Shared Article
Ferries Known for Long Lines
Before the Newport Pell Bridge was completed in 1969, the only way to get from Jamestown to Newport was to take the ferry or drive through Providence.
Category: Shared Article
Shared Article
Ferrying across bay once a dangerous duty
Dinah Battey, of Jamestown, 20, married her husband in 1711. Six days after her wedding, on the sailing ferry home from Newport, the boat capsized, and she tragically drowned. Little was more dangerous in Colonial Rhode Island than crossing the bay in ferries.
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Tradition of Portuguese crown dies with younger generation
Most of the Portuguese immigrants who came to Jamestown at the turn of the 20th century were from the Azores, an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic about 900 miles off the Portuguese coast. Many of these immigrants spoke of their homeland as the Western Isles rather than Portugal.
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Irish immigrants were prolific in the early 20th century
In 1880, more than 80 percent of the people living in Jamestown were native to Conanicut Island, and only 1 percent came from non-English-speaking countries.
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Remington Only Local Slave to Buy Freedom
Orman Remington was enslaved at Gershom Remington’s farm, which is now Watson Farm, on North Road. He was the only known slave in Jamestown’s history to purchase his own freedom, an exceptionally rare event that often was enabled by other people assisting with payment.
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Brooks family lost three members during World War II
Few were left untouched by the global conflict, and 13 men from Jamestown died serving their country. The hardest-hit local family was the Brooks family. Eighty years ago, the United States was entering its second year of involvement in World War II.
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Peckham men from farmers to ferryboats
John Peckham, a Newport freeholder, was one of Jamestown’s first landowners. Although he was not among the 101 men who signed the prepurchase agreement for Conanicut Island, his name appears on Joshua Fisher’s 1658 map.
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’Tis the season to ponder the island’s ties to the land
The holiday season is a time for people to ponder the bounty in their lives, and in Jamestown’s past, all wealth flowed from the land.
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The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge is Thirty!
Thirty years ago, on Saturday, October 17, 1992, about 40,000 people ran, walked, or strolled across the newly opened 7,350-foot-long Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge.
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Chamber predecessor targeted tourism to ease downturn
In May 1929, 21 Jamestowners met at Town Hall to form an organization to “promote the economic, civic, and social welfare of the people of Jamestown and vicinity.” The founding members were all Jamestown businessmen, most from East Ferry and Narragansett Avenue.
