USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 40
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The first grist-mill in the town of Newton was erccted by Lieutenant John Spring, on a stream called Smelt Brook, at the outlet of Bullough's Pond. Mr. Spring resided opposite the cemetery on Centre Street, and opened Mill Lane, now Mill Street, to accommodate the patrons of his mill. Previous to the erection of dams on Charles River, alewives, smelts, herring, and other fish used to pass up the river as far as Newton Upper Falls ; and fish-reeves, annually elected, were charged with the duty of protecting the fishing interest on the river. Smelt Brook, on which Lientenant Spring erected' his grist-mill, undoubtedly received its name from the graceful shiners which found their way into its waters.
Charles River, called by the Indians Quinobe- quin, encircled a large part of Newton, its channel forming the boundary line on the north, west, and south sides of the town, being a continuous curv- ing line more than fifteen miles in length. The falls on the river invited the spirit of enterprise at a very early period. The first mills were erected at the Upper Falls. At this part of its course the
waters of the river fall perpendicularly twenty feet, and then descend thirty-five feet in the course of half a mile. Here a saw-mill was built in 1688 by John Clark, whose father, Hugh Clark of Rox- bury, conveyed to him by deed of gift sixty-seven acres of land in New Cambridge in April, 1681. This land was on the easterly side of Centre Street, at the training-field, and his house was on the spot now occupied by the old house formerly Deacon Ebenezer White's, on the west side, a few rods north of the First Baptist Church at Newton Cen- tre. In 1675 John Clark died, bequeathing to his sous William and John the saw-mill on the river, and the land adjoining. The mill and eight acres of land were appraised at £ 180. In May, 1708, John Clark conveyed to Nathaniel Parker one quarter of the saw-mill, streamn, damn, and eel-weir, and half an acre of land for £ 12, with an open highway from the county road to the mill and eel- weir. Soon afterwards William Clark conveyed to Nathaniel Longley one quarter of the same, and these four proprietors and equal owners built in addition a grist-mill and fulling-mill. In 1720 Noah Parker became the sole owner of the mills and appurtenances. At his death in 1768 this whole property passed into the hands of his son, Thomas Parker, his administrator, who sold the same to Simon Elliot of Boston, with about thirty- five acres of land, house, barn, etc., for £1,700 in 1778 and 1782. Mr. Elliot, who was a tobacco- nist, erected snuff-mills, and that business, with the grist-mill, was carried on by him and his son, General Simon Elliot, till 1814, with additions of other works. In that year the screw-factory, wire- mill, four snuff-mills, annealing shop, and dwell- ing-house were sold to the Elliot Manufacturing Company, Frederick Cabot, agent. This company removed the grist-mill, and erected on its site a cotton-factory, which was under the superintend- ence of Mr. Otis Pettee, Sr., for five years. Mr. Pettee then erected extensive shops for building machinery for cotton-mills. Many manufactories in the south and west and in Mexico have been supplied with their entire machinery from these works.
In 1841 Mr. Pettee purchased all the property of the Elliot Manufacturing company, and carried on the business till his death in February, 1853. Mr. Pettee was one of the prime movers and most energetic and liberal patrons of the Charles River Railroad, now the New York and New England, Woonsocket Branch.
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In 1799 the Newton Iron Works Company built a rolling-mill, and commenced operations in 1800, opposite the small island in the river, where a dam was built and a saw-mill erected in 1783.
In 1809 a new manufactory was built for mak- ing cut nails. Nails were sent by the cargo from the manufactory in Newton to New Orleans and the West Indies, to be used in the construction of sugar-boxes, in which they were thus returned to every port on the Atlantic seaboard. The same year the Worcester Turnpike was constructed through this estate, and the bridge was built over the river. In 1813 this company erected a cotton- factory on the same dam, on the Needham side of the river. In 1821 Mr. Ellis bought out this company and became sole owner. In 1823 a new company of seven persons was incorporated under the name of the Newton Factories, and in 1835 Rufus and David Ellis became sole owners of the property. In later years the cotton-factory was destroyed by fire, and has not been rebuilt. The rolling-mill, adjoining the bridge, was long managed by the late Frederic Barden, Esq.
Previous to 1800 the business carried on at the Upper Falls by water-power was small, being only three snuff-mills, a grist-mill, and a saw-mill, and only about six families resided in the place. In 1850 there were, at the upper dam, one cotton-fac- tory, with about nine thousand spindles ; machine shops sufficient to accommodate about three hun- dred workmen ; and a steam furnace for iron cast- ings, employing about fifteen workinen. At the lower dam was a rolling-mill, working about 1,500 tons of iron into varions shapes ; a nail-factory, making about five hundred tons of cut nails ; a cotton-factory (on the Needham side), with about. 2,000 spindles, and manufacturing about 500,000 yards of cotton cloth annually. There were then in the Upper Falls village about 1,300 inhabitants.
The first religious society at the Upper Falls occupied the meeting-house now in possession of the First Methodist Church. The building was commenced in the autumn of 1827, and dedicated February 27, 1828. The land on which the meet- ing-house is built was given for this purpose by the Elliot Manufacturing Company. The building cost about $3,300. Of this amount the Elliot Manufacturing Company paid three fifths, and Mr. Rufus Ellis two fifths. The society was incor- porated as The Upper Falls Religious Society, and the pulpit was supplied mainly by preachers of the Unitarian faith about five years. In 1832 the
church edifice was sold to Marshall S. Rice, Esq., of Newton Centre, and it has since been occupied by the First Methodist Society of Newton.
The Methodists in Newton first formed a "class," but in consequence of removals it was dissolved. In April, 1828, another " class " was formed, of seventeen members, the germ of the present Metho- dist Society at Newton Upper Falls. The church was organized November 11, 1832, numbering fifty-three members. The meeting-house, purchased by Mr. Rice, has been repeatedly enlarged and improved. The first stationed preacher was the late Rev. Charles K. True.
The Second Baptist Church in Newton (Upper Falls) was organized February 8, 1835, numbering fifty-five members, all of whom were previously members of the First Baptist Church. The meet- ing-house, which had been erected two years earlier, was dedicated March 27, 1833. It was erected on land given for the purpose by Mr. Jonathan Bixby, an efficient and leading member of the church, and in whose house the meetings had been held before the church-building was erected. The property was divided into twenty shares, of which Jonathan Bixby owned seven ; three others; two each ; and seven others, one each. The first pastor, Rev. Origen Crane, was ordained September 14, 1836. He was succeeded by Rev. C. W. Denison, S. S. Leighton, A. Webster, and W. C. Richards. The congregation was very much weakened by the removal of members, resulting from changes in the character of the business, and ultimately by a change in the character of the population.
A Universalist society was organized in Septem- ber, 1841, at Newton Upper Falls. They erected a meeting-house, which was dedicated in May, 1842, and cost about $1,300. Their only regular pastor was Rev. Samuel Skinner, who left in 1845. The society finally relinquished the enterprise, and the meeting-house was changed to a village hall, called Elliot Hall.
Catholic services were first held at Newton Upper Falls in 1843 or 1844. The celebrant was Father Strain, of Waltham, and his chapel a room in the house of Mr. James Cahill. A beginning was made to collect funds for the erection of a church in 1852. In 1860 the congregation be- gan to assemble regularly in Elliot Hall, number- ing about three hundred. In 1867 the Catholic church was built, forty feet by seventy-six, and dedicated November 17, 1867. In 1875 this church was enlarged by a transept, forty feet by
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eighty, having galleries at each end, and furnish- ing accommodation for one thousand worshippers.
Newton Lower Falls is two miles distant from Newton Upper Falls, and has two dams, the upper of sixteen feet of water, the lower of six. Iron- works, a forge, and trip-hammer, were erected here in 1704, when the water-power was first utilized. In June, 1703, John Leverett, Esq., conveyed to John Hubbard, of Roxbury, four acres of land on Charles River, at Newton Lower Falls, being the same land which the proprietors of the common and undivided lands in Cambridge granted to him, and the same which is now occupied by all the mills on the Newton side of the river. In 1705 John Hubbard, merchant, of Boston, conveyed to his son, Nathaniel Hubbard, one half of the four- acre lot above referred to, " together with half of the iron-works thereon, with two fire hearths and a hammer wheel, which said John Hubbard and Caleb Church, of Watertown, are now building in partnership on said land, with as much of the stream as may be necessary for said works, with half the dam, flume, lead-wares, running and going gear, utensils and appurtenances to the forge belonging." John Hubbard died in 1717.
