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Strong Men of Exeter

This article was written by J. Earl Clauson and published on March 31, 1937, in the Evening Bulletin newspaper of Providence, Rhode Island, under the heading “These Plantations.” The piece is untitled but recounts legends of some strong men of Exeter.

There are two forged ship anchors on the Gen. Nathanael Greene birthplace at Potowomut. The larger and heavier one is at the entrance gate, a fluke imbedded in cement to thwart the covetousness of scrap iron thieves.

The other is a hundred yards back from the road beside the horse block on the hilltop. This also is properly secured, being fastened by a heavy chain on an anvil from the forge at which the boy who was to become a famous soldier used to help his father, Nathanael Greene, the Quaker.

We are uncertain which of the anchors figured in the famous feat of George A., Briggs, great grandfather of John G. Briggs, who has a place of business on the Ten Rod Road in Exeter. Either is strong and heavy enough to hang the story on.

George Briggs worked at the Greene forge and was a man of amazing muscle. One day, the yarn goes, he got into an argument with a hanger-on about whether anybody could lift a just completed ship anchor. The visitor tried it and failed.

Briggs laughed at him a little, coaxing him along, and the outcome was a bet of a barrel of pork that George couldn’t lift and carry the anchor up the hill. The blacksmith did that very thing and left it there leaning against a tree.

Then being properly proud of his feat, he made standing offer of a barrel of pork to anybody who could carry it back. Plenty tried, but none succeeded. The anchor lay where Briggs dropped it as a sort of memorial to his strength, and when George’s will was read – so we are told – there was a provision therein perpetuating the pork promise.

The condition hasn’t yet been fulfilled. Probably Thomas Casey Greene, present occupant of the historic house, wouldn’t thank anyone to try. At any rate, inasmuch as the anchor-carrying episode must date back to very early in the 18^th century it would be pretty hard to collect the barrel of pork at this date.

The race of strong men who took Goliath as their example has pretty well dwindled in Rhode Island. About the last were the Bitgood brothers of Exeter, Elmer and Doane, around whom clusters a fragrant bouquet of legends.

They lived near the Beach Pond, where they farmed it. If you visited their place in company with somebody who knows you would see rocks big enough to blast which with their hands and perhaps a crowbar they had set where they wanted them.

When ploughing time came one of the brothers was harnessed to the plough and the other guided and thus they tilled their fields. They gave exhibitions of strength sometimes at Noyes, Conn., not far from Beach Pond. One of their stunts was to haul a drag, or stone-boat, with 1000 pounds of stone on it.

Their appetites were proportioned to their strength. It is said he pair consumed a barrel of crackers in two days. The late Dr. Frank Hammond, Olneyville dentist, who had a summer home at Escoheag, was a friend and got some fun occasionally out of their food-wrecking powers.

Once when they were in Providence he took them to a small restaurant which advertised to give any customer as much as he wanted to eat for one dollar. First making certain there was no condition about the offer, Dr. Hammond set the Bitgoods at work. They were still eating when the restaurant keeper announced he hadn’t another bite of anything in the place.

Elmer Bitgood was still living at last accounts, his home at New London. But their farm is still in the Beach Pond territory, and if you want to see some huge rocks moved without benefit of blasting powder or tractor it’s worth looking up.

Original story by J. Earl Clauson, originally published in the Providence Evening Bulletin under the heading "These Plantations". Later collected into a book of the same name that was printed in 1937 by The Roger Williams Press (E. A. Johnson Company).