USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Dictionary of Worcester (Massachusetts) and its vicinity, 1893 > Part 20
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Technical School .- See Polytechnic In- stitute.
Telegram (Worcester Daily and Sun- day) .- Published by the Telegram Newspaper Co., at 386 Main street. The Telegram was established as a Sunday paper on the 30th of November, 1884, by Austin P. Cristy, a mem- ber of the Worcester County Bar. The first daily edition appeared May 19, 1886. This paper has been very successful, and has a much larger circulation than any other newspaper printed in Worcester. Lord & Thomas' and Rowell's Registers give the average circulation for 1892, of the Sunday as 12,750, of the Daily as 10,238, and the same percentage of increase in circulation has been maintained each year from the beginning. The Telegram is a lively sheet, of inquisitive tendencies, and is prolific in news. It is ultra Republican and Protection in politics, and has always advo- cated the cause of temperance.
the Springfield telegraph station. A charge of 25 cents was made at the door. The line of the New York & New England Telegraph Company was completed at that time between New York and Springfield, and the next season (1846) was carried through to Boston. In July, 1846, citizens importuned the man- agers to establish a station in Worcester, but they demanded $1,500, and it was probably more than a year later that an office was opened here. The first place occupied was a room in the building on Norwich street, where the paint and oil store of G. H. Clark & Co. now is. Mr. Strong of the Springfield station was appointed manager. In 1850 or '51 the office was removed to Warren block on Pearl street, upstairs; and in 1858 again removed to the Insurance building on Main street, opposite Elm street.
The N. Y. & N. E., American, Franklin and other telegraph companies were consoli- dated with the Western Union, and successive managers of the main office here under the different companies have been Horatio N. Williams, 1853; John G. Tobey, 1861, and Edwin W. Bradford, 1863 to the present time. The latter has been connected with the tele- graph service in this city thirty-five years. The Western Union Company removed to the Spy building (442-444 Main street) in 1872, where it still remains. There are branch offices at the Bay State House and the Union Station. The American Co. had an office here in 1859-60; the Franklin for several years (about 1867-1878); the Atlantic & Pacific, 1880-1881; American Rapid, 1881- 1884; Mutual Union, 1881-1889; Bankers & Merchants', 1884; United Lines, 1885- 1888; and the Postal Telegraph-Cable Co. The office of the latter is at 20 Pleasant street.
Taliaferro P. Shaffner, the eminent teleg- rapher, was in Worcester more or less from 1857 to 1860, and wrote some portions of his large "Telegraph Manual" here, receiving assistance in the translation of foreign lan- guages from George Jaques. After the failure of the first Atlantic cable, Mr. Shaffner pro- jected a line from Labrador to Greenland, continuing to Iceland, Färöe Islands, Norway and Scotland. A vessel was fitted out at Boston to explore the route and take sound- ings, and the principal expense of the under-
Telegraph .- The operation of the mag- netic telegraph was first exhibited in Worces- taking was paid by Daniel R. Pratt (a broth- ter at Brinley Hall, on the evening of Decem- er-in-law of Mr. Shaffner), who built the
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mansion on Wellington street afterwards the system of conduits, seems to make some agree- residence of George Gill, Samuel H. Putnam, ment between the city and the telephone the bookseller, and Henry M. Sorell, the people the more important. well-known Worcester hackman, accompanied About 35 people are employed in and about Mr. Shaffner on this voyage, leaving Boston the exchange in the winter, and in the sum- in August, 1859, and landing in Glasgow in mer the force is increased to from 50 to 60 November.
persons.
In 1891 the number of calls was 2,041,440.
Telephone Service .- The Worcester Tel- There were 138 miles of pole line, 551 miles ephone Exchange was opened at 425 Main of wire out of cables and 43 miles of cables, street in 1879, and a large number of instru- containing 240 miles single copper wire. ments were soon in use. The Exchange was There were 31,260 paid messages sent to removed to 44 Front street in 1888. The and 30, 196 messages received from other. ex- present number of subscribers in the city is changes.
1,060. The' Long Distance Telephone Co .. has an office at 434 Main street.
Temperance Societies .- Foremost among which was organized in 1876, and has been the means of rescuing many from the curse of intemperance. The hall is at 98 Front street. The Worcester Temperance Club was sub-
The Worcester Telephone Exchange ranks the temperance societies is the Reform Club, second in size of the exchanges of the New England Telephone Company, according to the report of 1892. In 1886 the exchange was seventh in rank.
