USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 73
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Edmund Trowbridge, Norman Clark, Edward Hall, jr., James Stone, Joseph Parker, John Ward, Joseph Fuller, Elisha Hyde, Aaron Richards, John Kenrick, Moses Stone,
Samuel Trowbridge,
Joseph Foster, Samuel Stone,
Jesse Winslow, William F. Ward,
Caleb M. Stimson, Luther Paul,
Ebenezer D. White,
Otis Trowbridge, Joseph W. Plimpton, James Ricker,
Nathan Craft, jr.,
Asa Cook, Jonathan Stone,
Marshall S. Rice, Steplien W. Trowbridge,
Adolphus Smith,
Isaac Hagar, Eben Stone, Joseph Adams,
E. R. Winslow,
Horatio Moore, Ephraim Grover,
Benjamin W. Kingsbury,
J. B. H. Fuller,
Edward J. Collins, J. F. C. Hyde, Ebenezer Bradbury,
George Hyde, Orrin Whipple, William P. Houghton,
Thomas Rice, jr., Loring Wheeler, Otis Pettee,
Samuel F. Dix,
Luther R. Wattles,
764
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
F. A. Collins,
D. C. Sanger, George E. Bridges, John L. Roberts, Willard Marcy,
Isaac R Worcester,
William B. Fowle, Joseph Walker, Marcus T. Heywood,
John C. Stanton,
Isaac F. Kingsbury,
Lucius G. Pratt,
Charles E. Ranlett, Joel M. Holden, William W. Jackson, J. Willard Rice.
REPRESENTATIVES TO THE GENERAL COURT.
Edward Jackson, sen., Capt. Thomas Prentice, Ensign John Ward, Capt. Isaac Williams, Dea. James Trowbridge, Dea. Edward Jackson,
Lieut. John Spring, Ebenezer Stone, Esq., Ensign John Ward (son of the above),
Dea. Richard Ward, John Greenwood, Samuel Jackson,
Captain Thomas Green- wood,
Moses Craft,
James Fuller,
Robert Murdock, jr.,
Joseph Fuller,
George E. Bridges,
Henry Gibbs, Esq.,
Elijah F. Woodward,
Capt. John Clark,
Joseph Foster,
John B. Goodrich, James J. Walworth, Alfred B. Ely,
Capt. Abraham Fuller,* Thomas Parker,
Luther Paul,
E. D. Winslow,
Capt. John Woodward,
John Richardson,
Charles Robinson, jr., Robert R. Bishop,
Capt. Edward Fuller,
Allen C. Curtis,
Levi C. Wade,
George D. Eldridge.
ANNUAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR TOWN EXPENSES.
From 1691 to 1700,-9 years, average about
£ 20 per annum.
1700 to 1725,-25 "
90
66
1725 to 1770,-45 "
166
66
1771
£240
DEPRECIATED PAPER CUR-
SILVER MONEY.
1772
260
RENCY.
1782
£ 800
1773
300
1783
1,000
1774
300
1778
£ 3,000
1784
1,500
1775
300
1779
4,500
1785
1,000
1776
250
1780
55,000
1786
600
1777
260
1781
100,000
1787
700
Col. Nathan Fuller, Col. Joseph Ward, Major Timothy Jackson, Major Samuel Murdock, Gen. Ebenezer Cheney, Dr. Ebenezer Starr, Joseph Jackson, Capt. John Kenrick, William Jackson,
Matthias Collins, Allen C. Curtis, John Richardson, Nathan Pettee,
Joel Fuller, Leonard Rice, Otis Trowbridge, Isaac Hagar, Marshall S. Rice, Ebenezer Bradbury,
Frederic Barden, Horace R. Wetherell, Charles E. Pike, James F. C. Hyde, Thomas Rice, jr., Edward J. Collins, David H. Mason, John S. Farlow, George E. Allen,
Jesse Winslow,
Dr. John King,
Lemuel Crehore,
* Capt. Abraham Fuller and Edward Durant were delegates to the Provincial Con- gress at Cambridge in 1774 and 1775. In the years 1791, 1794, 1822, 1825, 1842, 1849, 1852, there is no record of the election of a representative, or Voted not to send.
