History of East Boston; with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix, Part 63

Author: Sumner, William H. (William Hyslop), 1780-1861. cn
Publication date: 1858
Publisher: Boston, J. E. Tilton
Number of Pages: 883


USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston; with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix > Part 63
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston : with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix. > Part 63


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The company afterwards increased the size of their lot by purchasing more land on the side nearest Sumner street.


On the 16th of June, 1853, the company organized and went into operation, their capital stock being $175,000, Mr. Tufts president, L. A. Bigelow treasurer, A. R. Turner clerk, L. D. Bartlett, superintendent.


For the remainder of the year they were very successful, re- alizing profits much exceeding their expectations. Appropri- ating $25,000 of their gains to the increase of their capital stock, they began the year 1854 with most flattering prospects, and having received orders for large quantities of sugar ma- chinery from Louisiana and Texas. with reason to believe the demand would continue for some years, they made additions to their works of the most substantial kind, and at an expense of nearly $50,000.


.


708


HISTORY. [1856.


The machinery for the South was finished, sent and set up on the plantations in season to take off the crop of that year, but not in time to fulfil the conditions of the contracts, in conse- quence of which much difficulty was experienced in effecting settlements with the planters. The drought of that year caused a great deal of delay, making it very difficult and also very expensive to procure the means of transportation.


Owing to the large expenditures and small returns of that year, the company were very much embarrassed at the com- mencement of 1855, but as there seemed to be indications of good business, they were encouraged to think, that, by the end of the year, they might recover their former position; but the call for machinery, especially stationary steam-engines, grew less each month, so that at the end of the year, instead of finding their condition better, they were more deeply involved, and their affairs continued to grow worse, until they were obliged to stop business on the 12th of July, 1856.


The average number of men employed by the Boston Steam- Engine Company during the year 1855 was 135, whose pay amounted to nearly $4,000 each month. The amount of bar and forged iron consumed that year was about 110 tons, of boiler iron 250 tons, cast-iron nearly 600 tons, steel 250 tons, composition 10 tons, copper-work 3 tons, coal 675 tons, which, with other material, amounted in value to about $85,000.


EAST BOSTON DRY DOCK.


The East Boston Dry Dock Company was incorporated in March, 1847, with a capital of $300,000 ; and the dock, which is one of the most capacious and substantial in the country, was completed and went into operation on the 3d of July, 1853. The property of the company consists of a sectional dock, a floating dock, and a marine railway, and the ground occupied is comprised within 220 feet front on Border street, running down 850 feet to the commissioners' line, being about six acres.


The sectional dock is composed of six sections, constructed at a cost of $110,000, with a lifting force of 550 tons each, making an aggregate force of 3,300 tons. It can raise the large


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DRY DOCKS.


1858.]


est class of merchant ships in 45 minutes, and is more conven- ient for all purposes than any other dock yet invented.


The floating dock has the capacity to receive vessels of five hundred tons, and is worked by steam power. The marine rail- way is six hundred feet long, with a cradle capable of receiv- ing ships of one thousand tons, and of taking them up in thirty minutes.


The dock was built by Phineas Burgess, Esq., then of Boston and now of New York, who has built all the docks of this construction in the country, and whose reputation has been honorably earned by the acknowledged excellence of his works. The Dry Dock Company at East Boston paid to him $10,000 for the patent right for their sectional dock .- Samuel Hall, Esq., is president, Briggs Thomas, Esq., the treasurer and superin- tendent of the company, and Reuben Burnham foreman of the work at the dock; and the satisfactory manner in which the appropriate business of the establishment is conducted, exhibits the efficient management of the corporation. The number of vessels docked in the year ending Feb. 28, 1858, was 120.


SIMPSON'S DRY DOCK.


This establishment, situated on Marginal street, makes an important branch in the industrial operations upon the Island. The large dock was commenced on the 1st of September, 1853, and completed on the 1st of the following April. It is 254 feet in length inside the turning gates, 70 feet wide at the top, and 50 feet wide at the bottom ; ample room is thus afforded for a full set of sliding bilge blocks, an advantage not possessed by the government docks. The second dock was commenced on the 1st of April, 1855, and completed in eighty days. It is 153 feet in length, 33 feet between the abutments, and 46 feet wide at the top. Two centrifugal pumps, worked by a steam-engine, are so arranged as to pump from either or both the docks at pleasure, and the machinery is of such capacity that the large dock, containing eighteen feet of water, can be pumped dry in ninety minutes. The largest number of vessels docked in any one year has been 112. Samuel B. Hobart, Esq. is the super- intendent.


