USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 25
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The house now owned by John L. Gardner was built by Captain Ingersoll early in the present century. Charles Tappan was the next owner of this place, and occupied it like his predecessor, ten years. His successor was Deacon Thomas Kendall of Boston, who also held a ten years' ownership. He was a prominent member of the Charles Street Baptist Church (then Dr. Sharp's) for many years. After some years' residence in Brook- line he connected himself with the Baptist Church in this place, in which he continued an influential and honored member till his death, at an advanced age.
Deacon Kendall was the Representative of Brookline in the State Legislature for several years. He died in November, 1850.
The house which has for many years past been the res- idence of the late Samuel Goddard or his heirs, was built in 1792, by Nehemiah Davis.
At this time there were no other houses on the entire street, except the old Boylston house and the houses of the Winchesters, one of which, as mentioned before, he bought and took down. The farm connected with this place was very extensive. Mr. Davis occupied the house till his death in 1785. The next owner of any note, was Hon. George Cabot, a member of Congress, and after- wards Secretary of the Navy, in Washington's time, and a Federalist, in the old days when political animosity ran high between the conservatives and the democracy then just coming into power. The rancor between " Feder- alists " and " Jacobins " was as strong as anything which as yet marks the conflict between the supporters of Re-
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WARREN STREET.
publican and Democratic candidates, and each party called the other as unlovely names and was as unscrupulous as to truth and falsehood in politics as their descendants seem to be.
Mr. Cabot was a retired sea-captain who had seen much of the world, and he bore hearty testimony to the desir- ableness of our town as a place of residence in his day, and to its many attractions. Mr. Cabot died in Boston in 1823, aged seventy-one. He left three sons, and a daughter who became the wife of President Kirkland of Harvard College.
Stephen Higginson, Jr., was the next owner of the place for a few years, but sold it to Captain Adam Bab- cock. The land which now comprises all of Mr. Gard- ner's place was sold off this estate to Captain Ingersoll, who married Captain Babcock's daughter. Both these gentlemen were also retired sea-captains. Mr. Goddard was Captain Babcock's successor in this house.
Mr. Goddard was one of the wealthy men of Brook- line. In early life he had been engaged in mercantile pursuits in Manchester, England. He returned to this town about 1838, where he resided till his death, in March, 1871. He was nearly eighty-four years of age.
On the opposite side of the street, several acres of ground were once included in the Cabot estate. This was the corner lot bordering on Warren and Cottage streets. An old building, partly house and partly barn, stood on this lot, and was occupied by one of the first Irishmen who settled here. All that was between this and the estate before mentioned as Dr. Eustis's place, was early in the last century the property of Mr. Elhanan Winchester, grandfather of the preacher of that name. The old Winchester house stood almost on the site of the present Murdock house. His son Elhanan (who
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died a Shaker) was the next owner, and he sold to John Seaver and removed to the upper part of Heath Street as before mentioned. Mr. Seaver's estate went through many changes, and this lot of land became the property of the Hyslops. In 1799, Mr. David Hyslop sold the land to Nathaniel Murdock, a young carpenter, who had come into the town and was building the house of Hon. Stephen Higginson. The land sold included what is now the house lot of Mr. Charles D. Head. The house was built for Mr. Stephen Perkins, son of Samuel G. Perkins of Brookline.
Mr. Murdock raised the frame of his own house (which still stands) on the last day of the last century, Decem- ber 31, 1799. On the first day of the year 1800 he boarded it in, and in the spring it was completed, and he occupied it from that time till his death, in 1837.
A house which stood next it and was removed a few years ago by Mr. Sargent, was built by George Murdock, son of the former.
The Cabot estate included all the land which has for many years past been the property of the Warren family. In the early settlement of the town, however, this place was the property of Josiah Winchester, father of Elhanan, who lived upon the Murdock place. The ancient Win- chester house was destroyed before the close of the last century. The descendants of the Winchesters still live in Brookline.
