USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 50
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1850-51, George Hood; 1852, Benjamin F. Mudge; 1853, Daniel C. Baker; 1854, Thomas P. Richardson; 1855, Andrews Breed; 1856-57, Ezra W. Mudge; 1858, William F. Johnson; 1859-60, Edward S. Davis; 1861, Hiram N. Breed; 1862-65, Peter M. Neal; 1866-68, Roland G. Usher; 1869, James N. Buffum; 1870-71, Edwin Walden; 1872, James N. Buffum; 1873-76, Jacob M. Lewis; 1877-78, Samuel M. Bubier; 1879- 80, George P. Sanderson; 1881-82, Henry B. Lovering; 1883-84, William L. Baird; 1885, John R. Baldwin; 1886-87, George D. Hart; 1888, George C. Higgins; 1889-90, Asa T. Newhall; 1891, E. Knowlton Fogg; 1892-93, Elihu B. Hayes; 1894-95, Charles E. Harwood; 1896, Eugene A. Bessom; 1897-98, Walter L. Ramsdell; 1899-1902, William Shepherd; 1903-05, Henry W. Eastham; 1906-07, Charles Neale Barney; 1908, Thomas F. Porter; 1909-10, James E. Rich.
In 1910 the commission form of government was adopted, and five commissioners replaced the mayor, board of aldermen and common council. The following named served as mayor and commissioner of public safety: 1911-12, William P. Connery ; 1913-17, George H. New- hall. In 1917 the city again made a change in its charter, returning to a government of mayor and council, and Walter H. Creamer served as mayor from 1918 to the present time, 1921.
The incorporation of Swampscott as a separate town in 1852, which was followed in 1853 by similar action on the part of Nahant, reduced both the area and the population of the newly-chartered city of Lynn. Owing to the operation of the law requiring a majority of votes cast to elect, there was no choice for mayor in 1852, at the regular election; and when the city government was organized, on the 5th of April, Ed- ward S. Davis was elected president of the common council. George Hood continued to act as mayor until his successor, after eight trials, was elected by a small majority on June 12, and took the oath of office four days later.
The visit of Louis Kossuth was a notable event in May, 1852, and the Lynn City Guards were for a time called the Kossuth Guards. Illuminating gas was first introduced in the city January 13, 1853, the price being fixed at $3.50 per thousand cubic feet; the Lynn Light In- fantry was chartered and the Saugus Branch railroad opened the same year. The city charter was amended in 1855, making the first Monday in January the beginning of the municipal year. The incorporation of the Lynn Library Association and the Lynn Musical Association the same year showed a development of the literary and musical taste of the city, and the opening of the Five Cents Savings Bank indicated thrift. The passing by the Legislature of the plurality law in 1854 was important, as had been demonstrated in the Lynn election of 1852. The great strike of the shoemakers of Lynn in 1860 is still remembered. the passing of the Prince of Wales through the city is recorded his-
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tory, and the opening of a horse-railroad line through Lynn marked a new development in local transportation.
Lynn was ready and generous in response to the call for troops in 1861. In five hours after the call came, two full companies were armed and ready for duty, the Lynn Light Infantry, Company D, and the Lynn City Guards, Company F, both a part of the famous 8th Massachusetts Regiment. Enlistments followed rapidly. War filled the minds of all through the following years of struggle and the War Mayor, Peter M. Neal, won high regard by his devotion to the welfare of the troops.
Following the war came the great industrial development of Lynn, which is portrayed elsewhere in this work, the calamity of the great Lynn fire in 1889, and following that the building up of a new industrial Lynn. The war with Spain and the World War brought the same ready response that had been given from the earliest days of the settle- ment, when danger threatened or need required. Being a city of varied industries, Lynn has suffered less from industrial catastrophies than have those cities of a single industry. Her growth has been remark- able and the standard of her citizenship high. With all her proximity to Boston and the metropolitan district, the abundant transportation facilities and moderate fares to the commuter, and the attractiveness of the city as a place of residence have all helped to increase the pros- perity of the city.
The State has spent millions of dollars in improving the ocean front and making it a reservation open for all time to the enjoyment of the people. The Lynn Shore Drive ranks among the most beautiful boule- vards of the country, and the State bath house at Lynn Beach, together with the supervision of the beaches and reservation by the Common- wealth, has gone far to make our shore unsurpassed for its beauty of scenery, its availability for recreation and its safety as a pleasure re- sort.