765
APPROPRIATIONS.
1788
£,700
1819
$4,700
1851
$20,000
1789
500
1820
4,400
1852
23,000
1790
400
1821
4,000
1853
24,000
1791
500
1822
4,000
1854
30,000
1792
500
1823
4,200
1855
30,000
1793
500
1824
4,200
1856
30,000
1794
750
1825
4,500
1857
40,000
1795
600
1826
4,500
1858
35,000
FEDERAL CURRENCY.
1796
$3,500
1828
4,000
1860
40,000
1797
3,000
1829
4,000
1861
40,000
1798
3,000
1830
4,000
1862
35,000
1799
2,500
1831
4,500
1863
40,000
1800
2,500
1832
4,500
1864
52,500
1801
3,000
1834
6,000
1866
72,500
1803
3,500
1836
7,000
1868
160,000
1805
3,500
1838
7,000
1870
185,000
1807
4,000
1840
7,500
1872
291,050
1809
4,000
1841
9,000
1873.
333,300
1810
4,500
1842
9,000
1874
320,000
1811
5,000
1843
8,000
1875
351,000
1812
4,000
1844
8,000
1876
363,609
1813
4,000
1845
8,000
1877
327,645
1814
4,400
1846
10,000
1878
319,225
1815
4,700
1847
12,000
1879
302,375
1816
4,700
1848
16,000
1880
315,825
1817
4,700
1849
18,000
1818
4,700
1850
20,000
POPULATION OF NEWTON.
1765
1,308
1852
5,700
1864
8,850
1781
1,300
1853
6,050
1865
8,978+
1790
1,360
1854
6,400
1866
9,100
1800
1,491
1855
6,768₺
1867
9,310
1810
1,709
1856
7,090
1868
9,900
1820
1,856
1857
7,420
1869
11,000
1830
2,377
1858
7,740
1870
12,825*
1840
3,351
1859
8,060
1871
14,000
1848
4,870
1860
8,382*
1872
15,500
1849
5,068
1861
8,600
1873
16,000
1850
5,258*
1862
8,700
1875
16,105+
=
1851
5,450
1863
8,750
1880
16,994*
* U. S. Census.
t State Census.
1867
95,000
1804
3,500
1837
6,000
1869
150,000
1806
3,700
1839
7,500
1871
185,000
1808
4,000
1833
5,000
1865
60,000
1802
3,500
1835
6,000
1859
35,000
1827
4,500
766
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
STATISTICAL ITEMS.
The last Annual Report of the town of Newton, previous to the. inauguration of the City Government, covered a period of eleven. months, to December 31, 1873. The aggregate transactions of the Treasury, for eleven months of 1873, exceeded a million of dollars ; an increase of more than three hundred per cent. in the last decade, the aggregate in 1864 having been $334,000. In twenty-five years, the appropriations for town expenses increased more than thirty-three fold, having risen from $10,000 in 1846 to $20,000 in 1850; to $40,000 in 1860; and $40,000 in 1863 to. $333,300 in 1873. The total current expenses of the town, paid in the year ending February 1, 1863, were $54,560, exclusive of taxes, against $344,113 in eleven months of 1873.
The number of individuals and firms, paying taxes for real or- personal property or both, was about 2,475. Of the whole num- ber of names, about 676 were names of women. The number of persons paying only a poll tax was about 2,000. Non-resident, individuals or companies paying taxes in Newton, about 601.
Value of Real Estate in Newton, May 1, 1873,
$18,446,275.00
Value of Personal Estate, 7,537,775.00
$25,984,050.00
Taxable Value of Corporate Stocks,
· 1,178,552.00
Taxable Value of Bank Stocks,
1,040,000.00
Total Taxable Valuation,
$28,202,602.00
Town Grant,
$333,300.00
State Tax,
26,482.50
County Tax,
15,086.98
Overlaying,
9,220.36
$384,089.84
Assessment on Corporate Stocks,
17,077.22
Assessment on Bank Stocks,
13,308.15
Total Assessments,
$414,475.21
Rate of Taxation, $14.50 on $1,000.
