USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > History of Wakefield (Middlesex County) Massachusetts, compiled by William E. Eaton and History Committee > Part 9
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Application for Old Age Assistance can be made by citizens 65 years or older, whose financial circumstances are such that they require assistance. A total of $124,365.69 was expended in 1943 for Old Age Assistance outside of administration expense. This board is further charged with the care and maintenance of the Town Infirmary where the 1943 expenses amounted to $7,755.22.
The 1944 Board includes Helen S. Randall, chairman; M. Leo Conway, H. C. Robinson, J. Edward Dulong, and Peter Y. Myhre.
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WAKEFIELD-1868 TO 1944
PLANNING BOARD
This civic organization dates from April 14, 1914, when F. H. Long was chosen chairman, and J. W. O'Connell, secretary. Other board mem- bers were Hubbard B. Mansfield, F. A. Seavey and Curtis L. Sopher. First activity was directed to a company developing land in Greenwood.
This was the parent of the Town Planning Board. On November 25, 1925, the town adopted the Zoning By-Law, dated November 10, 1925, and a Zoning Map presented by the Planning Board.
The object of the original Wakefield Zoning Law was to promote the health, safety, comfort and welfare of the inhabitants. Recent years have justified the existence of this department of our town government.
Fitzroy Willard is chairman and other members are M. Gardner Clemons, Dr. Frank T. Woodbury, Edward M. Bridge and Edward G. Lee.
PART OF WAKEFIELD'S CIVIC CENTER - 1944
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HISTORY OF WAKEFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
RETIREMENT BOARD
The Contributory Retirement Board consists of three officials, and collects membership payments from approximately two hundred members in the employ of the town. The total assets as of January 1, 1944, were $97,904.32 deposited in National, Savings and Co-operative Banks in nearby cities and towns. The total membership December 31, 1943, in- cluding pensioners, was 217. During the year 1943 the total receipts, including contributions of members, town appropriation, accumulation fund, interest, etc., were $38,091.91, and payments in total were $29,621.45.
The Board of 1944 is William P. Hurton, chairman; Charles C. Cox and James M. Henderson.
MOTH AND TREE DEPARTMENT
This department is under the direction of a superintendent, appointed by the Selectmen. The chief duties have to do with the extermination of tent caterpillars, the satin and brown tail moth, and the gypsy moth. All elm trees in the town are sprayed for the elm leaf beetle. This depart- ment maintains a tree nursery on Broadway, plants many shade trees, annually, and cuts down trees that are decayed, or dangerous to travel. Attention is also given to trimming and cutting bushes at the sides of highways.
John Landry is the present superintendent.
MILK AND FOOD INSPECTOR
This department is one of health protection. Sources of milk within the town and from all outside dairies selling milk in Wakefield are in- spected and approved, or if changes are necessary, they are made. Labora- tory tests are made for fats, solids, bacteria and clean handling. Pasteur- ization, which is an especially important function in processing milk and cream, and plants employing these methods are rigidly and frequently in- spected. Food inspections are made by the inspector, who issues milk per- mits to dealers and retail merchants, for ice cream manufacture, and for the sale of oleomargarine.
Lawrence Doucett is present inspector.
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WAKEFIELD-1868 TO 1944
ANIMAL INSPECTOR AND DOG OFFICER
The earliest record of the appointment of an animal inspector was in 1903. His duties are now regulated by the State and his nomination by the Selectmen must have the approval of the Division of Livestock Disease Control of the United States Department of Agriculture. His duties are many, including quarantining of any animal under suspicion of contagious disease, to inspect all cattle, to see that all barns and stables are kept in sanitary condition.
The Office of Dog Officer, created in 1909, is combined with that of the Animal Inspector. To meet legal requirements the Dog Officer cares for stray, sick or vicious dogs, and restrains all unlicensed dogs, but the quarantining of dogs is the duty of the Animal Inspector. In the past seventeen years the number of dogs has increased from 600 to about 1050.
