USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 25
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Elihu Burritt, the learned blacksmith, lectured in the theatre before its alteration, for the benefit of the Church Society. Under the auspices of the Mercantile Library Association, Webster, Choate, and Everett have delivered addresses in the Temple, while Jenny Lind and Catherine Hays have here poured forth their golden notes to enraptured audiences. Here, too, Gliddon unrolled his mummy in presence of astonished spectators, and set the medical fraternity in a fever of ex- citement. Last, but not least, came Charles Dickens, to in- terpret his own incomparable works.
In the building adjoining the Temple are the quarters of the Independent Cadets, the oldest military organization, next to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, in Boston. This corps was instituted in 1786, but existed prior to that time. It was first styled the Governor's Foot Guards. The comman- ders had the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Leonard Jarvis was the commander in 1768, and John Hancock was elected in 1772, receiving his commission from Governor Hutchinson. The Boston Gazette of May 12, 1772, contains the following advertisement : -
" WANTED, Immediately, For His Excellency's Company of Cadets, Two Fifers that understand Playing. Those that are Masters of Musick, and are inclined to engage with the Company, are desired to apply to Col. John Hancock."
The company received General Gage when he landed at Long Wharf, in May, 1774, and escorted him to the Court House and thence to the Province House, his residence. The general had caused a beautiful silk standard with his arms em- broidered thereon to be made in London, and presented to the Cadets. Becoming, however, jealous and suspicious of Hancock,
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the governor revoked his commission through Thomas Flucker, his secretary, upon which the corps disbanded, and through a committee returned the standard to Gage at Danvers.
In 1778 the Cadets were redivivi, being then commanded by Colonel Hichborn. In that year they took part in the ex- pedition to Rhode Island, as did also the Light Infantry Com- pany. Hancock, their old commander, was now major-general, and accompanied them. The first parade of the Cadets after the peace was in 1785. Colonel T. H. Perkins commanded in 1789.
Bromfield Street was named, in 1796, for Honorable Edward Bromfield, a distinguished merchant, whose mansion stood on the site of the Bromfield House. Previously it was Rawson's Lane ; it continued to be called Bromfield's Lane until 1829.
The Horticultural Building stands on the site of the old Museum. Montgomery Place is of modern origin. Bumstead Place, once the abode of Adino Paddock, coach and chariot. builder for the gentry of Boston and the country round, has been sealed by a solid wall of buildings, saving only the en- trance to Music Hall. Paddock was a hot tory, and left Bos- ton with the royal party. His estate, it is said, fell into the hands of Bumstead, a coach-maker like himself, from whom the place took its name.
Paddock is entitled to grateful remembrance for the noble English elms he planted opposite his habitation, known 'as Paddock's Mall. The year 1762 has been assigned as the probable period of their setting out, consequently they have stood considerably more than a hundred years, though they now show symptoms of decay. The trees came from England .. They were kept for a time in a nursery at Milton, until placed here by Paddock, assisted by John Ballard and John Crane ; the latter a member of Paddock's train of artillery. " Pad- dock's Walk " and "Row " are other names by which the mall has been called.
These trees have been subject to many vicissitudes. Three of them have been removed and eleven are left standing. Mutilation has done its work upon them. The storms of a
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century have wrenched their branches, until the naked trunks are scarce concealed in the scanty foliage. The great gale of 1815 did them much damage. Some injury was done to the growing trees during the rejoicings over the repeal of the Stamp Act. The British troops, perhaps out of sympathy with their tory adherent, did them no harm, though the trees of the great mall were less respected. But the greatest enemy to the exist- ence of the trees is found in the spirit of improvement, which seeks to make a modern city out of Old Boston. An abortive effort to have them removed was made in 1860; and again, while we write, they are marked for destruction.
" Woodman, spare that tree ! Touch not a single bough ! In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now. "T was my forefather's hand That placed it near his cot ; There, woodman, let it stand, Thy axe shall harm it not."
