USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 10
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Jeremiah Lyon, Captain ; Isaac Davis, Lemuel Foster, Wm. H. Brown, Jerathmiel Davenport, James Leeds, Reuben Hunting, Reuben Smith, Silas Snow, Robert S. Davis, senior, Caleb Clark, Moses Jones, Edward Hall, Samuel Slack, - Whiting.
To those of us who remember these individuals only as corpulent, or lame, or asthmatic old gentlemen, the very idea of any of them running is sufficiently ludicrous, to say nothing of working the brakes of an engine, climb- ing ladders, etc. But they were all young and vigorous then, incredible as it seems.
It was a fashion they had in those times for each new Captain as he came into office, to give a supper to the whole company, either at his own house or the " Punch Bowl," for in the engine-house there was only room for a single row of men to stand around the engine, and those suppers were hugely enjoyed by the company. The Captain's wife may have had opinions of her own about these festivities.
There came a time at last when the old engine was - we hope it is allowable to say it of an engine - " played
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RIVAL ENGINES. - A CHALLENGE.
out," and a new one was to be bought. It was an event. The town was astir. The purchase of three new " steam- ers " would not create such a sensation now as did this affair.
A committee was chosen to make preliminary exami- nation ; and Thayer of Boston, and Hunneman of Rox- bury, two rival engine-builders, were both conferred with.
Suction, if then invented, was not aspired to by the " Vigilant " Company, and having but few men it was thought best to secure an engine that would work easily. All the Roxbury engines were built by Hunneman, but the " Vigilants " decided to take Thayer's, a tub engine. All the water was brought in buckets by hand and turned into this kind of engine. It was bought, and named "Norfolk ; " the new engine-house, over the brook where Mahoney's building is, next the depot, a small one-story building, was already built some time before.
All were pleased with the purchase; but Mr. Hunne- man's son came up from Roxbury to see it experimented upon, and pronounced it a poor affair, and disparaged it generally, - which perhaps might have been expected from a man whose business it was " to throw cold water," and whose father didn't build the engine, as he had hoped to.
The Brookline Company were as sensitive to censure of their "tub " as sailors about their favorite ship, and the affront rankled.
Shortly after there came a challenge from Roxbury, for the " Norfolk " to meet them at " Hog Bridge," for a trial. The challenge was accepted, and the men drilled for practice. There was such an excitement about it that many supernumeraries drilled, so as to be ready to take the place of any who might fail from exhaustion. Among these was a Mr. Hill, an elderly man, whose son was a confectioner in the village. He was a very
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
stout and powerful man, and went into the contest with a will. The five engines from Roxbury were all present.
The contest began in the forenoon, and continued all day, the " Norfolks " being reinforced by fresh men from time to time. Night found them exhausted, but con- querors. Roxbury had done its best and could not "wash the tub," as firemen express it ; and they took up their homeward march with the proud steps of victors. Village pride was gratified, and the engine always maintained its well-earned reputation. Mr. Hill, however, was too old a man for such a strain of muscle and nerve, and he never saw a well day afterwards.
Under date of April 25, 1829, the engine company petitioned the towns of Roxbury and Brookline " for six additional members, making twenty-one in all, taken from the militia roll." This was granted. It was also " Voted, that on cloudy days when the sun at its setting cannot be seen, that its setting be determined by time as given by J. Davenport's clock and the ' Farmer's Alman- ac.'". Also " Voted, that the custom heretofore in prac- tice, of the members giving entertainments, be abolished."
About the year 1838 a new suction engine was pur- chased, which was called " Brookline No. 1." The old company had all been superseded by younger men, and some difficulty occurred about the choice of a foreman or captain, and for some little time there was no organ- ized company.
During this interval, in the autumn of 1843, the engine- house was fired one night by some miscreant, who secured the engine so that there was great delay about moving it. The house was entirely destroyed, and the engine dam- aged.
Before there was time to have the engine thoroughly repaired, the great fire in Church Street, Boston, oc-
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NO. 1 FIRE-ENGINE AND HOUSE.
curred, and the blackened machine with its name burnt off, went to the fire with its name chalked on the back of the tub, and did good service.
