USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 71
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Governor Alexander H. Rice said : "I often go back in memory to the picturesque beauty of this ancient town, now expanded into a thriving and prosperous city, and its hills and valleys, and forests, fields and meadows, with the winding river and the lium of industry that sang by its side. I love to linger on the scenes familiar to my boyhood, the school-house on the hill ; then, I remember the flourishing Academy, over which you, my reverend instructor (turning to the venerable Seth Davis seated upon the platforni), presided, who filled my mind with wonder and admiration of those grand con- stellations, those systems whichi, intertwining with other orbits in ceaseless sway and motion, eternally travel through the whole universe of God. And now, after all these intervening years, with their varied experiences in this and other lands, in all the vicissitudes of an active and busy life, with all its trials and its efforts, duties, aspirations, perhaps with its disappointments, perhaps with some of its successes, I come back to you in all the freshiness of my earlier devotion, and bring to your municipal altar fresh offerings of affection.
"I think it is well for us to preserve these anniversary occasions; they are great teachers, standing like sentinels along the ages, speaking out to us, in those instinctive feelings we all possess, of reverence for our noble fathers, and love and patriotism for the country and liberty they gave us. I do not know who wrote the resolution; perhaps his identity has not been preserved ;
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but if you do know the name, you should erect a bronze statue to his memory in some conspicuous place, and I should be glad to lend my personal assist- ance to the erection of such a memorial. Massachusetts was a hundred and fifty years old, before we had a United States of America; she had, a hun- dred and fifty years ago, a Government perfect in its judicial, administrative and executive departments. There was a recognized Government in New England, wlien few of the other States were known, and her good qualities. found for her a high place in the estimation of European nations.
"The people of that age were Englishmen, who never dreamed of indepen- dence; not until the folly of the English king tried to trample out the English manhood of the State, did they rise to insurrection; and then, with a keen sense of the bitter and unwarranted despotism of a frivolous English mon- arch burning within them, their manhood rose in revolt, and they threw off the yoke of Great Britain and established an independent nation, which has since risen, like a mountain out of the sea, lofty and grand as our own granite hills." Governor Rice spoke of the rapid growth of this Republic in all that makes a great nation, during these one hundred years, and alluded to the fact that in 1776, Massachusetts, which now has over sixteen hundred thousand inhabitants, then contained, together with Maine, only about three hundred thousand.
" There is no other Commonwealth in all this wide republic," he continued, " which boasts of such an ancestry as ours. How recreant, then, should we be to the names and deeds of that ancestry, if we neglected to observe the recur- ring anniversaries of its imperishable acts. Citizens of my native town, which I love with all the warmth and outflow of my heart, I hope you will preserve her honor, bright and untarnislied. I hope you will remain as you are, ready for any and every exigency of Commonwealth or country, for every thing that adds to the honor and glory of God and man. I hope you will be as your fathers were-first, foremost, perpetual."
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, was sung, the audience joining in the chorus.
Hon. J. F. C. Hyde, first Mayor of Newton, delivered the His- torical Address, admirably sketching the history of the town, with special reference to its patriotic spirit.
Part of J. G. Whittier's Centennial Hymn was sung, and a historical poem was read by Rev. I. N. Tarbox, of West Newton.
Another interesting ceremony remained. A portrait of Colonel Joseph Ward, whose name was honorably associated with the Revolutionary history of Newton, was to be presented to the city. The presentation was accompanied by an address by Mr. William C. Bates.
The Mayor accepted the portrait in behalf of the city, promis- ing to cherish it as a valuable memento of an honored and dis- tinguished citizen of Newton.
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NEWTON'S CENTENNIAL.
" America" was sung, and the benediction was pronounced by Rev. Henry Mackay.
