USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > Memorial of the bi-centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, June, 1900 > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
"America - my country 'tis of thee."
THE TOASTMASTER .- The United States Navy has given to the nation the names of Paul Jones, Bainbridge, Decatur, Preble, Porter, Dupont, Farragut, Balch, Sampson, Schley and Dewey.
There is no prouder name in the annals of Framingham than the name of Train, and the Town of Framingham has given to the United States Navy the name of Train. It was hoped that Captain Charles J. Train of the battleship
Frederick E. Emrich, D.D. John H. Goodell
Walter Adams, Toast Master
Rev. John F. Heffernan John P. Brophy
Speakers at Banquet
185
THE BANQUET
"Massachusetts," of the United States Navy, would be here tonight to respond to the toast -" The Navy of the United States," but he is unavoidably absent in obedience to orders from the Navy Department ; and I shall ask Mr. John M. Merriam to read his letter to you.
(Letter from Capt. Train.) LEAGUE ISLAND NAVY YARD. PHILADELPHIA, MAY 9th, 1900.
MY DEAR SIR :
I have to thank you for your kind invitation to the banquet on the 13th of June. If I can possibly be present, I will, but of course I am always subject to orders from the Navy Department, so that I cannot promise to be anywhere a month ahead. I consider it a great compliment to be asked and I hope you will thank the members of the Committee for so kindly remembering me.
Yours truly,
C. J. TRAIN.
(The Toastmaster continues.) We have heard from the Orator of the Day and the Historian of the Day of the Fram- ingham of the past. Of the Framingham which beginning with a handful of pioneer settlers, grew gradually into, and was for nearly a whole century mostly an agricultural community, with a population of purely New England nativity, one meeting-house sufficing for the whole town. Wondrous changes have come over the Town of Framing- ham in the recollection of many not yet to be called old. Agricultural pursuits have given place to trade and manu- facture, and the names and faces of many foreign-born have become familiar in our streets, and in our schools and homes. But with all this diversity of occupation there has come to us a fuller, richer, more varied and diversified life than our fathers ever knew.
" We are proud of our town and her fast growing figure, The warp and the woof of her brain and her hands, But we 're proudest of all that her heart has grown bigger, And warms with fresh blood as her girdle expands."
1
186
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
There is no man who knows the present Town of Fram- ingham better, or who can tell us more about it than the present chairman of the Selectmen, and I ask John H. Goodell, Esq., Chairman of the Selectmen, to respond for- "The Framingham of Today."
SPEECH OF MR. GOODELL.
Mr. Toastmaster, Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen : -
I consider it a very high honor to have the privilege, as chairman of the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Fram- ingham, of bidding you welcome to this banquet and to our Bi-centennial celebration, and such welcome in behalf of this town I most heartily extend to you, one and all.
I am asked to speak on "Framingham of Today." Let us first take a glance at the Framingham of seventy-five years ago, when the town began to be a business centre and seemed to her citizens of those days to be entering upon a remarkable period of growth and activity. The first historian of Framingham writing in 1827, says, "The ad- ditions of buildings and increase of business in the Centre of the town " -there was no South Framingham then - " must be highly gratifying to all well-wishers of our improvement."
He also wrote "Thirty years ago (1797), a barn-like meeting-house designated the Center in comparative solitude, having no other associate, for nearly half a mile in every direction, than an old hatter's shop of coeval date. Now that old, ugly building is replaced by a modern fabric. The number of dwelling houses in this half mile radius is now thirty-two, and the houses of entertainment two, and if we may believe travelers, quite accommodating and highly respectable." " With nine commodious buildings, mostly two story, which can accommodate about three times the number of mechanics."
The buildings thus described, with the outlying farms and homesteads of the town, a small woolen factory at Saxonville, and a few grist mills and saw mills made up the Framingham of seventy-five years ago. The same historian says : - "The number of inhabitants here for a long series of
187
THE BANQUET
years was somewhat more than a thousand, but within a short period has risen to about two thousand, five hundred."
Now compare this with the Framingham of today. At this period, Framingham has a population of nearly twelve thousand souls, and an assessed valuation of nearly ten million dollars. In point of health, statistics prove Fram- ingham to be one of the healthiest towns in the state.
