USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Newton, Massachusetts, December 27, 1888 > Part 3
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second article in the warrant was : "That in case the honor- able Continental Congress should, for the safety of the American colonies, declare them independent of the kingdom of Great Britain, whether the inhabitants of this town will solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to support them in the measure." After debate, the question was put, and the vote passed unanimously.
These bold and memorable words meant the sacrifice of comfort, fortune, home, friends, and life, if need be, for the right to govern themselves and enjoy the privileges of free- men. In winter's snows and summer's heats, the men of Newton, old and young, able and disabled, were found filling the ranks of the little American army. They formed a part of nearly every expedition, and were found on nearly every field, from the opening battles of Lexington and Concord to the final surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Newton, then a little country town with only about 1,400 inhabitants, entered upon the War of the Revolution with great vigor and spirit. Contributing liberally both men and means, as she always has done and always will do when her country calls, no town in Massachusetts can show a more honorable record. It is said by the historian that nearly every man in Newton served in the army some time during the war.
The history of the world scarcely affords a parallel to all our fathers did and suffered during the long struggle they endured in the sacred cause of liberty. Let us not forget that Newton enjoys the honor of having been the birthplace of one of the immortal band of men who signed the Decla- ration of Independence,- Roger Sherman,- a name em- balmed in the hearts of his countrymen as well as on the pages of history.
Of the part Newton took in the War of 1812 little is known, but it is no doubt true that the sons of such worthy sires were not found wanting when the country was in need.
Let us briefly consider Newton in the war of the Great Rebellion. From the opening gun fired on Sumter April 12, .
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1861, until the close of the rebellion Newton nobly per- formed her part.
She furnished at least thirty-six commissioned officers, two generals, and 1,129 soldiers who formed a part of thirty regiments.
These men gave themselves to their country in the hour of her need, and went forth in her defence.
Where duty called, they were found,- whether amid the malaria of Southern swamps, on the march, leading a forlorn hope against the enemy, or in vile prison pens,-the men- tion of whose names brings a thrill of horror to all hearts.
They fell by the way on the long and tedious marches, they died of homesickness or wounds in the hospitals, they went down before the rush of the enemy and were killed or reported missing, and never again heard from. They endured privations and hardships such as we cannot comprehend ; and they did it all without murmur or complaint for the love and respect they had for the heroes of '76, and their regard for the liberty and good name of their country, for their homes and firesides, and the still more tender regard for the dear ones in those homes whose prayers and good wishes never ceased to follow them amid all their sufferings.
They loved their homes and firesides as we do ours, but loved their country more.
The spirit that actuated them was well illustrated by one who said, "If my country needs my services, I am willing for her sake to make the sacrifice." This was Charles Ward, a worthy son of one of the first settlers, who cheerfully gave his life at Gettysburg.
Our ancestors early recognized the importance of educa- tion, and all through the two centuries that have passed since its incorporation Newton has made the most liberal appropriations for its public schools, thus standing in the front ranks among the many cities and towns of the Com- monwealth.
In addition to all this it has within its borders a Theolog- ical Seminary of world-wide reputation, a seminary for young
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ladies, and an English and classical school, as well as others of lesser note.
Early in the history of Massachusetts slavery was intro- duced, and it is not surprising that some slaves should have been found in Newton. The records show that at least thirty-six were mentioned in the inventories of deceased per- sons, and there were probably others. Slavery is supposed to have received its death-blow in Massachusetts, about 1783.
Newton, of course, in its early days was a purely agricult- ural town, and its farmers were prosperous and well-to-do for those times, and built for themselves here and there over its broad area homes that were comparatively comfortable, but which would hardly compare with many of the palatial residences which we see to-day.
But as early as 1688, the very year of the incorporation of Newton, a mill was built at Upper Falls, where there was a considerable waterfall on Quinobequin, or, later, Charles River.
Still later other mills were located along the river, some for the manufacture of lumber, cloths, nails, cotton goods, paper, and other articles, all of which helped to extend the industries of this growing town.
