There flows southeastward out of Massachusetts the Blackstone River
into Rhode Island, and going over Pawtucket Falls it then becomes for
a brief space the Pawtucket River, and finally, at its mouth, the
Seeconk River, making part of Providence harbor and one of the heads
of Narragansett Bay. The shores of this river swarm with industrial
operatives, for its valley is one of the greatest regions of textile
mills in the world, and half the people of Rhode Island live in the
chief city on its banks, Providence. Nine centuries ago the Norsemen
are said to have sailed up into this region, which they called
Vinland, but the first settlement was not made until 1636. The brave
and pious Welshman, Roger Williams, the heretical Salem preacher whom
the Puritans in 1635 banished from Massachusetts, went afoot through
the forest to the Seeconk Plains along the lower Blackstone River, and
halting there, lived with the Narragansetts, who were always his firm
friends. But the wrathful Puritans would not long permit this, and
ordered him to move on, so that in the spring of 1636, with five
companions, he embarked in a log canoe and floated down the Seeconk
River, his movements being watched by Indian groups upon the banks. He
crossed over the stream finally, and landed on what has since been
called "What Cheer Rock," on the eastern edge of Providence, thus
named because, when Williams stepped ashore, some of the Indians
saluted him with the pleasant greeting, "What cheer, Notop?"
(friend)--words that are still carefully preserved throughout
Providence and the State in the names of banks, buildings, and various
associations. He regarded this as a decidedly good omen, and started a
settlement, calling it Providence, "in grateful acknowledgment of
God's merciful providence to him in his distress." His exalted piety
was beyond question, and not only is the religious spirit in which the
city was founded indicated by its name, but even in the titles of the
streets are incorporated the cardinal virtues and the higher emotions,
as in Joy Street, Faith Street, Happy Street, Hope Street, Friendship
Street, Benefit Street, Benevolent Street, and many more. We are told
that his early colonists adopted the Indian foods, such as parched
corn, which the aborigines called "anhuminea," from which has come the
name of hominy, and the famous Narragansett mixture of corn and beans,
the "m'sickquatash," which has become succotash.
Roger Williams in Rhode Island, in 1639, became a Baptist, and the
"Society of the First Baptist Church," which he founded that year in
Providence, claims to be the oldest Baptist organization in America.
But Williams seems to have been somewhat unstable, for he only
remained with this church as pastor four years, then withdrawing, as
he had grave doubts of the validity of his own baptism. It appears
that when this church was started, a layman, Ezekiel Holliman, first
baptized Williams, and then Williams baptized Holliman and the others.
When he withdrew, it was not only from the pastoral relation, but he
ceased worshipping with the brethren, and his conscientious scruples
finally brought him to the conclusion that there is "no regularly
constituted church on earth, nor any person authorized to administer
any church ordinance, nor could there be until new apostles were sent
by the great Head of the Church, for whose coming he was seeking."
During many years thereafter he held his religious meetings in a
grove. This venerable Baptist society which Roger Williams founded
built a new church in 1726, and in its honor they had a "grand
dinner." The elaborate banquet of those primitive days consisted of
the whole congregation dining upon one sheep, one pound of butter, two
loaves of bread, and a peck of peas, at a cost of twenty-seven
shillings. Their white wooden church, with its surmounting steeple,
overlooks the city from a slope rising above Providence River.