USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > Century of town life; a history of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1775-1887 > Part 3
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The people who bore these losses were, moreover, scattered widely to find refuge, and some were never to return. Public or private help for current necessities was given, but there was slight insurance, and full, or even partial, remuneration was never obtained. (See p. 22.) Charlestown, it might be fairly said, was unanimously rebel, or patriot; for there was only one resident loyalist, Thos. Danforth, who was also the solitary lawyer in the place. One other of his party, Thos. Flucker, owned land (Plan III. 84), but lived in Boston. The people proved their patriotism and took the consequences, - they were left with honest hearts, clear consciences, and depleted pocket- books. Yet, while the majority were financially crippled, or ruined, their sacrifice - for they had shunned no risk - was perhaps the strongest possible means for rousing their country- men to the struggle for national existence. Certainly to this end they did their full part.
While what they were in politics, they were almost as unani- mously Congregationalists in religion, and with few exceptions
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THE REBUILDING OF THE TOWN.
English in origin. Socially they were rather more diversified. There was little of the old tory official or fashionable element, only a moderate amount of higher education, and there were few or none of the leisure class, as it is called. Apart from a few persons engaged in commerce, the richest were the distil- lers; next were the bakers; both of their kinds of business seeming to have been among the necessities. The general community was intelligent, thrifty, comfortable ; it was orderly and quiet, yet it probably enjoyed itself, although in ways that might now appear simple. Going to meeting on Sunday was much more common ; there were no comic operas, or " sacred " concerts ; schools were kept at small cost; scholars were not crammed with scraps of arts and ologies ; nearly every one could read and write, although, as appears from the statements of losses, spelling by nearly all was eccentric, or, it might be said, incorrect. Neither literature, cooking, nor amusements were varied, yet there was a generation of good citizens, fond of old homes, and devoted to country.
Great sufferers in the struggle for the independence of their native land, they were in some degree exiles awhile, then, as best they could, some of them sought their old familiar haunts.
THE REBUILDING OF THE TOWN.
In 1777, as is stated in the Records of the First Parish, the few who began to return to the town found " in their then dis- tressed situations " no better place for public worship or meet- ings, for a schoolroom, as well as " for other necessary purposes," than "an old Block House [on the present site of the First Church ] left by the British army in 1776. .. . There .. . united by a recollection of their mutual sufferings, and a respect for their venerable pastor," they " attended with grateful emotions the public services of religion," and there, probably, " the first administration of the Lord's Supper [says Mr. Prentice] in Charlestown since the destruction of the cruellest British Ene- mies, was Nov. 8, 1778, with great solemnity and fulness of members beyond expectation " (Ch. Rec., 1778). There also, " uninfluenced by political dissensions," says one of them, Dr.
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A CENTURY OF TOWN LIFE.
Bartlett (1813), "we gave our first suffrages (Sep. 4, 1780)
. under the constitution of this Commonwealth ; when .. . . we exulted in the commencement of a government, achieved by our ablest statesmen." There were forty-eight votes cast. These, and other particulars show that some of the people began at an early date after the departure of the Royal forces (Mch., 1776) to return, and " to repair their waste places. A few of the number were able to erect convenient dwellings, whilst others, like their hardy predecessors, were only covered with temporary shelters" (Dr. Bartlett, 1813). That a few, at least, of some sort, were soon provided, is shown by the fact, although statements of it differ, that in Nov. 1776, Susanna Hooper was the first child, and Feb. 24, 1777, Timº Thompson, Jr., was the first male, born on the peninsula after the return.
In regard to the first dwelling erected, there are also differ- ent statements (pp. 144 and 149), and it is probable that ser- eral were begun or finished at about the same time. It was not, however, until the end of active warfare that a general movement seems to have been made to rebuild, when there was no longer risk of exposure to armed vessels, that in 1775 had given the townspeople such a dismal experience.
Meanwhile the affairs of local government were duly attended to ; town meetings were held, some of the time at Anna Whit- temore's Inn, and officers were chosen. On June 20, 1780, at one of these meetings, it was voted " that all streets, lanes, etc., within the neck shall be laid open from the first day of May next" (1781). In this latter year Aets of the Legislature were obtained "for the better Regulation of the Ferry " to Bos- ton (May 16), and (Oct. 30) "for widening and amending the Streets, Lanes, and Squares, in that part of the Town which was lately laid waste by Fire." The latter Aet was supple- mented by another, in 1790, " for the Relief of the Town," by extending time allowed for raising money by Lottery to pay for these improvements, the chief of which were in clearing the market-place of a block (Plan I., 1) covered with ruins, in forming Water, Henley, and the lower part of Warren streets from crooked lanes, and in removing some irregularities from Main Street (Plan III.). No map of any fulness or correct-
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THE REBUILDING OF THE TOWN.
ness remains, or, it may be, ever was made ; but an account of such sketches as there are is given in the survey of the town (p. 112).
