USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 43
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the period when such work could be successfully prosecuted.
There is a tunnel of five hundred feet in length near Pleasant Street, built through quicksand and rock. The Beacon Street tunnel is cut through solid rock, 4,635 feet in length. At one place considerable quantities of iron and copper pyrites were found. One shaft was sunk on land of the late F. M. Johnson, about fifty-five feet in depth to the bottom of the tunnel, the excavation being carried on from each end, and from the shaft each way.
The Pine Farm School, an institution under the patronage of the Boston Children's Aid Society, and designed to furnish a home for boys rescued from the courts of Boston and saved from the haunts of vice and ruin, was commenced in 1864 in West Newton. It is located on a farm of twenty aeres, formerly the Murdock estate, and is situated at the corner of Homer and Chestnut streets. The place was purchased and fitted up for its present use in the winter of 1864, and an act of incorporation was procured, enabling the society to hold real estate to a certain amount, for the purpose of aiding children brought before the police courts, and to rescue them from vice and crime by all possible methods. Mr. Rufus R. Cook, chaplain of the jail in Boston, was from the beginning the efficient agent of the society. The building is designed to accommodate thirty boys. A small school-house, formerly a blacksmith's shop, is on the place, where the boys spend every day the hours usually devoted to school instruc- tion. The house was ready for use June 28, 1864, and a service of dedication was held on that day in a grove on the estate. The first superin- tendent and matron were Mr. and Mrs. lowe, followed in 1870 by Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Wash- burn. During the first seven years the unmber who had been inmates of the home was one hun- dred and ninety-five. As soon as it is judged safe, the boys are placed in permanent homes in the country, the watch-care of the society being still extended over them. A press and types have been procured, and some of the boys have learned to print so neatly and skilfully, that the annual reports of the Home have been issued for several years from this office.
A Home for Orphan and Destitute Girls was originated under the auspices of the Boston Chil- dren's Friend Society in 1866, and was sustained for a few years, but finally discontinued. A fund
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of $7,000 was raised by subseription to purchase and equip a house of merey for homeless and vi- cious girls under twelve years of age, received from the courts, or rescued from the haunts of vice in the neighboring city of Boston. The house pur- chased for this use was the boarding-house origi- nally erected in connection with the academy at Newton Centre, on Centre Street, opposite the es- tate formerly of Dr. Jonathan Homer, later of Mayor Speare. Here the girls were instructed in the usual branches of a common-school education, and also in needlework and household duties. The home was supported by the contributions of five denominations of Christians. The first admis- sion was November 12, 1866, and before the dedi- cation on Christmas Day, one month later, eight or nine more were admitted. The matron was Mrs. Rebecca B. Pomroy, well known for her faithful and efficient services in the hospitals of Washing- ton and in the family of Abraham Lincoln during the war. The Home prospered until the summer of 1868, when the building was set on fire by one of the inmates, and totally consumed. The school was then removed to the estate formerly of Mr. Ephraim Jackson, southeast of the Theological In- stitution. The number of girls in the Home in June, 1872, was twenty-two. But the necessity for such an institution seeming to be less apparent than in the beginning, it was suspended, and other provision was made for the inmates. One or two little waifs, however, remained, for whose disposi- tion there was no immediate opening. These be- came the nueleus of a new institution, - the Orphan Girls' Home, - since located at Newton, in the house on Hovey Street which was formerly the Episcopal parsonage, and from the commence- ment has been in charge of Mrs. Pomroy.
To the War of 1812 belongs the name of Gen- eral William Hull, a distinguished citizen of New- ton, who married Sarah, daughter of Judge Abraham Fuller, and resided for many years on the estate of her father, afterwards the property of ex-Governor Claflin, at Newtonville. General Hull built the brick portion of the Nonantum House at Newton. The house formerly standing on the old site, which was Judge Fuller's, was removed nearer the railroad, and is now oeeupied by J. L. Roberts, Esq. The services of General Hull during the Revo- lutionary War are said to have been constant and valuable. At the beginning of the War of 1812 he was appointed commander of the northwestern army for the conquest of Canada, and in an evil
hour surrendered his army to General Broek. Gen- eral Hull elaimed that he was not adequately sus- tained by the government; he published a defence of his eonduet, and his grandson, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, also prepared a pamphlet in which he exon- erates him from blame. On his return to Boston, a publie dinner was tendered to him by a number of the best citizens of the town, as an indication of their estimation of his worth. The venerable Seth Davis, now a nonagenarian, has such a convietion of his innocence and uprightness, that he sedulously earries flowers every year, on the appointed decora- tion day, to strew in his honor on his grave.
