USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Tercentenary history of Newton, 1630-1930 > Part 12
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All these means of intellectual and spiritual culture were added inducements for more people to find residence in Newton. Nearly all of them joined the army of com- muters who carried on business in Boston and retired to the suburbs to sleep. Such persons were usually able to enjoy comfortable homes with ground sufficient to afford room for shrubbery and gardens, and the owners were proud of the beauty of the town. It was on the way to becoming the Garden City of eastern Massachusetts.
Newton was not destined to become, like so many other cities, an industrial community, but in certain vil- lages like the Falls manufacturing plants continued to give employment.
About 1855 John M. Gamewell and others of New
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York formed a partnership for the manufacture of fire alarm telegraph systems, purchasing the inventions of two Massachusetts men. They became successful in a new industry, as many expanding cities saw the need of better fire protection. Though the headquarters were in New York, the manufacturing was done at Newton Highlands after 1873 by Moses G. Crane of Boston. He employed a number of schoolboys and trained them for skilled work- manship. Under a new corporate name the Company took over the manufacturing end from Crane in 1886, and four years later the factory was located in larger quarters at Upper Falls. There it employed a hundred men, besides indirectly supplying work to four hundred machinists, linemen, and other operators.
Nonantum proved to be one of the most actively employed parts of the town. There in 1852 Thomas Dalby, an Englishman, started the business of manufacturing hosiery. This developed into the Dalby Mills Company, which did a large business until after the Civil War when it failed. The property was bought by Lewis Coleman of Boston, but in 1871 one of the large buildings went up in flames. The Silver Lake Company was planned and char- tered for the manufacture of solid braided cord and steam packing. It commenced operations in 1866 on a capital of eighty thousand dollars, occupying a four-story brick building on Nevada Street. The business failed after three years and a new company was formed, which proved suc- cessful. The largest business enterprise at Nonantum was the Nonantum Worsted Company, which was organized in 1867 with a capital of half a million dollars for the pur- pose of manufacturing worsted yarn. It bought out the Dalby Company, making additions and gaining a reputa- tion until it was employing six hundred operatives. But the business depression of the early nineties affected the indus- try and in 1896 the Company voted to go out of business.
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Several experiments were made in Newton in the manufacture of silk. As early as the eighteenth century such manufacture was attempted in Massachusetts at Boston and Ipswich, and in 1822 Jesse Fewkes undertook to make fine laces from silk and linen fabric in a small fac- tory at Newton. Kenrick and others tried to raise silk- worms on mulberry trees, but without much success. In 1852 Joseph W. Plimpton had a silk ribbon factory at West Newton, and soon had an output worth thirty-eight thousand dollars. Two years later he sold the business to his foreman, but fire took its toll and destroyed the indus- try before 1860. Within the next few years Isaac Farwell, Jr., opened a factory for the manufacture of sewing silk at Upper Falls, removed in 1870 to Newton Corner, and a few years later went to Connecticut. A more successful enterprise on a larger scale was started in 1886 by two partners, Phipps and Train, at Upper Falls. Waste silk was imported from Asia, and spun silk warps for upholstery and dress goods were produced. The business was shortly so successful that night shifts were necessary to keep up with the orders.
A unique business was started in 1867 by the Wales Brothers, who lived out in the country on Greenwood Street in the Oak Hill section. Using an old cook stove out-of-doors under an elm tree, they began to preserve fruit. The first year they sold six hundred dollars worth. Then they built a small two-room building. After six years George E. Wales bought out his brother William, and in 1884 moved to Cedar Street, Newton Centre, where he built a factory with eighty-five hundred square feet of floor space. He successfully invented a container which would preserve the fruits properly. In 1889 he sold twenty- five hundred dozen tumblers of preserves worth twenty-five thousand dollars. The product became famous for its purity and had a very wide sale.
