Compiled By HHA Member Lauri Arruda Men were voted to “be admitted free of the Town and are allowed to vote, these persons who have taken the oath against Bribery and Corruption.” 1726-1794 page 16 21 June 1785 – (the men took the oath very seriously as ---Personally appeared Mr. Benjamin Barber & was duly engaged to the Oath of Allegiance as prescribed by law – Wherefore it is hereby voted …
Finding John Porter
By Donna G. Littleford Ramos, April, 2013 An account of the culminating year of searching, going out of the Archives, and into the forests of Tomaquag Valley The Wish John Porter once had a farm in a strange and distant land called Hopkinton, Rhode Island. I read about it in a family history book as a youngster growing up in Southern California. It said that my Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great …
The High Cliff Cougar
By HHA Members Tom Helmer and Lorraine Tarket-Arruda This is the second of four stories in chronological order, based on locations in Tomaquag Valley The Bothum Home’s Fall Preparations The winter of 1665-66 was unusually cold. The blessing was the temperatures plunged in late January, not in November or December. Garner Bothum was a thrifty man, a prudent man, and he used the month of October to …
The People Before…
By HHA Member Bob Miner This is a transcribed oral history of three generations of a Tomaquag Valley Farm Family It is an excerpt taken from the book “Walking Together In Tomaquag Valley”, by Tom Helmer The incidents recorded in this history took place within the scope of this picture, or nearby, Tomaquag Valley is a lot bigger than most people think. Most don’t even realize they are living …
Was the High Cliff Cougar Shaped by the Hand of Man?
By HHA Member Tom Helmer In the eight years since discovering the Cougar, two significant events altered my perception. The first was surviving two heart attacks, which effectively ended my walking in the Valley. The second was meeting Bob Miner, who read my partial manuscript of “Walking” and invited me to take a little stroll with him, ‘cause he had something to show me. The “something” was a …
The High Cliff Cougar
By HHA Member Tom Helmer The “High Cliff Cougar” and it’s companion “The Man” are part of a remarkable “Monumental Sculpture”. Both are located on the same block of rock , which juts out from the top of a 22 ½ foot perfectly vertical cliff. The sculpted block is 6’ high and protrudes 4’ out of the cliff, overlooking a flat plain about 50 feet below the cliff top and it’s jumbled talus …
A Micro-History of Hopkinton’s Turbulent First Years
By HHA Vice President Lorraine Tarket-Arruda Back Then In the year 1669, the town of Westerly was in its infancy. The Town Council records refer to what would become Hopkinton as the “vacant lands”. The area was in turmoil, for although the white man had legally purchased land from Native Americans, neither party realized what the consequences would be. In 1675, after seeing their hunting and …
A Wells Family History & Uncovering The Facts.
By HHA Vice President Lorraine Tarket-Arruda Email LaurJoe@verizon.net There has been little written about the Wells Family of Hopkinton and Rhode Island in general, but what had been written has had no facts to support the claims. I have spent the last 16 years compiling data on the Wells family, concentrating on Hopkinton town records. I intend to publish a book on the Wells family within the …
The “Drive By” Cemetery
by HHA Member Tom Helmer Based on excerpts from Gayle Waite & Lorraine Tarket-Arruda’ book “Hopkinton, Rhode Island Historic Cemeteries” and HHA’s book “Walking Together In Tomaquag Valley” In 2003, when I first met Lorraine Tarket-Arruda and discovered that she and Gayle Waite had published their first book, the scholarly “Hopkinton, Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries” nothing would do but …
The Sacred Landscapes and Cemeteries of Hopkinton
By HHA Member Tom Helmer The History of Hopkinton did not begin in the 1660’s, during the European Colonial expansion. The Indigenous Peoples, predominantly of the Narragansett Tribe, had a long period of time, perhaps many millennia, to build up an extensive Oral History of the Life and Times of their lives, and their deaths, on this same area. The Narragansett wrote their history in Sacred …
