USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > Centennial anniversary of the town of Saugus : 1815-1915 > Part 3
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Snuff was the particular form of the weed that was the corner stone of its mercantile life and the vehicle which rolled it into prominence. William Sweetser, Jr., made it by hand previously and disposed of it "up county," as he wrote. In his footsteps came Samuel Copp, a native of Boston, whose establish- ment became the second building at "Sweetser's Corner," in the square. If Samuel Copp could revisit Cliftondale Square during our present celebration he would be justified in lifting his eyebrows at the progress and development which has occurred in a little more than one hundred years in the vicinity of his snuff mill, whose only music in his time was its grinding mortars.
Charles Sweetser, in 1820, appeared on the scene and bought out Copp. Sweetser added the manu- facture of "short sixes" and "long nines" to the business. "two-fers" as they were sometimes designated. They sold readily, and Sweetser, who was a son of William, developed and cultivated the trade very successfully. His wares were sold all over the United States and British provinces, without the aid
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HISTORY OF SAUGUS
of pictures of baseball players, premiums and other catch-penny schemes which modern efficiency has produced for the tobacco industry. He retired in 1860 and was succeeded by his two sons, Charles A. and George H. Sweetser. both of whom are remembered by the present generation. and some of whose descendants still live in Cliftondale.
Others entered the same line of business endeavor at the "Corner," among them Charles Raddin, S. S. Dunn, Charles M. Bond, Silas S. Trull, Thomas F. Downing, Hiram A. Raddin, and John M. Raddin. The war of 1861 practically ended the cigar business of "Sweetser's Corner," owing to the loss of the southern tobacco market and the heavy internal revenue taxes placed on these low-priced goods. The business thereafter decreased gradually but steadily from year to year. until now, so far as the writer knows, it is entirely extinct in Saugus. although two old families of this section. Revere and Saugus, are represented in the well-known firm of Waitt & Bond, who do a large and successful cigar business in Boston. It had its inception at Cliftondale. where Mr. Bond's father was for years engaged in it. Henry Waitt and Charles H. Bond, both deceased, are well remembered in Saugus as former residents. The public school in that portion of Revere, known as Franklin Park, is named the Henry Waitt School. and Charles H. Bond's generosity in connection with the Saugus public schools and the Cliftondale Congregational Church are recalled with gratitude by members of the present generation.
Jackson's Meadow, on what is now Central Street (built 1837), from Cliftondale to Saugus Centre, contained a peat deposit and some fine blue clay. About 1808, William Jackson, an Englishman. and for whom, we assume, Jackson Street is named, bought a farm in this part of the town, and finding this clay adapted for brown and red earthenware, began its manufacture, which he continued for four years, Wilbur F. Newhall informs us.
In 1853 Kent's curled hair industry started at Cliftondale. Enoch T. Kent was its pioneer, living in that section. In 1866 he went to the Centre and established a factory on Shute's Brook. near the railroad station.
Cliftondale has the Felton School. named for Cornelius Conway Felton. The history of the arrival of the Feltons in Cliftondale is interesting. When the Newburyport Turnpike was projected, tolls were exacted from its travelers. The proprietors dispatched Cornelius Felton of Newburyport to collect them at Saugus, and Hawkes tells us of the "little toll house" (gate No. 1), where the elder Felton performed that important service.
His eldest son, Cornelius Conway Felton, was then a mere child. Hawkes continues:
"The story of the efforts of the toll keeper's son to obtain the rudiments of an education will long be related in Saugus, but of the boy who became the profound Greek scholar and President of Harvard, his biographer, Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D., says:
'Mr. Felton filled a very large and in some respects a unique place in our world of letters. It is seldom that an adept in one department is a proficient in all the essential branches of liberal culture. This was, however. true of him. While as a classical scholar he had no superior, he was versed in the languages and familiar with the best literature of modern Europe, was largely conversant with national science, and had a highly educated and nicely critical taste in the entire realm of art. The ability that he showed in many and diverse directions, had its scope been narrower. would have been accounted as genius of a very high order; but its breadth and versatility was more than genius. Within the largest bounds of a liberal education no demand was made upon him that found him incapable or unprepared : and whatever he did he did so well that he seemed to have a special adaption for it.""
Felton Street is named for this distinguished family, some of whom are buried in the old cemetery at the Centre.
