Reflections
Life Stories, Told by the People of Westerly, Rhode Island
A project of the Westerly Historical Society
Generously sponsored by Chelsea Groton Bank, Rhode Island Foundation, and Westerly Community Credit Union
Learn more: westerlyhistoricalsociety.org/reflections/
The Town of Westerly has seen tremendous change in the last one hundred years. The people born during the last half of the 20th century lived through a tumultuous time Including the great depression and World War II.
These people are getting older and only a few that lived during this historic period are still alive today. Soon their histories, memories, thoughts, hopes, and reflections will be lost if their stories are not told.
Our story is about Dwight C. Brown, Jr. In 2018 Dwight passed away at the age of 90. Greg Pettys interviewed him at his home in Ashaway in 2016. As far as he knows, this is the only recording ever made of this remarkable man. Greg's interview with Dwight covered what mill life was like at the BDA, shipbuilding on the Pawcatuck River, and the history of Westerly.
Dwight was born in 1928, the son of Dwight Brown Sr. and Elizabeth Brown. He was a USAF veteran and worked as plant engineer for the Bradford Dyeing Association (BDA) for many years.
Dwight was an avid amateur historian. He was archivist emeritus for the Westerly Historical Society and member of Babcock Smith House Museum. He was the author of a number of books and numerous articles on Westerly’s history.
Dwight was also a genealogy and local history research volunteer for the Westerly Library where he had a research table that was dedicated on his 90th birthday. He was known for his oil paintings and as a skilled cabinet maker.
Starting at the age of 16 Dwight worked at the BDA for over 40 years and chronicled mill life through an extraordinary collection of 1500 photographs. The BDA was the biggest mill and had been the largest employer in Westerly since 1911. At its height during World War 2 the BDA employed over 1200 people. It finally closed in 2008 after nearly 100 years of operation.
The Bradford Dyeing Association was established by in America by an English firm that wanted to buy a mill in the US to evade an onerous tariff on foreign manufactured goods. One of the many interesting stories Dwight tells is how in 1910 the company hired a law firm in New York to purchase an old mill on the Pawcatuck River along with 800 acres, and not wanting the local farmers to know who was buying their farms, the New York lawyer representing them dressed up as a farmer so he could get a better price on the land.
Today that 800 acres has become the Westerly Land Trust’s Grills Preserve and the Hopkinton Land Trusts Grills Wildlife Sanctuary in Hopkinton. The fate of the old highly contaminated mill site, with the buildings and ponds is still to be determined.
Dwight was buried not far from his beloved Pawcatuck River with full military honors in the First Hopkinton Cemetery alongside his loving wife of many years, Anna Irene Brown, and his daughter, Pamela Brown.