On this place also stood an old gambrel-roofed red house, said to have been moved out from Boston. From the size and quality of the timbers and chimney, and the manner of building, it would seem to be very ancient. Mr. Warren, on purchasing the place, lived for a short time in this house till he could erect another, and then sold the old one to Captain Benjamin Bradley, who re-
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COLONEL T. H. PERKINS.
moved it to his hill. It was the first house placed on the hill. In this house lived for many years Mr. Celfe, an excellent man, well remembered as the skillful gardener for Richard Sullivan, Esq., and Judge Jackson, and after- wards for the late John E. Thayer, in whose service he died, at an advanced age. Long before his death, how- ever, he had changed his residence. The old house was removed from Bradley's Hill at the time the other build- ings were transferred to Sewall Street, and is still doing service at " Hart's Content." Whether it has finished its travels or still has further journeys before it, remains to be seen.
The house in the corner between Warren and Cottage streets, was built for Samuel G. Perkins, brother of Colonel Thomas H. Perkins.
The land upon the same side of Warren Street for many years past so highly cultivated and so beautiful in many attractions, including the estates of James S. Amory and Mrs. Winthrop, were never built upon until pur- chased by the present owners, and the whole area was known for many years as " the old huckleberry pasture." There are people now living in town who have gathered bushels of berries upon these places.
COLONEL T. H. PERKINS.
Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, though not a native of Brookline, was for so many years a resident and large tax-payer, that a brief sketch of his life seems in place in this history.
He was born in Boston, December 15, 1764. His mother's father, for whom he was named, was a dealer in hats and furs. The family lived in King Street, now State Street, and in full view of the events of the " Bos- ton Massacre " in March, 1770. Colonel Perkins through-
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out his life remembered with great distinctness the im- pression made upon his childish mind by the sight of the dead bodies, and the blood which lay frozen upon the ground the next day. His father died when he was but six years old, and his mother, a woman of great energy, continued the business, and brought up her eight children with great credit to herself and to them. Her eldest son, James, on coming of age, went to the Island of San Do- mingo, in a ship of which his mother was part owner, and there was soon established in mercantile business.
Thomas Handasyd, the second son, was educated for college, but being much more strongly inclined to an ac- tive business life than to a quiet literary one, he joined his brother in San Domingo. Having remained there for a time, the climate being unfavorable to his health he re- turned to Boston, where he attended to the business of the house in the United States, while his younger brother, Samuel G. Perkins, took his place in San Domingo.
In 1788 he was married to the only daughter of Simon Elliot, Esq. (who afterwards came to reside in Heath Street). Mr. Perkins commenced married life in a most economical manner, as a matter of necessity, but soon turned his attention to the tea trade in Canton, to which place he made one voyage himself. During his absence our government was organized under the new constitution of 1789, and though heavy duties had been established, a stability had been given to trade which led to great mer- cantile prosperity.
In 1792 the great insurrection of the slaves in San Do- mingo broke up the prosperous business of his two brothers, and obliged them to return to Boston, having narrowly escaped with their lives, and suffered great losses. They began anew in Boston, their trade being with China and the northwest coast, and eventually estab-
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COLONEL T. H. PERKINS.
lished a house in Canton. Colonel Perkins received his military title as commander of the battalion which forms the Governor's escort, he having previously held a lower rank in that body.
Mr. James Perkins settled at what is known as " Pine Bank " on the shore of Jamaica Pond. The house was the one which now stands opposite the Town House, owned by Robert S. Davis, and lately occupied by Dr. Sanford. It was sold, and removed from Pine Bank about thirty years ago.
Samuel G. Perkins settled at the corner of Cottage and Warren streets.
. Colonel Perkins about the beginning of the present century was chosen President of the Boston branch of the United States Bank, which was then quite a distinction, when there were so few banks. His own business was too pressing to admit of his holding this situation long, and he resigned after a year or two, and Hon. George Cabot was chosen in his stead. In 1805, Colonel Perkins was chosen a member of the State Senate, which place he held for nearly twenty years.
He was very active in establishing the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Insane Hospital, his contribu- tion and his elder brother's being each eight thousand dollars for these purposes, an amount for those times equal · to a very much greater one at present.