Cliftondale suggests the country house of Col. William Tudor. "Rockwood." now the Saugus Town Home. William Tudor was a Revolutionary officer and a friend of General Washington. In 1805. his third son. Frederic Tudor. evolved a scheme of harvesting and marketing ice. The plan seemed feasible, and in that year he had cut from a pond in front of his father's country place on the Turnpike a large quantity of ice. which he loaded on a schooner and shipped to Martinique. He accompanied
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the cargo, although laughed at by his associates and neighbors, who pronounced him mentally unbalanced. Tradition informs us that the consignees of the ice were unappreciative of its value, but the fact remains that the foundation of a Saugus industry is thus chronicled.
"Rockwood" was purchased by the town in 1823 for the almshouse, a designation later very appro- priately changed to "Saugus llome," at the suggestion of the late George G. Spurr, whose ideas were subsequently ratified by a vote in town meeting.
Another one of the distinguished houses of old Cliftondale is the Dr. Cheever place, on what is now Essex Street. Hawkes says its builder was Dr. Abijah Cheever, a surgeon in the Revolution, and the first of a line of scholars who made the title of Professor Cheever familiar and respected by successive classes of Harvard down to the present time.
Dr. Cheever planted his trees, laid out a private driveway, and erected this house in 1806. Its exterior looks a good deal now as it did then. His brother, Col. Abner Cheever, was nearby and Col. William Tudor of "Rockwood" not far away. Dr. Cheever was prominent in civic affairs and was often our representative in the General Court.
Cliftondale is now a section of beautiful homes, and has many fruitful and beckoning themes for historical discussion, but lack of space prohibits their proper presentation in a book of this character. Its attractive village square, the enlarged "Sweetser's Corner," and its many and amplified environs, very noticeably remind us of the growth of Saugus in the period covered by our present Centennial period, from just before 1815 to 1915.
Why is the most rapidly growing part of our town known as "Cliftondale?"
Perhaps the old Pliny Nickerson place on Essex Street, formerly the Jacob Eustis property, may sug- gest the answer. In 1807, about the time "Sweetser's Corner" came into prominence, this farm was owned by Jacob Eustis. He was a brother of Governor Eustis. In 1830, Jacob sold it to James Dennison, who, in turn, passed title to W. Turpin. The latter transferred it to Seth Heaton, who occupied it until 1853.
Then Daniel P. Wise, et als, of Malden appeared upon the scene, and, with them, the mystic name of "Cliftondale," by which the village nanie of "Sweetser's Corner" was relegated to the rear. The name of Cliftondale was actually suggested by Joshua Webster, first president of the Saugus Branch. Wise and his associates began a comprehensive scheme of development, which has gone on ever since. Enterprising citizens and hustling real estate men have consistently built up the village in systematic. substantial fashion, not the "booming" of a busted cow-town on the western plains, but the orderly upbuilding of a beautiful residential section near Boston and Lynn.
John T. Paine of Melrose bought a portion of the Eustis farm many years ago. Down near the Revere linc, Daniel Bickford, Isaac Carleton, Charles H. Bond, Henry Waitt, and Edward S. Kent were responsible for much development and building. Later, Ernest L. Noera, in his time, built one hundred houses in Cliftondale.
The old Cliftondale Horse Railroad, of which James M. Stone of Charlestown was the manager, had a more meteoric career. It went up in 1860 and came down three years afterwards. Cars ran on it. on Nov. 20, 1860. Its starting point was at the East Saugus Bridge, from which it ran to the Cliftondale depot, thence through the woods to the Newburyport Turnpike and so on via Malden Bridge and Charlestown. The principal motive of its construction was to boom the sale of house lots in Clifton- dale, called the "homes," but evidently it was not to be. Its traffic was light, which probably accounts for its brief corporate existence. Its rails were removed, and very few of the present generation perhaps can recall its existence.
REVOLUTIONARY MEN OF "SWEETSER'S CORNER"
It was nine o'clock at night on the nineteenth of April, 1775, when the courier bearing the news of the fight at Lexington reached Saugus from Malden. The word spread rapidly throughout the town, it having first been known at Cliftondale. A horseman flew to the tavern and the aların was sounded throughout the countryside. Not a moment was wasted, and before midnight the first detachment of
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Minute Men, including several front Cliftondale, was galloping over the road, then known as the county street running from Boston to Salem. and which went, as now, by the way of Malden, but along a different route back of Baker's Hill.
