History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 40

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 40

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NEWTON.

tion with Cyrus Pierce, father of American normal schools, he established the institution of which asso- ciated with his brother James T. Allen, he is the principal, -- " The West Newton English and Classi- cal School." Mr. Allen has been one of the most progressive and successful educators of the last half- century, always advocating the liberal and thorough co-education of the sexes, and ready to introduce into his own school whatever proved to be sound in theory and useful in practice. This school, with its indus- trial department, at the homestead in Medfield, which is under the care of his brother, Joseph A. Allen, draws students from a wide region,-the last enroll- meut, 1890, showing boys and girls from seventeen of the United States, from Canada, Cuba, Montevi- deo (South America), Sweden, Spain and Italy. The remarkable success attending Mr. Allen's career has not been achieved through any hap-hazard influences. The make-up of his character was well provided for by a sturdy ancestry.

On the paternal side he traces his lineage through seven generations to the Puritans of 1640, and on the maternal side to the Pilgrims of Plymouth.

James Allen, an emigrant from England (1640), settled in Dedham, where his cousin, John Allen, was the first minister and a co-laborer with John Eliot among the Indians.

In 1649 James made one of seven families who settled Medfield. He purchased laud of the Indians and built his house on the spot where the present homestead stands, now owned by the Allen Brothers, Nathaniel and Joseph, the latter and his children, of the eighth generation, are its present occupants.

The longevity of this family is remarkable. De- veloped through generations of sturdy adherence to the laws of health, being neither by wealth tempted to idleness and dissipation, or by poverty debarred from healthful social enjoyments, they were accustom- ed to plain living and high thinking.

In the sixth generation, to which Mr. Allen's father belonged, and in the family of six sons and two daughters, death did not invade the circle for seven. ty-eight years, when the Rev. Joseph Allen, D.D., of Northboro', died; four of the sons died at eighty- three; one, Rev. Wm. W. Allen, became the oldest living graduate of Harvard, dying at ninety-three years, while the youngest is living at eighty-three; the daughters died-one in infancy, and one at ninety years.

Mr. Allen's mother died from an accident at nine- ty-six years, wanting twenty-five days, in full posses- sion of her faculties, and leaving seventy-eight de- scendants.

The seventh generation, of which Mr. Allen is a member, consisting of five sons and three daughters, was exempt from death's visitation for fifty-seven years.

The late Dio Lewis, M.D., pronounced Nathaniel one of the strongest and most enduring men he had ever kuown.

A fine physique, cheery, mirth-enjoying and mirth- producing spirit, financial independence, high moral, progressive and reformatory ideas have distinguished Mr. Allen.

He is distinguished by the above characteristics and has ever been prominent in moral reforms-theologi- cal-peace, anti-slavery, temperance, woman suffrage, civil service and tariff.

The same spirit actnates him which caused his an- cestors, Puritan and Pilgrim, to contend for an im- proved condition. It would be difficult, if not im- possible, to find another person of Mr. Allen's age with so many warm personal friends. In every city throughout the country, from Maine to California and from Canada to Texas, these are found,

During a busy life in the class-room, he has held many other positions of responsibility ; [he has been president of the board of directors of the Pomroy Newton Home for Orphan and Destitute Girls since it was founded, sixteen years ago; is also the president of the Newton Woman's Suffrage Associ- ation and a director in the American Peace Society. He was trustee of the Boston College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a member of the committee of ex- amiuatiou in natural science at Harvard.

Mr. Allen was a Garrisonian abolitionist and an officer of the society when in those days it cost something to be identified with men of their belief. He was many times mobbed when in their company, and naturally became an early member of the Free-Soil party.

In 1869, having been appointed an agent of the Commissioner of Public Education by Hon. Henry Barnard, Mr. Allen went abroad and spent two years in studying the school systems of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Austria, and in particular of what is now included in the German Empire.

The results of his observations of the secondary schools, Gymnasia, Real- and Volks-Schulen of Prus- sia, Saxony and Nassau are preserved in a valu- able report published and distributed by order of the Secretary of the Interior.

Mr. Allen was married, March 30, 1853, to Caroline Swift, daughter of James Nye and Rebecca (Free- man) Bassett, of Nantucket, and of their children, Fanny Bassett, Sarah Caroline and Lucy Ellis are living ; Nathaniel Topliff, their son, died in 1865.

