USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 73
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After the reunion of the North and South par- ishes in 1792 there appears to have been for about half a century no local place of worship. In 1847 South Malden again commenced to have a distinct religious history, a Sunday school being opened on the first Sunday in May, in that year, by several members of different evangelical denominations. In the following autumn arrangements for preach- ing were made, to continue for six months. The services were held in the school-house of the South- west District, which was first opened for this pur- pose December 19, 1847. On the 16th of March, 1848, at a council of Orthodox churches, the Win- throp Congregational Church was recognized, with twenty-four constituent members. In 1849 Rev. Francis G. Pratt became pastor of the church, in which position he remained until April 13, 1858. During his ministry, in 1852, the present house of worship on Broadway, with a seating capacity of about three hundred and fifty, was erected, the first service being held there December 12, 1852. Mr. Pratt was succeeded by Rev. James Cruik- shanks, who remained less than one year. A schism arose on account of the settlement of Mr. Cruikshanks, and a portion of the members left, and formed a new church known as the Chapel Congregational Church, on Cottage Street, of which Rev. L. II. Angier was pastor. This church con- tinued to exist for about two years, when, in Oc- tober, 1561, both disbanded and reunited as the
South Malden (now Everett) Congregational Church. The successive pastors from the time of the reunion have been as follows: Rev. Oliver Brown, from April 6, 1862, to February 26, 1864; Rev. David M. Bean, from June 28, 1864, to November 24, 1868; Rev. Albert Bryant, from March 25, 1869, to May 13, 1874; Rev. Webster Hazlewood, from January, 1875, to May 4, 1876; Rev. William H. Bolster, from August 1, 1876, to the present time. The church has been served in the ministry by four pastors and three acting pas- tors. The membership has now risen to one hun- dred and forty-seven, with two hundred and seventy in the Sunday school. The society has raised for its expenses during the thirty-one years of its existence $67,000, besides the cost of building.
For about seventeen years the Congregational- ists constituted the only religious society in South Malden. In the meanwhile this section was mak- ing rapid progress in all that constitutes material prosperity. The means of communication with Boston were improved by the opening of the main line and the Saugus Brauch of the Eastern Railroad in 1854, and of the Middlesex Street Railway, July 19, 1858. A great impetus was given to the growth of population and wealth, the former rising from 1,087 in 1854, to 1,547 in 1860, and 1,986 in 1867; the latter, according to the assessors' valuation, not including estates of nou- residents, increasing from $779,125 in 1854, to $910,675 in 1860, and $ 1,104,493 in 1867. In 1847, 1848, 1856, and 1857 unsuccessful efforts were made to have South Malden incorporated as a separate township.
A second religious society, the Universalist, was formed in 1865. As nearly as can be ascertained, religious services began to be held in 1864; but the earliest record extant of any meeting for business is under date of March 28, 1865, at which it was voted to employ Rev. B. K. Russ of Somerville to supply the pulpit for a year. Religious services and a Sunday school have ever since been main- tained. Until 1872 meetings were held in Badger's Hall. In May, 1871, steps were taken to raise funds for the erection of a house of worship. On the 19th of October, 1871, about $3,000 having been subscribed, it was decided to commence build- ing. The corner-stone of the chapel at the junction of Summer Street and Broadway was laid May 14, 1872, and the first service held in the vestry ou the first Sunday in June. The completed edifice
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was dedicated Wednesday, September 25, 1872, | and the first regular service in the main audience- room was held on the Sunday following. The whole building, finished and furnished, with the land on which it stands, cost about $10,000, and has a seating capacity of about three hundred. Eighty or ninety families are connected with the society, and the Sunday school numbers from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty members. The society has never had a pastor, but has secured various neighboring clergymen to sup- ply its pulpit, the principal of whom have been Rev. W. H. Cudworth of East Boston, Rev. A. J. Canfield of Chelsea, and Rev. W. H. Rider, for- merly of Arlington, now of Malden.
A third religious society, the Glendale Christian Union, grew out of a Sunday school established in Glendale in 1867, and was organized January 1, 1570, with twelve members, since inereased to twenty-five, with a Sunday school of about sixty.
