History

1600’s Noyes Neck was known as Musquetah Neck. Pequot Territory. (1, p.7)

1611  Dutch West Indies Company explores the east coast of America. Evidence in written records from the company and archeological excavation that Fort Ninigret was in existence and used by them as a trading fort.   (4, p.76)

1637         Written records of fort at Fort Neck in existence.   Location is "about eighty rods to the southeast of Cross’ Mills at the neck of land on a wide inlet." (from Cole’s History, 1889 as reprinted in 4, p.75)

1637   Narragansetts and English fight against Pequots, decimating the Pequots. (from Potter’s, as printed by 5, p.5)
1600’s Pequot’s withdrew to Pawcatuck River; land became Niantic Territory (1, p.8)

1638     "mention is made of a great tempest which lashed the New England coast by its fury and sent up the tide fourteen feet above the level of the usual spring tides." (from Potter’s, as printed by 5, p.62)

1650  "Thomas Stanton established a trading post on the ford of the Pawcatuck River. …He had a farm in Quonochautoge, 5 miles from his trading post." (4, p.15-16)  Mr. Thomas Stanton “owned another farm at Quanacontaug, where Major Tallcott had his headquarters in 1676.” (5, p.34)

1650’s or 1660’s James Babock (born in 1641) manufactured iron from "bog ore and from the black sand gathered upon the seashore." (from Babcock Genealogy, printed in 5, p.77)

1657     Major General Daniel Gookin of Cambridge, MA awarded 500 acres east of Pawcatuck River for services to Massachusetts (1, p.8)

1660     "In Newport five men in 1660 organized a private company to purchase and settle an area called Misquamicut. This grant was purchased by Will Vaughn, Robert Stanton, John Fairchild, Henry Moshur, and James Longbottom." They purchased it from an Indian Captain of the Niantics. "It was 20 miles long and 10 miles wide; bounded on the west by the Pawcatuck River; on the east and north by a place called Weecapaug or Passpantauage; joining Niantic land and on the south by the whole sea." (4, p.13)

1661 "Colonel Stanton owned in one tract land 4 and 1/2 miles in length and 2 miles in width, Colonel Champlin, about 2,000 acres." (Mason, George C., 1900)

1669     Westerly was named and incorporated

1670   "This country was divided into great estates, and these in turn into farms of about 300 acres each.  On these estates resided the landed aristocracy of the colony.  In a letter to the commissioners of Connecticut during the long dispute as to the right ful position and boudnaries of the King's Province, the writer, under date of August 3, 1670, says: `Those places that are in any way considerable are already taken up by several men in large farms or large tracts of land, some having 5, 6, and 10 miles square--yea, and some I suppose have much more, which you or some ofyours may feel hereafter.'"  (Mason, George C., 1900)  "These estates were worked by negro slaves and Indian laborers.  The slaves and horses owned on each estate were in numbers about equally divided.  Corn, cheese, and wool were the staple articles produced, while large numbers of horses--the famous Narragansett Pacers--were bred for export."  (Mason, George, C., 1900)

1670’s major warfare with Indians; reports that all houses were burned up to Warwick (4, p.14)

1675 Gookin sells land to Simon Lynde (1, p.8)

December Great Swamp Fight or "The Indian War of 1675"

1676     August 14, Indians from fight are sold into slavery (4, p.24)

1676     Old Sheffield farmhouse built

Late 1600’s "much trading was carried on with the Indians, also the Dutch" (4, p.18)

Late 1600’s       John Cross settles colony at Cross Mills; serves as only village in the are for many years (4, p.20)

1685 William Stanton, third son of Thomas Stanton, builds house about one mile west of the location of the Sheffield House on Quonochontaug Neck. This house is thought to be "the first house on this land." (4, p.18)

