USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 46
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NEWTON LOWER FALLS.
The paper manufacturers of the Lower Falls and their descend- ants have held distinguished national, state, town and city posi- tions. Allen C. Curtis and Lemuel Crehore represented Newton in the Massachusetts Legislature. Alexander H. Rice was Presi- dent of the Common Council of the city of Boston, Mayor of the city, and for a number of years represented Boston in the Con- gress of the United States, where during the war of the Rebellion he was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. Finally, for three successive years he was elected Governor of Massa- chusetts.
His brother, Hon. Thomas Rice, jr., was for many years a mem- ber of the Board. of Selectmen, and its Chairman during the period when Newton was called upon to furnish its quota for the armies of the Union, engaged in putting down the rebellion. He was also a representative in the Legislature and a member of the Govern- or's Council.
A third brother, J. Willard Rice, was for several years a Select- man of the town, and, upon the establishment of the City Gov- ernment, was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen.
Mr. Isaac Hagar, also of the Lower Falls, represented the town in the Legislature at two different times. He also served on the Board of Selectmen, was for about thirty years a member of the School Committee, and for a very long period chairman of the Board of Assessors, and was also for many years Auditor of Newton Savings' Institution.
ST. MARY'S CHURCH, NEWTON LOWER FALLS.
477
ST. MARY'S (EPISCOPAL) CHURCH.
ST. MARY'S (EPISCOPAL) CHURCH.
For more than a century after business began to be developed at this village, the people continued to be connected, ecclesiasti- cally, with the First Parish church. No motion was made for a separate church organization. And afterwards, when the popula- tion had increased to such an extent as to seem to warrant an effort to sustain religious worship regularly in the village, such were the circumstances of the place that for many years the only church in the village was the Episcopal faith and form, and the citizens, as a general thing, united in this mode of worship.
The Episcopal form of service was first used in the autumn of 1811, in the District school-house at Newton Lower Falls, citizens from Newton, Needham and Weston, uniting in its support, and for more than fifty years St. Mary's was the only church edifice in the village. Mr. John R. Cotting, a lay-reader, officiated occa- sionally during the winter following, coming from his residence in Dedham for that purpose. April 7, 1812, a number of the in- habitants of that part of Newton and the adjacent towns met in the school-house at the Lower Falls, and organized themselves into a parish. Solomon Curtis and Thomas Durant were elected Wardens. Benevolent Episcopalians in Boston, having learned that the new parish was organized, gave much valuable aid, both in means, sympathy and ministerial services. The school-house having become too small for the congregation, a convenient hall was secured for worship in a building at the west corner of Main and Church Streets, where the services were conducted by several candidates for Holy Orders, and the sacraments were administered successively by the Rev. Asa Eaton, of Christ Church, and Rev. J. S. J. Gardiner, of Trinity Church, Boston, and Bishop A. V. Griswold. Rev. Asa Eaton was invited, in April, 1813, to the rectorship of the church, but declined the call. An Act of Incor- poration was granted by the General Court in 1813, and signed by the Governor June 16.
Two acres of land, for a church and cemetery, were presented to the Society by Samuel Brown, Esq., a merchant of Boston. Solomon Curtis, Thomas Durant, Isaac Hagar and Nathaniel Wales were appointed a Building Committee. The corner-stone of the church edifice was laid September 29, 1813, by "the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons ;"
478
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
and seven months later, April 29, 1814, the house was consecrated to the worship of God. Bishop Griswold preached on the occa- sion, and ten persons received the rite of confirmation. At this service the holy communion was administered, it is believed, for the first time in the village.
