USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 17
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOSTON GOVERNMENT.
1628-9, March 4-14 .- Massachusetts Colony charter.
1630, Sept. 7-17 .- " Trimontaine shalbe called Boston."
" -1634 .- Earliest officers appointed: Constables, watchmen, sur- veyors of highways(?)
" -Municipal and calendar years begin in March.
1634 .- Breed's and Long islands annexed to Boston.
" -Wharfinger chosen.
1635-6, March 3 .- Quarter courts established. -General charter of towns.
1636, Aug. 15 .- Water bailiffs chosen (shore police). Nov. 15 .- Hogreeve chosen.
1636-7, March 9-19 .- East Boston annexed.
1641 .- Town recorder (called town clerk in 1692-3, under 1 Prov. L., 65).
" -Town treasurer.
1643 .- Selectmen first called by that name in the town records.
167
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY.
1645 .- First annual election of selectmen.
1647-8 .- Sealers of leather chosen.
1649-50 .- Clerks of the market chosen.
1650 .- Sealer of weights and measures appointed.
1652-3 .- Packer of flesh and fish chosen.
1655 .- Corders of wood chosen.
" -General Court authorizes appointment of sworn measurers of corn, wood, and boards.
1659 .- Moderator for town meeting.
1660 .- Almshouse ordered by town. Built north of Common.
" -Fence viewers authorized by Massachusetts code.
1663-4 .- Cullers of fish chosen; also, of staves.
1665-6 .- Measurer of salt chosen.
1667-8 .- Scavengers chosen.
1672 .- Tithingmen to be appointed (police).
1690-1, March 9 .- Overseers of poor chosen.
1691, October 7 .- Massachusetts Province charter.
1692, November 16 .- General town charter from the Province.
1694 .- Assessors first chosen.
1699-1781 .- Superior Court of Judicature.
" -1782 .- Province Court of Common Pleas.
" -1822 .- Court of sessions.
1705 .- Brookline set off from Boston.
1410 .- Appointment of hay weighers required.
1411 .- Appointment of firewards authorized.
1:12, February 1 .- Firewards appointed.
1413 and 1715 .- First division of town into eight wards.
Hospital at Spectacle
1:18 .- Quarantine transferred to selectmen. island.
1723-1857 (?)-Assay masters (for distilleries).
1434-5-1850 .- Surveyor of hemp and flax.
1735 .- Establishment of twelve wards.
1737-1849 .- Quarantine hospital at Rainsford island.
1738 .- Hay weigher appointed.
1739 .- Hay scales built at South End. " -Chelsea set off.
1742, December 27 .- First town meeting in Faneuil Hall.
1745-1824 .- Firewards elected by the people.
1762-1775 .- Wardens (Sunday police).
168
BOSTON.
1464 .-- Deer reeves (to enforce close season).
1422 .-- Overseers of the poor incorporated.
" -- Lamp department authorized.
1476, March 5. - Boston town meeting at Watertown. July 4 .- Declaration of Independence.
1280 .- Massachusetts State Constitution.
1981 .-- Superior Court of Judicature changed to Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth.
1482-1821 .-- Court of Common Pleas (not for Suffolk County 1814-21). 1786, March 23 .- General State charter for towns.
June 17 .-- Charles-river bridge dedicated.
" -- Inspectors of the police authorized by town code. Four police officers appointed.
1789, October 20 .- First School Committee chosen. School Committee of 21 members 1789-1835.
" -- Constitution of the United States.
1293 .- Norfolk county set off from Suffolk.
November 23 .- West-Boston bridge dedicated.
1499-1821 .- Board of health, chosen in wards.
" -Quarantine transferred from selectmen to board of health. Port physician (or resident physician) appointed.
" -Ward clerks first chosen.
1800-1859 .-- Municipal court (with jury).
" -- Town attorney.
1801 .- Inspection of lighters, or boats carrying stone and gravel.