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HISTORY.


[1858.


EAST BOSTON POTTERY.


The manufacture of earthen-ware and fire-brick at East Bos- ton was commenced in 1854, by Mr. Frederick Mear, an Eng- lish potter, assisted by Mr. Wm. F. Homer, under the name of the Boston Earthen-ware Manufacturing Company. In June, 1857, the premises were leased by Messrs. J. H. Lord & Co., by whom the business is now conducted ; at the same time also the name was changed to the " East Boston Pottery." The present lessees have made extensive additions and improve- ments, substituted steam for hand power, and greatly improved the quality, and increased the quantity, of the ware manu- factured. The office and sale-rooms of the company are at 64 Broad street, Boston.


NEW ENGLAND STEAM AND GAS PIPE COMPANY.


Messrs. S. T. Sanborn and J. B. Richardson have recently purchased the large brick building built and formerly occupied by H. T. Butler & Co. for the manufacture of stoves, which covers nine thousand feet of land, and are about starting their business of manufacturing wrought iron steam and gas pipes and fittings, brass and iron castings, coal gas works, and a vari- ety of machinery, and employ from seventy-five to one hundred men. The works are estimated to be worth upwards of $60,000, and the annual value of their manufactures will be about $250,000. Messrs. Sanborn & Richardson having been the pioneers in this branch of manufacturing in New England, which has been carried on by them for the last ten years, at Exeter, N. H., their removal to East Boston may be looked upon as a valuable acquisition to the interests of the Island. The manufacturing of wrought iron pipes having never yet been attempted in Boston, the starting of such operations by this firm marks an era in the history of the city. .


THE MAVERICK BANK.


The business character and prosperity of East Boston, in the opinion of many, seemed to demand that a bank should be


711


CONCLUSION.


1858.]


established there for the better accommodation of those who would otherwise be compelled to go to the city for the transac- tion of their money affairs. Consequently a charter was obtained for the Maverick Bank, with a capital of $400,000, on the 28th of March, 1854, and it went into operation on the 18th of the following September. At first, it was located in the Winthrop block, which stands upon ground formerly occupied by the Maverick House and garden ; but in 1856 (10th June) it was removed to State street, Boston (No. 75), because, on trial, it was found that a greater amount of business on the amount of capital could be done than the Island of itself afforded, and that very many business men of East Boston could be more conveniently accommodated in money transactions in State street than at the first location of the bank. The present offi- cers (1858) are as follows : - Samuel Hall, president; Samuel Hall, Wm. R. Lovejoy, Wm. C. Barstow, Noah Sturtevant, and Paul Curtis, of East Boston, and Henry N. Hooper and Martin L. Hall, of Boston, directors; Samuel Phillips, Jr., cashier ; George F. Stone, teller; Alfred R. Turner, bookkeeper ; Wil- liam G. Brooks, Jr., messenger and clerk.


With the chapter now ending, this account of the past his- tory and the present condition of East Boston closes. In its delineation, the reader has seen the changes of which this place has been the scene. While this volume covers the history of more than two hundred years, it will be noticed that the trans- formation of Noddle's Island has taken place within the last quarter of a century. Twenty-five years ago, it was a farm ; now it is a city. Then, one solitary family, with its servants, made this Island their home; now, it tcems with the presence of 18,000 inhabitants. Then, the one house for the main occu- pant, with the others necessary for his under-tenants only, ren- dered the Island habitable ; now, noble streets, elegant resi- dences, churches, and other public buildings, are already insuffi- cient. Then, the ordinary work of a farm comprised its indus- try ; now, crowds of workmen throng its shops, and the ships of its yards challenge the world. Then, oyster-beds lined its shores ; now, millions in value, comprising more than half of the commerce of Boston, unload at its spacious wharves. In


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HISTORY.


these changes the author has seen the thoughts of his youth realized, industrial employments multiplied, honest wealth given to thousands, and the prosperity of the metropolis of New Eng- land immeasurably enhanced.


