USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Winthrop > The history of Winthrop, Massachusetts ; 1630-1952 > Part 11
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There was plenty to barter, too, for the Winthrop farm fami- lies were distinguished for their industry, as successful farmers must be always. In addition to general farming, which provided a surplus of food for which there was a ready market in Boston, the Winthrop farms specialized then in sheep raising which gave plenty of wool for which there was then an avid market. It may be that it was the Winthrop sheep farmers who helped establish Boston as the great wool trading center of the United States-
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which it has remained, although most of its other activities, once of national eminence, have been taken elsewhere in large part.
In addition to sheep, Winthrop farms bred cattle for beef, which, when salted, was eagerly sought as provision for ocean- going ships. Dairy cattle were maintained in numbers and while there was then no market of consequence for fluid milk, Win- throp's butter and cheese went to Boston on a regular schedule more or less. Oxen were the beasts principally favored, as they would do more work on less food than horses could do and Win- throp's farms were so small that the superior speed of horses was not necessary.
A main crop was salt marsh hay which was very abundant in the damp center of the town and in all the marsh lands to the north and west. Because of the poor roads to market, the hay was usually loaded upon scows, or gundalows, and towed by row boats or sail boats up the harbor or through Crooked Lane to the Mystic River, whence they floated upstream with the tide to various towns where farmers purchased the lush grass from the salt meadows. Indeed, the owners of the marshes had trouble with farmers from Malden and Saugus who, wanting such hay, poached upon Rumney Marsh and Winthrop meadows until driven away.
Kelp was also a highly saleable product for it was favored as a fertilizer-the salts of potassium, calcium, phosphorous, iodine and the like, making the land rich. Indeed, the use of kelp today would benefit many impoverished acres, acres whose min- eral salts have long since been consumed. Loads of this kelp were ferried up the Mystic and Charles and sold to the farmers. Resi- dents of Rumney Marsh and Winthrop had the right to gather this kelp but it was necessary for the local men to strictly pro- hibit outside farmers from raiding the beaches.
The same was true of clams. Even way back then, when clams were exceedingly abundant, the right to dig them, which was restricted to residents, was a valuable possession and the beaches had to be guarded to keep outsiders from poaching. In addition, nearly every Winthrop farmer owned a fishing boat, usually probably nothing more than a sturdy dory, and in slack times on the farm, the farmer and his boys would row or sail offshore aways and catch cod-then very abundant. These cod were split, cleaned, salted and dried and sold at Boston. There was then a very great trade in New England salt codfish and it was one of the great staples of commerce of colonial days espe- cially for trade with the West Indies where it was swapped for molasses which was brought back home and made into rum- again a great staple of trade for New England rum was deserv- edly popular, not only locally but in Europe: It was very cheap
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also in those days before taxes, for a shilling, which was about 25 cents, would buy a gallon of it. Historians have asserted that New England society and business moved in a bath of rum for it was used freely at all types of meetings, even church gather- ings when business was discussed. Not a barn or a house could be raised at a neighborhood bee without rum.
Just as they went to church, the residents of Rumney Marsh and of Winthrop had their choice of two places at which to buy or barter merchandise. Probably for small purchases, Revere Center, near the Town House and the First Church and the School, was the usual place. Often parties rowed or sailed up Belle Isle Inlet around the northern side of Orient Heights to the old tide mill. Nearby was an inn whose tavern was unquestion- ably a most popular place in which to warm oneself in winter after the long voyage or to cool oneself in summer after the hot sun on the water. Since church, town meetings and such social gatherings as Chelsea boasted were centralized at Revere Center it is likely that this tavern, long since departed, was one of the busiest and most frequented spots in all of Winnisimmitt.