1696     African slave trade begins in Newport Rhode Island; doesn’t spread to rest of state until 1736; slavery law prohibited importation of slaves in 1774; slaves who enlisted for service in the Revolutionary War were freed and owners compensated in 1778; slavery abolished and freeing of slaves enacted in 1784 (4, p.24-25; 5, p.59). "By 1755 the large plantations in Narragansett country had slaves. One of three were slaves." In Charlestown, there were “712 white settlers to 418 slaves.” (from Bartlett, as quoted by 4, p.25). "It is said that Christopher Champlin owned some two hundred slaves on his large 2,000 acre farm; also the Stantons owned many slaves who worked on their many large farms." (4, p.25)

1701      Simon’s son Benjamin sells 300 acres to Reverend James Noyes (1640-1719), a Stonington preacher who married General Thomas Stanton’s daughter Dorothy in 1674 (1, p.8)

1702   Post Road from New London to the Pawcatuck River extended to Haversham and then to Newport

1709     John Cross purchases Davill’s Mill, a grist mill for grinding "Indian Corn".  The brook the mill is on empties into Ninigret salt pond (4, p.20)

1713     Joseph Stanton (grandson of Thomas Stanton) deeds land on Quonochontaug Neck to his son, Thomas. He describes it as "a certain parcel of land…being a part of my farm I now live on called Quonocontoge Neck and also my dwelling house I now live in."  The "'Sheffield Farm" so called now, is on the "Old Town Road" (West Beach, Quonochontaug). There is evidence in old records that it was quite a large farm. (4, p.18)

1720’s Colonel Samuel Ward married Anna Ray (whose sister Catherine had connection to Benjamin Franklin); their son Col. Samuel Ward married Phoebe Greene and had daughter Julia Ward Howe (1, p.9)

1727 Christopher Champlin is listed as a freeman in the Town of Westerly. He owns land the NALF was built on, and developed a "quite famous" farm: the Champlin Farm.   "This farm was one of then-called ‘plantations’ as Christopher Champlin had one of the largest farms with many slaves." (4, p.20)

1731    September 24, Haversham property purchased by "Ezekial Gavitt for twenty pounds from Charles Ninigret, chief Sachem of the Narragansett country." (1, p.73)

1736   Dodge brothers build "Hussocks" – possibly first house in Weekapaug; located near present Chapman Farm on Noyes Neck Rd. (1, p.9)

1737   August 22, "a large tract (36.3 miles) of the Town of Westerly was separated and incorporated and named Charlestown." (4, p.25)

1740    Babock House, also known as "Whispering Chimneys" built. Was originally part of Sheffield farm and was run as a farm.   "Story has it that Lafayette spent the night in the old house. Also we have beentold that it was at one time used as an old Indian trading post. At that time there was an outside entrance from the pond side into the kitchen and Inidans came in canoes to dock on the pond. We have been told that sailing ships came trhough the old breach and anchored in the pond!" (5, notes)

1747   incorporation of Richmond

1755    Benjamin Franklin visits, stays with Col. Samuel Ward, meets Katy Ray (1, p.11)

1757   incorporation of Hopkinton

Revolutionary War Land and buildings served as military headquarters for Westerly (1, p.8)

1778   "My aunt told me of her grandmother watching British ships in 1778 sail into Quonochontaug Pond." (1, p.75)   -- Philip Gavitt

1800     Charlestown census lists 1,454 people…"an increase of over 200 since 1770." (4, p.33)

1815        "A major event of nature may well have caused the cessation of Quonochontaug Pond as a navigable harbor.   On the 23^rd day of September, 1815, a most terrific storm, accompanied with thunder and lightning, visited the coast of New England and spread desolation and dismay in every direction. A violent southeast wind arose and continued to increase until it became a frightful hurricane. Buildings were blown down and the tunnels of the chimneys were swept away. Even the white oak, called the monarch of the forest, was prostrated to the ground.   The spray was driven twenty miles from the sea.   Vessels were wrecked and a number of seamen were drowned. Six men went to the beach to secure a boat, but becoming frightened by an enormous wave (which was thought to be forty feet high when it broke by those who saw it) took refuge in an ox cart, but were swept away and drowned." (1, pp.75-76)

            "Old salts said that 'the Misquamicut strip of land was a gift from the sea during a gale in 1815, and what the sea gave, the sea might take away.’" (3, p.43)

            "The contour of the beaches changed.   Some beaches lost land but some gained land with the sand from the sea. As farmers and fisherman have always known: the sea gives and the sea takes!" (4, p.34)

            "The gale of Sept. 23, 1815 inundated the countryside for miles around and did much damage to the fields and meadows." (5, 62)

1848                            Ocean House built by James and George Ward (4, p.50) – is this where "Ocean House Marina" is on Ninigret Pond?

