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History of Winthrop Massachusetts
Gov. John Winthrop
WILLIAM H. CLARK
M. L.
Gc 974.402 W737c 1219450
pil 6 -
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
n 3 1833 01102 7205
a Little Reminder of the
Old Home lawn you always
remember.
C
THE HISTORY of WINTHROP
MASSACHUSETTS
1630-1952
by
WILLIAM H. CLARK
2
WINTHROP CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE WINTHROP, MASSACHUSETTS
1952
-
Printed in the United States of America by the E. L. GRIMES PRINTING COMPANY, 368 Congress Street, Boston, Massachusetts
24-2
1219450
Note
T HE author desires to express appreciation for the kindness of many people who have cooperated in preparing this his- tory. In particular, gratitude is due: Mr. Channing Howard, Mr. Sidvin Frank Tucker, Mr. Frank K. Hatfield, Mr. Brendan J. Keenan, Mrs. Sarah L. Whorf, Rev. Laurence W. C. Emig, Rt. Rev. Richard J. Quinlan, Rev. R. S. Watson, Rev. Ralph M. Harper, Mrs. Alice Rowe Snow, Rev. H. Leon Masovetsky, Mrs. Emilie B. Walsh, Mr. Charles A. Hagman, Miss Dorothy L. Kin- ney, Sgt. Paul V. Abely, Mrs. Mary Alice Clark, Mr. William F. Clark, Mr. Preston B. Churchill, Mr. Benjamin A. Little, Mr. Joseph F. O'Hern, Jr., Mr. Eugene P. Whittier, Mr. Albert J. Wyman, and Mrs. Evelyn Floyd Clark.
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
Map of Winthrop, 1637 .
69
Deane Winthrop House, 1900 (1637)
84
Bill House, 1926 (1637)
84
Map of Winthrop, 1690 .
87
Revolutionary Fort at Point Shirley, 1907
136
Shirley Gut, 1915 .
. 136
Map of Winthrop, 1852 .
145
Petition to Incorporate the Town, 1852 .
. 146
First Town Officers, 1852
. 148
First School House, 1852
148
First (Old) Town Hall, 1880
·
150 150 156
Taft's Hotel, 1830-1889
156
Washington Ave., 1881 .
168
Washington Ave., 1891 and Winthrop Beach Station
168
Milk Team on Revere St., 1850
Jefferson St., 1890
178 178 185
Omnibus Time Table, 1856
Stage Coach, 1848-1872
186
Horse Cars, 1875 . :
186
Engine "Mercury", 1880
192
"Boston, Winthrop & Pt. Shirley R.R." Train, 1884
192 ·
Draw to the Ferry Boat "Newtown," 1939 .
194 194
Shirley St. at Sturgis St., 1890
196
First Spike of Pt. Shirley St. R.R., 1910
196 200 200 203
First Methodist Church, 1834
226
Cottage Park Hotel, 1917
·
226
"Gibbons' Elm" Ceremony, 1912
230
G. A. R. Veterans, 30 May, 1910 Firemen and Ladder Truck, 1892 .
262
Pauline St., Town Hall and Fire House, 1890
262
Shore Drive, 1895 .
. 276
High School Graduates, 1888
. 276
.
·
Group on Rear Deck of Ferry, 1939
"School Bus" from Pt. Shirley, 1910
Copper Works at Pt. Shirley, 1860
Bartlett House, 1850
230
Memorial Day, 1910
Grocery Store of Edward Magee, 1880 .
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
Foreword
1
1 Geography and Geology .
3
2 The Indians . 26
3 John Winthrop ·
47 53
4 Discovery and Early Settlement
5 Colonial Development of Winthrop
80
6 Point Shirley .
89
7 The Town of Chelsea
95
8 Winthrop Up to the Revolution
100
9 Winthrop in the Revolution .
125
10 The War of 1812 .
141
11 Winthrop in the 19th Century
143
12 Transportation
181
13 Revere Copper Company Works
199 202
14 Winthrop Churches
15 The Second Fifty Years
223
16 Winthrop Public Library 251
254
18 Winthrop Newspapers
257
19 Police Department
259
20 Fire Department
262
21 Yacht Clubs . 264
22 Winthrop Banks 270
273
24 Winthrop Community Hospital
289
Appendix A-Annals of the Town
301
Appendix B-Town Officers
307
NOTE :
All the illustrations (except the Town Officers of 1852 furnished by the Selectmen's office) are from an extensive collec- tion of old photographs and prints of Sidvin Frank Tucker.
