USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 12
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One of the earliest furniture dealers was Patrick Sweeney, who built up a very successful furniture business near Jackson street, later removing to the Sweeney building. Shortly before his death Mr. Swee- ney sold his business to three men who were working for him-Buckley, McCormack and Sullivan. The business is still carried on by Mr. Sulli- van, under the name of M. J. Sullivan, Inc. Another successful furni- ture dealer was Frederick S. Jewett, engaged in business many years at the corner of Essex and Amesbury streets, while at the corner opposite was William Greenwood & Sons, fine types of the old-day merchant. Mr. R. Pedrick and Mr. Carlos C. Closson also conducted a successful furni- ture business at the corner of Essex and Amesbury streets. At this time the three corners of Essex and Amesbury streets were operated as furniture stores. Another of the more modern merchants who did a successful business for many years was William H. Godfrey. In 1914
he sold his building and business to T. J. Buckley. Mr. Godfrey is still alive and lives on Haverhill street, Lawrence.
William Forbes & Sons conducted a large business in kitchen goods and kindred articles at the corner of Essex and Hampshire streets. Mr. Forbes' sons owned the building until a few years ago. Part of the building is now occupied by the Lawrence Trust Company. Henry Musk is today dean of the furniture dealers, having been longer in business than any other furniture dealer. Franz Schneider has successfully con- ducted a jewelry business for many years, and is the oldest established jeweler in the city. Robert J. McCartney is the present leader in the men's clothing business, having met with good success in his forty-one years of business life, and is still active and energetic. Another mer- chant born in Lawrence who has met with phenomenal success as a men's clothing merchant is Dan A. Donahue. Mr. Donahue owns a chain of clothing stores in Massachusetts cities and in New York State.
During the last twenty years quite a number of chain stores have
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opened branches, of which the Five and Ten Cent stores are the most prominent. We have now chain drug, grocery, boot and shoe, millinery, and clothing stores. In passing, mention should be made of Frederick W. Schaake, who built the Schaake block and conducted a successful tailoring business there until his death. The earliest merchants in Law- rence were of the old New England stock, but as the city grew, other na- tionalities came in, so that for many years there has been quite a sprink- ling of English. Irish, Scottish, German and of other European nation- alities. The pioneers, however, were mostly of the sturdy old stock from New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, the states that have pro- duced many of the greatest pioneers of enterprise throughout this coun- try. There were a large number of merchants who got their start in Lawrence, who, after staying a few years, removed to larger fields where they could find greater scope for their ability. In recent years there has been an influx of Jews, who are active in the men's clothing, women's clothing, and women's millinery business.
The A. B. Sutherland Company has the largest department store in Lawrence and at the present time is making extensions that will provide over eleven thousand square feet of additional selling space. In 1900 A. M. Robertson, A. B. Sutherland and J. J. Matheson purchased the business of A. W. Stearns & Company, and Mr. Sutherland came to Law- rence to manage it. In 1904 a lease was obtained on the adjoining prop- erty, with a frontage of 55 feet on Essex street to the west of the Stearns store, and a new building was erected thereon. In 1916 Mr. Robertson sold his interest to Mr. Sutherland, and the following year the name was changed to A. B. Sutherland Company. The business has been since 1900 under Mr. Sutherland's management.
In the wholesale grain business, mention should be made of Henry K. Webster, who started business in 1868 and continued actively until his death in 1920. The business is now managed by his second son, Dean K. Webster. Lawrence has become quite a wholesale center for hay and grain and groceries.
The period from 1890 to 1918, more than a fourth of a century, has seen Lawrence make its greatest growth. In 1891 the horse street car was superseded by the electric system, reaching out to all surrounding towns and cities. 1905 saw the beginning of a great construction period. In the three years that followed, ten million dollars' worth of buildings were erected. It was at that time that the great Wood Mills were built, also the Ayer Mills. In 1907 was built the large Central Fire station. Real modern paving commenced in 1908; in 1912 over half a million dol- lars was spent for paving alone. In 1912 the city municipality changed its old form of government to that of a "commission" form of govern- ment, under which it has been very successful. It was also in 1912 that occurred the great mill strike, fully treated elsewhere in this work. In 1913 steps were taken towards constructing a central bridge over the Merrimack river. The years 1916-17 were among the busiest in the history of the city. The great demand for textile products, caused by the European war, kept every mill running to its full capacity. Munici- pal and general business interests shared in the beneficial results. The mill hands were increased in their wages, voluntarily, several times. In
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June, 1916, local militia units were called to the Mexican border, where international trouble was brewing. In April, 1917, the United States declared war against Germany and Austria, after which for two years Lawrence had its full share of war activities, enlistments, drafts and sorrow occasioned by the death of many soldiers from its midst. Since the close of the World War, Lawrence has steadily gone forward with its great manufacturing enterprises as well as its internal improvements.
