USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 47
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
Gardner, Jr., Caleb Cook, Samuel Hill, Samuel Champney, Coolidge P. Wood, John Wyman, Elijah White, Nathan Learnard, Thomas Thwing, Isaac Champney, Isaac Learnard, Jonathan Fes- senden, Nathaniel Thwing, Samuel Townsend, Caleb Child, Jonathan Park, Joseph White, Samuel S. Learnard, Silas Robbins, James Bryant, Ebenezer Brown, Josiah Ilovey, Thomas Wilson, Moses Griggs, Phipps Wyman, George Sparhawk, Henry Coolidge, Richard Gardner, William Jennison, Edward Jackson, Ezra Comee, Neverson Green- wood, Benjamin Hill, Nathaniel Sparhawk, Caleb Coolidge, Ezekiel Comee, Oliver Whitney, Blake Sparhawk, Jonathan Winship, Noah Park, Samuel Sparhawk, Abijah Learnard, John Pierce, James Robbins.
The establishment of a market for the sale of cattle in this place was coeval with the Revolution- ary War, originating in the demand for ampler means of supplying provisions for the army. In the beginning cattle were driven over great dis- tances to this market, and the weekly sales were very large. But since the era of railroads, espe- cially of the Boston and Albany, which passes through the centre of this district of Boston, cattle of all kinds are more speedily and comfortably con- veyed. Probably that road may have received from the stations here, for transportation of cattle alone, in some years, the sum of $2,000,000. Doubtless from this large sum proportionate com- pensation was paid out to other roads passing along the cattle from various distances beyond. Averaging the sales of cattle here, for ten years, - say from 1835 to 1845, -as officially returned, we find the result exactly $2,027,054. The large business is coming to be shared more and more with other places; particularly with Watertown, where extensive buildings have been erected at Union Market Station, and with North Cambridge. Both places are reached by the Fitchburg Railroad.
The establishment and successful operation of the abattoir has entirely changed the whole busi- ness of the market here. By an act of the Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts in 1870, an association was incorporated with a capital of $200,000, for bringing under one general management the busi- ness of slaughtering cattle, sheep, and other animals, and that of melting and rendering fat, offal, etc. A tract of land of some sixty acres, most suitably chosen of a dry and sandy soil, lying on the Charles River, in the southwest part of this ward, about equally accessible to this and to the Water-
town market, was purchased. The work of grading the land and constructing the various buildings re- quired was began in 1872, under the sanction of the State Board of Health. Business operations commenced in June, 1873. Half a million dollars has already been invested in this most sanitary and beneficent object. Improved in some respects on the best abattoirs of France and England, this seems likely to prove one of the most satisfactory and successful of Boston institutions. It must be seen to be fully understood and appreciated. The grounds are bounded by Market Street, by Win- ship Avenue, and by a frontage of about a thou- sand feet on the Charles River, by which schooners and sloops approach the wharves which have been constructed on the territory. A branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad enters the grounds. The view of the works from Market Street, which is on an elevated grade, resembles a large indus- trial village.
In a word, what was once in a great measure an unpleasant business, in its surroundings here in town, has been quite divested of its repulsive fea- tures. No private slaughtering whatever is allowed in any section of the ward, under the strictest regu- lations of city and state, and under heavy penalties. " The skill and industry shown in the manner of conducting the business here," to use the language of an enthusiastic witness, "if it will not make slaughtering 'a fine art,' will at least place it high above its earlier position." The association consists of a board of fourteen directors, of which Mr. Jacob F. Taylor is president and Mr. Webster F. Warren is clerk and treasurer.
The Cattle Fair Hotel Corporation, which in 1830 erected the large and handsome house at Market Square, was incorporated by the legislature in 1830. It has a board of directors, of which Mr. William F. Matchett is president and Mr. Bela S. Fiske is clerk and treasurer.
The Massachusetts Agricultural Society, some sixty years ago, established an annual cattle-show and exhibition of domestic manufactures and agri- cultural products in this place. Large and com- modious buildings were erected on Winship Place, Agricultural Hill. A day in the month of Octo- ber was annually observed by an address from some distinguished speaker, and by other exercises in the church, by a public dinner, by ploughing- matches, and the various appliances of the fair. Since the numerous county agricultural societies have been established throughout Massachusetts,
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this state exhibition has been abandoned. The very large building termed the Agricultural Hall, and used for the indoor pursuits and festivities of the " Brighton Fair," was sold some twenty-five years ago, moved down from the hill to Washing- ton Street, and converted into a hotel, where it now stands, on the corner of Chestnut Hill Avenne.
The incorporation of the town of Brighton in 1807 did not encounter as much opposition as did the original formation of the old parish in 1779. Publie sentiment had been steadily growing in favor of the justice and expediency of this step. More- over, both parishes, the Third and the Second, South Cambridge and West Cambridge, or Menot- omy, were making common canse in the matter. As early as 1806, and just one year before the legislative act of incorporation, the subject was before the people for action, as appears from the following record : -
" CAMBRIDGE, South Precinct, February 17, 1806.
" At a meeting of the Freeholders and other In- habitants on the South Side of Charles River, legally Warned and assembled, after choosing Mr. Jonathan Winship, Moderator, the following Votes were passed : - Ist. To Petition the Hon- orable General Court to be set off as a Town. 2d. To choose a Committee to wait on the Honor- able General Conrt with the Petition. 3d. That Mr. Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy, Mr. Gorham Par- sons, Stephen Dana, Esq., Mr. Thomas English, Mr. Daniel Bowen Compose this Committee.
"Attest. HENRY DANA, Precinct Clerk."
The petition presented forcibly many of the causes which had before recommended parochial incorporation, and is very numerously signed by all the well-known voters of the place.
By an act of the legislature, dated February 24, 1807, the town of Brighton was formally incorpo- rated. The town of West Cambridge, or Menotomy, the Second Precinct Parish, was incorporated in the same month ; and, by the separation of the two from the parent stock, Cambridge lost a large portion of her territory. The first town warrant issued, May 2, 1507, from Stephen Dana, justice of the peace, to Captain Joseph Warren, calling the citizens to assemble at the old meeting-house, for their first town-meeting, on the 9th of May. Let the first town officers be put on record who were then chosen : Henry Dana, great-great-grandson of Richard (progenitor here of the Dana family in this country), was made town-clerk ; Nathaniel Champ-
ney (in the fifth generation from Elder Richard Champney, progenitor here of the family, and as- sociated as Ruling Elder, with Shepard, in the First Cambridge Church) was made treasurer. Nathaniel Champney, Dudley Hardy, Jonathan Livermore, Thomas Gardner (son of the Colonel), and Benjamin Hill were appointed selectmen. At a subsequent town-meeting, May 11, Stephen Dana was chosen representative to the General Court. The sum of $2,000 was appropriated to defray town charges. This sum would contrast strikingly with the sum appropriated for the last year of the town's existence ; yet the contrast would he no greater than that of the town's valuation at the two periods. The valuation of Brighton, in real and personal estate, when annexed to Boston in Jann- ary, 1874, was about eleven millions.
It was growing in population and in wealth, ex- panding and strengthening in its commercial, liter- ary, and religious organization. February 24, 1857, on a clear, sunny winter day, the hour of the half- century of the town's existence struck. There was now more than one church bell within her bor- ders ; and the day was joyfully observed at sunrise, noon, and sunset by their glad peal, by cannon salute, and in the evening by brilliant fireworks. Great changes were witnessed on every side in the progress of the years. One citizen only, Mr. Edward Sparhawk, was living who voted for the town's incorporation fifty years before. He, rep- resenting in his line one of the earliest emigrant settlers of Cambridge, Nathaniel Sparhawk, went on into the second half-century, active, useful, to the end, dying September 3, 1867, in his ninety- seventh year.
Of the three early town-clerks, to whose faithful fulfilment of their office the present is so indebted for these recorded memorials of the past, Mr. Dana served ten years, until his death. Captain Joseph Warren served eighteen years, and Mr. William Warren served twenty-two years. The latter laid down his office at the close of the half-century, and was succeeded by his son, Hon. William Wirt Warren, late member of congress from this district ; and he, in turn, by a brother, Mr. Webster F. Warren ; and this nnusnal sequence, to the advan- tage of the town, has testified that the qualities essential for the successful town-elerk may be transmitted from father to son.
Of the early town-treasurers, Mr. Nathaniel Champney, the first, served twenty years, until his death, and was sneceeded by Deaeon Thaddeus
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
Baldwin, who declined a third annual re-election. A few years later, and Mr. Henry Heath Larnard was appointed in 1833. He was re-elected each year by a unanimous vote till he declined serving in 1869. The town never required of him an official bond in his responsible office. When, after bearing it with untarnished honor thirty-three years, he gave back the trust, the town, through a committee, - Messrs. Charles Henry B. Breck, Henry Baldwin, and Frederic A. Whitney, - with appropriate resolutions, acknowledged their appre- ciation of his services, and presented him with a massive silver pitcher and salver bearing the fol- lowing inscription : -
Presented to HENRY HEATH LARNARD by the Town of Brighton, in grateful acknowledgment of his faithful services, as, with unanimous voice, keeper of their Treasury for thirty-three years. March 8, 1869. " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst."
