USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1867-1870 > Part 52
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troy the beauty or endanger the health of the subjects operated upon.
A considerable number of new guards, or casings, have been put around trees specially needing protection. Others of these casings have been repaired ; and others still have been transferred-from places where dead trees cannot be replaced, on account of the ground's be- ing impregnated with gas-to situations where tree- guards would be serviceable. The details of these ope- · rations are not necessary to be set forth in a document like this. Much else also in regard to the planting, the pruning, &c., &c., of shade trees would, if repeated here, be, for the most part, a quotation from former reports.
The burying ground on Mechanic street and that on Pine court, although no longer opening their sombre portals for the reception of the dead, are unhappily far from being secure against the irreverent intrusions of the living. Every year these now closed places of sepul- ture become more difficult to protect; and it is to be feared-as has been repeatedly represented formerly- that the time is not very remote when the special sur- veillance of the police will be required, day and night, in order that the last resting places of those who slum- ber there may be defended from every species of desecra- tion. Itisespecially for this reason that the commissioners renew their recommendation, as often heretofore inade. in regard to the more modern of these two cemeteries. To the inquiry sometimes propounded, why " the rests of humanity " mouldering in the Mechanic street graves may not be removed also, with a view to the conversion of the grounds to secular uses, a ready answer may be found in the formidable opposition that would arise from the tenure by which the lots are held, from the reveren- tial feelings of some, and the obstinacy of others, whose
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relatives lie buried there, and, generally, from the popu lar prejudices and superstitions of the age in which we live. For some further details respecting these disused burial places the Commissionners beg leave to refer to their former published reports.
The tract of land comprising about twenty-seven acrer between Highland and Elm streets, purchased by the city in 1854, and known as the New Common, or prefer- ably as Elm Park, has afforded during the year its usual accommodations for ball-playing clubs, circuses, caravans, military parades, &c. It is the unanimous opinion of the Commissioners that, as soon as a connection can be ef- fected with the public sewers, these grounds ought to be thoroughly underdrained. This once accomplished, it would be a comparatively inexpensive work to make the excavations for an artificial sheet of water, which would serve as an attractive ornament of the park in summer, and as a convenient open-air skating rink in winter. Such a little lake, enlivened by a jet-fountain, and ac- cessible by a tasteful arrangement of walks converging to it from the adjacent boundary streets, is just what is needed as the ground work of a series of improvements, which, if judiciously managed, would, without any heavy outlay of money, make these grounds, in the course of a few years, very creditable to the city.
As the population of the city becomes more numerous and dense, the occupation of the little central park -- to which the name of " Old Common " obstinately adheres- must be more restricted than it has been hitherto. Car- pet-cleaning, ball-playing and cannon-firing within its limits have been already discontinued ; and, if the popu- lar will may be interpreted by the vexatious experience of the Commissioners last spring and summer, these grounds ought no longer to be open except for military
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tourposes, popular gatherings, open-air concerts, and for such persons as may desire to walk quietly in the paths, or to sit beneath the shade where seats for their accom- modation have been provided. No refreshment stands at all are needed, surely, in so small an enclosure as this ; and the velocipede rink, tent exhibitions, swings, air-guns, and other attractions for idlers, that were permitted here last season, were not so favorably countenanced by the better portion of the community, as to encourage the Commissioners to re-open this little domain for any such uses. That the city charter confers upon this Commission ample authority over these grounds to this extent, there can be no question whatever.
It may not be uninteresting to turn back for a moment to the history of this little remnant of " the common and undivided land," so often referred to in the records of the first settlers of Worcester ; since, down to the pur- chase of Elm Park, sixteen years ago, this small open space had, to the extent of its capacity, served the town and city for military parades, out-door assemblages, and all the other uses for which parks may be desirable or necessary.
The earliest traces of any description of the Old Com- mon appear in the " Record of the Votes and Agreements of the Committee appointed and authorized by the Gen- eral Court for managing and ordering a new plantation, &c., &c., called Worcester,-concluded at a meeting of the Committee in Cambridge, July 6, 1669." It was then and there-in the quaint phraseology of the times- " Ordered and agreed that there be a place reserved in 'comon nearre the centere of the town, convenient for that purpose, about twenty acceres for a trayning field and to set a scoole house upon, as nearre as may bee where the meeting house shall be placed."
