WESTERLY

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 539 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: WAT-WIL

WESTERLY , a township of Washington county, Rhode Island, U.S.A., in the extreme S.W. part of the state, about 44 M. S.S.W. of Providence, separated from Connecticut on the W. by the Pawcatuck river, which forms the northern boundary
of the township also. Pop. (189o) 6813, (1900) 7541, (1788 being foreign-born and 185 negroes), (1905, state census) 8381, (191o) 8696. Area, about 31 sq. m. Westerly is served by the New

York

, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by interurban electric lines connecting with Norwich and New London, Conn. The township includes several small villages, connected by electric railways, the best known being Watch Hill, which has fine sea-bathing. Larger villages are Westerly, in the western part of the township and at the head of navigation (for small vessels) on the Pawcatuck river, and Niantic, in the north-eastern part of the township. In Westerly there is a public library (1894), with 23,323 volumes in 1909. Beyond Watch Hill Point on the S.V. point of an L-shaped peninsula, running first W. and then N., is Napatree Point, on which is Fort Mans-field, commanding the N.E. entrance to Long Island Sound. The township is the centre of the granite industry of the state; the quarries are near the villages of Westerly and Niantic. The granite is of three kinds: white statuary granite, a quartz monzonite, with a fine even-grained texture, used extensively for monuments; blue granite, also a quartz monzonite and also much used for monuments; and red granite, a biotite granite, reddish grey in colour and rather coarse in texture, used for buildings.) Among the manufactures are

cotton

and woollen goods,

thread

THREAD (0. Eng. praed, literally, that which is twisted, prawan, to twist, to throw, cf. " throwster," a silk-winder, Ger. drehen, to twist, turn, Du. draad, Ger. Draht, thread, wire)

and printing presses. The water

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

is from artesian wells. The first settlement here was made in 1661, and the township was organized in 1669, when the present name was adopted instead of the Indian Misquamicut (meaning " salmon ") by which it had been called. In 1686 the name was changed to
Haversham, but in 1689 the present name was restored.
See Frederic Denison, Westerly and its Witnesses, for Two Hundred and Fifty Years, 16261876 (Providence, R.I., 1878).
WESTERhIANN, FRANCOIS JOSEPH (d. 1794), French general, was born at Molsheim in

Alsace

ALSACE (Ger. Elsass)

. At an early age he entered a cavalry regiment, but soon left the service and went to Paris. He embraced enthusiastically the ideas of the Revolution, and in 1790 became greffier of the municipality of Haguenau. After a short imprisonment on a charge of inciting enteutes at Haguenau, he returned to Paris, where he joined Danton and played an important part in the attack on the Tuileries on the loth of August 1792. He accompaniedDumouriez on his campaigns and assisted him in his negotiations with the Austrians, being arrested as an accomplice after the general's defection. He succeeded, however, in proving his innocence, and was sent with the rank of general of brigade into La Vendee, where he distinguished himself by his extraordinary courage, by the audacity of his manoeuvres, and by his severe treatment of the insurgents. After suffering a defeat at Chatillon, he vanquished the Vendeans at Beaupreau, Laval,

Granville

and Bauge, and in December 1793 annihilated their army at Le Mans and Savenay. He was then summoned to Paris, where he was pro-scribed with the Dantonist party and executed on the 5th of
April 17 94.
See P. Iloll, Nos. generaux alsaciens . . . Westermann (Strassburg, 1900).

End of Article: WESTERLY

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/WAT_WIL/WESTERLY.html">
WESTERLY
</a>

(Previous)
WESTCOTT, BROOKE FOSS (1825-1901)

(Next)
WESTERN AUSTRALIA

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email