Besides granite and trees, the early colonists found an abundance of water when they moved into the areas around Narragansett Bay. While salt water enabled colonists to ship raw materials and products in and out of the colony, it was the freshwater streams that provided power for grist mills to grind grain into meal and flour to feed hungry mouths and for sawmills to be used to cut timber into boards for building houses, barns, and ships. Such surplus finished products could also be bartered or sold for needed items.
Five major rivers flow through Rhode Island. The southwestern area of the state has the Wood-Pawcatuck River system; the southern central part of the state has the Saugatucket River and the Queens River, which feed into Worden’s Pond and eventually joins the Wood-Pawcatuck. The center of the state is drained by the north and south branches of the Pawtuxet River, running from Scituate by the north branch and Coventry by the south branch to empty into the Providence River at the village of Pawtuxet in Warwick.
Pawtucket Falls in 1789 (Arnold Greene, The Providence Plantations for Two Hundred and Fifty Years)
Drainage in northern Rhode Island is primarily by the Blackstone River, which enters Rhode Island from Massachusetts to Woonsocket and flows southward to Pawtucket, where it joins the Providence River. Northwestern Rhode Island has the Branch River flowing southeast to join the Blackstone. West of the Blackstone and running parallel is the Woonasquatucket River, which enters the Providence River through the west side of Providence.
These were the major sources of power to run the majority of Rhode Island’s mills, especially as the Industrial Revolution brought larger mills demanding greater waterpower. There are numerous other streams all over Rhode Island and, in the colonial days, almost all of them had small mills along their banks.
Pawtucket Falls in 1789 (Arnold Greene, The Providence Plantations for Two Hundred and Fifty Years)
An important legal question arose: who had the right to use these streams? Mill owners wanted to use the streams to power their mills. Others wanted to use the streams for traditional fishing, but the mills sometimes interfered with the fish runs and spawning grounds. What happened when numerous mills wanted to use the same water source?
Early settlers generally did not have to face the issue, but as populations grew and the mills got larger, competition among mill owners grew and rights to use stream waters became a source of contention. Settlers coming to Rhode lsland from England were accustomed to English common law, which provided, “Waters flow and ought to flow, as it has customarily flowed.” The need for saw and gristmills conflicted with this idea of a common waterway.
As early as the mid-1700s, water rights were granted by the towns. Indeed, Andover, Massachusetts, had a mill privilege for a sawmill granted in 1682 and for a grist mill in 1765. A “mill privilege” is defined as follows: “A mill privilege is conferred the right of a mill site owner to construct a mill and use the power from the stream to operate the mill with due regard to the rights of other owners along the stream’s path.”
The falls at Pawtucket on the Blackstone River was an area where water privileges became complicated. A water privilege, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “the right to use water, especially as a source of mechanical power.” The term “water privileges” supposedly was not used until 1804.
The Blackstone River at Woonsocket in 1886 (Arnold Greene, The Providence Plantations for Two Hundred and Fifty Years)
In 1671, Joseph Jenckes, Jr. erected an iron forge at the Pawtucket Falls, and not too long after, there were grist and sawmills and an oil mill (the later presumably for whale oil). These were followed by other mills until at one point there was a slitting and rolling mill, three anchor forges, two nail cutting and one screw cutting machine, a hollow ware furnace, and several other forges, all operating with the waterpower provided by the Blackstone River.
In 1799, Moses Brown and his son-in-law, William Olney, purchased 50 percent of a mill on the Pawtuxet River, with plans to expand it so that it would require an increase from the current twenty workers to one hundred. Farmers who lived upstream from the mill sought for the General Assembly to repeal an exemption from fishway requirements on the river. In September 1799, 235 residents of the Pawtuxet River valley (mostly from Warwick and Coventry) signed a petition for the General Assembly, complaining that the dams would “prevent the fish from coming up said river” to their spawning grounds, which were located in “several large ponds in the towns of Coventry and West Greenwich.” The petitioners stated that opening the dams in the springtime migration season “would be very beneficial . . . to the people in general and especially to the poorer sort of the people.” But the defense of their traditional water rights did not succeed. Moses Brown obtained the support of other commercially minded men and prevented the General Assembly from acting against his mill.
