USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > Centennial celebration at Braintree, Mass., July 4, 1876 > Part 4
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1 Lagt's Sertion p. S.
& Apupilix Laut's Sermon, p. 135.
Thing Det Manual and History of First Cong. Church, Braintree, note to 1
. Pod's Address at 30th Anniversary of Dr. Storry's pastorate.
I'mopblet, Manual and Historical First Cong. Church, Braintree, p. 13.
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" Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster,
Be in this flowing cup freshly remembered."
And wherever, in all this broad domain, the old and lumi- nous story of the Revolution is told to-day, wherever an American heart throbs on this memorable morning to the recital of patriotic incident, wherever the pledge of remem- brance is given to those who made this the nation's jubilee, the names of Adams and Hancock and Quincy will be insep- arable from sentiment and recollection. From our midst may not have gone forth those who became renowned in field, or on battle-deck, but we sent out the Thor, who forged the thun- derbolt, that rifted the Republic from the grasp of monarchy. Most fitting was it that the soil which held the dust of the regicide Revel, should have been the origin of the two men exempted in the hour of travail from kingly recognition and clemency.1 It was our town that gave the first chief magis- trate to the Commonwealth, the second and sixth President to the United States, the latter of whom, to show his attach- ment and love for it, in an address delivered in Braintree in 1839, said, "I was, or rather, I am, one of yourselves. I was born in Braintree, and in the revolution of time I am one of the oldest inhabitants of that town. In Braintree I first beheld the light of heaven, first breathed the atmosphere. of your granite rocks, first sucked with my mother's milk the love of liberty, and I was always grateful to heaven for having made me a Braintree boy."
It was a son of Braintree that with Otis and Warren made the grand triumvirate, that inaugurated the crusade for inde- pendence ; it was her citizen that defiantly asserted " that the people, the populace as they are contemptuously called, have rights antecedent to all earthly government; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws ; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe " ;? it was
1 Bancroft's His., Cen. Edition.
2 His. of American Revolution.
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her descendant that, hearing the crack of the nisketry on the 19th of April, broke out with the exultation, " What a glori- ons morning is this ! " 1 it was her son that first wrote the bold signature to the Declaration, "to be seen across the ocean," which imperishable document has this day been read to an audience of more than forty millions of grateful people ; and in a later day, when liberty was again in peril, and when law was defied in her very citadels, it was the most distinguished of all her children that became the champion of imperilled rights and solved the perplexity produced by anarchy by an- nomeing. "I will put the question myself." 2
Though other towns now flourish on her parted domain, and the population living within its former boundaries now members twenty thousand souls. 3 while the valuation included in her ancient limits has swelled to twelve millions of money, yet these glorious names are her everlasting patri- mony. and these illustrious deeds are the deathless inherit- ance of Braintree, and of Braintree alone. With New Brain- tree in Massachusetts, and Braintree in Vermont, as credita- ble colonies, with Quincy. Randolph. and Holbrook, pros- perons offspring, setting up for themselves on their part of the old estate, with her sons and daughters, since pioneers on the reserves and plains of the great West, on Southern sawvannas, and on the far-off vineyards of the Pacific, bearing wherever they are planted the virtues and principles taught by her hearthstones, Braintree. in 1794, became within her present boundaries a town of the Commonwealth, and so in- that she has remained for eighty years, except that by Act of the Legislature a small strip of her territory, known as the " Neck," was annexed to Quincy in 1855.
We have seen how Braintree closed the seventeenth con- tury. She ended the eighteenth, as the old records show, by minutely detailing the duties of the sexton of the church, who
NAwatini's Hle of Mass.