The report of last year's work in the Wor- stantially on the same plan. Of temperance cester district, which includes, besides Wor- societies proper, the Washingtonian Division, No. 176, was organized in 1865, the Sons of cester, the towns of Clinton, Spencer, Webster, Westboro and Southbridge, shows that there Temperance, Anchor Division, No. 56, or- are 1209 subscribers, who sent in 2,280,000 ganized 1882; Worcester Temple of Honor, calls during the year, an average of six calls No. 31; Katama Lodge, I. O. G. T., No. 52; per subscriber for each working day. There Worcester Distrikt Tempel, No. 3, and were sent out and received from these ex- Niagara Lodge, No. 3, O. of T. There is a changes 110,382 toll messages. Within the Mutual Relief Association of the Sons and district there are 7456 poles, carrying 867 Daughters of Temperance. The Irish tem- perance societies are the Father Mathew, St. John's Guild and St. Stephen's Lyceum ; (see Irish Societies ). The First Woman's Tem- miles of open wires and 239 miles of single wires in cables, an increase of 250 poles, 102 miles of open wires and 58 miles of cable
wires during the year. There are now over perance Union was organized .in 1876, and 150 subscribers using the long-distance instru- meets at the Second Baptist Church; and the
Second W. C. T. U., formed in 1878, meets for this class of service on account of troubles in the Burnside building. The Worcester ments, and it is probable the growing demand
resulting from the electric railways will neces-
sitate nearly double the present wire mileage 1887, and is composed of the pastors and del- within two years. Arrangements are now be- egates from the churches and temperance ing made for a large increase of line and cen- tral office facilities at once.
While the system in Worcester has had a abstinence principles. The rooms are in the
more rapid development than any other city excepting Boston, and its wire mileage is next to that of Boston, it is now nearly the only city of size in New England in which the telephone company has no underground wires. Under-
societies in the city. Its objects are to enforce the law against saloons, and to cultivate total Y. M. C. A. building.
Central Temperance League was organized in
Temporary Home and Day Nursery .- Established in 1883 as the Day Nursery and Kindergarten, for the benefit of the children ground conduits are now used in Boston, Cam- of the poor, and of mothers who are obliged bridge, Charlestown, Somerville, Lowell, to work out at day labor. Children can be Lawrence, Salem, Portland and Springfield. left during the day, and will be properly cared The fact that the telephone company has been for. A fee of ten cents a day is charged for allowed by the various city governments, each child. The home is at 176 Southbridge after careful investigation, to place its standard street. It is incorporated.
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Tenders' Union .- Meets at 98 Front the town in the first years of the century, com- prising such names as Allen, Lincoln, Bangs, Bancroft, Blake, White and others. The drama itself, however, had to be viewed and enjoyed elsewhere.
street.
Tennis Clubs .- There are two tennis clubs in Worcester-the Woodlawn and the Winslow.
Theatres and Theatricals. - The first dramatic entertainment in Worcester by pro- fessional talent took place in the year 1797, as appears by the following announcement in the Massachusetts Spy :
On the 24th of April, 1820, a "Rational Entertainment" was given at Eager's Hall by Mr. Bernard, Mr. Jones and Mrs. Young from the Boston Theatre, under the title "Be Merry, Be Wise; or the World as it Goes," with songs, dancing, recitations, etc. Eager's Hall was in the Brick Hotel at the corner of Main and Mechanic streets, where the Walker building now stands. Most of the hotels or taverns in those days had halls for dancing, lectures and such entertainments and exhibitions as came along. Mr. Blan- chard's "Olympic Theatre" was advertised at Howe & White's (successors of Eager ) Hotel in September, 1821. Mrs. Blanchard and her three children took part in this exhibition.