For ten years the Society was too feeble to sustain a pastor. In the mean time Divine services were performed chiefly by resident- graduates of Harvard University, who were candidates for Orders. Among them were Walter Cranston, afterwards Rector of Christ church, Savannah, Ga .; Rev. Jonathan Wainwright, D. D., Assistant Minister of Trinity church, New York; Rev. Isaac Boyle, D. D., Rector of St. Paul's church, Dedham ; James B. Howe, Claremont, N. H. ; Allston Gibbes, Assistant Minister of St. Philip's church, Charleston, S. C .; George Otis, Rector of Christ church, Cambridge, and for several years Tutor in Harvard College ; Philander Chase, afterwards bishop of Ohio; Benjamin C. C. Parker, of the Floating Chapel for seamen, New York ; Addison Searle, chaplain in the U. S. Navy ; George S. White, home missionary at Newton, Bridgewater and other places, and Cheever Felch, U. S. Navy, the latter of whom supplied the pulpit. mainly from 1817 to 1820. From the spring of 1821, the Rev. Samuel B. Shaw, of Lanesboro', officiated several months, after which the church was closed and the services suspended for five months. The Rev. Alfred L. Baury, the first rector, was elected July 8, 1822, and ordained priest November 28. Bishop Gris- wold preached from Heb. V : 4-" No man taketh this honor to. himself, but he that is called of God." Rev. Dr. Jarvis, of Bos- ton, presented the candidate, and Rev. Mr. Boyle, of Dedham, and Rev. George Otis, of Cambridge, united with the bishop in the imposition of hands. October 8, 1823, the office of induction was performed. Rev. Dr. Gardiner preached ; Rev. Dr. Jarvis, Rev. Mr. Boyle, and Rev. Mr. Cutler, of Quincy, assisted. " During the first ten years, there were one hundred and twenty- nine baptisms, twenty-three persons were confirmed, and there were six marriages and twelve funerals."
At the close of twenty-five years from his first officiating at St. Mary's, Mr. Baury preached a historical discourse, which was. printed, giving an account of the church from the beginning. The number of communicants connected with the church in 1822 was. twelve ; in May, 1847, one hundred and thirty-two; in 1871, one:
479
REV. ALFRED L. BAURY.
hundred and fifty-one. The meeting-house was enlarged in the year 1838-9, making it seventy by forty-five feet, exclusive of the tower.
In 1847, Mr. Baury reported, in his historical sermon, that dur- ing the twenty-five years of his ministry there had been, baptisms, three hundred and sixty-two; confirmations, one hundred and eighty-eight ; admitted to the communion, two hundred and thirty- three ; married, eighty-two couples ; funerals, fifty. The number of families belonging to the parish in 1847 exceeded one hundred.
REV. ALFRED LOUIS BAURY was the fourth son of Louis Baury de Bellerive, an officer of the Revolutionary army, and Mary, daughter of Elisha Clark, of Middletown, Conn. He was born in Middletown, September 11, 1794, and received his early educa- tion at Bacon Academy, Colchester, Conn. In 1809 he removed to Middletown, where he remained till 1816, when he established himself for a season in Tarboro' N. C., where he remained three win- ters. Here he was often called upon to address audiences at funer- als, and, in the absence of a clergyman, to read the burial service. In 1818 he returned to New England, and commenced to study for the ministry with Dr. Titus Strong, in Greenfield, Mass. He afterwards removed to Guilford, Vt., where he officiated as a lay- reader, and where, through his instrumentality, a church was established. He supplied this church till May, 1822. He resigned his office at Newton Lower Falls, after a ministry of nearly thirty years, April 21, 1851. He officiated as rector of St. Mark's church in Boston from 1855 to 1858, dividing his labors between this church and St. Paul's, Hopkinton. From 1833 to 1843, he was Secretary of the Protestant Episcopal Convention of Massachusetts. He received the degree of A. M. from Norwich University in 1848, and D. D. from Yale College. He was elected Vice-President of the Massachusetts Cincinnati, July 4, 1853, and President of the same, July 4, 1865. He died in Boston, Decem ber 26, 1865, and was buried among his parishioners at the Lower Falls.
Ile published in 1841 a sermon on the occasion of the funeral of Zibeon Hooker, an officer of the Revolution, and the Histori- cal Sermon before alluded to. A judicious critic writes of him as follows :
As a preacher, he was clear and impressive, modelling his style upon that of the old English divines. In his personal appearance, he was tall, erect.
480
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
in figure and movement, graceful and dignified. His fine classical features, his silvered hair, his urbane, courteous, yet cordial manners rendered him an agreeable companion, and he will long be remembered in Boston as one of the best specimens of a gentleman of the old school.
Dr. Baury married, July 1, 1829, Catharine Henshaw, of Mid- dlebury, Vt., and had six children. The youngest, Frederick F. Baury, his only son, born February 20, 1843, distinguished himself in the U. S. Navy, in the war of the Rebellion ; he was acting master's mate, August 14, 1861 ; acting master, April, 1862 ; pres- ent in the various attacks on Charleston, in 1862-1864, and at both attacks on Fort Fisher, Wilmington. In the last, leading his company of sailors to the assault, he was shot through the body, but recovered. He was honorably discharged Feb. 8, 1869.
The following ministers have been Rectors of St. Mary's church :
RECTORS.
ACCEDED.
RESIGNED.
Alfred L. Baury,
July
8, 1822,
April 21, 1851.
