USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 13
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An incident has recently been mentioned to us which indicates Dr. Pierce's estimate of Deacon Robinson. A remark was made in his hearing respecting an ideal char- acter of which one of the family was reading, and it was thought to be overdrawn, and to represent impossible goodness. "Now, where in real life," it was asked, " will you find such a character as that of Lord Orville ? " when Dr. Pierce promptly replied that he " did not believe he was any better man than Deacon Robinson."
The anecdote is as good to illustrate Dr. Pierce's beau- tiful faith and charity, as to indicate the esteem in which the Deacon was held. Dr. Pierce was several years younger than Deacon Robinson, and much more vigorous, and he used to say that he had selected his text for the Deacon's funeral sermon in case he should outlive him, " Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." But when the time came for Deacon Robinson's funeral sermon to be preached, the grass had long been green above the grave of his old friend and pastor.
THE COREY PLACES.
The next house of ancient standing on Washington Street, was built and occupied by Major Edward Whyte,
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CAPTAIN COREY.
who died in 1769, aged seventy-six. In this house was born his son Oliver, who was the postmaster and town clerk for many years, and whose house on Walnut Street has recently been taken down by his heirs.
The house of Major Whyte, for a long time the prop- erty of the Coreys, is the one now owned and occupied until recently by the family of the late James Bartlett.
On the site of the stone house, nearly opposite the one above mentioned, there stood formerly a two-story house, unpainted and black with age. This was the house of Isaac Winchester, son of Captain John Winchester, one of the old proprietors on Harvard Street. Isaac Win- chester died in 1771.
There seems to be very little known respecting this branch of the Winchester family ; but there is an old bill of Dr. Aspinwall's, against the town in the year 1780, for "attendance upon Exeter, a Negro Servant, belonging to the estate of Isaac Winchester, deceased." Poor Exeter probably had a hard time of it, as the Doctor charged for one hundred and sixty-six visits, besides " rum and dressings."
Shortly after Isaac Winchester died, the house and a tract of land lying upon that side of the street, and land on the Whyte place on the opposite side, were purchased by Captain Timothy Corey who had married Elizabeth Griggs of Brookline. He was the son of Isaac Corey of Weston. Captain Corey was in active service in the Revolutionary War, and was one of three who were all that were left of an entire company who died of wounds, sickness, and imprisonment. He and his two comrades returned, footsore, ragged, and forlorn, from their terrible exposure and hardships. At the time of the battle of Lexington, his young wife with her two little children left the house, as did many other women of Brookline,
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
and carrying some blankets and provisions with them, sought shelter in the woods, till the fright and danger, from the enemy passing through the town, were over.
Captain Corey is remembered as an old gentleman who dressed in the costume of the last century, as long as he lived, wearing a " three-cornered cocked hat." An anec- dote is told of his wife, which indicates her opinion of her husband's appearance. Some one, a stranger, called at his house one day when he was away from home, de- siring to see him. Mrs. Corey told him to go down the road and if he met "a fine-looking, portly man on horse- back, he might know it was her husband." Captain Corey joined the Freemasons in his old age, because his son Elijah did so ; and he is said to have given as a reason for doing this, that " no son of his should know more than he did." Captain Corey died in 1811, aged sixty- nine. He was buried from the First Church with Ma- sonic honors. His widow lived to be ninety-two years of age, and retained her faculties to the last.
In this ancient house there was often preaching by various ministers, who were called "New Lights." An old colored Baptist preacher, known as " Black Paul,", and quite a local celebrity fifty years ago, frequently preached there. "Father Grafton" also preached there many times. All the family had been members of the First Church, or attendants upon worship there, but the " New Lights," who were a sort of revivalists, caused a secession of many of the people, some of whom joined the Baptists and some the Congregationalists.
The two sons of Captain Corey, afterwards known as " Deacon Elijah," and " Deacon Timothy," joined the Baptists.
Deacon Timothy in his young manhood was a militia captain in this town and in the second war with Eng-
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AN ANCIENT WEDDING.
land, on the muster roll for 1813 and 1814, his name appears as Captain, Robert S. Davis as Lieutenant, and Thomas Griggs as Ensign.