Church history in Lawrence has always been interesting; it began with the founding of the place, and has been a potent factor ever since. There are now established forty-three churches and ten smaller organiza- tions, making fifty-three religious bodies. The forty-three churches are included in twelve denominations.
The directors of the Essex Company, true to the policy of the pio- neers, gave their attention to the moral condition of the new town. The president, Mr. Lawrence, writing to W. C. Rives, of Virginia, said: "All intellectual culture should be founded on our Holy Religion. The pure precepts of the gospel are the only safe source from which we can freely draw our morality;" and in the letter which accompanied his gift to the Library: "It is no less the duty than the privilege of those who possess influence in creating towns and cities to lay the foundations deep and strong. Let the standard be high in religious, moral and intellectual culture, and there can be no well-grounded fear for the result." Ac- cordingly, governed by no sectarian bias, they gave to the first churches of several denominations a lot of land on which to erect their buildings, and to others, later, they made a discount of one-quarter from regular established prices.
The first building devoted to public worship was the Episcopal chapel; this stood on ground later occupied by Grace Church, and services were first held there on the second Sunday of October, 1846. However, more than a dozen years before the founding of Lawrence, on May 12, 1832, a church was organized in the section known as North Lawrence (Methuen), in the old Prospect school house, and known as the First Protestant Episcopal Church of Methuen; several months later it was called Mount Zion Church. An effort was made to have a church build- ing constructed on the old Methuen Orthodox church site on Clover Hill, but failed; during the four or five years that this church existed, ser- vices were held in the old Prospect Mill school house, in the brick school house on Howe street at Grosvener's Corner, and in a hall at Methuen. The first Christmas service observed in this locality was held by this church.
We cannot fix the exact date of the first Catholic church in Law- rence. Mass was probably first offered in this place in December, 1845, by Father McDermott, of Lowell. In April, 1846, Rev. Charles French commenced his work here. He was the first clergyman of any denomi- nation in Lawrence actually to purchase land for a church building. It
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was not long before a frame church was erected on Chestnut street, and there services and a parochial school were maintained. In 1848 it is said that about thirty-five per cent. of the population of the place were Catholics. Following Father French, who died in 1851, came James H. D. Taaffe, who in 1854 built a brick church known as Immacu- late Conception. It was in the tower of this edifice that was placed the first church bell of Lawrence, the date being 1861.
The first church building to be dedicated was Grace Episcopal Church, just north of the present stone edifice. It was a wood struc- ture, and services were first held there in October, 1846, and in November of that year it was consecrated. The stone building was erected in 1851 and consecrated in 1852. It was enlarged in 1896. From the organiza- tion of the church until 1876, the date of the death of Rev. Dr. George Packard, he served as rector. The present rector is Rev. Arthur Whee- lock Moulton.
The first Methodist preaching service was held in June, 1846, at the house of Charles Barnes, on Broadway street. The Essex Mission (so called) was organized June 1, 1846. Two months later the Methodists moved across the street into an attic of an unfinished building known as Concert Hall. The church building at the corner of Haverhill and Hampshire streets was dedicated February 20, 1848. In 1911 this society, the First Methodist Episcopal Church, consolidated with the Garden Street Methodist Episcopal Church, forming the Central Meth- odist Episcopal Church, which now occupies the new attractive stone edifice on Haverhill street, just east of Lawrence street.
The Merrimack Congregational Society was organized August 1, 1846, but the name was changed to the Lawrence Street Congregational Church, and meetings were begun in a small wooden building January 5, 1847. The edifice built in 1848 was burned in 1912, and replaced by the present modern building, the same being dedicated in May, 1915.
The pioneer Baptist organization was the First Free Baptist Church, organized January, 1847, although first services were held in the board- ing house of Timothy Osgood, on Broadway street, in April, 1846. The present church building was dedicated in April, 1857.
The First Baptist Church was organized in the spring of 1847 and was known as Amesbury Street Baptist Church. The Essex Company donated a lot on which to build, and a comfortable church was dedicated thereon October 20, 1850.
