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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
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தாகச் சவாரிசே கேன் டீ
என் தங்க ச்சி
Gc 974.402 B65Ła v.1 1247265
M.LN
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 8866
alber Perkins Langly
-
METROPOLITAN BOSTON
A Modern History
Editor-in-Chief ALBERT P. LANGTRY Ex-Secretary of State of Massachusetts
VOLUME I
LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK 1929
COPYRIGHT LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
1929
1247265
EDITOR'S FOREWORD
HE history of Boston has been written many times and the works are to be most highly commended, but nothing covering more recent times has been attempted. This work not only records the Colonial days better and more completely than anything previously attempted, but it is right up to date and gives the story absolutely complete. The ancient story is full of most extraordinary accounts of the peculiar methods and thoughts of the men and women who settled in Tri- Mountain. So strange were their acts, that it is difficult to believe the truth. The story on religion is of particular interest. Then the account of Boston in the War of the Revolution, 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish War and the World War is so full of interest that it reads almost like a novel.
Everything that Boston and the outlying cities and towns have done for civic betterment, and in the line of progress, is fully recorded. Nothing that the people desire to know is omitted. The stories of the leaders from the day of the settlement to the present are recorded in detail. Boston has produced more men of National fame than any other city in the country, and the record is so full of interest as to be entirely different from any other history ever published.
Boston grew from nothing to the great metropolis of today. To every resident of Greater Boston this story is the record of progress that is full to the limit of interest. The most expert writers have been secured and every department is dependably correct and comprehensive.
Boston was settled by the Puritans simply because it had springs of water. It has grown because of the wonderful harbor, and in its time has led the country in shipping. As a literary center it has always been at the front, and from an educational standpoint it is far in the lead. Boston is proud of Bos- ton, and there cannot be a doubt but everyone will be proud of this record of accomplishments.
ALBERT P. LANGTRY.
Goodspeed- 5-
- er'S
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
N the preparation of these volumes of Metropolitan Boston his- tory three dependable factors have been of steady and cheering encouragement to the publishers: First, the able discharge of his duties as editor-in-chief by Albert P. Langtry ; second, the diligent and efficient collaboration of Edwin P. Conklin, of the publishers' staff ; and third, the interested support of the Advisory Board whenever their assistance was needed. The personnel of this board was as follows: William M. Butler, Joseph Walker, James M. Swift, W. L. Terhune, Dr. E. N. Libby, Robert Luce, George H. Ellis, John J. Douglass, Alvin E. Bliss, Melvin W. Kenney, J. Weston Allen, Gen. Clarence R. Edwards, Allan Forbes, George Von L. Meyer, Frank G. Allen, E. O. Childs, Henry F. Beal, Michael J. Mur- ray, James Jackson, Herbert Parker, John L. Bates, E. Mark Sullivan.
Authors of Special Chapters are: F. Lauriston Bullard, Chief Editorial Writer Boston "Herald"; Frank W. Grinnell, Lawyer, Secretary Massachu- setts Bar Association ; Orra L. Stone, Manager Associated Industries of Mas- sachusetts; Wendell D. Howie, State House Correspondent Boston "Tran- script."
To the above and to all others who directly or indirectly lent encourage- ment and aid to this publication, sincere appreciation is extended by
THE PUBLISHERS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I-Metropolitan Boston's Natural Setting 3
II-Review of Early Political History 31
III-Review of Early Religious History 79 IV-Review of Early Military History III
V-Social Landmarks and Historic Personages I45
VI-Civil Affairs to the Present 213
VII-Courts and Lawyers in Metropolitan Boston 243 VIII-The Medical Profession 291
IX-A History of Banking in Boston 33.I
X-The Press 445
XI-The Industries of Metropolitan Boston 587 XII -- Mercantile Interests 679
XIII-A Brief Political History of Boston 709
XIV-Military Record-The War with Spain 749
XIV-Part II-The World War 769 XV-Education 843 XVI-The Religious Aspect 899 XVII-Charitable and Philanthropic Activity 959 XVIII-Fraternal Orders, Societies, and Clubs 993
XIX-Transportation and Shipping. 1043 XX-Tourist and Vacation Center 1095
Index III5
METROPOLITAN BOSTON
Met. Bos .- 1
METROPOLITAN BOSTON
CHAPTER I. METROPOLITAN BOSTON'S NATURAL SETTING.
