USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Georgetown > Georgetown: story of one hundred years, 1838-1938 > Part 8
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The brick schoolhouse housed a primary, intermediate and grammar school for many years and there are many alive today who attended school there, all of whom must take pleasure in the fact that it is in use for a church and not as a town hall, as was seriously proposed after 1898 when the old town house burned.
For many years there had been several families in town accustomed from birth to the Episcopal service. In 1881 and 1882 Episcopal services were held in town, at first in Grand Army Hall and later in Library Hall. These services were the result of efforts by the Misses De Wolf, young ladies living in town. The rectors of South Groveland and Trinity Church, Haverhill, officiated. Years later the Episcopalians welcomed a visit from a representative of the Episcopal diocese to take a census to ascertain how many were will- ing to support a church in town. A sufficient number were found and services started in various rooms that could be secured.
As the upper floor of the brick schoolhouse was vacant, the society rented it for services, later purchasing the building and fitting it more adequately for its purposes. Rev. S. Atmore Caine of Boston presented the society with an altar of wood, finely carved.
When Bishop Babcock visited the parish in 1926 he blessed and dedicated the altar cross in memory of Clerk William Brown Welch, who died suddenly the year before, and the processional cross in memory of the gold star soldier of the parish, Corp. Bryant Atwood Browne.
On the resignation of Rev. Mr. Morse, because of ill health, the present rector, Rev. Elbert B. Holmes of St. Luke's Church, Linden (Malden), was appointed.
Page Fifty-eight
Centennial Floats
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ATLEUSINESS RECE YOUR HEALTH
PHARMACY
FOR GODT
COUNTRY
Reading from the top: Bowling on the Green, by Georgetown Bowling Alleys; Georgetown Pharmacy; Rene J. Gagnon Post of the American Legion; Girls' Club, sponsored by the Georgetown Women's Club.
Page Fifty-nine
CERTAIN OLD BUILDINGS
N other articles of this volume references are made to buildings which have figured in Georgetown's story. A more complete survey, prepared many years ago by Lawrence Chaplin, adds to the picture which older residents have kept somewhat in mind as the years have gone forward.
The lot on which the Central School stands was originally a much higher knoll and was cut down to make a site for the Universalist Church. It was certainly a very ambitious undertaking on the part of such families as the Harrimans and the Joneses to conceive of a large building where they might worship in accordance with their belief, but the necessary money was raised and the building erected. The Universalist faith did not receive the support expected. Meetings were held infrequently and after about twenty years the building was sold and the Town House erected on its site.
Even in those days of comparatively easy moving operations, with no shade trees or telephone poles to interfere, this large building gave the operators plenty of trouble. Twenty or more yokes of oxen were engaged day after day until the structure was deposited on the lot bought from the Littles, where it now stands. Mr. Sawyer, the new owner, first used the building for a dry goods store for himself and a clothing store for his brother. Then, either he or William Boynton, made it into a dwelling house. Its size, symmetrical proportions, ornamental finish and graceful cupola, give it an unusual appearance.
Next door, a building somewhat similar in size, was called the Insurance Building when built by William Boynton to house the office of the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which Boynton was treasurer. Also, on the lower floor there was a furniture store and an undertaker's office. The store was once kept by John Parsons as a dry goods and notions store, and the insurance office became a barbers' shop. Among the barbers of the early days was one Pompelio, a handsome Portuguese, who married one of the George- town girls. Wonderful colored paper lace work with which this barber shop was decorated, as well as scroll work and printing done with soap on the windows, excited the attention of everybody.
Across the street was the old Tenney house, later occupied by Hiram N. Harriman and Dr. A. C. Reed. It was built by George J. Tenney from portions of buildings brought from Spofford's Hill. One building so used came from the Poore place. The Braman house which long occupied a site across the street from the house long occupied by the Kakases, was said to have contributed to the Tenney building. In the upper story was a hall known as Tenney's Hall, where town meetings and social gatherings were held for many years. A private high school was taught there at various times by Messrs. Phelps, Pond, Wheel- wright, Thompson and Coggswell. Such early residents as Charles E. Tyler, Robert Coker and John Lovering were pupils there. The two engine companies-Pentucket No. 1 and Watchman No. 2-were housed on the first floor and their machines in the basement. When the engine companies deserted the place, the first floor was occupied by Mary Jane Hardy's millinery store, afterwards Mrs. Hobson's, and by Mrs. Horatio Hoyt's dressmak- ing rooms. The building was made into a residence in the late '80's.
