USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston; with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix > Part 4
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston : with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix. > Part 4
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33
PROJECTS.
pond lands in Boston, then consisting of about forty acres, and whom he assisted in procuring the releases of the trespassing abutters. Wealthy men, such as John Welles, H. G. Otis, William Payne, Ebenezer Francis, Robert G. Shaw, Benjamin Bussey, and others, became the purchasers of shares, and had a paramount interest in the company. To them the assess- ments, which came heavily upon smaller proprietors, were light.
The same effect was produced, though not in an oppressive degree, in the Lamb's Dam farm, of seventeen acres, on Boston neck, of which he was the owner of one eighth part. This property was purchased in 1806, by a company consisting of George Cabot, Christopher Gore, William Payne, J. P. Davis, and myself, in the expectation that Suffolk street, which then ran through it, would be at once continued by the town of Roxbury to the main street, near Roxbury meeting-house. The petition for this was objected to so strenuously by Rox- bury street, that it neither took place at that time, nor has it since ; so that the expected rise on the land, which would have been consequent upon turning the travel through that street, did not take effect, and two of the wisest men in the land and their associates had to wait many years for the rise of the land from general causes for a profit, their capital lying dead all the time.
These instances convinced him, that men of money as well as of influence were needed for his direct support in so large a purchase as Noddle's Island.
It was necessary also, that the advantages which the Island presented for speculation should be convincingly urged to such as were applied to, before they could be expected to engage in it. If means could be furnished, the only uncertainty about the fulfilment of the bargain arose from the guardians getting leave of the court to sell. There seemed to be little doubt, how- ever, but that would be readily obtained, as the measure was adopted by the advice of judicious men, of high standing in the community, on the ground that the minors could not improve it themselves otherwise than as a farm, as it had been, and by a sale they would be in receipt of three or four times the amount of income which their portion of it as a farm would yield.
The general court. was in session at the time, and it was seen, that, to accomplish the projector's design of connecting the
34
INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
Island with Boston by a ferry, its power would be needed, and no time was to be lost; especially as, if a petition for a railroad to Salem should be presented, a direction should be given it over the Island, which, it could be shown, was both the nearest and best. This route, it is known to you, was finally adopted ; and the railroad was laid out over the Island, although it has been altered since, much to its cost. Persons of pecun- iary means and credit, who, it was supposed, would have influ- ence both with the petitioners in procuring the railroad across the Island and with the legislature, were selected, to whom to broach the subject. The Honorable Stephen White, a gentle- man of fortune and influence, who had recently moved from Salem to Boston, and was a member of the senate from Suffolk, and Francis J. Oliver, Esq., the president of the American Insur- ance Office in Boston, and a gentleman of high standing and credit among the merchants, were the persons to whom the pro- ject was opened.
After they were satisfied, from Mr. Doane's note of December 21st, 1831, and Mrs. Greenough's of January 12, 1832, that the premises were obtainable by the projector for a price which he named, and which seemed to them reasonable, they communi- cated to him their wish that he would name the proportion of his purchase which he would part with, and the terms on which they would be let in to the speculation. The answer was that they might take not exceeding one half; and the terms were, that each one should be responsible for his own proportion, but that the said White and Oliver should advance all the money which Sumner should need for his part of the purchase-money and improvements until one year after the railroad to Salem should be constructed and opened for public travel, if the same should be so constructed and opened within the period of three years, and, if not then open, in four years at furthest, and should pay him twenty per cent., or one fifth part of the profits which their investment should yield them. If any additional proprietor's interest should be purchased, it should be held by the parties on the same terms. These were agreed to, and the outlines of an agreement to that effect were entered into on the 26th of Jan- uary, 1832, even before leave was obtained by the guardian to sell. The purchase was completed on the 21st day of February
35
THE INTERESTS UNITED.
following; and on that day, by tripartite indenture, the parties further covenanted and agreed how they would hold the prop- erty ; that they would endeavor to obtain the location of a rail- road over the Island, and to have a ferry established between the Island and Boston, and an act of incorporation to hold the estate as personal property ; and, in case such an act could not be procured, that they would convey the same to trustees, and manage it by a board of directors, etc. It was thus that these two gentlemen, Stephen White in two sixths, and Francis J. Oliver in one sixth, became associated with the projector in his purchase of one half of the Island, he retaining three sixths for himself.
