The Factory

Farmers came to work the factory When the fields died Potter's bell called them each morning To the riverside.

— Thomas D'Agostino, from the song "Ramtail"

By the early nineteenth century, manufacturing had become a staple of many New England communities. Small towns formed along the rushing rivers and soon became major hubs for production and economic growth. Entrepreneurs began looking into the hinterlands for expansion, speculating that the inevitable growth would soon extend to these outer places. Foster, Rhode Island, was one of those places. One man set the course of action that would change the sleepy backwoods hamlet into a major player in the outer rim of the already established manufacturing communities — or so he thought. Instead, William Potter of Warwick became a catalyst in what would become one of Rhode Island's most intriguing haunts.

Squire William Potter, son of William Potter, was born about 1764. He married Mary Ellis, born on June 26, 1765, of Warwick on May 1, 1786. William and Mary came to Foster in 1790. Potter was a successful business owner, in addition to being a justice of the peace, thus earning the designation as squire. No interviews survive as to why he chose to move to what was known as "the Outlands" or West of the Seven Mile Line. The line divided Scituate from Cranston, with everything west of Cranston wilderness and, for the most part, undeveloped. Present-day Seven Mile Road was once part of the Seven Mile Line. Foster, Glocester and Scituate are among the towns west of that line.

William Potter purchased land, along with a saw- and gristmill, from Jonathon Hopkins, the first recorded settler of the area. The area came to be known as Hopkins Mills and remains sparsely populated as of this writing. Potter ran the mills for a few years before starting a fulling mill. A map of Foster in 1799 mentions Potter's fulling mill, as well as eight gristmills, ten sawmills, two ironworks, a trip hammer shop and a forge.

In 1813, after running a small fulling mill for several years, Squire Potter decided to up the ante and build what was to become Foster's largest attempt at a water-powered mill for that period in time. Why would such a successful man attempt to make a go of it in what was basically the middle of nowhere? As Margery Matthews stated in her pamphlet Peleg's Last Word: The Story of the Foster Woolen Manufactory, "During this era of statewide economic expansion, the city merchants and manufacturers were reaching out to markets in the hinterlands creating the necessity for better roads."

Squire Potter decided to take on some partners to help with this venture. He chose his son Olney Ellis; his brother-in-law, Jonathan Ellis of Cranston, Rhode Island; and his sons-in-law Marvin Round and Peleg Walker. Marvin was married to Potter's daughter Lydia while Peleg Walker was married to daughter Mary. Together, they formed the Foster Woolen Manufacturing Company. On March 20, 1813, the partners purchased six acres of land from Parley Round for the sum of $125 dollars. The deed states:

A parcel of land lying and being in Foster on the East Bank of the river about a half a mile below Hopkins Mills and bound as follows. Beginning at a maple tree on the East Bank of said river where there is [sic] two or three maple trees standing near together from thence North 81 degrees east eleven rods to a stake and stones, thence north 13 degrees west 21 rods and four links to a white oak tree, thence north 43 degrees west 44 rods to a stake and stones, thence north 30 degrees east 8 and a half rods to the highway thus leads from Robert Hopkins to Robert Davis, thence following said road southerly thence following the river easterly to the first mentioned bound ...

It would be a good time to note that the rod is a unit of measurement that consists of sixteen and a half feet. The links mentioned are from a measuring tool called a Gunter's chain. The chain measures sixty-six feet, or four rods, including handles. There are one hundred links per chain. One mile equals eighty chains, while one acre equals ten square chains. You may also consider that most of the early highways were sixty-six feet in width. City blocks, streets and other measurements found in early deeds still denote the measurement of the Gunter's chain. City blocks were three chains, while streets consisted of one chain length. It is quite obvious that many of our present-day measurements still harken back to Mr. Edmund Gunter's 1620 invention.

To say that the undertaking of such an endeavor was groundbreaking in Foster is mild. Foster was considered a declining and static town with regard to industry. Nonetheless, a business venture had been established, and there was work to be done. A series of raceways and trenches was created for the diversion of water to and from the mill. It was not uncommon to have sluiceways up to three hundred yards long. In the Tarkiln section of Burrillville, Rhode Island, the remains of a sluiceway run from the old Oak Valley Mill to a waterfall and continue several hundred yards along the roadside. These remains weave past what may have once been a gristmill to another waterfall. In old photos and drawings, the man-made waterway is quite an impressive sight. The remains of the mill, now hidden among the brush and trees, still exhibit traces of the old runways where water was diverted under the mill in certain sections. The mill closed in the 1950s and was demolished for safety reasons, but the fieldstone and cement works still remain, revealing a wonderful insight in the evolution of the mill from its beginning to its razing. Arlene and I once lived on the property where the ruins sit. A neighbor, Mr. Bettis, related to us how he was hired to dismantle the massive structure, leaving only traces of history for the curious to study.

In the case of the Foster factory, a bridge to cross the dam and raceway, along with five mill homes, a general store, a waste house and a blacksmith shop, would be in keeping with the plan. Water rights had to be negotiated and secured from neighboring landowners. William Potter secured rights to remove gravel from Robert Davis's farm to fortify the dam at the cost of one dollar a year. Then there was the mill itself. It is difficult to accurately relate what the factory may have looked like, as there are no known drawings or photos to examine as of this writing. A common theme of the era would have been a stone foundation with upper floors constructed of wood. A floor for spinning and weaving, as well as one for picking and sorting and one for storage, were typical for that period in time. A garret, or attic, in the mill is mentioned in Olney's probate record as a place for storage. Then there was the wheel that ran the machines. Although it is common to depict a giant paddlewheel alongside the building, New England was subject to the same harsh winters then as it is now....