USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Winthrop > The history of Winthrop, Massachusetts ; 1630-1952 > Part 18
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The summer of 1885 again brought many famous summer visitors to town. Thomas A. Edison spent several weeks at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gilliand at Woodside Park. The late W. F. Stover, then a boy employed by his father at Stover's Drug Store at the Beach, was electrified one day when the great in- ventor walked in and asked to have a chemical mixture prepared. Bill Stover, because of his youth, was not able to mix the chemi- cals so Edison stepped in behind the counter and mixed the brew himself.
Other famous summer visitors were members of the Vokes family who operated the then celebrated Vokes Bijou Theatre at Boston, a theatre then directed by Commodore Tyler of the Sunnyside Yacht Club.
This year brought renewed demand for the establishment
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of an organized fire department. Three fires in succession were responsible for this agitation. In March the home of Millard Smith on Washington Avenue burned to the ground. An alarm was sounded properly enough for help but somehow, most volun- teer fire-fighters thought the bell was being rung to summon the Band of Hope-so no one paid any attention to the bells. Then in October, the home of Charles A. Sibley on Harbor View Avenue, where the Metcalf house now stands, burned to the ground. The adjacent cottage of J. Osburn was seriously threat- ened but the citizens who came to the rescue managed to save it. Then, the following January, 1885, the barber shop of Berry Mitchell caught fire. Fire Warden Ensign Tewksbury responded to the alarm at 3:45 in the morning on a bitter cold night, with his "Johnson pump" but he and his helpers could do nothing effective.
Of course it was alleged that a firebug was loose in town- such frequently happens when several unexplained fires occur. This spurred the townspeople to action still more. The residents of Winthrop Beach, perhaps because of the greater fire hazard there, were the first to act. In a special meeting, February 9, 1885, they organized a fire company and purchased a hose cart which they named the "Woodward". Ensign Tewksbury was made foreman of the Company and W. A. Rogers, secretary. Other members included Captain Hamilton and George Moore.
The men at the Center, somewhat chagrined because the Beach had taken effective action first, met February 17 and organized their own fire company with Webb Richardson the foreman and Benjamin Tappan Floyd and D. W. Thomas assist- ant foremen. The Center company, seeking revenge upon the Beach group, alleged that the Beach had acted improperly in naming their hose cart for a living person and so named their cart for a person who never even existed-"Governor Bartlett". The name was duly and beautifully painted on the side of the vehicle. Thus Winthrop's Fire Department may be said to have come into being in 1885 with two volunteer hose companies.
The years 1883 and 1884 respectively brought the deaths of two of Winthrop's leading men. John William Tewksbury passed away February 12, 1883. He had seen Winthrop grow from a few farms to a thriving suburban community and he had taken part, full part, in this development. He gave, among other benefactions, the land upon which the Union Congregational Church was erected. Dr. Samuel Ingalls was killed June 11, 1884 when hit by a light locomotive at the junction of Winthrop's two railroads, the Narrow Guage and the Broad Guage at Ocean Spray. A native of New Hampshire, a graduate of Bowdoin College, Dr. Ingalls had practiced the medical profession at
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1881. Washington Ave. looking east across Lewis Lake to Sturgis Street prior to the building of Washington Ave. bridge in 1883. The house on the right is the George W. Tewksbury dwelling which was later moved across the street and is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Sullivan at 106 Washington Ave.
1891. Winthrop Beach station, looking south to Cottage Hill and the Washington Ave. pile bridge built 1883.
Nashua, Providence and at Boston, coming to Winthrop to prac- tice in 1857 at the age of 39. He enlisted in the Civil War from Sandwich, N. H., and served as a volunteer surgeon in the 5th Massachusetts. While he was in the service, his first wife died, leaving him with three children. On March 23, 1865, he married the widow of William Shaw, one of Winthrop's first important contractors and builders. Dr. Ingalls served the town as select- man, school committeeman and in various other capacities.
