USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 15
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the Old North, occupied a wooden building erected on the site of his old church after its demolition, in front of which were some handsome elm-trees destroyed by the gale of 1815.
The Bethel Church, which stands on the east side of North Square, was long the scene of the labors of Father E. T. Tay- lor, the eloquent Methodist preacher. His parishioners were the sailors that found themselves in port for the time being, and having himself followed the sea, Father Taylor was pecu- liarly fitted to preach to the seafaring class. His discourses were filled with graphic illustrations from the language of the ocean, and went straight to the comprehension of his hearers. Frequently he would have his audience wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement by some graphic picture. On one occasion a rough, weather-beaten mariner became so interested in the preacher's wonderful portrayal of the impending destruc- tion of a gallant vessel, that, forgetful where he was, he ex- claimed, -" Let go your best bower ; nothing else will save you." Father Taylor quickly turned the interruption to good purpose. He was chaplain to the frigate sent with supplies to the famishing Irish, and spoke in Cork and Glasgow. A daughter married Hon. Thomas Russell, Collector of Boston. Father Taylor lived in the building at the corner of Prince Street, erected on the Frankland estate.
In 1676, November 27, happened the greatest fire that had occurred in the town up to this time. It broke out early in the morning near the Red Lyon, and consumed forty-five dwell- ings, the Old North Meeting-House, and several warehouses. The wind blew with great violence, carrying flakes of fire across the river and endangering Charlestown. Hubbard, in his His- tory of New England, says the fire occurred "through the carelessness of a boy called up to work very early in the morn- ing, who falling asleep, as was said, the candle set the house on fire." A change of wind from southeast to south, with a co- pious rain, arrested the flames at last. Increase Mather's dwell- ing was burned in this fire, which swept over the district now embraced within Richmond, Hanover, and Clark Streets to the water side.
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LANDMARKS OF BOSTON.
Clark's Wharf, subsequently Hancock's, was the most noted in the early history of the town, but was gradually rivalled by Long Wharf. It now coincides with the north side of Lewis's Wharf, although it originally formed no part of it. Thomas Hancock was the principal proprietor in 1761, owning seven eighths, as appears by an original statement of the income for that year. This wharf formerly opened into Fish, now North Street, and John Hancock's warehouses were upon it.
In June, 1768, John Hancock's sloop Liberty arrived from Madeira loaded with wine. As she was lying at Hancock's Wharf, says Drake's History, Thomas Kirk the tidewaiter came on board, and was followed by Captain John Marshall, who commanded Hancock's ship, the London Packet, with five or six others. These persons confined Kirk below until they had removed the wine from the ship, of which no entry was made at the Custom House. The next morning the master of the sloop entered, it is said, a few pipes of wine, and made oath it was all he brought. It was resolved to seize the vessel, and Joseph Harrison, collector, and Benjamin Hallowell, comptroller, repaired to the wharf and affixed "the broad arrow." Appre- hensive of the mob which had collected on the wharf, the sloop was moored under the guns of the Romney frigate.
The exasperated people now turned upon the officers, and beat and maltreated them so that Mr. Harrison was for some time confined to his bed, while his son, Richard Acklom, who was not present in any official capacity, was very roughly used. Hallowell and Irving, inspectors, fared no better. The mob broke the windows of Mr. John Williams, inspector-general, and also those of Mr. Hallowell's house, and finished by drag- ging the collector's boat to the Common, where they burnt every fragment of it. The revenue officers retired after this affair to the Castle, where they remained until the arrival of the troops in October.
On the 4th of July, ominous day to British rule, the 38th regiment landed at Hancock's Wharf, and marched to the Com- mon and encamped. When the British retreated from the town they scuttled a new ship of 300 tons then lying at this
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wharf, and left behind about 1,000 bushels of salt and 3,000 blankets.
Opposite the head of Hancock's Wharf, which we remind our readers once extended to the present North Street, was the North End Coffee House kept in 1783 by David Porter, who advertised that he had taken the Coffee House, where "gentle- men shall be entertained in a genteel manner." This was the father of David Porter of renown, and grandfather of the pres- ent Admiral David D. Porter. The elder Porter was himself an old ranger of the main, having commanded the private-armed vessels Aurora and Delight in the Revolutionary War. At the peace he took the Coffee House, located at one of the most im- portant wharves of the town, but soon removed to Baltimore, where he engaged in trade. The Coffee House was occupied in 1789 by Robert Wyre, distiller, and was for some time known as the Philadelphia Coffee House. The same house was after- wards the dwelling of Jonathan Amory, and later, of Colonel John May. It had, however, a prior importance, having been built and inhabited by Edward Hutchinson, brother of Thomas.
