USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Winthrop > The history of Winthrop, Massachusetts ; 1630-1952 > Part 12
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However, Boston was settled by men of different opinions. The leaders of the Colony were for the day well educated men (women were not considered worth while educating). It is the habit to sneer at the strait-laced old Puritans; unjustly in most instances. These leaders of the infant colony, struggling for its existence on the fringe of an unknown continent with forests filled with savage men and savage beasts, realized that success of their dreams of freedom and wealth depended only upon their own efforts. Britain in the days of sail was at least a month away -and indifferent about the fate of its sons overseas, sons, it must be said, who were not always in good standing at home.
What would happen, the leaders of Boston Bay asked them- selves, when their time came? Who would take over the reins of government? Ignorant boors? Education was the answer to the problem and education there must be. And education there was. Laws were passed which made it mandatory upon heads of fami- lies and selectmen and everyone else concerned that every child must be taught to read and write. Towns must provide schools at public expense for the General Court instead of fearing an "educated" citizenry believed that such an "enlightened" citi- zenry was the hope of survival for the colony. But that was only the beginning. Leaders must be trained; leaders of church and state. So secondary schools, such as far-famed Boston Latin, were established to prepare boys for college, and to assure a supply of clergymen and politicians, Harvard itself was estab- lished at a time when the colonists hardly knew where their next meal was coming from. The world has witnessed few more praiseworthy items of sacrifice and devotion than this exhibited concern for future generations. Today Harvard, sprawling over priceless acres, is the wealthiest educational institution, it is re- ported, in the world. It is fashionable to devise and bequeath money or property to its endowment fund. This fashion was established soon after 1630 when various men who owned land in Winthrop and at Rumney Marsh gave of their estates to assure higher education in the wilderness they were determined to mould into their heart's desire.
Among these benefactors were: John Newgate, father-in- law of the Reverend John Oliver, first owner of the Bill House, and the man who owned much of Rumney Marsh; John Cogan, who owned the farm at Rumney Marsh that was acquired by the Floyds; Governor Bellingham, who at one time owned much of what became Beachmont; Captain Robert Keane, an extensive land owner at Rumney Marsh; and James Penn, who owned much of Beachmont, Short Beach and Winthrop Highlands. It was the bequest from Penn that educated many famous men, includ- ing Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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The first school, probably something like the present gram- mar school of eight grades, which was kept in Rumney Marsh, came into being about 1647 when the General Court passed a law making it mandatory for every town in the Colony to estab- lish a school. This proved to be a very difficult matter for Rum- ney Marsh, whose children were scattered from the tip of Point Shirley to Reading and from Malden to Lynn. Where was the school to be set? At the Center, which was at the present corner of Beach and School Streets? How then could young children come in from Black Anne's Corner at one extremity and from Point Shirley at the other ? School there had to be but apparently, the matter was never satisfactorily settled. There was a good enough school at Revere Center beginning about 1708 when the Selectmen of Boston hired Thomas Cheever to teach school at his home. He was an exceptional young man; graduating from Harvard at the age of 19. He taught reading, writing and arith- metic to an average of about 22 scholars a year.
This school was continued in one form or another by Boston until 1739 when Chelsea was incorporated and from then on the obligation was lifted from Boston. Doubtless the school was con- tinued by the tax-payers of Chelsea, for the law required them to do so, and probably an arrangement was worked out by which school was kept interchangeably between Rumney Marsh and Pullen Poynte. In 1739 it is recorded that Belcher Hancock taught at the Poynte and at Rumney Marsh. Nothing more is known of the school until 1749 when Joshua Bill is recorded as the teacher. This came about doubtless because most of the school children then at the Poynte were members of the Bill family and Bill was hired to teach all the children because he had for years taught his own. This saved the Town money and it also gave the Bill children better schooling since the younger ones could not possibly attend school regularly way over at Revere Center.
An interesting note appears in Chelsea's record late in 1749 when it was voted to keep a "woman's school" at Pullen Poynte. By this phrase is doubtless meant a Dame school or one taught by a woman in her own home. Captain Oliver was authorized by the Town of Chelsea to "agree with Mrs. Ann Ellitt (sic) as soon as may be to keep said school for three months as reason- able as he can, she being the person the people of the Poynte are most desirous of having. Mr. Samuel Pratt to supply the school with half a cord of wood."
