USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1867-1870 > Part 74
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31,
Cambridge street,
145.
William Hoyle,
42,
Webster street,
157.
Uriah D. Rose, 28,
Cambridge street, 155.
Frank L. Jenks,
21,
Mill street, 147.
173.
Joseph Rose, 22.
Stafford street,
160.
J. Monroe Minotte, 20,
Main street,
165.
James L. Morse, 45,
Webster street,
168.
Oliver White, 23,
Lovell street,
160.
Alvah E. Hardy, 19,
Webster street,
143.
Geo. S. Gibson. 27
Tirrell street, 159.
John Jaques, 25,
Cambridge street,
149.
James Gill, 22,
Lake street,
138.
Chas. A. Moore, 31,
Tirrell street. 163.
Wm. F. Taylor, 30,
Stafford street, 140.
Geo. E. H. Roundy, 38,
Coes street. 151.
Robert Rose, 28.
Cambridge street.
171.
Lawrence Bradley, 36,
Main street,
-
OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
NIAGARA ENGINE COMPANY, NO. 3. A Hand Engine, built by Hunneman & Co., Roxbury, Mass. HOUSE AT QUINSIGAMOND.
Names.
Age.
Residence.
Foreman.
Edwin L. Gates,
36,
Quinsigamond Village.
1st Asst.
Geo. W. Shaw, 32
2d «
Geo. A. Munroe, 24,
Clerk,
Wm. K. Crosby,
29,
M. E. Hubbard. 29
Geo. W. Stebbins,
22, ..
Geo. H. Scott,
21,
John Doyle,
30,
..
Edward Smith,
20,
..
Alden B. Plympton 46,
William Mathews, 27,
. .
Thomas Henry,
30,
John Delaney,
30,
Peter Doyle, 26,
.
James Ahern, 22,
25.
Rufus K. Wardell,
3%,
Jeremiah Lavin,
40,
..
Patrick Sharky,
24,
66
James Flanigan,
27,
..
C. B. Brann,
20
Walter M. Swift,
28,
..
Mitchel Veizna,
48.
William Hyde,
34,
John Lavin,
28,
66
Andrew Smith,
36.
V. P. Townsend,
38,
66
R. D. Tatman,
36,
. .
D. H. Perry,
56,
L. Howard,
24,
6 .
Philip Carter,
22,
Joseph Eno,
22,
Octave Eno,
20,
. .
Fred. Lord,
24,
E. R. Kneeland,
28,
William Baber, 20.
Thomas Mellen,
28.
6 .
John Brown,
30,
6:
B. T. Osgood, 22.
..
Richard A. Hatton, 28.
4 .
Edmund Mathews, 48,
..
Michael Donnelly, 37,
66
·
3
66
Henry W. Kelley,
50,
William Preston, J. C. Mitchel,
21.
66
. .
. .
John M. Holton, 36,
17
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF
SHADE TREESAND PUBLIC GROUNDS
. OF THE
CITY OF WORCESTER,
1870.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS
OF
SHADE TREES AND PUBLIC GROUNDS.
To the Honorable City Council of the City of Worcester :
The Commissioners of Shade Trees and Public Grounds, in obedience to the requirements of Section 2Ist, of the Charter of the city, have the honor to submit the following REPORT of their "Acts and doings, of the condition of the Public Grounds "and Shade Trees thereon, and on said streets and highways, "and an account of receipts and expenditures for the same."
Balance, January 1, 1870, Appropriation,
$1,330 62
1,000 00
Received-hire of Elm Park,
150 00
66
Apples,
5 00
Grass, 66
150 00
Higgins & Weixler,
10 00
PAID-TREES AND SETTING.
Marcus D. Cronin,
3 00
James Draper,
20 00
O. B. Hadwen,
145 00
D. M. McIntire,
3 00
Charles Wood,
7 00
Wood & Bartlett,
15 00
PAID-BOXING AND PRUNING.
William T. Harris,
30 00
E. W. Lincoln, (paid out by,)
8 00
Ezra Maynard,
11 00
John Swinks & Son,
970 26
$2,645 62
$193 00
$1,019 26
4
REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF
PAID-MISCELLANEOUS.