The falls at Woonsocket in 1886 (Arnold Greene, The Providence Plantations for Two Hundred and Fifty Years)
Upstream on the Blackstone River at the Massachusetts line, Woonsocket also had a waterfall, and in 1666, the first mill, a sawmill, was built at the falls. In 1712, on an island upstream of the bridge, John Arnold erected a corn and fulling mill, which was built at the falls. This mill was unique in having two waterwheels mounted, one behind the other in a narrow trench cut out of the rock. Between 1712 and 1720, an iron mill was erected near the falls with three wheels, one of which was an overshot wheel run with water conveyed to the top of the wheel by a large penstock (an enclosed pipe that delivers water) from the sawmill pond. Next built was a scythe manufactory on the island below the grist mill and bridge. The Great Freshet of 1807 flooded and destroyed all of these mills.
The Woonsocket Falls were 31 feet high and capable of producing 2,000 horsepower. By the mid-1800s, the area around the falls had been altered. “The river was dammed at the falls and just below the falls in Bernon. Reservoirs or holding ponds such as the Bernon Pond (below the falls on the river) and the Clinton Pond (in the area of the current bypass) were created to store water until it was needed by the mills. Trenches carried the water to waterwheels . . . .“ Until the 1920s, waterpower was used by the Woonsocket mills.
In the mid-nineteenth century water was supplied to the mills via five main trenches:
- Lyman Arnold Trench – 16/32nds of the river flowed to mills along Main Street and then into Clinton Pond and on to the Eagle and Clinton Mills.
- Globe Trench – 8/32nds of the river flowed to Globe Mill Village and then into Bernon Pond.
- Market Square Trench – 6/32nds of the river flowed to the Market Square Mills and into Bernon Pond.
- Bernon Trench – 14/32nds of the river (from the Globe and Market Square Trenches) flowed from Bernon Pond to Bernon Mill Village.
- Bartlett Trench – 2/32nds of the river flowed through Bartlett Mill Estate.
(These numbers add up to 44/32nds because the Bernon Trench used water from two other trenches, so some of the water volume is double counted.)
Each mill operated through a “mill privilege,” which were included as part of the property acquired in the bills of sale for the mills. On October 15, 1920, the majority of the mills in the Pawtuxet River Valley – the empire of one of Rhode Island’s premier textile families, the Knights – were transferred from the control of B.B. and R. Knight, Inc. of Rhode Island (incorporated in Providence) to B.B. and R. Knight, Inc. of Massachusetts (incorporated in Boston). The final paragraphs of the deed of conveyance include the following:
Including all the right, title, and interest of the grantor (expressly including any possibility of reverter or reversionary interest which the grantor may have and convey) in and to 1.) the railroad lands and layouts, separating or abutting upon any of the parcels herein before described and especially in and to all raceways, trenches, ways, and bridges extending to or over or abutting on or crossing the railroad lands; 2) all streams, ponds, fountains, wells or other bodies of water included in or adjacent to any of said parcels; and 3) all water power, springs, wells, fountains and fountain rights, reservoirs and reservoir rights, ponds, riverbeds, waterways, and other sources of water supply, all flumes, dams, raceways, trenches, conduits, waterwheels, hydraulic appliances, rights of flowage, mill privileges, riparian and other water rights.
(Fountain is defined as a spring or source of water; the head of a stream; from the Latin “fans,” meaning the same.)
The above included the Centreville Mill Estate, the Lippitt Mills Estate, the Valley Queen Mill Estate of the Natick Mills, the Royal Mill Estate of the Natick Mills, the Arctic Mill Estate of the Natick Mills, the Natick Mill Estate of the Natick Mills, and the Pontiac Mill Estate in Warwick. Control of the water was still of primary importance even as late as 1920.
