USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 28
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In the town records we find the name given as Whitworth, occasion- ally as Whetworth, and in some accounts more erroneously as Whit- marsh.
Whitwell, Samuel, was born in Boston, 12 January, 1154; studied at the Boston Latin School, and in 1124 graduated from Princeton Col- lege.
He studied medicine under Dr. James Lloyd, and on 1 January, 1212 was commissioned surgeon of Col. John Greaton's Regiment (Third Continental), and served throughout the war. He was one of the thirty- six officers who signed the original " Institution " of the Cincinnati So- ciety, adopted by the representatives of the American army at the can- tonment on Hudson River, 13 May, 1283. On 4 July, 1289, he deliv- ered an oration before the Society of the Cincinnati, which was printed at the request of the society. He died at Newton, 21 November, 1791.
Williams, Nathaniel. Of him Dr. Green writes:
He was an active and useful man in his day and generation. In the affairs of life he performed the triple rôle of preacher, doctor and schoolmaster. The union of these three characters was no infrequent occurrence in former times. In each he appears to have played well his part; and his career entitles him to more than a passing notice. He was the son of Nathaniel and Mary (Oliver) Williams, and was born in Boston, August 23, 1675. He graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1693, and in the summer of 1698 was ordained,-according to the sermon preached at his funeral by Thomas Prince, -"an EVANGELIST in the College-Hall, for one of the West India Islands. But the climate not agreeing with his Constitution, He soon returned to this his native City." At one time he was engaged in giving private instruction to boys, and he had the reputation of being an excellent classical scholar. In the year 1703 he was appointed usher at the Free Grammar School, now known as the Boston Latin School; and subsequently, in 1708, he was chosen to the mastership, which position he held until 1734. He studied " Chymistry and Physick under his Uncle the Learned Dr. James Oliver of Cambridge ; one of the most esteemed Physicians in his Day;" and even while teaching continued to practice his profession of medicine. He died January 10, 1737-38; and "The Boston Weekly News-Letter " of January 12 calls him " the Reverend and Learned Mr. Nathaniel Williams," and speaks of him " as a very skilful and successful Physician;" and says that " as his Life has been very extensively serviceable, so his Death is es- teemed as a public Loss." A posthumous pamphlet by him was printed many years after his death. The title was " The METHOD of Practice in the Small-Pox, with Observations on the Way of Inoculation. Taken from a Manuscript of the late Dr. NATHANIEL WILLIAMS of Boston in N. E. Published for the Common Advantage, more especially of the Country Towns, who may be visited with that Distemper."-
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(Boston, 1752.) At the end it contains four pages with the heading " Small Pox by Inoculation, in 1730," Dr. Williams had a large practice.
W'inship, Amos, who lived on Hanover street, near the Mill Bridge, in 1480 and in 196, was probably born in Lexington, 19 December, 1:50, the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Windship. He graduated at Harvard, receiving his A. B. in 1971, his A. M. and M. B. in 1190, and his M. D. in 1811, the year of his death. He was a corresponding member of the London Medical Society. In the first volume of the Boston News- Letter he is spoken of as of Lexington, Mass. A child of Dr. Amos Win- ship, "Letsance," was presented at Hollis street Church for baptism in 1791 by his grandfather, Mr. E. May, "the father being absent." From this circumstance we may doubt if Dr. Winship of Boston and Dr. Winship of Lexington are one and the same.
Yougust, Dr., was here in 1464, and inoculated seventeen patients.
Young, Lemuel. Toner says that Elijah Hewins, who was born in 1741, and after serving in the Continental army as a surgeon, " studied with Dr. Young of Boston."
Young, Thomas. He was one of the Boston Tea Party, and also was one of the Committee of Correspondence with Joseph Warren and Ben- jamin Church.
It was proposed to substitute the celebration of the Boston Massacre for that of the Gunpowder Plot. Accordingly when the evening arrived in 1771 an address was delivered by Dr. Thomas Young to a collection of. people at the Manufactory House.
The following physicians are given in the first Boston Directory, 1489. In the general list of names are the following, and except as given differently, the word "physician " only, follows the name and precedes the residence :
*Appleton Nathaniel W.
Bulfinch Thomas.
*Pecker James. Rogerson Robert.
*Danforth Samuel.
*Rand Isaac.
*Dexter Aaron.
*Spooner William.
"Eustis William.
