USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Winthrop > The history of Winthrop, Massachusetts ; 1630-1952 > Part 13
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Hogg Island, successively known as Susanna Breed's Island, Belle Isle, and finally as Orient Heights, was part of the Gorges Grant of 1622 and the property of Sir William Bereton but leased at a nominal rental to Boston in 1634. When the Great Allottments were made the Island was mentioned several times but no exact records have been found. Apparently Elias Maverick held 20 acres at the time. In 1687, Judge Samuel Sewall owned the Island and his tenant farmer was Jeremiah Belcher, founder of the Belcher name in Winthrop. For many years the Island was owned by members of the Breed family who farmed it somewhat extensively.
John Breed, the first of the family concerned, was a man of mystery; no one knew anything about him, save that he had ample means. In 1816, he applied to the General Court for
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authority to build a bridge across Chelsea Creek from the north- ern end of the Island to Chelsea, paying the cost personally. There was much opposition but the General Court agreed and the bridge was built. People did not want the river closed to boats and harassed Breed by various means, including the at- tempted passage of a scow too wide for the draw. A suit for costs for the "enforced idleness" of the scow was brought. After John Breed's death, the bridge was allowed to fall into ruin. John Breed died mysteriously; his body was found a long time after death struck him. A large sum of money he was known to have had had vanished. His housekeeper also disappeared. It was believed that she had poisoned him but there was no proof and the matter was dropped. Boston did not have a medical examiner in those days. The housekeper finally returned home and lived quietly-but she bequeathed considerable money to her heirs.
In 1876, the unoccupied land on the island, which included almost all of it, was sold to the Boston Land Company, and a considerable development initiated. In the nineteen thirties, the Boston Port Development Company took over the top and the north and east sides of the hill, including the marshes and a very great development followed. The creek was filled in and huge oil farms and the present Suffolk Downs race track was built on the reclaimed marsh while a great housing development was organized on the upland, culminating in the construction of a tremendous housing project in 1951.
Governor's Island is no more; it was scraped into the water a few years back to enlarge the East Boston Airport.
The original .70 acres of the Island was known as Conant Island, for Roger Conant, who was at Plymouth by 1623 and in Salem in 1627. In 1631 Boston took it for "publique benefits and use". It was at this time that the Island first came into the news. The ship Friendship on July 29, 1631, ran aground on the Island when outward bound. It was alleged to be the consequence of a farewell party on board the night before. Major Gibbons and others were arrested for "abuseing themselves disorderly with drinking too much strong drinks aboard the Friendship & att Mr. Mavacke his house at Winettsemt. ... " The major paid a fine of twenty shillings.
Governor Winthrop rented the Island in 1632 for a nominal yearly rental and on condition that he plant an orchard and vine- yard. In consequence the Island became known as the Governor's Garden. Later the rental was changed to be "A hogshead of the best wine that shall growe there . . . to be paide yearely after the death of said John Winthrop, and nothing before." However, the vineyard did not flourish-wine grapes cannot be grown
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successfully in or near Boston-but the orchard did well and the terms of the annual rental were changed to read two bushels of apples, ... "one bushel to the Governor, & another to the Gen- eral Court in winter,-the same to bee the best apples there growing".
In 1808, the Federal Government purchased six acres on top of the Island and constructed Fort Warren. Somewhat later, the Army took over the entire Island. Of course the fort was worthless as soon as modern ships carried heavy rifles and so the coast defense forts were moved on out to the limits of the harbor-most of them being worthless again in these days of the airplane.
Bird Island, which has been so washed away by the tides that it is today nothing but a shoal, and all but dredged away at that, was once of value agriculturally. Early Boston records mention it being leased to various persons between 1650 and 1718. It is also reported that the little island off the East Boston shore in the lee of Governor's Island was used for a gallows-site to hang pirates. The bodies were dipped in pitch and then hung in chains from the gallows until they disintegrated. This was intended to be a warning to all outward bound seamen to behave themselves. There is no confirmation of this use of the Island.
