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Ward
's
great-great-grandfather
Welcome
Potter
had
in
1785
married
a
certain
'
Ann
Tillinghast
,
daughter
of
Mrs.
Eliza
,
daughter
to
Capt.
James
Tillinghast
,
'
of
whose
paternity
the
family
had
preserved
no
trace
.
Late
in
1918
,
whilst
examining
a
volume
of
original
town
records
in
manuscript
,
the
young
genealogist
encountered
an
entry
describing
a
legal
change
of
name
,
by
which
in
1772
a
Mrs.
Eliza
Curwen
,
widow
of
Joseph
Curwen
,
resumed
,
along
with
her
seven-year-old
daughter
Ann
,
her
maiden
name
of
Tillinghast
;
on
the
ground
'
that
her
Husband
's
name
was
become
a
public
Reproach
by
Reason
of
what
was
knowne
after
his
Decease
;
the
which
confirming
an
antient
common
Rumour
,
tho
'
not
to
be
credited
by
a
loyall
Wife
till
so
proven
as
to
be
wholely
past
Doubting
.
'
This
entry
came
to
light
upon
the
accidental
separation
of
two
leaves
which
had
been
carefully
pasted
together
and
treated
as
one
by
a
labored
revision
of
the
page
numbers
.
It
was
at
once
clear
to
Charles
Ward
that
he
had
indeed
discovered
a
hitherto
unknown
great-great-great-grandfather
.
The
discovery
doubly
excited
him
because
he
had
already
heard
vague
reports
and
seen
scattered
allusions
relating
to
this
person
;
about
whom
there
remained
so
few
publicly
available
records
,
aside
from
those
becoming
public
only
in
modern
times
,
that
it
almost
seemed
as
if
a
conspiracy
had
existed
to
blot
him
from
memory
.
What
did
appear
,
moreover
,
was
of
such
a
singular
and
provocative
nature
that
one
could
not
fail
to
imagine
curiously
what
it
was
that
the
colonial
recorders
were
so
anxious
to
conceal
and
forget
;
or
to
suspect
that
the
deletion
had
reasons
all
too
valid
.
Before
this
,
Ward
had
been
content
to
let
his
romancing
about
old
Joseph
Curwen
remain
in
the
idle
stage
;
but
having
discovered
his
own
relationship
to
this
apparently
"
hushed-up
"
character
,
he
proceeded
to
hunt
out
as
systematically
as
possible
whatever
he
might
find
concerning
him
.
In
this
excited
quest
he
eventually
succeeded
beyond
his
highest
expectations
;
for
old
letters
,
diaries
,
and
sheaves
of
unpublished
memoirs
in
cobwebbed
Providence
garrets
and
elsewhere
yielded
many
illuminating
passages
which
their
writers
had
not
thought
it
worth
their
while
to
destroy
.
One
important
sidelight
came
from
a
point
as
remote
as
New
York
,
where
some
Rhode
Island
colonial
correspondence
was
stored
in
the
Museum
at
Fraunces
'
Tavern
.
The
really
crucial
thing
,
though
,
and
what
in
Dr
,
Willett
's
opinion
formed
the
definite
source
of
Ward
's
undoing
,
was
the
matter
found
in
August
1919
behind
the
paneling
of
the
crumbling
house
in
Olney
Court
It
was
that
,
beyond
a
doubt
,
which
opened
up
those
black
vistas
whose
end
was
deeper
than
the
pit
.
Joseph
Curwen
,
as
revealed
by
the
rambling
legends
embodied
in
what
Ward
heard
and
unearthed
,
was
a
very
astonishing
,
enigmatic
,
and
obscurely
horrible
individual
.
He
had
fled
from
Salem
to
Providence
--
that
universal
haven
of
the
odd
,
the
free
,
and
the
dissenting
--
at
the
beginning
of
the
great
witchcraft
panic
;
being
in
fear
of
accusation
because
of
his
solitary
ways
and
queer
chemical
or
alchemical
experiments
.
He
was
a
colorless-looking
man
of
about
thirty
,
and
was
soon
found
qualified
to
become
a
freeman
of
Providence
;
thereafter
buying
a
home
lot
just
north
of
Gregory
Dexter
's
at
about
the
foot
of
Olney
Street
.
His
house
was
built
on
Stampers
'
Hill
west
of
the
Town
Street
,
in
what
later
became
Olney
Court
;
and
in
1761
he
replaced
this
with
a
larger
one
,
on
the
same
site
,
which
is
still
standing
.
