USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Tercentenary history of Newton, 1630-1930 > Part 1
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TERCENTENARY
DORY OF NEWTON PETR HATTH
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Gc 974.402 N48r 1153989
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01105 1510
Middlesex Col
Trillian Ce Dichambre
JOHN JACKSON.
1639 1674.
SAMUEL HYDE.
1640. 1689. 79.
EDWARD JACKSON
1643. 1681. 79.'.
JOHN FULLER
1644. 1598
JOHN PARKER
165 0. 1686. 71 RICHARD PARK. 1647. 1665+
4
JONATHAN HYDE.
1547 171f. 86.
THOMAS PRENTICE,.
16 49, 1710. 89
VINCENT DRUCE. 16 50, 1676. .
THOMAS HAMMOND 1650. 1675.
JOHN WARD
1650. 1708. 82.
THOMAS WISWALL. 1654. 1683.
THOMAS RRENTICE ** 1650.
..
JAMES PRENTICE. 1650. 1710. er.
JOHN KENRICK.
1658. 1686. 8 2. ISAAC WILLIAMS ' . 1661. 170%. 69.
TO
ABRAHAM WILLIAMS. 1662. 1712.
JAMES TROWBRIDGE. 16.64. 17.17.
JOHN SPRING.
1664. 1717. 87. JOHN ELIOT
1664. 1668. 3.3
FIRST SETTLERS OF NEWTON. Times of their Settlement and Deaths, with their Ages.
FIRST SETTLERS MONUMENT, IN THE OLD CEMETERY
TERCENTENARY HISTORY OF NEWTON
1630-1930
BY HENRY K. ROWE
11
NEV TY AND
TON
***** FOUNDED 1630
. A CITY 1873.
KONANTUM
CORPORATED A TO
41,086P PUBLISHED BY CITY OF NEWTON 1930
974,44
COPYRIGHT 1930 BY CITY OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Cohasset Historical Society 1949 P
THE MURRAY PRINTING COMPANY CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
PREFACE
THE tercentenary observance of Puritan settlement in Massachusetts in which Newton shares is a fitting time to summarize the earlier history of the city and to continue it to the present year 1930. By an arrange- ment with the city government the present writer under- took the task. It is approximately fifty years since Rev- erend S. F. Smith's "History of Newton" was published, and longer still since Francis Jackson preserved the old records and genealogies in his "History of Newton." Every period presents new points of view to the historian. New methods of narrating and interpreting events come into vogue. History is always in the making, and every year adds to its volume.
The sources of information are numerous. Old rec- ords, city reports, newspapers, pamphlets and booklets, historical addresses and anniversary collections, corre- spondence and personal interviews, have all contributed to the tale. The story is told as a connected narrative against the background of the times. The older method of writing history in a succession of topical paragraphs or chapters, in which each subject occupied a separate com- partment, is no longer good form. It is being succeeded by an attempt to recreate the life of a period as it was lived in all its complexity and variety, to bring all the factors into a synthesis and see all phases of life as a single whole, even as it is lived.
This method may not satisfy the antiquarian who will miss some of the old landmarks, or one who is inter- ested almost exclusively in his own village, church or club. But it has been selected after due deliberation and
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J. S. Canner-
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PREFACE
seems preferable. No attempt has been made to include all the organizations which have become so numerous, but enough to show their variety, their importance and their character. It is impossible to name all the civic, social, religious, and business leaders of the community. Persons whose principal arena of action was in Newton have been given the preference over those whose main interests were elsewhere. Every attempt has been made to select the persons and groups who have meant most to the city, and to chronicle the most important events.
In a story covering three centuries, touching so many topics, and referring to so many names and dates, it is inevitable that errors should creep in. It is hoped that these are few. Thanks are due to more individuals than can be named for their cordial good will and readiness to aid in supplying information. They have made the writ- ing of the history not only a possibility but a pleasure. May the story of Newton, however undramatic, add to the appreciation of the past as the people of the city join in the celebration of three hundred years that are gone.
April, 1930.
HENRY K. ROWE.
CONTENTS
I. The Early Settlers . I
II. Eighteenth Century Expansion 30
III. A Cluster of Hamlets 62
IV. Broadening Horizons 91
V. Meeting Community Responsibilities · I23
VI. The Transition from Town to City 164
VII. The Urban Process 195
VIII. Organizing for Culture and Recreation. 229
IX. A Strenuous Decade 267
X. A Cross Section of the City in the Nineties 303
XI. Moving into the Twentieth Century . .
346
XII. Under the Sway of a Motor Age ·
388
XIII. Newton in the World War ·
428 XIV. Post-War Expansion 458 ·
V
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
First Settlers Monument, in the Old Cemetery Frontispiece
First Church, at Newton Centre (Facing) 46 Hammond House, Built in 1730 72 ·
Jackson House, Newton 76 .