In 1838 Colonel Perkins withdrew from business with a large fortune, and devoted his time to various public matters which interested him. He was especially noted as the generous patron of the Blind Asylum, to which he gave a fine large house in Pearl Street, Boston ; of the Mercantile Library Association, and of the Boston Ath- enæum. He was naturally a lover of the beautiful both in nature and art, and spared no pains in the importing
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and cultivating of choice plants and trees on his beautiful place in Warren Street, which was quite a resort for visitors from many places. He sometimes went far out of his way to enjoy an extensive prospect or examine a fine tree.
An incident is related of the interest which he felt in the preservation of our Brookline elms. There was a row of magnificent elms through " the village," on the south side of the street from the lower part of Walnut Street, to the town line, - though this part of the village was then in Roxbury. Colonel Perkins riding by one day noticed a certain man who then lived in that neighborhood about to cut down two of them. He stopped and inquired into the necessity for such an act, and was informed that they shaded some cherry trees (two miserable little specimens not long set out). Colonel Perkins begged the man to spare the trees, telling him he would furnish him with cherries as long as he lived, but the obstinate old sinner, who seemed to delight in doing what annoyed others, es- pecially rich men, persevered, and not only cut down the two, but after a time, all the rest which bordered his land, thus depriving not only his own generation, but those which have succeeded him, of the grateful shade which would have redeemed that unattractive region of half its repulsiveness even now, had they been spared.
Colonel Perkins being in Washington in 1796, was there introduced to General Washington, who invited him to his home in Mt. Vernon, where he spent two days. Some interesting incidents of this visit are related in his Me- moirs .*
Colonel Perkins outlived both his brothers. His brother Samuel had died blind, and one of his own eyes was covered by a cataract for twenty years. The other
* Memoirs of Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, by Thomas G. Carey. This highly interesting volume is in the Brookline Public Library.
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THE PERKINS HOUSE.
eye became affected, and he was in danger of total blind- ness. A successful operation by Dr. Williams of Boston removed it, however, and he who had done so much for others who were blind, was saved from that sad calamity himself. He was able to keep his books with his own hand till the last few months of his life.
Colonel Perkins was a remarkably noble looking man, with the dignified manners which characterize the gentle- men of the old school, now too seldom seen.
In 1852, Daniel Webster presented him with a set of his published works, accompanied by a most complimen- tary note in his own handwriting.
Colonel Perkins was not confined to his bed by illness a day, but died quite suddenly of prostration caused by a surgical operation, on the 11th of January, 1854, in the ninetieth year of his age.
As early as 1740 there was a house standing upon that part of Colonel Perkins' place where his farm-house has since stood. It was owned at that time by Christopher Dyer, and afterwards by his son William.
Afterwards Joseph Woodward purchased it, and it finally passed into the hands of John Lucas, who at one time owned a large amount of real estate in this town. The rest of the land belonging to the Perkins' and also the Cabot place, was formerly the property of Hon. Jonathan Mason, Jonathan Jackson, Mr. Heath, and others, but was not occupied by dwelling houses until purchased by the above-mentioned gentlemen. At the time Colonel Perkins built his house the site commanded an uninterrupted view of Boston, and Colonel Perkins so planned his house as to command the fine prospect from his parlor windows. The whole line of the Mill-dam, and the beautiful expanse of Charles River and the Back Bay were included in this extensive panorama. Trees and buildings long since in-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
terposed a barrier which shuts out this lovely view, and miles of streets with solid blocks of brick and stone houses, stand where the tide then rose and fell, and obscure Bos- ton Common from all the high points which once over- looked it.
The old Cabot house, which stood upon the site of Mr. William Gray's present residence, was built for Mr. Sam- uel Cabot in the year 1806, by Mr. Murdock. During this year occurred the total eclipse of the sun, still re- membered by aged persons for the great darkness which prevailed, so that fowls went to roost and cattle returned to their various places of shelter. The workmen upon this house abandoned their tools, and in common with everbody else went out to witness the impressive spectacle, - all but one youth ; who declined to thus far trouble him- self. This hero was the future Capt. Benjamin Bradley. Those who remembered the man, will recognize the inci- dent as characteristic. The old family nurse indignantly expressed her opinion that " that fellow would live to be hanged."