Lynn has had her experiences in various forms of city administra- tion, and for a time turned to the Commission form of government. That form has now been replaced by a mayor and city council. Through all she has prospered. Quick to feel depressions, her industries are prompt to recover. And after all, the same attractiveness that caused families to come here to make homes, almost three centuries ago, is a great asset today in the balance sheet of social and industrial Lynn. Shorn of much of her original territory by the creation of Nahant, Swampscott, Lynnfield, Reading, North Reading, Wakefield and Saugus, Lynn still retains her lead as the metropolis of Essex county, largely from her attractiveness as a city of homes. Her industries and her at- tractions go hand in hand in her progress. Each supplements the other in making a desirable community for a home and the city is developing her varied resources judiciously.
While it is impossible to give special mention to all who are de-
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serving of it in a narrative of this length, yet we glean from Wood- bury's "Priorities" and other sources a few names of persons of accom . plishment who owe allegiance to Lynn:
Tehatawan, the Squaw Sachem, who ruled the Penobscots after the death of Nanapashemet.
Maria Mitchell (Miss), first woman astronomer of recognized im- portance.
Abraham Pierson, first president of Yale College, and one of its founders.
Cornelius Conway Felton, president of Harvard College and an emi- nent Greek scholar.
Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard College; summer home at Nahant.
Rev. William H. P. Faunce, president of Brown University, lived and married in this city.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, summer home for many years in Nahant while it was a part of Lynn. He wrote many of his best works while there. In about twenty of his poems are found allusions to Na- hant and Lynn. His "Bells of Lynn" is distinctly a Lynn poem.
Colonel Carrol D. White, statistician, head of departments of Com- monwealth and Nation; president of Clark College; president of Drexel Institute. Resided and practiced law in Lynn.
Goold Brown, grammarian, lived in Lynn many years.
Mary Baker Eddy (Mrs.), founder of Christian Science, lived in Lynn many years, and much of her most important work done here, Red Rock being a favorite spot for her meditations.
Alonzo Lewis and James R. Newhall (Judge), writers of Lynn history.
George H. Martin, educator, and writer of local history.
Hon. Elihu Burritt Hayes, mayor of Lynn and member of Legisla- ture. Framed and introduced the secret ballot law in 1888, which was adopted, and became the basis of similar laws throughout the nation. Also author of the Massachusetts Public Library law, which made it possible for every town to have a public library. (In reply to my ques- tion, several years ago, as to what he considered to be his greatest pub- lic service, he replied that he was uncertain which of the above laws that he had sponsored had been productive of the most far-reaching good). Also active in introducing books for the blind and instruction for the adult blind into the public libraries.
Nathan Mortimer Hawkes (Judge), writer of local history.
Elihu Thomson, eminent in science. Now acting for the second time as president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Long the head of the engineering department of the Thomson-Houston Co., merged into the General Electric Company.
Joseph Dixon, inventor, originated photo-lithography.
Three Merrill brothers, of Lynn, with Samuel Downer, extracting kerosene oil from heretofore worthless Nova Scotia shale.
Frederick Tudor, originated shipping of ice to the tropics.
Edward Appleton Haven, officer in the Zeigler Arctic Exploring Expedition.
William Gray, greatest New England merchant in Colonial days. Born in Lynn, business in Salem. His estate is said to have been the largest ever probated in this country at time of his death, being slight-
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ly larger than that of George Washington, who died 26 years earlier. Dalrymple brothers, managers of "largest farm in the world."
Charles Albert Coffin, shoe manufacturer, head of Thomson-Hous- ton Co., and president of the General Electric Company.
Colonel John Emery Cowen, eminent engineer, of international re- nown.
John Elderkin, builder of mills.
Joseph Jenk (e)s, worker in iron and brass. Wherever he went, foundries sprang up; inventor and manufacturer.
Charles J. H. Woodbury, engineer, publicist, writer.
John Thornton Kirkland, president of Harvard College 1810-1828, biographer and author, son of Samuel Kirkland, missionary to the Oneida Indians and the founder of Hamilton College, was a descendant of Philip Kirtland, the first shoemaker of record who came to Lynn in 1635.
In 1907 Lynn extended her hospitality for a week, beginning July 28 and ending August third, to former residents in particular and to all comers, through the medium of an Old Home Week observance. Hospitality was the keynote of the entire observance, and at the same time the city took the opportunity to demonstrate in various ways its resources and its progress. With the opening of the observance on Sunday, all the churches held special Old Home Week services. The city, through its mayor and city government, gave receptions from day to day, the clubs, lodges, churches and business and social organizations extended hospitality and kept open house. The streets and public and private buildings were profusely decorated and entertainment was pro- vided for each day and evening.
