History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 116

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 116

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In 1837 the county commissioners laid out a con- tinuation of Elm Street from ncar the house of the latc John Paine to the centre of what is now Wake- field, making this the direct and usual thoroughfare between the two towns. The population this year was a little over 900. During the year ending April 1, 1837, there were manufactured 380,100 pairs of shoes, valued at $184,717. Montvale Avenue was laid out by the county commissioners in 1840. After a life

of 115 years, Stoncham had made but little material progress. In fact, during the first century the growth had been hardly perceptible and the changes sliglit. Outside of agriculture, the principal occupation was the manufacture of shocs, though carried on in a sinall way, in comparison with the expensive plants and large capital invested in this business during the last thirty years. The country was dotted here and there with little shoemaker's shops, where most of the work was done. The manufacturers theinselves required no large amount of room, only a sufficient space to hold the goods, cut up the stock, and deliver it to the men who made the shoes. The largest man- ufacturers usually kept a general store in connection with their business, which enabled them to pay their workmen partially in supplies, and thus secure to themselves a double profit. In those days shoemaking was a trade; one shoemaker could make the entire shoe, and labor was not sub-divided as at present, giv- ing to each man a specific part, and having a ten- dency to make of him a mere machine. Then, man- ufacturing was the slow and simple process of hand labor, now the magic product of complicated machin- ery. Something may be said in favor of each process. Those of us who can look back to the little shop where the workmen labored inside in winter, and out- side in summer, the proprietors of their own estates, an- chored to the soil by a sense of ownership, each one personally interested in the welfare of the town, no large fortunes and no expensive living, we are in- clined to think the common citizen leveled up to a rather higher standard than now. On the other hand, with the introduction of machinery, modern inven- tions, the results of recent scientific research, material prosperity has rapidly increased, for- tunes have multiplied, and what were luxuries to our fathers are necessities to us. During the twenty-five years succeeding 1840 great changes took place, new roads were built, great factories sprung up, and a few scattered houses grew into a compact and thrifty town. New business methods prevailed, and the workmen of a single concern, in- stead of being scattered over the whole town, were collected together under one. In 1844 Franklin Street from Main Street to Noble's Corner was built. The present town-house was originally built in 1847, though it was subsequently enlarged. The committee who built it were Benjamin F. Richardson, Reuben Locke, Jr., Luther Hill, Daniel Hill and El- bridge Gerry, and the expense of the building exclu- sive of land was between $5000 and $6000. The lower story was used for the accommodation of the High School, till a short time before the erection of the present high and grammar school-house, and here it may be well to refer briefly to the history of our public-school system. An allusion has already been made to the single school kept near the meeting-house and to the six district school-houses that were subse- quently erected in the different localitics of the town.

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The High School was first thoroughly organized with a regular course of study and a system of graduation in 1856, although nominally established in 1854, and was the heritage of the Centre Union School, kept by Caleb Oliver in the winter of 1846-17. Let us go back for a moment to the school of Master Oliver, which was taught in the old red school-house, located on Pine near Pleasant Street, and commenced No- vember 30, 1846, and closed February 27, 1847.

George W. Dike, Silas Dean and Ira Gerry were committee, and George W. and Solon Dike, pru- dential committee. The list of books prescribed were the Bible, Porter's Rhetorical Reader, Emerson's Second and Third Ciass Readers, Webster's Diction- ary, New National Spelling Book, Worcester's Primer, Emerson's Arithmetic, Leonard's Arithmetic, Brown's Grammar, Smith's Anatomy, Oliver's Geog- raphy, Burrit's Geography of the Heavens, Willard's History of the United States, Towne's Gradual Reader, Thompson's Seasons, Sherwin's Algebra and Com- stock's Philosophy, Chemistry and Physiology. The whole number of scholars was seventy. The teacher was paid thirty-five dollars per month and his board was valued at eight dollars per month. In age the schol- ars ranged from twelve to tweuty. Afterwards the school was kept winters in the old town-house till the new one was built. In 1850 the number of schol- ars between four and sixteen was 377. Prior to 1851 the prevailing style of school architecture in Stone- ham had been that of the old red school-house, which was so common in New England fifty years ago, but this year the town expended about $16,000 in the erection of three large, fine grammar school houses and two smaller mixed ones, one of them at Spot Pond and one of them at what is now Melrose Highlands. These were among the finest and best appointed of any in the neighboring towns, and they at once placed Stoneham in the front rank, at least as a supporter of the public schools. In 1859 the public library was established, a nucleus having been formed from the old Social Library, the Young Ladies' Library and the High School Library. The present Congregational meeting-house was built in 1840, the second one having been burned, as previously stated. The same year the Universalist meeting- House was also erected, which was subsequently sold to the Catholics in 1868, at the time of the erection of the Christian Union, now the Unitarian Church. The pastors of the Congregational Society of the First Par- ish subsequent to Jos. Searle, who preached from 1828 to 1832, were Rev. Jonas Colburn, from 1832 to 1837; Rev. John Le Bosquett, from 1837 to 1838; Rev. John A. Vinton, 1839; Rev. Edward Cleave- land, from 1839 to 1840; Rev. John Haven, from 1841 to 1849; Rev. Wm. C. Whitcomb, from 1850 to 1855; Rev. Chas. P. Grosvenor, from 1856 to 1858; Rev. J. E. Swallow, from 1858 to 1859; Rev. W. J. Batt, from 1859 to 1861, and again from 1875 to 1885 ; Rev. Swift Byington, from 1864 to 1871; Rev. Web-