Soon after, the town contracted with Edward Hall, Jr., a carpenter, who lived on the corner of Washington and School streets, to build a new, two-story engine-house, and purchased a lot of land just about where the rail- road goes under the bridge, the old lot being very small, and only over the brook.
But the owner was unable to give a satisfactory title to it, and the bargain was not concluded. Meantime, the timber was already prepared and waiting to be put up, and the builder was desirous to fulfill his contract ; and Mr. Thayer offered the site of the present brick engine- house on Washington Street, for one hundred dollars, provided it should never be used for any other purpose. In case of violation of this restriction the land should revert to the heirs. As no other lot so near the village was available, it was accepted with the restrictions upon it. The lot for the Hook and Ladder house was not pur- chased till several years afterwards.
The engine company reorganized, with the engine thoroughly repaired, took possession of the new house in September, 1844.
The same engine is in the service of the town now, and like its predecessors has always been the pride of the company, and is not now surpassed by any engine of its kind and size in the vicinity of Boston.
There was no regularly organized hook and ladder company until February, 1871, though the town owned a second-hand apparatus purchased of the city of Rox- bury. The name " George H. Stone," was appropriated by this company in honor of a deceased comrade who had been a very efficient fireman, and was exceedingly popu-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
lar among his associates. He had also been a gallant soldier during the late war. He was a son of Elisha Stone, before mentioned, as for many years the principal sexton, undertaker, and constable of the town. The town purchased a modern hook and ladder truck at an expense of about twelve hundred dollars. The present elegant buildings of the Fire Department, said not to be exceeded by any in the State, were built in 1872, and the first steam fire-engine was purchased in 1873. The " Good Intent Hose Company " was organized more recently, and does efficient duty with engine, steamer, or hydrant, as the case may be, when its services are needed. The buildings occupied by the steam fire-engine " Thomas Parsons," and by the " Good Intent Hose Company " are within a few feet of the spot occupied fifty-five years ago by the first engine-house in town.
THE DANA PLACE.
Next west of the Leeds place on the north side of the street, was formerly the Dana place.
This included all that is now the town land about the Public Library except a strip a few feet in width, next Mr. Collins' residence, all that is in Mr. John Gibbs' lot, except a few feet on the west side, and on School Street the house lot of Mr. Matthews. There were two acres and a half in the place, a part of it the high- est and steepest part of the hill so often before men- tioned. -
On this place stood, until about twenty-two years ago, an ancient house dating back to the earlier part of the last century. It stood about twenty feet from the sidewalk, and the southeast corner of it was directly in the rear of the elm tree on the Library grounds, that being the corner of the front yard of the old house.
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THE DANA PLACE.
It was two stories high, three rooms long, on the front, with two front doors. The kitchen was in the centre between the two front doors. An immense chimney, or " stack of chimneys," belonged to this kitchen, and the east room. The wide and deep fire-place would accommo- date wood of cord length, and an enormous crane with hooks and trammels was suspended within it. Looking up from below one could see the open sky, and snow was sometimes in the fire-place, of a winter morning.
Two brick ovens, one in the chimney back and the other at the side, furnished ample baking facilities, and old fashioned " dressers " along the wall served instead of clos- ets. Here, too, were " the whitewashed wall and sag- ging beam," and the small, old-fashioned windows, half sash, through which the light came dimly. In front of the house were peach trees, lilac bushes, and two very large locust trees, the great roots of which coiled about on the sidewalk like huge snakes. Behind the house was an open well with curb, windlass, and bucket. It was never known to fail in the dryest seasons, and the water was of the best quality. The two back doors of the house opened out upon a green orchard and garden, from which the hill rose steeply ; and the fence along the highest ridge, which separated it from Mr. Holden's hill-pasture where the coasting ground used to be, was nearly concealed from view by a natural hedge of barberry bushes and wild vines.
The same house stood west of it which stands now west of Mr. Gibbs' house.
As long ago as 1740 the place was occupied by Nathan- iel Shepard, who afterwards removed to Needham.
