Bristol: Montaup to Poppasquash

PREFACE

From the 1935 Bristol program for the Rhode Island Tercentenary, author unknown:

The vast majority of the earliest residents of Bristol were, of course, Englishmen. But there were from the start a sprinkling of French Huguenots, Scots and Celts. The DeWolf Family itself was probably Dutch in origin, and the Hollanders in New York were closely identified with Bristol.

It was not, however, until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century that there was any very significant change in the makeup of the town’s population. That change came with the furiously rapid emigration of the oppressed Irish peasants in the 1840s and 1850s.

The first arrivals from Ireland were received well enough in Bristol, but as they began to come thick and fast, the descendants of the Puritans felt a rising surge of irritation against them. The immigration of their own forefathers was several generations in the background, and they began to feel as if they had invented America in general, and Bristol in particular. They were disposed to accept a few immigrants, but when the number was vastly increased, a severe resentment set in.

There are rumors of Celtic departures from Bristol at the time that were neither graceful nor kindly. When the Irish brought their first resident priest here, the natives, after allowing him to say Mass for a Sunday or two in the Court House, withdrew that privilege.

The resistance to the invasion was fruitless in the long run, though. Even the superciliousness of the Yankees was better than the treatment the Irish had received in Ireland, so they found their niche in the community and for a time two groups of people lived here side by side, disliking each other and suspicious of each other.

View of Mount Hope from Tiverton.

But the thing happened that in similar circumstances always happens. The parents on either side were not able to transfer the full voltage of their feelings to their children. Youth, healthy youth at any rate, is violently democratic. The Yankee sense of social superiority and the Irish sense of racial superiority both gave way slowly and inevitably as boys and girls who had played together and gone to school together found an increasing expanse of common ground on which to stand. The time came decades later when the long glances of the ruddy-faced red-haired son of Erin cast toward a tall, thin, and somewhat prim Yankee girl no longer meant disinheritance on either side. The process of assimilation had begun.

One effect of the quick response of heart to heart that began at once to batter down the walls of separation was the refusal of the new Americans of Irish genesis to remain long in a submerged economic situation. Their rise in the economic scale, so quickly followed by their rise in social availability, left an economic vacuum which began to make itself felt in the 1880s and 1890s. A labor shortage developed as more and more Irish young men entered professional and commercial enterprises, and those who were left in industry were no longer content to live on a very much different scale from their brethren. Labor troubles developed, as they were bound to do.

This is the situation that brings the Southern Europeans into the Bristol picture. The place to get the cheap labor that the grandsons of the Irish immigrants were no longer willing to furnish, would, it seemed to the mill owners, be the place where overcrowded villages and worn out, over worked farms made living so precarious that even the wages they were willing to pay would look like riches. For this reason they began to look to Italy and Portugal. The lure of America was irresistible, and stimulated by labor agents (sent out in violation of the law) the Latin immigration began, only to be stopped when the proportions of it threatened to swamp the labor market.

Just as quickly as their predecessors did, the Latin Bristolians emerged from that temporary state of economic and social inferiority into which they were brought. Again the invincible democracy of youth has its way. Once more the father’s prejudices grow dim in the children. And a study of the marriage licenses granted in Bristol during the 1920s reveals that racial barriers are being hurdled with ever increasing frequency. It must be so, for the hearts of men stripped of the insulation of prejudices are fusible.

The rugged stone cliffs at Mount Hope.

INTRODUCTION

One cannot learn about this town just by reading books like this. You learn about Bristol by walking its tree-lined streets, breathing its salt air, experiencing its diverse cultures, and by scratching the memories of its old-time inhabitants.

Because of the town’s historic relationship with the sea, a major focus of its life is on its beautiful waterfront. Thames Street and Hope Street offer 2 miles of mostly unobstructed scenic views of Bristol Harbor and Narragansett Bay. Sailing, fishing, swimming, and strolling along avenues, lanes, and waterfront parks shaded by elm and chestnut trees are a few favorite pastimes of residents and visitors. Bristol is rightly proud of the hundreds of restored eighteenth- and nineteenth-century homes in the historic downtown section, many designed and built by noted architect Russell Warren. Colt State Park offers a 3-mile scenic drive along the shores of Narragansett Bay, and the town owns 12 additional parks of various sizes, from the secluded pier-side picnic-table getaway at the Naval Reserve Armory to the football-field–sized Independence Park, with its waterfront boardwalk and boat-launching area. Another park and nature trail are planned for Silver Creek, near the old Bosworth House.

In addition, Bristol proudly boasts several museums devoted to its history, lifestyles, and industry. Blithewold Gardens & Arboretum is an attractive landscaped garden that displays exotic trees and shrubs. Originally the summer home of Pennsylvania coal baron Augustus Van Wickle, his Happy Woodland estate includes a 45-room mansion and 33 acres of landscaped grounds overlooking Narragansett Bay. The 1908 English-style mansion, now on the National Register of Historic Places, was designed by Boston architects Kilham and Hopkins and is decorated and furnished much as it was at the turn of the twentieth century. Open year-round for self-guided tours, the grounds are maintained according to the original nineteenth-century design by New York landscape architect John DeWolf.

The Bristol Art Museum presents a series of summer exhibits in the former ballroom of the Linden Place mansion. Built in 1810 for privateer George DeWolf, the mansion (used as a backdrop in the 1973 film The Great Gatsby) is a Russell Warren–designed Federal-style building on 1.8 acres in the historic waterfront district. Formerly the residence of Colonel Samuel P. Colt (one of Bristol’s most generous benefactors), and in recent times the summer residence of actress Ethel Barrymore Colt Miglietta, the property is now publicly owned and open for tours.