August 30, 1847, the Unitarian church was organized. The first meetings were held on Hampshire street, in the old Odd Fellows' hall. In May, 1850, the old wooden church building at the corner of Jackson and Haverhill streets was dedicated, the tower and spire of which were destroyed by the fire of August 12, 1859, and were not replaced. This structure was torn down in 1916 and a much smaller structure pro- vided.
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November 15, 1847, the First Universalist society was organized. They used leased halls until 1852, when they built an edifice on Haver- hill street, and in 1865 the building was remodeled, enlarged, and a spire added thereto. This building is still in use by the society.
Concerning early churches, it should be said that the Central Congre- gational Church was merged with the Trinity Congregational Church. This society was formed December 25, 1854, when a new church at the corner of Essex and Appleton streets was dedicated. This building was entirely destroyed by fire in August, 1859. In the autumn of the same year the work of rebuilding had commenced on Haverhill street, the pres- ent Trinity Congregational Church. In 1883 the Central and Eliot Con- gregational churches were consolidated, and the name Trinity Congre- gational Church was taken on. The Eliot Congregational Church had been formed September, 1865, by the Lawrence Street and Central churches. The brick church building at the corner of Methuen and Ap- pleton streets was dedicated in 1866. For a number of years this build- ing was the home of the Young Men's Christian Association.
Another pioneer church was St. Mary's Catholic Church, which or- ganized in November, 1848, when Father James O'Donnell came to Law- rence and celebrated mass in old Merrimack Hall. It was not long be- fore he secured the central site now occupied by St. Mary's granite school building on Haverhill street. Here, on the first Sunday in January, 1849, he first held services in an unfinished rough church edifice. It was so poorly finished that the snow forced its way through the sides and roof, falling on the congregation as they were at prayers. The pulpit was a huge pile of shingles. In 1851 the granite church went up over and about the little chapel before its removal. In August, 1859, Father O'Donnell introduced the Sisters of Notre Dame, who established the parochial school that has come to be such a power in the community. Father O'Donnell was really the founder of St. Mary's Church, although the cornerstone of the present magnificent edifice was laid August 19, 1866, during the pastorate of Rev. Louis M. Edge. While in Philadel- phia, arranging for the cross of the new church, Father Edge was acci- dentally killed by being thrown from his carriage, February 24, 1870. The present St. Mary's Church was completed under the direction of Father Galberry, and was dedicated September 3, 1871. The parochial residence on Haverhill street, occupied by the Augustinian Fathers, who now have charge of all the English-speaking Catholics on the north side of the Merrimack river, was completed October 5, 1873. The chime of bells in St. Mary's church tower was placed in position December 12, 1884. The present (1921) pastor of this church is Father James T. O'Reilly, who came to Lawrence in 1886. His work has been a great one, and is appreciated by both Catholic and Protestant denominations.
Other religious organizations had their being in Lawrence in the following order:
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United Presbyterian, organized June, 1854. Edifice on Concord street, now occupied by Armenian Congregational church, built in 1870. The society moved to the old Haverhill Street Methodist Episcopal Church, October, 1911, following the merging of that church in the pres- ent Central Methodist Episcopal Church.
Second Baptist, organized September 6, 1860; present building dedi- cated in 1874.
St. John's Episcopal, organized May 14, 1866; was located many years on Bradford street, in building now occupied by Lithuanian Cath- olic Church. The corner-stone of the present edifice, on Broadway street, was laid October 11, 1903.
South Congregational, organized May 13, 1868, came from a Sab- bath school established in 1852. The present church building was erect- ed in 1896.
St. Patrick's (Catholic), formed in 1868. The first meeting house was a wooden structure on the site of the present church, dedicated in March, 1870. The corner-stone of the present brick edifice was laid in 1881, but the church was not dedicated until June 17, 1894.
Parker Street Methodist Episcopal, organized September, 1870; the present edifice was dedicated in 1875.
Advent Christian, started in 1860; a church was really perfected in 1870. The Lowell street edifice was dedicated in 1899.
United Congregational, on Lowell street, was organized as a Primi- tive Methodist church in 1871. In 1877 the name was changed to Tower Hill Congregational, but since March 2, 1886, it has been called the United Congregational. The church building was first used in 1872.
St. Anne's (French Catholic), formed in December, 1871. Their church edifice was long in building, and finally dedicated in 1883. While the church was being completed Mass was said in the basement.