Old Newton Railroad Station 94
The Old State Normal School, at West Newton 100 Smith House, Home of Dr. Samuel F. Smith, Author of "America" 136
An Old-Time Horse Car, Plying between Newton and Boston 164
Echo Bridge, at Newton Upper Falls .
I68
Newton Theological Institution Library . 200 .
Claflin Guard and Nonantum Hall, Newton ·
232
Newton Hospital . 240
The Eliot Memorial, Erected on Nonantum Hill in 1879 302
The Braeburn Country Club, at West Newton . 322
Boston College, at Chestnut Hill
· 492 New High School Buildings
. 498
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I
THE EARLY SETTLERS
THREE hundred years ago the Charles River wound its way to the sea unvexed by the requirements of civilization. No mill wheel turned in all its crooked length. No bridge saddled it. No sluiceway restrained its course. Placidly it meandered through lush meadows and among the rolling hills until it felt the tidal influence of the sea into which it emptied its waters. Indians doubtless fished along its course and paddled their canoes against the stream, for a remnant of the tribe of the Massachusetts lived in the region. Norsemen once landed on its banks, if one may believe the inscription on Norumbega tower, but if so that was six hundred years before the English colonists arrived, and the improbable visit was temporary at best.
Early in the seventeenth century Captain John Smith of Virginia had coasted along the shores of New England, had visited Boston Harbor, and had given the name of Charles River to the stream that flowed from the west. It is likely that the hermit Blackstone launched his canoe on the back side of Beacon Hill or tramped afield up the val- ley. But there is no good evidence that a European had set foot on the river banks when the colonists of the Massa- chusetts Bay Company made their entry into Boston Harbor.
By the year 1630 both Plymouth and Salem had been settled, and at other points along the coast of Massachu- setts trading stations had existed temporarily. In that year settlements began about Boston Harbor. The Puritans in England were engaged in their long struggle for political and religious privileges, and many of them were discour-
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HISTORY OF NEWTON
aged over the prospect in England, and were ready to emi- grate. Besides the hope of self-government which they anticipated in America and freedom to practise religion in their own way, it was probable that they could get more land for themselves than was possible for middle-class Eng- lishmen at home. In London, too, were tradesmen and artisans who did not like to live cooped up in the narrow streets and buildings. They knew that it would not be easy to farm under pioneer conditions, but the young and vig- orous among them were as unafraid as those of a later generation who left the Atlantic states for untried jour- neys across the American continent.
In the year 1629 the Massachusetts Bay Company was formed of stockholders who were willing to share in the venture of an American colony which would plant Puritan- ism overseas. The Company was chartered by the King with the privilege of self-government, and it promptly transferred its organization to America, where it would be less likely to be interfered with by the Government three thousand miles nearer home. It was in the minds of the stockholders to establish a colony which would be demo- cratic but guided by responsible citizens who would be willing to be instructed by those who could interpret Scripture. The Calvinistic system of a Bible Common- wealth at Geneva was their model, and they were prompt to carry out their plans as soon as the first settlements were made.
With the first shiploads in 1630 sailed John Winthrop, who had been chosen by the Company as governor of the new colony, Thomas Dudley the deputy governor, and Reverend George Phillips, an ordained minister. They landed first at Salem, but finding that settlement over- populated they made their way to Charlestown. Presently Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, and other settlements were being made, and new arrivals were coming until the num-
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
ber swelled to more than twenty thousand before the decade was over and Civil War in England checked emigration.
The new settlements were restricted in area, and ex- ploring parties soon scouted farther afield. A party of ten men rowed up the Charles River on the twentieth of May as far as the site of the Watertown arsenal, where they landed and had friendly conference with the Indians. The springs at the bend of the river were attractive for settle- ment. In July Sir Richard Saltonstall, with his minister, Reverend George Phillips, and several others who had camped at Salem and Charlestown, moved up river to get unrestricted pasturage and more farming land. Their new settlement was named Watertown. It was the first experi- ment so far inland and the first frontier town towards the west. Like pioneer frontier settlements out on the prairies, it was unlimited in territory for a time. It included the south side of the Charles River, which is now Newton, and extended northward to Charlestown. Soon it was limited southward by the creation of Dedham and to the northwest by the setting off of Concord and Sudbury.
