USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 5
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Few young men in High School or College devote themselves more assiduously to culture than did young Davis. Instead of rushing into wild gayeties as soon as business hours were over, as too many did then as well as now, he turned his attention to his beloved books, and read and studied upon the various sciences, writing out a synopsis of each book as he progressed, the better to fix it in his memory.
When he had an interval of leisure from business, he procured a complete set of Blackstone and studied law. Some changes in business, and openings at the South made it necessary for him to be sent to New Orleans, and before he was twenty-three years of age he had twice made a tour from Boston to New Orleans, chiefly in a private carriage, attended with some fatigue and hardship, but giving him fine opportunities for observa- tion and a knowledge of men.
After his return from the second trip he established himself with Mr. Julius Palmer in the jewelry business in Boston, in which he continued until chosen Mayor of Boston in 1845. At that time he was living in Linden Place and devoting his leisure to ornamenting his grounds with choice trees and shrubbery.
He was not a very robust man, and the duties and
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THE CAMBRIDGE ROAD.
cares of his office were too great a tax for his physical endurance.
He was taken sick in the autumn, and after a few week's illness died November 22, 1845. He had been in his early manhood a member of Park Street Church, Boston, but at the time of his death was connected with the Winter Street or Central Church. Rev. Mr. Rogers, his pastor, being in Europe at the time, Dr. Pierce of Brookline, the pastor of his youth, was requested to preach the funeral sermon.
Mr. Davis was greatly beloved and most sincerely la- mented. He was buried in the family tomb in Brookline, where five generations of his ancestors had been laid away. Like the good men of old he was literally "gath- ered to his fathers." Mr. Davis left a widow but no children. His house and grounds were sold; and this property has changed owners more frequently than any other in Linden Place. There are now but three of the original owners of houses in that place still living there.
Leaving Linden Place we pass up " the Cambridge Road," as Harvard Street was called, between its bush- grown banks till we come to Aspinwall Avenue, only a narrow lane with a gateway. On the left as we enter, the brook which comes through under the road (Harvard Street), makes a sweeping curve and goes under the lane. Beside the low stone wall on the left, on the grassy bank beyond the brook stand two great willow trees whose pendent branches, overhanging the brook and the lane, droop so low that the children can reach them as they come there to play during the " nooning," from the old school-house in "School-house Lane." The brick store now covers the place where we used to swing on the old willows and hunt for " Jack in the Pulpit," in the meadow behind the wall, in the early spring. The side of the
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
lane where the " blue eyed grass " grew, is covered by a row of houses, and the brook where we dipped up the froth, and traced the musk-rat by his perfume, and sailed our freighted chips, is concealed by stone and gravel and is no longer a brook but a sewer.
Further along on the left, near the old house which Mr. Melcher has tastefully rejuvenated, was a great but- ternut tree, where the children hunted for butternuts in the autumn. Another stood upon the right, and the field in front of the old mansion which yet overlooks its green acres is still almost unchanged. This ancient house was once no doubt by far the finest in the town.
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THE ASPINWALL FAMILY.
CHAPTER V.
THE ASPINWALL FAMILY. - THE COLONEL. - THE DOCTOR. -- THE OLD SCHOOL-HOUSE ON SCHOOL STREET.
TN 1660, Peter Aspinwall built the house which still stands, the most ancient in our town, or probably any- where in this vicinity, and from him it passed to his son Samuel, who was quite a military hero. In 1690, when Sir William Phipps took possession of the fort at Port Royal, and of the coast as far as the Penobscot River, Samuel As- pinwall served under him as lieutenant in the expedition.
Afterwards he was captain of a Brookline company. The muster-roll of this ancient company would be an in- teresting document.
In 1727, at the age of sixty-five, the Captain was drowned in Charles River, not far from his farm. One can imagine something of the sensation this event must have produced in this thinly settled town; the loss of so prominent a citizen, the search for the body, -the military procession, for he was buried under arms, - the long funeral sermon, probably in the little church then only ten years built, - the vacant seat in the square pew, "in the northwest corner," - the muffled drums, and the volley fired over the grave.