No town affords better educational advantages than Fram- ingham. The State Normal school is located here and we maintain an admirable high school with a large corps of able and efficient teachers; also 50 graded and 5 ungraded schools, employing 60 teachers. We also maintain a free public library of over 22,000 volumes.
The town is noted for its roads and drives, with beautiful scenery and landscapes of hill and dale, forest and plain, through which course winding streams and rivers.
As a railway centre, Framingham has unsurpassed facili- ties. Steam and electric roads all converge here from the north and south, and east and west.
Of the two "public houses" of seventy-five years ago, one still exists and is still a prosperous hostelry, while we have now in addition four large hotels, with several smaller ones.
The manufacturing industries of Framingham are nu- merous, varied and substantial. Of these the Dennison Manufacturing Company may be called the "backbone," being known the world over and furnishing employment at its plant in this town alone to 1400 operatives. Our other principal industries are the Gregory-Shaw Co., employing at present about 600 hands and the Saxonville Mills at Saxon- ville, where toil nearly 500 persons. We have two factories for the production of straw goods and numerous smaller industries manufacturing goods of various kinds, which swell the general volume of business, and give employment to our citizens. We have five post-offices, one national and two savings banks. The news of the day is disseminated in the columns of one daily and two weekly newspapers.
Our streets are well lighted with electricity, and the Fram- ingham Electric Co., and the Framingham Gas, Fuel and
188
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
Power Co., furnish excellent lighting service in our public buildings and homes.
One feature of our town deserving special mention is its extensive and thoroughly equipped fire-alarm system and fire department. I venture to assert that no town in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts can show a better dis- ciplined, more efficient, or braver body of firemen than Framingham's finest. No words can express the thanks due the firemen from the town for the skill and daring shown by them on several occasions in the extinguishing of fires which threatened to prove disastrous to our community.
I ought not to omit to mention our water supply, which is pure and wholesome. It has, since its introduction in 1885, proven to be an important factor in the growth and develop- ment of the town.
But, perhaps, the one thing which has contributed most to our present prosperity is our sewage disposal system, con- structed in 1888. In spite of the forebodings and predictions to the contrary, the system has proved a perfect success, and has been pronounced the model system of its kind in the world, by prominent engineers and by the State Board of Health. To this system alone is due the fact that South Framingham today can show so many large and successful business enter- prises. This system, too, has been largely instrumental in improving the health conditions of the town, not only by re- moving all sewage contamination from our sources of water supply, but also by means of its underdrains reducing the general water level, and rendering localities dry and healthful, which were before wet and unwholesome. I believe that not even yet have our citizens arrived at that stage of apprecia- tion of the benefits and importance of these underdrains.
The Town of Framingham denied the advantage of a common business centre, is today a healthy, happy and prosperous community, in which the different villages are as children of one family, differing in temperament and dis- position, but bound each to the other by a strong fraternal tie.
Framingham Centre is like the eldest child, staid, dignified and secure in all substantial matters. Saxonville, the youngster, who started out in life healthy, met with ad-
189
THE BANQUET
versity that for a time stunted growth and threatened its life, yet today finds itself regaining its strength and with new vigor bids fair to become a strong athlete. South Fram- ingham, a feeble child at birth, but basking in the sunshine of advantages denied the others, has outstripped them in growth, which as a result creates necessities, that in order to maintain self-respect, foster ambition and stimulate the power of-the-man-to-be, must not be denied.
This, Mr. Toastmaster, is the unity of Framingham today, and we are proud of this unity, and proud of the high moral tone and standing of our town ; proud of our many churches, of our hospital and other charities ; proud of our material and business advantages; proud of the peace and good order which prevail within our borders ; proud of the reputation for high character and integrity of our business and professional men ; proud of the devotion and patriotism of the sons of Framing- ham as manifested in the Revolution, in the Civil War and in the War with Spain ; proud of the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of our town; and proud that we have in our town such a goodly heritage to be transmitted to our children.
At no time in a man's life does he feel more satisfaction in reviewing the past than when after years of toil, he finds himself enjoying moderate prosperity and feels the strength and knowledge born of experience that seems to assure further success.