Probably the great feature of the Eighties in Winthrop was the beginning of a comparatively huge real estate development. In 1882 Great Head, or Cottage Hill as it was soon named, was surveyed for house lots and the owners, Gerry Tewksbury, J. W. Tewksbury and the Wyman Brothers offered their respective properties for sale. In May of 1883, the Revere Copper Company sold 40 acres of Point Shirley to Governor Hale of New Hamp- shire and J. B. Alley-and the beginning of modern Point Shir- ley got underway. The same Spring William B. Rice purchased Great Head from the owners above and engaged Whitman and Breck to lay out the streets. This was a difficult job, because of the steep grades but in time streets appeared where it had been opined that no streets could ever be. Soon after, Rice planted 150 trees on the hill and began building a pier 250 feet long out into the sea. Then, only a few weeks later, he purchased the City Farm, thus becoming the largest property holder in town.
This City Farm, which had been owned for years by the City of Boston as the proposed site for the insane hospital pre- viously mentioned, was part of the large area once owned by Deane Winthrop, and earlier by Governor John Winthrop. It took in just about all of the present day Highlands as well as much of what is now the Winthrop Golf Course. Whitman and Breck were given the contract to lay out the property in streets and house lots and to undertake the sale of them.
The townspeople found much to regret in the passing of the Winthrop Farm from what amounted to all but public use. It had been for many years a bird hunter's paradise. Here for generations, Winthrop nimrods had shot plover, yellowlegs, brant, ducks and geese. Of particular loss was the passing of Comey's Pond, a shallow body of cat-tail and sedge bordered water much frequented by ducks and geese. According to the late Charles Floyd of Locust Street, the pond, long since filled in, was at about the foot of Sewall Avenue.
In December of 1883, several great storms badly eroded the base of Grover's Bluff, next to Beachmont and to the amazement and delight of the people a number of gold coins were found washed up upon the beach. Just how many coins were found will never be known. Charles Fredericks of Beachmont did find a
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Spanish coin which he sold, it is said, for $50. One jeweler in Boston is reported to have bought several of these coins for $200. All in all, according to the late George F. Floyd, about $1,000 worth of coins were found.
Of course this find touched off another hunt for buried treasure, for Winthrop's shores are popularly believed to have been chosen as the hiding place for pirate loot. No proof of this has yet been found. More likely the coins washed up in the storms of 1883 had been buried in the sands at the base of Grover's Bluff for some sixty years. They could have come from either one of two ships wrecked at about that time. One was the lost Dutch ship, name unknown, which in 1825, smashed on Nahant's rocks. Wreckage from that ship did drift across to Winthrop and Charles Sturgis found part of the stern cabin on Point Shirley Beach from which he recovered a gold watch and chain. It is possible that there were gold coins on board. The other wreck was that of a brig, believed to have been the Ann & Elizabeth, which broke up upon Shag Rock, off Nahant, in 1829. Wreckage from this ship was reported by Captain Tewksbury on Deer Island and a contemporary newspaper reported a story to the effect that a colored boy, then an inmate of the Chelsea almshouse, found a long plank with a bag of gold attached. No one claimed the money and the boy was allowed to keep his treasure. If so, it may be hoped that he used it sensibly. Luck like that is so seldom employed properly.
One of the other great features of the Eighties, aside from the building of the loop line of the Narrow Gauge, which is described in a subsequent chapter, was religious activity. Be- ginning in August of 1885, Episcopalian Services were held at the Town Hall but when Thornton Park development was opened a few years later, the members of the church seized the opportu- nity to acquire land at the corner of Buchanan and Bowdoin Streets and to build an adequate church. Ground was broken August 6, 1889 and the first services were held December 8, 1889.
The Congregational church at the Beach was having difficult times because it was so subject to seasonal variations-plenty of attendance in the summer but very little the rest of the year. However, the tiny chapel built in 1878 was much too small so on Sunday July 22, 1888, a special meeting of the congregation appropriated $770 for a new building. Since John W. Tewksbury had provided the land, it was planned to name the new 40 by 57 foot structure the Tewksbury Memorial Chapel. A bell was ob- tained from the old copper works and stored to await the neces- sary belfry. The building was started late in the year and completed in time for services Washington's birthday, 1889,
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when the bell was rung for the first time for worship rather than work. The first summer service was held June 9, 1889, with the Reverend Frederick McFee preaching to 72 parishioners. The chapel was dedicated June 27 with a distinguished gathering of Congregational clergymen officiating.