And how it was doubtless the topic of conversation among neighbors when they met for weeks after, and with what superstitious awe they looked upon the fore- runner or " warning " as they probably considered it, that he should have selected for his morning reading at family
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
devotions the 27th chapter of the Proverbs, beginning, " Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."
One of the Captain's sons, Thomas by name, was a lieutenant in the company commanded by his father. He lived and died upon the farm. His wife was Johan- nah, daughter of Caleb Gardner, and thus the connection of these two ancient families was formed to which we have heretofore alluded. His son, William, the celebrated physician (of whom more hereafter), married a daughter of Captain Isaac Gardner, who was killed at Lexington.
Of the seven children of Lieutenant Thomas and Jo- hannah Gardner, another besides the doctor deserves par- ticular mention. This was Thomas, who bore up the military fame of his father, grandfather, and great-grand- father by efficient service in the War of the Revolution.
He held a colonel's commission and commanded the fort in this town at Sewall's Point.
The fort mounted six guns, which commanded Charles River, and was built to prevent the British from ascend- ing the river in their boats, and this, with old Fort Wash- ington on the Cambridge side, doubtless saved the country along the river from many depredations. A water-bat- tery mounting two guns was on the present site of the Longwood School-house near St. Mary's Street.
The family of the Colonel lived in a large two-story ' house which stood near the residence of the late Marshall Stearns, on Sewall Avenue. The Colonel probably re- garded his house as in an exposed situation, in case the fort should be taken, and he sent his family away to Sherborn, where they remained till after the British evac- uated Boston.
The old fort remained in good preservation till the Worcester Railroad was built, and as that was laid out
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ANECDOTE OF GENERAL WASHINGTON.
directly through it, and Abbott's wharf was afterwards built upon the water-front of it, nothing was left but the well on the left of the driveway to the wharf and the old ovens in a corner of the estate of A. A. Lawrence, Esq., and even these have now disappeared.
A venerable lady of this town, long since dead, who re- membered the battle of Bunker Hill, and Washington when in command at Cambridge, used to speak of a visit of inspection which Washington made to the Brookline Fort. Several Brookline boys, full of eager curiosity to see the new commander-in-chief, pressed quite near, when an orderly peremptorily drove them back. This attracted the General's attention, and beckoning the boys towards him, he laid his hand kindly upon the head of a little fellow who approached with hat in hand, and told the orderly to allow the boys to see all that was to be seen. We do not know that this anecdote has ever been in print before, but it was current among the old inhabitants of Brookline and there is no reason to doubt its authenticity.
The house in which the Colonel lived was afterwards occupied by his son John. Through some misfortune of his it passed out of the possession of his family, but his widow lived in it with a son, William, who is still re- membered as a patient, bed-ridden sufferer, for over thirty years. His devoted mother attended him with unfailing care till his death, when she was over eighty years of age. She did not long survive him, and soon after her death the old house was destroyed by fire.
'A great-grandson of the Colonel, and grandson of the John above mentioned, bearing his name, has kept up the military character of the family by good service in the War of the Rebellion, and daily walks our streets bearing trace of rebel shot or shell received in the fight at Hat-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
teras Inlet where he served as engineer of the Minne- sota.
We turn now once more to the ancient house in Aspin- wall Avenue. The youngest brother of the Revolution- ary colonel, still well remembered by many of our towns- people as " the Doctor," was born in 1743.
He entered Harvard College in 1760, received his de- grees in the usual course, and then went to Connecticut, where he studied medicine under Dr. Gale, then a cele- brated physician.
Having completed his course by attending a series of medical lectures in Philadelphia, he returned to Brookline, and commenced practice at the age of twenty-six. It was seen by those who had his education in charge that he was a young man of more than ordinary promise, and the certificates given him, and still preserved by his family, are unusually commendatory.