Paddock was, in 1774, captain of the train of artillery be- longing to the Boston Regiment, of which John Erving was colonel. This company was particularly distinguished for its superior discipline and the excellence of its material. In this school were raised two artillery officers of high repute in the Revolutionary army, namely, Colonel John Crane and General Ebenezer Stevens. Both were housewrights, and the company was itself composed of mechanics. The two officers named are not the only ones who gained distinction in the battle-fields of the old war. Paddock, on his return to England, was frequently consulted by the ministry about American affairs, and received the military command of the island of Jersey. In 1769 Pad- dock was one of the firewards of the town of Boston, associated with John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Thomas Dawes, and others.
George Cabot, a prominent leader of the Massachusetts Fed- eralists, lived in the first house in Bumstead Place in 1810. He was in early life like the old navigators, his namesakes, a sailor, and became a very successful merchant ; was president of the United States Branch Bank in the year mentioned, hav-
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ing a conceded reputation as a financier. While in the United States Senate in 1791 - 96, Hamilton, the founder of our finan- cial system, often conferred with him. Mr. Cabot incurred great odium for his connection with the Hartford Convention in 1814, of which body he was president. Aaron Burr said of him when in the Senate, that " he never spoke but light fol- lowed him."
Granary Burial-Ground is notable for the honored ashes it contains. It dates back to 1660, and was first called the " South Burying-Ground " ; the subsequent name of " Granary " was from the town granary, which stood within the enclosure. It is necessary to say here that the Common originally extended in this direction to the Tremont House, and the cemetery is formed from its ancient territory. The eastern margin reached to Mason Street, and Tremont Street therefore runs through the Common, as it originally was. After the creation of the Common Burying-Ground, the Granary was sometimes styled the " Middle " Ground.
" I like that ancient Saxon phrase which calls The burial-ground God's Acre ! It is just ; It consecrates each grave within its walls, And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust."
The Checkleys, Byfields, Lydes, Faneuils, Wendells, and a host of the old Bostonians, Governors Bellingham, Dummer, Hancock, Adams, Bowdoin, Cushing, Sullivan, Eustis, and Sumner lie beneath the sod in this cemetery. The celebrated surgeon, Dr. John Jeffries, Uriah Cotting, Rev. Messrs. Eckley, Belknap, Stillman, Lathrop, and Baldwin, and Judge Sewall and John Hull, are also entombed here.
The Bellingham family becoming extinct, his tomb was given to the family of Governor James Sullivan. It lies on the west side of the enclosure. The Faneuil inscription was chiselled Funal by some awkward hand, who thus clipped the old Huguenot patronymic of its due proportions. Governor Hancock's tomb is on the Park Street side. His remains, after lying eight days in state, were brought to their last resting- place by an immense concourse of people. The venerable
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Samuel Adams followed the bier until fatigue compelled him to retire. It was one of the greatest funeral pageants Boston had seen. The ranks of the procession were swelled by the
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militia of town and country. The Judges of the Supreme Court on this occasion made their last appearance in their big wigs and black silk gowns. They were followed by the barris- ters in black gowns and club wigs.
General Warren's remains were placed in the tomb of the Minots, next to that of Hancock, and immediately in rear of the residence of Dr. J. C. Warren, after they were exhumed at Bunker Hill.
The cemetery acquires an even greater interest from being the place where the victims of the Boston Massacre were buried. Their funeral was conducted with great pomp ; but although their martyrdom has been heralded as the foundation-stone of American Liberty, the remains of the slaughtered Bostonians 13 *
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have received no fitting testimonial from their countrymen. The spot was long indicated by a larch-tree, but this, falling to decay, has been recently replaced by the care of Mr. Appollonio.
The Franklin cenotaph stands out in bold relief in the midst of the field of the dead. Under it repose the dust of both of Franklin's parents. The monument was erected through the exertions of a few citizens in 1827, and the ceremony of laying the corner-stone was attended by the governor, lieutenant-gov- ernor, and many other officials. General H. A. S. Dearborn delivered an address ; some Franklin School medals were appro- priately placed underneath.
By the year 1738 both this and King's Chapel ground be- came so filled with the dead that the grave-diggers were obliged to bury them four deep. In this year the brick wall and tombs were erected on the front of the old, or Chapel, burying-place. The Granary ground was enlarged in 1716-17 by taking in part of the highway on the easterly side, but in about twenty years it became overcrowded, as we have seen, and the town began to cast about for a new location. It was not until after the date last mentioned that any tombs were erected here.