The port of the Puritans-The fortunate visitor who first comes to Boston by way of the sea, receives an impression of the unique wide- flung bay, the picturesque island-locked harbor, and the fine new-old city that is never erased by journeys to other ports. There is an attractive- ness about all seaports which cannot be approached by the most favored of inland municipalities, and there are few ports more delightfully inter- esting than Boston. Its harbor is one of the best natural harbors along the Atlantic. The bay, the name given to the indentation that extends from the headlands of Nahant on the north, to Point Allerton on the south, would provide anchorage for the fleets of the world. Eleven miles wide, it extends inland for nearly seven and a half miles, dotted with islands ; a veritable storehouse of natural beauties and advantages. Bos- ton Harbor, comprising all the water inside and west of the headlands of Deer Island and Point Allerton, has an area of 30,000 acres, with many channels, good anchorages, and miles upon miles of docks. An old offi- cial report speaks of the harbor thus: "Its greatest merit lies in a happy conjunction of many favorable elements, among which are the facility and safety of its approaches, the ample width and depth of its entrances, and above all the shelter and tranquillity of its roadsteads. Perhaps there is no other harbor in the world where the inlets of the ocean are better adjusted to the amplitude of the interior basins, or where excellent holding-grounds are so easy of access and yet so land-locked. Her interior water space is large, but is divided by chains of islands into basins which offer sufficient room for the heaviest ships afloat to ride freely at anchor, and sufficient tranquillity for the frailest fishing-boat." Mother Nature gave Boston a beautiful and convenient harbor ; man has retained much of its beauties and added to its conveniences.
The First Visitors-The harbor was known and used long before the "Arbella" brought those who were to found Boston. If one accepts the Sagas of the Norsemen as veritable history, then it is possible that Bjärne, son of Herjulf, came sailing into port driven by an adverse wind from Greenland about the year 990, and found shelter. A short while later came Leif, son of Eric the Red, and in 1002, Thorvald, his brother, and in 1008, Thorfinn Karlsefne with three vessels, and still later others,
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if the Norse legends be true. Some of these are supposed to have entered the Charles River and set up homes opposite the site of the present Bos- ton. The tales of Norembega may be but a myth, but they touch with a fairy hand the ofttime dull story of the early development of the Boston Harbor region.
The eastern coast of Massachusetts was visited many times before any permanent settlement was made. Verrazano landed somewhere along these shores in the year 1524; Sir Francis Drake visited Cape Cod in 1586, and is credited by John Smith with giving the name New Eng- land to the country. Gosnold came in 1602, and John Smith himself in 1614. Nor must Champlain be overlooked, for he piloted the De Monts expedition which is said to have entered Boston Harbor in 1605. It seems quite certain, however, that no Englishman entered the waters until 1621, when it was visited by a party from Plymouth, under the command of Myles Standish. To Smith belongs the honor of making these parts known to the English. He explored most of the eastern coast, mapped and described the harbor that he apparently never entered. The "Para- dise of these parts," as he described the site of Winthrop's settlement, possibly owed its development to the man who never set foot upon the peninsula that was to be its abiding place. His was the ambition to colonize New England, but shortly before his death he had to write: "I see those countries shared before me by those who know them only by my description."
Myles Standish Explores the Harbor-There is little doubt that after 1600 more than one fishing vessel or trading ship entered the waters between Point Allerton and Deer Island. Accounts are given of several of these. But the first thorough exploration of the harbor and the islands and lands surrounding it, was delayed until Myles Standish, in the early fall of 1621, set sail from Plymouth to establish friendly and trade relations with the Indians of the territory at the head of Massa- chusetts Bay. He had but an open sail-boat, which contained beside himself, nine white men and three savages. Slipping past Point Allerton on the first day, after a battle with adverse winds, he anchored near Thomson's Island. Although Standish called it Trevore Island, after one of the English sailors, but it was later claimed by one of the party in the name of David Thomson, of England, who eventually took possession.