Had we sufficient space, how instructive would be a review of the changes which have taken place in Newton, and in New Eng- land, in the space of a century! How marvellous are the im- provements in every department,- in art, in science, in trade, in manufactures, in education, in the modes of living ! A hundred years ago, Newton was a farming town ; its unpretending citizens cultivating a few acres, from which they won by incessant industry their plain and scanty living; its young men in the war, fighting for the blessing of liberty, to be left as a rich legacy to their chil- dren ; its wives and daughters, in calico and homespun, with slender opportunities of education, generally enjoying few of the elegances of life ; without music, without literary lectures, generally, without books, and having little to cultivate their minds, and to vary and adorn their lives, beyond the sermons of the Sabbath day and the preparatory lecture, and the neighborhood gossip that graced an afternoon tea-drinking, extending from about one o'clock, P. M., till early milking-time; the tea even, with its exhilarating influence, being cut off in the days of " cruel war," or substituted by sage and wild herbs. Most of the roads were only crooked pathways, winding from house to house ; the school- houses, when at last they came, only diminutive red buildings, six- teen feet square, standing, unfenced, by the sandy roadside, and furnished only with long plank forms and seats, with a low bench for the little ones, and a raised platform for the school-dame or the master ; the churches, ill-constructed, with most uncomfortable square pews, or long straight-backed slips, or benches with no back at all, and guiltless of the warmth of a stove in winter ; the pulpit, perched far up towards the ceiling, the sounding-board overhead, and the deacons' seat in front, with the inevitable hour- glass, which measured the long hour of the minister's sermon, and perhaps required to be turned before he had finished; instead of an organ, the pitch-pipe, to guide to the key-note in the singers' seats ; the little corner gallery, remotest from the minister, and above the lower gallery, set apart for the few colored people, as if they needed, less than their white brethren, to understand the gos- pel, or, as if it were not fitting for them to approach very near the holy place ; instead of the Sabbath School, the afternoon catechiz- ing, once in a month or two months ; instead of a cultivated and
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
intellectual assembly on the Sabbath, attending to the preaching because it met their intellectual and spiritual wants, and who came because they loved to come, a compulsory gathering, needing the " tithing man " to circulate among them during " sermon-time," to keep the boys in order, and with his long rod rapping on the head the men who had fallen asleep, in order to wake them, and turn- ing the rod, with the feather on the opposite end tickling the noses of the women and girls, for the same important purpose. Instead of hourly communication with the neighboring city, then only an unpretending town, there was not even a stage-coach, till some time after the war, and to some parts of Newton, as late as 1845, a stage-coach only once a day. Instead of the morning and even- ing newspaper, or a choice among several, of different political complections, every day, there was only a Columbian Centinel, or a New England Palladium once a week. Without steamboat, railroad or telegraph, then mysteries undreamed of, and of which the latter brings us tidings from Europe every evening, the latest foreign news was generally three or four months old ; and the East Indies, from which the merchant could not possibly get an answer to his letter in less than eight or nine months, now within speak- ing distance, and we can communicate with Calcutta in a day. Instead of the steam fire-engine, there was nothing in the town till 1812 (when the first hand-engine was introduced, a private specu- lation, into Newton Lower Falls), beyond a common water-pail or teakettle, and the requirement that every house should have a lad- der by which to ascend the roof in order to extinguish a confla- gration. Instead of beauty, fragrance and flowers, the people en- dured a perpetual conflict with poverty, and toil, and dread of the incursions of wild beasts.
One hundred years ago, not a pound of coal, nor a cubic foot of illumi- nating gas had been burned in this country. No iron stoves were used, and no contrivance employed to economize heat, until Dr. Franklin invented the iron-framed fireplace, which still bears his name. All the cooking and warming, in town and country, were done with the aid of fire kindled in a brick oven or on the hearth. Pine knots or tallow candles furnished the light for the long winter nights, and sanded floors supplied the place of rugs and carpets. The water used for household purposes was drawn from deep wells by the creaking sweep. No form of pump was used, generally, if at all, until after the commencement of the present century. There were no fric- tion matches in those early days, by the aid of which a fire could be easily kindled ; and if the fire went out upon the hearth over night, and the
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NEWTON'S CENTENNIAL.
tinder was damp, so that the sparks would not catch, the alternative was pre- sented of sitting in the cold, or of wandering through the snow a mile or so, to borrow of a neighbor. Only one room in any house was warm, unless some member of the family was ill. In all the rest, the temperature was at zero many nights in the winter.