1855                Coastal survey map shows Charlestown breachway was "wide and much nearer the Pond" than in 1979. (4, p.80)

1875    Albert B. Langworthy house built on Ward land (1, p.10)

1876    Founding Fathers conceive summer resort at "Cream Puff Picnic" – C.C. Maxson a contractor and his daughter Abby; Court Bentley, Abby’s cousin who was "well-off and smart."   Court bought the land and C.C. built the cottages (1, p.4)

1876   first regattas on Ninigret (RI Historical Preservation Commission, 1981)

1877    9 cottages on Noyes Beach (1, p.5)

1880     Thomas Edison set up an iron separator on the Rhode Island shore.   "More than one thousand tons of concentrated iron ore of fine quality was separated from the seashore and sold." (from Meadowcroft as printed in 5, p.78) "The work on Quonchontaug Beach apparently started early in the summer of 1881 …and was discontinued about December, 1882." (from a letter from Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated to Fr. Crispin Jones, reprinted in 5, p.79)

1880   14 cottages built on Quonochontaug Beach (RI Historical Preservation Commission, 1981)

Late 1800’s "pollution from the Peacedale mills and from town waste became increasingly evident in Point Judith Pond.   The need for flushing of mill waste from the pond was emphasized by local citizens in their argument to construct a stabilized breachway." (Lee, 1980, p.59)

1880’s Weekapaug Yacht Club has sailing races on Quonochontaug Pond (1, p.31)

  "All these boats, or the majority of them, were moored in the small pond – originally call Whale-house Cove because whale boats used to come in through a breach located near the old Inn, in the 1800’s, to transfer their oil and try out some of their blubber." (1, p.37)

1888       March 11, blizzard with drifts 10-12 feet high (4, p.49)

1891     Coast Guard Station built near Quonochontaug Breachway; it was destroyed in the 1938 hurricane (5, p.55-56)

1893      Seaweed comprised about one-fourth of all the fertilizer used on Rhode Island farms (from Parker, 1976 in Lee, 1980 p.57)

1893   First house at Charlestown Beach (Reflections of Charlestown, 1876-1976)

1895     First houses at Charlestown Beach (4, p.56)

1896    Weekapaug Improvement Society formed (1, p.20)

1898    first bridge across breachway (1, p.20)

1898    Weekapaug Inn built by Frederick C. Buffum (1, p.20)

1899    Noyes Beach renamed Weekapaug, meaning "at the end of the pond" (1, p.13)

1899       Weekapaug Inn opened; yacht club in boathouse (1, p.20)

1900      Charlestown census lists 975 residents (4, p.54)

1900-1905          Quonochontaug development around the Life Saving station (4, p.55)

1904   original channel of Ninigret beach stoned up, 200' jetty built (Reflections of Charlestown, 1876-1976)

1905  Thomas Lyman Arnold builds his Arnolda house on Foster and Greene farms (former Champlin farm land) (4, p.55)

1906       Weekapaug Chapel Society founded (1, p.28)

1910     first paving of Route 1 (Lee, 1980, p.59) (this contrasts to Mandeville account that first paving was done in 1913; Reflections of Charlestown claims 1907)

1912       electricity to Weekapaug (1, p.21)

1912     tidal wave at Quonnie beach; many homes damaged and the beach "shortened by some 20 feet" (Westerly Sun, August 9, 1927; in 5, p.62)

1913        first paving of Route 1 from "Umbrella Factory" to Prosser Trail (4, p.54)

1914    Westerly water to Weekapaug (1, p.21)

1917     Weekapaug Chapel built (1, p.28)

1917  electricity to Charlestown (Cross Mills) (4, p.57)

