USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > Needham's bicentennial celebration; a record of the exercises and a memorial of the celebration at Needham, Massachusetts, on the two hundredth anniversary of it's incorporation. Pub. by the Celebration committee; > Part 7
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We are next told by an eye witness, who long afterwards put his recollections in writing, when the locomotive was 'placed upon the track, its driver, who
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came with it from England, stepped upon the plat- form with almost the airs of a juggler or a professor of chemistry, placed his hand upon the lever, and with a slight move of it the engine started at a speed worthy of the companion of the rocket amid the shouts and cheers of the multitude. It gave me such a shock, that my hair seemed to start from the roots, rather than to stand on end.' This feat of legerdemain was per- formed in March; and, on the 15th of the following month, the first section of the Boston and Worcester railroad was opened, two trips being made each way between Boston and Newton. The regular passenger railroad service in Massachusetts dates, therefore, from that day.
By the end of the following June the road was finished as far as Needham, and on the 7th of July it was formally opened to that point; when 'the stock- holders and a number of other gentlemen, to the num- ber of about two hundred in all, by invitation of the directors, made an excursion to Needham, in eight passenger cars drawn by the new locomotive Yankee. .
The excursion was pleasant, and the party ap- peared to enjoy the ride, and the beautiful scenery which is presented to view on different parts of the route.' The farther extension to Hopkinton was com- pleted by September, and so on the 20th of that month another excursion, some two hundred in number, went out from Boston in seven of the company's largest passenger cars drawn by the locomotive Yankee, and duly celebrated the occasion. "They started off' as the Advertiser of the following day stated, 'at a rapid and steady pace. The weather was unusually fine, and the sweetness of the atmosphere, the rapidity of the motion, and the beauty and novelty of the scenery which was successively presented to view, app ppeared to produce in all the party an agreeable exhilaration
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of spirits.' At Framingham the excursionists were met by John Davis, then Governor of the Common- wealth, by ex-Governor Lincoln and other gentlemen from Worcester, who got upon the train and went with it to Hopkinton, where it arrived at half past three o'clock and was received with a salute of artillery, the cheers of the populace and an address from the village authorities; after which, under escort of a company of riflemen, the whole party went to Captain Stone's tavern, where a collation had been provided. 'While the party were at table the ladies were invited to take seats in the cars, and the military with their band of music to take a stand upon the tops of the cars, where they were formed in sections. In this manner they made an excursion of several miles down the road and back, which they appeared to enjoy highly. As they returned, the military on the tops of the cars approached the hotel with arms presented and music playing.'
While the wars to which I have referred, occurring periodically through a century and a half of your town's existence left no perceptible mark on it, the event just described inaugurated for Needham, as for its sister towns, a complete revolution in occupation, in educa- tion, in religion, in thought, and in daily and family life. That date, therefore, one hundred and twenty- three years from the incorporation, seventy-seven years ago, marks the dividing line between the Needham of the old Massachusetts provincial period, and the Need- ham as we see it to-day, and you know it.
And now to proceed with the queries I proposed to propound :- How long before July, 1834, I would like next to ask, had your first post-office been estab- lished? Quite an incident in your history, what facts have you preserved concerning it? How many pieces of mail-matter were at first handled in it ?- What were its annual receipts prior to 1850? Late in
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the eighteenth century,-that is, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1800,-stage coaches first put in their appearance in Massachusetts. They also were a con- siderable factor of change. What does any one here now know of the roads over which they ran or of the influence they in their time exerted? The daily news- paper is one of the great educational forces of modern times. To-day it contains items from all over the globe. But when did the daily newspaper first find its way generally to Needham? Not, I fancy, much if at all, before 1850. What was your annual town levy prior to 1850 ?- What was your appropriation for schools ?- what for highways? What great industrial and econom- ical crisis, affecting every phase of existence, has oc- curred in the history of the town? Not one person in this audience, I fancy could supply any thing approach- ing to a specific answer to one of these questions, nor are the facts anywhere readily accessible; and yet here, I submit, in these industrial, economical, social, religious, and educational phases is the true field of historical town study and local research. The present is always familiar and commonplace,-it was so a century ago; but it is the past which interests-the past of 1811, and yet more that of 1711, are, with us in New England, almost as much forgotten as the incidents of that geo- logical period upon which I so long dwelt when I began. It is already lost to memory. Historically, it is of the nature of a geological stratum.
