Pontiac struggles through Depression and War
During the 1930s and 1940s, Warwick's transition from town to city was
not easy. The municipal government struggled through the poverty of the
Great Depression, the devastation of the Hurricane of 1938, and the
trauma of World War II.
Politics and Transition
Warwick's first mayor, Republican Pierce Brereton, was succeeded by
Democrat John O'Brien and, in 1936, by Republican Albert Ruerat, who
held the office until 1948. Ruerat's long tenure witnessed the
difficult process of uniting a number of 19th century villages into a
suburban city. While zoned for residential, farming, business, and
industrial districts, the increased migration to Warwick, and other
problems created by the Depression and the Hurricane, often turned
well-intended plans into haphazard growth. This often resulted in the
destruction of some of Warwick's finest attractions, to the detriment
of villages such as Pontiac.
The Good and the Bad of Depression Life in Pontiac
During most of the thirties, villagers were preoccupied with economic
conditions rather than efforts to preserve the historical fabric of the
village. As there was less and less work at the Pontiac Mills, the
search for employment became more acute and rumors of hiring drew many
of the later arrivals, such as the Italian immigrants, from Pontiac to
Natick or to Apponaug where the mills were still operating. More often
than not, the few jobs available were already taken and despair
increased.
Families, to cut expenses, often shared housing as they had done
earlier in the century when the immigrants first arrived in the
village. As a result, family units became even closer than they had
been in the 1920s. Neighborhood stores, wherever possible, carried many
of the villagers on credit and a great deal of sharing of goods and
hope for the future took place. While very few children in the section
of Pontiac below the railroad tracks had bicycles, nearly all had some
type of wagon that they could take to the mill dump in hopes of finding
enough scrap metal or other junk to sell to the "rag man." While very
few remember the horse and buggy or the grocery wagons, nearly all who
lived through the 1930s can recall the "rag man." Another common memory
was that of making beer. Long after prohibition was repealed in 1933,
economic hardships dictated that home made beer and wine were still
common beverages on many tables in Pontiac and the mill villages of
Warwick and West Warwick.
All was not work with no play, however, as this was the time of great
interest and active participation in sports of all types. During this
period, baseball ruled supreme and heated arguments over the relative
merits of the Red Sox and Yankees could be heard in the mills, stores
and schools in the area. Long before "little leagues" and organized
sports, sandlot baseball, football, and soccer were popular. Mrs.
Hattie Anderson, who was interviewed in 1974 by Margie Bucheit for a
Warwick Beacon article, recalled winter sports and had fond memories of
members of the Stafford family. She described the Staffords as being
"marvelous skaters." Nearly everyone who lived in the village in the
1930s has some fond memories of the sports and games in the
pre-television era when children were both seen and heard as they
played in the streets and empty lots in the village.
The need to record Warwick’s history
During Mayor Albert Ruerat's administration, Warwick's population
soared from 27,000 to nearly 40,000. This created a demand for more
housing, more adequate schools, police and fire departments, and other
improvements. During one of his early terms, Ruerat's opponent was able
to correctly jibe at him that while Warwick claimed to be a city, one
couldn't even "buy a suit of clothes" within its limits. In an attempt
to bring the city closer, and to celebrate its past, the Ruerat
Administration made plans to sponsor a History of Warwick. A committee
was selected in 1941 and plans were made to publish a book for the
300th anniversary of Warwick's founding. The Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and the war, which followed, saw the project
postponed and all but forgotten. It was not until fifty years later
that the history of Warwick was finally written by the author of this
column. This book, Warwick’s 350 Year Heritage has been sold out. In
2001 an updated version of the history has been written by Don D’Amato,
published by the Arcadia Publishing Company and on sale at a number of
bookstores.
The story of Pontiac during the War Years will be continued.
As Warwick grew, so did its police force. Forrest Sprague, (seen here with Mayor Darius Goff) who joined the force in 1920, remembered the time before police cars and radios. Sprague saw the force become modernized while he was chief (1945-59).