Apple Island, with its familiar "feather duster" elm tree as its crown, and its tangled thickets of purple lilacs, is another island that has vanished. It also was scraped away to help fill in the East Boston Air Port. Although hardly more than an arrow flight from Pico Beach, it always was remote and mysteri- ous, possibly because of the people who lived there. It remained the property of Boston from the beginning until 1723 when it was sold to Thomas Hutchinson, who erected farm buildings and put a farmer and his family in residence. Water was short on the Island and the farm did not prosper. It passed through various, more or less uninterested hands, being used almost as common land by Winthrop farmers who ferried cattle across for pastur- age. About 1814, an Englishman, William Marsh, moved in and took over the Island. He built a house and lived there very quietly with his family for 20 years. The daughters of the family were captured by Winthrop young men in time and the sons of the family were all living elsewhere when Marsh died in 1833 at the age of 66. He never left the Island during his resi- dence there. The story went that he had been the commander of a ship of the British Navy during the War of 1812. At the conclusion of the war, he bought a small ship, raided the West Coast of Africa, packed his hold with slaves and brought them to the West Indies. At the time, Britain punished slavers by
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death so he could not return home and chose to live in obscurity on Apple Island.
After his death the Island was deserted again. The house gradually fell apart and vanished. Various people owned the Island but did little or nothing with it until 1867 when the City of Boston purchased it and held it idle until the Airport was built.
Castle Island, across the Harbor, belonged to the Colony and State until ceded to the United States in 1798. In 1634, Bos- ton sought to protect itself by erecting a fort of earthen banks on the Island. This was followed by one of stout pine logs which in turn was followed by one of brick. In 1634, the fort was abandoned but the next year the Frenchman, La Tour, previously mentioned, gave Boston a bad scare and the fort was rebuilt. In 1701 a really substantial fort of brick was put up and named Castle William, for the time it was adequate. During the Evacu- ation of Boston, March 17, 1776, the British Army blew it apart but in 1797 it was rebuilt and named Fort Independence. It is said it was used as a place of confinement for felons until the State Prison was built at Charlestown in 1805. About 1800 it was given to the Federal Government and the present quaint fort, a wonder in its day no doubt, was erected in 1801-1803. The guns of the Fort commanded the harbor as far east as Point Shirley.
The fort was abandoned but allowed to stand as a monument about the time of the Civil War. A causeway and pier have been built and the Island is now part of the Boston City Park System although flanked by a vast marine installation which is part of the Army Base of the First Service Command-a huge dock and warehouse facility.
Spectacle Island, so named for its being shaped like a pair of spectacles, was owned at least in part as early as 1666 by James Bill of Winthrop. He sold out that year to his brother, Thomas Bill, who had lived with him at Pullen Poynte. In 1681, Thomas transferred about half of the Island to his son Samuel. By trade, Thomas Bill was a lighterman and he used Spectacle Island in part as a source of sand and gravel which he brought into Boston for building purposes. The Bill family retained ownership of the Island until 1741. The balance of the Island's history is not pleasant, aside from the two lighthouses on its northern side fronting the ship channel. The City of Boston has used it as a site for a pest hospital (1720-1739) and later used it as a dump for garbage and trash-although not lately. When the wind was in the south, the result was somewhat objectionable to Winthrop.
Snake Island, what there is of it, is distinguished only by the fact that it has always been a part of Winthrop. It is now
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a bit of swampy grass with a few shrubs surrounded by a sea of mud and silt-these resulting from the filling in of the air- port beyond. Formerly it was surrounded by clean sand and gravel, a good, hard bottom on which carts and cattle could be driven to and fro at low tide. It has been used, particularly in the early days, as a pasture but its six acres (originally) were too small to support any other farming. It was owned before 1690 by Captain Edward Hutchinson, who disposed of it in his will. He valued the Island at 30 pounds. Major Gibbons owned it originally for it was part of his grant when Winthrop was "al- lotted". After Hutchinson, the Bill family owned the Island but used it only for sheep pasture, apparently.
This chapter of Winthrop in the days before the Revolution may be closed by a reference to the town's share in the Colonial Wars. Since Winthrop was very small and a town of farms, and also because it was out to the east and apart from the main routes of travel, this share was not at all important.