Total value of town property, December 31, 1873,
$612,317.00
The Fire Alarm Telegraph, ordered at the March meeting of Newton, 1873, was completed in October of that year. It con-
767
STATISTICAL ITEMS.
sists of about thirty-five miles of wire in four circuits, fifteen sig- nal boxes, or stations, three heavy strikers, and four large gongs, with the necessary fixtures to make it complete in itself ; additions can be made to it, at any time, without disturbing the present work.
The census of Massachusetts for 1875 furnishes the following statistical information concerning the city of Newton at that date :
POPULATION .- Males, 7,443 ; females, 8,662; total, 16,105. Ratable polls, 4,134. Native voters, 2,554 ; naturalized voters, 724. Total of voters, 3,278.
DWELLING-HOUSES .- 2,900. Families, 3,200. Number of per- sons in each family : in 45 families, one person ; in 349, two; in 553, three ; in 571, four ; in 535, five ; in 417, six ; in 311, seven ; in 173, eight ; in 94, nine ; in 61, ten ; in 36, eleven ; in 34, twelve ; in one, thirteen ; in 2, fourteen ; in 3, fifteen ; in 15, sixteen and upwards.
COLOR AND RACE .- White, males, 7,375 ; females, 8,593 ; black, males, 55 ; females, 62 ; mulatto, males, 9 ; females, 4 ; Chinese, males, 4 ; females, 3.
CONJUGAL CONDITION .- Single males, 4,293 ; females, 5,055. Married, males, 2,991; females, 3,012. Widowed, males, 153 ; females, 578. Divorced, males, 4; females, 10. Unknown, males, 2 ; females, 7.
PLACES OF BIRTH .- Born in Newton, 3,965 ; in other cities or towns of Massachusetts, 5,171; in other States, 2,672 ; foreign born, 4,205. Unknown, 92. Of the foreign born, there were born in
England,
555
Germany,
81
Austria,
1
Ireland,
2,619
Portugal,
4
Greece,
1
Wales,
95 Sweden and Norway, 34
China,
7
Scotland,
7 Spain and its colonies, 7
Mexico,
6
Canada,
688
Denmark,
3
Turkey,
1
Other British }
24
Russian Empire,
1
At sea,
2
Possessions,
Holland,
1
France,
9 Switzerland,
3
PHYSICAL CONDITION .- Blind, males, 20; females, 11. Deaf, males, 47; females, 21. Dumb, males, 2. Idiotic, males, 6 ; female, 1. Insane, males, 7 ; females, 5.
From the Massachusetts Census of 1875, we gather several interesting statistics in reference to the agricultural industry of Newton. The number of farms in the city is 163; number of
768
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
farm buildings, 415 ; value of buildings, $1,081,850 ; acres of land under cultivation, 4,079 ; value of land, $1,920,360 ; of land and buildings, $2,929,210 ; value of fruit trees and vines, $48,733 ; of domestic animals, $95,248 ; of agricultural implements, $16,489 ; total value of farm property of Newton, $3,107,495. In this respect, it is the leading place in the county of Middlesex, Arling- ton coming next, with a total valuation of farm property of $1,915,140. The total valuation of farm property in Middlesex County was $41,132,445. Newton therefore has more than one fourteenth of this amount.
One singular fact is stated in this census, that while there are 8,421 pear trees in Newton, there are only 5,977 apple trees, with 595 cherry and 362 peach. Number of grape vines, 4,598. Of hens and chickens, Newton has 4,802 ; these are located, it is under- stood, on the farms. Only 6 yoke of oxen are reported through- out the entire city. Of the agricultural products, there were 486,720 cabbages ; 97,620 heads of lettuce ; only 57 bushels of peaches to 2,071 of pears, and 9,765 of apples.
CHAPTER LVII.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
A LARGE number of biographical notices of citizens of Newton at various periods were prepared for this work, but are laid aside for want of room. The materials for many of these notices were drawn from Mr. Francis Jackson's genealogies and from other sources. The notes contained in this chapter, relating, with three or four exceptions, to the lives of distinguished persons of later date, but who have exercised an important influence in making Newton what it is, seem to be an essential part of this History.
