History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 106

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 106

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Beginning with the first volume and first number (Oct. 18, 185]) the Woburn Journal published the towo records of births, marriages and deaths, completing the publication July 5, 1856. The compiler (Na- tban Wyman) was also a frequent contributor of obituaries and histori- cal articles to that paper ; the last efforts of bis pen were eleven articles entitled, " Material for History," on such subjects as tithingmen, bells, strollers, old receipts and bills, Jack Rand, the poetry of Zebadiah Wy- man, oration by Abijah Thompson, unpublished letters of members of Count Rumford's family ; the first article appeared July 6, 1883, and the last Nov. 23, 1883. The present writer's first piece for the Journal ap- peared twenty-one years ago, on Feb. G, 1869, and a large number from his pen oo historical subjects have appeared since. The Rev. Leander Thompson has also contributed many papers on historical subjects to the Journal, and the Hon. E. F. Johnson has been an occasional writer, a unique production of his pen being the "Story of a Hearse," which appeared in the Journal on Sept. 10, 1886.

The principal historical writer in the Woburn Advertiser was the Inte

1 Cf. Woburn Journal, Aug. 5, 1881, for an account of the affair. '

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WOBURN.

Alfred A. Newball. His most notable contribution was on the houses in Woburn in 1832, first published in 1871, and again, with additione, io 1881-1882, or fifty years after 1832. At that date the taveros were Ben- jamin Wood's, Marshall Fowle's, John Flagg's, Ira Glover's, -Haines', the Tay Tavern, Daniel Mixer's and the Black Horse. The stores were kept by Bowen Buckman, James Bridge, John Fowle, Zobadiah Wyman, Martio L. Converse, Stephen Nichols, S. T. Richardson, William Gram- mer and Joel F. Thayer. For population in 1832, churches, school- houses, shve.manufacturers, bakery, tailor, painter and harness-maker, tin manufacturer, leather manufacturers, physicians and lawyers, see his article in Advertiser, Nov. 3, 1881. The people, the academy, the caual and Horn Pond are the subject of that for Nov. 10, 1881. The Young Men's Society, the Selectmen and the ministers that for Nov. 24, 1881. The mills, the use of wood and peat, the town meadow, the first shoe-store (ahont 1838), and the stage to Boston that for Dec. 1, 1881. The streets, Horn Pond Mountain, Rag Rock, the places where town- meetings were held, the questions of temperance and anti-slavery form the subject of an article, Nov. 17, 1881. These were followed by a seriee of articles entitled, "Observationa About Town."

Mr. Charles K, Conn has written some local historical articles for the City Press. Mr. Nathaniel A. Richardson, a well-informed authority, has also written some characteristic articles for the Journal.

The principal writers on the paper called Our Paper 'were the Rev. William S. Barnes and Librarian George M. Champney.

NED KENDALL .- A reminiscence of the Horn Pond resort is found in an article by a recent writer on the subject of Ned Kendall, the famous Boston bugler (1808-1861). This writer says of Kendall : "In his palmiest days he frequently went to Woburn with military and other organizations, as well as with his own 'Boston Brass Band.' The 'Horn Pond House,' near a charming lake and in the midst of delightful scenery, was a place of great attraction to parties of pleasure and recreation. At the tables after the cloth was removed, Kendall's Band would intersperse the speaking with the most choice and enlivening music. Without announcement, without baton and beating of time to lead or to show that he was leader, he and his compeers would intermix the most mellifluous strains that graced the occasion ; and drew boys and, perhaps, birds to hear the mar- velous music." There is to be seen in the antique department of the Woburn Public Library, the pic- ture of one of the encampments of these military organizations near the Horn Pond Hotel. The pic- ture is entitled, " Encampment, Woburn, Mass.," and was drawn by C. Hubbard and lithographed by T. Moore, Boston. The organization encamped was the New England Guard (or Guards), of Boston, with a Boston brass band. Two small cannon are shown in the illustration, though the organization itself is drilling as infantry in the foreground. The field was in rear of the Horn Pond Hotel and on the top of the Academy Hill, and was an open space, the only one, perhaps, on the hill; the remainder of the hill being then covered with woods. It was on Warren Street, and to the south of present Sturgis Street. The time was the last week of June, 1838. Cf. Wo- burn Journal, Feb. 23, 1883. The Salem corps of cadets were accustomed to encamp in a field adjoin- ing Horn Pond, being a part of the Josiah Richardson farm, till a comparatively recent date.

