USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston; with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston : with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix. > Part 2
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
In partial compensation for this destruction of private prop- erty was the gift of the barracks at Cambridge, after the army quitted it, by General Washington, to Mr. Williams (who I think was a quartermaster-sergeant in the army), for the dam- age he, as tenant, had received. The barracks were removed to the Island, and part of them used for a house, which Mr. Wil- liams erected over the old cellar, to be used as tenements for his workmen, and for barns and sheds for the sheep and cattle, at the westerly slope of Camp hill. There was a well in the large sheep enclosure thus made, which is on lot 90, on which, after its purchase by Mr. Sargeant, the Cunard House was erected, on Webster street. On the middle farm in section 3 there was a pond, a part of which was to be seen in the " pub- lic garden," so-called, though now no more. This is where the numerous cattle came to drink by day, and the wild ducks to lodge by night, and in the canes in the low grounds about it, thousands of bob-o-links afforded fine sport for the flock shooters.
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THE FERRY.
Westerly of this pond, on the southerly slope of Eagle hill, was some of the earliest ground, rendered rich and warm by its southerly aspect, and the oyster and clam shells which the plough threw up to view. Here Mr. Williams enclosed about ten acres, for a sheepfold in winter, and for early turnips in the spring. These vegetables were not only the earliest, but the purest and sweetest, brought into the Boston market. This proves practically, that the warmth of sheep manure and the ammonia of their urine, so destructive to all worms and insects, rendered to that intelligent farmer the best product of any vegetable that could have been planted upon that soil. The writer of this, when engaged in the sheep speculation, folded, on his farm in Dorchester, a small flock of merinos, and, sowing a few rods of the ground with turnips, reaped (as the reader may do if he will) a practical benefit from the knowledge thus acquired. His bed of turnips looked so promising in the spring as to call the attention of the neighboring marketers, to one of whom he sold the bed for twenty dollars, the latter realizing a profit of thirty dollars upon the purchase.
But to return to the narrative. The party, well pleased with their day's excursion, were accompanied by Mr. Williams to the ferry-boat, which was lying at the wharf (the tide having risen sufficiently) to receive them. They landed at the Win- nisimet ferry-ways, whence they had embarked, and found their horses already put to their carriages by Mr. Fenno, who knew the usual time of their arrival. These ferry-ways, lying at the foot of Hanover street, are what were called " the town ways ; " for the ancient ferry before alluded to, called in the grant, "the ferry from Boston to Winnisimet, Noddle's Island, and the ships," was, in other words, a grant to the ferryman who pro- vided the boats of the exclusive right to take toll for transport- ing passengers from the town landing to either of the places or objects named. The ships, in the early settlement of Boston and Charlestown, usually anchored in the channel between the ship-houses in the navy yard and Noddle's Island, and not much out of the line of the boats to Winnisimet, whence com- menced the road to Salem and the settlements about that place. It will be perceived by this recital, that the grant was for a ferry to Noddle's Island as well as to Winnisimet, and
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that the passengers to one place had the same right to be trans- ported to the other. Hence it was sometimes called Noddle's Island ferry, although more commonly Winnisimet, from the greater number of passengers to the latter place. After the recent settlement at Chelsea by the Winnisimet Company, it employed large ferry-boats, propelled by steam, instead of the two-masted sail boats which they had bought. They discon- tinued the landing of passengers at Noddle's Island, which had now been purchased by the East Boston Company after Mr. Thomas Williams ceased to use it; but this was not until the East Boston Company had obtained from the city the franchise of a ferry at a more convenient place to East Boston, and had set up their boats and established the ferry from Lewis' wharf, on the Boston side. The tenants of the Island had also a pre- scriptive right to land their own boats, to carry cattle over and back, and here was the place of landing their milk cans for their Boston customers. They did not use the ferry merely in their passage to Boston; but they also used that part of it which lies between Noddle's Island and Winnisimet, in going to the Chelsea farm of four hundred acres, which was near the Chelsea meeting-house, and, belonging to the same proprietors, was usually leased to the same person who hired the Island. The passages between the Island and both the termini of the ferry were then frequent and necessary. Although it interfered with their right, to land passengers on the ferry-ways, the proprietors, receiving no notice of the sale, made no serious objection to the grant by the city, for a few thousand dollars, of the town landing in Boston, to the Win- nisimet Company, who, with their purchase of the farm owned by the Williams family at Chelsea, bought also the ferry and the boats, of which their father, Mr. H. H. Williams, died the sole proprietor, he having grown rich by his position as tenant of Noddle's Island for the very unusual period of nearly forty years. Some time before his death he became purchaser of Governor Bellingham's very valuable and very extensive farm in Chelsea, at the ferry landing, and removed his family thither, leaving his son, Mr. Thomas Williams, his successor as tenant of the Island. This amiable gentleman, active, judi- cious, and enterprising, and his wife, who was the late Secre-
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IMPROVEMENTS.
