History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 179

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 179

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I See the enlargement of this idea in the Schoel Report ef Winchester for 1860.

2 See Report of School Committee for 1854-55.

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sixty, and twenty-two men were, by authority, ob- tained from the town of Reading, by transfer to the credit of Winchester. One hundred aud eight of the town's citizens left their homes at this time to join the nation's defenders. Fifty-three families of these men were aided by the town at this period. Care- fully prepared lists of the Wiuchester volunteers are given in the published annual reports for 1863 and 1866. Later calls for men are mentioned in the annual reports for 1864 and 1865. From October 17, 1863, to December 15, 1864, the town was called upon to furnish, in all, one hundred and sixteen men as its quota ; having to their credit on the books of the State one hundred and nineteen men. A short his- tory of what the town did during the Civil War is given in the annual report for the year 1866. In this it is said that the town under the calls of 1861 and 1862, furnished for three years 62 men, at an average cost of $43 per man, town bounty. In 1862, 60 men for 9 months were furnished, at an average cost of $82 per man, as town bounty, and an average sub- scription bounty of $12 per man. In 1863, 1864 and 1865 the town furnished 110 men for those years, and 12 men for one year, at an average town bounty of $115.70, and an average subscription bounty of $58 per man, otherwise 244 men, at a cost of $29,497.40. To meet this expense, money was hired for a term of years : by taxation, and by subscription, town officers and others giving their services and expenses in the business. Biographical notices of those who died in the service are given in the same report. Their names are the following :

1. George W. L. Sanborn, died at Fortress Monroe, April 1, 1862, aged 24.

2. Aaron D. Weld, paymaster in the navy, ranking as captain. Died on board the steamer "Ocean Queen," bound for home, June 11, 1862, aged 42.

3. Josiah Stratton, sergeant, killed in battle before Richmond, June 27, 1862, aged 45.

4. Francia A. Hatch, killed in the battle near Culpepper, Va., Aug. 1, 1802, aged 24.

5. John Fitzgerald, died in Washington, D. C., Aug. 2, 1862, on his way to the front.

6. Joshua T. Lawrence, killed in battle at Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, aged 21.

7. Francis B. Bedell, killed in battle at Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1663, aged 21.

8. John Gordon, died in hospital at Washington, D. C., -, 1864.

9. Jefferson Ford, captain, with rank as acting master and executive officer. Died at Beaufort, N. C., June 18, 1864, aged 61.

10. Ira Johonnott, died October 29, 1865, of disease contracted in the service, aged 30.

The list of volunteers shows one major on staff; one major, commissary ; one major, surgeon; one major ; four captains ; one captain, commissary ; one captain in navy ; one captain, paymaster in navy ; one captain, acting master in navy; two lieuten- anta; four hospital stewards ; one medical cadet ; one acting assistant paymaster in navy; three sergeants, and two corporals.

The names of the above, in order of mention, are as follows :

John A. Bolles, on staff of Gen. Dix; Alfred Nor- 48-ii

ton, William Ingalls, William E. Prince, Alonzo F. Bacon, Jesse Richardson, Moses P. Richardson, J. Otis Williams, Nathaniel Richardson, William F. Spicer, Aaron D. Weld, Jefferson Ford, D. C. B. Abrahams, Henry L. Hartshorn, commissioned offi- cers.

The non-commissioned officers were George H. Burnham, R. H. Fletcher, Charles H. Hazelton, Franklin S. Pierce, Charles E. Sanborn, Benjamin Abrahams, Benjamin T. Livingstone, Josiah Stratton, James W. Abrahams, N. D. Jaquith.

In the year 1865, the closing year of the war, the town voted and appropriated $25,000 for erecting two new school-houses. This was a fitting memorial of the year which brought peace to the country. In the following year a new high school house and a new grammar school house were finished, the old high school house sold, and another school house re- moved and placed on another lot. On Aug. 6, 1867, the Common was purchased of Stephen Cutter and S. S. Richardson. A large stone bridge over the stream near the house of Mr. Sullivan Cutter was recommended in the report of 1869, and the bridge near the blacksmith shop in the same vicinity was recommended to be discontinued. The location of these bridges as they formerly appeared is shown in a plan of the Abel Richardson farm at Winchester Centre, of date 1835, noticed under the sketch of Woburn in this work.

