The Farm Known as "Hopelands"

Throughout its life, the Hopelands Estate has been a location that was used for farming. Over the decades the level of farming fluctuated based on the property's occupants and their use of the land. "Land-use patterns and economies of the Greenwich Bay watershed are the products of people’s interactions with the bay and their dependence on its resources. [1]

Pre-Colonial Era-Land of the Narragansetts

"The Narragansett Indians are the descendants of the aboriginal people of the State of Rhode Island. Archaeological evidence and the oral history of the Narragansett People establish their existence in this region more than 30,000 years ago. [2]

In the publication, "Greenwich Bay: An ecological history,: it is noted that "The Narragansett Indians who lived in the Greenwich Bay area spent the summers in bayside campsites where they harvested fish and shellfish. They also hunted, freshwater fished, and grew crops such as corn." Given its proximity to Narragansett Bay and the Hunts/Greene/Potowomut River, it can be assumed that it's water access as travel routes was also an important component of this area, "They would dig out large canoes from trees which could hold up to forty men."3 The Narragansetts knew thousands of years before the colonists arrived just how critical locations like Potowomut were to sustaining life. Local historian, Tim Cranston, in an article published in the 2017 South County Life Magazine, noted, "The Narragansett settled for the most part in areas specifically chosen to help assure this success. These places were on the margins between two ecosystems; — one water-based one, along a river or large inland freshwater body or along the various protected coves and inlets of Narragansett Bay, the other a forest edge, a place suited for planting the Three Sisters. Food, both fin and shellfish, could be reaped from the river, pond or bay and, supplemented by the Three Sisters and other gathered plant products of field and forest, helped fill the nutritional needs of the tribe members." Mr. Cranston goes on to summarize, " The Narragansett knew all this, just as they knew the cycle of the alewives, it was critical; It was agriculture." [3]

European colonists coming to the "New Land" also recognized the abundance of resources that areas such as Potowomut provided. They wasted little time working out often questionable and controversial "land use rights" with local Sachems. The land use agreement of Potowomut was one such controversy, with disagreements amongst colonists and tribe members as to whether the agreement was legitimate. Despite this, the "deed" signed by colonists Randall Holden and Ezekiel Holliman and Chief Tacomanan on July 13, 1654 would signal the beginning of the end for the Tribe's use of the Potowomut Peninsula and usher in the era of European colonialism.

The Greene Era-1655-1792

A year after Holden and Holliman's land use agreement with Tacomanan was signed, "The land was surveyed at once and divided into thirty-six shares."[4] On May 17, 1655, these shares were assigned to "thirty-four freemen of the town of Warwick." for one year. Eventually these land shares were made permanent. Warwick Town Council records indicate that in September of 1663, all "who had shares of meadow at Potowomut should bring their 'peage' due for each share at the rate of 4s2d string."[5] Records due not reflect payments made per the order, but given that theses parcels were not being used or occupied by the freemen, it is doubtful that any payments were actually made. Records indicate that between 1656 and 1680, property shares were bought and sold, with the properties changing hands several times. It was John Greene, given four plots during the arrangement of 1655, who began to see the value and potential of the land. "before the end of the (17th)century they (Greenes) had acquired the greater part, if not all, of that section of Warwick.[6] It was not until after King Philip's War, that James Greene and his nephew, Thomas became the first to establish roots at Potowomut in 1684.