tary Avery's daughter, will long be remembered by all who knew them. He succeeded his father and had the sole man- agement of the Island Farm, and seemed to be as much inter- ested in it as if it was his own. Having often heard the writer confidentially express his intent (whenever he could accomplish it) so to connect the Island with the city as to make it a part of it, he in his turn consulted him about the sale of his father's farm in Chelsea to the Winnisimet Com- pany at the price which that company offered for it, appre- hending, as he said, that it might be considered by the writer as an interference with his plans of improvement on the Island. No objection on that score being offered, but the building of a town, as it were, behind Noddle's Island, which lies much nearer to the city, being considered rather advantageous to the Island than otherwise, Mr. Williams accepted, in behalf of the heirs of his father, the offer for their estate at Chelsea, and thus opened the door to the improvements which the enterprising Winnisimet Company projected and put into execution.
Mr. Williams's tenancy on the Island did not terminate until a year or two after it was purchased by the East Boston Com- pany, whose varied improvements so much interfered with any occupation as a farm that he relinquished it; but his leaving the Island was so much to the regret of the new proprietors, that they offered him the privilege of selecting a house lot of an acre, if he would erect a house and continue his residence. This he declined, probably not anticipating the prospective value of the acre which he might have selected.
He certainly did not anticipate the amount of money that would be expended on the Island, nor the extended and liberal plans that were thus early projected for its improvement through the laying out of wide streets, squares, and a public garden, together with the liberal grant of four acres to the city for public buildings. For when the surveyor was laying out the street, afterwards called Sumner street, and was paying no regard to the additional expense of making the streets straight through the deep creek and marsh to Camp hill, Mr. Williams observed, that it would be better to lay that part of it out in a circular direction on the beach which connected that hill with the Island, and kindly remarked, that if the company were
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INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
going to lay out their streets in that extravagant manner, he hoped the writer would not be concerned with them. When told that the latter approved of laying the streets out wide and straight, with the view of the future elegance of the settlement, regardless of the first expense, he observed, " Why, General Sumner, I always thought you knew something till now ;" but holding up his hands with the expression of surprise, he added, " if you go on in that manner, your project may succeed, but the proprietors will be ruined."
It was thus that the writer's impressions of the value of the Island and its capacity for improvement were obtained in the days of his boyhood and youth.
As by the rolling on of years he was progressing to man's estate, on the 11th of August, 1796, his grandfather, William Hyslop, died, by which event his two children, David Hyslop and Elizabeth Sumner, became possessed of their part of the estate. Three years afterward, on the 7th of June, 1799, Gov- ernor Sumner died. His son, then nineteen years of age, becoming attorney for his mother, who was then administratrix, it became necessary for him to make more frequent visits to the Island, which had now become an interesting subject of con- versation. The sinking of the ways at Edmund Hart's ship- yard, at the north end, upon which the frigate Constitution was built (the launch of which he saw in the year 1798, after two most mortifying attempts to get her off), had made it evident that the ground at that part of the town was not firm enough to be used for the government purposes, and Noddle's Island, from its having been approbated as a suitable place for a navy- yard by the British naval officers who had visited the harbor before the Revolution, was now looked upon by the public as the most suitable place for that purpose. The expression of Admiral Montague was often quoted in support of this opinion, he having told Mr. Williams, when he was surveying the har- bor, that " the devil had got into the government when they fixed the navy-yard at Halifax ; God Almighty made Noddle's Island on purpose for a dock-yard."
