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NEWTON
BE
UN
1873
TED
THE NEWTON GRAPHIC
NEWTON FREE LIBRARY 3 1323 00541 433 8
.
Presented to The City of Newton, Massachusetts, Theodore E. Lockwood , Mayor .
Katharine Kimball Ward
December 14, 1953 Newton, Massachusetts
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Boston Public Library
https://archive.org/details/newtongardencity00brim
Katharine E. Kimball 20 Rice St. Newton Contre, Mars.
NEWTON
Garden City of the Commonwealth
NEJ
CON
BER
TY AMD UMJOM
FOUNDED 1630. INCO
1688 A CITY 1873
NONAN" CORPORATED ATOWN 16 TUM.
Eighteen Hundred Seventy-four Nineteen Hundred Two
Published by THE NEWTON GRAPHIC
N
NEWTON FREE LIBRARY
APR 27 1973
NEWTON, MASS.
1
INTRODUCTION
N EWTON, known through- out the State as the Garden City of the Commonwealth, is the subject of this mod- est volume.
Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higgin- son, the historian, has aptly described us as "a city built upon a circumference," and the series of beautiful villages, closely adhering to the line of railroad commu- nication with Boston, renders possible the park-like appearance which is a unique feature of the municipality.
As the residence of many of the suc- cessful business men of Boston, Newton enjoys all the prestige that wealth can give when lavished on beautiful estates by private citizens and its judicious ex- penditure under public auspices for good streets, good schools and good water.
Such a combination of public and private wealth renders the city almost ideal for resi- dential purposes and has attracted to its citi- zenship many men of character and ability.
This book is intended to sketch briefly the upbuilding of the city, showing par- ticularly the tremendous advance made in municipal progress during the past decade, when vast sums have been ex- pended in far-reaching improvements.
It will also give the biographies of such citizens as have aided in develop- ing the city, of those whose reputation has been made in literature, science and business, and of those who constitute the bone and sinew of municipal life. These sketches are bare statements of fact, without attempt at flattery, and clearly show how well founded is the civic pride in the character of its people.
To posterity must be left the develop- ment of this beautiful city, the founda- tions of which are briefly outlined within, and to posterity we respectfully dedicate this memorial of the first quarter century of municipal progress in the Garden City of the Commonwealth.
JOHN C. BRIMBLECOM.
Newton, the Garden City
HISTORICAL SKETCH #
I T is said by the historian that the set- located. In 1664 there were twelve young men of the second generation.
tlement of Newtown - Cambridge - began in 1631. Its records commenced in 1632 ; proprietors' records, 1635. Cam- bridge or Newtown embraced a very large territory, which was subsequently enlarged E .Additional grants. In 1635 the Gen- eral Court granted to Newtown land em- bracing the territory of what has since become Brookline, Brighton and Newton. The territory south of the Charles River, covering what is now Brighton and New- ton, was first called "the south side of Charles River," or the "South Side"; sometimes Nonantum, the Indian name. About 1654 it began to be called "Cam- bridge Village" and later "New Cam- bridge," and, by authority of the General Court, after 1691, "Newtown," thus taking after a lapse of years the name of the old town of which this territory once formed a rather small part.
For the first ten years, only seven fami- lies had settled on this territory ; and of these seven two were Jacksons (the first settler in 1639 was John Jackson), two were Hydes, one Fuller, a Park and a Prentice. All these, with one exception, came direct from England. After these followed Parkers, Hammonds, Wards, Kendricks, Trowbridges, Bacons, Stones and others, whose descendants are repre- sented here to-day.
During the first twenty-five years from the time the first settler found a home south of the river, in what is now called Newton, twenty families had come in and
From the first settlement to the date of incorporation, a period of forty-nine years, fifty families had settled on this territory. Dr. Smith says: "The number of freemen within the limits of the town in 1688 was about sixty-five." Authorities differ as to the exact area of this part of Newtown. " In 1798," according to Homer, “it was reckoned to embrace 12,940 acres, including ponds." Another writer says that "in 1831 the town contained 14,513 acres."
