2. People
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Alice Wordell Beattie James Brady Walter Elwell Patricia Goulart Sheila Greene Kauffman
Tim McTague Valerie Crowther Turcotte Jonah Waite
Ralph Guild
3. Introduction
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Credits
Remembering Adamsville
Adamsville is a village within the town of Little Compton,
RI. It was settled by millers and Baptist worshipers from
nearby Massachusetts in the late 1600s. In past centuries
Adamsville was an important commercial center for
farmers, travelers and Westport Harbor’s sailing ships and
summer community. Steep hills and impassible roads
isolated Adamsville from the rest of the Little Compton,
and so the village developed into its own self-sufficient
community. Today, Adamsville is beautifully preserved
with many historic buildings adapted for contemporary
purposes.
Remembering Adamsville is an oral history project lead by
the Little Compton Historical Society. Over 70 local people
shared their stories, personal photographs, archival
materials and volunteer talents in order to make this
project possible.
To learn more, read the book Remembering Adamsville
available at Amazon.com and download our gps-based
(phone/computer) application at sakonnethistorical.com.
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1895 Map, LCHS Collection
4. Directions
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Credits
Remembering Adamsville
Explore
Click on the links throughout this digital exhibit to explore
it in any order you choose. Links are usually photographs,
underlined green words, or icons.
Listen
Some of the audio clips will play automatically. If one does
not, simply click on the speaker icon or on the small
triangle that appears. To stop the audio click on the “||”
icon.
Share
Send your Adamsville stories and images to the Little
Compton Historical Society by e-mailing or (Drop Boxing)
them to lchistory@littlecompton.org. You can also set up an
appointment to bring your items to the Historical Society
by calling 401-635-4035.
Problems/Questions/Comments
Let us know! Our staff and volunteers are here to help you.
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5. Credits
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Marjory O’Toole
Project Director
Exhibit Design
Board of Directors
Project Volunteers
Serena Parente Charlebois
Serena’s Studio
Portraits
548 West Main Road
PO Box 577
Little Compton, RI 02837
401-635-4035
lchistory@littlecompton.org
www.littlecompton.org
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6. Board of Directors
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Shelley Bowen, President
Dora Atwater Millikin, Vice President
Jack Angell, Treasurer
Diane MacGregor, Secretary
Claudia Bell
Fred Bridge
Randy Byers
Piper Hawees
Richard Lisle
Richard Menoche
William Middendorf
Carolyn Montgomery
Chris Rawson
Paul Suttell
Robert Wolter
548 West Main Road
PO Box 577
Little Compton, RI 02837
401-635-4035
lchistory@littlecompton.org
www.littlecompton.org
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7. Project Volunteers
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Shelley Bowen
Carol Belair
Fred Bridge
Randy Byers
Connie Castenson
Andrea Deslilets
Leah Desilets
Hanna Desilets
Norma Elwell
Walter Elwell
Heather Bixby Fitzgerald
Theresa Gallagher
Janice Gomez
Anne Tripp Hopkins
Karen Governo Ingraham
Taylor Melanson
Dora Atwater Millikin
Diane MacGregor
Walter Monroe
Carolyn Montgomery
Nancy Oliveria
Lease Plimpton
Maureen McKinnon Rego
James Weir
Rosalyn Weir
Richard White
Caroline Wilkie Wordell
57 Oral History Donors
548 West Main Road
PO Box 577
Little Compton, RI 02837
401-635-4035
lchistory@littlecompton.org
www.littlecompton.org
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8. Marjory O’Toole
LCHS, Managing Director
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Marjory Gomez O’Toole has been the Little
Compton Historical Society’s Managing Director
since 2006. A life-long Little Compton resident,
Marjory relishes the opportunity to work with her
neighbors to preserve and to share the
community’s local history.
Remembering Adamsville is Marjory’s sixth
exhibition for the Historical Society.
She is currently a candidate for a Master of Arts in
Brown University’s Public Humanities Program
and created this digital exhibition as part of a
Digital Storytelling class.
Marjory is grateful for the many trips she took to
Adamsville as a child with her grandmother and
fondly remembers winning a free candy bar when
she got the “speckled gumball” at Simmons Store.
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9. Serena Parente Charlebois
Serena’s Studio
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Serena Parente Charlebois partnered with the
Little Compton Historial Society to create 26
portraits of our oral history donors. We are very
grateful to Serena for the gift of her time and
talents.