Again, in 1870, the School Committee in their report take "a glance at the past." Twenty years had then elapsed since Winchester was organized iuto a town. When started it had only about 1300 population, 250 voters and 202 children of legal school age. A high school was at once established, a school system similar to those in the cities and larger towns of the State was adopted, and five school-houses were im- mediately erected. In twenty years there had been a considerable increase. The number of children had increased from 202 to 556, and the appropriations from $1500 to $7411. The school-houses for the pri- mary schools were quite uniform in construction, about thirty by forty feet, with a cupola and neat ex- terior. In 1872 the small-pox appeared in the town, the number of cases being ten, deaths two. At this time the disease was quite general in the vicinity. A report of a committee to investigate the subject of a water supply was made and published in April, 1873. This committee recommended the gravity plan from the easterly source, or what was known as the Turkey Swamp plan, a dam being constructed at the outlet of the swamp for a store reservoir, an engine- house, pumping engines, and dwelling-house and three high reservoirs being furnished also. A supple- mentary report on the same subject was issued by the committee in June, 1873, in defence of the former plan, and an act in addition to a previous act to supply the town with pure water was passed to enable the town of Winchester to collect the water from the

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

arca lying along the easterly side of Winchester, being in the towns of Winchester, Medford and Stone. ham, etc. The first annual report of the water com- missioners appeared in 1874. This report was mainly an account of the progress of construction, and to March 1, 1874, the sum of $26,917.24 had been ex- pended on the work. The second annual report of the water commissioners, in 1875, contains a history of the introduction of water into the town, and a further account of the progress of the work. The dam and the laying of the pipes were substantially finished and the water from the reservoir was first introduced into the principal main on Sept. 20, 1874. The work- ing of the system and its features are explained by the commissioners in the same report. There is also accompanying it a full report of the engineer and tables illustrating different details of the subject. The report of a town committee to draft a code of rules and regulations for the administration of the water works was published in the annual report for 1876. In the water commissioners' report for that year is a detailed account of the expenses of introducing the water, making an expenditure for that object of $162,326.13. A plan for a high service is also men- tioned in the same report. In 1876 is a report of the committee on the Common. The said committee having caused that plot to be graded and surrounded with a substantial curb of hammered granite, causing it to become a great ornament and advantage to the town.

In 1878 the Mystic Valley sewer, built by the city of Boston through the town, is mentioned. In con- nection with this work the city of Boston built two new spans, or openings, at the bridge on Main Street. Concrete crossings and sidewalks are specially men- tioned in this year, and so is that abortive enterprise, the " Mystic Valley Railroad." In the same report is introduced a brief history of the town, also a list of the selectmen from the first, representatives to the Legislature, a consolidated list of expenditures, a statement of the town debt, and assessors' statistics. The town clerk's report is made more full by the pub- lication of names, etc. A committee on the necessity of building an additional school-house submit : report in print. In the report for 1880, p. 126, is a letter from the Hon. O. R. Clark in relation to the gift of a town clock by Ebenezer Smith, who made a secret gift of a $500 bill for that purpose, in 1855. A brief history of the town is again presented in the report for 1881, and a list of the selectmen and repre- sentatives, also statistics, and some facts about municipal indebtedness. In the School Committee's report for 1882, a sketch of the town in relation to its educational institutions is given, from which a few facts miglit be stated :---

There appears to have been no school-house in the limits of the present town before 1790, and though a public school was kept, it could be kept only in some private house, and then only for a few weeks in the

year. Children sometimes were provided for then at a private school at the cost of the parents, or by travel to Woburn or Medford Centre, a distance of two miles. At the incorporation of the town, in 1850, there were only two school-houses in its limits, one at the centre, or South Woburn, and the other on the Medford Road, near Symmes Corner, formerly in Medford. The town at its first meeting, May 7, 1850. chose a committee of three citizens to build five school-houses in different sections of the town, which