In 1838 eighteen hundred acres of this were set off to Roxbury, and are now a part of Boston. In 1847 six hundred and forty acres were set off to the now city of Waltham, being that part of Waltham south of the river, and a few years ago a small portion near Chestnut Hill Reser- voir was set to Boston, leaving 11,410 acres as the present area of Newton.
During the last of the year 1654 or first of 1655, they took the first step toward gaining their independence, at which time they began to hold religious meetings for public worship in Cambridge Village, in the territory now Newton. They asked to be released from paying rates to the church at Cambridge, on the ground that they were to establish the ordinances of Christ among themselves, and distinct from the old town. The selectmen of Cambridge strongly opposed this division, and declared that there was no sufficient reason for such separation.
This was the beginning of a struggle for independence that lasted thirty-three
* Based on address of Hon. James F. C. Hyde at two hun- dredth anniversary of incorporation of city, 1888.
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or four years, and ended by the complete separation from the mother town. Let us follow this contest step by step until its consummation.
In 1656 the people of Cambridge Vil- lage, having been denied their request the year before, appealed to the "Great and General Court to be released from paying rates for the support of the ministry at Cambridge Church."
Of course the old town remonstrated, and the village people were given leave to withdraw, silenced for the time. They were not the men, however, to submit to
- the measure to be in the usual paths that may be ordinarily passed - so long as the south side of the river shall main- tain an able ministry."
The year following the granting of this request the line was so run and the bounds so settled between Cambridge and Cam- bridge Village as to settle the matter of ministerial support, and also to establish substantially what afterwards became the line between Brighton and Newton. These people had gained this point, and started a movement that was only to end with their entire emancipation from Cambridge. The
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NONANTUM HOUSE AND SQUARE, 1870.
what they believed to be an injustice, but quietly bided their time. Five years after they presented another petition to the Gen- eral Court, asking for the same thing.
They had been holding meetings for public worship for four or five years in a large room in a private house, and the year before this petition was presented (1660) had built the first meeting-house, which fact no doubt had its influence; and so in 1661 the Court granted them "free- dom from all church rates for the support of the ministry in Cambridge and for all lands and estates which were more than four miles from Cambridge meeting-house
first meeting-house was built in 1660 or '61, and located on Centre Street, oppo- site the Colby estate ; and in July, 1664, when there were but twenty-two land- owners in the village, the first church was organized, and the Rev. John Eliot, Jr., son of the apostle to the Indians, ordained as its pastor. And this consummated the ecclesiastical, though not the civil, separa- tion of Cambridge Village from Cambridge.
The congregation of this church was composed of about thirty families, with about eighty members in the church, forty of each sex.
Our sturdy ancestors were not yet satis-
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fied ; and so, in 1672, they again peti- tioned the General Court to set them off and make them a town by themselves. In answer to this request, the Court in 1673 declared " that the Court doth judge meet to grant to the inhabitants of said village annually to elect one constable, and three selectmen, dwelling among themselves, to order the prudential affairs of the inhabit- ants there according to law ; only continu- ing a part of Cambridge in paying County and Country rates, as also Town rates, so far as refers to the grammar school, bridge
their freedom from Cambridge, and that they might receive a name, thus becoming a separate town. Cambridge remonstrated by their selectmen in quite severe terms.
Notwithstanding, the General Court granted to Cambridge Village the right to choose selectmen and a constable and to manage the " municipal affairs of the vil- lage," substantially the same privileges that had before been granted in 1673, but which the village had never accepted. Dr. Smith says : " This was an important but not full concession on the part of the
CITY HALL.
over the Charles River, and their propor- tion of the charges of the deputies."
This action of the Court they refused to accept and act under, by which they would merely have become a precinct, though this was quite a step in advance ; for previous to this time the residents of the village had been permitted to hold few official positions.
At the session of the General Court commencing May 8, 1678, a lengthy pe- tition was drawn up and signed by fifty- two freemen, setting forth many facts and humbly praying that they might be granted
Court ; but the people had to wait nearly ten years more before they fully attained the object of their desire. The attitude of the settlers in Cambridge Village was one of persistent determination ; and as if foreshadowing in those early days the spirit of the Revolution which occurred a century later, they stood firm in their re- sistance of everything which in their judg- ment savored of oppression."
Jackson says, " The first entry upon the new town book of Cambridge Village records the doings of the first town meet- ing, held June 27, 1679, by virtue of an
5
order of the General Court," at which meeting three selectmen and one constable were chosen, thus doing what they were authorized to do in 1673. There is no record of another town meeting until Jan. 30, 1681.
It appears by articles of agreement made as late as Sept. 17, 1688, between the se- lectmen of Cambridge and the selectmen of the village, in behalf of their respective towns, referring to differences that have
bridge Village was incorporated, as claimed by historians who have written later than Jackson.
We find in the records of the village that in 1686 " a committee was chosen to treat with Cambridge about our freedom from their town." It is undoubtedly true that Cambridge Village in a large degree became independent of the mother town in the year 1679, when, Jackson says, the town was incorporated ; for they did from
RESIDENCE, REV. SAMUEL F. SMITH, AUTHOR OF "AMERICA."
arisen as to charges for bridges, schools, the laying of rates, and some other things of a public nature, " that for the end above said the village shall pay to the town of Cambridge the sum of £5 in merchantable corn, at or before the first day of May next ensuing the date above, in full satis- faction of all dues and demands by the said town from the said village, on the ac- count above said, from the beginning of the world to the IIth of January, 1688, by the present style of reckoning."
This brings us near the time when Cam-
that time control the prudential affairs of the village ; but it is equally true that they were taxed together for several years after, for state and county and for some other purposes. It is certain that they were not allowed to send a deputy to the Gen- eral Court until 1688, when the separation was fully consummated. The records of Cambridge-the old town-show that constables were elected for the village after 1679, every year until 1688, but none for the village after the latter date. Paige's recent History of Cambridge seems to en-
6
tirely clear all doubts as to the true date of the incorporation of Newton.
He was fortunate enough to find two documents which probably Mr. Jackson never saw. "One is an order of notice preserved in the Massachusetts archives," of which the following is a copy :
" To the constables of the town of Cam- bridge, or either of them ; you are hereby required to give notice to the inhabitants of said town that they or some of them, be and appear before his Excellency in Council, on Wednesday, being the 11th of this inst. to show cause why Cambridge
tion, is on file in the office of the clerk of the Judicial Courts in Middlesex County."
At a council held in Boston Jan. 11, 1687, present his Excellency Sir Edmund Andros and seven councillors, an order was issued a part of which we give: " Upon the reading this day in the Council the pe- tition of the inhabitants of Cambridge Vil- lage, being sixty families or upwards, that they may be a place distinct by themselves and freed from the town of Cambridge, to which at the first settlement they were an- nexed, they being in every respect capable thereof," it was "ordered that the said
RESIDENCE, CHARLES S. DENNISON, KIRKSTALL ROAD.
Village may not be declared a place dis- tinct by itself, and not longer a part of said town as hath been formerly petitioned for and now desired : and thereof to make due return. Dated at Boston the 6th day of January in the third year of his Majes- ty's reign A. D. 1687 By order &c J. West, D. sec'y."
" What was the result of this process does not appear of record ; for the records of the council, during the administra- tion of Andros, were carried away. Fortu- nately, however, a certified copy of the order, which is equivalent to an act of incorpora-
village from henceforth be and is hereby declared a distinct village and place of it- self, wholly freed and separated from the town of Cambridge, and from all future rates, payments, or duties to them whatso- ever." The order further provided how Cambridge bridge should be supported.
This order was signed John West, deputy secretary.
Then followed, " This is a true copy taken out of the original, 4th day of De- cember, 1688 : as attests: Laur. Hammond, Clerk." Dr. Paige adds : "There remains no reasonable doubt that the village was
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released from ecclesiastical dependence on Cambridge, and obligation to share in the expenses of religious worship 1661, be- came a precinct in 1673, received the name of Newtown in December, 1691, and was declared to be a distinct village and place of itself, or, in other words, was incorpo- rated as a separate and distinct town by the order passed Jan. 11, 1687-8, old style, or Jan. 11, 1688, according to the present style of reckoning."
It seems very strange that such an error should occur and be perpetuated for nearly two centuries, the town even adopting it
concerning the incorporation of Newton, because Mr. Jackson in his history pub- lished in 1854 gives the date as 1679, which has since been shown to be incor- rect both by Dr. Paige and Dr. Smith. After a careful examination of the facts we are fully satisfied that they have fixed upon the true date.
At this time ten of the first settlers had passed away.
Sixty families were dwelling within the limits of the town. We give a few brief items relating to the people living on these broad acres from 1639 onward.
FARLOW PARK.
and putting it upon its seal, where it re- mained for six years.
After Cambridge Village was set off or incorporated, it was sometimes called New Cambridge, until 1691, when, in an- swer to a petition to the General Court, it was called Newtown, and the name was variously spelled, New-Town, Newtown, Newtowne and Newton in the records, until 1766, when Judge Fuller became town clerk and spelled it in the town records "Newton "; and Newton it has been ever since. We have devoted much time and space to establishing the facts
In 1643 six acres of land were conveyed on payment of £ 5.
In 1645 " there were in all of Cambridge 135 ratable persons, 90 houses, 208 cows, 131 oxen, 229 young cattle, 20 horses, 37 sheep, 62 swine and 58 goats."
" In 1647 the town bargained with Waban, the Indian chief and first convert to Christianity, to keep six score head of dry cattle on the south side of Charles River."
" 1656, persons appointed by the Select- men to execute order of General Court for the improvement of all families within
8
the town in spinning and manufacturing clothes."
In 1650 wild land sold for one dollar and a quarter per acre.
1676, town meeting called to consider the matter of fortifying the town against Indians.
In 1691 first couple married in Newton after it was incorporated.
1693, town paid 20s. for killing three wolves.
The two following years paid a bounty for killing wolves.
1699, voted to build a schoolhouse 14 x 16 feet.
In 1646 Rev. John Eliot first at- tempted to Christianize the Indians at Nonanetum, or Nonantum, where a com- pany of them were located on land that had been bought by the General Court of the white owners and set apart for the use of the Indians. This tract of high land was considerably improved by them by the building of wigwams, walls and ditches about the same, and the planting later of fruit trees.
By advice of Mr. Eliot, tools and im- plements were supplied, as well as money to enable them to develop and improve their village. Homer says :
RESIDENCE, LUCIUS G. PRATT, HIGHLAND STREET.
1700, hired a schoolmaster at five shil- lings per day.
I 707, paid twelve pence per dozen for heads of blackbirds. Voted to choose two persons to see that hogs were yoked and ringed according to law.
17II, voted to have collections taken up Thanksgiving Days for the poor.
1717, vote passed to prevent the de- struction of deer. Same in 1741.
1796, voted to have a stove to warm the meeting-house. The same year voted that the deacons have liberty to sit out of the deacons' seat.
1800, voted to disannul the ancient mode of seating parishioners in the meet- ing-house.
"The women of Nonantum soon learned to spin and to collect articles for sale at the market through the year. In winter the Indians sold brooms, staves, baskets made from the neighboring woods and swamps, and turkeys raised by them- selves ; in the spring, cranberries, straw- berries and fish from Charles River ; in the summer, whortleberries, grapes and fish. Several of them worked with the English in the vicinity in hay time and harvest."
The author of "Nonantum and Na- tick " says : "Here at Nonantum Hill was begun the first civilized and Christian settlement of Indians in the English North American colonies. This was the seat of the first Protestant mission to the heathen,
9
and here Mr. Eliot preached the first Prot- estant sermon in a pagan tongue."
This was preached in the large wigwam of Waanton, or Waban, where a consider- able number of Indians were assembled to hear this first sermon, which occupied over an hour in its delivery. The text was from Ezekiel xxxvii. 9, 10.
This Waban - whose name signified " wind " or " spirit " - was the chief man of this Indian village, and was called a " merchant." He seems to have been the man of business. "Perhaps he went to Boston sometimes to sell venison and
questions they put to the white men, a few of which are here given. One woman in- quired " whether she prayed when she only joined with her husband in his prayer to God Almighty." Another inquired " whether her husband's prayer signified anything if he continued to be angry with her and to beat her." Another asked " how the English came to differ so much from the Indians in their knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, since they had all at first but one Father "; another, " how it came to pass that sea water was salt and river water fresh."
