Amy Russo gets a wall-to-wall RI history lesson at a Colonial farmstead in Lincoln

Some of us live in towering apartment buildings, small studios or multifamily homes. John and Barbara Cullen live in a museum of sorts.

It’s a mustard-colored, two-story Colonial mansion surrounded by grassy fields and filled with antiques. Known as the Whipple-Cullen Farmstead, the house sits on Lincoln’s Old River Road, near an old limestone quarry that once excavated the same stone used in its construction.

Noteworthy is the cast of characters big and small that had a stake in the building’s ownership, many of whom were living pieces of local history.

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As John tells it, the story begins circa 1713, so long ago that Lincoln was still part of Smithfield. That’s when Eleazer Whipple, a veteran of King Philip’s War, built the home with son Job Whipple. At first glance, those names may not mean much, though John, who has taken a deep dive into their past, bills himself “an honorary Whipple” for his time spent researching.

Though, reader, you may note he is a Cullen, not a Whipple. We’ll get to that momentarily. Unsurprisingly, he is a former history major at Providence College.

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Job, having been part of the area’s iconic limestone industry, had a son, Stephen, who served in Rhode Island’s Colonial assembly on May 4, 1776, when it became the first colony to declare its independence from Great Britain. Job was also the great-grandson of Thomas Angell. According to The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, authored by genealogist John Osborne Austin and published in 1887, Angell was among a group that stayed with Roger Williams in 1636 in Seekonk, Massachusetts, shortly before Williams founded Providence.

In the late 1880s, John’s great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant also named John, acquired the farmstead, operating a family dairy there until 1940, his son Patrick going on to serve in Rhode Island’s state Senate in the 1930s. There you have John Jr.’s connection to this saga.

No, the house is not the site of any major historical events, though its ownership is dotted with individuals who were, in their own way. By 1991, after an application and an inspection, John convinced the National Register of Historical Places to recognize the building and issue it a plaque that is proudly displayed today.

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John and Barbara began advertising the bits of history on a pamphlet after they turned the farmstead into a bed and breakfast in 1993, a venture that lasted until 2005. Sometime before the couple closed up shop, a Dr. Charles Whipple Jr. of Edmond, Oklahoma, entered as a guest performing some research of his own.

Having descended from the early Whipples, Charles now oversees a massive Ancestry.com-style database of names and connections at Whipple.org.

If it proves anything, it’s that Rhode Island is smaller than you think.

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Providence Journal staff writer Amy Russo, a transplanted New Yorker, is looking for new ways to experience her adopted state. If you have suggestions for this column, email her at amrusso@providencejournal.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Lincoln colonial farmstead has housed many players in RI history