Reference has been made in another article to the advent of the Littles and of their great influence. They built the store which for years occupied the North Street front of the Little Block location. Uncle Ben kept the store and was postmaster. When Samuel Little and John P. Coker appeared in town from West Newbury, they established them- selves in the shoe business, Mr. Coker in an addition, a sort of "L" to the store, extending up Main Street, and Mr. Little in the Phoenix Building. In the second story of this building was the Plumer & Osgood tailor shop; in the basement there were various fish markets of John Knapp and Stephen Hardy, and a news-stand by Knapp.
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In the basement of the Coker shoe shop Moses Carter and Ben Dodge manufac- tured bitters and other medicines, the Carters then living in the house now occupied by Dr. Moore. Later, these two men separated, Carter moving into the Phoenix Building and Dodge to Rooty Plain. When Little's Block was built the old store was moved to its present location on Middle Street, where it was first the Advocate office. The Coker shop was bought by Edward Sherburne and moved to a point near the old Pound under Rock Hill where it was first used as a shoe shop and then remodelled into a dwelling house by Mr. Sherburne.
The Pheonix Building was built by the Little Brothers-Joe and Ben-at first only the Central Street portion. In it Robert McQueston kept a store and J. P. Stickney, who became postmaster, another store. Austin Merrill used the second story for a shoe shop and in it was published the early weekly papers.
In order to clear a site for the Phoenix Building it was necessary to remove a house which faced southwest, with its back to Main Street. This was the home of the widow Samuel Burbank, who at the time owned the land all the way up Central and Andover Streets to the railroad track, and also to Middle Street, then called Back Street, and who sold piece by piece to the Littles. Mrs. Burbank had much trouble with the boys who stole her cherries and reported time and again that they paid no heed to her efforts to drive them away, one of them climbing high and "crowing like a rooster."
The Old Pentucket House has had an interesting history. It was originally Pillsbury's Tavern and kept by a Pillsbury who owned with it a large tract of land extending far down North Street and over to Atwood's Hill. The house was swung round into North Street and the present front built by Colonel John Savory, who also built the house that is now the Carleton Home for his son Wicom. At a later date there was built the "L" to the hotel, extending easterly, housing Georgetown's first bank, of which George Foot was cashier. In the second story was Mechanics Hall, used for Town Meetings, social gatherings, political rallies. It was used for mid-week and Sunday evening services and fairs by the First Con- gregational Church also at the time the wings were being constructed at the Old South Church.
The complete story of the old tavern will never be told. One incident is that con- nected with a sensational raid. The hotel had become a veritable nest of thieves. Store rob- beries had become frequent in the nearby towns. Haverhill, Newburyport, Salem and Lawrence suffered. After long investigation George Boynton, deputy sheriff, made a raid. At about nine o'clock in the morning two hacks were driven into town from Haverhill and came to a stop at the front of the hotel, the sheriffs quickly surrounding the house and deploying down Main and North Streets, guns drawn. The hotel clerk invited his visitors inside. One sheriff said to him, "You've got on a pair of my pants." A search of the place revealed all sorts of plunder hidden between partitions. Five or six men were arrested, two of them while in jail telling the story of the existence and doings of an organized gang with headquarters at the hotel. The proprietor served three years in State Prison and some of the others served prison terms.
Another hotel incident concerns two attempts to rob the Manufacturers' Bank in 1847 by "Bristol Bill," who was later caught in similar work in Vermont and sentenced for a long term. During his confinement he wrote a long story, making mention of the Georgetown failure.
The story as told by Theodore G. Elliott, who lived in the building now occupied by the Odd Fellows, was that he was attending a lecture in Tenney's Hall when called to the door and told that Cashier Foot of the bank wished to see him on important business. Mr. Foot lived at the Pentucket House. There, Mr. Foot, Benjamin Little, the bank's presi- dent; William Hayward, later of Oakland, Cal., and a stranger were in conference. The
Page Sixty-one
latter was a member of the Boston Police Department and had come out over the road to inform the bank officials of a proposed break that night, the information having been obtained from conversation overheard in Boston.
It was decided that Hayward, Elliott and the policeman should go on guard. The Boston man made the plans. Mr. Elliott was to stand guard at the door and Mr. Hayward at a certain window, while the policeman was to be within call. If no more than three men were to make the break the policeman thought they could be captured without shooting. He armed his assistants with clubs and reserved the firearms for himself.