A sixteenth-century map of Narragansett Bay to Buzzard’s Bay.

The Bristol Historical and Preservation Society is a central focus in Bristol’s appreciation of its heritage. A historical and genealogical library and exhibits of local interest are available in the former Bristol County jail for research and viewing by appointment.

Coggeshall Farm is a working c. 1750 farm museum. All animals—chickens, sheep, and cattle—are authentic Colonial breeds, and some of them are quite rare. Most are gentle enough to enjoy the attention of small children. There is an heirloom garden and a variety of outbuildings, including an active blacksmith shop. The Coggeshall family worked this land as tenants in the 1830s. Chandler Coggeshall, who was born here, later founded the state agricultural school (now the University of Rhode Island). The farm was purchased by Augustus Van Wickle, who in 1903 sold it to Colonel S.P. Colt, who incorporated this and two other large farms for his massive Colt Farm. Coggeshall Farm is maintained as a living museum by the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society.

The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology contains the bulk of Rudolph F. Haffenreffer Sr.’s important collection of Native American artifacts. Donated in 1955, the collection includes archaeological and ethnological materials from North America and traditional art from around the world. Exhibits change periodically to reflect the museum’s extensive holdings. The museum is owned and operated by the Anthropology Department of Brown University. Open to the public, it is a research center for Brown students and faculty. For a decade the University has been planning the museum’s move to Providence. If the Haffenreffer collections are taken out of Bristol, it is uncertain what Brown has in mind for historic Mount Hope.

The Herreshoff Marine Museum and America’s Cup Hall of Fame collects, preserves, and exhibits the accomplishments of the former Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, world-renowned builders of sailing and motor yachts. Displays at the original site include numerous yachts, historic photographs, and a library devoted to yachting subjects.

Mount Hope Farm (built c. 1746) was originally the country seat of Isaac Royall, later that of Governor William Bradford (c. 1784), and in the twentieth century owned by the Haffenreffer family. It was acquired by the citizens of Bristol in 1999 for $3.5 million. The rambling colonial homestead, numerous outbuildings, and 127 acres of forests and fields stretching from Metacom Avenue to the shore of Mount Hope Bay are available for private functions and passive recreation.

A Norse longkeel boat, c. 1000 A.D.

1. COLONISTS AND NATIVE KINGS

The same roving and adventurous spirit that made the Vikings the boldest and fiercest warriors of their time also led them to sail west and south from the Scandinavian peninsula, thus becoming the first white explorers of the waters and lands of the American continent. In 1000 A.D., centuries before the possibility of a western continent even entered other European minds, Leif Ericsson and a band of Norsemen followed the Atlantic coastline southward, entered Narragansett Bay, and beached their rugged longkeel vessels on the shores of Mount Hope.

More than one theory exists concerning the origin of the name Mount Hope, the name given to the place originally referred to by the natives as Pokanoket. Variously spelled from the earliest days as Montaup, Mont-haup, or Mountup, it may have been named by Viking adventurers, or it may be a corruption or simplification of a Native American term (perhaps the last two syllables of the Indian word Uppaquontup, meaning the head). The name may have been derived by the Europeans, possibly Roger Williams, who named his settlement Providence and three Narragansett Bay islands Prudence, Patience, and Hope.

Seven years after Leif Ericsson’s voyage, Thorfinn Karlsefni, a Norse seaman, journeyed south with 151 men and 7 women in search of the mild and pleasant land referred to in Scandinavian sagas as Vin. They found the houses built by Ericsson in 1000 A.D., erected more, and organized a colony. At first they lived in peace with the natives (whom the Norse referred to as skraelings, or lean men). The colonists were eventually driven from the land by these lean men, probably for too enthusiastically encroaching upon them. They returned to Greenland in 1010.

Though Karlsefni did not succeed in colonizing the country, other Norsemen probably came and lived here. This can be inferred from records showing an order commanding the Bishop of Greenland to make a trip to Vinland in 1121, indicating that there were likely permanent residents in the territory. Beyond this however, there are no records of any such colonists, so their existence remains a matter of conjecture.

Almost 600 years later, in 1620, when the first ocean-weary English pilgrims placed their feet on Cape Cod sand, the Mount Hope lands were under the rule of Massasoit, the statesman-like leader of the Wampanoag Nation. In the early seventeenth century the land surrounding Narragansett Bay was divided between two rival Native American tribes—the Narragansetts on the west shore and the Wampanoags on the east shore. Both tribes belonged to the Algonquin language group and they followed a pattern of seasonal migration between coastal fields and inland hunting and fishing areas.

When colonists arrived in the area they were greeted personally by Massasoit, who located his headquarters at Sowams (Warren) or at Pokanoket (Mount Hope). He controlled the land reaching from Narragansett Bay east to Massachusetts Bay, and his tribal councils were held in eastern Bristol in the shelter of a cliff at Mount Hope. A Wampanoag village was located in Bristol on the east shore of Mount Hope Bay, an area called the Narrows.

Throughout the mid-seventeenth century, three colonies of European settlers were expanding into Massasoit’s lands and each was to play a role in Bristol’s first century. In 1620, Plymouth Colony on Cape Cod was settled by Separatists, who were dissatisfied with the established church in England. Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled in 1629 by people who, like those at Plymouth, were dissatisfied with the English Church. Emigrants from these two older colonies also settled in the area that is now Rhode Island, seeking to