The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 78

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 78

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1 The property of Woodland Hill was given to Harvard College on the following conditions ; namely: "That they will establish there a course of instruction in practical agriculture, in useful and ornamental gardening, in botany, and in such other branches of natural sciences as may tend to promote a knowledge of practical agri- culture and the various arts subservient thereto and connected therewith, and cause such course of lectures to be delivered there, at such seasons of the year and under such regulations as they may think best adapted to promote the ends de- signed; and also to furnish gratuitous aid, if they shall think it expedient, to such meritorious persons as may resort there for instruction. The institution so established shall be called the 'Bussey Institution.'" - Thomas Motley's Letter.

2 This place, now called Woodland Hill, on which Thomas Motley, President of the Massa- chusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, now lives, by virtue of Mr. Bussey's bequest to Mrs.

Motley, was purchased by Mr. Bussey in 1815; and here he afterward planted orchards of vari- ous fruits, pears, plums, and peachies, especially of the apple and cherries (largely Mazzard), as Mr. Bussey used to say, for the birds; "for we found they were quite fond of cherries, and took their full share." Letter of Thomas Motley.

3 Dr. Harris was a lover of fine fruit, and once said to the writer: "Your exhibition of pears is grand; but there is one variety that I miss, -the Bon Chrétien (the Good Christian). I shall bring some from my garden to-morrow."

4 The Massachusetts Agricultural Club, de- siring to name this pear for the writer, and to disseminate it for general cultivation, offered Mr. Clapp one thousand dollars for the control of it ; but he declined, preferring to give to it the name it now bears. On these grounds have been origi- nated from seed many other fine pears, and from these grounds large quantities of choice fruits are annually sent to market.

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THE HORTICULTURE OF BOSTON AND VICINITY.

raised by Mrs. Diana Crehore.1 This was brought to notice in 1843, being the first seedling American grape at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which was deemed worthy of notice.

Zebedee Cook, the second president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, some fifty years since had a large garden opposite the Andrews estate, on the east side of the then turnpike-road, where he successfully grew several kinds of foreign grapes, apricots, peaches, and pears. Among the grapes was a white variety named Horatio, after Mr. Horatio Sprague, Consul at Gibraltar, from whom he received it, - known now as the Nice grape.

Mr. Newhall was a distinguished cultivator, and the first treasurer of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. His orchards were extensive, embrac- ing a large number of varieties, especially of the pear, which he cultivated with success until about three years since, when he died at the age of ninety.2

Samuel Downer,3 one of the founders of the Horticultural Society, had a large orchard, which still remains in good order, and until recently was under the intelligent care of his son, the late Samuel Downer, Jr.4 He was an early, enterprising, and useful member, and took a deep interest in po- mology until his death at eighty years of age. He was especially inter- ested in the origin and character of native fruits, and, as he used to say, he loved to be " mousing" after new varieties, especially such as were of native origin.

Elijah Vose, the third president of the Horticultural Society, had a fine plantation of fruits, and he grew some to great perfection, - especially the Duchesse d'Angoulême pear, which sometimes, for extraordinary speci- mens, commanded from seventy-five cents to a dollar each.

William Oliver, Vice-president of the Horticultural Society, had a good orchard of pears and other fruits on an estate which, after his death, became the residence of ex-Governor Henry J. Gardner.

Another very old garden in Dorchester, of which our valued citizen Mr. John Richardson has been the occupant and owner for a long course of years, deserves a record. The house 5 was the birthplace of Edward Everett, and is understood to have been built in colonial times by Governor Oliver, who is supposed to have laid out the garden, which is now interesting for

1 Who still lives at the advanced age of eighty-four years.

2 Mr. Newhall's place was once the residence · of Thomas Motley, father of the historian John Lothrop Motley, and of his brother Thomas Motley, the President of the Massachusetts So- ciety for Promoting Agriculture, who were here born.

8 He was son of the celebrated Dr. Downer, "the fighting surgeon," who had a personal en- counter with a British soldier on his return from the battle at Concord. Their fire having missed. Downer knocked him down and then ran him

through with his own bayonet, and said : " It was not ten minutes before I got another good shot." Dr. Downer was in prison in Halifax, from which he escaped; was also in the Dartmoor and the Forten prisons for a while, and was in several desperate engagements under John Paul Jones, both as sailor and surgeon. He was engaged in the expedition up the Kennebec to Canada. Massachusetts awarded him fifteen dollars for the loss of his surgical instruments. Letter of Samuel Downer, fr.