There were five companies which went to Lexington and Concord from what is now the separated sections of the old town of Lynn, and the so-called Saugus company, that is the one which was recruited from what at present includes the territorial limits of the town, was the largest of the five. This company was drilled in the old Landlord Newhall Tavern at East Saugus.
It met at irregular intervals, and its guiding hands were major David Parker, its commander, Parson Roby, and, doubtless, others. Parker conducted a blacksmith's shop on the so-called county road not far from the tavern. The patriotic citizens of what is now Saugus gathered here, and, in the large room before the open fireplace, discussed the pressing thenie of the time, which was whether or not the mother country would force the colonies to armed resistance against the crown.
David Parker was born in 1744 and died in 1810 at Malden. He is buried in the old Bell Rock Cemetery. His grave, near the wall, on the north side, is under a spreading maple, and is marked with a slate stone. The Saugus Branch trains on the Boston & Maine skirt along this cemetery at Bell Rock Station.
In addition to these sixty-three men from Saugus who answered the first call to arms, there were thirty-eight others who served during the later periods of the war.
Among those from what is now the Cliftondale section of the town were Nathaniel Boynton; Ben- jamin, Ezra, Ephraim, Rufus and Jonathan Brown, father and sons. Jonathan Brown was a second lieutenant, the three Cheevers, Abner, Abner, Jr., and John; three Coateses, Stephen, Philip, and William; Joshua Danforth and Joseph Eaton.
Eaton was at Bunker Hill and so were five other Saugus men, including two front Cliftondale. Their names were Thomas Berry, Amos Boardman, Ezra Brown, Israel Burrill, and Thomas Hutchinson. Eaton and Brown were Cliftondalers.
Saugus should feel proud of the fact that at this late day, when the records are so din and incomplete, it can be substantiated that at least six Saugus men directly took part in this famous battle, one of the bloodiest of all history, up to that time; where in an hour and a half the number killed and wounded was more than thirty per cent. of the men engaged.
Other Cliftondalers in the Revolutionary War were the Stockers, Ebenezer, his son, Ebenezer, Jr., Elijah, Enoch, Ephraim, and Thomas; the Sweetsers, Phineas and Samuel; Ben Bullard Raddin, ancestor of former selectman J. Arthur Raddin, and Lemuel Allen, who was a sergeant in the Saugus company. Allen married Parson Roby's daughter, and lived on what was later known as the George N. Miller place, northwest of the Cliftondale Depot. He held the highly honorable position of hog reeve and warden in 1766, 1769 and 1781.
"Is't possible? Sits the wind in that corner?"-Shakespeare
EAST SAUGUS
The two things at East Saugus that command the historian's attention as he approaches that part of the town are, of course, the old tavern, and the activities at the mill site, which began in 1721.
But the old tavern antedates the mill by at least seventy-five years. This famous hostelry, for noted it was, was located approximately in what is now Lincoln Avenue, en route from East Saugus to Clifton- dale, at the intersection of that thoroughfare, Ballard and Chestnut Streets, at Washington Square.
The Tavern was established as carly as 1613, Mr. Newhall informs us. Then the "old street," as it was then called, was the old Boston road (now Chestnut Street), and, in those days, was the artery of travel between Boston and Salem. The old tavern, called "The Anchor" was about half way, and. as
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easily understood, was the center of interest for the colonists of the countryside, as well as the only place hereabouts where the inner man could be publicly refreshed with food and drink. It served this purpose for one hundred and seventy years, and its Bonifaces were some of our most prominent men.
Joseph Armitage, its first proprietor, named it "The Anchor Tavern." The court records, in 1669, indicate that "Mine Host" Armitage rendered petitions for "bear and cacks" (beer and cakes) for such eminent personages as Governors Endicott and Bradstreet. These distinguished gentlemen also had "vitalls, bear and logen, beare and wyne att sevrall times," according to these same court records. John Hathorne followed Armitage.
Capt. Thomas Marshall succeeded Hathorne as proprietor. Armitage died in 1680, but Wilbur F. Newhall opines that Marshall took the tavern long before this. Zaccheus Norwood conducted the famous hostelry in 1760. He died in 1768. In 1773 Jacob Newhall became possessed of the "Anchor," but changed its name to "Rising Sun Tavern." He erected a large sign with a painted representation of the morning sun just appearing above the horizon. He was an ardent patriot and, as his proprietorship covered the Revolutionary period, the tavern was the scene of many stirring events in connection with Saugus' part therewith. So anti-English and pro-American was Landlord Newhall that he would not have a lion and a unicorn portrayed upon his signboard, and removed those upon the one of his predecessor. Many of the Saugus Minute Men naturally assembled there and Landlord Newhall and Major David Parker, who lived nearby, were two of the leading men in the movement. George Washington stopped at the tavern in 1788, and four years before, General Lafayette did likewise. Soldiers and civilians alike made the tavern their headquarters during the Revolution.
