Johnston Historical Society Historical Notes
Vol. XI, #1, April 2002
Louis McGowan, Editor; Steve Merolla, Asst. Editor
Country Tea
On April 7, 2002, we held a country tea at the Dean Kimball House on Hopkins Avenue. This is, of course the home of Warren and Ellen Lanpher, our gracious hosts for the event. The house looked wonderful, and the Lanphers went to great lengths in making the house so. There were freshly painted walls in the kitchen and front hall, cut flowers throughout the house, and their fine furnishings in all the rooms. Warren and Ellen contributed much to make this event a success, both in time and donations. We thank them so much.
Of course, this tea would not have taken place without the vision and hard work of Bel Peters. She put in a huge amount of hours in order to make the tea happen. She rounded up donations where she could, enlisted the help of friends and family in baking and cooking, and put in many, many hours in preparation of food and sewing cloth napkins. Our deepest thanks go out to her.
This fundraiser was our biggest ever. We cleared over $700.00. Sixty guests attended the two sittings and all seemed to enjoy themselves very much. Many people asked when the next event would take place.
As with any fundraiser like this, there are many people who contributed to make the event a success. We would like to thank first all those who attended the event. Next, we would like to thank the following people who donated their labor that day: Cathy & Mike Carroll, who helped all day in any way they could; Stacy Peters and her cousin Audrey, who waited on tables the whole afternoon; Steve Merolla and Pat Macari, who helped during the day in various ways; and Louis McGowan, who helped that day and during the days leading up to the tea. Bel's family and friends contributed much time and effort, including leading up to the tea: her mother, Mary; her sisters, Ida and Marion; and her friends Linda Jackson and Sharon DiPinto all helped in various ways.
We would also like to thank those people who donated items for the tea: Pepperidge Farms Discount Store, who donated all the bread; Stamp Poultry Farms, who donated 7 dozen eggs; Danny & Nancy Brown, who donated a large bowl of tuna salad and 2 pounds of chicken salad; Miriam Eacuello, who made two pans of Maids of Honor; Warren & Ellen Lanpher, who donated flowers, the rental costs of the cups & plates, and the use of their house; Kit Rhodes and Barbara Maggiacomo, who baked dessert breads; Fred Mikkelsen who did the graphics for the flyer; and Louis & Bel who donated various food items.
Gold From "Wornout" Farms
Providence-Journal, August 30, 1914
The belief entertained by too many Rhode Island farmers that the game of tilling the soil was not worth the while—a conviction which led them to abandon the acres their fathers had made a good living on, and to migrate to the city to swell the crowd of strenuous workers, has been thoroughly disproved by the Italian immigrants who are reclaiming the land and not only making it yield bounteous crops, but by their activities enhanced its value in some instances by 1000 per cent.
In nearly every instance these reclaimers of the soil have been of the peasantry class, coming into the new country with barely enough money to get them to their destinations from the ports at which they were landed. In nearly every instance they worked as ordinary laborers, some on city and railroad jobs, others as farmhands, until they had by strict economy and self-denial amassed enough to make the first payment upon coveted land. They found no difficulty in making purchases upon most liberal terms and at figures wholly incommensurate with the value of the property, provided there had been anything done to keep it up.
This was during the period when farm land in some towns was actually going begging; when large tracts, not a few of them having buildings upon them in really good condition, could be picked up for a trifle more than unpaid taxes and the small mortgages that clouded their titles.
One of the great contributing causes for the abandonment of some of these farm lands was the presence of rocks. Nature had distributed these with wanton prodigality throughout the State to the north and west of Providence. The old-time farmers had cleared up some of these and managed to cultivate to some extent between the larger boulders, but they allowed their fields to remain in a condition which precluded the harvesting of paying crops.
Swampy patches were allowed to go undrained; brush received no attention; woodland remained uncleared; and from the beggarly area clear of these obstructions the owners managed to get indifferent results until, thoroughly discouraged, they followed their children to the city—for the sons had developed no liking for farm life and the daughters would not be induced to take any interest in dairying.