St. Laurence's (Catholic), the old structure at the corner of Essex and Union streets, now occupied by Holy Rosary Church (Italian Cath- olic), was dedicated as St. Laurence O'Toole's Church, July 12, 1873. The present brick edifice at the junction of Newbury and East Haverhill streets was erected in 1903.
Riverside Congregational, on Water street, organized as Union Evan- gelical Church in June, 1875; became a Congregational church, March 9, 1878.
German Methodist Episcopal, Vine street, was organized in 1878, and the edifice dedicated December 11, 1881.
St. Augustine's (Catholic) Church building on Water street, com- pleted and first mass celebrated there on December 25, 1878.
German Presbyterian, East Haverhill street, had its beginning in 1872. Church dedicated December 12, 1875. Organized as a Presby- terian church in 1879, There had been a division in the church in 1878, members of Methodist inclination forming the German Methodist Epis- copal Church.
St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal, first known as Bodwell Street Meth- odist Episcopal Church. Organized in December, 1879; name changed to St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church in 1890. Edifice at the cor- ner of Essex and Margin streets dedicated May 22, 1890.
St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal, on Wyman street, was organized De- cember 30, 1885, as the Arlington Union Church in a building known as the Lake Street Chapel. Became a Methodist Episcopal church April 30, 1891.
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Religious Society of Friends, established May 12, 1886; first service in the meeting house on Avon street, March, 1896.
Church of Assumption of Mary (German Catholic), parish formed in 1887, and present edifice, on Lawrence street, erected the same year.
Congregation of Sons of Israel (Jewish), organized October 3, 1894. Synagogue on Concord street built in 1913.
First Church of Christ Scientist, Sunday school established in 1887. Church organized in 1896. Edifice on Green street dedicated in August, 1896.
St. Joseph's Syrian (Greek Catholic Rite), parish formed by Rev. James T. O'Reilly, of St. Mary's, in 1898. First worshipped in St. Mary's stone school building. Church on Oak street dedicated in 1905. Sacred Heart (French Catholic), parish formed in 1899. Estab- lished in basement of proposed church building on Groton street in 1915.
Wood Memorial Free Baptist, Sunday school established in 1898. The first service held in church building on Coolidge street in Novem- ber, 1899.
Congregation of Anshea Sfard (Jewish), organized April 6, 1900. Synagogue on Concord street built in the autumn of 1907.
St. Anthony's Syrian Maronite (Catholic) parish, formed in 1902. First occupied St. Mary's stone school building. Church on Elm street dedicated in 1906.
St. Francis (Lithuanian Catholic) parish formed in 1903, by Rev. James T. O'Reilly, of St. Mary's. Building on Bradford street.
Holy Trinity (Polish Catholic) parish formed in December, 1904. First worshipped in basement of the Holy Rosary (Italian) Church. Church on Avon street dedicated February 5, 1905.
SS. Peter and Paul (Portuguese Catholic) parish formed by Rev. James T. O'Reilly, in 1905. First worshipped in basement of the Im- maculate Conception Church. Edifice on Chestnut street dedicated in 1907.
St. Augustine's Episcopal, established as a mission of Grace Church in 1905, when the chapel was built, at the corner of South Union and Boxford streets. Became a separate parish in 1907, and in 1910 occu- pied the basement of the proposed church.
Franco-American Methodist Episcopal, organized October 20, 1907. Moved to building on Water street in 1914.
Church of Holy Rosary (Italian Catholic) parish formed March 4, 1908, when congregation became established in old St. Laurence's Church building at corner of Union and Essex streets.
Salem Street Primitive Methodist, organized as a mission station in September, 1915, and became established in the present building on Salem street the same year.
Bethel Armenian Congregational, started as a mission of the Law- rence Street Congregational Church about 1902. Organized as a church in 1916. Became established the same year in the building on Concord street formerly occupied by the United Presbyterian Church.
In addition to those already mentioned, there are in the city of Law- rence religious societies as follows: Armenian Apostolic Church, First Spiritual Church, Lighthouse Mission, Lithuanian National Catholic Church, St. George's Syrian Greek Orthodox Church, St. John the Bap- tist Russian Greek Church, Salvation Army, Spiritualist Temple, Swedish Lutheran Church, Syrian Protestant Church. Also well organized Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation. The former was organized in 1876 and the latter in 1892.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TLDEN FOUNDATIONS
SETTLERS' MONUMENT, NEWBURYPORT
ORIGINAL WOLFE TAVERN, 1762
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CHAPTER XXXVII.