Spy, 3.50; Gazette, 1.50, 5 00
E. R. Fiske, 4 50
Highways, Labor, Dirt, &c., 361 00
J. D. Lovell, (grass seed,)
1 58
G. T. Sutton, repairing pump, 8 75
Wm. F. Wheeler, Cemetery gate, 4 15
$384 48
1,596 74
Balance not drawn,
$1,048 88
$2,645 62
The amount of work done in [1870, as will be apparent from an examination of the vouchers for the above items of expenditure, was largely in excess of that executed in any former year. A careful and thorough personal examination of the condition of the SHADE TREES, within the jurisdiction of the Commission, made it evident that the task of their effectual protection must be prosecuted with energy and system. It was evident that the City Council felt disinclined to appropriate the sums necessary for laying-out and orna- menting the Common and Elm Park, even were those tracts of public land in a suitable state for improvement. Hence it became obvious that the policy of our predecessors, of planting trees and providing them with safe-guards only in cases of absolute necessity, in the hope of accumulating a fund in aid of municipal grants, must be summarily relinquished. A strict supervision was exercised, however, and it is believed that an equivalent has been rendered for every dollar that was spent. In this connection some details may be of interest :-
Of living trees removed (interfering with others, or ob- stacles to public passage,) there were Fifteen (15). The dead Trees cut away, in different portions of the City, at various times, and ranging in size from two (2) inches to two (2) feet in diameter, numbered One Hundred and Ninety- Three (193). Three Hundred and Seventy-Two (372) box guards were erected, and upwards of Four Hundred (400) old ones repaired and put in order. The Trees upon Elm Park, Agricultural, Lincoln, Garden, Catherine, Thomas,
5
SIIADE TREES AND PUBLIC GROUNDS.
Summer, Shrewsbury, and (partially) South Main Streets, as well as upon Oak and Harrington Avenues have been trimmed, generally to the satisfaction of the Commissioners. In a few instances complaint was made of rude and unskillful work by an employee of the Commission, whose life-long occu- pation seemed a sufficient guaranty of his competency. Time it is believed, will heal over and conceal such wounds, and the Commissioners, profiting by experience, will confine themselves, even more rigidly, to the approved results of prac- tice under their immediate direction. Upon several other streets, besides those enumerated, from two (2) to ten (10) trees were trimmed as necessity required.
One occasion for pruning the Shade Trees upon the streets, is too much over looked by those who deprecate all pruning whatever. The Public Lamps are very frequently so located that, except in Winter, their light is utterly obscured by the dense foliage that surrounds them. In many cases a trans- position of the lamp.posts has obviated all difficulty and, at the same time, proved of increased convenience to the neigh- borhood. But troubles of this sort will never cease, so long as street-lamps are deliberately eclipsed by their wanton loca- tion in unsuitable places, without previous consultation with the Commission, or in spite of its emphatic protest.
The planting of SHADE TREES along new streets is too much neglected by the projectors and builders of such streets. And yet, individual owners should do this, of their own vo- lition, prior to soliciting the acceptance of a street by the City Council. The man who cannot perceive his private interest in the matter should have his wits sharpened by a refusal of the public to grind his axes. The superb row of Maples in front of the residence of Draper Ruggles ; the splendid speci- mens of forest growth which overshadow the long avenue be- fore the estate of Darius Rice; and the massive and thrifty Elms, extending for many a rod of Piedmont Street, in evi- dence of the generous toil and unselfish spirit of George Jaques ; may well challenge emulation. But if such rivalry is not voluntarily undertaken, might it not be legitimately exacted as a condition precedent to the acceptance of new streets ?
6
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF
The Commissioners have caused to be set out or have super- intended the planting of nearly One Hundred (100) trees during the past year. Many of these now line the avenues of approach to the Dix Street School House, it being thought that some knowledge of arboriculture might fitly supplement the general course in a Training School. The trees were mostly MAPLES ; the genus Acer, in its many species, afford- ing none which is superior, if any that is equal, for rapidity of growth and vigor of habit ; adapting itself to almost every kind of soil ; in Spring and Summer clothed with the brightest ver- dure ; and in Autumn causing our streets to glow with the most gorgeous and varied hues. The Elm should be restricted to our longer and broader highways, where the far-reaching limbs that spread out from its massive boles may canopy a limitless vista, The AsH, too, if happily located, as at the junction of Elm and Oak Streets, has a rugged beauty of its own. But, all things considered, hardiness, vitality under abuse, density of shade, cleanliness of foliage, and above all its tinted variegation, the Maple is fairly entitled to rank among Shade Trees facile princeps. Could boyish nature be reconstructed by saving grace or act of Congress, and sticks and stones pass into quietude, that crowning glory of an American Forest, the CHESTNUT, might well challenge the precedence, at least in our larger Parks, The Linden is wholly unfit for use as a street tree. The odor of its blossoms is disagreeable to many, while when shed, they constitute a nuisance upon the sidewalk. Their trunks are infested with borers which literally honeycomb the limbs as they ascend in their destructive progress. Their foliage is the prey of an insect measurer which, if not the canker-worm, is fully as mischie- vous and equally fond of dropping in among the ladies. A thoroughly healthy and robust Linden tree is not known to exist within the limits of the City; while the street, to which the species has given its name, is actually disfigured by a row of diseased and unsightly specimens. The HORSE CHESTNUT merits a similar, though perhaps not so severe, condemnation. When in blossom it displays a wondrous beauty ; but at other times, whether as the mark for sticks
7
SHADE TREES AND PUBLIC GROUNDS.