were built during the ensuing year. One school was called the Gifford, for the Hon. S. N. Gifford, who, as a member of the Legislature, was active in securing the incorporation of the town. The Rumford was named for Count Rumford, the most eminent native of the old town of Woburn; the Washington, from the name of the street ; the Mystic, from the Mistick Pond, near by ; the Wyman, from the family of that name; the Hill, from its location. The High School was established at the outset in the old school-house at the Centre. The number of the inhabitants did not then require it, but it was established, notwith- standing. The school system was thus inaugurated on a very liberal plan, and was managed by the whole town, and not by districts or by district com- mittees, but by a School Committee in general charge of the whole. The high school was kept ten months and the other schools nine months of the year. In 1853 the Mystic school-house was built, to take the place of the old one on Medford road. In 1854 a primary school-room was fitted up in the Gifford School-house. In 1857 a school-house was erected on Washington Street, and named the Adams, in honor of John Quincy Adams. This building was enlarged in 1863. In 1865 a new high school house was built, and a new grammar school house was erected on Washington Street. The Gifford School- house was moved. In 1875 the Adams School-house was sold and a new school-house was erected on Swanton Street, and named the Chapin School, in honor of Alonzo Chapin, M.D., long a member of the School Board. In 1878, a new school-house was built on town land on Highland Avenue, and called the Highland School, because of its location. Thus, in 1882, the town had ten school-houses, valued at $57,500. The sketch includes the names of the mem- bers of the School Committee fromn 1850, and the names of many of the teachers of the schools.

The annual report of the Water Board for 1882 de- scribes the construction of the South Meadow Reser- voir as a part of their system. The description is also accompanied by a plan. While excavating for this reservoir a deposit of mud from twelve to thirteen fcet in depth was found. It was an accumulation of a vegetable nature and possibly of geological anti- quity. It was yellow in color when first excavated, but became black on exposure to air. Remains of beaver-dains were found at a depth of six or seven feet from the surface, the ends of the sticks showing

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the marks of the beavers' teeth distinctly, as well as the grain of the wood, which was of ash, oak and pine, etc., any sticks found being readily crushed in the hand. We state this fact as an interesting arch. æological feature of this particular locality. All of the reports of the Winchester Water Board are inter- esting reading, and the town itself has reason to be proud of its water-works and the ability displayed in the management and construction of them; the ori- ginal Board of Commissioners who constructed the works accepting nothing for their services of super- vision, only the desire of being beneficial to their fellow-townsmen of the present and future genera- tions. It is this public spirit which has made the good town of Winchester what she is to-day. In few places have greater pains been taken to get always the best of anything that can be procured for the in- terests of the town. This careful policy and public spirit has attracted many people to her precincts, to locate their homes in a place where they believe that the best policy without stint will always prevail. Many towns might copy after Winchester to advan- tage in this respect alone. An impartial examination of her annual reports from her separation as a town shows this on every page. Each report is practically the history of the town itself, and so fully expressed that there is little need of going to the original writ- ten records for information.

The school report for 1883 mentions the employ- ment of a school superintendent, and his first report is given in that year ; also the report of a committee charged with the duty of altering and enlarging the grammar school house. In the report of the Water Board for 1883 plans for a high service are given. In 1884 the report of a committee on the Common is presented, in which it is said the surface was re-grad- ed and the curbstone re-set, the paths improved, also a water-basin placed upon it, and trees and shrubbery set out, a considerable sum being acquired by sub- scription for the purpose. In 1885 the Historical and Genealogical Society is first mentioned. Mial Cush- man, collector of taxes for twenty-four years, died on November 27, 1884. A fountain and lamp-post in the square in front of the Baptist Church was con- tributed by citizens, and presented to the town through a committee, July 4, 1884. The annual re- port for 1885 contains a history of Wildwood Ceme- tery, which is closely connected with the early history of the town of Winchester. Allusion is made in the sketch to the original land grant to Charlestown in 1640,-to the town of Woburn, incorporated 1642,- to Medford, whose history begins in 1630,-to West Cambridge, (now Arlington), incorporated 1807, -- to the Boston and Loweil Railroad, incorporated 1830, and opened for travel in 1835,-to South Woburn Village, well advanced in prosperity by 1840,-to its church parish, the nucleus of the future town,-to the incor- poration of Winchester, 1850,-and the gift of Col. William P. Winchester,-to the appropriation of that