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Five years subsequently, a first attempt at settlement was made ; but the few log huts then built were aban- doned in the following year, and soon afterwards-Dec. 2, 1675-they were all burned down by the Indians. Resettled in 1684, the little hamlet, after about eighteen years of a sort of armed occupation, was again abandoned through fear of the neighboring savages. Late in the year 1713, the settlement that finally proved to be per- manent was commenced ; but no further record of " ye trayning field " has been discovered, until May, 1732, or about ten years after Worcester had been vested with the powers and privileges of a regularly organized town. At that time, a committee was duly appointed " to return a plat of the common land by the meeting house." . The committee having performed the duty assigned to them, reported " that having surveyed the same they find eleven acres and one hundred and forty rods" there, or nearly twelve acres. From a plan of this survey, preserved among the early records of the town, it appears that on Main street the common then had a frontage which,- with the exception of Moses Rice's half-acre lot in the southeast angle of Main and Mechanic street,-extended from near Park street to a corner about opposite to the north line of Elm street ; thence in a right line, easterly and by other public lands, to a corner that must be within the limits of the Foster street depot. From the last named corner the line extended nearly due south,-alto- gether or in great part by land that had been reserved forever for the maintenance of a school and the support of a school master,-a distance of forty-four and one- half rods in a straight course to a corner, in the present park, about four or five rods north of the Bigelow mon- ument ; thence easterly about to the point where the Salem square intersects with Front street ; thence south-
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ly by the east line of Salem square,-very close to, if not a little under, some of the buildings fronting there- on,-as far as to, or a little beyond, the southerly line of Park street; thence, back to Main street pretty nearly by the general course of the southerly line of Park street, which was then only a loosely defined drive-way leading across the grounds to the meeting house. Such, substantially, were the form and dimensions of the Wor- cester Common one hundred and thirty-eight years ago. To retrace the old lines, however, with any degree of accuracy would now be impossible. The original bounds have long ago been obliterated, and the little old " plat " of the premises above referred to, owing to the defec- tive instruments and careless practices of the surveyors + in those days, is no longer valuable except as a curi- osity .*
And now, after the lapse of two centuries from its first reservation, all that remains of the twenty acres originally set apart for "a trayning field and scoole house," is the little enclosure of about eight acres which, with a commendable ambition to dignify its importance, our citizens designate as " the Central Park." Even this is no fruit from intentional sowing; for to the austere forefathers of the city, a common, for a pleasure-ground, would have been an unmitigated abomination. But the meeting house, the school, and the training field were three institutions composing almost the entire founda- tions of the social structure, wherever a settlement was attempted by the Puritans. It is easy, notwithstanding,
* NOTE .- Among the sources of inaccuracy to which allusion is made, were the superstitious reliance placed in old times on " the points of compass."-the conscientious " allowance made for swag of chain," whereby measurement over hills became little better than guess-work,- the inaccurate condition in which the chains were always liable to be, and the careless and rough way in which they were used .- the mode of marking a boundary by " stake and stones," of which the former was thrown out of ground and the latter displaced by the frost of every year, &c., &c.
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to imagine how their " building in the manner of a town" might have been ordered after some different fashion. Had, for instance, their trust in Providence been so all- absorbing as to have swallowed up their hereditary faith in the musket, there would have been no parade ground reserved. Likewise, if they could have foreseen that the training field of their solemn militia would, in a few gen- erations, degenerate into an ornamental enclosure, where divers and sundry temporal vanities would be not only tolerated but encouraged, they would have held their military reviews in the heart of winter, and drilled their soldiers on the frozen surface of their mill-ponds, rather than left open and common the land within which lies our present beautiful central park ! Let us be grateful to them for what they-never meant we should enjoy !