Where was there ever a graveyard without its attendant hor- rors ? Tradition is responsible for the statement that the hand of Hancock was severed from the arm the night after his inter- ment ; but this proved a cruel invention. An instance is given of an empty tomb being taken possession of by some wandering vagrants, from which they terrified the neighborhood by the sound of midnight revelry. Human jackals have practised here their hateful calling, robbing the graves of their peaceful inhabitants.
The stone wall and fence were erected under the administra- tion of Mayor Armstrong. It is now proposed to carry a new avenue across the cemetery. This being done, the remains of the greatest and most honored of our ancestors will be scattered far and near.
" Imperial Cæsar, dead, and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away."
Next the burial-ground stood the Old Granary. It was a
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long wooden building, erected first at the upper side of the Com- mon, but removed about 1737 to the present site of the church. It was established so as to have a supply of grain, especially in cases of scarcity, where the poor might purchase the smallest quantities at a small advance on the cost. The building con- tained, when full, twelve thousand bushels, and was the largest in the town. The selectmen appointed a keeper at their March meeting, also a committee for the purchase of grain. John Fenno, a noted wit, was keeper before the Revolution. It was not used as a granary after the American war, but was occupied by various minor town officials. In 1795 the town voted to sell the building, on condition of an early removal. Still it- remained tenanted by various tradesmen, refreshment stands, etc., until 1809, when it was removed to Commercial Point, Dorchester, and altered into a hotel. There it may now be seen. We have noticed that the Constitution's sails were made in the Granary.
All the land upon which Park Street is built belonged to the Common, and was at an early day appropriated to uses of the town for various institutions. The street was first called Centry Street, from its leading up to Centry Hill, as the summit of Beacon Hill was called.
The Almshouse was first erected on Beacon Street, in 1662. It was burnt in 1682, measures being then taken to rebuild it. The reconstructed building was a two-story brick, with a gable roof, fronting on Beacon Street ; it was of an L shape. This was designed as a home for the poor, aged, or infirm. It was soon found that the mingling under the same roof of persons deserving charity with those confined for offences against the laws was an evil demanding a remedy, and measures were taken, in 1712, to build a Bridewell, or House of Correction. This was erected in Park Street, in what year does not appear, but it is shown on the map of 1722. A part of this house was applied to the use of the insane.
A Workhouse was erected in 1738, contiguous to the Bride- well. It was a large, handsome brick building, facing the Common, of two stories, gable roof, and was a hundred and
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twenty feet in length. This building was devoted to the con- finement of minor offenders, such as the province law styled " rogues and vagabonds."
The Almshouse became, in the lapse of years, totally inade- quate to its purposes. It had no proper ventilation, nor sepa- rate hospital for the treatment of the sick ; bad air, filth, and overcrowding told fearfully upon the inmates. No remedy was applied to these evils until 1801, when a new building was erected in Leverett Street. During the Revolutionary War the inmates frequently suffered for the necessaries of life, and appear to have been at all times largely dependent on the charity of the townspeople. In 1795 the town sold all its property on Park and Beacon Streets, except the Granary or church lot.
Both Almshouse and Workhouse were under the government of the overseers of the poor, represented by keepers. The inmates of the former, whatever may have been their temporal needs, were cared for spiritually, a sermon being preached to them every Sunday in summer. Captain Keayne, in 1656, left a legacy of £ 120, and Mr. Webb, in 1660, one of £ 100, for the founding of the Almshouse, which was received and applied by the town in 1662. The former also left a sum to be used in building a granary. Both Workhouse and Almshouse were occupied by the British wounded after Bunker Hill.
Adjoining the Bridewell was the Pound, situated where the Quincy residence now is. Such were the antecedents of Park and Beacon Streets.
For a long time the handsome spire of Park Street Church was the highest object seen on approaching the city. It, how- ever, succumbed to its neighbor in Somerset Street, placed at a greater altitude. As one of the monuments of the Common it is inseparable from the landscape, the slender, graceful steeple rising majestically above the tree-tops from any point of obser- vation. The little monitor of the weather on its pinnacle recalls the lines of Albert G. Greene : -
" The dawn has broke, the morn is up, Another day begun ; And there thy poised and gilded spear Is flashing in the sun,
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Upon that steep and lofty tower, Where thou thy watch hast kept,
A true and faithful sentinel, While all around thee slept."
