February 2018

Meeting with Local History Experts

Sowams Heritage Area team members Helen Hersh Tjader and Dave Weed held a two-hour meeting at the Barrington Preservation Society Museum with Barbara Hail, former Director of Brown University’s Haffenreffer Museum at Mount Hope in Bristol, Burton Van Edwards, history faculty member at Bryant University and Bridgewater State College, and Bonnie Warren, who initiated the […]

Sowams Heritage Area Illustration

Retired landscape architect and urban planner Al Lima met with Sowams Heritage Area team members Dave Weed and Greg Spiess to discuss the possibility of creating a graphic illustration of a proposed Sowams Heritage Area from Bristol to Providence. Al’s illustrations of a possible Quequechan River Rail Trail a decade ago led to the eventual […]

Conversation with Mark Canuel

Carpenter Museum volunteer Mark Canuel (left) met with Sowams Heritage Area team member Dave Weed for a conversation about early Rehoboth. Mark, who traces some of his family history to First People in Canada and grew up in Rehoboth, recently retired and is helping to catalogue museum holdings. He spoke with Dave about 17th century […]

Meeting with Pokanoket Tribal Members

Five members of the Pokanoket tribe met with Sowams Heritage Area project team members David Weed and Helen Tjader at the Barrington Public Library. Tribal members were invited by Po Wauipi Neimpaug, Sagamore, or Chief, of the Pokanoket Nation, William Guy who was unable to attend due to family illness. David and Helen began the meeting […]

Jim Johnston on Rehoboth Forges

While the New Palmer River Iron Forge was established in Rehoboth by 1722, though there’s no documentation, it’s quite likely that earlier forges were operating prior to 1700. Forges used bog ore found in local swamps to manufacture needed metal tools and implements.for the growing population in the Sowans Heritage Area. Dave Weed interviews retired engineer and […]

Tour of Kee Farm

Byron Kee offered a tour of his 60-acre family farm in Touisset that he believes began before 1700 though the exact date is not yet documented. The family farmhouse was added onto an original structure in the back that may date into the 1600s. The farmland runs along the Kickemuit River. Byron has found a […]

Touisset Wildlife Refuge, Warren

Touisset comes from the aboriginal name Toweset which is translated variously as “at the old field” and “at the corn field.”  Before the arrival of European settlers, and evidenced by shell piles and arrowheads unearthed by later residents, Touisset Point was, at least seasonally, inhabited by aboriginal people who enjoyed the bounty of the land, […]