It was something like 40 years ago that the Italians began looking up and reclaiming these abandoned farms. The reclamation of the land has not been accomplished without the hardest kind of work—grinding application such as few American farmers would bring themselves to. In the first two or three years little was accomplished other than blasting out the big boulders, digging out the smaller rocks, draining swamps and clearing off brush. This was labor in which every member of the household engaged from sunrise to sunset, and as rapidly as a piece was cleared planting was done to produce crops upon which the family could subsist.
Generally, the planting, weeding and picking of the matured crops were left to the women and children, for each member of the family had his and her work cut out. Presently the products of the Italian farmers began to have a noticeable effect on city market prices. The vegetables brought to the city were of the best grade, fresh, clean and inviting in appearance and found ready sale. From the profits of this business the patient plodders cleared up the incumbrances on their land purchases and picked up other acres long since allowed to run riot with weeds and brush, when the clearing-up process was resumed and garden truck fields extended.
It is in the Simmonsville, Hughesdale, Thornton, and Pocasset districts that the best exemplifications of abandoned farm redemption are to be found. It would well be worth one's time to take a spin out through that country, either in the electric cars or with the automobile and inspect these farms. Viewed from the roadside, there does not appear to be an inch of land upon which some kind of a crop is not growing. System, everywhere, is seen in the cultivation, which is so intense that barely enough space is left for paths leading to the fields, while vegetables of some kind can be picked from the lower windows, so close to the houses was the planting done.
The Italian farmer pays no attention to dairying and has no use for horses except to pull his plow or bring his truck to the city, hence he devotes little or no land to hay cultivation. He goes in for early vegetables, following these up with the varieties finding ready sale throughout the summer. There is not much attention given to potatoes, enough only being raised to meet the requirements of the household, but there are acres and acres of tomatoes, beans, and sweet corn, big patches of peppers, of which Italians are extremely fond and the use of which has become quite general in American families, thanks to the suggestions offered by cooking authorities that almost any kind of a meat dish can be improved by the judicious addition of a bit of green pepper.
As grape cultivators these Italian farmers cannot be discounted. They seem to have the knack of making a vine grow with amazing speed and compelling it to bear most prolifically. The Johnson vines this year, loaded deep with big clusters of fruit, carefully trained over pergolas near the house, afford grateful shade for the women and children who are not in the fields, and further away from the habitations add materially to the beauty of the farm by the symmetrical manner in which they are made to trail over wires. These grapes are rarely marketed in the city. The juice is converted into red wine.
One of the most interesting of the Italian colonies is that at Simmonsville where the old stone houses that were built years ago for sheltering mill help are now occupied by people mostly from one town—Prata Sannita, in the province of Caserta, on the southwest coast of Italy, near Capriati, from which town many of the Italian farmers of Rhode Island migrated.
This is a typical Italian village of about 60 families, generally engaged in farming and numbering close upon 500 people. The village street is well kept, the houses are inviting in appearance and thrift is indicated on all sides. There is not the semblance of a saloon in this place, and as one of the younger generation declared, it is "on the water wagon" aside from the occasional libations of red wine.
The most interesting member of this little community is Angelo Caruolo, whose father, Lelio Caruolo, was one of the first Italians to come to this country, his being the first Italian family to settle in Rhode Island. Raffaelo Caruolo, Angelo's mother, is still living in the village and is in her 89th year.
The family all worked in the old mill operated by the Simmonsville Company until they could save up enough to hire a small tract of land, which they cultivated with great success. Thirty-eight years ago Angelo Caruolo took up the abandoned Oxx farm and proceeded to handle the toughest kind of a proposition. What land was not covered with brush and stone had been used as a pasture. There were 12 acres, the greater part of which was utterly unfit for cropping. It took Mr. Caruolo two years of hard work before he could begin cultivating except in the smallest way, but he kept on the job until he had every foot ready for planting. In 1890 he had enough cash on hand to buy the place and got possession of it for $1200, which the owner thought was a gilt-edged price. Today those 12 acres cannot be bought for $10,000—nothing like that sum, Mr. Caruolo proudly asserted.
