USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > Brief history of the town of Braintree in Massachusetts, prepared for the observance of the tercentenary celebration of its founding, 1640-1940 > Part 6
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24. At the southeast corner of Allen Street and Commercial (No. 265) is the residence of Mrs. Josephine Avery, wife of the late Judge Avery. It was originally the house of Colonel William Allen and was remodeled by Edward Avery, the father of Judge Avery. Mrs. Avery has a fine picture of the old house.
25. The Iron Works School, now gone, was next west, on right, and the Wilson store beyond was removed from a corner of Middle and Union Streets, a long distance to move such a building. The first editor of the Braintree Observer made his residence in the upper story. It is close to sidewalk, the wooden blinds now closed. Old John Bowditch mill at left beyond.
26. Now the road winds westerly and turns toward the right across the railroad again, and soon passes on the left a fine Cape Cod colonial cottage built by Jacob Allen in 1777. It stands on the original Allen grant from the town of Boston in 1639. No. 400.
27. To return to Braintree, take next left (Elm Street), or follow Commercial Street over Penn's Hill to the old Adams houses in Quincy as in Route I.
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Braintree By E. O. DYER
O town, close-nestled at the Blue Hills' feet And fronting eastward to thy ocean bay, I would some English Milton might repeat His stately ode or lyric's flowing lay, So might due honor fall on this thy natal day ; For thou art English in thy name and look, A market town in Essex o'er the sea, And e'en wast written in the Domesday Book When William's Normans all the Saxon counties took.
Thou art not scant of honors or renown ; Fair on thy brow the laurel's wreathèd fame. Two presidents thou boastest as thy crown, A saintly Chrysostom with tongue of flame, And him who taught the art of war's own gory game. Nor wanting thou in haunts of pale-browed thought, The polished learning of the Academe, Where Plato's speech is aye by scholar taught And rills of verse from Fount Bandusian1 brought. From Wampatuck2 a hundred towns are seen, Proud Boston's steeples with her gilded dome, Bright lakes that flash among old forests green, Wachusett's triple peak, Monadnock's crown, And southward, guarding well the Pilgrim's home, Twin sentinels of that historic coast, Rise Manomet3 and Duxbury's4 shaft of stone, All envious lest their heritage be lost, Each morn with glory crowned, at eve with gold embossed.
O town, close-nestled at the Blue Hills' feet, And fronting eastward to thy hoary sea, Thy river winding through the meadows sweet Shall sing a pure glad song to thee !
I. O fons Bandusiae. Odes of Horace, Book III, Ode XIII.
2. Wampatuck, one of the Blue Hills once in Braintree. Wampa- tuck was the son of an Indian chief.
3. Manomet, a bold headland of Plymouth running out to sea.
4. Duxbury's shaft of stone. The Standish monument on Captain's Hill.
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Bibliography
BRAINTREE LOCAL HISTORY
By MISS ALICE HOLBROOK Librarian, Thayer Public Library
ADAMS, ABIGAIL (SMITH) 1744-1818.
Letters of Mrs. Adams, the wife of John Adams. Ed. 4, 472 pp. Boston, 1848.
The Thayer Library has a wealth of material on the Adams family. ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS 1807-1886.
An address on the occasion of open- ing the new Town Hall, in Brain- tree, July 29, 1858. 86 pp. Boston, 1858.
On this occasion the speaker of the day presented the original Indian deed to the town. On the back of it are these words, "In the 17th reign of Charles 2d, Braintrey. In- dian Deede given 1665, Aug. 10. Take care of it." This hangs at the present time in the Town Hall at Braintree.
ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, JR. 1835- 1915.
History of Braintree, Massachu- setts (1639-1708), the North Pre- cinct of Braintree (1708-1792) and town of Quincy (1792-1889). (5) 365, 43 pp. Cambridge, 1891.
ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, JR. 1835- 1915.
Three episodes of Massachusetts history. Ed. 3, 2 v., maps. Boston, 1892. 1067 pp.