The United States government, intending an increase of the navy, appointed a commissioner, Mr. Humphrey, the naval constructor at Philadelphia, who built the frigate United States,
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NAVY-YARD.
to view the ground in Boston harbor, and select the most suita- ble place for a governmental establishment. He looked at several positions; but the two which were thought most favorably of were Noddle's Island and Charlestown. He was attended in his examination of the latter place by Doctor Put- nam, who had early secured for it the influence of Judge Tudor, who had been a law student of President Adams, and was now his particular friend. The writer, with Mr. Williams, attended Mr. Humphrey's examination of Noddle's Island ; and not a doubt remained in their or the public mind, from his open dec- laration in favor of that place, that he would so report, and that the dock-yard would be established there. What was our surprise when we heard, soon afterwards, that he had reported in favor of Charlestown! I have since seen Mr. Humphrey's reports in the navy department, and made extracts from them ; these papers are not now to be found; but it is recollected, that, comparing the two sites, he observed that "the most suitable place on Noddle's Island for a navy-yard is said by the tenant to contain seventy-seven acres of upland and marsh. This presents a north-west and west exposure, which is a very cold one, and the ground is uneven. For this (which, it may be observed, included all the front towards the town on the harbor), the owners," he says, "demand $25,000." He then observes, that Charlestown is the most suitable place in the port of Boston for a building yard, and ought to be purchased by the government for that purpose. The cost of the place in Charlestown would be-
For Harris's seven acres .
$12,000
Stearns's three " 500
66 Broad's two 66
150
66 nine 3,600
Additional for two acres more for altering the road to get more room where the ships will be built . 3,000
Making, for twenty-three acres . . $19,250
Mr. Humphrey observes that Boston is secure from an enemy, and remarks upon the facility with which it can be fortified, and that the largest body of militia can be collected there in the shortest space of time of any in the country.
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Mr. Humphrey exhibited various tables, by which his report was accompanied, and after deciding the location in favor of Charlestown, he enlarged upon the advantages which Noddle's Island possesses. He says that across the river, at high-water, in an easterly course from Leach's wharf to Noddle's Island, the deepest water, five and a half fathoms, is on the Boston side of the middle ground, and on the other side of the middle ground, called the Muscle shoal, it is four and a half fathoms ; that, two hundred feet from the Island, there are fourteen feet of water, and that the soundings are all on hard bottom. He then says that a place may be made for docking timber between Noddle's Island, Camp hill, and Wood island. These favorable remarks upon Noddle's Island seemed to be added after his decision was made in favor of Charlestown, to show his candor; but, he took care not to mention several facts that would upset the conclusion to which he came. For instance, he says that at Charlestown and Noddle's Island there are long flats, without remarking a fact which his survey disclosed, that the channel at the nearest point at Noddle's Island was but eighteen rods from the upland and against the deepest water in the harbor, and that, south of that point, where the navy-yard would proba- bly have been established, the flats run out but forty rods to hard bottom; whereas, at Charlestown, the flats run out sixty- seven rods, and have a crusty bottom, unfit for sustaining the heavy stone walls of a dry dock. The reader will perceive the inaccuracy of this report by noticing that he says the front on Noddle's Island would be north and north-west, whereas it is south-west and south, while Charlestown faces easterly ; and numerous other facts may be observed, which show a pre- determination, for some reason or other, to decide in favor of Charlestown, as the sequel will show.
