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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01289 1997
GENEALOGY 974.402 W31WH
SOLON FRANKLIN WHITNEY
T THE compiler of the following "Historical Sketches of Watertown, " and author of many of the articles, SOLON FRANKLIN WHITNEY, was well known in the town for many years, as teacher, and later, librarian of its Public Library.
He was born in Harvard, Mass., August 22, 1831 and was a direct descendant of John and Elinor Whitney, who settled in Watertown in 1635. He was graduated from Brown University in 1859 and came to Watertown in 1865.
With a few others, he was instrumental in starting the Watertown Free Public Library in 1868 and was its librarian until he died, a period of fifty years lacking only a few months.
He was one of a group of men to organize the Water- town Historical Society and was secretary and treasurer for the first few years, and until his death, its librarian and the custodian of its possessions.
He died on the twenty-ninth of November, 1917 in his eighty-seventh year. This portrait is taken from the painting which hangs in the Public Library, the work of our talented townsman, the late Mr. James H. Rattigan.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS
COMPILED IN PART FOR HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS PUBLISHED BY J. W. LEWIS & CO. OF PHILADELPHIA IN 1890
By SOLON F. WHITNEY, A.M. (Br. '59) OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WATERTOWN
WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS
1893
1295450 CONTENTS
(Pagination is that of History of Middlesex County)
MYTHICAL PERIOD: PAGE
Geography, physical features of the lands within the ancient boundaries, agri-
cultural character of the people 317
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY :
Early Location of the First Church, by Dr. B. F. Davenport 325
The Ministers of the First Parish to Rev. R. R. Eliot, 1818, by Rev. William H. Savage 326-332 Ministers of the First Parish from Rev. Convers Francis, D.D., to Rev. William H. Savage, by Solon F. Whitney 332-338
Sketch of "The Old Meeting House" on corner of Common and Mt. Auburn Streets, by Joshua Coolidge, Esq. 334-336
The Baptist Church and Sabbath School, by Royal Gilkey 338
Phillips Church, by L. Macdonald 338
Methodist Episcopal Church, by Helen L. Richardson 340
St. Patrick's Church, by Rev. T. W. Coughlan 342
Church of the Good Shepherd, by John E. Abbott, Esq. 344
EARLY PEOPLE OF WATERTOWN 344
LAND GRANTS AND THE PROPRIETORS' BOOK 348
TOWN GOVERNMENT . 352
LIST OF TOWN OFFICERS, 1840-1890, SUPPLEMENTAL TO DR. BOND'S . 352
SCHOOLS 353
LIBRARIES
357
THE WEARS - The South Side - Morse Field, by Charles S. Ensign, LL.B. 369
MILITARY HISTORY:
Indians, by Rev. Edward A. Rand 377
Revolutionary Period, by Mrs. Ruth A. Bradford
385
Civil War. Roll of Honor, William H. Ingraham 389
BUSINESS INTERESTS 392
Banks and Banking. Union Market National Bank
395
Watertown Savings Bank. Watertown Cooperative Bank 396
MANUFACTURING AND MECHANICAL INDUSTRIES:
397
Walker & Pratt Manufacturing Company
Ætna Mills 401
Early History under the Bemises 402
Porter Needle Co. Empire Laundry Machinery Company 405
Lewando's French Dyeing and Cleansing Establishment 406
Metropolitan Laundry . 407
VII
PAGE
Shirt Factories
408
Warren Soap Manufactory
410
Starch Factories 411
Watertown Mill and the Dam
411,412
Hollingsworth & Whitney Company. Paper and paper bags 412
Gas and Electric Light . 413
SOCIETIES:
Free Masons in Watertown, by Alberto F. Haynes . 414
Odd Fellows, by Charles H. Rollins 415
Young Men's Christian Association, by James E. Norcross 415
Society for the Relief of the Sick 416
Women's Christian Temperance Union 416
Young Men's Assembly 417
Miscellaneous Societies . 417
SOURCES OF INFORMATION for the history of the old town of Watertown, including the whole of Weston, Waltham and parts of Belmont and Cambridge 418
PHYSICIANS:
Early Members of the Profession 419
Dr. Marshall Spring 420
Walter Hunnewell, M.D. 420
Dr. Hiram Hosmer 421
Alfred Hosmer, M.D. 422
Dr. David T. Huckins 423
Dr. Luther B. Morse 424
Dr. Julian A. Mead 424
OLD RESIDENTS:
Samuel Walker 424
Robbins and Curtis Family, by Miss Martha Robbins 424
White Family . 426
Coolidge Family, by Austin J. Coolidge, Esq. . 426
Seth Bemis, by Mrs. Bradford 428
Miles Pratt, by William T. Davis 429
Samuel Noyes and Thomas L. French, by William T. Davis 430
VIII
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF WATERTOWN.