The young doctor was not only a man of learning but a man of principle, - he not only "regarded man " but he feared God, and he took up his life work in an earnest and faithful spirit. His personal appearance was com- manding, as he was a fine figure and over six feet in height. He had lost the sight of one eye in childhood by an accident with an arrow, but judging from his portrait this was but slightly noticeable. A portrait of him by . Stuart when far advanced in life so resembles the por- traits of Washington, that when the house of his son-in- law, Lewis Tappan, Esq., was sacked by a pro-slavery mob in New York, many years ago, this portrait was the only picture spared. Probably the rioters mistook it for that of Washington and forebore to lay their desecrating hands upon even the painted semblance of "the Father of his country."
The Doctor's practice grew rapidly, and extended far
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DR. ASPINWALL ..
and wide, so that he frequently rode even forty miles on horseback to visit his patients, carrying his medicines in saddle-bags, as was the custom of those times.
When the War of the Revolution broke out we hear of the Brookline doctor first, at the battle of Lexington. Regardless of personal danger he was hastening to the fight in the red coat he was accustomed to wear, when he was reminded by a friend that he might be taken for a British "red coat " and be shot by his friends, so he hastily laid that garment aside and donning one which would prove him unmistakably a Yankee, he joined the eager throng who had dropped plough, spade, hammer, or pen, to rally at the insulted country's call. The road was too circuitous for men on such an errand, and taking a short cut across the fields and " over the river," they were soon in the deadly fray. Captain Gardner, of Brookline, was killed, and the Doctor, after assisting in chasing the retreating British to Charlestown, returned through Cambridge and had the body cared for that night, and in the morning Mr. John Heath, of Brookline, went to Cambridge and brought it home to the bereaved family.
Dr. Aspinwall being blind in one eye, was obliged to fire from the left shoulder, but he proved himself a sharp shooter on this occasion, being seen to lay one if not more of the enemy in the dust.
He applied for a commission, but by the advice of his friend, General Joseph Warren, himself a physician, he decided to serve in the medical department and save Yankees instead of killing the British. General War- ren's brief and brilliant career was speedily closed at Bunker Hill, but Dr. Aspinwall's knowledge and skill were in requisition not only through the war but long years after.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
In 1775, Dr. Aspinwall was surgeon at St. Thomas' Hospital in Roxbury. In 1778 we find by his letters to his wife, that he was with the army under General Sulli- van in Rhode Island.
To this wife, with whom he lived most harmoniously thirty-eight years, he wrote most devoted and charming letters. We make one brief extract which sounds re- freshing in these days when we hear so much of conjugal infelicities.
Alluding to a letter which he had received from her the day before " with great joy and satisfaction," he says : - 1
" I did not much expect you would write me, but assure you it was very agreeable to hear from the chief or sole source of all my earthly happiness. . . . . I have at times, almost been tempted to return and relieve your anxious solicitude about me, by reason of the dangers I may possibly be exposed to. But my duty and honor, the kindness I am treated with by the offi- cers, their great desire and persuasion to have me tarry, and the importance of the cause I am engaged in, forbid me to har- bor a single thought of returning at present. I rely on the protection of that beneficent Being under the shadow of whose wings I have trod the dangerous and thorny paths through life with safety. On Him I trust, and to Ilim I pray, that I may be returned to the arms of the dearest and most deserving of women."
Time passed on and " the dearest and most deserving of women " received in safety her affectionate and high- minded husband, who forthwith settled himself again to the work of a village doctor, - laborious enough at best with all the modern appliances and conveniences, but in those days of poor and unlighted streets, scattered pop- ulation, and bulky medicines imported slowly and with difficulty and expense, - with the cumbersome saddle-
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THE SMALL-POX HOSPITAL.
bags, the prejudices and the poverty of the people, his must have been a life of fatigue and anxiety beyond any- thing in the range of modern experience.
The small-pox, then the terror of the whole country, had been introduced here by foreign armies, and the practice of inoculation for it, was beginning to gain a strong foothold in spite of the prejudices which it en- countered.
This was not vaccination, but a regular inoculation with the virus of the real small-pox, that the patient might have the disease by appointment instead of unex- pectedly, and thus be relieved of all future apprehensions respecting it.
