met him in a covenant way and declared that he beheved that his dedi- cation was of God, and gave him fellowship in the office of deacon." While holding this office during the Revolution, without a pastor, until 1784, he gained "a good degree," for he was then ordained as the successor of Mr. Sprague. For a view of the succession of pastors of this church, articles of faith, etc., see History of Block Island. A Free- Will Baptist Church was organized on the Island about the year 1820, and also a Seventh- Day Baptist Church, in April, 1864, although it has had no house of worship. One of the remarkable things of Block Island is that while the Christian religion has been well represented here more than two hundred years, in an average population of over 1,000 during the last hundred years, only one denom- ination has here existed, while the members of the first church at one time were over four hundred, and those of the other two were one hundred and fifty. On this Island neither sprinkling, nor pouring, nor signing of the cross for baptism ; nor human grades of ecclesiastical authority have ever been recognized by its inhabitants. The Meeting -Houses of the Island have indicated a com- mendable zeal for religion. After having held their meet ings at the private houses of Simon Ray and his son, and of Oapt. James Sands about ninety years, they built their 124 HISTORY OP BLOCK ISLAND. first house of worship near the north end, and easterly of the Fresh Pond, of which the Rev. Dr. Stiles said, in 1756, the houses of the Island were, " all but two or three, within two and a half miles of the meeting-house." From this the sparseness of the population on the Neck then may be inferred. The second meeting -liouse of the first church was built in ]814, and was located on Cemetery Hill, "similar and equal in appearance to those of others of the country towns of the state." It had "the old square pews and sounding board," and was erected by the town, as was its predecessor. It was subsequently moved, rebuilt, and has since been occupied as the Town Hall, and latterly also as the High School building. The third meeting-house of said church was located on Gravel Hill, incorrectly called Graves Hill in the History of the Island. It stood a little east of the Center, on the north side of the road from the Harbor to the Center, and on the first little hill east of the Center. It was built " on shares," and was occupied until the year 1857. The fourth meeting-house of the first church was dedicated on the 25th of August, 1863, at which time the steamer Canonicus conveyed from Providence and Newport eleven hundred passengers, then " one of the largest and most agreeable steamboat excursions ever known." This house cost $2,500, most of the funds having been procured by the energy of the pastor. Rev. Albert Gladioin. The first furnace ever seen upon the Island was placed in this house in 1875. The sailor phrases applied to this novelty, if recorded, would afford much amusement. The first Free- Will meeting-house, on the West Side, was erected in the year 1853, and was burned in the year 1863. The second one was partially built in 1869, but was demol- ished by the great September gale of that year. It was intended to be like the one now at the Center. The third ISLAND CHURCHES. 125 house erected by the Free- Will Baptists is the one which they now occupy. Seven houses of worship, as seen from the foregoing, have been erected on Block Island since it was settled. What population that has never equaled fifteen hundred has done better ? Too many have judged of the Islanders as unfairly as they would to characterize the entire city of Boston by the habits of a few of its worst sailors and fanatics. Rev. Charles A. Braithwaite is the present pastor of the First Baptist Church of the Jslanil, at the Center, and Rev. Charles W. Griffin is pastor of the Free "Will Baptist Church on the West Side. THE CHAPELS. In the fall of 1885, the First Baptist Church of the Island began the erection of a chapel at the Harbor for the accommodation of summer, visitors of all evangelical denominations. Said church do not need it for their own services, and they are entitled to much credit for their liberality. It is not often that one sect builds so costly an edifice for the use of others. Its tower and architecture will please the eyes of many approaching the Island, and its inner conveniences it is hoped will be grateful to those desiring spiritual as well as physical food and rest on Block Island. The existence of the chapel is due, in a great measure, to the energy and patience of pastor Braithwaite, and to the larger hea.rted friends of the enterprise. In the summer of 1887, Messrs. Nicholas Ball and B. B. Mitchell donated a site for an Episcopal Chapel, about equally distant from the Ocean View Hotel and tne Spring House. A beautiful house of worship was erected here, but was burned before it was ready for occupancy. 126 THE EPISCOPAL CHAPEL. Largely through the efforts of Mrs. John N. Bofinger, of St. Louis, who was ably seconded by Dr. George E. Brewer, Dr. H. H. Curtis, and other summer visitors, a beautiful Episcopal Chapel, named St. Ann's by the Sea, was built in 1889, on the hill northeast of the Spring House. Regular services are held here during the summer. THE SIGNAL STATION. This has more than met the expectations of many who rejoiced in its establishment. The books of Mr. W. J. Dail}', Sergeant Signal Corps, in 1888, show that during the months of July, August, and Sept. of 1887 the receipts for private dispatches at this station were $869) mostly from visitors. In the meantime a private office was operating at the Ocean View Hotel, a privilege which others can enjoy through the cable by negotiating with the Western Union Telegraph Co. HOTELS AND BOARDING PLACES. Eulogies of the Island as a suminer resort seem quite superflous as one considers the accommodations there, — houses ready to receive in each from five to five hundred and fifty visitors. Ample preparations are made for the con- venience of 3000 at any one time in the summer of 1888 All of these houses have splendid views of the ocean. The many new and elegant buildings recently erected, the cottages which will soon fringe the Island, the rapid communications for passengers and mails, the public and private telegraph and telephone privileges contemplated, and the electric lights will soon make the once charming island of Calypso seem dismal in comparison. .r FISHERIES. 