To show the progress of the city, an Industrial Exhibit was opened in the newly erected Vamp building (the largest building in the world devoted entirely to the manufacture of shoes), where more than one hundred exhibits by firms and individuals were displayed, and the shops and factories were open for inspection. Thousands of former residents of Lynn visited the city during the week, and many thousands of in- cidental visitors came to see the city and its sights. Mayor Charles Neal Barney appointed a citizen's committee, and a committee from the City Government was also appointed. These committees worked together in the utmost harmony, and carried out a programme that was a model in its arrangement. Its results were a revelation, alike to vis- itors and citizens, of the great strides the city had made socially and industrially in the period of fifty-seven years following its incorporation.
Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, with several members of his family, was the guest of the city one day, as was former Governor Frank W. Rollins of New Hampshire, the father of the Old Home Week movement. Mayor Barney also tendered a luncheon to the mayors of the New England cities, which was attended by many. The growth of the city departments was shown by a parade of all the city employees, with the equipment of their various departments, so far as it could be
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utilized. Nothing could have more fully demonstrated the progress from tythingmen to a police department, from fire buckets to fire towers, from trail makers to street pavers and builders, with their great equipment of men and machinery, from prudential men to mayor, aldermen and city council, from primitive schools to complete educa- tional equipment for over 10,000 pupils. The illumination of the city was one of the most striking demonstrations of the progress in elec- trical lighting in less than a generation.
From a personal familiarity with the celebrations of a simple char- acter in the various great cities of the east, we feel justified in saying that never has been presented a better programme to entertain and in- struct visitors in the progress and resources of a city, nor has there ever been a more cordial co-operation between citizens and city govern- ment in carrying out a programme of which hospitality and social and industrial progress was the keynote. The seal of the occasion had for its center a shoe, with the legend "The Shoe Center" around it. Sur- rounding this was a grouping of the emblems of the two great indus- tries of the city, the awl and hammer of the shoemaker and the dynamo and the electric light of the electric industry. Outside these were High Rock, with its tower, symbolizing the tradition of the city; the Lynn Shore Drive, with its beautiful residences, symbolizing the homes and the beauties of Lynn; while the two great chimneys of the Geli- eral Electric Company, with sections of buildings on one side and the Vamp building on the other, indicated the two great industries that have made Lynn industrially famous.
The following editorial, which appeared in the Lynn "Daily Even- ing Item," following the Old Home Week celebration, furnishes an analysis of the population of the city. While the present population of Lynn is approximately one hundred thousand, instead of 68,513, as at the time the editorial appeared in 1907, the relative proportions are probably not materially changed :
Dr. Charles H. Bangs, one of our well known and highly esteemed physicians, has performed a public service in his compilation of the birth statistics of Lynn, which we give below. A reading of the facts arranged by Dr. Bangs will convince any one that Lynn has a pretty full line of native citizens. Dr. Bangs says :
The recent discussion of Old Home Week has apparently given many the im- pression that Lynn is a city largely made up of foreign population. This is not a fact; for, while our city has very nearly doubled her population in the past 20 years and her diversified industries have given employment to those from almost every civilized country, yet it is a fact that a little better than five out of every seven of our people are of native birth, and, moreover, that about half of them trace their descent through several generations of American ancestry.
According to the latest statistics 50,771 of the 68,513 inhabitants of Lynn are of native birth, and over 30,000 of these are removed at least two generations from a foreign allegiance.
Of the native population of Lynn, 37,990 were born in Massachusetts, 5138 in
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Maine, 2920 in New Hampshire, 2030 in New York, 614 in Vermont, 514 in Con- necticut, and the remainder represent every State and Territory except Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and Hawaii.
The 17,742 of our population who are of foreign birth are distributed as fol- lows :- Over one-half of them, or 9889, were born in Canada, 5306 in Ireland, 1527 in England, 812 in Sweden, 434 in Scotland, 306 in Italy, 288 in Russia, 261 in Ger- many, 164 in Turkey, 55 in China, 54 in France, 51 in Greece and the remainder from nearly every country except Spain, Japan and Mexico.
