USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
The temperance principles of the town went still further. For on the 6th of September, 1870, a vote was passed by the town that no person shall be allowed to sell ale, porter, strong beer or lager beer in the town of Newton. This vote was repealed May 2, 1871.
From that time the cause of Temperance has been left to the action of the State laws and the magistrates appointed to execute them, and to the voluntary organizations or associated or private: efforts of the citizens.
NEWTON AND FIRE COMPANIES.
The old Cataract Engine Company at the Lower Falls, is the oldest fire organization in Newton, and has had a marked and peculiar history. In the year 1813 the Legislature passed an act granting authority to certain persons to form a Fire Engine Com- pany,* composed of residents of the Lower Falls, in part situated.
* The following is the copy of this Charter: " Be it enacted, etc.,
"Sect. 1. That the Selectmen of the towns of Newton and Needham be and they hereby are respectively authorized and empowered to nominate and appoint, as soon. as may be after the passing of this Act, and ever after in the month of March an- nually, so long as there shall be a good Engine at or near Lower Falls, so called, on Charles River, any number of suitable persons, not exceeding ten in each of said. towns, to be a Company of Enginemen, to take charge of and manage said engine, who shall be subject to the same duties and vested with the same powers, and enti- tled to the same rights, privileges and exemptions that all Enginemen now by law are. "Sect. 2. Be it further enacted that all rules and regulations respecting their duty as Enginemen shall, before they be established, be approved by the Selectmen of said towns; and all penalties annexed to the same may be recovered by the Clerk of . said Enginemen before any Justice of the Peace in the County where the person who may forfeit shall reside.
"Provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be construed into an authority to appoint by the Selectmen aforesaid any man to the Engine Company aforesaid, who shall reside more than half a mile from the established house of said Engine, nor to reduce the number of men in any military Company to a less number than sixy-four, rank and file.
" Approved June 18, 1812."
An Act was passed February 23, 1813, increasing the number of Enginemen to be appointed by the towns of Newton and Needham to twenty-one,- thirteen of whom. shall always be inhabitants of Newton.
527
FIRE COMPANIES.
in Newton, and part in Needham,- the Charles River being the boundary of the two towns, as is the case at the Upper Falls. The act granted unusual powers to this Company, the members of which paid an admission fee of five dollars. Their tub was at. first a wooden one, but afterwards replaced with copper. They purchased their own machine ; also the buckets, then in common use at fires, and other paraphernalia. They adopted by-laws, and, by authority of the Act, imposed penalties for their infringement .. Though the temperance movement had not then commenced, stringent regulations were adopted to prevent the members of the. Company from using spirituous liquor to an immoderate extent. This organization continued from the year 1813 until about 1840, when it came under the direction of the town.
The following is a list of the first appointment of enginemen for Company No. 1, Newton Lower Falls :
NEWTON, May 3, 1813 .- Nominated and appointed Francis Hoogs, Isaac. Hagar, Ephraim Jackson, 2d, James Bunce, Edward Fisher, John Green- wood, Joshua Jackson, jr., George Hooker, Henry Bartlett, Daniel Seaver, Amos Hagget and Nathaniel Hyde, as enginemen to Engine No. 1, at the. Lower Falls, agreeable to an Act of the Legislature of this Commonwealth, passed February 23, 1813.
Most of the above have died. Many of the prominent men of the village and town have belonged to this organization, and their- spirit of enterprise and noble daring has been transmitted to their successors.
Notwithstanding the stringent regulation against immoderate- drinking, it is probable that the enginemen of the Lower Falls, in those ante-temperance days, were no more proof against the. pleasures of the palate than other mortals. Indeed, they may almost justly be accused of courting temptation. Enginemen have always been convivial companions. And at their monthly business meetings, which were held, according to the custom of the times, at the Village inn,-to compensate the landlord for their accommodations, every engineman was in the habit of going to the bar, and paying ten cents for a drink from the decanters. And the annual symposium at the same inn doubt- less furnished, besides the savory viands, the substantials of the feast, a provocative of appetite at the beginning, and an antidote against the cold air of evening, when they adjourned to go home. at the close. But the dinner, or " Enginemen's Supper," as they called it, was not at the expense of the town.
