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M I L T
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Gc 974.402 M642mit 1971681
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 6115
OF
W
L
ON .
SETTLEI
ED 1662
DEUS NOBIS HAEC
OTIA FE
THE MILTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PRESIDENT
FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
SECOND VICE PRESIDENT
Dr. Owen Kiernan
SECRETARY
Col. Edward P. Hamilton
TREASURER
William P. Melley
HISTORIAN
Charles R. Morris
Benjamin R. Alexander
Charles F. Batchelder
W. L. W. Field William Morris Hunt James P. Thurber
DIRECTORS
Mrs. James B. Ayer
John J. Ryan, Jr.
population 900-1000
1770
MILTON
Hillside St.
BLUE HILLS
School
Adams St .-
Pleasant St.
Cemetery
School
Canton Ave.
! Gov. Hutchinson
O
MI
H
Pound
Daniel Vose's House and Store
NEPONSET VILLAGE
Grist, Saw, Chocolate and Paper Mills (Also Fulling and Snuff On Dorchester Side)
Paper and Slitting Mills
Upper Mills (Mattapan)
NEPONSET
RIVER
Brook Rd.
BRUSH HILL
Brush Hill Rd.
O School t Bent's Tavern
n
East Milton Square Looking South East, about 1912
A Brief History of
MILTON
Massachusetts
Edited by Mrs. James B. Ayer
1 9 5 6
The Milton Historical Society
-
-
E
-
Milton Water Front, about 1900
Contents
INTRODUCTION Mrs. James B. Ayer 1
THE EARLY COUNTRY Mrs. Francis F. Brooks 3
HISTORIC HOUSES Mrs. James B. Ayer 6
CHURCHES Mrs. George C. Marsden 11
SCHOOLS Mrs. Robert S. Edwards 15
TRANSPORTATION Dr. Irving G. Lunt 25
GOVERNMENT
George N. Hurd, Jr. 30
BUSINESS George L. Campbell 36
THE LIBRARY Miss Marjorie Shaw 40
FIRSTS
Col. Edward P. Hamilton 42
Designed by Walter H. Lorraine
A Brief History of Milton, Massachusetts
1971681
Introduction
ON JANUARY 25th, 1954, at an open discussion meeting in the Pierce School auditorium, the townspeople of Milton were asked "How do you suggest that our Historical Society can best serve the Town?" This was a large meeting made up of representatives from schools, churches, the li- brary, besides various industries, trades and pro- fessions. The answer was practically unanimous that the most useful contribution the Society could make would be to publish, primarily for school- children, and general popular use, a short history of Milton from its first settlement up to the present day.
The suggestion was no sooner made than the Society sprang into action. Dr. Owen Kiernan, Superintendent of Schools, has served as chairman of this community project, with an editorial board of three: Mrs. James B. Ayer, editor, Col. Edward P. Hamilton, and William Morris Hunt. This board chose nine members of the Historical Society, each an authority on his or her given subject, to submit articles for reference in the compiling of the whole. It has been a stimulating and revealing
1
IGENDAILLI
task, and if the readers derive as much reward as did the authors then our enterprise has been worth- while.
This, then, is the requested condensed history, in capsule form, of the town of Milton from the year 1634 up to the present day, 1956, a span of 322 years. Its purpose is to show how rich it is in heirlooms and traditions, how fundamental were the achievements of its pioneers, and how applica- ble they have proved to the development of the activities of the present day. These activities, mental, moral and physical, have been separated into headings, 9 in number, each of which has been treated with great care as to accuracy and sense of values, and we have selected only the events and accomplishments which are unique to Milton it- self, and, again, only using the highlights of each subject, for our space is limited and details are prohibitive. Appreciative thanks are due to each contributor for the time and meticulous care that were put into the research, and the information
A Farm Cart
presented is an invaluable record for the archives of future generations. The editors were sorry, in- deed, that they could not use word for word more of the excellent material, but it was the very ac- curacy and excellence of this same material that made the necessary abbreviations possible. There is so much in our early history that is similar to that of the various other communities of the time that few towns can claim priorities with any cer- tainty, but Milton has a few documented records which give actual proof of some important facts to which she can legitimately lay claim; these will be mentioned in due course and with due pride.
The Early Country and Inhabitants
THE FIRST consideration of this résumé is physi- cal: what sort of countryside was there in this primeval region? The immigrants, tired from their travels and anxieties, must have breathed a sigh of relief when they looked upon the views that greeted them from the shores of the Neponset where they landed to explore. All around were pleasing, arable meadows, pasture-lands, small rivers, brooks, a blue chain of hills, and lovely woods, all leading down to estuaries and harbors bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, that ever-present link with the mother-world; a cozy and inviting place worthy of further investigation.