Photographic artist, Serena Parente Charlebois, is an award-winning
photographer specializing in black and white and fine art portraiture.
Serena is Certified by the Professional Photographers of America, has
earned her Master Photographer degree and most recently her
Photographic Craftsman degree. Serena has received national
recognition for her ability to capture emotional and natural portraits
of children and their families. Her studio is found in the historic New
England seacoast community of Little Compton, RI.
Artist inspiration:
“I fell in love with the art of photography when I was just 9 years old.
The rich memories captured and claimed forever on paper fascinated
me.”
“I try to compose and create images as if they were a song. I want my
compositions to flow and engage and be a wonderful piece of art, that
makes you always want to come back and experience again and
again.”
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11. The Stone Barn
Alice Wordell
Beattie:
Playing Tarzan
Photo of stone barn.
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A few partial walls of the Stone Barn are standing today.
LCHS Collection
The Stone Barn on Stone Church
Road is now in ruins. It appears
on early maps as the Sheffield
Barn. It has long been thought to
be one of the oldest stone barns in
New England.
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Farming in Adamsville
12. The Clark Taber House is
still located on Stone Church
Road in Adamsville. It was
the family farm of Theodore
and Betsy Taber and their
three daughters Lillian,
Ruth and Ida, pictured here.
The dog in the photo is Ted.
In the 1940s Alice’s Wordell
Beattie’s parents moved in
with her grandmother Ruth
and her great-aunt Ida to
help care for them. There
were ten people living in the
house at that time. It was
one of the few remaining
family farms in Adamsville
in the 1950s.
Photo courtesy of Alice Wordell Beattie
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The Clark Taber House
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13. Alice Wordell Beattie’s grandmother
Ruth Ann Taber Wordell always sold
soda at the Old Stone Church
Bazaars.
Photo courtesy of Alice Wordell Beattie
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The Old Stone Church
Bazaar
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15. Home Previous
Courtesy of Jim and Rosalyn Weir
Electra Lodge was built in
Adamsville as an offshoot of
the Odd Fellows Hall on the
Little Compton Commons.
It was active through the
1950s. After the lodge
closed the building became
the home of Stone Bridge
Dishes. Today it is a private
office and residence.
Jim Brady:
My Parents
Met at the
Odd Fellows
Hall
Electra Lodge
The Odd Fellows Hall
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16. James Brady
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I remember my mom and dad always talking
about how they met at a dance that took place at
the Oddfellows Hall in Adamsville back in WWII.
When we had the coastal fortifications of
Narragansett Bay, which encompassed everything
from Little Compton, Newport, Jamestown, and
Narragansett, there were large influxes of men
that came into the area to man these coastal
artillery units. The USO would do things to help
the GI’s.
One of the events that would take place every
now and then would be the USO dances. The GI’s
could have some contact with the civilian world,
meet the local people and just get away from the
military installation for a little while, and relax ,
“R and R,” rest and relaxation. What I was told
by my mother and father was that one of those
dances was held right there in Adamsville at the
Odd Fellows Hall.
My father was too old to serve in World War II,
but he worked at Fort Adams as a fireman or a
boiler tender. He took care of the steam plant,
which kept heat in the fort, everything dealing
with the cooking facilities in the mess halls, and of
course hot water for the barracks.
When the USO would hold dances, they would put
up announcements for the GI’s. However, notices
would also go out in town for the local girls. Little
Compton was strictly an agriculture-type
community then. And what would happen is you
would meet the local girls, you would dance, relax,
get away from that regimented, military-type life
for a while. My father, who had an automobile,
would drive some of the GI’s to the dances.
It was in the Odd Fellows Hall, at one of these
USO dances, that my mother and father met.
Towards the end of the war, they were married
around 1945. I was born in February of 1946. My
grandmother and all of my mother’s people were in
Little Compton. So there’s always been that
particular connection. But every time I drive by the
Odd Fellows Hall, I say, “My God, that’s the place
where my mom and dad met. And if they hadn’t
met, well, for the last sixty-six years, I wouldn’t be
here.”
My Parents Met at the Odd Fellows Hall
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17. Walter Elwell
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Walter visited
Adamsville frequently
on rides with his
grandfather. One of his
favorite activities was
sliding down High Hill
on Old Harbor Road.
He is holding the sled
that he used.
