USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Wellesley > History of the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts > Part 10
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The curious feature in our early history was the aversion to
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accession from without, and quite early steps were taken to discour- age immigration, and until comparatively recent years the popula- tion was confined in the main to the descendants of the early set- tlers.
There was no doubt at all that the settlers were poor as com- pared with the other communities, many things showing this-one being the absence today of fine old houses of the colonial period in the town, no large trees in clusters to show where once some per- sons of taste, wealth and authority, lived one hundred years ago, as well as the known fact that the farmers who comprised nearly the whole community, did not cultivate large tracts of ground, and depended chiefly upon their sale of wood, bark, hoop-poles and fag- gots to supply themselves with the necessities they could not raise. But they were public spirited, patriotic and free men; shown by their enlistment under the King in the French and Indian wars and prompt service at the outbreak of the Revolution when a com- pany from Wellesley (as well as another from Needham) appeared in time to lose men by death and wounds at Menontomy, (Arling- ton), and by their faithful continuance during the whole war.
About 1700 a mill was built at the Lower Falls, another mill followed but the chief business of the town was farming and work- ing in the woods. As Boston developed the farmers more and more sent their produce to the capital and changed gradually their methods of production to suit the demands of their customers.
The first great economic change in the town was caused by the building of the Boston and Worcester railroad, making closer con- nection with Boston and the West possible, and what had more direct effect upon the community, introducing new laborers and a different class of men. It is said that for a hundred years at least there was only one Irishman within the limits of the township of Dedham. But now many came over, assisted in the building of the road, settled here and remain to this day in their descendants, some of whom are members with us, and all I believe have done their share in developing the town.
Later on in 1848, at the building of the Cochituate Water Works, a fresh tide from the same source came and settled with us and they with their descendants have for many years done a large share of the hard manual labor in the towd.
In 1763 the Welles family, of titled if not royal descent, came to town and made large purchases of land and since that time this family has had large influence in shaping the material affairs of the community. Other families have been still longer identified with the town,-the Kingsburys, for instance, one of whom, a colonel in the militia, was a delegate to the provincial congress; the Wares, of whom Joseph kept a journal, relied upon as an authority, of the expedition to Quebec; the Dewings, one of whom was probably the first white man to build a house for his own occupancy within the limits of the town; the Fullers, early settlers, with good records of public service and private worth from the beginning to this day. The Slacks, with their connections with the
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Noyes family with their descendants and alliances, maintain their prestige of solid and helpful influence; as well as many others, the Stevens, the Flaggs, all of these seem to retain as an inherited and preserved legacy the right to be respected and followed. I ought also to refer to Dr. W. G. Morton, a former resident of this town, who is entitled to the credit of the adoption of ether in surgical operations.
A marked social feature of the town for many years was caused by the reputation given to the western part of the town by specialists as a health resort for people with tendencies to weak- ness of the lungs. Hundreds of people have made their residence here because the alternative seemed to be Heaven, and while we felt complimented by their choice their presence in the past sometimes had a very depressing effect on the neighborhood, especi- ally as funerals were somewhat too frequent. But since Dr. Bow- ditch has purchased land in Sharon and has discovered that Wel- lesley has become damp and unsuitable for consumptives our bill of mortality has visibly decreased. Another curiosity of our habi- tat, at one time, was the presence of an abnormal number of sea captains, at another of ministers without charge. One character who was with us whom I can just remember must not be omitted, as his reputation, thanks to Mrs. Stowe, is world wide,-Sam Lawton-(Lawson).
The persons who have had the most influence in determining the future of the town are Mr. and Mrs. Durant in the establish- ment and the endowment of Wellesley College, which has already given the name of Wellesley a world wide reputation and yet has hardly begun to show its influence in the town. As the institution grows older and wider in its scope Professors will locate with their families outside the enclosure; people desirous to avail themselves of the benefits of the college will settle here; parents will come to educate their children and its general reputation will draw people in sympathy with it and we shall have the presence of a distinctly literary class of people.
