USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1862-1866 > Part 59
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The Directors of the Library should now, at once, de- vise and strictly adhere to a sound, rigorous, and well- considered system of accumulation. We should aim to make it as perfect as possible in such departments as are most desirable and most within our reach, rather than waste its resources by gathering together a few works on each of a large variety of subjects, attaining to fullness and completeness in none. A few of these may be spe- cially indicated as being comparatively easy of attain-
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ment, and meeting the special and peculiar wants of a community like ours.
The Green Library should be the place of deposit of all materials for local, municipal, and family history. Manuscripts, pamphlets, family records, the cheap and worthless rubbish of the passing time, should be anxiously sought and carefully hoarded to become inestimable trea- sures hereafter. All accounts of the inception and pro- gress of our leading branches of mechanical industry and of the inventions in which they have taken their rise, for example the wire manufacture, the manufacture of agri- cultural implements, the card manufacture, the various improvements in spinning machinery and looms, all of which have originated in this immediate neighborhood, and yet claim to-day a more than national importance and value, should be preserved and deposited here. Com- plete catalogues and complete materials for the study of the natural history of this region, its minerals, fauna, flora, should be gathered here. The ephemeral publica- tions of the day, such as the newspapers and magazines, and the lighter current literature in the form of books, after serving their immediate purpose in the other depart- ments, should be preserved here to furnish for future generations, a mirror of the social and intellectual life of our day, and the materials for the historian and anti- quary.
Then the historical department should be so tho- roughly furnished that the student may go behind the historian to his authorities. Beginning with such sub- jects as are of especial value to the American, such, for example, as the rise and growth of Puritanism, - the history of the various confederacies which have from time to time made their appearance, - the story of the great self-governing manufacturing cities of the middle
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ages ;-- the endeavor of the custodian of the library should be to make our collections so ample and.complete, that all that is known among men pertaining to those topics may be here found. To accomplish this, the library must, in some mode, call into its service students who will inform themselves of its needs in this particular, who will examine the most learned works in such departments of knowledge as have been alluded to; such works as Hallam or Sismondi or Buckle, for the purpose of pre- paring lists of the original authors and documents on which those writers have depended.
Then, too, those departments of science which connect themselves with the special industrial avocations of our people should receive a like attention, so that the me- chanic or inventor may be able to learn so far as books can teach him, every thing that is known among man- kind, every accomplishment and every failure, which will throw light upon his path. If the uninstructed genius of our mechanics and inventors has done so much, surely the same genius instructed by every thing that the ex- perience of other countries and former times can teach it, can accomplish ten-fold more. These are illustrations merely, which may be multiplied and extended with the increasing resources at our command.
We should also aim to have a collection as good as pos- sible of such catalogues, bibliographical works, &c., as will shew where the sources of knowledge are in those de- partments in which we do not as yet hope to make our own collections perfect.
Only in a library founded on this plan is exactness and thoroughness of knowledge possible. And who can over-state the value of an opportunity for such an attain- ment. A young man at the forming period of his life, has his curiosity excited by some disputed or doubtful
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question in history, or his enthusiasm kindled by reading of some great deed or noble life. He comes to the library, determined to settle the truth for himself, to know all there is to be known on that subject. His ardor is damped after a little study, by the want of some necessary book. He gives up the effort in disappoint- ment. "See," says a great New England scholar, "how this inadequate supply operates. An American mind kindles with a subject; it enters on an investigation with a spirit and an ability worthy of the most splendid achievement, goes a little way, finds that a dozen books, one book perhaps, is indispensable, which cannot be found this side of Gottengen or Oxford; it tires of the pursuit, or abandons it altogether, or substitutes some shallow conjecture for deep and accurate research, and there an end."
But let us reverse the case supposed by the author whose language we have quoted. Instead of the golden moment lost, the pursuit abandoned, or "some shallow conjecture substituted for deep and accurate research," suppose such an investigation once completed, the diffi- culty mastered, the actively excited faculties gratified with the delights which come only of a perfect knowl- edge of truth, will not, from that time forth, the mind so stimulated and rewarded refuse to content itself with what is shallow and superficial ? The character of the man's life will be determined by such an experience. He will ever afterwards be found seeking for that thor- ough and exhaustive knowledge which will make him an authority to his fellows.