In the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, New- ton, which had so distinguished herself in the days of the Revolution, fully and honorably maintained her patriotie eharacter. In the progress of the war the town freely voted large amounts of money to meet the accruing expenses : November 4, 1862, $50,000; August 7, 1863, $5,000; April 3, 1864, $23,000; August 5, 1864, $20,000, -. in all, $98,000, of which $92,621 were actually ex- pended. The whole number of men required to fill the quota of Newton under the calls for volun- teers was 1,067 ; the number actually furnished by the town was 1,129. The number of volunteers mustered into service for three years who belonged to the town of Newton was 323. This is exclu- sive of those who served in the navy, and of others, natives of the town, but who were, at the date of ·their enlistment, citizens of other places.
The town of Newton furnished thirty-six com- missioned offieers and two general offieers, General A. B. Underwood and General J. Cushing Edmands. The whole number of Massachusettts regiments eon- taining one or more Newton men was thirty ; and in no less than seventy-five fields did the men of Newton imperil their lives for their country. Be- sides these, thirty-four men, at that time or for- merly connected with the Newton Theological Institution, served in various capacities in the army. Some of them suffered in prisons or on battle-fields, and brought baek only mutilated forms for the service of the church. The amount paid by the town and by individuals for military pur- poses, from the beginning of the war to February, 1865, near the elose, was $138,457. Of this sum, $46,918.92 were afterward's refunded to the town by aet of the legislature. In a thousand ways probably as much more was contributed, of which no record was ever kept and of which no adequate account ean be rendered.
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While Boston and many other cities and towns lingered in the work of rearing a fitting memorial to the patriotic dead, Newton was one of the ear- liest towns in the commonwealth to erect a monu- ment to the memory of her brave soldiers. It stands near the entrance of the cemetery in the cen- tre of the town, and was dedicated July 23, 1864, more than a year before the close of the war.
On the 31st of December, 1873, the town gov- ernment was brought to a close, after a duration of one hundred and ninety-four years, and the eity government was inaugurated January 1, 1874. The first mayor of the city, Hon. J. F. C. Hyde, is a native of the town, and his genealogy reaches back in regular suecession to its earliest records.
In a history reaching through nearly two hun- dred and fifty years many names have attained prominence.
Oakes Angier (born 1698, died 1783) kept a public-house near the location of the Nonantum House. From him that part of the town was for many years named Angier's Corner, until the sta- tion on the Boston and Albany Railroad displaced the old designation.
John Barber kept a public-house at West New- ton, and set out the great elm-tree which stands in front of it, in 1767. It was so small that he brought it from the woods on his shoulder. He was the second tenant, and the first male tenant of the West. Parish Cemetery.
Frederic Barden (died 1877) was proprietor of the rolling-mills at Newton Upper Falls, on Boyl- ston Street. He was representative to the General Court two sessions, and a prominent member of the Channing Church.
Dr. Henry Bigelow (died 1866) was a prominent physician at Newton Corner. For fifteen years he was at the head of the interests of education in the town, and to him, as chairman of the school eom- mittee, more than to any other person, Newton is indebted for the noble condition of its public schools. He was foremost in selecting, arranging, and adorning the beautiful cemetery in the centre of Newton, and the first president of the corporation.