127 These are quite modified from wliat they Vvfere. Cod fishing has greatly decreased, while sword, mackerel, and lobster fishing have greatly increased. For sword fishing the islanders have about twelve vessels and fifty men who sail out from one to forty miles for their ' 'game" which they market principally at Providence and Boston. Their annual receipts are about $12,000. In the lobster fishing fifteen boats, and thirty men, and one thousand two hundred pots are engaged, for which about $10,500 are received. Some are caught eight miles from the island, in deep water. The mackerel caught average about two thousand barrels annually. Pound fishing is carried on still, but less extensively than formerly. Messrs. Uriah B. Dodge, and Geo. Jelly are the princi- pal fish brokers of the island. THE INLET. The object of this is to secure an ample ebb and flow of salt water between the ocean and the Great Pond on the west side of the island, by which stagnation of the pond will be prevented, shell fish in it made abundant, and a harbor secured. To accomplish this the islanders have made vigorous progi'ess. They first procured control of the pond, exclusive of the state. In 1887, Apr. 19, they voted to raise $10,000 to open the inlet. The survey was made by Mr. J, Cotton, of Newport, and the open- ing was located near the old Breach which was in use two hundred years ago. See page 75. The job of opening and completing the inlet was awarded to S. V. R. Hendricks who stipulated to do it for $8,450, making the width twenty-five feet and depth sufficient to secure the henefit of the tide and a passage for vessels. Work was begun in the early autumn of 1887, and is progressing in the summer of 1888. 128 THE GOVERNMENT HARBOR. It is believed by many that the Great Pond will thusbe* come a souice of much revenue to the Island, by its shell fisheries, its pleasure sailing — so safe from winds, calms, and tides, and as a harbor. The experiment is enterprising, hopeful, and commendable, and if success- ful will be a benefit to the Islanders and the. public. THE GOVERNMENT HARBOR. This has done excellent service. See page 77. Ex- tensive improvements have been begun, and $20,000 are being expended. W. R. Livermore, Major of Engineers, U. S. A., in his report for 1887, states that $50,000 will' be required to complete the breakwater and basin now begun. He also reports the following items of interest, especially to those who knew the Island well in 1870 : For the year ending Dec. 31, 1886, received at the harbor of Block Island, coal, about five thousand three hundred tons ; grain, about twelve thousand bushels ; lumber, about four million feet ; merchandise exported and imported, fifteen thousand tons. Arrivals and de- partures of steamers of fifty to one hundred tons, drawing three to ten feet of water, one thousand eight hundred and ninety ; sailing vessels, of ten to two hundred tons, draught from two to six feet (about) one hundred and sixteen thousand. Dredging of sand will be done by the Government, as at its other harbors, when necessary. The Range Lights of the harbor, to enable vessels to enter at night safely, are under the care of Capt. Uriah B. Dodge. PILOTS, 129 Ihe Isliiud is well located for this important service, and the pilot boat from it has cheered the heart of many a foreign sailor. Its Pilot Commissioner is Capt. Darius B. Dodge, and its pilots are Wm. Talbot Dodge, Capt. John E. Rose, Capts. Lemuel Dodge, James M. Dodge, Andrew J. Dodge, and Andrew V. Willis. THE WATER V/ORKS. This improvement, like others, places Block Island in the front ranks of progress. Its principals are Messrs. Frederick A. Rose, and Edward S. Payne, natives of the Island. The works were begun in December, 1887, by taking water from the Sands Pond to supply the hotels and houses at the harbor. Many applications were made for the water as early as April, 1888, and many were supplied in May. LIFE SAVING STATIONS. These have proved themselves to be of value to the Island, giving employment to quite a number, and doing good service in rescuing the shipwrecked sailors. The one at the harbor has u new and convenient building, at a cost of $5,000.00. It is under the charge of Capt. D. B. Dodge, with a crew of seven men. The west side station has won great distinction by res- cuing a crew from a perishing condition. This was done by Capt. N. D. B.ill, and his crew, A. W. Allen, P. A. Mott, C. H. Mitchell, Lewis N. Allen, J. A. Mitchell, A. C. R. Ball, and N. H. Dunn. WRECK OF THE WILLIAM H. JORDAN. She was a three-masted schooner, laden with coal, bound from Baltimore for Bristol, R. I. Her voyage 130 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. was of increasing rougliness, until she reached the exceed- ingly dangerous waters between Montauk and Block Island, where so niauy vessels have been carried ashore by violent winJs and treacherous tides. The weather was so thick that her captain, A. R. Haines, of Taunton, Mass., was unable to see land. She struck amid the boulders about 2 a. m., of Jan. 2, 1888. At 3.30 a. m. she w'as discovered by John A. Mitchell, while patroling the beach of the west side life saving station. Her crew were all driven into the fore-rigging by the terrible seas beating over her deck, while she was pounding on the rocks. He struck his Coston light and swung it over his head several times and in response there came to his ears the most distressful cries for help. He ran about a mile to the station and gave the sad tidings. Capt. Ball and his crew took the most energetic measures to rescue the perishing. The surf boat, it was soon found, could not approach the vessel the seas were so high and violent. Then, as soon as possible, the life-saving cannon was planted, and a line shot over the vessel. After several shots, one fell within reach of the men in the rigging and by them the line was secured. Meanwhile many had gathered upon the shore to assist in saving the seven sailors who were in the most imminent peril. Beneath them were the angry seas dashing over their deck, their vesEel rolling, plunging, breaking up, and swinging them violently over their watery graves, while the roar of the surf and the howling and screaming of winds amid the '"igging seemed to be their final requiem. To remain there a little longer was to perish, and to be taken ashore in the only way possible was extremely perilous. Capt. Ball ran his breeches-buoy out to them. This is a pair of canvass j^ants with a waistband of cork, to pass HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. 131 beween the shore and vessel, attached to a block that moves on a hawser connecting vessel and shove. Into this buoy one put himself, and was so fastened in that he could not get out. Then, by a line called "whip" attached he was hauled ashore, sometimes "buried twenty feet deep in the combing breakers, and then as she rolled seaward the hawser would tighten vs'ith a snap that chilled the blood of those on shore, and the breeches-buoy and its occupant would be hurled high into the air only to fall the next moment into another sea." Thus the seven were landed, and as they came ashore one by one, there was a sympathizing Islander to lead him to the station, where dry clothes, hot coffee, and food were freely furnished. Within ten minutes after the last man was landed the mizzenmast snapped asunder, dashed against the main- mastwhich " broke like a pipe stem," and both fell crash- ing through the rigging where a little before the men had been clinging, and the hull went to pieces. From this we may infer the credit due to patrolman John A. Mitch- ell for running one mile to the station to give notice of the wreck. Indeed, C;ipt. Ball and his life-saving crew, worked wiselv, vigorously, and successfully, assisted nobly by old members of his station, by those of the har- bor station, and by many citizens. Said dipt. Haines for himself and his rescued crew : " I do not believe men were ever in a more perilous po- sition or where it was more difficult to afford assistance. Capt. Ball is the right man in the right place. He did not make one false motion, or do one unnecessary thing. We did not consider our lives worth a picayune, and if men ever can owe everlasting gratitude toothers, we owe it to Capt. Ball and the noble men at his back. May God reward them ! " See page 80. 