Quidnick is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
within the town of
Coventry, Rhode Island
Coventry is a town in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 35,688 at the 2020 census and is part of the .
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of . of it is land and of it ...
.
Before the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
the area where
Anthony
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonia (gens), Antonii'', a ''gens'' (Roman naming conventions, Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were ...
and Quidnick are today was originally named Greeneville for the
Greene
Greene may refer to:
Places United States
*Greene, Indiana, an unincorporated community
*Greene, Iowa, a city
*Greene, Maine, a town
** Greene (CDP), Maine, in the town of Greene
*Greene (town), New York
** Greene (village), New York, in the town ...
Family who had operated an iron forge in the mid-18th century.
[Andrew D. Boisvert, "Coventry Roots: Quidneck (Part 1)", Coventry Patch, June 24, 2011 http://coventry.patch.com/articles/coventry-roots-quidneck-part-1] By 1811 the village was renamed Taftville for Stephen Taft a local
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
manufacturer.
After the
Sprague family
The Sprague family is an American business and political family in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The family ran the largest textile firm in the United States and two of its members ( William Sprague III and William Sprague IV) held the offices o ...
acquired the village in 1840, they changed the name to Quidnick, which is a
Native American word meaning “at the end of the hill.”
The current Quidnick Mill Complex was constructed in 1848.
References
Villages in Kent County, Rhode Island
Coventry, Rhode Island
Census-designated places in Kent County, Rhode Island
Providence metropolitan area
Villages in Rhode Island
Census-designated places in Rhode Island
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