By 1747, Little Compton secured its own royal decree and was annexed to Newport County as a part of Rhode Island along with Tiverton and Bristol. However, there is no direct evidence to substantiate this relationship. This is possibly a reference to LittleĬompton in Warwickshire, England. In 1682, the town was incorporated by the Plymouth Colony and renamed Little Compton. Today, a plaque on the side of West Main Road gives the location of his original homestead. In 1675, Church built his homestead in Little Compton, just prior to King Philip’s War. Church was well known for his role in the late 17th-century conflicts with surrounding Native American tribes, notably the Narragansetts and Wampanoags. Of these 32 original proprietors was Colonel Benjamin Church. In a series of lotteries beginning in 1674 and ending in the early 1680s, they divided the land in Little Compton into lots of standardized acreage and began settling there. After first attempting negotiations with Awashonks, they petitioned the Plymouth Colony, which granted them their charter. The first European settlers in Little Compton were Englishmen from Duxbury, Massachusetts in the Plymouth Colony who sought to expand their land holdings. The area was known by the same name, which means “the black goose comes.” In few other places can a nonagenarian comepon poke trinkets, trifles and detritus and some of it older than he.According to 17th century land evidence, Little Compton originally belonged to the Sakonnet (variations include Sogkonate, Seconit, Seaconnet, etc.) tribe, who were led by Awashonks, the cousin of Metacomet (commonly known as King Philip). For $1, I also picked up four-ounce block labeled "Great Face Soap." Yvonne found a pair of sterling earrings for $25.60 and I bought Joseph Alsop's biography of Franklin Roosevelt for $2.40. It is stacked with domestic jetsam and flotsam, including a mirrored pine medicine cabinet for $25, jewelry, nearly all costume, stacks of China, books and magazines. Also, nothing in the store is new, though little is bona fide antique either. Just one car and a pickup fit in the parking lot. ![]() Reopened three years ago, its tenant storekeeper's merchandise is as varied as a Walmart's, although it will take a while to catch up in traffic. ![]() Now, happily, Adamsville has reclaimed its status as site of the nation's oldest general store, if not the oldest in continuous service. The closing of Gray's left Adamsville with only one monument, a granite statue of a chicken, the Rhode Island Red, the source of all kitchen tables of the brown egg and Little Compton' claim, back then, as the "poultry Capitol of the World." This was a sad and humbling moment for minuscule Adamsville, an appendage of Little Compton, RI, no metropolis itself with just 3,500 people. One family, presumably named Gray, owned it for 91 years until another family, the Waites, took it on and held until 2012, when sixth generation Grayton Waite died and his heir, a son, closed it. George Washington wasn't yet president, and the flag had just 13 stars. ![]() Opening in 1788, Gray's General Store in Adamsville, RI, was the oldest, after 224 years and by all credible accounts, general store in the United States.
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