Recently, the City of Central Falls, marked International Women’s Day by launching the Central Fall’s Women’s Hall of Fame. The three women inducted were actor Viola Davis, a Central Falls native,  the late Sandra Moreau, the city’s first councilwoman, and Mayor Maria Riviera, the city’s first woman mayor and first Latina mayor. 

Central Falls has been home or work place to many spirited women of historic note.  In particular, we have often mentioned Elizabeth Buffam Chace who with her family had long held anti-slavery beliefs. She and her husband worked along other abolitionists to support anti-slavery and promote freedom by opening up their home to the underground railroad.

Chace was also instrumental in Rhode Island’s suffragette movement and was involved in prison reform as well as education reform. In 2001, she was honored with a bronze bust in the Rhode Island State House and was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2002.  Her tireless efforts as champion for the unfortunate earned her the affectionate title of Conscience of Rhode Island.

Chace’s daughter, Lillie Chace Wyman, followed in her mother’s footsteps as reformer and in 2020 was posthumously inducted into the RI’s Heritage Hall of Fame. Wyman, born and raised in the Chace Central Falls home, was greatly influenced by her reform-minded parents.   She served as her mother’s secretary and herself became active in the suffragette movement. In April, 1887 she undertook the publication of a new newspaper, “The Amendment,” in support of the RI constitutional amendment for female suffrage. Unfortunately, the amendment did not pass at that time.

She is best known as an author, writing short stories that were published in the Atlantic Monthly and later published in a book, “Poverty Grass.”  Her writings depict the working class and downtrodden around factory life that was familiar to her (one may compare her writing to Charles Dickens if not in style, but in sentiment).  Her book and her essay “Child of the State” is said “to have been credited with bringing about institutional reform.”¹

Another woman, Kady Southwell Brownell, found her way to Central Falls via Africa and Scotland. She found work in one of the mills of Central Falls in 1860’s around the same time period that Chace’s husband’s mill, Valley Falls Mills, was establishing itself.  Whether Brownell worked in the Chace factory or a different one is not known.  She met her husband, Robert Brownell, while working as a weaver and followed him off to fight in the Civil War.  Being quite spirited herself, she was not deterred when her husband sent her back. It is noted that she went to then Governor Sprague and asked to be assigned to her husband’s regiment. Often considered a war heroine, legend has it that she fought in the battle of Bull Run where she earned the nickname “Spunky Kady.” Legend also holds that she became known as the “heroine of New Bern” in battles fought in North Carolina. Whether the legends are true or exaggerated is explored in the Winter/Spring 2012 edition of ‘Rhode Island History” in an article “Sourcing A RI Legend,’written by our friend C. Morgan Grefe, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Historical Society, who by the way, also has ties to Central Falls.

In the 1870’s Kady and her husband moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut where she is listed as an “amateur actress.” From reading Grefe’s article Kady does seem to have had a penchant for the dramatic and is a most fascinating woman. Read more.

These three women of Central Falls past may have helped to pave the way for the three women recently inducted into the city’s Women’s Hall of Fame, all of whom are well deserved.  

Viola Davis, who just received her fourth Oscar nomination making her the most nominated black actress in the history of the Academy Awards², never fails to mention her home city of Central Falls in her acceptance speeches and has not forgotten where she came from. 

Mayor Maria Riviera, a long-time resident of the City who moved here with her parents in 1987,  served on the City Council prior to running for mayor. She was also the first female and first Latino president of the city council after being elected during her 2nd term. She has worked tirelessly for the betterment of the community on issues of safety and education. With a BA in Public Administration from Roger Williams University and a graduate of the Latina Leadership Institute, she has compassion  and a strong desire to support families, much like her historic predecessors.  Read more.

Visit and learn more about the history of Central Falls! You can check the City’s website, or better yet why not take a walk around Jenks Park to Viola Davis Way (Summer Street) leading to Central Falls High School and the surrounding neighborhoods  of the city. You might also want to check out the city library or La Galeriá del Pueblo – the state’s only Latino Gallery and Cultural Hub.  Visit website for hours.

Pawtucket Preservation has published a very detailed walking tour of Central Falls. Download tour.

¹Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame http://www.riheritagehalloffame.org/inductees_detail.cfm?crit=det&iid=856
²Zack Sharf, “Indiewire” March 15, 2021

Image: Kady C. Brownell, vivandière associated with 1st Rhode Island Infantry Regiment and 5th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment.