History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 163

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692

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

was formed. The old cellar of one of them is still to be distinguished at the foot of the hill on Belmont Street, but no one knows or inquires as to those who once dwelt upon the spot.

At " Commodore's Corner," Belmont Street enters Watertown. Opposite this corner (in Watertown) was the meeting-house of the Middle Precinct, erected in 1695. Its location was a compromise between con- tending factions. It was an unsuccessful one. The building was a cause of continued bitterness during the few years it was suffered to stand, for it was only 1722 when it was voted in town-meeting to sell " What was left of the old meeting-house." Lexing- ton Street turns from Belmont Street northward at this point. This was the "Old Concord Road." Its first well-defined change of level marks the summit of "Elbow Hill." The new road goes through the top of the hill, the old one went around it, and only a little unevenness in the turf shows the bounds of the original thoroughfare. In the valley below, the street crosses the railroad. The first station of the Fitchburg Railroad here was called Plympton's Crossing. The street continues past the entrance to the grounds belonging to the Massachusetts General Hospital to the foot of Mill Street, near Beaver Brook, which is the line of division betweer Belmont and Waltham. All the land east of Lexington Street to the line of the Bright estate on Belmont Street and across the valley nearly to the summit of the hill north of the railroads, comprising about three hun- dred acres, was included in the plots of the Waverley Company, which was incorporated in 1855, after its affairs had been managed for some months by J. C. Dunn, G. G. Hubbard and Estes Howe as trustees. A considerable part of the ancient Pequossette, or King's Common, was among the holdings of this company. The village of Waverley was the outgrowth of their enterprise. The company was not upon good terms with the railroad management, and the result has been shown in the slow development of what was, in its inception, one of the most promising settlements in the vicinity of Boston. The sales of land were, for many years, few and far between, until in 1875 the company disposed of one hundred acres upon the so-called Waverley Highlauds to the Massachusetts General Hospital. It is expected that at some future time buildings will be erected here for a retreat for insane persons, when the removal of the McLean Asylum from Somerville becomes definitely necessary, and the grounds are being skilfully improved and de- veloped with a view to such occupancy. In the mean time nearly $75,000 has been expended in the construction of a "Convalescents' Home " upon the southwest slope of the hill, to which patients from the General Hospital on Blossom Street, in Boston, are brought where pure air seems to be all that is needed to secure their recovery. The view from the Home covers the villages of Watertown, of Newton and Waltham, and is bounded by the hills of Norfolk and

Worcester Counties. The grounds of the hospital are bordered on the west by Mill Street. This is one of the original streets of Watertown, running parallel to Beaver Brook, upon which, in 1662 or 1663, Thom- as Agar, of Roxbury, built a mill for fulling cloth. This was the second mill erected within the old boundaries of Watertown. Its precise location can- not now be determined. In 1663 it was sold " to Thomas Loveran, late of Dedham, County Essex, Old England, cloth-worker." In 1669 or 1670 Love- eran sold it to Timothy Hawkins (from whom Agar bought the privilege) and Benjamin Garfield. Near, possibly at the site of this mill was Plympton's sati- net factory, which was destroyed by fire in 1848. The great water-wheel was set in motion during the fire, and so resisted the flames. Its last fragments disap- peared in 1876, and the ruins of the wall into which it was built still remain at the foot of what is now called the cascade. An illustration of the wheel forms the frontispiece of Country Life, published in 1866 by R. M. Copeland, who then owned the prop- erty, and it has been reproduced in popular maga- zines. Richard M. Staigg, the artist, afterward resid- ed upon the estate. Beaver Brook was a favorite resort of James Russell Lowell, and the mill formerly standing at the upper pond is the scene of one of his most charming poems, of which a contemporary says, " there is no finer specimen of an ideal landscape in modern verse."

" IInshed with broad sunlight lies the hill, And, minnting the long day's loss, The cedar's shadow, slow and still, Creeps o'er its dial of gray m068.