The next house was built in 1824 by Colonel Perkins, for his daughter, Mrs. Cabot, by whom it is still occupied.
COTTAGE STREET.
In continuing our sketches of Warren Street, we passed Cottage Street without mention. We now return to that street, as upon it was one of the earliest settlements in the town.
Nearly upon the site of the late Captain Cook's cottage was the residence of Thomas Buckminster, who came hither from England in 1640. This ancient family dates back as far as 1216 in the English records. Thomas Buckminster, grandfather of the one who settled in this town, was the author of an almanac printed in London
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THOMAS BUCKMINSTER'S FARM.
in 1599, and a copy of this curious old book has been preserved in the family down to the present time.
Thomas Buckminster of Muddy River was made a " freeman," as in the old meaning of the term becoming a communicant of the church was called, and received from the General Court a grant of a tract of land valued at ten pounds.
His descendant, Mrs. Eliza Buckminster Lee, for many years a resident of Brookline, in writing of her ancestor, says : -
" If we may infer anything from the selection of Thomas Buckminster's farm in Brookline, he must have had an eye for picturesque beauty. His dwelling stood at the foot of wooded heights, covered with a dense shrubbery, and fringed all up the rocky sides with delicate pensile branches and hanging vines. A rapid brook descending from these rocky heights, ran past his door, spreading out and winding in the meadows in front. Jamaica Lake, a quarter of a mile distant, embosomed in beauti- ful undulations of hill and valley, slept tranquilly in full sight of the house."
This place and neighborhood even yet retains much of the rural beauty which distinguished it in those remote days, and culture has added new attractions to the sur- roundings.
The elder Buckminster died in 1656. His eldest son, Lawrence, returned to England.
The wills of both these gentlemen are recorded in the Suffolk Probate office. Joseph Buckminster succeeded his father upon the farm in Brookline. His son Joseph married Martha Sharp, the daughter of the brave Lieu- tenant who fell in Sudbury fight, and removed from Brook- line to Framingham. A further sketch of this branch of the Buckminster family is to be found in the chapter on
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
the Sharp family. From this Brookline couple descended the Buckminsters of Rutland, Mass., and afterwards the eminent Dr. Buckminster of Portsmouth, whose distin- guished son was pastor of the Brattle Street Church, and whose daughter, Mrs. Eliza Buckminster Lee, was the wife of Thomas Lee of this town, who brought his bride to this home of her remote ancestors to live on a part of the original Buckminster farm.
There seems to be much obscurity about the history of this old place for many years, but in 1740 it was owned by Henry Winchester. For more than eighty years it was owned by his descendants, his son Joseph and his grandson Nathaniel being his successors. The last of the Winchesters who resided here died in 1808. The old Winchester house, as it was called, was taken down in 1826.
Captain Cook purchased the place and made it a taste- ful and beautiful residence. He also built two houses near his own for his two sons, - one in the valley, and the other on the opposite side of the street. One of them lived in the cottage a short time only, and the other died without ever occupying the residence intended for him. The Captain and his wife both lived to a great age, and died in the house in the valley. The original place which he beautified, now the property of Mr. Jerome W. Tyler, is known as " Linden Terrace."
The Lee place lies in Brookline, though the entrance to it is from Perkins Street in Roxbury. Mr. Lee was a great lover of natural beauty, and preserved the forest trees which adorned his place, and admired the nat- ural rocks with their wild mosses and vines about them, too much to permit them to be removed by blasting. What a man of less taste would have regarded as blem- ishes, he looked upon with the true eye of one who lived
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GODDARD AVENUE.
close to the heart of Nature, and won from her many a secret.
On this beautiful place his gifted wife wrote several of the volumes which have become a part of the literature of the land, and in the unpretending cottage she died but a few years since.
This place has since Mr. Lee's death become the prop- erty of Ignatius Sargent, Esq.
GODDARD AVENUE.
