The Jenks’ influence had spread to Rhode Island as early as 1655 when Joseph Jenks, Jr., who had learned the business with his father, moved from Lynn to the headwaters of Narragansett Bay, and founded Pawtucket. He built a forge near a bog-ore mine and water power, and began making domestic utensils and iron tools. The settlement was destroyed by the Indians in 1675, during King Philip’s war, but was soon rebuilt. The son of this Jenks, the third Joseph Jenks, was born there, and later became a very influential man in the colony. He was governor for five years and was interested in many of its activities.[126] Providence, from its better situation commercially, early became a trading center, but nearly all the manufacturing was done at Pawtucket on account of the abundant water power. In fact, it was not until the steam engine rendered manufacturing independent of water power that Providence took the lead as an industrial center. [126] Goodrich, pp. 18-23. In the enterprises centering about Pawtucket and Providence, one finds continually the names of Jenks, Wilkinson, Brown and Greene, among the latter that of Nathaniel Greene, the Revolutionary general, who had a cannon factory at Coventry. Of these early families the Wilkinsons were the most influential. Oziel Wilkinson, a Quaker, came to Pawtucket from Smithfield, R. I., established an anchor forge there in 1784, and soon became the leading man in the community. He built an air furnace in 1791, and three years later he furnished castings for the Cambridge drawbridge and for canal locks, probably those first used on the Merrimac River.[127] He and his family had a most important part in the development of early manufacturing in America. He had six sons and four daughters. Four of the sons worked in two partnerships, one of Abraham and Isaac (twins), the other of David and Daniel. The fifth son was also a successful manufacturer. One of his daughters married Samuel Slater, who will be mentioned later; one married Timothy Greene, another, William Wilkinson, and the youngest, Hezekiah Howe, all of whom were manufacturers. The remaining son, the only child unaccounted for, died at the age of four years.[128] [127] _Ibid._, p. 51. [128] Israel Wilkinson: “Memoirs of the Wilkinson Family,” pp. 220, 461. Jacksonville, Ill., 1869. In 1794 David Wilkinson built a steamboat and made a trip in it of three and one-half miles from Winsor’s Cove to Providence. He was not impressed with the practical value of it, and dismantled it after their “frolic.” Before it was destroyed, however, a young man named Daniel Leach examined it carefully with the greatest interest. Later, when Fulton made his plans for the “Clermont,” the drawings were said to have been made by this same man, Leach.[129] [129] _Ibid._, pp. 509-513; also, Field, Vol. III, p. 372. The name here is given as French.