- This worldent of John Quincy Adams is described in Bev. Wm. P. Luft's
450 Appendix A. note 2.
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was required " to ring the bell, sweep the house, remove the snow from the horse block, carry the burying cloth, and per- form divers other prescribed responsibilities "; and then the position was knocked off to the lowest bidder, at ten dollars, just as the sands of 1799 were running out ;1 and year after year, without violent change or abrupt innovation, the town pursued its slow and steady ways, while the sexton rang the bell to the church, to bridal ceremonies, to fire alarms, tolling with it the funeral dirge, for those who passed on to the grave ; and without doubt it rang lustily on that memorable Sunday morning, during the War of 1812, when Col. Clark inter- rupted the first service by rushing into the house, announcing the news of British invasion, and Capt. Ralph Arnold? rallied his company, and, with a week's rations, started in search of the enemy, repulsing the tollman at the North Ferry Bridge, who interfered with the progress of the bold warriors, by shouting " Halt !" causing that indiscreet official to beat a hasty retreat, the gate being carried by storm. This tradition, showing a readiness to resist the foe, together with the records of the town concerning enlistments for the War of 1812, is proof that Braintree was true to the country, as had ever been her wont. That the growth and habits of the town for the first quarter of the present century were sluggish, and its condi- tion stationary and far from flattering, may be inferred from a portraiture by Rev. Dr. Storrs in his fiftieth anniversary sermon, calling attention to the fact " that fifty years ago, and for many after years, no post-office blessed the town, nor public conveyance for letters, papers, or persons was to be had, even semi-weekly, except through villages two miles distant ; that but for an occasional rumbling of a butcher's cart, or a tradesman's wagon, the fall of the hammer on the lapstone, or the call of the ploughman to his refractory team, our streets had wellnigh rivalled the graveyard in silence, it can scarcely surprise one that our knowledge of the outer
1 See Appendix D, note 4.
2 See Appendix D, note 5.
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world was imperfect, nor that general intelligence and enter- prise were held at a discount." 1
It is easy to see that what the good doctor says of himself is true of the town, - that preliminary years of experience "are rather preparative to life, than intelligent life itself."2 In 1800 the population of Braintree was 1,280, and its valua- tion was not over $250,000.3 In 1812, the year which Dr. Storrs has presented to our view, with its Arcadian simplicity and quiet, if not with Arcadian fascination and felicity, the town riches, all told, amounted to $305,000, the nabob of Braintree, a butcher, boasting the fabulous wealth of $30,000.4 But Braintree was to " see another sight," and this stagnation was to give way to a different era. The original meaning of Braintree, "a town near a river,"5 was to fulfil its derivation, and along the Monatiqnot the true destiny of the place was to be achieved. Capital at last sought the secrets of growth and increase. The tide mills, now the site of the grain and grist mill of Hobart, were utilized in furnishing most excellent flour. The head of water above " cart bridge " was put to use in making the best of chocolate, being afterwards converted into a grist mill, which was destroyed by fire a few years since. The "trip hammer falls," once used for the smelting of copper, were made to serve the Boston Flax Company, consuming nearly two thousand tons of coal amu- ally, and at times employing four hundred persons in prepa- ration of its fabrics. Higher up the active stream. now the location of the yarn mills of B. L. Morrison, was the site of the grist mills of Hon. Benj. V. French, a name we cannot pass without special mention.6 Mr. French was, in his day,
1 Anniversary Sermon of Rer. Dr. Storrs, p. 32.
: Anniversary Discourse of Dr. Storrs, p. 11.
850 Appendix A. note 4.
" A communication entitled "Sixty Years Ago," written for the Braintree Brenes, in 1572, has this incident: "The two rich mon of the town were Peter Dyer a large land-owner, who lived on Washington Street, in the house now coffiel by the widow of the late Ezra Dyer, and Bryant Newcomb who lived at the Verk now a part of Quincy. These men, one a butcher, the other a farmer and trader were supposed to be worth from $20,000 to $0,000 cach."
No Man's Town Hall Oration, note 10, p. 25.
Appendix D. note 6.