Gardner Colby (died 1879) was born in Bow- doinham, Maine, September 3, 1810, and removed to Newton in 1846, making his residence liere equal to a generation of men. In early life he was a elerk for two years in a store in Charlestown, then in a dry-goods house in Boston, and at the age of twenty-two he commenced business for him- self, beginning with a capital of $500, which lie
borrowed. He was afterwards engaged in the dry- goods importing business, and in 1848 retired with a handsome competency. In 1850 he em- barked in the manufacture of woollens, being as- sociated with Mr. J. Wiley Edmands in the Mav- erick Mills in East Dedham; and, having large contracts with the government during the War of the Rebellion, he accumulated rapidly new re- sources. He retired a second time from business in 1863, and in 1870 undertook the building of the Wisconsin Central Railroad, a road three hundred and forty miles long, constructed through a wild and rough country ; he lived to see the road com- pleted. He was a publie-spirited citizen, inter- ested in all the improvements of Newton, and a liberal giver. He was treasurer of Newton Theo- logieal Institution twenty-seven years, and a mu- nificent patron of that institution, as well as of Brown University, and Colby University at Water- ville, Maine, which bears his name in honor of his munificent donation of $50,000 at one time to the funds of the college, followed afterwards by gifts of thousands. In the published list of subscribers for the support of Newton Institution, his name appears at one time for $3,000, at another for $11,000, and at a third for $ 18,000.
Captain Phineas Cooke (died 1784) was a direct descendant of Gregory Cooke, one of the first set- tlers of Newton. He was captain of a company of minute-men raised in 1773, commanded on the memorable day of Concord and Lexington by Colonel Michael Jackson. His house was at New- ton Corner, near the line of Watertown, - the same house which, after the war, was owned and occu- pied by General William Hull.
Mrs. Mary Davis (died 1752) lived to the great- est age of any person in Newton, being one hundred and seventeen years and one hundred and fifteen days old at the date of her death. She lived at the south part of the town (Oak Hill), and culti- vated the ground in her extreme age with her own hands. At the age of one hundred and four she could do a good day's work at shelling corn, and at one hundred and ten she sat at her spinning- wheel. There is a portrait of her in the rooms of the Massachusetts Historieal Society, painted by request of Governor Beleher.
Edward Durant (died 1782), son of Captain Edward Durant, was a man of wealth, inherited from his father. He was moderator of the town- meetings of Newton from 1765 to 1775, - that exciting period which drew on the Revolution, --
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a leading patriot, and one of the selectmen for four years. He was known as an active and leading spirit in opposing the measures of the British gov- ernment for more than ten years preceding the Revolutionary War, was chairman of a committee to report instructions to the representative to the General Court in 1765 on the passage of the Stamp Act, and a delegate to the Provincial Congress in 1774-75.
J. Wiley Edmands (died 1877) was the son of Thomas Edmands, Esq., and removed to Newton from Boston in 1847. He was a man of remark- able business tact and energy, a member of con- gress in 1852, presidential elector in 1868, and his name was mentioned on several occasions in con- nection with high official stations at Washington, including that of secretary of the treasury under President Lincoln. During the Civil War he was always ready with his influence and his resources to sustain the government, and two of his sons did honorable service in the field. He was one of the first liberal contributors to the Home for Orphan Girls in Newton, and the largest patron of the Newton Free Public Library, whose principal hall bears his name.
Rev. James Freeman, D. D. (died 1835), lived on the Skinner Place, so called, on Waverley Avenue, a large portion of the year for more than a quarter of a century. He was pastor of King's Chapel in Boston more than half a century, and it was during his ministry that that church, from Episcopal, be- came Unitarian, and changed the liturgy to accom- modate their views of doctrine. He was one of the first members of the Boston school committee, and one of the founders of the Massachusetts His- torical Society. He is buried in the Curtis tomb, in the old cemetery.
Joseph Fuller (died 1740), son of John, and known as Captain Fuller, received from his father- in-law, Edward Jackson, twenty acres from the west end of the Mayhew Farm, including what is now Newtonville, and covering the General Hull place, now owned and occupied by ex-Governor Claflin. Here Joseph Fuller built his house, and this twenty acres, with about two hundred in- herited from his father, formed the farm which descended to his grandson, Judge Fuller, and his great granddaughter Sarah, wife of General Wm. Hull. The large elm-tree near the house is said to have been planted, a mere riding-stick, by this Joseph Fuller. Until 1830 the hall was orna- mented by the horns of a deer, which he shot
from his front door. He gave the second training- field to the town.
Captain Amariah Fuller (died 1802) was select- man two years, and captain of the west company of militia. He and his company were in the en- gagements of Concord and Lexington. He was also at Dorchester Heights.