Mr. Tucker also personally made this year the three maps of Winthrop 1637, 1690 and 1852 especially for this History.
23 Winthrop Schools
17 Winthrop Pageant Association
Foreword
YOUR Anniversary Committee takes great pleasure in presenting the first complete history of our Town.
It has long been a matter of regret by our citizens that the historic events credited to our Town have never been chronicled and published. The author, Mr. William H. Clark, has long been recognized as outstanding, particularly in the field of historical writings. A former resident of our Town, he has devoted a great deal of time in intensive research necessary to the production of a work of this importance.
Planning many events to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the granting of the Charter to our Town, the Committee feels that the publishing of this volume will be the most important. Other events scheduled will pass on and become but memories, but the History will be a permanent memento of the Centennial celebra- tion of our fine New England community.
History Committee
BRENDAN J. KEENAN, Chairman
FRANK K. HATFIELD SIDVIN FRANK TUCKER
Chapter One GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY
SITUATED almost due east of down-town Boston, within clear view of the Golden Dome of the State House on Beacon Hill, the town of Winthrop is one of the smallest communities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This is so in point of size alone. On the town's one thousand and seventy-five acres some eighteen thousand people live-thus making the little town by the sea one of the more important of the State.
Winthrop is a beautiful town. Its location between the Atlantic Ocean on the East and Boston Harbor on the West is alone enough to establish the fact. Even more, Winthrop is a town of gentle hills which, although now built over with about 4,000 houses, gives almost every window a wide prospect over miles of ocean, marsh and a city just far enough away to be re- mote and yet near enough to be conveniently reached within a half-hour or so. Probably one of the greatest factors concerned in the production of Winthrop's charms are the many elms and maples lining her 36 miles of streets and shading most of her homes and all her public buildings.
There are wealthier towns in the Commonwealth than Win- throp but few more financially fortunate. By many years of self- sacrificing service by public-spirited citizens who have served the town largely without pay, the town is practically without debt; nearly all the streets are paved and have sidewalks while the municipal establishments, schools, library, town hall, fire houses and all the rest are paid for in full.
Winthrop is known as a town of homes. This is true because there is practically no industry in the town at all. The town is emptied of mornings by perhaps ten thousand men and women who go into Boston to their various occupations. At evening, they return home. This is a common condition of many of the suburbs around Boston and certain uncomplimentary critics have described these suburbs of Boston as being mere bedrooms for the City.
However true this may be, Winthrop does maintain its own spirit and integrity. As it is a pleasure to live in Winthrop, so is it a distinction. This is the result of the town's many years of
3
history, a history free of the scandal and difficulties which have affected at one time or another, most of Boston's suburbs.
This is remarkable, because Winthrop has a long, long history. Actually, this town observes its centennial this year. That is so because it became legally a separate town in 1852, when it was parted from the present City of Revere. Previously, Revere (and Winthrop) had been a part of the present City of Chelsea-just as Chelsea (and Revere and Winthrop) had been a part of the original settlement of Boston.
That takes the history back to 1630 but this is merely the white occupation of this area. The first whites who visited Bos- ton Bay of demonstrable certainty were hardy fishermen from Britain, France and Portugal. These doughty seamen came here to catch the great cod which then flourished in great numbers. In tiny vessels, hardly more than present-day yachts, they sailed westward in the Spring, landed a few men on shore, in such bays as Boston Harbor and built huts. Then, while the rest of the men fished, the shore detail dried the fish in the sun, made barrels into which they packed the fish and did some trading with the Indians, exchanging trinkets and liquor worth a few pence for furs worth great price. Then, when the Fall storms came, the fishermen sailed home with their fish and furs. This business certainly flourished during the latter part of the fifteen hundreds and these fishermen were often on hand to welcome the "dis- coverers and explorers" when they arrived somewhat later.
There is a reasonably good probability that there were white men here even before the fishermen. These were, of course, the Vikings or Norsemen who did sail along the Nova Scotia and New England coasts in and about the year 1,000. The Norse sagas describe settlements made somewhere along shore, tell of the battles with the Indians and while they cannot tell of the gradual extinction of the colonies, the tragic fate of these first settlers in America is grimly forshadowed in the poems. There is some evidence that Irish explorers may have visited New Eng- land also at about the same era. The trouble is, no trace exists of these primary colonies. There are opinions, of course, but no definite proof has been found-nor does it seem likely that such will ever appear.