Among the important societies which began be- fore the incorporation of Everett is the Palestine Lodge of Freemasons. Fourteen members of Mt. Vernon Lodge in Malden having obtained permis- sion to withdraw and form a new lodge in South Malden, to be called Palestine Lodge, obtained, December 8, 1868, a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Their first meeting was held in the hall of the engine-house, January 14, 1869. After operating a year under the dispen- sation, a charter was obtained from the Grand Lodge on the Sth of December, 1869. They re- moved to their present quarters on the third floor of the Masonie Building, on the corner of Chelsea Street and Broadway, in February, 1871. Palestine Lodge has now become a large and flourishing organization, the number of members admitted, to January, 1579, being one hundred and two, of whom three have died.
With these various developments of local life, the tendencies toward an independent corporate existence gained fresh momentum. Agitation for this end again commeneed in the autumn of 1867. The sentiment of South Malden had become nearly unanimous for separation. After one of the hottest and most protracted contests on record, in the legislatures of 1868, 1569, and 1870, the movement, on the seventh trial within twenty-five years, was erowned with complete success. When, on the 9th of March, 1870, the bill incorporating the new town was signed by the governor, there was great rejoicing in Everett. The people gatlı-
ered in the public square and in the vestry of the Congregational Church. Speeches of congratula- tion were delivered, a salute of one hundred guns fired, and such a demonstration made as was never before known in the place by the oldest inhabi- tant. In May the organization of the new town was appropriately celebrated. Six hundred per- sons sat down to a sumptuous repast under a large tent ; letters from the governor of Massachu- setts, the Mayor of Boston, and other distinguished persons were read, and after a short address of wel- come and congratulation from the president of the day, A. H. Evans, interesting speeches were made by Lieutenant-Colonel Tucker, Rev. Albert Bryant, P. A. Collins, A. O. Brewster, and others. Among the persons specially conspicuous for their perse- vering efforts in obtaining the charter of the new town were A. H. Evans, Hawes Atwood, William Johnson, A. Waterman, S. H. Kimball, G. S. Marshall, H. S. Whitmore, Columbus Corey, W. E. Titcomb, and Thomas Leavitt.
The first town-meeting for the election of the various town officers was held March 21, 1870, in the vestry of the Congregational Church, where all the town-meetings continued to be held for the first year after the incorporation of the town. In- duced by the necessity for more commodious quar- ters, a number of public-spirited citizens of the Masonic order in 1870 formed themselves into a corporation, under the name of Everett Associates, and, having purchased the lot of land on the corner of Broadway (then known as Charlestown Street) and Chelsea Street, proceeded to ereet the large wooden edifice known as the Masonic Building, to which an addition was made in 1872. The lower story is used for business purposes, contributing materially to the prosperity of the town ; the second floor for a public hall and town offices ; the third floor by the various secret societies. A project for a town-hall having been defeated, the town, at a meeting held January 11, 1871, voted to lease the hall and offices for town purposes. The first town- meeting in Everett Hall was held Mareh 28, 1871, where all subsequent town-meetings have been held.
The incorporation of Everett as a separate town gave a fresh impulse to every loeal interest. Traets of land previously unoccupied were opened to settle- ment, new dwellings erected, streets laid out, and improvements of all kinds inaugurated. Within the first five years after the separation from Malden the number of dwellings, which was 414 in 1870, had increased to 770, or eighty-six per cent, while
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
the population increased from 2,220 in 1870 to 3,651 in 1875, the valuation rising in the same time from $1,736,379 to $4,404,650. The rise in the value of real estate was very rapid, and has to a great extent been maintained.
Among other evidences of growth was the for- mation of two additional religions societies shortly after the incorporation of the town. The fourth in point of time in this section was the Methodist Episcopal Church, which commenced with a class- meeting held at the house of Joseph Ladd, April 12, 1870. The society was organized October 11, 1870, with sixteen members, since increased to one hun- dred and thirty-four, and on the same day gronnd was broken for their chapel on Chelsea Street. The corner-stone was laid December 19, 1870, and the edifice was dedicated May 24, 1871, being the first permanent honse of worship erected since that of the Congregationalists in 1852. A Sunday school was organized May 28, 1871, which now numbers about two hundred. The church has had five pas- tors, as follows : Rev. W. F. Mallalien, from Octo- ber, 1870, to April, 1871; Rev. William A. Cheney, from April, 1871, to April, 1872; Rev. Edward W. Virgin, from April, 1872, to April, 1875 ; Rev. Edward P. King, from April, 1875, to April, 1878 ; Rev. Edward R. Thorndike, from April, 1878, to the present time. A parsonage was erected in 1875.