George A. Bennett has been Animal Inspector since 1931, and Dog Officer since 1926.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
The function of this committee of fifteen is set forth in Chapter 3 of the Town By-Laws, to wit:
Section 2. When the warrant for a town meeting contains any article or articles under which an appropriation or expenditure of money, or the disposition of any property of the town, may be made, the finance com- mittee shall consider said articles after giving one or more public hearings, of which the person whose name first appears attached to an article shall be notified, and shall report in print its recommendations to the said town meeting.
TOWN PLANNING
There are many maps of old Reading, of South Reading and of Wake- field that faithfully depict the steady growth of the town from early days. The oldest map is dated 1651 and shows the location and areas of the early grants of land in 1638, 1639 and 1651.
A map of 1647 indicates the location of the homesteads of 32 of the original settlers as determined by painstaking search of old records and wills. (See Page 26.)
That the town of Boston touched the ancient town of Reading is a historical fact. In 1639, when the town lines of Boston, Charlestown and Lynn were established, a narrow strip of land, designed as a part of
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HISTORY OF WAKEFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
Boston, was known as "the Boston Panhandle". This location, south of Castle Rock, is known as the "Three County Bounds"-where the three counties of Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk have a common meeting place, 1050 feet westerly from Main Street in the Greenwood section. Here a granite monument marks the spot, and old maps locate it.
Other maps that have come down to modern days are: Map of the First Parish in 1750; Map of Reading, 1765; Map of Malden, 1795, showing the early Reading road; Map of Reading and Lynnfield, 1794; Map of Reading, 1795, with location and names of owners; plan of South Reading Common in 1826; plan of Reading in 1830; and Map of South Reading, 1830, and another in 1856.
We come now to more recent years. There exist a large wall map of Wakefield issued in 1874 and a smaller map showing the real estate holdings of Cyrus Wakefield. In recent years, the Wakefield Item Co. has issued yearly an up-to-date map of the town that has come into general use because of its completeness and low price. A copy of this map is made a part of this History, affixed near the back of this book. Two years ago Harry D. Lord of Newton, Massachusetts issued a book of maps including Wakefield, Reading, North Reading, Lynnfield, Melrose and other towns and cities. The Board of Assessors has a complete book of plans of locations, areas and dimensions of all property in the town. These are only for the use of the Board but any citizen is privileged to consult them.
The town has for public distribution a Zoning Map defining the build- ing restriction areas.
OTHER DEPARTMENTS
The list of other departments and officials includes Forest Warden, Inspector of Wires, Plumbing Inspector, Sealer of Weights and Measures, the Board of Appeal, the Board of Survey, Soldiers' Relief, Fence Viewers, Constable, Registrars of Voters and Sweetser Lecture Committee.
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CHAPTER SIX
Religious Progress
Town and Church Begin Together Brief History of Each of the Churches - Co-operation Today
The churches of Wakefield, through their ministers, their members and their parishioners, have been towers of strength to the community in all the years since their establishment. Through the preaching of God's Word, and through the training of youth in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord," men and women from all the churches, having been imbued with the highest ideals of conduct, have rendered, by the thousands, the best kind of community service.
Indeed, so important and so worthy has been the service rendered to Wakefield by all the churches, that a book of many pages would be re- quired, adequately to record their history.
The task, therefore, of condensing that history is a formidable one, and space permits only a few pages for even this great enterprise. Every reader of this chapter will note what will seem to him or to her, unfortunate omissions. Will all such attribute them to limitations of space, and not to any under-estimate of the value of this or that undertaking?
Even in a brief chapter, there should be mention of every church. We have, therefore, followed the most natural plan and arranged the churches, for purposes of this chapter, in the order of their establishment in Reading, South Reading or Wakefield, as the case may be.
The churches of Wakefield, in the order of their establishment, are as follows:
The First Parish - First Congregational Church - 1644.
The First Baptist Church - 1779-1800-1804.
The First Universalist Church and Society - 1813.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church - 1850.
The First Methodist Church - 1864-1865.
Emmanuel Parish Church - Episcopal - 1870-1871.
The Greenwood Union Church - 1873.
Italian Baptist Chapel - 1901.
The Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Greenwood - 1909. Italian Catholic Chapel - 1924.