That what remains of this common, thus early made public by the original proprietors of the township of Worcester, is now the property of the city in its corpor- ate capacity, and that, as such property,-at the option of a majority of the voters and with the sanction of the state legislature,-it can be sold, if desirable, for the purchase of other public grounds, or perhaps for any other good purpose, is a proposition not needing to be defended here, since its denial will hardly be attempted elsewhere. . Nevertheless, in this connection, and in advance of any possible contingency, the Commissioners unanimously de- sire to place on record their earnest remonstrance against the disposal of another square foot of this park, hal- lowed as it is by associations that ought to preserve it inviolate forever ! Here, beneath a grove of trees, in their concealed graves, the stern and hardy forefathers of the city sleep. From this little " field of Mars " these sturdy pioneers used to rush forth in arms against the red-skinned fiends that prowled around the infant settle-
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ments. Within these grounds, near the chaste monu- ment to his memory, Col. (then Capt.) Bigelow drew up his " minute-men," a few moments before they tore them- selves away to join the fearful struggle against British oppression. To the excited people assembled on this spot, July 14, 1776, Isaiah Thomas, from the porch of the now venerable meeting house, read the immortal declaration of independence. Here gallant defenders of the country in the war of 1812 encamped, on their toil- some march to the Canadian frontier. And here were left the last foot prints on New England soil of many. a brave soldier, who perished in the late war against the slaveholder's rebellion. Let this enclosed remnant of the old training field then be preserved entire ; let it be made more beautiful, and let it be cherished and honored al- most as consecrated ground forever.
In regard to such parks and pleasure-grounds as may be hereafter needed, as in regard also to the duty or ex- pediency of providing at all in this respect for posterity, various opinions prevail. Surrounded on every side as the city is by the open country, the several avenues into which are always available for riding or driving, it will be very remote in the future, when a necessity shall be , felt for public grounds of an area approaching that of the great Central Park of New York. Hence it might seem that if the city were in possession of three or four additional small parks about the size of that on Elm street, or a little larger, nothing further of this kind would remain to be desired in order to meet the wants of the coming century.
In a prosy document like this, were it allowable for a moment to turn aside from sober reality into the dreamy realm of the imagination, nothing would be less diffi- cult than to devise an arrangement of pleasure-grounds
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that would contribute most essentially toward making this " heart of the commonwealth " one of the most beau- tiful of American cities.
Suppose the old common cleared of the railway tracks and the three buildings now despoiling it of so much of its beauty, then the grounds enclosed with a neat and substantial iron fence, then a graceful jet-fountain play- ing with the sunbeams somewhere near where the prin- cipal paths converge, then the paths themselves, the flower beds and flowering shrubbery that ought to be there, the trees and the grass plots all constantly kept in such tidy and orderly condition as befits the place. This is picture number one.
Next, let improvements of the same general charac- ter be introduced into Elm Park, with the addition, as already proposed, of a sheet of water, which enlivened also by a jet-fountain, should serve as a central point or leading feature, to which all the groupings of trees and all the ramifications of paths should be made to conform. This is picture number two.
Once, more, imagine there were at least three other parks of the size of that just named, or a little more ex- tensive, one of them situated northerly from the court houses, another easterly from Washington Square, and a third not a great way from the broad avenue leading to Webster Square.
These several breathing places-lungs of the city- the remotest not a mile and a half from the Bay State House, and the whole of them containing hardly more than one hundred and fifty acres, would afford abundant park accommodations to meet any probable requirements for which the forethought or ability of the present gen- eration could provide. Of the densely populated por- tions of the city every district would have in this way
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its own conveniently accessible pleasure-grounds. These, with their walks gracefully winding under the rustling shade, and through carpets of living verdure, with their healthful breezes and the melody of feathered songsters, would supply nearly all the gratification attainable from improvements such as are under consideration ; improve- ments more needed in monarchical countries perhaps than here, where the feverish activity of a free people is sharply antagonistic to the sweet do-nothingism that delights in parks and pleasure-grounds.