During the Indian Wars, Winthrop's sole share seems to have been to act as a sort of wall to aid in the confinement of the Indians imprisoned on Deer Island during King Phillip's War. The Colony simply dumped the Indians upon the bleak shore and left the wretched people to their own devices. Since neither food or shelter were provided, it became the Christian duty of Win- throp people to do what could be done, especially upon James Bill and Major Edward Gibbons who at the time were conducting farming operations on the island. No record has ever been found of any resident of Pullen Point serving in these "Indian Wars".
During the French War, however, Winnesimmet, of which Pullen Poynte was then a part, was ordered to keep a store of arms and ammunition on hand in case of an attack by the French and it was ordered to raise a quota of six men-these to be im- pressed unless volunteers offered themselves. The town, to pre- vent impressment, voted to raise 36 pounds by taxation to pay bounties to the six men, apparently six pounds each. Six pounds was then worth a great deal more than $30 is today. Just who the six men were is not known, probably at least one of them came from Pullen Poynte, if the volunteers were proportionate to the rest of the town. Colonel Thomas Goldthwait, then a resi- dent of Point Shirley as the manager of the Fisheries, was a member of the Chelsea Board of Selectmen at the time.
The major part of Boston and vicinity, in this war was the famed expedition against Louisburg. Some 32 ships carried the men to Nova Scotia and apparently companies from Essex and Middlesex Counties came to Point Shirley where they camped
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for three weeks while being drilled and waiting the sailing of the fleet.
When the war ended, about 1,000 Acadians, men, women and children, were shipped into Boston and distributed amongst the various adjacent towns in proportion to their respective size. Chelsea doubtless had a quota of them although the only record known is a bill sent to the Provincial authorities for food "soplyed to the frensh peopel" for two years.
In 1762 Pullen Poynte was specifically mentioned for the Council advised "that the Governor permit a new arrival of 46 sick Acadians to go ashore at Point Shirley with the approbation of the selectmen of Chelsea or one of them, there to remain until further order".
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Chapter Nine WINTHROP IN THE REVOLUTION
DURING the century before the Revolution, the character and the population of Pullen Poynte changed very little, save for the brief extravagance of the Fisheries at Point Shirley. The future town was fairly well divided up into farms and these were by 1775 so much re-divided that further division was impracti- cable. The families of John Tewksbury and his sons, John, Jr., and James, and his sons-in-law, Joshua Gleason and Thomas Cleavery, together with the families of Charles Bill and his brother-in-law, Seth Woods, occupied the northerly and westerly half of the main portion of the area. Jonathan Belcher and his son, Jonathan, Jr., occupied the southerly and easterly side to- gether with Hugh Floyd, who had leased the old Winthrop farm, although he also owned farms in Revere and in Malden, being a man of considerable means for the times. Andrew Tewksbury and Nathaniel Belcher were then farming on. Deer Island and, although legally citizens of Boston, considered themselves citi- zens of Pullen Poynte.
These few families made up the entire population and were all inter-related by blood and marriage so that Winthrop was actually occupied by the one clan. There were no newspapers to tell these farmers, their wives and children, what was going on. Hence a trip to Boston with produce to sell or barter, or a visit to Hawke's Tavern at Beach and School Streets at Revere Center, was productive of what news there was about. Doubt- less the people of Pullen Poynte were greatly astonished when they awakened the morning after the Boston Tea Party and found their harbor beaches littered with smashed tea chests and covered with tea leaves like so much sea-weed. Perhaps they were able to salvage some of the tea in chests which had not been effected by sea water.
The arrival of the British fleet with troops to occupy rebel- lious Boston was also beyond doubt a matter of surprise to Win- throp. They were all good patriots, being farmers, but they greeted the occupation with pleasure in the main, for the troops had to be fed and thus a new and lucrative market for Winthrop's meat, eggs, vegetables and butter was offered. There was
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nothing at all disloyal in trading with the British redcoats-at least until actual hostilities broke out. Then such trading was unpatriotic and apt to lead to reprisals.
Later, this trade proved of great, embarrassment to all the farmers about Boston. If they sold produce to the British, they faced bodily harm and the ultimate confiscation of their property after victory was won. If they did not sell, the redcoats would raid the farms, seize the live stock and confiscate everything they wanted.