" Remains a model local history in its form and treatment."
ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, JR. 1835- 1915.
Wessagusset and Weymouth; an historical address delivered at Weymouth, July 4, 1874. 164 pp. South Weymouth, Weymouth His- torical Society, 1905.
References to the early history of Braintree.
BARBER, JOHN WARNER.
Historical collections. viii, 624 pp.
Worcester, 1839. Braintree, p. 451. BASS, HENRY ROYCE.
The history of Braintree, Vermont, including a memorial of the fam- ilies that have resided in town. 208 pp. Rutland, Vt., Tuttle, 1883. Thirty-six families from Braintree, Mass., settled Braintree, Vermont. A complete list was printed in the Braintree Observer, May 30-June 18, 1903.
BATES, FRANK AMASA.
Biography of Samuel Austin Bates of Braintree, Mass. 11 pp. South Braintree, 1900.
BATES, FRANK AMASA.
History of the Thomas Farm. 18 pp. South Braintree, 1904. (Brain- tree Estates, No. 2.)
BATES, SAMUEL AUSTIN.
The Bowditch mill privilege. 8 pp. South Braintree, 1904. (Braintree Estates, No. I.) "An attempt to furnish descriptions of some of the homestead properties of this ancient town."
BATES, FRANK AMASA.
Some descendants of Gideon Thayer and Sarah Hobart Bates of Braintree, Mass. 12 pp. South Braintree, 1903.
BATES, SAMUEL AUSTIN 1822-1897.
The ancient iron works at Brain- tree, Mass. (The first in America.) 30 pp. South Braintree, Mass., 1898. BATES, SAMUEL AUSTIN 1822-1897.
Braintree. (See Hurd, D. H., ed. History of Norfolk County, 1884. pp. 11I-143.)
This article contains biographical sketches of Caleb Stetson, L. O. Crocker, E. A. Hollingsworth, The Morrison Family, David Thayer, M.D., and Naaman L. White; families identified with our town.
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BATES, SAMUEL AUSTIN 1822-1897.
The early schools of Braintree. 35 pp. South Braintree, 1899. BATES, SAMUEL AUSTIN 1822-1897. Soldiers who served in the Revolu- tion from the Town of Braintree. 26 pp. South Braintree, 1898. Printed for the Quincy Historical Society.
BATES, SAMUEL AUSTIN 1822-1897. Vital records of Braintree, the Arnold family . . . 1640-1853. South Braintree, 1902.
BEAL, JOHN V.
An address in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Randolph, Mass., delivered July 19, 1893. 42 pp. Randolph, 1897.
BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS.
Annual report. Boston. Various publishers, 1852-date.
Marriages and deaths, 1852-date. Births, 1874-date.
LOTHROP'S Directory of Braintree for 1910, 1913, 1916, 1919, 1924, 1928, 1931, 1935, 1939. Boston, 1910-1939. Contains a general directory of the residents, business directory, churches, schools, town officers, fire and police departments, clubs, so- cieties, miscellaneous organizations, etc.
BRAINTREE, MASS.
Centennial celebration at Brain- tree, Mass., July 4, 1876. 95 PP. Boston, 1877.
Contains Oration by F. A. Hobart, and Poem by Asa T. Pratt. Appen- dix B - Note 2, Name of Town. Appendix D - Note I, contains transactions of the town from 1640- 1815 in a condensed form as they appear on the records.
BRAINTREE, MASS., FIRST CONGREGA- TIONAL CHURCH.
A church manual with brief his- torical notices of the First Congre- gational Church in Braintree, and its pastors from the date of its or- ganization till the close of 1859. 41 pp. Boston, 1860. List of church members, pp. 22-25.
BRAINTREE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
The Interlude, ed. by W. W. Gal- lagher. 58 pp. Boston, 1904. Contributions by the following Braintree people: Dr. William Gallagher, Anna Boynton Thomp- son, S. Emma Keith, Carroll Bill,
F. H. Palmer, Margery White and others.
BRAINTREE, MASS.
Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640-1793, ed. by Samuel A. Bates. 940 pp. Randolph, 1886.
"Braintreys Book of records of births, marriages and deaths, be- ginning in ye year 1643." Contains special indexes. Names on town records, towns, local places, and subjects.
DYER, REV. EDWARD OSCAR.
The legend of Hobomoc and other poems. 141 pp. Boston, 1891.
Contains a poem on Braintree, also one on "Little Pond."
FRENCH, ASA PALMER, AND OTHERS.
Proceedings of the Norfolk Bar in memory of Asa French, February 16, 1904. Boston, 1905.
HART, ALBERT BUSHNELL, ed.
Commonwealth History of Massa- chusetts, colony, province and state. 5 v. N. Y., 1927-1930. Informa- tion concerning industries of Brain- tree in v. 1 and 2.
HUNT, EDMUND SOPER.
Reminiscences. 307 Pp. Boston, priv. ptd., 1907.
Mentions names familiar to the residents of East Braintree. KEITH, HERBERT CARY.
Early iron industry of Connecticut. 69 pp. New Haven, 1935. Information concerning the iron in- dustry of Braintree.
HAYWARD, JOHN.
A gazetteer of the U. S. of Amer- ica. 861 pp. Hartford, 1853.
Includes in his article on Brain- tree a brief biography of Benjamin Vinton French; also a description of the Blue Hills.
MARSHALL, JOHN 1664-1732.
Extracts from John Marshall's diary, January 1689-December 1711. Cambridge, 1900.
Braintree history source material. PATTEE, WILLIAM SAMUEL.
A history of old Braintree and Quincy, with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook. 666 pp. Quincy, 1878.
Distinguished individuals, pp. 572- 597.
Contains an interesting portrait of B. V. French.
PERKINS, SIDNEY KEITH BOND. Sketch of the life of Jonas Perkins. 13 pp. Taunton, 1907.
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PITKIN, MRS. ALBERT HASTINGS.
Thayer ancestry, supplement to the "Family memorial of the early settlers of New England " in the line of Col. Abraham Thayer, his ancestors and descendants. 58 pp. Hartford, 1890. General Sylvanus Thayer, pp. 46-48. SNOW, EDWARD ROWE.
Islands of Boston Harbor. 367 pp. Winthrop. The author, 1935.
" Sylvanus Thayer is more respon- sible than any other man for the defense of BOSTON HARBOR. We should pay respect to perhaps the greatest fortification expert Amer- ica has ever had."
SOUTHWORTH, STACY BAXTER.
The life and character of General Sylvanus Thayer. 12 pp. Priv. ptd. 1924.
SPRAGUE, BLANCHE EVANS (HAZARD). The organization of the boot and shoe industry in Massachusetts be- fore 1875. Cambridge, 1921. Brain- tree parent town of Randolph, pp. 176-178, 182, 208.
STORRS, REV. RICHARD SALTER 1787- 1873.
Sixteen sermons. Various places and publishers, 1822-1871.
Contains: A discourse delivered at the dedication of the North meeting house in Braintree, Dec. 29, 1830. 32 pp. Boston, 1831. Historical note, p. 29.
A discourse delivered in the First Congregational Church, Braintree, July 3, 1861, on the fiftieth anniver- sary of ordination. 102 pp. Boston, 1861.
Part II. Proceedings. Rev. Samuel Niles, pp. 59-66: "Reminiscences of Braintree in the last century, without prominent allusion to Father Niles, would be like a de- scription of the solar system with the sun left out." Rev. Ezra Weld, p. 66.
Dr. Ebenezer Alden. Reminis- cences of Braintree. pp. 69-77.
THAYER, BEZALEEL.
Memorial of the Thayer name; from the Massachusetts colony of Weymouth and Braintree. 708 pp. Oswego, N. J., 1874.
THAYER, GEORGE AUGUSTINE.
The Braintree Soldiers' Memorial ; a record of the services in the war of the rebellion, of the men of Braintree, Massachusetts, whose names are inscribed on the Brain- tree Soldiers' Monument.
