USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Proceedings of the Brookline Historical Society at the annual meeting > Part 9
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. To give simply an enumeration of the fires in Brookline which could be compiled from existing records would be un- satisfactory ; a much more interesting phase of the subject is a study of the fire-fighting organizations and their workings as characteristics of those periods in our town's history which such organizations represent.
The uniformed salaried fire department of 1904 consists of forty-two officers and men, twelve pieces of modern appar- atus with necessary horses, located in seven buildings in
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different parts of the town. This force is supplemented by forty-three paid call men, the whole requiring nearly $70,000 for annual maintenance.
The first fire department organization identified with the town in 1784 consisted of a volunteer company of eight men, two of whom were officers, equipped with a piece of apparatus such as now would hardly suffice to properly sprinkle our lawns.
What the municipal expenses of those days may have been is not known, but certainly they were nothing extravagant. The first recorded assumption of the cost of fighting fire on the part of Brookline was in March, 1795, when the town voted, "To pay one-half the expense of the repairs of the fire engine in futer." This was followed in 1797 by another vote, "That this town will bear one-half the expense of the new wagon for conveying the fire engine."
No further town action is recorded until 1829, although an engine company was organized, and a fire-engine located in Punch Bowl Village as early as 1787, at which date the village was partly Brookline and partly Roxbury.
During the century preceding 1787, we know of eight serious fires within the town.
No bells rang, no whistles blew, probably no alarm of any kind was given for the first recorded fire in Brookline, when on a cold and blustering night, with strong northwest wind, March 26th, 1688, " three Indian children being left alone in a wigwam at Muddy River, the wigwam fell on fire, and burned them so that they all died." This record comes to us in Sewall's Diary, and to us of today the thought of Indian wigwams in Brookline seems even less familiar than the fabled theft by Prometheus.
In September, 1768, the large dwelling house of Isaac Gardner, Esq., together with the great part of the house- hold goods for a family of eighteen, was consumed, the loss approximating £5,000 Old Tenor. Although Brookline at that time contained only about fifty families, £100 lawful money was raised by subscription, to assist Mr. Gardner in rebuilding.
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In 1774, June 8th, the house occupied by the Rev. Joseph Jackson and owned by Samuel Croft was burned, and a principal part of his library was saved only by the aid and direction given by Dr. Aspinwall.
The hand bucket was the only means of fighting fire in those days, and when a fire started, the loss was usually serious, the property saved consisting of only what the family, with the help of the nearest neighbors, was able to move out.
Not even a regiment of our great-grandfathers, equipped with the old leather fire-buckets, would be as effective as the small company of trained firemen of today, with a modern steam fire-engine capable of throwing thousands of gallons of water each minute through several lines of hose.
The Roxbury volunteer fire department was always noted for its promptitude, skill, and efficiency. In 1784, the first fire-engine was located on Roxbury street, opposite Warren street, the site of the old Grey Hound Tavern, and in 1787 a new fire-engine was located in Punch Bowl Village, as Brookline Village was then called. The members of this first fire-engine company were John Ward, Isaac Davis, Joseph Davenport, Joseph Crehore, James Pierce, Samuel Barry, Capt. Belcher Hancock, and Lieut. William Blossom. Of these names only that of Joseph Davenport appears in the Brookline records of that date, and the others were presum- ably all Roxbury men.
The first public recognition of the Punch Bowl Village company came in 1794 at the great fire in Boston, July 30th. Mr. How's ropewalk near Milk street, with about thirty-six houses, barns, out-buildings and stores, was burned, and the Selectmen of Boston published in the newspapers an " acknowl- edgment of the very timely and efficient aid by their brethren of the several towns in the vicinity with their fire-engines and their personal services at the distressing fire of yesterday," etc. "The towns from which engines were brought to the fire were Cambridge, Charlestown, Roxbury, Milton, Brookline, and Watertown."
This public recognition, and the hope of future glory, was
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DEACON ELIJAH COREY HOUSE BUILT IN 1826.
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were erected on some of them, and the old house disappeared before that march of improvement. Of Mr. Bartlett's family of six, one son survives, who is a resident of New Hampshire at this writing.
All other houses in that section, and from School street to the Brighton line along Washington street except as have been mentioned, are modern in design and construction, and but one person who had reached a majority in 1865, is now left along its whole course - Mr. Thomas B. Griggs. In the forty years that have elapsed, all others have died or have removed elsewhere. Could any of them return and visit the scenes once so familiar to them, they would realize the vast changes which have taken place, and find themselves to be strangers in a strange land.