The first concern of the settlers was, of course, water, and of this there was a plentiful supply in the rivers and brooks, and of a pure and sparkling variety.
The second was food. The sea yielded a goodly
3
T
Old Watering Cart in the Village
variety of fish, the beaches held clams, oysters and mussels; and the woods large and small game, and the air, fowl. With these necessities assured them, they prospected for the building of their farms. There was splendid timber in the woods, tall stands of pine, oak and chestnut, the hand-hewn beams of which can be identified today in the attics and foundations of many of our old houses.
Next to their own came the welfare of the live- stock, and the pasture-lands looked lush and green, and satisfying to the starving eyes of their precious herds.
The tilling of the soil was, of course, of the ut- most importance, for they must have fodder and grain for their cattle, and fruit and vegetables for themselves. Although some of the fields were full of stones which would have to be cleared by hand, nevertheless, they found much of the soil rich and promising, and, all these requirements having been satisfactorily met, it did not take them long to
4
decide that this lovely region was the place for them to make their new homes.
There was was just one last question, and that was the natives. What sort of people were the Indians who were to be their neighbors? They had heard rumors from the Plymouth Colony and others of blood-thirsty attacks, tomahawks, scalp- ings, war-dances and raids, so they made cautious overtures. To their surprise and delight, they found the aborigines passive, harmless and rather pathetic; they had been ravaged by the plague ten years or more ago, so the few that were left were peaceable, derelict, parasitical and weak; instead of raiders, they had become beggars! There is practically no history recorded of these local In- dians except that their chief was named Chicka- taubut. But they did give us their good Indian corn which was unknown in the old world and which proved an enormous addition to the diet of both man and beast. Their other contribution was
Robert Tucker House, Oldest House in Milton, Built ca 1670
----
some of their names; which we still use today, and with which we are all familiar.
NAME
ORIGIN
PRESENT USE
MASSACHUSETTS Tribe living along Name of our Com- Massachusetts Bay. monwealth. Leader's name Mas- sachusetts. Meaning - "near the Blue Hills."
NEPONSET Remnant of Massa- Name of the tidal chusetts Tribe living river that forms the between Boston and boundary between the Blue Hills. Milton and Dorches- ter.
ASHMONT
Indian Leader
Last southbound stop on the underground. Change to surface trolley for Milton.
MATTAPAN
Indian Leader
Shopping Center just over the Milton line. Also the end of the surface car line.
CHICKATAUBUT
Indian Chief with The second highest
Headquarters in the of the Blue Hills.
Blue Hills.
UNQUITY- QUISSET
Indian word inter- The original name preted to be "head of that section of of the tidal river." Dorchester that be- came the Township of Milton in 1662.
Historic Houses
ONE OF the most valuable of our New England legacies is its old houses, and Milton has inherited a proud share. Documents record history in a fac-
6
The House of Captain Daniel Vose in which was signed the Suffolk Resolves
tual form, but an old house which has been un- changed since history was being lived within its walls is a visual proof of the written accounts. We are told in books and old letters about the brick ovens, the trundle-beds, the candle-lights and lan- terns, the drawing of water by the primitive well- sweep, the secret cupboards and stairways, but a cit- izen of today, inured to all the modern mechanized appliances, as soon as he steps across the thresh- old into a pre-revolutionary house, comes face-to-
7
face with the actual reality of the living practices of his ancestors. With the guidance of the compre- hensive research of the Milton Historical Society, which lists and gives the data of 58 houses built before 1820 and still standing, I have selected 42 which seem to me the most important, either archi- tecturally or historically, 22 of which are pre-revo- lutionary, and many of the latter, except for addi- tions necessary for modern living, are structurally unchanged; the fire-places, mantels, staircases, pan- eling and flooring are as our ancestors designed them, and their charm is pristine, revealing, educa- tional and authentic. Most of them can be seen from their respective roads, and one, the Suffolk Resolves House is open to the public by appoint- ment at any time.
This committee hopes that its present research may arouse so much interest among the townspeo- ple that more owners of these significant houses may feel like giving the public a chance to visit them at some stated times. Perhaps a tour of cer- tain ones could be arranged each spring as other
Looking North into Village
-
Rising Sun Tavern Adams St. and Canton Ave.
towns, such as Cambridge, Lexington, and Salem, have done of late with so much success, and with such gratifying response. This committee also begs any interested readers to express their approval and offer any criticism to the Chairman who would welcome it with thanks and would also be glad of any further information or suggestion as to how to improve upon the presentation of this patriotic subject.