Warm noon brims full the valley's cup, The aspen'e leaves are scarce astir,

Only the little mill sends up Ite husy, never-ceasing burr.

Climbing the loose-piled wall that hems The road along the mill-pond'e brink, From 'neath the arching barberry-stems, My footstep scares the shy chewink.

Beneath a bony buttonwood The mill's red door lets forth the din ; The whitened miller, dust imbued, Flits past the square of dark within.

No mountain torrent's strength is here ; Sweet Beaver, child of forest still, lleaps its emall pitcher to the eur, And gently waits the the miller's will.

Swift elips Undine along the race Unheard, and then, with Hashing bound, Floods the dull wheel with light and grace, And, laughing, hunts the loath drudge round."

A few rods below, on the other side of Lexington Street, on the Waltham side of the brook, are the far-famed Waverley Oaks, the most remarkable group of aboriginal trees in New England. Here Lowell's poem, "The Oak," was conceived. There are in all twenty-six of these trees. Of the principal group, which stands upon a long mound, supposed to have been produced in remote ages by glacial action, Underwood writes : " The oaks are seven or eight in

693

BELMONT.

number, as like as so many stout brothers, planted on sloping drives west of the brook. They have a human, resolute air. Their great arms look as if ready to 'hit out from the shoulder.' Elms have their graceful ways, willows their pensive attitudes, firs their loneliness, but the ahoriginal oaks express the strength and the rugged endurance of nature." It was the opinion of Agassiz that no trees on the Western Continent have greater age, and an exami- nation of one which fell some years since, indicated that it had withstood the tempests of more than eight hundred years.

Mill Street now ends at the Concord Turnpike. Beyond and leading to Lexington is its continuation, Winter Street, near which, upon the estate of Geo. H. Cotton, is the well-known Belmont Natural Spring, whose waters are largely sold in Boston, to those who demand something purer than Cochituate or the Mystic can supply.

Eastward from the juuction of Mill and Winter Streets, Concord Turnpike (in modern speech-ave- nue), leads over Wellington Hill to the central vil- lage of Belmont. Upon the summit of the hill is the Highland Stock Farm, where were bred the Dutch cattle, to which reference has been made in another place. Descending the slope, the panorama spread before the observer is unsurpassed, unless, possibly, we except the view from Arlington Heights, a mile to the northward, and embraces the metropolis and its suburbs in every direction. The handsome estate upon the north of the avenue was at one time owned by Henry M. Clarke, a wealthy paper manufacturer, and upon it he built the costliest barn of its time in New England. After the place became the property of Charles Fairchild, a residence was built upon it for the occupancy of William D. Howells, and the frieze in the study bore the Shakespearean inscrip- tion, " From Venice to Belmont." Elisha Atkins, of the Union Pacific Railroad, lived in the house on the brow of the hill, his son and successor, Edwin F. Atkins, being domiciled in the Ware homestead on the south side of the avenue. Near his house is still to be seen the weather-beaten stone which, until 1859, marked the junction of the three towns from which Belmont was taken. This part of the hill, with the Town Hall and church at its foot, furnishes the landscape which, displayed upon a trefoil to sym- bolize the three towns, forms the background of the seal of the town, adopted in 1882, while far to the front the seal displays an ideal figure, a colossal statue of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and gardens. Back of the E. F. Atkins estate runs a section of the old turnpike, abandoned because of its steepness, and now grass-grown. W. Sloane Kennedy, the biog- rapher of Longfellow and Whittier, has pitched his tent beside the old road, and looks out upon a view the beauty of which he must himself describe. The grounds around the home of the writer in- clude a disused portion of this very turnpike along

which Emerson often trudged as he went to and fro between Concord and Harvard College.

" It is now in part a wild and lovely grass-grown lane, commanding an inspiring view of Cambridge, Medford, Roxbury and the sea. At night, the myriad lights of the vast entourage glitter below and far away; on the distant horizon the steady electric lights at the Point of Pines gleam out, and always the red light of the revolving lamp down the harbor waxes, wanes and disappears, to again appear, linger a moment and then be again snuffed out in the black void around it."