ster Hazlewood, from 1872 to 1874; Rev. D. Augus- tine Newton, from 1885 to 1889, and at present the Rev W. W. Sleeper. Of these, Mr. Le Bosquett, Mr. Vinton, Mr. Cleaveland, Mr. Grosvenor, Mr. Swallow and Mr. Hazlewood were not settled. The Univer- salist Society remained an independent organization till it united with the Unitarian Society aud became the Christian Union Church.

Its first minister was Rev. J. P. Atkinson, followed by Rev. A. G. Fay, 1840-41; Rev. Woodbury M. Fern- ald, from 1842 to 1845; James M. Usher, 1845; Rev. Mr. Marvin, Rev. Henry Jewel, from 1852 to 1855 ; Rev. S. W. Squires, from 1859 to 1862 and Edward Eatou, in 1863.

The Unitarian Society was organized in 1858, and employed Rev. Fiske Barrett, who remained with them till 1861. Mr. Barrct was followed by Rev. Geo. M. Skinner, who resigned September 1, 1867. During the pastorate of Mr. Skinner the Universalist and Unitarian Societies united under the name of "The Christian Union Church," and for a time worshipped in the Universalist meeting-house. The Universal- ist meeting-house was sold to the Catholics in 1868, and the Christian Union Church was erected and dedicated on January 1, 1869. Mr. Skinner was suc- ceeded by Rev. E. B. Fairchild, who came in Novem- ber, 1867, and remained the pastor of the church till January, 1876. The clergymen connected with this society subsequent to Mr. Fairchild have been Rev. D. M. Wilson, from May, 1876, to December, 1878; Rev. Daniel Rowen, from April, 1879, to April, 1883 ; Rev. C. J. Staples, from May, 1884, to June, 1887, and J. H. Whitmore, from January, 1888. In 1889 the Christian Uniou Church reorganized as the First Unitarian Society.

The Methodist Society was first organized in 1856, the first pastor having been Rev. J. W. F. Barnes, at present chaplain of the Massachusetts State Prison. Its ministers have been Mr. Barnes, 1857, and a part of 1858; Mr. Little, a part of 1858; Henry V. De- gen, a part of 1859 ; Linus Fish, 1860; H. P. An- drews, 1861; L. Frost (local), 1862; Mr. Wheeler, (local), 1863 and 1864; B. W. Gorham, 1865; Steven A. Cushing, 1866 ; A. D. Sargent, 1867 and 1868; M. M. Parkhurst, 1869 and 1870 ; W. F. Crafts, 1871 and 1872 ; Geo. L. Collier, 1873-4-5 ; L. O. Knowls, 1876-7; Chas. W. Wilder, 1878-9; John M. Short, 1880-1-2; Henry Lummis, 1883-4-5; Charles T. Johnson, 1886- 7 ; J. Weare Dearborn, 1888-9 ; W. H. Meredith, 1890. The corner-stone of their present church edifice was laid June, 1868, the vestry dedicated in October of the same year, and the main audience-room dedicat- ed December 5, 1870, during the pastorate of Mr. Parkhurst, a man who possessed the force and push requisite to accomplish a great undertaking in the face of obstacles apparently almost insurmountable.