It is precisely this habit of conscientious, rigorous, thoroughness of study which the leaders and teachers of a democratic community most need. The self-governing citizen dealing with great questions under the excite-
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ment of partizan or sectarian passions, is apt to content himself with one-sided, narrow, heated judgments, which the study of books, the quiet of great libraries, converse with the past, serve to temper and chasten.
We present this institution then, to the City Council, asking that you will continue to it the full confidence and generous support which it has thus far received at your hands. , The objects. of the other departments under your care must be, to a large extent, material, temporary, and perish with the using ; what you expend here is for things permanent and imperishable, minister- ing, like the church and the school, to the only true wealth of the city :- the character of its citizens. But even if the library possessed no other claim than the obligation of public faith pledged by the acceptance of the noble gift of its founder, it would be enough. The city of Worcester will fulfil such a contract with no strict or narrow construction, in no spirit of bargain or barter, but would rather seek to emulate the temper of that Athen- ian people, who when they had contracted with the Am- phictyonic council to rebuild the temple of Apollo at Delphi, Herodotus proudly tells us, “ being rich and of a noble spirit, they preferred to build it better than the model, and of Parian marble, rather than of a cheaper stone."
We have earnestly urged these considerations upon the City Council, not because we doubt your full com- prehension of the importance of the library, or your readiness to continue the interest which you have so abundantly shown hitherto, but because these official communications may through you reach the citizens whose trusted and chosen servants you are.
The constitution of the Commonwealth declares that " a frequent recurrence to its fundamental principles is ab-
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solutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free government." Among those fun- damental principles it particularly sets forth that " wis- dom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these de- pend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it should be the duty of legislators and magistrates to cherish the interests of literature und the sciences, and to encourage private so- cieties and public institutions for the promotion of arts, sciences, and a natural history of the country." We have therefore felt it a duty, even at the risk of repeti- tion of familiar and accepted truths, to urge upon the public mind the claims and the dignity of this, which, next to the schools, and to those who have passed from our seminaries of education, is the most important pub- lie institution of learning.
For the Directors of the Free Public Library,
GEO. F. HOAR, President.
REPORT -OF THE- Commissioners of Hope Cemetery, For the Year 1866.
To His Honor the Mayor, the Aldermen,
and the Common Council of the City of Worcester :
THE Commissioners of Hope Cemetery, in this their thirteenth Report to the City Council, beg leave to pre- sent the assurance of their heedful regard to the faithful discharge of their trust, during the past year. The grounds, avenues, and pathways of the Cemetery lot were seasonably cleaned and repaired, from the usual de- posits and wasting effects of the winter frosts, and storms of the early spring, and have been kept, through the residue of the seasons, in a perfectly clean and neat con- dition. The progress of general improvement has been constantly carried forward, and nothing which has been required for convenience in the occupancy of the grounds, or for satisfactory resort to them, by the stricken mourn- er, or the more casual visitor, has been neglected. Nu- merous individual proprietors have appropriately and tastefully ornamented their private lots by massive and highly wrought stone curbing, in many instances sur- mounted by iron paling ; and by monuments and me- morial structures of enduring grace and value. Each new interment adds to the hallowed interest of this con- secrated place, and every fresh testimonial of affection to the memory of the dead, quickens the pulsations of the living heart.
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In the course of the past season, the Commissioners have caused to be cleared of the growth of wood, towards its preparation for sale and use, a greater extent of sur- face than has been usual in previous years. An area sufficient for three hundred lots, embracing the entire un- occupied space within Glen, Walnut, and Chestnut Ave- nues, has been subdued from its wilderness state, the stumps and rubbish removed, and the ground now needs only to be graded previous to its allotment. The aspect of this locality is one of the most striking and attractive spots in the cemetery, and so singularly uniform and beautiful as to present little preference in its different parts. At the usual rate of requirement, it will probably supply the demand for purchase, for several years.