Just below, upon the old road, Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, another biographer-for did she not write the " William Henry Letters " ?- has found a home. At the left of her enclosure are the grounds on Pleasant Street surrounding the house of the late David Mack, specially remembered in Belmont for his counection with its library, hut of more extended reputation be- cause of his membership in the phalanx which gath- ered at Brook Farm nearly fifty years ago. For a number of years he conducted a school for young ladies here, and was for a time a teacher in the public schools. He died July 24, 1878, at the age of seventy- four years. Here also lived for a few months the artist, George Fuller.

At the corner of Pleasant Street and Concord Ave- nue is the Town Hall and Public Library Building, on a corner of the homestead of Eleazer Homer, whose house, with its old-fashioned combination of brick and wood walls, is still standing. Before it, for many years, was to be seen a fine specimen of the Kalmia latifolia, or mountain laurel, remarkable for its beauty, and thriving in a region in which the shrub had never been indigenous. Across the railroad tracks is the Belmont Park, beyond which are the handsome dwellings upon the old "plantation," now occupied by the Underwood family. The mansion-house of James Brown (now the property of his son), with its charming lawn and dense woodland at the north, looks out upon the park and plantation and the new Unitarian Church beyond.

In the quaint old house south of the Brown estate, among other relics of the past, is the arm-chair of Henry Price, the first Grand Master of Freemasons in America, who, at the age of eighty-four years, met an accidental death a hundred years ago. On the other side of the way, beyond the buildings of the Un- derwood estate, is the octagonal building now used as a summer-house, which, at the time of the incorpora- tion of the town, was the station of Wellington ITill, standing at the junction of Common Street and Con- cord Avenue.

Passing along Common Street, and leaving the little Catholic Church of St. Joseph's on the left, we reach the Winthrop W. Chenery estate, now the prop- erty of W. L. Lockhart. So gradual is the ascent to the top of the hill above that with a sense of surprise we look back at the view which includes the spires of Arlington and Medford. A few steps farther and

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

we gaze to the westward upon the village of Waver- ley, lying almost at our feet, with the hills of Wal- tham forming a background. Continuing upon Com- mon Street we may come again to the Payson Park ; but Washington Street-one of the oldest streets in the town-anciently called Hill Street, from Pequos- sette Hill, near whose summit it passes, turns here to the east. Descending its slope toward the valley of Fresh Pond, past the homes of the Stone family, we enter School Street, on the right. At the very foot of Pequossette Hill is the Ilittinger residence, where Jacob Hittinger lived at the time when, for five suc- cessive years, he headed the list of those who sought for recognition as an independent towu. From the green-houses which his sons have erected on this farm 14,000 cucumbers have been sent to the Boston mar- ket in a single day. Trespassing, by courteous per- mission, upon the private way leading through the farm to Grove Street, we stand upon the confines of the town and look upon the little village of the dead, set apart thirty years ago for the final resting-place of those who, one by one, would cease to be reckoned among the world's living, as they went forward to a longer and better life among the great majority. Until 1880 the larger part of the village of Mount Auburn, located on (the modern) Strawberry Hill, between Belmont and Mount Auburn Cemeteries, be- longed to the town of Belmont. In April of that year, after a prolonged hearing before a legislative committee, all this territory, with other land adjacent to Fresh Pond, comprising in all 570 acres, was an- nexed to the city of Cambridge. The city had for several years endeavored to secure control of the en- tire shore of the pond for the purpose of maintaining, under her own regulations, the purity of her water supply. Defeated in successive Legislatures, her ef- forts at this time were successful, and in spite of the unanimous protest of the townspeople, Belmont lost one-tenth of its taxable property, one-third of its school-children and one-sixth of its area, being left with a territory of about 3075 acres. On the new boundary line between Belmont and Cambridge, not far from the old Bird tavern, ou Belmont Street, is a singular depression, called the Amphitheatre upon the maps which Professor Hosford has prepared in illus- trating his theory of the location of the ancient city of Norumbega, only a few miles away.