One who remembers those days,1 says of one of

these military jollifications at the .Mishawnm House, that the boys outside were entertained by parties throwing out oranges from the upper windows of the hotel among them, to see the boys scramble to get them. Our informant was one of the boys who wit- nessed the performance, and was a party with them. The wanton extravagance and drunken carousals of these organizations, on these occasions, no doubt, bronglit the military into disrepute among the sober- minded citizens of Woburn, and did much to lower the true military spirit which should exist in all communities for the safety of the commonwealth and nation.

OTHER MATTERS .- We have no desire to describe the various isms which have affected the community in the years since the beginning of the century. Whatever has been sensible in them has been appro- priated by the common-sense of the community. Nor will we describe the various political contentions that have arisen and excited unusual attention from time to time. In 1834 and 1835 occurred some trouble about the election of some representatives, and two publications have been preserved which were issued concerning it, -one was a remonstrance against the election of John Wade and others as representa- tives, 1834, and the other a report of the committee on elections, case of J. Wade and others, returned as members from the town of Woburn, 1835. Mr. Nathaniel A. Richardson, of Winchester, who was in public life at about that time, probably knows more of those exciting days, and their inside influences, than any one now living.

In 1842 the original first church of Woburn cele- brated its two hundredth anniversary; and the town, coeval in its organization with the history of the church, took no particular notice of its own bi-cen- tennial anniversary. In 1845 was opened a new cemetery on Salem Street. An original printed pro- gramme of the exercises at its dedication is to be seen in the antique department of the Woburn Pub- lic Library ; and a copy of the original printed pro- gramme of the two hundredth anniversary of the church, in 1842, is in the present writer's possession, and another copy of the same programme was given by him to the Winchester Historical Society. Such prints are now scarce. The new cemetery was dedi- cated October 30, 1845. The ceremony consisted of an invocation by Rev. Webster B. Randolph, volun- tary by the Marion Band, reading of the Scriptures by Rev. Silas B. Randall, original hymn by Mrs. Mary L. Bennett, address by Rev. Joseph Bennett, consecrating prayer by Rev. Luther Wright, hymn, Old Hundred, and the benediction by Rev. Silas B. Randall. The day was Tuesday, and the weather fine. The ceremony commenced at one o'clock, after- noon, and continued about one hour. It was inter- esting to the one thousand or more persons present,- a large out-door audience for Woburn at that time. The original section of the enclosure was designed

1 Dr Ephraim Cutter, born 1882.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

by Amasa Farrier, and laid out under the direction of a committee composed of Abijah Thompson, Oliver C. Rogers, Moses F. Winn, Samuel T. Rich- ardson and Nathaniel A. Richardson. The last- named gentleman is the only survivor of that com- mittee at the present time. The area has been enlarged, and now contains entrances on Salem, Charles and Beach Streets. By the donation of $5000 by the will of Sewall Flagg, in 1866, a tract of eleven and three-quarters acres was acquired, which was added to the original yard, and is now laid out into lots in general use. Another section of over six acres being added by purchase, the whole area is twenty- eight acres. In 1873 a plan of the whole was made by J. R. Carter, C. E., and in 1874 a new receiving tomb was built. Cf. Woburn Journal, Jan. 9, 1875. The first one buried in this cemetery was Jephthah Munroe -- Larch Path, near receiving tomb. A man- ual of Woburn Cemetery, containing lists of the lots and their owners, with a historical sketch, the by- laws, town votes, etc., was published in 1877. An account of its funds was published in the town report for Feb. 29, 1888, pp. 94-105.