REPORT OF THE TREASURER.
EDWARD W. BAKER, Treasurer,
In account with BROOKLINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Balance on hand January 1, 1904 :
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Permanent fund
$465 64
Current fund .
83 39
$549 03
Receipts to December 31, 1904 :
Permanent fund
$59 55
Current fund
201 00
$260 55
·Total balances and receipts
$809 58
EXPENDITURES.
January 1, 1904, to December 31, 1904 : - From Current Fund.
Printing Annual Report
$132 50
Printing Notices, etc.
13 75
Typewriting
8 00
Postage and Express
II 35
Binding
65
Envelopes
2 25
Picture framing
10 90
Purchases of Books, Pictures, etc.
IO 60
Total expenditures $190 00
Balance January I, 1905 : -
Permanent fund
$525 19
Current fund
94 39
Total balance
$619 58
EDWARD W. BAKER, Treasurer.
I have examined the accounts of Edward W. Baker, Treas- urer of the Brookline Historical Society and find the same correct. The receipted vouchers and bank books have been examined and the balance on hand December 31, 1904, as shown by the books was $619.58.
CHARLES H. STEARNS, Auditor.
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REPORT OF THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE.
The committee appointed to nominate officers of the Society for 1905 made the following report :-
For Clerk and Treasurer, EDWARD W. BAKER.
For Trustees,
RUFUS G. F. CANDAGE,
MISS JULIA GODDARD,
MRS. MARTHA A. KITTREDGE,
CHARLES H. STEARNS,
MRS. SUSAN V. GRIGGS,
CHARLES F. WHITE,
EDWARD W. BAKER. (Signed) GEORGE S. MANN, JAMES ADAMS, FRANK B. THAYER.
The report was accepted and it was voted to proceed to ballot. The ballot was taken and the candidates nominated were unanimously elected.
Voted, That the Secretary print the President's annual ad- dress, Treasurer's report, by-laws, list of officers and mem- bers, and such papers as have been read before the Society as the Committee on Publications may select.
EDWARD W. BAKER, Clerk.
Adjourned.
ADDITIONS TO THE SOCIETY'S COLLECTIONS 1901-1904.
DONOR.
DESCRIPTION.
Baker, Edward W.
Gravestone in Burying Ground, Brookline. Five photographs, framed together.
Candage, Rufus G. F.
Collection of photographs of houses in Brook- line.
Chapin, Edward F.
Knocker of the Gridley house, Brookline. Photo- graph.
Conant, Lewis D.
Silver punch bowl made by Paul Revere, 1768. Photograph.
Erskine, Charles
Sampler worked in 1770 by Rebecca Wyman of Brookline, grandmother of the donor.
Goddard, Miss Julia
Samuel Goddard house in Brookline. Framed photograph.
Howard, Miss Annie E. Silk badge entitled "Brookline N. E. Conven- tion, Sept 10, 1840-1."
Howe, Miss
Benjamin Goddard house in Brookline. Aspin-
wall house in Brookline, built 1660. Photo- graph. Linden Place. Photograph.
Otis, Herbert F.
Environs of Boston from Corey Hill, Brookline, Framed lithograph. Brookline from above the road, five miles from Boston. Framed wood cut from Gleason's Pictorial.
Pearson, Charles H.
Old Police Station, Brookline. Framed photo- graph.
Perry, Miss Sarah E.
Three Harrison campaign badges, 1840, framed together.
Purchased.
Colored india ink drawing of locomotive Brookline.
Sears, William B.
Perambulation of town lines between Brookline and Roxbury, May 4, 1713, original document. Corey Hill Homestead, Brookline. Woodcut. Norfolk House, Roxbury, 1828. Photograph of a lithograph.
White, Charles F.
Commission, as major, of Edward White, in 1742.
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TWO OLD BROOKLINE HOMESTEADS
A Paper by Mrs. Thomas Doliber, read at the Meeting of the Society, February 8, 1905.
The precise year in which John White left England to join the Massachusetts Colony is not known, but it was probably about 1638. He first took up his abode in Water- town, Massachusetts, but in the year 1650 he moved from there and settled in what was then known as the Muddy River hamlet, near the corner of the present Walnut and Washing- ton streets. He married Frances and had sons, John, Joseph born 1743, Benjamin, and a daughter who died in her youth.