The following contributions to a history of this ancient town are the result of a movement recently made to establish a Historical Society of Watertown. The secretary of this young society is the editor of this collection of articles, the faults of which he cheerfully undertakes to shoulder, while the merits he gratefully credits to the several writers. The editor is more and more impressed with the fact that very much of great interest to the historical student has been connected with the people of this town, many of whom, although scattered in different parts of the country still delight, like dutiful children, to refer to old Watertown as the source from which they derived ideas of personal and municipal independence, of correct moral and religious teaching, of thrift and industry, which have been of service to them wherever they have been located. Not all knowl- edge is of equal worth. Not all seed produces fruit worth the raising. If valuable elements of character have been matured in this old town, first planted by Sir Richard Saltonstall, blessed by the true, independent, God-fearing parson, George Phillips, and continued by a loyal posterity, it must be of service to others, sud so an honor to any to band down the memory of it to future generations. To study ar.d ; reserve the memory of all that has been or may be of use to others from the wide domain of ancient Watertown, is the purpose of this Historical Society .- SoLux F. WHITNEY, Sec.
[ Reprinted from the " History of Middlesex County, Massachuset' ?. "]
CHAPTER XXIX.
WATERTOWN.1
Mythical Period-Geography-Physical Features of the Lands Within its Ancient Boundaries-Agricultural Character of the People.
THE history of Watertown is important, as it is the oldest town now in the county, the town which has colonized so many other towns, and which, from its peculiar independent character and position, has served as a typical town in the organization of the state.
MYTHICAL PERIOD .- That the Norsemen colonized Iceland and the south-western shores of Greenland five or six centuries before the voyages of Columbus is a matter of history. That the claims of the Sagas that their bold sailors reached the shores of Labrador, of Newfoundland, of Nova Scotia and New England seems hardly incredible. Iceland is distant from Norway some 650 miles, from Scotland and the Shet- land Isles about 500 miles, while from Greenland only about 150 miles. The vessels and the seaman- ship that enabled the hardy Norsemen to cross from Norway to Iceland in frequent voyages, would have enabled them, with the aid of the southern curreuts which pour out of Baffin's Bay along the coast of Labrador and over the banks of Newfoundland and are well marked along the coast of Nova Scotia and Maine inside of the Gulf Stream as far south as Cape Cod, to visit these New England shores. There can be little doubt but that the many vague stories of the Sagas have under them facts accomplished which the more definite language of a later period would have fixed with such minuteness of dates and measure- ments and careful details as to have changed the myths to veritable history. It may be mere myth, or theory, or the faith of a dreamer that makes Watertown the chief settlement of these venture- some navigators, and the seat of a commerce in what seemed to the Icelanders and the people of the north of Europe wonderful growths of gnarled wood and vines. We have not space in this brief sketch of the history of this town, so favored by nature, so neglected as yet by man, for more than this mere allusion to the claims of new discoveries in this direction by Professor Horsford in his remarkable communication to the American Geographical So-
ciety made the last year. What is possibly true it may be difficult to prove by incontestable evidence. If true, some remains of grave, or utensil, or arms, or armor, will yet be found, though one may doubt if iron or wood would endure the changes of this climate nearly a thousand years to bear witness to former owners.
Stone walls and dams and excavations may yet establish the faith of the builder of the tower to the Norumbega of the early French and English navi- gators, said to have been in the Vinland of the Norse- man, and possibly that the mythical city that figures on so many early maps may have been located where now are the wharves and streets of this Watertown, by the head of tide-water on the river Charles.
Even if the location of the ancient and almost mythical Norumbega in this town is a mistake, it has already invested these slopes with a wonderful poetic interest, and will lead many an investigator to turn the soil with more care and to examine the surface of the earth with the hope of possibly tracing the footsteps of former Scandinavian inhabit- ants. Even if the truth of these earlier navigators to priority of discovery to these northern New Eng- land shores should be well established, it would not detract from the honor due to the bold Columbus, whose faith led him to find the West India Islands, . even against the derision of his most faithful follow- ers. What Prof. Horsford claims to be so far estab- lished, he is abundantly able, with a wealth of illustration and typography and quotation from early writers and a good appearance of logical reasoning, to show.