After this the house was owned by a man named Jack- son, who in the War of the Revolution was on the side of the royal cause, and made himself distasteful, as a Tory.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
The house was taken as barracks for the colonial troops during the siege of Boston, at which the unpatriotic Mr. Jackson was so disgusted that he sold it as speedily as pos- sible to Mr. Daniel Dana, then living at Brighton and engaged in supplying the British troops in Boston and the harbor with meat.
Mr. Dana came to live in the house we are describing, during the war, after the evacuation of Boston ; and from that time until 1848 the house was in possession of his family and known by his name.
" Othello's occupation " being gone, when the British troops left, it became necessary to look about for new bus- iness ; and as Mr. Dana had but one hand, he began to keep a store on the corner of School Street, and kept it as long as he lived. There is one person still living in town who can remember going to this store to buy slate- pencils as long ago as 1795.
Mr. Dana had married for his second wife, a sister of the Rev. Cotton Brown, the second minister of Brookline.
A son of Mr. Dana was taken prisoner during the Rev- olution, by the British, carried to England, escaped to France, took passage in a ship to return to America, and was lost at sea. There was no one left of the family after 1803, but the only daughter, Miss Anna, who lived till 1847, when she died at the age of ninety-two, and it is with her that our story is chiefly concerned.
After the death of her father, Miss Dana kept a few small wares for sale for a while, using the east room of the house for a shop ; but she soon discontinued it, and re- serving the two easterly apartments for herself she let the rest of the house for her maintenance. In this house the writer of these sketches spent ten years of her childhood.
Miss Anna Dana was one of the marked characters of Brookline during her long life, and her eccentricities were
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MISS ANNA DANA.
so frequently spoken of and dwelt upon, that by many persons the finer qualities of her mind and heart were either unknown or overlooked.
She had been an indulged and petted only daughter, and prided herself upon always having had her own way. Her proclivities were strongly in favor of everything English, and her admiration for the royal family was in- tense. She was an eye-witness of the battle of Bunker Hill, from a house-top in Boston, where she was staying, she being then twenty years of age, and more than half a Tory probably.
She used to exhibit with great pride an ancient china bowl within which was inscribed, " Success to the British Arms," and tell how they were obliged to keep it hidden during the war. All events, social or political, which met her disapproval, she attributed to two causes, Sunday- schools and a republican form of government. Not that her dislike to Sunday-schools arose from want of respect for religious teachings, but they were an innovation ; and she would not allow that anything modern was an improve- ment or an advantage over the ancient, except in the con- struction of shoes and boots, which were then worn without raised heels. Had slie lived to see in these days the revival of the ancient fashion which she so detested, she would have thought modern people had lost their last and only grain of common sense.
It was her pride and boast that she had no occasion for the services of a doctor, as she never had a day's illness sufficient to keep her in bed, or need to consult a phy- sician for seventy years. She rose and retired early, lived plainly, had plenty of fresh air, and ripe fruit; and though she never failed to warm her bed with a long- handled pan of wood coals every night in winter, she kept her attic window open summer and winter, for forty years.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
A carpenter who repaired the roof, had once told her that if she kept that window open she would live to be a hundred years old. Her room was thus kept supplied with fresh air, from the attic, as the stairway opened into it; and whether the carpenter's advice was the cause of it or not, she possessed vigorous health and unimpaired faculties till she was nearly ninety years of age.
At that time there was sickness in the house, and the rains of a chilly autumn made it necessary for the family occupying the house to have it closed. No persuasion or entreaty could induce the old lady to close the window or allow any one else to do so. No one had seen the inside of her chamber or the attic for half a century but herself, except a child, and she was determined that no one should. Those who knew her only by report imagined she had money or valuables stored away there, and that this was the cause of her reluctance to admit any one, for she said that she could not close the window herself, it had been so long open, which very likely was true, it being then swollen by the rain.
The doctor, however, said the window must be closed at any risk of offense, and an energetic neighbor came to the rescue. Armed with hammer and nails she very de- cidedly informed the enraged old lady that she was about to do the audacious deed, and up stairs she went, and through the secret chamber, into the forbidden attic, shut the window and nailed it down, and for once the discom- fited maiden did not have her own way.
