by Rosemary Enright | Apr 21, 2021 | 2021 Articles
During World War II, Conanicut Island was home to three named forts, all of which are now parks – Fort Burnside at Beavertail, Fort Getty on the West Passage, and Fort Wetherill on the East Passage. Each of the forts was named for a U.S. Army officer who had seen...
by Rosemary Enright | Mar 17, 2021 | 2021 Articles
In the mid-19th century, the population of Jamestown was declining. The 1870 census counted only 378 people living here. Those remaining knew the town would die if nothing were done. In 1873, the town and some of its major landowners formed the Jamestown &...
by JHS | Feb 22, 2021 | 2021 Articles
The African-American and Native American community in Jamestown burgeoned during slavery, but it declined precipitously after the Revolution. Nine tenths left in only 50 years. The turbulence of war, the slow demise of slavery and the exclusion from economic...
by Rosemary Enright | Jan 31, 2021 | 2021 Articles
George Wallin Bowen and his brother James Howard were born on the Point in Newport in 1882 and 1884, respectively. In their 20s, the two brothers went their separate ways – George to Chicago; J. Howard, as he was known, to the U.S. Navy. The First World War...
by Rosemary Enright | Dec 29, 2020 | 2020 Articles, Jamestown History Articles
From 1938 through 1940, the United States watched with growing concern the war that was engulfing Europe. Air warfare directed against civilians, demonstrated in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, led some – especially on the eastern seaboard – to fear for...
by Rosemary Enright | Nov 20, 2020 | 2020 Articles, Jamestown History Articles
In honor of Veterans Day, we are excerpting a Civil War veteran’s story, edited by Rosemary Enright and Sue Maden. Three days after the first military action of the Civil War, the assault on Fort Sumter, NC, on April 12, 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000...