1137011
To make the title certain, an act of the general court was passed, on the 18th day of April, 1833, confirming the sale.
There were many preliminary points to be settled before the mortgage and notes could be given, and these were not adjusted until the month of June following ; but the mortgage and notes bore date on the 21st of February preceding. They were signed by all the three parties, and six notes at five per cent. interest were given, one to the widow for $6,500 payable in six months, and five others, each for the sum of $5,200, interest annually, payable on the days when each child should arrive at age, the last of which would be on the 21st of February, 1852.
The leading object of the parties now was to buy out, or obtain the control of, the remaining half of the Island. But it was long before a union of the interests of all the proprietors could be effected; but, by perseverance and a spirit of mutual accommodation, this was finally accomplished. Mrs. Gerard sold her two-sixth part for $32,500, under restrictions as to assessments, etc., one half in cash, and one half in stock of the company to be formed, and Mrs. Hyslop (then Mrs. Hayden) sold her one-sixth part for $15,000. Although it took time to reconcile these parties to a sale of their interests, we were never- theless left unembarrassed in our operations, for no objections were made to our course of procedure.
Thus the whole Island came into the possession of the gen- tlemen who founded and put in operation the East Boston Company, to which organization are to be directly traced all
36
INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
those improvements which have united to make Noddle's Island an important part of the metropolis of New England.
As this letter is only introductory to a detailed account of the Island history, it is neither necessary nor proper that it should anticipate to any extent the particulars which are to be recorded in the succeeding pages. It has only been my object to allude, in a familiar way, to my own recollections of the Island, and of men and circumstances connected with it, reserv- ing the results of investigation and historical narrations for the body of the work.
Hoping that these personal reminiscences have sufficiently excited your interest to induce you to turn the leaf and read the full history of Noddle's Island,
I am, my Dear Sir, your friend and servant,
W. H. SUMNER.
HISTORY.
4
HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
THE EARLY CONDITION, NAME, AND OWNERSHIP OF NODDLE'S ISLAND.
NODDLE'S ISLAND is situated at the confluence of Charles and Mystic rivers, the united currents of which separate it from the city of Boston by a distance of one third of a mile. Its settle- ment dates back to the earliest accounts of Massachusetts bay, and its history includes many interesting incidents both of a local and general character.
In investigating the circumstances connected with the settle- ment and subsequent history of this Island, it has been found expedient to examine the records of the discoveries and settle- ments upon our extended sea-coast, in one of the most impor- tant harbors of which it is situated, and the early charters of the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies. While upon this subject, the author addressed some questions to a valued friend and statistician,1 who, in addition to the points particularly per- tinent to the Island history, furnished him with a condensed and complete chronological account of all the early discoveries and charters. This paper will be found so useful, its accuracy it is believed, only being equalled by its conciseness, that the author feels that he would be derelict in his duty to the public if he omitted any part of it. It is therefore inserted entire in the Appendix.2
1 T. Russell Jenks, Esq.
2 Appendix B.
40
HISTORY.