The church was erected in 1809, and was the first Congrega- tional Society constituted since 1748. From the fervor of the doctrines preached within its walls, its site has been known as " Brimstone Corner," - a name too suggestive to be agreeable.
PARK STREET CHURCH.
Edward D. Griffin, D. D., was the first pastor. Dwight, Beecher, Stone, and other gifted preachers have occupied its pulpit. Underneath were vaults - long since removed - for the dead. Peter Banner, an English architect, the same who made the plan for the fine old mansion-house of Eben Crafts in Roxbury, de- signed this church.
The Manufactory House of the old colony times stood on the east side of what is Hamilton Place. The west end fronted Long Acre, or Tremont Street, and had delineated upon the
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wall a female figure, distaff in hand, symbolic of the industry it was intended to promote.
The establishment of spinning-schools is an interesting inci- dent in the history of Boston. The manufacture of cotton had begun as early as 1643, the raw material being obtained from the West Indies. In 1665, owing to the scarcity of cloth, the court ordered spinning to be em- ployed in private families, some abate- ment from the rates being made as compensation.
About 1718 a number of colonists LINEN SPINNING-WHEEL. arrived from Londonderry, bringing with them the manufacture of linen and the implements used in Ireland. The matter was earnestly taken up by the Bosto- nians, and a vote passed to establish a spinning-school on the waste land in front of Captain Southack's, - about where Scol- lay's buildings were. These emigrants likewise introduced the general use of their favorite vegetable, the potato.
From these beginnings dates the establishment of the Manu- factory House by the province. William Phillips, Molineux, and others carried the measure through the General Court. An excise was laid on carriages and articles of luxury to erect the build- 11 ing. Spinning now became the order of the day. Young and old, rich and poor, repaired to the Com- mon with their spinning-wheels, great and small, stimulated by a premium offered to the most skilful. Many were clad in garments of their own manufacture as evidence of their industry, and on the appointed days the mall resounded with the WOOLLEN SPINNING-WHEEL.' hum of busy wheels. The novelty soon wore off, and after three or four years the manufacture wholly ceased. For a short
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time afterwards it was used for the manufacture of worsted hose, metal buttons, etc., but in 1768 was rented by the prov- ince and occupied by private families.
At this time it acquired celebrity from the attempt made by Colonel Dalrymple, of the 14th royal regulars, to obtain it for quarters for his regiment ; but the tenants, with Mr. Elisha Brown at their head, flatly refused them admission. Governor Bernard issued his mandate, which was served by the sheriff, ordering the surrender of the premises ; but the doors were securely closed, and Brown boldly denied the right of Bernard to dispossess him. The wily lieutenant-governor tried next to induce the tenants to open, but with no. greater success, and at last a stratagem was tried. The sheriff and his deputies ob- tained an entrance to the cellar, but instead of securing the obstinate tenant, were by him made close prisoners in the cellar, where they remained until a file of soldiers from the Com- mon came and released them.
Thus did Elisha Brown make good his resistance against the combined civil and military authority of the province, after enduring a state of siege for several weeks. A gravestone in the Granary commemorates his gallant vindication of private rights. Dalrymple's men were quartered in Faneuil Hall.
The Massachusetts Bank was first located in this building. It was instituted in 1784, in which year the bank became a purchaser of the building, sold by order of the General Court. Banking was a very different affair in those days from what it is at present. Articles of merchandise were received as security for loans, and an entertaining picture might be drawn of the procession drawn up before the doors on discount days. One half per cent per month was the rate demanded, and no credit could exceed sixty days. Governor Bowdoin was the first president.