EDWIN BRADBURY HASKELL.

Edwin Bradbury Haskell was born in Livermore (then Oxford, afterwards Kennebec and now Andros- coggin County), Me., August 24, 1837. His father was Moses Greenleaf Haskell, who was for the most of his life a country merchant in that town. His paternal grandfather, William Haskell, was born in Glouces- ter, Mass., and emigrated when a young man to the District of Maine, ahout the time that the General Court of Massachusetts gave to the people of Glou-

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

cester a township in the then almost wild "district," which afterwards became New Gloucester, Me., as a reward for their great services in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Haskell's mother was Rosilla Haines, daughter of Captain Peter Haines, who emigrated from Gilmanton, N. H., to Maine about 1790, bought a square mile of land on the Androscoggin River, in what is now East Livermore, where he brought up a large family of children, most of whom settled about him, and left a handsome estate and a highly respected name. On both sides this was sturdy New England stock of the earlier English immigrations-1630 to 1640 -and from the enterprising young people of that stock who conquered the virgin Maine wilderness came a yeomanry of sound minds in sound bodies which has since made its mark throughout the coun- try. Mr. Haskell was educated in the district school and at Kent's Hill Seminary, where he was fitted for college at the age of sixteen, having shown a special aptitude for mathematics. Not having the promise of pecuniary assistance for a college course, he was easily induced by his cousin, Zenas T. Haines, after- wards well known in the journalism of Boston, to enter the office of the Portland Advertiser and learn to be a printer. At the end of a year, having learned what he could of the printer's art in a daily newpaper office, he went, with a single companion, to New Or- Jeans, where printers were much better paid in those days, and worked as a journeyman in that city and in Baton Rouge from the autumn of 1855 until the fol- lowing summer. In August, 1856, he came to Boston and took a situation as a compositor on the Saturday Evening Gazette, which was at that time a most re- spectable paper published by William W. Clapp. In the spring of 1857 he was employed by the Boston Journal as printer and reporter, and after the first year wholly as a reporter. In the spring of 1860 he received an advantageous offer to become a reporter on the Boston Herald, then owned by Edwin C. Bai- ley, and in the following year was made one of the editorial writers, and practically the head of that de- partment. In 1861 Mr. Haskell, with his associate, George M. Tileston, helped to raise the Eleventh Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, and intended to go to the field with it, but resigned his commission to another who had had military training. In 1865 Mr. Bailey proposed to sell the Herald, on account of fail- ing health, and Mr. Haskell made up what would have been called at a later period a "syndicate" to purchase it. Some changes were made in the persons, Mr. Bailey wishing to put in his brother, who was foreman in the composing-room, and his cashier, the late Royal M. Pulsifer, and with these modifications the trade was promptly carried through, for one-third interest in the paper; the other two-thirds were pur- chased four years later. Mr. Haskell's associates were Royal M. Pulsifer, Justin Andrews, Charles H. An- drews and George G. Bailey. Mr. Bailey and Justin Andrews sold out their interests a few years after, re-

tiring with competencies, and the other three partners continued together until 1887.

Mr. Haskell's chief work in life was editor of the Boston Herald from 1865 to 1887. With a mind nat- urally inclined to see the arguments on both sides of a question, and with strong convictions of the right, he made the Herald entirely independent of parties, but always a consistent advocate of certain well- defined principles in relation to public affairs. Among these were universal suffrage, local self-government, honest currency, civil service reform and low tariff, with free trade as the ultimate goal to be reached. The Herald was, at the same time, one of the most enterprising newspapers iu the country, and soon became the leading journal in New England, with a circulation and influence scarcely second to that of any other paper in the country.

As an editorial writer Mr. Haskell was, in the words of one who knew him well, "terse and direct, going to the core of the theme under discussion, and his keen sense of humor was a no less noticeable trait of his professional outfit." He was especially well in- formed, clear and incisive on economic questions. Mr. Haskell sold out his interest in the Herald in the autumn of 1887, owing to the unfortunate financial complications of his partner, Mr. Pulsifer, but re- sumed his proprietorship the following spring, when the Boston Herald Company was incorporated, and became a director in the company. His retirement from the editorship was permanent, and he was suc- ceeded by his friend and associate for years, Mr. John H. Holmes.