Henry W. Woods,
1851,
1853.
Andrew Crosswell,
April,
1853,
April, 1856.
Henry Burroughs,
Nov.
2, 1856,
Nov. 7, 1858.
Benjamin F. DeCosta,
Jan.
31, 1859,
Winslow W. Sever,
Sept.
1, 1860,
Jan. 29, 1865.
Joseph Kidder,
March 19, 1865,
Feb. 16, 1868.
Richard F. Putnam,
Jan.
18, 1868,
Nov. 30, 1875.
Henry Mackay,
March
1, 1876.
Besides other donations which have been given in aid of the church, His Excellency Governor Winthrop, of this Common- wealth, presented to the parish a silver flagon for the Communion Table, and Mrs. Hannah Smith, of Boston, gave a large oval bason for the same use. Two silver cups and paten were pre- sented by Shubael Bell, Esq., of Boston, formerly Sheriff of Suf- folk County, and a member of Christ Church, Boston. All these articles have continued in use until the present time.
A Sabbath School was organized in connection with St. Mary's church in the spring of 1818. Mr. William Mills was Superintend- ent of this school forty years. According to the custom of that period, the aim of the pupils was to excel in committing to mem- ory verses from the Old and New Testaments, and choice hymns. In 1818, from May to August, 6,414 verses and 898 hymns were learned. A boy who worked at a trade committed 430 verses in one week, and in two months 1,122 verses and 39 hymns. In
481
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
1819, in the same school, a boy is reported as repeating 3,010 ver- ses, and in the whole school 13,230 verses and 354 hymns were committed to memory. In 1820, 17,763 verses were recited,- 1,188 by a little girl.
The church edifice has been twice enlarged, and furnishes accom- modations at the present time for about five hundred worshippers. There is a neat chapel in connection with the church.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
There had been preaching in the interest of the Methodist Episcopal church in the old Methodist Episcopal church building, in the northwest part of Needham for many years, in connection with "the old Needham Circuit." Mr. Noah Perrin, of Grant- ville, in 1861 hired Waban Hall, Wellesley, for one year, and sought to revive the interests of the denomination. The first ser- mon was preached by Rev. George Frost, of Waltham, April 21, 1861, and a Sabbath School commenced with thirty members. At the commencement of the war, several of the little band went to the field, to return no more. The first soldier who enlisted from Needham was Mr. C. D. Smith, by whose suggestion it was that this Methodist enterprise was undertaken.
The old Board of Trustees of Needham Circuit met in 1866, and voted twelve dollars to aid in paying the expenses of worship. Preaching was continued, till this date, in Needham, mainly by the ministers in charge of the church at Newton Upper Falls. On the 18th of November, 1866, a meeting was called, of the old Needham Board of Trustees. Rev. T. Harrington, of Weston, Aaron Fiske and John Mansfield, of Natick, were present,- the only remaining living member of the Board, Joel Pierce, being absent. The Board was filled up to nine, by the election of Noah Perrin, C. H. Dewing, C. H. Flagg, Mark Lee and Lewis N. Sumner.
During the early part of 1867, the preaching was supplied mainly by Rev. J. M. Bayley, of the Methodist church of New- ton Upper Falls, to which most of the members still belonged, meetings being held in Nehoiden Hall, at the centre of Needham.
At a meeting at the house of Noah Perrin, March 13, 1867, it was voted to request the Conference to send the brethren a preacher, thus making them a separate charge, to be known as the Methodist Episcopal church of Needham and Newton Lower
31
482
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
Falls. The members present at this meeting were Messrs. J. M. Bayley, J. Mansfield, N. Perrin, M. Lee and L. N. Sumner. The first Conference minister, sent in compliance with this request, was Rev. John Wesley Coolidge.
April 16, 1867, Wales', Hall, at Newton Lower Falls, was hired, and the first Methodist sermon was preached by Mr. Coolidge, April 21, 1867, to an audience of about thirty persons. A Sab- bath School was formed April 28, of fifteen members, and a Bible class of twenty-seven soon afterwards. The first Stewards of Newton Lower Falls Society were appointed September 8, 1867, Messrs. H. A. Hunter, John Crossland and N. Perrin. The meetings were held in Boyden Hall from July 7, 1867, to January 18, 1868. Then Village Hall was hired, and afterwards purchased, and is still owned and occupied as the Society's place of worship.
April 29, 1869, the following were elected the first Board of Trustees, viz., Messrs. Willard Hurd, Leonard Hurd, George T. Denton, James Brierly, Charles Ford, Isaac Farwell, jr., and Noah Perrin, and arrangements were immediately made to pur- chase the Village Hall.
