USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 79
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This report is signed by Nathan Hale, David Henshaw, George Bond, Henry Williams, Eliphalet Williams, Samuel Henshaw, Daniel Denny, and Edward Eldridge. Mr. Denny is, we believe, the only director who survives, and who held that position from the commencement to the moment of consolidation with the Western Railroad.
RAILROAD SEASON TICKETS .- The first annual ticket between Boston and Worcester, by the Worcester railway, says the Boston Commercial Bulletin, was sold May 1, 1838, to Robert Earle for $260; the first between Boston and Newton to Andrew J. Allen, for $50. The first Special Train to West
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Newton was run in 1843, and season tickets were then sold at $27.50 a quarter .. The season-ticket business, now so common, was then considered merely an. experiment, and was tried with great caution. The early season tickets were. only sold by special vote of the directors. At the present time, over one thousand season tickets are sold on the Boston and Worcester Division of the Boston and Albany Railroad.
COLONEL GARDNER'S HOMESTEAD .- Near Allston station, on the Boston and Albany Railroad, was the old homestead of Colonel Gardner, who, in the night preceding the 17th of June, 1775, received orders to appear with his. regiment on Cambridge Common at daylight. He was there ; and was ordered. to Bunker Hill. He addressed his regiment; tradition helps us to see him, with cap under his arm, going from company to company, to prepare his men. for what he foresaw ; and they went to that mount of sacrifice, he to be mor- tally wounded, and his regiment to be cut to pieces ; and in a few days after- wards the brave man was buried from that old homestead in what is now called Allston.
LARGE TREES .- The large elm tree near the Boarding-house, attached to. Pettee's Works, Newton Upper Falls, was brought from the woods by the father of General Ebenezer Cheney, on his shoulder, and set out by him. His house, opposite the present Boarding-house, was of oak timber, and wain -- scoted with oak, as a protection against hostile bullets. The great ash tree- and the slippery elm, near Mr. Otis Pettee's house, were set out by Otis Pettee, sen. Overhanging the house of Samuel G. Tuckerman, near Charles River, is a large tree, planted by the Rev. Mr. Hepworth, of New York, when a. boy. Mr. Hepworth's father formerly occupied this estate, and his mother was organist of the First Baptist church in 1841-2.
ANCIENT PEAR TREE .- During the gale of September, 1869, Mr. E. A. Smallwood's pear orchard, Newton Corner, was considerably injured .. Some thirty or forty trees were either blown down, or more or less damaged. Mr. Smallwood had two ancient pear trees, planted by the first settlers of Newton, over two hundred years ago. One of these, supposed to be the- youngest, suffered the loss of several limbs ; but the veteran, the oldest tree of the kind, probably, to be found in New England, bravely withstood the tempest and came out of it uninjured. It bears a good crop of pears regu- larly every year. The pear is small, but luscious to the taste, and the trunk. of the tree is so large that a young lady of fifteen, clasping it with her arms, could not join her fingers.
NONANTUM HOUSE .- The old Nonantum House, once the residence of General Hull, who built the brick portion of it, and afterwards the seat of the Boarding School for Young Ladies, kept by Mrs. Susannah Rowson, stood. on the site occupied by a Mr. Walker, a cooper by trade, several years since, and was kept as a hotel by a Mr. Marshall for a number of years of the first portion of the present century. The sign, in conformity with the times, was. suspended from an arm fifteen or more feet in height, and had a peacock. painted on both sides, and therefore was sometimes called the Peacock Tavern,. and it had the reputation of being a very accommodating establishment.
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The brick part of the building, formerly occupied by General Hull, it is said, still bears the marks of a ball fired at the General by some incensed friend of the soldiers of 1812.
Until 1803, there was no house on the southerly side of Washington Street from West Newton to Centre Street. In that year, Colonel William Trow- bridge built the old house, now, or recently, standing on the eminence on the east side of Washington Street, near the intersection of Craft Street there- with.
In 1807, Samuel Trowbridge built a brick house in Newtonville, on the premises afterwards owned by Chester Marcy, which was so damaged by the September gale in 1816, that it was taken wholly down. One house at New- ton Corner was built three or four hundred feet west of the Bank. All the houses on the south side of Washington Street, from West Newton to Centre Street, have been built since 1810.
The Tavern House kept by Mr. Bacon, was built by John Richardson, after he purchased the Hull Estate.
Half a century since, the house owned by Mr. Luke Robinson at the time of his decease, was then said to be the one in which General Warren domi- ciled the night before the battle of Bunker Hill.
DISTANCES .- It is related in the records of the Old Colony, that the sur- veyors who were sent out to fix the boundaries of the Puritan settlement went as far as Weston and Woburn, about twelve miles, where they set up their stakes; and in their report they stated that they had embraced all tlie territory which would probably ever be required for the future growth of the colony. Two and a half centuries have elapsed, and the " whole boundless. continent is ours."
Newton, six years after the settlement of Charlestown, was included in the six plantations in all Massachusetts Bay, and in 1634 possessed as much capital as any plantation in the colony.
NEWTON JOURNAL .- The Newton Journal made its first appearance in. September, 1866.
TERRITORIAL ACQUISITION OF NEWTON .- The bill annexing a part of Brighton to the city of Newton, in connection with the Chestnut Hill Reser- voir, adds to Newton about one hundred acres of territory, and some fifteen . or twenty families, with probably an increased valuation of several hundred thousand dollars. Newton, during its long history, has been cut and carved on several occasions. This is, however, the first instance for two hundred years of an actual accession of territory.
EDUCATION OF THE BLIND .- In a " Historical Statement of the Higher Education of the Blind, published by the Committee of the Royal Normal. College and Academy of Music for the Blind " in London, allusion is made to Mr. F. J. Campbell, formerly of Newtonville, where for several years he resided and was well known and respected, being at the time in charge of the musical, as well as other, departments of the Institution for the Blind at South Boston. Mr. Campbell has been for several years the head of the London College, and to his earnest and untiring efforts, the establishment of
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such an Institution was due. His marked executive ability as head of the school has made it an unprecedented success ; and many notices from Eng- lish Periodicals indicate the hearty interest which has been excited in its be- half, amongst the influential classes of English Society. This record of one who was once a citizen of Newton may well be viewed with pride and pleasure. What higher honor or privilege can there be, than to confer blessing upon the unfortunate ?
POST-OFFICES .- "In 1704, the only post on all this continent was that which went east from New York as far as Boston, and west to Philadelphia. The post messenger was provided with a spare horse, a horn and good porte mantles." Such is the assertion of a writer in Harper's Monthly for June, 1879. How wonderful is the advancement from one to more than forty thou- sand !
A post-office was first established at Newton Corner, in 1820. Previously, the only post-office in the town was located at the Lower Falls. resulting in great inconvenience to many living at a distance, some of whom had their correspondence directed to the office at Watertown. The location at the Corner was obtained through the exertions of Squire John Richardson, who made a journey for the purpose to Washington, no small undertaking at that time. The first Postmaster was Mr. Charles Eames, a native of Framingham, watchmaker and jeweller, who occupied a small building where now stands the dry-goods store of George W. Bacon & Co. The emoluments at that time were quite small, some thirty or forty dollars per annum. Mr. Eames held the office for a number of years, and then transferred both office and busi- ness to his journeyman, Mr. William B. Newton. Mr. Newton held it until his health failed, when he in turn gave it up voluntarily to Mr. Joseph N. Bacon. In 1848-9, Mr. Bacon, who left the Whig party, to form what was called the Free Soil party of that day, lost the office, which was given to Mr. Daniel P. Mann, who kept an apothecary store in the building after- wards occupied by Mr. Lowe. Mr. Horace R. Wetherell and Mr. Dexter Whipple were the successors of Mr. Mann, both retaining the office in the same building.
On the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, the late Mr. Samuel Chism was appointed Postmaster, and he removed the office to the apothe- cary store of Mr. E. T. Billings, in Eliot Building, on the south side of the railroad track.
About a year later, Mr. Chism was removed by President Johnson, Mr. Edwin S. Holman receiving the appointment. Mr. Holman removed the post-office to another location. The increase of business at this office since it was first established, more than half a century ago, clearly indicates the unprecedented growth of this portion of the town. Probably the increase has been nearly a thousand. fold, while, since that time, offices have been estab- lished at Newton Centre, Newtonville, Upper Falls, West Newton, Auburn- dale, Newton Highlands and Chestnut Hill. When the office at Newton Corner was first established, the late Mr. Joseph Bacon kept a hotel where the Bank now stands, and a few straggling houses represented what is now a large, compact and flourishing village.
