WESTERLY, its name derived from its westerly position in the State, is a town with no great pretensions to wealth, and only a few traces of its historic heritage. These examples of early architectural trends are found principally among the outlying farms, though a few old homes remain, tucked between modern structures along the elm-shaded streets. Descendants of many of the families whose names are found in the records previous to 1700 still live in Westerly.

Today Westerly appears as a typical New England town; its atmosphere of culture is blended with the successful air of a progressive industrial center. The town produces woolens, elastic webbing, silk, novelty curtains, and granite. Wilcox Park, in the center of the town, is a spacious green flanked on one side by public buildings of granite, and on the other side by residences. The near-by summer resorts give a festive and holiday spirit to the village streets.

The mills are clustered around the falls of the Pawcatuck River, the western limit of the town and the State boundary separating Westerly from the neighboring village of Pawcatuck in Stomngton Township, Connecticut. Other mills are in separate villages, such as Bradford to the east. The resort beaches are strung along the south shore, on Long Island Sound, where large estates are interspersed with colonies of small cottages.

The township, which includes at least nine villages in addition to Westerly itself, covers about thirty-six square miles. The surface of the township
is rough and considerably broken, especially in the northeast and the southeast. A considerable part of the soil is Glocester stony loam. The sandy beaches of the coast alternate with sections of large rocks and outlying reefs that have caused many shipwrecks. The land on both sides of the Pawcatuck River near the ford was formerly known as Pawcatuck Bridge. The two settlements, Westerly and Pawcatuck, although lying in different States, are served by the same post office, railroad depot, express companies, public utilities, and wharves.

The Indian name for the area extending approximately four miles to either side of the lower Pawcatuck River was Misquamicut, 'a place for catching salmon.' Prior to the arrival of the whites it was disputed ground, claimed by the Niantics, Pequots, and Narragansetts, and permanently occupied by none of them, although they left their traces in present-day place names: Mastuxet, Misquamicut, Pawcatuck, Powaget, Shannock, Watchaug, Yawgoog, and the like.

When the English settlers came, the Niantics were in power under Ninigret, a sachem of considerable military reputation, craft, and pride. In 1664-65 he turned back several attacks of rival Indian tribes and one invasion by white troops from Connecticut.

The first Europeans to visit the shores of Westerly were probably Dutch traders who came to exchange cloth and metal instruments for furs. Captain Adriaen Block (for whom Block Island, off Point Judith, is named) explored the coast in the (Onrust* in 1614, and recorded his observations in a journal, in which the present Pawcatuck is called the East River, which empties out past a crooked point, in the shape of a sickle. The early Dutch explorers, who made no permanent settlement,
evidently ascended the river as far as Pawcatuck Rock, opposite the present Westerly Yacht Club. The first record of Englishmen on Westerly soil relates to Captain John Mason of Connecticut, who camped the night of May 24, 1637, on Fort Neck, in what is now Charlestown, then next day led his company of white soldiers and Indian allies through what is Westerly enroute to attack the stronghold of the Pequot Indians.

The first permanent settlers were probably John and Mary Babcock (1648). John Babcock was a Plymouth man who moved to Newport where he worked for a Thomas Lawton. John fell in love with his employer's daughter Mary; after several 'delightful trysts... about Aquidneck's ancient trees,' they eloped from Newport in a small open boat. They built their home near Mastuxet Brook.

John Babcock and one or two others attempted unsuccessfully to purchase land from the Indians in Misquamicut in 1658. Two years later a private company was formed in Newport for the purchase of the Misquamicut tract, as the Westerly region was then called. June 29, 1660, this group secured a deed from a renegade Pequot named Sosoa, who claimed title to the tract from Miantonomi (then deceased) and Ninigret. The claim was disputed. Massachusetts claimed jurisdiction by right of conquest, because of the aid given Connecticut in the Pequot War. After Stonington, Connecticut, was settled the people of that town also claimed some Rhode Island territory on the east side of the Pawcatuck. Under a Connecticut grant, in fact, a Thomas Stanton had built, in 1649, a trading post within the present Westerly. To clear up part of these difficulties, the Newport company secured, June 25, 1661, a confirmation of Sosoa's deed from Wawaloam, the widow of Miantonomi; and August 27, the Newport speculators, including John Coggeshall, John Crandall, William Vaughan, and Hugh Mosher, petitioned the Rhode Island Assembly to help them take possession of their claim. The company, of eighty-six members, had previously subscribed (March 21, 1661) to 'Articles of Agreement' under which, with amendments, subsequent individual land grants were made. Shares were sold to residents of Newport, Providence, and Warwick.

