USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 16
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The changes in the vicinity of Beacon Hill have been numerous in modern years; and the various eminences have been removed and many streets laid out upon their surface, much of the soil having been used to raise the low land in the neighborhood of Charles street, and a portion to fill up the old millpond north of the present Haymarket square. The last of the beacon poles, from which alarms had been given in former days, was blown down in November, 1789, and a monument erected in its place in 1790; and this last was taken down in the year 1811 to make way for dwelling-houses; and on a portion of the site of the principal eminence is the stone reser- voir, which sides upon Temple, Derne and Hancock streets.
The origin of the beacon pole dates back to the fol- lowing order, passed on the fourth of March, 1634-5, by the General Court of the Colony:
"It is ordered, that there shalbe forth with a beacon sett on the centry hill at Boston, to give notice to the country of any danger, & that there shalbe a ward of one pson kept there from the first of April to the last
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
of Sept"., & that upon the discov'y of any danger, the beacon shalbe fired, an allarum given, as also messengers presently sent by that towne where the danger is dis- cov'ed, to all other townes within their jurisdiccon."
This beacon pole was a tall and conspicuous staff, having foot sticks on its sides to give aid in ascending to the crane which surmounted its top, and to which was suspended an iron skillet that, in colonial times, was generally kept full of combustibles, ready prepared for ignition in case of the necessity of an alarm.
In some shape the beacon pole, erected in accordance with the vote of the General Court, was kept standing, being occasionally replaced by a new one, until the year 1775, when it was taken down by the British troops, and a small square fort erected in its stead. After the retire- ment of these troops in 1776, the beacon pole, which remained until it was blown down just previous to the erection of the monument, was placed in the old position by the town. The one which was taken down by the British had been erected by the Selectmen of the town in 1768, very much to the displeasure of the governor of the province; and, in consequence of apprehension of oppression by the troops, unknown persons, on the tenth of September of that year, placed an empty turpentine barrel in the skillet, undoubtedly with a view of raising the country to oppose the troops if necessary. This gave great alarm to the royalists, especially to Governor Bernard, and the Selectmen were desired to remove the same; but declining to do so, the obnoxious barrel was taken down by Mr. Greenleaf, the high sheriff, on the six- teenth, by direction of the Governor, and the pole subse- quently taken away, and the fort erected. The removal of the barrel created quite a prolonged discussion
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through the papers, certain parties being very desirous to propagate the idea that the barrel was not one which had been used for turpentine, and consequently was not of an inflammable nature.
The street which led to the Centry Hill was laid out by an order of the Selectmen passed the thirtieth of March, 1640, the portion of Temple street extending over the site of the hill from Mount Vernon street to Derne street not being constructed until years after the summer of 1811, when the monument was taken down, and the hill dug away. Not a few of the older inhabitants who were living at the commencement of the present century re- member well the lofty mansion house of William Thurs- ton, Esq., as it presented itself to the sight of all in the days of its magnificence, from its towering eminence just east of the monument; and many will undoubtedly, never forget the same building shorn of its pristine glory, standing upon the high precipice formed by the removal of the greater part of the soil of the same hill, overtop- ping the chimneys of the neighboring houses. The sum- mit of the hill, about six rods square, was approached from the north and from the south by means of steps, rather steep in their ascent. Five lithographic views printed some years ago by Mr. George G. Smith, of this city, recall to memory very vividly the appearance of the hill about the time of the removal of the monument.
The last contemporary notice of the beacon pole is to be found in the Independent Chronicle, under date of Thursday, December 3, 1789, in the following words: - " The Beacon, which was erected on Bacon-Hill, during the last war, to alarm the country in case of an invasion of the British into this town - was on Thursday night last blown down." This, of course, was on the twenty-
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
sixth of November. Immediately after this occurrence, a project was set on foot for erecting a monument upon the site of this noted and heretofore useful pole; and a plan was procured of Charles Bulfinch, Esq., a worthy townsman, who had made architecture a special study. The erection of the monument was commenced in the year 1790, but was not completed until the spring of the next year. Its base was about one hundred and thirty-eight feet above the level of the sea, being about twenty feet higher than the floor of the present State House. It was a plain Doric column, of the Roman style, with a well proportioned base and pedestal, and built in the most substantial manner of brick and stone incrusted with white cement; and surmounted by a large gilt eagle with the American ægis upon its breast, standing upon a globe. The whole height of the monument, including pedestal and eagle, was sixty feet; the diame- ter of the column being four feet, and the width of the pedestal eight. The four sides of the pedestal contained panels, in which were engraved the following inscrip- tions designed to commemorate the leading events of the American Revolution.