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PETITION FROM NEWTON CENTRE TO THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.
" To the Hon. etc. :
" Your memorialists respectfully represent that they reside in the first and principal Parish of the township of Newton, etc., within the bounds of which, and in their immediate neighborhood, are two large and respectable churches, a Theological Seminary, the most important one connected with the Baptist denomination in the United States, a female academy, and a boarding school for boys, of considerable repute, surrounded on all sides by rather wealthy, intelligent farmers, and that they are subject to an extensive correspondence with different portions of the Union.
" We would further represent, that about two miles north of us is a small village, commonly known as Newton Corner, lying within half a mile of the flourishing village and post-office of Watertown; that there is a post-office in said village (Newton Corner), known by the name of the Newton post-office, and also one in our village, known as the Newton Centre post-office.
" That, in consequence of the peculiar designation of the offices of Angier Corner and at this place, your memorialists have ever been subject to great inconvenience from the misdirection of their letters; and especially has this been the case with the officers and students of our literary and theological institutions, whose numerous correspondents in different parts of the coun- try have addressed them as residing in Newton; and thus their letters have been sent to the aforesaid office upon the borders of Watertown, while papers and letters directed to Newton Corner have been sent to Newton Centre office, being the one in our village.
" We have now no direct mail communication with the Newton post-office, to which many of our letters are sent.
" We therefore respectfully pray the honorable head of the Post-office Department, that he will order that the post-office at Newton Corner shall be denominated the Newton Corner post-office; and that the office now called the Newton Centre post-office shall hereafter be called the Newton post- office, to which name we are justly entitled by our location in the town and the importance of the office."
The prayer of the petitioners was not granted at this time by the authori- ties at Washington, but it was granted not long afterwards. The post-office was established at Newton Centre about 1827; the first postmaster appointed was Jabez W. Parkhurst, then a student in the Newton Theological Institu- tion, who held the office about six months, and his place was filled afterwards by Mr. Asa R. Trowbridge.
In 1847, Newton contained five post-offices, eight meeting-houses, and about five thousand inhabitants, mostly living in villages on its borders.
DR. JOHN KING .- When he came to Newton to commence practice, he called at Mitchell's Tavern, situated at what is now called Newton Highlands, to obtain a boarding-place. He was recommended to Captain Noah Wis- wall's. After he left, Mr. W.'s daughter Sarah, who was in another part of the house, was told that they had sent the young doctor to her father's house to board. She remarked, "Every body is sent to our house." The young
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lady afterwards became Mrs. John King. He was a very modest and unas- suming man, and requested before he died that no unusual ceremony be- made at his funeral.
LAFAYETTE IN NEWTON .- Lafayette passed through Newton during his last visit to this country in 1825, and shook hands with a number of Mr. Davis" pupils, ranged at the side of the road to receive him.
"DADDY THWING."- Old Mr. Thwing, who " fit into the revolution," and was at the battle of Bunker Hill, lived near the South cemetery, at what is now known as Newton Highlands, and was called by the boys " daddy Thwing." He was very old, and was fond of entertaining the boys withi rec- ollections of Bunker Hill.
MINISTERS' HOUSES BURNED .- A strange fatality seems to have attended the houses of the ministers of Newton. The house owned by Rev. John Cotton was burned in 1720; that of Rev. Jonas Meriam, in 1770; and the house of Rev. Joseph Grafton, after it had been removed from its original location, was also burned.
THE FIRST CONTRIBUTION TO THE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS IN. BOSTON .- Rev. Mr. Toles, of the Home for Little Wanderers, stated in an address in Newton, that the first contribution for the establishment of the Home was made at the Baptist church, Ward One, Newton, and the first dollar was subscribed by a young girl, then a member of the Sunday School of that church. From that time, the Home continued to enlarge, yearly in- creasing the sphere of its operations, which now includes destitute children not only from New England, but from Canada, the West, and the South; and during the fifteen years of its existence it has cared for 4,877 children, many of whom have become valuable members of society, lawyers, minis- ters, clerks, farmers, physicians, and representatives of various trades and professions.