Mr. Haskell has made investments in other suc- cessful newspapers, and is a large owner in the Min- neapolis Journal and St. Joseph News. He was at one time the largest stockholder in the Minneapolis Tri- bune, of which his son, William E. Haskell, was editor.

Mr. Haskell's fortunate business and professional career has been happily matched by his social and domestic life at his elegant and beautiful home, " Vista Hill," overlooking the Charles River valley, in Auburndale, Newton.

In 1877 and 1878, accompanied by his family and a small retinne of friends, he made a tour of Europe, lasting some thirteen months. Hence the unique de- scriptive serial sketches published in the Herald of the " Adventures of the Scribbler Family Abroad."

In 1882 he declined a nomination to Congress, which would have been equivalent to an election, preferring his editorial position to what he held to be a more limited field of usefulness and honor.

Mr. Haskell was married, in August, 1861, to Celia, daughter of Jonas and Joanna (Hubbard) Hill, of Fayette, Maine. Of this union there were seven children, of whom four are living (in 1890). The eld- est, William Edwin, graduated at Harvard in 1884, and settled in Minneapolis. He was for a time editor of the Minneapolis Tribune, and is one of the owners

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NEWTON.

of the Minneapolis Journal. The second, Harry Hill, is a graduate of Harvard, '90, and is destined for the medical profession. The youngest children are Mar- garet, born 1874, and Clarence Greenleaf, born in 1880.

Mr. Haskell has made some railroad investments by virtue of which he is vice-president of the South Florida Railroad Company and a director of the Plant Investment Company. In local affairs he is president of the Newton Cemetery Corporation, pres- ident of the Newton Jersey Stock Club, and President of the Board of Trustees of the Newton Free Library.

HON. LEVI C. WADE.1

Hon. Levi C. Wade, of Newton, who was Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1879, and has since become even more widely known as president of the Mexican Central Railway, was born January 16, 1843, in Allegheny City, Pennsyl- vania, but is a member of an old Middlesex County family. His father, Levi Wade, whose ancestors were among the early inhabitants and largest land-owners of Medford, was born in 1812 in Woburn, to which his immediate ancestors had removed in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He is still living in Alle- gheny City, having retired from business thirty years ago, after a highly successful career as a merchant and manufacturer in the neighboring city of Pitts- burgh. His uncle, Colonel John Wade, who was born in 1780 and died in 1858, was one of the wealth- iest and most prominent residents of Woburn. To those who were familiar with this well-known gentle- man, who was for fourteen years one of the Woburn selectmen, twelve years town treasurer, seventeen years representative to the General Court, two years in the State Senate, and seventeen years postmaster, his relationship with the subject of our sketch will be a matter of some interest, and they will not fail to detect points of resemblance between the two men. Hon. Levi C. Wade, however, is a stanch Republi- can, while Colonel John Wade was a Democrat. He was a tall and well-made gentleman, very neat in his dress and habits, and so crisp in speech at times that some of his sayings are still matters of tradition in Woburn. By shrewd investments in real estate Col- onel John became one of the wealthiest men in his part of the county.

The mother of Hon. Levi C. Wade was A. Annie (Rogers) Wade, well known in Pittsburgh for her musical and literary attainments and her activity in benevolent enterprises. She was born in 1819, mar- ried to Levi Wade in 1838 and is still living with the husband of her youth. One of her ancestors was Rev. John Rogers, of Ipswich, who became president of Harvard College, and whose ancestry is traced by some to John Rogers, the martyr of Smithfield.

Levi C. Wade was educated in the public schools and was fitted for college by private tutors, entering Yale in 1862 and graduating with the degree of A.B. in 1866. While in college he took prizes in English composition, debate and declamation ; was one of the editors of the Yale Literary Magazine, and was active and prominent in athletic sports.