Another cemetery was opened by the Roman Cath- olic sect, at Montvale, in 1856.1

The great fire at Woburn Centre, loss estimated at first accounts at $75,000, occurred March 6, 1873. It was the most destructive fire which ever occurred in Woburn, was discovered at half-past six o'clock in the evening, and at seven o'clock it was apparent that the town fire apparatus could not cope with it, and help from other places was sent for. Boston sent two engines and a hose-carriage, and Stoneham and Win- chester an engine each. The aid which they were ready to render was frustrated by the lack of water. The fire was occasioned by the explosion of a kero- sene lamp. The burned district covered an area of nearly four acres, on Main, between Everett and Wal- uut Streets. This plot was occupied by two wooden blocks of two and a half stories each, owned by Jo- seph Kelley, the edifice of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a two-story furniture store, belonging to G. W. Pollock, a small wooden building occupied as a shoe-store by C. W. Nute, all on the street, and the Methodist parsonage house in the rear. At eleven o'clock that night not one of these buildings re- mained standing. The losses were Strout's photo- graphic establishment, in the upper story of Mr. Kelley's building, the building itself, the Methodist Church and parsonage, Barrett's barber establish- ment, Stili's confectionery store, Philip Teare's tailor shop ; Frank Flint, shoe-dealer's supplies ; S. F. Thompson, civil engineer; C. W. Nute, boots and shoes ; G. W. Pollock, furniture; the Literary Insti-

tute, fixtures, etc .; Cyrus Tay, grocer, and Leonard Thompson, Jr., hardware. Several accidents occurred during the fire, but none of them serious. The fire, in its progress, threatened other buildings, such as the Lyceum Hall and Bank Block and others, whose occupants prepared for removal. It was considered remarkable that the fire did not extend further. The day of the fire was Thursday, and the ruins were smoking lively Friday forenoon, but the danger was then passed. No water had then heen let into the water-supply pipes which had been laid in the streets, by reason of the pumping-engines not being com- pleted. Mr. Kelley's block, known as Knight's building, was erected in 1840, and in it several news- papers had been published. The High School was first begun in it and the Methodist Society. The Methodist Church edifice was built in 1843 by the Universalists, and was afterwards owned by the Uni- tarians, being bought by the Methodists in 1867, and remodeled and enlarged. The parsonage had never been occupied and was just completed. But one family, that of Mr. Still, the confectioner, lost their home by the fire. The want of water on this occa- sion showed the desirability of completing in haste the water-works then in preparation.

Several years ago, July 8, 1886, an account, with illustrations, appeared in the Boston Globe, of the Walnut Hill shooting range, which was established in Woburn by the Massachusetts Rifle Association, in 1876. The range is near the line of the Boston and Lowell Railroad (now the Eastern Division of the Boston and Maine), in the easterly part of Wo- burn, between the Walnut Hill Station and North Woburn Junction. The targets are in the neighbor- hood of the Buck Meadow of antiquity, and are in sight from the cars, but the shooting-house is about half a mile from the railroad, and is reached from the Walnut Hill Station by a waiting barge. This building is located at the ancient Button End quarter of Woburn. The shooting-house and its uses are fully described in the article referred to. The rifle- men are civilians and military, and the place is in frequent use. The land belonging to the range ex- tends about two-thirds of a mile parallel with the railroad, and its width is about a quarter of a mile. The first shoot at these grounds occurred November 16, 1876, a 200-yards range being then completed, and about thirty members of the Rifle Association participated. Later in the month, November 28th, a second shoot occurred, and a target for 800-yards range was ordered. The by-laws and shooting rules of the Massachusetts Rifle Association, with a list of officers and members, was printed at Boston, 1877, 30 pp., the number of members being then 131.2

1 Daniel B. Measures, weaver, for $400, conveyed to Michael Ferrin, Hugh Kenney, Patrick II. Claffy, Patrick Calnan and Patrick F. Brown, executive committee of the Woburn Catbolic Cemetery Association, land in East Woburn, Jan. 30, 1856. Michael Harney's child was the first person buried in the place. The child died March 12, 1856 .- E. F. J.

2 Directories of Woburn were published by John L. Parker, 1868, 1871, 1874, 1877 ; by Lemuel G. Trott, 1881 ; by Mark Allen, 1883, 1886, and W. A. Greenougli & Co., 1889. These useful publications contain a great deal of information regarding other matters in the town than the list of the residents merely, and can be consulted with profit by any one wishing to know about the business performed in the town, etc.

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WOBURN.

Mr. Johuson, first mayor of Woburn, will here give an account of Woburn as a city, and present some observations and facts not alluded to heretofore.

CHAPTER XXVI.

WOBURN-(Continued).

WOBURN AS A CITY.

BV EDWARD F. JOHNSON.