A NEWTON BOY, BISHOP OF IOWA .- Rev. William Stevens Perry, a native of Newton, accepted the position to which he was unanimously elected, of Bishop of the Episcopal church for the State of Iowa. Dr. Perry was active in the formation of Grace church, Newton, at the time Union Hall was occupied as a place of worship. He took special interest in the formation of a Sunday School in connection with this church. He is de- scribed as a preacher of ability, and a man of administrative capacity. Pre- vious to his election to the Bishopric, he occupied the position of President of Hobart College, at Geneva, N. Y.
REVOLUTIONARY REMINISCENCE .- Near the bridge over Charles River in Watertown Village, on the Watertown side, stood, in revolutionary times, the old printing-office of Benjamin Edes, who removed his type and press hither early in the year 1775, and who did the printing for the Provincial Congress. Near the bridge on the Newton side of the river, stands a large old house on the east side of the road, called, in the time of the Revolution, the Coolidge tavern. From 1764 to 1770, it was kept as a public house by Nathaniel Coolidge, and afterwards by "the Widow Coolidge." This house was ap- pointed in 1775, as the rendezvous for the " Committee of Safety " in case of
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an alarm. President Washington lodged in this house in 1789. An old house opposite, occupied by John Cook during the Revolution, is one of his- toric interest. It was in a chamber of this house that Paul Revere en- graved his plates, and with the help of Mr. Cook struck off the Colony notes, issued by order of the Provincial Congress. Adjoining this estate were the famous wier-lands along the river.
TREE PLANTING .- Said the late Marshall S. Rice, Esq., of Newton Centre, in 1876, " The row of splendid elms, extending from the Baptist meeting-house in Newton Centre to the iee-houses of Mr. Luther Paul on the northwest side of Centre street, was set out by the late Deaeon Luther Paul, father of the present Messrs. Paul, most of them about fifty years sinee; some of them at a later period. They have afforded a grand shade for many years.
" I have set out, sinee 1825, all the trees in the yard around my house and barn, excepting the largest elm. Three of them, one acacia and two elms, are about seven feet in circumferenee, and have afforded a fine shade for thirty years past.
" The apple seeds which produeed the trees in my orchard, north of my house and barn, were planted in the year 1826. In due time, the seeds ger- minated, the young trees grew, were budded, were set out in the orchard and commenced bearing; they have done well -one year, bearing above three hundred barrels. The orchard has done most of its work, and begins to look old like its owner."
OLD RESIDENCES .- Few of the edifices of other days remain. Near New- ton Upper Falls, the old Woodward family residence in part still exists, exhib- iting evidences of an antiquity of some two hundred years. About 1854, in the vicinity of Nonantum Hill, the late Mr. Rieker demolished an aneient edifice which had the projecting porehes with port-holes, described on a pre- vious page, from which the inmates could pour down either balls, shot, or hot water upon Indians or other attacking enemies.
BURIED TREASURE .- Joshua Loring removed in 1816 to the house on Centre Street, long occupied by him and his leirs. He lad a previous resi- dence on Washington Street, near the east corner of Adams Street. This house was burned. The estate on Centre Street formerly belonged to the Prentice estate, and later, to Dr. Samuel Clarke. At the time of the Revo- lution, three young men of the Prentiee family are said to have buried eon- siderable property near the brook, north of the burying ground, and, going to the war, they never returned. Parties are said to have sometimes dug for the treasure ; but it is not known that it has ever been found.
ANCIENT INSCRIPTION .- A very ancient inseription exists near Newton Corner, formerly so called, not far from the end of Jefferson Street, towards. the river. The inscription is cut on a half mill-stone, said by an old resi- dent to have been the door-step of a brewery which formerly stood near by. The stone is built into the wall of the left bank of the brook which divides. the old " sand bank " from the adjoining estates. The inscription is
N. T. 1 7 4. 3.
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The letters are, perhaps, the initials of the town,- New Town. The last figure is somewhat indistinct.
VALUE OF HOUSES IN NEWTON .- At the beginning of the present century the number of houses in Newton was 175. Aggregate value, $72,900. Aver- age, $428. The aggregate value of the land and houses was $326,525,- an average of $1,865 to each landholder. The Blake estate on Centre Street, now known as the Shannon estate, was estimated as double the value of any other. Only three houses were valued above $1,000.
