Rhode Island Books

I love the Easyfinder laminated maps from Rand McNally. They are extremely durable, meaning I won't have to repurchase a map that gets torn, spilled on, or just plain worn out. Even better, I can mark my routes & destinations on them with dry erase marker, then just wipe off when no longer needed. Map detail is top notch, as you would expect from Rand McNally. Great for local tag sale bargain hunting or longer trips. 5 stars, definitely my favorite maps.

What a delight for a Canuck girl far from home to come across David Plante's FRANCOEUR NOVELS: The Family, the Woods, the Country. I read them as soon as they came out in the early eighties, and then looked for Plante's books everywhere. David's French Canadian enclave in Providence had much in common with the Woonsocket and Pawtucket of my youth. He nails the intensity of the French Catholic Church. Plantes' family, like most French Canadians, had an Indian ancestor. Naturally I was drawn and intriqued that he was also part Blackfeet. What was the Blackfeet, French Canadian, Rhode Island connection? The Northern Plains of Montana and Alberta Canada are worlds and thousands of miles away from the urban milltowns of New England. Yet when I traveled there the women looked like my grandmother Mimi and the men like her brother mon oncle Leo. They knew about the Lamberts and welcomed me into their homes and tipis. Mothers and grandmothers sent us home with gifts of pemmican and sweetgrass and pictures to show my grandmother and matantes of me and my toddler standing in front of the tipi they taught me to raise. Years later I met Tchin, a stately Blackfeet/Narragansett silverworker who said that many Blackfeet, who were legendary travelers like the French Canadians, had gone East in the eighteen thirties during a famine and many marriages had resulted. And then there were the Voyageurs who traveled West from the time they arrived in Canada in the 1500s returning with Indian brides, so that nearly every family had Indian ancestry shown in the chisled faces they bent over factory looms and in the straight black hair they kept braided and wrapped in kerchiefs to keep it from getting caught in the textile machines. Plante's lyrical and haunting FRANCOEUR NOVELS will feel queasily familar to those millions raised with "foi, langue, et famille" in French Canadian mill towns in New England, and reveal a little known culture to everyone else. I can't wait to read Plante's new AMERICAN GHOSTS.

While the focus is on, as the subtitle proclaims, "Spirits, Scoundrels, Legends, and Lore," the book provides a large amount of background on Rhode Island, the Providence Plantations, and, of course, Newport itself.

If you ever go to Newport, one-time playground of the world's wealthiest men, this book is almost essential; and even if you never plan to go, it's interesting, well-written, and nicely illustrated. I was grabbed in the first chapter by the story of the Jailhouse Inn, a renovated colonial prison:

"The Newport Jailhouse was not designed to be completely escape-proof. It was never considered particularly strong or secure. Especially early in Newport history, jail sentences were rare; colonists preferred public humiliation as punishment for crimes."

I was surprised by how well written and well researched this book is. Most of the photography was very good, too - and there's lots of it (though some photos are a bit muddy, which I believe is the publishers' fault based on my experience with print).

Although no doubt a useful guide to serious researchers interested in the Haffenreffer-Herreshoff collection at MIT, this work's value to the yachtsman starts with Appendix C - the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company Construction Record. This appendix is a facsimile reproduction of the actual construction records of the Company, both sail and power, in order of hull number, and including original owners and yacht names. An invaluable guide for those interested in classic yacht restoration and history.

I first saw this book while having dinner on a friends boat. I liked it so much, especially since I used to sail on a Herreshoff boat when I was a kid, that I got my own copy. Its really well written, and the Herreshoff family is pretty amazing. Nat isn't ever going to make Father of the Year, but he really designed some great boats. His son Francis somehow survived his father and made his own great boats. This is a beautiful book, with lots of amazing photographs, and a great story too. I never knew about all the power boats that the Herreshoffs designed, or all the boats for the navy. I think even people who just want an interesting book to read with beautiful photographs would like this book.

Like the book My wife and I like going to new places for a weekend .

The History and Future of Narragansett Bay Capers Jones is best known for the many books he has authored on computer software development, cost estimating and evaluation. In "The History and Future of Narragansett Bay" Mr. Jones presents a summary of the history of the people and land areas surrounding Narragansett Bay, a history that focuses mainly on the past 10,000 years when Narragansett Bay was formed during the last Ice Age. In essence this book is a history of Rhode Island--its people, its economic develoment and in chapter Nine an examination of the factors that will influence its future economic success or failure. This book is informative, factual and well-referenced. It should be required reading for every high school student in the state as well as their parents.

Battery B served throughout the war in the Second Corps. The outfit saw its first action at Ball's Bluff. From there, the battery eventually accompanied the Union army to the Peninsula and was engaged at Fair Oaks, Savage Station, Glendale and Malvern Hill. Next, the battery fought at Antietam, and then, at Fredericksburg, the outfit followed the infantry in close support in front of Marye's Heights. At Gettysburg, the battery was part of the artillery that held Cemetery Hill. The intensity of the action in the battery's front can be noted by the fact that one Confederate cannon ball struck and lodged in the muzzle of one of the Rhode Islander's guns. After Gettysburg, the battery continued to serve with distinction at Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg.

Shortly after the settlement of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636, the land within the present-day streets of Olney, Hope, Wickenden, and Main was known to have been the site of "shares" or "home lots" of five acres each belonging to Roger Williams and the other original settlers of the town. Because the precise location of these homesteads had remained in doubt for some time, Charles Hopkins undertook to pinpoint their location in this volume. Drawing on a small book from the year 1660 in the handwriting of Roger Williams, which the compiler discovered in the office of the City Clerk, he was able to resolve the mystery of the location and ownership of the home lots once and for all.

At the outset, The Home Lots recapitulates the settlement of Providence by Roger Williams and his followers, complete with transcriptions of the deed signed by Williams, Benedict Arnold, and the Sachems of the Narragansetts, as well as diagrams and related documents showing the division of the land into home lots. The balance of the volume consists of short biographical and genealogical essays of the following owners of the lots, virtually all of them containing references to the settlers' origins in England: Daniel Abbott, Thomas Angell, Benedict Arnold, William Arnold, Hugh Bewit, Chad Brown, William Burrows, William Carpenter, Robert Cole, Alice Daniels, Gregory Dexter, John Field, William Field, Adam Goodwin, John Greene, Sr., John Greene, Jr., Thomas Harris, William Harris, Edward Hart, William Hawkins, Ezekiel Holliman, Thomas Hopkins, Thomas James, John Lippitt, William Mann, Edward Manton, Thomas Olney, Thomas Painter, Nicholas Power, Widow Reeve, William Reynolds, George Rickard, Richard Scott, Jane Sears, John Smith, John Sweet, John Throckmorton, Joane Tyler, Christopher Unthank, Joshua Verin, Matthew Waller, John Warner, Richard Waterman, Robert West, Stukely Westcott, Francis Weston, Matthew Weston, William Wickenden, Francis Wickes, Robert Williams, Roger Williams, and Joshua Winson.

This book is LOADED with photos of the past.
I first purchased it because it's the town that I grew up in and both my parents were born and raised in.
While paging through, I first found a photo of my great-uncle. Then as a flipped through a few more pages I found a class photo of my very own mother!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!