from
History of Providence County, Rhode Island
Edited by Richard M. Bayles.
In two volumes, illustrated. Vol. I.
New York: W. W. Preston & Co., 1891.
pp. 382 - 405. (part 9)
"In July, 1767, we meet the first announcement of a regular stage coach
running between Providence and Boston. At that date Thomas Sabin
advertises that 'one starts every Tuesday morning from the house of Richard
Olney, inn-holder, to carry travellers to Boston, on the most expeditious
and cheap rate.' The coach returned on Thursday mornings. The notice does
not state whether the coach went through in a day, or stopped the first
night at Wrentham, as it did, according to tradition, in earlier times. In
those times, it is said that the owner of a stage coach occasionally gave
notice a week or ten days beforehand that on a given day he would start for
Boston, if sufficient encouragement offered, taking care to give notice so
that his patrons might have time to arrange their worldly affairs in a
manner befitting the magnitude of the journey upon which they were to
start. In 1783 the stage to Boston ran twice a week.
A line of packets which was soon after that date established between here
and New York excited great admiration. In speed and accommodations they
were said to be equal to any in the world. These conveyed most of the
passengers travelling between New York and this town and the towns
eastward, including Boston, until the New London Turnpike was established,
about 1820. Travellers found it quite a relief from the jolting and
thumping they received in the old heavy stage coaches, to get into the
comfortable cabin of a packet and pursue their journey in the swift-gliding
boat as she sped over the comparatively smooth face of the waters. Stage
coach riding in those days had more practical points than poetical, however
the imagination of later poets may have pictured it. The coaches were
built heavy and strong, substantial durability being the pervading idea of
their builders and owners. Although the roads had lost their original
corduroy character, they have not acquired that level smoothness which
invited sleep. An occasional rock or stump would try the strength of the
carriage and the patience of the traveller. Connected with the stage
coaches over the New London Turnpike, was a line of steamboats from New
London to New York. The more ample accommodation of these boats over even
the luxurious packets, together with the certainty of making the passage
within a definite time, gave this route a ready popularity. The sailing
packets were soon given up to the freighting business. About the same time
Captain Elihu S. Bunker came from New York to Providence with the steamboat
'Connecticut', thus demonstrating by actual experiment it was possible for
a steamboat to make the hazardous run around Point Judith. Before that
trial it was considered as impossible feat. Still the public were not
willing to trust their lives in such a practice, and for some time the
inside line by way of New London carried the passengers. After repeated
trips had been made without loss or damage, confidence was established, and
the traveling public accepted the boats running through from here to New
York as a decided improvement over the combination of stage and boat. The
New London Turnpike and boats were then abandoned. The Point Judith
steamers were supposed to possess unequalled facilities for the
traveler. Speed, certainty, safety and ease, combined to render them the
favorites of the public. On the completion of the New York, Providence &
Boston railroad to Stonington, there connecting with a line of steamers to
New York, a portion of public favor was withdrawn from the Point Judith
steamers."
continued in part 10.