When we compare the analysis of the population of Lynn with that of other cities of the State we find that, while Fall River has but 52.3 per cent. of native born population, Holyoke, Lowell, Lawrence and New Bedford less than 60 per cent., Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Fitchburg, Gloucester, Salem and Worcester less than 70 per cent., Malden, Newton Somerville and Taunton a little over 70 per cent. yet more than 74 per cent. of the population of Lynn was born in this country, a percentage only slightly exceeded by Brockton, Haverhill and Springfield.
This is 6 per cent. greater than the average for the State and classes Lynn as one of the most "American" of Massachusetts cities.
CHARLES H. BANGS.
We have no doubt that the foregoing statement will surprise a good many readers. The nature of our industries, calling as they do upon young people as employees, gives the impression that the population is not permanent. The presence of large bodies of foreign-born work- men strengthens the idea that our people are not native to the soil. Dr. Bangs has set this matter in a different light, and is deserving of the thanks of Lynn people. It would be interesting to know what pro- portion of the 37,990 who were born in Massachusetts are natives of Lynn, and we believe that were the statistics available they would cause as much surprise as the facts which are now brought forward by Dr. Bangs.
Lynn is particularly fortunate in the matter of playgrounds. In addition to several miles of beaches, and to many hundred acres of parks, playgrounds have been acquired by purchase or reclamation to serve all parts of the city, and the summer months find the sports of these fields supervised by trained instructors. In the western part of the city, Little River Playground has an area of 9.5 acres, fronting on Boston street, and of five acres on Summer street. The most of this is reclaimed land, turned to a good purpose. Nearer the center is the Elm street ground of two acres and in the eastern district is the Sander- son avenue playground of three acres. With this the Meadow Park adds area and facilities for many sports.
Lynn is also blessed in the number, size, variety and distribution of her parks and playgrounds. In the division of the public lands in 1706, a training ground was reserved, easily accessible to the people. That ground today constitutes Lynn Common, a beautiful strip of ten acres, extending from City Hall Square westward to Market Square, and plentifully adorned with trees, and in parts with shrubs and plants. It is very centrally located for the western half of the city, and fur- nishes a delightful breathing spot for the people during the hot weather and a convenient place of assemblage. From the band stand near its
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center are rendered frequently in summer programmes of choice music by the excellent bands of Lynn, while close by the Shute memorial fountain, the first electrically illuminated fountain to be erected in the east, lends color to the evening festivities.
Goldfish Pond and Park (Lafayette Park), in the easterly section of the city, is a most attractive spot at approximately the location which Edmund Ingalls selected for his home, when he came here, in 1629. In area the park is only 21/2 acres. In its center is Goldfish Pond, which derives its name from the great number of gold fish that spontaneously breed there. In the center of the pond is an island, the entire effect of which is most pleasing. On the northerly border of the park a tablet was recently placed to mark the approximate location of the Ingalls homestead, and much of the land adjacent still remains in the possession of descendants of Edmund Ingalls, the pioneer.
Meadow Park, with an area of over 30 acres, is becoming both a beautiful park and a roomy and accessible playground. It is a reclaim- ed swamp, where a generation ago grew the wild flags and other swamp vegetation.
High Rock Park crowns the summit of High Rock, which, with its elevation of 190 feet, affords a fine outlook over ocean, harbor, city and surrounding country. Being scarcely a ten-minute walk from the City Hall or from Central Square, it is visited by a great number. At its summit is the High Rock Tower, a landmark from sea and land for many miles around. Associated with this beautiful recreation spot will ever be the name of the Hutchinson family, of fame as singers in the anti-slavery campaign, as well as during the Civil War, and whose home was at the foot of the rock. Restrictions imposed by the city council on the height of surrounding buildings will prevent an obstruc- tion of the view for all time. At High Rock Tower the custodian keeps a register for visitors. During Old Home Week, July 28 to August 3, 1907, about two thousand people from the length and breadth of this land, as well as from many foreign countries, recorded their names, and in many instances a sentiment.
Lynn Woods, or the Great Woods of Lynn, is the crowning glory of the park system. Acquired by gift and purchase to protect the water supply of Lynn from contamination, it has been so administered as to preserve much of the natural scenery of this region as well. While the ravines have been dammed to create storage ponds, the remainder of the 2200 or more acres retain much of their primitive beauty. The forest has been judiciously conserved, and the winding roads reveal at each turn new scenes of beauty. A drive of four or five miles from the center of the city brings one to what, but for the roads, would seem to be the forest primeval. While the altitudes of Burrill Hill, Mount Hermon and Mount Gilead are respectively only 285, 278 and 267 feet, yet the contour of the surrounding country is such that very broad
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views are obtained from their summits. The names associated with the Great Woods are sufficient to stimulate the fancy of the casual ob- server and to arouse pleasant memories among those familiar with the territory. Dungeon Rock, Tracy Trail, Breed's Pond, Wolf Pits, Ox Pasture, Bow Ridge, Glen Lewis Pond, Hemlock Ridge, Tomlin's Swamp, Wake, Robin Spring, Old Man's Walk, Calf Pen, Penny Brook and Aaron Burrill's Pines all have their associations and their traditions.