By an arrangement between the City Government and the directors of the Boston and Worcester Rail Road Corporation, permission was granted to the latter, upon certain conditions and with specified restrictions and limit- ations, to cause to be removed from the Pine Street Burial Grounds the remains of persons who had been in- terred there, and the Commissioners were called upon to furnish suitable ground for the satisfactory re-interment of these remains, in Hope Cemetery. The subject was one of much delicacy, deeply enlisting the feelings of the families and friends of the departed. Entirely aside from the interest of the city and the Rail Road Corpora- tion, which seemed urgently to require the removal, was the paramount consideration, that population and busi- ness had already exposed this burial place to every species of offensive intrusion, and the constantly increasing pres- sure of settlement, in the immediate neighborhood, set at defiance all measures of seclusion or protection. By the most considerate and judicious management on the part of the Rail Road Corporation, through the agency
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of the Hon. D. Waldo Lincoln, one of the directors, in giving public notice to all who might be interested, in a tender regard to the feelings of friends, in consultations upon the time and manner of removal, in the selection of the place for re-interment, and in the most liberal pro- vision for all expense, the entire work of the transfer of the remains of six hundred and twenty-five bodies has been quietly and fitly accomplished, with no attending circum- stance to wound the sympathies of the most sensitive, or cause complaint from the lips of the most querulous. In a lovely and sheltered vale, in the bosom of Hope Ceme- tery, gathered in ninety-three lots, as it were in family association, now repose the greater part of these formerly mute tenants of the Pine Street burial place, never again to be disturbed, it may be hoped, until time and earth shall be no more. The lots are in direct contiguity to each other, at the intersection of Larch and Sycamore avenues, are distinguished and designated by boundaries and numbers, and have been conveyed by deeds to the representatives of the respective families. In instances where the remains were originally interred without head stone, or inscription of name upon the coffin, or mark of any kind but the raised mound of earth over the grave, and by no inquiry or care could be identified, the ashes were gathered into new receptacles and deposited in the free burial ground of the Cemetery. Here also, a num- ber marks the place of each, with a corresponding record on the map of the grounds. Some were buried, at the request of friends, in the Rural Cemetery of this city, while a few were borne elsewhere, and to distant places, for sepulture. The Rail Road Corporation, by agree- ment with the Commissioners, have paid into the City Treasury, to the credit of the Cemetery, the sum of nine hundred and seventy-two dollars, in consideration of the
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land occupied by these removals. The whole transaction has been conducted with a thoughtfulness and propriety becoming its serious character, of which the large family of graves, appropriately grouped together in their new locality, will be the perpetual memento, and the most in- teresting and impressive spot in our beautiful cemetery.
A communication from Mr. Sessions, city undertaker, made at the request of the Commissioners, showing the number, and names as far as they could be obtained, of all those whose remains have been removed from the Pine Street burial grounds, and the disposition made of them, noting the places of re-interment, where under his direction, and the delivery of others, upon the applica- tion, and to the disposal of friends, is transmitted with this Report, and the Commissioner's advise, that it should be entered, at large, upon the records of the city, for future reference, and as perpetual evidence to satisfy the minds of any who may hereafter be interested to make inquiries on the subject .*
The Commissioners, in their last annual report, ex- pressed the intention, should the price of labor and mate- rials justify the undertaking, of entering upon the con- struction of a "tasteful and enduring fence, with a spacious entrance and gateway along the front line of the cemetery, on Webster street." To this end, early in the season they engaged Mr. Earle, an architect of ap- proved reputation, to furnish a plan of a suitable gate- way, and thereafter entered into contracts for the stone and iron work of the structure. Owing to the severe and protracted sickness of one of the contractors, and to other causes wholly beyond the control of the Commis-
*Said communication is recorded at length in the Journal of the Mayor and Aldermen, vol. 4, pages 223, 224, 225, and 226.
SAMUEL SMITH, City Clerk.
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sioners, the work remains in an incomplete and unsatis- factory condition, and will engage their early attention the present season. It may be found expedient upon further observation, to change somewhat the plan of con- struction. The erection of the fence will be prosecuted with as little delay as possible.
A hedge of arbor vitæ was planted out at the proper season, within the enclosure along the front line of the cemetery, alike for protection and ornament.