In 1722 Nathaniel Hubbard, in consideration of £140, conveyed to Jonathan Willard, bloomer, of Newton, part of a tract of land purchased of John Leverett, with a smith's shop thereon. This Mr. Willard had occupied the smith's shop as a tenant several years previous to his purchase and partnership with Hubbard. He is said to have been an ingenious, upright, and conscientious man, and the first Baptist in the town. He was the , principal man of the iron-works and of the village for nearly half a century. He died in 1772, aged ninety-five. Among the various kinds of business carried on here are iron-works, saw-mills, grist- mills, snuff-mills, clothing-mills, leather-mills, pa- per-mills, calieo-printing, maeline-shops, etc .; but the manufacture of paper has been the principal business for the last half-century, during which eight or ten paper-mills have been in constant op- eration. The first paper-mill was erected at the Lower Falls about 1790, by Mr. John Ware, brother of Dr. Henry Ware, Hollis Professor of Divinity in Harvard University. The paper-mak- ing business, in the progress of years, assumed very important proportions. The mills here, under the auspices of Thomas Riee, Esq., for many years
a most useful and influential citizen of the town, and his brother, Alexander H. Rice, Esq., ex-gov- ernor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, for a long time supplied all the paper for one of the most widely cireulated daily journals of Boston. The growth of the village at the Lower Falls, pre- vious to the enjoyment of railroad facilities, was very slow. In 1800 the whole number of families did not exceed eight or ten. In 1823 there were 405 inhabitants and about 33 dwelling-houses ; in 1837, 493 inhabitants and about S8 families ; in 1847, 560 inhabitants and about 103 families ; in 1850, 627 inhabitants and about 121 families and 80 dwelling-houses.
Public worship after the form of the Episcopal Church was first held in Newton Lower Falls in the autumn of 1811. The meetings were at first in the district school-house, and the service was read by Mr. John R. Cotting. An Episcopal parish was organized April 7, 1812, and Major Solomon Curtis and Thomas Durant were chosen wardens. A hall for worship was proeured in a building at the west corner of Main and Church streets. The society was incorporated by the legislature of Mas- sachusetts in June, 1813. Samuel Brown, a mer- chant of Boston, presented to the society two acres of land for a church and cemetery. The corner- stone of the church was laid September 29, 1813, and the church dedicated April 29, 1814, Rev. Bishop Griswold officiating. Public worship was afterwards conducted mainly by graduates of Cam- bridge who were students in theology, and by tem- porary supplies, till November 28, 1822, when Rev. A. L. Baury was installed rector. The Sun- day-school was organized in the spring of 1818. The church was enlarged in 1838, and the base- ment converted into a leeture-room. Mr. Banry was reetor till September, 1851. His successors were Rev. Henry Woods, 1851 to 1853; Rev. Andrew Croswell, 1853 to 1856; Rev. Henry Burroughs, 1856 to 1858; Rev. Benjamin F. De Costa, 1859; Rev. Winslow W. Sever, 1860 to 1865; Rev. Joseph Kidder, 1865 to 1868 ; Rev. Rieliard F. Putnam, 1868 to 1875. Rev. Henry Maekay, installed in 1876, is the present pastor.
The Methodist Church at Newton Lower Falls was organized in 1867.
West Newton, owing to the advantages of its location, but more to the enterprise of its inhabi- tants, early took a high position among the villages of the town. The large tavern-house, so called, still standing, shows the place to have been an im-
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portant one at an early period. Many stage- coaches, passing regularly through the village from towns, farther west, gave it prestige. When the Boston and Worcester Railroad was constructed, its station at West Newton gave the citizens of all the vicinity greater facility of going back and forth to the metropolis, and very soon suggested the possi- bility of doing business in the city, and at the same time enjoying the repose and the healthful atmos- phere of the country. The Fuller Academy, the first normal school, the model school, and the fact that the town-meetings were held at West Newton alternately with the meetings at Newton Centre, contributed still more to the growth of the village.
The first meetings held by Unitarians in West Newton took place in the summer of 1844 in the hall of the hotel, but were discontinued in August. They were revived again in 1847, and held in the village hall. Among the prominent early mem- bers were William Parker, Esq., and Hon. Horace Mann. Rev. Arthur B. Fuller spent three months in West Newton in 1847 -48, and aided in gathering the society. The first pastor was Rev. William Orne White, who was ordained in the vil- lage hall November 18, 1848. The first communion service was held January 7, 1849. After two years Mr. White resigned his office and removed to Keene, N. H., where he was pastor twenty-seven years. Rev. William H. Knapp was pastor from 1851 to 1853, and the next year Rev. C. E. Hodges engaged to preach on Sabbath afternoons at West Newton, and Sabbath forenoons in Watertown. Rev. Washington Gilbert followed for two years, Rev. Joseph A. Allen for two years, Rev. W. H. Sa- vary for three years, John C. Zacchos for two years, and later, Rev. Francis Tiffany. After worshipping in the village hall thirteen years, the present church edifice was built, and dedicated November 14, 1860.