The night was light and still. The policeman fell asleep and was snoring when a wagon containing three men passed down the street, the horse in a walk. The two watchers awoke the policeman. Within a few minutes the wagon returned, the horse still at a walk, and the faces of the men turned toward the bank. After another long interval a noise was heard at the window where Hayward was waiting. The watcher had instructions not to show himself until the man or men were inside. He was to drop and crawl under the counter. In stepping back Hayward hit his foot against a stick of firewood which made a loud noise. He lay under the counter until morning. The men had heard the noise and had escaped.
The watch was kept up a month unbeknown to outsiders, it was thought. In less than sixty days from the withdrawal of the watch the bank was entered one night by skeleton keys, the outer door of the vault was opened in a similar manner and two holes drilled in the middle door. Another hole was started but the drill broke. Giving up the job, the burglars locked the outer door of the vault, breaking the key in the lock, and did the same to the outer door of the room. There was little doubt that the burglars had been in collusion with the hotel people and that a spy had been at work.
When the Pettengill house, next to the Carleton Home, was built in 1829-30 it was the only house, except the tavern, on the right hand side of North Street until one came to the old Parsonage in St. Peter's Court. The house now known as the Baptist Parsonage, opposite the church, was then standing and kept as a boarding house by William Stickney. His boarders were John Coker, Samuel Little, Henry Pettengill, and Joseph Noyes, when they first came to town.
The days of Colonel Savory at the hotel were days of the stage coach. Young people of today can little appreciate the thrill which the boys and girls of the '30's received on the daily arrival and departure of these cumbersome vehicles, drawn by four or six lively horses. Nathan Carter drove the stage for years and was a master-hand at it. He always came to the door of the tavern at full speed and as for cutting corners-well, he didn't cut them, but drove over them. The rumbling of the coach and the sound of the horn could be heard all the way down Spofford's Hill.
Savory was a high-pressure salesman of his day. He would regale his guests from outside with stories of Daniel Webster frequently toasting his feet at his Franklin stove and even exaggerated to the extent of claiming that George Washington stopped in the Square when making his way from Boston to Newburyport and Portsmouth, on one of his grand tours. Certain it was that for years Savory never lacked customers either in his room count or at the bar.
One can imagine how busy the hotel was one night in particular when the first Musical Jubilee ever known in this country was held in the Old South Church, conducted by Rev. Charles Beecher and Lowell Mason. Hundreds came from out-of-town, most of them staying in town over night and relying on the hotel and the residents to provide accommodations. More than fifty of the singers were Georgetown boys and girls, many of whom later singing in the great Peace Jubilee in Boston.
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The old Boynton store was built by Colonel Savory and his son Wicom kept a store there. The building was burned in the fire of 1874. William Boynton, who came from Rockport, bought the building and kept a store in it. The second story was once used by one of the engine companies and at another time the Advocate occupied the entire second floor. The third story contained the original Tammany Hall and here the Doedunks met. When a boy asked what the A. J. C. on their pin meant he was told that it stood for Aunt Judy's Cow. This was a secret organization, organized in Georgetown, flourishing for years and represented by branches far and wide. The secrets were never divulged.
The Hughes Barber Shop was moved to Georgetown from Rowley by the father of the late Eben Hobson to be used as a shoe factory for his brother William. The store next door occupied by Louis R. Merrill was built by the Littles and moved from across the street.
Of the row of houses opposite the Central School not one was built on the spot. The first to arrive was the old Hould house, corner of Library Street, which was the original Elliott house, Main and Central Streets. The next house occupied for many years by the Christian family was moved from the site of an old French roof house in Marlboro built by Thurston Hardy. The old Morse house was first a barn moved over the hill to a spot near the Engine House, South Georgetown, and used as a shoe shop. In the early district school days it had become a house near the railroad tracks and the lower room was used as the South Georgetown station. Mr. Lovering owned the building. The railroad was paying no rent and word was sent to the superintendent that after a certain date rent would be charged. A reply was received by Mr. Lovering that the trains would not stop at South Georgetown, and they did not stop for several years. Then Mr. Lovering moved the build- ing to its present location.
The next house opposite the Central School was originally a paint shop owned by Edwin Carr and situated near the brook at the Roman Catholic rectory and occupied by one Clough. It was then moved to the upper corner of the lot next to the schoolhouse, rented for years and moved again. At about this time the fifth house was cut from the center of the "Block" and moved across the street.