528
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
The fire department of later times, was of gradual growth. From the beginning at Newton Lower Falls, in 1812, the town from time to time took action to protect the property of the citi- zens, appropriating money, purchasing engines and ladders for the several villages, and gradually increasing the pay of firemen, until in the year of grace 1878, the total expense of this depart- ment, including the Fire Alarm Telegraph, amounted to $37,303.01, and the amount of property invested in Fire apparatus, buildings and land, including the fire alarm telegraph, was $148,100.
The following Records give a general view of the action of the town at successive periods :
A Fireward, so called, was elected by the town April 6, 1818. The incumbent elected was Solomon Curtis. In 1823, eight firewards were chosen, and in 1824, ten.
May 12, 1823, a vote was passed by the town "that it be left to the dis- cretion of the Selectmen to build Engine-houses when and where they may deem them necessary. Provided, that the proprietors of the Engine or Engines will provide land at their own expense to build said houses upon."
August 11, 1824, a vote was passed offering a reward of three hundred dollars "to any person that will give any information that shall serve to detect and convict the incendiary or incendiaries that caused any of the late fires that have or that may take place in this town." The Selectmen were also authorized " to provide such necessary appendages to the several fire- engines of the Town as they may think proper."
March 7, 1825, four firewards were chosen for each of the Engines, No. 1, Lower Falls ; No. 2, Newton Centre and Upper Falls; No. 3, West New- ton ; Elliot Factory Engine, Upper Falls. In 1826 the number of firewards was increased to seventeen, and in 1827 to eighteen. In 1835, the town voted to expend one thousand dollars, to put the fire-engines in repair or purchase new ones, together with hose. In March, 1826, it was voted that in future the several firewards in the town provide refreshments for the enginemen and others, who may come from neighboring towns to aid in extinguishing fire, and present bills of the same to the Selectmen for allowance.
No new measures in reference to the extinguishment of fires were instituted for several years. Beyond the annual election of firewards, and an occasional appropriation of two hundred dollars for the purchase of hose, the Department ran on in its even tenor, not much regulated by the town, and in a general way not adding very much to the security of property. The geographical extent of the town was too great, and the engines were too small, and the sup- ply of water was generally too scanty to make the Fire Department
529
FIRE COMPANIES.
of much use. In March, 1842, however, the town appropriated six hundred dollars each, for fire purposes, to the villages of Newton Upper Falls, West Newton, Newton Centre and Newton Corner, provided that each of these villages should add two hundred dollars more. In November, 1843, a similar appropriation was made for Newton Lower Falls. At the same time, the town voted to accept of an Act of the Legislature, establishing a Fire Department in Newton. In March, 1849, the firemen were allowed, by vote, five dollars and the abatement of their poll tax, in compensation for their services. In March, 1847, it was stated that "the whole expenses of the Fire Department, including $76.80, old debts, had been, the past year, $1,087.31. The expenses for each engine and Company, including the debts now due for the repairs of engines, applied to the Companies where they belong, have been as follows : No. 1, Lower Falls, $192.80; No. 3, West Newton, $169.64 ; No. 4, Upper Falls, $106.24; No. 5, Newton Corner, $269.51; No. 6, Newton Centre, $97.94. The whole expense above named ($1.087.31) included taxes refunded to Enginemen, and refreshments at the general trial of engines."
The management of fires, engines and engine companies was evidently a difficult one to the citizens of Newton. To give the engine companies, which were generally composed of enterprising young men, sufficient liberty, and yet to prevent that liberty from being abused,- to control them, and yet leave them to fulfil their necessary office without feeling that they were unduly con- trolled,-caused the citizens of the town much anxiety. In April, 1850, a committee, previously appointed, made an extended report on this subject, which shows, to a certain extent, the abuses of liberty on the part of the enginemen, and the state of mind of sober and judicious citizens. The report is as follows :
We the subscribers, a committee chosen at the last annual March meet- ing, " to report at the next April meeting some measures that will lessen the expenses of the Fire Department," have attended that service and beg leave to report, that after a free and protracted discussion relative to the subject, they were nearly unanimous in coming to the conclusion, that the expense and evils arising out of the present organization of the Fire Department had formed a crisis that required a less exceptionable organization, or that the morals and pecuniary interest of the town would be greatly promoted, by dis- pensing entirely with all the appliances pertaining to said Department.
