USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 28
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. Thomas Kendrick, Mrs. Harvey's son, distinctly remem-
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THE KENDRICK HOUSE.
bered seeing men at the time of the Lexington and Concord battle running across lots in this neighborhood guided by the sound of the firing, and jumping fences in their eager- ness to reach the scene of the fray, taking their course back of Walnut Hills and through Newton.
The old house became so dilapidated that Mrs. Harvey for the last ten years of her life spent her winters with a married daughter in Boston, but she was always impa- tient for Spring to come that she might return to her country residence, or " hut " as she called it. After the old lady died, in 1826, the house was taken down. The land on which it stood is a part of the Weld place. It is a rocky and beautifully wild country place thereabouts, on one side of the street almost covered with forest trees. There are no other buildings in the town on South Street, and this closes the description of the town in this direc- tion.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
CHAPTER XVIII.
HIGH STREET CHURCH. - CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR. - GOS- PEL CHURCH. - LOCAL INDUSTRIES.
THE churches of Brookline, which have been estab- lished within the last quarter of a century, can hardly be reckoned among the fitting subjects of a series of sketches belonging almost exclusively to the past, yet to omit a part of them simply because they are modern, might seem an invidious distinction. There are other reasons also, why a sketch of the High Street Church, more generally known as the Swedenborgian, may be presumed to be of some interest, for there is probably no religious society in the community of which so little is known by outsiders, nor of which such mistaken ideas are prevalent.
A few members of the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem, in Bowdoin Street, became residents of Brook- line twenty or more years ago. There was then no pub- lic conveyance on Sundays, and these few worshippers, of a like faith, met for occasional religious services, and a little Sunday-school, in private parlors. Sometimes an omnibus was chartered, and these persons thus re- sorted to their own church on such occasions as seemed desirable.
In 1852, worship was first held in the Town Hall, the numbers increased, and in April, 1857, a society was formed. The first minister was Rev. T. B. Hayward. His connection with the church continued until 1861. He was succeeded the same year by Rev. Mr. Ager. In
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DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH.
1862, the temple in High Street was built. Mr. Ager continued with this church until 1864, when he was called to the pastorate of the society in Brooklyn, N. Y., where he still officiates. He was succeeded in Brookline by the Rev. S. M. Warren. Mr. Warren being called away to Europe for an indefinite period, his place was temporarily filled by Rev. Abiel Silver, who divided his . time between this church and a little body of worshippers at Boston Highlands. A society was soon formed there which outgrew in numbers and means, the little church in Brookline, and soon took occasion to appropriate the services of the pastor altogether to their own needs. Since that time the Brookline society has been without a regular minister, except as various clergymen have been hired for longer or shorter periods .* The question is often asked, " What do the Swedenborgians believe ?" We append the following " Doctrines of the New Church," from the Liturgy or Book of Worship, page 69.
1. " That there is one God; that in Him is a Divine Trinity, called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; that these three are distinct, and at the same time united in Him, as the soul, the body, and the operation are in man; and that the one God is the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. " That saving faith is to believe in Him as the Redeemer, Regenerator, and Saviour from sin.
3. "That the sacred Scripture is Divine Truth ; that it is revealed to us as a means by which we may distinguish between good and evil, by which we may be delivered from the influence of evil spirits, and by which we may become associated with angels and conjoined with the Lord.
4. "That we must abstain from doing evil, because it is of the devil and from the devil ; and that we must do good because it is of God and from God.
* Rev. Warren Goddard, Jr., of Bridgewater, was installed as pastor of this church in April, 1874.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
5. " That in abstaining from evil and doing good we are to act as of ourselves ; but we must at the same time believe and acknowledge that the will, the understanding, and the power to do so are of the Lord alone."
To this creed, nothing more and nothing less, is re- quired the assent of those who would become members of the New Church.