The First Baptist Church in Everett, the fifth religious society organized in what is now Everett, commenced with a preliminary meeting held April 5, 1871, at the house of Deacon Levi Brown on Broadway. The first public service held was a prayer-meeting, April 9, 1871, at Everett Hall. A Sunday school was organized on the same day, now numbering about one hundred and eighty-five. The church was organized at a meeting held June 8, 1871, with thirty-two members, since increased to one hundred and forty-two. The public recogni- tion of the church took place July 3, 1871. Re- ligious services were for several years held at Everett Hall. In October, 1873, a lot of land was purchased on Broadway, and, in the following year, a chapel was erected with a seating capacity of about three hundred and forty-five. The corner- stone was laid June 24, 1874, and the edifice was dedicated September 22, 1874. The cost of land, building, and furnishing was about $13,000. The church has in eight years raised and disbursed for current expenses and benevolent objects about $11,000, besides about $8,000 raised and ex- pended in erecting the chapel. It has had four
pastors : Rev. William B. Smith, from February, 1872, to May 1, 1873; Rev. Francis B. Sleeper, from September 1, 1874, to December 1, 1877 ; Rev. William F. Stubbert, D. D., from September, 1878, to January, 1879; Rev. Lester L. Potter, from April 1, 1879, to the present time.
The beneficial effects of the separation upon the educational interests of Everett have been very marked. Additional school accommodations in the eastern part of the town were provided by finishing the upper story of the Ferry Street School-honse and opening there a grammar school in the autumn of 1870, which three years later was reduced to the sub-grammar grade. In the autumn of 1870, although the population of the town had not reached the number essential to make the maintenance of a high school obligatory, a beginning was made at the Centre School-house with a class of sixteen, of whom five graduated. The school began and has continued under the charge of Mr. R. A. Rideont, for several years principal of the Centre Grammar School. The privileges of the high school have been enjoyed by one hundred and fifty-five different pupils, of whom thirty-six have graduated, the smallest number graduating being two in 1879, and the largest, fifteen in 1877. The greatest number of pupils reached at any one time was forty-three in the fall of 1878. In the thirteen years from the establish- ment of the Malden High School in 1857 to 1869 inclusive, only fourteen pupils from South Malden graduated from that institution, being twenty-two less than the number of graduates from the Ever- ett High School in nine years. Everett has as yet no high school building proper. A movement in 1871 to provide a suitable building for this pur- pose having unfortunately been defeated, the Cen- tre School-house was remodelled and refurnished with improved seats and desks, which had pre- viously been of an antiquated pattern. Here the high school remained until 1872, when it was re- moved to the easterly hall on the third floor of the Masonic Building, whence, in 1875, it was removed to its present quarters on Locust Street.
Prominent among the reasons urged for separa- tion from the town of Malden was the desire to escape from the burden of debt incurred by the latter for the introduction of water, and pains were taken to insert in the charter a clause exempting Everett from any liability on this account. Scarcely was the separation accomplished, however, when the necessity of an adequate water-supply began
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EFTERETT.
to be realized. The subject was first brought be- fore the town at the March meeting in 1871, when a committee was appointed on whose petition the legislature passed an act, approved April 19, 1871, authorizing the town to construct the necessary works for the introduction of water to connect with either Charlestown, Malden, Medford, or Melrose, and, for this purpose, to raise $50,000 by taxation or borrowing. At a meeting held June 29, 1871, the town accepted the act, and chose a committee of five, consisting of A. H. Evans, W. H. Lounsbury, Otis Merriam, A. Wa- terman, and L. P. True, to procure estimates from different sources and report at a future meeting what was the best plan. This committee entered into negotiations with the town of Malden and the city of Charlestown, and received from the latter proposals for supplying Everett with water. The town of Malden was also disposed to consider the matter favorably, but was unable to act without the consent of Medford and Melrose, which could not then be obtained, though there was a prospect of favorable action at an early day. At a town- meeting held September 5, 1871, the committee reported in favor of introducing water as soon as practicable, the report was accepted, and the town voted to introduce water, and, for this purpose, to authorize the treasurer to issue bonds of the town to the amount of $50,000, running twenty years, at six per cent. The committee estimated that the amount of pipe required (nine and one fourth miles), with twenty-five gates and fifty hydrants, could be laid for this sum.
