USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 27
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Courtall,
Taylor.
Villars,
A Young American.
Hardy,
Simson.
Letitia Hardy,
Mrs. S. Powell.
Lady Frances,
Mrs. Hughes.
Miss Ogle,
Miss Harrison.
Mrs. Racket,
Mrs. Simpson.
The Winthrop House and the adjoining Freemason's Hall, which made the corner of Boylston Street, were destroyed by fire in April, 1864, which left nothing but the walls standing. The present grand temple of Masonry succeeds to both the
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former. It is a magnificent monument of this angle of the Common.
The Masonic Temple is not unworthily supported on the opposite corner by the Hotel Boylston, - a site which will never lose interest as the home of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States. In the old mansion-house was born Charles Francis Adams, who has erected the splendid edifice we are regarding.
Boylston Street was the ancient Frog Lane of the South End. Its route was the same as now, except that the sea washed the southerly end at the foot of the Common. We have remarked that the fathers of Boston were not particular about names. The future was veiled from them, and any peculiarity served their purpose. The amphibious croaker may have rendered the air of the neighborhood vocal with his evening song in the day of Adams or his neighbor Foster. Sloughs and mud-holes were common to the vicinity. It is recorded that one, both wide and deep, lay in front of Mather Byles's house. The selectmen were importuned to see to it without avail, until one morning a pair of them got their chaise stuck fast in the midst, when the par- son accosted them with, - " Well, gentlemen, I am glad to see you stirring in this matter at last."
The " Old Man eloquent " is one of the honored names on the roll of the Boston Bar. The Athenaeum was enriched by his private library at a merely nominal sum. He studied law with Theophilus Parsons, and wrote powerful political articles under the signature of Publicola, in 1791, advocating neutrality with France. Minister to Holland, England, and Prussia, he was intimate with Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Pitt, and their con- temporaries of the period of the French Revolution. A mem- ber of the United States Senate from 1803 to 1808, his views on the measures of Mr. Jefferson were in conflict with those of Massachusetts, and he resigned. He was minister to Russia in 1809, and a commissioner at Ghent in 1815. Again minister to England in 1817, he became subsequently Mr. Monroe's Secretary of State, and his successor in 1825. In 1831 he was returned to Congress, where he continued until his sudden
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decease in the Capitol in 1848. "This is the last of earth; I am content," were the last words he spoke.
Mr. Adams was minister to Russia during the invasion of Bonaparte. When questioned as to the burning of Moscow, he stated that both the Emperor and Rostopchin, the governor, denied having ordered it. Had the government assumed the responsibility, they would have been obliged to indemnify the sufferers.
In Miss Quincy's Memoir are some interesting personal recol- lections of Mr. Adams while at the court of St. Petersburg. ; Said he :-
"I never saw Alexander on the throne. He was a man who cared little about thrones, and was one of the most complete republicans, in character and manners, I have ever known. He used to walk the streets of St. Petersburg every day, and stop and talk to every one he met. He was extremely popular, and I do not believe he was carried off by treachery. Alexander, during the whole of the war with Bonaparte, exposed himself as much as any of his officers. At the close of that war he was undoubtedly one of the first generals in Europe. Moreau was killed at his side by a cannon-ball from the walls of Dresden."
Speaking of Moreau's death, Mr. Adams observed : -
" He was fighting against his country, which no man can ever be justified in doing. A man, if he disapproves a government or a war, may remain quiet and neutral ; but nothing should ever induce him to take up arms against his country. I saw Moreau's funeral at St. Petersburg, which was attended with great pomp."
The victor of Hohenlinden was excluded by decree from the ranks of the French army, July 6, 1804, and under the surveil- fance of a colonel of gendarmes went to Cadiz, where he em- barked for the United States. Moreau was in America eight years, during which he travelled extensively, visiting Boston among other places. The venerable William Minot, of this city, stated, at a recent interview, that he remembers seeing the general in a passing carriage while he was in Boston. He went to Niagara Falls, and descended the Ohio and Mississippi. A small affluent of the Missouri is named for him.