The Baptist Church at West Newton was organ- ized in Newtonville, December 1, 1853, and held meetings in Tremont Hall several years. The first pastor was Rev. Joseph M. Graves; the second, Rev. B. A. Edwards. In March, 1860, their un- finished house of worship, built of brick, now the Methodist Church of Newtonville, was sold on account of embarrassments, and the meetings were suspended till June, 1866, when the church was reorganized at West Newton, services being held in the village hall, and the pulpit supplied by students of the Theological Institution. The chureli edifice, near Lincoln Park, was dedicated in August, 1871. The pastors since the reorganization have been Rev.
Ralph Bowles, 1866 - 1868 ; Rev. R. S. James, 1869 - 1870 ; Rev. W. M. Lisle, formerly mission- ary to Siam, 1870 - 1875 ; Rev. T. B. Holland, 1875 - 1878. Mr. Holland died in office.
In 1874 about twenty colored persons in West Newton formed a church, denominated the Myrtle Baptist Church. They erected a small chapel (dedicated in June, 1875), and soon increased in number to one hundred and eighteen. Rev. Ed- mund Kelly was pastor one year.
Father Michael Dolan took charge of a congrega- tion of about two hundred persons of the Roman Catholic persuasion in Boyden Hall, Newton Lower Falls, and with these persons in 1874-75, at a cost of about $15,000, he built a church on Wash- ington Street, now St. Bernard's Catholic Church, West Newton, near Lincoln Park.
The village of Auburndale originated in a sug- gestion of the Rev. Dr. Lyman Gilbert to the late Rev. C. D. Pigeon (graduated at Harvard University, 1818, died 1872). While Newtonville was only a flag-station on the Boston and Worcester Railroad, and its growth was all in the future, Dr. Gilbert casually remarked to Mr. Pigeon that he anticipated that it would come to be a place of importance, and that money invested in land at that locality would prove a success. He believed that if a small number of persons, from five to eight, would pur- chase season-tickets between that point and Boston, with the intention of making daily trips to the city, the railroad corporation would make it a regular stopping-place, and thus it would soon become the nucleus of a considerable village. Mr. Pigeon, a descendant of John Pigeon, whose name became famous at the beginning of the Revolutionary War as the stanch patriot who gave two field-pieces to the town of Newton, said to himself, " And why not also a similar station on the same conditions a mile or two farther westward ?" where the home of his ancestors was still standing. Acting on the thought, his plan was formed, and Auburndale be- gan to be. The first important enterprise in that part of the town was the erection of the Lasell Female Seminary. Numerous residents soon be- gan to côme in.
The Congregational Church, in Auburndale, was organized November 14, 1850, with thirty-three members. The hall of the Lasell Seminary was placed at the disposal of the church for two years after its organization, and the religious services were conducted in turn by several resident ministers, - Rev. Sewall Harding, Rev. J. E. Woodbridge, and
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Rev. M. G. Wheeler. The church edifice was dedi- cated in 1857, and has been since enlarged. The pastors have been Rev. E. W. Clark, 1857-1861 ; Rev. A. H. Carrier, 1864 - 1866 ; and Rev. Calvin Cutler, installed in May, 1867.
The Centenary Methodist Church, at Auburn- dale, originated in meetings first held in August, 1860, in private houses, and afterwards in an unoceupied school-house. The first sermon by a Methodist elergyman, preached in the inter- ests of Methodism in this part of Newton, was by Rev. George W. Mansfield, November 18, 1860. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was first administered by Rev. L. P. Frost, of Wal- tham, December 1, 1860. The Sabbath school was commeneed January 27, 1861. The church was organized, with twelve members, May 25, 1862. The place of worship which had been oc- cupied by the society was burned July 22, 1865. The corner-stone of the new chapel was laid De- cember 25, 1866, and the chapel dedicated May 25,1867.
Episcopal worship was held in a hall standing near the corner of Auburn and Lexington streets, Auburndale, as early as 1858. This hall was afterwards burned. A meeting was held to organ- ize the parish at the house of Jeremiah Allen, West Newton, September 8, 1871. Regular ser- vices were first held in the village hall, West New- ton, July 16, 1871, and continued from that date, either in the same hall, the Unitarian Church, or the chapel of Lasell Seminary, Auburndale. In July, 1872, Rev. C. S. Lester became the first reetor, and resigned in March, 1873. He was succeeded by Rev. H. W. Fay and Rev. Fran- cis W. Smith. The name of the society was changed, April 16, 1877, from the Church of the Messiah of West Newton to the Church of the Messiah of West Newton and Auburndale. The services have since been held in the chapel of the Lasell Seminary. Mr. Smith resigned Oeto- ber, 1877.