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WAKEFIELD CHURCHES
. A
Methodist
Baptist Congregational Episcopal Greenwood Union
WAKEFIELD CHURCHES
-
Universalist
St. Joseph's
Blessed Sacrament, Greenwood
Italian Catholic
Italian Baptist
HISTORY OF WAKEFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
THE FIRST PARISH FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
As in all communities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, town and church began their existence together. Thus it was that the little group of English immigrants, who had "found their way hither from Lynn and other towns" took steps at once toward establishing a church. This first church, Congregational in its faith and creed, was no doubt founded in that first year of 1644, and the little group of settlers attended divine serv- ice in the tiny structure near the corner of Main and Albion Streets. This house of worship served for over forty years, and while it was humble, rough and uncomfortable, it was a true house of prayer for the valiant settlers who had come through the Lynn Woods, crossed the Saugus River at the single ford, and built their meeting house between the two lakes.
In 1688 a new structure was built near the site of the present church. Provided with a steeple and a bell, this edifice served until 1768.
The third edifice faced the west. Its tall spire, blown down in the great gale of 1815, was replaced by a dome-shaped steeple, less beautiful than its predecessor, but safer.
The interior was remodeled in 1838, and in 1847 an even more thorough remodeling was carried out. The building was turned about to face the south and a graceful spire replaced the old steeple.
There are still living those who can recall this third church, and re- member that it was demolished, following the final service on May 14, 1890. Even more persons can recall the dedication, on March 10, 1892, of the handsome stone edifice that was the fourth building. Many who read these lines will recall the disastrous conflagration of February 21, 1909, which partially destroyed the church building and brought genuine grief to the townspeople, as well as to the men and women of the First Parish.
Sunday worship services were held in the town hall, and sister churches extended hospitality for other meetings during the years when the First Parish was without a home of its own.
Rebuilding, however, was begun at once, and the new edifice, much like the old, but with many improvements, was dedicated on February 1, 1912. By great efforts and sacrifices on the part of pastor and people, the church was pronounced free of debt in just ten years after the 1909 fire. The mortgage was burned at the morning service on February 21, 1919. Lawyer Samuel K. Hamilton, who had been chairman of the building committee for both the fourth and fifth edifices, himself burned the mort- gage paper, and the service was one of rejoicing.
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The church is known far and wide for the beauty of its architecture, without and within. The style is Byzantine-Romanesque, walls are of two shades of gray granite. A square tower on the southeast, three round staircase towers and a massive arch at the chief entrance are external features of note.
The church auditorium seats 750 persons. It is finished in quartered oak and carpeted in deep rose figured broadloom. It is further beautified by many stained glass windows, all memorials to sainted men and women of the church gone to their reward.
Vestry, parlors, Church School rooms, class rooms, dining room and kitchen are commodious and modern in equipment; but even so, in this tercentenary year, a building fund is being raised, for changes or additions, when peace shall have made new plans possible.
The Thayer Memorial Chimes were given in memory of Hon. Harry 1. Thayer, by Mrs. Thayer and their three sons. They were dedicated on October 21, 1928, and are often played during church services with impres- sive effect. Playing of them on other occasions, both churchly and civic, is welcomed as a contribution to the dignity and beauty of any event.
Seventeen ministers have served the church and parish during its 300 years. Of rare personal qualities, widely respected and singularly devoted, these men have labored and accomplished greatly in shaping the intellec- tual and spiritual life of the community, as well as that of their own mem- bers. The story of their contributions to the life and thought of the town in which they ministered, will be told, no doubt, at the various services of observance which are to make up the church's part in the tercentenary.
It would also be appropriate, were space at our command, to speak of the part taken by the church through its patriotic men in the various wars, and in the development of the religious thought of New England. All that, however, is beyond the confines of this chapter.
As has been so forcefully remarked by the editor of this history, Mr. William E. Eaton, the one thing that has had a continuous existence since 1644-outside of hills and lakes and other of God's creations-is the First Parish, and the First Congregational Church.
It has a total membership of 1289. The out-of-town membership is 220. Its Church School registers 550 persons, and it has numerous organ- izations, large and small, to meet the spiritual and social needs of men, women, boys and girls, and little children.
Rev. Austin Rice, D.D., is senior pastor. He has served the church with conspicuous devotion and ability since November, 1907.
