History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 36

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

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A large part of the city is covered with glaciated materials, either spread out broadly or heaped up in characteristic forms-sharp ridges of sand, gravel and water-worn boutders, like those seen at Auburn- dale and Newtonville, or gently-rounded elevations -lenticular hills, known among geologists as ground moraines, composed of fine clavey material, with angular fragments of rock interspersed, like Mt. Ida and Institution Hill. The first were formed on top of the glacier-the latter beneath it.

River terraces can be traced on both sides of Charles River, clearly showing the former level of the river-bed, and the down-cutting that has re- sulted from erosion during the long ages that have elapsed since the ice-sheet disappeared from our midst and our land was with "verdure clad," and bright flowers dotted the hills and the valleys.

Dendrites are found abundantly in the slates; some are very beautiful. An outcrop of slate at the drive-way entrance to the estate of Hon. R. R. Bishop, Newton Centre, is well worth an examina- tion. The folding and wrinkling is beautifully shown ; the laminations can easily be recognized in the face of the cliff, where it dips sharply to the north, and the dendrites are readily found. This is an interesting locality from the fact that the slate rests on the conglomerate, and is overlaid hy the conglomerate. Points of contact between different rock-strata are eagerly sought for by geologists as

this knowledge aids largely in giving the formation to which they belong. On the western side of Hammond's Pond is a bold escarpment of conglom - erate, the result of a fracture in the crust ages ago, producing a fault. A little farther away a huge fragment of the cliff has been thrown off, through the action of water and frost, leaving the rock-bor- dered amphitheatre, where the Newton Natural History Society often hold their exercises on their " Field-Day " excursions.

GLACIAL MORAINES .- Every change of level in a country produces a change of climate. Ascend to the height of 350 feet and you have reached the same temperature you would have found by going one de- gree, sixty miles, towards the north. Therefore we see that an elevation of any part of a country is a practical northward journey in temperature, and con - sequently in the Fauna and Flora.

Preceding the glaciers, there had been a long period of progressive elevation, till so large a part of North America had been raised above the line of perpetual snow, that it was covered with snow and ice piled up 4000 or 5000 feet, almost a mile in thickness ; and then this mass, slowly, almost imperceptibly, but re- sistlessly, moved on southward to a warmer elime. As it journeys onward, the mountain crags and tow- ering peaks, through the weight of accumulated snow and the action of cold winds and frosts, come down in crashing avalanches, forming deck-loads of crumbled stones and boulders to be carried and deposited in the valleys far away.

As these glaciers pressed south, southeast and southwestward, their eroding and grinding power was incalculable, and the tops of the hills and lower mountains, and sides of the higher, were ground away by these mighty planing-machines, leaving behind traces of their movements on the solid rock, in long striated scratches and groovings.

In one place a sharp, projecting angle of stone cuts its line in the solid ledge; in another, a loose rolling stone crushed the ledge as it rolled along, leaving slight horizontal crackings ; and again the solid ledge was gonged to a foot or more in depth as a hard boulder, securely fixed beneath, and in the enormous mass of ice, plowed across the naked rock. Gravel, sand and earthi imbedded in side or bottom of the glacier, smoothed and polished the ledge over which it passed.

Following this period of high elevation, accompan- ied with Arctic cold, came a subsidence, and these glaciers slowly melted away as the warmer climate followed ; and rock, boulder, gravel and sand, consti- tuting the drift, was left behind. Where the glaciers had pushed immense quantities of this material, torn and worn away from the hills and mountains, we now find the terminal moraines; beneath, where it had been carried along on top, we find the medial mo- raines ; and on either side of these moving rivers of snow and ice, the lateral moraines are lett to tell the story of their breadth.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Again a part of the land was covered by the ocean, and the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain were arms of the sea. The ocean waves re-arranged and leveled much of this débris, spreading it out over the shallow ocean bed.