It is quite within my memory that the town has become attractive to men whose business takes them to Boston every day. For many years previous to 1870 or even later, families would come here, stay a short time, two or three years perhaps, and would go away to be followed by others of the same kind, and the old settlers gradually took this for granted. But of late there has not been nearly as much change in the personnel of the population, a great advantage socially. The class of people coming are more substantial, financially, and of course the place with the additions of trains, introductions of water, and many social privileges is be- coming more and more attractive. We owe our improvement to the general improvement of the country, the increase of population, the increase of wealth, and the improvement in our own finances and accessions from without.
The 59's and 60's brought the first signs of the more modern elements into our social life; some bright, fresh young men took
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an interest in affairs, the schools received more attention, and there was a general shaking up. Not that everything that was done was the wisest, but the activity was better than stagnation and lagging. The old Lyceum at Grantville and Unionville of those days bring to mind the names Patten Dana, Ware, Kingsbury, Lake, Atwood, Daniel, Leslie. It was largely attended and excited as much interest as anything of the kind ever did in the town. There were picnics and fishing excursions and a variety of celebrations in which all parts of the town joined. Social parties were frequent, but were not public and were confined to the younger people. There were Young Men's Christian Associations in the villages, and, during my remembrance, always church societies and church socials. There has been no time in the last fifty years that there has not been a public library in some quarter of the town, the first one I remember being at the North School house, a very good one too, though small.
The politics of the town of Wellesley historically considered are of little interest as distinct from that of national and state politics. The politicians of the town have not as a rule attained anything more than a local reputation. We have now and then, in the past, had residents who have had a national or state reputation, but they have obtained their notoriety elsewhere than among us. Of course it would be interesting to trace the history of the rise, prog- ress and fall of the great parties as illustrated in the limits of our town, but time and space forbid. I remember the early formation of the Free Soil and later the coalition of the Free Soil and Democrats resulting in the election of Henry Robinson, a Free Soiler, to the Legislature which elected Charles Sumner to the United States Senate. He was a leader in his party and my father was in the Democratic party and I remember very well at a town meeting the succeeding year for the election of representatives, after several ineffectual ballots the Democrats and Free Soilers being divided, my father said, with a great deal of energy, "we will send Robinson again," and he was elected over William Flagg, the Whig candidate, my father being sent the next year to the Constitutional Convention.
The Know Nothing flurry was an incident in our politics, effec- tive, ridiculous, but charged with great consequences. The oaths were administered in the loft of the old bowling alley that stood where the new line of the Boston and Albany is, just behind Mr. Calvin Smith's,1 and many old Democrats and Whigs took their vows and followed the dicta of order and had their part in the revolution which brought into existence and power the Republican Party. This party during the war practically included the whole voting population, as at one election only two Democratic votes were cast in the town of Needham. There was an excitement when the attacks were made on Mclellan in 1862 which culminated in Maugus Hall (later the Unitarian Church) and more nearly ending in a free fight than any meeting that was ever held here.
Probably, however, the liveliest purely political meeting ever
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held in the town was a caucus in the old Town Hall for the selec- tion of delegates to the Representative Convention to determine who should stand as the Republican candidate for 1881, the year division was petitioned from Needham. Every democrat in town was a republican that year for the Caucus, and every Wellesley republican was that same year, at the polls, a democrat, showing one of the most marked political transformations ever known. Later politics in the town are too well known to you and too gently indeterminate to develop much interest.
The present social advantages of our town are found in the correct morals, the courteous behavior, the refinement and culture of the inhabitants, the nearness to Boston, with all its advantages, the possessions of a fair share of wealth allowing many proper luxuries, and the activity and energy which enable our citizens to improve the many opportunities offered for social pleasures, and the ambition of our young people who give promise that there shall be no retrogade movement in their day and genera- tion.