In 1800, there were only twelve dwelling-houses within a radius of half a mile of the Bank; only eleven, within a mile of the town hall in West New- ton; and at the Lower Falls village, eight.
CARRIAGES IN NEWTON .- During the first decade of this century, Mr. Davis says there were only three carriages (probably, family coaches,) in the town, which were owned by General Hull, Dr. Freeman and General Simon Elliot.
CHURCH BELL IN WEST NEWTON .- The first church bell in West New- ton, raised to its tower in 1828, was purchased of the town of Concord, hav- ing been donated to that town by an Englishi lady. This bell was a very small meeting-house bell, and bore these words in relief on its surface :
" I to the church the living call, I to the grave do summon all."
REV. DR. STILLMAN IN NEWTON .- Shortly before the demolition of the old First Parish meeting-house, in 1805, Rev. Dr. Stillman, the eloquent pastor of the First Baptist church in Boston, was invited by Dr. Homer to preach on a Sabbath afternoon. The notice was widely given, and the meeting-house was completely filled with eager listeners. The text was Heb. VI: 19, " Which hope we have, as an anchor of the soul," etc.
SCHOOL-BOY ROGUERY .- A public school-house, last used in 1809, for- merly stood near the Harbach house, corner of Ward Street and Waverly Avenue. In this school-house Master Hovey was one day sitting at his table, when a roguish boy climbed upon the roof, and let a fishing-line, with a hook, down the chimney. An equally roguisli schoolmate within contrived to fix the hook secretly in the master's wig, which disappeared instantane- ously up the chimney.
THE OLD HULL MANSION AT NEWTONVILLE .- At a reunion of the Every Saturday Club at Newtonville, the following sketch of the Old Hull house, which possesses historic interest, was read by Mrs. J. L. Roberts :
" The Hull mansion seems to be a link, binding together the Newtonville of to-day and the Newtonville of the past. It was erected more than a cen- tury ago on the estate now owned by Governor Claflin, as an addition to a house built nearly a hundred years before. This addition, however, did not include the whole of the present house.
" The part in which we are now gathered was built in 1841 by General Hull, who came into possession of the estate by his marriage with Sarah, daughter of Abraham, who was the son of Joseph, son of another Joseph, who was the son of one John, Fuller, who came to Newton in 1644, and
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bought a thousand acres of land, covering what is now known as Newton- ville. About thirty years ago, your host, Mr. Roberts, wending his way from his dearly loved Boston, in search of some quiet country retreat, stopped at a little station called Hull's Crossing, when a sale of land was going on. Mounting a sugar box, he bid off several acres of land. Then, sauntering up a pleasant lane, now known as Walnut Street, he was attracted by the substantial home-like appearance of the Hull mansion; so much so, indeed, that he soon after bought it, and had it removed across the intervening fields, to its present location. It seems to have been the ambition of each of the owners of the mansion, to build an addition which should excel that of his predecessor ; hence the conglomerate architecture, combining the styles of several centuries - the middle portion, including the library, dining-room, and rooms above, emanated from the brain of the before mentioned Joseph Fuller. The front part, containing four rooms above, and the room in which we now are, then divided by a partition into two rooms of equal size, was the work of the leisure hours of the old General. Your host, not willing to be outdone by the others, who have in each case given their attention to front improvement, contemplated overtopping them all with a French roof; but at length decided to bring his forces to the rear, thus giving us three stories of length rather than height, and placing us under the necessity of occasionally answering the question which is the L and which is the main house."
A HORSE WITH AN EAR FOR MUSIC .- Deacon Elijah F. Woodward, father of Deacon Ebenezer Woodward, of Newton, was, says Rev. Dr. Furber, so regular in his attendance at the Friday evening meetings. of the old First church, Newton Centre, that his horse, which had taken him there for many years, seemed to become familiar with the tune, " Old Hundred," to which the closing doxology was always sung; and, on hearing it, immedi- ately left the shed and moved to the door of the chapel, ready to receive the good old Deacon.
THE WILL OF SETH ADAMS, OF NEWTON .- The following are some pro- visions of the will of the late Seth Adams, of Newton, with a statement of the progress made under the same :
Mr. Adams first made ample provision for his family and connections of every degree, with donations for quite a number of benevolent institutions of this State. Of his chief bequest, the Boston Advertiser says :
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