Catholics living in Winthrop, save for the brief summer services held at the Point, were under the difficulty of going to East Boston to attend Mass. A five o'clock in the morning service was held on holy days to serve those who were working. It was the custom for those attending this Mass to meet at Bennett's Bridge (over Belle Isle Inlet) at about 4:15 in the morning so as to continue their journey together. There had been agitation for a Winthrop Catholic Church for some time and land was pur- chased for the purpose in 1881 by a Mr. Jessup. Finally, in the fall of 1886 ground was broken and by January of 1887 a very good building was completed under the direction of Father Hugh O'Donnell. The new church was dedicated June 19, 1887, with the name of St. John the Evangelist, and many people from East Boston joined Winthrop Catholics in the ceremonies. There were but 12 Catholic families then permanent residents of Winthrop and it was determined that the new church should be operated only during the warmer months, when summer residents helped swell the congregation. This arrangement was continued until 1895 when the Catholic families in Winthrop, permanently, were numerous enough to require a church the year around.
Sunday school for Catholic children was held in various homes, such as those of Stephen Boylan and William J. Robich- eau, until the church was equipped to meet the need. For many years there was agitation for a parochial school but work upon this school was not begun until 1951.
For many years, Winthrop's Unitarian Church was of great influence in the town, not so much because of the size of the con- gregation but because of the outstanding character and impor- tance of the members. E. S. Read was the prime mover in the formation and construction of the church. He announced that, if his fellow Unitarians would make a relatively small contri- bution, he would give the necessary thousands for the building of a church on Hermon Street, opposite the present Legion Hall. The funds were immediately raised and on September 12, 1889, the new church was dedicated. The church continued with a gradually diminishing membership until the depression of 1929 when it was found necessary to discontinue services. In 1930 the congregation met for the last time and deeded the property over to the Town of Winthrop for civic uses. It is now occupied by various organizations and fills, temporarily at least, part of the need for a civic building.
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In 1886, Marcena Belcher, Winthrop-born resident of Phila- delphia, offered the town a drinking fountain which he desired to have placed in front of the town hall-at about where there is presently that little triangle of land supporting the centennial elm tree. He died October 23, 1886, before the fountain could be erected, so the work was postponed for another year. The next spring a foundation of granite blocks was erected and the foun- tain opened for use in May of 1887. It was a bronze female figure with a drinking cup and pitcher. The residents of the town, who remember the vanished fountain with some nostalgia, considered that it lent a very "artistic appearance" to the neigh- borhood.
The winter of 1888 brought one of the greatest storms in modern times. It struck New York City with unparalleled fero- city but Winthrop did not escape easily. The morning after March 12, residents visiting the Beach found the Shore Drive buried under piles of sand and gravel, where great holes had been torn out where bulkheads had collapsed beneath the pound- ing of the surf. Of immediate importance was the fact that hun- dreds of live lobsters had been washed up upon the beach. In 1889 the government built the lighthouse on the tip of Deer Island, nearest to Long Island, and Winthrop residents had a new light to see at night after February of 1890.
One of the great needs of Winthrop was a sewer system. The town was becoming so populous that the old cesspools were no longer adequate. So in 1885, Town Meeting considered sev- eral plans and finally voted to build a sewer from Locust Street to a point off Winthrop Bar. September 14, 1885, Whitman, Breck and Company were authorized to survey the location of the sewer and to estimate the cost of construction. The length was found to be just short of two miles and the probable cost set at $26,153. This was considered satisfactory by the townspeople and it was decided to ask the permission of the General Court to borrow the necessary money. However, the matter dragged on and on as objection after objection was raised. The first Win- throp sewer was not built until 1889, when the work was accom- plished under the direction of Channing Howard, who later be- came town engineer as well as a member of the engineering firm of Whitman and Howard. Five miles of sewer pipe were laid and a great storage tank was installed under Winthrop Beach. Within a few years the vast Metropolitan Sewer came down through the town and ran out to the pumping station on Deer Island, thus making the storage tank useless. It is probably still in position under the sands of Winthrop Beach, its presence un- suspected by the thousands of bathers disporting themselves in the surf and sunshine. If and when the tank does collapse, it
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will undoubtedly be washed full of sand and gravel so that even then, its presence will not be detected.