No one has ever found proof that the Norse ever visited Boston Harbor-but it seems unlikely that the little dragon ships of the Vikings, coasting down from Nova Scotia, could have missed Boston Harbor as they explored on to the south. Thus it is probable that the Norsemen must have at least visited Win- throp's beaches and found refreshment and rest in our forests while they enjoyed the abundance of game and sea-food then blessing this region.
4
Before the white men, Winthrop was, of course, home to Indians. Indeed, the future town, with its wealth of fish, clams and lobsters, was a favorite resort in the summer for many In- dians who apparently were seated in the hills back from the shore during the winters. There is some evidence of importance that the tribesmen the Puritans found here, were not here very long, being comparatively newcomers. Lacking a written lan- guage, indeed any language which would have made accurate history possible, the story of the Indians can only be pieced to- gether out of legends and some archeological material. This last is very scanty, too, for the Indians, being very primitive people, had little of permanent importance to leave behind when ex- terminated by the whites.
It is likely that the Indians here in 1600 were interlopers. They seem to have been fierce and warlike people who drove up from the south-west and forced the then holders of this area northward along the shore. It is considered probable that the evicted Indians may be the present day Esquimaux, or at least have been absorbed into the Arctic tribes. And there is some further evidence that even the exiled people were not the original inhabitants of this area, for some recent archeological studies have given evidence of the presence of a people of great antiquity. Because these people dyed their skeletons before burial with a red pigment, they are known as the Red Paint People. Almost noth- ing is known of them.
e
Winthrop, when the first white people came here, was a place of striking beauty. This is made clear in the accounts of those first on the scene. Unfortunately, there were few Puritans sufficiently interested to write in any detail of the geography-or indeed of anything save the formal, legal records. Men were com- monly not educated in such facilities in those days, articulateness was not a characteristic of the early 17th century. Even so, the men who could write were much more concerned with winning homes and establishing a commonwealth. They were too busy to write, even if they could have done so.
The important things about these descriptions is not so much that they were mere off-hand comments, fragments of a few sentences included in writing of much graver material, as that one and all they were markedly enthusiastic. For example, the Puritans wrote home from Boston in glowing terms. One worthy wrote: " ... So pleasant a scene here they had as did much refresh them; and there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden." It must have been pleasant and refresh- ing. Imagine a weary, endlessly-long tossing upon the ocean, cramped and confined, ill and sick of the horrible food which alone was possible on long voyages in those days. And then to
5
see the green hills around Boston Bay, rich with heavy forests, and to look overside and see the translucent water, filled with fish. Probably at morning and again at evening, deer would come out of the forest and stand on the beach to see what manner of creature was disturbing their peace. Then to land on the beach, to walk on solid ground once again and to feast on fresh meat and to enjoy the strange but delicious flesh of lobsters-and even to have a plate of steamed clams-not to mention great steaks of familiar fish such as cod.
Of these fish and these sea-foods, a colonist, Francis Higgin- son, wrote, "The abundance of sea-food are (sic) almost beyond believeing and sure I should scarce have believed it, except I had seen it with mine own eyes. I saw great store of whales and gram- pusses and such abundance of mackerels that it would astonish one to behold, likewise codfish in abundance on the coast, and in their season are plentifully taken.
"There is a fish called bass, a most sweet and wholesome fish as ever I did eat; it is altogether as good as our fresh salmon and the season of their coming was begun when first we came to New England in June, and so continued about three months' space. Of this fish, our fishers take many hundreds together, which I have seen lying on the shore to my admiration; yea, their nets ordinarily take more than they are able to haul to land, and for want of boats and men they are constrained to let many go after they have taken them, and yet sometimes they fill two boats at a time with them.
"And besides bass, we take plenty of scate and thornbacks and abundance of lobsters, and the least boy in the plantation may both catch and eat what he will of them. For my own part, I was soon cloyed with them, they were so great and fat, and lucious. I have seen some (lobsters) that weighed sixteen pounds ; but others have, divers times, seen great lobsters as have weighed twenty-five pounds, as they assure me. Also here is abundance of herring, turbot, sturgeon, cusks, haddocks, mullets, eels, crabs, mussels and oysters. Besides there is probability that the country is of excellent temper for the making of salt; for since our coming, the fishermen have brought home very good salt, which they found candied, by standing of sea-water and the heat of the sun, upon a rock by the sea-shore; and in divers salt marshes that some have gone through, they have found some salt in some places crushing under their feet and cleaving to their shoes."