The Baptist, which is the youngest of the religious societies, was organized in 1870, and built the chapel which they now occupy the same year. Their pas-

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

tors have been Rev. T. P. Briggs, who was ordained July 16, 1871, and resigned July 14, 1872; Arthur J. Hovey, ordained September 25, 1872, resigned Octo- ber 28, 1887 ; and J. W. McGreggor, ordained May 31, 1888. It is expected the Baptists will soon build a fine new stone church in the southerly part of the town, upon the estate of the late Luther Hill.

The Catholies bought the old Universalist meeting- house, moved it on to Pomeworth Street in 1868, and occupied it till the completion of their present house of worship, which was completed in 1888. The Cath- olic pastors residing in Stonehamn have been Rev. W. H. Fitzpatrick, from 1868 to 1875; and Rev. Dennis J. O'Farrell, from 1875 to the present time.

Twenty-five years have passed since the elose of the great Rebellion. Itseems hard to realize that to a large part of the people now living the events of the war are known only as matters of history or tradition; thatal- most one generation has come and another gone since the opening events of 1861. Those were stirring times in Stoneham, and all who love the old town are proud to dwell upon her record. No town was more patriotic, none more prompt in hurrying to the front, or furnished more men in proportion to her population. Stoneham's company of minute-men hav- ing been engaged in the first battle of the Revo- lution, it was a remarkable coincidence that Captain John H. Dike's company, from the same town, on the same day of the same month, should have partieipat- ed in the first skirmish of the Rebellion. At Lexing- ton she was in the vanguard of the army which founded the Republic. At Baltimore and Washing- ton she led the hosts that saved the Union. The conduet of Captain Dike and his men in a great emergeney deserves more than a passing notice. The part they acted in the mareh through Baltimore has made the name of the Stoneham company historie. The Stoneham Light Infantry had been the military organization of the town for many years, and was Company C of the Seventh Regiment. The first proclamation had been issued by President Lineoln calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers. On Tuesday, April 16th, Captain Dike goes to Boston, pie- sents himself at the State-House, and begs the privi- lege of calling out his company in obedienee to the President's call. On his return home the men are notified to meet in the armory in the East School- house, where they assemble at 8 P.M., and unanimously vote that they are ready to start at a moment's notiee. The night was dark and stormy, and Wednesday morning broke with a eold and hazy atmosphere, but the town was alive with excitement. Men were hur- rying to and fro, and preparations being made for im- mediate departure. A messenger had been despatch- ed from the Governor, who reached Captain Dike's at half-past two in the morning, notifying him to muster his men and report in Boston forthwith. These men were again summoned to meet in the armory at 6 A.M. New names were added to the roll, and the members

dismissed to make the last arrangements, and bid their final adieux. Those who witnessed the company'sde- parture on that morning of the 17th of April can never forget it. The company met at the Town Hall, where prayers were offered, and a little before ten, in military array, they reached Central Square.

The people had assembled in a great multitude, wild with patriotic enthusiasm. It was an occasion such as Stoneham had never witnessed. The com- pany departed from the square amid the ringing of bells, waving of handkerchiefs and tumultuous cheers. After reaching Boston, they marched to the State-House, where they received over-eoats and other articles. A. V. Lynde, Esq., presented to each one of the commissioned officers a revolver. The company was assigned to the Sixth Regiment, commanded by Col. Jones, and the same afternoon they were en route for Washington. The commissioned officers of the company were : Captain, John H. Dike, First Lieut. Leander F. Lynde; Seeond Lieutenant, Darius N. Stevens; Third Lieutenant, James F. Rowe, and Fourth Lieutenant, W. B. Blaisdell. In addition to the offi- cers there was one musician and a full eomplement of sixty men. No language of the writer could give so vivid a deseription of what occurred during the next few days as the following letter, written by one of the chief aetors, Lieut. Lynde, who was in command of the company after Captain Dike was wounded in Baltimore :

" HEAD QUARTERS SIXTH REGIMENT OF I. M. V. M. " Senate Chamber, April 26, 12 M., '61. " MR C. C. DIKE :