Of that forgotten yesterday of Needham, extend- ing practically from the 18th of September, 1711, to the 7th of July, 1834,-a space of 117 years-that probably might be said which can be said of almost any sister Massachusetts town. 'We are always ac- customed to regard the past as a better and purer time than the present; there is a vague, traditional simplicity and innocence hanging about it, almost Arcadian in
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character.' Yet, somewhat a student of history, I can find no ground on which to base this pleasant fancy. Taken altogether, I do not believe that the morals of Needham or of her sister towns were on the average as good in the eighteenth century as they are in the twen- tieth. The people were sterner and graver, the law and the magistrate more severe; but human nature was the same, and would have vent. There was, I am inclined to think, more hypocrisy in those days than now; but I have seen nothing which has led me to believe that the women were more chaste, or that the men were more temperate, or that, in proportion to population, fewer or less degrading crimes were perpetrated. Certainly the earlier generations were as a race not so charitable as their descendants, and less of a spirit of kindly Chris- tianity prevailed among them.
Let us for a moment, in a realistic mood, face the facts of that severe and somewhat unlovely period. And first, of morals. The early church records of Needham, I am advised, no longer exist; and, perhaps, it is well for the good names of not a few of your fam- ilies that the fire of April 23, 1751, swept away the old Meeting-house, and with it the documents there stored. The records of the churches of many of your sister towns, however, still remain; and, of some of these, I have made historical use. Those who care so to do may familiarize themselves with my conclusions. So far as morality is concerned, the picture presented is not of a character which would lead us to covet for our sons and daughters a recurrence of that past.
Next, temperance :- As respects the in-temperance of that colonial period, I myself caught a youthful glimpse of its vanishing skirts. Distinctly do I recall the village tavern, with its bar-room and post-office accompaniment ;- for in Quincy, in my youth, bar-room and post-office were one,-and, moreover, the village
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drunkards were as familiar to eye and tongue as the minister, the squire, or the doctor. I see them now seated in those wooden arm-chairs on the tavern porch, waiting to see the Plymouth stage drive up. The drunkard reeling home in broad daylight is an unknown spectacle now; then, he hardly excited passing notice.
Take religion next :- I submit in all confidence that the world has outgrown eighteenth century theol- ogy. It is a cast-off garment; and one never to be resumed. Bitter, narrow, uncharitable, intolerant, an insult to reason, the last thing it preached was peace on earth and good will among men. I have had oc- casion to examine into its utterances and to set forth its tenets. The record is there, and those curious on the subject may inform themselves from it. You would not sit in church to-day, and listen to what was then taught,-an angry, a revengeful, and an unfor- giving God.
Schools :- Prior to 1850 the schools of Massachu- setts were archaic, the primitive methods alone were in vogue; and not until after the mid-years of the nine- teenth century was any attention at all paid either to scientific instruction, as we now understand it, or to the laws of sanitation. That "little red school house" of the earlier time, of which we hear so much, would, if reproduced to-day, be promptly closed by order of the Board of Education. Charity! the care of the insane! the treatment of the sick! In the annals of all our Massachusetts towns you will find entries like the following, taken from those of the town of Weymouth, here in your county of Norfolk :- 'Voted, to sell the poor that are maintained by the town for this present year at a Vendue to the lowest bidder.' Do you realize what that meant, and who were in- cluded in the 'poor that are maintained by the town?' It was the old-time substitute for the asylum, the alms-
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house and the hospital. In those days the care of the demented was farmed out to him or her who would assume it at the lowest charge to the public. Even as late as 1843, and in the immediate neighborhood of Boston, naked maniacs could be confined in cages, or unlighted sheds, connected with the almshouse or abutting on the public way. Or take this other Wey- mouth record of August 28, 1783, exactly one year before my own ancestor, Rev. William Smith, was ordained the minister of the town :- 'Voted by the Town to give Twenty pounds to any person who will take two of the children of the Widow Ruth Harvey (that is) the Eldest Daughter and one of the youngest daughters (a twin) and take care of them until they be eighteen years old.'