New public buildings became necessary, and another site for the meeting-house, the former one on the Square having been appropriated by the Town. Consequently, Sep. 10, 1781, a vote was passed "to choose a committee to solicit subscriptions of the good friends of the town throughout the state, to assist in building a meeting-house," and Oct. 27, 1782, " after much de- bate " a " resolution 1 was come into " about the position of the edifice, to be the one place of worship in the town, a place of which it was then destitute. In the next year the house was raised and opened for use, but it had temporary seats and an unfinished steeple until 1787. Descriptions of it, and of its successor, will be found in a chapter on the meeting-houses.
The school had temporary quarters until 1786, when it was voted in Town meeting to sell the old schoolhouse and build a new one, for which £100. were to be raised. Other public in- stitutions were provided for even earlier, as March 4, 1782, it was voted to build a Workhouse for the poor, and, in 1784, to have a pair of stocks made. The ferry to Boston was main- tained by twelve men with four boats plying, March to October from sunrise till nine in the evening, and during the other months until eight. In Sep., 1783, the Warren Tavern (Plan III., 72) was already occupied, and there, during the autumn, the first Masonic Lodge, King Solomon's, was fully organized.
By this time a considerable number of the older inhabitants had dwellings, and by the end of 1785 there were 279 buildings
1 "WHEREAS by the destruction of a great part of this town in the year 1775, the inhabitants of the first parish were very great sufferers, and the house for public worship in said parish, as well as the dwellings of said inhabitants, were destroyed by fire, and as the affections of kindness and brotherly love are amongst the bright- est ornaments of human nature, and as it is in the power of the town without any injury to the general interests thereof, to furnish said parish with a place on which to erect a building for the public worship of God. Therefore this town, acting on the principle and reasons above mentioned, do hereby vote to grant and do grant, convey and relinquish to the first parish in this town, that piece of land commonly called Town House Hill, for the sole purpose of erecting thereon a house for the publie worship of God. Provided said parish building bo erected thereon within the space of five years, otherwise this grant to be void."
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A CENTURY OF TOWN LIFE.
in the town (Am. Rec., No. 1), of which 91 houses, 22 stores and workshops, and 38 barns were in the "1st division," and 69, 9, and 50, respectively, in the second. In the former there were also 550 inhabitants (537 whites, 13 blacks) and 141 ratable polls, and in the latter 449 (441 whites, 8 blacks) and 103 polls.
Another important work, that was of a public as well as pri- rate nature, was also undertaken, when, after deliberation and meetings, eighty-nine gentlemen were organized as a corpora- tion for building, and for supporting during forty years, a Bridge to Boston on the line of the old ferry, an Act to that effect having been passed by the Legislature, March 9, 1785.1 At the close of the year, a newspaper, the only one then pub- lished in Middlesex County, was first issued (Dec. 9, 1785), although the proprietors stated that " their number of subscrip- tions was considerably less than what was thought necessary " for advantageously beginning the work.2 In the first and sec- ond numbers a townsman (Dr. Bartlett) gave an authentic account of the existing condition of the place. There were, generally much altered since 1775, 18 " lanes and allies," and 11 streets, the principal of which were paved with beach stones. Of wharves there were 13, "where vessels may unlade," and there was also "an excellent yard for shipbuilding." Before the war the latter industry had flourished, as well as the man- ufacture of "rum, loaf sugar, candles, and potashes, the last of which only " had " then revived." Shade trees and orchards had been set out in place of others destroyed in 1775. There was only one militia company (the Charlestown Artillery, organ- ized in 1786), while of the three public schools (2 above and 1
1 The corporators were John Hancock, Thos. Russell, Nath !. Gorham, James Swan, and Eben Parsons, - a list short but notable.