Contains a list of Braintree volun- teers in the Union Army and Navy from 1861-1865; also the proceed- ings at the dedication of the monu- ment, June 17, 1874.
VINTON, JOHN ADAMS.
The Vinton memorial. 534 pp. Boston, 1858. Genealogical sketches of several allied families, namely : those bearing the names Adams, Alden, Allen, French, Faxon, Hol- brook, Niles, Penniman, Thayer, White and others.
Appendix contains a history of the Braintree iron works, and other historical matter.
WATSON, THOMAS AUGUSTUS.
Exploring life, the autobiography of Thomas A. Watson. 315 PP. N. Y., 1926.
" Alexander Graham Bell trans- mitted to Thomas Augustus Wat- son, the first complete and intelli- gible sentence by telephone, March 10, 1876."
WHITNEY, GEORGE.
Some account of the early history and present state of the town of Quincy. 64 pp. Boston, 1827.
WILSON, DANIEL MUNRO.
Quincy, old Braintree, and Merry- Mount. 64 pp. 1906.
WILSON, DANIEL MUNRO.
Three hundred years of Quincy, 1625-1925; Historical retrospect of Mount Wollaston, Braintree, and Quincy. 455 pp. Quincy, Mass. Published by authority of the City Government of Quincy, Mass., 1926.
WILSON, DANIEL MUNRO.
Where American independence be- gan. XXIX, 327 pp. Boston, 1902. " In no other community in the colony of Massachusetts was the love of independence more central than in the North Precinct of the old town of Braintree."
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MAPS AND ATLASES
CRAM, GEORGE F., COMPANY.
Street map of Greater Boston cov- ering 280 square miles, Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Braintree, etc. 45 X 1171/2 in. Indianapolis, Ind. George F. Cram, 1939. DOUCET, C. E.
Map of Braintree, Mass., 1832. Braintree, Mass. Published by Deacon N. E. Thayer House, 1931. 20 X 171/2 in. This is a reproduc- tion of the early map.
" Braintree was incorporated in 1640. It contained in 1810, 1,350 inhabitants; in 1820, 1,466 inhabi- tants; and in 1830, 1,750 inhabi- tants."
MASSACHUSETTS - BOARD OF HARBOR AND LAND COMMISSIONERS.
Atlas of the boundaries of the City
of Quincy and Towns of Avon, Braintree, Canton, Holbrook, etc. Boston, 1903.
WALKER LITHOGRAPH AND PUBLISHING COMPANY.
Atlas of the Towns of Braintree and Weymouth, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. From official plans and actual surveys. Boston, 1909.
WALLING, HENRY FRANCIS.
Map of the Town of Braintree, Norfolk County, Mass. Surveyed by order of the town. 1856. 2877/8 x 2834 inches.
WHITMAN AND BRECK.
Plan of Mayflower Park, situated in the Town of Braintree, owned by the Braintree Land Associates. 1233/4 x 241/2 inches. Boston, 1876.
BRAINTREE NEWSPAPERS
Braintree Observer (weekly) 1878- date.
The Thayer Public Library has: 1878-1913 unbound 1914-1939 bound Braintree Bee 1895-1919 bound.
Braintree Citizen v. 2, 3, 4, 1922-1924- Unbound copies of the following : Braintree Chronicle
Braintree Citizen
Braintree Journal Braintree News-Item
The newspapers contain much valu- able material on the history of our
town contributed by the following people :
Marion S. Arnold
Judge Albert E. Avery Mrs. Albert E. Avery Frank A. Bates Samuel A. Bates Rev. C. F. H. Crathern Francis Dike Emerson Jessie Macgregor
F. Edgar Norris Mrs. Mabel S. Rogers Lorenzo Shields Rev. Granville Yager
and others.
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QUINCY AVENUE, LOOKING NORTH, EAST BRAINTREE, ABOUT 1850 MINOT THAYER HOUSE
TOLL HOUSE
6145 1
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