The Town of Framingham stands today on the selfsame plane. We remember with satisfaction the 200 years of steady growth, and realize today that the struggles of the early settlers, and the courage and unity of our citizens in all the past, together with the progressive spirit that dominates the town as a whole, places us where we must go forward and never go back. We may turn the leaves of past history for help and inspiration, but the word of the present must be "forward."
The sentiment of Edward Everett Hale should be our own : -
To look up, and not down, To look forward, and not back, To look out, and not in - and To lend a hand.
190
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
THE TOASTMASTER .- The next toast is -" The Blessings our Fathers have bequeathed, and the Duties they have enjoined."
In the midst of the enjoyment of our many blessings and privileges as the citizens of the Town of Framingham, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the United States of America, we should not forget that for those blessings and privileges we are indebted to our fathers, who have gone before us, and that they have been bequeathed with the sacred injunction that they be preserved and transmitted intact to those who shall come after us.
May the sacred trust never be betrayed, and in the future may our children's children look back to us with the same gratitude that we render to those who have gone before us.
Let us ever remember our obligations to our fathers for the blessings they have bequeathed, "lest we forget " the duties they have therewith enjoined. I ask a son of Framingham, a citizen of the Empire State, the Honorable John P. Brophy, to respond to this toast.
ADDRESS BY HON. JOHN P. BROPHY.
Mr. Toastmaster and Ladies and Gentlemen: Standing in this distinguished presence, and on this grand commemora- tive celebration, my first impulse is to express the gratitude that wells from my heart to you, Mr. Toastmaster, and to you, my old fellow-townsmen and friends, who, by your gracious invitation, have made it my happy privilege, as one of Framingham's truant sons, to behold once more the hallowed scenes of my boyhood days, to tread once more these familiar streets, to greet once more these green-clad hills, to listen with rapture once again to the sweet bells that, from yonder church towers, ring out their melody upon the throbbing air, to join with you one and all in giving joyful utterance to the sentiments of pride, of praise and of exulta- tion with which every heart in Framingham is jubilant today.
To give fitting response to "The Blessings our Fathers have bequeathed and the Duties they have enjoined," even had I the ability, were an impossible task within the few moments the proprieties of this festivity prescribe. No
191
THE BANQUET
words of man could suitably portray the enterprise, the courage, the heroism, the sacrifice of the fair women and brave men, who, more than two centuries ago, sundered the sacred ties that had bound them to their ancestral homes, endured the agony of embittered exile, braved the dangers of ocean's depths, faced the rigors of inhospitable shores and the priva- tions of the primeval forest, to the end that then and forever- more might be enjoyed that most inestimable of Heaven's gifts - freedom to worship God.
Through toil, through hardship, through sacrifice, your fathers established here a community in which were realized the glorious dreams of law, of order, of justice, of civil and religious liberty, that had inspired the noble signers of the immortal covenant of the Mayflower.
In leveling the forest and making the fields to smile, your fathers gave dignity to labor. In conferring the suffrage upon every man worthy of its exercise, they gave dignity to manhood. In making religion the corner-stone of the little red schoolhouse on the hill, they consecrated and sanctified education. In sending from every valley a spire heaven- ward from a house of prayer, they emphasized their first great public declaration : " We will in all things wait upon God."
Your fathers trusted in Providence, they confided in humanity, they believed in the home and in the virtues that make and adorn the fireside, they gave proclamation to truths eternal, they erected here the temple of hereditary liberty upon the ruins of hereditary rule.
We read in Proverbs that " The glory of children is their fathers," and if ever the words of the sacred text were duly exemplified, surely they were so exemplified in the lives and in the deeds of the founders of this grand old town. Blessings manifold have they bequeathed to their posterity ; but what- ever the measure of the material inheritance may be - even though it equal the fabled magnificence of Ormus and of Ind -- yet not upon it rests their title-deed to glory, but rather does it rest upon the three great principles they established and sustained - the equality of right, the unity of interests, the brotherhood of duty.