The Religious societies do not neglect their flocks socially, as the many fairs, entertainments and dances testify. The Guilds and Christian Endeavor Societies, exceedingly energetic, provide recreation as well as religion. The Lawn Tennis and Ball Clubs are deservedly popular and afford very delightful and useful occu- pation as well as attracting friends from outside. Dramatic and Musical Clubs are well sustained. The Chatauquan and Woman's Suffrage Clubs, the Reading and Literary Clubs, general and special, the Card Clubs, the Farmers' and Mechanics' Organizations, afford enough opportunities to all classes, young or old, of whatever tastes, for entertainment and amusement of every variety. With all these the happy homes in a respectable community and agree- able neighbors offer the summit of comfort. To any able to re- ceive it, one suggestion of a lack I will make. The acquaintance between Wellesley and the Hills is not as intimate, or as close, as it should, or as it might be. Several organizations include both villages and several families are intimately associated, but it belongs to this club, perhaps, to see that a closer social union is made possible and sometime perhaps the villages may be con- nected by an electric railway or some such thing.
1 The house next to the Worcester Street bridge.
WELLESLEY 1881-1906 (Read at the Wellesley Club, April, 1906.)
Twenty-five years in the lifetime of a State or Municipality is a very short time and yet great changes take place in a community in even that short space. When Wellesley was incorporated in April, 1881, it had a population of very nearly 2,600. By the census of 1905, it had 4,600, showing a larger percentage of increase than any other town of the State, excepting two: Easthampton and Nor- wood. The increase in its population was exceeded by only five towns in the State of less than 12,000 inhabitants.
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WELLESLEY, 1881-1906
The valuation of the town, May 1, 1881, was $3,024,698. The valuation of the town, May 1, 1906, was $13,941,165. The number of polls, May 1, 1881, was 577. The number of polls, May 1, 1906, was 1,290.
The number of pupils in the schools of the town shown by the first report was 331. By the report of 1906 (December), 920. Pupils in High School, 1881, 34; 1906, 129. Cost of Schools: First appro- priation, $7,943.64; in 1906, $38,790.69. Number of teachers in the schools: 1881, 12; 1906, 43. Since 1881 the Hunnewell school-house has been replaced by a new building. One High School has been built and found inadequate and another is near completion. The Fiske School has been built, enlarged and fully occupied and the North School enlarged. It has been decided that a Union Grammar School shall be established as soon as the new High School building shall be occupied.
The college has more than doubled in the twenty-five years that have elapsed and of the many buildings only College Hall was in existence twenty-five years ago.
Dana Hall School, established in the fall of 1881-on the dis- continuance of the preparatory department of the College, the Academy of the Assumption, Rock Ridge Hall and Mr. Benner's School for Boys all recent establishments, give the town the right to be called an educational center.
There has been a very steady growth of the town in buildings of a more or less public character, as witness the various dormi- tories and other buildings in the College grounds and vicinity, the Town Hall-the generous gift of Mr. Hunnewell-school buildings erected, the different business blocks at Wellesley and the Hills, also St. Andrew's church in Wellesley, and the Unitarian and Con- gregational church buildings in the Hills. Different residential sec- tions have developed very attractively, as along Dover and Grove Streets in Wellesley, and Abbott Road, Belvedere, and Cliff Road, Wellesley Hills, and clusters of humbler homes on no less attractive sites, as on River Ridge, Newton Lower Falls and Garfield Farm, near the Boston and Worcester car station.
Very soon after the incorporation of the town steps were taken for the introducing of water, and the works were in operation in 1885, the cost of which up to date is about $341,000.
A Telephone Exchange was established in Wellesley Hills in 1894 and now has 418 subscribers.
The character of the population, while not changed, has never- theless shown large growth in the wealth of the citizens, while the number of college-bred men and women has increased by a much larger percentage than the population.
