USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lowell > Historical sketch of Saint Anne's Church, Lowell, Mass > Part 2
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ness, unwekre ness .. prayertuincon, unwekre
"A ROW
REV. WILSON WATERS
gone to tell elsewhere the comfort of Christian faith. Perhaps as many as 15 or more young m n connected
, with this parlah, and who here haw ihad broken der
had broken for them the Bread of Lite, have gone elsewhere to break ! the same bread for others; as hos-
in other bandmen to sow in other felds the me rummen the
impressions which lasted through
an Influence and an attractive whom in lieu of their pay; the For- drawing induence in the West, and ernment gave grante of land, and I no doubt other dietant, towns had find that a number of Revolutionary almllar knowledge of and relations om the man soldiers from the ranks, who
with with, this parich
The fame of St. Anne's and of Dr. Edaca spread to other states. 'In the pioneer: bishop, Philander
Negro Dave. Chase, first of Ohle and then of I la, wrote Dr. Edion that he had who escaped from Virginia across the bought 800 head of sheep . for the Oble river to Marletta, and came to farm connected with his college, and to know if he could not the 17 and called on him. This: wished to know If he could sell the chip slave brought a recommendation to of woot to the Lowell milla" Dr. Ed- bwell
son wae frequently chosen a delegate the General Gon to the General Convention and. was a
grain was In New York, Philadelphia, Haly-
E- more and other places " As & trua- and many emigrated to the west. Dr. tee and examiner . of . the_ General
Huntington, when just out of college,
Seminary In New York he met many eminent bishops and. was, popular with the young men at the seminar ?. who in later lite looked back e and came to gratitude to the influence which Is ell and St. Anne's, where he was saintly character had. bad upon thir close friend of Dr. Edson. And | fivea.
"And first, because it is generally flater studied medicine a
allowable for the speaker to relate himself to his m
Saythat my native town 15
such namnes
as Hildreth, Melgs, Varnum. Whipple and Huntington, were, by members of these Lowell familles. well repre -- sented there, as were others of less renowa. Two Episcopal
from Marietta vialted at St. Anne's parsonage in Dr. Etron's time, and urch; and I believe preached in this church; and the son
blocked with an They arrived at the son of another came here to live. vice. Dr. S. P. Hildreth, & noted phy- time for the morning ser- im in time for the morning ser- P. Hildreth, a noted phy- In Dr. Edson's diary more than one sician and historian o Marletta, "to the Civil war the young sol- diers departing for the army . for the army . as- sembled for a service . at St, Anne's and each received 'a Bihle and a mention is made of Marietta people. | visited Dr. Hunting here. I prayer book to remind thema of their home and the church. eiwed a Bihle Vand
And I ed people I heard people there speak o Dr. Edson and the Hinckley's. in | who greeted me, 0
might also say that the first person
in other wars and nther, timer of
e. on my coming -to strife and stress, et. Anne's Birte and stres
mierwaren with By Annen bis-
veradry verstry of St. Anne a, recmed ar
tory ..
The vested choir of men and boys
bishop and Mra. Mead's kreat uncle,
e from, Lowell to
old , 11 Edson, Inviting him to become, tha dest rector of St. Anne The services at 16.45 ny in. yeater-
commemoration of the 100th anniver- o to the life o
industrially and edue nd educationally.
Mary, was chosen in recognition ofy Atra. Boott
were impressive, had many
hearts were touched by terollestons
Mira Mend and Bishop Lawrence,
present at the 75th, nanl-
of relatives for friends, whose lives dat that were Interwoven with Se Ana mia-
"I quote you no text this morning, pode for I am not to prea.n a sermon, but to make an historical address. The main features of the
of St. Anne's and of Lowell have.
by this time, b become so fr o familiar you that I care not
rehearsel of them. What I would
o tire you with raised for the next year's pi Huntington, when Just What I would o this morning is to say something a simple and to mventional w l way
about the Induence of St. Anne's f the life of Lowell and elsewhere.