42 MILTON HOUSES BUILT BEFORE 1805 AND STILL STANDING IN 1955
An * denotes pre-Revolutionary date
NO. ORIGINAL OWNER
BUILT OWNER OR TENANT
ADAMS STREET
*67-69 Joseph Fenno 1765
(Barber-shop)
203 Dr. Amos Holbrook 1801
Joseph P. Spang
*233 Col. Joseph Gooch
about 1740
Mrs. Ellerton Whitney
*278 Samuel Swift
before 1740
Dr. Kenneth Sands
*362 Nathan Babcock
1753 M. J. Noonan
401 Widow Belcher
1776 William B. Crosby
594 Glover-Gardner
about 1785 Miss Olds
*631 Launcelot Pierce 1750 R. C. Blatchford
9
-----
805 Dana Tucker
before 1798 G. P. Baker
823 James Tucker
1798 Joseph Leland
1045 Maj. Joseph Bent
1798 Robert H. Gardiner
*1144 John Crehore
about 1724 Dr. Henry Beecher
1465 Isaac Davenport
1794 Mrs. Henry Binney
*1493 Davenport farmhouse 1707
Kennard Wakefield
CANTON AVENUE
215 Joseph Babcock
693 Lemuel Gulliver
1798 Miss Fairbank
*720 John Gulliver
before 1752
W. H. Leary
*730 Rev. Nathaniel Robbins 1752
about 1788 Roger Martin
1780 Dr. J. B. Ayer
old part built late
1600's
new part built
1765
1514 Nathaniel Davenport
1580 Phineas Davenport
1631 William Crehore
*1839 William Davenport
part of present house
1720 S. H. Wolcott
HIGHLAND STREET
386 John Gibbons
about 1801
Bent Nursing Home
HILLSIDE STREET
*11 Samuel Miller
about 1771 Mr. R. Cote
1713
Howard Whiteside
*188 French-Bronsdon
part about
1770
Dr. M. Putnam
*217 Jeremiah Tucker
about 1775
O. M. Peterson
*428 Capen House, moved from Dorchester
1636
Mr. K. Webster
HOLMES LANE
*36 Elijah Wadsworth
1765
Wm. J. Richards
MORTON ROAD
78 Gov. Robbins-Cabot
1800
Walter D. Brooks
RANDOLPH AVENUE
239 Thomas Hollis
about 1805
Hatherly Foster
BRUSH HILL ROAD
*504 Roger Sumner
1678 Wm. D. Benjes
1670 H. L. Whitney
*676 Robert Tucker
(earliest house in Milton)
before 1798 Mrs. G. N. Hurd
1238 Nath. Davenport
1350 Dr. John Sprague
*1370 Suffolk Resolves House Vose-Holbrook
before 1798 Mrs. John Bartol
about 1802 Edward Sawyer
1781 William Rust
*93 Samuel Tucker
W. N. Sweet
10
350
Ellis
about 1815 Dr. Paul R. Withington 1726 R. Cote F. E. Firth
*1023 Capt. Isaac Tucker
1100
Nathaniel Tucker
1790
ROBBINS STREET AND MYERS LANE
*23
Manassah Tucker
1708
Mrs. W. B. Dexter
MYERS LANE
*19
William Tucker
1760
Miss Helen Walsh
VOSES LANE
*34
Gen. Joseph Vose
1761
W. R. Sparrell
Churches
As SOON as the settlers had built their primitive houses, planted their gardens, fenced in their live- stock and established their physical mode of life, they turned to the subject that was always first in the minds of everybody; the subject that had driven them from their homes in England and forced them to undergo indescribable hardships in seek- ing a new country for their adoption; that subject
Babcock-Stanley House and Swift's Hat Shop East Side Adams St. in Village
was, of course, their religion. Although they had held informal meetings for worship in each other's houses from the very first, it took them about twenty years to establish an actual church. For several decades the earliest Miltonians traveled by foot or ox-cart over the ford at the Neponset River to a church in Dorchester, and no excuse or apology was acceptable for absence! About 1656, a Meeting House was built on Milton Hill, and in 1657, there is a record of the existence of a minister. The first formal establishment of a Milton Church occurred in February 1678, when 12 Milton Members of the Dorchester Church met and signed a covenant. A second Meeting House was built in 1671, and it was here that the Rev. Peter Thacher had his long and famous pastorate.
