Although changes were made the Major Thomas Fenner House is still an excellent example of two-story one room stone-end house standing in the State of Rhode
Island. [A.D.]
On the inside of that chimney is the walk in fireplace with the beehive oven at the bottom. A very dangerous thing for women of the 1600's. Beehive ovens inside a fireplace were usually built in the 1600's.
Major Thomas Fenner's story is waiting to be written. The subject of this web page is Samuel Fenner Joy.
Samuel Fenner Joy (7) was born April 15, 1802.
His mother, Freelove Fiske Fenner Joy (6)was the daughter of Samuel Fenner (5); Major Daniel Fenner (4); Thomas Fenner (3); Major Thomas Fenner (2); Captain Arthur Fenner (1).
Samuel's father was Samuel Joy(6), son of Job Joy(5) and Rachel Westcott; Peter Joy(4) and Abial Randall; Peter Joy(3) and Sarah Gaskins; Peter Joy (2) and unknown; Thomas Joy(1) and Joan Gallop
Samuel Fenner Joy returned to the ancestral home of his great-great-great-great-grandfather Captain Arthur Fenner in March 1832 when he purchased the property from the estate of Thomas Fenner for $2500. Samuel Fenner Joy's purchase included a dwelling house, a barn and cribs being on the westerly part of the Harris Farm late the property of James Fenner.
The deed locates the property on the Providence Norwich Turnpike Road and connecting with the properties of a few old Cranston family names that of Job Sheldon, Samuel Burlingame and Joseph Fenner.
Samuel Fenner Joy's purchase was for 74 acres with brook privileges to Asahel Fenner. Asahel also reserved the lot laid out for a burying
ground with privilege of passing to and from the same as occasion may arise.
Samuel lived at his farm for 47 years. The people he hired to help him with the farm were also boarders at his home. One of his employees, William Whitaker lived at the Fenner house for all of the 47 years with Samuel.
Samuel was said to have his little eccentricities. He bought a bed stead over Hughesdale way at one time and insisted upon bringing it all the way home on his back.
Samuel's death occurred on June 25, 1881 cerebral meningitis is listed as cause of death.
George P. Hazard was the administrator of the personal inventory left by his brother-in-law. His personal property was mostly that of a farmer, including 12 cows, one pair of oxen, one bull, one bay mare, 2 pigs, farm tools and a few pieces of furniture including four beds and three chairs. He had $424.29 cash on hand and on deposit in Peoples Bank the sum of $2040.00. Unlike his grandfather, Job Joy, who was so poor the town 'forgive him his taxes as long as he under low circumstances," Samuel was a wealthy
farmer. (Cranston Probate book 16 Page 295)
The bulk of the estate including the bed he carried on his back was left to Samuel A. Hazard, son of Rachel Joy Hazard. Samuel A. Hazard died in 1916 and left the estate to his sister Mary who was 75 years old at the time.
Shortly before the inheriting Major Thomas Fenner/Samuel Fenner Joy, Mary had made a major purchase. On June 8, 1917, she purchased a lot in Swan Point Cemetery on Blackstone Blvd in Providence for $1900 with a purchase of perpetual care for $362 and had her grandmother Freelove Fenner Joy and all the Joy family removed from the two family lots on the Joy Homestead property removed and interred at Swan Point Cemetery.
Mary took legal ownership of the Fenner/Joy house on July 27, 1917 and decided to sell it to Charles Stone and John Smith.
Charles Stone who had been living in the Major Thomas house since 1911 and John Smith closed the purchase of the house on 1918. They dammed the Fenner Brook on the property and went into the ice business. John Smith soon died and the invention of automatic refrigerator spoiled that venture. Stone soon turned to farming and dairying as his business. His daughters held the property
until 1961, Dolly Stone being the last Stone to live in the house.
1981 and 1992 the Major Thomas Fenner/Samuel Fenner Joy passed ownership twice. In 2005, after nearly 87 years, the Fenner Homestead has returned to a descendant of Major Thomas Fenner. Richard Arthur Fenner purchased the Major Thomas Fenner house, the home of his g-g-g-g-g-g-great grandfather Major Thomas Fenner with plans of making the ancestral home a Fenner Family Museum, to store and display the artifacts of the Fenner Family and on occasions have gatherings of the Fenner Family at the Major Thomas Fenner House in Cranston. This major undertaking is not unlike what the founding members of the Cranston Historical Society set out to do in 1949 when they were looking for a place to store their papers and artifacts.
This map from a Survey Book of Providence County shows what is now Champlin Boy Scout
Camp, aka as "Skeleton Valley" as belonging to Thomas Joy. The Hazard property was his sister's Rachel. The property of Samuel Fenner Joy, including the graveyard is now a modern housing plat. The Fenner house stands alone as a relic of Cranston's colorful history. Major Thomas Fenner or Samuel Joy would be a lost to find their home, it used to be on Plainfield Pike, now it is officially located on Stoney Acre Drive. So much for progress, on the old map it was less then a mile to Plainfield Pike from Samuel's house to visit his family at the Joy Homestead.
Do you have any pictures of the Joy Homestead before 1960 when Scituate Avenue was moved or any photos of the Major Fenner House before the area was platted with the new houses. If so please the Cranston Historical Society at:
Cranston Historical Society
Joy Homestead
Fenner Family Genealogy
Much credit must go to Richard Arthur Fenner for the creation of this Samuel Fenner Joy page. Richard Arthur has rekindled my interest in the Joy Family by way of his Fenner roots.
Joy Genealogy: "Smith-Joy-Sayles" Genealogy of Rhode Island Complied by Louis Hatherly Carr and Eva Gladys (Joy) Carr
Photo of Major Thomas Fenner House Framing, "Early Rhode Island Houses: An Historical and Architectural Study" Isham, Norman M. and Brown, Albert F. Providence 1895.
James H. Richardson (1866 - 1948) photos courtesy of his nephew Donald Carpenter.