Fifty years ago, two of these manufacturing villages - Upper Falls and Lower Falls - exerted a controlling influ- ence in town affairs.
The intelligent citizens of Newton early took a deep inter- est in the cause of temperance, and as early as Dec. 15, 1826, "a meeting was held which took active measures on the subject, and by a circular addressed to the inhabitants of the town sought to create a general interest in regard to it." Later, a constitution was adopted and the society received the name of the "Newton Friendly Society." This was prob- ably the first local organization of its kind in New Eng- land, with one exception. This society afterwards estab- lished a library of several hundred volumes; and it also originated the Institution for Savings in the Town of Newton, now the well-known and prosperous Newton Sav-
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ings Bank. The whole movement was conducted by the best and most influential men of the town.
In 1798 a library was formed at West Parish, called the West Parish Social Library; and it was provided that it should be of the value of $150 at least. The Adelphian Library, formed by the Temperance Society, was the next in order; and both of these were finally merged in the West Newton Athenæum in 1849, which library is in a prosper- ous condition to-day. In 1848 the Newton Book Club was formed, which later took the name of the Newton Literary Association, and from this small beginning has come the magnificent Free Public Library of Newton, which contains many thousand volumes. Large sums were contributed by individuals to establish this library before it became the property of the city.
There was a Free Library formed at Newton Centre in 1859, and in 1873 all the books were donated to the Newton Free Library. In 1869 a free library was established at Lower Falls, and subsequently one at North Village.
"In imitation of the churchyards of England, the first cemetery was around the first church." Later burial- grounds were located at West Newton, one near Upper Falls and one at the Lower Falls. Of these resting-places of the fathers, many interesting facts could be given, would time permit.
The growing town demanded additional provisions for the burial of its dead, and in 1855 the Newton Cemetery Cor- poration was organized, which has resulted in establishing one of the most beautiful rural cemeteries to be found in New England.
An attempt was made to divide this fair domain. The agitation began about 1830, and continued until about 1848-49.
Some of us can well remember the strong feeling that was aroused by the agitation of the subject, so strong as to alienate friends and lead to bitter words. Fortunately, no division was effected ; and we have remained a united, pros- perous, and happy people to this day.
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As early as 1813, this town had a Fire Department, to which many of the prominent citizens belonged.
In 1842, the engines in use being too small, the town voted twenty-four hundred dollars for the purchase of four engines, provided each of the villages where the engines were to be located would add two hundred dollars more. A year later, a similar appropriation was made for another vil- lage. A steam fire-engine was purchased in 1867, another in 1871, and a third in 1873. This was followed by the in- troduction of the Electric Fire-alarm.
Fire apparatus of the most modern construction, with all necessary equipment, has made our Fire Department noted for its efficiency.
Newton, as a town and city, has always provided gen- erously for its poor. In 1824, John Kenrick, a generous cit- izen, created a fund "to aid the needy industrious poor of the town, especially such widows and orphans as had not fallen under the immediate care of the Overseers of the Poor."
This fund has been faithfully administered from that time to this, and has proved a source of comfort to many. Would time permit, we could speak of the Cottage Hospital, the Pomeroy Home, the Pine Farm School for boys, and other similar charitable institutions that have been established here.
Before Newton became a city it had taken action looking to the introduction of pure water, and the town was author- ized to take water from Charles River. This act was ac- cepted in 1872. Subsequent acts enlarged the powers of the city, and it was decided to put in a system of water-works. These were completed in 1876, at large expense ; and New- ton has enjoyed from that time the luxury of pure water in abundance.
Among the many advantages enjoyed by Newton are the railroads within its limits. As early as May, 1834, the Bos- ton & Worcester Railroad was opened to Newton, nearly a year before it was completed to Worcester.
This was the first passenger railroad in this part of the
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country. The trains were few, and the accommodations every way limited.
