USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 24
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amounts to just this, "Believe what you please and call yourself of our sect, and you shall be popular, but take another name and work with another sect, and though your sentiments be lofty, and your life pure, you shall eat the bread of persecution, and drink the waters of bitter- ness." It is also doubly rancorous, this spirit of sectarian hate, when the object of it has been a man of eminence in his own sect. We see frequent illustrations of it in our own day. In Mr. Winchester's time it was tenfold worse.
Rev. John Murray had been preaching the doctrine of Universal Salvation ten years, and quite an extensive cor- respondence had been going on between him and Mr. Winchester before they met. Dr. De Benneville, the first preacher of those views in this country, of French parent- age, was also Mr. Winchester's friend. Dr. De Benne- ville had been imprisoned in Calais and afterwards in Normandy for preaching his views, and with a fellow preacher, Durant, was sentenced for execution. His com- panion suffered the penalty, but he was reprieved, and finally set at liberty, and after preaching in Germany and Holland, settled in this country, where he lived to a great age. Mr. Winchester's acquaintance with these two em- inent men of his own faith, led him to desire to preach in Europe. He went to London in 1787, where he met with coldness and opposition at first, but his hearers continued to increase, and one place after another of larger size was required till he preached with wonderful success in the Parliament-Court Chapel. Mr. Winchester remained in England nearly seven years, and then went to France for brief visit. He returned to Boston in 1794, and immedi- ately to Brookline. He was received with affection and respect by our townspeople, to their credit be it said, though probably scarcely a person in the town held the
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REV. ELHANAN WINCHESTER.
views which he did. But his personal popularity and the real respect upon which it was based, overcame relig- ious opposition. The next day being Sunday, he at- tended the First Church. In the evening, though his arrival was so recent and there was so little time to make it known, he preached to a large audience at the " Punch Bowl Village." General Heath of Roxbury, and many others from that place were among his auditors. He preached during that autumn in many private houses in Brookline, Newton, and Cambridge, as well as in many churches of various denominations, and " wherever he went, large and delighted audiences hung upon the sound of his instructive voice." Among his converts at this time was his aged father, who seemed to follow the lead of his gifted son, from the excess of love and pride which he bore towards him.
The celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia was one of the most intimate friends of Rev. Mr. Win- chester. Much of the correspondence which passed be- tween them is preserved, and is of interest both on theo- logical and political matters, for both held similar views on religious themes, and were ardent lovers of American ideas and institutions. Mr. Winchester was in England during the stormy times in Europe, in the latter part of the last century, and his observation there, led him to prize more highly than ever the newly-established Repub- lican form of government of the United States which was then threatened with difficulty with France. He deeply lamented the part which England took in that war, and rejoiced in the neutrality preserved by this country, and its steady gain in prosperity.
As soon as his visit to Brookline and vicinity was over, he visited Western Massachusetts and Connecticut, preach- ing in many towns. He also wrote a " Defense of Revela-
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tion " in answer to Thomas Paine's " Age of Reason," an excellent work, as an answer to infidel opinions, and a strong weapon not for his own sect alone, but for all be- lievers in revealed truth. This was reprinted in London within two years afterwards.
Early in the following year, 1795, Mr. Winchester started on a tour to Philadelphia, stopping on the way at Providence, where he preached in the Baptist Church to a crowded assembly. Having proceeded to New York he was detained there two or three weeks by the illness of his wife, and in a letter mentions an interview with Hon. John Jay. He says : -
"Of public news I need not inform you. You will see by the papers the clamors against the treaty and against Mr. Jay. I was this morning with Mr. Jay, and happening to mention these vexatious clamors, he replied, 'It was what I expected, but my trust is in God. I know that He rules and orders everything; and I shall endeavor to go on in the way of my duty and rest all events in his hands.' This speech he made with such manly dignity, that his very manner charmed me as well as the excel- lence of the speech itself."