The first newcomers to Westerly entered upon their land about the first of September, 1661. Almost immediately they became involved in thebRhode Island-Connecticut boundary dispute. In 1663, Westerly men tore down a house held by a Connecticut man on the east side of the Pawcatuck, and in 1671, Connecticut authorities arrested and took off to a Hartford jail John Crandall and several others. Arrests, fines, imprisonments, and disorders continued until the boundary line was settled in 1728.

Shortly after Westerly was incorporated (1669), as the fifth town in the Colony, with only about thirty families and twenty-four freemen (legal voters), the threat of King Philip's War drove many to Newport. Through the partially abandoned town (it had no representation in the General Assembly for five years) marched the Colonial troops, among them Major Robert Treat's company, on the way to attack the Narragansetts at North Kingstown (see Tour 3). From 1686 to 1689, when Rhode Island was a part of the Dominion of New England, the name of the town was Haversham. The sites of the present towns of Richmond, Charlestown, and Hopkinton were originally part of the township, so that Old Westerly
had an area of 153 square miles.

For many years after the founding of the maritime and agricultural community of Westerly, life was very simple. An extract from the journal kept by the Colonial traveler, Madam Knight, on a journey from Boston to New York in 1704, describes Westerly in an unfavorable light. The house at which she stopped near the old ford was 'enclosed with clap-boards laid on lengthwise, and so much asunder that the light came through everywhere; the doore tyed on with a cord in ye place of hinges; the floor the beararth; no windows but such as the thin covering afforded; nor any furniture but a bed, with a glass bottle hanging at ye head on't; an earthern cup; a small pewter basin; a box with sticks to stand on instead of a table; and a block or two in ye corner instead of chairs. The family were the old man, his wife, and two children; — all and every part being the picture of poverty. Notwithstanding, both the butt and its inhabitants were very clean and tydee.... An Indian like animal came to the door on a creature very much like himselfe in mien and feature, as well as ragged clothing.'

A road, known later as Queen Anne's Road, was begun in 1667 to connect New London, Connecticut, with the Pawcatuck River. This highway was extended eastward about 1703 through the Narragansett country to the shore of Narragansett Bay, whence access to Newport was gained by boat. Cattle and horses, so important to the early settlers, were imported from abroad at great expense and trouble. Sheep-raising in the early community was impractical because packs of wolves ranged the countryside. Bounties were paid by the Colony for wildcats, foxes, blackbirds, wolves, and other destructive wild life.

The first bridge across the Pawcatuck at the old ford on the Indian trail was built about 1712 by private subscription. Distant travel was slight. The New England mail route was established about this time, bringing Westerly into closer contact with its Colonial neighbors. The mail was carried on horseback. In 1735, a second bridge was built to replace the first, its cost shared by Connecticut and Rhode Island .

In 1740-41 occurred the 'hard winter.' Dr. MacSparran, the Episcopal minister in Narragansett, stated that the cold was so intense during this winter that 'a man drove a horse and sleigh on the ice from Hurlgate, near New York, to Cape Cod.' It is certain that persons 'passed and repassed from Providence to Newport on the ice, and from the main shore of Connecticut to Montauk Point.' There were more than thirty snowstorms, besides small flurries. On the 10th of March the snow was three feet deep; in the middle of April it was still lying in drifts by the fences. The intense cold caused a great loss of cattle and sheep and was especially destructive to game.

Perhaps the first Rhode Island shipwright on the Pawcatuck River was Joseph Wells, who built in 1681 the 'Alexander and Martha,' a forty-foot vessel for which he received an eighth share in ownership, and £165, partly paid in goods. From eighteenth-century docks along the river front, schooners and sloops made regular trips to New York and Providence. Local merchants took passage on these packet ships, and lived aboard while doing their business in the distant city. The river in those days was shallow and vessels were poled down the stream against head winds. In season great pyramids of scup or porgies were landed. These sold at one cent apiece as long as fit, but most of the pile passed on for fertilizer. Eelgrass was brought in later for bedding for the oxen used at the near-by stone quarries.