A speed of ten to twelve miles an hour then, instead of forty-five to fifty now. This road was laid out through Angier's Corner,- now Newton, - Hull's Crossing,- now Newtonville,- and Squash End,- now West Newton.
These villages were very small, and the only ones on that side of the town except Lower Falls to which a branch rail- road was built some years later. Auburndale came into existence after the main line was built. In the year 1852 the Charles River Branch Railroad was opened from Brook- line to Newton Upper Falls, having stations at Chestnut Hill, Newton Centre, Oak Hill,-now Newton Highlands. This road under another name was extended to Woonsocket, R.I.
The construction and running of these roads gave an im- petus to building, and several of the stations have become centres of large and flourishing villages. Though the two railroads already in existence well accommodated all passing to and from Boston, there was no easy communication from one side of the city of Newton to the other, and the idea was conceived of building a railroad connecting the two railroads together, forming the Newton Circuit from Newton Highlands to Riverside. This work was accomplished largely through the efforts of the writer, and the road was opened May 15, 1886, thus connecting by rail nearly all the villages of Newton, and forming a belt line such as is found in few other towns or cities on the continent.
Along this connecting link Eliot, Waban, and Woodland stations are located. Newton cannot fail to enjoy in the future even greater prosperity than in the past, and a large increase in her population and wealth.
The good people of the town were not unmindful of the advantages of public parks, and among the latest acts of the town before it became a city was to appoint a committee to take into consideration the subject of parks and play-grounds for the town. This action led to the establishing of Farlow Park, to be followed, we trust, by others.
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The town having outgrown its old form of government and having a population sufficient to entitle it to become a city, a town meeting was held April 7, 1873, and by a large vote it was decided, after a lengthy debate, to petition the General Court, then in session, for a city charter, which was granted. In October following, the voters accepted "An Act to establish the City of Newton." Under this new form of government we have enjoyed increased prosperity. Let us in imagination go back to 1639, when all this terri- tory was a primeval forest ; when over these hills and along these valleys roamed the wolf and the deer; when the river and lakes swarmed with fish, and on their unvexed surface the wild fowl rested securely ; when the smoke still ascended from the wigwam of the Indian on Nonantum Hill, and the sons of the forest as well as the pale-faced settler found their way from point to point along blazed paths, which were later to become bridle-ways and still later town-ways and high- ways, and finally, as we see them to-day, magnificent and well-kept avenues, lined on either side with beautiful trees, some of which have sheltered the red hunter of the forest, while along these streets are reared the homes of a prosper- ous and happy people.
The years went slowly by, and life with our ancestors on these broad acres was one of severe toil and hardship. The land must be subdued amid many dangers and brought under cultivation to supply the wants of the growing families of the first settlers and those that were added to their number from time to time.
It is not easy for those reared amid the comforts and lux- uries of life to realize what our ancestors endured in their efforts to lay broad and deep the foundations for future towns and cities.
Amid hopes and fears life went on, and in 1688 the growth and progress had been such as to justify the incorporation of a town whose fame was to go sounding down through the centuries.
Our fathers builded better than they knew. Two hundred
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years have passed since the legal incorporation of Newton, then a small town with a very sparse population, now a city of more than twenty-one thousand inhabitants. Then with a single church, and that a very poor and inexpensive one: now twenty-six or more churches, some of them costing be- tween one and two hundred thousand dollars. Then here and there a lane or town-way : now more than one hundred and thirty miles of well-kept streets. Then no school-house on this territory : now those of magnificent proportions, with schools of all grades, with a large and excellent corps of teachers, besides private academies and higher institu- tions of learning. Then only here and there a farm with its low farm-house: now beautiful villages, costly business blocks, palatial residences, well-kept villas and cosey cot- tages, all showing enterprise, culture, and taste. How great the change from the scattered town in the wilderness, two hundred years ago, to the rich and flourishing city of to-day !