FREDERIC BARDEN was born in Dover, Mass. In early life he was em- ployed in working and rolling iron, first in his native town, and afterwards in Wareham, Mass. After this he was engaged in setting up large mills in Pembroke. He lived in Newton more than thirty years, and erected mills, and carried on an extensive business, giving employment to many laborers. He was judicious, careful, energetic and enterprising. All business men relied on his honesty, and rejoiced in his genial fellowship. His workmen were sure of his sympathy and loved him like a father. He was representa- tive to the General Court two sessions, and in the discharge of his political duties a vigilant guardian of the public welfare. He was an active and effi- cient member of the Channing Religious Society at Newton Corner, a regular attendant on its services, and at the time of his death held the office of dea- con. He died September 25, 1877, aged seventy-one, leaving a widow but no children, and was buried in the cemetery in Newtonville. His resi- dence was the beautiful and conspicuous mansion at Newton Upper Falls, built by the late Dr. Whitney, and afterwards owned and occupied by the late Dr. A. D. Dearborne, opposite the home of Otis Pettee, Esq.
GEORGE BEMIS was a native of Watertown, and died at Nice, France. His father was a man of great energy of character, being proprietor of the Bemis factory, North Village, one of the oldest establishments of the kind in New- ton. As a lawyer Mr. Bemis attained considerable distinction, and was at one time Solicitor of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. Connected with Attor- ney-General Clifford in the trial of Webster for the murder of Dr. Parkman, by his untiring industry he brouglit together a vast array of evidence, greatly contributing to present a convincing case to the jury. He afterwards pub- lished a report of the trial in book form, making one of the most remark-
769
49
770
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
able cases of American jurisprudence. As a writer on International law, in connection with our differences with Great Britain, he displayed a thorough knowledge of the subject, and in this affair had very intimate relations with the late Senator Sumner. He was not a politician, and studiously avoided all public position. He was a pupil, in early years, of Mr. Seth Davis, and on the occasion of the ninetieth birthday anniversary of his old Master, sent him a letter of congratulation. Mr. Bemis was about sixty years of age, and was unmarried.
His will contained many public bequests. Among them was a bequest to. his sister, Sarah Wheeler Bemis, for her life use, $50,000; also, his pictures and other objects of art; to the President and Fellows of Harvard College the sum of money set apart for the life use of his sister, to be held for the estab- lisliment and maintenance of a professorship of international law in the Dane Law School of said University ; $5,000 to pay for the compilation and publi- cation of his articles on Public Law and the Alabama claims ; to the Depart- ment of State of the United States his annotated volumes of American and British Diplomatic Correspondence, including the published documents con- nected with the Geneva award; to his executors, the sum of $5,000 to be applied toward the completion of the subscription to the Story statue of President Quincy, ordered on behalf of the Alumni of Harvard College ; to the Massachusetts Historical Society, all the MSS. and printed material for the preparation of the Webster Trial Reports ; to the Boston Athenaeum, $20,000 for the purchase of books for the reading room. The will is dated October 23, 1872.
DR. HENRY BIGELOW was a native of Worcester, Mass., was early fitted for college, and graduated at Harvard University 1836. He studied medicine and settled in his profession first at Buxton, Me., and soon afterwards in Newton Corner, where he resided till his death. He came to Newton near the commencement of the period of its modern growth and prosperity, and was identified with all the interests of the town, and a moving spirit in every improvement. He had fine taste and culture, and to his peculiar ability and good management, as Chairman of the School Committee, the town is indebted, more than to any one else, for the noble condition of its public schools. For fifteen years he was at the head of the interests of education, and his charac- ter and influence was felt alike by pupils and teachers. He was foremost in selecting, arranging and adorning the beautiful cemetery of Newton. His- taste and skill laid out its avenues, and there his ashes repose.
In his profession, Dr. Bigelow was skilful, faithful and kind. He never attended a patient who was not benefited by his presence. His spirit was in sympathy with all their sufferings, and his faith seemed to help the dying. through the valley of the shadow of death. The rich sought his judicious counsel, and he was the poor man's friend.
Dr. Bigelow was a prominent member of the Channing church. Its edifice stands on the lot of land next to his own residence, and he watched over the Society in its infancy and weakness as if it were his own child.