. A contract was concluded with the city of Charlestown on the 5th of October, 1871, for fur- nishing water on very onerous terms, that city receiving eighty-five per cent of the water-rates collected, besides twenty-eight dollars for every three hundred and fifty inhabitants for hydrants. A contract for laying pipes was concluded with George H. Norman, October 11, 1871, and about 23,000 feet of pipe laid before the work was inter- rupted by cold weather. The original estimate of $50,000 having proved insufficient, the legislature, on application of the town, authorized a further expenditure of $50,000, to be raised by taxation or borrowing. The town, on the 22d of April, 1872, accepted the act, and authorized a further issue of bonds, like those already issued, to the amount of $50,000. As soon as the spring opened work recommenced, and was carried forward with- out interruption to its completion, which occupied
about two months and a half, the amount of pipe laid being about thirteen miles, or three and three fourths miles more than the original estimate. Water was introduced May 1, 1872. By the last report of the Water Commissioners about fourteen and three fourths miles of pipe had been laid, with sixty-seven hydrants and eighty-seven gates. The amount of water-bonds issued and outstanding was $100,000, the interest on which, paid by taxation, has reached $37,020, and the water- rates collected in 1878 amounted to $7,146.80, of which the town of Everett received $1,072.02. Owing to the insufficiency of the income even to meet the annual outlay on the works, the interest on the bonds has always been met by taxation, as the principal must be at maturity, even if, as is hoped, the water contract should be so modi- fied as to give Everett a larger per cent of the income.
The rapid growth of the town in population soon demanded a further enlargement of its school accommodations. This demand was partly met by finishing the second story of the Thorndike Street School-house, and opening a sub-grammar school there, in 1873. In the same year a move- ment was set on foot to obtain relief on a more comprehensive plan by erecting two new school- houses, one in the easterly, the other in the north- erly, part of the town. Reports favorable to both were obtained from committees appointed at the annual meeting in March. The latter project - after an appropriation of $ 11,000 had been se- cured at a meeting in April, a building committee chosen, and a lot of land bargained or - was de- feated by a reconsideration at an adjourned meeting, and the former was even more summarily strangled. Within a year public sentiment had so completely changed that on the 24th of March, 1874, the sum of $8,000 was appropriated, with little opposition, for the purchase of land and the erection of a school building in the northerly part of the town. With this sum, increased by $1,461 from the school fund and other sources in 1874, and about $1,349 more for finishing the upper story in 1875, making $10,810 in all, the land was purchased, and the tastefully constructed edifice on Locust Street erected. Two schools of the sub-grammar and primary grades were opened there about the 1st of November, 1874.
Among the great public improvements of the past nine years should be mentioned the widening and straightening of county roads, which was
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
effected pursuant to an order of the County Com- missioners of January 6, 1874. The work was finally completed in 1875, at an expense for con- struction and land damages amounting to $43,218, of which sum the county paid $6,000. From the incorporation of the town to March 1, 1879, a fur- ther sum of $73,399 has been expended in the construction and repair of streets and sidewalks, making a total highway expenditure of $116,617. The improvement in this particular is conspicu- ous to all who take pains to compare the present condition of the streets with their condition in 1570.
In 1875 a further addition was made to the secret societies of the place by the organization, March 18, of the Everett Lodge of Odd Fellows, with fifteen charter members. Its meetings have always been held in the Masonic Building. The membership at the fourth anniversary had reached sixty-nine.
There was also for several years a lodge of Good Templars, which accomplished a good work in the cause of temperance by means of lectures and otherwise. It has now ceased to exist, though the sentiment of the place continues to be, as it has always been, strongly in favor of temperance.
Besides the societies already noticed, the follow- ing have been recently organized : The Knights of Honor, Columbia Lodge, organized February 9, 1877, with twenty-two members, present member- ship sixty-one ; the Royal Arcanum, Palladium Council, organized March 22, 1879, with nineteen members, with a present membership of twenty- eight ; the Independent Order of Foresters, Court Benevolence, organized September 9, 1878, with twenty-nine members, with a present membership of twenty-six.
To meet the wants of the large Catholic popula- tion residing in town, but not having any local place of worship, a Roman Catholic Sunday-school was opened in Everett Ilall, in June, 1876, where re- ligious services were held for a year and a half. In 1877 a lot of land was purchased at the corner of Broadway. and Mansfield Place, on which a chapel was at once erected. The vestry wa's finished ready for occupancy about January 1, 1878, and has since been used for religious services and Sun- day-school.