132 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. TUB STEAMER GEORGE W. PAXIELSON. Tills first vessel of the kind built by the Islanders has a fine record, proving herself to be stanch and service- able. Under the command of her judicious captain, George W. Conley, and her faithful officers and crew, she has continued her regxilar trips between the Island, Newport, and Providence for eight years without a serious accident. This is saying much, as all well know who are acquainted with the rough seas in the winter. Her freights and passengers have been steadily increas- ing. (See page 12.) THE INLET. The Inlet (see page 127) was completed in 1888, and has proved of great benefit in preventing the water of the Great Pond from becoming stagnant. It has not afforded a permanent available channel for boats, as was hoped, the depth being now about two feet at low tide, but the Town's Senator and Representative hope to enlist the aid of the U. S. Government in making a deep and perpetual passage. They have induced Congress to order a pre- liminary survey for such action as may seem best to the Engineer Department in the premises. RECENT WRECKS. Three-mast schooner Lavina Campbell came ashore Oct. 14, 1883. Barkentine Alexander Campbell filled and sank on South-West Ledge, Xov. 27, 1888, her crew reaching shore in safety. Three-mast schooner Pocahontas, of Taunton, was wrecked Jan. 12, 1890. Pour-mast schooner William H. Fredson was stranded May 9, 1890, and proved a total loss. Bark Lady of the Lake, of Halifax, from New York to Windsor, Nova Scotia, came ashore May 15, 1890. Off Montauk Point, late Sunday night, Feb. 19, 1893, a violent west- southwest gale blew away the sails and EECEXT WRECKS. 133 stove the pilot house of steamer Panther, Captain Miller, towing Barge Reliance, Captain J. F. Remington, from Philadelphia with 1,450 tons of coal for Newburyport. The gale increased to a hurricane, the sea ran very high, and both vessels labored heavily until 8 a. m., when the hawser parted, the Panther sought safety in the lee of Long Island, and the Reliance, after an ineffectual attempt to ride out the gale, drove ashore about noon some two hundred yards south of the West Side Life-Saving Station. In the intense cold of a severe February snap, with the wind averaging more than sixty miles an hour, the Station crew tried in vain to launch their boat. Next they attempted to throw a line across the wreck, but six times the powder burned off the rope. In little more than half an hour the bai-ge went to i^ieces. The body of a woman of thirty-five years soon washed ashore. It was that of the captain's wife, and was soon followed by his corpse. An Italian and a Portuguese sailor were found dead on the beach soon after, and after several days the body of a third seaman. Everything possible was done by the Island people to aid friends of the dead in giving them proper burial here or shipment home, thus closing the story of the greatest tragedy from shipwreck known here in sixty years. The Reliance belonged to the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, and was valued at 125,000. DISTANCES ABOUT THE ISLAXD. The distances, by the road usually travelled from the wharf south of the Basin, are obtained by careful meas- urements of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Map, and are correct as can be conveniently given without using fractions smaller than eighths of a mile. The signs -|- and — are added to secure greater accuracy. On ac- count, however, of the extremely irregular topography of 134 HISTOEY OF BLOCK ISLAND. the Island, the merciful man who is merciful to his horse should estimate each distance as practically about one third greater than is shown by an unfeeling steel tape line. Miles, to im- post Office Summer Theatre . . U. S. Signal Station . Telegraph Office . . Harbor Chapel . . Harbor Hill . . , . . . 1+ Sallsbury Cottage . . . §+ Harbor Pond . . . . i New Shoreham Life Saving Station i Mill Pond I Crescent Beach ... | Bath Houses | Magnetic Iron Ore Works | Fort Island ... . IJ Trimm's Pond l| Jonathan Ball's WindMilllJ The Centre l|-|- Town Hall and Free Li- brary Indian Head Neck . . . J. Harper Bonnell's Resi- dence (formerly Searle's Mansion) Capt. Mark L. Potter's res idence j J. Deming Parker's resi- dence 1| Judge Aleck Boamian's residence . . . . j Clay Head Bluffs . . :i'i+ Chagum Pond . . . 3|-f- Briton's Eock . . . . 4 -|- Grove Point .... . 4J-(- Sandy Point Light . . 4| Littlefield's Wind Mill ij — if- 2« Island Cemetery . . Beacon Hill Obser^'atory . Sandy Hill . Grace's Point .... Grace's Cove .... West Beach Fish Pound Salt Pond Inlet . . . Fresh Pond Free Will Baptist Church Dorry's Cove . . . Block Island Life-Saving Station Tripler's Cottage . . . Barlow's Cottage . . Black Rock . . Palatine Graces Dickens' Point . . Episcopal Chapel . Mineral Springs . . Pebbly Beach . . Old Harbor Point . . Pilot Hill Water Works Reservoir Mohe^an Bluffs . . . Fog Signal ... Miners's Cottage . . . Southeast Point . South Light . . Vaill Cottage .... Indian Cemetery . . . Sandy Point Life Saving Station Catholic Church . . Central Telephone Office (long distance telephone) J Harbor Hill . Sandy Hill . . Clay Head Hill ELEVATIONS. Feet. . 40 . 74 . 142 Feet. Hill near South Light . 146 Pilot Hill . ... 182 Beacon Hill 211 DISTANCES AROUND THE ISLAND Miles, On the shore 17 By water, wind favoring 19 Miles. By water, ordinary sail- ing 20 to 25 LENGTH AND WIDTH. Miles. I Miles Gj-eatest length 5.96 | Greatest width 3.6} DISTAXi'ES FKOir BLOCK ISLAND. 135 DISTANCES FROM BLOCK ISLAND BY STBAMEK AND EAILKOAD. The following table of distances from the landing is believed to be the most complete and accurate ever issued, as in its preparation the author has been aided by the general passenger agents of the leading railroad and steamboat lines of New England. Points reached directly by steamer from Block Island are given in larger tj'pe, and under each is placed the names of places con- veniently accessible thereby. To Miles. Narragansett Pier . . 17 Wakefield 20 Kingston 25 Sliannocli 30 Wiokford Junction . . 32 East Greenwicli .... 38 From Kingston, or Wick- ford June, on tlie Sliore Line R. R., good connec- tions can be made for New York or Boston, etc. Newport . Bristol Ferry 34 Fall River . 41 Somerset . 47 Warren . . 50 Dighton 50 My rick's . Bristol . . 54 Taunton 56 Weir JvmctioE 56 Middleboro 60 Easton . . 67 New Bedford 67 Mansfield . 