All these settlements were open to possible Indian attack, and it seemed to the infant colony that it would be prudent to build a fortified town as a place of refuge in case of Indian unfriendliness. It was decided to set off the north side of Watertown for that purpose, and the several towns of the colony were assessed according to their assets for the purpose of constructing a palisade a mile and a half long around the chosen site, enclosing thus an area of one thousand acres. This was in 1632.
The name Newtown was given to the new commu- nity. Although strictly accurate as to the fact, it was not a beautiful or dignified name. The early colonists in Massa- chusetts gave to their town many a name of a village or town in the mother land, or in some cases kept the Indian name. In this case they did neither. It is not strange that
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HISTORY OF NEWTON
they soon concluded to change it to Cambridge where many of the Puritan leaders had been educated. The new Cambridge was to become famous as the seat of Harvard College. It was expected at first that it would become the seat of government as governor and assistants agreed to live there, but Winthrop preferred to live in Boston and that town became the capital. After that the growth of Newtown was problematical, but the town was encour- aged when Reverend Thomas Hooker and his company arrived. Soon the people were cramped for room. Hooker's company was discontented and talked of going on farther to the Connecticut valley. To induce them to stay the General Court of the colony added other territory to Cambridge, northerly through Arlington, Lexington, Bed- ford and Billerica, to the Merrimac River. On the other side Watertown offered to give up to Cambridge the land on the south side of the Charles River. By that transfer from Watertown in 1634 the territory subsequently to be called Newton became a part of Cambridge and so re- mained for the next fifty years.
Cambridge lost the Hooker company in spite of the increased acreage granted to the community, and much of the territory was forfeited for that reason, but the town prospered as the seat of Harvard College. The selectmen estimated in 1647 that there were 135 ratable persons in town, 90 houses, 20 horses, 131 oxen, 208 cows, 229 young cattle, 37 sheep and 58 goats. The Fresh Pond meadows and those farther out by Alewife Brook were available for their use, and farmers found inducements to go still farther out as soon as it was clear that the Indians would be friendly.
The future Newton was virgin territory. Between Gerry's Landing where the Watertown settlement started and the falls of the river some fifteen miles upstream the river curved like a bent bow. Within the bend were level
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
plains interrupted by glacial hills, forest-girt ponds, and low-lying swamps which found outlet in brooks that fed the river. The geological changes of uncounted centuries had left their marks on the rocks and scooped out hollows among the hills. Ledges of slate and conglomerate under- lay the surface and cropped out here and there. Northerly slate and slate breccia predominated, southerly conglom- erate prevailed. Upon these ledges slow-moving glaciers ages ago scratched lines and grooves and buried them from sight with the debris which they brought from the north. During the warm ages which followed Nature planted the seeds of trees and sprinkled the meadows with flowers and in winter dropped its snowy mantle over all.
When Cambridge acquired the south side of the river opposite Watertown the effects of the glacial age still remained. Its marks were on the rocks, its gravel and sand deposits in the rounded moraines that rose here and there from the level ground. Most of Newton was covered with glacial drift. It appears still in such high bluffs as rise south of the railroad at Riverside and Auburndale, again in the ridges of sand, gravel and scattered boulders, such as the ridge that lies south of Cabot Street and shuts off Bullough's Pond from the Newtonville plain. Nonantum Hill sloped away from the river towards the south, Indian in name and giving a home site to an Indian hamlet and its head man Waban. Waban Hill and Chestnut Hill beyond were not yet suggestive of reservoirs, nor Mount Ida and Institution Hill of schools. Oak Hill and Baldpate were sentinels of the farther distance, while two others farther west overlooked the course of the river. Among the hills were ponds, Hammond's and Crystal Lake, and meadows such as were flooded to make Bullough's Pond. In the triangle between Baldpate, Oak and Institution Hills lay the Great Meadow, drained by South Meadow Brook. Southwest of Crystal Lake was Alcock's Swamp, from
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HISTORY OF NEWTON
which Coldspring Brook flowed through Bullough's to make its way north to the river near where the original settlement was made. Remoter brooks were Cheesecake to the west, named from a picnic, Palmer, or Pond, Brook, which provided an outlet for Hammond's Pond beyond Baldpate, and Otter Creek, an early name for the brook that flowed from Hammond's Pond through Newton Cen- tre to Bullough's Pond. Hills, ponds and brooks were nameless then, except as the Indians called them by un- pronounceable designations. All helped to give pictur- esqueness to the rural landscape, and it is easy to imagine herds of deer browsing over the slopes of the hills and slaking their thirst in the waters, and the stealthy foot of the Indian brushing the moccasin flower or the anemone as he slipped past.