Joseph White, the second son, lived in a house which stood on the site of Dr. Channing's sanitarium on Boylston Street. He was among those who signed the petition for the separa- tion of Muddy River from Boston, which, when granted, be- stowed the name of Brookline upon the newly made town.
Joseph White married Hannah - (surname uncer- tain) and had three daughters and five sons, the youngest of whom was Samuel, born March 19, 1682-3.
Samuel White was a substantial man and a good citizen. He was made Justice of the Peace, and was also a member of the General Court for a number of years. He built a house for himself on the site of the one occupied by the late Francis Cabot, between Heath and Boylston Streets. But at that time neither of these streets existed, and the land be- longing to the house extended northward to what was then called the "lane" (now Chestnut Hill Avenue) and the Ackers land, formerly his father's farm, and southward to the "Common, " five hundred acres of land set apart by the town of Boston, in 1639, for " perpetual commonage to the inhabitants of Muddy River." More than a century later part of this commonage was transmuted into the Boston Reservoir.
Samuel White married Anne Drew, daughter of Erosamun and Bethiah Drew. Her father was a native of Ireland who
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came to this country in his youth; and receiving from his father-in-law on his marriage, several acres of woodland near Newton Street, built his dwelling house there, in 1693, and also by the adjoining brook, his saw-mill. Ruins of these old buildings remained standing until 1873. In the quaint words of an old family manuscript, " Samuel White and Anne Drew, both of Brookline, entered the matrimonial State. The Year is unknown to any Person now living." It is else- where recorded at 1712. Anne Drew was an energetic and capable woman, not easily deterred by trifles. It is said of her that she made a practice of arranging her toilet on Sun- day mornings over a pail of water for lack of a looking glass, and then walking to "Roxbury meeting-house " to attend a long days service. This, I judge, was when she lived in her father's house, which was quite primitive. Her home after her marriage was large and exceedingly well furnished for those days. Ample assistance in her daily work was also provided. At that time it was not considered wrong to own slaves, and they were kept in the White household. From old memoranda we learn that "John, son of Cuff and Kate, and servant to Madam Ann White, died of a nervous fever in 1761." The following year Cuff's death is recorded, and later his daughter Dinah, servant of Madam White, "dyed of a consumption." The baptisms and deaths of these servants are to be found in the early records of the First Parish Church.
As soon as the Church in Brookline was established, both Samuel and Anne White became identified with it, and were devoted members during their lifetime. In 1759, about a year before Samuel White's death, he gave by deed to the Selectmen of Brookline twenty acres of woodland in Need- ham "to supply the minister or ministers that may be settled in the town from time to time. "
Five children, two sons and three daughters, were born to Samuel and Anne White, but only two daughters lived to grow up. These were Susannah, born September 29, 1713, and Anne, born March 2, 1722.
When Anne White, the youngest daughter, was twenty- one years old, she married Henry Sewall. He was the grand-
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son of Chief Justice Sewall and Hannah Hull ; who it will be remembered received as a wedding gift from her father, her weight in pine tree shillings. His maternal grandfather was Governor Dudley. Henry Sewall was born and brought up in a house which stood on the site of the residence of Mr. Charles Stearns, on Harvard Street, and after his father's death it came to him by inheritance and he continued to occupy it. Henry and Anne Sewall had three sons and a daughter. Two of these sons, Hull and Henry, married and died at an early age. The third son, Samuel, outlived his parents, and on account of his name inherited from his grandfather, Samuel White, the old homestead and lands. He was a promising young lawyer, with a good practice in Boston. At the beginning of the troublous times preceding the Revolutionary War, he made himself exceedingly ob- noxious to his neighbors and friends in Brookline by warmly espousing the British cause. To quote again, "when the unhappy dispute arose between Briton and America, he join'd with the unnatural Enemies of America and left his native place August 20, 1775. Went to England with a number of those who were called Tories."* In 1778 the banishment act was passed, Samuel Sewall was proscribed as a refugee, and his property confiscated. At the close of the war the estate was sold by order of the state of Massachusetts, and was purchased by Mr. John Heath of Roxbury, who had for some years previous been occupying the house. The old deed, written on vellum, and dated September 12, 1782, con- veyed the house and lands to John Heath, Gentleman, and was signed by John Hancock, then Governor of Massachu- setts. Thus it passed into the possession of my great-great- grandfather, and afterwards was everywhere known as the "old Heath house. " But although the name of the owner was changed, the family associations remained the same. It will be remembered that Samuel and Anne White had two daughters, the younger of whom married Henry Sewall. The eldest daughter, Susannah, married Deacon Ebenezer Craft, a wealthy and prominent citizen of Roxbury. He owned a
* Samuel Sewall died unmarried in Bristol, England, 1811-1812.