The third church was built on Canton Avenue in 1728, and after the Revolution, a fourth build- ing was dedicated nearby, on the site of the present Unitarian Church. For this occasion, the Rev. Nathaniel Robbins was presented with a "new horse-hair wig and a black gown"!
The early church here in the colonies was one- denominational, and the church and state were considered as one. The Puritans had broken with England because they found her too intolerant, but for the first 100 years or so, they, themselves, were equally intolerant from their point of view, and their tenets equally strict.
The church services in the beginning were all of a pattern. They began early Sunday morning and except for the relief of a limited amount of unaccompanied hymn-singing, and reciting or chanting of the psalms, they consisted of a sermon which went on without interruption for several
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Blackman's Blacksmith Shop Canton Ave. at Head of Parkway
hours, and which few people understood. The children wriggled under the reprimanding glances of their elders; the tired farmer dozed only to be rudely awaked by the tithing-man whose business it was to patrol the aisles, carrying a long stick tipped with feathers with which he tickled any face that was suspiciously inclined to nod. Legend hath it that one end of the stick had a sharp prong with which he prodded the men, the other held the more delicate reminder of feathers for the women! The churches were unheated, and, in the dead of winter, the parishoners carried little foot-warmers to keep their feet from freezing; it is bad enough to think of the discomfort of the elders, but it is cruel to imagine the plight of the poor little children who sat bolt-upright in their voluminous, scratchy, woolen clothing, and their wide, starched collars, unable to reach the foot-warmers on the ground,
13
and forbidden to move till the sermon was over.
After about 150 years of this uniform sort of worship, the people grew more liberal in their beliefs, and doctrinal differences began to creep into the communities. Unitarianism was spreading in Boston and, about 1830, during the pastorate of the Rev. Samuel Gile, the church on Milton Hill split into two factions, and the First Evangelical Congregational Church was erected beside it, and these two white churches, with their classic steeples, stand today as a typical, traditional scene, the symbol of all early New England village life. The older church became Unitarian, and now has be- side it the famous "Children's Church," founded in 1937 by Dorothy Pomeroy, wife of the, at that time, minister of the big church. Here the chil- dren have their own worship while their parents attend the services in the large old church, its guardian. It is a unique institution, one of the first and few in the country, and is proving a very interesting and inspiring experiment.
As early as 1844, a group of Methodists met for services in Mattapan, and in 1925, a Community
First Parish Church of Milton (Unitarian)
House was built for people of all denominations.
From this date on, the various sects began to organize and grow in popularity and activity: early in the century, the Catholic organization sprang up and flourished in different districts, and now have four handsome buildings.
About ten years ago, a group of young men and women banded together for the purpose of pre- serving Judaism in America - Temple Shalom and a Hebrew Center, with day and night activities for all ages, were established. Now, in 1956 Milton has twelve houses of worship within its limits, all beautifully kept up and well attended, and the stubborn determination of our Puritan ancestors to make religious worship free has certainly reaped its reward.
Schools
THE STORY of the schools in Milton parallels the story of the development of the town itself. Its first settlers were persons dedicated to an abiding
Old Academy Building
belief in the right of the individual to freedom of action and freedom of thought; they were religious, industrious and independent men and women. They found a life that was hard and meager in its rewards, except in that supreme reward of freedom. They were concerned with the need of universal education to preserve that atmosphere of freedom and to insure the growth and development of their free community and its type of government.