The building was of two stories, of brick, with an entrance on Hamilton Place by a flight of double stone steps protected by an iron railing. It was used by the British during the occupation, and received its quota of the wounded from Bunker Hill. Various families occupied it in after years ; also P. A. von
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Hagen, a pioneer in the manufacture of pianofortes. In 1806 it was pulled down, and Hamilton Place then built. The Manufactory House was one hundred and forty feet long, with an unobstructed southerly view in 1784. It had a large hall in the centre, with wings fifty feet long extending upon either side ; underneath was an excellent cellar, the same in which Sheriff Greenleaf sojourned. The central part was occupied by the bank, giving twenty other apartments for tenants. The land belonging to it covered the whole place.
"The corner of Hamilton Place has interesting literary asso- ciations, having been occupied by the publishers of the Atlan- tic Monthly and the North American Review. The originator of the Review was William Tudor, son of Hon. Judge Tudor, and one of the founders of the Anthology Club. The first four volumes of the Review, which was first published in 1811, are said to be almost entirely from his hand ; the first number, even to the literary notices, was, as Mr. Tudor himself stated, wholly written by him. Mr. Tudor, as the agent of his brother Frederick, established in 1805 the traffic in ice with the West Indies, which has grown to such prodigious proportions. He was also the first to draw public attention to the erection of a mon- ument on Bunker Hill, but did not live to see its completion.
As we are trenching on the limits of Long Acre, a Revolu- tionary incident rises into view. Here, on the morning of the 19th of April, Earl Percy ranged his columns for the march to Lexington. Colonel Smith had sent a courier requesting rein- forcements, and Percy was to command them. His brigade, made up of eight companies of three regiments of infantry, the 4th, 23d, and 49th, detachments of Pitcairn's marines, and two pieces of artillery, extended from the head of the mall to Court Street, opposite the school-house of Master Carter. Percy, mounted on a white horse, galloped up and down his ranks. The school, thrown into a ferment by the unusual spectacle, was dismissed by the master with the speech, - " Boys, war has begun ; the school is broken up."
The column took up its march over the Neck to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Percy seems to have stood high in the confi-
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dence of his general, and, in fact, he appears to have been a. universal favorite. The return from the march in which the provincials
" Taught Percy fashionable races, And modern modes of Chevy-chaces,"
is celebrated in the Revolutionary ballad in this wise :-
" Lord Piercy seemed to snore, - but may the muse This ill-timed snoring to the peer excuse. Tired was the long boy of his toilsome day ; Full fifteen miles he fled, - a tedious way ; How should he then the dews of Somnus shun, Perhaps not used to walk, much less to run."
The Common is now, as under the government of John Win- throp, the common land of the inhabitants of Boston. Its original purpose was for pasturage and military parade. From the earliest times until after Boston became a city, the tinkling of bells and lowing of cattle might be heard across its hills and dales. It was, after its purchase from Blackstone, preserved from encroachment by a vote passed March 30, 1640 : -
" Ordered, that no more land be granted in the Town out of the open ground or common field, which is between Centry Hill and Mr. Colbron's end, except 3 or 4 lots to make vp the street from Bro. Robt. Walker's to the Round Marsh."
Colbron's field was at the lower end of the Common, lying along Pleasant Street and the water, to Washington Street. It was Boylston Street that the selectmen had in view.
No other city in America has fifty acres of green turf and noble forest trees in its very midst. Its central position renders it accessible from every quarter of the town, and, although it is not dignified with the name of a park, it is at once the glory and beauty of the ancient peninsula. We shall take up its features as we pass along under the green arches of the Great Mall.
Upon the earliest map you will see but three trees on the Common. These were the monarch, then and still known as the " great tree," and two of respectable size standing near the middle of Park Street. The first trees planted were the outer row on Tremont Street, between 1722 and 1729. A second
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row was placed there in 1734, and the third was added fifty years later, - some authorities say before the Revolution. This · walk was long known as "The Mall," there being no other within the Common, until that next Beacon Street was laid out in 1815- 16. Charles Street was the next laid out, in 1823 ; and Park Street Mall, in 1826, under the elder Quincy's may- oralty.
It has been stated, on the authority of the son of one of those employed, that the first trees of the Great Mall, set out near the Park Street Church, were planted by the apprentices · of Adam Colson the elder, then one of the selectmen of the town. One of the apprentices was named Hurd. Colson was a leather-dresser, and lived in Frog Lane, now Boylston Street.
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