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He lived for some time at Morrisville, in Pennsylvania, in a house purchased by him on the banks of the Delaware, - the most conspicuous in the place. The general was very affable and hospitable. He also resided in New York, where he was much consulted by American politicians, though he sedulously abstained from party intrigue himself. After a residence of about eight years in the United States he returned to Europe, to engage in the strife then raging there. The American vessel which carried Moreau - this was in 1813 - was permitted to pass the blockade by Admiral Cockburn, at the request of the Russian minister.
His death-bed was attended by the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria, and Emperor Alexander, who manifested the deepest grief at his loss. Metternich, Schwartzenburg, and the allied generals visited him, and Alexander, who had a great friendship for the dying general, held him a long time in his arms. The following is an extract of a letter to Madame Moreau, written by him, with a steady hand, while sinking under the amputation of his limbs : -
" My dear friend, at the battle of Dresden, three days ago, I had both legs carried away by a cannot shot. That scoundrel, Bonaparte, is always lucky."
Charles Francis Adams passed his boyhood with his father at St. Petersburg, and while the elder Adams was minister at the court of St. James, the son went to an English school. He studied law in Webster's office, and was admitted to the bar, but never practised. Mr. Adams, after having edited a Boston newspaper, and served in the legislature, was the candidate of the Free Soil party for the Vice-presidency in 1848. But Mr. Adams is best known by his diplomatic services at the same court where his father served so long. His conduct of delicate negotiations during the great civil war was such as to place him at the head of American diplomats. His services were recently required by our government in the negotiations at Geneva, arising from the Alabama and other claims. Mr. Adams mar- ried a daughter of Peter C. Brooks, a wealthy citizen of Boston.
In this corner of the Common, and adjoining the Burying- 14 * U
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Ground on the east, were situated the hay-scales, after their removal from the corner of West Street, and also a gun-house ; the latter was transferred, in 1826, to a location near the present Providence depot. It contained a laboratory, well furnished with warlike material. There was also a laboratory on Pleasant Street, between the corner of Boylston and Pfaff's Hotel, during the Revolution, on what is now called Park Square, and another, subsequently used by Frothingham, Wheeler, and Jacobs as a carriage factory, and seen in the frontispiece.
The first manufacture of duck was begun by an incorporated company in Boston, about 1790. They erected buildings on a large lot in Boylston Street, at the corner of Tremont. In 1792 they were in the full tide of success, employing four hun- dred operatives, and turning out fifty pieces a week of ex- cellent canvas. Here were man- ufactured the Constitution's sails, so that she was an Amer- ican ship throughout, except in her armament. The manufac- OLD LOOM. ture of cotton began in New England as early as 1643, and calico printing was undertaken in Boston before 1794.
During the war of 1812 a number of field-pieces belonging to the government were collected in this corner of the Common, and the city military took turns mounting guard over the park. The New England Guards, which were organized in 1812, per- formed their share of this duty, and several of the members, . among whom was Abbott Lawrence, got their one hundred and sixty acres of land from the general government in requital for a certain term of service here, at the Charlestown Navy Yard, and at Noddle's Island. There were sixty-seven names on the muster-roll in 1814, and in 1859, after the lapse of nearly half a century, forty-three of the sixty-seven were still living, of whom a mere handful of aged men now survive.
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CHAPTER XI.
A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON CONTINUED.
Common Burying-Ground. - Joshua Bates. - Public Garden. - Ropewalks. - Topography of the Common. - British Troops on. - Description of their Camps. - The Light Horse. - Powder House. - Old Elm. - Witchcraft and Quaker Executions. - The Duel in 1728. - Mill-Dam. - Mexican Volunteers. - Beacon Street. - Prescott. - Copley. - John Phillips. - Wendell Phillips. - Robert C. Winthrop. - Hancock Mansion. - Governor Hancock. - General Clinton. - State House. - Public Statues, etc. -- The Beacon. - The Monument. - Lafayette's Residence. - George Ticknor. - Malbone. - Samuel Dexter. - Incidents of Lafayette's Visit in 1824. - Josiah Quincy, Jr. - Historical Résumé. - Repeal of the Stamp Act. 1
T THE Common Burying-Ground has but little antiquity com- pared with the Chapel, Copp's Hill, or Granary Cemeteries. It was opened after these in 1756, and has, according to its changing relations with others, been called at various times the South and Central Ground.