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Hiram Tucker, a painter who lived on the slope of Waban Hill, invented a liquid bronze for coating lamps and other metallic goods, also painted slate or other ma- terial used for mantels and fire frames. Best of all was his varnish which he manufactured in a varnish factory near his house. He produced eight to ten thousand gallons a year, and he had other interests outside of Newton. It was such enterprise as this which enabled men to accumulate fortunes, and indulge a spirit of philanthropy, if they were disposed to be generous. Seth Adams, a wealthy resident of Walnut Park, left most of his fortune in 1872 for the foundation of the Adams Nervine Asylum for patients suffering from nervous diseases, and the institution five years later was incorporated with an endowment of six hundred thousand dollars.
A few found time for sport as well as business and philanthropy. In 1865 the Nonantum Cricket Club was formed. Baseball was already producing amateur enthusi- asts. Horse races and boat races claimed attention. A sporting incident in the year 1868 was a hint of the Mara- thon races which were to come. Charles Dickens, the eminent English novelist, was on a visit to America, and one of the forms of entertainment devised for him was a walking match between two of his friends, a Britisher and an American. He acted as pace setter to his fellow coun- tryman, and James T. Fields, the American publisher, coached his compatriot. The route was from the Mill Dam to Newton Centre and back, and the time was an icy twenty-ninth of February. Dickens lamented that the only refreshments which he could find in Newton Centre were five oranges and a bottle of blacking. A dinner fol- lowed in the evening at the Parker House in Boston, at which Longfellow and Lowell, Holmes and Aldrich, Tick- nor and Fields, and their ladies, sat down and made merry with Dickens.
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The decade of the 'sixties saw the organization of a considerable number of local associations, occupational, social, fraternal and religious. The Dalhousie Lodge of Freemasons was created in 1861, following an initial meet- ing held at Newtonville three months earlier. It was wel- comed with enthusiasm by such men as Gen. Adin B. Underwood, who became a leader in its ranks. The Lodge took the name of Dalhousie in honor of a former Grand Master in Scotland. Lodge meetings were held in the Swedenborgian chapel, and then the Masons took a ten- year lease on the upper floor of the Methodist building on the corner of Washington and Court Streets, now Central Avenue. When William Claflin erected Central Block in 1874 the Masons found a better home in the upper part of the building, where they used two halls, an armory, a banquet room, and several smaller apartments. But in 1895 the Lodge decided to build its own temple on Walnut Street, which it made ample in size and convenient in its equipment. Its appointments were satisfactory to its members and an attraction to those who sought admit- tance to its order. Five hundred and fifty members were on the roll of the Lodge in 1907. In 1869 Newton Chapter of Royal Arch Masons was organized, to grow from a char- ter membership of thirty-nine to three hundred and twen- ty-five in less than forty years. The Gethsemane Com- mandery of Knights Templars comprised thirty-one mem- bers at its organization in 1872, a number which increased in thirty-five years to four hundred. These hundreds of men bore witness to the principles of brotherhood and benevo- lence which have characterized the order, and to the strength of the secret bonds that hold them in unity. In spite of the opposition of many to such secret fraternities, the organization grew and strengthened until it became one of the leading associations of the city.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was trans-
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planted from England to the United States in 1819. It was twenty-six years later that Elliott Lodge, No. 58, was organized at Upper Falls, but it was a time when the Anti- Masonic agitation had not yet spent itself, and it ceased to function after an existence of six years. A new start was made with the institution of Waban Lodge, No. 156,in 1871. The organization had its beginning at Newton Corner, but it was transferred to Newtonville because better accom- modations were available there. Two years later Home Lodge, No. 162, was formed at Upper Falls, only to be moved to Newton Highlands in 1887. In that same year a fourth lodge was formed, Newton Lodge, No. 92, at West Newton. The Odd Fellows numbered more than five hun- dred twenty years later. The order has remained true to its principles of friendship among men of different social rank, occupation and profession, and of loyalty to the belief in a divine fatherhood and a human brotherhood. As the Masons had their higher degrees, so the Odd Fel- lows organized their encampment branch. The first en- campment in Newton was Newton Encampment, No. 50, organized at Newton Corner in 1875, but the charter was surrendered to Waltham seven years later. A second attempt resulted in the organization of Garden City Encampment, No. 62, in the village of Newton in 1887, which removed to Newton Highlands in 1891. About the middle of the nineteenth century the Daughters of Rebekah were organized in affiliation with the Odd Fellows. It was not until 1889 that the first of that degree united in the Highland Rebekah Lodge, No. 82, at Newton Highlands, followed by Tennyson Rebekah Lodge, No. 119, in 1892 at West Newton.
