Those living in Tiverton (and those reading local media) know that there is some friction in the Town’s government. This is nothing new, as this Broadside from 1892 can attest (see item 6).
Tiverton Electors: Notice of Town Meeting
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
NEWPORT, Sc. L. S. To the Town Sergeant or either of the Constables of the town of Tiverton, in the County of Newport, and State aforesaid,
GREETING: In the name of said State, you are hereby required and directed to notify and warn the electors of the said town of Tiverton, by posting up written or printed notifications on the School-houses or other suitable places in the several school districts in said Tiverton, seven days at least before the time of meeting, to meet at the TOWN HALL, in said town, on the First Wednesday, the Sixth Day of April Next, A.D. 1892, At Eleven O’Clock in the forenoon,
Then and there to do and transact the following business, to wit:
1st. To choose an Assistant Moderator to preside at said meeting.
2d. To act upon the following questions, viz:
A. Shall the Stone Crusher commence at Snell’s Bridge and work Northerly along the West Main Road to the Tiverton R. R. Station, and thence up Evans’ Avenue to the Main Road to Fall River?
B. Shall Three Hundred Dollars be expended for Street Lights to commence at the Tiverton Railroad Station and extend Southerly on the Shore Road?
C. Shall One Hundred and Fifty Dollars be expended for Street Lights to commence at the Congregational Church at Tiverton Four Corners, and extend Southerly.
D. Shall the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Dollars be expended for the care of said street lights?
E. Shall the sum of One Hundred dollars be appropriated to the National Bank of Tiverton, to give weekly concerts from the first of July to the first of October, every Saturday night?
F. Shall Two Thousand Dollars be appropriated for Highways?
G. Shall Five Thousand dollars be appropriated for the Stone Crusher?
H. Shall the town buy the interest of the Central Baptist Church in their lot south of the Stone Bridge?
I. Shall we have three special police in the town at a fixed salary, beside the town constable?
J. Shall a sidewalk be built and maintained from “Cary Lane,” so called, to the Central Baptist Church.
K. Shall a sidewalk be built and maintained from the head of Evans’ Avenue to the Railroad station?
3rd. To vote a town and highway tax of such amount as shall then be determined upon and to decide whether the town’s quota of the State’s tax shall be paid out of the town’s funds, or a separate assessment thereof be made.
4th. To vote a tax for the support of Public Schools.
5th. To elect such Town Officers for the year ensuing as may be legally elected upon said date, if any may then be so elected.
6th. To ascertain whether or not the wishes of the electors are that Benjamin F. Lake, Andrew P. White, Corah P. White, Esther J. Manchester, William A. Peck, David G. Millard, David H. Millard, Hannah E. Millard, Uriah G. Pierce, Ursula A. Pease, Frank C. Gray, George T. Lamunyon, Caira Lamunyon, Henry Bateson, John Bateson, Cyrenus Bliss, Patrick Crosson, James Crosson, Joseph Ducharme, Ellen Gillan, James Gillan, John Hughes, John Kelley, Thomas A. Lewis, Joseph Shavie, Bailey Manchester, Charles Parent, Thomas Rothwell, George A. Sanford, Thomas Clark, Abby Stowell, Graves Whiteside, or any of them or if others shall be prosecuted for violation of Sec. 10 of Chap. 93 of the Public Statutes of Rhode Island.
And further to act upon such other business as may lawfully come before aid meeting.
HEREOF FAIL NOT, and true return make of this warrant, with your doings thereon, to me at the time and place of said meeting.
Given under my hand and seal of office this twenty-fourth day of March, A. D., 1892.
JOHN T. COOK, Town Clerk
A true copy. Attest: WILLIAM HUGH, Town Sergeant
From a Broadside, donated to the Tiverton Historical Society
Being curious as to why all these named people were singled out and put on the Town docket for potential prosecution for violating this State law, knowing that there are some renowned names among them like Cyrenus Bliss and A.P. White, I asked the RWU archivist for help in looking up the old State Statutes for that time period. And this is what she found in their law library:
Chapter 93, Section 10 of the Public Statutes of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations of 1882 states: Every owner or keeper of a dog, shall annually in the month of April, cause such dog to be registered, numbered, described and licensed from the first day of the ensuing June, in the office of the town clerk of the town wherein such owner or keeper resides; and shall cause it to wear a collar around its neck distinctly marked with its owner’s name and with its registered number; and shall pay to such clerk, for such license, one dollar and fifteen cents for a male dog and five dollars and fifteen cents for a female dog; and all licenses granted under the provisions of this chapter shall be valid in every town during the then current year: Provided, however, that any owner or keeper of a dog of what age soever may, in the month of May in any year, have such dog licensed as aforesaid, upon paying to such clerk two dollars and fifteen cents for a male dog and six dollars and fifteen cents for a female dog, and provided further that any person who shall become the owner or keeper of a dog, of what age soever, after the last day in May in each year, and prior to the first day of April following, shall cause the same to be registered, numbered, collared and licensed, within thirty days after he becomes such owner or keeper, upon the payment of one dollar and fifteen cents for a male dog and five dollars and fifteen cents for a female dog. Every person owning or keeping a dog not registered, licensed and collared according to the provisions of this section shall be fined ten dollars, one half thereof to the use of the complainant and one half thereof to the use of the town wherein such dog shall have been kept, to be applied by the said town to the support of public schools therein.
Feel free to let me know what you think about this docket item on the voting agenda! (webmaster@tivertonhistorical.org)