gift to the cemetery,-to a statement of the " Win- chester Fund " to April 19, 1884,-to the exercises at the consecration of the cemetery on September 15, 1852, when Rev. R. T. Robinson delivered the invo- cation, and an original hymn was written for the oc- casion by Francis A. Durivage, a well-known writer of the period ; prayer by Rev. N. A. Reed; original hymn by Mrs. H. J. Lewis ; address by Rev. Rollin H. Neale, D.D .; hymn, " Montgomery ;" prayer by Dr. Neale, and the benediction. A plan was made of the grounds by Amasa Farrier. A list of the permanent funds for the care of lots is given, and also the names of the persons who have served on the Cemetery Com- mittee,-another example of the manner in which Winchester keeps abreast of the times in matters of history.

A freshet on February 13 and 14, 1886, did consid- erable damage during its continuance. Bridges were seriously injured. The stone bridge on Pleasant Street was injured by the force of the water and floating ice, and nearly a third of it was broken away. At Main Street a portion of one side of the bridge was carried away. The Lake Street bridge floated off its foundation, and was secured with diffi- culty. The Cross Street bridge was under water for a day and a night, but did not move from its position. The Washington Street bridge was not injured. Cul- verts were undermined and fell in. Streets were gullied badly in places. A particular account of the " Flood of February, 1886," is given in the Winches- ter Record, vol. ii. pp. 387-391. The water in the streets, however, was not so high as in the flood of February 16, 1855. Cellars were flooded over quite an area in the centre village. Foundation walls were injured, houses were partially submerged and access to some was only by means of boats. In -. jury to the basement portions of some manufactories was reported; but the losses, after all, were not so great as was at first feared.

In 1886 a new school-house was erected on Church Street, and called the new Wyman School-house. The report of the Water Board for 1886 contains an account of the completion of a high service for the ben- efit of the system of water-works already established. This includes a reservoir and wind-mill for pumping purposes. In September, 1886, cars commenced run- ning over the street horse-railroad of the Woburn Street Railway Company through Winchester. In November, 1886, a petition for the further extension of this road was presented, and, on December 4th, the location was granted, and the extension was soon completed. In 1886 a large and ornamental iron fountain was placed in the basin on the Common, being a gift to the town from many of her liberal cit- izens, more than three hundred in number. On June 28, 1887, the corner-stone was laid for a new town- hall with Masonic ceremonies. The Winchester Electric Light Company commenced to light the streets of Winchester by electricity July 1, 1888. The

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

plant of this company was transferred to Woburn. A special report on the cost of the town-hall is given in the annual report of the town for 1889.

In 1888 the town library was transferred to the library wing of the new town-hall. The date of its reopening in that place was September 8, 1888. The Winchester Historical and Genealogical Society jointly occupied a historical room in the same quar- ters. In this room is an elegantly-carved oak cabi- net, with table and chairs to match, given in com- memoration of Edward Converse, the first settler, by his descendant, Hon. E. S. Converse, of Malden. Edward Converse built the first house in the territory now represented by Winchester in the year 1640, near this hall, on the present site of the Thompson place, and the memorial furniture above mentioned was manufactured and finished in Winchester on the same site and by the same water-power that was used by Edward Converse for his mill before 1649.

In the annual report for 1889 is a historical sketch of the Winchester public library. The nucleus of this library was a village library, founded in 1848. About 1856 an agricultural library was started, which was soon merged into that of the village association. In 1859 the association library was presented to the town under certain conditions, which were accepted by the town, and it at once became a public town li- brary. In 1885 the trustees granted the use of a part of their rooms to the historical society, and that or- ganization has been an honored guest of the library department since.