Chelsea, like all other towns, made due preparation to drive the British away. The citizens were enlisted to fight, after the familiar colonial custom of requiring military service from every able bodied man. The muster roll of Chelsea, preserved at the State House, counts about 80 men, not including Pullen Poynte. These were the Minute Men and their company was ultimately merged into a regular company, whose officers were commis- sioned by the General Court the 26th of June, 1775, and assigned to Gerrish's regiment.
There is another muster roll preserved at the State House of which Chamberlain, Chelsea historian, remarks : "In the Revo- lutionery archives ... (are) the names of 17 men who on the day when their brothers at Concord 'fired the shot heard round the world', and inspired by the same love of liberty, performed their duty at the beginning of the War of the Revolution by stand- ing guard over the northern part of Boston arbor, in that part of Chelsea called Pullen Poynte." These 17 men probably com- prised all the entire adult and able-bodied men of Pullen Poynte.
The record lists these men as follows: "A Roll of the men' that kept Guard at Pullen Poynte in Chelsea by order of Captain Sam'l Sprague from April 19, 1775, till discharged by there of- ficers : Andrew Tewksbury, John Sargent, Jonth. Belcher, Nath. Belcher, Jr., Thos. Cleavery, Josiah Gleason, John Tuksbury, Seth Wood, Wm. Brown, Charles Bill, Jonth. Belcher, Jun., Nath. Belcher third, John Tukesbury, Jr., Joshia Gleason, Job Worrow, Nath, Sergent, James Tukesbury. This may sertify that the above persons was (sic) ordered to keep a Guard at Pullen Poynte in Chelsea, being part of my company. By me, Samuel Sprague, Capt."
On April 30, 1776, the General Court ordered the Treasurer of Massachusetts to pay the men a total of 34 pounds for their services for one month.
All but two of the 17 were related by blood or marriage. Included were the first of the Tewksbury and the Belcher name to settle in Winthrop and the last of the Bills. The two not re- lated were: William Brown, probably a hired farm hand, and Job Worrow, a negro.
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It never has been clear why Captain Sprague ordered the Pullen Poynte members of his Chelsea company to guard the point. What 17 men armed with muskets could do against a disciplined force of British Army regulars, or even against an armed ship using Shirley Gut, is debatable-but mount guard they did for 30 days.
One of the colorful local figures of the dawn of the Revolu- tion was Reverend Phillips Payson of the Chelsea Church at Re- vere Center-which was Winthrop's church too, at the time. As previously stated he was an able man, much respected for his preaching, his writing and his leadership but he entered the hearts of his parish the day of Lexington and Concord, when he announced, "In this, the dawn of Freedom's Day, There is a Time to fight and pray."
His actions were as good as his words. The news of the bloodshed at Lexington and at Concord spread like wildfire and various companies and groups of Minute Men hurried to join the fray, or at the least to harass the British retreat. These ir- regulars, who were mostly excellent shots with their rough guns, did real damage to the bewildered and faltering British.
At the head of a number of men, probably all his par- ishioners, the minister joined in the conflict in Cambridge at a section known as Menotomy. The Chelsea men intercepted a convoy of provisions and supplies which Lord Percy, British commandant, had sent to the relief of Colonel Smith's retreating column. A dozen regulars had been assigned to guard the convoy but the group under the Reverend Dr. Payson killed one of the soldiers and captured all the rest together with the badly needed food, ammunition and other supplies. Though this was the rev- erend gentleman's only armed action, he continued to give devoted service from the pulpit and with his pen to the patriotic cause.
Aside from the armed services, which drew men from all parts of Chelsea as the war wore its way along, the chief local difficulty was over a matter of food supply for the British. They lived on the country and, as was said, if farmers would not sell food to them, they were forced to go and take it. The farmers of Winthrop, Revere and East Boston used the pastures near the shore as well as the Islands of the harbor for their live stock and these animals would doubtless be seized by the British. So the local Committees of Safety ordered all livestock taken off the Islands and driven inland for safety. Twenty five men from Captain Sprague's Chelsea company were detailed to the job. They had orders that if the livestock could not be moved, it was to be killed or otherwise destroyed.
On May 27, 1775, they went to work and by June 2 had not only cleared away most of the livestock from the Islands and
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from Winthrop, Chelsea and Revere but had also seized and de- stroyed military supplies and several houses which could have been seized and held by the British had they ever determined to establish outposts on the north and east side of the harbor.