The next morning, Standish landed at the foot of a rocky cliff (Squan- tum Head) and soon was in touch with the Indians he sought, although it was later on the trip that he found any males of the tribe. At Savin Hill, negotiations were entered into with the sachem found there, who proving friendly, guided them past the peninsulas now known as South
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METROPOLITAN BOSTON'S NATURAL SETTING
Boston, and Boston Proper. In the afternoon, Mishawum (Charles- town) was reached, where the night was passed. A bit of exploring of the region now Medford and Winchester, including the area between these places and the shore, and the party set sail for home. Only three days in all was spent on this journey, but although there was no penetration of the streams entering the harbor, nor extensive investiga- tion of the islands and peninsulas, a very thorough knowledge of the region had been secured. The visit was made at the most delightful season of the year. The members of the party were, no doubt, impressed with the natural advantages and beauties of the region. Some could not help "wishing they had been there seated" instead of at Plymouth. But with the inarticulateness that seems to have hampered many of the Puri- tan and Pilgrim Fathers, little was written of the journey. The gist of the report made to Governor Bradford was:
Better harbors for shipping cannot be, than there are. At the entrance of the bay are many rocks and islands, and in all likelihood, very good fishing ground. Many, yea, most of the islands have been inhabited, some being cleared from end to end, but the people are all dead or removed.
The Site of Boston as the Puritans Saw It-The strange lack of defi- nite description of the peninsula on which Boston was to be founded, hampers the endeavor to vision a picture of the place and its surround- ings before the white man had changed its original state. We do not know how Shawmut impressed Winthrop and his colony. Smith said little, for which he may be excused, since he probably never saw the peninsula. Standish might have told more, but did not. Even Black- stone, or Blaxton, best fitted to be an authority on the early Boston, left nothing, although his papers destroyed during Philip's War may have contained something. We gain our earliest knowledge from the matured memories of a "romping girl," Anne Pollard, who was foremost to leap from the boat which came across from Charlestown and grounded at North End. She lived to be more than a hundred years old, and the recollections of her youth may have been biased by the long years spent in the colony. Her girlish impression was of a place "very uneven, abounding in small hollows and swamps, covered with blueberries and other bushes." From this slight remark has grown the impression that the area of original Boston was a treeless, rather barren, uninviting place, a notion further advanced by the description given by William Wood, a young visitor to Boston in 1630. "Boston," he said, "is two miles North- east from Roxberry; His situation is very pleasant, being a Peninsula, hem'd in on the south side with the bay of Roxberry, on the north side with the Charles river, the Marshes on the Backe-side, being not halfe a quarter of a mile over ; so that a little fencing will secure their cattle from
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the Woolues. Their greatest wants be Wood and Medow-land, which never were in that place; being constrayned to fetch their building tim- ber and firewood from the Ilands in Boates, and their Hay in Loyters. It being a Necke and bare of wood, and they are not troubled with three great annoyances of Woolues, Rattlesnakes, and Musketoes."
That the Boston Peninsula was always treeless can hardly be true. The other islands, for the peninsula was probably an island at one period, had their trees; those of the Boston location probably were removed by the Indians when they cleared the land for planting. Asa Gray believed that there may once have been a fairly dense growth of white spruce, which was replaced by a later growth of black spruce and arborvitae, these in turn being followed by the pines, the remnants of which must have greeted the eyes of the early colonists. There were but few large trees still standing when the first settlers arrived, for in 1637, Winthrop wrote to his son: "We at Boston, were almost ready to brake for want of wood."
Why Winthrop Chose Shawmut-There were other natural advan- tages of the peninsula which led to its selection over Cambridge as the home of Governor Winthrop. The principal reason, as given by the early writers, was that there was an abundance of good water in the place, a thing which other sites lacked. Mr. Blackstone went to Charles- town and told "the Governor of an excellent spring there, withal inviting and solicitating him thither," whereupon many left the former place and settled across the Charles. Then, some writers interpret the Indian word Shawmut (Mishawmut) to mean "living fountains," but the philologist, J. Hammond Trumbull, more learned in Indian nomenclature, believes that the meaning of the aboriginal term means "A place to go by boats," or "To which boats go," or again, "The boat landing place." Boston was fortunate to have good water for human use, whatever the meaning of the early title. Governor Winthrop built his house by the side of the one that it is thought was praised by Blackstone, the "Great Spring," in Spring Lane. Covered and a pump installed, this spring was used for more than two hundred years. Another noted spring was in Louisburg Square, by some thought to have been Blackstone's own, another where the Howard Athenaeum was erected, with an even more famous one where the town pump was situated.