In company with my grandfather's went to oble brother, went to Ohle on horseback bl ach id taught achool at Marietta. He
while speaking of him. meetlen may be made of another Item In the diary oeds that he accomp
Edson in a sleigh on an exchange with the rector of St. Peter's- Balem, starting from the D starting from the parsonage in Low- ell at 4 O'clock on a cold January en the roads were
"In 1849 many young men from Lowell and St. Anne's became gold- seelcers in Calit Who can tell how much th influence ligious life at St Anne's strengt lened the ylened them in their hours of trial and DerIl?
prinin many places, Including the begun In 1857, Dr. Edson was always re
principal churches of Boston and other cities in this country and
ountry and the help, and his example' gave laspira- Provinces and in the British lales. tion to others. One day when there 'He was faithful and devoted In all was a dre near the water,'n friend spiritual things and equally so in all temporal things which concerned St dipping buckets and passing , them ha wardene a be wardene and vestry- d Anne's." all was a y so in all found him knee-deep in the coll dood, buckets artah ve b men of this partah have been honer-c down the line to help extinguish the gration. when His hand or- . conflagration. When his friend Tre- mid some one must
the Unitariana. to find in the Epla- | Impresa upon the life of the commu .. Inity, and they m, not only as the
mity, and they looked up to Dr. Ed- ar son, not only as their spiritual bead, when othe
when other ministers refused tolgo. wise and cautloue adviser Such acts have a ellent jaffluence for And the same
rood.
may be said of the later rectors of "Apparently Dr. Edaon cared little t. Anne'e have represented Lowell ties and receptiona, ha " connected with fo resented Lowren for the ordinary social affaire, par- ties and receptiona, but when he did La bene-
attend such he always had a bene-
"with all his acquaintances. acquaintances Bishop
leh Isles he fo
e kingdom men and women who had for a time bren his parishioners n Lowell. So the imMuence of St. Anne's epread widely.
+ "Many visitors at the hospitable parsonage ca memories of de carned away memories
9 pra Pra Blous-and pleasant home
Sunday school, whose pupila in Dr. Those pupils pp estes the number of was chieny American when work
was plenty and wax were
im the State Legislature" er in lature" or in the or lieutenant ent influence on others by , Mais to as governor 4 |courtesy, lte anà m courtesy, gentle smile and manner, and his open and logenuous de [and a open and logenuous dealing|
"When De, Edson visited the Brit- Isles he found in found in all three parts en and woman who
In things finan
Anne's, Many m
the dest of St. John's, Lowell. In 1816, the
welcome welcome guest in prominent homes cold year, when not enough-grain was in New York, Philadelphia,
count in Dr. Edson's diary were not 1820's I shou
too long to quote, I should like to
The ffect which. in itself, must app
read his history of a
"Marietta . was mottled in 1785 by " "All this shows that St. Anner Tid officers of the Revolutionary army to
curate of SE Anne's under the PAS- torate of Dr. Chambre, gave an his-
"Christ for the world. We fing. The world to christ we brink,"
Chelmsford in
Chelmsford as their home town. went In the early days.1 there In the early days, If the ac-
T. Elisha Huntington, o huntington, once awarden
And In these courts, 10 which he calls, Marletta, O, and that
The strength to wear their deepest wanted there, da were atbest of
able, c rated, he aald some one must do It, and It might as well be he, The , clear-headed business men of meast professional men, who have left their | de on the life of TE good pastor did not hesitate to visit and pray with a with a "smallpox "patient
tion of Dr. Edson. George Packard [ hells of Congress; and at least one delent influence of
goodly sums from the offertory, Anne's was a Meccs for the needy,
place for the black gown and ( St. " then ascended the pulpit steps, w were mear the vestry do
were very friendly' with Dr. and Mrs, butin
the nearer you cu F you came to Dr. E enced him,
op Tork the parish better than I do, end old him in his he knew what work is, Blehop Law- mean to uphold him in his plans for - the good of the
of the Greek language, and a wealth! bood Food day's.
of the Virgin
1
LITTLE SUNDAY SCHOOL1 ST ANNE'S CHURCH AND RECTORY. FROM AN EARLY SKETCH
.
1:
C
(WATERS, WILSON) 1855-
73-1452 Historical sketch of Saint Anno's church, Lowell, Massachusetts ... Prepared for the conten- nial anniversary of the consecration of the church, 1825-1925. [Lowell, Mass., Courier-
citizen co. , 1925] 96р. 1
"To the reador" signed: Wilson Waters. Newspaper clippings mounted on flyleaves.
1 1H 5801
· SHELF CARI NL 36-4335 ..
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. The Early Days of Lowell 1
II. Theodore Edson
7
III. St. Anne's Built by the Merrimack
20
IV. St. Anne's Under Mill Ownership
30
V. St. Anne's Bought by a Corporation of Proprietors.
38
VI. The Regular Parochial Organization 45
VII. The Bells-The Civil War-Trip to Europe 49
VIII. Fortieth Anniversary-Recovery of the Parsonage
58
IX. Activities and Last Days of Dr. Edson 65
X. The Schools-The Girls' Friendly Society-The Orphanage -- Masonic . 73
X1. St. Anne's from 1884 to 1925 88
Gifts to St. Anne's Church
84
Edson
Bibliography
86
Officers of St. Anne's.