Mr. Winchester preached to crowds in the Circus in New York during his stay there, and a subscription was started to build him a house of worship, but he proceeded to Philadelphia as soon as his wife's health would permit, and spent that autumn and winter preaching to his former people. Here he published a volume of hymns. In Feb- ruary he was attacked with a severe hemorrhage of the lungs, and his friend, Dr. Rush, was his medical adviser. He so far recovered as to go to New York the following June. This year he published a " Political Catechism,". at the suggestion of Hon. Timothy Pickering. This work passed through many editions, and Governor Jay interested
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himself much in its circulation. It was adapted for use in high schools and colleges, and was designed to give instruction in true principles of government and liberty.
The following autumn, on his way north, Mr. Winches- ter stopped in Hartford, at the residence of a friend. He was still pale from his severe illness, but able to walk out and to speak somewhat in public. On the day of his arrival he walked out after dinner, and observing a funeral procession, he joined it and followed to the cemetery. The assemblage was large, and the scene solemn. Just as the coffin was lowered into the grave, he arrested the at- tention of the multitude by breaking forth in his musical, sonorous voice, with the sublime words of Jesus to the mourning sisters at Bethany, " I am the resurrection and the life." The effect was electric, and he went on in a strain of eloquence which held his audience spell-bound. The moment he ceased to speak there was the universal inquiry, " Who is he ?" " Where did he come from ?"
As soon as it was noised abroad that the stranger at the grave was Mr. Winchester, there was a general desire to hear him preach. He delivered one or two lectures, but no building in the city would contain his audiences, but the Theatre was soon opened for that purpose on Sundays, and on Wednesday evenings he preached in one of the churches. He was strongly impressed that his earthly course was nearly ended, and he spoke as one about to leave this world. Early in April he preached his last sermon, having chosen his text with the profound convic- tion that he should never preach again, from St. Paul's farewell address to the elders of the Ephesian Church (Acts. xx. 28-35.)
From that day he declined rapidly, but with his mind clear to the very last, even joining in a hymn which was sung at his request, a few moments before he died, on the morning of April 18, 1797.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
On the following Friday he was buried from the Pres- byterian Church, the funeral sermon being preached by Rev. Dr. Strong, who though of another faith was his inti- mate friend, and paid a fitting tribute to the lovely char- acter and lofty piety of the deceased.
He was buried in Hartford, and his resting place is marked by a stone containing the following inscription : - THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCHES IN MEMORY OF THEIR DEAR DEPARTED BROTHER ELHANAN WINCHESTER,
ERECTED THIS MONUMENTAL STONE. HE DIED APRIL 18TH, 1797, AGED 46 YEARS. "Twas thine to preach with animated zeal The glories of the restitution morn, When sin, death, hell, the power of Christ shall feel, And Light, Life, Immortality be born."
Mr. Winchester left no children, those which he had having died in infancy. His aged father, still living at the old place in Heath Street, and holding the views of his eminent son, while the latter was living, but appar- ently without any settled convictions of his own, was now again afloat without chart or compass. He had been first a Congregationalist, then a New Light, then a Bap- tist, then a Universalist ; a few years after his son's death, he turned Shaker, and left Brookline and joined that sect in Harvard, where he died "full in the faith," in September, 1810, aged 91 years.
Just before his death he sent word to some of his old friends in Newton, " In every other denomination I have had my doubts ; but now I am sure that I am right."
When we see good men live noble and useful lives, and die triumphant deaths, holding views which other men just as good and living just as purely consider arrant heresy, it may well make us very modest in the assertion of any creed beyond that of " doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God."
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THE RICHARDS' TAVERN.
The great house which Deacon Winchester had occu- pied, and in which he had brought up his fifteen children, was afterwards owned by Ebenezer White, and then by Joseph White, who sold it to Ebenezer Richards. He kept it as a public house for several years. When the turnpike to Worcester was opened, a toll-gate was placed across it in the rear of the tavern. It was a convenient resort for teamsters, and parties from Boston often went out there to have games at nine-pins. In its best days it was much frequented by gay parties, and Brookline balls were held there. It was discontinued as a tavern about 1830.
It was afterwards purchased by Henry Pettes of Bos- ton, who made great improvements upon it, resided there for a year or two, and then sold it to Mark W. Sheafe of Portsmouth ; it has since then been commonly called the Sheafe place.