"THEATRICAL. For a few nights only, Mr. Hogg, late of the Boston Theatre, re- spectfully informs the Ladies and Gentlemen of Worcester and vicinity, that the Hall over the School Room is fitted up for the purpose of representing some select and most admired Dramatic Pieces. On Wednesday evening, June 21, 1797, will be performed a favorite musical entertainment, called The Waterman. By particular desire, Collins' Ode on the It appears that there was a strong sentiment Passions. To which will be added for the in the town between 1830 and 1850 against all entertainments of the lighter nature, and this was evidently inculcated and emphasized by John Milton Earle, the editor of the Spy, who was not sparing in his denunciation of second time, a dramatic romance in one act, called The Oracle, or Daphne and Admintor. The whole to conclude with a Pas de Deux. The doors to be open at half past six, and the performance to commence precisely at half such "fooleries" which encouraged "idleness, past seven. Tickets to be had at the Worces- ter bookstore, at the bookstore of Isaiah Thomas, Jun., and of Mr. Hogg, at the in the town. About the time Worcester be-
cruelty and vice." For quite a number of years no circuses or theatricals were allowed house of Capt. Heywood. Front seats 3-9. Back seats 2-3." came a city, the gates were occasionally opened, but it was some time after this before On the 28th of June, the play of "Like Master, Like Man," was given. dramatic performances were allowed to be given without protest. Brinley Hall was used More than twenty years passed before the people of Worcester had another opportunity of witnessing anything like a theatrical enter- tainment. William Charles White, an actor fifty years ago for most of the entertainments of this character, until in 1850 the new Flagg's Hall, in the block which was burned in January, 1854, took a large share of them. and play-writer of some note, resided in the This hall was provided with scenery and other town some years between 1797 and 1818, the year of his death. What influence he had in stage appurtenances. Among the celebrities who appeared here were Geo. L. Fox, Mrs. cultivating a taste for the drama in the minds of Barrett, Denman Thompson and Yankee his friends and neighbors cannot now be deter- Locke. There was no "theatre" in Worces- mined, but we are told by one who knew him ter until the completion of the one erected by that he was a man of free and elegant man- William Piper, in 1856-7, which is now known as the "Front Street Opera House." This was first opened on the 9th of February, 1857, the play "Ingomar" being given by a select com- pany under the management of Wyzeman Marshall. This theatre was closed Nov. 27, 1867, remodelled for business uses, and was ners, and was often surrounded by those who were charmed by the magic of his voice, and the vigor of his understanding. But, however strong the craving, the opportunities for gratification in those days were few, especially in a country village like Worcester. We have contemporary testimony that the study known for the next twenty years as the "Front of Shakespeare was one of the recreations of Street Exchange." Again altered and re- a small circle of cultivated minds gathered in stored, it was re-opened as a theatre in the fall
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of 1888. Many actors of merit, and some Thieves was formed Nov. 16, 1795, and the eminent ones appeared in this building during organization is still maintained. its first years, among whom were Edwin Forrest, John E. Owens, Mrs. Barrow, John Gilbert, Charlotte Thompson, Rose Eytinge, Wm. E. Burton, J. W. Wallack, Charlotte Cushman, Mckean Buchanan, Wm. Warren, Laura Keane and Matilda Heron. John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Lincoln, played here in 1863. Charles C. D). Wilkinson managed the theatre for one season.
Music Hall, known after 1873 as the "Worcester Theatre," was opened March 9, 1869. A history of this building is given under the title Music Hall in the DICTIONARY. Of the celebrities who have appeared here, the following are now remembered : Charles R. Thorne, John E. Owens, Mr. and Mrs. Barney Williams, Mrs. J. B. Booth, Wyzeman Marshall, Lester Wallack, Joseph Jefferson, Edwin Booth, Barry Sullivan, Anna Dickin- son, James E. Murdock (readings), Charles Fechter, Henry Irving, E. A. Sothern, Salvini, Sarah Bernhardt, Mrs. Langtry, Lawrence Barrett and others. This building was burned May 16, 1889.
The New Worcester Theatre, Exchange street, on the site of the one destroyed by fire, is one of the most elegant houses of entertain- ment in New England. First class plays are presented by the best talent. Rock & Brooks are the present managers.
Theatrical performances have also been given in Mechanics Hall, in the Rink in Bigelow Garden, and in various other places. Bristol's Dime Museum, located in Washburn Hall for several winters, combined dramatic exhibitions with other attractions. Private theatricals have been rendered by amateur talent on several occasions; the efforts of the Quinsigamond Boat Club in producing such travesties as "Romeo and Juliet," "Lord Bate- man," and the "Talisman" are deserving of praise.
Edmund Kean, one of the greatest lights of the English stage, passed through Worces- ter on the 20th of December, 1825, to Boston, where he attempted to play on the evening of the 21st, but was prevented by riotous demon- strations. He returned to this town well armed on the 22d, remained over night, and departed for New York on the 23d.
Theological Library .- See Allen Library.
Times (Worcester Daily ) .- An evening paper established Sept. 1, 1879, as a one cent issue. The price was advanced to two. cents. It was Democratic in politics, and claimed to be the organ of the workingmen. After more than ten years' publication the paper was purchased by the Prohibitionists, who failed to make a success, and suspended its issue.
Toboggan Club .- The Worcester To- boggan Club was organized in 1886. The slide is at the Eyrie, Lake Quinsigamond.
Tower Hill .- The elevation on the Shrews- bury side of Lake Quinsigamond, north of the causeway, offered to the Natural History Society in 1890 by Thomas H. Dodge, Esq., for a girls' camp.
Town Clerks of Worcester .- Following is a list of town clerks from 1722 to 1848:
I722. Jonas Rice.