4 Mr. Downer died in the summer of 1881.

5 [See Vol. II. p. 367. - ED.]

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its old trees and antique appearance, but more especially for the number of choice fruits and flowers, many of which have been produced from seed by the hands of its skilful proprietor.

The pear orchard of the late William R. Austin, Treasurer of the Horti- cultural Society, was, and is still, famous for the size and beauty of its fruit, produced by pruning his trees into the shape of a wineglass.

And here, in Dorchester, if I may be permitted to allude to it, are the experimental grounds of the writer, formerly the estate of Governor Increase Sumner, which at the time of his death, 1799, passed into the hands of his son, General William H. Sumner, one of the founders of the Horticultural Society, and finally came to its present owner. On these ex- perimental grounds have been produced, under the personal inspection of its present proprietor, within the last fifty years, more than twelve hundred varieties of fruits; and from thence there were exhibited, on one occasion, four hundred and four distinct varieties of the pear. Here was originated, by the art of hybridization, the Camellias Wilderi and the Mrs. Abby Wilder, which received, more than thirty years ago, a special prize of fifty dollars ; also the Mrs. Julia Wilder, the Jennie Wilder, and other camellias of great perfection : and from this place went to the Boston Public Garden, on its foundation in 1839, the entire collection of greenhouse and garden plants, as already mentioned.

Roxbury was noted for its interest in fruit culture at an early period, as has been seen by the statement of Chief-Justice Paul Dudley, already quoted. This town was remarkable for its production of apples and the quantity of cider manufactured. The farm of the late Ebenezer Seaver, member of Congress from 1803 to 1813, was distinguished for the culture of fruit. This estate has passed regularly down in the family line through Joshua, Jonathan, the Ebenezer Seavers, and the Parkers, lineal descend- ants, who now live on it.1

Mrs. Parker remembers several large ancient pear-trees standing on the home-lot, which were old but vigorous when she was young. An Orange, and a Minot pear-tree of great size in the trunk, and an excellent pear for cooking, still remain on the lawn, beside a Gennetin pear-tree, whose age

1 In the account-books of Jonathan Seaver, from 1731 and on, we find that he was largely interested in the manufacture of " Sider." From 1740 to 1749, we find the Rev. Thomas Prince, minister of the Old South Church, annually charged with from three to five barrels' of " Sider " for several years; and that on April 24, 1749, Mr. Seaver credited him with "Thirty Pounds in Cash, old tenor in part, for Sundries." The old and new cider-mills are remembered by Mrs. Parker, a daughter of " Squire Seaver," who at an advanced age still lives in the old house. Large heaps of fragrant apples lay outside of the mill in the autumn, and during the second

Ebenezer Seaver's day, a little more than a hun- dred years ago, the bears were attracted to them from the " Rocky Wilderness Land " which lay to the southwest, towards what is now Forest Hills. Upon one occasion a bear lingered tast- ing till he was discovered. Mr. Seaver and his neighbors gave chase, and finally captured him on the marsh land in Dorchester, in the vicinity of what is now Crescent Avenue. The neigh- bors were invited to a feast in honor of the occa- sion, at Mr. Seaver's house, the bear furnishing the chief dish as well as a steak for each guest to take home. The Seaver estate is now covered with many fine buildings.

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THE HORTICULTURE OF BOSTON AND VICINITY.

none can remember, and which bears two or three bushels yearly of its small early fruit. During the period of Ebenezer Seaver's service in Con- gress, Colonel Matlock, a gentleman whom he met there, gave him some scions from the original Seckel pear-tree, near Philadelphia. He sent them carefully home in a letter, and his son Jonathan grafted them before his return, they being the first of the kind, so far as he knew, in this vicinity.1

There was also where Schuyler Street now is an immemorial Iron pear- tree, so tall that the crown of the tree was usually not picked. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, and during the first years of the present, the fruit of the mulberry was much esteemed, there being then few of the many small-fruits which are now cultivated. The widow of the second Ebenezer received in one season seventy dollars for the fruit sold from one large mulberry-tree which stood in front of the house, beside using much herself for the entertainment of friends. It lived till after the marriage, in 1820, of the granddaughter, who remembers it well. This farm was also celebrated for its cherries, but the trees were blown down in the gale of 1815.