The next house on the same side of Heath Street stands on the site of one which was built by Ebenezer Ken- drick, another of the New Lights, being conveniently near their place of worship. The present house was built by Mr. Jonathan Hammond. There was quite a large tract of land in this vicinity, partly in Brookline, and partly in Newton, belonging to the Hammonds, from whom the pond and the cross street near by were named.
The Hammond house was for several years occupied by Madame Jane Coaifford, a French lady. She died in this house and was buried in Brookline Cemetery.
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CHAPTER XVI.
HEATH STREET, CONCLUDED. - WARREN STREET. - ANEC- DOTE OF JOSHUA BOYLSTON, DEACON CLARK, MISS PRUDY HEATII, COLONEL PERKINS. - GODDARD AVENUE. - THE GODDARDS IN THE REVOLUTION. - A PATRIOTIC FAMILY. - COTTAGE STREET. - THE LEE PLACE.
H AVING arrived at the very limits of the town in this direction, we find a small settlement of Ger- mans. Almost on the town line stood a little cottage or hovel, years ago, where lived an old negro, Nathaniel Hill, who was hired by the farmers around to do odd jobs. The place was bought by Deacon Ebenezer Crafts, who sold it to Rev. Jonathan Hyde, who came from Can- terbury, Conn., where the Hydes abound, - to preach to the " New Lights " of Brookline. He built a house upon it in 1751, and lived here thirty-six years, the most of that time officiating as a clergyman, though there was not a regularly organized church, and was not probably wealth enough among them to build a meeting-house ; the history of the sect we have given, so far as informa- tion could be obtained, in the chapters on the Win- chesters. Of Mr. Hyde we can learn little personal history, but Dr. Pierce states that though nearly all his followers were, or became Baptists, he held to the doc- trine of infant baptism to the end of his days. He died in 1787, aged 78. His son Thaddeus next owned the place, and died there in 1808, and liis son Arba succeeded him.
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WARREN STREET.
The place and the men deteriorated together, and after the death of the last Hyde in 1841, the house was torn down by order of the selectmen. Since that time John Zecher settled upon the place, and quite a village of Ger- mans has gradually grown up.
We now return to the middle of the town, and enter Warren Street, west of the Unitarian Church. This picturesque and beautiful entrance to the street needs to be seen coming northerly, instead of going in the opposite direction, in order to be fully appreciated. It would seem that in laying out this street, the fathers availed themselves of a natural depression in the rocky ledge for the street to pass through, as the rocks are high on both sides, but bear no traces of ever having been blasted. . There is no bit of rock scenery in the town so pictur- esque as this, with the wild mosses and ferns growing from the crevices, and crowned with the woods on the one side, and the steep face of the little precipice on the other, covered with luxuriant vines, cultivated with all the resources of taste and skill.
The first house in the street on the west, standing for- merly on the site of the house of the late Deacon Clark, was built by a John Shepard so long ago, that the date is not recoverable. The house was purchased by Dudley Boylston in 1722, who made it his residence. A few persons still live in the town who can remember it. One venerable lady, who was often in it, in her early child- hood, describes it as a black, gambrel-roofed house, stand- ing end to the street, fronting toward the place now owned by John L. Gardner. The sills were sunken level with the ground, and to enter it, one needed to step down instead of up. The whole interior was in keeping with the external appearance.
Dudley Boylston was a son of the Peter Boylston
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often before mentioned, - and a brother of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston. He was born about 1688, and married Eliza- beth Gardner of this town. He was the town constable for some time, and an old military commission issued in the time of Francis Bernard, Captain-general and Gov- ernor-in-chief, indicates his rank as "first adjutant of the first regiment, whereof Jeremy Gridley is Colonel."
There was a lifelong sorrow in the family of Dudley Boylston, in the insanity of his daughter Mary, who was thus afflicted from eighteen years of age to eighty, when she died.
After the death of the father, the homestead became the property of his son Joshua. He was a bachelor of reserved and stern manners, but a sagacious and practical man. The story of his courtship and marriage is a curious
one. When he was nearly fifty-five years of age, in 1783, he being one of the selectmen or school com- mittee, was at the annual dinner of that board of officers, which was then always served at the " Punch Bowl." It was then kept by Eleazer Baker, whose sister Abigail, a cheerful, trim little body, about forty years of age, was attending upon the guests at table.