94
1
TO THE READER
The preparation of this Historical Sketch has been a pleasure, because of its interesting subject and my former connection with this venerable parish, as well as my friendly relations with the present Rector. The sources from which I have drawn my material are so abundant that much has been omitted which would have added to its value, especially in the way of biographical notices of able men and women such as Judge Josiah Gardiner Abbott, Dr. John O. Green, the Hon. James B. Francis and his noble lady, as well as others; but it is useless to begin to name them.
There were those who came here before Lowell was, and who lived to see it a city of about one hundred thousand inhabitants. There were eminent men who died early, such as Kirk Boott and Warren Colburn. It may not be out of place to say here of Kirk Boott that he was a fine looking and very able man, born in Boston in 1791, educated at Rugby under the famous Dr. Arnold, and then at Harvard, from which he did not graduate. Com- missioned in the English army, he served under Wellington in the Penin- sula war, studied engineering, and came to East Chelmsford, where he was the man of the place, with a high sense of honor and a lofty integrity. His position here necessitated frequent and fatiguing journeys to and from Boston, which Dr. Green says, he made in a light, easy carriage with fleet horses, often arriving at Pawtucket falls before six o'clock in the morning.
It is said on good authority that St. Anne's Church was built on plans suggested to him by the old parish church at Derby in England.
His diary has disappeared and is not available for use.
The voluminous diary of Dr. Edson comprises, if my estimate is correct, as much as eight thousand rather closely written pages of foolscap paper, chiefly concerned with his routine work, but containing much of interest and value. The facts here recorded have been gathered from many sources.
Lowell was once a city of, substantially, a homogeneous population, chiefly of anglo-saxon origin. Today her people have come from many nations, and on her streets there is confusion of tongues; yet, with all her varied and almost countless industries, she seems a beehive or a city of the Satur- nian age. But, in the midst of all these multifarious activities, St. Anne's has stood, calm and undisturbed, speaking peace amidst turmoil; a beacon, a watch-tower, a comfortable inn, to guide, to guard and to refresh those who would travel heavenward.
I wish to express my thanks to those who have kindly assisted me in this work, and also to ask the lenient Reader to overlook whatever, through fault of mine, may be found amiss herein.
WILSON WATERS.
--
ST. ANNE'S CHURCH AND RECTORY
T.
CHAPTER I. THE EARLY DAYS OF LOWELL
The history of St. Anne's Church is so much a part of the history of the City of Lowell that in order to understand it rightly something must be said about the beginnings of both and their relation to each other.
Probably no municipality in this country or any other ever had just such an origin or such an almost magical growth, and we must look far indeed to find a large city parish which began its existence under such circumstances and conditions as those in the midst of which St. Anne's had its inception.
And inseparably intermingled with the expanding growth of both city and parish is the forceful and devoted life of the Priest and Saint, Theodore Edson, whose learning and wisdom, indom- itable will, consecrated zeal, untiring energy, and ceaseless self- sacrifice became a powerful element in the growth and success of parish and city alike.
From time immemorial the region through which flows the Merrimack river was thickly wooded, and after the first settle- ment of this neighborhood there was a thriving business in rafting from the upper river to Newburyport to supply the ship-building industry and for transportation of timber to other places for various uses. To avoid the falls and rapids over the rocky and jagged bed of the river at East Chelmsford, the logs and lumber which were floated down the Merrimack had to be removed from the water and transported on land to a point near the mouth of the Concord.
In the year 1792, on the twenty-seventh day of June, the Legislature of this Commonwealth passed an act incorporating Dudley Atkins Tyng, Esquire of Newburyport, William Coombs, Joseph Tyler, Nicholas Johnson and Joshua Carter, and such others as might join them, into "a body politic and corporate forever by the name of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River." On the southern shore of the Merrimack, at a cost of fifty thousand dollars, they cut a canal beginning a little above Pawtucket Falls and extending about a mile and a half to the Concord river a short distance above its confluence
· 1
with the Merrimack, and having four locks and a descent of thirty-two feet. This allowed them to float the logs around the falls.
In 1797 the first boat passed through the canal. This has been claimed to be the first canal opened in this country. That at South Hadley around the falls of the Connecticut was built in 1793.