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Rev. Richard A. Wolff is assistant minister. He already has a repu- tation as an excellent and forceful sermonizer and he devotes much time to the work with and for young people.
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
In the spring of 1793, a small group of persons banded themselves to- gether, independent of the First Parish. While they were members of the Baptist Church in Woburn, they constituted the Baptist Society in Wake- field, then Reading. The first meeting house was built in 1800 on Salem Street and the first pastor was installed January 31, 1804. The structure was destroyed by fire in 1835, and the second that replaced it in 1836 at the corner of Crescent and Main Streets was burned to the ground in 1871. The present church building was dedicated on December 11, 1872. It is a handsome structure and has seating accommodations for a thousand per- sons. Its slender spire is 180 feet in height, the loftiest in the region round about. In pre-war years during the Christmas season and again in the days preceding Easter, the star, in the former instance, and the cross in the latter, electrically lighted and high on the tower, were of extraordinary beauty at night.
This church has had strong missionary and educational interests from its beginning. Rev. and Mrs. Willis F. Thomas went from the church to spend their lives in Burma, Rev. Fritz C. Gleichman went to Africa, and Miss Lucy Bonney, who served many years in India, is now stationed in India.
It organized the first Bible school in the community in 1818, and the South Reading Academy in 1828. It held services in Swedish for many years, and welcomed and held services for Italians newly come to town. The following significant action is to be found in the records of April 3, 1834: "Voted that the anti-slavery society may have the privilege of hold- ing their meetings in our meeting house."
The present membership of the church is 868.
United in its faith and assiduous in its good works, the Baptist Church has been, since 1936, under the able leadership of its scholarly young min- ister, Rev. Ralph J. Bertholf.
THE FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH AND SOCIETY
While the preaching of Universalism had been held in private homes and public buildings from 1813, the Universalist society did not settle its first pastor until 1833. A meeting house was built in 1839 and remodeled in 1859. The church building has twice been damaged by fire, once in
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July, 1900, and again in July, 1939. Following extensive repairs, the church was rededicated on February 22, 1940. It remains an example of the true New England meeting house and it is in its architecture distinctive and distinguished. The building stands on its original site on Main Street, not far from the Common.
Twenty-four ministers have served this church and have given to it, through its more than a century of continuous life, notable examples of high-minded, liberal preaching. They have been to a conspicuous degree men of intellectual attainments.
The Sunday School has had a continuous record of service since 1837, and its leaders have been notable for their devotion.
Rev. LeRoy Congdon, minister since 1941, and his parishioners, are working loyally together in carrying on the best traditions of their denomination, the third oldest in Wakefield.
ST. JOSEPH'S CATHOLIC CHURCH AND PARISH
The first Mass in Wakefield, at that time still South Reading, was celebrated in July, 1850, in the house of Malachi Kenney. While there were about fifteen Catholic families in town then, the attendance at the first service was increased to more than 200 by worshipers from out of town. The day following the service, a parcel of land on Albion Street, a part of the present parochial estate, was purchased and a chapel erected, that served until 1871.
In 1868, the erection of the transept and chancel of St. Joseph's Church was begun, and, in 1873, the Catholics of Wakefield were organized as a separate parish. The old church was moved to Murray Street, and it has been in continuous use as a hall ever since.
Some fourteen years later, within a term of ten years, the nave of the church was completed, the tower erected and the basement finished. By this time, 1887, the congregation had grown to 2500 souls. In another ten or twelve years the chapel in the lower church and the sanctuary in the upper church were greatly beautified. The church, cruciform in shape, with side galleries, has a seating capacity of eleven hundred. It is in the Gothic style and the interior is frescoed in soft colors.
The major portion of the present rectory was built in 1884, and some five or six years later it was remodeled.
The physical plant of St. Joseph's Parish is thus seen to be extensive, including, as it does, the church itself, the rectory, the hall on Murray
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Street, the parish school on Gould Street, attended by four hundred pupils, on an average, and the convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph, who are the teachers in the school. Chimes in memory of Thomas E. Dwyer sound the Angelus at seven in the morning and at six in the evening. These, with the clock that strikes and sounds the quarter hours as well, are further addi- tions to St. Joseph's Church and to the neighborhood in which they are daily heard.