However, for more general supplies, especially textiles, win- dow glass, hardware and things in quantity, Winthrop people usually sailed across to Boston. There was much individual traffic, naturally, since the Big City was always in plain view and the star-bright Mecca for a Saturday night. There was also more or less community traffic, too. Parties would be made up of men and women and they would sail over for more sedate visits. Commercial enterprises were very common too. Neigh- bors would get together, arrange for a boat of some size and load it with salt beef, salt fish, eggs, poultry, mutton, fresh beef, but- ter, dressed lamb, fresh vegetables in season, and all the other produce of Winthrop farms and sail over in time to catch the morning market at Boston. Business transacted, the men would take the shopping lists their good wives had prepared, carefully deposit their purchases back on the boat, leave some of the sur- plus cash with a sober individual trusted to guard the common property and then visit the bright lights of the time. Boston was a very busy, very prosperous and most enterprising town then and afforded just about all the pleasures the flesh is likely to desire. So the men of Winthrop enjoyed themselves thoroughly, each after his wishes. Women very seldom were allowed on these business trips but the boy who was allowed to go along was by that very act promoted to a man's estate. It was something like an Indian lad being officially recognized as a brave.
Probably the development of Winthrop, held back as it was by its distinctly agricultural economy and its ownership by a very few inter-related families, did not require the building of
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roads-as the rutted, muddy and dusty ways were then called. In the account of Deane Winthrop's life, mention was made of the laying out of the first official road across Winthrop-other than Shirley Street, which was of course, inherited from the Indians. The first Winthrop public way, as related, started at the shore at about the corner of Johnson and Somerset Avenues, followed approximately the line of the latter Avenue to Woodside Avenue and then passed along the present route of Winthrop and Revere Streets to the town line at Short Beach.
Below Metcalf Square it passed between two swamps. One was near the site of the Center railroad station, a bog filled with reeds, cat-tails, frogs, snakes and the like and made gay in sum- mer by numbers of red-winged blackbirds. The other swamp, to the north, was the site of the present Ingleside Park. Both swamps required considerable fill when they were "drained" but especially in the case of Ingleside, the filling was difficult. There is a story that a dump cart left standing overnight when the railroad bed was being made, sank in the mud and was never recovered. Modern residents of Winthrop will recall the trouble experienced in the filling of Ingleside baseball field. There are stories extant of bottomless holes in Ingleside-but such stories exist of such swamps almost everywhere.
There was a pond in what is now the Playground between the Edward B. Newton School, the Center School and the Junior High School. This was always filled with water and boasted a thriving colony of gold fish who doubtless were the target for many a generation of young anglers with a length of thread and a bent pin. This pond was used for watering cattle commonly and it is reported that, when Hermon Street was filled in, by the present Town Hall, Uncle Samuel Belcher refused to give up his right of way across the proposed street from his pasture in back of the Town Hall unless a stone tunnel was provided so his cattle could pass freely from the pasture to the pond. This tunnel was built and still remains, although both ends are today buried. This passage was often known as Bull Run, although the writer has heard it called, perhaps inevitably, the Milky Way.
Until along about 75 years ago, when the pressure from out- siders who wanted house lots, so they could live in Winthrop, too, became sufficiently strong, the old farms and the few estates into which some of them had been broken, opposed any considerable development. Winthrop was still a country town and there was no need for good roads. The original way laid out by the com- mittee of which Deane Winthrop was a member in 1698, previ- ously mentioned, sufficed for many years.
But some sort of progress could not be denied, for, although there were no horses in any number, there were great, lumbering
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farm carts towed by patient, plodding oxen. Indeed, the first horse-drawn vehicle of which any record has been discovered, did not appear in Winthrop until about 1800. This was a pleasure chaise, a yellow-bodied, two-wheeler chaise, with leather springs, owned and doubtless very proudly driven by John Sargent Tewks- bury. It probably created as much excitement and envy in Winthrop as did the first automobile a century later.
Once horse drawn vehicles appeared, the road situation had to be adjusted and regularized and so in 1824, Winthrop's two roads were officially recognized-which perhaps was of impor- tance principally in that they became a definite charge upon the tax-payers for maintenance and improvement-if any. The record of the vote at town meeting may be of interest. It reads in part : "The Selectmen have carefully looked over the Farm of James Bowdoin, Esq. (the old Deane Winthrop place), occupied by Mr. Hugh Floyd, in Order to Lay Out an Highway Thro said Farm to Point Shirley and as Mr. Bowdoin has maid (sic) an offer to make the said way good at his own expense, Provided the Town Consents to Let it Go by the Farm House upon the Line of Highway formerly run to Point Shirley Gate (the present Shirley Street) ." The detailed description reads ". .. from Short Beach (Beachmont) to Winthrop Farm, thence Easterly to Point Shir- ley Gate, thence Southerly around the east Side of Great Head to Point Shirley Wharf." This location is almost identical with the present Revere and Shirley Streets to Point Shirley and was the old Indian trail used long before the Puritans came. The other road in Winthrop was the one previously mentioned which ran up Sargent Street from the water and across lots to Metcalf Square and thence down Winthrop Street to the junction at Shirley and Revere Streets, only those names were not then in use, nor for years afterwards.
All farmers are proverbially short of cash, and Winthrop people of the time were apparently no exception to the rule for as far back as Revolutionary days, when roads were first made a charge upon the tax payers, it was made possible that residents of any town could have the privilege of working out a portion of their taxes by laboring upon the public roads. In this Win- throp was no exception for there is on record a vote at town meeting, in 1784 which read: "Voted, that the Pulling Poynte and Pleasant Punte people (Point Shirley) Shall have Liberty to work out that part of their highway Rates (that is not pres- ently worked out) early next Spring."
There was also in force in the early days of Winthrop, the old custom of inspecting town boundaries. It is an old English custom which the Puritans at Boston carefully incorporated into
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the body of Massachusetts law-although it has long since been forgotten, though still a legal requirement, probably.
It was on November 11, 1647, that the General Court labori- ously enacted " .. . that once in three years, three or more persons of each town, appointed by the selectmen of their town, should 'go ye bounds betwixt said townes, and renew their markings, wch (sic) shall be a great heape of stones, or a trench of six feet longe and two foote broade, ye most ancient towne to give notice of meeting for perambulation, wch time shalbe in ye first or second month (March or April, old style), upon paine 5 pounds for every towne ye shall neglect ye same.'"
The perambulators were generally men of substance who owned property and thus were dependable to preserve the interests of their respective towns. Pullen Poynte then had no border to perambulate but some of its leading men were selected from time to time to perambulate the lines between Revere and Malden, Reading and Saugus, which borders were at times in need of the services of disinterested perambulators. Some of these men were: Lieut. John Smith, a son-in-law of James Bill, 1668 and 1669; Deane Winthrop, 1671; Capt. John Floyd, on every committee from 1684 to 1738; Lieut. Jonathan Bill, 1689; and Jeremiah Belcher and Jose Winthrop, in 1702. The job of perambulator was considered both an honor and a sinecure for it commonly paid well, as evidence a bill for two pounds, nine shillings and six pence for the committee which ran the line be- tween Rumney Marsh and Lynn. This bill included horse hire and dinner. This compares with the payment received by a Rum- ney Marsh assessor of twelve shillings, about three dollars, for his services to the town from March 10th to June 10th of 1713. In 1712 Joseph Belcher received only 58 shillings, about $15, for collecting the entire tax for 1712. Of course a dollar was worth more then than now but still collecting taxes was mean, slow work then, as now. In those days before the Revolution, the con- stables served as tax collectors. In the Winthrop Public Library there is a document which is of interest on the point. It is signed by "Sam'l Pratt, collectors"-a man whose spelling may have been weak but whose determination was stout. The demand reads, in part ". .. Ms Wedow Tukesbeary, Provene tax, Town and county raits (one pound, eleven shillings one penny) March 11, 1753. I gue yoy one month to get your rait in and no longer."
One other official in the provincial days, an official whose work was unpleasant indeed, was that of tithing man. These officials, who have long since vanished from the rolls of Win- throp, were responsible for violations of the law and in case of their failure to prosecute offenders, they themselves were liable
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to be fined. Not only were the duties exacting but were such as to make the office holders personally unpopular.