The writer is also happy to be able to present the first ex- tended accounts of the lives of the early owners of this Island, and especially of three eminent individuals, who deserve a place in the colonial history of America, - Samuel Maverick; Samuel Shrimpton, and John Yeamans. Samuel Maverick, the gen- erous citizen and staunch royalist, whose efforts for religious toleration, although fortified by the trust of royal commissioner given him by his sovereign, proved utterly futile, and drove him from his home; Samuel Shrimpton, who rose from an humble position to sit as a judge in the courts of Massachusetts, and who, unconciliated by the commissions of councillor and lieutenant-colonel, and the offer of patents gratis, led the troops which captured a royal governor while in command of the king's fortress; and John Yeamans, who abandoned those plans which might have given East Boston its proper commer- cial position a century ago and poured wealth into his own hands, that he might devote himself to those efforts with the parliament and British minister which removed from the com- mercial intercourse of the colonies that incubus which a mis- taken policy had cast upon it, and procured for him the public thanks of the provincial assembly.


The difference between the past and present, as described in these pages, is illustrated by a comparison of the plan of 1801, facing page 1, with the plan of its streets and wharves oppo- site. What East Boston will be, it is useless to conjecture. The past has already outstripped the speculations of its projectors. But that its still large amount of available territory, its railroad facilities, its methods of communication by bridges and ferries, its mechanical investments, its spacious and sheltered wharves, and its nearness to the deep waters of the channel, warrant ex- pectations of far greater prosperity, is undeniable. Whether its past success or its present advantages are considered, there can be no question but that the prosperity of this great commercial centre depends largely upon the prosperity of East Boston.


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APPENDIX.


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1


APPENDIX.


A .- Page 22.


FROM THE NEW ENGLAND MERCURY, RELATIVE TO A BRIDGE AND TURNPIKE-ROAD.


MESSRS. PRINTERS, - Please to insert the following suggestions for the public attention :- A Bridge is proposed from the East point of Charlestown, which, no doubt, will soon cause that part of the town to be filled with wharves and inhabitants, and accommodate the eastern travellers ; more es- pecially if a good turnpike-road be made the shortest rout from Newhall's tav- ern, in Lynn. But perhaps the object may be better obtained, particularly for Boston and the eastern country, in a way that has been as yet but little contemplated, which is, by erecting a Bridge, at little expence, from Chelsea to Noddle's Island, and opening a good ferry from said Island to Boston. Some parts of that Island are extremely well calculated for dry docks, at very little expence, where vessels of any tonnage will be free from danger of fire or storms. And if a good set of stores were erected, with proper cellars, most of our heavy goods, particularly naval stores, would soon be deposited for safety there; and any branch of manufactures might be established, and, in a short time, a very considerable settlement would take place, which, of course, would extend this town, the Island being a part of it. It is to be presumed, that every well-wisher of Boston will sooner interest himself in some plan of this kind, than in the project of building a Bridge from Charlestown, which will necessarily increase that town to the detriment of this.


May 30, 1796.


A BOSTONIAN.


B .- Page 39.


CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDA OF GRANTS, DISCOVERIES, PAT- ENTS, AND SETTLEMENTS, TOUCHING THE EASTERN COAST OF NORTH AMERICA AND ITS ISLANDS.


1493. After Cristoporo Colon, or, as the Latin word was, Columbus, fitted out by Queen Isabella for Arragon, in 1492, rediscovered the Northmen's lost


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APPENDIX. [B.


continent, the pope, Alexander VI., a Spaniard, native of Valencia, being applied to by Spain, through the advice of their admiral, Columbus, to settle the dispute of rights to maritime discoveries between that monarchy and Por- tugal, on April 3, 1493, adjudged the great process, and made the celebrated line of partition, and gave by bull to the sovereigns of Castile and Leon all countries which they had discovered or should discover, infidel, and lying west of a line drawn from pole to pole, one hundred leagues west of the Azores islands ; and all east of this line he gave to the Portuguese. But these nations, on the 7th of June, 1493, agreed that the line should be 270 leagues further west. This line strikes America in north latitude on the western coast of Greenland, about 48° 30' west longitude from Greenwich, not quite reaching to Newfoundland, passes east of the West Indies, and strikes South America a little east of Para, at the mouth of the Amazon, and then crosses the South Orkney islands.


It however early became a law among European nations, that the countries which each should explore should be deemed the absolute property of the dis- coverer, from which all others should be entirely excluded, as the English par- liament, somewhere about 1600, expressed it, occupancy confers a good title by the law of nations and nature. In the sequel, therefore, different nations planted colonies in the new world, without leave of the Catholic king, or even of his Holiness.


1497. John Cabot, a Venetian, under commission of Henry VII. of Eng- land for a voyage of discovery, in hope of finding that which through a long waste of life and toil and science and treasure has been in our day only re- duced to a futile fact, a north-west passage to India, discovered and sailed along the eastern coast of North America, from 672º north to the southern end of Florida.