*Townsend David.
*Hayward Lemuel.
*Jarvis Charles.
*Kast Thomas. Leavitt Josiah.
Pope John, School-master and surgeon, particularly a curer of cancers and malignant ulcers, &c.
"Whipple Joseph, physician and sur- geon. *Warren John.
Windship Amos, physician and apothe- cary.
*Welsh Thomas.
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In a separate list of the physicians and surgeons are the following, in addition to those given above:
*Lloyd James. *Cheever Abijah. *Homans John, 47. *Fleet John. Peters Alexander Abercrombie.
#Sprague John, junior.
With the exception that the names of Leavitt and Pope are omitted.
In a list of the omissions given at the end of the volume, the names and residences of Homans, Lloyd and Peters are given.
Physicians in the Boston Directory for 1796 (the second one) :
Bertody Francis. Bulfinch Thomas.
*Cheever Abijah.
*Dexter Aaron.
*Danforth Samuel. Enslin John Frederick.
*Eustis William. Fay Nahum.
*Fleet John, jr.
*Hayward Lemnel.
*Homans John.
*Warren John.
*Jackson William, apothecary and phy- sician.
*Jarvis Charles. *Jeffries John. *Kast Thomns. *Lloyd James. *Rand Isaac. Read William. *Spooner William.
*Sprague John. St. Medard Peter, surgeon,
*Welsh Thomas.
*Whipple Joseph. Windship Amos.
I have prefixed an * to the names of those who were Fellows of the Massachusetts Medical Society,
In closing this sketch I desire to acknowledge the kindness of many of my professional friends in freely rendering me assistance; to Doctors Samuel A. Green and Francis H. Brown I am especially indebted.
THE STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM OF BOSTON.
BY PRENTISS CUMMINGS.
THE street railway for the transportation of passengers was an American invention; and the first successful horse railroad for that purpose 1 was laid in New York city in 1852. Its engineer was a Frenchman named Loubât. The principal advantage of the system claimed at the outset was economy of horse-power from the use of a permanent rail. The saving of power by such use is, in fact, much greater than a casual thinker would suppose, ? and accounts in part for the smallness of the fares necessary to support a street railway; but experience has shown many other advantages of perhaps still greater importance, of which its earliest advocates did not dream.
Probably there is no locality where a greater change has been wrought by street railways than in Boston and its suburbs. It will be borne in mind that at the time of the advent of the street cars in 1856, Charles- town, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Dorchester and Brighton were inde- pendent municipalities. Cambridge was a small city of 20,000 inhabitants; and Cambridgeport was to a very considerable extent a mere marsh with a few insecure roads across it. All the bridges leading into Boston were then toll bridges, and the Milldam and Chelsea roads,
1 Tramways operated by horse power were used in coal mines in England many years before that date ; and to some extent horses were there used on railways for passengers, before the steam engine was perfected, but not on the streets. A car drawn by horses was also run at one time over vacant land between Harvard Square, Cambridge, and Union Square, Somerville, connecting with the Fitchburg Railroad.
2 Some engineers have estimated that one horse can haul as large a load on a good rail as thirty- three horses could haul on an average country road. Of course this proportion would vary greatly according to conditions of grade and street construction.
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and perhaps others, were turnpikes upon which tolls were charged. 1 The only public means of communication between any of these places and Boston was by lines of coaches. Cambridge, then, as now, was the largest of the suburbs, and the best service at any time between Cam- bridge and Boston was a coach every half-hour during the business por- tion of the day; and this service was irregular and uncertain, the coaches often foundering in the muddy streets ; and the patronage was precarious. ? The service between Boston and Roxbury, Charlestown and other suburban towns, was little, if any, better. It was in the main impossible for men doing business in Boston to live outside the city ; and no great amount of business could be done either in the city or suburbs.
At this day it is difficult to realize that a state of things so suggestive of the dark ages existed here within the recollection of comparatively young men now living; and it is not too much to say that the street railway has wrought a complete revolution in the habits, condition, and even civilization 3 of the community. In short, it is the street railway that has made Boston possible.
CONSTRUCTION OF MAIN LINES.