CITY OF NEWBURYPORT
In 1642 what was originally Newbury granted authority to Thomas Parker, James Noyes, John Woodbridge, Edward Rawson, John Cutting, Edward Woodman, John Lowle and John Clark to lay out a new town. This town included what later became known as the "Port" of Newbury, and still later it was known as Newburyport. Lying on the banks of the Merrimac river, and hard by the ocean, it gained in population quite rapidly. It is known that as early as 1725 a part of the First Parish in Newbury, near the "water-side", was incorporated as a separate religious organization. In 1738 a Protestant Episcopal church was built. It was also in 1725 that the First Church in Newburyport was organized, and in 1746 another church was formed by a faction of the original church. Later this was styled the First Presbyterian Church of Newburyport.
By the enterprise of the "water-side" people, a new feature was added to the settlement by the erection, at their own charge, of a new town-house, and in 1752 the old one on High street, built in 1735 was abandoned. The people at the "Port" were compelled to build and sup- port their own schools, for public schools were then unknown, as we understand the term today.
In 1763 two hundred and six of the "water-side" people, headed by William Atkins, Daniel Farnham, Michael Dalton, Thomas Woodbridge and Patrick Tracy, signed and presented a petition to the General Court, "to be set off from Newbury and incorporated a town by themselves." On January 28, 1764, the petitioners had their prayers answered, and New- buryport was incorporated. It then had a population of 2,282. The area of territory set off comprised six hundred and forty-seven acres, a little more than a present day section of land. The original town of New- bury contained thirty thousand acres, one of the most extensive in Mas- sachusetts. The town having been duly organized and a set of town officers chosen, nothing but time and its shifting changes could further develop the new town. The first moderator was Michael Dalton; the first selectmen were Stephen Cross, Enoch Titcomb, Jr., Timothy Pike, and Daniel Farnham.
It was about that date when the Mother Country imposed the "stamp act", by which every instrument in writing, such as a deed, a ship's clear- ance, a will, contract and other business papers, each and all, were re- quired to have affixed to their face (to make them legal) a certain stamp. These stamps ranged from a half-penny to six pounds. The people at Newburyport openly opposed this measure, but fortunately it was so obnoxious that it did not long exist in the Colonies. This was the fore- runner of affairs that eventually separated England from her American colonies, and that was through the medium of the war for national in-
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dependence, which cost so much blood and treasure. The part the citi- zens of Newburyport took in the Revolution will be seen by reading the Military chapters of this work.
After the close of the war of 1812-14, business activities picked up. The fisheries, foreign trade and ship-building rapidly forged to the fore- front. It was never known as a great place for fisheries, yet during the first twenty-five years of the eighteenth century, there were employed in the Newburyport district about forty fishing vessels in the cod fishery and seventy-five in the mackerel fishery industry. The fur, seal and whale fisheries, both successfully carried on here, have since many de- cades been abandoned.
Trade with foreign ports reached its maximum about 1804. After the return of peace, the navigation of the town increased from ninety- nine vessels in 1789, of a tonnage of 11,607; in 1796 to 19,752 tons; in 1806 to 29,713 tons-25,000 tons of this total was foreign trade. In 1805 there belonged to Newburyport alone 41 ships, 62 brigs, 2 skows, 2 bar- ques and 66 schooners. In fact, nature made this place one suited to the building of ships and boats, by reason of the large river along its front, which heads far in the north country, and along whose banks grew so much suitable timber used in ship-yards. This could be easily floated down to Newburyport, and that of itself was sufficient reason for making an excellent boat-building place. There seems to be good evidence that ship-building was carried on in Newburyport as early as 1680. Between 1681 and 1714, 130 vessels were built on the Merrimac, one hundred of which were built in Newbury, as then known. For many years the town owned the ship-yards and fostered the enterprises to the utmost of its ability. In 1711 a building yard near Watt's cellar was let to Colonel Partridge, Mr. Clement and Mr. Hodges. In 1734 other leases were re- corded, as now shown in records, either made by the town or by the "proprietors", who owned a strip along the river. About 1750 there was an active ship-building era here, and in one year there were built and launched from Newburyport as many as fifty-two vessels by Gideon Woodwell, on the lower side of Water street, near the foot of Marlboro street. In 1766, two years after the incorporation of Newburyport, seventy-two vessels were on the stocks, between Pierce's farm and Mog- garidge's Point.
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