INDIANS .-- When our earl; settlers came to occupy these banks, there seemed to be a well established village of Indians near the falls at the head of tide- water. That the highlands along the banks from Cambridge cemetery nearly to Watertown bridge had been for a long time the dwelling-place of Indians engaged in fishing seems to be attested by the abund- ance of Indian remains found in the soil in the shape of stone implements of various kinds, as well as in some places evidences of Indian graves. One can repeat the answer of Thoreau with hope of finding equally good illustrations anywhere along these banks. When, on the shores of Walden Pond, he was asked where one could find Indian remains, he said "Anywhere, if one has eyes to see," as he
1 Copyright 1890, by Solou F. Whitney.
317
318
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
poked out of the soil, with his foot, some Indian arrow-heads.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION AND LIMITS .- Water- town is pleasantly located, for the most part on the north bank of the Charles River, between Cambridge on the east and Waltham on the west. A portion of the town opposite the principal village lies on the south side of the river, next the garden city of New- ton; while on the north it has Belmont, which sepa- rates it from Arlington. At present of very limited area, almost the smallest town of Middlesex County, it has Mount Auburn Cemetery, of one hundred and thirty-six acres, on its southeastern corner, and the United States Arsenal, occupying one hundred acres of its southernmost border, stretching along for a half-mile on the bank of the river. It is most com- pactly built about the falls, at the head of navigation of the Charles River, about eight miles from Boston, with which it is connected by a branch of the Fitchburg Railroad, by a branch of the West End Horse Railroad by the way of Cambridge, and by the main line of the Albany Railroad, a station of which is within a half-mile of the town hall. This latter station, although not within the town limits, greatly accommodates her people wishing to go to the westerly or southern portion of the city of Boston, or westward along the Albany Railroad, or southerly along the Old Colony Railroad or its branches. The town is at present only about three miles in length from east to west, and scarcely a mile in width.
It was not always so insignificant in area. The history of its location, of its boundaries at different times, of its successive losses in territory and of the causes which led to these changes is interesting and instructive, and may form a fitting introduction to a larger history.
Sir Richard Saltonstall, Rev. Geo. Phillips, and their companions, of whom we shall speak later. soon after their arrival from England, and the removal of the colony from Salem to Charlestown, probably be- fore the middle of July of 1630, went up the Charles River, and, having found a suitable landing and con- venient fields for agriculture, brought thither their servants, their cattle, of which they had liberal store, and their goods, and began a settlement, which after- wards ( September 7th) was, by vote of the Court of Assistants, called Watertown.
The vote-" It is ordered, that Trimountaine shall be called Boston; Mattapan, Dorchester; and the towne upon Charles Ryver, Watertown."
The location of this landing is with little doubt the same as that which continued for many years to be the town landing, shown on the map in the archives of the State, in the secretary's office,-the map of 1712. This landing, known more recently as Gerry's Land- ing (also called in old records and deeds as " the landing," "Oliver's landing," and "landing near Samuel's hill"), is below Mt. Auburn and the Cam - bridge Cemetery, near the present location of the
Cambridge Hospital. It has been made quite noted by being selected as the most probable site of Lief's houses, by Professor Horsford in his claim that here the Northmen landed, more than six hundred years before the foundation of this Colony. However that may be, the reasons given by the professor for this particular landing-place for the Northmen are good a priori reasons why Sir Richard Saltonstall should select this spot for his landing. Traditions and all the indirect evidences of history also point to this spot as the landing, and the immediate vicinity as the location of the settlement which, we have seen, early received the name of Watertown.
It is well to dwell a little on this point, as it is the key to much given in connection with the early his- tory. The city of Cambridge in 1883 appointed a committee of the Board of Aldermen, who made, the next winter, an exhaustive report on Gerry's Landing, accompanied with plans and authorities which places the subject beyond question.
"The landing was the original town-landing for Watertown, and, with the way leading from it, is mentioned in the early records of the town soon after its settlement in 1630, and continued a part of Water- town till annexed to Cambridge, April 19, 1754, in a grant of the General Court of the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay." It was here on the banks of the river that Sir Richard Saltonstall selected the site of his future home, to the north and east of the landing, ou land now owned in part by the Cambridge Hospital.
