Retired landscape architect and urban planner Al Lima met with Sowams Heritage Area team members Dave Weed and Greg Spiess to discuss the possibility of creating a graphic illustration of a proposed Sowams Heritage Area from Bristol to Providence. Al’s illustrations of a possible Quequechan River Rail Trail a decade ago led to the eventual […]
Carpenter Museum volunteer Mark Canuel (left) met with Sowams Heritage Area team member Dave Weed for a conversation about early Rehoboth. Mark, who traces some of his family history to First People in Canada and grew up in Rehoboth, recently retired and is helping to catalogue museum holdings. He spoke with Dave about 17th century […]
Five members of the Pokanoket tribe met with Sowams Heritage Area project team members David Weed and Helen Tjader at the Barrington Public Library. Tribal members were invited by Po Wauipi Neimpaug, Sagamore, or Chief, of the Pokanoket Nation, William Guy who was unable to attend due to family illness. David and Helen began the meeting […]
While the New Palmer River Iron Forge was established in Rehoboth by 1722, though there’s no documentation, it’s quite likely that earlier forges were operating prior to 1700. Forges used bog ore found in local swamps to manufacture needed metal tools and implements.for the growing population in the Sowans Heritage Area. Dave Weed interviews retired engineer and […]
Byron Kee offered a tour of his 60-acre family farm in Touisset that he believes began before 1700 though the exact date is not yet documented. The family farmhouse was added onto an original structure in the back that may date into the 1600s. The farmland runs along the Kickemuit River. Byron has found a […]
Touisset comes from the aboriginal name Toweset which is translated variously as “at the old field” and “at the corn field.” Before the arrival of European settlers, and evidenced by shell piles and arrowheads unearthed by later residents, Touisset Point was, at least seasonally, inhabited by aboriginal people who enjoyed the bounty of the land, […]
Matt Largess of Largess Foresty joined Sowams Heritage Area project team member Helen Hersh Tjader pn the farm land at St. Andrew’s School in Barrington to examine an ancient white oak tree that has been growing on the property for several hundred years. Though the school was begun in 1893, the farm dates back to the […]
Sowams Heritage Area project team member Dave Weed spent a morning at the Bristol County Registry of Deeds in Taunton searching for records regarding the land on Sachem’s Knoll and around King’s Rock on Market Street at the Warren-Swansea border. As the area was entirely in Swansea in the late 17th Century, he was able […]
Sowams project team member Dave Weed met with RI State Archives Director Kenneth Carlson in his search for land records related to the King’s Rock / Sachem Knoll site. The location was an important meeting place for members of the Pokanoket trive, including both Massasoit and his son, Metacomet or King Philip. It is also […]
Sowams project team member Dave Weed met with Roger Williams University Assistant Professor of History Dr. Charlotte Carrington-Farmer who specializes in Early American history. Dr. Carrington-Farmer teaches courses on “Crime and Dissent in Early New England” and “Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America”. The two explored ways that RWU students […]