Rhode Island

Biography of William Edward Jeffway

WILLIAM EDWARD JEFFWAY. To the prosperous activities of the electrical business at Easthampton, in which William Edward Jeffway is engaged in company with his brother, Harry Joseph Jeffway, he has brought the results of a varied and practical experience in the employ of a number of concerns engaged both in general manufacturing and in horticulture and orcharding, as well as in electrical matters. A veteran of the World War, he served in the Ordnance Department overseas, and shared with his comrades in a number of important engagements on battlefields in France. He is prominent in the community and social life … Read more

Biography of James Campbell

JAMES CAMPBELL, well known among the business men of Western Massachusetts, is a resident of South Deerfield, treasurer and manager of the Connecticut Valley Onion Company. (I) John Campbell, grandfather of Mr. Campbell, was born in Invernesshire, Scotland. He was a tailor by trade, but in early life entered the army, where he remained for twenty-one years, serving at one time as a member of the King’s Guards. He was with Wellington in the battle of Waterloo (1815), and after the expiration of his term of military service was given a grant of land in Nova Scotia as partial compensation. … Read more

Biography of Marc Joseph Tetreault

MARC JOSEPH TETREAULT – The main interest that centers in the industrious career of Mr. Tetreault is the dominating quality of perseverance, most exemplary throughout his life, whose success from the start was absolutely dependent upon his own efforts. His belief in performing well the work at hand is paramount, and his record of industry is one that exhibits a wholesome readiness to assume the task and the burden of many trades in order eventually to arrive at a hoped-for goal. When twenty-six years ago, he discovered the road to his vocation, it proved the beginning of a lucrative venture … Read more

Miscellaneous African American Genealogy

African American Genealogy online research is much more difficult due to the scant nature of record keeping for African American’s prior to the Civil War. This is the reason for creating a separate section for African Americans much like we have for Native Americans who’s research can also be hampered by the available records. The links below provide an accurate reflection of what is available to be searched for African American genealogy. Conducting successful African American genealogical research can be a challenging adventure. In recent years, the challenge has been lessened and the adventure heightened by the growing body of … Read more

Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements of Rhode Island

These pages will provide an alphabetical listing for all the villages, towns, and settlements in what was the state of Rhode Island at the time the Handbook of American Indian of North America was written. Cawasumseuck to Cowsumpsit  

C- Rhode Island Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Cawasumseuck. Given by Williams in 1643 as the name by which some tribe, settlement, or band of New England Indians called themselves (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st s., in, 205, 1794). To what Indians he refers is unknown, but it is possibly to some then living on Cawsumsett Neck, near Pawtucket r., R. I. Charlestown. A township in Washington co., R. I., where a few mixed bloods, the remnants of the Narraganset and Nehantic, still live. (J. M.) Chaubatick. A … Read more

Biography of Lewis Balch, M. D., PH. D.

LEWIS BALCH, M. D., PH. D. ONE of the physicians and surgeons of Albany, whose professional assistance has been sought often in consultation through the state, is Dr. Lewis Balch. He was born in the city of New York, corner of Great Jones street and Second Avenue, on the 7th day of July, 1847. Ancestry on both sides is a notable one. It is of English and French origin. Several of his ancestors have rendered no small service in this country in civil and ecclesiastical matters. He is the oldest son of the Rev. Lewis P. W. Balch, D. D., … Read more

Biography of Joel Wakeman Burdick

JOEL WAKEMAN BURDICK AN Albanian well known in railroad circles and by the traveling public is J. W. Burdick, the genial general passenger agent of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company railroad. He comes from the sturdy, enterprising race of New Englanders who have done so much to advance the material interests of our country in the development of its vast resources. Born on the 20th of June, 1853, in the rural village of Almond, Allegany County, N. Y., he is a son of R. M. Burdick and Sarah E, Farnsworth, his wife. His father, now retired from the more … Read more

Biography of Dr. Charles Crawford Carter

No vocation in life offers opportunity for greater genuine service to mankind than that of doctor of medicine, and the physician who fully appreciates his responsibilities and conscientiously responds to every call made upon him is a public benefactor in the highest sense of the term. There can be no question as to the reward that will be his in the after life. Such a man was Charles Crawford Carter, one of the best known and most generally beloved medical practitioners who ever ministered to the ills of the people of Rock Island County. Purity of mind, lofty ideals, and … Read more

Saconnet Tribe

Saconnet Indians. A band or small tribe living near Sakonnet Point, Newport County, Rhode Island, connected with the Wampanoag or the Narraganset. Under the woman chief Ashawonks they took the side of the English in King Philip’s War of 1675, and from her their land was purchased by the whites. In 1700 they numbered about 400; but in 1763 they were visited by an epidemic which considerably diminished their numbers, so that by 1803 they had dwindled to a dozen persons, living near Compton.  Their chief village bore the name of the tribe.