On the South side:
TO · COMMEMORATE THAT . TRAIN . OF . EVENTS WHICH . LED TO . THE . AMERICAN . REVOLUTION AND . FINALLY . SECURED
LIBERTY . AND . INDEPENDENCE TO . THE . UNITED . STATES . THIS . COLUMN . IS . ERECTED
BY . THE . VOLUNTARY . CONTRIBUTIONS OF . THE . CITIZENS OF . BOSTON MDCCXC.
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On the West side:
Stamp act passed 1765. repealed 1766. Board of customs established 1767. British troops fired on the inhabitants of Boston March 5. 1770. Tea act passed 1773. Tea destroyed in Boston Decem: 16. Port of Boston shut and guarded June 1. 1774. General Congress at Philadelphia Sept: 4. Provincial Congress at Concord Oct: 11. Battle of Lexington April 19. 1775. Battle of Bunker Hill June 17. Washington took command of the army July 2. Boston evacuated March 17. 1776. Independence declared by Congress July 4. 1776. Hancock President. On the North side:
Capture of Hessians at Trenton Dec: 26. 1776. Capture of Hessians at Bennington. Aug: 16. 1777. Capture of British army at Saratoga Oct: 17. Alliance with France Feb: 6. 1778. Confederation of United States formed July 9. Constitution of Massachusetts formed 1780. Bowdoin President of Convention. Capture of British army at York Oct: 19. 1781. Prelimenaries of Peace Nov: 30. 1782. Definitive Treaty of Peace Sept: 10. 1783. Federal Constitution formed Sept: 17. 1787, and ratified by the United States 1787. to. 1790. New Congress assembled at New York April. 6. 1789. Washington inaugurated President April 30. Public debts funded Aug: 4. 1790.
On the East side:
· AMERICANS · WHILE . FROM . THIS . EMINENCE SCENES . OF . LUXURIANT . FERTILITY OF . FLOURISHING . COMMERCE & . THE . ABODES . OF . SOCIAL . HAPPINESS MEET . YOUR . VIEW FORGET . NOT . THOSE WHO . BY . THEIR . EXERTIONS HAVE . SECURED . TO . YOU THESE . BLESSINGS.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Hon. Thomas Dawes, the well remembered judge of the late Municipal Court, who was born in Boston in the year 1757, graduated at Harvard College in 1777, and died 22 July, 1825, had the reputation of being the author of these very judicious inscriptions. If he did not write them, it is desirable to know who did. When the monument was taken down in 1811, to make way for improvements, the tablets were placed in a back passageway of the State House, at the foot of the old flight of stairs which led to the rooms in the entresol beneath the Senate Chamber, and the gilded eagle was placed over the entrance door of the Doric Hall, imme- diately beneath the Representatives' Hall; and subse- quently, about fifteen years ago, removed to the last mentioned hall and suspended over the Speaker's Chair. On the twenty-first of February, 1861, in accordance with an order of the Legislature, these tablets were securely attached to the easterly wall of the Doric Hall of the State House, there to be retained and preserved, not only to commemorate the important events thereon recorded, but to serve as a memorial of the patriotic feelings of our predecessors, and as a testimony of our appreciation of their good works. In arranging in 1867 the colors borne by the Massachusetts regiments it became necessary to remove these venerable tablets to the easterly corridor at the right of the Doric Hall. An act has been passed empowering the Bunker Hill Monument Association to re-construct the Beacon Hill Monument. If the tablets should ever be removed, a place would be afforded for another set of marbles, on which can be chronicled the patriotic acts and heroic sacrifices of the noble sons of Massachusetts, who so recently have given themselves to their country in its greatest need and peril.