1920  Charlestown census lists 756 residents; number not indicative of summer residents (4, p.60)

1930     Charlestown census lists 1,113 residents; this number doubled in the summertime (4, p. 62)

1930’s first motorboat on Quonchontaug Pond (1, p.78)

1930’s  "the federal government launched vigorous sales campaigns to convince farmers to convert to using chemical fertilizers" (Lee, 1980, p.57)

1933-1954 Weekapaug Day Camp (1, p. 60)

1936    final year of Weekapaug Improvement Society (1, p.23)

1937  Weekapaug Fire District initiated (1, p. 23)

1938   First volunteer fire station in Cross Mills (4, p.63)

1938    September 21, hurricane (1, pp. 24-26)

    " …the barometer was falling. At five, it touched bottom at 27.94." (3, p.34)

       "All the land from the ocean to the north shore of the pond was covered by a raging sea." (1, p.25)

"A small breach opened east of the Inn and a large terrifying one on the west side." (1, p.26)

    "So strong were the wind and the waves that they carried cottages and debris across the pond to the Haversham Shore." (2, p.17)

     "They could not get across the raging 60 foot breachway which, by this time, was ten to fifteen feet deep and flowing at an estimated eight to ten knots out into the ocean, releasing the enormous quantity of water which had overflowed the Pond to a depth of twelve feet above normal." (3, p.40) – this breach was just to the west of the old Inn

"Thankfully, we had no loss of life in Weekapaug." (3, p.41)

Above quotes are from a letter Frederick C. Buffum wrote to Inn clientele on October 5 or 8, 1938. The letter is entitled, "The Hurricane as Witnessed at Weekapaug." However, the books 1 & 2 recount his story with slight differences.

The storm originated around the Cape Verde islands, moved north of the Bahamas, started northward somewhere south of Hatteras, crossed Long Island, New England, and Canada.   "Rain had been falling for about a week in many parts of New England so that, with the additional heavy rains resulting from the hurricane, record floods on many New England brooks and rivers resulted." Over New England the barometric pressure was around 28. The storm was about 500 miles in diameter. Sustained storm winds were in excess of 120 miles an hour, with gusts over 150 miles an hours. The storm lasted less than 12 hours in New England areas. "The storm tide at Providence was 13 feet 9 inches above mean high tide. This exceeded the previous record of September 23, 1815 by 1 foot 11 ¾ inches."   On the south shore, it was estimated that the storm tide was between 10 and 15 feet above mean high tide.   According to a Red Cross report of October 21, 1938, 488 people were killed, 1754 were injured, 1991 permanent dwellings, 6933 summer dwellings, and 9807 other buildings were destroyed.   2605 boats were wrecked and 3369 were damaged.   The total economic loss is between $250,000,000 and $330,000,000. (Nichols & Marston, pp. 1359-1362)

"In some places channels were cut through the fore-dune; in others where the dune was low, it was completely washed away. Behind these breaks there have been deposited great scallops of sand, which extend out over the marsh as much as 750 feet from the eroded fore-dune." (Nichols & Marston, p.1364)

Around the partially destroyed Weekapaug Inn "at least four inlets. A small tidal delta has been built on the bayward side of the inlet immediately behind the inn. …only a few days after the hurricane the inlet had already started to heal on the ocean side." (Nichols & Marston, p.1364)

Several inlets cut through Charlestown Beach during the hurricane. (Nichols & Marston, p.1365)

"Watch Hill Pond has been converted from a fresh water pond into a salt water bay." (Nichols & Marston, p.1366)

"…the salt water ponds formed during the storm are reverting to their former fresh water condition" (Nichols & Marston, p.1370)

"A much larger inlet has been cut in Misquamicut Beach. …the inlet is 70 feet wide on the bay side and approximately 400 feet wide on the ocean side. …the inlet on January 7, 1939, was at least 14 feet deep at high tide." (Nichols & Marston, p.1366)