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large estate in Roxbury, on both sides of the old road leading to Boston, and including the opposite "Great Hill "* besides extensive tracts of land in Brookline and other neighboring towns. His old house, with the date 1709 upon the chimney, was until quite recently a familiar landmark. Behind the house was a fine orchard where originated the famous Roxbury russet apples. For many years all the driving be- tween Boston, Cambridge, Brookline, and the towns beyond, passed over this old road. During the stirring times of the siege of Boston, and the Revolutionary War, it was a high- way for the troops, and the only means of communication from General Washington's headquarters at Cambridge to the fortifications at Roxbury and Dorchester Heights. We may believe that many an exciting scene was witnessed from the windows of the old house. In more peaceful times it was the habit of relatives and friends to gather here on Com- mencement Day, and watch the fine equipages of the Govern- or and officials, as they went .from Boston to attend the exercises at Harvard College.
In this house there were born to Deacon Craft and his wife Susannah, seven children, two of whom were daughters, Susannah and Elizabeth. Susannah was married to John Heath of Roxbury in 1758. At first the young couple lived in Roxbury, but soon moved into the house of Samuel Sewall, and as we have seen purchased it in 1782. So Mrs. John Heath came to live in the house of her grandfather, Samuel White, and again a young and capable woman started to manage a household and bring up a family of children under its substantial roof. Again doors and windows were opened, daily routine was regulated, and the black faces of the slaves were seen in the old kitchen.
There is no detailed description to be found of this home, the scene of so many and varied interests. We only know that the yard was surrounded by an elaborately constructed wooden fence. One entered the box-bordered path leading to the front door by a turnstile, and the house was shaded by
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tall trees, one of which is still standing. The chimneys were very large, and the fireplace deep and wide. Around the fireplace in the sitting room were blue and white tiles, de- picting Scriptural subjects. The ceilings were low, and the windows had deep recessed seats.
While the children were still young, another happiness was added to Susannah Heath's life, the daily companionship of her much loved sister, Elizabeth, a most beautiful woman, loved and revered by every one. She had married Caleb White of Brookline, a young man of liberal education and un- usual promise. Soon he was stricken by a fever which deprived him of his reason, and in three years, at the age of twenty- three, she was left a widow with one child. Her sorrow was a life-long one, but with her characteristic strength of mind and will, she devoted herself to doing good to others, and brightening all lives with which she came in contact. Soon after her husband's death she came to live with her sister, Susannah Heath, and the two families presented a spectacle of perfect unanimity and devotion. "Aunt White," as she was called, lived to the age of ninety-two years. She had a superior and refined taste for reading and an unusual memory. The Bible was her constant companion. She wrote much in prose and verse, and several of her letters and poems have been preserved.
The patriotic feelings of John Heath and his household contrasted sharply with those of Samuel Sewall. The Heaths were solemnly and intensely devoted to the cause of liberty, and with but few exceptions their feelings were shared by the other residents of Brookline. John Heath's young son, Ebenezer, was among the foremost to organize and join a military company (1770) among his friends and companions, and these boys drilled with a persistence that would have been creditable in men. Henry Hulton, Esq., counsellor and Commissioner for the British Government of that time, occupied his country seat on what is now Warren Street, just opposite the Reservoir. He was, of course, exceedingly unpopular. One day this youthful military company marched to the house of the Tory Hulton, and stoned the windows,
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breaking nearly every pane. But the boys were a little in advance of their time in showing open hostility, and their parents, though no doubt secretly sympathetic, punished them, caused them to disband their company, and paid for the broken glass.