Twenty pounds in those days was $66.60 of the money of our days; and that in old tenor bills! A public inducement to baby-farming is not now held out. And so I might go on to the close of the chapter, did time permit. But Macaulay has said it all before, and why now repeat in more prosaic terms the tale of ancient wrong? Rather let me close what I have to say on this topic with the following passage from his History: 'It is now the fashion to place the golden age in times when noblemen were destitute of comforts the want of which would be intolerable to a modern foot- man; when farmers and shop-keepers breakfasted on loaves the very sight of which would raise a riot in a modern work-house; when to have a clean shirt once a week was a privilege reserved for the higher class of gentry; when men died faster in the purest country air than they now die in the most pestilential lanes of our towns, and when men died faster in the lanes of our towns than they now die on the coast of Guiana. .
There is scarcely a page of the history or lighter literature of the seventeenth century which does not
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contain some proof that our ancestors were less human than their posterity. The discipline of work-shops, of schools, of private families, though not more efficient than at present, was infinitely harsher. Masters, well born and bred, were in the habit of beating their ser- vants. Pedagogues knew of no way of imparting knowledge but by beating their pupils. Husbands, of decent station, were not afraid to beat their wives.
.The more carefully we examine the history of the past, the more reason shall we find to dissent from those who imagine that the evils are, with scarcely an excep- tion, old. That which is new is the intelligence which discerns, and the humanity which remedies them.'
And now, in closing, let me revert to the thought with which I began-the Centennial Milestone and the commemoration sermons of the Reverend John Hancock delivered in the North Precinct Meeting- house of Braintree, now Quincy, in 1740.
Mutato nomine de te Fabula narratur;
A century ago, when already for a hundred years Needham had been set off from Dedham, a township by itself, the Reverend Stephen Palmer was its min- ister. A graduate of Harvard, in its class of 1789, ordained here in 1792, Mr. Palmer served acceptably as your pastor until 1821-nearly thirty years, in- cluding the first centennial of the town. How, or to what extent, that anniversary was then observed I do not know; I have not inquired. It is recorded that no less than twenty printed publications of Mr. Palmer have come down to us, sermons or addresses on special occasions. Among those occasional addresses not im- probably there may exist one on Needham's First Centennial. If so, it should now be exhumed, and again
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brought to light and life as a feature of this celebration for 1811 came about at a period when here the United States was trembling on the verge of a war with Great Britain, and in Europe Napoleon was preparing to embark on his fatal Russian venture. And now, think I pray you, how much it would have meant for you and, indeed, for us all, if at that time the Rev. Stephen Palmer, had bethought himself to do what would have been altogether possible ;- if as the Rev. John Hancock set out to do in Braintree fifty years before, but, in doing, failed-he had delivered a centennial address in which, not dealing with questions of doc- trine or indulging in flights of rhetoric, he had des- cribed exactly what the town of Needham then was. Of what great value and how intensely interesting that discourse and description would be today! Had he then spoken of the roads, had he spoken of the taverns, had he spoken of the schools, had he described the industries, the morals and the modes of life, what he then said would now for us be a priceless possession.
Then in closing, let me ask why you do not derive a lesson from the past, and, projecting yourself into the future, do for your posterity what was not done for you. This is the lesson I have to suggest for your celebration.