As early as 1872 the incorporation of Woburn as a city was looked upon as an event of the near future. In the ten years preceding that date the town had in- creased in population from 6500 to 9350. The number of its polls in May, 1872, was 2891, as com- pared with 1760 ten years before, while its valuation during that period had increased from $4,653,000 to $8,718,000. This decade was indeed the most prosper- ous one in Woburn's history, and it is certainly a re- markable fact that the valuation of the town on May 1, 1872, should be greater than it was sixteen years later, when it received its charter as a city, and when its population was twenty-five per cent. larger. This decrease in valuation, however, is attributable to the loss in assessed personal property, a loss which has exceeded the gain in assessed real estate during the same period. From 1862 to 1872 the assessed valua- tion had increased nearly 100 per cent., and, assum- ing that the future might safely be judged by the past, the selectmen at that time estimated the taxable val- uation of the town in 1892 at $32,000,000 ! Resting on this happy financial hypothesis, they felt warranted in incurring debts for posterity to pay.

In their report for the year ending March 1, 1873, the selectmen make the remark that " another year or two will give us a population entitling us to incorpor- ation as a city." In their next year's report the se- lectmen refer to the same subject in the following lan- guage: "Unfortunately just now our population is too large for the proper management of local affairs under our present system and too small to come under such restrictions and regulations as a city charter gives for the control of affairs of large communities. With our present population town-meetings are likely to be for the next three or five years fine specimens of parliamentary tactics and legislative wisdom."

This last sentence, it is almost needless to remark, is somewhat ironical. Since the days of the war our town-meetings had degenerated from a deliberate and orderly assemblage of a few hundred citizens or less, into a noisy, turbulent gathering of seven or eight hundred men, pushing and jamming one another to secure a seat, or even standing-room, in Lyceum Hall which could not accommodate one-third of the voting population of the town. It was, therefore, always

within the power of a few hundred citizens, by secur- ing an early admittance into the hall, to effecta prac- tical disfranchisement of their fellow-citizens. With the increase in population these evils became more apparent and less easy to avert or control, and with the great mass of conservative and thinking citizens the sentiment in favor of a city charter grew rapidly.

Another ten years had to elapse, however, before Woburn's population was such as to give the advo- cates of a city charter an opportunity to petition for a change in the form of government. The population in the town on May 1, 1882, as ascertained by the as- sessors, was 11,759, or within 241 of the required 12,- 000. Moreover, the annual increase in population since 1878, had been almost uniform, and for the five years ending May 1, 1882, it had averaged 265 a year. If this ratio of increase continued the population of Woburn on May 1, 1883, would be 12,024.

Relying on these statistics, a petition was presented to the selectmen on January 2, 1883, signed by Hon. John Cummings and fifty-four others, asking that a town-meeting be called "To obtain an expression of opinion relative to petitioning the Legislature for a city charter." The town-meeting was held January 18th, when it was voted viva voce, and almost unani- mously, to petition the General Court for a city charter ; and the selectmen and ten other citizens were ap- pointed a committee to prepare such petition and take such other action as might be found necessary. The selectmen were also authorized to take a census of the town if deemed necessary to establish the fact that Woburn had the requisite 12,000 inhabitants to entitle it to become a city.

A town-meeting was subsequently held on February 9, 1883, when the opponents to a city charter rallied in sufficient numbers to have laid on the table for two years a motion which was made to the effect that the expense of taking the census of the town authorized at the previous meeting be paid out of the Miscellan- eous Department. The committee having the ques- tion of a city charter in charge thereupon decided to ask the General Court for a charter to be granted on condition that Woburn had the requisite number of inhabitants, leaving the question of population to be determined afterwards. This course of action was therefore adopted, and a hearing was had at the State House before the committee on cities. As no one appeared before this committee to object, it was much to the surprise and disappointment of the peti- tioners that the committee voted to refer the matter to the next Legislature, for the reason, as alleged, that there was no record of a count of votes to show that a majority of those present at the town-meeting had voted to petition for a charter. The reason thus as- signed by the General Court for its adverse report was looked upon as a mere pretext, but the petition- ers were doomed to disappointment in any event ; for the result of the census which was taken by the asses- sors in the following May showed that the population

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of the town, instead of increasing in the ratio of pre- ceding years, had actually fallen off 305; so that the population was then only 11,454. These figures settled the question of a city charter for the time, although some enthusiasts proposed that Burlington be annexed in order to secure the requisite number of inhabitants.