The peculiarities which characterized Miss Anna Dana, made it very difficult for her to retain tenants in her house ; and until the last ten years of her life scarcely a family stayed two years on the premises. She was fre- quently alone during an entire winter, even after she be- came very aged, but her wonderful pride and independ-
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MISS ANNA DANA.
ence carried her through what most women would have shrunk from as severe hardship.
There was a standing feud between her and all boys. She seemed to hate them with all the energy of her na- ture. She "did not see where all the children came from," she said ; "they were thicker than oak leaves," -and if she saw two boys passing by peaceably she went to the door and called to them sharply not to shake her. fence, or throw stones at her house. Of course, boy- nature could not stand that, and the consequence was that her fence was shaken till it would scarcely stand alone, her windows were occasionally broken, her doors were tied up on the outside in nights, her bucket would be taken from the well, and her cats were persecuted. For, hard as her nature seemed toward children, she was very tender and loving towards her feline pets, of which she had at one time more than a dozen.
Her seeming harshness was probably the result chiefly of her solitary and single-handed grapple with the world. for so many years. In the latter part of her life, when there was a permanent tenant to protect her property, and stand between her and the boys, she softened into a much more pliable mood to all around her. There was one boy, we should have said, now a Professor at Cam- bridge, whom she not only tolerated, but for whom she had a real affection, though not of the sort which mani- fests itself in caresses. Her test of a child's good man- ners was its ability to enter her room and leave it without laying a hand upon her highly polished, round, mahogany table.
There are many persons who remember that east room, with its white floor, well-sanded, the old-fashioned desk with its piles of books, the long mirror, the round table in the centre before the fire-place, the brass andirons, and
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
the two ancient chairs on either side of the fire, covered with tapestry work, imported from England, which had belonged to Governor Hutchinson of colonial times, but in each of which now sat a cat. The old lady herself always sat in a straight, high-backed chair beside the round table, on which she never laid anything but her spectacles or a newspaper.
She could be very entertaining when she chose, for her memory was wonderful and her perceptions very clear ; and to talk with one who remembered events before the Revolutionary War, and could tell of what was done in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay under King George's governors, was no small privilege.
About two years before her death, when she was ninety years of age, she grew sick ; but true to her old prejudice she would not allow a doctor to be sent for, nor resort to any remedies, nor even allow herself to be in a room where there was a fire. This course she persisted in till she became helpless and others assumed the respon- sibility and controlled her, though with great show of re- sistance on her part. Her iron constitution was slow in breaking down, but after being confined to her bed about two years she died in February, 1847, aged ninety- two years and one month, the last of her race.
There was not a human being of even the most distant kin surviving, to follow her to the grave or drop a tear to her memory, or even claim the poor trifles left behind.
The forbidden attic, which had caused so much curious conjecture, contained only chests and boxes of old books and papers, an old sword and cutlass, and a few articles unsold in the stock of Mr. Dana's store, such as pointed- toed shoes, cards of queer buttons and buckles, some bon- nets, either of which would have made six of the present fashion, and other odds and ends, but nothing of any in- trinsic value.
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MISS ANNA DANA.
After the death of Miss Dana the place reverted to Peter C. Brooks of Boston, to whom it had been mort- gaged during her father's lifetime. By him it was sold to Timothy Leeds, son of James Leeds, and the house was purchased by Mr. Nathaniel Lyford, who took it down.
The elm tree, by the west gate of the Library grounds, and which was in the front yard of the Dana house, was Miss Dana's especial pride and delight. It came up in the east corner of the yard about sixty years ago, and Miss Dana protected it the first summer from the scythe of the mower, by turning a tub over it. She watered it and tended it with care, and lived to sit for years in its shadow. For several years past it has made scarcely any growth, and many elms much younger now far exceed it in size.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
CHAPTER IX.
THE HALL HOUSE. - THE TOLMAN HOUSE. - THE CROFT HOUSES. - " BLACK SUSY." - MISS HANNAH ADAMS. - DR. WILD. - THE BLAKE PLACE. - THE ASPINWALL PLACE.