Dear sir ;- Yours was received this A. M. For the first time we have got direct news from home, and I assure yon they were gladly received. Last night at 7 P.M. the 7th Regt. N. Y. arrived and wero quartered at the House of Representatives. That cheered us up considerably, but to-day, when the gallant 5th, 7th and 8th Massachusetts and the 1st Rhode Island arrived, the wildest enthusiasm prevailed, for it was refreshing to see familiar faces from the old Bay State. Previous to this we had been worked very hard for green soldiers, sleeping with, and at all times hav- ing with us, our equipments, but the men have done well, and have stood by each other like brothers. Now for onr journey here. The papers give an account of our route to Philadelphia. From there I will try and give the particulars. Onr muskets were loaded and espped before we got to Philadelphia. We left there at 2 in the morning, arriving at Baltimore about 12 M. Our company were in two covered bagage cars. We had stopped for about fifteen minutes, and a crowd was gathering fast, whon we discovered that the Colonel and Staff, together with seven companies, had left in their cars, and gone across the city. The. men whose duty it was to draw with horses our cars aeross, were driven off and could not, and we proceeded to get out, fall in, four companies in all, to march across, we having the colors in one of the companies. The companies were C, of Lowell on the right ; Co. B, of Lowell, with the eolors; then came Co. C. of our town, Captain Dike, followed by Co. I, of Lawrence. Before we got formed we were tannted and spit upon and insulted in every way possible. After marching about ten rods, stones and briek-bats flew merrily, and the order was then given by Captaiu Follansbee, who commanded the regiment, to double quick march. We had not gone more than ten rods before I saw a man discharge a revolver at us from the second story of a building, and at the same time, a great many were fired from the street. We got scattered a little, and I gave the order to closo up in close order, solid commun. Just then, Captain Dike being ahead, two of our men fell, one by a bullet from a pistol, and ono by a brick bat. I then ordered my men to firo, which they did, and I then gave tho ordor to load and firo as we wont. We got partly through tho city, when wo found them tearing np a bridge, and the street block - ed up with stone and large anchors, but we scaled them and kept up our

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courage. I kept around the colors and stood by them till they were at the depot, then helped put them in the cars. We were scattered very much, all trying to get into the cars. Abont ten rods from the depot I stw Captain Dike. That was the last time I saw him. He being some way ahead, I supposed he had got into the forward cars. A great many of the cars were locked, and the windows closed, but the buts of the guns soon made a pasage into theul. Every gun was then pointed out of the window, and the rebels began to leave. While we were getting into the cars, we were showered upon with pistol halls, and they were uushackling the cars so as to leave some of us, hut when we got right we soon stopped that by stationing meu on the platform, and muzzles out of the windows. After helping put in the colors in company with the color-bearer, I got into the cars and they began to move very slow, for the rebs had gone ahead and torn up the track. The police went ahead and we fixed the track and fiually moved on to Washington. One word in regard to the police. Some of them were loyal, hut what could they do when we were in the thickest of the fight. As soon as we got started I looked through the train to see who were hurt and who were missing, for we were awfully mixed up. I found upon examination that our Captain, James Keenan, Horace Danforth, Andrew Robbins and Victor Lorendo were left behind. The hand did not get out of cars on the north side of Baltimore, and we did not know what had hecome of them till this morning when we learned that part of them had gone home, and a part ot them were in New York. As soon as possible after get" ting to Washington I took means to find out in regard to those left behind, and found that Captain Dike was shot in the thigh and was in good hands, but was told that they could not tell the names of the parties with whom he was stopping. James Keenan was shot in the leg, and Audrew Robbins was shot and hit with a stoue, hurt very bad. Horace Danforth was hit with a stone and injured very severely, hut all were in good hands, and well cared for. Communication by letter being cut off from Baltimore, I have not received news from there as well as I should had there been a mail, hut have heard several times hy men coming from there that they were cared for and doing well, hut rumor said yesterday that A. Robbins and H. Danforth were dead. I cannot tell, for it is impossible to write and nobody goes there. I shall do the best I can to hear from them and help them in every way. We got to Washington at dark, went directly to the Capitol, and were quartered in the Senate Chamber. The Pennsylvania Regiment was quartered in the southern wing, 350 men. Monday we took the oath of allegiance to the United States. It was administered hy Maj. MIcDowell. We have march- ed up to the President's house, passing in review before President Lin- colo, Gen. Scott, W'm. H. Seward and Simon Cameron. To-day at 12 M. the 5th and ;th Massachusetts Regiments arrived and marched to The Patent Office, where they are quartered. The 8th Massachusetts are in the Rotunda and old Senate Chamber, very much used up with marching, and going without sleep and provisions, but our men are doing all in our power for them. Say to all our Stoneham friends that the men behaved like men as well as soldiers, and attend to their duties cheerfully, and are ready if needs be to rally at a moment's warning around the colors of 6th Regiment, and under the stars and stripes there to protect our glorions Union against any odds and at all hazards. We all unite in sending good news to all inquiring friends, and will en_ deavor so to act that none of them shall ever he ashamed to own that they had friends in the time of need in the Stoneham Light In- fantry.