The State census of 1885 gave Woburn a population of 11,750, and the enumeration of the inhabitants made by the assessors in May, 1887, showed an in- crease to 12,760. The matter of population thus being settled, a town-meeting was held on July 27, 1887, when a committee of twenty-one was appointed to prepare a city charter for the acceptance of the town. This committee reported a printed draft of a charter to a meeting held October 31, 1887, which charter, after some discussion, was adopted by a vote of 280 to 9. It was further voted to apply to the next Legislature for an act of incorporation as a city. In pursuance of this vote application was made to the General Court in January, 1888, and on May 18, 1888, the charter submitted by the committee on be- half of the town was enacted by the Legislature with some slight amendments. It came up for acceptance or rejection by the voters of the town at a special meeting held June 12, 1888. The polls remained open all day, and the charter was accepted by the de- cisive vote of 966 to 32. As soon as the result was announced, twenty-five blows on the fire-alarm alter- nated with an equal number of peals from the cannon to emphasize the verdict of the citizens in declaring Woburn to be the twenty-fifth city in the Common- wealth of Massachusetts.

The charter thus adopted by the town provided for a city government, consisting of a Mayor, seven Alder- men, eleven Councilmen and a School Committee of nine elective members with the Mayor chairman ex officio. The town was to be divided into seven wards, three of which were represented by the villages of Montvale, North Woburn and Cummingsville. The Mayor and School Committee were to be elected by the voters at large, while the Aldermen and Common Councilmen were to be chosen by and from the voters of each ward. In its general features, and in the dis- tribution of powers and privileges, the charter was in other respects a substantial embodiment of the char- ters of most Massachusetts cities.

At the first election held December 4, 1888, the following officers were chosen : Mayor, Edward F. Johnson ; Aldermen, Squire B. Goddard, Julius F. Ramsdell, William C. Kenney, John S. True, Michael Golden, Andrew R. Linscott, John A. Doherty; Common Councilmen, William H. Bradley, Thomas G. Beggs, Charles W. Bryant, Stephen H. Bradley, William Beggs, Joseph M. Gerrish, Edward E. Thompson, Griffin Place, William McDonough, Henry M. Eames, William A. Lynch. On January 7, 1889, these gentlemen were sworn into office, the inaugural ceremonies taking place in Lyceum Hall in the presence of a large gathering of citizens.

Woburn was, in reality, the twenty-seventh town in Massachusetts to become a city, although the an- nexation by Boston of the cities of Charlestown and Roxbury makes her stand twenty-fifth in the roll ot cities existing at the time of her incorporation. In population and valuation Woburn's rank on January 1, 1889, was below that of her sister municipalities, but in extent of territory she exceeded ten out of the other twenty-four cities, containing a larger assessed acreage than the neighboring cities of Somerville, Cambridge and Chelsea combined, and being two and one-half times larger than the city of Malden.

Her valuation on May 1, 1888, was $8,575,000, and her net debt on January 1, 1889, was $461,746.74, or about 5.4 per cent. of the valuation. Her dwelling-houses on May 1, 1888, numbered 2085, and her male polis 3672. Such, in brief, was the status of the municipal corporation of Woburn when the administration of its affairs was transferred from a town to a city form of government.

CHAPTER XXVII.

WOBURN-(Continued).

THE MEDICAL AND LEGAL PROFESSIONS: COL- ONIAL, PROVINCIAL AND LATER PERIODS.

BY W. R. CUTTER.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION .- The earliest practi- tioner of medicine or of the science of healing, of which there is any record in Woburn, was a woman ; and as it is known on indubitable testimony that she was very skillful in the art, she was no disgrace to the profession. Most of the practice, particularly in certain branches, was in the hands of members of the female sex. The employment of regular physicians from Boston or from adjoining towns was occasional- ly resorted to in the early period of the town's his- tory, as instanced in the records or in the inventories of the estates of the more well-to-do citizens. The name of a physician of the sterner sex does not ap- pear with the accustomed title till seventy-five or eighty years after the town's incorporation, as will be noticed in the appended list. The stay of some of these doctors appears to be of brief continuance. Others were young men just starting in their medi- cal career. Others were members of the Woburn families by birth or marriage connection. One was of enforced residence, viz., Dr. George Bruscowitz, the French Neutral, from Nova Scotia. Several died comparatively young. A few only appear to have re- ceived a liberal education. Doctor John Kittredge, of Billerica, is the carlicst non-resident physician named by his title in the tax-lists, being taxed in Woburn, 1712. He died in 1714, and there is evi- dence in the records that the town authorities em-

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 106

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034