Tockwotton and the Indiamen / Sails to Rails 1835: Providence's First Train Station

Tockwotton and the Indiamen, also, Sails to Rails 1835: Providence's First Train Station. Providence Harbor Walk at Fox Point and India Point. Tockwotton and the Indiamen. The close of the War of Independence in 1783 found the local economy dominated by maritime trade. Wharves along South Water Street became overcrowded with merchant ships, as depicted in the 1800s scene above. In 1787, John Brown, realizing the old wharves were incapable of receiving large new ships that sailed abroad, looked to the potential growth that lay in Tockwotton, the early name for India Point. As seen in the early 1800s painting below, it contrasts with the busy wharves just around Fox Point to the west., John Brown was no stranger to Tockwotton. In 1762, at just 26 years old, he, along with his three brothers, acquired his uncle's Tockwotton candle works business and mercantile firm. Their Nicholas Brown and Company, named after the eldest Brown brother, managed real estate, wharves, stores, and distilleries. Brown envisioned more than a commercial seaport for Tockwotton, but the residential development never took hold. He put in paved roads and gangways. He constructed a state of the art "fireproof" warehouse and had the port dredged to allow access for the larger ships that were being built., In 1784, the Empress of China left New York on a trading journey, and returned with impressive profits. John Brown was not far behind when three years later, his 385-ton General Washington became the first Providence vessel to make the voyage to the East Indies and China. The ship's departing cargo included sheet copper, sail cloth, ginseng, bar iron, cordage, molasses, codfish, rum, Narragansett cheese, and smoked ham. Upon its Providence homecoming two years later, the General Washington unloaded such goods as silk, cotton, porcelain, lacquered ware, cloves, and tea., Soon there were other ships: Rising Sun, Ann and Hope, Halcyon and John Jay, and other owners: Clark and Nightingale, Brown and Ives, and Edward Carrington. The 536-ton Ann and Hope, commissioned by Nicholas Brown and Thomas P. Ives and named for the partners' wives, cleared Providence on her maiden voyage in July 1798. She became the fastest ship in America when she outsailed Jenny of Boston while on a passage north of Botany Bay., While John Brown retained an interest in slave trading throughout his life, it was his involvement in the China and India trades that was the foundation of the Brown fortune. He reinvested his profits from these journeys to build three more ships. The George Washington, the Warren and the grandest of all, the 950-ton President Washington, all worked the Oriental trade route for Brown. During this period, Providence ships also traded with South America, the West Indies and Europe. The era of China Trade gradually diminished as merchants invested in manufacturing and came to an end in 1841 with the last voyage of Carrington's ship the Lion., The season's first crop of tea brought the highest prices. The favorite port for the earliest crop was Foochow, situated many miles inland up the Min River. Later in the season, clippers would load at the other ports of Canton, Shanghai, Whampoa, Macao and Hankow., Sails to Rails 1835: Providence's First Train Station. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, while the China Trade was waning, pressure was increasing to find better ways to travel between Providence and coastal cities. A typical stagecoach journey took between five and six hours from Boston to Providence. Sailing packet ships ventured the long and sometimes stormy route to Boston around the arm of Cape Cod. It wasn't until 1830 that the first scheduled railroad passenger service in the country began in Charleston, South Carolina. Railroad development got underway in Rhode Island shortly thereafter. Trains began running between Boston and Dedham in June 1834, and by 1835, a railroad bridge built over the Seekonk River extended the track to India Point, where a depot and wharves were constructed. From there passengers could board steamboats to New York and other coastal cities as distant as Chesapeake Bay., The next link in the system was the rail line connecting Providence and Stonington, which avoided the voyage by boat and the treacherous waters at Point Judith. The Stonington Line entered Providence in 1837. Its tracks ran up along a causeway to Hill's Wharf at Crary Street, off of what today is Allens Avenue. Through-passengers connected by ferry to the Boston and Providence depot at India Point. In 1848, Providence and Worcester Railroad constructed Union Station, which at the time was the largest passenger station in America. The Stonington and Boston lines could now be united, thus relegating India Point to a secondary role accommodating East Bay passengers and handling marine freight., The Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad opened in 1855 to connect the city with those living in East Bay. At first, teams of horses pulled railroad cars from Union Depot to locomotives waiting at India Point. Two years later the company built its own station on India Street at the foot of Benefit Street where passengers could take the horse car line into downtown. India Point's role as a transit hub ended in 1908, when a mile long tunnel under the East Side was completed, allowing East Bay trains direct access to Union Station.