Yours truly,

" L. F. LYNDE, Licut. Commanding."

The town was full of patriotic ardor. The first company having departed for Washington, fifteen ad- ditional Stoneham men joined Company F of the Fifth Regiment, under command of Captain David K. Wardwell, and at once another company was organ- ized by Captain, (afterwards Colonel,) J. Parker Gould, known as the "Grey Eagles." This last company comprised, besides the officers, seventy-seven men from Stoneham, and became Company G of the Thir- teenth Massachusetts Regiment, were attached to the Army of the Potomac and served for three years, sharing in the reverses and victories of that grand army. They were at the Second Battle of Bull Run, at Antietam, at Thoroughfare Gap, Chantilly, South

Mountain, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, at Get- tysburg and the Wilderness. Before leaving for the seat of war they earned a high reputation as a well- drilled and splendid body of men, a reputation which they afterwards fully sustained on a score of battle- fields. Here it may be well to pause for a moment and briefly recail the life and services of Colonel Gould, for he stands out in clear relief as the repre- sentative of almost an ideal soldier. Descended from John Gould, who has been described as one of the first settlers of Charlestown End, and bearing a name which for two hundred years was one of the most reputable in the town, he was born on the 15th of May, 1822, the son of Jacob and Phoebe Catherine (Parker) Gould. His early advantages were not of the best. Attending in his boyhood the local schools, he learned the trade of a shoemaker and saved money, with which he obtained an education at the Military University of Norwich, Vermont, where he graduated with honor and was employed for some time after his graduation as an instructor. Teaching at times in Stoneham and Wilmington, he acquired and pursued the profession of a civil engineer, following his avo- cation in Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, but always keeping his residence at the old home in Stoneham. He had been repeat- edly honored by his native town, filling many posi- tions of responsibility and trust, having twice repre- sented her in the General Court, and having earned for himself the reputation of a high-minded Christian gentleman. So, when the war came on, he seemed peculiarly fitted by education and character to fill the position in which he was placed. Raising and drilling the company of "Grey Eagies," so-called, in the spring and early summer of 1861, and joining with his company the Fourth Battalion at Fort Indepen- dence, which was the nucleus of the Thirteenth Regiment, he was promoted to a majority before leaving for the front. His appointment was said, at first, to have been resented by the members of the Fourth Battalion, who looked upon themselves as a crack organization, and felt that it was rather an in- trusion upon their rights to place over them a major from another company ; but as time went on, and the men were called into action, they learned to know his soldierly qualities and noble traits, and he soon had earned for himself the sobriquet of the "fighting major." It was a saying among the men on the eve of a battle, "We know who is to be our commander now, and he commands no man to go where he is not willing to go himself." After having been engaged in seventeen or eighteen skirmishes and battles he was ordered home to recruit a new regiment, the Fifty- ninth Massachusetts, of which he was appointed colonel. A second time he left for the seat of war, at the head of over a thousand men; in April, 1864, joined the army of General Grant, and participated in the battles of the Wilderness. Some idea may be formed of the campaign when it is remembered that

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the Fifty-ninth, on arriving at Petersburg, had become reduced to about one hundred officers and men, all told, and Colonel Gould was left in charge of the brigade. His health at this time had become very much impaired on account of his privations and labors; still he retained command of the brigade until the evening before the explosion of the mine at Peters- burg, when he was relieved by General Bartlett Although relicved of his command on the 29th of July, on the next day he took the field in the fatal advance on Petersburg, commanding the left of the brigade, and while standing on the brink of the mine was struck by a ball in the leg and carried from the field. His leg was amputated, and, contrary to his desire, he was removed within less than three weeks from City Point to Philadelphia, where he died the morning after his arrival, on the 22d of August, 1864. His name is now borne in this town by Post 75 of the Grand Army of the Republic, and he has left a record filled with the gratitude, the pride and the affection of his townsmen, and a name which deserves to be cherished by those who shall come after us for gener- ations to come.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 116

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226