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one of our most public-spirited citizens, who in early life removed from Boston to this town, possessed of an ample fortune, and Braintree as well as the State is largely indebted to him for the development of its agricultural resources. He caused husbandry to become a fine art, and horticulture a passion. He is entitled also to grateful remembrance for his successful efforts in the establishment of Mount Auburn, thus inaugurating the present system of burial in rural and culti- vated grounds, making the home of the dead a pleasant and attractive spot. Near by were the yarn and woollen mills of A. Morrison & Sons, and following on, the site of the shovel works of the Ames, and latterly the tack and nail factory of Stevens & Willis, the extensive paper mills of Hollingsworth, where in former years the Revere Copper Works were located, and still higher up, the planing and saw mill of White, not to mention other enterprises not now in active operation. Another industry to which Massachusetts owes much of her success, as there were engaged in it, in 1874, 2,392 firms, and employed 35,831 hands, with an invested capital of $2),000,000, and an annual pay roll of $28,000,000, produ- cing in sales $88,394,000, the cost of which was $51,364,000, was the vast boot, shoe, and leather business, which had a thrifty and prominent activity in Braintree. The town soon began to thrive under these stimulants to skilled labor, and after the establishment of a trunk line of railway, a road most wisely and generously managed, affording communication to all parts of the country for transportation of commodities and persons, the change in our population, values, and con- cerns was so remarkable that the son of the venerable pastor, coming home to share the honors and festivities that signal- ized his father's half-century of Christian service, forcibly 'stated " that the sequestered hamlet is now the suburb of the city, and the tumult of the world's enterprise rushes through it day and night."1 Through the courtesy of Col. Wright, under whose supervision the last census of the State was
1 Dr. R. S. Storrs, Jr., at anniversary ceremonies of his father, p. 41.
2 See Appendix A, note 5.
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taken, I have been furnished with information, prior to its general publication, from which it is ascertained that Brain- tree in 1875 had forty-three manufacturing establishments in operation. the value of the goods made that year being $1.724,306, the cost of stock used was $1. 104,215, the capital invested $648,883, and giving employment to 939 hands. The agricultural products of the town amounted to $101,222.
From these interesting figures, we find that Braintree has more than held her own in the race of prosperity. Her me- chanical products sold above their cost $620,091, and her agriculture yielded $101,222, a total of $721.313, or nearly three times her entire valuation at the opening of the cen- tury. The town had within one hundred and fifty as many persons engaged in mill work alone, as she had population in 1800. With less than half the population of her daughter, Quincy, she gets from her soil $101,000, to $128,000 from the latter place. Her farming turned out $40,000 better than Randolph and Holbrook combined, with a population of 1.600 more than Braintree, and her entire balance sheet compares ereditably with any town in the State.
The population of Braintree is now 4,156: vahation, $2.769,500. She has five religious societies, with houses, nine buildings erected at a cost of $50,000, affording aecom- modations for sixteen schools, a town-house, ample and commodious, costing $25,000 ; and her highways, well kept and extending to all points, number forty-eight miles ; an efficient and well-equipped fire department, established in 1871 ; and a capacious fire-proof building, erected for the pur- poses of a public library at a cost of about $35,000, with a permanent fund of $10,000 to support it ; while of the charac- ter and accomplishments of the people the same authority, so often referred to, asserts in 1871. as compared with former Years, " There is more kindliness and good-will among neigh- bors, more general intelligence prevailing, and more is ex- pended on youthful education without grudging, the advan- tages of social order and the beauty of manliness are better appreciated, and the moral courage that braves coutumely and
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violence, for the maintenance of the right, has steadily in- creased."1
It is often an inconsistent mental trait to exalt the past at the expense of the present, and heap unstinted praise upon the fathers, to the disparagement of the sons ; but who of us this day would dismantle the various seats of enterprise that now crown the banks of the Manatiquot, and go back to the mill of 1640, that answered the needs of a hundred settlers ? Who would return to their native wilds the one hundred and sixty miles of perfectly equipped road,2 now within the three original precincts, to travel again the footway of Goodman Penniman, or seek a journey to Bridgewater by the old " cart path "? Who would demolish the nineteen well-adapted church edifices 3 and pass weary Sabbaths in the ungainly barracoons that in the old days went under the title of meet- ing-houses ? Who would exchange the tasteful, painted dwelling, with its modern conveniences, its ornamented grounds, its library book, its daily paper, for the awkward, bleak, and incommodious cabin and habitation of our ances- tors? Who, instead of the modern conveniences of travel- ling, would go back to the tedious and uncomfortable stage- coach ? Who would banish the convenience, comfort, and advantages of the sixty-nine schools of Braintree,4 Quincy, Randolph, and Holbrook, and revive the educational strug- gles when each boy was required to cut and bring one load of wood, as his quota of fuel, each winter? In these days of comparative Christianity, when it is both the policy of the State and the disposition of the inhabitant to welcome the Celt and Saxon, the Lapp and Finn and Ethiopian, and even the "heathen Chinee," to try the chances of life with us, who would " turn back the dial" and recall the custom which
1 Dr. Storrs's Anniversary Sermon, p. 34.
2 Quincy, 60 miles; Holbrook, 18; Randolph, 30; Braintree, 48.
8 Quincy, 9; Braintree, 5; Randolph, 3; Holbrook, 2.
4 Braintree : number of school buildings, 9; value, $45,000 ; number of schools, 16. Quincy : number of school buildings, 16; valuation, $79,500; number of schools, 29. Randolph: number of school buildings, 7; valuation, $32,950; number of schools, 16. Holbrook: number of school buildings, 5; valuation, $12,550; number of schools, 8.