This pleasant land was a part of the region occupied by those Indian tribes which were almost swept away by a severe epidemic not long before the first English settlers came to Plymouth. Few though they were they had the claim of possession. The colonists were instructed from the first to treat the Indians fairly and they were careful usually to extinguish the Indian title to the lands. The General Court arranged for the purchase of the lands within the bounds of Watertown and Cambridge, but the cost was slight as the Indians did not realize that they were ceding the land permanently and depriving them- selves of any further use of it. The Indians in the neigh- borhood of the Charles River were disposed to be friendly. The early settlers had as neighbors on Nonantum Hill a cluster of wigwams over which Waban was chief. The confidence of the settlers in them appears in a record of Cambridge when in 1647 the town contracted with Waban "to keep six score head of dry cattle on the south side of the Charles River," for which he was to be paid eight pounds, part of it in Indian corn.
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
At the upper falls of the river the Indians had a rude weir where they caught alewives and shad, and even salmon, which came in large numbers up the stream. The Watertown settlers captured the fish in large quantities farther down stream, and to safeguard their fishing they reserved seventy-five acres of "weir lands" when they ceded the south side of the river to Newtown. These lands, known as Morse's Field, still belong to Watertown, bringing the boundary of Newton back from the river towards Nonantum Square.
The proprietors of Cambridge reserved certain com- mon lands in the southwest part of the town, but most of the region was available for large grants to speculators or for smaller farms to settlers. The aristocrats were the first to benefit. Reverend George Phillips, the minister of Watertown, was granted thirty acres on the south side of the river, "beginning at a creek a little higher than the first pines, and so upwards towards the weir." Several of the assistants were treated more generously by the Gen- eral Court with grants of unoccupied lands stretching away south of the river. John Haynes, a resident of Cam- bridge, was granted one thousand acres, including Crystal Lake and land extending from Upper Falls to Institution Hill. Haynes never occupied the land, though he was governor of Massachusetts the next year. He soon fol- lowed the Hooker company to Connecticut, where he became governor of that colony. Five hundred acres were granted to Dudley, Bradstreet and others, but they do not appear to have been appropriated within the three- year limit during which the grant was valid.
Watertown and Cambridge made smaller grants to individuals who saw an opportunity to use the lands for grazing purposes or to hold them for speculation. As often happens in new country a few persons started in to make a settlement, taking title to a piece of land and
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HISTORY OF NEWTON
putting up a shelter, but they were glad to sell to the first comer. Several such pioneers owned small farms of about eighteen acres each on the edge of Newton and Brighton. Holly, Bush, and others are mere names in the annals, but apparently they blazed the path of settle- ment, which was moving in the direction of the falls of the river. There a grist mill had been built on the Water- town side of the river.
Thomas Mayhew of Watertown was active in this development. He was part owner of the mill and the weirs, and built a foot bridge across the river at the falls. He was able to secure a grant of the weir lands on the south side, and acquired two large holdings farther south. One of these contained five hundred acres south of the weir lands extending to the region of Mill Street, the other lay between the Haynes grant and the river at Upper Falls.
After a few years Mayhew sold his property in order to buy the island of Martha's Vineyard. Richard Dummer of Newbury bought the weir lands and as far as Nonantum Square. Thomas Dudley and Simon Bradstreet, who had been living in Ipswich, secured large portions, Bradstreet paying six cows for five hundred acres and the buildings on them. Cows were especially valuable at that time, and the six represented one hundred and twenty pounds in money. By 1640 these transactions had taken place, and lands farther west had been appropriated. Joseph Cook owned four hundred acres west of the Bradstreet farm, and Samuel Shepard had obtained four hundred and eighty acres across Cheesecake Brook.
Meanwhile the first actual occupation of land for a home had taken place.
It was in 1639 that John Jackson, a Londoner with some property, purchased eighteen acres bordering on the river and a dwelling house from Miles Ives of Water-
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
town, and became the first permanent settler of Newton. His farm was one of the few already marked out near the Brighton line. In course of time he added other holdings, including forty acres at Chestnut Hill, a name then given to the locality of the original cemetery. John Jackson cultivated his fertile acres, kept peace with his Indian neighbors on Nonantum Hill, served as deacon of the First Church after its organization, and gave the land for the first meetinghouse and the cemetery. He contributed ten sons and five daughters to the future population, but his son Samuel was the only one to leave descendants.