Thus, as has just been sketched, to women and chil- dren, to the aged and invalid, to the pleasure-seeking tourist, to the traveler waiting for his train, and the do- mestic Micawber "waiting for something to turn up," the city would furnish a taste of most of the enjoyments that are sought for in the Garden of the Tuileries. Be- yond this point it would be too ambitious even to dream, since, if the parks we have been imagining should be adorned with all the costly statuary, and all the floral, arboral, and architectural pomp and circumstance of that Parisian paradise, the absence of gay throngs of aristocratic idlers would still leave the scenery like " some banquet hall deserted." Let us rejoice rather than re- gret that, beneath our republican skies,-where the poorest often work their way to wealth, and the hum- blest climb to honorable distinction,-there is no con- genial home for the indolent and aimless life that luxuriates in the pleasure-grounds of the Old World.
But these bright pictures fade from the sight, as we soberly reflect that nothing of them can ever be rea- lized, except by the extremely rare generosity of some one, or more than one, wealthy benefactor ; or else by an increase of that formidable debt which, in so far as human prevision can discern, is to be a monument more
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enduring than bronze or marble, to perpetuate our mem- ory among succeeding generations. Generosity on any such liberal scale as is here implied, it would be ultra sanguine to hope for ; and surely, in view of the actual financial condition of the city, no influence from this Commission should favor an increase of that heavy bur- den of pecuniary obligation which weighs already against our prosperity.
In his inaugural address-1863-a popular mayor of the city remarked, in alluding to the Old Common, that " the New Common, objectionable as it is in some re- spects, is the only other park that the city has, or is ever like to have !" That the prediction involved in this assertion is destined to be fulfilled, reasonable men will hardly venture to doubt, however,-in their dreams- they may hope otherwise.
The account of the money received and paid by the Commission, during the period embraced in this report, is as follows :
RESOURCES.
1869, Jan. 1, Balance undrawn $537 13
Appropriation for 1869 1000 00
$1537 13
Total amount receved from Central Park $391 50
Total amount received from Elm Park 180 00
$571 50
$2108 63
EXPENDITURES.
Paid for pruning trees as follows :
C. H. Perry $4 25
G. S. Howe 7 00
O. B. Hadwen 147 25
Geo. Jaques 20 00
$178 50
John Simmons, labor and stock for tree casings, etc .; also for pruning-in all
339 96
W. W. Clapp, for trees 3 00
T. S. Bliss, carting. 54 97
Highway department, labor, etc.
164 90
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Geo. Sessions & Son, lock and repairs at Pine Court cemetery.
18 18
H. W. Miller, padlocks, Pine Court cemetery. 3 75
Doe & Woodwell, advertising 1 75
Lamson & Glazier, advertising and selling grass, in 1868.
13 00
1870, Jan 3, Balance undrawn
1330 62
Respectfully submitted,
$2108 63
in behalf of the Commissioners, GEORGE JAQUES, Chairman. Worcester, Jan. 31, 1870.
HOPE CEMETERY.
١
REPORT
OF THE
Commissioners of Hope Cemetery,
1869.
To His Honor, the Mayor, the Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of Worcester :
The Commissioners of Hope Cemetery, in compliance with their duty, present their sixteenth annual Report.
The work at the Cemetery in the year 1869 was prin- cipally in one locality, and the report of our operations may be brief. From the organization of the Board, the necessity of building a substantial fence in front of the grounds on Webster street, to replace the decaying avooden one, was apparent, and was one of the measures they intended to execute as soon as the land was paid for, and sufficient funds could be accumulated from the sale of lots.
The Commissioners in their Report for the year 1864 congratulated the City Council that in all probability the Cemetery will no longer be a burden to the city in the way of taxation." They asked for anappropriation of eight hundred dollars, for the ordinary expenses of keep- ing the roadways and paths in order, and also for the building of a fence on the South Line. Part of the ma- terial was procured, but the Superintendent, Mr. Curtis, found that line heavily wooded, and a part of it in wet
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and low land, and concluded best to delay the fencing, and the expenditures for the year were but four hun- dred and nineteen seventy-seven hundredths dollars ($419.77).
On the 1st of January, 1865, there was in the City Treasury, credited to the Cemetery, the sum of two thousand and eighty-six seventy-one hundreths dollars ($2086.71).
