Editing Scituate, Rhode Island (section)

==History==
Scituate was first settled in 1710 by emigrants from [[Scituate, Massachusetts]]. The original spelling of the town's name was "[[Satuit]]", a native Indian word meaning "cold brook" or "cold river."  The town was a part of [[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence]] until 1731.
 
Scituate's first town meeting was held at the Angell Tavern in South Scituate, with Stephen Hopkins elected as the first moderator and Joseph Brown as clerk. [[Stephen Hopkins (politician)|Stephen Hopkins]] later became a governor of Rhode Island and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  His brother, [[Esek Hopkins]], was Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy beginning in 1776. In 1788 Scituate representative, militia general and Supreme Court Justice [[William West (Rhode Island politician)|William West]] led an armed anti-federalist mob of farmers into Providence to protest the U.S. Constitution.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/diarythomasvern00ridegoog/page/n7 <!-- pg=1 quote=thomas vernon. --> The Vernon family and arms, by Harrison Ellery, with additions and corrections by Thomas Vernon]</ref>  In 1791 the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] decided its first case, ''[[West v. Barnes]]'',  regarding a farm in Scituate.

Scituate was once made up of a multitude of small villages, including [[Smithville-North Scituate, Rhode Island|North Scituate]], [[Hope Village Historic District|Hope]], Ashland, [[Clayville Historic District|Clayville]], Elmdale, [[Fiskeville, Rhode Island|Fiskeville]], Glenn Rock, Harrisdale, Jackson, Kent, Ponaganset, Potterville, Richmond, Rockland, Saundersville, and South Scituate.  [[Foster, Rhode Island|Foster]] was incorporated as a separate town in 1781, taking the western half of Scituate.

In 1915, the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to take {{convert|14800|acre|km2|0}} of land in Scituate (38% of the town) to create a reservoir to supply fresh water to greater Providence. This project resulted in the condemnation of "1,195 buildings, including 375 houses, seven schools, six churches, six mills, thirty dairy farms, eleven ice houses, post offices, and an electric railway system, the Providence and Danielson Railway system". (2) The hamlets of Kent, Richmond, Rockland, South Scituate, Ashland, Saundersville, Ponaganset and parts of North Scituate and Clayville disappeared forever.

Scituate has played an important role in many of the United States wars. During the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], 76 cannon were forged at the Hope Furnace in the village of Hope in southern Scituate. During World War II, a [[Federal Communications Commission]] [[signals intelligence|Radio Intelligence Division]] [[Chopmist Hill Listening Post|monitoring facility]] on Darby Road near Chopmist Hill ({{Coord|41.8198|N|71.6453|W|scale:1000}}) intercepted German [[High frequency|HF]] communications. Because of this, in 1946, the Chopmist Hill area was considered as a candidate for the location of the headquarters of the United Nations.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/24/newsid_4353000/4353094.stm BBC On This Day | 24 October 1945: United Nations Organisation is born]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.quahog.org/factsfolklore/index.php?id=5 |title=Quahog.org: Chopmist Hill and the United Nations |access-date=September 3, 2015 |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924083642/http://www.quahog.org/factsfolklore/index.php?id=5 |url-status=dead }}</ref>