Jonnycakes and Eels
18. Patricia
McKinnon
Goulart
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The Stink Bomb in
Simmon’s Store
The McKinnon Family Home
Sleepovers in the
Spite Tower
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Pat moved to Adamsville with her parents and
siblings in the 1960s. The family purchased Win
Hart’s house right in the heart of the village. Pat
remembers falling asleep to the sound of music
coming from Manchester’s Restaurant.
19. The McKinnon House
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Jack and Dorothy McKinnon
purchased the family home on
Old Harbor Road in 1973. It
was originally built by Win
Hart who used the glass
breezeway as an appliance
showroom and put in the in-
ground pool to benefit his wife
who had a debilitating illness.
The McKinnons raised six
children here.
Print by
Maureen McKinnon Rego
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21. Ralph Guild
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Ralph Guild has
restored numerous
historic buildings in
Adamsville. Thirty-
years ago he promised
John Hart he would
keep the Mill the way it
was, and Ralph
continues to keep that
promise.
The Lemunyon-Brayton
House
The Longfield House
22. Greene’s Package Store
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My Grandfather
Built the
Liquor Store
Betty Greene with her brother. c. 1953.
Courtesy of Sheila Greene Kauffman
Greene’s Package Store was
established in the early
1950s and served not only
Adamsville but the nearby
summer community at
Westport Harbor.
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23. Bottle Digging
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Dr. White
Visit www.littlecompton.org and click on the “On-line
Collection” to see photos and records of dozens of Adamsville
artifacts.
Dr. White’s Laboratory
Bottle Digging
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24. Dr. White’s Laboratory
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Bottle Digging
Dr. White
Dr. White’s Laboratory was located on Main
Street in Adamsville to the west of the
Oddfellows Hall. The building was moved to
South Shore Road. You can still see the large
gap in the stone wall.
Courtesy of Tom and Leslie
Deschene
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25. Dr. White
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Bottle Digging
Dr. George F. S. White lived and worked in Adamsville from
1844 to 1881 . After his death, his son operated a laboratory in
the village that sold Dr. White’s “Speciality.”
The patent medicine was originally sold as a diphtheria cure,
but eventually government officials required that “diphtheria”
be removed from all advertising.
Buried “Speciality” bottles have been found throughout the
village.
The Laboratory
LCHS Collection
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27. Gray’s Grist Mill - Interior
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Photo by Gus Kelley
Color by Tim McTague
John Allen Hart
with Timothy
Taylor McTague
turning the
runner stone
over in
preparation to
sharpen the
mill stones, c.
1982.
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28. Previous
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John and Marion Hart lived in
the house attached to the back
of Gray’s Store. John was the
miller at Gray’s Grist Mill for
decades. In the 1980s his expert
jonnycake making was captured
in this photo journal by the new
miller Tim McTague.
See Part 2
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What are Jonnycakes?
Gray’s Mill Recipe
John Hart’s Jonnycakes – Part 1
29. John Hart’s Jonnycakes – Part 2
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See Part 1
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What are Jonnycakes?
Gray’s Mill Recipe
30. Valerie Crowther Turcotte
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Bake Sales on the Wall
Valerie Crowther Turcotte
lived in Dr. Warden’s House
as a young girl in the 1940s
and ’50s.
32. The Oldest Continuously Operating General Store in the U.S.
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For years, Gray’s store vied with another
establishment in Virginia for the title “Oldest
General Store.” In 2007, the debate came to an
end when Gray’s was officially recognized by U.S.
Senator Jack Reed and other officials as the
“Oldest Continuously Operated General Store in
the United States.”
Gray’s was established in 1788 by Samuel
Church and was purchased by Jonah Waite’s
ancestor, Philip Gray in 1879. The store closed
unexpectedly in 2012 when owner Grayton Waite,
pictured in this newspaper photo, passed away
after a battle with cancer.
The Oldest Store
Courtesy of Jonah Waite Next
33. Gray’s Store Interior, c. 1932
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From Left to Right:
Herman Gray
his sister, Marion Gray Hart,
her husband, John Hart,
unknown customer,
store keeper, Ed Cook
the Hart’s daughter,
Millie Hart Waite,
Courtesy of Jonah Waite
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34. The Gray Family, c. 1890
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From left to right:
Herman Gray
Philip James Gray (seated)
James L. Gray
Philip Gray (seated)
Courtesy of Jonah Waite
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35. John Kneeland
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Planting Apple Trees with Dynamite
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John’s family owned and operated a small farm on Old Harbor Road.