David Porter, the hero of the Essex, was born, it is said, in Charter Street. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1798, and fought his way to a captaincy in 1812. He was in the Constellation when she captured L'Insurgente ; first officer in that busy little craft the Enterprise before Tripoli ; of the frigate New York, under Rodgers ; and of the Philadelphia, under Bain- bridge, when he became a prisoner for eighteen months. He sailed from New York in the Essex, thirty-two guns, in July, 1812, and soon captured the British sloop Alert of twenty guns. Going around to the Pacific he annihilated the British whale- fishery, and captured the Nocton packet with £ 1,100 sterling on board, without finding a cruiser to molest him. Blockaded by the British ships Phobe and Cherub in Valparaiso, he at- tempted to get to sea, but losing some of his spars by a sudden squall, was forced to anchor. Here he maintained a bloody and determined resistance until his ship was on fire and incapable of fighting, when his flag was hauled down. Porter afterwards commanded the Mexican navy, and filled the post of minister from his native country to Turkey.
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Returning through Fleet Street to Hanover, we find that the use of swinging signs, and carved figures for the shop fronts or houses of entertainment is by no means as unusual as has been supposed. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to walk over the district we are describing. Jack is represented in every conceivable attitude. We are in no danger of losing our reckoning, for quadrant or sextant are pendent from every cor- ner, while a jolly tar with spyglass to his eye forever scans the neighboring shipping. Female heads, with features as weird as those of the famed lady of the Red Rover, gaze from the en- trance of some ship artisan, while figures of Venus, Hebe, or 'Mary Ann start forth as if in the act of leaping from the painter's window to the pavement below.
The First Universalist Church was at the corner of North Bennet and Hanover Streets. It was a wooden building erected by seceders from the Old North, with Rev. Samuel Mather for their pastor. After the decease of Mather, in 1785, the house passed by purchase into the hands of the Universalists. The first pastor of the society was the Rev. John Murray, the father of American Universalism, who, it is said, was greeted with a shower of stones when he first attempted to preach in Boston. While the building stood, it was the last of the old wooden churches, but after ninety-six years of service it was succeeded by the brick edifice built in 1838, now a Baptist Seamen's Bethel.
The brick chapel, on the north side of North Bennet Street, and only a few paces from Hanover, was the second house of worship of the Methodists in Boston. They first occupied a small wooden structure in Methodist Alley, now Hanover Ave- nue. The society, which has now such numerical strength in the land, had, it is asserted, its beginning among the British soldiers who arrived in 1768, a few of whom were Methodists. In 1772 Mr. Boardman, colleague of Pillmore, the first Metho- dist preacher sent to America by Wesley, formed a small society, which soon dissolved. In October, 1784, Rev. William Black, of Halifax, preached in the Sandemanian Chapel, on Hanover, near Cross Street, and in the Second Baptist Church. The building in Methodist Alley was dedicated in May, 1796, and
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continued to be used by the society until September, 1828, when the North Bennet Street Chapel was dedicated.
A distressing accident occurred at the laying of the corner- stone of this chapel. The floor gave way under the pressure of the great number of people attending the ceremony, and precipi- tated the living mass into the cellar beneath. No lives were lost, but many received serious injuries.
The famous eccentric preacher, Lorenzo Dow, occasionally preached in the little church in Methodist Alley. He was ex- tremely theatrical in his manner, but an effective speaker. In this small house the preacher might almost shake hands with his hearers in the front seats of the gallery.
The New North Church is one of the monuments still pre- served in the North End. Seventeen substantial mechanics formed the nucleus of this, the Second Congregational Society in this part of the town. In 1714 they erected a small wooden building at the corner of Clark and Hanover (North) Streets, " unassisted by the more wealthy part of the community except by their prayers and good wishes." This house required enlargement, in 1730, to accom- modate its increasing congrega- tion ; and in 1802 was superseded by the present edifice. In 1805 NEW NORTH CHURCH. a bell from the foundry of Paul Revere was placed in the tower. John Webb was the first minister, the two Mathers assisting at the ordination. Within a few years the church has been moved back to conform to the increased width of the street, and is now used by the Catholics.