Moses Jones and Daniel Pierce, with two or three other less familiar names, were " Music Serjeants." It was during the year 1814 that a detachment from the Brookline company consisting of thirty men, was ordered to Fort Independence, by Colonel Dudley, for three months' duty.
Deacon Timothy Corey built the house now occupied by his son of the same name, early in the present cen- tury. He married Mary, daughter of Caleb Gardner of this town. After the death of his mother he had the old black house torn down, and subsequently built the pres- ent stone house upon the site of it. He was a man who was much beloved and respected in his life, and sincerely mourned in his death. He died in August, 1844, aged 62.
Elijah Corey, afterwards the deacon, married, when quite young, Polly Leeds of Dorchester, from the same Leeds family previously mentioned. This was in No- vember, 1797. The " wedding visit " * was a gay affair for those times, and a quiet farming place, as Brookline was then. Almost everybody in the town was invited, and there was the inspiriting music of a fife and drum. There was not much finery in those days, but what there was, was conspicuous on this occasion. An old citizen tells us that his mother, then young and fair, wore a new white silk hat, with white feathers, almost exactly in the style of those worn by young ladies the present season.
Mr. William Ackers, the former owner of the Fisher place on the corner of Boylston Street, used to relate an incident of his own participation in this ancient wedding. He was a stylish young man in those days, and had had
* The old time name for a " Reception."
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
black satin " small-clothes," ordered for the occasion, but as he was leaving his own house, a sudden slip in the muddy yard brought his satin finery to utter discomfiture, and he was forced to go back and make his toilet anew, in plainer garb. The old house (lately the Bartlett house) was crowded with merry guests and the cheerful occasion was an event long talked of afterwards. In 1821, when his son Elijah was married, the father built the house on the hill on the south side of the street, and the son occu- pied the old house during the remainder of his life.
Deacon Elijah Corey was left a widower in 1827, and in 1829 married the widow of Captain Robert S. Davis.
The causeway across the valley from Washington Street to the steep hillside was built by Deacon Corey about fifty years ago. At the entrance of it stood a barn, underneath which was a cider-mill. This barn was destroyed by fire several years since.
All the Coreys of three generations have been farmers and have been considered shrewd, practical men. The two brothers, Elijah and Timothy, were among the first projectors of the Baptist Church enterprise in this town, and to that purpose devoted time, labor, and money.
None who were familiar with the old Baptist vestry will ever forget Deacon Elijah Corey's voice and manner in his old age. If the meeting flagged and there was an awful silence, Deacon Corey would strike out in a high key, " Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove," to the tune of Turner, or St. Martin's, or " Life is the time to serve the Lord," to the tune of Wells, or some other familiar old hymn, and by the time he had sung a line or two, other voices joined in and the solo became, not lost in, but a part of, a chorus.
His exhortations abounded in striking metaphors and strong language, frequently beginning with, " Brethren,
ORIGIN OF CYPRESS STREET. 185
a thought struck me," and he usually made the thought strike his hearers before he finished. He often ended an exhortation with the desire that the Lord would " make our souls like the chariots of Amminadib" (Song of Solo- mon vi. 12). But in what respect this would have been desirable, was not apparent to the listeners ; and we often wondered what the good deacon's idea of such a condi- tion of soul might be. There is no question, however, but that all through his life he had at heart not only the building up of his church here but of the denomination to which he belonged, not only here but abroad.
He was one of the Trustees of Newton Theological In- stitution, and many a lack in finance both there and at the Missionary Rooms, was filled out from Deacon Corey's purse.
He died in May, 1859, aged eighty-six, and was buried from the Baptist Church. A bunch of apple-blossoms, a fit tribute to one who had been all his life a farmer, was the only floral offering laid upon his breast.
CYPRESS STREET.
. On the 11th of May, 1719, it was ordered that a new town way should be opened, " from Watertown road be- tween the farms of Mr. Rowland Cotton and Mr. Thomas Cotton, all the way in the said Thomas Cotton's land, and so into the land belonging to the heirs of Caleb Gardner, into Sherburne road, for the convenience of the people in the north part of the town in going to meet- ing."