The major moving day was May 27, 1775. An extra large detachment of troops was sent from headquarters at Cambridge to undertake the work. These included men from New Hamp- shire as well as local militia. The column was commanded by Colonel John Stark of New Hampshire, afterwards of Benning- ton, Vermont, fame.
From Hog Island, Colonel Stark took 400 sheep and ferried them over Chelsea Creek and drove them to a safe place for the moment. Then he took his men to Noddle Island to take the cat- tle there, cattle which had been rounded up by the British for- agers and were held under British ships' guns until needed. The patriots seized a few live cattle and were driving them off when the British became alarmed, especially when the patriots began to shoot the rest. The meat could not be kept long in those days and thus the provisions would be lost.
The British commander sent a schooner out, armed with four six-pounders and a dozen swivels, and crowded with marines hastily gathered from various war ships in the harbor. The schooner hurried around the bend of East Boston and sailed up Chelsea Creek so as to try to cut the rebels off from escaping via Chelsea or Revere. Additional marines were put into 11 barges, each of which carried a swivel in the bow. In addition 400 regu- lars were rushed across the harbor and landed on Noddle's Island to take the rebels from the rear when they started to retreat and to follow them as they ran. The schooner, the barges and the regular army detachment opened a heavy fire upon the patriots who retreated into a ditch in the marsh where they could wait hidden from sight.
The unsuspecting marines and regulars, advancing across Noddle's Island, were soon within range and our men arose and poured a withering fire into the British ranks. Many regulars were killed and wounded and this halted the advance of the 400 regulars, what was left of them. The patriots, not being able to withstand the heavy shot from the ships, which began to fall among them, withdrew to Hog Island. The British regulars stayed safe on Noddle's Island although they continued to fire across the creek separating the two Islands.
Having cleared Hog Island of cattle of all kinds, the patriots withdrew to Chelsea Neck and sent for reinforcements while they made a stand against the schooner and water-borne marines now coming up Chelsea Creek.
General Israel Putnam, with three hundred men and two
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four pounders, was dispatched to the rescue and upon arrival, about 9 o'clock in the evening, took command, being senior to Colonel Stark. The British had continued to reinforce their men, both on Noddle's Island and on the water, by additional barge- loads of marines and the patriots along shore and the marines afloat exchanged a galling fire. The British soldiers of the time were trained to fight in mass formation and to shoot like ma- chines, perhaps not even taking specific aim. The Americans, on the contrary, were individuals and all well trained shots. Thus they fought in more open order and usually hit what they aimed at. The British in the schooner withstood the exchange of shots for two hours and then fled in small boats down the Creek. The marines in the barges bravely took the schooner in tow and at- tempted to draw out of range with their oars. However the tide was against them and progress was so slow and the patriots' fire so warm that they cut the schooner loose. She drifted ashore on the Chelsea side and was seized by a party of patriots led by Isaac Baldwin who, after looting her, burned her. The loot consisted of four 4-pounders, important sections of rigging, sails, clothing and money; "the sailors and marines having left in great haste".
The battle continued through the night, weirdly illuminated by the burning of a large barn, filled with hay, on Noddle's Island. The British brought up 12-pound cannon, which dropped their shot into the crowd of people gathered in Chelsea to watch the battle. Small arm fire rattled along all but incessantly. Towards dawn the firing slackened and stopped, but the British warship, Somerset, all the following forenoon continued to fire shot into Chelsea-although there was nothing there to damage save a few widely scattered farmhouses.
By noon of the second day, the battle was broken off and the patriots withdrew to their respective headquarters. It was noted that one Joseph Green, who lived in a house near the Boston and Maine Railroad Bridge, near Slade's Tide Mill, where the Amer- ican Artillery was put to work to check the British advance, fed the troops during the battle. He was later reimbursed by the General Court.
For such a long battle and with about 1,000 men engaged upon each side, it is most remarkable that not a single American was killed and either three or four only were wounded, one by the bursting of his own musket which, apparently, he had charged too heavily. The British, on the contrary, suffered heavily. Ac- counts of losses vary and there is no official casualty list. Gordon, in his History of the American Revolution, says that at least 200 British were killed. The New Hampshire Gazette reported that between 200 and 300 were killed and wounded. Since the British
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