Your committee entertain no other but friendly feelings towards all the members of the present Fire Department, and feel assured that they would 34
530
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
not suffer by comparison with any similar organizations in the adjoining towns. Yet it cannot be denied that evils of such magnitude have grown out of the present system, as to encourage crime and debase the mind, rather than to protect property and aid the unfortunate. And it is a well known fact that such is the doubtful utility [of such companies] in the minds of the inhabitants of very many towns in the Commonwealth, that they refuse to make any provisions for any similar organizations. Among the great number of towns thus acting may be mentioned the neighboring towns of Needham, Weston, Lincoln, and even the populous town of Lexington; and if their comparative losses by fire, compared with our own, where expensive apparatus is provided, be the standard by which to judge of the wisdom of their course, the results indicate their superior foresight.
And it is no new thing under the sun that has suddenly manifested itself, that evils of great magnitude are incident to all similar organizations. Nearly 2000 years since, Trajan, writing to Pliny, in reply, says, "You are of opinion it would be proper to establish a company of firemen in Nicome- dia, agreeably to what has been practised in several other cities. But be it remembered, that Societies of this sort have greatly disturbed the peace of the Province in general, and of those cities in particular. Whatever name
we give them, and for whatever purpose they may be instituted, they will not fail to form themselves into factious assemblies, however short their meet- ings may be." And although the respectable town of Newton has never been the scene of such disturbances as have been exhibited in the ancient Roman Empire, or in some of the cities of our happy Republic, yet scenes have been witnessed that have met the disapprobation of its most influential and worthy citizens. And it cannot be denied that several thousand dollars' worth of property was destroyed in a neighboring town, in a single night, and in all probability it would have been saved, had no engine been within ten miles of the scene of conflagration.
From the foregoing considerations, your committee found it much easier to deplore the evils, than to point out any specific course which would wholly obviate the evils complained of. But they were unanimous in recommend- ing to the town to refuse, under all circumstances whatever, to provide any refreshments. And although cases may possibly occur, where sucli a course miglit be attended with some inconvenience, your committee however feel confident that the evils arising under the present system are tenfold more than would arise under the one recommended.
Your committee recommend that the sum of three dollars only be given to. . each engineman, inasmuch as a principle of philanthropy ought to be the stimulus to prompt them to bear a portion of the burden, rather than any. pecuniary consideration. And they cannot but believe that a sufficient num- ber of patriotic young men exist in every village, to manage the several engines in the town. But should it prove otherwise, your committee enter- tain no doubts but that a competent number of citizens in every village would volunteer to turn out, by day or by night, in all cases of emergency, even without any compensation. But, provided that neither of the foregoing results should follow, your committee would recommend that some suitable.
531
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
person, as heretofore, should be appointed to take proper care of the engines in the several villages, and that a bond be given to the town by not less than six responsible men in each of the villages as aforesaid, where the sev- eral engines are located, and that the said engines be given up to their charge, to be surrendered back to the town whenever demanded, in the same good condition they now are in, casualties and natural wear excepted.
Your committee further recommend that no engine be permitted to leave its destined location, to go to any of the adjoining towns, or to other villages in the town, until sent for by persons properly authorized to seek such aid.
Your committee are aware that some of the foregoing recommendations fall legitimately under the jurisdiction of the Board of Engineers, as now constituted. Yet feeling that some action of the town on the foregoing sub- jects would be received with approbation, your committee felt desirous that an expression of the town might be had as touching the subject.
SETH DAVIS, in behalf of the Committee.
The Report was amended " by substituting the sum of five dol- lars instead of three dollars for the compensation of the engine- men, which is to include their pay for their services, and their refreshments and fuel,"- and then accepted.
For the next ten years, the difficult matter of engines and fire companies and the management of them seems to have called forth little action on the part of the town. Appropriations were made, from time to time, to meet the necessities of the department. The expenses attendant on the maintenance of the engine companies were paid out of the public treasury, and annually reported in the auditor's account. The firemen kept up their several organiza- tions, and accomplished as much as could be expected of them with their imperfect machines, and the lack of water in many parts of the town, with which they had to contend. April 29, 1861, an appropriation was made of $500, to purchase new hose for the fire department.