Having been deputed by the proprietors to go to Philadelphia to sell the Jersey lands bequeathed to them by the same will of Shute Shrimpton Yeamans by which they held the Island, and being there on that business, I received a letter from Joseph Russell, Esq., advising me that difficulties had arisen in establishing the dock-yard in Charlestown, and communi- cating his desire that I should go to Washington (where the president was making preparations for the first meeting of
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congress at that place) to effect its establishment at Noddle's Island. Mr. Russell observed that this was also the wish of the chief proprietor, David S. Greenough, Esq., whom he had consulted. With that object in view, I made a visit to Mr. Humphrey the evening before he left Philadelphia. In that interview he admitted to me, that when he parted from Mr. Wil- liams and myself at Boston, he stated to us that he preferred Noddle's Island to Charlestown, at every point from which he contemplated it, and that he should report accordingly. I begged to observe, that his report in favor of Charlestown took us all by surprise after he had declared openly that Noddle's Island was the fittest place for the establishment of a navy- yard in every respect in which he could view it. He said that it was all true; but that, when he was making up his report, a grand objection to Noddle's Island occurred to him, which was the turning point, and that was its exposure to the west and north-west winds. He illustrated the importance of this objec- tion by stating it as a fact in relation to the frigate United States, which he built at Philadelphia with a like exposure, that one side of the ship was rotten before she was launched. I had not seen his report at that time, and did not know the mistake he had made in the points of compass of the place proposed on the Island, north and north-west for south-west and south. But I observed to him, that the Island's exposure was the best in the harbor, and that he had mistaken the sea-coast climate of Boston for the inland climate of Philadelphia; that north-east was our wet wind, while in Philadelphia it was south-east .. He replied that if it was so, his report was made upon a mistaken principle. He further observed that he had been summoned to Washington, where, I told him, I was going. He begged me, if I got there first, to tell the president that his report in favor of Charlestown was made under a mis- take as to the climate. He said that he could not ask for a recommittal of his own report, he was ashamed to do so; but that if I would get the report recommitted to him before the president acted upon it, he would make the correction. I considered time now so important that I took passage from Philadelphia in a stage which travelled all night, by which means I gained one day's ride, and arrived at Washington the
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second afternoon. I went immediately to the White House, of which Mr. Adams, his son Thomas B., and his secretary, Mr. Shaw, were the sole occupants. They were surprised to see me, and, in answer to the president's inquiry what I came for, I told him the object of my visit, and stated to him the error that Mr. Humphrey had made, and that he had authorized me to make that fact known, and that he was now on his way and would arrive in Washington to-morrow. The president replied, "you are a day too late, my friend; I decided yesterday, and the secretary is now making out a commission to Doctor Put- nam to make the purchase at Charlestown of the Harris and other lands, which have been selected as the most suitable place for the purpose." I immediately called upon the secretary of the navy, and after stating a few facts, which made some impression, I desired him, if the government had not come to an absolute determination, to defer making up a final judg- ment until Mr. Humphrey should arrive. He observed that the government had met with great difficulty in obtaining the land at Charlestown, had had a law of congress passed on pur- pose, had made several bargains, and the land which could not be purchased had been set off by appraisement; that the land which the government had taken for that purpose they could not sell, and that the moneys appropriated for the purpose of a navy-yard were all expended, etc .; "therefore," said he, "if Noddle's Island should prove the best place, it would be impos- sible to alter its establishment at Charlestown." In my letter to Mr. Greenough giving an account of my mission, I said that " I have only to regret, and this I did regret very much, that I did not have an opportunity of confirming the prejudices of the secretary in favor of Noddle's Island, which, he confessed to me, were very strong. I am sure, had I been here in the outset, I should have confirmed his waverings, and established his prejudices in favor of that place."
Thus ended the exertion to establish the navy-yard at Nod- dle's Island, the want of which, though considered a great mis- fortune at the time, has resulted to the great benefit of the proprietors in the improvements which have since taken place, and which could not have been made if the navy-yard had been established there.
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VISIT TO WASHINGTON.
In this connection it ought to be remarked, that some years after the navy-yard was built at Charlestown, Amos Binney, Esquire, the navy agent at Boston, applied to Mr. Greenough, the chief proprietor, to purchase Smith's hill for the govern- ment. Mr. Greenough indignantly replied, that he would not sell it now for a quarter of a dollar a foot, and that gave a quietus to all applications for the sale of it to the government. What the motives of the government were in attempting to purchase a part of Noddle's Island, after the navy-yard was built at Charlestown, was not developed. It is only a matter of conjecture, that, after trying the experiment, they were disap- pointed in their location, and attempted to remedy it by pur- chasing the place which, they now saw, had superior advan- tages to that they had selected.
Having mentioned my early visit to the city of Washington, as it was then called and now is, in the first year of the present century, before congress had met there, I cannot omit inci- dentally remarking upon the aspect the city then presented. Besides the capitol and the president's house, one and a half miles distant from it, each of which made a magnificent appear- ance, there were but few other buildings that were fit for the inhabitants of the future capital of this great country. These were placed upon such lands, by the different proprietors, as they thought would soonest rise to the greatest value. Some thought that the city would be built around the capitol ; and this, from the number of houses which were on Capitol hill, it might be presumed was the prevailing opinion. Others thought that the president's house would be the centre of the city loca- tion, and they built on the westerly end of Pennsylvania ave- nue. The six buildings, and a few other houses, were erected between the president's house and Georgetown. Here Gen- eral Wilkinson lived; while the great projector, Greenleaf, exhausted all his means in building up Greenleaf's point, upon the Potomac, which he thought was the most favorable position for the future navigation of the city. When I afterwards saw the place, in 1808, the dilapidated appearance of the uninhab- ited houses, which had been erected upon a false supposition, showed that Greenleaf's point was the most mistaken position for speculation which could have been chosen, excepting per-
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haps that of the great building in the pastures north of Penn- sylvania avenue, which was erected by Mr. Blodget for a hotel. All parts of the city had an unobstructed view of this building, which had in its pediment front the large capitals, HOTEL. This drew forth from the witty Mr. Law, brother of Lord Ellenborough, and who then resided in Washington, the Latin acrostic, " Hoc Omnium Turpissime Est Longe."
