Coventry Roots: Quidneck (Part 1)

Before the cotton mills were established, the area where both the villages of and Quidneck are today was originally called Greeneville for the Greene Family who had been operating a iron forge in this area since the 1740s.  In 1811 the village was renamed Taftville for Stephen Taft who was operating a cotton mill there.  When the Sprague Family bought the village in 1840, the name was once again changed, this time to  Quidneck. (According to Indian Place Names of New England by John C. Huden, Quidneck means “at the end of the hill”.)

The patriarch of the family that ran the iron forge was Nathanael Greene, Sr.  The Greene’s resided in Potowomut where they operated another iron forge.  Nathanael Greene, Sr. died in 1765 and left the iron forge in Coventry to his six sons, two of them being Jacob and Nathanael Greene, Jr.  In 1770 Nathanael Greene, Jr. built a home near the iron forge and became the Forge Master. He lived in the home until he left to serve as a General in the American Revolution.  

In 1772 the iron forge was destroyed by fire but was eventually rebuilt on the original site and operated until the late 18th century.  After Nathanael left, Jacob Greene, the General’s brother, moved in and resided here until he died in 1808.  

Jacob, his two sons, and a son-in-law, along with a few partners, started a paper mill on the site of the old iron forge.  As a result of this partnership, the Greeneville Paper Manufacturing Company was formed on August 12, 1806, by Jacob Greene, Henry Remington, Thomas Arnold, Jacob V. Greene, Dr. Jabez Greene, Henry Cushing, Samuel W. Bridgham, and Theodore A. Foster.  

The company purchased three acres of land located on both the east and west banks of the Pawtuxet River from Jacob Greene.  The Greeneville Paper Manufacturing Company was located along the south west branch of the Pawtuxet River along a road laid out in 1806 and across the river from where the Quidneck Mill Complex stands today.  The paper mill was most likely water-powered wooden structure roughly two stories high.

Check back on Tuesday to read the second part of the Village of Quidneck's history, including information about Josiah Randall, stepson of Jacob V. Greene and his glazing mill that resided in the same structure.