and stones aimed by juvenile avarice, in its neascent love of acquisition for its own sake ; or as fouling and rendering un- safe the public side-walks by the shedding thereon of a dense mass of coarse and decaying foliage, they present themselves in a most repulsive aspect, utterly barren of attraction. In a park only, may they find appropriate and welcome space.
With a view to reducing the cost of protection to the Shade Trees upon the public streets, a trial is making of a new method, which promises greater utility and offers fewer facil- ities for juvenile or adult mischief. The sucessful establish- ment of upright rods, or staves, upon the larger trees, will re- lease, for service elsewhere, a large number of box-guards that are outgrown where they stand. And yet there appears to be but indifferent encouragement in the effort to protect Shade Trees from harm, when it is considered how much of the damage results from wanton recklessness or malicious mischief. The construction of a new building involves the al- most total destruction of the trees which surround the lot. The quarryman abrades their bark, preferring to grind their trunks with his ponderous hubs rather than avail himself of an ample intermediate space. The carpenter and mason cut and slash among the limbs, to clear a way for their stagings. Should a casualty happen among the laborers, the unhitched horse of a physician will dispose of the little verdure remaining.
For some years past the care of maintaining the fences that enclose the BURIAL GROUND on Mechanic street, and in Pine Meadow, has been assumed by this commission. It seemed highly desirable that these places of ancient sepulture, liter- ally traversed by almost continuous railway trains, should not be suffered, by any lâches of others, to become offensively con- spicuous in their desolation. A doubt, however, arising in the minds of some of the members of the Commission, relative to its jurisdiction in the premises, led to the following corres- pondence :-
COMMISSION ON SHADE TREES AND PUBLIC GROUNDS, WORCESTER, MASS, Dec. 27, 1870.
THOMAS L. NELSON, EsQ., City Solicitor.
MY DEAR SIR :- By Sec. 21 of the Revised Charter of the City,
8
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF
the " sole care, superintendence and management of the public grounds belonging to said City of Worcester," was entrusted to this Commission.
Will you have the kindness to furnish me with your opinion whether the pieces of land known as the Mechanic Street Burial Ground and the Pine Meadow Burial Ground are included within our jurisdiction ? Questions of importance are likely to arise, hereafter, in this connection ; and it is for the interest of the City that the point, herein submitted, should be determined.
Very Respectfully, EDWARD W. LINCOLN, Chairman. WORCESTER, Dec. 28, 1870.
EDWARD W. LINCOLN, Chairman, &c.
DEAR SIR :- Replying to your communication of yesterday, I am of the opinion that the jurisdiction of the Board of Commissioners of Public Grounds under Sec. 21 of the Revised Charter of the City, does not extend to or include the Mechanic street and Pine Meadow Burial Grounds referred to in your communication.
Very Respectfully, T. L. NELSON, City Solicitor.
It will therefore, devolve upon the Mayor and Aldermen to take care, in the future, of those portions of the City property. Their present condition is a source of private mortification and public reproach. The resort of juvenile gamblers and prosti- tutes, almost any use to which they might be devoted would be an improvement. The plan of our former colleague, Mr. George Jaques, so unanimously endorsed by the School Board, offers a feasible and eminently judicious method of rescuing the Burial Ground upon Mechanic street from its shameful state and of converting it into an ornament of what is likely to prove a bustling thoroughfare. This Commission, divested of all responsibility in the matter, by the opinion of the City So- licitor, takes this occasion to reaffirn its own most cordial and earnest approbation of the plan of Mr. Jaques. A hope is timidly ventured, with all deference, that these grounds, if im- proved as proposed, may receive somewhat more of rustic adornment than is afforded by the planting of such scraggy twins as those whose forlorn arms are stretched over the bleak desolation of the play-yard at the Training School.
9
SHADE TREES AND PUBLIC GROUNDS.