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once prevailed in this and other towns, of warning by legally served notice " widows, families with children, laborers, and transient persons" to depart the limits of the town within fifteen days "?1 Aye, who can to-day contemplate such heartless public action without shuddering at its utter disre- gard of what we now know of expediency or charity ? It would be impossible to illustrate in a more convincing man- ner the contrast of these with the times that have gone before, than by referring to the different methods of dealing with the participants of the war of the Revolution and the late war of the Rebellion. To find those of Braintree who served in the first grand struggle for independence, it is necessary to listen to fleeting and varying fireside tradition, to study the defaced letters of crumbling tombstones, to hunt the uncer- tain records of the Pension Office, or by accident obtain a hint from some stray memorial or occasional biography.
Every dollar of the fifty thousand that Braintree ex- pended for her soldiers of the war for nationality, in excess of the ordinary expense, can be traced to the last farthing. Every one of the five hundred and thirty-one privates, and eighteen officers, that went out of this town, at the call of the Republic, a number in excess of all demands made upon her, each can be found upon the muster in the State and national capital, in an elaborate public roster, issued by private sub- scription, as well as by diplomas and medals, awarded by an appreciating Commonwealth and country ; while those Brain- tree heroes who, in hospital, in camp, or in action, fell on the altar of sacrifice, or who among that sacred band embraced in the mysterious catalogue of " missing" went up by un- known paths to the God of battles, have all been carved in solid stone on an enduring monument placed on the most conspicuous spot on our soil, that these patriotic and chival- rons men, who died to uphold the common flag, might have their names perpetuated in honor while that flag, in its purity, beauty, and power, waves above their priceless dust.
In the presence of those attainments of the living, and this 1 See Appendix D, note 7.
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appreciation of the dead, let the false adulation of that which has fled, be silenced, and with due thanksgiving for the bene- factions of the present, let us, the heirs of all that has come to us, press forward with undiminished courage and expecta- tion to the boundless possibilities of the ever-waiting future.
In compliance with the invitation of the committee of the town, and to serve the purpose expressed by the President of the United States, in a late proclamation, that these centennial efforts should convey some knowledge of the people and the localities in which they are delivered, it has been the object of this endeavor, so far as practicable within the limits of an address of this nature, to tell, without undue elaboration or attempt at ornament, the story of Braintree as a town of the province, as a town of the Revolution, and a town of the Republic.
Our lot has been cast in pleasant places, and the scenery of this region has been from earliest moments the theme of admi- ration. Morton, whatever may have been his faults, certainly appreciated the good points in landscape, for he wrote in his "New Canaan " of the fine, round hillocks, the delicate " faire plains," the sweet, crystal fountains, and the millions of turtle- doves on green boughs, pecking at the full, ripe, pleasant grapes,1 which had met his eye. We are familiar with this glowing description, with, perhaps, the exception of the " millions of turtle-doves," which, unless circumstances have changed, were birds of imagination, seen by the wayward barrister while exchanging " fire-water" with the too easily . persuaded sagamores, who visited "mine hoste" of Merry Mount. Others have said, in speaking of the ' delightful scenery of this section, that it presented lights and shadows, making a picture worthy of the pencil of Rembrandt and of Claude. Grander scenes, more impressive and sublimer heights, may be visited, fairer views may be unrolled ; yet, standing on the summit of Blue Hill, once the boundary of the town, with a cloudless blue sky above, and below the blue ocean, stretching away to the far horizon, peaceful bays and