67 Bridgewater 68 Foxboro . 70 Stougliton . Campello . Wareliam . 73 74 74 Brockton . 7-J Plymouth . Walpole Onset Junctio 11 76 76 78 To Jliles. Buzzard's Bay ... 80 Braintree 82 Quincy 84 Sandwich 87 South Framingham . . 89 Cottage City 91 Boston 92 Falmouth 93 Wood's Holl 97 Barnstable 98 Marlboro 98 Tarmoutli 101 Concord Junction . . . 102 Northboro 103 Hyannis 104 South Dennis 106 Harwich 110 Clinton 112 Lowell 117 Chatliam 118 Nantucket . .... 119 Leominster Centre . . . 121 Fitchburg 126 Welltleet 131 Provincetown .... 14(i Wickford, via Newport . 37 Wickford Junction ... 40 Davisville 43 East Greeuwicli .... 46 Kingston 47 Also all Shore Line 1!. R. connections, cliisc. Providence 50 Pawtucket 54 136 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. To Miles. Central Falls 55 Valley Falls 56 Lonsdale 57 Berkeley 59 Asliton 60 Albion 61 Manville 63 Hamlet 66 Woonsocket 66 Waterfoi-d 68 Blackstone 68 Millville 70 Uxbridge .... .75 Whitins 77 Northbiidge 81 Farnums 8.3 Saundersville .... 85 Wilkinsonville .... 85 Millbury 88 Worcester 94 Olneyville 52 Cranston 54 Knightsville 55 Oak Lawn 57 Pontiac 58 Natick 59 Elver Point 61 Arctic 62 Centreville . ... 62 Quidnick 63 Anthony 64 Washington 65 Coventry " 68 Summit 72 Greene 74 DyerviUe 54 Manton ... ... 54 Lyraansville 55 Allendale 56 Ceutredale . ... 57 Graystone 60 Smithfleld 62 Primrose 64 Oakland 70 Harrisville 71 Pasooag 73 Cumberland Mills . . .57 Adamsdale .... 58 Abbotts Run 61 i Arnold's Mills .... 62 | Diamond Hill . . . . ii4 To Miles. West Wrentham ... 66 Franklin 70 Watch Hill 15 Westerly 20 Wood River Junction . . 28 Sliannock 32 Kingston 37 Stonington 26 Mystic 29 New London . . . :','> Gi-oton 37 Waterford 38 East Lyme 41 South Lyme . . . . 46 Black Hall . ... 50 Lyme 52 Connecticut River . . . 53 Saybrook 54 Westbrook 57 Grove Beach .... (iO Clinton m Madison (i5 East River 67 Guilford 70 Stony Creek 74 Branford . . . .77 New Haven . . . 80 Bridgeport . . . 10:5 East Norwalk . . .117 Stamford .... . 126 Greenwich 131 Harlem River .... 155 New York 160 Montville 41 Norwich 48 Lebanon 58 South Windham . . .61 Willimantic . . 65 South Coventry . . . 70 Mansfield 73 Tolland 79 Stafford 85 Monson 90 Palmer 100 Barrett's Junction . . . 105 Belchertown 110 Amherst 120 Millers Falls 135 Vernon 151 Brattleboro 156 Essex 58 DISTAIfOES FROM BLOCK ISLAND. 137 To Miles. Deep River 62 Goodspeed's 66 Higganum Y2 Middletown 81 Wethersfield 92 Hartford 98 Wallingford 99 Meriden 105 Berlin 112 New Britain 115 Westfield 119 Windsor Looks .... 135 Warehouse Point . . . 1.30 Thompsonville .... 140 Springfield 149 To Miles. Cheshire ...... 102 Plainville 113 Avon 123 Collinsville 125 Gi'anby 133 Southampton 154 Holyoke 157 >I"orthampton . . . 159 Stratford 106 Ansonia 119 JS'augatuck 130 Waterbury 135 Torrington 155 Winsted ...... 164 MAILS, JUNE 1 TO OCTOBER 1, 1893. BY STEAMER G. W. DANIELSON". Close at 7.2.5 a. m. Open at 4..S0 p. u. JULY 5 TO SEPTEMBER 12. HT STEAMEE block ISLAND. Close at 1.15 p. m. Open at 12.15 p. m. SECRET SOCIETIES. Atlantic Lodge, A. F. A. M., and Neptune Lodge, I. O. 0. P., meet at their respective halls on Saturday evenings at eight o'clock. Mohegan Council, United Order of American Me- chanics, meets at 8 p. m., Tuesdays. Columbus Lodge, Knights of Pythias, meets on Thursday evenings at seven o'clock from Jan. 1 to July 1, and at half past seven the rest of the year. THE WHARF REPAIRED. In the summer of 1892 the old wharf was thoroughly repaired, and a plank walk laid to the Bathing Beach, two improvements greatly appreciated by all. AVERAGE TE:MPBRATURE. By the records of the U. S. Signal Station established in 1881, the following is the average summer temperature for the ten years ending with 1891 : June, (52.3°; July, 68.1°; Aug., 67.8°; September, 63.3°. III. NEV^^ MATERIAL OF BLOCK ISLAND 1901. 140 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. THE NEW HAEBOR. The new harbor has, so far as it has been completed, been constructed by cutting a channel in a general north- west and southeast line connecting the Great Salt Pond, as it has been called ever since the Island was settled, with the sea. Up to the present time, the project, which was begun by the state and the town in 1894, and was continued by the United States Government later on, has cost, includ- ing what may still be left of the last Congressional ap- propriation, 1220,000. This does not include an appropriation of $15,000 by the state which is now being expended in dredging a hundred foot channel into Indian Head Neck Pond at the south end of the new harbor, presumably for more per- fect shelter than can be secured in the outer harbor. The main channel, beginning at the south breakwater has a depth at mean low water of 12 feet for a distance of 170 feet; then, a depth of 18 feet for 75 feet; then a depth of 25 feet for a distance of 150 feet; then a depth of 18 feet for 75 feet; then a depth of 12 feet for 170 feet, to the north or northeast edge of the channel marked on the accompanying plan, for which the pub- lisher is • indebted to Mr. Henry F. Hill, Government Inspector, — " Proposed Breakwater." Of this work, at the present time, the 12 and 18 foot cuts are completed and there is a cut 35 feet wide through the centre of the 25 foot channel. Work was discontinued just before the Christmas holidays last year on the main channel. From the steamboat dock at the new harbor at its extreme south end to the dock at East Harbor, following the car track on the macadamized road is about one and one-third miles. TBAVELLING ACCOMMODATIONS ON THE ISLAND. 141 TRAVELLING ACCOMMODATIONS ON THE ISLAND. A horse railroad having one terminus at the dock at East Harbor and the other at Xew Harbor Dock, has a spur connecting with the pavilion and bath-houses at Crescent Beach. Licensed public carriages with uniform, and prescribed charges can easily be secured, their general headquarters being at old Post-Office Square, near the docks at East Harbor. LONG AND SHORT DISTANCE TELEPHONE. In the summer of 1898, a new cable was laid to the mainland by the United States Government for the pur- pose of establishing telephonic communication. The terminus on the mainland is at Narragansett Pier, the length of the cable being seventeen miles. Communi- cation may be had through the short circuit with subscribers on the Island, and by long distance phone with all parties reached by the Providence Tele- phone Company and associate lines. BLOCK ISLAND FROM JUNK TO SEPTEMBEU. The climate of the maritime section of this state is milder and more equable than that of any other in New England, though in fact, the entire New England coast, from Mt. Desert to Watch Hill has a world-wide reputa- tion as a region full of recuperating and rejuvenating influences. Block Island's position, however, as one among the hundred resoi-ts along this far-famed coast is, in many respects, distinctly unique. Its most prominent character- istic is its isolation from the mainland. A belt of ocean 142 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAIfD. ten miles wide separates it from the