GLOCESTER – A more than 250-year-old structure considered significant not just to Glocester but to Rhode Island’s history, will be on display this month as the Glocester Heritage Society offers tours of the Dr. Reuben Mason House.
The house, located at the foot of Acotes Hill in Chepachet, was the home of a prominent surgeon during the American Revolutionary War, and was later designated to be a field hospital by the State Militia during the Dorr Rebellion. The two and a half story colonial was restored by the heritage society in recent years, and is now home to the Dorr Rebellion Museum.
According to Glocester Historian Edna Kent, it is impossible to know the exact age of the structure that now holds the museum, but the homestead was sold in 1756 by Joseph Pettingell to his son, John, and sold again in 1765 to Richard Bartlett, who lived in the house until 1774. In an excerpt on the history, Kent notes that the house was sold to Mason, who would become the surgeon to General William West’s Brigade in the early battles of the Revolutionary War, when militia trained on the plains north of Chepachet.
Mason would administer the medical needs of Glocester families until he died in 1799. Much of his medical practice is believed to have taken place in the home, where he resided with his wife and three children. Mason reportedly referred to the large structure as his “mansion house.”
It was during the Dorr Rebellion in 1842, that the house was designated by the State Militia as a field hospital, likely for the state troops who were marching from Greenville, Scituate, and Woonsocket.
“Thankfully, Thomas Dorr sought to avoid bloodshed as a result of his campaign, and, so, no troops or rebels were actually in need of medical attention during the uprising,” notes Kent.
By the time the Glocester Heritage Society secured a 99 year lease on the building with the Chepachet Cemetery Association in 2003, it was in a state of significant disrepair, with some floors falling through – but some of the original doors and floors remained in tact – according to former GHS vice president Steve Hanley. Renovations were completed over several years with the help of grant funding.
Today, the Dr. Reuben Mason House, also known as Pettingill-Mason House, is considered a “key gateway” structure for the village of Chepachet. It is a featured stop the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park and attracts historians, architects and other experts, students, tourists and more.
Inside, visitors can time-travel back to 1800s colonial life. The home features Mason’s office, including an antique desk filled with antiquarian medical books, along with period furnishing and dishware.
It also commemorates the Dorr Rebellion, a battle over the right to vote considered he forerunner of the enfranchisement movement that ultimately made America the model of a representative democracy for the world. The rebellion was led by Thomas Wilson Dorr, a wealthy man who sought to expand voting rights for all people, not just land owners – a radical thought for the time period.
Among the museum’s artifacts is a keyhole with a single bullet hole from when troops raided Sprague’s Tavern, now known as The Tavern on Main, looking for Dorr.
More on that history, and on Dorr and Chepachet’s place in the great American story, can be found here.
The house is one of three maintained by the heritage society, and also includes an 18th-century medicinal garden on the grounds, which visitors will also be able to tour.
The Dr. Reuben Mason House, with the Dorr Rebellion Museum Room, located at 1043 Putnam Pike, Chepachet, will be open for tours on Sundays, Aug. 10 and 24, from noon to 3 p.m. The public is welcome to drop in for either date.