This was not a happy business for Mrs. Ellitt could not find a place to board at the Poynte. On December 12, it was voted that Captain Oliver was to agree with Joshua Bill to keep school at his house for three months and that he was to compound with
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Mrs. Ellitt on the easiest terms he can, and so obtain from her a relinquishment of her contract to teach the school. She seems to have been a capable woman and probably would have made Winthrop an excellent teacher for she obtained nine pounds, then a good lump of money, in exchange for her contract. Bill seems to have carried the school along but various women did teach now and then as in 1764, when Mrs. John Sargent, daughter of Dea- con John Chamberlain, taught and as when Mrs. Andrew Tewks- bury taught a term in 1765.
Pullen Poynte all along believed itself shabbily treated by Chelsea in the matter of the expenditure of school tax money and in 1766 the Chelsea town meeting finally agreed and voted "To allow the people of Pulling Poynte their proportionate part of the school money, they laying out the same in schooling their children."
Nothing is known accurately of the first school building in Winthrop, if there was one, save for a record of a payment made to Hugh Floyd, tenant at the Winthrop Farm. He was given seven pounds and ten shillings for material and labor in making "two seats for the school, making a writing table, mending schoolhouse windows and supplying half a cord of fire wood." In 1770, records which have been preserved show that the school was taught by Joseph Cummings and in 1776 and 1777 the school was taught by a woman, one Mary Angues (sic).
By 1779 there were sufficient children to require under the State law a 12 week session each year. It seems that school was still being kept in a room of one of the various farmhouses at the Poynte as, for this particular year, it is definitely recorded that school was held in the Bill House on Beal Street. Possibly school had always been kept there. Anyhow, the Bill House was the first school of record in the present town of Winthrop.
The school teacher, possibly Nathaniel Mountford, faced 22 children and all of them cousins save three. The youngest scholar was five; the oldest 17, which is the age when young ladies at least were then thinking about being married. The original roll of scholars has been preserved and runs as follows:
Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1779
"This day opened a school att Mr. John Tuksbery's at Pullen Poynte to teach Reading, Writing and Arithmetick.
Came this day :
Jno. Tuksbery's Children. Jona. Bill Tuksbery, 13 yrs.
Sarah Tuksbery, 11 yrs.
Thos. Tuksbery, 8 yrs.
Hannah Tuksbery, 6 yrs.
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Anna Tuksbery (writing only) 17 yrs. Polly Tuksbery (writing) 15 yrs. Jas. Tuksbery's Children. Jas. Tuksbery, 9 yrs. Molly Tuksbery, 7 yrs. John Sargeant Tuksbery, 5 yrs.
Josiah Gleason's Children (Wife Sarah Tuksbery) Jacob Gleason, 10 yrs. Joshua Gleason (Writing only) 17 yrs.
Susan Gleason, 7 yrs.
Hannah Gleason, 13 yrs.
Seth Wood's Children (wife Susana Bill)
Hanna Woods, 9 yrs.
Seth Wood, 7 yrs.
Andrew Tuksbery's Children
Andrew Tuksbery, Jr. 17 yrs.
Susanna Tuksbery, 13 yrs.
Elizabeth Tuksbery, 8 yrs. Carter Tuksbery, 11 yrs.
Mr. Sargent's boy-Thomas Bowman
Mr. Davison's Son-George Davison
Na. Belcher, Jr's Son, John Belcher
Memo :- Kept school till Saturday, the 28th of March in- cluded which was six weeks and four days, 1779, and was obliged to desist (for want of fireing and Bill Tuksbery's being sick) all except Jnos. Children.
Memo : Jona. Bill Tuksbery dyed att one o'clock in the morn- ing the 6th"
In 1805, John Sargent Tukesbury (the name is variously spelled), son of James Tewksbury, offered the town a plot of land where the Post Office now stands, as a site for a schoolhouse. The offer was graciously accepted and a building erected.
A description of this old school was written by Lucius Floyd and was published in the Winthrop Visitor in 1912. It reads : "The schoolhouse where I was educated stood on the site of the present Town Hall, a building with seats and desks made of two inch planks that extended the entire length of the room, so that scholars tumbled rather than walked to their places.