Under Mayor Armstrong, the Boylston Street Mall was car- ried across the foot of the Common, cutting off some of the tombs on that side of the graveyard. The owners of the vaults resisted the invasion of the sacred dust, but the im- provement was accomplished by which Beacon and Tremont Street Malls were connected.
Unsupported tradition has given to the Common Ground the credit of being first used for negro burials, but we find no better evidence of this than that some very thick skulls were . dug up at a considerable depth from the surface. It is known, however, that this was the sepulchre of such of the common sol- diers as died from disease during the British occupation, and of those who died from their wounds received at Bunker Hill. They were buried in a common trench, according to military custom, and many of the remains were exhumed when the ex- cavations were proceeding at the northwest corner of the yard.
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The officers who died of their hurts at Bunker Hill were in- terred in the churches and cemeteries, hastily, but with greater decency. Many of these have been forwarded to their far- away homes.
We cannot pass the Public Library without an allusion to its great benefactor, Joshua Bates. This eminent Bostonian, who became a member of the great house of the Barings in London, was a poor boy, almost as humble as the least among those who daily benefit by his generosity. He attracted the attention of his patron, William Gray, while driving a load of stones on his father's team. His quick, ready replies interested the merchant, who gave him a place in his counting-house, whence graduated a financier second to none in the Old or New World.
In the Public Library is a Revolutionary relic of interest, which acquired an even greater importance in connection with the Sanitary Commission in the war of Rebellion. It is the original capitulation of Burgoyne at Saratoga, with the signa- tures of the king's commander, Riedesel, and the lesser officers, English and Hessian, in order of rank.
" In vain they fought, in vain they fled ; Their chief, humane and tender, To save the rest, soon thought it best His forces to surrender."
Where now the Public Garden is teeming with beauty, nearly the whole extent of the ground was occupied by rope- walks, five in number. As you pass along Charles Street going in the direction of Beacon, these ropewalks stretched about three fourths of the distance, there meeting the water which washed Charles Street. On the other hand, they continued nearly to Eliot Street. Charles Street was divided from the Common about 1804.
These ropewalks were the successors of those in Pearl and Atkinson Streets, destroyed by fire in 1794. The town granted the tract in order to prevent the erection of new buildings in a district they endangered, as well as to render substantial aid to the unfortunate rope-makers ; they were again consumed in
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their new location in 1806. The land whereon these rope- walks were situated was marsh, or flats, which indeed was the prior condition of nearly all that low ground now known as the parade of the Common. At high tides most of this tract was probably overflowed. On the verge of it was a little elevation known as Fox Hill, long ago levelled to contribute to the filling of the marsh. As long ago as 1750 the town voted to lease these marsh-lands ; but if they were used, the purpose has not transpired.
To continue the topography of this region of the Common, from the bottom of Beacon Street to Cambridge Bridge was a high bluff, similar to the headlands of the harbor islands ; the base washed by the river. Excellent springs, covered at high water, trickled along the beach. This eminence, known as West Hill, was occupied by the British as a mortar-battery ; it has been reduced to a convenient grade, and employed in making Charles Street. It seems clear that the shore or beach once left this headland with an inward sweep, southerly to the higher ground at the foot of Boylston Street.
After the era of improvement was begun by the Mount · Vernon proprietors, the hill was reduced by them. In this labor they employed the first railway used in New England, by an inclined plane, over which box cars conveyed their loads to the water at the foot of the hill. About this time a sea wall was built along Charles Street from Beacon to Boylston.
To return to the ropewalks. The town, in its generosity, invested the proprietors with a title which might have forever prevented the existence of the Public Garden, now properly a part and parcel of the Common. The rights of the proprie- tors were finally purchased by the city. The question whether the city should sell these lands lying west of Charles Street, was, in 1824, negatived by the citizens, who thus decided to preserve the beautiful view of the river and its shores beyond, now obstructed by the newly erected city of the Back Bay. In this manner has been secured the Public Garden, -
" Where opening roses breathing sweets diffuse,
And soft carnations shower their balmy dews ;
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Where lilies smile in virgin robes of white, The thin undress of superficial light, And varied tulips show so dazzling gay, Blushing in bright diversities of day, Each painted floweret in the lake below Surveys its beauties, whence its beauties grow."