The decisive factor, probably, in the choice of the peninsula as the site for a town, was the fact that it was almost an island and could be readily protected from the Indians who were feared far more than was necessary by the newcomers. Cambridge was more to the taste of an agricultural people, but fortifications had to be built on an extensive scale for safety from the possible marauder. The Boston site was compact,
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METROPOLITAN BOSTON'S NATURAL SETTING
with elevations looking out over sea and land, and only a very narrow neck to be fortified. Wood might be scarce, but it could be brought from the forest which covered much of the mainland. The area of the penin- sula lacked any great quantity of tillable soil; but there was enough for immediate use, and the cattle could be pastured at nearby points, and about the swamps near the foot of the hills. "Safety first" seems to have been the watchword of the Puritan colonists. They set a sentry, had a beacon erected, and many of the first building projects were forts. They were strangers in a strange land, they came to have and to hold; who can blame them if in the endeavor to protect themselves and what they had, they somewhat erred on the side of caution and suffered therefrom in later years?
The Harbor-As suggested in the beginning of this chapter, the won- derful natural harbor made its appeal to our forefathers, much as it does to those of the present generation. The graphic description of the port as given in "New England's Prospect" nearly three centuries ago still remains good: "This Harbour is made by a great company of Ilands, whose Cliffes shoulder out the boistrous Seas, yet may easily deceiue an unskollfull Pilote, presenting may faire openings and broad sounds which afford too shallow water for any Ships, though navigable for Boates and small Pinnaces. It is a safe and pleasant Harbour within, having one common and safe entrance, and that not very broad; there scarce being room for three Ships to come in board-and-board at a time, but being once within there is roome for the Anchorage of 500 Ships." It was all that the writer described and more, a "safe and pleasant harbor," one close to the fisheries that were to prove the salvation of the colony, one that was to become the greatest port in the United States and the seat of the commercial supremacy of a continent. It is doubtful, however, where any expectation of a great future was visioned by the home-seekers from Boston.
With safety as the desideratum rather than the founding of a great city, they chose a location suitable to their purpose, but it must be con- fessed an altogether too contracted area for a future metropolis, and one not overly attractive topographically. A lover of Boston said of the early location : "The predominant features of the peninsula are familiar from descriptions in local histories, handbooks and lectures. They found it pear-shaped, jutting out between the harbor and river, attached to the mainland by a mile-long slender stem. Marked by abrupt elevations with valleys between ; the loftiest elevation, the hill with the three peaks, on the river side, the next in height on the river front, one at the South, the other at the North; sparsely clad with trees, but thick with bushes and reeds; the surface indented with deep coves, inlets of river and
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ocean, and by creeks and ponds; the sea margins wide, flat and oozy. It was in length less than three miles, in width, at the broadest part little more than one mile; while its total area was less than eight hundred acres."
The Geological Past of the "Boston Basin"-It may not be amiss to consider the geological history which lies back of the physical condi- tions about Boston. The peculiar and varied surface of the lands making up the Boston Peninsula and the territory which surrounds it was made so by certain combinations of geological events each of which played a part in producing this area. Because the region is unique, it has been given the title by geologists of "The Boston Basin." The greater part of the land now exposed is of recent origin, geologically, having been brought to its present location by the ancient rivers of which the Charles and Mystic are remnants, or deposited by the glaciers which once covered the whole of New England. In a non-technical sense, the basin contains much made land, much of the soil of Boston having been reclaimed from the sea and river by man. In technical terminology "made land" is the word used for such areas as that of the city, including all its parts.