The late George J. Parker had large fields of currants and gooseberries. There have been gathered in one year fifty barrels of gooseberries from bushes which he planted.2

Prior to the present century Judge John Lowell was a leading patron in the promotion of improved agriculture, and he was President of the Massa- chusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, for many years. He had an or- chard, garden, and one of the first greenhouses, and contributed to the fund for establishing the Botanic Garden at Cambridge.3 This property was inherited by his son, the Hon. John Lowell, who was also president for some years of the above named society, and who stood at the head of the horticulturists and agriculturists in New England, and was styled by Gen- eral Dearborn the Columella of the Northern States. He presided at the preliminary meeting which led- to the establishment of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

Mr. Lowell received scions of fruit-trees from Mr. Knight, President of the Horticultural Society of London, and from other eminent pomologists of Europe, and so liberally distributed them to his friends that his trees were often crippled in their growth. He was also interested in the growth of exotics, and had in his collection some of the first orchideous plants of which we have any record. Among his plants sixty years ago he had a famous Strelitzia regina, which was then an object of great curiosity. No man in the early part of this century did more for the promotion of pomol- ogy. in New England than Mr. Lowell.4

1 The tree is still flourishing, and on Saturday, September 27, 1879, there were picked from it over two barrels of pears. One individual pear, by actual measurement, was eight and five-eighths inches each way round. The family had never seen one to equal it in size. The original Seckel tree is still standing in Ward 26, Philadelphia.

2 Letter of Miss Parker, granddaughter of the Hon. Ebenezer Seaver.

8 Augustus Lowell's Letter.

4 This estate was next inherited by the Hon. John A. Lowell, our esteemed and venerable citi- zen, who added largely to its glass structures, one of which was an orchid-house, to contain

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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

In Roxbury was the garden of General Henry A. S. Dearborn, who will ever be gratefully remembered as the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. He was also a great leader in the establishment of the Mount Auburn Cemetery, and the founder of Forest Hills Cemetery. In his garden were raised the Dearborn Seedling pear and other fruits. He gave several hundred ornamental trees to be planted at Mount Auburn, and was personally occupied in the laying out and adornment of both this and the Forest Hills Cemetery; and to him are the public more indebted primarily for the prestige and popularity of these institutions than to any other man. His labors, addresses, and communications for the press in regard to the science and practice of horticulture, and rural embellishments, have given to his name in this community an honorable standing.

Here also was the garden of the late Enoch Bartlett, one of the founders and first vice-presidents of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, where may now be seen the first Bartlett pear-trees imported, a variety which is more popular than any other in our country. These grounds were pre- viously owned by Captain Brewer, and on them he had planted many fruit- trees. When Mr. Bartlett purchased this place, in 1820, he found two young trees, which on fruiting proved to be what is now known as the Bartlett. Both of them still bear fruit, the largest being over forty inches in circum- ference, three feet above the ground. This pear was afterward ascertained to be the Williams Bon Chrétien, an English variety.1

At Jamaica Plain were the garden and orchard of Captain John Prince, who was a successful cultivator of fruits and flowers. In 1825 he had eleven varieties of pears, four of plums, two of apricots, besides grapes and many varieties of apples. His greenhouse contained some of the early camellias introduced into New England, - among which was a Double White, purchased when it was only a foot high, of Joseph Barrell of Charles- town, but a few hours previous to Mr. Barrell's death.

In Roxbury, one of the most noted places during the last century for the production of fruits and vegetables was the old Williams homestead, on Walnut Avenue. This was the home of Aaron Davis Williams, who succeeded his father, and who during a long and useful life contributed largely to the advancement of the horticulture of our vicinity. His father, John Davis Williams, was celebrated as a cultivator at the close of the last century, as was probably his grandfather before him. From the orchards of this place for more than a hundred years have come to the Boston market many of the choicest fruits and vegetables. This spot is also mem- orable as the birthplace of the brothers John Davis Williams and Moses Williams, so well known as merchants of Boston, the latter now surviving at ninety years, in a healthful old age.2

the plants bequeathed to him by John Wright Boott, some of which are now at the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, to which Mr. Lowell also gave a large part of his own botanical library. 1 Letter of Allen Putnam.

2 From whom the writer has received the fol- lowing letter : -

BOSTON, May 10, 1881.