In the spring of 1869, the charge became completely separated from the Highlandville charge (Needham Circuit).
PASTORS.
Rev. J. Wesley Coolidge,
1867-69
Rev. E. A. Howard,
1869-70
Rev. A. Caldwell,
1870-72
Rev. W. Pentecost,
1872-73
Rev. A. Baylies,
1873-76
Rev. W. A. Nottage,
1876-77
Rev. Andrew Mckeown, D. D.,
1877-80
Church members, thirty-six ; members of the Sabbath School, ninety-three.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES (1878) .- Messrs. Noah Perrin, Charles Ford, George Denton, Leonard Hurd, Charles Richardson, Mar- shall Perrin.
STEWARDS (1878) .- Noah Perrin, Charles Ford, George T. Denton, Leonard Hurd, Charles Richardson, Marshall Perrin, Peter Baker.
CLASS LEADERS (1878) .- George T. Denton, Charles Rich- ardson.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
DIVISION OF THE TOWN .- THE FIVE WARDS .- PROPOSALS TO FORM TWO TOWNS .- TERRITORY SET OFF TO WALTHAM AND ROX- BURY .- PETITIONS TO THE LEGISLATURE. - HARMONY RESTORED.
IN a town of so large geographical extent,-with its villages so remote from one another, and with long spaces, sparsely settled, intervening,- the citizens must have felt for a long period the difficulty of efficiently managing and caring for the interests of every part. It was natural that jealousies should spring up among them, hard to be quelled ; and the only feasible means of securing proper superintendence over and care for every part seemed to be to distribute the broad territory into smaller portions and to appoint over each the requisite supervisors. The citizens of Newton were sensible of the difficulty, and appointed a committee to divide the town into wards, who, at a town meeting held May 11, 1807, reported the following :
SOUTH WARD .- That the town be divided into five wards, for the more convenient conducting of the town business in future,-And that all the inhabitants of the town south of Benjamin Richardson, and including said Richardson's house, thence extending southwest to the line between Newton and Needham, so as to include the house of Joseph Parker, and from the house of said Richardson northeast to Brookline line, so as to include the house of Jeremiah Richardson, Thaddeus Hyde and Elisha Hyde, shall con- stitute one ward, to be called SOUTH WARD.
SOUTHWEST WARD .- That the inhabitants south of the First Precinct Meeting [house] by a line drawn from the town of Brookline, and running westerly so as to include the house of David Bartlett, Joseph White, Ebene- zer King and Phineas Blanden, thence northwest so as to include the house of Lemuel Pierce, Samuel Murdock, and thence including the house of Joseph Craft and Matthias Collins to Charles River, shall form the SOUTH- WEST WARD.
WEST WARD .- And that all the inhabitants westerly of a line drawn from Charles River at Waltham Bridge, so called, and running southwardly,
483
484
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
including the house of Amasa Park, and the house now occupied by Mrs. Pigeon and Joseph Bullough, thence southwest to Charles River, shall form the WEST WARD.
NORTH WARD .- And that all the inhabitants northerly of a line drawn from the town of Brighton, near the house of Jonathan Hunnewell, thence southwest, so as to include the house now occupied by Jonathan Murdock, and the house of Edmund Trowbridge, Jonathan Cook and Phineas Jennison, and northerly to Waltham Bridge, shall constitute the NORTH WARD.
EAST WARD .- And that all the residue of the inhabitants in the easterly part of the town, from said Brighton line near said Hunnewell house, thence southerly, including the house of Reuben Moore, the house of the late Robert Prentice to the house of Henry King, including said King's house, thence turning and running easterly by the First Precinct Meeting-house to the line between Newton and Brookline, shall constitute the EAST WARD.
And that in future the town choose one Selectman and two Surveyors in each of said wards. It is not, however, understood that any apportionment of roads and lands are to be confined to the above lines, but may be varied from time to time, as occasion may require.
TIMOTHY JACKSON, SAMUEL MURDOCK, Committee. EDMUND TROWBRIDGE,
In town meeting May 11, 1807, voted to accept of the above Report.
But a more radical movement was proposed at a later period.