If one inquires into the geological past of the Metropolis, one learns that it is believed by scientists that Eastern Massachusetts was originally a region of immensely lofty mountains. Professor Davis estimates that they once rivaled the Rockies and the Andes in height, lifting lofty peaks to the clouds that were covered with eternal snow. The great valley of this range is now the seat of Boston Harbor, as the changes wrought upon the earth sank this below the level of the ocean. Or, if the theory of other writers be taken, the ocean rose and filled the depths of the valley. The one great river making its way through the valley was the Charles, the Mystic, Nepsonet, Saugus and other smaller streams being but parts of this one stream system, in that they were all tributaries. The mouth of the original Charles was much farther to the east, there then being no harbor as we now have it. The early Hudson, ages ago, made its way miles out beyond its present mouth, plunging into the Atlantic in a great waterfall besides which Niagara is but a pygmy. In a like manner, the Charles, after draining a large portion of eastern Massachusetts, passed well beyond the present Boston Harbor before dropping into the ocean its burden. The vast amount of silt carried by this stream filled in much of the channel through which it moved, filling in the great mountain val- ley. The present ship channel is many hundred feet above the original trough of the ancient river.
On the tablets of the rocks and soils about Boston, is written the story of a second geological period, when a great upheaval of the surface wrought another change. The level of the land not only rose far above
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METROPOLITAN BOSTON'S NATURAL SETTING
its ancient levels, but was tilted slightly from the northwest to the south- east. There were no longer the enormous lakes of water thrusting their way to the sea, and the river was more sluggish, and no longer cut great valleys by their flow. Much of the present form of the land west of the city took on some of its present characteristics at that period. The wide valleys, the soft round-topped hills and the general irregularity of terrain replaced the harsh mountainous surface.
The third change, geologically, and this occurred within six to ten thousand years of the present age, left the region much as we see it today. The great change was brought about by the glaciers creeping down from the north and burying the land under a great sheet of ice more than a mile thick. The highest hills were covered or ground off ; great ledges were broken down; immense hollows were gouged out by the gigantic resistless ice-sheet. What probably is of more importance to the early and the present residents of the Boston Basin is that the glaciers plowed up and scraped off much of the fertile soil and left in its place a strange mixture of debris, sand, clay and stones, none too attractive to the agri- culturist. Where our forefathers settled was left a soil that needed the refinements of modern farming practice to make productive. Then, too, the enormous weight of the ice had an effect, the results of which have been felt within the last few years. It depressed the whole region, causing a sinkage of many feet, creating an internal pressure, which has been slowly relieved throughout the ages and is even now going on. The earth tremors, or earthquakes, felt in Eastern Massachusetts during the last few years are said to have been occasioned by the shifting of the surface in its attempt to overcome the compression brought about dur- ing the ice-age.
Professor Shaler on the Geology of Boston and Its Environs -- The attempt by one who is not a scientist to describe the geology back of the present conformation of the territory surrounding Boston can but lead to failure. Professor Nathaniel Southgate Shaler has written a popular account of the geology of Boston and its environs, from which the fol- lowing is a quotation :
"The New England District has been more frequently and perhaps for a longer aggregate time above the level of the sea than any other part of the region south of the Great Lakes. This has permitted the erosive forces to wear away the unchanged later rocks, thereby exposing over its surface the deep-lying metamorphic beds on whose masses the internal heart of the earth has exercised its diversified effects. This irregular metamorphism brings about a great difference in the hardness of the rocks, causing them to wear down, by the action of the weather, at very different rates. Then the mountain-building forces-those that throw
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rocks out of their original horizontal positions into altitudes of the utmost variety-have worked on this ground more than they have upon any region east of the Cordilleras of North America. Again, at succes- sive times, and especially just before the human period, and possibly dur- ing the first stages in this country, the land was deeply buried beneath a sheet of ice. During the last glacial period, and perhaps frequently in the recurrent ice times, of which we find traces in the record of the rocks, the ice-sheet for long periods overtopped the highest of our exist- ing hills, and ground away the rock-surface of the country as it swept to the sea. During the first stage of the last ice period, this ice-sheet was certainly three thousand feet thick in Eastern Massachusetts, and its front lay in the sea at least fifty miles to the east of Boston. At this time the glacial border stretched from New York to the Far North, in an ice-wall that lay far to the eastward of the present shore, hiding all traces of the land beneath its mass.
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