ECHO BRIDGE.
other game which he had either taken him- self or bought from other Indians." He was the first convert to Christianity, and lived a consistent life, dying in 1674, aged seventy years.
Newton thus enjoys the rare honor of having within its borders the spot made sacred by the labors of the apostle Eliot, whose saintly life and heroic service in the cause of the Master resulted in the civiliza- tion and Christianization of many of these sons of the forest. These Nonantum In- dians seem to have been pretty bright and keen heathen, judging from some of the
The people of Newton from the very first took great interest in military affairs. The men of Newton took a prominent part in all the Indian wars. They were in King Philip's and subsequent wars with the Indians, as well as in the old French and Indian War. Some lives were lost in this service, among them Colonel Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College. He was 'shot in the memorable battle fought with the French and Indians near Lake George, in September, 1755.
Of the part taken in the War of the Revolution by the inhabitants of this town,
IO
it has been well said that " almost to a man they made the most heroic and vigorous efforts to sustain the common cause of the country from the first hour to the last, through all the trying events which pre- ceded and accompanied the war."
Our fathers were jealous of their rights ; and, while they were willing to stand by the government, they were not the men to submit to any injustice. From time to time they met in town meeting to consider important questions relating to the condi- tion of the country. In December, 1772, a town meeting was held and a committee
tional methods only for the redress of their grievances. Later, during the same year, a large committee was chosen "to confer with the inhabitants of the town as to the expediency of leaving off buying, selling or using any India tea."
On Dec. 16, 1773, there was a famous tea-party in Boston, such as never was seen before nor has been since. Newton was represented on that occasion by two or more of its citizens. One in particular, who drove a load of wood to market, stayed very late that day, and was not very anxious the next morning to explain the
RESIDENCE, HERMON E. HIBBARD, WASHINGTON STREET.
appointed to consider and report what it may be proper for the town to do relating to the present unhappy situation of the country.
In 1773 they instructed their represent- ative, Judge Fuller, to use his influence against the salaries of the judges of the Superior Court being fixed and paid by the Crown instead of by the Great and General Court. They were jealous of their rights, even though remotely assailed. It is probable that not a person in the colo- nies at this time seriously entertained the thought of taking up arms against the mother country, but relied upon constitu-
cause of his detention; but, as tea was found in his shoes, it is not difficult to understand what he had been doing.
The following year, 1774, the town adopted a series of resolutions, declaring they would not voluntarily and tamely sub- mit to the levying of any tax for the pur- pose of raising a revenue where imposed without their consent or that of their rep- resentatives ; and that any and all persons who advised or assisted in such acts were inimical to this country, and thereby in- curred their just resentment, and in such light they regarded all merchants, traders and others who should import or sell any
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India tea until the duty so justly com- were fought at Lexington and Concord, plained of should be taken off. They further pledged themselves that they would not purchase or use any such tea while the duty remained upon it.
A committee was appointed to confer with like committees of sister towns as occasion required. During the same year the town voted that the selectmen use their best discretion in providing firearms for the poor of the town, where they were unable to provide for themselves. In October of the same year the town sent delegates to the Provincial Assembly at
Newton had three organized companies of minute-men, all of whom were present and took part in the battles of that his- toric day, during which they marched about thirty miles.
The two hundred and eighteen men composing these three companies were not all that Newton sent to the battle- fields that day ; for many went who had passed the military age and so were ex- empt from duty, but who felt as did Noah Wiswall, the oldest man who went from Newton, and whose son commanded one
CHANNING CHURCH.
Concord, and the next year to a meeting of the same at Cambridge. Early in the year 1775 the town voted to raise men to exercise two field-pieces that had been given, and also to raise a company of minute-men, and thus be prepared for any emergency.
This action furnishes the explanation of the fact that Newton had so many men engaged in the battles of Lexington and Concord.
On the 19th of April, 1775, a day ever memorable in the history of our country, when the first battles of independence
of the companies, and who had other sons and sons-in-law in the fight. He could not be induced to remain at home, be- cause, as he said, " he wanted to see what the boys were doing," and, when shot through the hand, coolly bound it up with a handkerchief, and brought home the gun of a British soldier who fell in the battle.
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