The temperance movement which had started in New- ton back in the early decades of the nineteenth century continued to retain the interest and allegiance of many people, and to provide a basis of organization for many
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groups. Most of these groups were allied with national organizations. As early as 1865 the Nonantum Division of the Sons of Temperance was organized at Lower Falls. Two years later the Good Templars established Nahaton Lodge at Upper Falls, and in 1869 Wetomac Lodge at Nonantum. The Young Crusaders at West Newton organ- ized the same year.
Women in the Protestant churches realized the need of guarding the youth of the city from the seductions of billboard advertising of liquors, as well as in the news- papers and the periodicals. They formed three local organ- izations of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in West Newton, Newton and Auburndale. One object was to educate the young people to the principle of total absti- nence. To this end they organized a Young People's Branch of young men and women and a Loyal Temperance Legion for boys and girls, requiring the signing of a pledge and providing instruction through the printed page and by oral precept. The Unions undertook to aid the law for the provision of instruction in the schools as to the physical effects of alcohol and narcotics generally, and through the instrumentality of appointed superintendents over different branches of the work they paid specific attention to Sunday schools, soldiers and sailors, lumber- men, and flower missions, and to such matters as child wel- fare, social purity, Christian citizenship, and the promo- tion of peace. Some of the specific civic obligations under- taken by the members were agitation to gain equal suffrage for women, the creation of public sentiment against bill- board advertising of liquor, and against the abuse of the privilege of druggists licenses, the support of qualified women for the school committee, and the election of com- petent and temperate candidates for political office.
The Newton Unions have provided many women for state leadership, including Katherine Lent Stevenson,
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Elizabeth P. Gordon, and Anna A. Gordon, the president of the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union.
The temperance organizations were challenged fre- quently by the illicit sale of liquor. Newton was not favor- able to licensing the saloon, and in those days of local option repeatedly refused to do so, but some of the work- ing people of Nonantum wanted it and the charge of illicit traffic was made against that community. In the year 1870 the citizens of Upper Falls were distressed by the presence of an illegal saloon in that village. The temper- ance spirit in the village was sustained by several organi- zations, and two hundred persons petitioned the district attorney to take action. He arrested the keeper, who was fined and put under bonds not to repeat the offence. His stock and furniture were taken away promptly, but later on he attempted to regain his place in the village. He was dispossessed speedily.
The growing interest in intellectual attainment ac- counts for the origin of literary and debating societies soon after the war was over. Newton Centre had a flourishing Shakespeare Society in 1867. More than one literary soci- ety commenced its literary studies with the Shakespearian dramas, and heightened their pleasure by attending Shake- speare plays in Boston. In 1868 the busy people of Upper Falls organized the Quinobequin Association. With its Indian name it might at first thought seem far removed from the English dramatist, but the purpose of the organi- zation was similar. The members of the Association de- voted much time to study and with constant practice became proficient in debate. The Association included both men and women, and more than one young man could date his ability to stand with confidence among his fellows to the training received. Meetings were held every month from October to May, at first in an old building near the river. The Association accumulated a library of
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five hundred volumes. Its usual meetings were not open to the public, but occasionally it staged a dramatic or other entertainment to which the village was invited. For thirty years the Quinobequin Association was a positive force for good in the life of the village, but after that time it began to decline with the death of the leaders, and though it never has dissolved the few remaining members do not maintain any activities.
Of a different sort was the organization called the Newton Centre Tree Club, organized in 1852. It was too early for the village improvement societies, but the same desire for the beautification of their surroundings prompted citizens to answer a call to those who were fond of shady ease to join an association for tree planting. Laudable as was its purpose the association lasted but three years, a gesture in the right direction but nothing more. Occa- sional meetings of citizens were held in the village to dis- cuss public matters, and in 1879 the Newton Centre Improvement Association became a permanent feature of village life.