From the bottom of the Common the troops were embarked in silence for Lexington, at about ten o'clock on the night pre- ceding the memorable 19th of April. On the Common were arrayed the forces engaged at Bunker Hill before they marched to the points of embarkation. Many a tall fellow heard the drums beat the rappel for the last time as he shouldered his firelock, and fell in the ranks on that eventful morning.
Of the first troops which the Ministry despatched to Boston, the 29th went into camp on the Common for a short time, un- til they were quartered in various parts of the town. The 14th and the Train marched with the 29th to the Common from Long Wharf, but were assigned to other localities. On the 31st of October, 1768, took place the first military execution ever witnessed in Boston. The doomed man was Richard Ames, a private of the 14th ; his crime, desertion. He was shot on the Common, both regiments being present under arms. Inter- cession was made with General Gage to spare the man's life without avail.
These were not the first troops to use the town training-field by many, but their coming marked an epoch in history. The provincial forces of Shirley and Pepperell enlivened the green sward in 1745 ; and in 1758, on the 13th January, General Amherst and his army, 4,500 strong, disembarked from their ships, and pitched their tents on the Common. This was the force destined to operate against Canada. At this time, and long afterwards, the British officers wore bayonets. A portrait of General Wolfe is extant with a firelock slung at his back and the bayonet by his side. Burgoyne's officers also wore them when they came to Boston in 1777.
The Highland Regiment, commanded by Colonel Fraser, ex- cited the admiration of the town, which had seen nothing like it before. Their colonel was the same who displayed such con-
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spicuous bravery at the battle of Stillwater in 1777, under Burgoyne's command. In the crisis of the second day's battle General Morgan called some of his trusty riflemen, and, pointing out the gallant Briton, said to them : "That gallant officer is General Fraser. I admire and honor him, but it is necessary he should die ; victory for the enemy depends upon him. Take your stations in that clump of bushes, and do your duty." Ir a few minutes Fraser fell, mortally wounded. He requested to be buried in a redoubt he had erected, which was accordingly done, under the fire of the American guns. The object of the burial-party being discovered, the firing ceased, except the oc- casional booming of a minute-gun in honor of the valor of the deceased soldier. Fraser's regiment was with Wolfe at the memorable ascent of the Heights of Abraham in 1759, and, under Murray, was engaged at the battle of Quebec in 1760.
On the 2d July, 1774, the train of artillery from the Castle landed, and marched to the Common. On the 4th of October there were two regiments stationed here, and it continued there- after a permanent camp until the evacuation. Two companies were stationed in the mortar redoubt, and also held a small three-gun battery higher up on the slope of the hill. When the British departed, the thirteen-inch mortar from the battery was found lying on the beach, where it had been overturned, uninjured. Another of the same calibre, found sunk at the end of Long Wharf, was placed by the Americans in the South Battery. One of these Revolutionary relics was taken to Charlestown Navy Yard ; the other was mounted on the bat- tery at New York, the same year it was captured. Two twelve- pounders from the battery on Beacon Hill were also secured by the Americans. There were a few shot thrown into the British camp during the siege by an American floating battery, but no harm was done.
The positions of the British defences and encampments on the Common during the winter of 1775-76 were as follows : A small earthwork was thrown up at the northwest corner, a little higher up than the present entrance on Charles Street ; this was designed for infantry, and held by a single company.
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The little elevation mentioned by the name of Fox Hill was nearly or quite surrounded by water at times, and was hence called the island ; on this was a small redoubt. At the south- west corner, at a point at high-water mark, - now intersected by Boylston Street extension, - was another breastwork for infantry. South of this was a strong redoubt, which would be bisected by Hollis Street, were it extended to the shore as it then existed ; one front faced Pleasant Street, while the other was along the then beach. This formed the first line, the Pleasant Street redoubt and the battery at the foot of Beacon Street being on the flanks.