"The inlet at Misquamicut has shown no tendency to fill in since it was formed.   On January 7, 1939, a current carrying sand in suspension and having a velocity between 4 and 5 miles per hour was running through it." (Nichols & Marston, p. 1369)

"The most important factor in the localization of the inlets was the narrowness of the beach." (Nichols & Marston, p.1367)

"That the beaches were eroded by water which passed over them from the ocean side is proved by the following facts: (1) In many cases the beaches were extended bayward; (2) houses were carried from the beaches far inland; and (3) the bays and ponds in back of the beaches were considerably shallowed by deposition of material eroded from the beaches." (Nichols & Marston, p.1367-1368)

"Prior to the hurricane, Winnapaug Pond had one inlet; it now has two. It seems reasonable to suppose that when these beaches are again stabilized it will have but one. Since the new inlet is closer to the main body of the water in the pond, it seems likely that if there is no artificial interference the new break will maintain itself and the old one will be filled in." (Nichols & Marsten, p.1369)

"They (Helen and Ruth Corey) got over the narrow bridge (from Charlestown beach to the mainland) and as they did, Ruth looked back just in time to see a dark wall or cloud over the edge of the beach. It was the huge (some say 50 feet) wall of water about to wash away everything and all who stayed on the sandbar of a beach. In just a few minutes not a house was left from Green Hill to Central Beach!" (4, p.63)

"Thirty-two perished in Charlestown and many were the tales of some who survived.   Some lived to ride the tidal wave across the pond amidst the wreckage of houses, and some who did not survive were found near the north shore of Charlestown Pond among the wreckage." (4, p.64)

"The beach lay open and no one built for many years. There were no dunes or beach grass to protect any who might dare to build!" (4, p.64)

"In Quonchontaug the death toll stood at eight persons drowned." (5, p.64)

"A memorial tablet on the wall of the Old Market House in Market Square gave ominous evidence of the shape of things to come. It bore a recording that the flood water of the hurricane of Sept. 1815, had risen to a height of eleven feet, nin and a quarter inches, whilst that of Sept. 1938, had reached the thirteen feet, nine inches mark." (5, p.65)

1939    new Weekapaug Inn built (1, p.37)

1939         Weekapaug Yacht Club gets its own building (1, p.37)

1939        potato boom in Charlestown, through the 1940’s (4, p.64)

1942         Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field built (4, p.66) 600 acres of Champlin farmland purchased for the purpose (RI Historical Preservation Commission, 1981).  NALF closed in 1974.

1945     Charlestown census lists 1185 residents (4, p.67)

1940’s Route 1 "upgraded to a macadam two-lane highway, which made the land around the ponds easily accessible to commuters and tourists for residential development" (Lee, 1980, p. 59)

1950’s "the real burgeoning of development started in the 1950’s and continued to increase through the present (1977)." (Lee, 1980, p.59)

1950        Weekapaug tennis club founded "with the expansion of Weekapaug" (1, p.38)

1951   Dec 1951 to April 1952 State dredges Ninigret breachway.  "Channel is 100' wide and was recently improved by dredging and construction of stone jetties and riprap along sides of tidal breachway." (Providence Sunday Journal, 8/3/52)
    1958 "the State finally formally ‘opened’ the new breachway at a cost of approximately $68,000 after four years of much altercation and trouble over its construction." (4, p.68)  --> 1958 is incorrect.

1952     government paid many farmers to destroy potato fields in Charlestown; potato boom over (4, p.64)

WWII watchtower at Chapman Farm, torn down in 1954 (1, p.63 & 67)

1954    August 31, Hurricane Carol (1, p. 70)

"The 1954 hurricane occurred at a time when increasing numbers of houses were being built along the shore.  The enormous destruction of property caused by the hurricane persuaded the towns along the South Shore to adopt floodplain zoning and the federal flood insurance program. The National Flood Insurance Program has had the unexpected effect of accelerating development in flood-prone areas in coastal lowlands and barrier beaches by subsidizing development in these hazardous areas." (Lee, 1980, p.59)

1960  Charlestown census lists 1,986 residents

1962    "was the first year the mute swans raised a family at Weekapaug"(3, p.53)

1974   NALF closed

1978  903 slips available at 15 salt pond marinas (Lee, 1980, p.59)

1980    Charlestown census lists 4,793 residents

Bibliography

Charlestown Bicentennial Book Committee.  1977.  Reflections of Charlestown, Rhode Island, 1876-1976 : A memorial to the Bicentennial celebration of the United States of America.  Utter Company, Westerly, RI.  154 pages.