We do well to celebrate the centennial anniversaries of this period. They are occasions which stimulate the heart. They awaken sympathy with our fathers in their early privations and self-denials. They inspire gratitude to God. They are full of instruction. They teach us how civilization and culture grow, gradually, from age to age ; how each age, and invention and im- provement is the growth of the improvements and inventions of the ages that went before it. They stimulate faith, and courage, and patience. They admonish us to labor and endure, in hope. Should the next century bring such advancement to Newton, and to New England, and to these United States, as that which has just ended, improvement added to improvement, invention added to invention, advancement added to advancement, what will America, what will New England be? We stand on the ridge between the centuries, and exclaim, as, from our present stand- point, we look back and survey the past, in the words first sent over the telegraph wires in this country,-"What hath God wrought !" And, as we turn and survey the future, what better can we do than with adoring admiration to wait for the develop- ments, whose possibilities outrun and outnumber all our power of conception ?
The following were the eloquent words with which Mr. Hyde closed his Centennial address :
A hundred years have passed since our fathers met in their little town meet- ing, in the small meeting-house (where now stands Dr. Furber's church), and consecrated themselves and their fortunes to the cause of freedom and their country. Then, a straggling town, now, a considerable city; then, only a single church, now, more than twenty; then, here and there a highway, or rather, a lane, now, with its hundred and twenty or more miles of excellent streets ; then, its small school-houses with short terms and rudimental teach- ing, now, school-houses of magnificent proportions, with schools almost with- out number, of all grades, to say nothing of the private academies and higher institutions of learning within our limits. Then, only a few farms with their quaint looking farm-houses; now, beautiful villages, with stately blocks of buildings, palatial residences, well-kept villas and cosy cottages, showing taste and culture on every hand.
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
Then, the quiet almost of the forest, broken only by the song of birds and hum of insects, now, the rush and noise of heavy engines, and railroad trains, whirling along with the speed of the wind. Then, no electric telegraph to flash its message from continent to continent, and thus " put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes;" no ocean steamers, crossing the broad Atlantic and bringing the nations of the earth into more intimate relations ; no missionaries on foreign shores, preaching Christ to dying men; no city library, with its rich stores, gathered from all ages and nations. How great the change in a single century !
The sun shines upon no spot on earth more highly cherished than our dear old birthplace, Newton, with its glorious record and rich memories, the gal- lant deeds of its heroes and martyrs, its faithful ministers of Christ, its churches and schools, its academies and colleges, its long line of noble Chris- tian men and women, whose records, though possibly unwritten, are not un- known, its pure record of religion, temperance and morality,- surely, as we contemplate the past and consider the present, let the recollection be a con- stant incentive to us and our children,-that we may prove worthy of the lineage we bear and the goodly heritage we enjoy.
CHAPTER LV.
INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIETIES .- HOME FOR ORPHAN AND DESTITUTE GIRLS .- HOME FOR BOYS AT PINE FARM .- HOME FOR MIS- SIONARIES' CHILDREN (CONGREGATIONAL) .- HOME FOR MIS-
SIONARIES' CHILDREN (BAPTIST ) .- WEST NEWTON LYCEUM .- NEWTON SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION .- MUSICAL SOCIETIES .- OTHER ASSOCIATIONS.
THE Home for Orphan and Destitute Girls grew out of an ear- lier institution, called "The Home for Girls." The latter, like " The Home for Boys," under the supervision of the Boston Chil- dren's Aid Society, was designed originally for a class of children not only without parents, but also criminal. A number of girls from twelve to sixteen years of age, having been committed to jail for crime, and the number being evidently on the increase, the question arose among several benevolent individuals, "Can any thing be done for their reformation?" In answer to the question, the proposal was suggested that a home should be provided some- where in the rural districts outside of Boston, with a Christian lady at its head, and a Board of Managers who should direct its affairs. A house was purchased, by the donation of several liberal contributors, for the purpose specified, at a cost of about $10,000. The house was on the east side of Centre Street, nearly opposite the former residence of the late Dr. Homer, and the more recent mansion of Ex-Mayor Speare. It had been erected originally as the seat of a boarding school,* and was therefore well adapted to its present uses. The house contained the needful rooms below for family convenience, and twenty-four chambers, neatly, but plainly, furnished, at an expense of about thirty dollars each.