nearest shore, and this removes all danger of malarial or contaminating land breezes as effectually and absolutely as if that belt were a thousand miles in width. Here, then, is a paradox, an island as essentially oceanic from every hygienic stand- point as the Bermudas or St. Helena, yet within a couple of hours' sail of such centres of travel as New London and Newport, and within five hours of New York or Boston. Concisely told. Block Island's claims to be regarded as one of the most desirable of summer resorts are, — First. Its healthf ulness, as evidenced by its low d«ath rate, its freedom from epidemics and especially from such diseases as are common among children during the summer. Second. Its low temperature and especially its cool nights, which, in connection with its ocean breezes and the mellow, monotonous ripple of the surf, tend to long, dreamless slumber and the rapid upbuilding of tissue. Its conditions are almost as instant and absolute a specific for insomnia as fresh vegetables are for scurvy. Third. Its surf bathing. In few places in the world are there such facilities for surf and still sea water bath- ing. While a line of foam crested breakers is rolling in on beautiful Crescent Beach, its southern end is so shel- tered by the great granite breakwater that the tiniest toddler may paddle safely about in the ripples that gently lap the shore. Fourth. Its sailing and fishing facilities. It is hardly necessary to speak of the foi-mer, as the Atlantic Ocean certainly offers facilities enough for sailing, but it may be added for the benefit of those likely to be afflicted with mal de rner, that a series of inland lakes, offer a Pi w < BLOCK ISLAND FROM JUNE TO SEPTEMBER. 143 ample room for the evolutions of those who like a boat but dislike the ocean swell. The waters that surround the Island abound with fish, but during July and August the pursuit of swordfish and bluefish is the principal fad among the disciples of Walton, both amateur and pro- fessional. Without attempting to exhaust the list, how- ever, one might name cod, haddock, tautog, striped bass, mackerel, sea trout, flounders, and sea bass among the fish that are most plentiful during the summer. In the inland ponds, black bass, pickerel, perch and other fresh water fish are taken. Its Scenery. Such words as "grand " and " sublime " cannot properly be applied to any scenery here, though the picturesque beauty of Mohegan Bluffs, especially when viewed from their foot by the light of the moon, ap- proaches sublimity. There are many localities, however, where the artistic mind awakens to the unique loveliness of the surround- ings — so many in fact, that to particularize would seem invidious. To the writer, one of the most picturesque, and at the same time impressive views can be had in a clear day from the summit of Beacon Hill, the crowning point of land on the Island. To the west. Long Island Sound, with Long Island and Fisher's Island, belonging to New York ; sweeping to the northwest, a glimpse of the Connecticut shore, through Fisher's Island Sound, then Watch Hill, the south shore of Rhode Island, the world famous Point Judith, Acquidneck, with its City by the Sea, and then, beyond Sakonnet Point, the gray out- line of the Massachusetts coast. First, one naturally looks down, and there spread out before him is an endless succession of hills — many of them, one would almost call hillocks — and valleys, embosoming countless lakes. The fields are so intersected ■144 HISTUEY OF BLOCK ISLAXI). with the characteristic stone fences, silent evidences of the industry of the early settlers, that one gets the im- pression of a gigantic net with irregular meshes. Thickly dotted over this surface, principally on the high land are the white farm-houses and fishermen's cot- tages, and around East Harbor Village and Mohegan Bluffs, the thirty or more hotels and most of the summer residences. Then the eye wanders into the southeast and south, and views the sea alone, untamed, restless, shining, dancing, raging, rolling in from the far off bright Azores, tossing the white sails on its vast expanse, green, blue, leaden, white capped, many colored, never two minutes the same, sounding with its eternal voice, I know not what rebuke to man. The season, as it is termed, is during July and August ; it cannot be said, with the larger houses, to be on a pay- ing basis, during an average season, until July 15th, and it lasts from five to six weeks. The writer has great admiration for the military genius that can feed and fight an army in the field, but he does not believe it is superior to that of the landlord of a great summer hotel in a short, sharjD and decisive camjDaign of six weeks or two months, at the end of which the sub- stantial fruits of victory are supposed to be in his hands, while the guests are allowed to dej^art with only their personal baggage and side-arms, but so well pleased that they are inclined to renew the contest the next summer. This is a contest not of mind over matter, but of mind over mind. It is not merely the organization and the m^anagement of the army under the immediate command of the landlord, the accumulation and distribution of sup- plies, in the uncertainty whether the garrison on a given day wUl be fifty or five hundred,^ — not merely the lodg- ing, rationing and amusing of this shifting post, but the PLACES OF INTEREST. 145 satisfying of as many whims and prejudices as there are people who leave home on purpose to grumble and en- joy themselves in the exercise of a criticism they dare not indulge in their own houses. Little by little, however, people are coming earlier and staying later. They are learning that for beauty of scenery and calm enjoyment of all the Island's most attractive features, June and September are the months above all others, to come here. The Island has been for many years essentially a hotel resort, but cottagers have begun to realize its desirability and this fad will doubtless continue. There are number- less beautiful locations all over the Island and the great improvement in the streets and roads during the past few years is an incentive to prospective purchasers of residential sites. It may be added that a Town Improvement Asso- ciation has been formed, and one of its first moves has been the purchase of 140 street lights. Other improve- ments will follow, for the town, naturally somewhat con- servative and old-fashioned, is, at last, waking up to its possibilities. PLACES OF INTEREST. To the excursionist, espeeiallj' if he has dinner in view, not much is open in the way of sight-seeing, on account of his brief stay. Probably his best course, at whichever dock he lands, is to take a car and ride the length of the route and back. This will take about half an hour and will cost ten cents. He can ascertain from the conductor whether he has time to wait over one or more cars. On this route he will pass through the main street of Harbor Village, will see Crescent Beach, Crescent Lake, Trim's Pond, Indian Head Neck Pond, Clay Head Bluffs, and will get a fairly good view of a large part of the Island. 