It seems almost too absurd to believe, in these late days of intelligence and liberality, that any person can be found who believes that New Church people are wor- shippers or blind devotees of Swedenborg, yet well mean- ·ing and religious people are to be found in our own community who do believe such things, and also the ridiculous and oft repeated calumny, that New Church people " set plates for departed friends." Any one who would learn even a little of the theory of the future life as held by this sect, would find that it is not believed in the New Church that persons in the body are seen or heard by those who have passed into the spiritual world, that their existence is purely spiritual, and that all con- nection with material things has ceased. No person has yet been found who ever saw a person, or knew a person who "set plates for departed friends." The story has been traced to the ignorance of a servant in a Philadel- phia family years ago, and never could have gained such general credence but for popular prejudice against what was new and untried. For modern spiritualism, the New Church has neither sympathy nor sanction. On the other point, worshipping of Swedenborg, or blind faith in a fanatic, whichever it may be called or supposed to be, perhaps the above quotation of the doctrines of the church should be a sufficient answer.
It may not be amiss, however, to state what the church knows about Swedenborg, and why it believes him at all.
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SWEDENBORG.
Emanuel Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, in 1688, of excellent parentage. He was made a nobleman in 1719. In 1722, he entered upon the duties of " Assessor Extraordinary of the Board of Mines," to which he was appointed by Charles XII. He was admitted a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, in 1729. He published many learned scientific works be- tween 1710 and 1734, nearly all of which were written in Latin. His society was sought by the most learned men of Europe, and many of his theories and positions on various scientific topics, which were not accepted by the men of his times, have been found by modern scien- tists to be true. In 1740, he published in a large quarto volume his "Economy of the Animal Kingdom." In 1745, at the age of fifty-four, Swedenborg relinquished his scientific pursuits, and devoted himself to studying theology and unfolding the great truths of the Bible. Swedenborg never preached, wrought miracles, or at- tempted the founding of a new sect. He wrote his elaborate and voluminous works, published them at his own expense, and placed them in all the principal libra-
ries of Europe. His works are nothing more than a commentary on the Bible ; but they differ from those of all other commentators in this, that while others have given their own views of the meaning and design of the different parts or subjects upon which they treat, Sweden- borg says nothing as of himself, but constantly says that it was given him by the Lord. This remarkable state- ment would be enough to condemn the whole thing, were his explanations of Scripture arbitrary, confused, or con- tradictory ; but they are instead, clear and consistent, and founded on a plan of interpretation which is a science in itself, - the science of correspondence.
There is evidence in the old heathen writers and in
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
Egyptian and other hieroglyphics that the knowledge of such a science once existed. It inheres in the nature of things, and is the invention of neither Swedenborg nor any other man, any more than the truths of mathematics are man's invention ; calling it fanciful or visionary does not make it so. Swedenborg was never insane, lie lived an honored, useful, and quiet life and died a peaceful death, at the age of eighty-five. He is venerated as a wise and good man, but not worshipped, any more than the old churches worship St. Paul, St. Augustine, or Chrysostom. It is not deemed necessary to any man's salvation, by this sect, that he shall accept the teachings of Swedenborg or any man or body of men. Those who can receive these teachings may do so profitably, -for those who cannot, enough truths of the Bible lie apparent to the simplest consciousness to prove of saving value if followed. Every year the principal doctrines held by the New Church are being more widely disseminated, and are permeating the mass of worshipping Christians of every sect. They are preached in pulpits of every denomination and received as food for the soul by many who would reject them as poison if they knew the source from whence their preacher had gathered his materials, and to whom he is indebted for the consistency of his theology.
The test of a person's religion should be the life which it causes him to live. There are inconsistent professors in all churches, but we think if tested by the standard of life, the main doctrines of the New Church, love to God . and good will to man, will be found not a whit behind those held by other churches, in making people fit to live, and thus fit to die.
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EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT LONGWOOD.
CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR, LONGWOOD, A MEMORIAL CHURCH.
The visitor at Longwood, approaching from Chapel Station, would at once be struck with the neatness and good taste apparent everywhere. The Church of Our Saviour, tasteful in external designs and surroundings, is in its interior appointments and decorations a model of beauty, exquisite in every detail. The parish was organ- ized on the 19th of February, 1868. The church build- ing was the gift of Dr. William R. Lawrence and Amos A. Lawrence, Esq., as a tribute to the memory of their honored father, Amos Lawrence, and is an appropriate and beautiful expression of filial regard for a beloved and noble man, whose character deserves to be held in perpet- ual remembrance.