* This was the Institution taught successively by Mr. Elbridge Hosmer, Deacon Ebenezer Woodward, Rev. John B. Hague, Deacon B. Wood and Rev. E. H. Barstow.
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
The contributors uniting in this effort belonged to five different religious denominations. The House was dedicated to its new use on Christmas Day, 1866. The first inmate, received November 12, 1866, was a young girl twelve years of age, who had been in jail seven weeks for stealing fifty dollars. Eight or ten others had been admitted, previous to the public dedication. Accessions were . made week after week, till the number had increased to thirty. The first and only matron was Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomroy, well known for her faithful and efficient services in the war of the Rebellion, and to whose admirable supervision, the Institution, in its various changes, owes both its spirit and form. The Home had no permanent funds, and, like its successor, "The Home for Orphan and Destitute Girls," depended wholly on the contribu- tions of the benevolent.
On the afternoon of Sunday, June 14, 1868, the building occu- pied by the Home was set on fire by one of the inmates, and totally destroyed. The child who was the author of this calamity was transferred to a State Reformatory Institution. The late . Gardner Colby, Esq., generously opened his house to the entire family for the night, and the following day a house was offered for the temporary occupation of the Home, on Pelham Street. On the 10th of November, 1868, the estate of the late Ephraim Jackson, southeast of Newton Theological Institution, was purchased for the Home for $7,400, and the barn on the premises fitted up for a school-house.
The number of girls of the class for which the Home was origi- nally designed,- the children of vice, needing reformation,- being too small to warrant the support of such an Institution longer, the Board of Managers, at a meeting held in 1872, voted to relinquish the work. Places were found for the older girls then in the Insti- tution, to which they were transferred, and the younger were sent to. their homes. Four little orphan girls remained, and the question arose, Who would care for them ?
The suggestion was made by some of the ladies that an Orphans' Home should be established in Newton, an Institution exclusively Newton's, and depending on the benevolent of New- ton for its support. The suggestion was cordially received, and the four poor children above referred to, the residue of the former Home, became the nucleus of the new Institution. In November, 1872, the Home was established on Church Street, Newton Corner,
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HOME FOR BOYS.
in a house owned by P. C. Jones, Esq. The number increased, and the house proved too small to accommodate all who needed its shelter. Then, the former Episcopal parsonage or rectory was purchased by William Morton, Esq., of Newton Centre, and rented for an Orphans' Home, where the Institution has remained till the present time, and always continued under the charge of Mrs. Pomroy.
This charity is one that appeals to the best feelings of all classes of society. Besides the good it has done to those for whose sake it was established, it has proved a graceful means of cultivating the benevolent instincts of the children of all the villages of New- ton, and others, who have taken pleasure in raising funds and contributing other means for its support.
The following were the officers of the Home (1878) :
DIRECTORS.
Mrs. Daniel L. Furber, Miss Mary C. Shannon, Nathaniel T. Allen, Esq.
SUPERINTENDENT. Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomroy.
The Institution is independent of, and receives no assistance from, the Boston Children's Aid Society, by which the original Home for Girls was founded, and which latter sustains the " Pine Farm School for Boys," at West Newton. That Society, several years ago, ceased to receive girls as inmates, and confines its charity to boys alone.
HOME FOR BOYS AT PINE FARM.
The Home for Boys, under the charge of the Boston Children's Aid Society, is situated at the corner of Homer and Chestnut Streets, West Newton. It was established in 1864. The inmates of the Home are boys who have been brought before the police courts, or are otherwise in need of reformatory care, having been thrown upon the streets of the city, and early learned lessons of vice and sin. The boys are mainly such as are recommended by Mr. Rufus R. Cook, the general agent of the Society, who for many years devoted himself to missionary work among friendless children. The entire family averages about thirty, and as many more leave for good places every year. The Institution embraces the characteristics of an asylum, a home, and a school. The boys
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
receive in school the elements of knowledge, of which, owing to their early surroundings, they were deprived ; and on the farm, the property of the Society, they are initiated into habits of industry and thrift, which will be of incalculable benefit to them in keep- ing them out of the way of temptation and preparing them for a useful life. The school is denominated the "Pine Farm School."