Mr. Larnard died here in 1878, in his ninety-first year.
The early officers, as well as the citizens gen- erally of the newly created town, were compelled to go over the river to Cambridge for postal accom- modations. A post-office was first established in Brighton in 1817. A commission, dated February 3, 1817, was issued to Rev. Noah Worcester, D. D., who had become a citizen of Brighton in 1813. He had been called to edit a periodical in Boston, The Christian Disciple, but subsequently entitled The Friend of Peace, of which cause he was known commonly as " the Apostle." He held the post- office, assisted by a daughter, some twenty-four years, in his own house on Washington Street, op- posite the head of l'oster Street. He was the inti- inate friend and associate of the distinguished Rev. Dr. Channing, who called Worcester " the bene- factor of his mind." Harvard University and Dartmouth College bestowed on him honorary de- grees. He was commissioned justice of the peace, and represented Brighton several years in the legis- lature. He was eminent as a thinker and a writer on theological and philanthropic subjects. His works have been much read abroad as well as at home, and some have been translated into foreign languages. He died at Brighton, October 31, 1837, aged seventy-nine. Under growing infirm-
ities of age and ill health, he had resigned the post- office, and Mr. J. B. Mason had been commis- sioned April 28, 1837. The office was at Mason's store on Washington Street, opposite the Cattle Fair Hotel. His successor was Mr. William War- ren, commissioned Jannary 26, 1843; and the office was kept at his drug-store on Washington Street, opposite Rockland Street, until May 26, 1857. Mr. Timothy Munroe then succeeded, on the corner of Washington Street and Harvard Place. Mr. John F. Day was commissioned July 1, 1861. A soldier of the Republic, he died of starvation in the rebel prison at Millen, Georgia, October, 1864, having been first imprisoned at Andersonville. His widow, commissioned in 1865, is now in charge of the office.
A second post-office was established in the east section of Brighton in 1868, named in honor of Washington Allston, whose home was not far from the spot, on the Cambridgeport side of the river. The Boston and Albany Railroad at this point crosses Cambridge Street, and the station had been long known as "Cambridge Crossing." The cor- poration erected a new station-house, to which was given the name of the illustrious painter and poet ; and thus the section of the city around it goes commonly by that designation. Since, with annex- ation, the system of postal letter-carriers has been adopted here, this post-office has been given up.
We recorded the gathering of the first church here in 1783, with the ordination of its first min- ister in 1784, and closed with his death in 1829. This First Parish really embraced all the inhabi- tants, except three or four families, who were by name exempted in the act of incorporation from severing their relations with the First Precinct of Cambridge. Rev. Dr. Foster's funeral services were conducted, September 17, by his successor, Rev. Daniel Austin, assisted by Rev. Ezra Ripley, D. D., of Concord, who had previously agreed with Dr. Foster, that whichever of the two survived should discharge for the other this grateful service. Rev. Mr. Austin, born in Boston, son of Daniel, November 21, 1793 (Dartmouth, 1813, and Har- vard Divinity School, 1827), was ordained June 4, 1828. He married in Boston Hannah, daughter of Benjamin Joy, in 1833, and died suddenly of heart disease, at his home in Kittery, Maine, December 4, 1877. The funeral was from King's Chapel, Bos- ton, and the interment was beneath that edifice. His successor at Brighton was Rev. Abner Dumont Jones, born at Charlestown, April 20, 1807, in-
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stalled at Brighton, February 13, 1839. Relin- quishing his charge October 31, 1842, he subse- quently died at St. Louis, June 30, 1872. Rev. Frederic A. Whitney, born at Quincy, Massa- chusetts, September 13, 1812, son of Rev. Peter Whitney (of Harvard College, 1833, and Harvard Theological School, 1838), took charge of the pulpit, April 9, 1843, - preaching in the town- hall, while the church edifice underwent alterations; and was ordained February 21, 1844. He was married, February 11, 1853, by George Putnam, D. D., to Elizabeth Perkins, daughter of William Perkins Matchett. He was succeeded in the min- istry by Rev. Charles Noyes, born at Petersham (Harvard College, 1856, Divinity School, 1859), ordained January 4, 1860. Rev. Samuel Walton McDaniel, born in Philadelphia, November 18, 1833, was installed as his successor, August 30, 1866, serving until 1869. Rev. Thomas Timmins, born in England (of Manchester College, England), was installed May 31, 1870, and resigned December 31, 1871. Rev. Edward Illsley Galvin, born in Philadelphia (of Harvard Divinity School, 1862), was installed here 1872-1876. Rev. William Brun- ton, born at Sheffield, England (of Manchester Col- lege, and ordained there, of Harvard Divinity School, Special Student, 1877), was installed here June, 1877, and is the present pastor. This church in its religious sentiment is Congregational Unitarian.