It was the custom of those times to carry off a person showing symptoms of the dreaded disease, to the most remote place possible, shut him up there with one attend- ant, put out a red flag to keep all passers by at a distance, and there let the poor victim die or recover according as Providence decreed.
After Dr. Aspinwall's army experience he conceived the idea of establishing on his own premises a hospital, to which patients should be received and where they should be inoculated, and stay during their sickness un- der his personal attention and that of experienced nurses. Accordingly, he erected a building for that purpose upon his farm, and patients began to come. He was very suc- cessful in his treatment, and the fame of his hospital so extended that he soon had to build another, and after- ward still a third. One of these buildings was situated about where Perry Street joins Aspinwall Avenue, the others not far from Longwood Station on the left from Aspinwall Avenue near the marsh. Of course some of the patients died, and there are Brookline people buried in the marshes, as well as others who came from a dis-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
tance, who perished under the horrible scourge in spite of the skill of their wise doctor.
But the majority recovered and went to their homes gratefully rejoicing. One of our oldest inhabitants re- members being in this hospital for treatment almost eighty years ago, and retains a more distinct recollection of trying to drown a squirrel by turning water into a hol- low stump where he had hidden, than he does of the small-pox.
One can imagine something of the feelings with which an adult patient must have entered the fearful portals of this institution, and the strength of nerve it must have taken to sit down and calmly receive into the system the virus which must mean suffering in a most loathsome form, and might mean death. Yet parents sent there whole families of children, of whom some returned to them, and some, alas ! never came.
But a new order of things was about to be established. Vaccination, as a means of prevention of the dreaded dis- ease, was first introduced in this country by Dr. Water- house, of Cambridge, about the beginning of the present century. Dr. Aspinwall had then been devoted to the treatment of the disease by inoculation, and had spent much money, no doubt, in building and fitting up his hos- pitals.
Dr. Waterhouse invited all the physicians of Boston and vicinity to see the first cases of vaccination ever prac- ticed in the United States. Of course it was a matter of vital interest to Dr. Aspinwall, and he gave it the most keen and critical examination. He took home a portion of the virus, tested it in the most thorough manner, and with Dr. Waterhouse's consent took to his hospital, some little time after, all of Dr. W.'s family who had been vaccinated and there tested the genuineness of the new treatment, "to the verge of rigid experiment."
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1
THE FAITHFUL PHYSICIAN.
He satisfied himself of the value of the new discovery, and with generous and noble spirit he said to Dr. Water- house and others, "this new inoculation of yours is no sham. As a man of humanity, I rejoice in it though it will take from me a handsome annual income." Dr. Waterhouse gave this voluntary testimony to the honor- able course pursued by Dr. Aspinwall in this matter, in a paper published in the " Medical Intelligencer."
Dr. Thacher also, in writing of him on this subject, calls him " an honest man and a faithful physician." Had he, for selfish motives, chosen to throw the weight of his strong influence against vaccination, it would doubtless have affected public opinion for several years, and brought him further profit. As it was, in less than two years he took down his hospitals.
The talents and energy which distinguished Dr. Aspin- wall were by no means confined to the profession to which his life was devoted. He was a man of culture and sa- gacity and practical wisdom, ably fitted to be a legislator, and as such he represented Brookline in the State Legis- lature, was three times chosen Senator for Norfolk Coun- ty, was a member of the Council and a Justice of the Peace.
In the year 1803 the Doctor built the fine large house upon the hill, now occupied by his grandson, and re- moved thither. A year or two ago a carpenter making repairs, had occasion to remove some clapboards or shin- gles, and in the boards thus uncovered, he noticed names of several persons, with dates in the last century, and residence in distant States, deeply cut in the wood. On making inquiry respecting them he learned that the Doc- tor had used more or less of the timber and boards of the hospital in constructing his house, and here were the autographs of his patients. Poor fellows ! Did they re-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
cover and return to the distant homes from which they came, lighter hearted for having met the foe and con- quered, or do they sleep in unknown and unmarked graves, in the Brookline marshes ? Who can tell ?