Lovering and Shute found it very inconvenient to have no trains stop at South Georgetown, so they found a small shop in the center of the town, bought it and moved it and again furnished a station for the railroad. Later, the railroad took over the shop and rebuilt it.
The Willard Brown house, South Georgetown, at the junction of Elm and Central Streets, was built in Marlboro by Isaac Newton Merrill, was moved to South Georgetown, to the south of the old Charles Piper Adams house, where it stood for some time vacant. It was then bought by Joseph Perley of Linebrook and moved to its present site for a store and home for Francis Hood who had married Perley's daughter. This store was operated for years by Francis Hood, James O. Berry, John A. Hoyt and finally by Moses N. Boardman.
Another sample of the way buildings have been scattered in moving is furnished by the old Chaplin house which occupied the site of the home of the late H. Howard Noyes. This was a large square house and a very long "L". The house was sawed in two, moved to North Street, repaired, and became the Chester Mitchell house. One portion of the "L" became the John Molloy house; the second section is on Pond Street, and a third section was bought by Moses Boardman, moved to a spot near his house in South George- town and used for a shoe shop, then moved to a spot near the Engine House and used for a store and finally made into a dwelling house. It is still occupied.
A building that has always interested Georgetown people is the Jophanus Adams house, particularly because of the two-story piazza and tall pillars. It was built for a store
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Page Sixty-four
Centennial Parade
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and the upper story was a hall, called Adams's Hall. In 1846 the town held its annual Town Meeting there. It was used by the church as a vestry.
At the north side of the yard, at the old Nelson place, corner of Elm and Brook Streets, stood a shop in which Deacon Asa Nelson manufactured shoes and in the second story of which George and Prescott Chaplin, Alfred Noyes, Luther and Rodney Perley and others worked at shoemaking. This shop was moved to the rear of George J. Tenney's factory, and there it housed the first pegging machine used in Georgetown. From there it was moved to Prospect Street and remodelled into a house by Edwin Brown.
On the Dr. Root lot was a building that was moved to the Memorial Church lot and occupied by the Thompson brothers, Otis and Eri, as a shoe factory. It was moved to a lot on Middle Street, close to the Engine House, and used by Morrison Proctor as a shoe- stitching shop, later by Murray Stocker, and was finally made into a dwelling and is now the residence of Charles Woodcock, a grandson of Proctor.
Many other buildings now in use in Georgetown were moved from Rowley in the '30's and '40's, the majority of them small neighborhood shoe shops. The late Rev. Bartlett Weston heard as a boy that for $10 a building could be thus moved. The late Darius Hull once said that the little house next to his own on West Main Street, owned successively by him, Pierce, Hubbard and Lothrop, cost less than $10 to move from Rowley but twice that amount for New England rum.
And This Is Georgetown!
One of the prettiest and pleasantest of all New England towns is located about thirty miles from Boston, on the line of the Boston & Maine Railroad, and the name is Georgetown. . . . People who have visited it will say so because they can't help it and those who have never visited the town are respectfully recommended to go and see if they can't conscientiously indorse this statement. It is quiet because it is moral, hospitable because its denizens can't be anything else, and cheerful and jolly because in the very nature of things, Georgetown can't be otherwise. .
-BOSTON Traveler, December 18, 1875.
I come from the charming valley of Eastern Merrimac. Looking from any one of the emerald heights of forest-flanked hills of Georgetown or Groveland on the numerous ponds and lakelets that glisten like mirrors in the valleys beneath, one's soul is entranced and one's gaze fascinated by a vision of loveliness that raises one's mind at once to the beautiful and sublime and to the contemplation of the infinite God who alone could paint that inimitable picture and make it reproduce itself with every recurrence of the season. To Him be honor and glory and power forever.
-GEORGETOWN PRIEST who thus introduced himself to a Boston College audience.
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Town's Public Buildings
2
4
3
5
Photos by L. Merrill
No. 1 Peabody Library; No. 2 American Legion Memorial; No. 3 Soldiers' Monument; No. 4 New Georgetown Perley High School; No. 5 Central School.
Page Sixty-seven
CENTENNIAL PROGRAMME
SATURDAY, JULY 2
Boy Scouts' Demonstration in the morning, baseball game on the High School Grounds in the afternoon, band concerts and dancing in the Grange Hall at night. SUNDAY, JULY 3 Commemorative services in the churches in the morning. Community Service on the Perley High School athletic field at 4 P.M.