2 Of this paper 110 numbers (13} X 8} in., pp. 4) were issued, ending May 25, 1787, on account of insufficient support. Of advertisements, No. 1 contains one by the publishers, another from Boston, and none from Charlestown; in No. 2 one more from Boston is added to these; in No. 4 all had disappeared ; and in No. 5 is a lament over the "enormous tax " imposed by Government on advertising. The State had early learned the art of killing business by taxation, an art in which it has at times been very proficient. No. 6, p. 4, contains, for the first time, mueh larger type, in which an account is given of Courtships in Kamtschatka.
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A View of the Bridge over Charles River, MASSACHUSETTS
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THE REBUILDING OF THE TOWN.
below the Neck) it was said that " neither merited particular description." Prospects, however, were encouraging, as the article closes with the statement that " the flourishing state of the peninsula . .. affords a pleasing presage of wealth and prosperity."
On the 17th of June, 1786, occurred the first celebration of the anniversary of the battle on Bunker's Hill, conducted " with the greatest splendor and festivity," says Dr. Bartlett. A devas- tating trial by war only eleven years before, was commemorated by a great and beneficial triumph of peace. Charles River Bridge was opened,1 for the first time affording a roadway to Boston, or across the waters that nearly environed the most populous section of the town. Compared with similar struct- ures in many older countries, it was a simple and insubstantial work ; compared with the means of the builders and like things then in their country, it was " considered as the greatest," and was immense. The project had been first discussed as early as 1720, but without any such results until this time, when its success led to the construction of a bridge to Malden, opened 1787, and another, to Chelsea, built in 1803. These new and important means for communication were of great benefit.2
1 The opening "summoned from all parts upwards of 20,000 spectators. The morn was ushered in by a discharge of thirteen cannon from the opposite heights of Breed's Hill, Charlestown, and Cop's Hill, Boston, accompanied by repeated peals from the bells of Christ Church. At one P. M. the proprietors assembled in the State House for the purpose of waiting on the different branches of the legislature over the bridge. The procession consisted of almost every respectable character in public and private life, . . . and upon their arrival at the entrance of the bridge, the attendant companies of artillery and artificors formed two lines on the right and left of the proprietors, and moved on to the centre of the bridge, when the Presi- dent of the proprietary advanced alone and gave orders to Mr. Cox, the master workman, to fix the drawer for the passage of the company, which was immediately done. At this moment 13 cannon were fired from Cop's Hill, and the procession passed forward, attended by the loudest shouts of acclamation." On Breed's Ilill 800 persons dined, "spent the day in sober festivity," and " separated at 6 o'clock." (Mass. Mag., Sep., 1789.) Eighty-nine persons held the 150 shares of £100. cach, that Oct. 4, 1823, were quoted $1,550. Dividends were paid for 40 years, the length of the grant.
2 Particulars about these bridges are gathered here from several sources. Charles River was, in all, 1,503 feet long, 42 wide, had 75 piers each of 7 piles, an 1 40 lamps, and cost £15,000. - Malden, 2,005 long, 32 wide, had 100 piers ca h of 6
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A CENTURY OF TOWN LIFE.
Before the Revolution a few printing establishments were quite sufficient for the needs of New England. Most of the important books could be advantageously supplied from the mother country, while native works were not numerous enough to give adequate business to many presses. After Independence local demands increased, and distant relations were changed. Presses were established in an almost surprising number of places where they were novelties, and a great deal of what is termed job-work was done on them, as well as what was called for in their neighborhoods. In Charlestown, a growing place, there was naturally a press set up, and about three months after the first newspaper was issued from it, appeared the first work (Bib., p. 32) in book or pamphlet form printed there (so far as the writer has found). It was the Oration delivered by Dr. Bartlett at the Dedication of Warren Hall (p. 135), March 14, 1786, by which it was incidentally shown that the popula- tion had already become large enough to make a hall wanted. This one was finished by Feb. 10, 1786.
As had been the case from the beginning, the townspeople, with few exceptions, continued to unite in the support of a single religious organization. After the death (June 17, 1782) of their aged pastor, the Rev. Thos. Prentice, the pulpit was sup- plied "by the kind assistance of the neighboring ministers," until Jan. 1787, when the Rev. Joshua Paine was ordained. He was highly esteemed, but died of consumption at the age of 24, on the 27th of Feb., 1788. On the 30th of April, 1789, the Rev. Jedidiah Morse was installed pastor. For twelve years he was the one settled minister of the town, and for thirty years and ten months officiated in the First Church; consequently it is of interest to learn the characteristics of the man thus chosen. Descended in the fifth generation from Anthony Morse, of Marlborough, Wilts, and born (Ang. 23, 1761) at Woodstock, Conn., he became a very prominent elergyman, and the most voluminous author who has lived in the town. Besides more
piles, and 8 lamps, and cost £5,000. - Chelsea, 32 wide, cost $53,000. -- Warren (built 1828) was, in all, 1,390 long, and 44 wide. - Prison Point was built in 1820, and led to East Cambridge. - Essex, at Salem, considered a marvel at the time, was built in 1792, and was 1,030 long, and 34 wide.