192
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
Differ as we may, and differ in details as some of us do, yet, in the great fundamentals we are all one ; and, true to the duty and to the inspiration of the hour, we are all here, from near and from far, heart vibrating to heart and hand clasping hand, all united in paying to the great men and noble women who founded this town the unbounded homage of our gratitude, of our admiration and of our love.
Today, citizens, perhaps more than ever before, have we imperative need to recall and to enforce the great fundamental truths so ardently cherished by those who have consecrated to conscience this great Commonwealth. "The American system," says Rousseau, "is a government for gods and not for men." In this there is a measure of truth and a note of warning. Hence the vital importance of holding fast to the principles your fathers so much prized : for the blending of individual consciences forms the public conscience, public conscience makes our laws, and the laws control. Take con- science from the ballot-box, let the people forget country, for- get citizenship in blind adherence and blind obedience to party and to party rule, let votes have their price, and legis- lation its market value, then our government - the grandest and best under heaven when enlightened conscience directs- will become at once the unbridled instrument of selfish wrong, of lawless licentiousness, of oligarchical rule.
In striking antithesis to the manly humility, the austere simplicity, and the unpurchasable integrity of your fathers, the fabulous growth of fortunes, the prevalence of luxury, the ostentation of display, the power of privilege, the com- bination in a handful of men of the enormous material forces and resources of the country, constitute, in our day, a grave peril, a standing and ever-growing menace to the freedom, to the happiness, to the integrity of the people. Now, the one great central truth to which your fathers ever tenaciously clung, and upon which we must insist, is, that Manhood and not Mammon, constitutes the wealth and the strength of the Republic. Not Mammon but Manhood conceived and wrote the immortal covenant of the Mayflower ; not Mammon but Manhood met kingly power at Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill ; not Mammon but Manhood gave heart of hope
193
THE BANQUET
to the freezing and starving patriots of Valley Forge, and smote tyranny's pretentious hosts upon the field of historic Yorktown; not Mammon but Manhood swept the seas in 1812; not Mammon but Manhood struck the chains from four million slaves in '63; and in '98, not Mammon but Manhood, through the fire and smoke and hail of hostile hosts, charged fearlessly up the heights of El Caney and San Juan and planted " Old Glory " in triumph on the Cuban hills.
Under the Asiatic despotisms and the turbulent democ- racies of the olden days, there were rights of the State, rights of the citizen, but never the rights of man. So, to the materialism of our day Manhood has no ethical significance. But your glorious ancestors taught the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the immeasurable value of the human soul; and to their high ideal must we ascend if we are to properly cherish and to properly guard the priceless heritage they have bequeathed. Against the standard of deadly materialism we must raise high the standard of the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount.
The great task before the world today, the great duty en- joined, is the re-organization of industrial economy upon an ethical basis, even as, two centuries ago, your fathers re- organized upon an ethical basis the rights, the duties, the prerogatives of the civil power. To the absurd claims of Mammon must we give the crushing blow given by your fathers to the equally absurd claims of kings and dynasties to rule by "right divine," if, in this fair land, freedom is to be preserved, if the dignity of manhood is to be maintained, if the sacred ties of family life are to be perpetuated, if justice is to prevail in public as in private life, if the flag of our country is to continue to wave over a people free, indepen- dent, prosperous, virtuous and happy ; and not over a multitude of embruted, embittered, despairing and desperate industrial slaves.
And now, sons of Framingham, one last word, mayhap the last my lips shall ever publicly utter in this illustrious town : As we now close the door upon the centuries past, and turn to face the duties of the century to come, let this solemn occasion be, to one and all, an hour sacred to memory and to hope.
13
194
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
Oh, sons of Framingham, cherish, I adjure you, the sacred memories of the past, hold fast to the manifold blessings your fathers have bequeathed, be true to the duties they have enjoined, transmit to the generations to come the words of wisdom, the examples of virtue, the supremacy of con- science, that constitute your invaluable inheritance; and when it shall come your time to join the great spirits who have gone before, you may depart, rejoicing in the blessed assurance that, in the grand constellation of towns that bedeck the Massachusetts sky, dear old Framingham shall forever shine, radiant as the evening star, resplendent as the joyous sunrise of an Easter morning.