Standing on the heights of these closing years of this nineteenth century, and looking back over the long roll of years since Newton began its existence in the "forest pri- meval," we cannot fail to realize the remarkable progress of the two centuries that have passed. Our hearts swell with emotion as we call to mind the grand characters and heroic deeds of the noble band of men and women who here laid broad and deep the foundations upon which we are building, and who helped to secure for us the rich blessings of civil and religious liberty.
As we contemplate the past and appreciate the present, may it stimulate us all to higher aspirations and greater use- fulness, that we may prove worthy sons of such noble sires !
ADDRESS OF LEVERETT SALTONSTALL, ESQ., COLLECTOR OF U. S. CUSTOMS, PORT OF BOSTON.
I am not a native of Newton, and have had small oppor- tunity to prepare a fitting address for this occasion, but should be hardly true to the town where I have passed the most important and larger half of my life, were I to refuse the earnest request of our mayor to address you, if only in a few brief words.
No one can have lived in this beautiful place for over thirty years without being impressed by its numerous at- tractions, favored as it is in every way by nature, and ren- dered more desirable as a place of residence by all that its worthy citizens can devise for the promotion of health, com- fort, education, and intelligence.
There is, I believe, no town or city in the neighborhood of Boston which can compare with Newton. Her commanding hills, each offering an extensive panorama peculiar to itself, all exquisite, but none alike ; her lovely meadows and valleys ; her beautiful river, gracefully and gently winding around her borders, furnishing her people with purest water ; her sweet, invigorating air, bringing health, especially to those whose good fortune it is to live on her higher plains and hillsides ; her roads of such unrivalled excellence; her admirable schools and numerous churches; her pretty cottages and handsome villas, resting in their well-kept lawns and gardens; her intelligent and thrifty population,- all constitute Newton the gem in the coronet of beautiful towns and cities which environ the metropolis.
Let us ever be proud of her, and be grateful, too, that our
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lines are cast in such pleasant places. May we ever be ready to speak for her, to work for her, and by our individual and united effort to defend her against every open or covert foe, that her homes may be free from vice and intemper- ance, her schools true to their well-earned reputation, her officers above suspicion, and her church bells never be silent !
So shall we hand down to posterity the rich legacy received from the fathers, for which they labored and toiled as never before nor since have men labored and toiled.
The early history of Newton has always seemed to me to be in one way especially interesting, and quite above the story of the dull, dreary routine of toil and drudgery which fell to the lot of most of the other towns ; for was it not here that John Eliot, that true apostle, labored to teach the poor Indian the great truths of Christianity ?
I know no more touching tale in our early history than the account handed down to us of these poor sons of the forest seated around Eliot,- who had after years of careful study mastered their language,- eagerly drinking in his words, and tearfully questioning him.
" Did God understand Indian prayers ?"
" Were the English ever so ignorant as the poor Indians ?"
The confession of Waban, too, the first Christian convert, before he died, might well bring tears to the eyes of any one reading it, in view of the sad fate of these native tribes.
What a shame to our race that the work of this noble apostle should have been allowed to perish with him, and that the original owners of the soil should have been aban- doned to the contamination of vice and disease, to be fol- lowed by annihilation !
I hold in my hand a sermon which I accidentally found among some old papers, printed in 1723, entitled "Question, whether God is not angry with this country for doing so little toward the conversion of the Indians." "Discourse by the Reverend and Learned Mr. Solomon Stoddard of North Hampton," in which the good man exclaims: " The profes-
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sion of those that adventured into this country was that it was their principal design to bring the Indians to the knowl- edge of the true God and Saviour of mankind, and to the Christian faith, and it would have been the honor of the country if they had answered that profession." "And, if a spirit of love toward Jesus Christ had flourished in us, it would be the joy of our hearts to see congregations of Ind- ians waiting on God in His house, joining in prayer, hear- ing the Gospel, and celebrating the memory of the death of Christ." "And it is matter of shame," the good man goes on to say, " that, when others are carrying the Gospel many thousands of miles from their own country, we suffer them that dwell among us and that are borderers to us to lie in darkness, and afford them very little help for their deliver- ance."