It is interesting to note the different stages of development in the early career of a man like Mr. Wade, who is at one and the same time a student and an unusually successful man of affairs. He first came to Newton in October, 1866, for the purpose of study- ing at the Theological Seminary, under a promise that he would devote at least two years to theological study. He studied Greek and Hebrew exegesis the first year under Dr. H. B. Hackett, and studied theology the second year under Dr. Alvah Hovey. But as soon as the two years agreed upon were com- pleted he devoted his attention to the law and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in September, 1873. While study- ing law, Mr. Wade taught school in Newton, being principal of the Grammar School at Newton Upper Falls for five years. In 1877 he formed a partnership with Hon. J. Q. A. Brackett, now Governor of Massa- chusetts, and the legal firm of Wade & Brackett con- tinued until 1880, when Mr. Wade retired from general practice and has since devoted his attention to railway law and active railway management.

Mr. Wade was representative to the General Court from Newton for the four successive years, 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1879. He was Speaker of the House in 1879 and declined a re-election to accept the position of attorney for various railroad companies. During his service in the Legislature there was no work in which he took a greater degree of pride than his suc- cessful effort with others to effect a change of the statute whereby an unfortunate, but honest debtor, could be arrested upon mere belief that he bad prop- erty which might be used for the payment of the debt. This law existed upon the Massachusetts statute- books as late as 1878, and Mr. Wade secured its repeal in the House of Representatives in the face of power- ful opposition. The same public-spirited traits are conspicnous in Mr. Wade to-day, and while pres- ident of the Mexican Central Railway, a director of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé, Atlantic and Pacific Railways and other great enterprises, he is also one of the water commissioners of the city of New- ton, a director in that excellent institution, the Gen- eral Theological Library in Boston, and he is, and has been from its beginning, one of the vice-presi- dents of the Newton Club, the leading social organi- zation in the city where he resides. He was also one of the building committee who erccted the Young Women's Christian Association building in Boston on Berkeley and Appleton Streets.

Mr. Wade was married, November 16, 1869, to Margaret R., daughter of Hon. Wm. and Lydia H.

1 Contributed.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

(Elliot) Rogers, of Bath, Me. Mrs. Wade's mother was a descendant of John Elliot, the famous mission- ary to the Indians in New England and translator of the Indian Bible. The children of Hon. Levi C. Wade are Arthur C. Wade, born May 4, 1875; Wil- liam R. Wade, born September 6, 1881 ; Levi C. Wade, Jr., born July 22, 1885; and Robert N. Wade, born October 22, 1887. Two daughters, the oldest of whom was born in 1870, died in infancy.

Mr. Wade's name is nearly as well known in Mex- ico as in the United States, he being president of what is our sister republic's largest institution except the government itself. He was one of the four original projectors and owners of what is now the Mexican Central Railway Company, and has been the presi- dent and general counsel of that company since Au- gust, 1884. When he was placed at the head of its affairs the first mortgage bonds of the corporation were in default and there was a floating debt of more than two millions of dollars. Since that time the company's financial affairs have been thoroughly re- organized, branch lines have been built, the value of the property has increased over thirty million of dollars and its bonds have become a popular interest- paying investment. In December, 1886, Mr. Wade went to London and interested prominent foreign bankers and financiers in the property, so that the Mexican Central securities are now as well known in London as in Boston and New York, and are listed at the stock exchanges of all three cities. More re- cently Mr. Wade has obtained from the Mexican government for the Mexican Central Company a con- cession to deepen the entrance of Tampico harbor, on the Gulf of Mexico. The Tampico Harbor Com- pany has been organized for the purpose, and jetties are now being constructed there, similar to those which were so successfully employed by Capt. Edes at the South Pass of the Mississippi.

All of this great pecuniary success and honorable distinction in the financial world which Mr. Wade has achieved since he retired from the general prac- tice of law and from politics in 1880 covers a period of but ten years, and even during that time he has never lost sight of his duties as a citizen or of his interest in public affairs. After his marriage in 1869 he built a small house at Newton Upper Falls and resided there until 1881, when he began acquiring the nucleus of his present beautiful estate (Home- wood) at Oak Hill. This property comprises 225 aeres, about a mile and a half from the Newton

Centre station. There are over 100 acres of forest, and the mansion, which is a rambling country house, commands beautiful views of the neighboring cities and towns. With the exception of a brief residence in Dedham and Brookline while building at Home- wood, Mr. Wade has resided in Newton since Septem- ber, 1866.

REV. S. F. SMITH, D.D.