(THE next house west of the Dana place and now stand- ing on the corner of School and Washington streets. though built some time before the Revolution, has been modernized from time to time so that only its low walls indicate its age. It was occupied some years after the Revolutionary War by a Major Thompson of Revolution- ary service. It is said of the Major that he had a horse which had served in cavalry during the war, and when old and stiff, no longer in use as a working animal, the sound of a bugle would so inspirit him that he would leap the fence and prance along the street wholly unmindful of his infirmities, going through the various evolutions with per- fect precision. It was during the Major's residence here that Mr. Dana kept his shop in the west part of the house.
In the year 1796, the house was occupied by Zephion Thayer, who was the son of Captain Jedediah Thayer, a Revolutionary officer.
Zephion Thayer died in this town in 1803. The dis- tinguished founder of Chauncy Hall School in Boston, and for twenty-five years its principal, was his son. Gid- eon F. Thayer was not born in Brookline, but he spent his childhood here, and so great was his love for Brook- line that he used to say he would have been born here if he could.
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THE TOLMAN PLACE.
After the death of Mr. Thayer, a man named Leverett, a wheelwright, occupied the house for a few years.
About the year 1805 or 1806, Mr. Benjamin Davis, who till that time had owned all the land on the south side of the street (excepting the corner lot, which had been sold years before), had a public sale of lots, and one nearly opposite the Dana place, where Mr. William Heath now lives, was purchased for the site of a blacksmith's shop. Mr. Edward Hall, either then or soon after, became the owner of the house of which we are writing, and also of the shop where he carried on the blacksmith's business for many years. After his death the shop was let for the same purpose till about the year 1850, when it was taken down.
Mr. Hall had a large family, but only three of his chil- dren now survive, and of these not one is settled in Brook- line.
The part of the house projecting towards the west, was built in modern times, and covers what was formerly a pretty corner yard, where flowers and trees relieved the plainness of the house. In front was a row of tall fir trees.
The opposite corner, formerly called the Tolman place, was thickly covered with barberry bushes ; and at the time Mr. Jonas Tolman purchased, was offered at one hundred dollars for the lot, about an acre in extent. Mr. Tolman said he would never give one hundred dollars for it ; but he wanted the place very much, and finally a com- promise was made, and he paid ninety-nine dollars.
Next the blacksmith shop, on the same side of the street, was the house of Mr. Tolman, who was a shoe- maker. This house, like the Hall house, is still in good preservation, although built in the last century. Mr. Tolman had a one-story shop, painted red, behind his
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
house, and during his lifetime was the principal shoe- maker of Brookline.
After his death his son Charles carried on the business, and built the shop now on the corner of Cypress Street. The land belonging to this corner lot was much more ex- tensive formerly than at present, as two sales have been made from it much reducing its dimensions.
The grade of the street has been materially changed between the two houses above mentioned and about the corner of Cypress Street. The Hall house formerly stood but one step higher than the sidewalk, while the Tolman house was reached by three steps in a wall at the edge of the front yard next the sidewalk.
The front yard of this house was so filled with clumps of lilac and syringa as nearly to conceal the lower front of the house. In one of the west rooms a small select school was kept for many years by Miss Rachael Cushing; it enjoyed an excellent reputation, and many persons look back with pleasure to pleasant years of school-life spent there. The Misses Elizabeth and Mary Peabody (the latter afterwards became Mrs. Horace Mann), also taught at one time a select school in this house.
Mrs. Tolman, the widow of Jonas Tolman, lived to a great age, and her long life was nearly all one of active usefulness. She was one of those " mothers in Israel " who could find room in her heart and home for almost every- body, though her life had many and great sorrows. If a friendless teacher needed a boarding-place, or a wander- ing student a home, if a widow had a child whom she must board out, if a family by some domestic emergency needed apartments for a week or a month, Mrs. Tolman would find room somewhere in her house. If a female prayer meeting, or a maternal society, or sewing society, or anything else with a good object in view, wanted ac-
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