A recent report of the Lynn Park Commissioners contains a com- pilation by L. A. Wentworth of the flora of Lynn woods. Omitting the mosses and fungi, which are very abundant, he enumerates some 545 varieties of trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, grasses and ferns that are native to the Lynn woods, and seventeen species that have been intro- duced. Again reverting to the writings of William Wood, who was one of the first five men to settle in Lynn in 1629, and whose "New England's Prospect" was the first book to be published that was writ- ten in New England, we find there the first lines ever penned about the woods of Lynn. So applicable are they to the Lynn Woods Park of to- day that we cannot refrain from quoting them:
Trees both in hills and plaines, in plenty be, The long liv'd Oake, and mournful Cyprus tree, Skie-towering Pines, and Chestnuts coated rough, The lasting Cedar, and the Walnut tough; The rosin-dropping Firr for masts in use; The boatmen seeke for oares, light, neat-grown Sprewse, The brittle Ash, the ever trembling Aspes, The broad-spread Elme, whose concave harbors Waspes; The Water-spongle Alder, good for nought, Small Elderne by the Indian Fletchers sought, The knottie Maple, pallis Birch, Hawthornes, The Hornbound tree that to be cloven scornes, Which, from the tender Vine oft takes its spouse, Who twines imbracing arms about his boughes. Within this Indian Orchard fruits be some, The ruddie Cherrie and the jettie Plumbe, Snake murthering Hazell, with sweet Saxaphrage, Whose spurnes in beere allays hot fever's rage, The dyars (dyer's) Shumac, with more trees there be, Than are both good to use and rare to see.
At the beginning of the struggle for Independence, there were two rival postoffice systems-the British, or Parlimentary postoffice, oper- ated by the deputies under Foxcroft and Finlay, and the Continental postoffice. The lastnamed was the outgrowth of the need for indepen- dent and secret means of communication among the leaders in the op- position against British control. Paul Revere, for example, was a post- rider for the Massachusetts patriots as early as 1773, and his celebrated ride of April 19, 1775, was taken in the performance of his duties. In July, 1775, Congress established a Continental postoffice department,
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with Benjamin Franklin as Postmaster-General, and a line of posts was directed to be established between Massachusetts and Georgia, with such cross posts as he might deem necessary. The town of Saugus, it would appear, was not forgotten by the Federal government in this establish- ment, for it is learned that on the old Newburyport road in Saugus and adjacent to it, there still remain some of these historic posts.
The first postoffice in Lynn, in 1793, was in existence ten years be- fore the Salem turnpike and now known as Western avenue was con- structed, and it was forty-five years later until the Eastern railroad was built from Boston to Salem. Mailbags in early times were usually thrown across a horse's back and so carried 'cross-country. In 1832, three mails daily were brought from Boston to Lynn and Salem, and as late as to 1872 Sunday mails were carried by John Dalton's stage, from Boston and Chelsea, Lynn and Salem, for which he received $600 per year. The Lynn office of 1868, at the corner of Market and Summers streets, was burned, after which the postoffice was kept in the city building for a time; later, various business houses were used, the list of which is of little general historic interest. What was styled the penny-post carrier system of free delivery in Lynn was established in 1812, with W. R. Badger as carrier. Not until about Civil War days did the city of Lynn have free delivery. The postal rates were much higher back in the fifties and earlier. A letter from Lynn to New York City cost the sender or receiver eighteen and three-fourths cents; the usual way was to let the person to whom the letter was addressed pay the postage when he received the letter. From Lynn to Philadelphia and Baltimore, the rate was twenty-five cents. Now two cents carries an ordinary letter to any place in the United States. The mail service has kept pace with the development of civilization and discovery-first by horseback, then by boat and stage coach; next came the steam car railway postoffice system, as used now; and the latest innovation is mail carried by means of air-ships, the first of which successful attempts was in bringing mail to Boston; but, as it happened, the first air-ship with regular mail landed in the Lynn postal district, hence Lynn claims pri- ority. This landing was June 6, 1918.
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