USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 56
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In 1866 a reapportionment of legislative dis- tricts was authorized, and Somerville and Malden
were united into the Fourth District, and entitled to three representatives, in a ratio of sixteen to fourteen upon an aggregate of thirty representa- tives in the ten years, and under the census of 1875, upon which a new apportionment was made in 1876, Somerville became entitled to send three representatives to the General Court, which was done for the session of 1877 and thereafter.
In 1867 a night watch was established.
During this year the Forster School building was erected, and the large hall in the upper story was fitted up for the use of the town. Town-meetings were first held in the Medford Street school-house, or the little engine-house on the corner of Prospect and Washington streets, until the completion of the Unitarian Church, when its vestry was hired for the meetings. The town occupied the lower hall of the high-school house from the time of the erection of this building until the increasing needs of the school compelled a transfer of the town-hall to the Forster School.
For several years the subject of an abundant supply of pure water had been under consideration. Previous to the year 1864 the inhabitants had de- pended upon wells, not only for drinking purposes, but generally in case of fire. For the five years succeeding this date the east village, the McLean Asylum, and a part of Winter Hill had been sup- plied from the mains running from Mystic Lake to Charlestown. At a meeting of the town, No- vember 5, 1867, a committee was appointed to meet the Charlestown board of water commission- ers, and to contract for the general introduction of Mystic water into the town. April 13, 1868, this committee reported, and another, consisting of Aaron Sargent, C. E. Rymes, R. E. Demmon, R. A. Vinal, and C. Downer, was instructed to procure an act from the legislature authorizing the town to make arrangements for a water supply, and to raise $100,000 for defraying the cost of the same. September 18, the act was accepted by the town, and the committee, styled the Somerville Mystic Water Committee, proceeded to confer with the Charlestown anthorities. Within three days a contract was drawn up and signed, whereby the inhabitants of Somerville should be sufficiently furnished with water, provided the supply was more than adequate for the wants of Charlestown and Chelsea, at the rates charged to the inhabitants of these cities, with a rebate to the town. Distri- bution pipes were immediately connected with the Charlestown mains, at the corner of Medford Street
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and Broadway, and during the following year the town was generally supplied with water. March 11, 1870, a legislative enactment was procured to raise bonds to the additional amount of $100,000, for the extension of the works, and March 19, 1872, a third issue was authorized, increasing the amount to $400,000. Forty-four miles of pipe have been laid in the city. The debt for the construction of the water-works is $335,000, and the annual municipal outlay for water purposes is nearly $14,000.
Although the contract between Somerville and Charlestown imposes conditions which might have · been foreseen and guarded against by a more ear- nest attention to the subject, when the introduction of water from Mystic Lake into Charlestown was in contemplation ; the inhabitants of Somerville are receiving their annual water supply at less than the average cost to cities of the commonwealth.
Prior to 1867 the sewerage of Somerville was in a primitive condition; a few private sewers and open drains, emptying into river basins, creeks, and stag- nant pools, sufficiently supplied the needs of the inhabitants.
In 1867 the first town sewer was laid, and during the two following years a system was in- angurated which has since been essentially adhered to, and which has brought the greater part of the city to a satisfactory condition in respect to this important item of municipal regulation.
That watershed whose natural outlet was Miller's River was drained by trunk sewers constructed from West Somerville to Charles River along the line of Somerville Avenue and Beacon and Wash- ington streets. The valley of the Lowell Railroad has been provided with an outlet into the old Charlestown mill-pond. A trunk sewer running under Broadway and the Park supplies the region tending towards the Mystic River. The watershed comprising the Walnut Hill district, having a nat- ural outlet in Alewife Brook, is still sufficiently supplied with sewerage. Authority was obtained from the legislature, May 20, 1873, to drain into this stream, but it has been deemed inadvisable to take advantage of the act. The city is now sup- plied with twenty-five miles of sewerage.
July 9, 1868, the Flint Street Methodist Epis- copal Church was organized. It began under the auspices of the First Methodist Society, and wor- shipped in the chapel in Tufts Street. September 13, 1871, the chapel in Flint Street was dedicated. Rev. W. B. Toulmin is the present pastor.