Besides the original First Parish, which covers so long a period, six others have come up, making seven churches in this ward. That which follows next is the Evangelical Congregational Church, which was gathered April 4, 1827 ; the first church edifice was dedicated September 13 of the same year. We transfer to these pages from the last church manual of this parish the names of pastors as they stand there : -
Rev. George Washington Blagden, born at Washington, D. C. (Yale, 1823, and Andover Theological Seminary); began preaching here March 4, 1827, in the old town-hall, which was the upper story of the old First Parish Church. He was ordained December 26, 1827 ; dismissed September 8, 1830. Rev. William Adams was ordained Feb- ruary 2, 1831; dismissed April 23, 1834. Rev. William W. Newell was installed August 19, 1834; dismissed June 13, 1837. Rev. Samuel Lamson was ordained September 20, 1837 ; dismissed Sep- tember 16, 1841. Rev. John R. Adams was in- stalled February 21, 1842 ; dismissed December 16, 1846. Rev. Arthur Swazey was ordained Octo-
ber 6, 1847; dismissed May 13, 1856. Rev. Daniel Tenney supplied one year. Rev. Thomas O. Rice was installed April 6, 1858; dismissed July 6, 1859. Rev. Richard G. Greene was installed Sep- tember 19, 1860; dismissed Angust 12, 1862. Rev. John P. Cushman was installed May 6, 1863; dismissed April 17, 1866. Rev. David T. Pack- ard was installed December 6, 1866; dismissed June 11, 1874. Rev. Henry A. Stevens, present pastor, was installed June 11, 1874.
The old house of worship was moved across the street in June, 1867, to give place to the new, on the same site. The old was used for worship till November 3. December 20, the society wor- shipped in the vestry of their new church. The corner-stone of that had been laid, with appropri- ate services, August 13, 1867, and the church was dedicated May 14, 1868. The old church was at length sold and taken down.
. The Roman Catholic Church was the third in Brighton in order of time. The first edifice was erected on Bennett Street in May, 1856, though Sabbath services of worship had been previously held here in private halls. The minister in charge was Rev. J. M. Finotti. This first edifice accident- ally took fire, Sunday, December 7, 1862, and was entirely consumed. The society immediately rebuilt on the same site, and again of wood. This edifice proved insufficient for the society ; and the corner-stone of the new and very large stone church, on the northwest corner of Market and Arlington Streets, was laid, with very imposing religious ceremonies, September 22, 1872. The building is not yet completed, but publie worship is held in its vestry. When finished, it will be one of the finest and most imposing churches of the order. The designation of the church is St. Columbkille ; minister in charge, Rev. P. J. Rogers.
The next church in order is the First Baptist, at Union Square, which is called the Brighton Avenue Baptist Church. The church was organ- ized Deeember 2, 1853. The corner-stone of the present edifice was laid, with appropriate religious serviees, September 11, 1855. Rev. J. M. Graves was the minister in supply from February 1, 1854, until January 1, 1856. He died at Charlestown, January 15, 1879, aged seventy-six. Rev. J. M. Bonham, a native of England, was settled July 28, 1856, and left September 1, 1857. The society first met for worship in the vestry in January, 1856. The church edifice was dedicated Febru- ary 10, 1857. Rev. J. W. Parker was settled
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Nov. 1, 1857, and closed his ministry here July 1, 1859. Rev. S. M. Stimson was settled Aug. 7, 1559; dismissed June 1, 1861. Rev. Ralph H. Bowles was settled Aug. 23 ; dismissed Jan. 1, 1867. Rev. William R. Thompson was settled Aug. 6, 186; dismissed Ang. 31, 1871. Rev. F. E. Tower, present pastor, was settled Jan. 1, 1872.