"The first winter I attended school there were 27 pupils; I was five years old and others were 21. We commenced at the same place each term; its close finding us little advanced. Our experiences were like those of the frog trying to escape from a well; jumping up three feet in the daytime and falling back two feet at night.
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"A stove where big, two-foot logs were burned, occupied the center of the room, a boy was sent to Uncle Samuel Belcher's old well and on his return, equipped with the sparkling beverage and a rusty dipper, went about the room dispensing it much as they serve the sewer diggers of today.
"It was in this (school) building that Bishop Gilbert Haven of the Methodist Episcopal Church taught school and the old pine teacher's desk (he used) is in the historical collection of the Winthrop Public Library."
The story of education in Winthrop from 1800 on is dis- cussed in a subsequent chapter.
Much more important than education was religion for where the first concerned only children, religion was the staff of life of everyone-or was supposed to be such. The musket, the axe and the Bible were the three legs of the tripod upon which Boston Bay Colony rested and of the three, religion was easily the most important, to judge from attention given it. Indeed, church membership was all important for without it, a man or woman could not be a citizen. The Colony, through its General Court, assumed it had the right to confer citizenship and church mem- bership was required as evidence of an applicant's probity and value. In those days a citizen did not seek as much as he could from the state; the idea was, on the contrary, what could he contribute to the state? The word Commonwealth, now mean- ingless, in those days meant much for a citizen was expected to contribute his share to the common wealth-and good behavior, decency and the plain virtues were part of that contribution. The church thus came to be a branch of government and it was in fact a town institution for it was supported by tax money. Those were the days when attendance at church was necessary evidence of the proper observance of the Lord's Day. Most of Winthrop was put to considerable inconvenience for there were no churches north and east of the immediate precincts of Boston for many years. Thus Winthrop folk faced a watery trip across the harbor to the Old North Church on Sundays or else had to go to a church in Malden. Being practical people, such attendance was not strictly required by law for it was enough for Winthrop people to meet together at their homes and conduct divine serv- ice, even if it was nothing more than a reading of the Scriptures, prayers and the singing of psalms-which, after all, save for the presence of an ordained clergyman, is about all most Protestant services are. From time to time however, Pullen Poynte was visited by preachers and the presence of an ordained minister of a Sunday was certain to bring out every able-bodied man, woman and child in the section.
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Of course Winthrop had no church as such but a room in one of the farm-houses served and it was a welcome opportunity for all the relatives to see each other dressed in their Sunday best and with leisure before and after service to pass the time of day. Sunday was a serious business then; sermons were long and tiresome, for often a preacher's ability was gauged by his proficiency in bringing down fire and brimstone upon his audi- ence who no doubt needed it as much as is the case today. A good scare was salutory religion.
Two early references to worship at Rumney Marsh, for which Winthrop may also be read. One is by Letchford in 1641 who wrote, "Where farmes or villages are, as at Romney Marsh . . . there a Minister, or a brother of one of the congregations of Boston ... preacheth and exerciseth prayer every Lord's day, which is called prophesying in such a place. .. . " Again, in Keaynes Mss, it is to be read, " ... early in 1640, a motion was made by such as have farmes at Romney Marsh, that our brother Oliver (Reverend John Oliver) may be sent to instruct their servants and to be of help to them, because they cannot many times come thither (to Boston) nor sometimes to Lynn, and sometimes nowhere at all. ... " This is the Reverend Mr. Oliver, soldier, preacher, surveyor and favorite of Governor Winthrop's, who was one of the original allottees of land at Pullen Poynte and is believed to have been the builder of the Bill House which stood for so long on Beal Street.
Most of the residents of Pullen Poynte in those days were members of the Boston Church and some of them, after 1657, were drawn to a church at Malden which was organized at that time. The Old North Church of Boston, famed in history, which was built in 1650, was a favored church for Winthrop people, especially during the pastorate of Reverend Dr. Cotton Mather, famed Puritan divine and one of the great men of the early Colony. While no proofs have been found it is altogether likely that the Reverend Thomas Cheever, who taught school at Rum- ney Marsh as early as 1709, also preached at the Marsh as well as at Pullen Poynte.