February 1, 1867, the Fire Department of Newton had six hand engines, well furnished with apparatus, and in good working order ; viz., No. 1 at the Lower Falls, No. 3 at West Newton, No. 4 at the Upper Falls, Empire 5 and Nonantum 5 at Newton Corner, and Eagle No. 6 at Newton Centre. All but the last named had organized fire companies attached to them.
Three months later, the two fire companies at Newton Corner dissolved their organization, and that part of the town remained for a season without a fire company, awaiting the introduction of the Steam Fire Engine,- an improvement of modern times, which
532
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
was sure to come, and which, when it came, constituted a new era in the history of the fire department. The introduction of such an institution into one village of Newton insured its coming successively into the other villages. The power of a steam fire - engine to throw water created a necessity for public reservoirs ; for no well could supply the enormous demand ; and in due time followed the Charles River waterworks and the street hydrants, of which, the vote to purchase the first steam fire engine was a proph- ecy and an assurance.
Newton had not yet become a city ; but it was thus by anticipa- tion securing to itself all the conveniences and luxuries of a city. Its enterprising inhabitants were not content to be left behind in the race of improvement. Many of the citizens had come from places where they had learned to regard such things as among the necessities of life, and they could not be satisfied without the enjoy- ment of them. Newton also sought to draw to itself an increas- ing population, and to gather into its bosom those who would be to it a strength and an honor ; and if a wise policy, on the one hand, would dissuade the townsmen from so expensive measures, an equally wise policy, on the other hand, urged them upon their adop- tion.
November 5, 1867, the sum of $300 was appropriated to pur- chase a bell for fire alarm purposes, to be placed in the house of Engine Co. No. 3 at West Newton. Soon afterwards,* a vote was passed appropriating money to procure a Steam Fire Engine to be located in the village of Newton Corner. March 7, 1870, the town voted to pay the firemen ten dollars each per year, instead of five, and leading hosemen, including those at the Steam Fire Engine . house, fifteen dollars.
April 3, 1871, the town voted to purchase a Steam Fire Engine for West Newton. November 13, 1871, an appropriation was made for a Hook and Ladder carriage to be located at Newton- ville, and in March following (1872) the sum of $25,000 was voted for a Steam Fire Engine and House at Newton Centre.
The improved Fire-apparatus suggested the necessity of the fire- alarm, which formed an important part of the furnishing of the Steam Fire Engine house at Newton Centre from the beginning.
*The large and elegant school-house at Newton Centre was burned November 14, 1869; the fire-apparatus then existing was utterly unable to stay the conflagration. This event may have led to this efficient order of the town, at the next town meeting.
1875
E
CI'8 H
4 HOSE 4
CONANT
HOOK-AND-LADDER AND HOSE HOUSE.
533
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
As soon as the circuit was completed, the fire-alarm was also employed, to strike the hour of noon in every part of the city, thus giving the citizens uniform time, and as a signal, when occa- sion required, for the schools.
VALUATION OF THE PROPERTY OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
The following valuation of the property of the Newton Fire Department is taken from the Report of the City Auditor for December, 1879 :
Steam Fire Engine House, No. 1 Engine and apparatus, fur- niture, lockup, dwelling-house, stable and land,
$25,000.00 25,000.00
Steam Fire Engine House, No. 2 Engine, apparatus, land, etc., Steam Fire Engine House, No. 3 Engine and apparatus, fur- niture, stable, lockup, land, etc.,
28,000.00
Hook and Ladder House, stable, land, etc., No. 2,
18,000.00
Hook and Ladder Carriage, etc., Newtonville,
800.00
Hose Carriage, hose, etc., Newtonville,
1,500.00
Engine House, land, etc., do.
3,500.00
Hose Carriage House, stable, etc., Auburndale,
5,000.00
Hose Carriage, hose, etc., Auburndale,
800.00
Hose Carriage House, stable, etc., Lower Falls,
7,000.00
Hose Carriage, hose, etc., Lower Falls,
1,800.00
Fire Engine House, engine, land, etc., Upper Falls,
2,000.00
Fire Engine House, land, etc., Newton Centre,
4,000.00
Hose, apparatus, hooks, ladders, etc.,
1,000.00
Reservoirs for Fire purposes,
2,000.00
Fire Alarm Telegraph, including team, etc.,
16,000.00
$141,400.00
CHAPTER XLI.
