"Fringe Benefits" on the Knight Farm
Webster Knight, son of Robert Knight, the founder of the B. B. & R.
Knight Company, made his home at the former Sprague mansion on East
Avenue in Warwick. He was one of the most influential personages in the
town, both as a mill owner and a politician and as the owner of the
lovely estate on East Avenue.
The Knights excelled as "gentlemen farmers" and the East Avenue estate
became a model farm. Webster Knight's two children, Adelaide and Robert
Lippitt Knight maintained that interest well into the 20th century.
Political ambitions
Unlike his father, who did not care for politics or politicians,
Webster Knight became very active in public life. He held a number of
state offices under Governors Elisha Dyer and Charles Warren Lippitt,
and was the assistant quartermaster general of the R. I. National
Guard. In Warwick, he is best remembered as a member of the Town
Council. He served in this capacity for 11 years and was president of
that body from 1894 1898, acknowledged as the political "boss" of
Warwick.
The end of the textile company
In 1920, after the Knights sold their vast manufacturing interests to
the Consolidated Textile Corporation of New York for $20,000,000,
Webster Knight’s children continued to be active in farming and
breeding of animals. Webster’s son, Robert L. Knight, purchased the
Cranston farm of his maternal great, great grandfather, Col.
Christopher Lippitt. His interests led him to the breeding of Ayreshire
cattle and he became a noted leader in that field.
Robert’s sister, Adelaide Knight, who had never married, remained at
the East Ave. estate until her death. At that time the property passed
to her nephew, Royal Knight. He owned the property until 1964 when it
was acquired by the Community College of R. I. Many of the farm
buildings around the Main House remain and are kept as they were.
The “good old days”
There are a number of people who have fond memories of the "old days"
on the estate. In a 1984 interview, Bob Jodrie, who worked for the
Knights and was employed at the college until his retirement, vividly
recalled the farm as it was when he was a young man. He remembered and
kept alive many of the stories told to him by old timers who worked
there. The Knights often recruited people from the mills who had
special skills in farming or animal husbandry. Jodrie recalled that one
of these men, Camille Charette, worked for the Knights for over 50
years.
Farm work and Turtle soup
By the end of the Civil War, as the Knights grew in size and power, the
supply of inexpensive labor at the mills was insufficient and they
began recruiting French Canadians as the chief source of labor for
their textile empire. Like so many other Knight employees, Charette
came from Canada when he was very young and began working in the mills
at age 12. He was transferred to the farm a few years later and
remained there until his retirement. Camille was fond of recalling how
he worked on the farm from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. for five days a week,
and then a half-day on Saturday. The hours were long and the work was
hard, but there were many "fringe benefits', and the mill hands vied
for the jobs. Camille especially liked it when the Pawtuxet River would
be low and he would be ordered to hook up the horses and clean out the
section of the river that bordered on the farm. As the men walked along
the river bottom, they very often came upon large turtles, which they
were allowed to keep and take home for soup.
Bluestone walls
During the winter months when there wasn't a great deal of activity on
the farm, some of the men would go back to the mills while others cut
firewood or worked on the deposit of "bluestone" found on the farm.
They would drill and dynamite the stone and used that material to build
the exceptionally fine walls that abound on the estate and add greatly
to the beauty of the grounds. By using a team of oxen on one side of
the wall, and an inclined plane on the other, it was possible to raise
the huge stones onto the wall.
The story of the Knight Estate will be continued.
The
beautiful stonewalls near the gardener’s cottage bear mute testimony to
the quality of the bluestone and the skill of the workers who built the
walls.
Photo by Don D’Amato