I723. Benjamin Flagg.
1724. Jonas Rice.
1729. Zephaniah Rice.
I730. Benjamin Flagg.
1731. Jonas Rice.
1753. Daniel Heywood.
1754. Timothy Paine.
1764. John Chandler.
1768. Clark Chandler.
1775. Nathan Baldwin.
1778. William Stearns.
1780. Nathaniel Heywood.
1780. Joseph Allen.
1781. Daniel Goulding.
1783. William G. Maccarty.
1783. Daniel Goulding.
1787. Theophilus Wheeler.
I792. Daniel Goulding.
1796. Leonard Worcester, pro tem.
I797. Daniel Goulding.
1800. Oliver Fiske.
1803. Daniel Goulding.
1808. Enoch Flagg.
1816. Levi Heywood.
1818. Benjamin Chapin.
1833. Samuel Jennison.
1836. Charles A. Hamilton, who was the last town clerk to 1848, and also the first city elerk.
Previous to 1787 the town clerk was also Thief Detecting Society .- The Worces- clerk of the First. Parish-in fact the distinction ter Association for Mutual Aid in Detecting between the Town and Parish was not made
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until after the incorporation of the Second ter of various religious denominations. The Parish. See under Old South Church for a early history of this church is given by Alfred list of clerks of the First Parish from 1787 to S. Roe in his paper on "The Beginnings of the present time. See also the title City Clerk.
Traders' Protective League. - Was formed in 1892.
Tramps .- The number of tramps or lodgers accommodated at the police station in 1891 was 5,146.
Trinity Methodist-Episcopal Church .- The first incorporated body of Methodists in Worcester was organized February 8, 1834, under the name of The Methodist-Episcopal criminals, but to repress the tendency to crime Society in the Town of Worcester. . Previous to which truancy leads. Hence commitments are made for no cause but truancy." to the above date there had been class meet- ings and preaching to some extent for several Trumbull Square .- Where Trumbull, Franklin, Green and Park streets meet. On the north side of the square is the Trumbull mansion, which was formerly the County Court House, erected in 1751. It was moved to its present location from Court Hill in 1801, and the present brick court house was built in its place in 1802. years. Joseph A. Merrill was the first minis- ter of the new society, and he was, within a short time, succeeded by George Pickering. The Town Hall was the first place of worship. A lot at the corner of Front and Spring streets was offered for $600 as a site for a building, but funds were lacking and the purchase was not made. In 1836 Samuel R. Jackson gave a piece of land on Exchange street (the east Trust Funds .- The total amount of trust funds held by the city for specific purposes November 10, 1891, was $302,136.72. A list of these funds is here given, with the date of foundation and the amount of each : end of which was then called Columbian avenue, and the west end at Main street, Market street ; the central portion not being open for travel) at the southeast corner of Union street, and a meeting house was built at Name. Date. Amount. a cost of $4, 150. It was dedicated and opened Bullock High School Fund, 1860 $ for service March 8, 1837. The situation was Hope Cemetery, 1,534.45 22,838.67 unfavorable, and the approaches, especially in Green Library, 1863 1868 47,516.77 winter and wet weather, not pleasant or con- Lake Park, 1884 venient, causing Father Taylor on one occa- Dewey Charity, 1889 sion to inquire, " Why didn't you build your Bancroft Endowment, 1885 10,278.54 meeting house in a cow-yard and done with CITY HOSPITAL FUNDS. it ? " February 19, 1844, this structure was Jaques, burned, and in 1845 a new church was erected 1874 1876 1877 on Park street, south of the Common. This Curtis, 194,558.48 was of brick, 72 feet long and 50 feet wide, Tenny, Shaw, 1,051.86 and cost rather more than $10,000. After 1884 1881 2,000.00 twenty-five years' occupation this property was Sargent, Salisbury, 5,000.00 1886 513.94 1887 3,896.25 sold to the French Catholics for $32,700. Knowles, 8,121.II (See Catholic Churches.) In 1870, the Methodists purchased for $25,000 the estate Typewriting in Worcester .- Mrs. Edna I. Tyler established the first public type- writing office in Worcester on March 4th, 1885, in Clark's Main street block. After re- maining there nearly six months, she removed to the Walker building, where her head- quarters now are, with a branch office in the of Thomas H. Dodge, at the corner of Main and Chandler streets, and erected the edifice known as Trinity Church. The corner stone was laid July 12, 1870, and the church dedi- cated April 25, 1871. It cost about $75,000 in addition to the land. The clock and bell in the tower were given by citizens of Worces- new Five Cents Savings Bank building. Mrs.