In 1800 the tavern and the entire farm again entered the possession of the Ballard family. Two years later, John Ballard built a new hotel, about nine rods south of the old structure. This was at the time that the Salem Turnpike was building. Mr. Ballard had prevented the turnpike from being built over his farm. This new hotel proved a failure as the turnpike, when built, diverted travel from the old Boston road. From 1815 to 1822 Mr. Ballard niade the hotel his homestead, and its career, such as it was, began to wane. In 1871, Wilbur F. Newhall purchased it, removed it to the eastward on Ballard Street, and erected his present residence on its site. He is a great grandson of Landlord Newhall.
"The Old Anchor Tavern" continued to stand during the existence of the new hotel, but was torn down in 1836 to make way for the "new street"-Lincoln Avenue-running from the old tavern locality down to what is now Franklin Square, at the river bridge, the portion of the village which started in 1721, and which now appropriately may enter our recital of the early days of East Saugus. The house numbered 61, occupied by Evan Evans, Jr., was the first house built on the "new street," by the late George Oliver.
THE OLD MILL SITE
In 1721, Benjamin Potter. Jacob Newhall and William Curtis were granted the privilege of con- ducting a tide mill at the bridge at East Saugus. They failed to build, but the following year, Thomas, Cheever and Ebenezer Merriam built one of the corn-grinding variety. Thus the mill property, so called, has been prominent for nearly two hundred years.
East Saugus boasted less than ten houses in the Revolutionary period, of the following-named persons:
Joseph Gould, near the mill; Col. Ebenezer Stocker, on the site of the house now owned by Bernt W. W. Newhall; Jacob Newhall, at the corner of what is now Riverside Court and Chestnut Street; the Moore house, located where Frederick Stocker's house now stands; Jacob Newhall's Tavern, already referred to; Major David Parker's residence, beyond; Samuel Oliver's place, not far from Major Parker's blacksmith shop; the Solomon Brown house, Brown being the great grandfather of H. Miner Brown; the one owned by Thomas Florence, great grandfather of Charles Florence; and the Amos Stocker place, a few rods beyond, now being remodelled.
To return to the old mill, without a detailed mention of which the village history would be like Hamlet without the melancholy Dane. Joseph Gould purchased it in 1738 for 620 pounds He operated it until 1774, when he died. His widow permitted it to deteriorate, and the water came and went at pleasure without let or hindrance.
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George Makepeace appeared on its scene in 1792, paying $900.00 to the Gould heirs. He was a Bostonian and rebuilt the mill, beginning the manufacture of snuff. This was the first appearance of this industry in East Saugus. His nephew, Jonathan, succeeded him, and for half a century, his product, "Makepeace's Snuff," was a staple article.
Wilbur F. Newhall says that Major Makepeace, as he was known, "gave his personal attention to the making of this snuff from the very best of leaf tobacco, cured in the most careful way; it was then ground and scented and put up in small wooden kegs, with his own autograph on each."
The Makepeace regime also saw the manufacture of chocolate in this mill, beginning in 1796. Ben- jamin Sweetser, Amos Rhodes and Deacon John Waitt were the first manufacturers of it, and it was continued for many years by Amariah Childs.
Benjamin F. Newhall, one of the most prominent inen who has chronicled Saugus events with so much careful, systematic detail, as he did in his sketches and personal reminiscences, in the Lynn Reporter, used to work in the chocolate mill, and we regret we cannot produce verbatim what he writes about all these olden times and periods. They virtually constitute a history of Saugus, and Mr. Newhall may well have said with Cicero: "The whole of which I saw and a part of which I was."
Amariah Childs sold the mill in 1844 to Charles Sweetser, who lived in Cliftondale. He abandoned the chocolate business and put in machinery for roasting and grinding coffee. Herbert B. Newhall, son of Benjamin F., became interested in this property and conducted it for many years, as did Charles A. Sweetser before him.
