Newport Historical Society

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“Commenced with moderate breezes from the No and Est & cloudy weather. At 8 AM mustered the crew. Crew employed setting up rigging & other requisite duties.”
Camillus Saunders, Midshipman, US Ship Natchez 1836

Camillus Saunders married the daughter of Newport’s William V. Taylor, who fought with Oliver Hazard Perry in the war of 1812. Saunders kept the log of the USS Natchez in 1836, and probably drew this beautifully detailed portrait that we just discovered in the log book.  In another example of 6 degrees of separation from Newport, Saunders was an ancestral relative of author Madeleine L’Engle, who wrote the classic children’s book  A Wrinkle in Time.

It is well known that during the American Revolution the French Navy printed a journal titled the Gazette Françoise.  This was the first entirely foreign-language publication in Newport. What is less well known is that documents in other languages were printed in Newport prior to the Gazette Françoise.  This broadside, recently re-discovered in the Newport Historical society’s collection, is one of the best examples of the earliest bilingual press in Newport and another remarkable document of the American Revolution.

During the Occupation of Newport by the British army between 1776 and 1779, Germans from Hessen-Kassel and Anspach-Bayreuth, known popularly as “Hessians,” made up more than half of the occupying army.  The proportion of Germans in the occupying force must have encouraged the British to print documents, as well as  important ads and announcements in the loyalist Newport Gazette, in German for the benefit of the more than 3,000 German-speaking soldiers.  This broadside, establishing free access to the market by residents of Aquidneck and Conanicut Islands, was printed in two halves, in English and German. Most bilingual documents in Newport appeared this way, with English above and German below.

Newport did not have a large German population prior to the war and it is clear that the British printed German text using the same Latin letters used to print English.  In Pennsylvania, which had an active German press, some printers used the traditional German Fraktur script.  In Newport, the printers lacked the type to print an umlaut ( ¨ ) or an esset ( ß ), making the German somewhat crude, but undoubtedly legible.

Pointing the Way to Victory

This wooden pointer might at first be mistaken for a large clock high hand. That is, until the faint pencil inscription on the back is deciphered which reveals its true purpose. Rather than telling time, it indicated to patriotic Newporters the money raised by the Third Liberty Loan campaign during the First World War.

Liberty Loans, a precursor to savings bonds, were a means developed during World War One to help fund the tremendous costs of the war. This pointer is from the Third Liberty Loan campaign, which kicked off on April 6 of 1918 and ended on Rhode Island Independence Day, May 4, 1918. It was placed prominently above the steps of the Colony House, and like the thermometer graphic of today showed citizens when the campaign had reached $2,000,000 in bond sales. Newport’s efforts, which included a large military parade on April 26, resulted in surpassing its quota by over half a million dollars.

The previous two loan campaigns had received lackluster results. To make up for past failures the Third Liberty Loan unleashed a veritable media blitz. Using posters, stunts, boy scouts, war heroes, celebrities, parades, and even a movie made by Charlie Chaplin, the Third Liberty Loan campaign sought to catch public attention, and money. In Newport, the campaign appealed to the city’s history, recalling the debt America owed to France during the Revolution that could now be repaid with interest. The placement of this pointer on the Colony House steps above where the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time, and where Rochambeau and Washington stood, clearly connected the past with the present.

Two familiar faces at the courthouse, Horatio B. Wood and Robert E. Brooks, jointly donated this memento of Newport’s involvement in the Great War. Their vastly different backgrounds make this joint donation so interesting. Wood was born in Newport and served as a court reporter for over 50 years, while maintaining an avid interest in Newport History. Like Wood, the African American Robert Brooks also served the court for over 50 years, but as its janitor. Brooks was a native of Frederick, Maryland, but a longstanding feature in both the Old Colony House and in the newly constructed courthouse on Washington Square. Brooks and Wood both died in 1940, just after Newport’s tercentenary celebrations, aged 74 and 82 respectively.

Their donations reminds us of the contributions made by civilians during the Great War, but also the diverse population of early 20th century Newport that valued their city’s place in history and its contributions to the present.

Richard Scott was born in Glemsford, Suffolk, England in 1607 and came to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 and was one of the founders of Providence in 1636. He brought with him a vellum rolled document showing eight generations of Scotts and their coats of arms. It was made by an heraldic artist in London in 1607 and is similar to the Saltonstall and Miner family rolls also brought to New England. The Scott roll was passed down through the John Scott DeBlois whaling family of Newport and presented to the Newport Historical Society in 1901.

Richard Scott was married to Catherine Marbury, sister of Ann Hutchinson, who also had her spiritual issues. Catherine was whipped and jailed in Boston and later became the first Quaker convert in Providence, with many ties to Newport. They had many descendents including the merchant Nicholas Brown of Providence and the Godfrey Malbone family of Newport.

This sepia toned photograph of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia 1864 was taken when Grant was Lieutenant General during the Civil War by Matthew Brady.

You can read more about Brady in a New York Times column this morning by our Rhode Island colleage Ted Widmer.

To Cure Chopt Lipps &c.

Take 2oz: of Bees wax & cutt it in pieces or bitts & 1

Gill of good Sweet oyl set it over a Clear fire when

Dissolved pour it into a Clear Bason & it will be when

Coal’d an Oyntment good for sore Nipples also any

Thing of that kind.