Methodism in Worcester," printed in the Proceedings of The Worcester Society . of Antiquity for 1888.
Trowbridgeville .--- A village on Webster street, near the Auburn line.
Truant School .- A school for truants was established at the City Farm in 1863, and the whole number sentenced previous to December I, 1888, was 416 ; 43 were sentenced in 1891. " The aim of this school is not to reform
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Tyler was the first teacher of stenography in this city, and has been president of the Wor- cester County Stenographers' Association. in 1883. She is at present, by special appointment, assistant to the stenographer of the Superior Court.
Typewriter (The First). - The first typewriter was invented by Charles Thurber of Worcester in 1843, and the identical machine made under his direction is now in the possession of The Worcester Society of Antiquity, presented by Herbert R. Cum- mings. A writer in the Charleston News and Courier says: "I saw a few days ago a model of the first writing machine made in this country. It is a really amusing affair in
Underwriters (Board of) .- The Wor- cester Board of Underwriters was organized
Union Church .- The Third Congregational Trinitarian Church in Worcester, formed in 1836. The first edifice, at the present loca- tion on Front street, was dedicated July 6, 1836. It was of brick, 90 feet in length and 54 in width. Granite steps extended nearly across the front. 'The house was twice re- modeled inside, and was entirely rebuilt în 1880. The names of the pastors of this church appear under the title Ministers in the DICTIONARY.
Union for Concerted Moral Effort, or its very clumsiness. It consists of a wheel the U. C. ME Club .- An organization of about a foot in diameter, which turns hori- similar character as the Tee-To-Tum clubs of zontally upon a central pivot; the rim of the London and New York. The history of these wheel is bored with twenty-five holes, in each clubs has been marked by phenomenal growth of which is a rod bearing at the top a glass and success. The name originated in London. letter and at the bottom a similar letter of It has no philological significance, being simply steel. The paper sheet is so arranged that the a "name to conjure with," the happy and line to be printed is under the rim of this haphazard invention of a Mr. Buchanan of wheel, and the letter wanted is swung into London, who had in mind the name of a cer- tain kind of tea he was then laboring to put upon the market. He conceived the idea of organizing clubs of workingmen who should be privileged to buy their tea at prices surpris- place by turning the wheel; when in place a rod bearing it is depressed until the steel type or letter touches the paper. I should say that even the fastest operator could not write more than half as fast as a man with a pen. Yet it ingly cheap. Soon tea was sold to non-mem- was a writing machine, and Thurber succeeded bers of the clubs at prices but slightly in ad- in getting people to invest $15,000 in this vance of those at which club men got it. To- curious device." There are no less than fifty day there are nearly a dozen such clubs in different kinds of typewriters at the present time. The above facts are from the Phono- graphic Magazine.
London with memberships varying from 500 to 1000.
Typographical Union .- Worcester Typo- prices for which non-members can hardly get graphical Union, No. 165, was instituted in 1873.
Typothetæ (Worcester) .- An organiza- tion of master printers, organized May 30, 1890, and which embraces in its membership all the principal job printing offices in the city. The local society holds membership in the that the clubs have no connection with the United Typothetæ of America, which has famous Toynbee Hall.
branches in all cities of importance in the United States and Canada, its object being " to cultivate a just and friendly spirit among
The privileges of these clubs are, besides the best of food cooked in the best manner, at the raw materials, billiards and other games, concerts and a pavilion for dancing, and all at an extremely moderate price. Dancing has not been condemned by the religious people of Great Britain. The clubs are uncompromis- ing on the question of beverages. Nothing alcoholic is permitted. It should be stated
Charles James Wills opened a Tee-To-Tum in New York lately with the marked success which seems to have followed this movement the craft, for exchanging information and for everywhere. The supplies of food provided protecting and assisting each other when gave out soon after the club opened, and the necessary." Monthly meetings are held at popularity of the club, on a scale much larger the offices of members. than was anticipated, was assured from the
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start. The New York club does not contem- Union Hill .- The elevation nearly south plate concert or dancing halls, but is consider- of the Union Passenger Station, to the summit ing billiard tables and a cigar counter. Mr. of which Providence street is the leading Wills feels reasonably sure the patrons of the avenue. At the top of the hill are located the Tee-To-Tum Club will smoke, and he sees no grounds and buildings of the Worcester good reason why the club should not sell a Academy. Union Hill is the northern end of really good cigar for five cents, instead of the high ridge known as Sagatabscot Hill leaving the members to pay that amount for dried cabbage leaf. The New York club pro- fesses two objects: To furnish nutritious food at a cost for which, ordinarily, one could pur- chase only the raw materials, and at the same time educate and wean its patrons away from unnutritious food.
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