The organ, which was built expressly for this church, by the Messrs. Hook, was the gift of Mrs. Amos A. Law- rence, in memory of her mother. The beautiful baptismal font was presented by Mrs. F. W. Lawrence, also as a memorial gift.
The architect of the building was Mr. Esty, of Fra- mingham. Prominent among the members of this society in its organization, besides the various branches of the Lawrence family, were Messrs. Samuel L. Bush, S. H. Gregory, the late Commodore George S. Blake, Mr. Wil- liam C. Hitchborn, and Dr. Robert S. Amory.
The first public service was held March 22, 1868, at which time the present Rector, Rev. Elliott D. Tompkins, began his work. The church edifice was consecrated by the late lamented Bishop Eastburn, on the 29th of Sep- tember following.
Although it is not quite five years since this church was organized, there are eighty or more communicants,
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
and the flourishing Sabbath-school numbers over ninety scholars. A sewing circle was also organized and com- menced its useful work the first year of the existence of the society.
GOSPEL CHURCH.
Gospel Church, sometimes called "the Sears Church," with its massive walls and square tower, a substantial and beautiful building, is a curious anomaly in church history, having a pastor and a sexton, but no church or congrega- tion. The building was erected by the late David Sears, before there was any other church in Longwood, at his own expense, with the expectation that all sects would unite in common worship within its walls. He prepared a Liturgy or Book of Worship expressing his own ideas on religious matters, for regular use in the church. The well-meant plan was a failure, and the building stands a memorial of the good intentions and fallacious hopes of the wealthy projector whose mortal remains slumber be- neath it, and whose design failed, only because it is, or seems to be, a moral impossibility for human beings to lay aside their sectarian prejudices and together worship one God in whom all profess to believe. Worship was main- tained for a time, but the attendance was so small tliat it was finally abandoned.
This completes the list of the eight Brookline churches. Though three are at present without pastors, all except the last mentioned seem to enjoy a fair share of pros- perity, and each in its way is a force for good in the com- munity .*
LOCAL INDUSTRIES.
It is customary to record, in the history of a town, some account of its various industrial interests, but Brook-
* Since the above was written two of the churches have obtained pastors, and the Methodists are established in the former Congregational church, so that there are now nine churches.
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LOCAL INDUSTRIES.
line being but a suburb of Boston has little to offer in that line, though one of the richest towns in the State, for its size and population.
From its settlement, until after the second war with England, it was a region of farms, and no more beauti- ful or skillful suburban farming was to be found. After the period above mentioned, a number of Boston gentle- men purchased land, and made for themselves delightful country seats here, thus adding greatly to the wealth and attractions of the town. From that time forward there was a steady increase of population and wealth, and farm after farm has been cut up into house lots, until only the remoter tracts of land can be used for this purpose, and the majority of the inhabitants are business men of Boston.
For many years the market gardens of the Wards, Davises, Moses Jones, the Stearnses, Griggses, Coolidges, Coreys, Crafts, Whites, and others, furnished the earliest and choicest fruits and vegetables for Boston market, and the elegant green-houses of Messrs. Perkins, Cabot, Higginson, Gardner, Thayer, and others were the finest in the vicinity of Boston ; for then horticulture was not established as a regular occupation, and strangers were admitted by courtesy to admire their beautiful treasures.
The one wharf which gives Brookline any occupation on its river front, has been kept for many years by E. M. Abbott, as a lumber wharf. Of late the Messrs. Cousens have made it also a depot for the storage and sale of coal and wood, its area having been increased. The - Boston and Albany Railroad Corporation own an exten- sive tract of land near this wharf, where a perfect net- work of rails cover the ground, and the Grand Junction Railway diverges, crossing the river and conveying thou- sands of tons of produce for export, daily, to their wharf at East Boston.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
For nearly twenty years past, until quite recently, the manufacture of knit woollen goods was carried on by Joseph Turner & Sons. The only other business, not merely local, of a mechanical kind, is the manufacture of philosophical instruments, by the Messrs. Ritchie.