146 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. If he is inclined to a jaunt, however, and lands at the New Harbor, the Island Cemetery, distant about five minutes' walk from the dock, is his most available point of interest ; if he lands at East Harbor, a walk along the path skirting the bluffs just east of the Ocean View hotel will take one to the Mineral Springs and to Pebbly Beach. Returning, the pedestrian can follow Spring Street to old Post Office Square. To the visitor who has plenty of time at his disposal, there are many points of interest. For an extended land and ocean view, Beacon Hill, the highest point, and Pilot Hill, on the road to South Light, are the best points. Mohegan Bluffs and South Light should, by all means be visited, while Clay Head Bluffs, with their peculiar formation are points of interest. North Light and the fish pounds may be taken in on the trip to Clay Head Bluffs, although to see the pounds or traps hauled in- volves an early start. The Life Saving Stations, which are closed during June and July, but open during August, are of interest to vis- itors and especially to those living inland. Fresh Pond and Sands Pond are the Meccas of those who have a penchant for fresh water fishing, though scores of other ponds afford the same kind of sport and probably on account of not being fished so much, quite as good sport. The best bureau of general information, where maps, guide books, etc., as well as courteous oral information may be obtained, is C. C. Ball's General Store on Old Post Office Square, at East Harbor. COMMUNICATION'S. 147 COMMUNICATIONS. Years ago, when Block Island first began to acquire a reputation as a summer resort, the facilities for going and coming were exceedingly primitive, but they have been gradually improved as the demands of travel have re- quired, until now they may fairly be regarded as up to date. The line from New York, more fully described on its time table page, is a most convenient route for those com- ing from New York and the "West, especially when the traveler desires to have an unbroken night's rest. The route via New London, on the steamer Block Island, is convenient for those living in central and west- ern Connecticut, or Massachusetts, or in Vermont, and an early morning train from New York allows the trav- eler to connect with the boat at New London. The Mount Hope which leaves Providence every morn- ing is convenient for those living in northern Rhode Island, in eastern Massachusetts, or in southern New Hampshire. The terminus of the regular all-the-year-round mail route has been at Newport ever since the route was es- tablished in 1832, although a mail is carried during the summer between here and New London. The mail has been carried on the Newport route, during the past twenty years by the steamer George W. Danielson, a small propeller. She was built in 1880 for this route, has been an excellent sea boat, and her accommodations for passengers, though superior to those of the remote past, still left much to be desired. This steamer will leave East Harbor at 7 a. m. carry- ing the mail to Newport, and will leave Newport on her return trip at 1.30 p. m. arriving here at i p. m. 148 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. THE NEW BOAT. A new boat has been constructed for this route at the yard of William McKie in East Boston, which, when considered from all points, seaworthiness, speed, and accommodations, has scarcely a rival anywhere, She was launched April 20, 1901, being christened the " New Shoreham." Briefly speaking, she is a screw pro- peller, 165 feet long, 35 feet beam, 12 1-2 feet depth of hold and of 11 feet normal draft aft. She is guaranteed to make a speed of sixteen miles per hour for four con- secutive hours on her trial trip, and her accommodations for passengers are all that can be desired. The ladies' cabin has a Wilton velvet carpet, Vienna mahogany finished furniture, French plate mirrors, and window curtains of silk tapestry. The transom seats are uj)holstered in car plush. The staterooms have each, two berths with curled hair mattresses, mirror, pitcher, two tumblers, Wilton velvet carpet, four Vienna mahogany-finished chairs, etc. The toilet rooms have French plate mirrors ; the smoking cabin has twelve mahogany-finished arm-chairs, with seats and backs upholstered in horse hide, besides other seats. The passengers' dining saloon is on the upper deck. The steamer has a complete electric lighting plant, con- sisting of duplicating sets each of about 8 K. W. capacity at 550 revolutions per minute, wired in parallel, and to about 175-16 C. P., 125 volt incandescent lamps distrib uted and located as required, and an 18 in. 35 ampere search-light. All material and workmanship is to be of the best, as can be evidenced from the fact that the steamer which is to be completed June 1, 1901, is to cost $72,000. CLIMATIC CONDITION'S AT BLOCK ISLAND. 149 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS AT BLOCK ISLAND. The unique conditions in so far as regard temperature, wind pressure, etc., prevalent at Block Island during the warm season, are indicated by the table on the opposite page. This report is official, being furnished by the local observer of the weather bureau here. Attention is called to the low average of the thermometer and to the fact that the average wind pressure here is sufficient to indicate the fact that, even on the warmest days, the heat is not disagreeably noticeable. THE LIFE SAVIXC STATIONS. To attempt to give any exact and complete account of the work done by the crews of the Life Saving Stations in the rescue of life and the saving of propertj"^, for even one year, would be impossible in the amount of space which can be devoted to the subject here, but to illustrate in some slight manner the value of the service it may be said that during the gale of Xovember 26-27, 1898, Xew Shoreham Station alone, the one located on Crescent Beach, near Harbor Village, rendered assistance to the mail steamer George W. Danielson, to the three-masted schooner Lexington, of Machias, Me. ; to the fishing schooners Edvmvd H. Smead, and the Rose Brothers of this place ; to the sloops Alvha, C'assie, and the Annie Pitcher, of Xewport ; to the sloop Nellie B, of New Lon- don ; and to the catboat Stranger, of Newport. The crews of such of these craft as were strangers were taken to the station, given warm, dry clothing and sleeping quarters until they could leave for home. Only a few days later, on the morning of December 5th, the schooner Vamoose, of St. John, N. B., from Sydney, Cape Breton Island, bound to St. John, loaded with gas coal was discovered ashore on Clay Head Bluffs, 150 I-IISTOEY OF BLOCK ISLAND. about three-fourths of a mile north of the north terminus of the station's patrol, on the beat now covered by Sandy Point Station, since established. The schooner had come ashore before midnight, but not being on the beat of the patrolmen was not discovered. The captain had lost his reckoning and mistook Sandy Point Light, at the north end of the Island, for