Francis Higginson, who incidentally was a minister and thus a man in whose writing confidence can be placed, also had this to say of the native plants and the behavior of crops: " ... the aboundant encrease of corne proves this countrey to be a
6
wonderment. Thirtie, fortie, fiftie, sixtie, are ordinarie here; yea, Joseph's increase in Egypt is outstript here with us. Our planters have more than a hundred fold this yere. . .. What will you say of two hundred fold and upwards? ... Our Governor hath store of green pease in his garden, as good as ever I eat in England. The countrie aboundeth naturally with store of roots of great varietie. ... Our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are here bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England. Here are store of pomions (squash), cowcumbers, and other things the nature of which I know not. ... Excellent vines are here, up and down the woods. Our governor (John Winthrop) hath already planted a vineyard with great hope of increase. Also mulberries, hurtleberries, and hawes of whitethorn fil- berts, walnuts, smallnuts, near as good as our cherries in Eng- land; they grow in plentie here."
The Reverend Mr. Higginson's botany and horticulture may be slightly awry but there can be no mistaking the fact that the settlers found Boston a fair and pleasant land and one which was fruitful in the bargain.
Another excerpt, from an unknown writer, has this to say along the same line: " ... This much I can affirm in general, that I never came to a more goodly country in my life. ... it is very beautiful in open lands mixed with goodly woods, and again open plains, in some places five hundred acres, some places more ; some less, not much troublesome for to clere, for the plough to go in; no place barren but on the tops of hills; the grasse and weedes grows up to a man's face; in the lowlands and by the fresh rivers, abundance of grasse, and the large meadows with- out any tree or shrubbe to hinder the sith. ... Everything that is here eyther sowne or planteth, prospereth far better than in Old England. The increase of corne here is farre beyond expecta- tion, as I have seene here by experience in barly, the which be- cause it is so much above your conception I will not mention. ... Vines doe grow here plentifully laden with the biggest grapes that ever I saw; some I have seen foure inches about ... "
This gentleman may have been a bit enthusiastic, but again, he was pleased with his new home.
One of the better sources of information about the early days of Boston and vicinity is William Wood's New England Prospect. Wood spent some four years in this neighborhood and published his book in 1634 at London. It is one of the best sources of information about the Massachusetts Bay Colony, if for no other reason, it being the only thing of its kind. In Wood's book appears a fair map of this area on which for the first time Winthrop's former name of Pullin Point is shown, together with
7
the name of Winnisimmet, which is the original name for Chel- sea and Revere.
Wood had this to say, in part, about his new home. Speak- ing of strawberries, he alleged, the colonists "may gather halfe a bushell in a forenoone ... verie large ones, some being two inches about. In other season, there are Gooseberries, Bilberries, Ras- berries, Treacleberries, Hurtleberries, Currants ... the (wild grapes) are very bigge, both for the grape and the cluster, sweet and good." In what is now Dorchester, Wood said there was "very good arable ground, and hay grounds, faire corne-fields, and pleasant gardens with Kitchin-gardens." Boston, he pointed out, was blessed by "sweet and pleasant Springs" ... which as may be noted, was the very reason that John Winthrop and his associates chose the site for settlement after a failure across the Charles River at what is now Charlestown.
Yet another interesting account of colonial days is that of John Josselyn, published in 1675. In his book New England Rarities, which is hardly noteworthy for its restraint, John has much to say about apples and cider; for example " . . I have observed with admiration that the (apple) Kernels sown or the succors planted produce as fair & good fruit without grafting as the tree from whence they were taken; the Countrey is re- plenished with faire and large orchards. It was affirmed by one Mr. Wolcutt (a magistrate established in Connecticut after leav- ing Boston) that he made five hundred hogsheads of syder out of his own Orchard in One year. Syder is very plentiful in the Countrey, ordinarily sold for Ten Shillings a Hogshead. At the tap-houses in Boston I have had an Ale-quarter spiced and sweeted with Sugar for a Groat. ... The Quinces, Cherries, Damsons set the Dames at work. Marmalade and preserved Damsons is to be met with in every house. ... I made Cherry wine, and so many others, for there are a good store of them both red and black. .. . "
In passing, it may also be noted that the colonists planted many pear trees, not only as a table fruit in season but also as a means of making a pear-cider, commonly known as perry. On the very best authority, the reader may be assured that perry when properly aged can give a most gratifying result for the moment, although gastrically it is worse than even very hard cider.