1802 .- Almshouse, including bridewell and workhouse, removed to Leverett street.
-- Assistant assessors first chosen, in wards.
1804 .-- South Boston annexed.
1806 .-- Second establishment of twelve wards (see 1735 and 1822).
1810 .- Inspectors of stone lime.
1814-21 .- Town court for summary trial of petty causes.
" " -Boston Court of Common Pleas.
1816 .- Weighers of beef.
1818-1855 .-- Primary-school committee.
1821-59 .- Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas.
1822, February 23 .- The city charter signed.
" -- Third division into twelve wards (see 1806 and 1838).
April 8 .- First city election.
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 169
1822, May 1 .- Inauguration of the city government: Mayor, eight aldermen, forty-eight common councilmen.
" May 1 .- The city assumes county rights and duties.
" -Wardens, to preside at ward meetings. City elections to be held on second Monday in April.
" -- Police court established. Court of sessions abolished.
" -1875 .- Office of the city and county treasurer and collector united.
1823-25 .- Fiscal years end on May 31.
" -51 .- Jail in Leverett street.
" -28 .-- Josiah Quincy mayor.
" -House of industry at South Boston; occupied in 1825.
-City marshal appointed (chief of police).
July 31 .- Mayor Quincy recommends the extension of Faneuil Hall Market.
1824 .- House of correction, nine directors.
-Board of health superseded by city government.
-49 .- Superintendent of burial grounds.
August 2 .-- Office of auditor established.
1825 .- House of reformation at South Boston, nine directors. -City elections to be held on second Monday in December.
May 23 .- Office of superintendent of streets established.
1826 .- Municipal year begins on first Monday in January.
" -Firewards abolished. Chief engineer of fire department.
-1891 .- Fiscal years begin on May 1.
1821 .- City solicitor.
.. Quincy market dedicated.
" -1840 .- Committee for the reduction of the city debt.
1828, November 3 .- First superintendent of bridge.
1830, September 17. - Old State House occupied as City Hall.
1831 .- Property of Suffolk County vested in Boston.
1833 .- Surveyor-general of lumber.
1834-1880 .-- Superintendent of public lands.
1835 .- Railroads to Providence, Worcester, and Lowell completed.
1836-1854 .- School Committee of twenty-six members.
1834-1839 .- Mayor Eliot in office.
" -1891 .- Superintendent of sewers.
" -1848 .- Superintendent of alien passengers.
22
170
BOSTON.
1838 .- Appointment of Boston police officers authorized by General Court.
" -Fourth division of Boston into twelve wards (see 1822 and 1850).
1839-1844 .- City attorney.
1839 .- Lunatic-hospital established.
1840 .- Superintendent of public buildings.
July 19 .- Arrival of the first Cunard S. S., the " Britannia."
1841 .- Superintendent of Common (see 1870).
" -Railroad to Albany completed.
" -Measurer of upper leather.
" -County Court House, School street. changed to City Hall.
1844-5 .- Eight trials to elect Thomas A. Davis mayor.
1847 .- Mayor and aldermen authorized to make penal orders.
" -Harbor master.
" -Inspector of hay.
1848, October 25 .- Introduction of Cochituate water celebrated.
1849 .- Registry department.
-City physician.
66 -Coal weighers.
' -1866. - Quarantine hospital at Deer Island.
-Cochituate water board and water registrar (see 1876).
1850 .- City engineer.
-Truant officers.
" _Second assistant assessors.
-Fifth division into twelve wards (sce 1838 and 1865).
1851 .- Surveyor of marble.
-Superintendent of schools.
-Jail in Charles street.
-Electric fire alarm introduced.
-Railroad to Montreal completed.
1852 .- Library department.
-Superintendent of markets.
" -City messenger department.
1853-1891 .- Superintendent of health (of street cleaning or sanitary police).
1854 .- Plurality to decide in municipal elections,
-Roxbury police court established.
" -Police and watch departments united,
121
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY.