The castern boundary of the town coincides with that part of Brighton Street to which Cambridge has given the name of Adams Street on one side of Con- cord Avenue and Wellington Street upon the other. Near the junction of these streets lived Richard Rich- ardson, selectman in Cambridge from 1791-95, who built that part of the Concord Turnpike which lay near the line between West Cambridge and Water- town. Not far from the toll-gate at this point he built a tavern, anticipating that the turnpike would become a great thoroughfare, and he had large holdings in the stock of the company. The investments were not

profitable and he lost heavily. A number of his de- scendants reside in this town.

Wellington Street is Brighton Street again before we reach Hill's Crossing and the stations of the rail- roads, which are built on land formerly belonging to the Hill family. The name has heen associated with the locality for nearly two hundred years. Its most noted member was Isaac Hill, editor and statesman, who was born April 6, 1789, in that part of the West Precinct of Cambridge which hecame a part of Bel- mont. He was the owner and editor of the New Hampshire Patriot, published at Concord for more than twenty years, beginning in 1809. Failing of an election to the United States Senate in 1828, he was Second Comptroller of the Treasury under Jackson in 1829, and was chosen to the Senate in 1830. At the close of his six years' term he was elected Governor of New Hampshire and held that office from 1836 to 1839. In 1840 he became Sub-Treasurer of the United States at Boston. After his retirement from public life he continued his editorial labors until his death at Washington, D. C., in 1851.

This part of West Cambridge was known as the South District, and was disrespectfully spoken of as "Flob-end." From it came many trusted and re- spected officials of the town. The names of Hill, Frost, Russell and Locke, of Wellington and Prentiss, are to be found ou page after page of the old records. From this section, too, was Mansur W. Marsh, first chairman of the selectmen of Belmont, who had pre- viously served West Cambridge in the same capacity, having heen a selectman of that town eleven years, represented it in the Legislature and held the posi- tions of assessor and School Committee. His service as selectman in the two towns was in all twenty-two years, at intervals from 1841 to 1876. It is gratifying to record that he still lives, the oldest citizen of the town, enjoying in the evening of life the satisfaction that attends the consciousness of long and faithful labor for the public good. His residence on Prospect Street, was, in 1775, the "house on the hill," to which the women and children fled for refuge on the 19th of April, when the British, passing through Menotomy to destroy the rebel stores at Concord, made the homes of the valley unsafe. While Bel- mont justly claims a share in the associations and glory of the battle of "Concord, Lexington and Cam- bridge," -- for all this part of her territory was included in the West Precinct of Cambridge,-it is not known that any English soldiers came that day within the present limits of the town. Tradition speaks of one poor fellow, wounded and separated from his com- mand, wandering down Spring Valley, and doubtless wishing for the night to come and hide him from un- friendly eyes while he made an expiring effort to reach the barracks from which he set out in high spirits a few hours before; but whether he lived or died, or indeed was more than a creature of the im- agination, history refuses to tell.

695

BELMONT.

The tornado of 1851 passed through the present town of Belmont. Beginning near Prospect Hill in Waltham, and extending across the Mystic River in Medford, its destructive force was put forth with the greatest energy as it passed across the northern point of Watertown into West Cambridge. Rev. Charles Brooks, of Medford, in describing it, says, " It exhibited a power in the elements never witnessed by the oldest inhabitants of this region. Houses strongly built were demolished as if they had been made of paper ; oak and walnut and cedar trees of the largest growth were entirely uprooted, some of them snatched out of the ground and carried through long distances ; roofs of buildings taken up as if by sudden suction, and carried into the embrace of the cloud and transported for miles." The damage to estates now in Belmont was reckoned at about $10,000.