The installation of Rev. Peter Thacher, in 1719, as Mr. Webb's colleague, was attempted to be prevented by the minor- ity opposed to him, who assembled at the house of Thomas Lee, in Bennet Street, next the Universalist meeting-house,
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resolved to resist the progress of the minister and the council which met at Mr. Webb's, on the corner of North Bennet and Salem Streets. A crowd gathered and matters looked serious, when Mr. Webb led his party out by a back way to the church, thus out-manœuvring the rival faction. The house of Dr. Eliot, of the New North, is still standing. It is next but one to the north corner of Hanover and Tileston Streets, is of wood, and appears in good preservation.
On the southwest corner of North and Clark Streets stood, within a few years, an ancient brick building, reputed to be over two hundred years old. It was certainly built as early as 1650, and probably dated back a few years anterior. It had been one of the oldest inns or ordinaries in Boston, and was called the " Ship Tavern." It stood at the head of or opposite Clark's shipyard, and was kept by John Vyal in 1663. Vyal's was a favorite resort of the King's Commissioners, who were sent over by Charles II., after the restoration, with instruc- tions to visit the New England Colonies, and adjust all matters of dispute. Colonel Richard Nichols, a soldier of Turenne, Colonel George Cartwright, Sir Robert Carr, and Samuel Maverick, the founder of East Boston, composed the commission.
Sir Robert Carr having assaulted a constable at the Ship Tavern, Governor Leverett sent a letter requesting Sir Robert to attend at his house to answer the complaint lodged against him. Carr replied as follows : -
Sr Yors I receyved last night in answer to wh as I am S' Robert Carr I would have complyed wth vor desyres, but as I am wth ye Kyng's Commission, I shal not grant yor requests, both in respect of his Majestyes honor and my oune duty, and rest yours
Boston Jan. 23. 1666. ROBERT CARR For Major General John Leverett, these *
A second summons to Carr was received with a reply more insulting in its tenor than the first, and the bellicose commis- sioner seems to have avoided the arrest.
As far back as Vyal's proprietorship the tavern was known
Hist. and Antiq. of Boston.
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as the " Noah's Ark," doubtless from the fancied resemblance of the ship on its sign to the Ark of Scripture. By this name it was subsequently known until its disappearance in 1866, both in the proprietor's deeds and by common repute.
The old Ship Tavern, or Noah's Ark, was probably built by Thomas Hawkins, whose shipyard was below. It became later the property of Thomas Hutchinson, father of the governor, and was given by him to his daughter Hannah, the wife of Rev. Samuel Mather. The original building was of two stories, to which a third was added by a modern proprietor. The walls were of brick, laid in the English Bond, with overhanging eaves, and roof with projecting Lutheran windows. A seam in the old front wall was attributed to the earthquake of 1663. It was altogether a remarkable specimen of the antique style of buildings, of which not a single pure specimen is now existing in Boston.
Besides the tavern, Vyal carried on a brew-house, one of the first of which we find any mention, at the corner of Clark and North Streets, where Mathews' Block now is. This brew- house obtained a wide reputation both in the Colonies and abroad, rivalling Burton's or Alsopp's of our day. The old tavern of Vyal was used as a barrack by the British troops. While there, a contagion broke out among them which carried off a large number.
What is now Harris Street, next north of Clark, was once known as White-Bread Alley, and is so laid down on the maps. It was so named from the circumstance that the first penny rolls ever offered for sale in Boston were baked there by Madam Tudor. She was an Englishwoman, and began by sending her little son, afterwards Deacon John Tudor, around among the neighbors with her bread. She died at ninety, and the busi- ness was continued by her son.
We next come to Salutation Street, raised in modern times from the meaner appellation of " alley " without any particular pretension to the dignity. Its singular name comes from the old Salutation Tavern, in former times at the corner of the alley and North Street. A grotesque sign, descriptive of the
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meeting of two gentlemen of the era of small clothes, cocked hats, etc., in the act of greeting each other, gave the hostelry its name. Samuel Green kept there in 1731, and William Campbell in 1773.