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The site of Beacon Hill Monument is one that can now be pointed out with exactness, and with such a degree of precision that any one can identify the spot without hesitation. It has already been stated that a portion of the summit of Centry Hill was reserved for the Beacon Pole very early after the settlement of the town. The monument area seems to have been a por- tion of the summit of the hill six rods, or ninety-nine feet, square. Old deeds of neighboring estates men- tion this lot and it seems to have been surrounded, at one time, by the land of Robert Turner, two hundred years ago, leaving only a passage to it from the Com- mon about thirty feet wide. The neighboring estates passed by inheritance and sale, until they became vested in Thomas Hancock, the uncle of Governor John Han- cock, in 1752, and in others, among whom was John Alford, of Charlestown. The Alford property was sold in 1760 to William Molineaux, and subsequently by con- fiscation became vested in Daniel Dennison Rogers. The Rogers estate extended from the present Beacon street to the top of Beacon Hill, and was bounded on the east side by the present Bowdoin street, and on the west by the passageway to the monument, and by the monument lot. The most northerly part of this land, being about eighty feet of the depth of the garden of Mr. Rogers, was sold by him, on the ninth of November, 1802, to William Thurston, Esq., and was the site of the house built there in 1804, and which will be remembered on account of its high flight of steps, and as standing in the air after the digging down of Monument Hill, as before alluded to. The exact site of this noted house was the northwest part of the estate, which covered the ground now occupied by the three houses in Beacon
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Hill Place, and the one just north of them extending on Bowdoin street to the passageway. The back of this estate, on the westerly side, bounded on the monu- ment lot.
In the spring of 1811 the old town began to feel poor, as grievous debts pressed heavily upon the inhabi- tants; and an effort was made to obtain relief by selling the public land, in order to raise money to lessen the town's debt. A committee of twelve respectable men, one from each ward, was appointed to take the subject into consideration; and on the twenty-seventh of May a report was submitted to the townsmen, recommending the sale of land belonging to the town on Beacon Hill, of the lot opposite to the mall, and other land. The recommendation was adopted, and on motion of John Lowell, Esq., then an active inhabitant of the town, an order was passed for that purpose. The land was sold at public auction on the twentieth day of the succeeding June, that opposite the Tremont street mall being soon built upon as a portion of Colonnade row; and of the monument lot two-thirds fell to John Hancock, and one- third to Samuel Spear. It was then that the monument was taken down and its eagle and tablets saved, for the purchasers began removing the soil from the hill in July, although they did not receive their title-deed to the land until the sixth of August following. Although this great digging commenced in 1811, it was not until the twenty-ninth of July, 1824, during the mayoralty of the elder Quincy, that Temple street was laid out through it and accepted by the city. This occurrence being of so late a date has led many to think that the monument could not have been removed as early as 1811, while others insist upon it, that it was taken down
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several years sooner. But it is well known that it was standing in its lot in the spring of 1811, and that it was not there in November of the same year. The four boundary lines of this lot, six rods square, are: The south line, sixty feet from Mt. Vernon street; the north line, consequently one hundred and fifty-nine feet from the same street; the east line, that already mentioned as the boundary of Mr. Thurston's estate; and the west line, about twelve feet west of the westerly line of Tem- ple street. The site of the monument, being in the centre of this lot, was just east of the easterly side of Temple street, in the front part of the lot of the second house in this street numbering from Mt. Vernon street, now numbered 80.
The house well remembered by so many, as standing in a somewhat similar condition as did Mr. Thurston's, was the house of the late Daniel Dennison Rogers, and was situated on the estate just south of the present Beacon Hill Place. It was a large double house, and was built on the European plan, with a stable and wood- house in front, and the main entrance approached from between these, over a long flight of stone steps which led to it and its spacious front garden. Mrs. Elizabeth, widow of Mr. Rogers, died on the fifth of May, 1833, aged sixty-nine years; and the estate was sold at auction in the subsequent June, and the house was taken down soon after, and the present block built and occupied in 1835.
Within the memories of the older inhabitants of Boston, great changes have taken place in the territory once occupied by Treamount. The hills have been removed to fill up valleys and waste places; streets, vying with each other in their comfortable and sightly
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
mansion houses, have been laid out; and the dreary part of the old town, which had very little of early historical interest, except in the garden, orchard and spring of Blaxton, and in the Beacon Pole, upon which the warn- ing light had so often blazed, has become now the most populous, as well as the most comfortable part of the city.