In 1868 the graduates of the high school since the year 1862, and the members attending prior to that date, reorganized an association which they had formed some four years previous, and which had been for some time quiescent. The leading spirit in this new movement, Edward E. Edgerly, believed an association of the graduates of the town's highest educational institution should be a power for good in the community; consequently the Somerville High School Association was reformed, not with the sole intention of refreshing the scenes and renewing the acquaintances of youth, but to consider and discuss the social and educational problems of the day ; to teach the simpler branches to those who had not the opportunity of instruc- tion in youth ; to supplement and continue the teaching of the schools by classes or lectures ; and to introduce or further any scheine for the in- tellectual growth or moral welfare of the town. The object was noble, and not entirely in vain was the work of Mr. Edgerly, who, unhappily for the cause of education, died within the short space of two years. By his efforts and example the Associa- tion has been able to render honorable service to the citizens. It has instituted a course of lectures in almost every season for the last ten years, it has supported classes for the pursuit of special subjects, and it suggested and aided in the establishment of the free public library.
The Association was incorporated by act of legis- lature, February 21, 1871, and authorized to hold property to the amount of $50,000.
In November, 1868, two petitions were presented to the legislature, asking for a division of the town, but the subject received little encouragement. In that year the selectmen ordered a census to be taken, which showed the population to be 12,535.
December 23, 1869, the St. Joseph Catholic Church was formed. The society worshipped at first in Hawkins Hall. November 21, 1874, the present church edifice was dedicated. Rev. C. T. McGrath was the first pastor, and still continues in office.
The graves of Somerville's fallen soldiers were first decorated in 1869, by George O. Brastow, Lebbeus Stetson, and a few other patriotic citizens, with money raised by private subscription.
August 17, 1870, the Willard C. Kinsley Post 139, Grand Army of the Republic, was constituted. Many of its charter members were from the John A. Andrew Post of Boston. Colonel C. F. King was chosen the first commander. He was suc- ceeded by Colonel H. E. Hill, to whom the post
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is perhaps more indebted than to any other indi- vidual.
In 1870 the police department, which up to this time had been of minor consideration, was re- organized, and one captain, eight night watchmen, and four day patrolmen were in regular servicc.
In 1870 was printed the first paper, devoted ex- clusively to the interests of Somerville. During a few years previous The Charlestown Chronicle had given many of its columns to the news of its neigh- - bor; but the rapid growth of the town served to justify the establishment of a home-sheet, and the first issue of The Somerville Journal appeared on December 3. It has continued to be published weekly with increasing success.
In 1870 the Lexington and Arlington Branch railroad was constructed, and in December began running trains through a part of the town hitherto but sparsely populated. From this innovation dates the growth of West Somerville; and there is now an extensive village, with its residences, churches, school-houses, stores, and depots, where in 1870 there were less than half a dozen cottages surrounded by open fields.
For several years much dissatisfaction had been manifested with the town system of government. The town was becoming too large, her public busi- ness too various, important, and laborious to be wisely considered and impartially despatched in town-meeting. Some citizens favored annexation to Charlestown and Boston; others urged the es- tablishment of a separate city government.
In 1869 the town instructed her representatives to favor annexation, and cast a small vote for a city charter. During the following year the advocates of the latter form of government gained ground, and early in 1871 a petition was presented to the legislature, and April 14 an act passed to establishi the city of Somerville. April 27, the act was ac- cepted in town-meeting by a vote of three hundred and thirty-six to one hundred and seventy. But an undercurrent in favor of annexation existed for some time after the acceptance of the city charter. Meetings were held in the various ward-rooms, on the first Monday of December, for the election of such city officers as the law required. George O. Brastow was elected mayor, and a city council of two aldermen and four common councilmen was chosen from each of the four wards with a high degree of unanimity.
On the 1st of January, 1872, the citizens as- sembled in the hall of the Forster School-house
for a formal inauguration of the city government. Twenty-six persons who were legal voters at the founding of the town occupied prominent seats upon the platform. After the address of the mayor- elect one hundred guns were fired. The day was made one of public rejoicing, and closed with a grand ball in the same hall.
Upon the new city council devolved an unusual amount of labor, not only in the instituting of a proper code of ordinances for the government of their own and successive bodies, but in that of despatching through untried channels a public business much increased by the exigencies of a new city and of a rapidly increasing population.