Point Judith Light. The wind blew a gale from the southeast and there was a heavy sea on. Shortly after the vessel struck, the captain was washed overboard and drowned ; the crew then took to the rigging. A little later, the mate was hurled overboard by the giving way of the topmast and drowned, or perhaps killed. Two men succeeded in making a raft from timber on deck and were washed ashore among the rocks more dead than alive. The chance was, however, regarded as too desperate by the rest of the crew, four in number, who remained lashed in the rigging until the arrival of the Life Saving Crew. The shore was so rocky and so high a sea was running that Keeper Littlefield regarded the use of a surf boat as too risky except as a last resort. An effort was accordingly made to rescue them in the breeches-buoy and was successful. The first shot went on board all right but the deck was so broken up that the sailors could not reach it ; a second shot went almost into their hands and they were soon safe on shore and in warm quarters at the station. The body of the mate was recovered the same day ; that of the captain several days later. The vessel valued at $26,000, insured for $8,000, was a total loss; the cargo was valued at $1,500, and was insured for $1,100. About $400 was received for the coal that was saved. Although it is not often, of course, that so many wrecks occur here in so short a period of time, some idea may be HON. NICHOLAS BALL. HOX. NICHOLAS BALL. 151 obtained of the value to both owners and seamen of the Life Saving Service. There are now three stations here, covering the entire shores of the Island every night, for ten months in the year, and also in thick weather during the day. HON. NICHOLAS BALL. Hon. Nicholas Ball was born here December 31, 1828. Jlis descent from Edward Ball, the first of the name here may be traced as follows : Edward (1), John (2), Edward (3), Peter (4), Edmund (5), Nicholas (6). Nicholas Ball married first, Eliza, daughter of Abram and SybU (Littlefield) Milliken, and by her had the fol- lowing children : (1) Eugene Randall, born 1852, died 1S65; (2) Cassius Clay, born 1854; (3) Effie Aurelia, born 1855, married 1880, Frank C. Cundall, at present one of the managers of the Ocean View Hotel, and also a druggist in business in East Greenwich, R. I. ; (4) Phile- mon Galusha, born 1858, died 1858 ; (5) Imogene Ver- gelia, born 1859, died 1870 ; (6) Schuyler Colfax, born 1861, married Lena W. Bartlett of Haverhill, Mass. Mr. Schuyler C. Ball is one of the managers of the Ocean View Hotel, being associated in that capacity with Mr. F. 0. Cundall, his brother-in-law, Mr. C. C. Ball, being also one of the proprietors. Cassius Clay Ball, born in 1854, began business in 1874. His business career has been a successful one, which fact his fine store at East Harbor exemplifies. The moral is ob- vious. Personally, Mr. Ball is one of the most agreeable of gentlemen, always courteous, never too busy to spare a moment for a friend ; always too busy to waste time. Mr. Ball married first, Alice 0., daughter of William P. Lewis, Esq., by whom he had one son, Nicholas, who is in the employ of the Swift Beef Co. in New York City. 152 HISTOEY OF BLOCK ISLAND. Mr. Ball's first wife died in 1884 and in 1886 he mar- ried Miss Lucretia Mott, by whom he has a daughter born in 1887, Miss Lucretia Beatrice Ball, Nicholas Ball's first wife died in 1870 and in 1871 he married Mrs. Almeda Rosalind Littlefield, daughter of Solomon and Catherine (Willis) Dodge. At the age of eight years. Nicholas Ball began to attend a private school, but like many men whose natural talent and persevering energy have achieved success with but little technical training, his school life was short. During his ninth summer he went to sea as cook at a salary of six dollars per month. The next summer this was increased to seven dollars per month. After this he attended school some four months each winter, making short voyages on coasting vessels during the summer, or working for farmers at from ten to twenty cents per day until March, 1843, when he shipped as cook at ten dollars per month and henceforth his wages were increased as his experience and responsibilities were increased, untU, as mate of a large vessel, he was receiving twenty-eight ■dollars per month. His voyages took him to the West Indies, England, France, and in 1849 he made a trip of one hundred and sixty-one days around Cape Horn to California, as mate of the brig General Cohh. In 1851, he made a short visit home, but soon returned to California, where he remained until 1854, when he re- turned to Block Island and engaged in the general mer- chandise business. He was elected representative to the C-eneral Assemby for two successive years, was in 1858, elected State Senator, and except in 1860, 61-62, he held that position until 1873, when he declined a renomina- tion. JOHN NICHOLAS BALL. 153 Mi: Ball believed from the time of his return from Cal- ifornia — possibly before — that there was a great future in store for Block Island, and he determined to be a fac- tor in creating or at least in developing it. His first great success in this direction was the construction of the government breakwater here, a result achieved almost wholly by his own indefatigable efforts, efforts knowing no relaxation, acknowledging no discouragements, but ever toiling on with one purpose in view. In 1872 he secured a life saving station on the west part of the Island, soon afterwards he secured another, which was built on a site nearly opposite the present Mid-Ocean Office. This was sold some ten years ago by the government and another, better adapted to the business, and in a better location, erected in its place at the south end of Crescent Beach. Later, he secured the erection of the light-house and fog whistle on Mohegan Bluffs, and by continual, per- sistent efforts, the establishment, in 1880, of a station of the signal service here, and the laying of a submarine cable. His mercantile career was a successful one, but was brought to a close in 1872, when he sold out his business and began to erect the Ocean View Hotel, which has since become famous as one of the most popular summer hotels in America. Mr. Ball died July 31, 1896. The hotel which has had for years a national, really an international fame, has, since his decease, been conducted by his heirs. No other house on the whole Atlantic coast has, perhaps, so envi- able a reputation. Mr. Ball's idea of the proper method of running a hotel, an idea perpetuated by his successors, was that the present took care of the future. The mere fact that the house was being conducted at a loss for a week or a month, cut no figure in his mind; he simply said to himself, "if 154 HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND. we please the public, the public will, in the long run, stand by us." CHROSrOLOGKIAL ABSTRACT OF BLOCK ISLAND HISTORY. Aboriginal inhabitants, Narragansett Indians bearing the local name of Manisseans. 1534. Discovered by Verrazano, a Florentine navi- gator sailing under the flag of Francis X, King of France, and christened Claudia, in honor of the King's mother. 