For the last 20 years he has been one of the conspicuous figures of the City Market, where he has sold immense quantities of produce to the merchants and hawkers, but what those quantities were he cannot tell. For obvious reasons, the Italian peasant is not a bookkeeper, and herein only does he as a farmer fall down when compared with the trained Swiss farmer. The latter keeps an accurate account with every acre of land, charging up against it the cost of plowing, harrowing, seeding, cultivating and harvesting, crediting it with the exact number of bushels or pounds of produce it yields, so that he knows to a dot the kinds, quantities, and returns of every crop, year in and year out. All the Italian farmer can say is that he takes his produce to the market, sells it, and at the end of the cropping period knows that he has made so much money.
Among the other yields of the Caruolo place last year was 500 dozen ears of corn, 1000 bushels of tomatoes, 400 barrels of peppers, 150 bushels of grapes for home use, 700 bushels of beans and all the potatoes the family could eat, and it was not a small quantity of these that was served up, seeing that there were 11 children to feed. The old farmhouse is still used and has been a comfortable shelter for this large household.
The achievements of Tomasso Parillo of Pocasset Village have been something remarkable. Forty years ago he arrived in this country from Naples, poor as the proverbial church mouse but full of pluck and determination to succeed. At that time, he says there were but 15 Italians in Providence, and with some of these he obtained employment as a railroad laborer. For one year he handled the pick and the shovel, carefully saving his wages, until he felt that he had enough money to engage in his home vocation, that of tilling the soil. To make sure of this, however, he engaged as a farm hand on the Williams farm in Pocasset for a term of two years; then he decided to make the plunge.
That was 27 years ago, his first purchase of abandoned farm land including a tract that was largely spotted with stones and rocks, swampy and overrun with brush.
"I was not discouraged by the outlook," he said, "but buckled right down to the job before me. I was bound to make that land a crop-producer. It was two years or more before I had made any kind of a headway, but I stuck to the cleaning up until in the third year I succeeded in planting quite extensively.
"I was up at daybreak and busy until dark, and at last had the satisfaction of taking my produce to Providence, where I found a ready market for everything, and at good prices. I was now working the farm from 7 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock at night, which did not by any means include all that I had to do. I was obliged to leave home as early as 12 o'clock at night in order to secure a favorable place in the market, for there were not stalls reserved in those days. It was everybody for himself.
"I have been coming to the Providence market ever since, and out of the profits of my farm, plus what I obtain for rents, I have managed to purchase close upon 175 acres of land and to become one of the largest land-holders among my countrymen in this State. Seventy-five of these acres are under cultivation—the remainder is either fine woodland, swamps that are yet to be drained, or parcels from which stone and brush must be removed.
"I own five different pieces of land that I count as one now, for one of which I paid $3000. Another cost me $4000 and the other three were bought at $1000 each. In addition to the old house I am occupying I have built one more in the same yard, and own five other houses in this village, most of which I built. I would not take $60,000 for my property, and there is not a cent of incumbrance on any of it.
"Anybody who knows how to farm can do as well as I have on the so-called abandoned farms hereabouts, only I would not know where to send a man to get the property to-day, seeing that there is none in the market. What farm land has not been purchased by my countrymen hereabouts has been hired by them of property owners, who have come to realize that their neighbors let good things slip through their hands that ought to have been held on to.
"I cannot tell you how large my crops have been from year to year, because I never kept any record of them. Some years I noted rather poor business and others I experienced satisfaction with the returns.
"There is not so much money to be made now as formerly, because it is costing me more for my labor. I used to get all the men I wanted at $1 per day, and women for picking were abundant at 65 cents per day. Now I have to pay the men $1.50 and the women $1. Competition is also keener in the selling market, and there are additional expenses, such as the rental of a stand in the City Market.
"The trouble with the American farmers who quit was that they undertook to make livings either on hired estates or kept on paying interest on mortgages. Moreover, they trusted too much to hired bosses. They were working all the time for the other fellow and lost through mismanagement or lack of knowledge of how to crop their lands. I was my own boss, made my land pay for itself and there was no landlord or noteholder ready to take the money away from me as fast as I made it."
Another very successful Italian farmer in the Pocasset district is Vincenzo Ferranti. Twenty-three years ago he was working on the Williams farm. Five years later he purchased 10 acres of anything but encouraging-looking land. The best feature of the place was a little farmhouse standing close by the main highway. From its rear windows the new owner looked out on fields thick with stones and brush. The property stood him in for $1000, and it was considered by the Americans of the village to be very dear at that price. Ferranti's experience was identical with that of his compatriots who had broken into farming on other abandoned estates.