The old high-school building was fitted up for a city liall. Charles E. Gilman, who had held the clerkship from the founding of the town, was elected city clerk. Aaron Sargent was elected treasurer.
A seal was established, with the device of Wash- ington standing on Prospect Hill, grasping the standard of the unfurled Union flag. In the back- ground is a view of a part of Boston, and showing the State House and Bunker Hill Monument. In a narrow inner circle about this centre-piece are the words, "Somerville, founded 1842, Estab- lished a City 1872." In an outer circle is the city's motto, " Municipal Freedom Gives National Strength."
April 23, an act to establish a police court was ap- proved, and June 24, with appropriate ceremonies, the court was constituted. Isaac Story was ap- pointed standing justice, and Lebbeus Stetson clerk.
From the founding of the town until 1854 criminal cases were taken to Charlestown and East Cambridge for trial. From this latter date until the incorporation of the city, almost without inter- ruption, cases were tried by Francis Tufts, under commission as justice of the peace, and sub- sequently under a law by which certain trial jus- tices were triennially designated and commissioned, who should exercise authority and jurisdiction in .criminal cases in any town in the county where no police court was established. The first trials in Somerville, and those for many years, were conducted in the office of Captain Tufts, on the southern corner of Medford and Washington streets. In 1861 the court was moved to the building on the castern corner of Prospect Street and Somerville Avenue. After the city police court was constituted, the business of the depart- ment was held in a room at the city hall until the building in Bow Street was erected.
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Although the ten years previous to the city charter included the period of the Civil War, Som- erville made a progress in growth unprecedented in her own history, and perhaps unequalled in that of any other in the state. The population, 14,685 by the census of 1870, was estimated at 16,000, a gain of nearly one hundred per cent in the ten years. The number of polls was registered at 4,105, showing a much larger percentage of gain. The number of dwellings had increased to 3,061, making the same relative advance. The schools now numbered fifty-four, eight having been organ- ized in this period, and seven male and fifty-eight female teachers gave instruction to a school popu- lation of 2,951.
Jannary, 1872, the town debt was $593,349, and the amount raised by taxation the previous year, $270,460.95. While the taxable valuation of the state had doubled, that of the town had quadrupled, being fixed at $22,755,000, May 1, 1872.
. For some years the basin of Miller's River had been a growing nuisance, from its use as the outlet of the sewers and as a depository of offal from the slaughter-houses upon its banks; and in 1872 it was felt that the public health demanded that measures should be taken for remedying this great and increasing evil. Consequently on May 3 and 6 acts were passed by the legislature, -the former authorizing the filling of lands to a grade thirteen feet above mean low water, and the latter empower- ing the harbor commissioners and the state board of health to investigate the cause of the nuisance, and recommend measures for its abatement.
The board of commissioners reported plans for filling the river, and the city council took steps towards procuring an aet, May 23, 1873, whereby the cities of Cambridge and Somerville were anthor- ized to fill the river and to construet a sewer along Somerville Avenue and Bridge Street to the Charles River, which should be an outlet to this made land, the surrounding distriets, and such other territo- ries as the river would naturally have drained.
Work was begun upon these important measures without delay, and prosecuted uninterruptedly, as far as the seasons would permit, until their com- pletion at the elose of the following year. This work was one of vast magnitude and expense, but by its accomplishment the city was not only rid of an intolerable nuisance, but it seeured for taxation an extensive and valuable piece of property within two miles of the heart of the metropolis.
In 1872 the Holland Street Methodist Episcopal Church was formed, largely through the exertions of the Rev. Mr. Lacount. Rev. A. E. Winship held the first pastorate. The chapel was dedicated May 1, 1873. The present pastor is Rev. William Merrill.
During the second year of Mr. Brastow's ad- ministration the most important measures were the opening of the public library, the abatement of the Miller's River nuisance, the erection of the Luther V. Bell school-house and the George O. Brastow hose-house, besides constant and extensive im- provements in streets and sidewalks.
