Excerpt from Cranston: A Historical Sketch

Among the companions of Roger Williams when, In 1636, driven from Seekonk by his Massachusetts persecutors, he found a refuge on the bank of the Mosshassuck river, was William Arnold, and he two years later joined William Harris, William Carpenter and Zechariah Rhodes In settling along the fertile meadow lands bordering the Pawtuxet river, where they formed the nucleus of the village now known as Pawtuxet. These men were the earliest settlers in the territory later gathered under the name of Cranston. Before their advent the waters of the Pawtuxet river and lesser streams flowing into it had been vexed by no greater crafts than the light canoe of the Indians, who were the proprietors and shared with the wild animals of the forests and fields occupancy of the region. They were nomads, true children of nature, living in temporary lodges, which they moved from season to season, actuated now by the desire to dwell in rich hunting grounds, or again by the necessity of living near the fields where they carried on their rude agriculture, consisting mainly in raising crops of corn. The tribe of Soconoco, sachem of Pawtuxet, which shared with that of Pumham what is now included in Cranston and Kent County, were parts of the strong Narragansett nation, whose chief sachems were Canonicus and his nephew, Miantinomi. The Narragansetts were of all the natives encountered by the white race in the colonization of New England the most peaceful, intelligent and inclined to the arts of civilization, although judged by Anglo-Saxon standards, they could not be considered ether than savages. Hunting, trapping and fishing were the principal occupations of the men, while the squaws cultivated the fields and did the hard work. Game of all kinds abounded. Deer, which were plentiful, were driven together in expeditions in which many hunters took part at the same time. Bears were caught in pitfalls, or slain with the bow and arrow, the latter weapon being tipped with flint, for metals were unknown to the Indian until the white man came.

Roger Williams, before his final exile from Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies, had gained the confidence and affection of the Narragansett nation and its chiefs, so it proved a simple matter for him to buy from the chief the land he needed for a home.

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