Four religious societies, two clubs, a youth organization and three fraternal organizations are continuously active and contribute to the vigor of parish life.
Large numbers of devout Catholics attend Mass and Holy Com- munion every Sunday. The parish is regarded as well organized and influential, and includes in its membership more than 5,000 souls.
In 1921 the Catholics of Lynnfield, who were served by the Wake- field church, were organized into a mission, and an attractive chapel was opened on the Newburyport Turnpike in August, 1922. They were separated from the Wakefield parish in 1937.
Rev. Florence J. Halloran, LL.D., has been pastor since 1913 and on September 26, 1943 celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. His assistants are Rev. Francis J. Murphy, Rev. John P. Cos- grove and Rev. James T. McCarthy.
THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH
The Methodist Church dates from January, 1865, when services were first held in the town hall, located, at that time, on the east side of Church Street. The church was officially organized June 4, 1865, with a member- ship of twenty-six. For four years the members worshiped in the vestry of the Universalist Church.
In 1869, Albion hall on Albion Street was purchased and served for about five years. The church building on Albion Street was begun in 1873, and dedicated in February, 1874. The debt on the building was discharged in twelve years, and on April 9, 1886, a "Grand Jubilee" was held in celebration of this freedom from debt.
The church seated 600 persons, and had a vestry and kitchen below stairs. It was of Swiss timber construction, adapted to 14th century Gothic outline, and it had a 130-foot spire. The building had just been thoroughly and beautifully redecorated, when the hurricane of September 21, 1938, partially wrecked it. It was condemned as unsafe and torn down.
For three years the members met with their good friends of the Universalist Church, until November, 1941, in fact. In September, 1941,
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the Grand Army building on Foster Street was bought, remodeled and dedicated March 15, 1942.
Loyal to their Methodist faith and to its governing bodies, the wor- shipers at the church on Foster Street are carrying on with enthusiasm a forward looking program.
As this history goes to print, the church welcomes a new pastor, Rev. Herbert Picht.
EMMANUEL EPISCOPAL PARISH CHURCH
The beginnings of Emmanuel Church were made in the 1850-1860 decade, when small groups held meetings in private homes. The groups were organized in 1869-70, and in 1871 the church was incorporated in the Diocese of Massachusetts.
The church building, located on Water Street, east, (on the present L. B. Evans shoe factory site) was erected in 1881, and later enlarged. In 1900 it was moved to its present location, on the corner of Main and Bryant Streets.
The church building, with the Parish House, erected in 1902, and the rectory in 1903, constitute the physical properties of Emmanuel Church. Church and parish are free from debt.
Four hundred residents of Wakefield and vicinity attend services, and the Sunday School has 100 members. Seven organizations for men, women, boys and girls supplement and co-ordinate the work of the church.
Rev. Stewart Clark Harbinson, M.A., is rector, and under his devoted and efficient leadership, Emmanuel Church communicants give an inspiring example of loyalty to their faith and of civic consciousness.
THE GREENWOOD UNION CHURCH
The Greenwood Union Church was formed as the "First Congrega- tional Society of Greenwood" in January, 1873, and for several years, though not continuously, services were held in a room in the Greenwood School. In the Autumn of 1883, the foundation of a new structure was commenced and work upon the "chapel," also, as it was called for many years, was begun. It was dedicated February 27, 1895, "for all purposes of a Christian church, without respect of persons." In its eardlier years chapel services were conducted by Wakefield pastors and others who served for short periods.
On November 19, 1903, the Greenwood Union Church was organized, following a survey of the denominational preferences of residents in the community. The conviction of the Founders that all faiths could work
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together in harmony has been justified by the advance that the church has made.
The remodeled and enlarged church building as it is today was dedi- cated on Easter Sunday, April 16, 1922, and on October 21, 1937, a service of rededication was held to celebrate the further remodeling of the sanc- tuary, and the installation of the chancel.
Still more recently a pipe organ has been installed, mortgage payments made, and church work expanded.
A service for the burning of the mortgage was held in the sanctuary on Sunday afternoon, April 30, 1944, which was a joyous occasion for all.
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