Time passes on and the everlasting forces acting below, again change the ever-changing surface, and a slow upheaval takes place; and the waters begin to drain off, and our part of the planet assumes more nearly its present limit and form. As the waters drain off, the river channels are formed and the river systems are developed, and down through the drift the waters readily cut their way. "The falling rain-drops gather on the land and a little rill forms ; as this moves along it cuts down a little furrow; several of these rills combining form a rivulet which enlarges the furrow into a gully as it goes down the river-bank ;" and these again combining pour down in torrents, cutting wider and deeper, as with gather- ing force the waters sweep down the declivities, ex- cavating deep ravines and gorges, leaving behind the higher summits as ridges, cliffs and banks.

We find the Drift in every direction in Newton and the adjoining towns, in rounded hills, ridges, spurs and elevated plateaux composed of sand and gravel with boulders. Standing on the belt and ridge of land south of Cabot Street, you find a peculiar arrangement of hill and valley spread out on every side. Cabot Street cuts through an arm of this ridge, which stretches northward. There, and on the path through the woods, is exposed a fine picture of the unmodified Drift, sand, gravel and boulders, water-worn throughout. This entire ridge is Drift, and walking southward through Newton Centre the same formation is seen on every hand. Beyond there the country slopes to the south, leaving New- ton Centre, Newton Highlands, and onward to Au- burndale and Lower Falls, an elevated plateau and ridge of this Drift material, constituting a divide or water-shed.

The drift is very distinctly seen where it crops out on the Watertown shore of Charles River, nearly op- posite the home of Mr. Henry Claflin.

At Auburndale and Riverside is a high bluff of Drift on the south side of the railroad, showing beautifully the enormous accumulations of this material ; and as we cross to the north side we find another ridge of the same Drift which has been separated from the other by the water cutting a channel between; and then across the Charles River in Weston, rising to an equal height, the belt of Drift can be traced for many miles. Among the boulders lying scattered on the hills and occasionally in the plains, we find granite, gneiss, slates, green-stones and conglomerates. With the exceptione of the latter, all these boulders, sand and gravel, have been torn away from other rocks and transported to their present position through the agency of ice and water.

Then come back to the point of observation I have referred to on the ridge, and at once the conclusion is reached that this level plateau has, at some distant time, extended across the valley where Newtonville stands, to the plain on which Waltham is built, to a corresponding height in Watertown, and that the valley of the Charles is the result of the action of water since the depositions of the Drift, although this higher plain and ridge have been worn away much be- low its former height.

Now, descending and advancing towards the river, we find Newtonville is built on another level plateau, the same on which stands the lower part of the villages of Newton, West Newton and Auburndale, composed of the same materials as that we have left, and as we near Charles River another descent is made. These latter constitute the river terraces, and differ in many respects from the first.

Again we will retrace our steps to the ridge south of Cabot Street, near Newtonville, and endeaver to read the history of this problem spread out before us. First the ridge on which we stand is the old unmodified, unstratified Drift, proved by the mate- rials composing it. These were brought and deposit- ed here by the glaciers when the subsidence of this part of our continent caused a warmer climate, and the glaciers melting, disappeared. Now, as this im- mense quantity of water was drained off, accelerated by the gradual upheaval, wonderful changes took place; the river valleys were washed out, terraces formed, and with the exceptions of a slight deepening of the river channels and the present flood plains, the dry land was left nearly in its present condition, only now covered with grass, flowers, shrubs and forests.

Where glaciers have swept over the country, the northern slope is long and gentle, and the southern shorter and often abrupt; the glaciers ground, smoothed, polished, as they gradually ascended to the hill or mountain-top, then passing over they crumb- led, falling down the other side, leaving no strite or grooves to mark their tremendous power. As the ir- resistible force behind pushed them over, it exerted no influence on the falling mass farther than to con- tinue piling more and more on top of that which had already fallen ; and con equently its grooving, plan- ing power was lost till it again had consolidated and gained a steady headway. Therefore on the north slope and top of ledges and mountains we find evi- dences of glacial action, while on the south we look in vain for them. The side of the advance was the side of wear and greatest erosion.

Some of the rounded hills standing isolated in the valleys, and nearly all the ridges in this vicinity, have, as a centre or backbone, an internal foundation structure, composed of granite, conglomerate or slates, all worn from pre-existing or primary rocks and consti- tuting what is termed the secondary or stratified rocks.