Shipbuilding continued well into the nineteenth century; many fishing vessels were outfitted for the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts until as late as 1836. In the 1840's several whaling vessels were also built in the yards along Margin Street. In the active days of the shipyards, Margin Street was only a cart path lined with buttonwood trees.

The military history of Westerly began in 1710, when the town sent twenty men, four of them Indians, to assist in the capture of Port Royal, Nova Scotia. A few Westerly men took part in the earlier King Philip's War, but the town was not subject to direct attack by the Indians. In April, 1745, troops from this part of the Rhode Island coast left New
London for Louisburg, Cape Breton Island. During the period of King George's War, Westerly had four companies of militia under the command of Captain J. Wells, Jr., Lieutenant Matthew Greene, and Ensign Edward Robinson.

According to tradition, one 'Nanny Sims,' whose husband was fighting with the English in the French and Indian War (1754-63), single-handed fought off three savages who attacked her house; one started to climb through a window, and two to climb down the chimney. Nanny threw her straw bed in the fireplace, smoking out the two redmen in the chimney, and then chopped off the head of the third with an axe.

Before the Revolution the poorer class of European immigrants secured passage to this country through indenture, whereby they were bound to service for a term of years after their arrival. One of these' redemptioners' worked for a farmer in Westerly. After a season of willing service the laborer intimated that he should like to continue the arrangement permanently. He seemed depressed by the idea that on the expiration of his contract he would be obliged to toil for himself. Papers for life service were hence made out. On taking the pen to sign the instrument, the redemptioner hesitated, saying that he did not understand how the obligations of the old and new papers harmonized, since they overlapped in time. Explanations were in vain, so the two agreed to destroy the old paper. When the redemptioner raised his pen to sign the new paper, he
again hesitated. The employer inquired the reason, since the laborer himself had proposed the fife service. The latter replied: 'I was thinking of some advice that my father once gave me. He gave me good counsel, and I only wish I had followed it more closely. He once said to me, "My son, never sign your name to a paper of any kind." As I have signed one paper, but have just got rid of it, I think I shall not sign another. So, sir, I kindly bid you a good-bye.' The redemptioner walked away a free man, much to the chagrin of his erstwhile employer.

Westerly people sympathized generally with the Colonial side of the controversy that led to the war with Great Britain. In September, 1776, fifty men were enlisted to serve with the Revolutionary forces. Three companies of militia were furnished early in the war, beside recruits for the coast guard and the artillery; in 1781, four companies of militia were enrolled. In 1777, a party set out in three large boats, and in rounding Point Judith two of the boats were swamped and eight men were drowned. Throughout the Revolution the coast in this vicinity was much subjected to marauding expeditions by the British, so that a careful coast guard had to be maintained. It was at this time the French and Indian War signal stationed onWatxhHiUwas re-established as a lookout for British privateers.

The War of 1812 gave Westerly people a real scare when in August of 1814 a British fleet bombarded the near-by town of Stonington, Conmecticut. A full regiment of Rhode Island militia was stationed near Watch Hill. Shortly before the war broke out, a special artillery company was formed in Westerly, and placed in command of Captain Joshua
Hazard. The company kept a brass field piece ready for use on lower Main Street.

After the War of 1812 there were no calls for active military service until the Dorr Rebellion of 1842. To cope with this uprising Washington County sent 1100 men under command of General John B. Stedman of Westerly. During the period of the uprising, Westerly was under martial law. There was no bloodshed, but it is reported that General Stedman issued the following order: 'Boys, when you see the enemy, fire and then run, and as I am a little lame, I will run now.'

In May, 1806, the Federal Government purchased a tract of land at Watch Hill for a lighthouse; the first keeper served twenty-seven years. A major disaster off this point occurred in 1872 when the steamer 'Metis,' bound from New York to Providence, collided with the schooner 'Nettie Cushing' and sank within three-quarters of an hour. A government lifeboat, which had been at the lighthouse for twenty-three years but never used, was manned by Westerly men who saved thirty-three persons of the hundred or so on board. The lack of adequate life-saving equipment near Westerly caused the Government to erect, in 1879, a life-saving station at Watch Hill.