The Salutation, also called the Two Palaverers, while kept by Campbell, was the rendezvous of the famous North End Caucus. In the " Hundred Boston Orators " it is stated that this Revolutionary association originated with Warren, and that the resolutions for the destruction of the tea were there drawn up. It consisted at first of sixty-one members. Dr. John Young was the first president. When the best means of ridding Bos- ton of the regulars was under discussion, Hancock, who was a member, exclaimed, " Burn Boston and make John Hancock a beggar, if the public good requires it."
The word " caucus " is said to occur first in Gordon's " History of the American Revolution," Vol. I. p. 365, published in 1788. He says that more than fifty years previous to his time of writ- ing, " Samuel Adams and twenty others in Boston, one or two from the North End of the town, where all the ship business is carried on, used to meet, make a caucus, etc." From the fact that the meetings were held in a part of Boston where all the ship business was carried on, Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary (Boston, 1816), infers that " caucus " may be a corruption of " calkers," the word " meeting " being understood. This deriva- tion has been adopted by others.
A few steps bring us to Battery Street, likewise an alley in 1708, receiving its name from the North Battery below, to which it conducted. It formerly run from Charter Street to the Battery, but now to Hanover Street only.
The first mention of what was afterwards called the North Battery occurs in the records in January, 1644, when a work at Merry's Point was agreed upon. There was, however, no definite action taken until 1646, when there appear propositions about a fortification at the North End, "att Walter Merry's point." Johnson's " Wonder-Working Providence" speaks of the forts on Copp's and Fort Hill as " the one well fortified on the superficies thereof with store of great artillery well mounted.
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FROM BOSTON STONE TO THE NORTH BATTERY.
The other hath a very strong battery built of whole timber and filled with earth," the latter being the North Battery. In 1706 a project was brought before the town to extend the North Battery one hundred and twenty feet, with a breadth of forty feet, and £ 1,000 were voted for the improvement and security of the work. John Steele had command in 1750.
The town sold the North Battery to Jeffrey and Russell. It became Jeffrey's Wharf between 1789 and 1796, and is now Battery Wharf, in memory of its ancient purposes.
The 52d, 43d, and 47th British regiments, with companies of grenadiers and light infantry, embarked from the North Battery on the day of Bunker Hill, as did also the 1st Battalion of Marines, led by Major Pitcairn, of Lexington fame, who fell a victim to the murderous fire from the fatal redoubt while gallantly urging on his men to the attack.
When Lord Howe evacuated Boston the North Battery was armed with seven twelve-pounders, two nine-pounders, and four six-pounders, - all rendered unserviceable. From its position the work commanded the entrance to Charles River as well as the Town Cove; and was deemed of the highest military im- portance in those days of short-range artillery.
While in the neighborhood of the prominent wharves, we may appropriately refer to the long trucks once used in Boston for conveying heavy merchandise. As long ago as 1720 trucks were used, when we find, by an order regulating them, none were to be " more than eighteen feet long ; to employ but two horses in one team ; to carry no more than one ton at a load ; and wheel tires to be four inches wide ; the driver to go at the head of the thill horse, which he must govern by a halter to be kept in the hand." These ponderous vehicles finally disap- peared, and with them that distinctive body of men, the " Bos- ton Truckmen," who once formed a leading and attractive feature of our public processions, with their white frocks and black hats, mounted on their magnificent truck-horses. Hardy and athletic, it would have been hard to find their equals on either side of the water. The long jiggers now used are scarcely less objectionable than the old trucks.
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LANDMARKS OF BOSTON.
CHAPTER VI.
A VISIT TO THE OLD SHIPYARDS.
Early Ship-Building. - Boston Shipyards. - Massachusetts Frigate. - New England Naval Flag. - First Seventy-Four. - Hartt's Naval Yard. - The Constitution. - Her Launch, History, and Exploits. - Anecdotes of Hull, Bainbridge, and Decatur. - Old Ironsides Rebuilt. - Josiah Barker. - Nicholson. - Preble. - Stewart. - Other Distinguished Officers. - Escape from the British Fleet. - Anecdote of Dr. Bentley. - Action with the Guerriere. - The Java. - Cyane and Levant. - Relics of Old Ironsides. - Affair of the Figure-Head. - Captain Dewey. - The Frigate Boston. - Capture of Le Berceau. - The Argus.