In the Watertown Records, Division of Lands, p. 98, quoted as above, is the following : "Sir Richard Saltonstall, 1, one housestall of sixteen acres by esti- mation, bounded the north-east with Thomas Brigan (Brigham) and Robert Keie, the South-east with the river, the south-west with the highway, and the north- west, George Phillips, granted him."
When we come to consider the persons who com- posed the earliest band of settlers of the town, their minister, their buildings, church and houses, we shall find that here, on territory now no longer a part of the territory of Watertown, was located the town which, with the exception of the sea-ports, Charlestown and Boston, and the probable exception of Dorchester, antedates all other towns in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and which, from its inland situation and its being the open door to all the country beyond, was "a hive from which swarmed the people who settled a large part of the rest of New England," from which have gone out continually men and women to become famous in all parts of this broad nation.
To repeat, for the sake of emphasis, the "Town" of Watertown of 1630, '31, and perhaps '32 was no part of the Watertown of to-day. The location is swallowed up in Cambridge.
THE BOUNDS OF WATERTOWN .- The bounds of Watertown have undergone great changes, both in the minds of men and on the maps of the country. At first there was no idea of limit except the limit
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Copied from Bund's " Genealogies and History of Watertown " by the permission of the N E. Historical Gencalogical Society.
1
319
WATERTOWN.
placed by the charter and the convenience of the early settlers. By the charter the Massachusetts Bay Colony was entitled to enter upon all lands from three miles south of the Charles River to three miles north of the Merrimack. Charlestown on one side and Boston on the other side of Charles River near the sea were early chosen as the sea-ports, and began to be settled at once in 1630. Watertown was the first inland town. It was not limited on any side by auy possible barrier to immense growth. London would not need more land than was possible to it in 1630. Charlestown and Boston were mere peninsulas. In accordance with the words of the charter the lands of the colony stretched away one knew not how far, " from the Atlantic to the South Sea."
But her people were mostly humble farmers. Even Sir Richard Saltonstall, one of the wealthiest men of the new colony, the first assistant of the Governor in the government, who had brought good store of cattle and numerous servants, wished to herd these his cat- tle within narrow limits, where he could find them, and although each agriculturist wished a goodly number of acres for his farm, he wished also for safety against unknown savages, to be no farther away from his fellows than the needs of his farm and his cattle would require. With the traders the case was some- what different. They wished to be settled together as compactly as possible. Their interest in their commodities called for protection from the savages. Hence within six months they began to look about for a convenient place to build a fortified town,-a fort,- "a pallysadoe." In that part of the territory of Watertown which extended towards Charlestown a spot was selected as " a fit place for a fortified town," and in 1631 Deputy-Governor Thomas Dudley and others here erected housee. Governor Winthrop put up the frame of a house, which it is true he took down again and carried the next year to Boston, which he probably saw would be the most fitting place for com- merce and for the government.
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In February, 1631-32, it was voted that "there should be three-score pounds levyed out of the several plantations within the lymitts of this pattent towards the makeing of a pallysadoe aboute the new town." Thus a new town, chosen as a convenient one for a fortified capital or home of the government, began to be built up in the east of " the towne," the bounds of which is the subject of our inquiry.
No definite bounds were established between them for several years, until the people began to build near each other and the convenience of the tax-gatherers required some definite limita.
" William Colbran, John Johnson and Abrabam Palmer, being ap- poynted, March 4, 1634-35, by the General Court to lay out the bounds betwixte Waterton and Newe Towne, did make this return unto the Courte, 7th April, 1635 : ' It is agreed by us, whose names are here underwritten, that the bounds betwen Waterton & Newe Towne ehall etand as they are already, from Charles Ryver to the great Fresh Pond, & from the tree marked by Water Towne and Newe Towne on the south east syde of the pound, over the pond, to a white poplar tree on the
Durth west syde of the pond, and from that tree upp into the country Dore west & by west, upon a straight lyne by a meridien compasse ; and further, that Waterton shall have one hundredth rodds in length ahove the weire, and one-hundreth rodd beneath the weire in length, & three scure rodd in breadth from the ryver on the southe syde thereof, and all the rest of the ground on that syde of the river to lye to Newe Towne.'
" WILLIAM COLBRAN. "JOHN JOHNSON. "ABRAHAM PALMER."