There have been sold to private purchasers in the course of the year, sixty-seven lots, for which was re- ceived in payment the sum of twelve hundred and eighty nine dollars. Added to this is the amount received from the Boston and Worcester Rail Road Corporation before stated, of nine hundred and seventy-two dollars, on ac- count of re-interments from the Pine street burial ground, giving an aggregate sum of two thousand, two hundred and sixty-one dollars for the sales of land the past year, all of which has been duly paid into the City Treasury.
There has been drawn from the Treasury by the Com- missioners, at different times, and in various sums, and by payments made by the Treasurer on account of the cemetery, fifteen hundred and nineteen dollars and seven- ty-five cents. At the commencement of the year there remained in their hands, a balance of the account of the preceding year of fifty-five dollars and nine cents, and during the year they received eighty-five dollars and seventy-one cents, the proceeds of the sales of wood and grass taken from the grounds, thus showing a total of sixteen hundred and sixty dollars and fifty-five cents with which the Commissioners are chargeable, in the accounts of the year. Against this debit, they claim a credit for expenditures in payments for labor upon the grounds in their general care and improvement, six hundred and
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ninety-seven dollars and eighty cents ; for surveying, thirty-eight dollars and seventy-five cents ; for trees plant- ed in the hedge fifty dollars ; for payment to Mr. Albert G. Mann, on account of stone work at the gate-way, eight hundred and forty dollars ; and for revenue stamps for deeds, charged by the Treasurer, thirty-four dollars ; making an aggregate of sixteen hundred and sixty dol- lars and fifty-five cents, and thus balancing the account of receipts and outlays by the Commissioners, for the year. A more precise statement in detail of the receipts and expenditures accompanies this Report, which the Commissioners beg leave to make part thereof. .
The account current of the Cemetery with the City Treasury now stands :
Cash in the Treasury to the credit of the Ceme- tery, balance of the account of the preceding year, Jan. 1, 1866, $2,584 54 Paid into the Treasury for land sold during the year, 2,261
-$4,845 54
PER CONTRA.
Amount received from the Treasury for the use of
the Cemetery, during the year, as before stated, $1,519 75 Balance in the Treasury to the credit of the Ceme- tery, to be carried to a new account, 3,325 79
-$4,845 54
In the judgment of the Commissioners, it will be necessary, the present year, to grade and survey into lots and prepare for selection and sale, the area of land which was cleared of trees and grubbed over, the last season. The surface of the earth here is quite uneven, and will require considerable labor to construct the avenues, and reduce the grade to a convenient level for occupation. The lots are to be laid out and defined by marked bound- aries, and their limitations and numbers transferred to the general plan of the cemetery. For this expense, and the gradual progressive improvement of the grounds, with the ordinary requirement of care and labor in keep-
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ing the place, with its great extent of avenues and path- ways, at all times, in neat and creditable condition, in the opinion. of the Commissioners, an appropriation of five hundred dollars will be necessary; and they res- pectfully recommend, that for completing the entrance and gate-way, and constructing the fence on Webster street, the City Government renew the order of the last year, placing at the disposal of the Commissioners the balance which may remain of the Cemetery fund, after deducting said appropriation.
For and in behalf of the Commissioners,
LEVI LINCOLN, Chairman.
City of Worcester, January 25, 1867.
REPORT
-OF THE-
Commissioners on Shade Trees,
AND PUBLIC GROUNDS, 1 For the Year 1866.
To His Honor, the Mayor, and the City Council of the City of Worcester :
Pursuant to the injunctions of the Statute by virtue of which they hold their appointment, the Commission- ers on Shade Trees and Public Grounds present their annual report for the year ending Dec. 31, 1866.
Four years have now passed away since the City Coun- cil committed into the hands of this Commission "the sole care, superintendence and management of the pub- lic grounds," and of the shade and ornamental trees, be- longing to the city. Should it seem difficult, at a first hasty glance, to discover what has been accomplished during this period, it ought at the same time to be borne in mind that no large appropriations have been made for the use of the Commissioners. Should it be ascertained, however, from closer investigation, that the commission has been faithfully administered, in so far as the limited means at its disposal have permitted, there will be little further occasion to refer to the past. Looking to the fu- ture and not losing sight of the proportions which the debt of the city has already attained, if any tax-payer
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feels aggrieved because the public money may have been too sparingly applied to mere decorative purposes, the way for remonstrance to obtain a respectful hearing lies always broadly open.