Very little is ever heard of it but Winthrop once had a torpedo factory-not the modern torpedoes used by submarines but paper and fabric-wrapped bundles of gravel and an explosive and detonated by a percussion cap. This torpedo factory, which was established in a house on Putnam Street, now a dwelling, was never of much importance but alarmed the people of the neighborhood in February of 1887 when a small amount of pow- der exploded when it was being mixed by an employee. The factory was operated for about 30 years but went out of business as the market for this type of torpedo vanished.
There were still a few Winthrop people who continued the struggle to have beer, wine and liquor sold in town, although voted down overwhelmingly at each town meeting. In 1887 only one lone man had the courage to stand up in town meeting and vote wet. That year the assessors announced that the population of the town had climbed to 1573 as opposed to 1043 in 1880.
That winter was unusually cold and for several days the harbor was so heavily iced that the ferry boats were unable to cross. On June 17, 1889, the Aphelion Society built itself a new clubhouse at the Beach. This all but forgotten group was a sort of improvement society for the Winthrop Beach area and had extended itself to cover Cottage Hill as development there began. It looked after the physical condition of the area, such as their annual cleaning bee when they collected all waste and discarded materials both from the beach and from all the houses. (There was no town ash collecting service, then.) Probably they had considerable political influence also, for any organized group is always respected by officials seeking election or wishing to retain public office. Most important of all was the Society's social activities. They ran various types of "better class" entertain- ments and frequent clambakes. At these the emphasis was always placed upon "decency and decorum" and everyone seems to have had a good time.
The years 1886 and 1887 were remarkable for two things. One, as mentioned, was the discovery of Indian skeletons in a burial ground at or near the site of the old Winthrop Center Railroad Station. Professor Putnam of the Harvard University anthropological museum hurried down to preserve and study the find, apparently a sort of Indian cemetery. He found himself in need of a photographer but none could be readily found of suffi- cient skill in Winthrop. Finally some one said that Harry Whorf was very good. So Professor Putnam asked to have Whorf called. Harry Whorf, then a student in the Winthrop High School, was excused from his classes and hurried over to the
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consternation of Professor Putnam who did not know that Harry was a mere boy. However, Harry Whorf easily convinced the good professor that he was a good photographer and, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, the Professor and Harry went to work. The photographs were of amazing quality and the professor used them widely, even making lantern slides with which to illustrate one of his lectures. This publicity went far and wide although one New York paper spoiled things somewhat by saying that a remarkable anthropological discovery had been made "at Winthrop on Cape Cod."
The other event of importance was a trio of marriages in which three leading citizens took themselves wives. On June 9, 1886, David Floyd II, married Miss Belle Seavey and departed on a wedding trip to New York and Washington. A few days later Captain Samuel G. Irwin, the leading local figure in Win- throp's struggle for transportation, married for the second time, Miss Mary E. McGill. Then, on November 6, 1889, Channing Howard, member of the firm of Whitman & Breck (now Whit- man and Howard) married Miss Gertrude M. Creech. Channing Howard, manager of the firm of Whitman & Breck, who had been very active in building Winthrop's sewer, railroad and in laying out real estate developments, had become a permanent resident of the town and settled down to be the town's engineer. He has been responsible for all the town's engineering work for nearly 60 years and is still the man upon whom the town depends in matters engineering.
That 1889 was also the time when Frank W. Tucker, another of the old guard who helped make Winthrop what it is today, retired from the carriage making industry. He turned to real estate and to civic matters and distinguished himself as a keen historian who did much to preserve the early annals of the town. He was given a reception at the Town Hall by his former asso- ciates in the carriage trade and presented with a silver service.
This was also the period in which the little town library be- gan to show signs of real development. The town had provided funds for the purchase of some books and the citizens used them freely. A new cataloging system was installed in 1888 and that same year Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge of Nahant made a gift of books which was cherished for years. In 1889, the library reported it had 2,200 books upon its shelves.