Many persons recollect the Island as it was before it was conveyed to the East Boston Company; recollect the old farm-house and surrounding barns, the little wharf, the bridge which connected Camp hill with the rest of the Island, and the various appurtenances which naturally belonged to a well-kept farm. In the care of this farm, Mr. Williams, the tenant, was at one time assisted by John Fenno, a well-remembered citizen, who subsequently kept a grocery on the Boston side of the Winnisimet ferry, and brought up a large and respectable family ; several of the sons are now among the most useful and active citizens of Chelsea. Mr. Fenno, and afterward Mr. John King, who is now living at an advanced age, brought milk from the Island to Boston to supply the north end people. The Island was then a noted pasturage ground. A gentleman 1 who has many recollections of those early times, in speaking of this milk business, says, "when, in consequence of a storm or a dense fog, the boat was delayed, we boys were sent down with our pitchers to get the milk for breakfast; and many a scramble I had to be first, which sometimes ended in losing both pitcher and milk." Mr. Fenno married and moved to Boston, and Mr. King succeeded him as a milkman, and upon whom the northern part of Boston depended for their supply. One foggy morning he rowed across the channel with his load of milk ; but the fog was so thick, resembling that of London, that it was two hours before he reached the Boston side. About nine o'clock he got into his boat and started for home. The fog had become so dense that he could not see a boat's length ahead ; still he had been across so frequently that he felt sure that he could row straight to the Island. He pulled away with a good will, and rowed double the time necessary to take him home, but no Island appeared. A little alarmed, he kept on rowing, and wondered that he did not come to land. At last he heard the city bells ring for one o'clock! He began to be really frightened; and he afterward said that he verily thought the Island had sunk; for he knew he had rowed over the spot where it ought to be! Bewildered, and growing more
1 Mr. Geo. Darracott.
€
41
REMINISCENCES.
and more alarmed as the hours of the afternoon passed away, he continued rowing, becoming more anxious and rowing the harder as night approached. At last the boat hit something, which on examination proved to be the pier of a bridge. He pulled along by hand from pier to pier until he reached the land, and then getting out of his boat he went ashore, and found himself at the end of the old South Boston bridge. He had been rowing from nine in the morning until six at night, and after this nine hours' work had made a distance of two miles.
Among the agricultural implements, Mr. Williams had a large screw-press for bundling hay compactly, then the only one, so far as is known, in the country. The greater part of the hay cut there was screwed, and sold for other ports, south and north; much of it was exchanged for wood with the wood- coasters of Maine; the eastern part of that district being then a new country, the wood-cutters and lumber-men did not cut enough hay for their own use, but were obliged to carry it from Boston, in order to keep their cattle in the woods. Now the case is reversed, and ship and car-loads of bundled hay are sent from Maine to Boston and ports further south, even to Mobile and New Orleans.1
The Island, ever after its discovery, was a favorite pasturage ground ; and during the summer months fine herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, and scores of horses, could be seen feeding along the green valleys and up the hill-sides. It was a great treat for the boys to assist in transporting the horses from Bos- ton to the pastures on the Island. They enjoyed the trouble of getting them aboard the boats, and assisted in rowing across the channel, and as the boats struck the beach, the boys would leap upon the backs of the horses, jump them overboard, and swim them ashore, regardless of the salt water bath or the tem-
1 A remarkable instance of change in the direction of certain branches of trade is to be seen in the leather business. Until within comparatively a few years, Roxbury was a great tannery for the country, and leather was sent from Boston and the vicinity to the south; to Baltimore and other southern cities. Now, Baltimore has become the great receptacle of the leather, which is shipped from that port to the shoe manufactories of Massachusetts.
4*
42
HISTORY.
porary danger. Other islands in the harbor were used for pas- tures, but Noddle's Island was perhaps more extensively than the others, on account of its proximity to the city and the establishment of a ferry. For a long course of years, these islands were a source of great convenience and profit in this way, and especially about the time of the Revolutionary war, they were well stocked with all kinds of domestic animals, which were brought from the surrounding country. These horses and cattle were the cause of many difficulties between the Americans and British, and at one time gave rise to a severe engagement on Noddle's Island, as will be fully shown in another place.