The diversity of interests which brought people to- gether in association is illustrated by the Newton Black Bass Club, which was formed by nine men of Newton Centre in 1871 with the design of stocking Crystal Lake with fish, and the Newton Boat Club, which was intended to utilize the river for boating. Distant already seemed the days when Newton was a farming community without much community spirit, and devoid of a variety of inter- ests. The town had rubbed its eyes and was awake. To- morrow it would attain to the dignity of a city.
While these institutions and societies and sports were springing into existence and gaining permanent popular support, individuals were dropping from the ranks as insidious disease or old age made them its victims. For old and young, rich and poor, death waited and the cus-
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tom of civilization required a suitable burial place. The accommodations of the old cemeteries were not sufficient as the town grew in population. About the time the people began to realize their deficiency in modern schools they felt the need of a new cemetery. The old custom of bury- ing the dead in the churchyard no longer obtained, yet it seemed desirable that the place of sepulture should be in a place of quiet beauty and ready accessibility from all parts of the town. A large tract of rolling wooded country near the centre of the town's territory seemed admirably adapted for the purpose, and when the growth of senti- ment had matured the Newton Cemetery Corporation was organized in April, 1855, and the land was secured. It was adapted to its purpose in the quality of its soil, and it lent itself to various improvements, including the crea- tion of a partly artificial pond, through which Coldspring Brook found its way. Thirty acres were bought at first, surveyed by Marshall Rice, and put under the care of Henry Ross as superintendent. The original entrance was from Cemetery Avenue. The Walnut Street entrance fol- lowed the extension of that street south of Homer Street. It cost about forty-five hundred dollars.
The size of the cemetery was doubled within a few years, and further additions were made subsequently, which carried it through from Beacon Street to Homer and back towards Waban. For a time it was called Grove Hill Cemetery, but the simple name of Newton Cemetery was soon adopted. It was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies in 1857. By 1868 five hundred lots had been sold, and eighteen hundred interments were made before 1878. The stone gateway, surmounted by a cross and soon ivy-grown, was constructed in 1871. A fund for perpetual care was started with a bequest of a hundred dollars from the estate of Elisha Field, which soon reached twenty- nine thousand dollars. This provision made it possible to
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keep uniformly beautiful the grass-grown graves and the shrubs and trees, and the tastefully planned paths and avenues; such features as the pond, the mortuary chapel, and the soldiers' monument, combined to make it one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the vicinity of Boston.
Dr. Henry F. Bigelow, who was one of the first trus- tees of the cemetery and who had long rendered civic as well as professional service for many years, died in 1866 and John S. Farlow of Waverley Avenue gave to the ceme- tery in his honor the Bigelow Mortuary Chapel. It was a specimen of Gothic architecture in stone, with an adjoin- ing conservatory supplied with tropical plants and foun- tains. Every possible convenience for funeral services as well as chaste and beautiful surroundings made it less a place of sorrow than of solemnity and peace. Near the chapel crowning a hill, near whose base are a number of receiving tombs, a soldiers' monument was erected during the Civil War, less than ten years after the cemetery had been plotted.
In the midst of its growth and prosperity Newton was drawn into the maelstrom of the Civil War. The slav- ery issue was a purely academic question in Newton. A few slaves had been held in the colonial period. The inven- tories of the early settlers occasionally mentioned the pos- session of a man or woman of color. Thirty-six such per- sons are included in the records. Four of them belonged to Deacon William Trowbridge, who died in 1744. Most of them came probably from the West Indies. Slavery was extinguished in Massachusetts before 1800. The last one in Newton was Tillo, the servant of General Hull, who was buried in the old cemetery near his master.
Newton was a station on the underground railroad along which runaway slaves made their way to safety in Canada. They came from Maryland and Pennsylvania through New York and Connecticut to the vicinity of
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Newton. The Jackson homestead was their rendezvous where they arrived under cover of darkness, hid in the cellar, where a well was used to conceal them if they were pursued closely, and when the way was clear they were passed on by friendly hands to the next station.