Shortly after the organization of the Commission for 1870, it was discovered that several rods of the fence to the Mechanic street Burial Ground was prostrate. The breach was at once closed by a thorough repair of the fence, at an expense of twenty-seven dollars and eighty-three cents ($27.83). The fence on the S. E. side of the Pine Meadow Burial Ground, towards the Boston and Albany railway, has also been re- erected and strengthened. This work was completed at a cost of nineteen dollars and ninety-three cents ($19.93).
The total amount paid, within the past year, for work done upon those two Burial Grounds, it will thus be perceived, is forty-seven dollars and seventy-six cents ($47.76), which sum should be refunded from the City Treasury to the account of Public Grounds. Such repayment would be a simple act of justice ; the annual appropriation for the uses of this Commis- sion scarcely admitting of lavish or unwarranted generosity to other departments.
The condition of the COMMON does not challenge admira- tion. The Commissioners are helpless for its improvement. A "Public Ground," the " sole care, superintendence, and management " of which is vested in them by the charter, is lost to the community by the gross super-position of Meeting, Town, and School Houses, and of Railway Tracks. Every old citizen has a separate pathway of his own across it. Each new settler usurps for himself the right of an independent track, generally blazing it with his knife-blade upon the seats or tree-trunks. A good and permanent walk is imperatively required upon the North side ; but, with inadequate means, how can it be constructed ? A vast quantity of soil is needed to grade the surface and put it in good heart to nourish a close and thrifty sward. Better material for such purposes than street-scrapings unquestionably exists. But as it is not fur- nished gratuitously, the poverty and not the will of the Commis- sion make it a suppliant for the bounty of the official Highway- man. Nor, indeed, are street-scrapings so poor but what, in processs of time, they can be coaxed to something better, if not greener than the plantain. The entire bulk of manure from the City Stables is now delivered upon the Poor Farm, being hauled
2
10
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF
some two (2) miles or more beyond the Common which is starving for lack of it. If the collection of offal were so sys- tematised as to be rendered available for the support of a pig- gery upon that Farm, as it should be, an existing evil would be converted into a source of profit. Sufficient pork would be gained, for the supply of that meagre table so strenuously in- sisted upon by the City Fathers, at their Annual Dinner ; and a portion of the manure from the City Stables might be spared, to stay the complete impoverishment of the Public Grounds.
This Commission holds a very definite opinion of what should be done to render the COMMON attractive and ornamental ; as it emphatically is neither at present. But it is not deemed ex- pedient to ask appropriations for the decoration of an irregular and imperfect fraction, when measures have been initiated by the People to free the whole from incumbrance.
During the last Summer, at the request of the Highway Commissioner and of Mayor Blake, (Chairman of the High- way Committee,) permission was accorded for the temporary deposit upon the Common, westward of the railway, of the block stones intended for the pavement of South Main street. It is not believed that the land suffered harm, while some noxious weeds were undoubtedly suppressed. But an oppor- tunity was thereby furnished the reporters for the public press to air their antiquarian lore by covert allusions to Draidical remains and sly explorations for Runic inscriptions. Virtuous complaints were also elicited from members of the first parish, as well as from shareholders in Railway Corporations, all of whose privileges of grumbling are based upon concessions founded in derogation of common right. But great incon- venience was spared to Main Street, by relieving it from the incessant traction over its surface by heavy loads of stone ; and a considerable saving of labor and time inured to the City by the accommodations thus afforded. This Commission is obliged to practice such rigid economy that it may possibly exaggerate into a virtue what is only a merit ; in that event other and more opulent Departments can shun all imitation of so infrequent an example.
The FLAG STAFF has been repaired with the assent of
i
11
SHADE TREES AND PUBLIC GROUNDS.
this Commission by the Military Committee of the City Coun- cil. The original design was to change its position to the esplanade in front of Portland Street, but this purpose was abandoned in deference to the positive objections of the Com- missioners, by whom it was insisted that the proper location of the Flag Staff is near the site of the old Gun House, in advance of the Bigelow monument, where the rustle of its folds may soothe the slumbers of those who shed their blood in defence of its right to be unfurled. It is understood, although no official knowledge is possessed of the fact, that a contract exists in which provision is made for surrounding the Flag Staff with a stand from which to disperse music and oratory to gaping multitudes. Waiving all reference to the infringement upon the province of this Com- mission, the utter unsuitableness of the position for such a purpose is too obvious to admit of its selection without a decided protest. The two great pathways that cross the Com- mon, diagonally, have their points of intersection here. Those paths will always exist, for the convenience of the public, even if all others should be discontinued. Hither, also, will doubt- less converge the line of pedestrian travel from Portland street northwardly, and the reflux to the south. It must be obvious upon the least reflection, that with a large crowd encompass- ing the stand, intently listening to music or oratory and therefore impatient of any interruption, the common right of unobstructed passage will be restricted if not wholly destroyed. Other situations can be found, more appropriate, equally eligible, and liable to no objection, which may suffice until the removal of the Meeting House of the First Parish shall afford a location which will fulfill every requirement.