Rev. S. F. Smith was born in Boston October 21, 1808, fitted for college at the Public Latin School and graduated at Harvard University in 1829, and An- dover Theological Seminary in 1832. After a year spent in Boston in editorial labors he was ordained pastor of the First Baptist Church, Waterville, Maine, at the beginning of the year 1834, at the same time entering upon the duties of Professor of Modern Lan- guages in Waterville College (now Colby University), and during the year 1841 taught all the Greek in the college. In 1842 he became pastor of the First Bap- tist Church in Newton Centre, and at the same time editor of the Christian Review. The pastoral relation continued for over twelve years, aud was followed by a service of fifteen years of editorial labor in connec- tion with the periodicals of the Baptist Missionary Union. Dr. Smith has been a profuse contributor to the periodicals and other literature of his time, and has continued without intermission, except during one year (1875-76) spent in Europe in the service of the pulpit. In 1831 he was in connection with the late Lowell Mason, engaged in the preparation of the "Juvenile Lyre," the first publication in this country devoted to music for children, most of the songs in which were his translation from German songs or im- itations adapted to the German music of Nägeli and others. Many hymns from his pen are found in the various church collections. The well-known compo- sition, " My country, 'tis of thee," was written by him in 1832, and first used at a children's celebration of American independence in Park Street Church, Bos- ton, in the same year. The publications of Dr. Smith are " Life of Rev. Joseph Grafton," " Lyric Gems," "Rock of Ages," "Missionary Sketches " and numer- ous periodicals and sermons ; also in 1880, the " His- tory of Newton." Dr. Smith has also contributed valuable chapters to the present " History of Middle- sex County." 1

1 From " History of Newton," by permission,

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ARLINGTON.

CHAPTER XIII.

ARLINGTON.

BY JAMES P. PARMENTER, A.M.

ARLINGTON is, in extent of territory, one of the smaller towns of Middlesex County. It lies in the southeastern part of the county ; is bounded by Win- chester and Medford on the north, by Medford, Som- erville and Cambridge on the east, by Belmont on the south and by Lexington on the west. It is about three miles in length and two miles in width. The western part of the town is hilly, Arlington Heights and Tur- key Hill being the most prominent elevations, while the eastern end is level. There are two ponds of considerable size-Mystic Pond, along the northern boundary, and Spy Pond, in the southern part of the town. Mystic River forms a part of the northeastern boundary, and its tributary, Alewife Brook, separates Arlington from Cambridge and Somerville. Vine Brook runs through the town from west to east for about two miles, and then turning to the north flows into Mystic Pond.

The history of Arlington from the time when white men first set foot upon its soil naturally divides it- self into four periods. First comes what may be called the period of settlement, lasting about a cen- tury, when Arlington was merely an outlying part of Cambridge, having a distinctive name-Menotomy- but no independent organization. The second period begins in 1732, when Menotomy became a separate parish of the old town. Then in 1807 the parish was incorporated as the town of West Cambridge and bore that name for sixty years. Finally in 1867 the present name was adopted, no change, however, being made in the organization of the town. It will be con- venient to follow these natural divisions and speak of each period separately.

boundary between Cambridge and Watertown, ran from Fresh Pond through what is now Belmont at about the line of the Concord turnpike. The eastern boundary was a natural one-the Menotomy River, which we know as Alewife Brook. The western limit was not fixed until Lexington was set off from the mother town in 1712.

The territory thus marked ont formed the district and parish of Menotomy and afterwards the town of West Cambridge. In 1842 it was increased by the annexation of the strip of Charlestown which lay be- tween Mystic Pond and the ancient northern bound- ary. In 1850 West Cambridge contributed a compar- atively small portion of land along its northern boundary to help form the new town of Winchester. In 1859 it suffered a serious loss of territory on its southern side, when Belmont was incorporated. The town was then reduced to its present limits.

Menotomy, the early name of the place, is an Indi- an name, the meaning of which is not certainly known. Probably it describes one of the natural fea- tures of the locality. The first settlers, doubtless adopting the Indian designation, called the stream that now bounds the town on the east, and was even then regarded as the dividing line between Menotomy and the village of Cambridge, the Menotomy River. During the eighteenth century Spy Poud was some- times called Menotomy Pond. " Menotomy " went out of use when the town was incorporated as West Cambridge-a name that needs no explanation. Ar- lington is a name that has no historical meaning as applied to the place.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 40

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