Scituate - Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage ...

Fiskeville
Three more cotton factories, at Fiskeville, Richmondand Rockland,
were erected in 1812. Fiskeville was started by Caleb Fiske who
settled in the southeast corner of Scituate, near Cranèton, in the late
eighteenth century. A doctor, he served as a surgeon during the Revo
lutionary War and later became renown in Rhode Island for his medical
service and for the training of medical students. He was one of the
original members of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and served as
its president during the year 1823-1824. After his death, the society
received his library and a fund--the Fiske Fund--was set up in his
memory. Dr. Fiske and his son, Philip, dammed the Pawtuxet River and
built a cotton mill near the river, in Scituate, in 1812. The mill,
typical of the early types, was a long and narrow frame structure with a
tower. It was used throughout the nineteenth century, becoming idle
shortly before 1900. Sometime after Dr. Fiske’s death in 1835 the mill
became part of the Jackson Mills, and in the latter part of the century
operated as part of the large B. B. & R. Knight textile empire. Fiskeville
is usually associated with Cranston rather than with Scituate
because most of the buildings, including Dr. Fiske’s residence, were in
Cranston, but the mill, and about a dozen nearby mill houses, were
located in Scituate. Surviving mill houses from the early industrial
era include some small, wood-frame, one-and-a-half-story cottages #77
and some rare examples of early stone mill-house architecture #83.
Richmond
Richmond’s first textile mill, a stone mill, was erected in 1812
by a company of about a dozen men and operated under the name of the
Richmond Company. The history of the village is confusing, but it is
recorded that a factory--erected in 1826 by Daniel Fiske to manufacture
axes, scythes,and spindles--burned in 1877 and later became Steere’s
shoe and corset-lacing factory. The Wilbur Factory, started by Samuel
Wilbur in 1829 for the manufacture of spools and bobbins, burned in
1884 but was immediately rebuilt. At mid-century, Richmond contained
at least one textile mill, a sawmill, a gristmill, a hotel, a school,
the A. Angell Hotel, and a post office. An Episcopal Church was added
to the village just before 1860. William E. Joslin, a manufacturer of
all the leading lace lines in tubular and Elat shoelaces, established
his business in Richmond and nearby South Scituate in 1865. Joslin
also acquired other mills--in Saundersville, Ponaganset, and Clayville-as
well as the Dyerville Mill, the Merino Mill, and Tobey Street Mills
in Providence. By 1870, Richmond contained R. Joslin’s cotton mill,
three bobbin mills, a schoolhouse, a church, a store and the town hail.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Joslin property, in addition
to the mills, included several hundred acres of farmland and a suffi
cient number of tenements for 650 employees. All the Joslin mills were
connected by trolley--the Providence and Danielson Railway--the lines
running very close to each factory.
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