This was the origin of Cypress Street, which was called the " New Lane " for more than one hundred and twenty years. It was only a narrow lane through woods and bushes, and much of it so low as to be very wet, and at some seasons quite covered with water.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
The "Sherburne road," was what is now Walnut Street, and " the land belonging to the heirs of Caleb Gardner," was the present Bird place.
Before Cypress Street was opened, as early as 1706, it was " Voted, that there should be a burying-place, on the south side of the hill on Mr. Cotton's farm, between the two.roads, if it can be obtained."
But it could not be " obtained," and for eleven years afterwards people were obliged to carry their dead out of town for burial, as many of their descendants are obliged to do. at present .*
The two corner houses at the entrance of this street, have been previously described.
The land in the street in front of the corner house, now owned by Dr. Salisbury, was originally part of the yard to that house, and included the great elm tree. When it became necessary to have the corner rounded on that side of the street, the way was carried through the yard, but the triangular piece, including the great elm and the other elm, not long since cut down, still belonged · to the old house, and was at one time inclosed for a short time by a slight railing to prevent forfeiture. The right to so inclose it held good until within the last quarter century.
The place long known as the Searle place, was bought in 1817 by a Mr. Hubbard, a carpenter, who built the church on Roxbury Hill, known as the " Eliot Church," opposite the Norfolk House. Mr. Hubbard altered and added to his shop the next year and made a house of it in which he lived. Directly opposite, there was placed soon after an old barn which was removed from opposite the old Croft house on Washington Street. This was on
* Since this was written, a lot, upon Grove St., has been purchased for a Cemetery.
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THE SEARLE PLACE.
the Crafts place. Mr. Hubbard did not much admire the addition to his neighborhood and left Mr. Crafts no peace, and after several years the barn was disposed of.
Mr. Hubbard was succeeded in the ownership of his house by Mr. George Searle, who altered and enlarged, and at last built the additional house nearest the street, thus making two houses, though so joined as to appear as one.
The various changes and additions which have been made in these houses have produced some most original specimens of architecture, such as would hardly be found in any volume on the subject, ancient or modern. They must be seen to be appreciated. The garden was for- merly a very fine one of the old fashioned type. A large butternut tree near the centre was surrounded by a cir- cular seat. Gravel walks, profusely bordered with pinks, separated beds of tulips, roses, and other flowers, while rustic arbors were overrun with honeysuckle, woodbine, and other vines. Choice fruit trees, and many grafts on natural stocks, two or three on the same, gave great vari- ety in this line, and ornamental trees and flowering shrubs filled up the intervening spaces.
In the eastern house, there was kept for many years a boarding-school for young ladies, under the charge of Miss Lucy Searle, a lady of much culture and taste ; and at various times there were pupils here from distant States, even as far as Georgia. The western part of the house was at one time occupied by Hon. Ellis Gray Lor- ing. Many distinguished visitors have at various times been entertained within these houses. Among these were Judge Story, Dr. and Mrs. Follen, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, Professor Norton, William Page and Gam- badelli, artists, Mrs. Caroline Gilman, and many others more or less known to the literary world.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
The house now owned by Mr. Sturtevant, was built for the late Amos Atkinson of this town, was afterwards occupied by Deacon Lambert, who after several years' residence here went to New York, and from that time till it came into possession of its present owner, it was the property of Samuel A. Walker, the well-known auctioneer. Mr. Walker at one time owned a great deal of real estate in Brookline, and took quite a conspicuous part in local affairs. On the opposite side of the street about forty years ago, quite a tract of land was owned by Mr. John Gorham, - the new avenue on that side bears his name. 1
Mr. Moses Jones, the father of the present citizen of that name, built his house about forty years ago, and settled there, and made his farm on both sides of the street one of the finest and most productive of fruit and vegetables of any in the vicinity.
On the west side of the street much of the land, as we have said, was low and swampy, and some of it was heavily timbered. Mr. Jones bought twenty-seven acres of this land for four thousand dollars, and proceeded to clear and drain and improve it. He sold a great deal of heavy white oak timber off it to Boston ship-builders. The one great oak at the entrance to Tappan Street is a specimen of what the place produced in the way of trees.