DEAR SIR, - Your favor of yesterday was received this morning. . The house on Walnut Avenue, in the Roxbury

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THE HORTICULTURE OF BOSTON AND VICINITY.

Another fine old place in Roxbury was that of Rufus G. Amory, with its long avenues, entering from Washington Street, and bordered with noble elms, which still live. He was much interested in ornamental culture, im- porting trees and shrubs from Europe; and, it is said, received our com- mon Barberry bush at a high price, while he was paying men at the rate of five shillings a day to dig them out of his own grounds. This estate, " Elm Hill," was for a long time the residence of the late John D. W. Williams, but is now (1881) laid out into streets and cut up into house- lots.

The Roxbury Russet apple was a great favorite a hundred years ago, and many orchards produced from five hundred to one thousand or more barrels a year. It is believed to have originated on the old farm of Eben- ezer Davis, where some trees of the original orchard still remain.

The farm of Samuel Ward, now belonging to the Brookline Land Com- pany, was famous, fifty years ago, for its Roxbury Russet apples, often producing a thousand barrels a year; and also for cherries, of which he sen't to market forty to fifty bushels daily in the season, and occasionally he despatched a four-ox team to Providence with seventy-five bushels.

Among the orchards of early times were those of the Curtises at Jamaica Plain. These have passed down to the present occupants in direct lineal descent, and from them immense crops of apples have been sent to the Boston market, in which the Curtises are the largest dealers and export- ers of this fruit, shipping them by thousands upon thousands of barrels to foreign ports.1

Nor should we omit the ancestral home of our worthy citizen Aaron Davis Weld, in West Roxbury, so celebrated for its orchards in olden time, and during the last forty years for its famous apples and the renowned Weld Farm cider and vinegar. In addition to great crops of fruits, two hundred tons of hay are cut on it a year.

In Roxbury, too, is the splendid estate of William Gray, Jr., ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. This is on the borders of Dor- chester, and was formerly a portion of the celebrated estate of Colonel James Swan,2 long imprisoned in France " for debts not of his own con- tracting, and who was one of those who helped throw the tea into the har-

District, where my brother, Aaron D. Williams, was born, and where lie died, was originally a lean-to, two stories on the front and one story on the rear. It was inherited by my father, John D. Williams, who was baptized John, and who married Hannah Davis. After his marriage, he petitioned the Legislature and took the name of John Davis Williams. My brother, the oldest child of my father, was also baptized John, and after he became a man he likewise petitioned the Legislature for leave to take the name of John Davis Williams instead of John Williams ; but, as my father was a farmer and received but few letters, my brother never signed his name junior, as it appears to me now that it would liave been proper for him to have done. However, no trouble ever arose on this account. My father and (I am almost certain) my grandfather, were born-at any rate, they lived - on the same estate where my brother Aaron D. was born, and where he died. There were no better culti-

.vators of fruits and vegetables than my father in his day, and my brother Aaron in his. My father left an estate in 1807 of $85,000, all acquired by uncommon ability as a cultivator of fruit and vegetables. My brother Aaron made all thrive under his care, but became too rich the latter part of his life to give to cultivation his exclusive attention. Very truly your friend, MOSES WILLIAMS. Hon. MARSHALL P. WILDER.

1 Charles F. Curtis's letter, in which he states that the receipts of apples for the season up to Jan. 29, 1881, at Boston, were over six hundred and ninety thousand barrels.

2 [Francis S. Drake's Town of Roxbury, p. 136 .- ED.]

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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

bor."1 Here Mr. Gray has offered the public fine illustrations of landscape gardening by the laying out of his beautiful grounds. From his conser- vatories and grounds our exhibitions have been constantly enriched with rare and costly plants, and his enterprise keeps up with the progress of the age. For the last three years he has won the $150 Silver Cup for his roses.

Roxbury, from the early part of this century, was distinguished for its greenhouses. We have mentioned those of the Lowells and others, to which we must add that of John Lemist, who was lost on the ill fated steamboat "Lexington," in 1840. This place was formerly the residence of Judge Auchmuty, Governor Increase Sumner, and Beza Tucker, and in 1824 it passed to Mr. Lemist.2 His greenhouses and grapery, under the care of a Scotch· gardener, John R. Russell, became quite noted. His collection of plants, especially camellias, gardenias, and roses, was considered as remark- able; and he often obtained one dollar or more for a cut flower of the double white camellia.