And as the reverend gentleman preached one hundred and sixty-five years ago, so we say to-day. All the more then beams out the bright and shining light of brave John Eliot, gifted with "tongues," the inspired teacher, like Paul at Athens, declaring the "unknown God" to Waban and his tribe.
Though my fathers were not among the early settlers of Newton, yet must they have trodden her soil and have been familiar with her streams, her hills and meadows. For, when Governor Winthrop and Sir Richard Saltonstall, after landing at Salem in 1630, left with their friends and follow- ers to seek settlements, Winthrop stopped at Shawmut; but Saltonstall, with that excellent man, the Reverend George Phillips, journeyed on through the wilderness, untrodden by the feet of white men, till he came to a " spot well watered" on the Charles, where he rested and commenced a planta- tion, calling it Watertown. This was sixteen years before Eliot preached to the Indians at Nonantum, and fifty-eight before the incorporation of Newton.
Then, again, I see that in 1640 this town "granted to Samuel Shepard a farm of 400 acres of upland, adjoining unto the meadows which were sometime in the occupation
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of brother Greene for Richard Saltonstall." So that there can be traced a strong probable link of friendship between the sons of Sir Richard and the first settlers of Cambridge Village, as it then was,-ancestors of some of my esteemed friends and townsmen.
All important events in the history of our country, from its earliest infancy, are so carefully preserved and handed down from generation to generation that they can be re- called at stated intervals ; and so we can, fortunately, on the recurrence of anniversaries and centennials of these events, revive our interest in them, bring them vividly before each generation, and thereby heighten our veneration for the brave, the true-hearted, pious founders of our beloved Com- monwealth. But, above all, should gratitude to Him who supported our fathers through all their trials and sufferings fill our hearts and animate us with zealous ardor to live as worthy sons of such a parentage.
I know of no celebrations half so interesting as these cen- tennials. The pictures of the past are held before us and our children, to be by them handed down in undying colors to posterity.
Here, then, is the sheet-anchor of the great Republic ; and . so long as our children and our children's children shall cher- ish this precious history of the fathers, and shall earnestly recur to it for inspiration, so long will our institutions be secure, so long will Church and State rest each on its stable foundation. The waves of fanaticism, of infidelity, of blind and senseless sectarianism, aye, even of anarchism, will beat against them in vain. "The rock shall fly from its firm base " sooner than they shall perish.
The landings of the Pilgrims and of the Puritans of the Massachusetts Colony, the settlements of the towns, of the churches, of the colleges, the events leading up to the con- test for independence, the Revolution, with all its heart-stir- ring incidents, have been celebrated in anniversaries and centennials ; and may God grant the time may never come when they shall cease to be observed !
NEWTON'S TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY.
POEM. BY S. F. SMITH, D.D.
With filial love and reverent thoughts, we scan The glimmering dawn in which the town began : How, one by one, with spirits brave and true, The founders left the old and sought the new, Pitched their frail tents upon the virgin sod,- Indians their neighbors, and their helper, God; Taught the wild savage from rude strife to cease, And learn the nobler arts of love and peace.
Good men and wise,- men of both brawn and brain,- From tangled woods they wrought this fair domain ; Planted an acorn from a foreign oak, Where wild winds whistled and the tempests broke ; Watched it and watered, as it upward grew,- Child of the sun and storm, the frost and dew. 'Twas wreathed around with clouds, blue, white, and red, And a whole heaven of starlight overhead. They loved and guarded it by day and night, Beneath its shade sat with profound delight, And taught their sons the reverent love to share Of those who nursed the tender sapling there.
Brave oak ! see how its honored head it rears, Stands peerless in its majesty of years, Laughs at the echo of the centuries' tread, And bids the living emulate the dead.
Whence came the founders of this rising State,- The fair, the fond, the beautiful, the great ? Some, with strong muscle, skilled to build or plan, Came from the workshop of the artisan ; Some from the polished town, the school, the mart, Some from the farm ; while some, with loving heart,
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