The opening of a horse-car line in New York in 1852 was suggestive of what might be done in this vicinity ; and a charter was obtained that same year from the General Court for a horse railroad connecting Dor- chester and Roxbury, but it was not constructed until several years later. + In 1853 the Metropolitan Railroad Company and the Cambridge Railroad Company were incorporated to connect Boston with Roxbury and Cambridge respectively. 5 The Metropolitan charter then granted
I The Cambridge bridges were made free January 30, 1858, and the Charlestown bridges in April of the same year. Tolls were collected on the Milldam until December 8, 1868. In order to free the bridges to Cambridge, the Cambridge Railroad Company paid $32,000, and this expenditure is rep- resented by that amount of the capital stock of the West-End Company to-day.
2 In some cases coaches were run under a guaranty of a certain revenue.
3 Philosophic writers agree that railways and all else that facilitates intercourse between man and man are efficient agents in civilization. Macaulay, in speaking of the evils arising from bad roads in England, says that inventions that abridge distance are second only to the printing press in improving the condition of the race. Missionaries have noticed the vast influence for good of railways in heathen countries.
4 The incorporators were William D. Swan, Charles C Holbrook, and William Hendry.
5 The incorporators of the Metropolitan road were J. P. Ober, Moses Field Fowler, and Henry N. Hopper ; and of the Cambridge road, were Gardner G. Hubbard, Charles C. Little, and Isaac Livermore.
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turned out to be defective, and no action was taken under it until after it had been amended the following year; but the Cambridge company was at once formed, and obtained its first location in Boston on Can- bridge, Chambers and Green streets, December 4, 1854. This road encountered great opposition, particularly in Cambridge, and its tracks in Cambridgeport, where it was obliged to build the streets anew in order to get a firm foundation, were repeatedly torn up at night. 1 Capitalists felt great distrust of the enterprise, claiming, not unnaturally, that there was hardly business enough to support the coach line; and the contractor who built the original tracks between Harvard Square, Cambridge, and Bowdoin Square, Boston, and who took his pay in stock at par at the rate of $30,000 per mile, became insolvent owing to the decline of the stock to less than $50 per share. The original stock- holders were unwilling to advance the necessary funds for equipping the road when built; and a new corporation, the Union Railway Com- pany, was chartered for that purpose, with authority to lease the tracks of the Cambridge Railroad. ?
The first street car in Boston was run March 26, 1856, from Cam- bridgeport to Charles street, and shortly afterwards the line was run- ning regularly between Harvard and Bowdoin Squares.
The Metropolitan began the running of cars between the old Boylston Market at the corner of Washington and Boylston streets, and Eliot Square in Roxbury, the following September. The Cambridge Rail- road reported over a million paying passengers for its first year's work, and the Metropolitan road over eight millions; and it at once became apparent to everybody that there was a demand for local transportation facilities far in excess of what had generally been supposed.
The success of the Metropolitan and Cambridge roads speedily led to the construction of other street railways. The Middlesex Railroad Company was chartered in 1854, 3 and the first car ran into the city from Charlestown in 1857. The Broadway Railroad Company, from South Boston, was chartered in 1854, and commenced running in 1858.+ Ten
1 When the writer graduated from Harvard in 1864, there were no paved sidewalks in Cambridge and no paved streets except the pavement between the rails, and in the spring of the year the whole community habitually walked on the car tracks.
2 The incorporators of the Union Railway were John C. Stiles, Moses M. Rice, and 'T. Russell Jencks. The Cambridge road was operated under this lease until 1882.
3 The incorporators of the Middlesex road were Asa Fisk, Richard Downing, and Asa Kimball.
4 The incorporators of the Broadway Railroad Company were Charles J. F. Allen, Seth Adams, and John P. Monks.
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years later its name was changed to the South Boston Railroad Com- pany.
The Suffolk Railroad Company was chartered in 1854 to construct lines in East Boston, and in the city to run from the East Boston Ferry through Hanover street to Scollay Square, and thence to extend to the Metropolitan tracks on Boylston street. 1
The Boston and Chelsea Railroad Company was chartered in 1854, to construct lines in Chelsea, and connect with the Middlesex road in Charlestown .? This road first assumed importance on being leased by the Lynn and Boston Railroad Company, which obtained a charter in 1859.3 The Lynn and Boston is the only street railway in Boston to- day (June 1, 1893) which is not a part of the West End system. It reaches its terminus in the city at Scollay Square by way of Charlestown, and extends in a northerly direction to Marblehead and Salem, and makes connections with other street railways running as far as New- buryport.