Newton people were interested in the discussions which agitated the country in the days before the Civil War, and when the war broke out they rallied to the sup- port of the nation. When President Lincoln called for the first volunteers, a military company was formed and the town voted to equip it and to take care of the families of those who enlisted. Women volunteered to provide under- clothing for the soldiers. Whenever supplies were needed the town gave authority to the selectmen to furnish them. The town showed its spirit in June, 1861, by voting thanks to the selectmen for their wise and prudent direction of matters relating to the war, gratitude to the young men who had enlisted, and instruction to the selectmen to raise whatever money was necessary to meet all obliga- tions to the soldiers and to draw from the town treasury enough money to meet the military expenses.
A year and a half later Newton was ready to vote forty thousand dollars which the selectmen had granted as bounties for enlistment. The war had developed into a gruelling contest, and it was not so easy to secure enlist- ments without special inducements. Ten thousand dol- lars more were appropriated for the expense of caring for the bodies of soldiers who had been killed and for the needy soldiers and sailors and their families who were then living in town. Later on the selectmen were authorized to bor- row, if necessary, and to extend help to the drafted men and their families. Fifty-eight thousand dollars were added for bounties and family aid in 1864, and over twenty thousand dollars more in March, 1865. A total of one hundred sixty-five thousand dollars was voted during the
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war. These generous appropriations and others of the same sort all through the North went far to assure the ulti- mate victory of the nation over the indomitable will and fighting power of the South. Besides the money voted by the town were the sums advanced by patriotic citizens that there might not be any delay before the town could meet and vote the necessary supplies. Nine men thus advanced one thousand dollars each in June, 1864. Indi- viduals continually were sending boxes of supplies to their absent members. Women met to prepare bandages for the wounded, and on a certain Sunday, when news came of a severe battle that had just been fought and the immediate need of the sufferers, church services were abandoned and the town hastily prepared the supplies and rushed them to the front. Throughout the conflict New- ton supported loyally the Administration in power, giving President Lincoln nine hundred fifty-four out of thirteen hundred sixteen votes in the election of 1864.
The town was called upon for ten hundred sixty-seven men as its quota for field service, and it furnished eleven hundred twenty-nine. Three hundred twenty-three men were among those who volunteered for three years. Thirty- eight officers were accredited to the town. The company formed at the beginning of the war was not accepted for service by the Government, because it was thought at first that a comparatively small force would soon end the war. The result was that a number of eager volunteers sought service in other companies. As the contest was pro- longed volunteers were welcome in larger numbers and enlistment was resumed. Newton men were scattered through thirty regiments, but the three years' men were principally in the Thirty-Second, the First, the Sixteenth, and the Twenty-Fourth Infantry Regiments from Massa- chusetts.
The First Regiment was the first to be mustered into
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service on the fifteenth of June, 1861, and was not mus- tered out until May 25, 1864. It participated in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and the Wilderness. It had the honor of being the first regiment of three-year volun- teers to reach Washington. The Sixteenth Regiment was next to move of those which included a number of Newton men. It was mustered in August 5, 1861, and served until July 27, 1864. It shared in the battles already mentioned, also Malvern Hill and Petersburg among the severe engage- ments. General Hooker gave the Sixteenth Massachu- setts the credit for saving the Northern army at the battle of Glendale, Virginia, in June, 1862. Five Newton men out of twenty-six in the First Regiment lost their lives; seven out of thirty-seven died in the Sixteenth Regiment. Seventeen Newton men were in the Twenty-Fourth Massa- chusetts, which was mustered into service in December, 1861, and was not mustered out until January 20, 1866. Only one Newton man was killed in the long series of battles which included the siege of Petersburg but not many of the fierce battles. Twenty-seven men from New- ton were in the First Massachusetts Cavalry, which went out late in 1861, remained in active service through the war, and shared in such battles as Fredericksburg, Chan- cellorsville, Gettysburg and Cold Harbor.
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