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Community Corner

Coventry Roots: Spring Lake

The twelfth village in the series about the villages of Coventry is Spring Lake.

The land where the village of Spring Lake was eventually established was owned by the Johnson Family. In 1818 Ezra Ramsdell bought property from the family and built a cotton mill along the banks of the Spring Lake River, also known as Mishnock River.  As a result of the cotton mill, houses were being built for the workers and the village of Spring Lake was constructed on both sides of the highway, leading from Washington Village to the Maple Root Meeting House. 

Warp thread, used in the weaving process was manufactured in this mill and it operated until 1830 when it suffered the fate of many cotton mills; catching fire and burning down. Christopher A. Whitman purchased the land and had another cotton mill constructed on the site that would become known as Whitmans’ Yard.  

Christopher Whitman developed a partnership with Gideon B. Card and they employed five workers. In 1849 C.A. Whitman and Company produced shirting material in the mill and in 1852, Whitman leased the mill and the surrounding land for two years to Pardon Olney. The mill operated for over thirty years under the management of Whitman. Christopher Whitman was not a manufacturer but a businessman.

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In 1865 Thomas C. Peckham and Company purchased the property and improved the mill.  At this time the village consisted of one dye house and seven dwelling houses. In 1866 his brother Pardon Peckman of Peckham Manufacturing Company brought Thomas C. Peckham into his business and purchased all the rights to Spring Lake.  Due to poor health Pardon S. Peckham left the company and moved to Watch Hill.  After his recovery, Pardon S. Peckham became the sole owner of the mill at Spring Lake on January 18th in 1871. Pardon S. Peckham also brought his son, Samuel D. Peckham, into the manufacturing company. 

The company prospered and in 1884 the manufacturing firm constructed a new mill in Spring Lake, where knitting and stocking yarns were made, that employed 115 people in 1889. Pardon S. Peckham operated the mill until his retirement in 1895, then his two sons ran the mill until it was burned around 1907.  

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The brothers, Pardon S. Peckham and Thomas C. Peckham, also owned and operated textile mills located at . Today the area where the mill village once stood is where the Coventry Plaza, Wood Estates, and the on Tiogue Avenue are now located.

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