There was a year of more of hard digging and cutting, when a small amount of garden truck was raised. Gradually the land was made clear and planted, the produce being brought to Providence, and eventually from the profits another 10 acres, some distance up the highway and to the east, was purchased for $3000. This is now under high cultivation and bringing good returns; if it were not Mr. Ferranti would not have been able to erect the ornate two-family house across the street from the old farmhouse, nor to have built the big barn, which is now ready to be painted. "Twenty acre, two houses and a barna—all mine. Noth owing on it," asserted Ferranti as he turned to join the family and his gang of hired women in a bean-picking stunt.
The "Snop" farm, over in Hughesdale, owned by Francesco Marcaccia, was another of the abandoned estates. It had been occupied by an English family named Morris, who had quit it in disgust. Marcaccia took hold of 24 acres of the most unpromising property over 17 years ago. About all the former owner did was to raise pigs, the animals being allowed to run about at will. As to cropping the land, he seemed never to have thought that worth the while, unless he could have obtained a plow which would fit in around the rocks. To-day the entire 24 acres are under cultivation. The old farmhouse remains, little better than it ws when the property was bought, being deemed of too little value to spend much money on, but in Providence there are two substantial tenement blocks, bringing in fine revenue, that have been paid for out of the proceeds of the old "Snop" farm cultivation.
Stories exactly like the foregoing might be told of dozens of other reclaimed farms in and about Simmonsville, Hughesdale, Thornton, and Pocasset, and each would make very interesting reading to a number of people in Providence, erstwhile owners by inheritance of lands they or their fathers abandoned.
And speaking of city life, one of the most successful of the Italian farmers expressed keen regret that so many thousands of his compatriots were content to crowd themselves into the colonies and there compete in an overworked field, getting the poorest kind of a living, putting little by for later years, when there was a so much better existence to be had on the farm lands in the northern and western part of the State—lands that could be purchased for very little money, cleared up and made to pay abundantly as well as provide comfortable homes.
Society Acquisitions
Recent Society Acquisitions:
April Meeting
For our April 2002 general meeting our own Mike Carroll was the guest speaker. He presented a slide show on H.P. Lovecraft, Providence's master writer of supernatural and horror stories. Mike used a combination of modern slides and copies of old views to take us back in time to the days of Lovecraft. We saw his favorite haunts, as well as the houses that he lived in. Mike's vast knowledge of the subject, his sense of humor, and his easy style kept us his audience tuned in to what was a very entertaining evening for all of us.
One of our guests was Jim Eddy, whose grandparents were close friends of Lovecraft! Mike told us that they were the only close friends of Lovecraft that lived in the Providence area.
Cemetery Cleanup
On April 13, 2002, the Johnston Recreation Department, headed by Vin LaFazia, and the Johnston Historical Society hosted the Annual Town Cemetery Cleanup. The weather was beautiful and about 150 people showed up. We cleaned 10 cemeteries, which is fewer than we usually do but a number of them were quite large. Various groups helped out, including: the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the High School Honor Society, the American Youth Military Academy, North Providence Boys Club, Girls Softball, and the Police Explorers.
Museum Hours
There is a change from the Museum hours that were given in the January 2002 Newsletter. The corrected hours are: May through October, the first and third Fridays, 1-4 p.m., and the first and third Sundays, 2-4. If you are interested in helping out on any of these days, please call Louis at XXX-XXXX.
Museum Yardwork
Steve Merolla, Louis McGowan, Bel Peters, Pat Macari, and Dan Brown have completed a spring cleanup of the yard around the Museum. Thanks for their hard work.
If you like gardening and would like to help us planting, weeding, etc., please let us know.
Grant For Tree Book
Congratulations go out to Dan Meunier and Steve Merolla for a securing a grant from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities that will be used to print their book on the historic trees of Johnston. These grants are not given out without much consideration, and Dan and Steve should be proud of themselves for being trusted with this money. All their hard work over the past two years has come to fruition. Other towns around the State reportedly are already thinking about following their lead and putting their own book out.