Colonel Nathan Fuller (died 1822), an influ- ential and patriotic citizen, joined the army at Cam- bridge at the time of the Revolution as captain of a company in Colonel Gardner's regiment. He was promoted to the rank of major, and took part in the Canada expedition of 1776. In 1795 he was representative to the General Court, and took a deep interest in the affairs of the church and town. In 1781 he gave to the West Parish an acre and a half for the burial-place, and in 1785, £60 for the use of the church and congregation.1
Judge Abraham Fuller (died 1794) was the leading citizen of Newton in his day. Previous to 1760 he kept a private grammar-school in Newton, and left in his will a sum of money to found the Fuller Academy. He was selectman four years, town clerk and treasurer twenty-seven years, com- mencing in 1766, representative to the General Court eighteen years, - the longest period of ser- vice in the last two departments of any citizen in Newton, - delegate to the Provincial Congress, senator, councillor, and judge of the court of common pleas. His only daughter married Gen- eral William Hull, who, after the death of Judge Fuller, removed to the old homestead.
Henry Gibbs (died 1761) came to Newton from Boston about 1742. Rev. Mr. Cotton, minister of the First Parish, was his brother-in-law. He built and occupied the house lately the residence of Marshall S. Rice, Esq. He was selectman six years, justice of the peace and representative three years. He left a provision in his will that his mansion-house should not be taken for a tavern, but for the residence of some gentleman of the dis- senting interest, who should support the dissent- ing minister in Newton. He also left a bequest
1 Colonel Nathan Fuller deserves a word more here. During the disastrous retreat of our army under General Sullivan from Canada, Colonel, then Major Fuller, of Bond's Massachusetts regi- ment, was put in charge of the baggage of the army. Deserted by all except eighty-seven of the five hundred men constituting the guard, and iu imminent danger of capture by the enemy, Major Fuller performed the duty assigned to him with signal fidelity, intelligence, and courage. It is enough to say that when an express from Fuller reached Colonels Stark and Poor, informing them of his critical situation, they returned, and at once put themselves under the orders of their gallant subordinate. -- ED.
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to aid in the evangelization of the Indian natives, but not in the Church of England form. Gibbs Street, which formed a part of his land, received its name in memory of him.
John Jackson (died 1675), eldest son of Deacon John Jackson, was probably the first child born in Newton of the permanent settlers. He died un- married, aged thirty-six years.
Captain John Jackson (died 1755) was the wealthiest man in Newton, paid the largest tax, and had the highest seat in the meeting-house.
Jonathan Jackson (died 1810), son of Edward and Dorothy (Quincy) Jackson, graduated at Har- vard College, 1761, as did also two of his sons, Charles (judge) and James (doctor), the latter of whom was professor in the Harvard Medical School from 1812 to 1836. Mr. Jackson was a member of the Provincial Congress, member of the National Congress in 1781, state senator, appointed by Washington first marshal of the district of Massa- chusetts, treasurer of Massachusetts, and also treas- urer of Harvard College.
Major Timothy Jackson (died 1814), father of the late Hon. William Jackson, served continu- ously from 1780 to 1811 in various town and
William Jackson.
state offices. He was adjutant and brigade-major in the militia, kept the town school in the north district two winters, was deputy sheriff ten years, selectman many years, moderator of nearly all the
town-meetings from 1795 to 1810 inelusive, and representative to the General Court fifteen years successively. His house, which was demolished in 1809, stood on the same ground as the present Jackson homestead.
Hon. William Jackson (died 1855) was elected representative to the General Court in 1819 and again in 1826 ; he was a member of the board of selectmen and of the school committee, took an early and decided stand in the cause of temperance, be- came one of the earliest and most ardent favorers of the enterprise of railroads, and was superintendent of construction of the Boston and Worcester and several other railroads, and director of the Western Railroad for nine years. He was one of the prime movers of the savings-bank in Newton, and its first president. He was elected member of Con- gress in 1830, and served two terms. His influ- ence was the primary cause of the establishment of special trains on the Boston and Albany Rail- road. He was the main-spring of the organization of the Eliot Church, and one of the deacons from the beginning, and also the mover and president of the American Missionary Association for the first eight years of its existence. His influence also led to the efficient development of the new village of Auburndale.