The road was so low at this point not many years ago that the land on which the tree stands was walled up some three feet above the level of the road. There was probably, at some distant period, a pond covering all the level ground on both sides of Cypress Street, from the Blake place to the rising ground west of Mr. Beck's place in Davis Avenue, and from near Washington Street on the north to the rising ground near Boylston Street on the south, since, within the memory of persons now
189
BOYLSTON STREET.
living at an advanced age, there was a great deal of standing water on this territory during most of the year. In digging to drain it some sixty or seventy years ago, large tree stumps, and beds of clam and other shells, were found from six to ten feet below the surface.
The fine orchard on the southerly slope of the hill, in the sheltered angle between the woods on the Aspin- wall and Blake places, was set out by Farmer Jones. He planted alternate rows of apple and peach trees, and while the former were coming to maturity, the latter lived a short and prolific life, and then gave place to the sturdy and beautiful trees that have been admired by every passer-by for many years.
Boylston Street was not laid out when the "New Lane," was made, nor for some time afterwards, so that there was no intersecting street the whole length of the lane. After Boylston Street was laid out there was a school-house built on the corner of what is now Mr. Bird's land, and a private school was kept there for several years by a Miss Stebbins. The name of Cypress Street was given in 1840.
BOYLSTON STREET.
Boylston Street, that is, that part of it from its entrance at the village to the gate-house of the old reservoir, and from the beginning of Heath Street to the Newton line, was a part of the old Worcester Turnpike, and its con- struction was entered upon in 1806.
An arch over the road at the village indicated the point from which toll-rates were to be reckoned, and the first toll-gate was established at the upper part of the town near what was known for many years as Richards' Tav- ern. Turnpike roads were constructed so as to be as nearly straight as possible, and with this end in view
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
went over hills and through valleys, when a short detour would have saved time and wear of travel. The road was carried over the summit of Bradley's Hill, and was consequently so very steep that loaded teams almost inva- riably were obliged to go round by the old road, by the Unitarian Church.
The two old houses belonging to Major White, on the present site of Guild's Block, have been described in a former chapter. From these, to the houses on the estate of the late Benjamin Goddard, there was not a house on either side of the street, for many years.
The first house built was the small one, now the second east of Dr. Shurtleff's and at present standing endways to the street. It formerly stood fronting the street, and was built by a man named Rafter, an English or Scotch gardener, who at that time was employed by Richard Sul- livan, Esq., who lived on the place now occupied by Mrs. Bowditch, next the reservoir.
, After Mr. Rafter, the house was bought by John Pierce, a tanner, who carried on the business there for sev- eral years. He was a worthy man, and in his early years was in the employ of Deacon Robinson, who afterwards aided him in establishing himself in business.
About the year 1820 or 1822, Mr. Richard Sullivan, General Dearborn, and several other gentlemen, formed a company or corporation for the purpose of establish- ing a classical school in Brookline, for boys, and bought a part of the ground now included in Dr. Shurtleff's place, and built for a school-room the present southerly wing or projection of the house. It was considered at that time the finest piece of architecture in the vicinity, and was looked upon with great interest as a valuable ad- dition to the town.
Afterwards the house was built, as a boarding-house
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GIDEON THAYER. - GEORGE B. EMERSON.
for the pupils, and thus the school-building lost its dis- tinctive character. The first teacher was a Mr. Barlow. A Mr. Hubbard was for some time owner of the house and school-house. In the year 1830 Mr. Gideon Thay- er, the founder of Chauncy Hall School, purchased the place of Mr. Hubbard, and removed here with his family, bringing with him a number of delicate boys whose par- ents were anxious to have them enjoy the purer air and freedom of the country. Mr. Thayer employed a sub- master for the Brookline branch of his school, and con- tinued his Boston school as before. Mr. Thayer had been a resident of Brookline in his childhood, and his parents died here, in the house on the corner of School and Wash- ington streets.