Jones, Crispin. 1945. Quonnie Legends and History. 100 pages.

Lee, V. 1980. An Elusive Compromise: Rhode Island Coastal Ponds and Their People. Coastal Resources Center, Marine Technical Report 73. University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI. 82 pages.

Lyman, Susan E. 1977.   A Pictorial History of Weekapaug Rhode Island. The Utter Company, Westerly, RI. 81 pages.

Mandeville, Francis Wharton. 1979. The Historical Story of Charlestown, Rhode Island. The Charlestown Historical Society, Charlestown, RI. 83 pages.

Mason, George C. 1900.  Old Plantation Life in Rhode Island.  In: New England Magazine, February 1900.  pp. 735-740.

Nichols, R.L. and A.F. Marston. 1939. Shoreline changes in Rhode Island produced by hurricane of September 21, 1938. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 50: 1357-1370.

Munson, Samuel Lyman. 1977.   Weekapaug Rhode Island, Its First One Hundred Years.   The Utter Company, Westerly, RI. 83 pages.

Parker, H. 1976. Charlestown and the ocean. In: Reflections of Charlestown, Rhode Island. 1876-1976. Utter Company, Westerly, RI. pp. 18-28.

Providence Sunday Journal, 8/3/52

Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. 1981.  State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Preliminary Survey Report, Town of Charlestown. 56 pages.

Rowe, Dorothy Snowden. 1963. At the End of the Pond. Self-published. 68 pages.

Other References listed in Bibliographies:

Best, Mary Agnes. The Town that Saved the State. Published by the Washington Trust Company for Westerly’s Tercentary.

The Noyes Descendants of James, Nicholas, and Peter Noyes – Volumes I and II

Spicer, Julia M. Old Time Weekapaug. A paper delivered before the Westerly Historical Society.

Denison, Frederic. Westerly and Its Witnesses

Cooney, Ralph Bolton. 1936. Westerly’s Oldest Witness. Published by the Washington Trust Company for Westerly’s Tercentary.

New England Historical and Genealogical Register

Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society

Cole, J.R. History of Washington and Kent Counties

Utter, George B. Old "Westerle," Rhode Island (1636-1936)

Hazard, Tom. Johnny Cake Papers

Beers. Prominent RI Families (3 volumes)

Hurricane – 1938 Providence Journal Bulletin

Roelker, William Greene. Benjamin Franklin and Catherine Ray Greene – Their Correspondence.

Potter "History of Narragansett"

Ryder, Syndey S. "The Lands of Rhode Island as the Great Sachems Knew Them."

"The Record of Thomas Stanton and his Descendants"

Babcock, Stephen. 1903. Babcock Genealogy. Eaton & Maine, New York.

Meadowcroft, William H. The Boy’s Life of Edison. 242 pages.

Stanton Family Geneology from Drake's Boston

Mason, George C.  1885.  Early Attempts at Rhode Island History.  Foster, William E. (Ed.)

References used

1. Munson, Samuel Lyman. 1977. Weekapaug Rhode Island, Its First One Hundred Years. The Utter Company, Westerly, RI. 83 pages.

2. Lyman, Susan E. 1977. A Pictorial History of Weekapaug Rhode Island. The Utter Company, Westerly, RI. 81 pages.

3. Rowe, Dorothy Snowden. 1963. At the End of the Pond. Self-published. 68 pages.

4. Mandeville, Francis Wharton. 1979. The Historical Story of Charlestown, Rhode Island. The Charlestown Historical Society, Charlestown, RI. 83 pages.

5. Jones, Crispin. 1945. Quonnie Legends and History. 100 pages.