Noddle's Island was a favorite fishing ground for men, boys, and family parties; and in the quiet days of summer and autumn, along the pebbly beach, could be seen the patient fishermen, throwing their lines into the restless waters which rolled at their feet, and pulling out the incautious fish, while a little way from shore, in small boats, which rose and fell with every wave, the more expert ones would haul in the small cod, tom-cod, and flounders.1 When enough had been caught to supply the wants of the party, all would go ashore, kindle a fire on the beach, and, in primitive style, fry their fish, or make an old-fashioned chowder, and, with a few extras brought from the other side of the channel, enjoy their repast with a zeal to be envied by modern epicures. Boats without cuddies, and some- times larger ones, which went below for fish of greater weight, on their return landed upon the Island, and, kindling their fires, cooked the fish which they had brought with them. It was no unusual thing to see as many as eight or ten fires at a time
1 At that time the tautog, now abundant, was not known in Boston harbor, although they were caught in great numbers south of Cape Cod. Joseph Bar- rell, Esq., who resided at Cobble hill, in Charlestown, sent his sloop round to the back of the cape, filled the well of the vessel with tautog, and bringing them home, put them in the water at the end of his wharf. From that time this favorite fish has been a frequenter of the harbor, and is caught from the bridges. Mr. Barrell formerly lived in an elegant house in Summer street, but becoming tired of his limited acres, and a part of his garden having been cut off to open Franklin street, he bought Cobble hill, (the site of the Insane Hos- pital,) and erected a mansion-house upon it, which he occupied as his home.
43
ROBERT GORGES.
1620-2.]
along the shore, and the parties engaged in various ways, - some in looking at their lines in the water with all a fisher- man's patience and anxiety, others wandering up and down the beach, gathering sticks for the fire, or enjoying the prospect and the invigorating breezes, while still others were bending over the little fires, tending the fish which they were frying, or watching the kettle, which, suspended from crotched sticks, hung its sooty sides into the blaze.
The Island then presented a good picture of early times, early habits, and of the men of former days. But the beach fire has gone out, and the forge and furnace take its place ; the steam-ferry plies where once the little milk canoe made its uncertain trips; immense ships and steamboats come to their wharves, where once the horses swam ashore; the pasture ground is covered by warehouses and private dwellings; the steam-engine supersedes the hay-press; and, in truth, " old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new." And of the ancient frequenter of the Island it can be truly said-
" New streets invade the country ; and he strays, Lost in strange paths, still seeking, and in vain, For ancient landmarks, or the lonely lane, Where oft he played at Crusoe when a boy."
By patent, dated Nov. 3, 1620, King James the I. gave to the " Council of Plymouth " a grant of lands, "lying between forty and forty-eight degrees north latitude, and in length by all this breadth throughout the main land, from sea to sea."
A settlement was commenced by the "Plymouth Com- pany," at Plymouth, on the 22d of Dec., 1620; and on the 13th of Dec., 1622, the Council of Plymouth, from whom the company derived their rights, gave to Robert Gorges, youngest son of Ferdinando Gorges (who had expended £20,000 in fruitless attempts to make settlements), and his heirs, " all that part of the main land in New England, commonly called and known by the name of the Massachusetts, or by whatever name or names whatsoever called, with all coasts and shores along the sea, for ten English miles, in a straight line, towards the north-east (accounting 1,760 yards to the mile), and thirty-
44
HISTORY.
[1628-9.
one English miles, after the same rate, into the main land, through all the breadth aforesaid; together with all the islands so lying within three miles of any part of the said land."
Capt. Robert Gorges was employed by the Council of Ply- mouth, in 1623, as lieutenant-general, "to restrain interlopers and regulate all affairs." He acted under this commission but a few years, having died in 1628 without issue, when the land descended to John Gorges, his eldest brother. In January, 1628-1629, John (not his brother Robert, as is stated in a note to the London edition of Hutchinson's History of Massachu- setts, 1765, page 6) conveyed to Sir William Brereton, of Handforth, in the county of Chester, baronet, and his heirs, a part thereof, namely, -" All the land in breadth lying from the east side of Charles river to the easterly part of the cape called Nahant, and all the lands lying in length twenty miles north-east into the main land, from the mouth of the said Charles river, lying also in length twenty miles east into the main land from the said Cape Nahant. Also two islands lying next unto the shore between Nahant and Charles river, the bigger called ' Brereton,' and the lesser ' Susanna.'"