To Henry M. Brown, treasurer of the Somer- ville High School Association, belongs the honor of originating the movement which resulted in the establishment of the public library. He believed that the furtherance of such a project came within the scope of the purposes of the Association, and in 1870 he wrote a letter to the trustees, select- men, and school committee, urging the matter upon their attention. The seleetmen promptly re- sponded, Deeember, 1869, by appointing a com- mittee of three to confer with one from the Asso- eiation. In March, 1870, similar committees were appointed, who prepared a brief plan for operating the proposed library ; but this was not ratified by the citizens, who in town-meeting, April, 1871, appointed another committee of sixteen to prepare a more elaborate code of regulations. The report of this committee was accepted and adopted by the town in November, 1871. It was therein pro- vided that a board of trustees should be chosen by the first eity eouneil as soon after its organization as should be convenient. Notwithstanding the efforts of the Association, which made the promo- tion of this educational scheme one of its especial objeets, no further municipal action was taken until June 1; 1872, when it was voted that a room be forthwith prepared for a library. October 21, a board of nine trustees was appointed. Mr. Isaac Pitman consented to become the nominal head of the library during its formation, and Miss Harriet A. Adams was chosen assistant librarian. The first purchase of books was made in March, 1873, and the library was opened to the publie in May with a collection of more than two thousand volumes. The circulation for the first year was 24,693. In 1878 it had become 61,076, and the number of volumes had increased to 7,441. The total number of borrowers registered since the opening was 7,780. One room sufficed for the uses
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of the library until 1876, when a smaller one was added, with a reading-table supplied with twenty- five newspapers and periodicals. The library is open six hours daily. When the institution was in successful operation, Mr. Pitman resigned, and Miss Adams was promoted to the position to which she has been annually re-elected.
W. H. Furber, who had held the position of alderman since the formation of the city, was elected mayor in 1874.
This administration completed the widening of Highland Avenue and Milk Street, and many meas- ures begun by their predecessors. It continued the generous linc of improvements deemed neces- sary in view of the increasing population and valuation of the city.
April 4, 1874, the West Somerville Congrega- tional Church was formed, under the auspices of the Home Missionary Society, and the ministration of Rev. Charles Mills. The present house of wor- ship was dedicated December 3, 1876. Rev. Albert Bryant is the present pastor.
June 22, 1874, the Broadway Methodist Epis- copal Church was formed through the labors of J. Benson Hamilton, of the Flint Street society. In November the new congregation first occupied its present house of worship, the vestry of a contem- plated edifiee.
In the spring of 1874 the Prospect Hill Con- gregational Church had its beginning at the house of M. P. Elliot. A Sabbath school was soon after- wards gathered, and the church organized Decem- ber 20. The following year the present pastor, Rev. A. E. Winship, was installed. Services were held in the "Hill " building until October 19, 1876, when the present church edifice was dedicated.
An act having been procured from the legislature for the establishment of a public park, the city council voted to accept it, and immediately began the purchase of an area of low land lying between Mount Benedict and Winter Hill, thinly settled and undesirable for dwellings, for the site of the pro- posed improvement. The construction continued during the following two years, when on June 17, 1876, it was appropriately dedicated. The cost of construction was $212,993.20.
In 1875 Mr. Furber received the indorsement of the citizens by a hearty re-election, and con- tinued the same diligent oversight of the public interests which had characterized his first term of office. As the years 1874 and 1875 were the ones of greatest inflation and speculation, particularly
in the matter of real estate, there was in the com- munity a wide-spread and clamorous demand for extensive and somewhat unreasonable public im- provements, involving large expenditures of money, and it became exceedingly difficult to be able to define the proper official course to pursue between the idea of prudence on the one hand and obedience to the popular will on the other. During these years the police court building was constructed, Broadway was widened and graded, and improve- ments in the various departments of the city con- tinued. Austin Belknap served as mayor during the years 1876-77, being succeeded by George A. Bruce, the present incumbent.
In accordance with an act of legislature in 1875, to regulate municipal indebtedness, a board of com- missioners of the sinking-funds was appointed to manage sums annually set apart for the payment of the various municipal loans at their maturity. $ 144,963.84 was held by this commission Janu- ary 1, 1879. In 1877 the houses in sixteen streets were numbered.
The West Somerville Baptist Church was or- ganized May 13, 1877. It sprang from the Union Church formed in 1874. Rev. J. R. Haskins was the first, and Rev. William Lisle is the present pastor.