When he returned to Brookline he at once connected himself with the First Parish, and during the five years of his residence here he worked as super- intendent of the Sunday-school with all the vigor and personal interest which he infused into everything he undertook. The memoir of this excellent man, while it gives his traits as a teacher admirably, does not treat of that other side of his character, which made him eminently the friend of the poor and the struggling. Many a poor boy he taught gratuitously, and many more he set up in business. Poor women came to him as their friend and counsellor, and wherever he lived or worked he left his mark upon the community. He evidently felt himself but a steward for the Great Master, an almoner of his Lord's bounty. He might have been a rich man, but he preferred to be an unselfish one, and as such he has gone to the reward of the faithful.
After several years Mr. Thayer returned to Boston, hav- ing sold the place to George B. Emerson of Boston, the well-known educator. The Classical School was con- tinued in various private houses for a few years longer
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
with varying success, and was finally abandoned. Mr. Emerson lived in the stone house two years, and during that time spent a winter in Boston, having leased his house to William Ware, the author of " Last Days of Aurelian," " Zenobia," and various other works. "Zenobia " was written in the north parlor of that house. It being be- fore the days of furnaces or double windows, the shiver- ing author had a difficult time in keeping his ink and his blood in a circulating condition. The book was pub- lished in 1838.
About this time Dr. Shurtleff, the late owner, pur- chased the place of Mr. Emerson, adding to the land by a purchase of half an acre on the west, from the property of Moses Jones, to whom it came by way of the Clarks, who were owners on the east side of Cypress Street.
There are still standing on the Shurtleff place, an old pear tree and two apple trees, which were set out by Thomas Cotton who built the old Davis house, and owned all the land which has been previously mentioned as the Cotton property. From the Cottons, it will be remem- bered, it came to the Davises, and was finally sold off in small lots to one purchaser after another, and this place was a part of it.
In this house was born, June 18, 1840, Carlton At- wood, youngest son of Dr. S. A. Shurtleff. He was edu- cated in the Brookline schools, fitted for Harvard College under Mr. J. E. Hoar at our High School, and graduated in the class of 1861. He was greatly interested in botany and entomology, and after graduating, studied with Pro- fessor Agassiz for a year. He then studied medicine at the Harvard Medical School, and with his father and Dr. T. E. Francis of this town. During the War of the Re- bellion he entered the United States army as a medical cadet, and served first on a floating hospital on the Mis-
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DR. SAMUEL A. SHURTLEFF.
sissippi River during the siege of Vicksburg. He there contracted chills and fever, and received a short furlough. He came home, but as soon as his health would admit re- turned to the army, and was assigned to the Cotton Fac- tory Hospital in Harrisburg, immediately after the battle of Gettysburg, where he labored three months, and after- wards was on duty in the hospitals of Philadelphia. His health was impaired by the chills which he contracted in front of Vicksburg, and after a short and sudden illness he died at his home in Brookline, June 26, 1864, aged twenty-four years. He was a member of the Boston So- ciety of Natural History and the Numismatic Society, and in his favorite studies he had made close and valuable in- vestigations, and left ably prepared papers upon various scientific topics.
But it was chiefly for his blameless life and beautiful traits of character that this young man was beloved and mourned. He was a member of the New Church (High Street) in Brookline, and was one of the most active among the young people of the society in all good works. As one of his college classmates expressed it after his death, "he was thoughtful, religious, yet ever happy through infinite faith. He was not afraid to die." Though he did not fall in field or camp, there is no doubt that his precious young life must be added to the fatal list of those which the Rebellion cost.
Dr. Samuel A. Shurtleff, long an eminent physician in Boston, has been identified with Brookline for the past thirty years. He died March 11, 1873. From an obitu- ary which was published in the " Brookline Transcript " soon after his death, the following is copied : -
"He came of the old Puritan stock, being the sixth in descent from his ancestor who came over in the Mayflower, and who was still living in 1699.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
" His boyhood was spent on the ancestral farm which had de- scended from father to son from the time that it was bought from the Indians, and which he possessed at the time of his death. He studied medicine with his brother, the late Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, and taking his medical degree at Brown University he commenced the practice of his profession in Boston, in which he continued until the year 1838, when the destruction of his pleas- ant garden, by the demolition of Pemberton Hill, combined with serious attacks of ill health, induced by the cares and exposure of a large practice, determined him to remove from the city. In that year he removed to his late residence on Boylston Street in this town, where he has since led a life of comparative retire- ment.
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