Chelmsford, settled in 1653 and incorporated as a town in 1655, had always been hospitable to millers, mechanics, lumbermen and traders, and early became more or less widely known for its saw- and grist-mills and mechanics' shops. A few existed on the Concord and Merrimack before the year 1800, one, a saw-mill owned by Judge John Tyng, dating back to the time of the Revolution. Cloth of various kinds was made in the homes
Until the War of 1812 most of our manufactured goods were brought from England. Then our commerce was swept from the seas, and wise and energetic men of capital began to plan for the manufacture of cotton and other goods in this country.
The Middlesex Canal, connecting the waters of the Merri- mack at Chelmsford with Boston Harbor, the first canal in this country opened for the conveyance of both passengers and mer- chandise, was begun in 1793 and completed in 1804, and diverted the lumber traffic from Newburyport to Boston. This reduced the value of the stock of the Locks and Canals Company, and when the water power at Pawtucket falls was found to be availa- ble for manufacturing purposes, the shares were bought up for less than par value. But it was nearly thirty years after the canals were begun that the discovery was made that the immense power created by the falls could be used for such purposes. The Boston and Lowell Railroad, opened in 1835, destroyed the usefulness of the Middlesex Canal.
The chief actor in the introduction of the power-loom into the manufacture of cotton fabrics in America was Francis Cabot Lowell for whom Lowell was named at its incorporation in 1826, when the name of East Chelmsford was dropped. He was descended from Percival Lowell who came from England to Newburyport in 1639. The power-loom was used at Waltham as early as 1814. Other men connected with the Waltham system were Patrick Tracy Jackson, brother-in-law of Mr. Lowell, Nathan Appleton and Paul Moody.
2
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In Lowell, Kirk Boott and Warren Colburn were, as agent and superintendent, invaluable in the practical success of the enter- prise. Ezra Worthen, a former partner of Mr. Moody, had been from childhood familiar with the Pawtucket falls in the Merri- mack, and when the Waltham manufacturers were looking for a larger field of operations and greater water power, he revealed to them the great advantages of the falls in the Merrimack at East Chelmsford.
The first move by the Waltham manufacturers was to secure possession of the Pawtucket Canal and as much of the adjacent land as possible. This required secrecy on their part, and they employed Thomas M. Clark of Newburyport, who was agent or clerk of the Pawtucket Canal, to make the purchases for them.
The first purchase of land in Chelmsford Neck, or the Neck Fields, by Mr. Clark in 1821 was the Nathan Tyler farm, a tract of land lying between what is now Merrimack street on the north, the Pawtucket Canal on the south, the Merrimack Canal on the west, and coming down to the junction of the rivers where the Massachusetts mills now stand. Eight thousand dollars was paid for this land with sixty acres more of outlands in Tewksbury.
Next was purchased for a slightly smaller sum the Henry Fletcher or Josiah Fletcher farm, lying between the present Merrimack street and Merrimack river, and containing between sixty and seventy acres. Still further up the river, on which it bordered, was the Cheever farm of about one hundred and ten acres, nine undivided tenths of which were bought for eighteen hundred dollars. The owner of the other one-tenth had agreed to convey it for two hundred dollars, but suddenly dying insol- vent, it was sold by order of the Court, the Locks and Canals giving for seven and a half tenths thereof upwards of three thousand dollars. The remaining two and a half tenths were bought a year afterwards for nearly five thousand dollars-so rapidly did the value of land rise. In 1822 was purchased for five thousand dollars the farm of Joseph Warren's widow. This consisted of about thirty acres lying between Central street and Concord river with the Pawtucket Canal on the north and extend- ing up the Concord as far as Massic falls. Joseph Fletcher's farm of about one hundred acres lay between the upper part of Appleton street and the Pawtucket Canal and Central street on the east, and was purchased for ten thousand dollars in 1824,
. 3
says Miles in his "Lowell As It Was and As It Is." Appleton says this farm had been purchased before February, 1822 for $1,206.32.
February 6, 1822 the Legislature passed "An Act to incor- porate the Merrimack Manufacturing Company." Kirk Boott, William Appleton, John W. Boott, and Ebenezer Appleton were the persons named in the Act. The capital was $600,000. They had already bought 639 shares in the Pawtucket Canal, or Locks and Canals Company, paying therefor $30,607.62. Altogether the Merrimack Company now owned nearly 400 acres averaging about $100 an acre-the territory which later comprised the most densely settled portion of Lowell; and, including the Paw- tucket Canal, the cost was considerably less than one hundred thousand dollars.