At some time in the late eighteenth century, a section of the village of Westerly along Main Street, between Beach and School Streets, became known as Bungtown. The name seems to have come directly from the prevailing liquor business. Gin, rum, and molasses were the stock in trade along the waterfront, and there were many bungs in the cellars of the buildings here.

On the west side of Main Street by the upper Wells Brook, Abial Sherman built a tannery; on the east side by the lower Cross Brook was the Cross tanyard, destroyed by fire in 1851. These tanyards not only used native hides, but also ground the native bark used in tanning them, and at times when the mud was too deep on Main Street, tanbark served for sidewalks. Westerly's first newspaper, though not a printed one, was the 'Bungtown Patriot,' a single hand-written sheet brought out March 1, 1825, by Charles Perry. A copy of this paper is in the possession of the Westerly Library.

The industrial history of Westerly dates from the nineteenth century. Little mill manufacture was carried on prior to 1800, although the early settlers had used some water-power in the Pawcatuck River before 1750. In 1814, the Pawcatuck Manufacturing Company established on Main Street the Old Stone Mill, razed in 1935. At first woolens were manufactored here, and then cotton goods. In 1814, also, a cloth-shearing machine was invented by Deacon William Stillman and used in his mill at Stillmanville. A canal was dug from Westerly to Stillmanville in 1827. Blodgett, Stafford and Simmons succeeded the Pawcatuck Manufacturing Company and later purchased other water privileges at Stillmanville and White Rock.

In 1806, Joseph Barton Stillman, silversmith, began business in Westerly, and this concern, after several changes in ownership, is conducted by William H. Goodgeon. Westerly's main industry is the granite business. The granite resources of the township were discovered in 1846 by Orlando Smith, who founded in the following year the first quarry company. Since that time several other granite companies have been organized in various places throughout the township. Westerly granite is fine-grained, susceptible to delicate carving, and hence particularly suitable for memorial purposes. The local quarries yield four varieties of stone: a red variety commonly used for building blocks, and white, blue, and pink granite usually employed for monuments. Since the middle of the nineteenth century the Westerly granite quarries have held a position of national repute.

Westerly's first printed newspaper, the Literary Echo, was published in 1851; it became the Westerly Echo and Pawcatuck Advertiser in 1856, and the Narragansett Weekly in 1858, when the paper was acquired by the Utter family. The Sabbath Recorder, owned and published by George B. Utter and previously published in New York, was issued from this establishment 1861-72. The Westerly Daily Sun was established as a daily in 1893 by George B. Utter. Because there are many Seventh Day Baptists in Westerly, to whom Saturday is the Sabbath, the Sun has no Saturday edition, but a Sunday evening number instead.

The first call to arms in Westerly in the Civil War was made on April 16,1861. The Westerly Rifles, consisting of 107 men and officers, marched immediately thereafter with the First Rhode Island Regiment. Westerly lost about 62 men in the war. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Westerly again sent a company of men. When the United States entered the World War in April, 1917, Westerly sent at once a company of 109 men who, after two weeks' extensive training, went on guard duty in this country. Subsequent enlistments, or enrollments under the draft acts, swelled this total. From April, 1917, to May, 1918, a special organization was established to preserve the public peace in the absence of the National Guard.

The population of Westerly consists largely of people who are American-born and of English ancestry. The following countries have contributed to the town's foreign-born population: Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, and Poland. The Italians predominate and are inclined to group together in districts, some in the northern section and others in the northeastern, and here the native tongue is frequently spoken, although today a large percentage speak English as well as Italian. At one time these Italians were confined entirely to the northern part of the town, but of late years, due to intermarriage and other reasons, they have become scattered throughout the township.

Westerly has about eighteen churches, several of which were founded very early. The first organized parish in Old Westerly was that of the Sabbatarians, that came into being about 1671. The first Sabbatarian meeting-house was built about 1680, and its regular minister was John Maxson, ordained Elder in 1708. He was succeeded by his son, who died in 1747. A Presbyterian minister, Joseph Park, was sent to Westerly in 1733 by the New England Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He was given a twenty-acre lot by the Indian chief, George Ninigret. The evangelist, George Whitefield, visited Westerly in the 1740's, and it is said that Park's church benefited particularly from the subsequent revival movement. There was a Quaker meeting-house in Westerly in 1744, and an Episcopal church by 1746.

Source: A Guide to the Smallest State, Federal Writers' Project, 1937, Transcribed by C. Anthony.