At the beginning of the year 1866, the funds had in- creased to two thousand five hundred and eighty-four fifty-four hundredths dollars ($2584.54), and there was in the hands of the Commissioners, fifty-five nine hun- dredths (55.09). The amount was sufficient to justify the commencement of " a tasteful and enduring fence," with a spacious entrance and gateway, along the front line of the Cemetery on Webster street.
A plan was furnished by Messrs. Earle & Fuller. A contract was made with Mr. A. G. Mann for the stone work for the gateway, and with Mr. H. C. Fish for the iron work, which contracts were executed in the spring of 1867. In the Autumn of 1868 another contract was made with Mr. Mann for continuing the stone work, but no part of it was executed in that year. Last year good progress was made with the work. The stone work along the whole line of Webster street has been erected by Mr. Mann, and the iron work by Messrs Curtis & Marble.
The fence is of wrought iron work, resting on a gran- ite curbing, with fine cut granite posts 15 inches in di- ameter and 6₺ feet high, with chamered corners and gabled caps, placed at intervals of twenty feet. The gates are also of wrought iron, hung to posts similar to the others, with the exception of being 20 inches in di- ameter and 9 feet high.
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The middle gateway is 12 feet wide, and the opening at each side 4 feet. Each gateway is properly furnished with granite sill, with the requisite iron shoes, and the gates fitted up with proper fastenings.
It gives your Commissioners great satisfaction to re- port that so expensive a part of contemplated improve- ments are so nearly completed, and that a comparatively small additional expenditure will give to the Cemetery " the tasteful and enduring fence," our late chairman, Gov. Lincoln, in his last report, expressed earnest desires to have erected.
There was paid on account of the fence
For stone work in the year 1866, 840.00
For iron work 66 330.00
1867,
For plans, 30.00
For stone work, to A. G. Mann in 1869, 3400 00
For iron work, to Curtis & Marble "
1429 31
For surveying, 58 75
Making cost of fence,
$6088 06
And the amount expended the last year on fence,
4888 06
And for trees, grading and the ordinary work on walks and paths, 295 89
Total for the year as will appear by the detailed statement annexed, $5187 93
Notwithstanding this large expenditure of inoney which exhausted the fund on hand at the beginning of the year and drew from current receipts the additional sum of $590.54, there is now in the treasury the sum of $879.46 to the credit of the Cemetery fund-showing a sound financial condition, and means with which to make other desirable improvements.
The grounds are extensive, and the nature of the soil and diversity of surface are such that large expenditures must be made to bring them into, and keep them in the
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highly cultivated condition which will correspond with the care and culture individual owners of lots expend, and the costly and elegant monuments they erect. The work must be done gradually, yet the expenditures should be liberal so that our citizens who pay for lots may know what they pay is expended in giving them increased value and fitness for the sacred purposes to which they are consecrated. Feeling these obligations, the Commis- sioners will endeavor to fulfil them. But knowing there must be in the future other expenditures, beside those to be made for the ordinary care and improvement of the Cemetery, we shall endeavor to save some portion of the yearly receipts to meet such demands.
In the coming year, portions of the land should be graded and its fertility increased, and the paths and ave- nues improved and their borders ornamented, and what remains to be done in connection with the entrance way and front fence, should be finished.
The Commissioners respectfully ask the attention of the City Council through their committee on highways and the street Commissioner, to the condition of Webster street, near to, and in front of the Cemetery, and trust such improvements will be made as their judgment will see to be necessary for public convenience, and to make it correspond with the more finished and beautiful front of the grounds.
The number of lots sold in the year 1868 was fifty- nine, which is very near the average number of each year since the grounds were consecrated. The amount received for them was $1440.00, being an average of $24.41 per lot. and $80.50 more than has been received for lots in any former year.
A small additional sum was also received for wood sold.
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The City Treasurer has continued for another year his acceptable services, by conveying the lots and taking care of the proceeds.
The Commissioners enter upon the duties of another year impressed with their importance. The beautiful Ru- ral Cemetery, rich and solemn, with its shrubs and flow- ers and rural embellishments, cannot be extended, and its unoccupied lots will meet the need for burial places · but little longer. We shall go there to meditate and to read the records of the termination of earthly exis- tence-sometimes to weep over the graves of those we have loved most.
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