Neighbors came to buy milk. John’s grandmother would give the
customers homemade donuts. The cream on the unpasteurized milk
was so thick you could turn an open milk bottle upside-down and
nothing would come out.
John in 1941. Courtesy of John K. Kneeland.
Henry Fonda’s Goat
When I was about 13 my father planted 50 apple trees. He took
dynamite and cut the sticks in thirds. It was my job to hold the basket
of dynamite and walk behind him. He would light the dynamite and
drop it down a the hole he made with a stick and put then the stick
back in. We would walk to the next hole and do it over again.
Sometimes we would get three or four holes away before one would
blow. Sometimes just one. Dynamite blows down. Then we would go
back and shovel out the dirt. It was just like shoveling sand.
Farming in Adamsville
36. Henry Fonda’s Goat
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Movie actor Henry Fonda bought this goat for
one of his daughters. They soon discovered
they were not cut out to be goat farmers and
searched for a new home for their pet. John’s
father acquired the goat, and it lived a happy
life on the Kneeland Farm.
John Kneeland with Henry Fonda’s Goat, 1935.
Courtesy of John K. Kneeland.
Planting Apple Trees with Dynamite
37. Grace Simmons
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Gracie’s father was Fred Simmons of F.A. Simmons’ Store. She had a
brother, Ernest. She had worked at the phone company for years.
When Ernest passed away [she took over] the store. She was a woman
of her own kind, I mean, she was Gracie. When we used to go in, there
was a stove in the middle of the store, and she would be sitting in a
rocking chair nearby, almost always reading. She had never been
married and lived in the house next door. She was always nice to me,
however, she didn’t like children and the children did not like her. She
was extremely good to me after my first husband passed away. She let
me have my charge account there and pay when I was able to. But she
was something. Bright red nail polish, spike heels, lipstick on all the
time. Always dressed nicely and always with a cigarette in her mouth.
She was iconic.
Courtesy of Jen Bordon.
Nancy Oliveira Remembers Gracie
38. Dr. Rupert von Trapp
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Dr. Rupert von Trapp in his Adamsville office.
Courtesy of Stefanie von Trapp Derbyshire.
Dr. Rupert von Trapp and his new wife Henriette moved to
Adamsville in the late 1940s. Rupert developed a successful
medical practice and together they raised their six children.
Rupert was the oldest child of Captain George von Trapp of
Sound of Music fame.
The von Trapp House
39. Winston Hart
1908-1992
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Win Hart left home at age eleven in part because his parents had
difficulty supporting their large family, and in part because he had a
reputation as a skilled horse-team driver. A Little Compton farmer saw
Win driving horses and asked Win’s father if Win could come and work
for him. Win never spent another night at his parents’ house. As an
adult, Win ran a successful electrical business in Adamsville and was
responsible for much of the development in the village.
Sixty-Three Jonnycakes
Win Hart’s House
40. Win Hart’s Story- 63 Jonnycakes
1908-1992
This oral history was recorded in 1991 by John and Vivian Belko
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We had four black griddles on the woodstove
that cooked the jonnycake. Our mother used to
cook a hundred jonnycakes in the morning.
Everything was done on the woodstove, summer
and winter. That’s where we got the heat. Even
when we’d get up, go from the bedroom, you’d
rush downstairs and dress in front of the oven
with the door open.
We all left home. We had to. That’s why my
mother had to cook. When she cooked jonnycakes
for nine people, us growing boys would eat heavy,
eight or nine jonnycakes to a meal, see. Course
there were seven children and a mother and
father, that’s sixty-three jonnycakes. I left home
when I was eleven years old. I never went back
home to stay overnight since I went to Little
Compton.
It was a farm, and I was a driver on a two-horse
team. I had to get up at 5:00 in the morning and
milk the cows, and feed the horses, and then go and
have my breakfast, while the horses were
eating. Then go out and harness ‘em. This two-
horse team, we’d rent it out to Sakonnet Point
while they were building these lovely homes.
I’d have to walk the horses to the job and be there
at 8:00. Then when we got through at half-past
four, I’d have to go back to Pottersville, which was
seven or eight miles. You weren’t allowed to run the
horses. You had to walk them all the way. When I’d
come home at night, I’d have to put the horses up
and milk the cows, and feed them before I had my
supper, then
crawl upstairs.