The early schools were established solely to teach children to read and write, though there was a deep religious emphasis in most of the subject matter. The first school seems to be impossible to locate with any certainty. In a memorandum of March 4, 1700, we find that Ebenezer Clapp was chosen "scoole master" for the west end of town to teach children and youth to "reed and write and he ac- cepted the same." Thomas Vose, the Town Clerk, kept the East School. The curriculum of the earli- est colonial schools was limited to the so-called "3 R's" - reading, writing and arithmetic. The discipline was strict, and the standard, such as it could be, was high. There were no primers for at least 100 years, so their reading matter was the Bible, and their vocabulary must have been rich from an early age, for there was no such thing as slang to complicate their language requirements. The writing lesson consisted of copying a line of some familiar quotation, either from the Bible or some saying with a moral, over and over again until it filled a large page of foolscap, and it was not accepted until it was a veritable work of art. Arithmetic was not so very different from today, but the thing that was different from ours was the spelling. Nobody, not even the scholars, worried
16
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Old West School
about that. Even the most learned writers would spell the same word in several different ways on the same page, and nobody cared as long as their arrangement spelt the word! They might spell the word cat with a k, or with 2 t's, and nobody cared! Of course they learned hymns and psalms by heart, but the eyes of those little early scholars would open very wide if they could see one of our modern schools and realize the wealth, scope and variety of subjects offered for them to study, and the beauty of the materials and the school- houses! The early colonists had a practical reali- zation of the need of adequate support of the schools, and they finally secured the gift of a tract of land, and in 1712 it was voted to build a school house; up to now, schools had undoubtedly been kept in homes. It was 7 years before the vote was carried out however, and, in 1718, 2 schools were built, 1 for the east, and 1 for the west ends of the town. "Timber shall be cut in the church land with Mr. Thacher's consent." "Claw-boards and shingles left over from covering the meeting-house
17
to be used to cover school-houses." Peter Thacher was the first regularly ordained minister to serve Milton after it became an independent "legal par- ish" and therefore his consent was necessary for any project. The town population at this time was about 400 with 95 tax-payers. In 1768, there were 3 school-houses in use: 1, Churchill's Lane op- posite burying ground; 2, Canton Avenue near Atherton Street; 3, Head of Harland Street at Scotch Woods. In this year we have the first men- tion of the Grammar School, which was ordered to be kept in 2 of these institutions, as the statutes required it. In 1785, the town was divided into 4 school districts, and the Grammar School was to be kept for 6 months of the year at the East end of town, 3 months at Brush Hill and 3 months at Canton Avenue.
The years around 1800 were restless educa- tionally and there was a general desire for better schooling, especially for girls, who had thus far been rather neglected. The outgrowth of this
Bicycles at The Sutermeister's House
"restlessness" was the establishment of a number of small private schools in the "living-rooms" of pub- lic-spirited citizens. Miss Polly Crane's was very popular. It was started for little children and held in the old farm-house where she lived with her sister Dolly. Miss Polly lived to be 95 years old, but long before her death in 1860, the "Dames' School" had ceased to be and Miss Polly lived on in the old house alone.
Miss Margaret How had a small boarding-school on Centre Street near the cemetery. She kept a big stick in the corner and was feared but beloved by her little boys who sat with her of a cold winter's evening "on benches in the great fire-place where we could look up at the stars while she repeated to us Watts' hymns till we got a store of them by heart which we never forgot."* She prepared many of her boys for Milton Academy which was estab- lished in 1807. About 1844, the children of fam- ilies living on Milton Hill started their education
*Legacy of New England, by Ayer.
On Top of Blue Hill
in a small building on the Forbes' property. It lasted for some 40 years and was then merged with Milton Academy. One of its two buildings was moved in 1937 and became The Children's Church of the First Parish Unitarian Church.
The first School Committee was organized in 1827. Its duties however were limited; more ad- visory than otherwise. Twenty years later came the recommendation for music and art to be added to the curriculum, and that a map of the United States and of the world be made available for each school and "a time-piece is also desirable in the school-room." "Let us lose no time and spare no pains in united and well-directed efforts to educate our children. Prevention is better than cure." In 1850, at the East Primary School a "female" teacher taught 95 pupils for a 44-week session at a salary of $4.50 a week, and the subjects listed in her cur- riculum are: writing (and what beautiful writing it had to be), arithmetic, geography, grammar, physiology, philosophy, United States history, alge- bra, drawing and Latin! The Committee in 1850 also says "The number of scholars is altogether disproportioned to the accommodations . .. the state of the air usually unhealthy and unpleasant." Again, "It is with pain that the Committee feels obliged to refer to acts of insubordination on the part of a few of the largest scholars. ... They go to school not to study but to get rid of work . . . and the teacher, especially if female, becomes an object of sympathy." In 1852, it was recommended that more and larger school-houses be built. The new East School was completed the following year, and the Rev. Albert Teele said in his dedication speech, "In a house like this where the atmosphere
20
Old East School, about 1860
may be kept pure . . . the scholar will pursue his studies with better health and, consequently, greater success." Hygiene had come to stay! Also in that same year came a plea for better pay for the teachers. "In order to have good teachers, we must give them liberal compensation . . . Except that of a parent, there is none more important . . . a fearful responsibility rests on him."
With the coming of the 70's, education faced a new era and the schools became more or less under the jurisdiction of the state; therefore, the changes in the system of our schools were no longer unique to the town of Milton, and the innovations intro- duced from then on were much the same as in all the other Massachusetts towns. There was some experimenting with the establishment of a Super- intendent, and in 1891 it was finally decided that he was a necessary adjunct, and one was appointed.
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