Cumberland is at the heart of the region's earliest history. In the territory now known as Cumberland, that the first European settler made his home in the area of Study Hill. William Blackstone was an erudite and gentle man, whose pioneering ways originally led him to land at Shawmut Point, now known as Boston, several years before Governor Winthrop arrived with his colony in the Town of Charlestown in 1630. Blackstone was a non-conformist Episcopal minister in England who was not willing to endure the "tyranny of the Lord Bishops" so he traveled to America arriving around 1625. After several years as the English Settlers started to settle in the Shawmut region, he sold his land, save for six acres at Shawmut for six shillings from each household. But after a few years of settlers instituting their regulations and "tyranny", Blackstone again sought seclusion and traveled to Wannamoisett, a territory which later included Rehoboth, Seekonk, Attleborough, Massachusetts and Pawtucket and Cumberland, Rhode Island. He built his home on Study Hill which is located about three miles from Pawtucket where Lonsdale Station and the Lonsdale Company stood. Its Indian name was Wawepoonseag. Wherever Blackstone roamed, he planted gardens and the first apple trees in America.
He was a very quiet man enjoying solitude in his pioneering lifestyle, yet he had kept meticulous records of his life in the wilds of America. Unfortunately, the many volumes of his personal diaries were lost in a fire which destroyed his home, Study Hall, during King Philips War, only two months after his death in 1675.
In 1641, the eight square mile area known as Massasoit (though later measurement states that it was closer to ten square miles) was purchased from the Indians with two subsequent purchases of Wannamoisett and the North Purchase by 1694. Cumberland was then known as Attleborough Gore until it was divided from Attleborough in 1746 and became Cumberland. Cumberland was divided again in 1812 when part of the town became Seekonk, retaining its original Indian name.
In 1659, Blackstone married Mrs. Sarah Stevenson, a widow with three children and they together had a son named John. There are some discrepancies about William Blackstone in historical accounts, but it is known that he used to preach for Roger Williams at times in Providence, arriving either by horse or even by white bull. This sojourn would spark all kinds of attention, especially when Blackstone would distribute "yellow sweetings" amongst the children along the way. He was buried on his farm, though in later years, his unmarked grave was moved and celebrated with a Memorial found in Cumberland today. However, his grave was moved again when a road was built through the town and no one seems to know what happened to his remains.
Cumberland derived its name from Cumberland in England due to the similar richness of soil minerals and geological features. By 1746-7, town government was organized and the first busienss was laying out a highway and executing new laws . Some of these laws prevented dogs and sheep from running wild throughout the region. Some of the early family names included the Ballous, the Cooks, the Whipples, the Razees, the Tingleys, the Pecks, the Metcalfs and perhaps most renown, the Wilkinsons. Jeremiah Wilkinson, a genius, it is said, born in 1741 was the first to make silver spoons, carding machines and invented cold-cut nails used throughout the world. He also made molasses from corn stalks, darning needles and many other desired products. His son, Jeptha Wilkinson invented the celebrated and patented reed-machine, the Colt revolver (though Mr. Colt took copies and got them patented first) and the rotary cylindrical printing press. The next generations were equally gifted and Jemima Wilkinson even claimed to have supernatural spiritual powers with a great following of devoted believers.
There are many other tales of skirmishes with Indians, full participation of the town's men in the Revolutionary War with a warning signal on Beacon Hill and Duel Hollow, about a mile from Cumberland Hill. This was the site of a duel between two Boston men in 1833 after one became insulted. Cumberland was also a stronghold of force, banded together under Nathan Whipple, that sought to revolutionize government in the Dorr Rebellion though Chepachet was the scene of the skirmish.
Perhaps the saddest moment in Cumberland's history is Nine Men's Misery. The site off of Diamond Hill Road, now known as Nine Men's Misery, was the scene of a terrible ambush of colonial Americans during the height of King Philip's War. The troops under Captain Michael Pierce were surrounded, outnumbered, tortured and killed. A stone monument was erected in 1928. To this day visitors claim sightings of monks, phantoms on horseback and even children in the woods surrounding the monument.
There is a memorial there now with a short walk off of Diamond Hill at the Monastery.
The first manufacturing in Cumberland was a site called Robin Hollow on the Abbott Run River, under authority from King Charles II, to make tar. In 1797, the second cotton mill in America (Samuel Slater the first in Pawtucket) was created by the Watermans upon the site of a 1797 saw mill for marble. Though this mill burnt down in 1850, Amasa Whipple partially owned the water privilege and erected another mill here, eventually becoming the Cumberland Mill Company. Other mills were created in the vicinity but eventually were torn or burnt down. These included iron works, cotton and smelting and foundry works as well as boat building and sash and blind manufacturing and horseshoes.
By 1875, Cumberland's population was 5,688. More industries grew from the mineral resources found in Cumberland, including coal, lime, granite, though some of these turned out to be more hope than promise. Ashton, about two and a half miles above Lonsdale, became the home of a 348 x 90 foot mill, four stories high with a French roof. This mill was built with updated fire equipment so that each floor could be doused almost immediately. It held 40,000 spindles and manufactured fine shirtings which are transported by the Providence to Worcester Railroad right nearby.
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