Edward Jackson, his brother, was a nail maker in London, but he soon found his way to Nonantum, as the Indians called the south side of the river. He bought out several of the pioneers who had adjoining claims near the original farm of his brother John, but not content with them he purchased Simon Bradstreet's five hundred acres for one thousand pounds. There near Coldspring Brook Edward Jackson made his home in the house which Brad- street had built. His holdings made him a prominent citizen of Cambridge Village, as the Nonantum country soon came to be called. Edward Jackson proved to be the citizen on whom others depended to get things done. He was justice of the peace and road commissioner, tax assessor for parish dues, and catechist of the young people. He was a selectman of Cambridge, a deputy to the Gen- eral Court for seventeen successive years, and a leader in the movement to make Newton a separate town. At his death in 1681 he left seventeen hundred acres and a large family of descendants, forty-four of whom were in the Revolutionary War. He is thought to have been the first slaveholder in Newton, for at his death he provided by will for two menservants. By his will Edward Jackson made an equitable division of his large estate among his wife and children, and remembered several friends with
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HISTORY OF NEWTON
books and spoons. For each thirty-six grandchildren and great-grandchildren he set aside ten shillings for the pur- chase of a Bible. To Harvard College he bequeathed a valuable manuscript, a grant of four hundred acres which he had received in Billerica, and all claims to debts due him in England.
A third Englishman had found his way from London to Nonantum in 1640, three years before Edward Jackson arrived. This was Samuel Hyde. A little later with his brother Jonathan he purchased two hundred and forty acres of land. Samuel Hyde was one of the solid citizens of the community, became a deacon of the church, and left an estate between Nonantum Hill and Mount Ida which remained in the family for several generations. Jonathan Hyde carried out many transactions in real estate, and deeded land to the town for a training field on the south side of the town. This gift, with an addition from Thomas Wiswall, became the Common at Newton Centre. He needed ample lands to distribute among his twenty-three children. The Hyde estate included a large part of Newton Centre, extending from Crystal Lake about to Ward Street and beyond to Bullough's Pond.
John Fuller and Richard Park were also among the first large landholders. Fuller settled in the town from England in 1644, and eventually accumulated one thou- sand acres in the west part of the town through which ran Cheesecake Brook. He was the first settler in Auburn- dale. His five sons inherited the tract, and it was long known as the Fuller Farm. Like Edward Jackson he left a numerous progeny, twenty-two of whom helped to swell Newton's contribution to the colonial forces in the Revo- lution. Fuller's property inventoried £534 at the time of his death. Park came from the older part of Cambridge. He owned eleven acres on both sides of Dedham Road, and built his house near the site of the Eliot Church.
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
After him Park Street received its name. After he bought six hundred acres of the Shepard estate between the farms of Fuller and Edward Jackson he was the sixth large land- holder in town. His farm extended from the river south over West Newton hill to the neighborhood of Woodland Park Hotel. With the two Jacksons and Samuel Hyde he belonged to a committee of Cambridge appointed to lay out highways on the south side of the river. On an early map of Newton the farms of the Jacksons, the Hydes, Fuller and Park, cover much the largest part of Newton, Newton Centre, Newtonville, West Newton and Auburn- dale. These six men located within the first ten years of settlement.
The early Massachusetts colonists were slow to wel- come many fellow townsmen. They wished to have plenty of room and neighbors of their own religious persuasion, if they must have any, and they scrutinized every immi- grant. In 1644 a colonial law was made that no family should settle in a community without the consent of a majority of the freemen. The progress of settlement was therefore slow. Political and religious fortunes had changed also in England. The Puritans were occupied with winning their cause through civil war; it was no time for emigrating. Here in America was ample room to move out from Boston in various directions, and the Indian country of Nonantum held no special attraction. About 1650 three Hingham families settled on a thou- sand acres in the Chestnut Hill region in the easterly part of town. Vincent Druce was nearest to the Brookline border, next to him Thomas Hammond, and farther west John Parker in the Waverley Avenue district. Near the Parker estate John Ward settled after he married Hannah Jackson, the daughter of Edward Jackson. Her father turned over to Ward forty-five acres near Parker's land as his daughter's dowry. Both Hammond and Ward streets
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