Flowage rights for a dam ensured a pre-determined level of water behind the dam to ensure a steady flow of water to mills located downstream of the dam. Mills needed a calm, steady source of flowing water, not inconsistent or raging water flows. This was demanded in the case of the Quidnick and Flat River Reservoirs (Johnson’s Pond) on the south branch of the Pawtuxet River. Dam owners were mandated to maintain the dams to allow a steady amount of water to flow from these reservoirs daily to supply the mills on the south branch.
A group of Rhode Island mill owners led by Zachariah Allen received the first charter in the United States for conservation of water for industrial purposes from the Federal government. This allowed the creation of a system of industrial reservoirs in north central Rhode Island to ensure a steady flow of water of the mills along the Woonasquatucket River.
The Woonasquatucket River Company was formed by Zachariah and Philip Allen, Samuel G. Arnold, Thomas Thompson, and Samuel Nightingale to implement the plan. In 1823, Slack Reservoir was built, covering 153 acres, with a depth of ten feet. In 1827, Sprague Lower Reservoir, 70 acres averaging a depth of thirteen feet, was built. In 1836, Sprague Upper Reservoir was added, 25 acres, also averaging a depth of thirteen feet. In 1838, the large Waterman Reservoir was built, forming a water area of 318 acres, with an average depth of nine feet. And finally, in 1853, the Stillwater Reservoir completed the system.
Besides the importance of fresh water as a power source in Rhode Island, it has been a part of state and town boundaries. Rivers serve as the boundary between Rhode Island and Connecticut in the southwest part of the state and as boundaries between towns throughout the state. The location of these boundaries is sometimes vague and sometimes precisely delineated (though time has made the determination of the boundaries sometimes difficult to discern). The towns of Cumberland and Lincoln share a boundary at the “center” of the Blackstone River. For the Warwick-Cranston boundary, the line runs down the center of the Pawtuxet River. When it comes to the boundary between Westerly, Rhode Island and Stonington, Connecticut, it is far more precise: it is “the thread of the Pawcatuck River.” The “thread” of a river is defined as the deepest natural channel of the river. It may not be anywhere near the center!
The falls at Washington Village, Coventry (Arnold Greene, The Providence Plantations for Two Hundred and Fifty Years)
Several bodies of water in Rhode Island are bisected by the state line. Rhode Island and Connecticut share Beach Pond in Exeter, Hazard Pond in West Greenwich, and Killingly Pond in Glocester. In the northwest corner of Rhode Island, Wallum Lake is bisected by the Rhode Island-Massachusetts line. In the northeast corner, a small part of Miscoe Lake is in Massachusetts. Robin Hollow Pond in Cumberland is bisected by the Rhode Island-Massachusetts line; and further south, some portions of Turner Reservoir in East Providence are in Massachusetts. Reciprocity has been worked out among the states for such matters as boating and fishing regulations on these water bodies.
An idea of the importance of flowing water to Rhode Island over the centuries can be given by referring to the dams list maintained by the Department of Environmental Management. Over six hundred dams are listed in Rhode Island! The priority of each is categorized based on the projected results of failure of the dam. Many of the listed dams are of little priority, such as farm ponds and waterfowl impoundments at sportsmen’s clubs, which dams typically would have little or no real effect if they failed. What dams are of high priority? They include the Gainer Dam of the Scituate Reservoir; the failure of this dam would be catastrophic.
All of these dams have owners who are responsible for maintenance of the structures. Failure of a dam would quickly reveal whose water it was!
For more on the development of water rights in Rhode Island, which includes the story of Moses Brown’s mill on the Pawtuxet River, the following book includes a discussion of them: Daniel P. Jones, The Economic & Social Transformation of Rural Rhode Island, 1780-1850 (Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1992).
The following is from a marker in Hopkinton: Old Stone Dam, Circa 1765. This dam, typical of those found in some areas of the English countryside, was erected about 1765. Later, two mills, one on either side of the river used the waterpower to turn wheels for manufacturing. The remains of one of the sluiceways are still visible immediate to this sign. Originally called Carpenter’s Mills, the dam now sits between the towns of Hopkinton on the west and Richmond on the East.
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