Of course Rumney Marsh and Pullen Poynte people wanted a church of their own because of the distance involved in getting to church. In 1705, a petition was presented at the Boston Town Meeting asking that a church be erected at Romney Marsh but the matter was postponed until 1709 when the Town Meeting finally granted a hundred pounds towards erecting a building. The appropriation was opposed by many Winthrop people be- cause it was still a considerable distance from their section over to Revere Center and they did not like being taxed to support a church which they did not care to attend. Once they were
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in a boat, they said, it was easier for them to go to one of the Boston churches than to go to the proposed church at Revere Center.
Among the objectors were James Bill and his four sons, Jonathan, James, Jr., Joseph and Joshua, who all attended the North Church at Boston. Their objections received no attention at all for the work of building the Rummey Marsh Church went ahead with zeal. The land, on Beach Street, nearly opposite pres- ent Payson Street, was given by Lieutenant Joseph Hasey, an ancestor of the James Tukesbury family in Winthrop. The build- ing, which is still standing, and is now owned and occupied by Seaview Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, was completed in 1709 and is the oldest meeting house in Suffolk County. Life was rugged in those days for no reference is made to any attempt to heat the edifice until after 1800-and sermons were very long in those days and the winters at least as cold then as they are now.
In the first 110 years of its existence the church had but four ministers and three of them were men of extraordinary talent and strength.
The first minister was the Reverend Doctor Thomas Cheever, son-in-law of James Bill of Pullen Poynte and a noted Harvard graduate, soldier, surveyor, teacher and clergyman. He served his charge for 32 years, being retired at the age of 80 years at his own request.
The second minister was the Reverend Mr. McClenachan, a Scotchman, who preached for six years. He was not too happy in his charge.
The third minister was Reverend Phillips Payson, a de- scendant of John Eliot's sister Mary. Eliot, it will be remem- bered, was known as the Apostle to the Indians. He was a most distinguished scholar, the Reverend Mr. Payson, and very par- ticularly noted for his familiarity with astronomy, then in its infancy, and also with divers dead languages-which were much more important then than now. His fame as a teacher was wide- spread and many distinguished men of New England sent their sons to his private school to prepare for college. The eldest son of General Warren, of Bunker Hill fame, was educated at the Payson school at the expense of the United States Government. During the Revolution, this worthy cleric served the patriot cause variously lending the force of his cultivated pen, enlisting troops and actually leading his neighbors into armed conflict with the British.
The fourth of this first quartet was Reverend Joseph Tuckerman, who distinguished himself later on in life by organ- izing the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches for the support of
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a city mission at Boston for Christian work among the poor. In 1812 he was also instrumental in forming the first charitable society in the United States for helping seamen, especially in their religious and moral advancement. Another later clergy- man was the Reverend Horatio Alger, who is now chiefly known to fame somewhat curiously as the father of Horatio Alger, Jr., the best selling author who drew boy's attention about 100 years ago with his classic books depicting the highly moral tales of newsboys, bootblacks and the like.
Since the residents of Pullen Poynte were taxed to support this church and their attendance was required each Lord's Day, unless there was good reason to the contrary, this was the first church which served Winthrop. It was here that Winthropites made their way, weather permitting, down Belle Isle Inlet and up Chelsea Creek-just as it was here that they came to inter their beloved dead in the first regular burying ground.
Among the names of the first members of the Rumney Marsh Church were some still familiar in Winthrop. The list includes : Lieut. John Floyd, Ensign Joseph Belcher, Deacon John Chamberlain, William Sargent, William Hassey, Samuel Tuttle and Hugh Floyd. The last named left ten pounds in his will to procure a silver communion service for the church. David Floyd, a great grandson of the very first Hugh to settle in Revere, and a resident of Pullen Poynte, joined the First Church of Rumney Marsh in 1817. At this church all his children were baptized : David, Henry, Thomas, Edward, Phillips Payson, Mary, Mrs, David Belcher, and Mrs. Lucy Abbot-to use the married names of the last two daughters.
Ensign Joseph Belcher, the first of the name at Pullen Poynte, brought his son Jonathan II, to the church to be bap- tized in 1718. Captain John Tewksbury, a commissioned officer in the War of 1812, and a grandson of the first Pullen Point Tuksbery, was the sexton of this church for many years. He was born in the old Bill House but later established himself at Chelsea.