Returning along Pleasant Street from our jaunt about the town, the Wellington homestead recalls the name of Jeduthun Wellington, whose enterprise and public spirit gave the first distinctive name to this locality. He was, in fact, a leading citizen of his day ; he had been sergeant and lieutenant in the Revolutionary Army, afterwards colonel of militia, and had received the honors of his towns-folk as selectman for eighteen years, precinct assessor, treas- urer and collector, and Representative in the General Court for nine years. To encourage travel over the turnpike passing near his house, his yoke of stout oxen was at the service of the teamster, who other- wise might not be able to climb the old road which a later generation has ceased to use. It was little won- der that the friend in need should be regarded with favor, and that the steep bit should become known as Wellington's, and then, Wellington, Hill. The eleva- tion is three hundred feet above the sea level, mid- way in height between Prospect Hill on the west, and Meeting-house Hill on the south. The rain fall- ing upon its eastern slope finds its way through Wel- lington Brook and Alewife Brook, or Menotomy River, into the Mystic; that which drops upon its western front reaches the ocean by a longer route through Beaver Brook and the Charles.

Varions attempts have been made to establish a local newspaper which should represent the interests and give the weekly history of the town. These pub- lications have had a brief existence. The Middlesex Townsman, published at Arlington, but with a branch office in Belmont, was discontinued for lack of sup- port, after being issued weekly for about eighteen months. During the year 1889, the Belmont Courier appeared regularly under the management of Harry W. Poor. This paper depended for its circulation upon the town of Belmont alone. It paid expenses, and it was proposed to continue its publication for another year, but upon the acceptance by its proprie- tor of a position upon the Boston Globe, he decided to discontinue it. The local news is now gathered by the Belmont Bulletin, a special edition of the Water-

town Enterprise, prepared for circulation in the town of Belmont.

"The History of Guildhall, Vt.," a volume of 275 pages, bears the imprint of Waverley, Mass., 1886, and its author, E. C. Benton, was his own compositor, pressman, and publisher, the printing being done upon a private press at his own residence.

In addition to the private school of David Mack, and the Belmont school of B. F. Harding, which have already been alluded to, an effort was made to estab- lish in Belmont the Wayside School, which had had a successful experience in Concord under the super- vision of Miss M. C. Pratt. Miss Pratt was at the head of the school when it was moved to Belmont, but her connection with it soon ceased, and, largely because of the lack of proper accommodations at the outset, the school was discontinued, after occupying in suc- cession houses on Pleasant Street, Clark Street, and the Thayer mansion at Waverley. In these days, when physical training goes hand in hand with mental cul- ture, it is perhaps not out of place to refer to the rid- ing-school of J. Howard Stone, as one of the educa- tional institutions domiciled in the town; and to pass from this to the organizations engaged in fostering a taste for athletic sports, the Belmont Base Ball Asso- ciation, which is in the third year of its existence, the Belmont Tennis Club, whose grounds on Thomas Street are newly laid out, and were formally opened by a reception to friends, given July 4, 1890. A similar organizatiou has convenient grounds at Waverley.

Belmont is notable for the number of its old fami- lies, those whose ancestors have resided upon the ter- ritory from the time when the division of lands was made among the proprietors. The final division was made by Watertown in 1636, and by Cambridge in 1685. Representatives of the Watertown families of Chenery, Clarke, Livermore, Bright, Barnard and Stone, are occupying lands which were in the posses- sion of their ancestors two hundred and fifty years ago, and the names of Wellington, Locke, Hill, Frost, Richardson and Prentiss, perpetnate the remembrance of those who assisted in 1685 in the settlement of Menotomy, or the West Precinct of Cambridge. The ability and reputation of these families is indicated by the public positions which have been so often and so acceptably filled by their members. In independence of thought, sound judgment, and loyalty to right, the citizens of Belmont stand second to none of their sister communities, and in exemplifying these traits, they only portray the character of those who occupied these hillsides and these valleys many years ago.