You are planting a milestone to-day; the milestone which marks the end of the second hundred years of the endless journey Needham will traverse. We think of the future as being like the present; so did they of 1811. I imagine, however, it is no exaggeration to say that during the next hundred years the changes which will take place will not be less epochal, not less pervasive, than the changes which have taken place during the hundred years now just ended.
When, therefore, men and women of Needham, your descendants and successors meet here a century
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hence, the town which now exists, so familiar to your eyes, will be as remote and strange to them as the Needham of 1811 is to you. Why, therefore, not erect a permanent milestone,-the record of what is here today, so little of which will then remain?
That to-day and to-morrow, you should have the games and the festivities which have marked the occa- sion, is entirely proper, altogether as it should be; but should you not also leave behind you a permanent memorial of it?
Let me therefore, suggest, this enduring character. These are the days of the surveyor, the printing press and the kodak. Accordingly you have it in your power with little effort to collect in Needham material in great perfection, of vast future interest. Then as a part of this celebration, the memory of which in its details will speedily fade away,-why not have prepared a volume in which shall be incorporated not only the record of the town as it exists, but illustrations showing each locality and its edifices. Ten years hence it will be little regarded; twenty years hence it will increase in interest; fifty years hence it will be well-nigh price- less. Not that only, but in these days of the kodak there should be filed away in your public library pic- tures and illustrations of every locality in the town, as it now is and looks. A hundred years hence it will be altogether different. And therefore, remembering my interest in the town of Quincy twenty years ago, and the changes there since then taken place, I can only say here and now that if the gentleman who is to follow me-for my time has come to a close- if that gentle- man, and those associated with him, will now as a part of this, your Two Hundredth Celebration, bring to- gether that mass of material and illustration and topog- raphy I have described-a thing so easily done-and incorporate it in a permanent memorial, they will have
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erected a Milestone marking the close of your Second Century which those who a hundred years hence shall meet to celebrate your Third Century, will regard not only as unique but as priceless." (Great applause.)
Selection by male chorus, "Comrades in Arms." Thirty voices under direction of Mr. F. S. Birchard.
THE CHAIRMAN. "At the solicitation of the com- mittee we have been enabled to secure for this occasion a poem written by Mrs. J. G. A. Carter, which will now be read by Mr. Roscoe A. Carter."
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MRS. J. G. A. CARTER
Sons of Needham, we greet you! We've heard the beat O'er a continent's breadth, of your home-coming feet;
From the North's frigid mountains, the South's sultry plain,
From the western Sierras, the near eastern main; As in festive array our fair town appears
To call the long roll of two hundred years,
With gladness of youth and sereneness of age She welcomes you home from the world's great stage; Here stay your footsteps, attend at her shrine,
Leave the furrow unturned, the gold in the mine; The workshop unopened, the hammer unswung, The harvest ungathered, its glories unsung; Leave the ships of the sea to the tossing tide, Leave the wealth unexplored, that beneath may hide,
Leave pleasure, leave treasure, leave power, leave all,
Renew the old days, the old home life recall;
Seek the woods where you wandered, the fields where you played,
The river that still winds blue through the glade; The haunts of the green hills, the dear old trees That still to you wave their long arms in the breeze;
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To the halls of your fathers, with gladness come! To the land of first love, your childhood's home!
With pride of possession our town boasts the day When the red men dwelt where she now holds sway; When the rippling Charles, all its winding length Bore his light canoe, felt his oar's swift strength; She points to the seal which her documents bear With its rude Indian wigwam pictured there, And grave old Nehoiden, rich owner of land, To his white neighbors giving the welcoming hand And to them transferring, for pittance of pay These acres we hold as our township today.