The First Universalist Parish is in Cambridge Street, near Union Square. The parish was organ- ized June 12, 1860. Chapel was dedicated Aug. 7, 1861. Rev. James Eastwood was settled July 1, 1861; dismissed July 1, 1864. Rev. Thomas W. Silloway was settled July 24, 1864; dismissed June 30, 1867. Rev. J. W. Keyes was settled May 1, 1868; dismissed Sept. 4, 1869. Rev. J. Edgar Johnson was settled Nov. 24, 1869; dismissed July 1, 1870. Rev. W. A. Start was settled April 16, 1871; dismissed April 1, 1872. Rev. John Virgil Wilson was settled .April 1, 1872; dismissed April 1, 1874. From April, 1874, to Oct., 1876, the pulpit was supplied by different ministers. Rev. John G. Adams was settled Oct. 22, 1876; dis- missed Aug. 1, 1878. Rev. Benjamin Franklin Eaton, settled Nov. 15, 1878, is the present pastor.
Religious services of the Protestant Episcopal Church were first held in Brighton September 10, 1854. They were conducted in the town-hall by Rev. Cyrus F. Knight. Worship was subsequently sustained in the town by lay readers and by various clergymen of the neighborhood. The Church of the Epiphany was organized January 8, 1863, - the Rev. David Greene Haskins, rector; George R. Hooper and Thomas P. Bray, wardens. The church edifice was erected on Washington Street, corner of Church Street, in 1864; and services were first held in it September 1, 1864. In 1872 the church property was sold, and a new parish was organized, under the name of St. Margaret Church, Rev. Charles A. Holbrook, rector. He has since withdrawn, and Rev. Thomas Cole is the present rector.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, on the corner of Harvard Avenue and Farrington Avenue, was the seventh and last established in Brighton. It was organized March 24, 1872, Rev. John P. Otis acting as minister from that date. The corner-stone of a church edifice was laid at Christmas, 1876. During its erection the society worshipped in the Universalist Church, at hours mutually convenient. Rev. Willard Taylor Perrin was appointed to the ministerial charge in 1874 ; and Rev. William G. Richardson sustained the same from April, 1876, |
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to April, 1879. Rev. W. H. Hatch, present pastor, was stationed here in April, 1879. Mr. Perrin was of Harvard College, 1870 ; the other pastors were graduates of the Boston University.
Like the grand words, " Liberty and Union, one and inseparable," stood meeting-house and school- house, in the early settlements, in the hearts and in the home speech of our New England fathers. Where was one, there, sooner or later, must needs come the other. Let us look for our earliest school- house among the earliest trod paths of the place. In the laying out of roads here, the oldest date perhaps attaches to that running south from the Charles River Ferry, which, beginning at the foot of Dunster Street on the College side, lay a little east, or lower down the river than the Great Bridge. That bridge, built in 1660, the first ever built on the Charles River, superseded the ferry. That road on this side from the ferry is described in these terms: "It is ordered in re- spect of making a sufficient path from the south side of Charles River to Roxberrie that the line shall lie," etc. Of early date, too, was " the Rox- bury Path," a portion of our Washington Street, by which Roxbury people went to the grist-mill at Watertown. To find our earliest school-house we follow up another ancient path, our Market Street, to the foot of which the river guides us in its windings from the ferry. Here were " The Pines," a fine cluster, or forest, of pine-trees, about on the site of the present abattoir. This Market Street, which, after the first meeting-house was built in 1744, was subsequently known as " Meeting- House Lane," was laid out, in 1656, through the estate of Richard Dana. At the head of the street, on the left ascending it, fronting on "Roxbury Path," was the meeting-house, presented in this sketch, and a few steps farther east stood the ancient school-house, erected in 1722.
Mr. Paige, in his history, remarks : " The earliest trace which I have seen of a school-house on the south side of the river, afterwards Brighton, is in 1769, in which year new houses were erected in three sections of the town." We have seen a copy of an ancient deed, by which Daniel Dana, son of the early Richard, gives the land, in 1722, "to the inhabitants on the south side of the river" for a school-house. It was built. But in 1769 it was replaced by a new house, as appears from the following votes : -
" Cambridge South side, March 27, 1769, - Voted, That the old school-house is insufficient to contain the scholars,
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and is not worth repairing. Toted, - To build a new school house, not exceeding ye following Dimensions, viz. . . . Toted, - Mr. Jolin Deanie, Thomas Sparhawk, and Caleb Dana, Esq., be the Committee for this purpose. Foled, - That the old school-house be sold at a Vandue to the highest Bidder."
The drug-shop of William Warren was, in 1811, appended to the west end of this old school-house of 1769 by Mr. John Herrick ; and the whole build- ing, with other buildings in the same line, is now (April, 1879) in process of removal a little to the rear, to make room on the site for the erection of the Warren Building, a very large edifice in brick and stone, for stores, offices, and halls.
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