I have often thought I should like to show my father around the town, if he could return, and see his wonderment at the changes. In the house he would have running water, the electric light, the telephone to talk with friends next door or a hundred miles away. He steps out on the street and may take a car to Boston or Worcester,
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Needham or Dedham, with his choice of routes. He sees a non- descript carriage without visible propelling force, and is as eager as his children to get out of the way. He goes about the street and sees old pastures covered with fine lawns and buildings-a Town Hall, elegant of construction, a Library well-stored with books. school-houses and play-grounds and parks galore. He gets his check cashed on the bank if his credit is good. If he stays long enough to get a letter from the other side, it is brought to him, whether he is next door or at the extreme end of the town. Perhaps he would conclude not to go back.
Parks have sprung into existence, the one by Fuller's Brook for sanitary reasons, the Play-Ground, the gift of the Hunnewells, the extension of the Metropolitan Park system through the town, and the various smaller parks dotting the town here and there.
In 1899-1900, by order of the County Commissioners, Washing- ton Street was widened in many places and by vote of the town was macadamized and drained along its whole length. Worcester Street also was later widened and rebuilt. The building of good roads by the Abbot Real Estate Company and by Mr. Clapp and others have been of great benefit to the town in developing land without public cost.
The town has shared with the rest of the world in improve- ments in transportation of goods and persons and facility of com- munication. In 1881 the only public conveyances to Boston, the workshop of most of our men, was over the Boston and Albany Rail- road, but in 1896 the Natick and Cochituate began running, and in 1903, the Boston and Worcester, giving the inhabitants of Wellesley innumerable daily opportunities of reaching the city.
Of very important influence in social affairs have been the sev- eral clubs which have been organized within the time mentioned: notably, the Wellesley Hills Woman's Club, organized in 1894 with Mrs. Abby S. Fiske for first president, and now having about 260 members. The Wellesley Club was organized in 1889, with Col. Albert Clarke for first president and now has 100 members and a large waiting list. This club has many of the features of the Board of Trade in other municipalities, and has done much in ways of investigating propositions for improvements in town affairs, notably in railway fares, parks and the like. The Maugus Club organized in 1892 has a commodious Club House and 100 members.
ACCOUNT OF THE DIVISION OF THE TOWN (Read at the Wellesley Club, Oct 15, 1906.)
The Town of Needham was incorporated in 1711, and later was divided into the East and West Parishes. These never harmonized, and several attempts were made by the West Parish for separate incorporation, before the final successful one, notably in 1820. Also in 1852 and 1859, efforts were made for division.
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I remember my father told me that one of the attempts made in the 50's failed because old gray-headed Laurence Kingsbury ap- peared before the Committee of the Legislature, and excused his appearance as the people of the East Side were too poor to employ Council. I suppose the underlying motive was selfish on the part of the West, while the bonds of union were very slender. Of course, there was, at those times, more or less expression of discontent, especially when some measure, popular in the East, was thought unwise in the West, or some want expressed by the West was voted down by the East. And there was only required an initiative to enlist the interest and work of all the citizens of the West Side.
One day, in the first part of August, 1880 I met Mr. Joseph H. Dewing on the street, and he said, "When are you going to start
the division movement?" And I said, "Let's call a meeting of a dozen people at my house next week and see if we get any en- couragement to try it." The meeting was called, and the people invited responded. I cannot recall all the names, but there were present Messrs. F. H. Dewing, G. K. Daniell, Solomon Flagg, Albert Jennings, C. B. Dana, John Curtis, F. H. Stevens, E. O. Bullock, A. R. Clapp, I think, and a half a dozen others. There was no especial formality, but it was decided to call a general meeting. A call was issued, and very generally responded to on August 26, 1880.
The following is a copy of the Secretary's report of this and the following meeting :-
On Thursday evening, August 26, 1880, Meeting in Shaw Hall, Grantville, of Citizens in favor of the division of the Town. Over 200 present estimated. Meeting called to order by Joseph E. Fiske, and organized by choosing George K. Daniell as Chairman, and F. H. Stevens, Secretary.