While James and his son Jabez began to harness the power of the Potowomut River by constructing a dam across it, and establishing a grist mill and a saw mill, his nephew, Thomas Greene "brought his bride from the Warwick shore and made his home at the mouth of the river just above Marsh Point."[7] It was at this time that the farm expanded and large amounts of livestock were imported. Only 12 years after having married and established his homestead at Potowomut, Thomas drowned while traveling by boat from Aquidneck Island in the winter of 1698-99. The home was inherited by his young and only son, John, who as he grew older, would become "a very prosperous man."[8] In his adulthood, John Greene not only owned and managed the Potowomut property, but also "large land holdings in Coventry, Newport and elsewhere." On his farms, John harvested hay from the vast meadows that was shipped to a wharf on the Warwick shore. He also imported and raised livestock, including sheep, cattle and the highly desired Narragansett Pacer horse, known for its strength and durability.  The farms proved to be very profitable as John was able to sell to a rapidly growing Colonial America. It is during this period that stonewalls were erected to control grazing of livestock and the wharf was constructed at the property's waterfront for shipping and receiving goods.  John left portions of the property to his many children, with son Richard, receiving the Hopelands property.

During Richard Greene's time at the farm, the business of importing, raising and selling livestock and the harvesting of hay and other native fruits, mainly apples, continued. Richard, it turned out, was not a farmer. Instead, he was better known for his enjoyment of the finer things in life, especially socializing with the important people of the day. Although Richard was known as an ostentatious gentleman, he was also well known for his generous hospitality and kind spirit. The rising tensions of the American Revolution hasten the end of Richard's stewardship of the land. It would also result in the end of mass farming on the Peninsula as the Colony of Rhode Island seized the property and approved Richard's creditors to sell it in order to be made whole. It would also signal the end of the Greene Family ownership of the "Hopelands/Potowomut Property," and usher in the Brown and Ives Family, and with them, the beginnings of a "true country estate."

The Brown/Ives and Goddard 1792-1946

Hope Brown Ives and her husband, Thomas Poynton Ives used the property as country estate splitting their time between "Hopelands" and their home on the east side of Providence. The property continued to maintain its function as a farm, but as time passed, there was considerably less interest in leveraging the land as source for profit. The Hope and Thomas also began to purchase an increasingly larger share of the peninsula, and as early as 1801, just nine years after having received the property, the were in possession of almost the entire peninsula. 

As future generations of Ives and Goddards inherited plats on Potowomut, the more it began to resemble they early signs of what we would now consider "the suburbs." Descendants built large homes of their own, including William Goodard's residence, "Warwick Lodge," Harriet Ives Gammell's, "The Meadows," Colonel Robert H. I. Goddard's expanded and renamed. "Thorncliffe" mansion, the Russell mansion, known as "The Oaks," Elizabeth Goddard and Dr. Thomas Shepard's "Annandale,"  and of course, Moses B. I. Goddard and his expansion of the estate known as "Hopelands." Although some farming and raising of livestock continued during this period, it was no longer a factor helping to drive the economy of Rhode Island.  Meadows, massive barns, livestock were replaced with small beachfront cottages, golf courses, state parks, and yes, the campus of a rapidly expanding independent school called Rocky Hill Country Day. What remains is still idyllic and picturesque. The Hopelands and Meadows estates still stand as testaments to what once was. Goddard Park, Potowomut Country Club, the waterfront, all serve as opportunities for all to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of this peninsula just as generations before them had. If you ask members of the Narragansett Tribe, they will tell you that Potowomut is still their sacred ground and that it is only being used temporarily by white Europeans and their descendants. Perhaps one day, Potowomut will be returned to those who stewarded it for the thousands of years prior to our arrival.

Footnotes:

1   Kennedy, Sue, and Virginia Lee. Rhode Island Sea Grant under NOAA Grant No. NA 16RG1057 and by the University of     Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center., South Kingstown, RI, GREENWICH BAY: An Ecological History.

2 “Early History.” Narragansett Indian Tribe, 25 Nov. 2017, https://narragansettindiannation.org/history/early/.

3   Tim Cranston | South County Life. “The Beginnings of It All: The Narragansett & the Three Sisters.” The   Independent, 1 July 2017, https://www.independentri.com/southcountylifemagazine/inside_the_magazine/retro/article_2379e2b0-966d-588e-9e74-a1ba4bb08627.html.

4 Lawrence, Anna M. M. Potowomut: Warwick, Rhode Island. The Greenwich Press, 1931. 

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