Little Compton is celebrating its 350th anniversary this year; here is another dispatch from the Town Crier on the town's history, and what's going on with the celebration. For more information, see the 350th's website here.

Here are a few more random, but interesting, facts I have found in my research:

• The first kerosene lamp in Little Compton was owned by Mrs. Mary P.W. Taylor, who gave it to the Little Compton Historical Society when she was 95. According to “Notes on Little Compton” by Benjamin Franklin Wilbour and edited by Carlton Brownell, the lamp once belonged to her grandfather, Orrin W. Simmons. It has a marble base, brass shaft, and glass fount. Townspeople were apparently afraid of kerosene, so some would not enter the room when it was burning.

• It is bad luck to whistle on a boat, or to say the word “pig.”

• The first citizen of Little Compton of Portuguese birth to be elected to a town office was Frank Cardoza in 1918. He was elected as road surveyor. At the time there were 30 or 40 Portuguese voters in the town.

• In 1917, Langford Taylor Alden of Little Compton was awarded the French War Cross for his work in the American Ambulance Field Service.

• In June of 1918, Seaman Harold Wimer was saved while adrift on a raft with other companions, without food or water, for 18 hours after their ship, the Abraham Lincoln, was torpedoed off the French coast.

• A horseshoe type life preserver washed ashore at Lloyd’s Beach, where it was found by Philip W. Almy Jr. Dark red in color, the preserver bore the inscription “S.M.UNTERSEENBOAT.U.53, thought to be from a German submarine. Also, a large tank (large enough for a man to stand up in) from the same ship, carefully built and caulked with oakum, was discovered on the shore between Briggs Beach and South Shore.

• The large towboat that capsized and sank off Warren’s Point in August 1916 was the Albert J. Stone. Having just dropped three barges at Harwich and starting on the return trip to New York by way of the Cape Cod canal, the towboat got within a mile of Warren’s Point when she started to leak, and very soon the bulkheads gave way, allowing the water to rush in. The captain and crew of 16 men put out in an 18-foot open boat, first taking care that their mascot, a monkey, was safe aboard with them. All of the crew, with the exception of a fireman, saved their clothing. They were rowing around off a can buoy about a half mile from Warren’s Point, when they were picked up and brought to Sakonnet Point by Captain Borah of the lobster launch Parthenon.

The monkey, which had been the mascot of the crew for six years, was given to Charles Briggs, owner of a fish market on Bluff Head.

The new steel vessel (only four years old), and valued at $150,000, lay in eleven fathoms of water. The New York Wrecking Company sent divers into the tug, at a cost to the owners of $60,000. The schooner Reita and sloop Natalie were engaged in the raising of the tug. It was first brought to the surface, but immediately sank, and another dredger was sent to its rescue.

• There were seven students in the first class to graduate from Josephine F. Wilbur School in 1930, and 25 in the last class to graduate in1966.

• At the beginning of World War II, the total population of Little Compton (according to the 1940 census records) was 1,492 citizens. Over 100 served our country in the military, many not waiting for the draft, but volunteering. Our soldiers served in nearly every branch of the military, and were sent all over the world. Two of the volunteers were women — Rheba Peckham, who became a registered nurse after training at Newport Hospital, enlisted and served in Georgia, Colorado and New York; Mary Sylvia joined the Navy and served as a Navy clerical worker. The family of John and Emilia Sylvia had five sons serving actively at the same time.

Two of our soldiers never returned home: John Shurtleff, 18, succumbed to a very rare meningitis while in basic training at Atlantic City, N.J.; and Francis Bahia, 18, was killed in France. Both have memorials in Little Compton: Francis Bahia’s is at the junction of South of Commons Road and Swamp Road, and John Shurtleff’s is at the junction of William Sisson Road and Maple Avenue.

Note: For more information on LC350, the town’s 350th anniversary celebration, see ww.lc350th.com.