Esquire Sharp, the town clerk and justice of the peace, - also a bachelor, was present. The two were well bantered by the rest of the merry company for their celibacy, and some one pressed Mr. Boylston for a reason why he had never married. He replied that he could find no one who would have him.
To the astonishment of all present, Miss Abigail in- stantly remarked, -
" I would have you, Mr. Boylston."
" Would you ? " he asked incredulously.
" Yes, I would."
" Squire Sharp !" said Mr. Boylston, "do you hear that. Publish us next Sunday morning."
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CURIOUS COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE.
There was a laugh, and the matter was dropped as a mere joke.
On Sunday morning no publishment appeared, and Mr. Boylston, taking an early opportunity to see Squire Sharp, desired to know the reason.
" Why," said the Squire, "are you in earnest ? I thought it was only a joke."
" Publish me next Sunday, or I'll prosecute you," was the gruff reply of the sturdy old bachelor. The next Sunday morning the town was astonished at the an- nouncement which hung up in the vestibule of the little old meeting-house. Three weeks of probation passed, and all the gossips had enough to amuse them.
Mr. Boylston appointed the time for the wedding, to which his affianced agreed, at seven o'clock the following Monday morning, at Parson Jackson's.
Mrs. Jackson had her bed "in the best fore-room," and she had barely made herself and her room ready, when the couple made their appearance at the gate, each on foot, coming alone from their opposite homes. There was a few moments' conversation, and then Abigail came
in, while her Joshua hastened down the street. He had forgotten to get a certificate ! With due speed he found Squire Sharp, obtained the necessary document, and re- appeared at the parsonage. A few moments more and Joshua Boylston ceased to be a bachelor. They lived together, as the story-books say, " in happiness ever after," - for twenty-six years.
There was one child by this marriage, a daughter Re- becca. Mr. Boylston died in 1804, at the age of 79. His widow lived till 1814.
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Deacon Joshua C. Clark purchased the old Boylston house, and took it down in 1809, the Boylston family living at that time in the house on the corner of Washing-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
ton and Cypress streets. He had a new house built for him by Nathaniel Murdock, on the old site, and when completed in all but the last details, it took fire and burned to the ground. The loss fell upon the carpenter, who had not delivered his completed work to the owner's hands. The townspeople rallied and raised a handsome sum towards remunerating him for his loss, and in a few months the present house was built, and Mr. Clark mar- ried Rebecca Boylston, and took possession of the house, in May, 1810.
The yard of the old house contained great rocks, and all the space from the west side of the house to the great ledge in Mrs. Bowditch's garden in the rear of the green- house, and so westward over what is now called Lake- side, was thickly wooded. The ground around the house was leveled by filling the spaces between the rocks even with their surface, retaining only the one projecting end of the ledge, which now helps to make this old place so picturesque, overrun with climbing vines.
We can hardly leave the Clark house and its in- habitants, without brief mention of one of its former inmates, an elderly maiden lady, known as " Miss Prudy Heath." She was from the Roxbury branch of the Heath family. There were no striking events in her life, or especially strong points in her character, to form the subject of a biographical sketch, yet she was just her own peculiar self, and as such was identified with Brook- line, and particularly with the First Parish. In this con- nection, her figure should stand in the picture of the times in which she lived, as an incidental part of the ` whole, as the milestone, the rail fence, or the wayside burdock is introduced by the artist in a corner of his canvas.
Miss Prudence Heath was born in 1751; lived many
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MISS PRUDENCE HEATH.
years in the family of the last Robert Sharp, received a small property from her nephew, Mr. Samuel Gore of Roxbury, and then settled herself for life among the. Clarks, living first in the house of Deacon Samuel Clark, at the corner of Walnut and Chestnut streets, till his death, and then removing to his son's house in Warren Street, where she spent the remainder of her days.