In April, 1635, a strip of land on the south side of Charles River two hundred rods in length and sixty rods in breadth, near the location of the bridge subsequently erected, was set apart to Wa- tertown, thus giving to Watertown seventy-five acres on the south side of the river. In 1705, by mutual arrangement, this space was inereased to eighty-eight acres. The whole length of the river- bounds of Newton, from 1679 to 1838, was fifteen miles and fifty-one rods ; the whole length of its
land-bounds, nine miles minus fifty-one rods. The whole length of its land and water bounds together, in 1838, was twenty-four miles, and the town contained an area of 14,513 acres. In 1838, 1,800 aeres from the south part of the town were ceded to Roxbury, and in 1849, 640 acres from the northwest part to Waltham, reducing the area to 12,073 acres. Covering, geographically, a wide area, as it did in the beginning, its villages were mainly disposed around the circumference, and the actual centre of the town was left nearly in its native wildness, until in the latest times it has been covered by an Irish population.
In 1660 the bridge was built across Charles River called the Great Bridge, connecting the north and south sides of the river. It was re- paired a few years later, the timber being used for that purpose which had been prepared to fence the town with a stockade as a protection against the assaults of Indian invaders, -the termination of King Philip's War and the humiliation of the sav- age tribes rendering such a defence no longer necessary. In 1690 this bridge was rebuilt at the joint expense of Cambridge and Newton, with some aid from the public treasury. It was across this bridge that the troops of Lord Percy marehed on the 19th of April, 1775, to meet their humil- iating defeat at Concord and Lexington. The American patriots took up the flooring of the bridge to prevent Percy's advance, laying the planks in a pile not far away, that they might be conven- iently restored when the danger was past. But Lord Percy's men soon found them and replaced them. This is the bridge in Cambridge over Charles River which has been long known as Brighton Bridge, connecting, as it does, the towns of Cambridge and Brighton. Before the erection of Cambridge Bridge (West Boston Bridge), the travel from Cambridge passed, by this bridge, through Brookline and Roxbury, over the neck, to Boston.
In 1741 mention is made of a bridge at New- ton Upper Falls, called Cook's Bridge, uniting Newton with Needham. In 1743 the records speak of a bridge between Newton and Weston. In 1753 a new bridge was completed between these towns, ninety-eight and two thirds feet in length. In 1761 a bridge was built between Newton and Waltham, at the joint expense of the two towns. It cost the town of Newton £ 12 16 s. 5 d., much of the timber for the struc- ture having been given for the purpose by private
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
parties. In 1765 the town voted to build one half the bridge called Kenrick's Bridge, the name being due to the fact that the land of John Kell- rick, one of the first settlers of Newton, was in this immediate vicinity. The bridge on Boylston Street was built in connection with the Boston and Worcester Turnpike in 1809. A bridge at the North Village was built by the Messrs. Bemis between 1790 and 1796. The bridge on Need- ham Avenue was built at the same time with that highway, in 1876. The first bridge at Newton Lower Falls was constructed previous to 1726.
The spirit of enterprise on one hand, and the desire for greater convenience on the other, which characterized the people of Newton from the be- ginning, and led them, in the earliest times to seek separation from Cambridge, continued to operate at a later period. Several families at the south part of the town, finding that they were nearer to the meeting-house in Roxbury than to their own, petitioned to be set off to that town for the pur- poses of public worship; and after much debate and opposition their petition was granted. When the meeting-house of the First Parish Church was built in its present location, the decision and the purchase of the land were preceded by long-con- tinucd and earnest inquiries as to the geographical centre of the town, the comparative distance from that point of the various families in the outskirts, the number of families attending worship in each portion of the town, and the possibility of provid- ing for the equal rights and privileges of all. And it was in consequence of these inquiries and the result of them, that the town determined to pur- chase of Mr. Nathaniel Parker, in 1716, the land on which the church edifice has stood without opposition from that date to the present time. In the earliest days of Newton this land was part of the estate of Mr. Jonathan Hyde. The course of events in later times has shown that the fathers of the town, unwittingly, formed a wise decision which entitles them to the gratitude of posterity.
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