Tithing men were established by the General Court in 1675, as follows: "The selectmen of every town shall choose some sober and discrete persons, to be authorized from the County Court, each of whom shall take charge of ten or twelve families of the neighborhood, and shall diligently inspect them, and present the names of such persons as transgress the law, receiving as com- pensation for their services one-third of the fines allowed, if faithful in the discharge of their duty; Otherwise to be liable to the same fine." By 1679, the duties of the tithingmen were increased and they were ordered to seize liquors sold without a license, and also "to present the name of all single persons that live from under family government, stubborne and disorderly children and servants, women of ill repute, typlers, Sabbath breakers, by night or by day, and such as absent themselves from the publicke worship of God on the Lord's Dayes, or whatever the course or practice of any person or persons tending to de- bauchery, irreligion, prophaneness and atheism among us, wherein by omission of family government, nurture and reli- gious duties and instruction of children and servants, or idleness, profligate, uncivil, or rude practices of any sort."
Naturally, this was a very unpopular task for any citizen to undertake and the Selectmen of the town experienced so much trouble in finding men who would serve as tithingmen that the General Court ordered a fine of 40 shillings imposed upon every man who refused to serve after being appointed to office.
This had the happy effect of opening up a new source of revenue of the towns because most of the men selected paid their fines rather than serve and bring down the displeasure of their neighbors. As far as the Town of Chelsea was concerned, the first set of tithingmen chosen were : James Bill, Sr., John Grover, Sr., Elias Maverick and William Ireland.
Rumney Marsh and Winthrop were served in the early days by a grist mill whose machines were powered by the tide. Most mills in New England were driven by falling water but there is not and never was a stream of sufficient size and fall to turn a mill wheel in or near Winthrop. Probably the first grist mills in the vicinity of Boston were powered by the wind but that proved unsatisfactory for there was either too much wind or not enough. The tide which has an average rise and fall of about nine feet in Boston Harbor was a cheap and abundant source of power. All that was needed was a tidal stream which could be closed by a dyke. A sluice way would admit water to flood the pond up- stream and then, as the tide went out, the water could be passed out through the water wheel. Such tide mills were in operation
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along the New England coast by 1650 but it was not until after 1700 that Winthrop citizens and Rumney Marsh folk joined in seeking a tide mill of their own. The town had been served by the mill of Timothy Sprague in Malden but it was a long drive with a load of corn and service at the mill was not good. In 1721, the General Court was petitioned to allow the people to build a tide mill of their own at the point where Mill Creek empties into Chelsea Creek. Today the Slade Mill, still tide powered, stands at the site, which is beside the Revere Beach Parkway, across from Forbes Lithograph Company and near the gas tanks. Per- mission was granted in 1722 but nothing was done until 1735 when the first tide mill was put into operation. It was owned and operated by Lieut. Thomas Pratt, who a few years later pur- chased the Winthrop Beach and the Point Shirley sections of Winthrop. He was originally associated in the mill venture with other citizens and it was operated for many years but apparently with less and less profit. In 1790 the town was asked to excuse the mill from taxes and in 1792 the town was requested to pur- chase the mill as a public utility. Both requests were refused. So in 1795, the mill shut down and the whole site went to ruin, a condition which continued until 1835 when the Slade Spice Com- pany purchased the property and erected the mill which has been in operation, more or less continuously, ever since.
This grist mill added greatly to the importance of Revere Center for it was in close proximity to the church, the town house, the school, the burying ground and Jonathan Hawks' tavern. Hawks was a son-in-law of the first known Floyd in Rumney Marsh, Captain John Floyd, and very likely his tavern was the most popular spot in all Revere to be. It was at the corner of School and Beach Streets, about where the Congre- gational Church stands today, and since it was but a step off the old Salem Turnpike, doubtless many travelers north and south turned aside-probably just to water their horses. All of Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, having business at the Center just so dropped in to bait their beasts, and possibly to have a bite and a sup for themselves before going on about their business. So in Colonial Rumney Marsh, Hawkes' tavern was the Times Square of the day where good fellowship was always available, day or night, and where all the news of the moment was passed along from one person to another. The importance of this last cannot be over-estimated for while Boston was not long without its "newspapers" they were little things, more opinion than news, more argument than information, and for real news in the modern sense, it was places like a tavern on the turnpikes that served the people. There a man could learn what his neighbors were doing, who had been born, married and died, what the local
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scandal might be-and what the Governor at Boston and the King at Whitehall were up to now. Today with a half dozen editions of huge newspapers every day and with radios broad- casting "news" every time a knob is turned, it is impossible for anyone in Winthrop to appreciate the dual service of a tavern- food and drink for the body and also food and drink for the mind.
