. Paired with the No. 10 marker "Sails to Rails 1835: Providence's First Train Station", it is west of the playground at India Point Park in Providence, Rhode Island. Of the two, this is the signboard which faces west toward Downtown Providence.
The framed marker is mounted with four iron straps between a pair of wood pylons. The display is on the north side of a paved path. A map at the top of the plaque shows and lists the dozen stops encompassed by the self-guided tour.
Topics covered include industry and commerce, railroads, and waterways and vessels. The large marker is about three feet wide and five feet tall. Five archival illustrations accompany the text - wharves along South Water Street and the waterfront at Tockwotton (now known as India Point) in the 1800s, the three-masted vessel George Washington under sail, a cut-away view of a clipper ship showing its decks loaded with tea, and an etching looking north from Bold Point towards the ports and bridge at Seekonk River's mouth. The plaque reads:
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 the 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 & 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, Halcyonand John Jay, and other owners: Clark & Nightingale, Brown & Ives, and Edward Carringtion. The 536-ton Ann & Hope, commissioned by Nicholas Brown & 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.
Text adapted from: Frank, Caroline, "John Brown's India Point." Rhode Island History. Vol. 61, No. 3; Woodward, Wm. McKenzie and Sanderson, Edward E., Providence A Citywide Survey of Historic Resources. 1986; Hawes, Alexander B., Off Soundings: Aspects of the Maritime History of Rhode Island. 1995.