The colonists were devoted to their fruit trees, perhaps feeling that the familiar fruits of home were an establishment of civilization in the wilderness. Indeed, it has been said that the church bell and the apple tree crossed America hand and hand as the tide of settlement moved westward. William Blackstone, who lived near what is now Boston Common on the side of Beacon Hill, had an apple orchard well established before the Puritans
8
came in 1630. John Winthrop hastened to plant his island off shore (Governor's Island) with a garden in which apple and other fruits were set out. Out in present Roxbury, Justice Paul Dudley planted a garden in which he reported, he grew eight hundred peaches upon a single tree and that he grew pears "eight inches around the bulge." Gardens, very much in the English style, became common in Boston proper, once the colonists were firmly established, and caused visitors who expected sod-covered huts of logs to greet them, to write with astonishment of the beauty and prosperity of the infant colony. Governor Bellingham built a garden along what is now Tremont Street and here he reared the very first "greenhouse" in America. Thomas Han- cock had a "magnificent plantation" on the site of the present State House. One other well known early garden was located in the present South End where Perrin May had a "famous orchard." His fruits were of tremendous size but uncharitable neighbors said this unexampled fertility was due to the fact that May trapped house cats and used one at least at the base of each tree for fertilizer. May, however, was probably one of the first to make use of sea weed, such as kelp, for fertilizer; that material sounds better for plant food than pussy cats.
While many other references could be listed, these will show how pleased the settlers were with the Boston area and we can infer that Deane Winthrop and a few other settlers in Winthrop itself experienced the same good fortune. Certainly there is no reason to suppose that Winthrop was any different from the adjacent territory and crops must have flourished here as easily and as prosperously.
From these early accounts, it would seem that the abun- dance of wild life was even more remarkable. General Benjamin Butler, that unfortunate man more celebrated for his acid tongue than for his many accomplishments and services, once remarked that the storied hardships of the first settlers were largely imaginary for there was so much wild life about in the woods and on the beaches, as well as in the sea and the rivers, that they could have starved only if they were lazy enough to fail to pick up what was lavishly laid out before them.
Deer were certainly very abundant. Indeed a quotation from William Wood's New England's Prospect, probably written about 1634, makes this clear, while at the same time explaining how Deer Island and Pullin Point, Winthrop's first name, were so called.
"The last Towne in the still Bay (Boston Harbor) is Win- nisimmet (variously spelled) ; a very sweet place for habitation, and stands very commodiously, being fit to entertain more planters than are yet seated; it is within a mile of Charles
9
Towne, the river (Mystic) only parting them. The chief islands which keepe out the winde and the sea from disturbing the har- bours are, first Deare Island, which lies within a flight shot of Pullin Point.
"This Island is so called because of the deare which often swimme thither from the maine, when they are chased by wolves. Some have killed sixteen deare a day upon this island. The oppo- site shore (across Shirley Gut) is called Pullin Pointe, because that is the usual channell Boats use to passe threw into the bay (Boston harbor) ; and the tide being very stronge, they are con- strayned to goe ashore and hale their boats, by the sealing, or roades, whereupon it was called Pullin Point. . "
Perhaps it should be noted that spelling was a matter of somewhat individual whimsey in those old days, at least at the hands of the Puritans and their associates. Few men could read or write well; many could not do either at all. When a man was actually compelled to write, it was a task of considerable labor, not merely because it was unaccustomed work, but because the author, while he might have a fairly good oral vocabulary, had only a general idea of how the words he used should be spelled. So, when he came to a word he did not really know, he was apt to spell it as it sounded to him. Thus much of the old writing is somewhat original. Then too, these writers made use of many words which have since been lost and forgotten save by scholars.
Next to deer, perhaps a major game source was the wild turkey. These were big birds and very delicious. Then, they were abundant in and about Boston. At a single shot a man or boy could bring home 20 pounds or so of the most highly prized meat. Wood wrote, in 1634, " ... forty, three score, and even a hundred in a flock ... There have been seen a thousand in one day ... " Characteristically, the settlers did not value what was so plentiful and Josselyn in 1672, about fifty years later, wrote ". . . the English ... having so destroyed the breed that it is very rare to meet a turkey in the woods." Of course, today, the wild turkey is unknown in all New England.
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