by Rosemary Enright | Nov 20, 2020 | 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...
by JHS | Nov 20, 2020 | JHS in the News, Library Exhibits
From colonial days till the present, aids to navigation – lighthouse, foghorns, buoys, lightships – have warned mariners of the risks ahead as they entered Narragansett Bay. Jamestown itself was home to four lighthouses, two on Conanicut Island, one on Gould Island...
by Stephanie Amerigian | Nov 2, 2020 | From the Collection
Our online collection has many items from 1763 to 2020 describing the votes and voters of Jamestown. The handwritten document is a list of freemen of Jamestown who voted for the governor and general officers of the colony of Rhode Island in 1763. The list is followed...
by Rosemary Enright | Oct 12, 2020 | Jamestown History Articles
Gustavus Adolphus Clarke, known as G. Adolphus, was one of Jamestown’s many descendants of Joseph Clarke, one of the original purchasers of Conanicut Island. He was born in Jamestown in 1839, eighth of the nine children of David Wright and Sarah Chaffee Clarke. He...
by JHS | Oct 4, 2020 | From the Collection
Members of the Jamestown Historical Society who grew up on Conanicut Island or spent their summers here will recognize many of the businesses that are found in the JHS Financial records. The letterheads in the JHS collection are receipts for work completed by...
by JHS | Oct 1, 2020 | JHS in the News, Library Exhibits
In the late 19thcentuy, Jamestown’s population ballooned and the number of farmers, who grew most of their own food, decreased. Purchased produce was in demand, and grocery stores proliferated. By the mid-1980s, regulation and competition had driven most of these...
by Rosemary Enright | Sep 23, 2020 | Jamestown History Articles
In early Jamestown through the first half of the 20th century, the area that is now Beavertail State Park was a popular fishing ground. As early as 1754, the Newport Colonial Lighthouse Committee had guaranteed a Right of Way to the water around the lighthouse....
by Rosemary Enright | Sep 23, 2020 | Jamestown History Articles
For the first 30 plus years of their lives the two Tennant sisters lived uneventful lives in their father’s home on Narragansett Avenue. Born in Jamestown in 1873 and 1874 respectively, Hester and Emilie went to Jamestown’s South School in the days of one-room...
by Rosemary Enright | Sep 18, 2020 | Jamestown History Articles
The area of town tucked in between Upper Shoreby Hill and the Town Cemetery at the Four Corners was developed in the early 20th century and was known as the Knowles plat. The land belonged to Adolphus C. Knowles, the owner and builder of the Bay View House Tower....
by Rosemary Enright | Sep 18, 2020 | Jamestown History Articles
Eliza Hickey Newcomb was a Southern belle, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At 27, she married Junius Brutus Alexander, a New York investment banker 24 years her senior. It was a stormy marriage. His children from his first marriage evidently did not approve of his...