Although the First Rumney Marsh Church was much nearer to most of Winthrop than other churches about, it was still a chore to reach church in inclement weather and from time to time bits of evidence are found which show that the authorities were not unmindful of the difficulty. For example, in the vol- uminous church records is found an item, dated May 22, 1753, "That Mr. McClenachan (the church minister) be allowed to preach once a month, for six months, to the people of Pullen Poynte, and no longer, without the town's consent." Possibly the people were persuaded that it was better to have the mini- ster brave the elements than the women and children of Win-
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throp families. It is odd how, amidst the seeming autocratic rule of the church, the stern common sense of the people breaks through and the ministers are told what they too must do!
Then, again, in June of 1757 it was voted: "That the money to be taxed on the Inhabitants and lands at Point Shirley, for the support of the ministry, this present year shall be applied to that purpose among themselves." Again in May of 1761, the church reimbursed Thomas Goldthwait five pounds to repay him for what he had paid out for preaching at Point Shirley. This vote and payment was probably due to the fact that the Fisheries Company at that time had built a church for the accommodation of its employees and officers then living at the Point.
Of considerable interest in Winthrop were the Boston visits made by the English evangelist, George Whitefield in 1740, 1744 and 1754. During one of these visits, he was a guest at the Bill House, where he had an opportunity for needed rest. However, as reported by Mrs. Mary Priscilla Griffin in her little book "Win- throp Days," ... "he delivered one of his remarkable sermons under one of the apple trees to the assembled people." There was, at the time, an orchard of fruit trees in the rear of the house.
Although none of the islands near Winthrop belong to the present town, they have played a part in the history of the com- munity. Deer Island, in April 1634, was taken officially by Bos- ton, together with Long and Hog Island-and Spectacle Island was annexed the following March. Deer Island today is occupied by a fort, a pumping station of the Metropolitan Sewer and by the city prison. The first use of the island as a penal institution came in 1641 when pigs and goats allowed to roam through Bos- ton's streets, were ordered seized and "sentenced to Deer Island for a time."
Also, until 1690, the island was leased to various Pullen Poynte farmers who used parts of it at various times. Among these farmers were: Edgar James Penn, Rev. John Oliver, Major Edward Gibbons and James Bill. In 1675, as reported, neighboring Indians were put in a concentration camp during King Phillip's War, to keep them out of trouble. The Point Shir- ley Fishing Company held parts of the Island between 1752 and 1761. During the Revolution Andrew Tewksbury, son of the first John Tewksbury, built a house and lived there for a time. In 1848, Boston erected its first jail on the Island.
In early days, the Gut, separating the Island from Winthrop ran very swiftly and was deep enough to allow the passage of ships, including war ships during the Revolution and the War of 1812. For many years in the 19th Century, the little steamers plying between Boston and Bass Point, Nahant, used the Gut
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regularly. But by the opening of the 20th Century, shifting tidal currents and storms began to fill in the Gut and to diminish the tide race. Finally, during World War Two, when the Army built a huge fort and other units, on the Island, the Gut was filled in and is now nothing but a memory.
Noddles Island, now East Boston and hardly recognizable as an island at all, was variously known as Bereton Island and also as William's Island, because these two, in succession, occu- pied it, being in their time, the sole residents. In 1633, the Gen- eral Court selected the title "Noddles Island"-the name sup- posed coming from William Noddle, who was an employee of William Bereton, but who had made a claim to the Island. How- ever, Maverick received the Island on condition that he pay the Governor annually, "either a fatt weather, a fat hogg, or forty shillings in money." The Mavericks sold the Island in 1656 and it went through various hands, including Sir Thomas Temple's. He was at one time royal governor of Nova Scotia. His nephew, Robert Temple, who bought Governor Winthrop's Ten Hill Farm, was a tenant on the Island. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Governor James Bowdoin, and thus came into the ownership of the Deane Winthrop House. A son, Sir John Temple, was made the first British Ambassador to the United States after the Revolution. It is believed he was born on Noddle Island.
In 1670, the Island was acquired by Colonel Samuel Shrimp- ton, who owned a great deal of real estate in Boston and was probably the wealthiest Bostonian of his day. He was a stout personage and once worsted the tyranical royal governor Andros, in a legal battle. During the Revolution there was considerable military activity on the Island. It has been fortified at various times but never was really important in war. In 1832, the famed East Boston Land Company acquired the island and began its modern development.
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