These boundary lines between Watertown and Cambridge were again confirmed by vote of General Court, 13th of March, 1639.
Here, after five years' growth and gradual encroach- ment upon the bounds that might easily have been claimed by early Watertown men, the General Court limits their spreading both on the east side and on the north side and by the river, with the small ex- ception about the " weare " on the south side. Only possible room left to grow in was to the west and southwest. To the fortifying of this " Newe Towne " on the east, Watertown was required to contribute the same amount as Boston, namely, £S, which was more than any other town in the Colony, thus showing probably, as the Governor and the wealthy traders lived in Boston, that Watertown was then, as it con- tinued to be for several years, the most populous town in the Colony. To the west it might, under the char- ter, extend its limits indefinitely towards the South Sea. There was, however, evidently, from the action in regard to the fortifications at Cambridge, a feeling that it was necessary to organize compact communities for defence against the savages, and perhaps the early settlers of Watertown had never contemplated the extension of their territory far from their first settle- ment, which soon began to be called "the town," in distinction from the more sparsely-settled country over which her people scattered in search of better lands. It is certain that in 1635, when there were large arrivals of people from England and consider- able confidence had been acquired in the peaceful or harmless character of the Indians, that settlers had pushed up the Charles River and westward to another river, which ran northward towards the Merrimack. By vote of the General Court on the 3d of September, 1635, " It is ordered that there shall be a plantation settled, aboute two myles above the falls of Charles Ryver, on the northeast syde thereof, to have ground lyeing to it on both sides of the ryver," etc.
Afterwards ou the 8th September of the following year, 1636, it was "ordered that the plantation to bee setled above the falls of Charles Ryver, shall have three years' immunity from public charges as Concord had, . . . and the name of the said plantation is to he Dedham.
The same court that ordered the plantation "above the falls of Charles Ryver," Dedham, ordered, "that there shall be a plantation at Musketequid, and that there shall be six miles of land square belong to it, . . . and that the name of the place shall be Con- cord."
320
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
Thus on the southwest the town of Watertown was limited by the incorporation of Dedham, and on the northwest by the incorporation of Concord.
As the lands of Watertown were gradually filled up and some felt straitened for want of room, they naturally looked westward towards the pleasant meadows along the river "that runs towards Con- cord," and, greatly pleased by the prospect of posses- sions along that pleasant river, with its sedgy banks and its grassy upland slopes, they finally petitioned the General Court for permission to go thither to found a new town. On the 20th November, 1637, it is recorded in the records of the General Court held at Newtowne (Cambridge) : "Whereas, a great part of the chiefe inhabitants of Watertown have peti- tioned this court, that in regard of their straitnes of accommodation and want of medowe, they might have leave to remove, and settle a plantation upon the ryver which runs to Concord, this court, having respect to their necessity, doth grant their petition." It provided what should he done if said inhabitants of Watertown did not, to the number of thirty families or more, actually settle on the land,- ordered that they " shall have power to order the scituation of the towne, and the proportioning of lots, and all other liberties as other towns have under the proviso aforesaid." "September 4, 1639, it is ordered that the new plantation by Concord shall be called Sudbury."
Thus was Watertown entirely circumscribed, and thus, although there are no very early maps, it is possi- ble to fix quite definitely the entire bounds of the town when its bounds came to be defined. Whatever indefinite ideas its early settlers may have had pre- viously to this, they henceforth, to obtain more room, must go beyond the bounds of other towns and settle in the boundless wilderness beyond. That they asked for and received grants of such extraneous portions of land for special services, as after the Pequot and again after the Narraganset war, we may have occa- sion to show. From the largest of such grants the town of Westminster on the slopes of Wachusett was largely made. In granting to the new town Con- cord six miles square, the General Court, from the want of exact surveys, unwittingly gave to Concord a portion of territory already included within the limits of Watertown. For this they granted two thousand acres of land, afterwards located on the side of Wachusett. Whether Watertown ever profited by her part of this territory does not appear; Weston and Waltham sold their portion. But henceforward the changes in her territorial possessions, like those which have proceeded, will be of division, of curtail- ment. Watertown henceforth, by division within, or by want of a common interest, suffers loss of territory, loss of inhabitants, which too often the people were, after long contest, too willing to part company with, till now, when it is whispered that Belmont wants a portion on the north, and Newton has long clamored
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