The above are the principal lines operated in Boston, but most of them had several branches which are not of sufficient importance to require detailed description, but with which they afterwards consoli- dated. 4
CONSOLIDATION OF BRANCH AND MAIN LINES.
The Chelsea and East Boston road laid tracks from Chelsea connect- ing with the Suffolk Railroad in East Boston; and this road was con- solidated with the Metropolitan in 1865, the Suffolk having been ab- sorbed by the same company the previous year. The Metropolitan had made a similar union with the branches of the Dorchester roads in 1863, and purchased the franchises of the Brookline and Back Bay road in 1868. The latter company had tracks leading from Brookline vil- lage to Roxbury crossing ; and by means of its charter, the Metropolitan road acquired the right to obtain locations in Brookline.
1 The incorporators of the Suffolk road were George H. Plummer, Ebenezer Atkins, Edward F. Porter, David L. Webster, Asa Fisk, and John G. Webster.
2 The incorporators were Isaac Stebbins, John Low, Bradbury C. Bartlett, John Rice, and Thomas Russell.
3 The incorporators of the Lynn and Boston road were Charles Porter, William W. Wheildon, E. B. Phillips, Henry A. Breed, John Story, Benjamin Shurtleff, and Moses F. Rogers.
4 In fact there was at this time a most exaggerated idea of the value of street railway franchises, which resulted in something like an epidemic on the subject. Many charters were obtained which were never used, and many small roads were built long in advance of any sufficient demand to justify their cost. All the branch roads above named laid tracks which have been maintained to the present time.
37
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SUFFOLK COUNTY.
The Metropolitan road, largely through the Suffolk charter, which gave rights in the centre of the city which at the outset would have been granted to no company, long before the West End consolidation had become the largest street railway in the world.
In like manner the Middlesex road absorbed branch lines in Somer- ville, Medford, Malden, and Everett. 1 The Cambridge Railroad Com- pany acquired in the same way tracks in Arlington, Watertown, New- ton and Brighton. ?
Some of these branch roads were doubtless built in good faith, and some for the express purpose of being sold at a profit. There have been several periods in Boston when it has been a regular industry to build roads to use the tracks of the old companies, and intentionally to become such a nuisance as to lead to their being purchased at a large price.
PERIOD OF EXTENSIONS AND ENCROACHMENTS.
The four great roads I have named-the Metropolitan, Middlesex, Cambridge, and South Boston-grew rapidly and made many exten- sions within their proper territories, some because they were needed, and some to prevent the formation of rival companies.
As the tracks of the Metropolitan Company in the centre of the city were the most profitable of any to operate, the other roads sought every pretext of public convenience to secure the right to cross the city. The Middlesex road, whose earliest terminus was near Haymarket Square, soon obtained permission to run its cars to Scollay Square; and the South Boston road, whose early terminus was Summer street, speedily obtained the right to run to the same point; and after a stubborn fight, the Cambridge company obtained the same privilege for its East Cam- bridge cars, which passed the Northern depots. Thus all the roads met at the old Scollay Building, which was employed as a transfer sta- tion; and the Legislature made a limited provision for commutation checks to be there used. When that building was removed, the Mid- dlesex and South Boston roads obtained the right to run to the South- ern and Northern depots respectively. Charlestown, meanwhile, had
I The several companies originally owning these lines were the Somerville Horse Railroad Com- pany, the Medford and Charlestown Railroad Company, the Malden and Melrose Railroad Com- pany, and the Cliftondale Railroad Company.
2 The companies here referred to were the Watertown and Waltham Railroad Company, the West Cambridge Horse Railroad Company, and the Newton Railroad Company, the charter of the latter covering Brighton also.
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STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM.
become a part of Boston; so both of those roads had direct influence in the Board of Aldermen. Cambridge being an independent city, had no such influence; and it is fair to say that its Bowdoin Square cars were necessarily kept at that point by the narrowness of Court street. That company did, however, obtain the right to run through Charles street to Park Square.
There is no doubt that the running of cars from all sources far into or through the city proper was in the public interest, and also no doubt that the motive for so doing was greed; and the methods employed to obtain rights were simply piratical. It will give some idea of the ex- tent to which this system was practiced to say that at the time of the general consolidation in 1887 the South Boston road was actually run- ning more miles upon the tracks of the Metropolitan Company than upon its own; and one of its lines, known as the "Blue Line," only ran a few rods on the South Boston tracks, but made a wide circuit on the Metropolitan tracks through the business portion of the city.