Wampanoag Tribe

Wampanoag Indians (‘eastern people’). One of the principal tribes of New England. Their proper territory appears to have been the peninsula on the east shore of Narragansett Bay now included in Bristol County, R. I., and the adjacent parts in Bristol County, Mass. The Wampanoag chiefs ruled all the country extending east from Narragansett Bay and Pawtucket river to the Atlantic coast, including the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Rhode Island in the bay was also at one time the property of this tribe, but was conquered from them by the Narraganset, who occupied the west shore of the … Read more

Eastern Niantic Tribe

Niantic Indians (contr. of Naïantukq-ut ‘at a point of land on a [tidal] river or estuary.’ Trumbull) An Algonquian tribe formerly occupying the coast of Rhode Island from Narragansett Bay to about the Connecticut state line.  Their principal village, Wekapaug, was on the great pond near Charlestown.  They were closely connected with the Narraganset forming practically one tribe with them. By refusing to join in King Philip’s war in 1675 they preserved their territory and tribal organization and at the close of the war the Narraganset who submitted to the English were placed with the Niantic under Ninigret, and the … Read more

Narraganset Tribe

Narraganset Indians (‘people of the small point,’ from naiagans, diminutive of naiag, ‘small point of land,’ with locative ending -et). An Algonquian tribe, formerly one of the leading tribes of New England. west of Narragansett Bay, including the Niantic territory, form Providence River on the northeast to Pawcatuck River on the southwest.  On the northwest they claimed control over a part of the country of the Coweset and Nipmuc, and on the southwest they claimed by conquest form the Pequot a strip extending to the Connecticut line. They also owned most of the islands in the bay, some of which … Read more

Brotherton Tribe

Brotherton Indians. The name of two distinct bands, each formed of remnants of various Algonquian tribes. The best-known band was composed of individuals of the Mahican, Wappinger, Mohegan, Pequot, Narraganset, etc., of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and of the Montauk and others from Long Island, who settled in 1788 on land given them by the Oneida at the present Marshall, Oneida County, New York, near the settlement then occupied by the Stockbridge. Those of New England were mainly from Farmington, Stonington, Groton, Mohegan, and Niantic (Lyme), in Connecticut, and from Charlestown in Rhode Island. They all went under the leadership … Read more

Mohegan Tribe

Mohegan Indians (from maïngan, ‘wolf.’ Trumbull). An Algonquian tribe whose chief seat appears originally to have been on Thames river, Conn., in the north part of New London county. They claimed as their proper country all the territory watered by the Thames and its branches north to within 8 or 10 miles of the Massachusetts line, and by conquest a considerable area extending north and east into Massachusetts and Rhode Island, occupied by the Wabaquasset and Nipmuc. On the west their dominion extended along the coast to East river, near Guilford, Conn. After the destruction of the Pequot in 1637 … Read more

Condition of Tribes by State in 1890

Condition of the Arkansas Indians in 1890 Total                    250 Indians in prisons, not otherwise enumerated        32 Self-supporting Indians, Taxed                            218 The civilized (self-supporting) Indians of Arkansas number 218, 146 males and 72 females, and are distributed as follows: Pulaski County, 47; Sebastian County, 47; other counties with 11 or less in each, 124. The Indians of Arkansas are mostly in a county bordering on the Indian Territory, and in the county containing the state capital.  There are not enough to form a distinctive class. Condition of the Connecticut Indians in 1890 The civilized, (self-supporting) Indians of Connecticut, counted in the … Read more

Nipmuc Tribe

Nipmuc Indians (from Nipamaug, ‘fresh-water fishing place’). The inland tribes of central Massachusetts living chiefly in the south part of Worcester county, extending into Connecticut and Rhode Island. Their chief seats were on the headwaters of Blackstone and Quinebaug rivers, and about the ponds of Brookfield. Hassanamesit seems to have been their principal village in 1674, but their villages had no apparent political connection, and the different parts of their territory were subject to their more powerful neighbors, the Massachuset, Wampanoag, Narraganset, and Mohegan, and even tributary to the Mohawk. The Nashua, dwelling farther north, are sometimes classed with the … Read more