Now
the
first
odd
thing
about
Joseph
Curwen
was
that
he
did
not
seem
to
grow
much
older
than
he
had
been
on
his
arrival
.
He
engaged
in
shipping
enterprises
,
purchased
wharfage
near
Mile-End
Cove
,
helped
rebuild
the
Great
Bridge
in
1713
,
and
in
1723
was
one
of
the
founders
of
the
Congregational
Church
on
the
hill
;
but
always
did
he
retain
his
nondescript
aspect
of
a
man
not
greatly
over
thirty
or
thirty-five
.
As
decades
mounted
up
,
this
singular
quality
began
to
excite
wide
notice
;
but
Curwen
always
explained
it
by
saying
that
he
came
of
hardy
forefathers
,
and
practiced
a
simplicity
of
living
which
did
not
wear
him
our
.
How
such
simplicity
could
be
reconciled
with
the
inexplicable
comings
and
goings
of
the
secretive
merchant
,
and
with
the
queer
gleaming
of
his
windows
at
all
hours
of
night
,
was
not
very
clear
to
the
townsfolk
;
and
they
were
prone
to
assign
other
reasons
for
his
continued
youth
and
longevity
.
It
was
held
,
for
the
most
part
,
that
Curwen
's
incessant
mixings
and
boilings
of
chemicals
had
much
to
do
with
his
condition
.
Gossip
spoke
of
the
strange
substances
he
brought
from
London
and
the
Indies
on
his
ships
or
purchased
in
Newport
,
Boston
,
and
New
York
;
and
when
old
Dr.
Jabez
Bowen
came
from
Rehoboth
and
opened
his
apothecary
shop
across
the
Great
Bridge
at
the
Sign
of
the
Unicorn
and
Mortar
,
there
was
ceaseless
talk
of
the
drugs
,
acids
,
and
metals
that
the
taciturn
recluse
incessantly
bought
or
ordered
from
him
.
Acting
on
the
assumption
that
Curwen
possessed
a
wondrous
and
secret
medical
skill
,
many
sufferers
of
various
sorts
applied
to
him
for
aid
;
but
though
he
appeared
to
encourage
their
belief
in
a
non-committal
way
,
and
always
gave
them
odd-colored
potions
in
response
to
their
requests
,
it
was
observed
that
his
ministrations
to
others
seldom
proved
of
benefit
.
At
length
,
when
over
fifty
years
had
passed
since
the
stranger
's
advent
,
and
without
producing
more
than
five
years
'
apparent
change
in
his
face
and
physique
,
the
people
began
to
whisper
more
darkly
;
and
to
meet
more
than
half
way
that
desire
for
isolation
which
he
had
always
shown
.
Private
letters
and
diaries
of
the
period
reveal
,
too
,
a
multitude
of
other
reasons
why
Joseph
Curwen
was
marvelled
at
,
feared
,
and
finally
shunned
like
a
plague
.
His
passion
for
graveyards
,
in
which
he
was
glimpsed
at
all
hours
,
and
under
all
conditions
,
was
notorious
;
though
no
one
had
witnessed
any
deed
on
his
part
which
could
actually
be
termed
ghoulish
.
On
the
Pawtuxet
Road
he
had
a
farm
,
at
which
he
generally
lived
during
the
summer
,
and
to
which
he
would
frequently
be
seen
riding
at
various
odd
times
of
the
day
or
night
.
Here
his
only
visible
servants
,
farmers
,
and
caretakers
were
a
sullen
pair
of
aged
Narragansett
Indians
;
the
husband
dumb
and
curiously
scarred
,
and
the
wife
of
a
very
repulsive
cast
of
countenance
,
probably
due
to
a
mixture
of
negro
blood
.
In
the
lead-to
of
this
house
was
the
laboratory
where
most
of
the
chemical
experiments
were
conducted
.
Curious
porters
and
teamers
who
delivered
bottles
,
bags
,
or
boxes
at
the
small
read
door
would
exchange
accounts
of
the
fantastic
flasks
,
crucibles
,
alembics
,
and
furnaces
they
saw
in
the
low
shelved
room
;
and
prophesied
in
whispers
that
the
close-mouthed
"
chymist
"
--
by
which
they
meant
alchemist
--
would
not
be
long
in
finding
the
Philosopher
's
Stone
.
The
nearest
neighbors
to
this
farm
--
the
Fenners
,
a
quarter
of
a
mile
away
--
had
still
queerer
things
to
tell
of
certain
sounds
which
they
insisted
came
from
the
Curwen
place
in
the
night
.
