Nestled in the northwest corner of Rhode Island, the Town of Burrillville was settled by English colonists in the mid-17th century. The land was originally inhabited by the Nipmuc people, a Northeastern Woodlands tribe whose territory spanned parts of present-day northern Rhode Island, central Massachusetts, and northeastern Connecticut. The Nipmuc were semi-sedentary, relying on a mix of agriculture (mainly corn, beans, and squash), hunting, and fishing. Another name for corn, beans, and squash is the Three Sisters. This term comes from Indigenous agricultural traditions in North America. The three crops are often grown together because they support one another during growth: corn provides a tall stalk for beans to climb; beans fix nitrogen in the soil, enriching it; and Squash spreads along the ground, blocking sunlight, helping retain moisture, and suppressing weeds. The Three Sisters are a powerful example of sustainable, companion planting.
There were Neighboring Tribes: The Narragansett lived to the south and southeast, while the Wampanoag lived to the east. There was interaction—both cooperative and conflictual—among these groups. European colonists gradually displaced the Nipmuc people during the 17th and 18th centuries, especially after King Philip's War (1675–1676), which devastated Indigenous populations across southern New England. Many Nipmuc survivors were enslaved, relocated, or forced to assimilate. Today, the Nipmuc Nation, based in Massachusetts, is a state-recognized tribe and continues to advocate for cultural revitalization and land acknowledgment.
Burrillville, like many New England towns, now lies on land that was ceded—often under duress or deception—by its original Indigenous inhabitants. From the outset, the gravelly-loam soils in Burrillville, though rocky and uneven, supported a mix of subsistence crops, corn, rye, oats, potatoes, and expansive pastures and orchards. By the 18th century, farms dotted the landscape, typified by enduring wood-frame farmhouses, stone walls, barns, and corncribs.
The introduction-
Into the 19th century, Burrillville underwent a dual transformation: industrial growth alongside persistent agriculture. Sheep were introduced to Burrillville not just in small numbers but on an industrial scale during the early 19th century, roughly between 1810 and 1820, as part of New England’s Merino sheep boom. Around 1810–1820, following the Napoleonic Wars and U.S. diplomat William Jarvis’s importation of fine Merino sheep, sheep farming exploded across New England. In Burrillville itself, textile mills, especially woolen mills, began to emerge shortly thereafter. Notably, Daniel Sayles's woolen mill opened in Pascoag in 1815, signaling the town’s close ties to large-scale wool production.
Although sheep had been present earlier for general farming, the large-scale introduction, driven by demand for fine Merino wool to supply growing woolen mills, began in the second decade of the 1800s and accelerated in the 1810s following the broader Merino sheep frenzy. Dozens of mill villages, including Harrisville, Pascoag, Oakland, Mapleville, Bridgeton, Wallum Lake, and others, sprang up along its rivers: Clear River, Chepachet River, Branch River, Nipmuc River, Chockalog River, and Pascoag River. The rivers, often dammed up into lakes, powered gristmills and sawmills. Still, farming flourished between these hamlets.
In Bridgeton, for example, the town's Poor Farm supported needy residents through vegetable plots, woodcutting, and fieldwork. The combination of large sheep herds, a booming wartime economy, and an upsurge in human population transformed the forests of Burrillville. The large herds of Merino sheep devastated all the undergrowth in the woods. Forests were cleared for crops to feed a burgeoning population. The woods of the 1800s look nothing like the woods of today. Prominent family farms anchored the local economy, and taxes on land and goods made their way into the Town’s municipal coffers. The Sherman Farm, comprising over 1,100 acres, was among the state’s largest fruit and dairy farms until the mid-19th century.
The Sweet’s Hill farm, established circa 1720, grew alfalfa, fruits, vegetables, timber, and dairy, and was one of Rhode Island’s first dairies to pasteurize milk for delivery to the Wallum Lake Sanatorium. Similarly, Peck’s Farm operated on approximately 100 acres, with dairy cows and 1,200 hens, through the early 20th century, delivering milk by wagon before closing in 1972. As mills declined in the mid-20th century, agriculture also waned but did not vanish. Burrillville’s population has remained stable, and zoning since the 1980s has preserved its rural character by concentrating development around historic villages and protecting farmland through large-lot zoning and the use of the Farm, Forest, and Open Space Act of 2001. Rhode Island Public Law 350, titled “An Act Relating to Taxation, Taxation of Farm, Forest, and Open Space Land,” gave large tracts of land tax discounts if the property remained undeveloped and managed within the law.
In recent decades, conservation efforts have ramped up. The Burrillville Land Trust, founded in 2000, has used acquisitions and conservation easements to safeguard working farms, including the historic Benjamin Smith Homestead (1730), also known as Grace Note Farm, along Jackson Schoolhouse Road in Pascoag, RI, in 2007, and launched the Burrillville Farmers’ Market in 2006 to reinvigorate local agriculture.
In May 2023, a 65-acre property owned by Ernie and Norma O’Leary was conserved via a state grant and easement, with funding from The Nature Conservancy, the June Rockwell Levy Foundation, the Bafflin Foundation, and the generosity of the O’Leary family. The purchase and acquisition ensure the ongoing agricultural use of a corn field along the 23 acres that is leased back to the O’Leary family’s next generation of farmers.
Most recently, after nearly 19 years of dedicated efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management purchased the 150-plus acres of what was once the 1,100-acre Sweet’s Hill. If one travelled anywhere in the Town of Burrillville in the 2020s, green and white Save Sweet’s Hill signs dotted the roads, communities, and landscape. This community effort, sponsored by the Burrillville Land Trust, helped push state and federal agencies into purchasing the property from the St. Angelo family. The 150+ acre acquisition made headlines across Rhode Island and beyond. The property is expected to become one of the most heavily used in Rhode Island once trails, access points, and parking areas are established. Thus, Burrillville’s agricultural story is one of adaptation and persistence—from colonial homesteads to industrial-era farms, mid-century decline, and contemporary resurgence through land preservation, private land trusts, and community-supported agriculture.