St. Anne's Church and parsonage and the mills and boarding houses of the Merrimack Company were built on parts of the Josiah Fletcher farm, which, with all their lands, was re-conveyed to the Locks and Canals Company, when in 1825 that Company was re-organized as a separate corpo- ration. The affairs of the latter company, as well as those of the Merrimack Company, were placed in the hands of Kirk Boott, who died in 1837 and was succeeded as super- intendent of the Locks and Canals by John Tilden and Patrick T. Jackson, and in 1845 by James Bicheno Francis, who became the best water-engineer in the United States. Mr. Francis held the office of Senior Warden for many years in St. Anne's until his death in 1892. Arthur T. Safford, now holds the position with the Locks and Canals Company. Thomas March Clark, Esq., of Newburyport, says his son, the Bishop, of the same name, would every little while ride off on horseback to Chelmsford, and it was reported that he was pass- ing the season in this region occupying himself in hunting and fishing. But his real object was the purchase of the land on which this city now stands. The firm that contracted to build the Pawtucket Canal for the purpose of improving the naviga- tion of the Merrimack employed Mr. Clark as clerk and to carry on the business of the canal. The Boston gentlemen who con- templated the building of mills at East Chelmsford requested him to buy the land in his own name that there might be no suspicion of the purpose for which it was purchased. This he did. But these wise and experienced business men forgot to have Mr. Clark's wife sign away her right of dower, and she on
4
.....
MACHINE SHOP
MERRIMACK MILLS
ST. ANNE'S
KIRK BOOTT'S HOUSE
EAST CHELMSFORD IN 1825. FROM A PAINTING BY BENJAMIN MATHER. OWNED BY THE HAMILTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY TAKEN FROM THE HILL BETWEEN THE PRESENT APPLETON AND SUMMER STREETS
the supposition of his death could have claimed one-third of the real estate and buildings of this city as it was in 1831, for the omis- sion had not been discovered until then when she honestly signed the deeds which Mr. Clark had given to the founders of Lowell.
In 1824, Lowell was nothing but a single corporation, i. e., a mill and the adjoining houses. The population was almost ex- clusively composed of young men and women. There was scarcely a gray head in the place, and the number of boys and girls was small compared with the number of grown people.
A large number of young persons of excellent character and fair education were brought to the mill boarding houses by the stage-coaches from the country, the young women in quaint costumes, with old-fashioned headgear and peculiar Christian names, to begin their new life in the mills, and to earn money. Many, by economy and savings from what to us would be a mere pittance, managed to pay off the mortgage on the farms, or make comfortable the declining years of their parents. As late as 1845 the average wage of the female operatives was less than two dollars a week besides their board.
With the exception of a few buildings in the woods, the country between the American House on Central street and Pawtucket falls was open, mostly swamps and fields of huckleberries. In this region west of the Suffolk canal and north of Broadway the Irish laborers pitched their camps and built their shacks on what came to be known as the "Acre," the title to which was later disputed, and in the law books it was called the "Paddy Camp Lands."
Charles, Summer and Tyler streets were a cranberry bog. Cows were driven to water at a spring where later stood the John Street pump. Chapel Hill was a wooded rise of ground.
At Tower's Corner stood a spreading oak tree under which at a later day General B. F. Butler saw displayed on a bench suc- . culent bivalves on the open shell, and ate the first oyster he had ever seen.
There were no paved streets, no sidewalks, no street lights in the early days of the new village.
There was no radio, wireless, telegraph or telephone. There were no railroads, no trolley or horse-cars. There was the old district school where all grades were taught by the same teacher, the child just able to walk and up to the young man twenty-five or thirty years old, and perhaps from books preferred and fur- nished by the parents of the pupil, and of various sorts.
5
There were several ferries, one near the mouth of the Concord across that river as early as 1762. One, near where Bridge street now is, called Hunt's, Hildreth's, White's, Abbott's and Bradley's at various periods. Clark's, Webb's and Ansart's were at and above Middlesex Village.
There were five principal roads which accommodated East Chelmsford: One from Middlesex Village along the Merrimack to the mouth of the Concord, the Great Mammoth Road, built in 1792 which crossed the Merrimack at Pawtucket Bridge, also built that year, the Middlesex Turnpike, opened about 1810, which took the travel from Boston through Chelmsford and Tyngsborough to New Hampshire, the road to Salem cross- ing the Concord above the mouth of the Concord river and a country road from Pawtucket falls running over School, Powell and Plain streets, through Billerica towards Boston.
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