Captain Israel Inman's Inn (Simon Sweet House)

This Federal house, set side elevation to the road, with some Greek Revival alterations and an ample Victorian barn, is the most substantial house in town. It appears on a 1790 map as Captain Inman's Inn. Although Simon Sweet was its best-known owner locally, the house is famous in Rhode Island history as a headquarters for state militia men during the so-called Dorr Rebellion, or “Dorr War,” which came to a climax in the Battle of Acote's Hill, now a cemetery across the pike. There the episode is marked by a bronze-tableted boulder within sight of the highway. Thomas W. Dorr, a wealthy Providence lawyer who identified with populist causes, beginning in 1841 led a paramilitary movement for more liberal suffrage. In 1842 the Dorrites took possession of, Chepachet where several converging forces were to have rendezvoused. State militia dispatched from Providence easily won a “war” in which the defenders had effectively disbanded before the engagement. The movement faded away, and its leader was briefly imprisoned and financially ruined; but many Dorrite demands were eventually realized.