The appropriations made for this Commission since its first organization, and its receipts from all other sources, are exhibited in the following table :
YEAR.
APPROPRIATION.
RECEIPTS.
TOTAL.
1863,
$500 00,
$205 00,
$705 00.
1864,
300 00,
65 75,
365 75.
1865,
1300 00,
304 38,
1604 38.
1866,
500 00,
311 50,
811 50.
$2,600 00
$886 63
$3,486 63
During these years (1863-1866) the more important expenditures of the commissioners have been for raising the swampy portions of the New Common, for fencing the burying grounds on Pine and Mechanic streets, and for setting, pruning and protecting ornamental trees. The receipts other than the appaopriations have been mostly for grass sold from the New Common.
The resources and expenditures of the Commissioners for the year 1866 will be appropriately shown in this place.
RESOURCES.
Balance undrawn, -
-
$458 70
Appropriation,
500 00
Cash received of Highway Commissioner, for grass,
300 00
David S. Messinger,
11 50
$1270 20
EXPENDITURES.
Cash expended on New Common, viz :
Paid Highway Commissioner, labor and materials, $100 38
" J. Rogers and J. Millet, re-setting fence, 59 00
" ¿ expense on fence against land of Levi Lincoln,
8 84
Cash expended on Mechanic St. Cemetery, viz : Paid for stones, and labor on wall,
66 board fence, 166 99
440 80
Cash expended on Pine St. Cemetery, viz :
Paid Geo. Sessions, stakes, and staking out lots,
59 75
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Cash paid .J. Simonds, pruning trees,
103 34
66 guarding, or casing trees, 99 74
6
J. D. Baldwin & Co., for advertising, 7 50
2 50
Kinnicutt & Co., for scythe and snath,
221 36
Balance undrawn at close of 1866,
$1270 20
To the aggregate of expenditures on the Mechanic street Cemetery properly belongs the cost of painting the board fence, an item of $85 00, which will appear in next year's account, making the actual expenses for 1866 on the walls and fences of this burying ground but a trifle less than $700 00. One further improvement is needed, in order that this consecrated spot where our fathers sleep may be the more easily kept in a condition such as, at least, will not be discreditable to our people as a christian community. What is proposed is to re- store to their upright position the sloping or fallen grave- stones, and to level the whole surface of the ground smooth as a mowing-field ; then, by a sufficiently fre- quent use of the scythe to keep down the unsightly bushes and tangled grass which have been so long per- mitted to overgrow this ancient place of burial. Whether it may be practicable at some future day, to remove the dead from a situation so unsuitable for its present solemn use, and so greatly coveted by the feverish activity sur- rounding it; or whether that which was done with the cemetery on the Old Common could be successfully at- tempted here, are questions to be alluded to rather than formally discussed within the limits to which this report inust be restricted. In view of any contingency, it is a present gratification to the Commissioners to feel that the appearance of this cemetery, as compared with what it has been for many years, is now greatly improved.
The Pine street, or East Worcester Cemetery, since it was enclosed last year by a tight board fence, has been
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protected from desecration. But respect for the mortal remains which lie mouldering there seems to arise from enforced exclusion, and not from any improved public sentiment. Your Commissioners, therefore, cannot re- frain from congratulating their fellow citizens that no further interments are to be allowed in that ill-located graveyard, that the bodies not already taken up are to be speedily removed therefrom, and that then, the rest- less waves of noisy life now surging up on every side, against its feeble barriers, will be suffered to rush in and blot it out forever. Meanwhile, let us try to believe that it is from an increase of population rather than from a decreasing sentiment of reverence, that the sanctity of the peaceful grave is no longer secure in a locality which, less than forty years ago, was so retired from the busy haunts of the living as to be purchased as an appropri- ate home for the dead.
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