This beautiful avenue, diverging at right angles from Cottage Street on the south side, takes its name from one of the old Brookline families. The original road was only a farm lane or cart-road leading to the farm and dwelling of the Goddard family. The principal entrance to this place from Brookline, however, was through land now on the Winthrop place on Warren Street. There was an old road through the woods also, toward Jamaica Plain, in the earliest days of the settlement, and a new road has been quite recently laid out over almost the same track. The part called Avon Street is of recent date. The old Goddard house still standing dates back a hundred years, but the original house, like the original family, was far more ancient than that. The family gen- ealogy, which has been carefully traced out and published, dates back to William Goddard, a citizen and grocer of London, who came to Boston in 1665. His wife and three young sons came the following year. They settled in Watertown, and there Mr. Goddard was hired as a teach- er. An old record of that place reads as follows : -
" March 27, 1680. These are to certify that Mr. William Goddard of Watertown whome the said towne by covenanting agreed to teach such children as should be sent to him to learn the rules of the Latin tongue, hath those accomplishments, which
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
render him capable to discharge the trust (in that respect) com- mitted to him.
(Signed) JOHN SHERMAN, Pastor."
The second son of this William Goddard, Joseph, born in London in 1655, was the first of the name who settled in Brookline. He married in Watertown, Deborah Tread- way, and came to Brookline in 1680, and settled upon the farm where his posterity still live.
His son John, and afterwards his grandson of the same name, succeeded him on the place. The latter, born in 1730, was a distinguished citizen of this town. During the Revolutionary War Mr. Goddard was a commissary- general for the American army in this vicinity.
During the seige of Boston Mr. Goddard was intrusted with the command of three hundred teams, which worked in darkness and by stealth in constructing the fortifica- tions on Dorchester Heights, now South Boston. The absolute silence of the men, the promptness and efficiency with which they labored, and the success which crowned their efforts, were no doubt largely owing to the firmness, courage, and tact of the sturdy patriot in charge. Captain Joseph Goddard, who at that time was a boy of fourteen, was a driver of one of the teams under his father's direc- tion, and often described the event to his children and friends now living.
Not a whip was allowed among the men on that moon- light March night when the fortifications on the Heights were the scene of such busy excitement, lest some incau- tious crack might betray them, but the oxen were urged on with goads. The saplings for the fascines were cut in the woods between Dorchester and Milton, and combined with fresh hay, made a light, though bulky material, easily piled up. No wonder that General Howe, looking over from Boston the next morning, thought that " the
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MR. GODDARD'S PATRIOTISM.
Americans had done more in one night than his whole army could do in weeks." He did not know what had been going on in the woods within six miles of his army. Four or five pieces of cannon which had been concealed under the hay in Mr. Goddard's barn for weeks, were on this night stealthily removed to their destination, being taken round through Heath Street in Roxbury, and placed in position on Dorchester Heights.
In a shed or shop-building opposite the house, were several hundred pounds of gunpowder stored in the loft. A garrison of several soldiers occupied this building, liv- ing in the lower story, while they and the patriotic heroes of the house knew that one unfortunate spark might at any moment blow them all into eternity. All this time a sentinel was kept on the Goddard place to guard the premises.
The British officers (who were often out to Mr. Hul- ton's where Mr. Chapin now lives) and who were fre- quently entertained at the expense of a female Tory, who lived on the place now belonging to the family of the late Samuel Goddard, occasionally rode through the woods and about among the farm-houses, but they failed to dis- cover anything which compromised the wary patriots. A British deserter, however, found his way through the woods to this retired place one day, and coming in sight of the house, which was then quite new, and was hand- somely painted, unlike most of the houses of the vicinity, was afraid to go to it. Seeing some men at work on the place, he ventured to approach, and inquired if that was " the Governor's house." He was taken to the house, his wants were kindly provided for, and after a good night's rest he was able to proceed in his laudable purpose of put- ting all the space possible between himself and King George's troops. Had one traitorous Tory or half-hearted,
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corruptible friend, discovered those cannon being drawn quietly by night up that farm-lane to the hiding place, it would have cost the brave old farmer his life.
There was reason to believe, however, after a time, that suspicion had been roused respecting the concealed army stores, and they were removed to Concord, Mr. Goddard himself driving one of the teams the whole distance.
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