John Kenrick (died 1833) purchased the place formerly of Edward Durant, on Waverley Avenue. He was selectman two years, and representative to the General Court seven. In 1825 he made a donation to the town of $1,000, and afterwards other donations, amounting in all to $1,700, as the basis of a permanent fund for the relief of the poor of the town. He provided that the fund should be allowed to accumulate till it should amount to $4,000, and after that the whole an- nual income should be distributed to the indus- trious poor, especially widows and orphans. The fund reached the stipulated amount ($4,000) in 1851. Mr. Kenrick was an ardent friend of the temperance reform, and a liberal contributor to the first antislavery society in this country, and died its president.
Dr. John King (died 1807), of Newton Centre, was the only physician in Newton for nearly half a century. He came from Sutton, and his house was on the site of the present residence of Gusta- vus Forbes, Esq. The house still stands in its new location on Pelham Street. Dr. King was selectman eight years, and for several years was moderator of the town-meetings. He was a true
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patriot, and member of several committees during the revolutionary struggle. He was one of the minute-men from Newton in the battle of Lex- ington, and one of the soldiers from Newton designated to guard Burgoyne's army. In that service, after visiting his patients at Newton in the morning, he started for the prisoner's camp to perform corporal's duty. He was representa- tive in 1792. His son, Captain Henry King, was one of the guard at the execution of Major André ; he lived on the farm on Homer Street now owned and occupied by Rev. George J. Carleton.
Hon. Horace Mann (died 1859) resided for several years on Walnut Street, West Newton. He was a native of Franklin, Massachusetts, grad- uated at Brown University, studied law in Litch- field, Connecticut, and commenced practice as a lawyer in Dedham, continuing in practice fourteen years. He was a member of the House of Rep- resentatives from 1828 to 1833, and of the Senate from 1833 to 1837, and president of the Senate from 1836 to 1837. He was the originator of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, which was the parent of all similar institutions throughout the country. He was the first secretary of the Board of Education, and through his influence important changes were made in the school-laws and educa- tional system of the state. He was member of Congress in 1848-53, candidate of the Free-Soil party for governor of Massachusetts in 1852, the originator of normal schools and teachers' conven- tions, and finally president of Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Hon. David H. Mason (died 1873) resided in Newton for twenty-five years, and was one of its most prominent and useful citizens. He was a member of the House of Representatives three years, and the tried and trusted friend and adviser of the patriotic Governor John A. Andrew, during the war of 1861-1865. He declined the nomina- tion of state senator on account of the claims of his profession as a lawyer. In 1859 he delivered the oration at the celebration of the eighty-third anniversary of American Independence, held at Newton Centre. Among the measures before the legislature in which he took a leading part were the consolidation of the Boston and Worcester and Western Railroad corporations, equalizing the bounties of the soldiers, adopting the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, making the Milldam free of toll, and lev- elling Fort Hill in Boston. He was for several
years an efficient member of the Board of Educa- tion, and was deeply interested in promoting the high character of the schools of Newton. In 1870 he was appointed United States District Attorney for the State of Massachusetts, which was his last public service.
Otis Pettee (died 1853) for nearly a quarter of a century was the leading man at Newton Upper Falls, a man of remarkable mechanical ingenuity and great business capacity. He was superinten- dent of the mills of the Elliot Manufacturing Com- pany, and afterwards a large manufacturer of cotton machinery. His improvements in cotton machinery have been highly valued for their practical utility. He was the leader and moving spirit in the enter- prise which culminated in the New York and New England Railroad, and presided over the construc- tion and operation of the road through his own village and beyond. Every part of Newton Upper Falls bears witness to his wisdom and enterprise.
Marshall S. Rice (died 1879) came to Newton in 1824, purchased the Gibbs place at Newton Centre, which was the seat of a school in which more than one thousand boys passed under his tuition. Mr. Rice was the main support of the Methodist Church and Society at Newton Upper Falls, superintendent of the New York and New England Railroad (Woonsocket Branch, at first the Charles River Branch Railroad) at the beginning, selectman, rep- resentative four years, and town-clerk twenty-seven years, till the town of Newton became a city.
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