Viewof the Bridge over Mystic River & the Country adjacent from Bunker Hill
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THE REBUILDING OF THE TOWN.
than twenty pamphlets, some of them large and important, he wrote valuable geographical and historical works, that in all their editions (sec p. 297) number over seventy volumes, chicfly in octavo, put beside which the productions of some who be- came his not unassuming opponents look indeed insignificant. One who thoroughly knew him says that he had a " tall, slen- der form. The well-shaped head, a little bald, but covered thinly with fine silken powdered hair, falling gracefully into curl, gave him, when only middle-aged, a venerable aspect, while the benignant expression of his whole countenance, and especially of his bright, speaking eye, won for him at first sight respect and love." His "freedom from every offensive habit, his neat dress, polished manners," avoidance of "every word and look that might wound the feelings of another, . .. in short, his true Christian gentlemanliness, . . . gave him a decp hold on . . . the religious community." (Prof. M. in " Sprague's Life," pp. 281, 282.) His ability and character during life were also demonstrated in his sons, men such as come of no inferior stock. He lived here at a period of ex- citement and trial, when he was sharply attacked. Partisan- ship, some of it shown by persons far his inferiors, assailed him. He and his outlived it. Small help to them, but much honor to the place, that they lived here; Charlestown can ill afford a slur on Jedidiah Morse, it can far better afford him a statue.
When he was installed there were, as he recorded, 135 church members, 92 of whom were females (40 married, 12 single, and the remarkably large number of 40 widows). His salary, said to have been exceptionally good, was $572, besides firewood and the use of a parsonage.
Further evidence of the small scale of expenditures is shown by the appropriations for civil affairs. For schools the town voted £150 .; for highways, £90 .; for support of the poor, £200 .; while for Town Clerk (Sam! Payson), for Treasurer (Eben' Breed), and for Sexton the salary was £10. cach.1 At
1 In this year (Apr. 6, 1789) the Selectmen, who were also the School Commit- tee, were Isaac Mallet, Sr., Nath! Hawkins, Josiah Bartlett, Esq., Caleb Swan, Sam1 Swan, Esq., Benj. Hurd, Seth Wyman. There were two constables (Elcazer
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A CENTURY OF TOWN LIFE.
the same time (Sep. 7) ten innholders and fifteen retailers were "approbated." Besides these facts we also learn from the records of the town that its financial condition was not as easy as could be wished, and that measures for offsetting the losses by the war had not been successful. Some public and private aid had been extended to support individuals, chiefly aged or infirm, "and the state taxes were remitted for seven years " (Dr. B.). The only other help was a lottery author- ized for raising funds to alter the streets. Even of this the committee on it reported, June 19, 1789, "that the rapid de- preciation of the Continental Currency [had] deprived the town of any Benefit from the three classes which [had] been drawn ;" indeed, there was not enough obtained to compensate the man- agers for their services. The two most prominent inhabitants - Hon. N. Gorham and Hon. T. Russell -had been appointed as early as 1777 to ask relief from Congress, but it could give none ; and in 1784 the former was, against the wish of many, sent to England for aid, that was also there sought in vain. To complete the account of efforts made and failure met in the same purpose, it may be added that as long afterwards as 1834, Congress received a memorial of the citizens praying compen- sation, and let them have their labor for their pains taken.
Charlestown was allowed the American privilege, a chance to pay its own bills and to make its own way. It did both, and we can look along its history and see how it turned out in life.
THE NEW TOWN.
In Feb., 1789, a census1 was taken by which the condition of the town was, to some extent, shown, and from which some
Wyer and Sam. Kent), and nineteen other descriptions of officers, making in all fully seventy office-holders.
