Portsmouth Actors Transport Tiverton Residents Back in Time

The beautiful weather of last weekend made an historical walking tour of Tiverton Four Corners all the more charming. The birds were singing, the air was crisp and the historical tales came to life with the help from actors of the Portsmouth Community Theater (PCT).

The Four Corners Arts Center hosted "Redcoats, Rum and Rebellion" last fall and brought it back by popular demand. The famous characters from Tiverton’s history were alive, well and ready to talk. Approximately 30 visitors gathered at the Tiverton , split into two groups and were led by two actors, Bill Murphy and Ron Marsh, both dressed in period costumes.

The first stop on the tour was the Potter House, which is now Humphrey Law Offices. Actress Denise Betz portrayed Lillian Potter, a young woman who grew up with her relatives in the nineteenth century. After she attended the Rhode Island School of Design, she spent her days caring for her relatives, working on her poetry and art and collecting shells and postcards.

In the basement of the same house, Dorcus Seabury, portrayed by Cindy Killavey, explained how she once came across a stranger whom she invited in for dinner. She began to feel uneasy and enlisted her two young daughters to help her. After feeding the visitor stew and hard cider, she snuck in her horses’ reigns and tied up the stranger.

“I realized he was a spy and I was a hero,” proclaimed the present-day Seabury.

After her piece, Killavey came out of character and explained how she got the idea to showcase Tiverton’s history.

“We looked at the stories from the city and found that there was a lot to tell,” said Killavey. “Carol Ann Williams wrote the Lillian Potter piece and my Seabury piece.”

The next stop was the , which was doubling as the meeting place for a temperance group. Richard and Gloria Schmidt and Trish Culver portrayed three townspeople urging the citizens of Tiverton to sign the pledge promising an alcohol-free lifestyle. They brought out the original Charter of Good Temperance and told stories about the dangers of alcohol and the disaster it brings.

Once they got the crowd cheering, the three leaders led everyone in a song, “Temperance Folks, Wake Up.”

As the group wandered over to the other side of the street, actor Bill O’Dell rushed out of waving an envelope of cash. He explained that he found this cash in his mailbox and was unsure what to do with it. The guide explained that rum runners oftentimes used empty houses as headquarters and would leave money in the mailbox for the owner as payment.

Around the corner, Killavey transformed herself into another townsperson from the past. She told a story from 1810 about a young woman who was sentenced to a public flogging for being unable to pay a town fine. As she was being tied to the whipping post, the governor at that time, Governor Wilbur, drove past the scene.

The crowd flocked to him and begged that he stop the public punishment. He calmly responded that if there was no whipping post, there couldn’t possibly be a flogging. The crowd revolted and tore the post from the ground. She was the last woman publically flogged in the state of Rhode Island.

“This kind of historical tour lets the community know there are much deeper roots here in Tiverton,” said Murphy. “These events have had a deep impact.”

The final stop on the tour was the historical Chace-Cory House. The oldest house on the tour, the Chace-Cory House was built in 1730 and given to the Tiverton Historical Society by J. William in 1964.

“The size of the houses and windows and the intricacies make it interesting,” commented Murphy. “The nature of man hasn’t changed that much.”