1854 .- Amended city charter. Mayor receives veto power. Number of aldermen increased from eight to twelve.
1855 .- Chelsea police court established.
" -1856 .- County physician.
" -1859 .- Superior Court for Suffolk county.
" -18:5 .- School committee of seventy-four members. -Half the cost of new sidewalks borne by the city. 66
1856 .- Clerks of the Supreme and Superior Courts, district attorney, sheriff, register of probate, and commissioners of insolvency elected by the county voters.
1857 .- Five trustees of Mount-Hope cemetery.
..
-Reformatory and charitable institutions at South Boston and Deer island united under twelve directors.
1858 .- Clerk of committees.
1859 .- Superior Court established.
-Inspector of milk.
1862 .- Hospital department.
-Charlestown police court established.
1863-1865 .- City offices at Mechanic building, Bedford and Chauncy streets.
" -Weighers of boilers and heavy machinery.
1865 .- Sixth division of Boston into twelve wards (see 1850 and 1876). " -September 17 .- New City Hall in School street dedicated.
1866 .- Municipal Court established; police court abolished.
" -Betterment law passed.
" -Quarantine hospital at Gallop's island.
1868 .- Roxbury annexed. -Surveying department.
1869 .- Inspection of petroleum.
1870 .- Dorchester annexed. Municipal court of Dorchester district.
-Board of street commissioners.
-Ferry department.
-Superintendent of Common and public grounds (see 1841).
-Department of sinking funds.
-1887 .- Cedar-Grove cemetery.
1871 .- Inspector of buildings.
-Commissioners of Charles bridges.
-Superintendent of printing.
1872 .- Board of health.
12
BOSTON.
1842 .- City elections held on Tuesday after second Monday in Decem- ber.
" -Inspector of provisions.
1873 .- Board of fire commissioners.
-Appointment of truant officers by School Committee.
1844 .- Charlestown, West Roxbury, and Brighton annexed.
" -Municipal (district) courts established at East Boston, South Boston, West Roxbury, and Brighton.
" -Board of registrars of voters.
-75 .- (Fiscal year). The city received $12, 176, 436.08 in taxes.
1845-1848 .- Liquor license commissioners.
" -1892 .- Department of record commissioners.
-Municipal debt limited by law to 3 p. c. of property taxed.
.. -A new charter proposed by Mayor Pierce's commission.
-School Committee reorganized. Supervisors.
-Three common councilmen elected from each ward.
-- Collecting department.
-Park department.
-City architect.
1846 .- Boston water board, in place of Cochituate and Mystic water boards.
" -1893 .- Boston has twenty-five wards, unchanged.
" -1885 .- School Committee of twenty-five members.
1878 .- Precincts established for voting purposes.
" -Probation officers.
" -1885 .- Police commissioners, appointed by the city.
1879 .- Women receive the right to vote for School Committee.
1880 .- Inspector of vinegar.
1881 .- Corporation counsel.
1884 .- Civil-service law for State and cities. -1892 .- Aldermen elected by districts.
" -Mayor Martin's commission recommends charter amendments ; three reports.
1885 .- Boston board of police, appointed by the State.
" -Charter powers recast; city council deprived of executive func- tions ; mayor's power increased. School Committee of twenty- four members.
" -Debt and tax limit for Boston.
1886-1891 .- General superintendent of bridges.
173
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY.
1886 .- Fire marshal, appointed by the State.
1888 .- Weigher of salt water fish.
1890-1891 .- Inspector of wires.
1890 .-- Art commission.
1891 .- Board of Survey.
-Superintendent of ferries replaces commissioners.
" -Sewer, bridge and sanitary police departments placed under superintendent of streets.
" April 30 .- Net debt of city $31,342, 638. 45.
1892 .- Fiscal year begins on February 1.
" -Common council has seventy-five members, three from each ward.
" -93 (fiscal year) .- Municipal expenditures, $21,300,665.04.
A SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION OF SUFFOLK COUNTY.
BY
EDWARD JACOB FORSTER, M. D.
*
AFTER the writings of Josiah Bartlett, who in 1810 delivered the annual address before the Massachusetts Medical Society, giving an account of the progress of medicine in Massachusetts from the earliest settlement to that date, the very interesting lecture of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, given in 1869 at the Lowell Institute, upon the Medical Profession of Massachusetts, and the masterly address of Dr. Samuel A. Green, entitled "The History of Medicine in Massachu- setts," and delivered in the Saunders Theatre before the Massachusetts Medical Society on the occasion of its centennial anniversary in 1881, the whole field, of which this county is now but a small portion, has been so well gone over that a late gleaner has but little chance to find anything of interest which has escaped the careful search of the earlier workers, well known, not only as historical scholars of more than local fame, but are otherwise distinguished. Besides these accounts of medicine in the larger field of the old Bay State, Drs. Holmes and Green have in the Memorial History of Boston contributed a further account of medicine, its men and its institutions, as found in Boston, which is practically synonymous with Suffolk county.
Suffolk county was incorporated May 10, 1643, and has since that time both gained and lost territory.
We find that in May, 1781, it included within its limits, Boston, Rox- bury, Dorchester, Milton, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, Dedham, Medfield, Wrentham, Brookline, Needham, Stoughton, Stoughtonham (Sharon), Medway, Bellingham, Walpole, Chelsea, Franklin, Foxborough, or a great part of the present Norfolk county,
175
MEDICAL HISTORY.
which was incorporated March 26, 1793. After this county was set off, until the annexation of Roxbury in 1868, Dorchester in 1870, Charles- town and West Roxbury in 1814, it comprised only the cities of Boston and Chelsea, the townships of Winthrop and Revere, and the islands in Boston Harbor.
It may be said to have included only Boston, for Winthrop and Re- vere were formerly parts of Chelsea, and the latter, under the names of Winnissimet and Rumney Marsh, was a part of Boston.
It is with this Suffolk county that we shall have to deal in the present article, otherwise we should be encroaching on the work of those who have written, or will write, the medical sketches of the adjacent counties of Norfolk and Middlesex.
The earliest record we have relating to medicine is that of the action of the Company in London, at one of its earliest meetings, held March 5, 1628-29, when a proposition was made " to Intertayne a surgeon for [the ] plantacion," and Mr. John Pratt "was appointed an abell man," and Robert Morley was appointed to " serve as a barber and surgeon [on all | occasyons belonging to his Calling to aney of this [company] that are planters, or there servants."
The two professions of theology and medicine were for a time united in the " Angelical Conjunction," as this union was styled by Cotton Mather, and so in the list of practitioners of medicine must be included those whose chief business was the care of souls.
A knowledge of physic was then considered as part of a liberal edit- cation, and thus we find Governor Winthrop, the founder of Boston, spoken of by Mather as having been a "Help for our Bodies by Physick."
The first action of the Massachusetts Colony in regard to the prac- tice of medicine was embodied in the following law intended to protect the public from ignorant practitioners.
The law is as follows:
Chirurgeons, Midwives, Physitians.
Forasmuch as the Law of God allows no man to impaire the Life, or Limbs of any Person, but in a judicial way;
It is therefore Ordered, That no person or persons whatsoever, imployed at any time about the bodyes of men, women, or children, for preservation of life or health; as Chirurgions, Midwives, Physitians or others, presume to exercise, or put forth any act contrary to the known approved Rules of Art, in each Mystery and occupation, nor exercise any force, violence or cruelty upon, or towards the body of any, whether
126
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
young or old, (no not in the most difficult and desperate cases) without the advice and consent of such as are skillfull in the same art (if such may be had) or at least of some of the wisest and gravest then present, and consent of the patient or patients if they be mentis compotes, much less contrary to such advice and consent ; upon such severe punishment as the nature of the fact may deserve, which Law nevertheless, is not intended to discourage any from all lawfull use of their skill, but rather to in_ courage and direct them in the right use thereof, and inhibit and restreine the pre- sumptuous arrogancy of such as through presidence of their own skill, or any other sinister respects, dare boldly attempt to exercise any violence upon or towards the bodyes of young ar old, one or other, to the prejudice or hazard of the life or limbe of man, woman or child .- " The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony," Cambridge, 1672, page 28.