Members Tour Historic Houses
In April 2002 Pat Macari, Steve Merolla, and Louis McGowan joined noted architectural historian and carpenter, Steve Tyson, and his wife in a visit to three of Johnston's finest houses. The reason for the trip was to gather information for plaquing the three houses.
First, we visited the King/Borden House on South Long Street, off lower Hartford Avenue. The house is ancient, the original section dating to possibly the late 17th or the early 18th century. There is also a later ell, dating probably to the early 19th century. Early features in the original section include: gunstock posts, chamfering on the downstairs beams, and possibly evidence of the original chimney being pilastered. A wonderfully ornate wrap-around Victorian porch is still in place.
Our second stop was at the Winsor family farm off Winsor Avenue. It sits on 150 acres of land and includes two old houses that sit next to each other. The farm has been in the same family for about 350 years, which is remarkable in this day of maximum development of property. It was wonderful to walk around the property with George Steere, one of the family members, and just take in the incredible atmosphere. He is one of the members of the family trust that owns and runs the property, and he says that if he has anything to do with it the farm will never be developed. We sure hope that it never is. We stood on the hill in front of his house and could see no house in any direction. A flock of wild turkeys walked around in front of us. The two houses are quite old, but we do not have a good feel for just how old.
The last house that we visited was at the corner of Brown Avenue and Route 6. It has always been known as an Eddy house, but Steve Merolla's research has pretty much disproved that it was built by the Eddy family. Bob and Beth Little and their children live in this very handsome little home. The interior detailing shows it to be from the first quarter of the 19th century, but the date has not really been pinned down yet.
As always Steve Merolla has been doing some great research on Johnston's houses. He puts in many, many hours at the Town Hall, the Providence Archives, and in the field. A special thanks goes out to him.
Tea At Hearthside
On May 4, 2002, Louis McGowan and Bel Peters visited Hearthside Mansion on Great Road in Lincoln. The occasion for their visit was a fundraiser/tea held by the Friends of Hearthside to raise money for their restoration efforts. The house was purchased a few years ago by the Town of Lincoln, and the Friends of Hearthside was formed last year to take care of the building.
Many of you have probably heard the heartbreaking story of Hearthside's original owner. He was in love with a woman from Providence who came from a prominent family. After he had won $40,000 in the Louisiana Lottery, he proceeded to build Hearthside as a surprise wedding gift for his future bride. When it was completed in 1810, he took her for a ride in wagon and asked her what she thought of the house. He never mentioned that it was his. She said that it was lovely, but she could never live so far out in the country. In silence he turned the wagon around, returned to Providence, and never dated the woman again. He never married.
It is a truly heartbreaking story and one that we assume is mostly true! The house is wonderful. It was built on a grand scale and is a unique structure in Rhode Island. The tea was quite nice and we wish the Friends of Hearthside well. If you can, get out to see the house and support their effort. It is good to see a group like theirs working hard to achieve a lofty goal.
Our Executive Board:
President: Louis McGowan
Vice-President: Pat Macari
Treasurer: Dan Brown
Recording Sec.: Evelyn Beaumier
Corresponding Sec.: Mike Carroll
Trustee: Steve Merolla
Trustee: Everett Cogswell
Our Executive Board meets at 7:00 p.m. in the Museum building, 101 Putnam Pike, on the second to the last Wednesday of each month, September through June (Except December). All are welcome to attend.
General Meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. the last Wednesday of each month, September through June (no December meeting. We have our Holiday Party that month). The meetings are held in the Museum Building except for the ones in January, February, & March which are usually held in the Graniteville Baptist Church on Serrel Sweet Road.
Our phone # is: (401) 231-3380.
Annual Dues
Have you paid your 2002 dues yet? Help us to defray the costs of producing this newsletter. The price is still the same: $10.00 for a single membership and $12.00 for a family membership.
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Come Visit the Museum!
Don't forget—your donations to the Johnston Historical Society can be deducted from your taxes. We are registered with the Federal Government as a non-profit organization.
Johnston Historical Society, 101 Putnam Pike, Johnston, RI 02919, (401) 231-3380, info@johnstonhistorical.org
Unless otherwise noted, all content is © 2006 Johnston Historical Society.
Posted May 2006