The attention of the community has been invited, through the columns of the public press, to the question,-" does Il- luminating Gas injure trees ?" Some statements of the cor- respondent would seem, by implication, to impute neglect to this Commission. It must suffice, therefore, to say that no occasion has arisen, during the past year, to cause any recla- mations upon the Gas Light Company for injury to the Shade Trees of the City. That the gas commonly used for the pur-
12
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF
poses of illumination; is a specific poison to vegetation, when liberated in the atmosphere or the soil, is pretty conclusively disproved. But that this product of the distillation of coal, imperfectly purified at the best, is and becomes noxious to vegetable growth, under a concurrence of propitious circum- stances, has long been an established fact. A notable illus- tration was afforded by the simultaneons fracture of the gas and water pipes, in Bowdoin street, some years since, when the flushing of the former by the latter constrained the exhaustion, by pumps, of an unwholesome viscous fluid, which, alike gummy and pestiferous, clogged the earth and infected the very elements of plant-life. Such instances, however, are so exceptional that they are scarcely to be taken into account when estimating the probable duration of a tree. Heat, re- flected from casual or incendiary fires, infrequent as even they are, is a much more fatal evil.
The felling of that ancient tree, at the foot of Elm street, which had sheltered so many generations beneath its protect- ing branches, afforded an occasion, at the time, for much sen- timental reproach. A little reflection would have disclosed the fact that there were those upon this Commission to whom the least twig of that venerable tree was fraught with tenderer memories than the entire ruck of indiscriminate censors could possibly appreciate. Permission for its eradication was given, upon the application of the Highway Commissioner, with the advice and approval of the late Mayor. The Com- missioners are thoroughly satisfied with the result of an act the responsibility for which is exclusively their own. And they felicitate the community upon the marked improvements which have followed and which were rendered possible of ac- complishment only by such decided action. Trees were made ·for man : not man for trees. Yet too many still stand, spared because of lingering associations, or on account of their age and massive proportions, whose removal would be a great public accommodation and appease an increasing popular de- mand. The wayfarer, upon Chestnut street, cannot go amiss in search for some such, and may have cause to bless his stars should he luckily survive a collision, upon some dark night.
SHADE TREES AND PUBLIC GROUNDS.
The impossibility of transposing trees, from streets where they exist in too great profusion to others that are almost en- tirely destitute of them, is greatly to be regretted. Thus, for example, Salem and Portland streets would be materially im- proved by allowing the sun to shine in upon parlors that are now screened by an almost impenetrable foliage. Human health cannot be preserved in such unnatural obscurity ; while the very trees protest, through withered leaf and decaying limbs, against the stifling proximity. If this,-which is their misfortune and loss, cannot be converted into a gain for South- bridge or Washington streets, it may avail at least to restrain our citizens from exceeding the restrictions of this Commission, when they plant trees in future. Thirty (30) feet is not too great a distance between Maples and is altogether too close for Elms, after they have made a very brief growth.
At the urgent solicitation of many citizens, including mem- bers of the City Council, forty-three (43) new Seats have been placed upon the Common. These, with those already in posi- tion, have received two coats of paint, besides frequent incisions from ready jack-knives. Ten (10) Posts have also been set at the entrances on Main, Park, and Salem streets ; new panels put in the Fence where gaps existed ; and all have been painted.
The work done on Elm Park has consisted in temporary re- pairs of the Fence and Gates inclosing the same ; the location and erection of twenty-two (22) Seats, covering them with two coats of paint ; and then leaving them for mutilation by idlers who are never so happy as when engaged in the perpetration of wanton mischief. By the original indenture, from which the title to Elm Park is derived, the City is bound to assume one- half of the cost of maintaining the Division-Fence upon the hill on the Western side. The condition of the present Fence is such that it will speedily require renewal. This need not in- volve great expense, as all that is indispensable is a barrier adequate to restrain cattle. Some repairs which could not be postponed were completed towards the close of the last autumn. Early in the Spring of 1870 a Petition was presented to the City Council, from this Commission, praying that the Piedmont network of Sewers might be so far extended as to facilitate the
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