1502. Henry VII. of England granted by letters patent a charter of license to Hugh Elyot and Thomas Ashehurste, of Bristol, with two Portuguese, to establish colonies in the countries newly discovered by Cabot. This was the first charter for a colony granted by the crown of England.


1504. Fishermen of France, from Biscay, Brittany, and Normandy, came to fish, and discovered the Banks of Newfoundland; and these were the first French vessels that appeared on the coasts of North America.


1524. Francis I. of France sent out John de Verrazzano, a Florentine, who coasted North America from 30° to 50° of north latitude, and named the whole coast. Thus Spain, England, and France owe their interest in North America to Italians.


1535. Jacques Quartier made the FIRST FRENCH SETTLEMENT in America at Hotchelager, or Montreal.


1548. The English parliament passed their first act relating to America ; it relieved all fishing at Newfoundland from taxes or duties.


1576. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in England, gave form and pressure to the vague wish of the times, by publishing " a Discourse, to prove a passage by the north-west to Catharia and the West Indies."


1578. Frobisher, with fifteen sail from England, took with him, on his third


B.]


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CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDA.


voyage, the " frame of a story house, to settle on the northernmost parts of the continent of America, but soon left that inhospitable region."


1578. Queen Elizabeth of England granted letters patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to discover and take possession of all remote and barbarous lands un- occupied by any Christian prince or people, with full right to him and his heirs and assigns for ever of property in the soil, to hold of the crown of England, a payment of the fifth part of the gold and silver ore found there, a royalty, with complete jurisdiction within the said lands, and seas adjoining them, and declares that all settlers there should enjoy all the privileges of free citizens and natives of England ; and prohibiting all from settling within two hundred leagues of any place which Sir Humphrey Gilbert or his associates should have occupied during the space of six years.


1583. On his second voyage, Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession of the harbor of St. John, Newfoundland, and two hundred leagues every way around it. This reached only to Cape Sable, at the south end of Nova Scotia, and about two thirds to Massachusetts bay. This formal possession, under the dis- covery by the Cabots, 1497, is considered by the English as the foundation of the right and title of the crown of England to the territory of Newfoundland, and to the fishery on its banks.


1585. Sir Walter Raleigh, of England, half brother of Sir H. Gilbert, hav- ing obtained from Queen Elizabeth a like patent, founded, at the island of Ro- anoke, N. C., under Mr. Lane, the FIRST ENGLISH COLONY ever planted in America.


1602. Bartholomew Gosnold sailed from Falmouth, England, to settle the northern parts of Virginia, and instead of going by the Canaries and West Indies, went five hundred leagues shorter due west (the first voyage), direct to America, striking in seven weeks and naming Cape Cod, in N. Lat. 42º, and thence went southerly.


1603. With leave of Sir Walter Raleigh, under his patent, for the mayor, aldermen, and some merchants of Bristol, England, Martin Pring sailed for northern Virginia to Penobscot bay, and thence along the coast into the bay of the Massachusetts, along its north side, seeking sassafras ; and not finding it, they crossed over it, and there freighted and sent to England a bark with that commodity.


1603. Henry IV. of France granted to Pierre du Gast. Sieur de Monts a pat- ent of the American territory from 40th to 46th degree of north latitude, reaching from Philadelphia to Louisburg, on Cape Breton island ; making him lieutenant to colonize and rule, and to subdue and christianize, its native inhabitants. Though a Calvinist, De Monts and his people were allowed to exercise their religion in America, and he engaged to people the country, and to establish the Catholic religion among the natives. He settled in Acadia, or Nova Scotia. This settlement, the other French one at Montreal, and the Spanish ones in Florida, were now the only European settlements in North America.


1606. James I. granted to the London Company - the southern or first colony - a charter, authorizing them to make settlements (not to have the soil or jurisdiction over it) from N. Lat. 34° to N Lat. 41° - from the south cor-


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APPENDIX. [B.


ner of North Carolina to Greenwich, Connecticut, or the south corner of that State, - and giving them a property in the land only fifty miles each way from any settlements actually made, and one hundred miles into the country ; but no settlement to be made within fifty miles of any settlement of the Plymouth Company.


1606. James I. granted to the Plymouth Company-the northern or second colony - a grant, authorizing settlements from N. Lat. 38° to N. Lat. 45°, and reaching from Accomac in Virginia, or the southern limit of Maryland, to St. Johns on the Island of Newfoundland, and giving the right to settle only. But such of the above two colonies as shall be last planted shall not be within one hundred miles of the other that first began to make their plantation.


