There are numerous small villages scattered throughout northwestern Rhode Island.

Following is a list of Chepachet's neighbors within the Town of Glocester and the neighboring towns of Burrillville, Foster, and Scituate.

Be sure to scroll down to read how one of Chepachet's neighboring villages disappeared in the 1920's!

VILLAGE TOWN Bridgeton Burrillville Chepachet Glocester Cherry Valley Glocester Chopmist Scituate Clarkville Glocester Clayville Scituate Crazy Corners Scituate Fiskeville Scituate Foster Center Foster Gazzaville Burrillville Glendale Burrillville Graniteville Burrillville Harmony Glocester Harrisdale Scituate Harrisville Burrillville Hope Scituate Jackson Scituate Laurel Hill Burrillville Mapleville Burrillville Mohegan Burrillville Moosup Valley Foster Nasonville Burrillville North Foster Foster North Scituate Scituate Oak Valley Burrillville Oakland Burrillville Pascoag Burrillville Potterville Scituate Rockland Scituate Saundersville Scituate South Foster Foster Tarkiln Burrillville Waldron Corners Glocester Wallum Lake Burrillville Waterman Four Corners Scituate Westcott Beach Glocester West Glocester Glocester Whipple Burrillville

Barden's Mill was a small village located in western Scituate just below the Barden Reservoir dam. The village was named after John Barden, probably a descendant of Thomas Barden who was living in Rhode Island in 1675. Barden was the owner of the local mill, and the nearby reservoir and the town were named after him.

Following John Barden's death, the village was called Bettyville in honor of Betsy Barden, the mill owner's widow. When the Ponaganset Mfg. Company located its business there, the official name of the village was changed to Ponaganset. However, many people thought that name was too hard to pronounce, so they still called it Bettyville.

Bettyville was located right next to the Ponaganset  River, and boasted an iron works, a gristmill, and a sawmill. It also had a cotton mill which was built there in 1826 and ran almost non-stop until the end of the century. The village only had about a dozen buildings, including the mills, a church, a school, a general store, a slaughterhouse, millhouses where the workers lived, and one or two large homes where the millowners lived.

In 1915, Providence Mayor Joseph H. Gainer and a seven-member commission known as the Water Supply Board decided to construct a reservoir system. They cited "the increased pollution of the old water system and its inability to meet the demands of a burgeoning population." The plan was to build a large dam and flood certain areas within the Town of Scituate. Certain mill towns were to be flooded and others abandoned. If the main and auxiliary reservoirs were "... to be kept free from contamination and their waters fit for the purpose intended, neither mills nor villages, nor isolated human denizens of the great basin or water shed in which the city's water supply is to be caught and hoarded, can be permitted to remain." Bettyville was among those villages to receive a death sentence.

Construction began, the main reservoir being formed by damming the north branch of the Pawtuxet River at the tiny village of Kent. That village was flooded along with Ashland, Richmond Village, South Scituate, and Wilbur Hollow. A total of 375 homes were destroyed. Bettyville was abandoned as planned, with the village's larger buildings being demolished and other buildings, including houses, merely left to the ravages of time and neglect.

Conley, Patrick T. & Paul R. Campbell. Providence - A Pictorial History. Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company, Publishers, 1982 (reprinted 1986).
Conley, Patrick T. An Album of Rhode Island History, 1636-1986. Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company, Publishers, 1986.
Savage, James. Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England. Boston, MA: 1860 -1862 (reprinted Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1990).
Scituate Reservoir - Heritage Collection, North Scituate Public Library, North Scituate, RI.

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