This early account of a slight accident is so quaintly told we give it place here.
In Sewall's Diary, under date of July 26, 1695, we find recorded :
Poor little Mary falls down into the cellar of Matthias Smith's house, and cuts her head against the stones, making a large orifice of more than two inches long; it was about 6 post meridien. The Lord sanctify to me this bloody Accident.
A disease supposed to be small-pox had even preceded the coming of the colonists, and had created great havoc among the Indians. It is supposed to have been introduced by Europeans who touched along the coast in some of their fishing expeditions.
Cotton Mather speaks of it in his journal, regarding it in some aspects as a fortunate visitation of Providence. He says :
The Indians in these Parts had newly, even about a year or two before, been visited with such a prodigious Pestilence, as carried away not a Tenth, but Nine Parts of Ten (yea it is said Nineteen of Twenty) among them: So that the Woods were almost cleared of those pernicious Creatures to make Room for a better Growth.
It continued to be from time to time a scourge to the colonists, and we are not surprised to find them interested in the introduction of European methods of contending with it
As early as 1717 Lady Mary Wortley Montague wrote from Adrian- ople describing the method and effect of inoculation, and in 1721 she had her son publicly inoculated in England, and it was soon after gen- erally adopted.
In the same year we find that experiments in inoculation were made in Boston. Cotton Mather, who evidently wished the disease to be fatal only to the Indians, is said to have brought it to the attention of the Boston physicians. It met there, as in London, with great opposition, but finally was generally adopted.
122
MEDICAL HISTORY.
The leader of the opposition was Dr. William Douglass, a Scotchman, who had come to Boston in 1218, and was perphaps, the most prom- inent of Boston physicians, both from education and ability. Dr. Zabdiel Boylston had, on the other hand, the enterprise and courage to prove the advantages of inoculation by experimenting with it in his own family, and may be considered its champion.
In the winter of 1763-64 an epidemic of small-pox broke out in Bos- ton, and an inoculating hospital was established at Point Shirley by the Governor and Council for the treatment of the disease. The governor also opened Castle William, now Fort Independence, to the use of physicians engaged in its treatment, as is shown by the following con- temporaneous advertisements :
In order to inlarge the Conveniences for Inoculation in addition to those already proposed at Point-Shirley that every Person desirous of undergoing that Operation may have an Opportunity of doing it, without endangering the Spreading the Dis- temper, and that this Town may be, as soon as possible, freed from the apprehen- sion of the Small-Pox; the Governor has consented that the Barracks of Castle- William shall be improved for the Purpose of Inoculation, from this Time into the Middle of May next. And the said Barrack are now opened to ALL PHYSICIANS having Patients to Inoculate, under such Rules as shall be thought proper to be made for that purpose.
There are in the Barracks 48 Rooms, each o which will contain ten Patients con- veniently .- The Boston Post-Boy & Advertiser, February 27, 1764.
The following notices from the same paper inform us that distin- guished physicians from other provinces and localities joined them- selves with the Boston physicians in the treatment of the disease at these hospitals :
Those Physicians of the Town of Boston who are engaged in carrying on the inoculating Hospital at Point-Shirley, being prevented giving their constant Attendance there during the continuance of the Small-Por in Town, hereby notify the Public, that they are join'd by Doctor Barnett of New- Jersey, who will con- stantly attend at said Hospital with ene or other of said Physicians whose Business will permit, and employ the utmost Diligence and Attention for the relief of those that put themselves under their care. They further notify, that Point-Shirley con- tains as many comfortable and decent Houses as will be sufficient to accommodate as many Persons as will probably ever offer for Inoculation at one Time, from this or the neighboring Governments, and is well furnished with every requisite Con- venience both for Sickness and Health .- Boston Post-Boy & Advertiser, March 19, 1764.