On the westerly slope of the hill overlooking the parade, and on which the flagstaff is now situated, was a square redoubt, behind which lay encamped a battalion of infantry ; to the east, and on a line with the easternmost point of the hill, were two half-moons for small arms, with a second battalion in its rear. About opposite Carver Street, resting on the southwest corner of the burial-ground, was a bastioned work, directly across Boylston Street. This was the second line. On the hill for- merly known as Flagstaff Hill, but now dedicated to the sol- diers' monument, the artillery was parked, protected by intrench- ments. Immediately behind this hill, stretching from the burial-ground across to Beacon Street Mall, were the camps of three battalions of infantry. Such were the dispositions to prevent a landing by the American forces under Washington. None of the works were formidable except the most southern, which was connected with the lines on the Neck. The Common was an intrenched camp, with a regular garrison of 1,750 men.
The remains of the British works were visible until the be- ginning of the century. Persons are still living who have seen the holes made by the soldiers for their kitchens, and the ditches on the hill where the monument is to stand.
The strength of the British position may be inferred from the fact that Du Coudray, an experienced French officer of artillery, engaged by our commissioners to command that arm in our service, laughed long and heartily on viewing from Bea- con Hill the works which the British had erected, and which they had so precipitately abandoned.
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Behind the three-gun battery situated on Beacon Hill were a number of ropewalks, bounding north on Myrtle Street, and occupied in Revolutionary times by Henderson Inches. This was the camp of the British Light Horse, who used the rope- walks as their stables, and the Old South as a riding-school. Belknap Street is now continued directly through these rope- walks. The spur of Beacon Hill known as Mt. Vernon, and for which that street takes its name, was called Mt. Hoardam, and Mt. Whoredom, a difference merely of orthography. We shall see that the military positions in and around the Common were presided over by some distinguished personages.
In May, 1706, an act was passed erecting a Powder House in the town, and one was built on the hill near the Frog Pond. There was another pond on the Common in early times called the Horse Pond, a stagnant pool of water long since filled up. It was situated a little to the southeast of old Flagstaff Hill, and was connected by a ditch with the river ; across the ditch a little foot-bridge was thrown. A third pond, to the westward, was called Sheehan's, from a man of that name hanged there. The Powder House referred to must not be confounded with the one at West Boston, - a much larger and better-built magazine.
The superficial features of the Common, except in the in- stances pointed out, remain unchanged. The Mighty Elm yet rears its hoary front, and puts forth its verdure as of old. It is the only living though dumb witness of the pageants of Shirley, Amherst, Gage, and Howe. The life-current flows feebly through the limbs of this tree of trees, but still it stands, acknowledged monarch of its fellows. The green mists which in spring-time clothe the trees in the malls cloud but lightly the aged crest of the Old Elm. Kingdoms, empires, dynasties, have disappeared, yet the tree stands with its gnarled roots grasping its native earth, waiting in silent majesty the day when it shall be laid to its rest, full of honors and of years.
The branches of the Old Elm, if we may believe tradition, have been adorned with strange fruit, such as Tristan L'Hermite delighted to suspend from his master's forests. We know that
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William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, convicted Quak- ers, were hung upon the Common. Mary Dyar was reprieved after her foot was on the fatal ladder, through the intercession of her son, and escaped to meet a similar fate the next year. The lifeless forms of Margaret Jones, of Anne Hibbins, and perhaps
THE OLD ELM.
other victims of judicial murder, may have depended from these same limbs during the reign of the witchcraft horrors. The remains of those who suffered at this time were treated with studied cruelty. Their bodies were refused their friends, and even the privilege of protecting their place of sepulture was denied.
The best judges have considered the age of this tree to be considerably more than two hundred and fifty years. It ap- pears to have exceeded the usual term of maturity allotted to its species ; but artificial means, with great care for its preserva- tion, have no doubt eked out its existence. A terse biography
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of the tree is found on the entrance to the enclosure, placed there by Mayor Smith, under whose direction the fence was erected : -
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