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I lodged at Stell's boarding-house, near the capitol ; and as there were no hacks at that time, when I went to the presi- dent's to dine, the day after my arrival, I had to walk a mile and a half to his house, through Pennsylvania avenue, which, though laid out 150 feet wide, had no side-walk, except before Brown's hotel, one third of the way down, where there was a little settlement of a few houses. In the tortuous cart-paths, uninterrupted but by the banks of clay thrown out from the cellars to make bricks for the numerous buildings which were contemplated, the mud was ankle deep. After dinner, at the president's, where Doctor Putnam was, the president gave for a toast, " The navy-yard at Charlestown." This pleased the doctor, and convinced me that the location of it there, was a settled affair.
In the edge of the evening, Mr. Shaw served as our guide in a call upon Mrs. Helen and the Misses Johnson, the sisters of my chum, Thomas Johnson, at Harvard College. They were the daughters of Thomas Johnson, formerly the American con- sul at London. One of these ladies was married to the presi- dent's son, John Quincy Adams, who was then in Europe, as American minister at the Hague. From thence, by starlight, Mr. Shaw led us across the fields to Mrs. General Wilkinson's party. The general lived in one of the six buildings ; and, long before we reached the house, we heard the enlivening strains of a military band, with which his company was entertained. Our party consisted of Mr. Ralph B. Forbes, Mr. Sturgis of Connecticut, Mr. Thomas B. Adams, Thomas B. Johnson, and myself. Upon opening the door, we saw by the light of the entry lamp how muddy our shoes were. They were altogether unfit to walk upon a carpet, or be seen in a lady's drawing- room ; we were going to withdraw, as none of us had an invita- tion save Mr. Shaw, but he insisted upon it that we should not
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WASHINGTON CITY.
do so before he had presented us to Mrs. Wilkinson, assuring us that we should be relieved from our embarrassment when we saw the boots of every gentleman in the room as muddy as ours. We were received by the general and his lady with the most distinguished attention. He, with his accustomed polite- ness, seating the strangers respectively by the side of Mrs. Wilkinson, Miss Wheeler of Norfolk (afterwards Mrs. Com- modore Decatur), Miss Chase (daughter of the judge of the supreme court), and Miss Carroll of Carrollton. To this latter lady, Robert Goodloe Harper, a leading member of congress from the district 96, in South Carolina, had been paying his addresses at Annapolis. These had been rejected a few days before ; but were most artfully and successfully renewed that evening. On our return, we were less embarrassed for want of light, as, for the whole length of Pennsylvania avenue, our path was illuminated by brickkilns. My stay was short in Wash- ington, passing but one Sunday there, and worshipping in a small building under the Capitol hill, and hearing a missionary who derived his support there from an English society for propagating the gospel among the heathen! Another occur- rence which took place in this city wilderness, where almost every other house was a tavern or boarding-house, and where the roads were so difficult of passage, was that Mr. Dexter's (the secretary of war) new carriage was overset by a waggon, and the arm of his little daughter was bruised so as to take up his attention just at the moment he saw his office, to which he had recently removed his papers from Philadelphia, on fire. This was a circumstance which was made a plausible ground for a charge that it was done purposely, it being alleged that the administration was unwilling that their deeds should be submitted to their Jeffersonian opponents, who were shortly coming into power. Like a thousand other calumnious charges which the virulence of party spirit generated, this was soon cleared up. There had been no fire in Mr. Dexter's room for a month. It was found that the part of a double house which he had hired for his office was separated from the other part, in which a family resided, by a wall of the width of a brick of four inches only ; the fire originated in the dwelling, and broke out so suddenly that the widow, who had just closed the eyes of
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