1614. Re-discovered by Adrian Block, a Dutch nav- igator and fur trader, and called for sometime thereafter, "Adrian's, Eyland" (Island), and subsequently. Block Island. 1636. Subjugated by Massachusetts Bay Colonj^ 1658. Transferred by colony to John Endicott, Richard Bellingham, Daniel Dennison, and William Hawthorne. 1660. Sold for £400 to Richard Billings, Samuel Dering, Nathaniel Wingley, Tormut Rose, Edward Varse, John Rathbone, Thomas Faxon, Richard Ellis, Felix Wharton, John Glover, Thomas Terry, James Sands, Hew Williams, John Alcock, Simon Ray, and Peter George. The Island was divided into seventeen portions, one being set apart for the support of an ortho- dox minister. 1661. First settlers set sail from Taunton, Mass., in a vessel built at Braintree, Mass., and land in Cow Cove on the north side of the Island, east of Sandy Point. They were : Thomas Terry, Samuel Dering, Duncan Williamson, John Rathbone, Simon Ray, William Tosh, Tormot Rose, William Barker, David Kimball, William Cahoone, Edward Varse, Nicholas White, William Billings, Trustarum Dodge, and John Ackurs, Thomas Faxon having preceded them with the surveyor. CHEOXOLOGICAL ABSTRACT. 155 1673. Town incorporated as New Shorebam. 1674. In this year the pojDulation (white) was about 200 and there were thirty freeholders. 1680. Harbor company formed to make a harbor in the " Big Pond," (Great Salt Pond). 1689. Naval engagement between English and French men-of-war off the Island. 1699. Rev. Samuel Niles, the first Rhode Island student to enter college f graduated from Harvard Col- lege. He was a grandson of James Sands. 1765. First Church organized. 1779. Town records removed to mainland for safe keeping and not returned until after the close of the war. 1800. Population consisted of 714 whites, 16 Indians, and 45 negroes. 18J29. First lighthouse erected on Sandy Point. 1833. First mail route estabhshed, — weekly. 1843. First hotel opened. 1850. Population consisted of VKi'J. whites, 3 Indians and 44 negroes. 1853. First steamboat excursion. I860. Population consisted of 18'iO whites, ] Indian and 2K negroes. 1870. Population consisted of 1113 whites, 1 Indian and 28 negroes. 1873. Neptune Lodge of Odd P^ellows instituted and first Life Saving Station established at " West Side." 1873. Tri-weekly mail established. 1874. South Lighthouse built at a cost of 175,000, and a Life Sa^•ing Station near the dock, since removed to Crescent Beach, was established. 187.5. Island High School (private) established. 1876. Atlantic Lodge of Masons instituted. 1878. Main breakwater at East Harbor completed. 156. HISTOET OF BLOCK ISLAND. 1880. Daily mail for three months, tri-weekly dur- ing rest of year, established. Steamer George W. Danielson built, telegraphic cable laid, and Signal Office established. Population, 1265. 1888. Water introduced into Harbor Village from Sands' Pond. BLOCK ISLAND, R.I. VAILL COTTAGES, SOUTH BLUFFS. GOLF a special feature. Send for illustrated booklet. J. M. VAILL, Prop. T. V. BARTON, Mgr. •lajUAl U13300 JO ajti) X o o ■CD o CO inoH .lad sauw) jCjioooa ^saqSiH 64 E 14th. 1896. CO ex. 72 NE 21st. 1893. 75 NE 9th. 1896. •uoijoajia - so CO •jtMOOiaA pniM. ^1 1— H 1— 1 -H O-j OS o i-H •(saqom) 'nonB^idioajd: JO (unooiv aSiiiaAV OO C<1 00 CO OS CO CO ;m CO ■a^ua P'J'E aJm -uiacltuax isaAvoq 46° 2d, 5th, 6th. '84, '91, '98. 52° 6th, 1st. 1895, 1899. 49° 16th. 1899. 42° 10th. 1883. ■a^^CI pu« a.ina -uiadraax ;saii3ni ^ "m" ■♦J Gi ■ „• y^ X °° § 2 ! =^ ^'^ X X 1 T— 1 1—1 89° 9th. 1900. 86° 7th, 11th. 1881, 1897. •ajru^iadniai o CD o CO CD CO CD o •aam'Ejadaiax tanunxuM n-caH o CO CD 1^ o CO o CO CD ■a.mi-Ejadraax uuan o 'M CD X o CO o o CD a h-j -4^ m §3 3 < Si a O S c O . .< J k-; a fJ -1 Sh 'OJ Oh i^ u ^ - £ , ^ u o MH o S fO s c^ p. ;ii: OJ t; 73 o o M 4^ 2 OJ <( OJ -p .a o^ a > s •? <: 0) ^ ' rt > bo T5 6 T-I p: ^ o 1) -a 5 o o u ^ rt ^' OJ .;=! -C ■^ fa i- R !--• > o -iJ y=; H J ffl m. The Pioneer Hotel of Block Island, possesses two advantages either of which would be a fortune to any hotel : a wronderfully fine lo- cation and an ideal water supply. The Spring House is tw^o hun- dred feet above the sea and two hundred yards from the shore, and commands one of the finest views of the Atlantic Ocean to be had anywhers on the coast. It owns exclusively the celebrated MINE- RAL SPRINGS. The supply of water is constant, pure and inex- haustible, and of high repute for its medicinal properties. Twenty-five acres of grounds give ample room for tennis courts and play grounds for all out-door sports, and include the only base- ball field on the Island, ^vhere thousands of spectators enjoy the many exciting ball games of the summer. For these reasons and many more the Spring House possesses an enviable patronage among the very best class of summer visitors. The Springs and Spring House made the reputation of the Island, and are still at the service of summer friends. Booklet may be had on application to the proprietor. HON. B. B. MITCHELL. The Peer of all CONFECTIONS is NOEL A. MITCHELL'S famous ATLANTIC CITY SALT WATER TAFFY. Try it and be convinced. Tor Tine Souvenirs Visit his Store. fsTs « fWm WIMMM. I'J C. C. BALL'S STORE. Come, all in quest of worldly goods, Of every kind or nature, The Harbour Store, full to galore, Presents a pleasant feature. Here, Lowney's Candies, fresh and pure, Fruits from Pacific's shore ; For fishing lines, for bathing suits. Come to the Harbour Store. For trophies or for souvenirs You must be sure to call, For everything you want or need, You'll find at C. C. BALL'S. momauk steamboat €o. (LIMITED.) THE ONLY DIRECT ROUTE TO BLOCK ISLAND. STEAMERS Ohinnecock and TT^ontauk Leave New York ( Pier 13, E. R. ) week-days, excepting Sat- urdays, at 5.30 p. M. Saturdays, 1.00 p. m. These steamers are built of steel, are lighted thoroughout by electricity, and have good stateroom accomodations. This service in effect from June 27th until about September 2, 1901. HOWARD M. SMITH, D. VanCLEAF, General Passenger Agent. Superintendent. rnm^K. mumm MiQHE5T Elevation on the Ulvvnd. View (jN5CJKFy\55ED. Tree Cy\RRiAQE5 at y\LL Poy\T5. CAPT. GEO. W. CONLEY, - Proprietor. MASSASOIT HAIR DRESSING ROOMS, ON POST OFFICE SQUARE. This is the largest and best furnished shop on the Island, run ning four chairs. Patrons will receive prompt attention here. FIRST-CLASS PATRONAGE SOLICITED. Special Apartments for Ladies' Shampooing and Manicuring. Shoe Polishing. MILLIKIN BROTHERS, PROPRIETORS. WM. J. MII>LIKIN. BUG. K. MItLIKIN. mwt HP® ®T@iii. On Fountain Square, nearly opposite C. C. Ball's Store. Prescriptions carefully prepared day or night. Sole Agents for Huyler's Candies. Headquarters for Ice Cream Soda. Full line Drug Store Sundries. This Store maintains its reputation for excellent Soda and fine Confectionery. CUNDALL AND BALL, At Old Harbor Landing. Km' ''k ■'- H,K' '■7 f 'V.' " "''~" 5 3 r^ i "A < r/) na CO •IS H»H h»l ■'2 w ■3 ^sXx^ to u o- & m I 8 III * ."Si -S2j ,.-7. ,'5'^>;- •*■-, 1 u ■ % . i'', '' \ \ \ 'K. "■4> ^?im;i»^^^^i^' jiC m V ^ ??'*-;*