At a meeting of citizens called to take action in reference to his decease, the following resolution was passed unanimously :
771
REV. JOSEPH S. CLARKE, D. D.
" Resolved, that in the decease of Dr. Henry Bigelow, our town and com- munity have suffered a great and irreparable loss ; that we shall love to remem- ber his pleasant voice and countenance, his refined manners and cultivated taste, his ripe scholarship and long devotion to the cause of education, his wisdom in counsel and energy and prudence in action, his benevolent kind- ness to the poor, his quick and tender sympathy for those in any form of suffering, his strict and unbending integrity, his true Christian benevolence, his love of virtue and his hatred of vice, and all those good and noble quali- ties which made him the friend of us all; that above all, we reverence and admire, as the crowning excellence of his character, that clear Christian faith and principle which illumined and pervaded his whole mortal life, and which guided and supported him triumphantly through every earthly difficulty and danger, to the very portals of tlie life to come."
Dr. Bigelow died January 21, 1866, aged forty-eight years. A beautiful monument was erected over his resting place in the cemetery, the loving tribute of the gratitude of the children of Newton to the friend who had watched witlı untiring zeal over their advancement. At the dedication of the monu- ment, Hon. David H. Mason delivered an address.
REV. JOSEPH SYLVESTER CLARKE, D. D., was born December 19, 1800, at Manomet Ponds, in South Plymouth, Mass., seven miles from the historical Plymouth rock. An ancestor of his, Thomas Clarke, was probably the mate of the Mayflower, and piloted that vessel into Plymouth harbor, and died May 24, 1697, aged ninety-eight. The ancestors of Dr. Clarke, subsequent to this progenitor, were in the following order,- Thomas, his great-great- grandfather; James, his great-grandfather; James, his grandfather, and Seth, his father. At the age of sixteen, he taught a school in his native town, and afterwards in Hingham. He graduated with the higliest honors at Amherst College in 1827, and at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1831. In college "he was exceedingly minute and methodical in all plans and de- tails, and he there foreshadowed, what he afterwards exhibited, a remarkable skill in historical and statistical investigations." He was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Sturbridge, Mass., December 21, 1831; and, during the first year of his ministry, one hundred and thirty persons were admitted members of the church. He was pastor here seven years; and,. just before the close of his settlement, published " A Historical Sketch of Sturbridge, Mass., from its settlement to the present time." In 1839, he be- came the Secretary of the Massachusetts Missionary Society, which office he held eighteen years, and resigned it September 23, 1857. He left in the. office of this Society copies of his official correspondence, filling seven quarto volumes, each containing from four hundred to one thousand pages. He also published, in 1858, " A Historical Sketch of the Congregational churches of Massachusetts from 1620 to 1858, with an Appendix," pp. 344, 12mo.
Sixteen days before his decease, he said to a friend, " I am now ready to, publish what I have been accumulating during the last twenty years. I desire to devote the rest of my life to the preparation of several volumes for which. I have been collecting the materials." An intimate acquaintance says of him, " When he went down to his grave, he seems to have carried with liinz.
.
772
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
more knowledge of facts involved in the history of the Massachusetts Congregational churches, than is possessed by any living man." As a preacher, he was neither brilliant, norabstruse, but his sermons were plain, practical and edifying.
He removed to West Newton in 1846, which was his home till the close of his life. He died while on a temporary visit in South Plymouth, August 15, 1861. His remains rest in the Newton Cemetery.
Dr. Clarke had five children, of whom two died in infancy. Of his two sur- viving daughters, one, Miss Harriet S. Clarke (afterwards Mrs. L. E. Caswell, of Boston), was for several years a missionary teacher among the Seneca Indians, at the Cattaraugus Reservation in western New York. His only surviving son is Rev. Joseph B. Clarke, pastor for several years of the Cen- tral Congregational church, Newtonville.
