Reflections of New England’s Past and Present

When I was eight years old, my grandfather took me and my Dad on a trip to visit the land of my ancestors in Westerly, Rhode Island. Years later, those hazy memories helped me find the way to Pound Road – an unpaved, cratered-filled passage that is sandwiched between wooded wetlands for a half mile stretch before opening up into an expanse of open land that has been inhabited by Crandalls for the better part of 350 years.

On a glorious sun drenched May afternoon, my nuclear family of four and I were greeted by the disarming smile of Irving Crandall. He wore suspenders, a knit hat and had strong hands that told the story of many arduous tasks. His mellifluous voice and infectious laugh put us at instant ease and made us feel like, well, family.

Regardless of my surname, 105 Pound Road was one of the most interesting places I have ever visited. As a photographer, I loved the contrast. There were weathered buildings, pristine fields, stone walls, and hundreds of motor vehicles most of which have seen their last mile. It was like Field of Dreams meets Sanford & Son.

In the 17th century, Elder John Crandall was the first family member to immigrate to this country. In those days, the terms “Elder” and “Pastor” were interchangeable. He and eight other petitioners settled Westerly, RI from land purchased from the Narragansett tribe.

John Crandall was born in Monmouthshire (near the Wales and English border) and was christened in Westerleigh, Gloustershire, England in 1617/8. It is believed that the name Westerly was derived from his Westerleigh roots. Although where he first landed in the colony is uncertain he is first recorded as a grand juror in Newport in 1643. He was later named Newport Freeman and Commissioner of Newport.

In 1651, Crandall, John Clark and Obadiah Holmes made a legendary eighty mile trip to Lynn in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to visit William Witter, a “shut-in” member of the Newport Baptist church, who was too feeble to make the journey to Rhode Island. Baptist preaching was not welcome in the strict Puritan world of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The three were arrested, taken to Boston, and fined without legal defense. Holmes did not pay the fine and took 30 lashes in a public whipping. It was an illustration of the intense religious strife between geographic regions of New England at that time. It was written that some in Massachusetts later called Crandall “Grendall of Narragansett” a derogatory spin on the monster Grendel from Beowulf.

As I walk up the road past the barn and an old school bus and make a sharp left towards the Southwest field, the true beauty of the land unfolds. The Crandall family graveyard is a registered Rhode Island Historic Cemetery (#15) and is tucked into a bucolic corner of the fields under a single deciduous tree. It’s surreal to survey the land. It seems to look like it did over three hundred years ago. I imagined that I was back in the 1600’s seeing what my great (however many greats 12th generation is) grandfather saw in this new colonial frontier.

During King Philip’s War, there were several deadly encounters that pitted colonist against colonist and even Native American against Native American. Ironically, King Philip was the name given the Native American leader named Metacom (Metacomet). Legend has it that Elder John Crandall died as a result of an infection from wounds he suffered fighting with the Narragansetts against militia from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Plymouth and their Pequot and Mohican allies in the Great Swamp Fight in December of 1675. The tragic war claimed over 600 colonists and 3,000 Native American lives, caused devastating damage to the colonies and nearly wiped out the Narragansett and Wampanoag as organized tribes.

300 years later, a new binding chapter was written in the Narragansett and Crandall family connection storybook. In 1991, Irving Crandall and his since-departed wife Arlene could not pay the taxes on the land and they decided to deed the land over to the Narragansetts. Speculators had plans to develop the land after it was seized by the town. However, the Narragansetts agreed to pay past and future taxes and give Crandall family heirs the rights to occupy the homestead where Elder John once preached to his flock.

Rock & Roll fans make a trip to Graceland to connect to a special place that Elvis “The King” Presley called home. For me, my pilgrimage to Crandalland was a chance to walk the same land where one of this country’s early settlers, John “The Elder” Crandall, contemplated his life, his family, his Native American friends and his religious freedoms in the colony.

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More Information:

If your family hailed from New England check out your roots on this website: http://www.newenglandancestors.org/

Learn more about how King Philip’s War changed early New England at the following link: http://www.pilgrimhall.org/philipwar.htm

More information on the Crandall ancestry is available through the CFA (Crandall Family Association) website: http://www.cfa.net/cfa/contents.html
The CFA produces a quarterly publication called The Crandall Corner. The Crandall Family Association also has a family picnic every other Summer.

Footnote:  Some prominent Americans have roots to Elder John Crandall –Lucille Ball, Julia Child, Prudence Crandall, Katherine Hepburn and Garrison Keillor.