A list of the town clerks may be added here. They were Walter Russell, 1778; Sam! Swan, 1779, 1782; Timothy Trumhall, 1780; Sam! Holbrook, 1783; Sam! Payson, 1787 ; Philips Payson, 1801; John Kettell, 1806, 1813, 1818; Sam! Dev- ens, 1812; David Dodge, 1814, and 1825-47; Sam! Devens, 1822. (See "Mem. Hist. Boston," III.)
1 The original list taken "by S. Swan, Jun", Esq., and B. Hurd, Jun"," is on 56 double pages of a book, about 8 × 6} in., in rather small-sized writing, some-
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THE NEW TOWN.
curious particulars are derived. On computation by the writer it appears that there were 867 males, and 812 females, or a total of 1579, of which 744 were adults, 820 children, and 15 uncertain. Of adults with children, there were 175 married couples, 23 widowers, 37 widows; of those without children, there were 81 men and 99 women, single. Of persons called servants there were 40 males, 34 females, and 2 uncertain. Among 454 families and single persons, 67 had servants, and of these Sam! Ireland had 4, Benj. Frothingham and Daniel Reed cach had 3, and nine had 2 each. Several of the older or prominent inhabitants had none, as was the case with Dr. J. Bartlett, Geo. Bartlett, Benj. Hurd (Sr. and Jr.), and Hon. Nath! Gorham (with eight children), while others had but one, as had Hon. Jas. Russell, Matthew Bridge, Sam. Swan, Win. Hunnewell, Sam. Henley, Nath! Austin, and others. Evidently there was a very simple style of living, and the women who were heads of families had not the many and engrossing calls upon their time and strength now made; yet the minor cares of daily life, and the exceptional labors attendant on the re- establishment of homes and town, must have been trying. There seems to have been no excess of amusement, but, very likely, a fair amount of quiet family or neighborly visiting. Travelling was slow and expensive. Immigration was from places at no great distance, and scarcely any of it was foreign. Some per- sons or families during and after the war removed to what were then remote and newer regions, such as southern New Hampshire and eastern New York, going in the saddle over imperfect roads, in a way more adventurous than removals are now, even to the far Northwest or California. While these sought new homes, the majority returned to the old ; and while some recovered former prosperity, others were seriously affected.
times so cramped that words are indistinct. It is interesting to find, as below, the increase of population by persons from other towns who were not inhabitants in 1775. In 1776 and 1777 none are marked as coming. Afterwards the numbers are as follows: 1778, of men 1, women 1, children 4, total 6. - 1779. 1 + 0 +1 =5. -1780, 1+2+5=8 .- 1781, 3 + 0 +0 =3. -- 1782, 3 + 4+ 15 = 12 - 1783, 9 + 8 +25 = 42 .- 1784, 10 + 6 + 6 =22. - 1785, 12 + 12 + 23 = 47. - 1786, 20 + 21 + 49 =90 .- 1787, 12 +7 +23=42. - 1788, 22 + 1? + 26 =67 .- 1789, 27 +25 +41=93. In twelve years, 121 men, 105 women, 221 children, a total of 447 persons.
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A CENTURY OF TOWN LIFE.
The growth of the town during the ensuing years was con- stant, as it has been shown to have already been, - a fact ap- parent in figures at several dates that can be advantageously seen together. In 1775 there were 380 buildings on the penin- sula (Ch. Rec.) ; in 1785 there were 151 on it, and 279 in the whole town, and the population was 999 (Am. Recorder) ; four years later it was 1,579 (census). The natural increase, 1790-96, is shown by the Church Record (p. 255). In 1800 the town contained 349 buildings, and 2,751 inhabitants (Morse), and in 1805 about 400 buildings on the peninsula, and about 2,800 inhabitants. The latter in 1810 were 4,736 (Dr. B.) ; in 1834 about 10,000 (Directory) ; in 1840, 10,872; in 1850, 15,933; in 1855, 21,742; in 1865, 26,398; in 1870, 28,323; in 1885, 37,673 (the last six by census).
After observing as we have the start of the renewed town, we can perhaps most clearly understand its development in dif- ferent ways by following separately its religious, political, and business history through its first half-century, then through its second, and afterwards looking at various buildings, all in some degree indicative of that history, and of the thought, con- dition, and life of the people.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 1783-1834.
During the carlier part, perhaps half, of this period, the old order in matters of faith continued substantially as it had from the beginning of the town, that is, with one church, ministry, and creed, -the Trinitarian Congregational; of which from 1789 to 1819 there was one minister, Dr. Morse. The changes in opinion or belief that arose in the new nation, however, soon became marked in religion.
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