DR. SAMUEL CLARKE, son of Samuel Clarke, of Boston, was born in Boston in 1779. Some time after his birth, his mother, who was a daughter of Obadiah Curtis, having become a widow, married Dr. James Freeman. He was at the Boston Latin School in 1790; then in a store with an importer of British goods, and about 1800 became partner. In 1804, he removed to Newton, settling on a farm of eighty acres, on the east side of what is now Waverly Avenue, and built in 1805 the house, afterwards Dr. James Free- man's, and subsequently the property of the late Francis Skinner. May 18, 1805, he married Rebecca Parker, daughter of General William Hull, of New- ton. In 1807, he removed to Maidstone, Vt. In 1810, he went to Hanover, N. H., and studied medicine with Professor Nathan Smith, of Dartmouth College, and here his third child, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, D. D., was born. In 1811, he returned to Newton, where he first lived in the Obadiah Curtis' house, next north of the Harback estate, and devoted himself to the practice of medicine. His ride extended into Watertown, Brighton and Brookline, so that he sometimes used three or four horses. About 1814, he purchased the Prentice place, next south of the old Cemetery. In 1816, he sold this place to the late Joshua Loring, and removed to Boston, where he practised medicine and carried on the drug business at the corner of Wash- ington and School Streets, till 1829. He then returned to Newton, where he built a chemical factory on the site afterwards known as Brackett's Morocco Factory, south of Homer Street; but the works were destroyed by fire soon after they went into operation. Before they could be rebuilt, Dr. Clarke was seized with fever, and died November 30, 1830, aged fifty-one years.
His widow survived him many years, supported herself and her family by her own exertions, and left a comfortable estate to her unmarried daughter, besides aiding in many public and charitable enterprises. She died in Bos- ton, May 25, 1865, aged seventy-five, leaving five sons and one daughter.
CAPTAIN PHINEAS COOKE was the son of Samuel and nephew of Daniel Cooke, the latter of whom left him a large estate. He was a direct descend- ant of Gregory Cooke, one of the first settlers of Newton. He was captain of a company of Minute-men, commanded, on the memorable day of Concord and Lexington, by Colonel Michael Jackson. This company did good service, and received the thanks of General Warren for their brave conduct. Captain
773
GARDNER COLBY.
Cooke built the house at Newton Corner, near the line of Watertown, which, after the war, was owned and occupied by General Hull. He died January 12, 1784, too early to witness the complete establishment of the country, for whose sake he had endured hardship and peril. He married (1759) Abigail Durant, daughter of Edward Durant, jr., a leading patriot of the Revolution- ary period. His children were four sons and three daughters.
GARDNER COLBY was born in Bowdoinham, Me., September 3, 1810. H was the son of Josiah C. Colby, of that place. His father was a shipbuilder, and during the war of 1812 lost heavily by the depreciation of shipping, and by the depredations of foreign privateers. A few years afterwards, his mother found herself dependent upon her own energies for the support of herself and her four children. She came to Boston, and by hier remarkable energy and perseverance she soon established a home for herself and children. Gardner, her second son, entered a grocery store as an errand-boy, and after two years' service obtained the position of clerk in a Boston dry goods house. At the age of twenty-two he started in business for himself, opening a dry goods store on the corner of Bromfield and Washington Streets. His whole capital was $500, borrowed from his mother; but lie was successful from the beginning, and in 1837 launched out into a new course, entering the dry goods importing business on Kilby Street. He continued in this until 1848, when he retired with a handsome competency.
In 1850, he purchased one-half interest in the Maverick (now Merchant) Mills, at Dedham, being associated with another citizen of Newton, the late J. Wiley Edmands, in the manufacture of woollen goods. Mr. Colby was the selling agent in Boston of the manufactured goods, being in the wholesale dry goods commission business, first on Milk, and afterwards on Franklin Street.
He again retimed from active business in 1863; but in 1870 he entered a third time upon a new business enterprise, to build the Wisconsin Central Railroad from Menasha to Ashland, on Lake Superior. The road is three hundred and forty miles in length, and was built under many difficulties. Mr. Colby was its first President, and had the chief burden of its financial affairs and management.
He was an active member of the Baptist church, and one of the most dis- tinguished laymen of that denomination in New England. His benefactions were liberal and unostentatious ; he was for twenty-seven years treasurer of the Newton Theological Institution, and, later, President of the Board of Trustees ; also, a trustee of Brown University, Providence, R. I., and of Colby University, Waterville, Me., to each of which lie contributed liberally.
The following public bequests were made in the will of Mr. Colby :
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