It will be remembered that the Doctor had but one eye for all his study and writing, and of the latter there is abundant evidence of the unflagging industry of more than half a century. In his later years a cataract began to form over the one precious eye, and fearing that it too would become useless, he submitted to a surgical opera- tion by a distinguished Professor of more than one medi- cal school. The operation was a failure, and sight was destroyed forever.
With heroic philosophy and Christian resignation the brave old man bore up under this great affliction, and devoted himself to thought and reflection and " prepara- tion for death," as he expressed it. He had always been religious, and had religiously brought up his family ; his memorandum book gives evidence of his daily desire in the midst of the activities of his most crowded and busy years, to live in fidelity to God and man. And what better preparation than such a life could any man make for entrance upon a higher and holier one ? Yet this brief pause on the threshold of the great unknown, he consecrates to calm reflection and faith and trust, and closing his sightless eyes upon the things of earth, at the end of almost eighty years he passed away, let us hope where all " shall see eye to eye," and know even as they are known. "He died April 16, 1823, and was buried in Brookline cemetery .*
The beautiful oriel window in the chancel at St. Paul's
* We are indebted to our townsman, Wm. Aspinwall, Esq., for papers contain- ing full and valuable information respecting his honored ancestors, and from them have drawn materials for this brief sketch.
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COL. THOMAS ASPINWALL.
Church, Aspinwall Avenue, was placed there as a memo- rial by his children, and contains an inscription in Latin, on the lower margin.
DR. WILLIAM ASPINWALL, JR., COL. THOMAS ASPINWALL.
The eldest son of Dr. Aspinwall who lived to man- hood inherited his name, studied and graduated at Har- vard College, and having prepared himself to succeed his father in his profession, settled in Brookline, and already had begun to practice, when his father's blindness caused him to retire from professional life altogether.
But the blind father, with the infirmities of age upon him, outlived the vigorous young son, who died in April, 1818, at the age of thirty-four. The next son, Thomas, who was also a graduate of Harvard, and had been ad- mitted to the bar, found the whole career of life changed for him, by the second war with England.
During that war he held a colonel's commission and served the country gallantly and faithfully ; was in the battle at Sackett's Harbor in 1813, commanded Scott's Brigade in the defense of Fort Erie, in August, 1814, and on the 17th of September of the same year he led Miller's column in the storming of the British entrench- ments.
This engagement cost him the loss of his left arm.
In June of the following year, Colonel Aspinwall was appointed U. S. Consul at London, which important office he held with great honor to himself and the coun- try which he represented for thirty-seven years, and was then removed ; not for any fault or failure or mistake, but simply because it pleased Franklin Pierce, then the President of the United States, to fill that important situation with one of his own political supporters.
This event caused much indignant comment on both
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
sides of the ocean, and the result was doubtless to cause fresh disgust with that miserable theory of "rotation in office," which has so often been unfortunately illustrated by the placing of inexperienced men in important situ- ations under Government.
When Colonel Aspinwall left England, the Barings, the Rothschilds, George Peabody, and other distinguished individuals in London, presented him with an unusually magnificent service of plate, accompanied by a letter bearing most cordial and grateful testimony of respect and appreciation.
The Colonel returned to his native town, and after spending some time here, removed to Boston, where he still lives, and although more than eighty-four years of age, is vigorously at work daily on literary matters.
The venerable Colonel Thomas Aspinwall is the only surviving child of Dr. Aspinwall. His son Augustus, who succeeded him in the occupancy of the mansion house on the hill, has so recently passed away that his erect figure and handsome countenance are still fresh in the memory of all who knew him, and shared in the admira- tion of the exquisite roses for which he made his fine estate justly celebrated.
The ancient homestead in Aspinwall Avenue was leased for many years after the Doctor ceased to occupy it. Mr. Daniel Perry was, a tenant there for many years, and both himself and wife died there in old age.
The house now occupied by Mr. Melcher was built more than a hundred and fifty years ago by Dr. Aspin- wall's father, no doubt for the use of some of his children, and was occupied by various members of the family.
It was afterwards let for some years to Mr. Peter Banner, who built the old Unitarian Church (the second edifice) in 1805. After him, many other tenants succes-
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