RIVAL ROADS.
In 1872 the Highland Street Railway Company1 was chartered for the avowed purpose of competing with the Metropolitan in the business of its original line between Roxbury and the city proper; and in 1881 the Charles River Street Railway? Company was chartered to compete with the Cambridge Railroad on its original line over West Boston Bridge. Of course, the main object of the promoters of both roads was to make money, but they were much aided both in obtaining capital and franchises by popular feeling against the two pioneer rail- ways. The public had some real grievances to redress in both cases; and the two old roads were making money, which in the public mind is itself a grievance.
But the Highland Railway was a great benefit to the community in many ways. Its management introduced a better style of cars than had before been run in Boston; they exercised great care in select- ing polite and competent employees, and were the first to uniform
1 The original roads were chartered under the name of " Railroads " or " Horse Railroads." In 1874 an act of the Legislature provided that new companies should be entitled "street railway companies."
2 The incorporators of the Highland Railway were Moody Merrill, Samuel Little, Henry Pfaff, Jacob Pfaff, Donald Kennedy and Charles G. Hayden ; and of the Charles River Railway were Samuel L. Montague, Charles E. Raymond, Daniel U. Chamberlain, Edmund Reardon, Walter S. Swan, H. O. Houghton, J. M. W. Hall, Henry P. Woods.
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them. The principal tracks of the Highland road were on Shawmut avenue, Blue Hill avenue, Columbus avenue, Dudley and Warren streets. This road is entitled to a large share of the credit of the pres- ent park system of Boston, for it was almost wholly due to its influence that Franklin Park was purchased and laid out by the city; and the whole Roxbury district was benefited and built up by its improved service. Its lines, however, were never pecuniarily profitable until long after the company had passed out of existence.
The Charles River Railway was also of some benefit in improving the service in Cambridge; but in other ways has been a permanent detriment to that city. Most of its tracks were located so close to ex- isting lines as to be unnecessary, and therefore a needless encumbrance in the streets. Most of them have since been removed by order of the city authorities, and the money invested was therefore wasted, and has become a burden on the present company and on the public.
The Highland and Charles River roads, in another way, were a pub- lic detriment. Their very existence depended on the business they could secure on the tracks of other companies, and they sought to en- croach wherever they could. Naturally, this excited much bitter feel- ing, and the management of the other railways were determined the so called piratical roads should not do a profitable business on their tracks. It is a well-known habit of the public to take the forward of two cars running near together, even if it be crowded; and the Metro- politan and Cambridge roads were at great pains so to arrange their time tables as to have a car to lead every car of other roads when on their tracks; and the other roads would keep shifting their time tables to prevent this. Employees had almost more partisan feeling than the managements, and there was a general practice of racing cars to get in ahead; and the car that was left behind would then fall back and go as slowly as possible in order to get passengers from the car in the rear. All this led to blockades, accidents, and other serious injury to the service. 1
1 During this warfare, and while there was the greatest bitterness of feeling, the presidents of the several companies, under the name of the " We-Are-Seven Club," dined together monthly. They were Calvin A. Richards, president of the Metropolitan Railroad Company ; Charles E. Powers, president of the Middlesex Railroad Company ; Moody Merrill, president of the Highland Street Railway Company; Charles E. Raymond, president of the Charles River Street Railway Company ; Charles H. Hersey, president of the South Boston Railroad Company ; Amos F. Breed, president of the Lynn and Boston Railroad Company ; Prentiss Cummings, president of the Cam- bridge Railroad Company. The ostensible object of the meeting was to have an opportunity for consultation for the mutual benefit of the roads and the service ; but the real motive was to fathom
1
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The successful efforts of these several roads to get rights upon each other's tracks led to a great many involved and zig-zag lines, which are still continued, the cause of which would be inexplicable to strangers unacquainted with the facts. It is impossible to change an established line without causing great dissatisfaction. People are very conserva- tive in their habits of travel;1 and in many cases have acquired homes on a particular spot which is convenient to a special line of street cars; and in other cases their place of business, or their occupation itself has been determined by that line. This is one illustration of the force street railways have been in establishing the habits and manner of life of the community; and even a slight change in the running of a line, which, to an outsider, would seem a manifest improvement, might, with certain people, unsettle the habits of a lifetime.
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