After remarks on the object of the meeting by John W. Shaw and others, on motion of J. E. Fiske, it was unanimously voted that "it is the sense of this meeting that measures should be taken looking toward the division of the Town, and that the matter be followed up until accomplished." On motion of John W. Shaw, a committee of five was appointed by the Chair, to nominate a com- mittee of ten from the West part of the Town, to fix upon a line for the division, and also to invite the other part of the Town to ap- point a committee of conference, and if possible, get a proposition from them which would be mutually satisfactory.
The Chair appointed as a nominating committee, Solomon Flagg, Lewis Wight, Joseph E. Fiske, Albert Jennings, and John Curtis.
Mr. Fiske moved to appoint a committee of five to nominate a committee of twenty-five to take charge of the whole matter re- lating to the division of the Town, and it was debated while the nominating committee were out, and the motion of Mr. Pratt to lay on the table was defeated, and the nominating committee reported . the names of the following gentlemen as a committee of ten: John W. Shaw, L. Allen Kingsbury, George Spring, Lewis Wight, Abel F. Stevens, Frank H. Stevens, John Curtis, Frank L. Fuller, C. B. Dana,
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Freeman Phillips, and they were chosen by the committee. Mr. Spring declined to serve, and George White was chosen in his place, and F. H. Stevens also declined, and Augustus Fuller substituted.
The same nominating committee were authorized to nominate a committee of twenty-five under Mr. Fiske's motion, and A. R. Clapp was added to the committee, and on motion of Mr. Whipple, the committee were directed to report to an adjourned meeting.
The meeting then adjournd for one week, same time and place. F. H. Stevens, Secretary.
"September 2, 1880, adjourned meeting of citizens in favor of division of the Town in Shaw Hall, Grantville.
On Thursday evening, September 2nd, at 7.30 o'clock, meeting called to order by the Chair, and the records of the last meeting read by the Secretary. The report of the Committee of Conference was submitted to the Chairman, John W. Shaw, and accepted. The nominating committee reported through J. E. Fiske, the list of names to serve as a committee of twenty-five. The report was accepted, and adopted by the meeting. Mr. Fiske moved that the committee have the power to fill vacancies, and Mr. Sanborn moved to have power to add any names they may think proper, and the motion as amended, was passed.
The meeting then adjourned, subject to the call of the com- mittee.
F. H. Stevens, Secretary."
Report of the Committee of Conference :-
"The Committee appointed to confer with the East part of the Town in the matter of division of Needham, beg leave to report as follows :-
First, we called upon several of the leading men of that part. Among them was Emery Grover, Esq., who very kindly consented to make known our desire to some of his neighbors, and subse- quently he proposed to meet us at Odd Fellows Hall last Tuesday evening. On going there, seven of our committee being present, we met quite a large number of gentlemen from that side, all of whom proved more or less opposed to the division of the Town on any terms. After discussing the matter at some length, all seemingly in a friendly way, their chairman intimated that further negotia- tion would, in his judgment result in a waste of time, as they on that side, were decidedly opposed to division.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
John W. Shaw, Chairman."
There was no general meeting afterwards, all the business hav- ing been given into the hands of the committee of twenty-five, and this was practically transferred to the Legislative Committee of five, consisting of Messrs. Fiske, Putney, A. H. Buck, to which was added Benjamin H. Sanborn and John W. Shaw. A committee on finance was appointed, and a treasurer.
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The Legislative Committee authorized Mr. Fiske to make a statement of the case, to be submitted to the members of the Legis- lature, which is hereby given as for the most part a comprehensive statement :---
"A petition will be presented to the Legislature of 1881, asking that a part of the Town of Needham be set off and incorporated as a new town by the name Wellesley.
The town of Needham is situated in Norfolk County, was in- corporated in 1711, and comprises about 15,000 acres of land, of which 13,000 are taxed. The present population is 5,261, and the valuation as reported by the assessors is $4,366,267. The town, under the old system, was divided into two parishes, the East and West, and the petitioners request that the West Parish shall have a separate town government.
The distinction between the two parishes has been recognized and taxes separately assessed until within a few years, and there has never been a harmonious union between the two parts of the town; but of late years especially the association has grown to be less and less tolerable.
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