Where these ledges crop out we often find they

153

NEWTON.

have been rounded, polished, grooved and scratched by the ponderous, southward-moving glacier. On Jewett, just beyond Pearl Street, the ledge bears am- ple evidence of glacial action. Before it had been much cut away, I traced grooves more than fifty feet, rounding up over the ledge to its summit as far as it was uncovered. Although this stone had been sub- ject to the well-known agencies following exposure, still the tracings are at once apparent.

We have spread out before us to-day one of the problems science unraveled and made clear ouly after the Glacial Theory had been accepted.

From base to top of this mass of snow and ice slowly moving southward, the materials composing the Drift were carried from the north to warmer cli- mates. From jagged hill-tops and mountain-crags the rocks were gathered, which, after rolling and wearing, were finally deposited as clay, fine sand and gravel, or coarser stones and boulders over Canada, New England, and westward beyond the Mississippi. These boulders seldom exceeded a cubic foot in size, although sometimes they are found containing 20,000, 30,000, and even 40,000 cubic feet.

The Drift, while covering the lower lauds and val- leys, is found high up the mountains-2000 feet on the Green Mountains, 3000 on Monadnock, and 6000 on Mt. Washington. On the very summit of Mt. Washington drift boulders have been found.

Large and small boulders are found on the sum- mits of most hills and smaller mountains in New England.

The loose, unstratified gravel and boulders over New England, New York, and the States west over the same latitude are called Drift. In some excep- tional cases it is in layers ; then it is called Modified Drift.

This is the regnlt of a working over of the Drift material by the streams of water beneath the glacier or in subsequent time by the rivers or ocean.

The Drift is derived from the rocks to the north of where it lies, mostly between northeast and north- west. The material is coarsest towards the north, grading down to finer gravel and sand without stones towards the southern limit. With the exception of pieces of wood the Drift is nearly bare of fossils, and nothing to suggest marine origin.

Glaciers will move on slopes of one or two degrees, and at the present time the requisite slope is found to exist iu New England and Eastern New York. When the winters come and the mantle of snow covers our country from the sea-coast to the far, frigid North, we have a stationary glacier; but the depth is only a few feet, instead of 4000 to 5000, and is light, porous snow, differing from the old-time glacier, which was mostly ice, with, perhaps, a few hundred fcet of snow on the top.

The glacier in this part of North America would of necessity move southward, for, if for no other reason, the enormous accumulation of ice and snow to the

northward would effectually present a barrier to its movement in that direction, while to the South there would be a limit resulting from the warmer climate. In the farther North the ice-mantle may have been many miles in thickness. Therefore the glaciers wonld push southward, rounding and polishing off' the hills and lower mountains, scoring the sides and tops with regular marked strice, produced by the rocks, boulders and sand rubbing over them as with gigantic power the glacier moved along.

The Glacial Epoch and the Drift Epoch were the same. It was a period of intense cold, following and accompanying a wide-spread elevation in the cold latitudes in both the Northern and Southern hemis- pheres. In the warmer regions there are no traces of Glacier nor Drift material.

Below the perpetual frost-line a stream of water always flows, which works over that part of the glacial débris of angular and rounded stones and earth within its reach, transporting it to the valley, where it is deposited on the banks in a more or less stratified form.

The glacier has its sides and bottom set with stones of large or small size, and sand and gravel, and is a "tool of vast power," scratching, plowing and planing the rocks over or against which it moves: it even widens and deepens valleys.

Prof. Hitchcock says, "The Mountain Tarns, known as ' Lakes of the Clouds,' just below the sum- mit of Mt. Washington, resulted from the excavating power of the glacier."

Sometimes the accumulated Drift material formed immense barriers and dammed up streams and shut in valleys, giving us to-day beautiful ponds and lakes.

I have referred to the avalanches falling upon the glaciers and forming deck-loads of debris. This detri- tus which was precipitated upon the top of the gla- cier was only a small part of the material gathered into this snow and ice-mass. From the tops of the mountains over which it passed ; from the sides against which it crushed its way, and even from the valleys, it gathered material which became incorporated into, and distributed throughout the vast sheet of ice ; and these materials eroded, broken, crushed and taken from one place, were the implements that ground, pul- verized, polished and produced the striæ on other and perhaps far distant rocks. This debris, taken from different rock-formations, comprised fragments of all the rocks exposed, from the granites down to the more recent formations, and to-day we find it scattered broad-cast over our hills and valleys.