W E have now brought the reader among the shipyards, which were in bygone days a principal feature of the North End. The first ship built in the vicinity of Boston was the " Blessing of the Bay," at what is now Medford. It was a bark of thirty tons ordered by Governor Winthrop, and was launched on the 4th of July, 1631. In 1632 - 33 a " shippe of a hundred tunnes " was launched in the same town, so that the Medford ship- wrights seem to bear off the palm in establishing this industry in our neighborhood. The first mention of ship-building in Boston occurs in 1640, and a hundred years later ANCIENT SHIP. there were on the stocks at the same time forty topsail vessels with seven thousand tons' capacity.
As early as 1645 Captain Thomas Hawkins built the Seafort, a fine ship of four hundred tons, at his yard at the foot of Clark Street ; she was lost on the coast of Spain. John Rich- ards succeeded to the yard on the north of the Ship Tavern in 1688. Clark's yard was the same in 1722. In 1708 Joshua
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A VISIT TO THE OLD SHIPYARDS.
Gee had a shipyard at the foot of Copp's Hill, and fourteen years later there were no less than six yards lying around the base of the hill, two below Fort Hill, and another beyond the causeway at West Boston. In 1745 was built the Massachu- setts Frigate, which, under command of Captain Edward Tyng, accompanied Sir William Pepperell's expedition against Louis- burg, where she rendered efficient service, capturing the Vigi- lant, French man-of-war of sixty-four guns, - more than double her own force. According to Captain G. H. Preble's " Notes on Early Ship-Building," ".when it was designed to reduce Louis- burg, Governor Shirley directed Captain Tyng to procure the largest ship in his power. He accordingly purchased one on the stocks nearly ready for launching, and made such improvements upon her that she was able to carry twenty-four to twenty-six guns." On her return to Boston this frigate brought Governor Shirley and lady, who had been to the theatre of war. They met with a splendid ovation at the hands of the Bostonians, as we have related elsewhere.
We may appropriately mention here the colors which were used on the sea by the colony before 1700, a representation of which is given herewith. The field and cross were red, the tree green, and the union white. The tree appears as a distinctive emblem on the coins as well as the flag.
Pemberton, in his description of Boston, written in 1794, says :-
NEW ENGLAND FLAG.
"Ship-building was formerly carried on at upwards of twenty- seven dock-yards in the town at one and the same time, and em- ployed a large number of mechanicks. In one of the yards, twelve ships have been launched in twelve months. In all the dock-yards, I am credibly informed there have been upwards of sixty vessels on the stocks at one time. Many of the ships built here were sent directly to London with naval stores, whale oil, etc., and to the West Indies with fish and lumber. The whale and cod fishery employed many of our smaller craft. They were nurseries, and produced many hardy seamen. About the year 1750, when paper money was sup- pressed in this then colony, the sale of ships lying in England, on
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account of the owners here, occasioned a loss to them from twenty to forty per cent. Few ships were built here, and ship-building grad- ually declined. Vessels are now built in the country towns not far from where the timber grows.
"The harbor of Boston is at this date " (November, 1794), con- tinues Pemberton, "crowded with vessels. Eighty-four sail have been counted lying at two of the wharves only. It is reckoned that not less than four hundred and fifty sail of ships, brigs, schooners, and sloops, and small crafts are now in port."
The first war-ship built in Boston was a seventy-four, laid down at the yard of Benjamin Goodwin, - afterwards Tilley's. Wharf, - a short distance from Charlestown Bridge. She was ordered by the Continental Congress, and Thomas Cushing, afterwards lieutenant-governor, then agent of the government, took possession of the dwelling-house, stores, wharf, and yard of Goodwin for this purpose. In 1784, the exigency having passed by, the ship was sold on the stocks by Thomas Russell as agent of the United States. This was probably the first seventy-four begun in the United States.
It is stated in Emmons's excellent " History of the Navy " that the America, built at Portsmouth in 1782, the command of which was destined for the renowned Paul Jones, was the first vessel of this class built for our navy. She appears to have been the first afloat. The America, awarded by a unanimous vote of Con- gress to the conqueror of the Serapis, was given to the French, to supply the loss of the Mag- nifique, lost in Boston harbor in the above year. Her fate is a matter of uncertainty.
SHIP OF THE TIME OF THE PILGRIMS.
Edmund Hartt's shipyard will be forever famous in our an- nals as the place where the Pride of the American Navy was built. The Hartts were a family of shipwrights. Besides Edmund, there were Edward, Zephaniah, and Ralph the mast-
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