THE TOASTMASTER .- We had hoped that the Rev. Frederick L. Hosmer, the Poet of the Day, might be present here this evening, but he is unable to be present, and has written a letter of regret which I will ask the Vice-Presi- dent of the Committee of Thirty-three, John M. Merriam, to read.
2427 CHANNING WAY, BERKLEY, CAL., May 29, 1900.
MR. SIDNEY A. PHILLIPS, Chairman of Committee on Invita- tions, Bi-Centennial Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of Framingham.
MY DEAR SIR :
This morning's mail brings me the invitation of your Committee to be present, as guest of the Town, at the commemorative festival to be held on the thirteenth day of June. I much appreciate the honor thus shown me, and I heartily wish that it were in my power to accept the invitation ; but this pleasure I must forego. I was born in the town, and there I passed a happy boyhood and youth. I knew well its roads and by-ways. I have followed its streams and roamed over its hills. I learned where and when the wild flowers blossomed. In the crisp October air I have nutted in its woods and, if confessions be in order, in its open pastures of more private preserve. I attended its schools, from the old-time "District " school to the High
195
THE BANQUET
School, and can count one term at the old Academy, before it was merged in the High School. From this last I entered Harvard College. I feel that I owe my native town much in many ways. Like other old " Academy " towns of Mass- achusetts it was a town of exceptional culture. I recall its sturdy and intelligent citizenship - in the professions, so call- ed, in business, on the well-kept farms, and in various handi- crafts. I recall those earlier town-meetings, types of genuine democracy, wherein mother-wit and practical judgment found expression alike under broadcloth and the long blue frock. I recall noble and gracious women, not a few, of my child- hood and youth. I recall the varied educational features of the town, and the interest taken in them ; its churches, its " lyceum," its winter-courses of public lectures, its " dis- trict" libraries, leading to its present excellent Public Library. All these things witnessed to the stock whence the citizenship was descended, and maintained the worthy traditions of earlier days.
These traditions and this inheritance are surely worthy of grateful commemoration. I rejoice with you all in this com- memorative festival. At that time I shall be one of a camping party in the Yosemite valley; but amid the grandeur of those cleft domes and peaks my thought will turn with yours in commemoration of the moral grandeur that went to the making of our historic New England communities; for may we not all say with Emerson, " Well I know, no mountain can measure with a perfect man."
With sincere thanks for the very kind remembrance shown me by your Committee, and with regret that I cannot be present with you to share in this Bi-Centennial of my native Town, I am
Yours very truly,
FREDERICK L. HOSMER.
THE TOASTMASTER .- The next toast is "The Judiciary of Massachusetts." This celebration would be entirely in- complete without some tribute to the legal profession, to which Framingham has contributed able men and honorable names. It is sufficient to mention only the names of Charles
196
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY.
R. Train, lawyer and legislator, George H. Gordon, lawyer and soldier, Franklin Fisk Hurd, whose legal works are regarded as classics on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Orator of the Day, for twenty-nine years Clerk of Courts for this County.
Framingham has never given a Judge to our Supreme or to our Superior Court, but the County of Middlesex has given many able men to both those Courts. One of the Judges of the Supreme Judical Court honors us by his presence here tonight, and I ask the Honorable Mr. Justice Hammond to respond to the toast-"The Judiciary of Massachusetts."
ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN W. HAMMOND.
Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen : - When I was asked to appear here and make some remarks - for I do not pretend that what I say I have not thought about - I was reminded of the story of a Methodist minister up in New Hampshire. Now I never knew why it is that all these singular stories about ministers are confined to that de- nomination, but they seem to be almost entirely. He was endeavoring to show his congregation that it was important for them to prepare for that great judgment scene, which he had so often described to them, and in trying to impress it upon their minds that it was important to seek in this world by their good acts and deeds to propitiate the judge who was to pass the sentence; and coming a little closer to his argument, and making a little closer application, he said, "My friends, do as you would if you were to have a case tried in this world. What would you do if you had such a case? You would make friends with the Judge." And that was what I supposed it was likely this town might do. I knew of no present event in its history which would be likely to suggest that idea, but I run over the history of the town the other day, and I found one or two entries in it which satisfied me that this Committee has been examining history also.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.