MONDAY, JULY 4 Civic Parade at 9.30 A.M. Ball game in the afternoon at 3.30.
CENTENNIAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Rev. W. Irving Monroe, Jr., Chairman Seth H. Boardman, Treasurer Robert F. Metcalf, Secretary Herbert H. Palmer Leslie P. Merrill
Miss Marjorie Huse Barney Camenker Guy A. Minchin Mrs. Calvin N. Pingree
Forrest P. Hull Edward S. Nelson Mrs. Frank J. Nally
Lawrence L. Murphy Alton C. Cook Rev. Samuel M. LePage, Ph.D.
PARADE COMMITTEE Barney A. Camenker, Chairman Alton C. Cook, Co-Chairman
Henry J. Minchin Henry Dea William J. C. Marshall
Donald C. Elliott B. Harrison Tidd
B. Harrison Tidd, Chief Marshal
DANCE COMMITTEE Rev. W. Irving Monroe, Jr., Chairman
Miss Winifred Graham
Girard Bishop
Miss Mary Boardman Francis J. Donovan, Jr. Henry Perley, Jr. COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMITTEE Rev. Samuel M. LePage, Ph.D., Chairman Rev. Fr. Stephen J. O'Brien of St. Mary's Catholic Church Rev. Glenn Tilley Morse of All Saints Episcopal Church Rev. George W. Smart of the First Baptist Church Rev. W. Irving Monroe, Jr., of the First Congregational Church
PAGEANT COMMITTEE Herbert H. Palmer, Chairman Dr. William Greenler Mrs. Laura G. Pedder Rev. Mr. Monroe
Forrest P. Hull Eleanor Stetson
Mrs. Frank J. Nally Miss Harriet Wildes
PUBLICITY COMMITTEE Forrest P. Hull, Chairman
Thomas W. Wilmarth Paul M. Meader
Miss Molly B. Root Herbert W. Urquhart
WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE Edward S. Nelson, Chairman
Mrs. Francis Hill Herbert Reed
William Meader Henry Dea
DECORATIONS Mrs. Frank J. Nally, Chairman
Charles M. Watson B. H. Tidd Howard Chase George C. Colby
John Mulheren
Page Sixty-eight
CENTENNIAL INVOCATION
BY REV. FR. STEPHEN J. O'BRIEN
Almighty and Eternal God, Our Father, to whom a million years are as a moment. listen to our prayer as we, Thy children, gather to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of this, our beloved town. We call upon Thee as Our Father to give us Thy choicest gifts for the future as we return Thee thanks for Thy bounteous and manifold blessings of the past.
Send forth, we beseech Thee, Thy Holy Spirit, and may He bestow upon us His: seven-fold gifts:
Give us, we pray Thee, the gift of Wisdom, that we may know how best to make use of the talents Thou hast given us, and co-operate with Thee in working out our own Salvation here and hereafter.
Give us the gift of Understanding, that we may have more knowledge of our- selves, of our fellow-men, of our country and of Thee.
Give us the gift of Counsel, that we may realize our obligation of meeting in common with our fellow-citizens and choosing the best men from among them to conduct the affairs of our Community, of our State and of our National government; that we may not be lazy or sluggish in our civic duties lest, because of our lack of interest, selfish men deprive us of our rights and with dictatorial usurpation of power crush us beneath the tyrant's heel.
Give us the gift of Fortitude, that we may have the courage to follow the dictates of our consciences and not yield to human respect or false pride. Give us a decent pride that we may lean upon ourselves as our forefathers did, a pride that makes us beholden to no man but that enables us to earn our own bread in the honest sweat of our brow; and if we must seek aid at times, let us give honest labor for the compensation we receive.
Give us the gift of Knowledge, that we may know Thee, the Author and Giver of every good gift.
Give us the gift of Piety, that our good deeds may shine forth to all the world as an encouragement and example to our fellow-men; that gift that our forefathers had that caused them to erect their churches as their first step in settling the wilderness; that caused them to seek Thee out in the house of God on the Sabbath Day and publicly acknowledge Thee as their Creator, their Lord and Friend. Give to us, their descendants, a realization of the need of keeping holy the Sabbath Day by attending on that day, at least, the Divine Service in the House of God wherein our conscience tells us to worship.
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