A list of the leading officials of the town since its incorporation is appended :

SELECTMEN,-Mansur W. Marsh, 1859-63, 1867-71, 1876 ; Jacob Hittin- ger, 1859-61; J. Varnum Fletcher, 1859-61, 1867 ; Jonas B. Chenery, 1859; Joseph Hill, 1859 ; Thos, Livermore, 1862-63, 1869-70; Wm. Henry Locke, 1862-61, 1866 ; Amoo Hill, 1861-66 ; Chas. L. Heywood, 1964; George W. Ware, 1865 ; Daniel L. Taintor, 1805-66; Fred. W. Bright, 1867-68 ; Josiah S. Kendall, 1808-70, 1873-79, 1881 -; Isaac Watts, 1871-72; J. Willard Hill, 1871-72; Henry Richardson, 1872-74; George W. Ware,

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Jr., 1873-75, 1880; Thomas S. Hittinger, 1875 ; Convers F. Livermore, 1876-80 ; Henry Frost, Jr., 1877-82 ; J. llenry Fletcher, 1881-89 ; Jacoh llittinger, Jr., 1883 -; Frank Chandler, 1890 -.

ASSESSORS .- J. Oliver Wellington, 1859-76 ; Josiah Bright, 1859-60; Edwin Locke, 1859; William J. Underwood, 1859-64, 1867-75 ; H. R. Fillebrown, 1859 ; Thomas Livermore, 1861-64 ; Josiah S. Kendall, 1865- 79, 1881 -; George S. Teele, 1865-66; Winthrop L. Chenery, 1876-79 ; Leonard S. King, 1877; Henry Richardson, 1878-80; Joseph O. Wel- lington, 1880 -; William Munroe, 1880-82; Thomas W. Davis, 1883 --.

TOWN CLERKS .- Samuel P. Hanimatt, 1859-60 ; Francis E. Yates, 1861- 70; William W. Mead, 1871-83; Winthrop L. Chenery, 1883 -.

TOWN TREASURER AND COLLECTOR .- George S. Adams, 1859-66; Edwin Locke, 1867-75 ; Winthrop L. Chenery, 1876 -.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE .- Rev. Amos Smith, 1859-64 ; Edwin Locke, 1859- 64 ; Isaac Watts, 1859-60 ; Dan'l F. Learned, 1859-69, 1872-80 ; Adolphus Brown, 1859; Amos Hill, 1860-65; Williato J. Underwood, 1860-61, 1865-69; Rev. James Thurston, 1861 ; Josiah S. Kendall, 1862-65 ; George L. Underwood, M.D., 1862 ; William A. Blodgett, 1863-68 ; Warren S. Frost, 1866, 1868-73, 1879-81 ; Rev. Josiah W. Turner, 1868- 71; Edward Whitney, 1868; Samnel P. Ilamimatt, 1868-69 ; Henry Richardson, 1869-85 ; Mansnr W. Marsh, 1870 ; Horace Bird, 1870-72; George W. Ware, Jr., 1870-71 ; Rev. Daniel Butler, 1871, 1876-80; Wil- llam W. Mead, 1872-81 ; Winthrop L. Chenery, 1872-75 ; Solymon W. Grant, 1873-76, 1878-79 ; Luther W. Ilough, 1874-75, 1882-87 ; J. Hen- ry Fletcher, 1876-78 ; George H. Caldwell, M D., 1877 ; George W. Jones, M.D., 1880 ; Rev. William H. Teel, 1881-82 ; Harry O. Under- wood, 1881-84 ; Frederic Dodge, 1882- ; William Munroe, 1882 ; Ilorace W. Ball, 1883 -; Edward Haskins, 1883-86, 1890 -; Harry H. Baldwin, 1885 -; Edward F. Otis, 1886; Mrs. Caroline A. R. Whitney, 1887-89 ; Mra. Mary F. W. Ilomer, 1889 -; John H. Edwards, 1889 ; Mrs. Jennie C. Underwood, 1890 -.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278