Town records of Brookline, Massachusetts, 1838-1857, v. 1, Part 18

Author: Brookline (Mass.)
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Brookline, Mass. : Published by vote of the town
Number of Pages: 680


USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Town records of Brookline, Massachusetts, 1838-1857, v. 1 > Part 18


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203


Adjourned Annual Meeting, March 16, 1846.


your Committee think the time lias come for obviating this difficulty. In order, therefore, to make the High School what it should be to meet the wants of the Town, the Committee would recommend that from the close of the present session, none be admitted into it, who are not ten years of age, and who are not acquainted with certain studies, which your future committee may fix upon as necessary qualifications. This school your committee would have open to scholars of both sexes who may be thus qualified. To meet the wants that may be caused by this arrangement, we would recommend that a well-qualified Master be employed to instruct those boys over ten years of age who may not be qualified to enter the High Scoool, and such others as the committee may deem it advisable to put under his care. And then, as it will be necessary to make some provision for reducing the number of scholars in the North Primary School, we would recommend that an intermediate school be established for girls over nine years of age whose qualifica- tion will not permit them to enter the High School. This school we would have disconnected with any other, and under the superintendence of a well-qualified female. By thus establishing two intermediate schools, one for males and the other for females, we think the wants of the town may be fully met and the High School greatly elevated in char- acter. The question naturally arises, Where shall the new school be kept? To this the committee would reply, that ample accommodations may be furnished by finishing the rooms designed for the use of schools in the new Town Hall. We think it highly important that the house in which the High School is kept, in the centre of the town, should be devoted entirely to that school. There are objections, which we need not state here, to having the lower part of that building occupied by another school. We would therefore recommend that both of the intermediate schools be kept for the present in the Town Hall. And as it will be inconvenient for the children in the upper part of the town to attend these schools, we would allow them to fit for admission into the High School, in the two district schools, until the number in these schools be such as to require a different arrangement.


These recommendations the Committee would submit to the town, leaving it for you to say whether they shall be adopted and carried into effect.


. Another subject to which the committee would call the attention of the town, is the expedience of giving to each of the primary schools, after the close of the present term, one more half day in each week for relaxation. The towns around us, nearly all of them, have two half days in each week for this purpose, and we think it would be of benefit, especially to the smaller children, should the plan be adopted in this town. In some districts it would be more convenient to have no school on Saturday ; in others, it would be preferable to have the schools sus- pended half of the day on each Saturday and Wednesday. In the opinion of your Committee this arrangement, if adopted, would add vigor to the minds of the small children, and secure a more punctual attendance during the days on which the school is kept. These are the only subjects which your committee would at this time suggest as requiring the action


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Brookline Town Records.


of the Town, and these we most respectfully submit for your considera- tion. Since this town, according to the graduated scale, was, the last year, the second in the Commonwealth in regard to the amount appro- priated to each child between the ages of four and sixteen, it is desirable that we should not be much below that in the comparative excellence of our schools. We labor under some disadvantages now which larger towns and cities do not experience. We can not arrange, divide and locate our schools as we would if we had a greater number of inhabitants, or if the number was more equal in the different districts. But until Brookline shall become a city or large town, we must endeavor to meet these disadvantages in the best possible manner.


It is no trifling thing to devise plans which will be the best adapted to the schools of any particular town, but this generally is a much easier task than the carrying of the plans successfully into effect. It requires several good things to make even one good school, and many more to make all the schools in a town good. We want a good Committee, good school houses, good teachers, good government, good books, good scholars, good parents, and many other good things, which need not be enumerated here. But then, your Committee see no cause for despair, and much ground for encouragement, in regard to your public schools. With the enlightened and liberal views which we know you entertain upon this subject, we are confident that as citizens you will devise " liberal things" for the education of your children. In a few years we shall have all passed from the stage of action, and those for whom we now provide, who bear our names, and who will cherish our memories, are to succeed us. Well will it be for them and the community of which they may be members, if we can leave to them the inheritance of a good education and paternal counsels and examples which they can with safety and honor follow. In a country and under a government like ours, this is far a better inheritance than wealth. That we may leave this rich inheritance to our children is the desire which your Committee would express as they retire from the responsible office to which by your suffrages they were chosen-an office whose arduous and perplexing duties they have unitedly and harmoniously endeavored faithfully to discharge.


Respectfully Submitted,


JOHN PIERCE,


School WILLIAM H. SHAILER, { Committee. SAMUEL PHILBRICK,


205


Special Meeting, September 7, 1846.


SPECIAL MEETING, SEPT. 7, 1846.


WARRANT.


COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.


SEAL SEALĮ [SEAL


NORFOLK, SS.


BROOKLINE. S To A. H. Clapp, one of the Con-


.


stables of the Town of Brookline, GREETING :


In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you are hereby required to notify the inhabitants of the Town of Brookline qualified to vote in Elections to meet at the Town Hall in said Town, on Monday the Seventh day of Septem- ber next, at Three o'clock in the afternoon, for the following purposes, Viz. :


First. To Choose a Moderator.