The gardens and nurseries of Samuel Walker, fifth president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, were situated in Roxbury, opposite the estate of Governor Eustis. Mr. Walker was prominent in his efforts to advance horticulture, and made his home in a garden. He was a zealous and experienced cultivator of plants and fruit-trees, bestowing great atten- tion on the cultivation of the dahlia, tulip, and pansy. He annually gave public exhibitions of the tulip under a canvas tent erected for the pur- pose, and had costly varieties, such as Louis XVI. and others, valued at £10 to £15 for a single bulb. His nurseries were for many years noted for their excellence, and his fruits on exhibition were of the first-class, among which was the Mount Vernon pear, produced from seed.

On the borders of Jamaica Pond is the garden of Francis Parkman, LL. D., ex-President of the Horticultural Society, who has become almost as widely known for his experience in hybridizing plants as for his histori- cal writings. By the process of hybridizing he obtained the Lilium Park- manii, for the stock of which a florist in London made him a present of one thousand dollars.

Roxbury has been celebrated for the many varieties of fruits which have been originated within her borders. Of these may be named the famous Roxbury Russet, Williams's Favorite, and Seaver Sweet apples; the Dear- born's Seedling, Lewis, Merriam, Dana's Hovey, and Mount Vernon pears.

In Milton are numerous fine estates, which under modern horticultural skill are worthy of remembrance, - such as the summer residences of Henry P. Kidder, Francis Peabody, R. B. and J. M. Forbes, Mrs. F. Cun- ningham, Miss Russell, and of John W. Brooks, whose pear orchard con- tains six hundred trees of the Beurré d' Anjou, generally considered " the best." Nor would we omit the residence of Colonel Henry S. Russell, in

1 Hon Thomas C. Amory's Letter.

2 [See Vol. II. p. 343 .- ED.]

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THE HORTICULTURE OF BOSTON AND VICINITY.

olden time of Francis Amory, now the "Home Farm," with its world- renowned " Smuggler " breed of horses, its extensive avenues of old oaks, walnuts, elms, maples, and pines, its broad landscape and ornamental grounds.

The town of Brookline has been celebrated from an early date for the elegant residences of our opulent citizens, and for its gardens, orchards, and ornamental grounds. "Brookline was for a long time pre-eminent in the little cordon of towns which have so long constituted the exquisite environs of Boston, embossing it with rich and varied margins of lawn and lake, and meadow and wooded hill-side, and encircling its old 'plain neck,'-as Wood called it in his New Englands Prospect,-with an unfading wreath of bloom and verdure."1 Here were the homes of the Amorys, the Aspinwalls, the Perkinses, Sullivans, Sargents, Lees, Gardners, Tappans; of General Theo- dore Lyman, Benjamin Guild, Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch, John E. Thayer, and others, who have been patrons of horticultural improvement; and although the citizens of Brookline protested, in 1773, against the intro- duction of the leaves of the tea-plant without their consent, they have been proverbially friends of rural taste, and have done much for the adornment of their residences with other beautiful trees and plants.

In the very early part of this century the gardens and greenhouses of Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins were particularly distinguished. He and his brother, Samuel G. Perkins, inherited a love for fruits and flowers from their grandmother, Mrs. Edmund Perkins, who was Edna Frothing- ham of Charlestown. Colonel Perkins's residence in France and other foreign lands, where he had seen fine fruits and flowers, stimulated his nat- ural taste, and induced him to purchase this estate in 1800, when he began to build his house, to lay out his grounds, and to erect greenhouses and glass structures for the cultivation of fruits and flowers; and until the estab- lishment of the magnificent conservatories and fruit-houses of his nephew, John Perkins Cushing, at Watertown, his place was considered the most advanced in horticultural science of any in New England. For fifty years Colonel Perkins's estate was kept in the best manner by experienced foreign gardeners, and at an expense of more than ten thousand dollars annually. He frequently received trees and plants from Europe, the products of which were prominent at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Soci- ety. In 1840 he introduced the Victoria Hamburg, West's St. Peter's, and Cannon Hall Muscat grape-vines, which were presented to him by Sir Jo- seph Paxton, gardener to the Duke of Devonshire.

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 78

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Boston : Osgood Number of Pages: 760

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760