No description of Colonial Winthrop and its adjoining area would be complete without mention of slavery. There were slaves here-although they were comparatively few and the in- stitution was not commonly regarded with favor. Most slaves were house servants and were treated with comparative kind- ness and generosity and it was the customary thing for a wealthy man to give his slaves their freedom when he made his will.
Without laboring the point, one reason for this situation was just that slavery was not economically profitable in New England. Slaves did not stand up to the cold east winds and the rain and snow and, since they were a valuable investment, they required more outlay for their support then they commonly pro- duced in income. Agricultural labor, indeed labor of all kinds, was very scarce in Colonial America but even so, in the North, slavery did not pay. Body servants and house servants, more or less parasitic, were another matter but just because such slaves were limited to homes of wealth, themselves limited in number-so the number of slaves was never great. New Eng- land ships, especially those from Newport, and some from Bos- ton, Salem and Newburyport, did trade in slaves and profit hugely at times, but their market for black flesh was mostly in the South and in the West Indies.
The tar brush of slavery apparently first touched Winthrop in 1637 when Captain William Pierce, the first owner of Win- throp Highlands and the man that built the Deane Winthrop House, carried a number of captive Indians, Pequots they were, down to the West Indies, where he sold them as slaves. This was probably a poor bargain for the Spaniards for New England Indians were proud men who would fight rather than work and were constitutionally incapable of continuous labor. Captain Pierce invested some of his profits from the trip down in a num- ber of negro slaves which some British sea captain had imported into the Tortugas. These negroes were put on the market at Boston-a perfectly legal business, then-and all the slaves were purchased. Samuel Maverick, then at East Boston, purchased several.
At Pullen Poynte, James Bill, Sr., had two slaves soon after- wards. James Bill, Jr., had at least one slave and in the will of Jonathan Bill, two negro men are mentioned, and also a negro woman. When Joseph Bill's estate was divided amongst his
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children, Titus " ... negro man, and late servant of Joseph Bill, hath faithfully served him all such time as he was his servant, do by these presents the said Titus manumit, and set at liberty, and free from all and every claim. ... " Deane Winthrop had a black man, named Primas, a black woman, Margaret, and a colored boy, Robin. Evidence of the kindness and consideration with which these slaves were treated locally is abundant. In 1743 Elder Watts' negro woman was received into full communion at the Rumney Marsh Church and baptized with the name of Phillis. In 1758 Captain John Sale's negro man, Caesar, was similarly admitted, as were several other negro slaves and some free negroes. The slaves of different owners were permitted to marry. Sometimes the pair belonged to the same owner; again, one of the couple might live in Winthrop and the other at Boston. Children, if any, apparently became the property of the owner of the slave wife. Of course if either owner wished to sell hus- band or wife or child, there was no legal bar. The situation was harsh basically but most Boston slave owners were humane and the force of public opinion was so set against slavery that no known abuse is on record.
Indeed, color was not much of a difficulty in the early days. Job Worrow, a free negro, was in fact a member of the band of Minute Men who mounted guard at Point Shirley in 1775. He was married in the Rumney Marsh Church and lived to be a century old. He died a pauper but was given burial in the old Rumney Marsh Burying Ground where all Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop were interred, if desired. There was some segrega- tion, of course, for the color line was drawn. Perhaps it would have been more noticeable if the proportion of black to white had been greater. Evidence of this lies in the fact that a burying ground for blacks was provided on a piece of land which is now lost in the modern business of Fort Banks.
Two other somewhat important details of colonial life in Winthrop yet require brief description-church and school.
Modern education is so much a matter of fact that its com- parative excellence is taken as a matter of course. It is difficult to realize but when Winthrop was a little farming community 300 years ago education was made free to all and required by law. At the same time most of the world beyond our wilderness treated education with indifference. The truth is, in the Old World an education was considered a privilege of the gentry. Common people in much of the world just were not expected to know how to read or write. Indeed, the ruling classes did not want their subjects to be able to read and write; they might imbibe dangerous ideas !
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