A Family Business/Harnessing the Power of the Blackstone River - Pawtucket, Rhode Island - Rhode Island Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This pair of Rhode Island Historical Markers is located along the west bank of the Blackstone River near Slater Mill - the yellow building seen in the photo gallery - in Pawtucket.

The marker to the left reads:

A Family Business

Just six years after building Slater Mill, Samuel Slater’s partners, William Almy and Obadiah Brown, bought another mill on their own. They even copied some of Slater’s machine designs for their mill.

This annoyed Slater so much that he built a new mill of his own with his in-laws, the Wilkinsons. Together they finished the White Mill in 1799. It was located on the grassy hill you can see across the river.

Despite these differences, the Almy, Brown, and Slater partnership remained intact. Eight years later, they added John Slater to the partnership and built what was then the biggest mill in America. Visit Slatersville, just a few miles to the north, to see the second chapter of Slater’s story.

The background of this marker is completely filled by a painting of the river, the dam, and a white building. Its caption reads:

The White Mill burned down in 1824. There are no visual records of what the building looked like. This illustration is an artist’s concept based on written descriptions.

The marker to the right reads:

Harnessing the Power of the Blackstone River

Control of waterpower meant control of economic, political and social power.

A mill developer’s first “power grab” was to build a walled dam. This created a pond that stored water to power the mill.

Other villagers didn’t willingly give up control, however. Fishermen, artisans, farmers, and others relied on a natural river flow.

When Samuel Slater began building this dam, citizens filed a lawsuit against him. Four of them destroyed the dam when it was partially built. Yet, Slater pressed on and finished the dam before the courts had a chance to decide on the case.

The background of this marker is completely filled by a full color depiction of the method of dam building used at this spot. A riverbed runs trough the scene, its water diverted towards the left bank by a series of wood crates filled with large rocks. A wood framed structure forms a ramp on the right hand bank. Several workers filled the space beneath the ramp with large rocks and small boulders. The caption is:

The dam was built one section at a time. Oziel Wilkinson managed the construction. It was completed in November 1792.

Organization that Placed the Marker: Not listed Year Marker was Placed: Not listed Related Website: Not listed

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When visiting a waymark, please take a picture that clearly shows the historical marker (feel free to include you and/or members of your group in the photo as well). Also, tell us about your experience at the site.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   05/28/2023 ORDIMIC visited it