To produce the Drift there must be the glacier. To form the glacier there must be elevation above the line of perpetual frost, and an abundance of moist- ure in the atmosphere. Were the thermometer never to rise above freezing point our earth would be a rainless, snowless sphere. For, to produce rain and snow, there must be moisture, and this is only the re- sult of a temperature of above 32º Fahrenheit.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Thus far in speaking of the Drift, I have referred only to that form of it over which we passed. But there are two other conditions in which the glaciated débris is presented for our examination and study, differing in material and position from that we have observed to-day.

In Newton we have a few of those beautiful shaped hills, characteristic of the Glacial Period, found so frequently in the eastern parts of Maine, New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts.

These hills are supposed to have been formed beneath the ice-sheet by the gradual accumulation of the material torn and worn away from the rocks and valleys over which it moved. They are compos- ed of clay, sand, boulders and fragments of rock in- discriminately heaped up, without stratification ; very hard and compact.

The name given them appears to be very charac- teristic and appropriate-ground moraines-and if the theory is correct that they were formed by the con- stant addition of new material as the glacier moved ouward, their composition and compactness can readily be understood. They have been named by Prof. Hitchcock, " Lenticular hills." They are elliptical in shape, the long diameter corresponding very nearly with the strice and giacial groovings found in the immediate vicinity. Mt. Ida is a typical specimen of a lenticular hill-elliptical in shape, steep sides, gently rounded top and always a beautiful picture in the landscape.

Beside Mt. Ida ; Brighton Hill, partly in Newton and Brighton; Nonantum Hill; Prospect Hill, near the Newton reservoir; Institute Hill at Newton Cen- tre ; Moffit's Hill, lying between Fuller and Beacon Streets, and Oak Hill, near Newton Highlands, are all composed of the same materials and present the same shape.

The other form remaining to be described is that of a cover, or sheet of material, consisting partly of that just described, mingled with sand, gravel and detritus generally, dropped loosely upon the hills and valleys when the ice melted beneath it. This form of the Drift covers nearly all New England to a depth varying from one to ten, or even twenty feet; and in connection with this are found the large boulders so abundant in some localities.

The distinction between these three glacial deposits is readily apparent.

The first is composed of sand, gravel, pebbles and boulders (not striated) all, water-worn and rounded; more frequently unstratified. This is generally found in the valleys ; but sometimes it occurs on elevated plateaux. It often overlies the other two forms of deposit.

The second overlics the "lenticular hills," and nearly the whole of the glacier-swept region, forming a thin cover of only a few feet in thickness, com- posed of the materials found in the lower and upper deposits.

The lenticular hills, built up of clay, sand, pebble and angular fragments of rock, hard and compact, comprise the third or lower division of the Drift. These two latter are also known by the name of upper and lower Till.

In Hiawatha, Longfellow assigns other cause than glaciers for the boulders found scattered far and wide over the elevated plateaux of the distant Northwest. You will remember the terrible conflict between Hi- awatha and his father, Mud-je-kee-wis, when Hia- watha,

" With threatening look and gesture Laid his hand upon the black rock, Upon the fatal Warbeek laid it,

With his mittens, Min-jek-ah-wun, Rent the jutting crag asunder, Smote and crushed it into fragmenta,

Hurled them madly at his father, * * * *

But the ruler of the West-Wind Blew the fragments backward from him, With the breathings of his nostrils,

With the tempest of his anger;

Blew them back at his assailant ; *

* * **

* *

Still the hunter sees its trace s Scattered far o'er hill and valley ; * * * * *

Sees the masses of the Warbeek

Lying still in every valley."