CHAPTER XII.
CEMETERIES - CHAPEL BURYING-GROUND.
Cemeteries in Boston . . . The Old Burying-Ground, or Chapel Burying-Ground, in Tremont street . . . Death of Mr. Isaac Johnson, in Charlestown . . . Burial of Captain Robert Welden, the first known interment on the Peninsula . .. Lady Arbella Johnson buried in Salem .. . Form and Boundaries of the Chapel Burying-Ground ... Number of its Tombs and when built ... Wooden, Brick, Stone and Iron Fences . .. The Ground let to Captain Savage · · · Burials discontinued for a time .. . Description of the Cemetery ... Strange Freak of an old Superintendent of Burials in placing the Grave- stones in Rows . . . Kinds of Memorials and their Material . . . Monument of Col. Dawes . .. The Winslow Tomb . . . Leverett Tomb .. . Governor Win- throp's Tomb . . . Elder Thomas Oliver's Tomb . . . The Early Pastors of the First Church ... Graves of Mrs. Mather and Mrs. Davenport . . . Inscrip- tion on Tomb of Jacob Sheafe . . . Brattle and Bromfield Tombs . . . Remains of Lady Andros .. . Gravestones of Deacon William Paddy and Captain Roger Clap ... Tomb of Major Thomas Savage . . . King's Chapel . . . Old Passageways discontinued.
PREVIOUS to the establishment, on the twenty-fourth of September, 1831, of the Mount Auburn Cemetery on the borders of Cambridge and Watertown, there had been eleven burial-places on the peninsula, -the Chapel Burying-Ground, the oldest in Boston; the several con- nected grounds on Copp's Hill; the Granary Burying- Ground on Tremont street; the Burying-Ground in the rear of Congress street, belonging to the Society of Friends; the Boylston street Burying-Ground; and the Washington street or South End Burying-Ground; and the cemeteries under the following named religious edi-
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
fices : King's Chapel, Christ Church, Trinity Church, St. Paul's Church and Park street Meeting-House. There have been, also, in South Boston, five cemeteries: the Hawes Burying-Ground, the Lower Burying-Ground, now discontinued, and its former deposits removed; a private ground adjacent to the Hawes Ground, called the Union Burying-Ground; St. Augustin Burying- Ground, for Roman Catholics, and the cemetery under St. Matthew's Church. In East Boston there have been two only, one for Protestants and the other for Israel- ites. Since the ordinance against interments in graves in Boston, no burials have been made on the peninsula except in tombs, and none in South Boston, except in the St. Augustine Burying-Ground on Dorchester street. Burials in graves are as yet allowed in East Boston. The cemetery under the Park street Meeting-House was discontinued in 1862, and the remains which had been deposited in its tombs were removed to a burial lot on Central Square in Mount Auburn Cemetery. The use of the tombs under St. Matthew's Church in South Bos- ton has also been terminated. The number of inter- ments in the city proper has become quite small, as a very large part of the burials now take place in the suburban cemeteries.