Our town, fair heritage from them descended, With beauty and thrift in full measure blended; For beauty, the forests, the river, the lakes; (What picture more lovely than Rosemary makes?) With sweetest of air, its healthfulness shedding, With purest of water, in bounty o'er spreading, With churches and schools, uplifting the land Toward culture the highest, to bless and expand, With factories humming, that bring her renown, Seats of Labor's true empire, from base to crown.
What makes a town's glory? We look forward to see When we living have passed, what judgment shall be; What then the true verdict of those who have wrought For Needham's advance in culture and thought? Men will turn back to each separate name That has added its share to good or bad fame, And where will praise fall? On him who has known But one narrow outlook for country or town?
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Who has servilely bowed to spirit of greed, Ignoring the heights where the soul might feed? Stumbling and marring the life he should make A pure shining light for posterity's sake?
Nay, rather on him who in both age and youth Here planted the standard of right and of truth; Here laid the foundation of true brotherhood, Taught how to advance the triumph of good; True townsmen unsullied by greed or by pelf, With shoulder to wheel, regardless of self, True father of citizens girded with power, Equipped for the need of the day and the hour.
Real town-lover he, who works for his town, Seeking only reward in her highest renown; He gives his best labor of hand, heart and head, To make a straight path where his fellows may tread; Holding lofty conceptions for one and the whole He fearlessly leads the sure way to the goal, And an ideal town shall give him acclaim Counting him the true townsman in deed and in name. Our town has a debt, owed to those who are gone, To the living as well, and men yet unborn; A debt to the past, for her heroes of years, When Needham wrote history with blood and with tears; To the present and future, for all who need aid, Of the strong to the weak, the brother afraid; A debt of the winner to him who has lost, A debt of the brave to the soul tempest-tossed; A debt of the pure to him who knows shame, A debt of the rich to the poor's honest claim; The one debt that Right owes always to Wrong,
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Uncancelled through life, be it never so long; The great human debt, bequeathed through all time, The payment of which is a thing sublime, For it must be paid in the coin of pure love, The currency honored wherever men rove; So paid, our good town shall her true glory find, And stand, a bright beacon, to bless mankind.
THE CHAIRMAN. "Needham is to be considered very fortunate in having as one of its citizens a man who has taken a great deal of interest and delight in accumulating various things concerning the town his- tory that Mr. Adams has spoken about, and so I have the pleasure to introduce,-if an introduction is nec- essary,-our fellow-townsman, George K. Clarke, Esq., who has written a sketch for this occasion."
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ADDRESS BY GEORGE K. CLARKE, ESQ.
"Mr. Chairman, fellow citizens, and welcome guests, before I commence my very brief address I wish to comply with a request of the selectmen of the town of Harvard in Worcester County and read to you the following communication:
'A greeting: The selectmen of Harvard, in behalf of the town, wish to congratulate the town of Needham on its two hundredth anniversary.
Respectfully, WILLIAM B. WILLARD, Chairman.'
One hundred years ago this autumn the inhabitants of Needham met on a Sunday in their meeting house at the old center of the town and devoted the day to an observance of the completion of the first century of the life of the town. Since 1811 this community has been changed as by an enchanter's wand,-the people, their homes, their ideas, their environment, their occupa- tions, all are of another age. There is, however, one characteristic left to link the men and women of the older time with those dwelling here today, and that is that Anglo-Saxon blood still predominates, and insti- stutions originating in old England are yet the ideals of the people, though subject to many innovations.
In 1811 the white inhabitants of this locality, with
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the exception of a few families whose predecessors came from Scotland, were practically all of English stock, and most of them were born in Needham and had passed their lives here. What races and what form of popular government will prevail in the year 2011 we cannot tell, but we may be sure of this,-that then they will nobly celebrate, and that what we have done and said this week will after a slumber of a hundred years again be of interest to living men.
Our town is a unit in a constellation of towns and cities and mighty states, and it is older than the Federal government itself. Its people have been among the builders of this great Republic, and its sons have shed their blood in many wars.
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