This was northern Virginia. It laps 3º over the London Company. On this lap the first comer was first served in the way of " settlements." All colo- nies, by whichever company settled, were to be superiorly governed by a coun- cil in England, appointed by the king, who fixed their ordinances; and subor- dinately, by a council in America, nominated by the king and instructed by him. The colonists had the right of English denizens, land by post tenure, the right of comers for their own use, repelling enemies, and confiscating inter- lopers.


1609. Dutch claimed Newfoundland, and to Chesapeake bay. (Conquered by England in 1664.)


1609. James I. granted to the above London Company a new charter, giv- ing them, in absolute property, the territory from Point Comfort, two hundred miles, or 33° both north and south, and from sea to sea.


1614. Charles I. gave to the northern plantation, mapped for him by Capt. John Smith, the name New England.


1620. The Puritans got a patent from the London Company to settle in South Virginia, but by hard weather landed at Plymouth.


1620. James I. issued a patent, granting absolute property to the council of Plymouth, in the territory from N. Lat. 40° to N. Lat. 48º, -reaching from Philadelphia to Newfoundland, and from sea to sea, forming Northern Virginia. This Plymouth council first divided the land among the corporators, and after- ward issued patents of parts of their territory to different individuals, full of laps and overlaps, and attended with great subsequent confusion.


1624. The London Company was dissolved by James I. for calamities and dissensions ; the charter was taken away and the government assumed by the crown.


1626. The lands on which the colony at Plymouth had settled in 1620, were purchased by them for £1,800, with the right of government, and a patent from the council of Plymouth above named.


1628. . Some men, forming the colony of Massachusetts bay, purchased of the above council of Plymouth the territory for three miles north of Merrimac river to three miles south of Charles river, reaching from Hampton, N. H., to Dorchester, Mass., and east and west from the Atlantic to the South sea.


1629. King Charles confirmed the Massachusetts (bay) Company in their title to the soil, and at the same time gave them powers of civil government.


719


SAMUEL MAVERICK TO ROGER GARD.


C.]


1629. In August, the company in England voted that the government and patent of the Massachusetts (bay) Company should be transferred from Lon- don to Massachusetts bay.


1691. By the charter of William and Mary, the Plymouth Company, and Massachusetts Bay Company, and the province of Maine, were united.


A glance at the map explains the various grants, charters, and patents. The patent of James, of 1620, as above, is considered the grand source of rights for New England.


C .- Page 75:


DEED. - SAMUEL MAVERICK TO ROGER GARD.


This Indenture made ye five & twentieth day of November in the seven- teenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King Charles by the grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the faith &c. between Sam11 Maverick of Nodles Island in the Massachusetts Bay Gent. of the one part & Roger Gard of Agamenticus of the Province of Main on the other part. That whereas it pleased the counsell of New England & Sir Far- dinando Gorges Knight by their deed indented under the comon seal of the sd Counsell & ye hand & scal of the sd Fardinando Gorges bearing date the three & twentieth day of March in ye thirteenth year of the reign of our Sov- ereign Lord King Charles to grant bargain sell enfeoffe & confirm unto the said Sam11 Maverick and other patentees their heirs & assigns forever certain parcells portions or tracts of land woods & wood grounds which appurces situate lying & being on the North side of the river of Agamenticus in New England with divers other priviledges in the sª deed expressed as in & by the same doth and may more at large appear And whereas the.sd Sam" Mav- ericke & William Gefferys Gent. one of the aforesd pattentees by virtue of a former patent for the premisses bearing date the first day of December 1631 unto them and other pattentees granted by the President & Counsell of New England by their deed written in paper under their hands and scals bearing date the eleventh day of June 1637 for the considerations in the said decd cx- pressed did give grant and confirm unto the aforesaid Roger Gard his heirs and assigns forever certain pcells of the said land the same to be bounded & set out by William Hooke Gent. one other of the said pattentes and the said William Hooke on the thirtieth day of July 1637 did bound & set out the said parcells of land to the said Roger Gard according to the truc intent and mean- ing of the aforcsaid deed as in & by the same amongst other things more at large it doth & may appear Now these psents further witnesseth that the aforcsaid Sam" Mavericke for and in consideration of the great charge & travel the said Roger Gard had bestowed for the advancement and furtherance of the Plantation of Agamenticus aforesaid as also for divers other good causes &




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