Scattered throughout Newton, in every direction, especially on the ridges and hills, are found the boul- ders left by the ice. On the hill-tops and slopes they . are or have been very abundant, in full view, the finer material having been washed away, leaving them exposed. The walls built by farmers are composed entirely of these rocks, various in form and material, but showing unmistakable evidences of water action. On the top of the ridge I have referred to, lying between Newtonville and Bullough's Pond, I found the fragments of a large boulder, a well-worn traveler from some distant crag or mountain-top, stranded, like many another castaway, on a gravelly beach. Also on the southwest slope I found fine specimens of asbestos where another boulder had landed and was slowly and surely crumbling back to dust.

This ridge shut off the pond from the plain on which Newtonville stands, and dammed back its waters when the pond occupied a much greater area than now; but, following the elevation of the land, the water burst through the barrier at the northwest corner, and the greater part escaped where the " Old Mill" now stands. Beyond are beautiful forest- crowned ridges, water-worn hollows and romantic dells, rimmed with shrub and tree, dotted with the trailing vine, the purpling bloom and the flowers nodding in the gentle breeze; dark and sombre in the shadows ; lovely places to wander on a summer's day to study the great problems of life and the changes and growth of this, our terrestrial home.

DAMason 1

155

NEWTON.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

IION. DAVID H. MASON.

Hon. David Haven Mason, son of John and Mary (Haven) Mason, was born in Sullivan, N. H., on March 17, 1818. His career offers a shining example of the success of a self-made man, in the deepest sig- nificance of that familiar phrase. By his own unaided exertion, by rigid economy, without the assistance of wealthy or influential friends, he procured the means for his professional education, graduating at Dart- mouth College in 1841, and entered upon the chosen field of his labors in Boston, Mass., an entire stranger to the city and its institutions. After securing a lo- cation at 20 Court Street (now the site of Young's Hotel), and by the purchase of the necessary office furniture with a few elementary law-books, his last dollar was spent. Thus he entered upon his business career without a solitary friend in the city from whom he could claim the privilege of the smallest loan ; but by his untiring energy, industry, sturdy devotion to his profession and fidelity to his clients he soon com- manded a respectable and lucrative practice, while hy his many honorable and genial traits of character he was rapidly gathering about him a large circle of ar- dent and appreciative friends.

After several years of tireless devotion to the law he entered the arena of public life and by his admin- istration of the various official positions entrusted to him, whose functions he discharged with admirable judgment, zeal and success, he made his influence felt as a noble public benefactor in Newton, where he re- sided, in the neighboring city of Boston and through. out the whole Commonwealth. Many of the most useful and important public improvements of the period in which he was so conspicuous in active official ser- vice owe their origin and their successful achieve- ment, with all their untold utility, to his wisdom in preparation and his remarkable skill in execution.

Mr. Mason was a resident of Newton for twenty- five years, and during this entire perird he was an honored and cherished leader in the educational and social improvement of the community, exercising to a remarkable degree his peculiar faculty of bringing out the good qualities of those with whom he came in contact and greatly enriching his townsmen by this contribution. The precise value of his services to the town of Newton during the long period that he was its counsel and the zealous promoter of its interests can never be estimated and therefore will never re- ceive a just and proper appreciation.

He early won the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and was a very active and influential member of the House of Representatives during the years 1863, '66 and '67. The patriotic Governor John A. Andrew admitted him to his personal intimacy, and often ex- pressed himself by word and letter as leaning with implicit confidence upon the sagacious counsels of his friend in many important and difficult emergencies.

In the struggles of the country during the War of 1861-65 he evinced the most devoted and ardent pa- triotism, and his tongue and pen were never deficient in the exigencies of any occasion. He was a friend to the poor and a helper to the distressed. Mindful of his own early struggles, he sympathized with young men and was ever ready with his advice and influence to encourage and stimulate them in the preparation for spheres of usefulness and honor. He declined tha honor of the Republican nomination for the Senator- ship and the higher position of National Representa- tive, each of which he was strongly urged to accept, giving as his reason the claims of his profession. He also repeatedly declined elevation to the Bench on the ground that no emolument or judicial distinction could induce him to surrender the delights or avoid the tender responsibilities of his home and family, a sentiment of which the practical interpretation formed a legacy now most deeply cherished in the hearts of his children.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 36

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