In 1868, E. S. Ritchie & Sons removed their manu- factory of philosophical instruments from Boston to Pan- ter's Building, Brookline. Their establishment has been for many years the largest manufactory of instruments and apparatus illustrative of physical science, particularly in the higher grades, for colleges, etc., in the country. In later years the principal branch of their works has been the manufacture of marine compasses, particularly of such as are known as liquid compasses, invented and patented by the senior member of the firm, and which are now solely used by the Navy of the United States, and very largely by the mercantile marine of the country. A form of this instrument, specially designed for the purpose, was used on the monitors during the late war.
The Messrs. Ritchie have lately built a magnetic ob- servatory on Gorham Avenue ; a neat octagon building, designed by T. P. Chandler, Jr., for the use of the Bureau of Navigation, of the U. S. Navy. It is built of wood and copper, no iron being employed, and is fur- nished by the Bureau, with the most delicate instruments known to science, for the adjustment and testing of compasses. All such instruments used by our Navy are here inspected and tested by the Superintendent of Com- passes of the Navy.
A chair shop, which employs steam power, has within a year been established on the north side of Brighton Avenue ; but recent legislation seems to indicate the speedy annexation of this part of Brookline to Boston.
Several florists add the attractions of their beautiful vocation to the embellisliment of Brookline, of whom
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RURAL BEAUTY.
Mr. Richards, of Clyde Street, and George Craft, Esq., of South Street, have acquired an extensive reputation for the culture of the gladiolus. Miss Tobey, of Linden Place, has also a lovely green-house, which deserves a liberal patronage. The reports of the various horticul- tural exhibitions in Boston, show that the grapes and pears of Brookline, as well as its flowers, are annually conspicuous among the choice products which adorn the tables on these occasions.
Those who have known and loved the Brookline of the past, cannot but regret the necessity which, in some cases, and the want of a cultivated taste in others, dic- tates the building of crowded houses so close together that every vestige of rural beauty is sacrificed, and that the chief attractions, which have for years made our town proverbial for its charms, are rapidly disappearing before the march of greedy speculation. The central and southwestern portions of the town still preserve their old time reputation for beauty, and for several years past the elegant green-houses and grounds of Ignatius Sar- gent, Esq., have been a centre of attraction in spring, when through the generosity of the proprietor the ad- mirers of floral beauty have been freely invited to wit- ness the magnificent displays of azaleas, which have made the place famous.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
CHAPTER XIX.
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE MILITARY HISTORY OF BROOKLINE.
THE part which was borne by our town in the War of the Revolution, has been incidentally treated of in our account of the various houses, families, and old forti- fications.
The second war with Great Britain, so unpopular in New England, was regarded here in the same spirit as elsewhere. It will be remembered that it was during this war that our townsman, Col. Thomas Aspinwall, distinguished himself by valiant services, and lost his arm.
Brookline was called upon during the war to furnish militia for harbor defense, and a company was sent, of which the old muster-roll reads as follows : -
" Men's names who were detached September 18, 1814, by order of Col. Joseph Dudley, for the defence of the State.
" Lieut. Robert S. Davis, Ensign Thomas Griggs, Sergt. Daniel Pierce, Fifer, Thomas Chubbuck.
David Smith, Thomas Farnsworth, Charles Stearns, Jr.
Joshua Loring, Joseph Goddard, James Holden,
James Whidney, Edward Hall, Artemas Fairbanks,
Charles Leavitt, Nathaniel Talbot, William Atwood,
Wm. M. Tenant, John Graves, George Morse,
Samuel Townsend,
Jonathan S. Ayres, Samuel Williams,
Amasa Jackson, William Otis,
John Warren,
Joseph Whitney, Eli Hunten, George Richardson,
John Vose,
David Colby.
who will report immediately to Fort Independence for three months, unless sooner discharged."
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MILITARY HISTORY.