In 1878 an act of legislature authorizing the establishment of boards of health in the cities of the commonwealth was accepted by Somer- ville, and such a board organized. Accurate maps indicating the prevalence of the various con- tagious diseases in all parts of the town have been prepared, and such sanitary measures have been taken as would be most likely to guard against epidemics. At present nearly every dwelling is connected with the sewerage. Prior to this year the seleetmen and aldermen had constituted them- selves boards of health, but this department did not become a regular source of expense to the town until 1866.
Selwyn Z. Bowman, the first citizen of Somerville, chosen to the national legislature, was elected to the Forty-Sixth Congress.
Mr. Bowman was born in Charlestown, May 11, 1840. He graduated at Harvard College in 1860, and subsequently at the Harvard Law School. He was chosen the first solicitor of the city, and a member of the first board of trustees of the public library.
Before his election to Congress he served with distinction in the state house of representatives in
BOŞTIN FUBI C LIBRARY
The Old Powder-House.
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the years 1870, 1871, and 1875, and in the senate in 1876 and 1877.
In 1878 the total valuation of the city was fixed at $20,976,900, a third less than in 1875. The city debt in 1879 was $1,585,000. For the ex- tinguishment of this debt, $45,525 are raised annually by taxation, and set apart as sinking- funds, in accordance with the provisions of statute law. There are in the city twenty religious so- cieties and eighty-two schools. The great ques- tions of water and sewerage have been satisfactorily disposed of. The highways have been thoroughly reconstructed and are in fair condition, and the city seems to be entering a season of prosperity unrivalled in her history.
In 1857 John Abbot Lodge of F. and A. M. was instituted. It holds its meeting on the first Tues- day in each month, at Masonic Hall, Union Square. Soley Lodge, which has its time of regular com- munication on the third Monday of each month, is now working under dispensation. Somerville Royal Arch Chapter was constituted in 1871, and meets the second Tuesday in each month, at Ma- sonic Hall, Union Square.
Somerville Encampment, No. 48, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, meets the second and fourth Monday of each month. Oasis Lodge, No. 146, was instituted September 17, 1868, and meets every Thursday evening, at Odd Fellows Hall, Union Square. Paul Revere Lodge, No. 184, was instituted March 15, 1878, and meets every Tuesday evening at Fraternity Hall, Broad- way. Ivaloo Lodge, No. 7, Daughters of Rebekah, meets the second Friday in each month. The in- stallation of officers occurs the second Friday in January ..
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There are six temperance organizations in Som- erville : The Welcome Home Lodge, No. 71, In- dependent Order of Good Templars, instituted June 29, 1877, and which meets at 18 Summer Street ; the Banner Division, No. 63, Sons of Temperance, which meets every Thursday evening at Bacon Hall, Union Square ; the Clarendon Division, No. 85, Sons of Temperance, which meets at Clarendon Hall, West Somerville, every Monday evening; St. Paul Temple of Honor, No. 41, which meets in Independence Hall, Reed's Corner, Charlestown, every Wednesday evening ; the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, organ- ized April 26, 1876, which meets at Associate Hall, Union Square, every Wednesday at 3 P. M ; and the St. Joseph's Total Abstinence Society,
which meets the second Sunday in each month in the Old Meeting-house, Webster Avenue, at 4 P. M.
Among other organizations are the Franklin Lodge, No. 41, Knights of Pythias, which meets in Pythian Hall, Union Square, every Tuesday evening ; Elm Council, No. 36, of the Royal Ar- canum, West Somerville, which meets the first and third Thursday, in Arcanum Hall; Somerville Council, No. 6, R. A., which meets the first and third Wednesday of each month; Unity Council, No. 59, R. A., which meets in Fraternity Hall the first and third Monday in each month ; Excel- sior Council, No. 3, R. A., instituted August 8, 1877, and which meets in Franklin Hall the first and third Wednesday; Warren Lodge, No. 89, which meets every Monday evening in Odd Fellows Hall, Union Square ; Cameron Lodge, No. 1,146, which meets in Arcanum Hall, West Somerville, the second and fourth Tuesday of each month ; Winter Hill Lodge, No. 423, which meets in the hall, Broadway Street, every Tuesday evening, - all Knights of Honor; and the Willard C. Kinsley encampment, Post 139, Grand Army of the Repub- lic, which meets at Police Station Hall on every Monday evening.
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