This “receipt”, or recipe, is from a handwritten collection of home remedies dating from the early- to mid-18th century. It describes a remedy for chapped lips or for nursing mothers. It calls for beeswax and sweet oil, which is similar to vegetable oil.

This small book is part of the Historical Society’s archives of recipe books, account books, household ledgers and other documents of domestic life.

This map of General Washington’s Army at Valley Forge seems to be a contemporaneous record of Washington’s positions at this historic site. We do not believe that this map has been studied or published.

It was discovered in papers assoicated with Newporter John Austin Stevens (1827-1910), founder of the Sons of the Revolution and a principal in the effort to save Fraunces Tavern in New York.

In recent weeks a 20th century garage at the bottom of Barney Street was demolished to make way for a new home. Any time there is digging in the colonial part of town, Newport Historical Society staff like to look in the hole, ditch or trench. Both we, and the property owner, were surprised to discover  a curved stone wall on one side of this trench. With the property owner’s permission, two archeologists from Brown University came down on their own time to document and explore the feature.

This wall represents a section of a circular cistern made of brick and coated, or parged, with red clay to make it water-tight. The bricks, and the small objects in the fill around the cistern, seem to date to the second-half of the 18th century.

The presence of a cistern right near the iconic Newport spring is logical, and in fact there are several such features running up Barney and Sherman streets (following the water source). This one seems too large to have been for personal use. It sits right up against the corner of a foundation (can be seen in the photo), and the relationships indicate that the structure was built around and after the cistern.

The possibilities for the original use of the cistern are numerous, and it may be hard to pin down what it actually was. The location, near to the original site of the Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House and right across the street from Touro Synagogue, is intriguing. Kudos to the property owner, who has paused his work to allow these limited explorations to take place.

In a letter written to his family, John Scott DeBlois said of whaling, “It is a wretched life [of] privations and hardship deprived of friends and society.”  Born in Newport in 1816, DeBlois began sailing as a young boy.  He served as the 3^rd Mate aboard the whaling bark Isabella from 1841 to 1845 and as the 1^st Mate of the Ann Alexander from 1845 to 1849.  Between the two voyages, he married Henrietta Tew of Newport.  In 1850, DeBlois was promoted to the position of captain aboard the Ann Alexander.  Though his first voyage as commander ended in catastrophe, the experience made him one of the most famous whaling captains of the nineteenth century. 

While cruising in the Pacific Ocean on August 20^th, 1851, the crew of the Ann Alexander spotted a pod of whales.  Attempts to capture the whales ended in disaster, as one of the whales became enraged and destroyed two of the small whale boats.  DeBlois rescued all of his men, and continued the pursuit from the safety of the Ann Alexander itself.  After several hours of chase, the creature turned toward the vessel and rammed its hull.  With the hull compromised, DeBlois ordered his crew to repair to the remaining whale boats.  Luckily, the men were saved on August 22^nd when they were spotted by the crew of the Nantucket.

 Newspaper accounts of the Ann Alexander incident portrayed Captain DeBlois as a hero. His celebrity grew after the publication of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, as the American public compared John DeBlois to Melville’s fictitious Captain Ahab. 

 Undaunted, DeBlois continued his career at sea, regularly corresponding with his wife Henrietta.  She, a school teacher, was an exceptional writer.  From 1856 to 1859, Henrietta joined her husband on a whaling voyage aboard the Merlin.  She chronicled daily life aboard the vessel in a private journal, offering an exceptional window into life onboard a whaling vessel.

John and Henrietta’s letters, log books and journals are in the collections at the Newport Historical society. Reading Henrietta’s journal reveals much about her and her life at sea.

May 21^st
Blois is improving the shower by washing. I am obliged to keep below as the house on deck leaks badly. I go to the head of the stairs occasionally and fetch a hem just to make Blois look up and grin then I go below carefully holding up my skirts as the stairs are flooded.

June 11^th
Delightful weather calm through the night & greater part of the day. A little breeze has sprung up but we do not sail much. A sail in sight. Blois on the house spying. Mr. Adams working lunars in my room. Mr. Enos’ little Snowball lying at my feet. The Doctor is just in front of my window frying Dolphin for supper. His stove was moved out to paint the Galley so he cooks outdoors and it has quite a “Picturesque effect,” reminds one of the Pic Nics. No one seems very impatient to get home except the Capt he would like to get the care off his shoulders. I hardly can define my feelings. I wish to see my friends but dread the change from this quiet life. May God keep us as he has hitherto is my prayer.

Lat 33..07 N
Long 60..10 W
518 miles from home

June 16^th
…I cannot speak my feelings as they are so complicated as I near home. I thought the feelings would be all joy but I find there are many fond associations with the Old Merlin, and I feel shy about encountering the land… Oh! May we be assisted to live a Christian life on shore, may we not be ashamed to acknowledge our indebtedness to God who has sustained us.”

They came to anchor off New Bedford on the 18^th.

This machine is similar to one that was constructed by Ben Franklin and donated by his grandson to the Library Company of Philadelphia. It has been in storage under less than ideal conditions for some time, and the provenance is not currently associated with the object. Our ongoing collections project, Lost & Found, is designed to assemble and collate collections documentation and make sure that “we know what we know” about each object as we also work to update storage conditions. Watch this site for more information… we would love to know who made this machine and when. It is tempting to speculate, however, since we do know that Franklin’s brother James lived and worked in Newport, and that electrical experiments were performed by several colonial Newporters who were in contact with Franklin in Philadelphia.