DR. SAMUEL GELSTON
Gives this Publick Notice to his Patients in Boston and the adjacent Towns, that he has prepared (by Permission of his Excellency the Governor) all comfortable 23
148
SUFFOLK COUNTY
Accommodations for them at the Barracks at Castle- William, in order to their being inoculated for the Small-Pox under his immediate Care.
N. B. His Rooms are in that Part of the Barracks where the Patients of Dr. Na- thaniel Perkins, Dr. Whitworth and Dr. Lloyd's are received.
Dr. Gelston and Dr. Warren reside at Castle- William day and night.
ALL Persons inelined to go to the Barracks at Castle- William to be inoculated where Dr. GELSTON resides, may apply to Dr. LLOYD at his House near the King's Chapel, who will provide them a Passage to the Castle .- Boston Post-Boy (~ Ad- vertiser, November 5, 1764.
Private hospitals were also opened in the city, and several thousand people came from all parts of the Province for treatment.
We find in the Boston Town Records, 1758-1769, in one of the Record Commissioners' Reports, the following record of the action of a town meeting, showing that these arrangements for the treatment of the disease were generally acceptable to the citizens:
Feb. 24 (1764) 10 o'clock A. M. The Town Met according to Adjournment.
The Committee Appointed the 20th of this Instant February to consider what are the most expedient Methods for the Town to take in their present distressed cireum- stanees by reason of the Small Pox, and of the Proposals made relative to Inoculation Hospitals-Report, That it be recommended to the Selectmen still to continue their endeavors to prevent the spread of the Distemper, and that for the accommodation of such of the Inhabitants as are inclined to take the Distemper by Inoculation it will be expedient for the Town to countenance the Establishment of Inoculating Hos- pitals, and they find upon enquiry that the Houses at Point Shirley are very conven- ient for that purpose; that a number of Physicians have hired the Houses at said Place with a view of improving them as Inoculating Hospitals, and are ready to admit any of the Physicians of the Town to Inoeulate their Patients there, they pay- ing a reasonable consideration for the Houses and Furniture, and that a number of Physicians are about engaging Houses at some of the Islands near the Town for the same purpose-They further Report-that they have also considered the Petition for establishing an Inoeulating Hospital in this Town, and are of the opinion it will not be convenient at present to have such an Hospital within the Peninsula. The above Report having been read and debate had thereon,
Voted, that the same be accepted.
The following record from the same source is of interest in this con- nection :
At a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston legally qualified and warned in publiek Town Meeting Assembled at Faneuil Hall on Monday the 12th Day of March Anno Dom. 1764.
Royal Tyler Esq. in the name of the Overseers represented to the Town, that being acquainted by the Seleetmen that a number of Physicians were willing to Inoculate such of the Poor Gratis, as were desirous of receiving the Small Pox in
Jaseph R. Winch.
179
MEDICAL HISTORY.
that way; they had accordingly waited upon those Gentlemen, who readily engaged to carry through that Distemper their proportion of the Poor of the Town either in the natural way or by Inoculation, as also to find Medicines and give proper attend- ance Gratis-they mentioned among other Things, that they were apprehensive that the great number of Persons which will be immediately laid down may so take up the attention of those Physicians who have thus engaged, as to prevent them in some instances from attending the sick Poor who may thereby suffer; and that therefore they had secured as Physicians to be at the call of the Overseers in all such cases- Whereupon it was Voted That the Conduct of the Overseers in those particulars are satisfactory to the Town.
A vote taken at the same meeting indicated a feeling of apprehension of the effects of the wholesale inoculation which had been going on for some time.
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