1 Morton's "New Canaan."
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placid ponds at our feet, the surf beating against the crag's of Nahant, in sight, bewitching intervale and meadow, and glimpses of the winding river, charming the beholder, the bil- lowing undulations of the soil. rolling towards the west, Wachu- sett seen as a near neighbor, and the hazy Monadnock standing sentinel at the northern outpost, the serene Punkapoag, sur- rounded with forests apparently as un! roken as the day when the sachem Chickatabot hunted through them, lying at the south, a population of halt a million within the range of vision, the busy procession of sail and steamer plying the harbor, the close line of masts at the wharves, a hundred spires point- ing upwards, the hills and plains of three cities crowded with dwellings, churches, and domes, to finish the scene, and it may well be doubted whether any pilgrim can see such another blended loveliness of headland and height, shore and summit, ocean and land. sky and earth, nature and art, com- bined in one commingled prospect, until his foot presses the land of Beulah, and his eye fastens upon the turrets and pin- nacles of the City Beautiful.
It is now my pleasing duty, before conelnding my task, to make mention of those benefactors of Braintree, who, by tes- tamentary act, have made it the object of bequest and remem- brance. Two of these donors bear the familiar and honorable nume of Thayer, a name so interwoven with our history as to give force to the remark that at one time the town was "all Thayers."! One out of every seven of the names upon the soldiers' tablet are Thavers, - an incident that stands isolated in the story of war.
The will of Nathaniel Thayer, in 1829, left his estate to the town in trust. "providing that the income shall be for- ever appropriated for the support of the public schools therepf, and for the promotion of learning in them." This is the Lient. Nathaniel Thayer whose name occurs in the town books frequently as a minority candidate to the Legislature. He was known by the abbreviation of " Left. Nat." and was the standing nominee of the anti-Federalist side, who, in this
'Dr Alden's address, p. 72, Fifteenth Anniversary Discourse of Dr. Storrs.
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town, "were few and far between." Luther Hayden, one of his ardent supporters, and one who would have been a most brilliant subject for the reform movement, went to the polls at a certain election, intending to vote for his man. Whether he strayed into the Thayer mansion, where the " latch-string " was always out on Election day, and became afflicted with what would now pass for " mental aberration " or not, cannot now be ascertained, but somehow he voted for Gen. Thayer on the Federal ticket, and Thayer was chosen by one majority. Hayden was rallied and badgered for this episode, and broke out into rhyme, and he will have to pass for one of our early Braintree poets, we having no record of any other " mute " inglorious Milton to compete with him. Hayden's stanza, somewhat familiar to many of our elderly people, ran thus : -
" Town-meeting was appointed, the people did appear, Down to Dr. Storrs' meeting-house all did steer ; Some went for rum and bacon and others went for sport, And chose a Federal representative to the General Court, And I was much mistaken, as though I lost my hat, But if I go again next year I will vote for Left. Nat."
In 1851 Josiah French devised to the town "five acres of land " as a common field for companies for a play-ground, and buildings for "town or public purposes," and upon this tract the Town Hall, and on land connected therewith the Public Library, are now located; and near by it is now in process of erection an elegant structure for an advanced school, commensurate with the needs of the town, and the noble generosity of its public-spirited benefactor. "Desirous of promoting the cause of education in this Commonwealth according to his ability, and of benefiting the town of Brain- tree," Gen. Sylvanus Thayer in 1871, by will, left an exceed- ingly valuable property to us on prescribed conditions, but the transaction is too recent and too familiar to need com- ment. The imposing fortification standing at the entrance to Boston Harbor, known as Fort Warren, is a monument to the engineering and professional skill of Gen. Thayer; but 4
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the commodious Public Library, and the establishment of this school, with a fund ample for its maintenance forever, to be a perpetual blessing to coming generations, are noble monuments to the foresight and affection of one of the most distinguished of our departed citizens. And now remember- ing that the mission of this town is but incomplete, and its final constinmations not yet conjectured, let us for a moment, from this vantage of a century, look on and beyond, to the grander promise before us as a town of the future. Samuel Adams, a descendant of Braintree, ardently desired that " Boston of the Revolution" might become a "Christian Sparta."! The Spartan feature of civilization was the "disci- pline and education of the citizen." And the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, also a descendant of old Braintree, in his thorough and eloquent oration, at the dedication of this Town Hall in 1858, declared it as his profound conviction that the " mission of freedom to mankind," even now, rests mainly " with the children of the Puritans."2
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