After the defeat in 1873 of the movement for a new school-house in the eastern part of the town, the matter was allowed to slumber until 1877. An appropriation was secured in April, 1877. A lot
of land was purchased on Florence Street, on which the present convenient and substantial edifice known as the Mount Washington School-house was erected. The land, building, and furnishing cost $6,804. The schools previously kept in the Ferry Street School-house were transferred to the new building in May, 1878, and have shown marked improve- ment as the result of having larger rooms and a ' better situation.
The want of proper accommodations for the high school, as well as the crowded condition of the lower grades in the Centre, has been a serious drawback to the educational progress of the town. A town-meeting, called to consider the subject in July, 1878, voted, one hundred and forty-three to twenty-nine, indefinitely to postpone the matter ; but more favorable action is confidently antici- pated at an early day.
A movement for establishing a public library, though talked of for several years, first took defi- nite shape in the spring of 1878, in an effort to induce persons interested to make contributions of books to form the nucleus for a larger collection. The movement was organized at a citizens' meeting held June 21, 1878, when a board of five directors was chosen (since increased to nine), under whose management the enterprise has gone forward suc- cessfully, the dedication ceremonies taking place May 1, 1879, when the number of volumes had reached one thousand two hundred and eighty- nine. Everything thus far has been done by vol- untary effort, without any assistance from the public treasury, though the library is soon to be offered to the town.
The population of the town May 1, 1879, was 3,888, an increase of 1,668, or seventy-five per cent, in nine years. The total amount of the taxes raised in the ten years, 1870-1879 in- clusive, has been $463,294.21 of which $125,115 have been for school purposes, and $87,492.36 for streets and sidewalks. The appropriations for 1879 were $41,297.75, of which $10,000 were for schools. There are seventeen teachers and fourteen schools, of which two are of the grammar grade; and the number of grammar- school graduates in nine years has reached two hundred and twelve, those of 1879 numbering thirty.
There were in 1875 twenty manufacturing estab- lishments in Everett, with an aggregate capital of $321,325, and an annual product of $896,036.
The manufacture of bricks has been carried on
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FRAMINGHAM.
in what is now Everett from an early period. | Chelsea line. This company, established in 1869, There were in 1875 five establishments engaged in manufactures emery-wheels aud emery-wheel ma- chinery, for grinding and polishing. It has a capital of $150,000, employs forty hands, and turns out an annual product of $200,000. The Bradley Fertilizer Company, formerly William L. Bradley, was established in 1873. It manufac- tures grease and fertilizers, has a capital of about $50,000, employs teu to twelve hands, and turns out an annual product of about $25,000. The grist-mill of HI. W. & J. C. Van Voorhis, estab- lished by Henry Van Voorhis in 1839, employs seven hands, and grinds at present about two hun- dred and fifty bushels of grain per day. The quan- tity was formerly five hundred bushels per day, and the capacity of the mill is one thousand bushels per day. S. H. Kimball's factory for the manufacture of children's carriages, toys, ete., established at Everett in 1875, formerly employed twenty-five to thirty hands, and had a capacity for turning out thirty carriages per day. The operating expenses were formerly $1,000 per month. The factory and most of its contents were burned January 29, 1879, but it has now been rebuilt, and is likely to resume operations at an early day. the business, with a capital of $33,600, and an aunnal product of $60,000. The largest single manufacturing establishment in town is the Chemi- cal Works of A. Cochrane & Co., situated on the Eastern Railroad, near the Mystic River. This establishment was first started by the New England Chemical Company in 1868, with a capital of $300,000. This company not being financially successful, the business was, in April, 1872, pur- chased by the present proprietors, who in 1865 had succeeded Alexander Cochrane in the same line of business, originally established by him in 1858 at Malden, where a part of the business is still carried on. Messrs. A. Cochrane & Co. have erected two new buildings and doubled the ca- pacity of their works in Everett, transferring thither a portion of the business previously carried ou in Malden. They mannfacture chiefly sul- phuric, muriatic, nitric, and other acids. The number of hands employed is from fifty to sixty, and the value of the annual product from $300,000 to $400,000. Next in importance is the Union Stone Company, located on Island End River, near
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