Timothy Corey, afterwards deacon of the Baptist Church, was Captain at this time. He was succeeded in the office by Lieut. R. S. Davis. The sojourn at the Fort was barren of incident, except the occasional firing of a shot across the bows of some foreign vessel, which did not obey the signal to heave to, and report. A Spanish ves- sel thus arrested, had not a man on board who could speak English, neither was there one at head-quarters at the Fort who could speak Spanish, and after some rather amusing exhibitions of pantomime, the intruder was allowed to proceed.
The Mexican War, hardly more popular in New Eng- land than the War of 1812, drew few volunteers from Brookline, and Colonel, afterwards Brigadier-general Mansfield, participated in the events of those times, and at the close of the war took up his residence in Brookline for several years, in the house on the corner of Park and Marion streets, now occupied by Mr. Mann. He fell, it will be recollected, at Antietam, during the Rebellion.
During the years immediately preceding the Rebellion, public sentiment in our conservative community, had kept pace with that of Boston in hostility to slavery, and in 1856 the town was almost unanimous for the election of John C. Fremont, as President of the United States.
BROOKLINE IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
The guns of the siege of Fort Sumter, reverberating through the length and breadth of the land, awakened responsive echoes in Brookline. Groups of pale-faced, resolute men, were seen along the streets, in earnest con- versation, in the stores and post-office, at the railroad station, wherever two or three chanced to meet, with defiance in eye and step. The national colors were seen in every man's button-liole, and every school-boy's jacket ;
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
they streamed from every public building and many a private roof, as if dearer and more honored than ever, they might thus be lifted out of their temporary degra- dation, before audacious and insolent South Carolina.
President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand men was flashed by telegraph through the North, and Brook- line responded. Companies were forming everywhere, and the nucleus of one collected by Charles L. Chandler, after- wards Lieutenant-colonel of the Massachusetts 57th Regi- ment, already began to drill, before the town had time to summon a meeting, and take action in the matter ; the first volunteer being William, son of Samuel Goddard of this town - since deceased. A meeting of citizens was held, April 22, and a military committee appointed " to take charge of all military arrangements which shall be made by the town." It was also voted " to raise a mili- tary fund by a town tax, and that a sum not less than fifteen thousand dollars be appropriated therefor ; and to such fund shall be added all private contributions to be expended for such purposes as may be indicated by the donors." The Military Committee were authorized to draw upon this fund " in such amounts, and at such times, and for such purposes, as a majority of said committee shall determine." It was also voted, " that there forth- with be opened a list of all male inhabitants of Brook- line, above the age of seventeen years, who wish to be drilled for military service ; and that the Military Com- mtttee be authorized to form the persons signing such lists into such corps as they may deem expedient for the public good." On Monday evening, April 29, 1861, a legal town-meeting, duly notified, was held, and the above votes confirmed.
One of the first acts of the Military Committee was the hiring of the hall in Guild's Block, for a drill hall
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BROOKLINE IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
and armory, and Capt. Edward A. Wild, then a popular young physician in town, with Lieutenants Charles L. Chandler and William L. Candler, commenced recruiting a company.
The old town hall, then standing on the site of the present new one (only nearer Washington Street, which has since been widened at that point), had a piece of open ground in the rear, extending to the Pierce Primary school-house. Here, on the fine days of that memorable spring, the company met for drill, and the rudiments of military science were taught the young heroes outside the school-house, while the young heroes inside took arithmetic and the spelling-book, to the beat of the drum, .. and listened with eager avidity to the history of their native land, as they saw the sunlight flash on the guns stacked before the windows, or turning in varied evolu tions as the drill proceeded. The fingers of the children beat an unconscious tattoo upon their desks as they studied, and their feet marched in a measured tramp as they went to their classes.
The blood of the people was up, and nothing but the war was thought of or discussed. The same week that the drill of the volunteers began, the ladies of the town organized a society to sew for them, and in every house, early and late, the needle and the sewing-machine were plied with vigor, for "our soldiers," that were to be. The best of materials and the best of work were put into the articles made, and though after experience had taught us what was necessary and what was superfluous, and the ladies had learned that a soldier needs no larger slippers, or ampler garments when a soldier than when a private citizen, and all had had their laugh over the mis- takes of early enthusiasm, there was left the conviction .. that at least this purpose was served, - there was a vent
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