In the report for 1889 the Water Board mention the addition of a permanent steam-pump to their high service system. This was placed in position for use on August 20, 1888. In the annual report for -1890 there is a view of the town-hall and library. In their report for the year tlic selectmen say that there had been an unusual amount of public business during the ycar past, occasioned by the location and adjust- ment of the electric light and telephone lines, the numerous changes, improvements and repairs upon the town-hall property, the introduction of the Aus- tralian ballot system and other various special matter. The year 1890 is also the two hundred and fiftieth since the building of the first house within the limits of what is now Winchester, and action is recom- mended by the selectmen toward an appropriate and fitting celebration of that event. A history of the cemetery is repeated in the report for 1890. The new Gifford School-house was occupied for use December 2, 1889, and was formally accepted February 10, 1890. A report of the building committee of this school- house is also presented in the town report for 1890. It is a four-room building, two rooms only being at present finished.

Such is the civil history of Winchester as outlined in her annual reports from 1850 to the present time. It is true she carries a large amount of municipal in- debtedness, and some of the enterprises on which she

has entered in her public capacity may have cost a larger sum than some communitics would be willing to expend in a like manner. But, at the same time, shc has something handsome to show for it, with prospects of a large future increase in population and wealth. Our hearty wishes are extended to the good town of Winchester for an era of prosperity and happiness in the years to comc, greater by far even than that she has enjoyed in her now glorious past.

NOTE .- Some particulars regarding the Winchester water-works are here presented from the Manual of American Water-Works, 1888. Water supply .- Surface water, by gravity from impounding reservoir ; also high service for about 45 takers, by pumping with windmill to reservoir. Reservoirs .- An earthen dam, with stone masonry heart-wall, 30 ft. high, and 600 ft. long is huilt across stream and forms impounding reservoir of 63 acres area, and 260,000,000 gallons capacity, 121 ft. ahove town. The high service reservoir is of stone and cement, with hrick lining ; is 40 ft. in diameter, 10 ft. deep, and has capacity of ahout 100,- 000 gallons. An additional reservoir will cover 144 acres and have a depth of 37 ft. Wind-mill and pump .- Former is 75 ft. high, with 30- foot wheel driving a 5-inch pump and lifting water 87 ft. through 6-inch wrought-iron and cement pipe. This is a more precise and scien- tific statement of the technical character of Winchester's water-works than some of the statements that have preceded.

Since the above was written, Winchester has celebrated, on July 4, 1890, the 250th anniversary of the first settlement in her horders, or the erection of the house of Edward Converse, 1640,-the first house built in the limits of Woburn or Winchester. The celebration comprised a procession, oration, dinner with speeches, historical sketch, decorations, fire-works, etc. There were a number of invited guests. The oration and historical sketch have since heen separately published.

CHAPTER LXI.

WINCHESTER-(Continued).

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

BY REV. L. THOMPSON.

THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH in Win- chester, originally the South Congregational Church in Woburn, was organized Nov. 19, 1840. For some time previous to that date the population of the South Village of the old town had rapidly increased as a consequence of the construction through the heart of the settlement of the Boston & Lowell Rail- road. Early in 1839, it having been ascertained that about one-fourth of the members, including three of the deacons of the First Church in Woburn, were res- idents in this rising community, a petition of these members was presented to the church for dismission, with the organization of a new church as the speci- fied object in view. The petition was not then grant- ed. The agitation of the subject, however, continued. Many meetings were held, and there was much earn- est discussion. A second petition was unsuccessful, though with diminished opposition to its object. Mean- while, at a meeting held by prominent citizens in the South Village May 12, 1840, it was decided to organ- ize the South Woburn Congregational Society, and, on the 1st day of June following, the organization

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was effected, and a Building Committee was appointed to purchase a site and erect upon it a house of wor- ship. The corner-stone of this edifice, which stood near where the present church edifice stands, was laid July 27, 1840.

At a meeting of the members of the church, held in the vestry of this unfinished building Oct. 11, 1840, Rev. Reuben Emerson, of South Reading, was invit- ed to preside, Sumner Richardson, one of the peti- tioners, being secretary. Deacons Nathan B. John- son, Benjamin F. Thompson and Marshall Wyman were appointed to prepare another letter requesting dismission from the First Church. This letter, dated Nov. 2, 1840, and signed by one hundred, or, as one record has it, "one hundred and two persons," was duly presented, and at once received a favorable answer. The signers were dismissed on the same day and recommended as in good and regular standing, for the specified purpose of being organized into a distinct church.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 179

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