SLAVE-HOLDING IN NEWTON .- SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS .- SLAVE OWNERS IN NEWTON.
THE history of slavery in Massachusetts runs back to a very early period, and it is not surprising that the early residents of Newton did not wholly avoid complicity with it. Samuel Maver- ick resided on Noddle's Island (afterwards East Boston), in 1630, the date of the arrival of John Winthrop. He had a fort and four great guns, and, besides, "a negro woman and a negro man," and " another negro who was her maid ;" and John Joselyn, who came to New England in 1638, testifies that " Mr. Maverick was desir- ous to have a breed of negroes." One of these negro women was said to have been a queen in her own country. The laws enacted in Massachusetts between 1630 and 1641 make mention of " masters and servants, man-servant and maid-servant." In 1645, men- tion is made of "negroes fraudulently and injuriously taken and brought from Guinea " by Captain Smith, to Piscataqua. About the same time a law was passed, "prohibiting the buying and sell- ing of slaves, except those taken in lawful war, or reduced to ser- vitude for their crimes by a judicial sentence, and these were to have the same privileges as were allowed by the law of Moses." In 1649, the injunction of the Hebrew code (Exodus XXI : 16), " He that stealeth a man and selleth him, he shall surely be put to death "- was adopted as a part of the law of Massachusetts.
In 1675-7 some of the Indians, supposed to be loyal, took part against the colonists in king Philip's war. Those taken in arms were adjudged guilty of rebellion ; some of them were put to death, but most of them were sold into slavery in foreign countries.
It was at this period that the Rev. John Eliot, the apostle of the Indians, the foremost friend of every good work, and the noble pioneer alike of temperance and anti-slavery in this Com-
534
535
JOHN ELIOT AND SLAVERY.
monwealth, sent up his petition to the Colonial Government against the enslavement of the Indians. The petition is worthy of record here.
PETITION OF JOHN ELIOT AGAINST THE SALE OF INDIANS.
To the Honorable Governor and Council, sitting at Boston, this 13th of the 6th, 1675.
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF JOHN ELIOT SHEWETH :
That the terror of selling away such Indians into the Islands for perpetual slaves, who shall yield up themselves to your mercy, is like to be an effect- ual prolongation of the war, and such an exasperation of them as may pro- duce we know not what evil consequences upon all the land.
Christ hath said, " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." This usage of them is worse than death. The design of Christ, in these last days, is not to extirpate nations, but to gospelize them. His sovereign hand and grace hatlı brought the gospel into these dark places of the earth. When we came, we declared to the world (and it is recorded), yea, we are engaged by our Letters Patent from the King's Majesty,-that the endeavor of the Indians' conversion, not their extirpation, was one great end of our enterprise in coming to these ends of the earth. The Lord hath so succeeded that work as that, by his grace, they have the Holy Scriptures, and sundry of them- selves able to teach their countrymen the good knowledge of God. And, however some of them have refused to receive the gospel, and now are incensed in their spirits unto a war against the English, yet I doubt not that the meaning of Christ is to open a door for the free passage of the gospel among them.
My humble request is that you would follow Christ's design in this matter, to promote the free passage of religion among them, and not destroy them.
To sell souls for money seemeth to me a dangerous merchandise. To sell them away from all means of grace, when Christ has provided means of grace for them, is the way for us to be active in the destroying their souls. Deut. XXIII : 15, 16, a fugitive servant from a pagan master might not be delivered to his master, but be kept in Israel for the good of his soul; - how much less lawful to sell away souls, from under the light of the gospel, into a condition where their souls will be utterly lost, so far as appeareth unto man !
All men of reading condemn the Spaniard for cruelty upon this point, in destroying men and depopulating the land. The country is large enough; here is land enough for them and us too. Prov. XIV : 28, "In the multitude of people is the King's honor."
It will be much to the glory of Christ to have many brought in to worship his great name.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.