The peculiar features of the town already referred to, taken in connection with other circumstances, from a period soon after the year 1830, suggested to many of the citizens the question of the feasibility and advantages of a division of the town into two incor- porated organizations. This question was discussed in private, and in town meetings. Petitions and counter-petitions were circu- lated, signed, debated, accepted, rejected. Different lines of divi- sion were proposed, advocated, modified, resisted. Pamphlets were printed, maps drawn and engraved, committees appointed, reports written, amended, adopted, and reconsidered. For six- teen or seventeen years, the smoke of the battle enveloped every part of the town. So hot was the controversy, that men, once friends, treated one another as personal enemies. Some opposed the division absolutely. Others favored it, provided that the line of division should be drawn in harmony with their own judgment and interest. Some would connect Newton Corner with the east- ern section. Others, drawing a different line, favored a division which should embrace the whole line of villages in the town which lay along the Boston and Albany railroad in one town, and the
485
DIVISION OF THE TOWN.
residue of the territory in the other. The eastern section, under this arrangement, in case it should be carried into effect, claimed for itself the ancient and venerable name of Newton. Why should it not? For it included the old First Parish church and the old burial ground, the ashes of the first three pastors, and of all the early settlers and their descendants, for five or six generations, and here the voters had assembled at their town meetings for a hun- dred and forty years ; and here too had occurred the thrilling de- bates and the brave resolves of the fathers, in the grand period of the revolutionary history. They belonged, of right, to the name of Newton. But would the other section relinquish the name, and, with the name, its share in so honorable a history? From 1664 to 1780, the East Parish church was the most central point, as the population then existed ; and it continued to be the legal place for the convocation of the people in their town meetings. Deem- ing, as rural populations are apt to do, that some advantage might accrue to a given locality from its being the seat of these assemblies of the people, the citizens of the eastern, central and southern parts of the town, with some others, jealously claimed to retain a distinction which they had enjoyed so long, and opposed any al- teration which would deprive them of it.
In 1830, some time after the separation of the ecclesiastical from the civil state in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "the proprietors of the First Parish meeting-house objected to having the town meetings holden there,"- so writes Mr. Davis. The church belonged, it is true, to private proprietors ; but it had been used, by common consent and without objection, for twenty-five years, both as a parish church and a town-hall. And the proprie- tors deemed that the time had come when the town ought to have a place for holding its meetings, which should be provided at the town's expense, and be under the town's control.
But if a town-hall were built, where should it be located? The centre of population had changed, and moved westward. The geographical centre of the town was in the midst of a forest, with scarcely a dwelling-house near it; and a building erected there would be only equally inconvenient to all the citizens. If the town-house were built at West Newton, it would be four or five miles distant, if not more, from the remote southern and eastern portions of the town. If it were built near the First Parish church, the people of the growing village of West Newton would be under
486
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
the necessity of travelling three miles or more to reach it. If it were at Angier's Corner (Newton), that was nearly at the north- eastern corner of the town, and remote from every village, except its own, in the entire territory. The whole subject was involved in difficulties not easy of solution. And what a controversy arose out of the attempt to solve the question in a satisfactory manner! Only two solutions seemed possible ; the proposal to divide the town into two independent organizations having failed, and the erection of one or more town-halls being the only alter- native, this became for several years the great issue. In Novem- ber, 1832, it was voted by the citizens that an article be inserted in the next warrant " to see if the town will take any measures to procure a place for holding town meetings ;" and March 7, 1833, the article was acted upon, and a committee chosen .* This com- mittee reported at an adjourned meeting, held the first Monday in April, recommending the erection of a town-house near the Centre school-house, about thirty-five rods west of the First Parish meet- ing-house. An amendment was offered, recommending "to have the same located on the plain, forty or fifty rods south of the meet- ing-house." This amendment was rejected. Another motion was made, to fix the location in the West Parish, and also rejected. It was at length manifest that no place could be selected which would be satisfactory to all parties, and, the report not being accepted, the meeting adjourned.
Three weeks later, April 22, 1833, another meeting was held, at which, after much discussion, a vote was proposed to build the town-house. "at the east end of the vestry."ยก Afterwards it was voted to postpone indefinitely the subject of building a town-house, and agreed "to hold town meetings alternately in the meeting- houses in the several villages."; Some parts of the town being dissatisfied, another meeting on the subject was called, to be held
* The town meetings in March, April and May, 1833, werc held in the Baptist meet- ing-house at Newton Centre.
t The vestry referred to was a long, low, narrow building, one-story in height, des- titute of architectural pretensions, erected on the southcrly line of the meeting- house land, and directly opposite the south side of the church edifice. It was fin- ished in the plainest possible manner, and used for the week-day meetings of the church, until the vestry on the northwest corner of the church of 1847 and connected with it, made its existence no longer a necessity.
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