As early as the year 1772, the town of Brookline appointed a committee to take under consideration the rights and privileges of the colonists, and to protest against their fre- quent and despotic infringements; and when in January 1775 war seemed inevitable, and the patriot John Goddard began his quiet work of collecting military stores, we may be sure that his friend John Heath was in perfect sympathy with him. On the memorable morning of April 19, 1775, when word came to Brookline that Lord Percy's troops were on their way to Lexington, many frightened people living in what is now the "village," hastily gathered their belongings together, and fled to the upper part of the town for safety. Later, a rumor that the British were approaching the "Church green" startled the inhabitants of the town . anew, and the women and children of the Heath household hastened to seek a hiding place in the thick woods which surrounded Erosamun Drew's old saw-mill. Only poor old Kate, the negro slave who had formerly belonged to Madam White, was left behind. Being too old and infirm to escape with the others, she hid behind the tall clock which stood in the corner of the sitting room, and there remained trembling for some hours, when, nothing having transpired, the various members of the family returned. The mistress of the house was afterwards much discomfited to find that in the hurry and confusion of flight, the only article carried away for safe keeping had been a bag of salt. By noon time of this day nearly all the able-bodied men of the town were gathered. in front of the meeting-house. Here three companies of soldiers were formed : one regularly organized, and belonging to Colonel William Heath's regiment, commanded by Captain Thomas White -in this was enlisted John Heath ; the others, companies hastily organized at the moment, and led by Colonel Thomas Aspinwall and Isaac Gardner, Esq. The
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Brookline patriots met the British at North Cambridge, where a skirmish took place, and Isaac Gardner fell, pierced by bullet wounds. The British hastened on towards Charles- town, closely pursued by the Brookline men, who were so scattered by nightfall that no order nor concerted action was possible, and they returned home one by one. The next morning John Heath took his wagon and accompanied Dr. Aspinwall to Cambridge, to look for the body of Isaac Gardner, and assisted in bringing it home for burial. Captain White's company was disbanded early in the next month, · but John Heath is recorded as having actually served but six days. He then returned quietly to his family and resumed work on his farm, and his response to the call for arms was so much and so simply a matter of religious duty to his country, that it is never mentioned nor alluded to in any family papers extant. In those days the performance of duty did not necessarily call for recognition nor subsequent allusion .*
Dr. Aspinwall relinquished his practice in Brookline throughout the whole of the war of the Revolution, and devoted himself to the care of the wounded soldiers, serving for some time with General Sullivan in Rhode Island. When peace was restored he returned to his home and resumed his calling. The terrible scourge, small-pox, had been introduced into the country by foreign armies, and had spread sufficiently to cause great terror. Nothing was so much feared, and naturally, for when a person fell ill with it, the usual practice was to send him with an attendant (often inexperienced) to some remote building, where a red flag warned away all visi- tors, and the disease ran its course without any medical inter- vention. The only known means of combating it was by inoculation, which differed from the later discovery of vaccin- ation, inasmuch as instead of preventing, it induced the dreaded disease at a given time and in a milder form. Proper care could then be planned for the individual, and all dread of an unexpected attack was removed. Dr. Aspinwall
* " John Heath.
Rank of Private on Lexington Alarm Roll of Capt. Thomas White's Co; Col. William Heath's Regt : which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, from Brookline Length of service 6 days.
Brookline Co. company served until May 2, 1775."-Lexington Alarms ; Vol. 13, P. 176.
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now conceived the idea of establishing a hospital, where many people should be received at once, inoculated, and pro- perly attended and nursed during the illness. The first hos- pital was erected on his own farm; and the idea proved so popular, and his treatment so successful that two more were soon built to accomodate the patients. Both adults and children were received, and in some cases parents sent whole families of children at one time. John Heath's children went, and their cousin little Nancy White, and some quaint old letters written to them at the time have been preserved. The mother writes to little " Sukey," the eldest daughter, asking, "how did you spend Sunday, had you any Books- did Ebby read-see that he eats nothing to hurt him, no green fruit,-don't let him dispute with the Boys .. . en- courage him lest he be dispirited"; and Aunt White wrote to little Betsey " ... the ... Family send their Love to you, they all think you are a nice girl because you warn't afraid to be inoculated ... you must take your medicine and do everything the Dr. wants you to ... and then I shall Love you, and give you what I told you about
John and Susannah Craft Heath had four children, Susannah, John who died in infancy, Ebenezer, and Elizabeth. Elizabeth Heath, called by her family Betsey, began the practice of keeping regular daily journals at an early age, and this habit was continued by some member of the Heath family for three successive generations. In these journals may be found many entries describing the social life and festivities of the times.
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