Miss Prudy was not only quaint and unique, seen in the light of modern times, but in the days in which she lived, she was always, whatever might be the prevailing fashions, at least twenty years behind the times. She was a curiosity to children and strangers, whatever she might be to accustomed eyes, - with her immense black leghorn bonnet, and her great green silk umbrella, which she usually carried. There are persons to whom the sight of the plant known as succory, or blue vervain, which is still to be seen in waste.spots, and along road- sides, often recalls the memory of Miss Prudy. This plant she gathered and dried, using its leaves as tea. Perhaps she would have resorted to its roots, had she known that it would become the famous chicory of mod- ern commerce, which forms no inconsiderable part of the coffee now drank by the multitude.
So far as Miss Prudy's own living and habits were con- cerned, her Christian name might have been a synonym for her character, but to others she was truly generous, though a little vindictiveness flamed up occasionally, towards certain persons who had been unjust to her in her earlier days. One of her greatest pleasures was to entertain her friends at tea, a ceremony which always took place at four in the afternoon. Then the " young Hyson," which was carefully hoarded for these festivities, sent up its steaming fragrance, the choicest cake, and the " presarved squince," in which she delighted, were
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brought forth from their hidden retreats, and Miss Prudy , was as happy as the presiding genius of the most aris- tocratic festal board in the town. Once a year, at least, Dr. Pierce honored her humble apartment with his pres- ence on such an occasion, sometimes taking one of his family with him, and very often Miss Prudy remembered her minister with a generous gift from her small income. Two silver cups are still in possession of the First Church, which were presented by her in 1818.
This old lady was neither witty nor even facetious. She took life very much in earnest, yet her quaint speeches and queer ordering of words unawares, were sometimes as amusing to her friends as wit might have been. When the Providence railroad was opened through Roxbury, at the crossing of Tremont Street, it passed through the farm of her nephew, Mr. John Heath, and necessitated the removal of the house which he then oc- cupied. Miss Prudy did not admire railways, - they were modern innovations upon which only the seal of evil was set, and her mind was a good deal exercised thereby. She visited in Roxbury at the old Gore place, by the crossing, and there examined the track, and came home convinced of its dangerous and mischievous ten- dency. The word " cars," she could not remember ; " stages," were her idea of travelling conveyances. " Would you," she asked of her friends again and again, " would you ride in one o' them ravin' stages ?" for to her imagination doubtless a Revere disaster might be a daily occurrence.
Poor old simple-hearted Miss Prudy, born in the mid- dle of the eighteenth century, lived long enough to see something of the grand march of the nineteenth, in which she at least had no part. She died in 1839, aged eighty-eight, a character as impossible to be reproduced
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WILLIAM EUSTIS.
in these times, in this vicinity, as the ichthyosaurus, or the megatherium of geology.
A little southeast of this house, on the same side of the street, stood for many years, in the earlier history of the town, a house owned and occupied by Josiah Win- chester, Jr. His son Caleb, and afterwards John Seaver, were his successors. The house was purchased and taken down during the last century, by the original proprietor of the house now owned by the heirs of the late Samuel Goddard.
The wooded hill opposite was formerly the property of Deacon Samuel Clark. About the year 1822, Captain Benjamin Bradley built a house below, and in front of the woods. He rented it for some little time to various tenants, and at last sold it to Mr. Jacob Eustis, an elderly gentleman who removed here from Saugus.
Mr. Eustis had two sons, both of whom survived him, the one well known as Judge Eustis, who took up his residence at the South, returning often to Brookline to spend his summers. The other, William Eustis, was edu- cated for the profession of a physician, but being of a sen- sitive temperament, and also predisposed to insanity, his mind became somewhat affected by troubles in his early manhood, and he never followed his profession. Instead, however, he devoted attention to horticulture, built a fine greenhouse, and ornamented the place with choice vines and plants. He also was a teacher and afterwards super- intendent of the First Parish Sabbath-school for several years. His beautiful attention to his aged and widowed mother, his kindness and delicacy of feeling made him warm friends in all who knew him well, though by the unsympathizing world at large he was smiled at for his little peculiarities, and perhaps generally undervalued. His health was gradually undermined, and he sank away
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and died without any visible disease. His mother did not long survive him, and the place soon passed into other hands. The house has lately given place to a modern and much larger one.
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