The shoe industry was also very much identified with East Saugus and environs in the by-gone years. In 1802. Ebenezer Oakman established a factory, and various other men followed in his footsteps hereabout, including Thomas Raddin, Jr., George W. Raddin, Jacob Newhall, Jr., Abel Newhall, Ben- jamin F. Newhall, John W. Newhall, James C. Lockwood, Levi D. Waldron, Pickmore Jackson, Charles W. Newhall, Harmon Hall, Charles E. Raddin, A. Clarke Newhall, Albert Hitchings, John W. Hitchings, Cyrus W. Oliver and Isaac Oliver.
OLD ROCK SCHOOLHOUSE
The old Rock Schoolhouse was situated on the present site of James D. Bee's house. The schoolhouse was built in 1806, and the following year prayer meetings were also held in it. A long flight of steps led to its side porch. The building itself was twenty-four feet square. In 1838, it was succeeded by a new schoolhouse, what is now the Mansfield School, named in honor of Eliza A. Mansfield, who taught in it for fifty years. During the attempt to remove the old Rock building an accident occurred, and it fell to the street below and was subsequently demolished and removed. Thus came to an inglorious end the first school in East Saugus.
BY DAN J. MYDEATH
OLD ROCK SCHOOL HOUSE
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Church services were held in the old Rock Schoolhouse, beginning about 1810, and the plans for building the village church werc completed there.
The latest school building in Saugus, the Ballard, and probably the most modern, for that reason, was completed in 1911, and opened in September of that year, is within a very short distance of the site of the old Rock Schoolhouse, and nearer still to the old tavern location.
When the building committee turned the Ballard School over to the town, informal exercises of acceptance were held. Members of the board of selectmen and other citizens attended. A letter was read from President William H. Taft, who, at the time, was at the summer capital at Beverly, Mass. The President wrote:
"I am glad to learn of the opening of the new school building in Saugus next Wednesday, and I congratulate the community on the accomplishment of its efforts in bettering the facilities for the education of its children. Sincerely yours,
WM. H. TAFT."
The letter bears the date of Sept. 4, 1911, and is in the possession of the East Saugus meniber of the school committee at the time, to whom it is addressed.
In connection with East Saugus the "lower landing" should be mentioned. It was at the foot of what is now Ballard Street, which was built from the old Boston road (Lincoln Avenue) to the Salem Turnpike in 1850. In 1639 there was a ford and ferry at the "lower landing," designated on the Lynn side as Needham's Landing and on the Saugus side as Ballard's Landing.
Brickmaking has flourished in East Saugus for many years. Frederick Stocker, father and then son of the same nanie, have carried it on there for at least seventy years.
The legend of Pirates' Glen and Tom Veal (1658) can receive but passing reference in a brief work of this character. Its complete story is found in the History of Lynn, Page 243, and already referred to. Vinegar Hill and environs also are replete with historical significance. Both merit more attention than we arc able to accord them in this history.
Midway between Vinegar Hill and Choose Hill, both previously mentioned, the site of the old garrison house is found. Under date of 1642, Alonzo Lewis writes:
"A great alarm was occasioned through the colony by a report that the Indians intended to exter- ininate the English. The people were ordered to keep a watch from sunset to sunrise, and blacksmiths were directed to suspend all other business till the arms of the colony were repaired. A house was built for the soldiers, and another, about forty feet long, for a safe retreat for the women and children of the town, in case of an attack from the Indians. These houses were within the limits of Saugus, about eighty rods from the eastern boundary, and about the same distance south of Walnut Street. The cellars of both these buildings remain, and near them, on the east, is a fine, unfailing spring."
The garrison house site is now in the possession of the Lynn Historical Society, to be preserved for historical and public purposes, and as it is within the present territorial limits of Saugus, it is deemed fitting to refer to it in this paper. Pirates' Glen, Vinegar Hill, Choose Hill, the garrison site, and their accompanying legends and traditions, are, therefore, all the peculiar heritages of Saugus in this its hour of Centennial celebration. Unfortunately, however, only passing mention can be made of them.
The earliest glories of East Saugus cluster about the mill site and tavern.
"We left the shade; And, ere the stars were visible, had reached A village inn-our evening resting place." -Wadsworth
SCHOOLS
Saugus schools last year (1914) cost $60,000 for thirteen buildings and a school enrollment of 2198.
The early schools of the West Parish met in various houses hercabouts, sometimes in one and some- tinies in another. This plan continued until 1775, when a schoolhouse was crected at the Centre, on
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