Thus it appears that Noddle's Island, whose history it is the particular object of these pages to illustrate, the larger of the two, was first called Brereton, after the grantee. And as Sir William had a daughter Susannah, the other was probably named in honor of her. This latter, laid down on the old maps as Hog island, afterwards received the name of Belle isle from Joseph Russell, the owner of it, at the close of the last century. After his death it was purchased by the late John Breed, Esq., of Charlestown, a bachelor, who lived upon it in a large one- story stone house, of great length, built by himself. His brother . in England is the present proprietor; and it is now some- times called Breed's island.
It appears from the Massachusetts archives, that " Sir Wil- liam Brereton sent over several families and servants, who pos- sessed and improved large tracts of the lands granted to him, and made several leases," but it is not known that he ever came to this country. Probably he did not, as his grant was not recognized by the company or government ; and, as will here- after appear, he was a man of authority and of great note at
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45
THE NAME.
1629.]
home. The largest of these islands took its name, indeed, from him; but then it often happens that an estate is called by the name of a tenant in possession, rather than that of a proprietor, especially if the latter is a non-resident. Such has since been the case with this Island; for, owing to the fact that Henry Howell Williams and his son Thomas occupied it as lessees for seventy years, it almost lost its proper name, and was often called Williams's Island.1 But the name by which the Island has been familiarly known, from the earliest knowledge of it to the present time, has been Noddle's Island.
Conjecture has heretofore been busy to ascertain how the Island acquired its singular name, and after all the examination which has been made, the question is still unsettled. The solu- tion of the mystery, however, seems to be connected with the fact, that at the time the first mention of the Island is made under that name there was a person in the colony of the name of William Noddle, and there can be little doubt that the Island takes its name from him. He was a man of character, being made a freeman, as we learn by the Colony Records, in 1631. The grant of the Island by the general court (1st April, 1633) to Samuel Maverick, it will be observed, was made to him, not under the name of Brereton's or Maverick's Island, as it prob- ably would have been had Maverick been the first occupant, or had the renowned Sir William Brereton's claim been respected, but by that of Noddle's Island. Now it is not a violent pre- sumption, that the person from whom it took its name was this same William Noddle, and that he was probably a settler upon the Island previous to the grant to Maverick.
That the Island bore this name prior to the grant to Mave- rick is evident. Johnson, in his Wonder-working Providence, speaks of Maverick as being at Noddle's Island in 1629; and Governor Winthrop mentions in his Journal under date of December 24, 1630, that "three of the Governour's Servants, coming in a shallop from Mistick, were driven by the wind upon Noddle's Island, and forced to stay there all that night without fire or food." This renders it certain that the Island,
See Snow's History of Boston, p. 115.
46
HISTORY.
[1629.
when spoken of, was commonly called by that title. We hear of no other person in the colony of that name, unless in the mention made in Winthrop's Journal in June, 1632, that "one Noddle, an honest man of Salem, carrying wood in a canoe in the South river, was overturned and drowned." But this may have been, and doubtless was, the same individual, and he prob- ably was a bachelor, as his name, so far as we know, has been extinct in Massachusetts ever since the upsetting of that canoe.
If it be inquired, "How did William Noddle get. to this country at so early a period ?" we answer : - It may have been that he was one of the persons sent over by Sir William Brereton as one of his settlers, or that he came over in one of the fishing shallops which cruised along the coast soon after the settlement of Plymouth. Several of these vessels had arrived and made fishing establishments at Piscataqua (Portsmouth and Dover), Cape Ann, and Naumkeag (Salem). At Merry mount, in Braintree, was the colony of Morton. Settlements also were early made in Winnisimet and Charlestown (in the former place, according to Hutchinson, about the year 1626).1 These vessels were more numerous than is generally supposed ; for we are informed, that as early as 1622 there were thirty-five of them on the coast of New England. Noddle may have come over with some of these parties, and been left at the Island which now bears his name; or he may have gone there from some of these fishing settlements; for there are historical proofs that there were removals from place to place even at this early period. For instance, we have an account of the jour- neying of David Thompson, some years before the arrival of Winthrop, from Piscataqua to the island in Boston harbor that bears his name, and from thence to Plymouth; and also an excursion to this Island, by Miles Standish, the year after his arrival at Plymouth.
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