The farm of twenty acres at West Newton was purchased in the winter of 1864, by donations contributed specially for the purpose. The Society was incorporated, in order that it might have legal guardianship of children, so as. to bind them out or put them in permanent homes. The purchase of the farm was considered, at first, only an experiment, but it has proved an entire success. The farm is very pleasantly situated, about a mile from the West Newton depot. The house (the old Murdock place) was a very old, but sub- stantially built, farm-house, in which some alterations were made, and a. wing added, so that the accommodations are ample for the older members of the household, and the thirty boys who constitute the members of the family.
Miss Lydia Stone was the first matron of the Home, and her admirable. personal qualities peculiarly fitted her for the place, Mr. Howe, the first Superintendent, took the care of the farm, employing the boys in out-door work. The cooking and house work were done by Mrs. Howe and Miss Stone, with the help of the boys. The boys make their own beds, scrub the floors, and wash the dishes. Two of them help each day in the kitchen, taking a week in turn, and the older boys do most of the ironing. They all: work upon the farm. The first year of the school, one hundred and eighty bushels of potatoes were raised by them, and one year they harvested one hundred and eighty bushels of carrots, besides large quantities of beets, tur- nips, onions, cabbages, etc. In winter, as there is no work upon the farm, the boys knit an hour each evening.
On the 26th of June, 1864, the house which had been purchased for the Home being ready for use, a service of dedication was held in a grove, on the place. The enterprise commenced with one or two boys, and additions were made till the house was full. On Sabbath mornings the boys attend the West Parish Congregational church, and in the afternoons, the Sabbath School of the same church. The week-day school has two sessions, of five hours in all. At the end of two years, seventy-eight boys had been re- ceived, of whom fifty-two were admitted the first year. In June, 1872, the number who had been inmates of the Home up to that. date was one hundred and ninety-eight,- all under twelve years of age. The boys remain at the Home from six months to two- and even three years, their stay depending on their susceptibility to good influences.
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MISSIONARIES' CHILDREN.
The second and present Superintendent of the Home is Mr. C. H. Washburne, who, with Mrs. Washburne, takes a deep interest in the Institution, and is admirably adapted to the position. Dur- ing the year ending June, 1872, sixteen of the boys professed to have become truly religious, and twelve of them were admitted members of the Second Congregational church. In 1874, Mr. George S. Trowbridge became a teacher of music in the Institu- tion, giving the boys lessons in singing. He also interested him- self to have the boys learn to print. A press, type and stock have been procured, and the boys now print songs for use in the school, programmes, and the Annual Reports of the Society, besides some outside work.
The old barn on the farm, which had been recently repaired at an expense of $250, was destroyed by fire in 1877. A new one has taken its place.
HOME FOR MISSIONARIES' CHILDREN (CONGREGATIONAL).
An institution has existed several years in Auburndale, and still exists at the date of this publication, which merits notice in this. History. Mrs. Eliza H. Walker, widow of Rev. Augustus Walker, a missionary twelve or fourteen years in Diarbekir, in Eastern Turkey, soon after his sudden death by cholera in 1866, returned to this country with her four little children. She took up her resi- dence in Auburndale, in a house built for her by her father, the late Rev. Sewall Harding. Here she has established a Home for the children of missionaries. It is not in any sense a public institution ; but a private Christian family, enlarged by the accession of chil- dren, sent to this country for education and home culture under the influences of civilized society, by their parents who are still missionaries among the heathen. Mrs. Walker commenced this Home in 1868, receiving into her family two children of the Rev. Mr. Snow, of the Micronesian mission of the American Board. Two Christian ladies in New York became responsible for the board of these children at a very moderate rate. In a short time, two sisters from India were added, and then a boy from Fuchau, in China. Friends offered assistance, and the institution grew. In 1875, Mrs. Walker had under her charge thirteen missionary children, from Turkey, India, China, Africa, Micronesia and Japan. The children attend the public schools of Newton. One, the first received, having completed her course in the schools, became a.
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