Soon after the settlement of Boston, our fathers be- thought themselves about establishing a place of burial, and selected for that purpose the lot situated at the cor- ner of Tremont and School streets, where the first burials in the town were made. The exact time when this cem- etery was first set apart and devoted to its present use can never be accurately determined, although uncertain tradition connects its origin with the death of Mr. Isaac Johnson, which occurred several weeks before the actual
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settlement of the town, notwithstanding an earlier reso- lution of the colonists had been taken to make the peninsula their chief town in the Massachusetts settle- ment. Mr. Johnson died in Charlestown on the thirtieth of September, 1630, and the place of his interment is nowhere mentioned by his cotemporaries. Mr. Samuel Sewall, the noted Chief Justice, who did not commence his diary until nearly fifty years after this event, writes, that Mr. Johnson was buried in Boston in his lot, and that others at their request were on their death buried near him, and hence the spot became the site of the old burial- ground. This tradition, which has been perpetuated by Governor Hutchinson in a note to his valuable history, may have arisen from the fact that, before Mr. Johnson came to America, he made a will, requesting to be buried in the church-yard in Boston in old England; and it is reasonable to suppose that in this expression the story had its origin. But, be this as it may, and it is pleasant to believe such a relation, it is certain that the first known burial in Boston took place some months later. The occurrence is thus mentioned by Governor Winthrop, under date of the eighteenth of February, 1630: - " Capt. Welden, a hopeful younge gent, & an experi- enced soldier, dyed at Charlestowne of a consumption, and was buryed at Boston wth a military funeral." The death of this young man occurred two days previous, on the sixteenth, and, we are told by Governor Dudley, in his instructive letter to the Countess of Lincoln, that he " was buryed as a souldier with three volleys of shott." Here, then, are two important writers, who record the death and burial of Captain Robert Welden; and no one records the burial of Mr. Johnson, who was the most important man of the colony, with the excep-
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
tion, perhaps, of John Winthrop, the Governor. As there is no evidence of any kind that Mr. Johnson had land in Boston, either by grant or purchase, and as his heirs made no conveyance of land on the peninsula, he could not have been buried in his own lot, though he may have been brought over to the place selected by his associates for future settlement, before the removal of the colonists from Charlestown. One other fact may have given some slight degree of credibility to the tradition of Mr. Johnson's interment in the old burying- place near the present King's Chapel, namely, that not long ago, when the old brick wall of the cemetery was standing, a gravestone, which was said to be that of Mr. Johnson, was to be seen at the southeast corner of the yard, partly imbedded in the wall. This was noth- ing but a thin slate stone, such as was used much later in the order of time - the older ones being of a por- phyritic greenstone- and, besides being in the most modern part of the yard, would not have been the kind that would have been selected to mark the last earthly resting-place of the most valued man among the first settlers-"the idol of the people." Although it is un- pleasant to throw doubt upon a tradition so harmless as the one alluded to, it would not be unreasonable to infer that Mr. Johnson, if not buried in Charlestown, was carried to Salem; for it would be much more in accord- ance with his kind and affectionate nature for him to have required his body to be deposited near his beloved wife, the Lady Arbella, - whose death had occurred only a month previous, while the colonists were at Salem, where she is said by good authority to have been buried, - than to be carried to a place as yet un- settled.
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In form, the King's Chapel Burial-Ground, as the old burying-ground is row called, is almost square, and is situated very nearly in the centre of the peninsula. It is bounded on the west by Tremont street, which it fronts; by the building of the Massachusetts Historical Society on the north; and by the lot on which the City Hall stands, on the east; and it is separated from School street on the south by King's Chapel. Its principal entrance is from Tremont street, through an iron gate- way; although in School street, at the southeasterly cor- ner, near the City Hall lot, there is a gate which is chiefly used as an approach to the twenty-one vaults beneath the chapel. Exclusive of these there are, in- cluding the charnel house, about seventy-nine tombs within the yard, making about one hundred connected with the cemetery. Twenty-two of these border upon Tremont street, twenty-four on the easterly edge of the yard near the City Hall lot, and thirty-two with the char- nel house are in the middle of the ground. The tombs on the Tremont street side were built in the year 1738, at the same time the old brick wall was erected, which so many persons can remember; those on the easterly side being of a little earlier date (before 1715); while those in the area are the most ancient. The earliest fence of which we have any knowledge, which preceded the brick wall nearly a century, may have been the first that was erected to protect the spot. It had its origin in consequence of the following order, passed 1612 : "It is ordered, that the constables shall, with all convenient speed, take care for fencing in the burying place." The old brick wall of 1738 remained standing until the year 1830, when it was removed, and a fine hammered granite stone wall erected in its place by Mr. Daniel Copeland,
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Jr., in accordance with plans furnished by Isaiah Rogers, a well-known architect of that time. In 1854, the Quincy granite wall was removed, and the present neat iron fence put up in its stead by Smith, Lovett & Co., in both cases the expense being chiefly defrayed by money obtained by subscription.
The old fathers of the town were so prudent in their affairs that they undoubtedly received an income from the land other than that derived from the uses to which it was intended to be put; for, on the thirtieth of No- vember, 1657, the ground was let to Capt. Savage for a period of twenty years, he promising to preserve the fence. This lease was terminated on the twentieth of August, 1660, by a vote, that the old burying-place should not be broken up without leave, and by another vote, passed on the fifth of November following, that it should be deserted for a convenient season, and the new places appointed for burying made use of.
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