It was also the period when the fire department accom- plished some progress-largely in response to public pressure. In 1886 Frank W. Tucker designed and built a new ladder truck, which was named the "Deane Winthrop". It is described as being both handsome and sturdy. The truck was hardly com- missioned than it was called out to fight a blaze in the Pleasant
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Street home of Isaiah Whorf. The fire had obtained a good start however and, despite the volunteers' best efforts, serious damage resulted.
In 1887, a fire alarm system was installed with boxes, 12 in number, located in different parts of the town. This was an effort to overcome the time loss between the discovery of a blaze and the calling out of the volunteers. These boxes made it de- sirable to call out the companies by number rather than name. The fire laddies, who were inordinately proud of their respective organizations and distinguished themselves by intense rivalry, objected strenuously to becoming mere numbers and threatened to resign if they were not permitted to keep their original des- ignations. The Selectmen, after consultation, found it was possi- ble, after all, to allow the boys to have their own way.
One of the most illuminating incidents in the history of the final portion of the 19th century, occurred the Night Before the Fourth, in 1888. It was customary then to observe the Great Day by acts of vandalism, of a mild sort, during the night before. As long as no harm was done, no one seriously objected-just as no one then considered it necessary to save the eyes and fingers of children by prohibiting the use of fire-crackers of dan- gerous strength.
Anyhow, this particular Eve, a gang, personnel unknown, of course, descended upon the Cottage Hill Depot. This structure, then abandoned, had a pair of stairs leading from the platform, where the old tracks had run to the foot of Cottage Avenue, some distance above. The young men concerned pulled up these stairs, ripped up a number of old ties and piled everything thus obtained against the walls of the wooden station. They then saturated everything with kerosene and touched it off. In a few moments all the Beach Section was painted crimson by the roar- ing and rushing flames. The fire department was not even called out, as they could not have saved the old station and there was no apparent danger of the flames spreading to other buildings. As for law and order, the town's lone policeman had already been incautious enough to permit himself to be seized by the mob and he had been cooled off by immersion in the town trough.
A really serious fire broke out on Great Head in zero weather in January of 1890. The fire started in the cottage of J. T. Gilson and spread rapidly to adjacent cottages owned by E. C. Miller on Faun Bar Avenue and the J. T. Gray house on Crystal Cove Avenue. All three were largely destroyed. Trouble began when the firefighters arrived and found that the new hydrants were fitted with couplings which did not fit the hoses. Then the bitter weather caused everything, including the firemen, to be sheeted in ice as soon as water was laid on. C. G. Bird had a very narrow
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escape when one of the cottages collapsed and a flaming wall nearly engulfed him. Charles W. Gray, a Mr. Harris, janitor of the Winthrop Yacht Club, and C. E. Birkmaier all suffered from exposure. As a result, the next Town Meeting featured agitation for better organization of the fire department and for better equipment-but nothing was accomplished at the time.
This period also brought agitation for more and better schools. The residents at the Beach demanded that they have a school of their own. To satisfy this clamor the little school so long at the Point was moved up towards the Center as far as Irwin Street. The people at the Highlands, then becoming comparatively numerous also, cried out for a school of their own and a little building was erected on Almont Street. In 1886 the High School graduated a class which listed several names of youngsters who in the years that followed became important in town. The class consisted of : Fannie Hanley, Jessie Douglas, Nellie Floyd, Fred Chamberlain, Harry Aiken, Warren Belcher and Maud Stevenson.
In 1886 there were 208 students in all the schools and 49 pupils in the high school under Principal F. B. Spaulding. He was followed after one year of service by E. R. Harding. If some teachers were still following the original design of Winthrop schools of a rapid turnover of personnel, there were teachers who did come to stay. Such was Miss Lillian S. Wilkins of East Boston who came to Winthrop as a teacher January 14, 1889. She remained in service for many years. She began her work as a teacher when, that day, she opened the new Beach school situated over the old Fire Station next to the Colonial Inn, a building now a private residence. She had five scholars.
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