North Smithfield Heritage Day 2023
Early today — Saturday, July 8, 2023 — I spent a few hours at North Smithfield Heritage Day, an annual event hosted by the North Smithfield Heritage Association (NSHA) in collaboration with multiple other organizations and vendors. This event was free and open to the public with plenty of parking and easy to navigate sidewalks.
Slaterville Walking Tour
The first event I attended was a walk through Slatersville, a village of North Smithfield. The tour started at 9:00 a.m. and lasted for about 90 minutes. It focused on life in the mill town during the early 20th century. The walk was led by park ranger Allison Horrocks of Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) and by Christian de Rezendes of Breaking Branch Pictures, whose latest work is the Emmy award winning documentary series Slatersville: America’s First Mill Village. Using a path similar to the self-guided walking tours available on the park service website, this tour started at Heritage Hall and led visitors past the home built for John and Ruth Bucklin Slater, the mill owners for whom the village is named; past Slatersville Congregational Church constructed by the Slaters; past mill houses regulated by the North Smithfield Historic District Commission; and finally down to Slatersville Mill, now luxury apartments.
The expertise of the guides created a completely different experience for the self-guided tour. This walk focused on a later time period in Slatersville history, allowing the guides to explain how the theory of scientific management or Taylorism — named after its founder, Frederick Winslow Taylor — greatly changed ways of working in American factories. When industrialist and car enthusiast James R. Hooper purchased the entire mill village from the Slater family in 1900 for $500,000, he used these methods to shrink the workforce from about seven hundred to about three hundred workers, decreased the types of processes completed at the mill, and ruined the moral of workers.
After injuring himself in a serious one-car accident, Hooper sold the mill village to Henry Plimpton Kendall in 1915 for a reduced rate of $385,000. Kendall was described as both a successful New England industrialist from a wealthy family and a good boss. The Walpole, MA native took the extra time to meet with his workers and find solutions to their problems. Under his tenure, the work week decreased from 60 hours to 48 hours, mill-owned buildings were renovated, and brief strikes ended without violence. Kendall’s friendliness towards his workers may have been a byproduct of a learning disability like dyslexia. Since he struggled with written communication, he preferred to meet in-person but did not care about his appearance when he did so. Ranger Horrocks read a quote from a former mill worker who described Kendall as having a disheveled suit “like he just got out of bed”. Outside of his corporation, Kendall advised presidents Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on what became Social Security.
Gravestone Cleaning Demo
After taking my own self-guided tour through the cemetery and retracing the route through Slatersville to get additional pictures, I attended the Gravestone Cleaning Demonstration by volunteers with NSHA, which they held at 12:30 p.m. in Slatersville Cemetery, officially called Rhode Island Historical Cemetery North Smithfield #3. The volunteers began the cleansing process by washing the gravestone with water using a small pressure sprayer with a manual pump. Next, they used plastic putty knives, scrapers, or credit cards to remove lichen from the surface of the stone. With the lichen cleared away, they spritzed the surface with D/2 Biological Solution, a safe chemical compound manufactured in Westport, MA and the only such material used by the National Park Service. After the chemicals had rested for fifteen minutes, the volunteers washed it away with more clean water and used a soft bristle brush to remove excess grime. They sprayed a final layer of D/2 onto the stone and let it stay. Already, the stone was much cleaner than before, and the D/2 would create a chemical reaction to lighten the color of the stone over the next few days. The stone would not need to be cleaned for another four to six years.
Cemetery Tour
Immediately following the Gravestone Cleaning Demonstration, at 1:00 p.m., was a fun walking tour of the Cemetery. Gail Denomme, a researcher and co-producer for the Slatersville documentary, led the tour and was assisted by three ghosts, NSHA volunteers portraying people buried in the cemetery. Lucille Denomme, who happens to be the guide’s 94-year-old mother, portrayed Anna Sheldon Andrews, a Roger Williams descendent. Her claims to fame were that she met President John Quincy Adams and his wife Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams while running her tavern, and she lived over 100 years. Other ghosts included Sarah Andrews Almy, the daughter of Anna Andrews who died at age 37; and Deacon Ansel Holman, who owned a saber company that produced weapons for the U.S. cavalry during the Civil War, served as a deacon in the local church, and once won a contest for growing the largest pumpkin. To learn even more details about these cemetery walks, the Woonsocket Call published an article about last year’s version of the event.
Overall, I had a great experience at North Smithfield Heritage Day this year. The tours provided me with new information about local history; all the guides were friendly and knowledgeable; and plenty of other amenities like craft vendors, food, antique cars, and music kept me entertained throughout the day. I look forward to what is in store for the rest of the season with NSHA, and I hope to attend the festivities next year.