Second. To act upon an order of notice from the County Commis- sioners upon the petition of Joseph H. Billings & others, for a new road from a point on South Street to a point near the School House on Newton Street or to have the old road widened & straightened.


Third. To see if the Town will instruct the Selectmen to make an application to the County Commissioners to decide upon the reasonable- ness of a request which has been made by the Selectmen to the Boston and Worcester Railroad Corporation for the farther security of the public, by erecting a gate across the Mill Dam Road where said Railroad crosses, and to station an agent, &c., agreeably to the provisions of the 80 section of the 39 chapter of the Revised Statutes.


Hereof fail not and make due return of this warrant with your doings thereon at the time and place as above named. Given under our hands & seals this Twenty-sixth day of August, A. D., 1846.


MARSHAL STEARNS, 1 Selectmen of


Signed, JAMES BARTLETT,


H. M. SANBORN, Brookline.


Constable's return of the foregoing warrant.


NORFOLK, SS.


TOWN OF BROOKLINE, September 5, 1846.


Pursuant to the 'within warrant, I have notified the Inhabitants of the Town of Brookline herein described, to meet at the said time & place & for the purposes within mentioned by leaving a printed notice at each and every house in said town.


A. H. CLAPP, Constable of Brookline.


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Brookline Town Records.


Transactions of the Town under the Foregoing Warrant. Brookline, September 7, 1846.


Marshal Stearns was chosen Moderator.


The subject introduced by the Second Article in the war- rant was taken up, and was disposed of by the following vote :-


Voted, That a Committee of Five be appointed to meet the County Commissioners & oppose the opening of a new road as petitioned for by Joseph H. Billings & others, upon the ground that it is not wanted for the benefit or conven- ience of the Town of Brookline.


The following gentlemen were chosen a committee to attend to that duty :


The Three Selectmen -


Marshal Stearns, James Bartlett, Selectmen.


H. M. Sanborn, Samuel Philbrick. Jesse Bird.


The Third Article in the warrant was taken into consider- ation, in regard to a gate across the Rail Road at the crossing on the Mill dam. It was debated at some length by several gentlemen both for and against it, which was finally settled by the following vote :


Voted, That the Selectmen be and are hereby instructed to apply to the County Commissioners to decide upon the reasonableness of their request which has been made to the Boston and Worcester Railroad Corporation for the Estab- lishment of a gate across the Mill Dam Road at the crossing of said Rail Road.


William I. Bowditch, Esq., on behalf of the committee appointed in January last to oppose the granting of a charter for any Railroad through this Town, made the following report :


The committee appointed under a vote of the Town passed January 30, 1846, to resist the petition of George R. Russell & others for a charter for a Railroad through the Town, respectfully report: That in per-


207


General Election, November 9, 1846.


formance of the duty assigned to them, they prepared & caused to be presented to the Legislature a remonstrance on the part of the town, a copy of which is herewith submitted. The petitions were refered to a joint special Committee of the Senate & House. The hearing and argu- ment were attended by a sub-committee, and as the event has already shown, the resistance presented by this Town & the other remonstrants was entirely successful. The sum expended by your committee amounts to $28.50.


All of which is respectfully submitted by


WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH, on behalf of the Com.


BROOKLINE, Sept. 7, 1846.


The remonstrance will be found on file D.


The following report was accepted, and will be found on file D.


It was Voted to choose a committee of five to draft a set of By Laws for the regulating the affairs of the town and report at a future meeting.


Mess. William I. Bowditch, Samuel Philbrick, David R. Griggs, Henry I. Oliver and Artemas Newell were chosen to attend to that duty.


Adjourned sine die.


Attest : ARTEMAS NEWELL, Town Clerk.


WARRANT FOR NOVEMBER, 1846.


COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.


NORFOLK, SS. To Elisha Stone, one of the Constables of BROOKLINE. S


the Town of Brookline, GREETING :


In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are required to give at least seven days' notice to the Inhabitants of the Town of Brookline qualified to vote in Elections, by leaving a printed notification at the residence of each and every voter, to meet at the Town Hall in said town, on Monday the 9th day of November next, it being the Second Monday in said Month, at 1 o'clock in the after- noon, at which time and place the polls will be opened for the following purposes, to wit :


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Brookline Town Records.


First. To determine by Vote whether the Town will send a Repre- sentative to the next General Court.


Second. To bring in their Votes to the Selectmen for the following officers, Viz. : For Governor & Lieutenant-Governor of this Common- wealth, Three Senators for the County of Norfolk, Representative to Congress for the Eight District, and for a Representative to the next General Court, if the Town so determine .. The officers above named to be all voted for on one ballot.


You are also required to notify the said inhabitants of Brookline to meet at said Town Hall on said 9th day of November next, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, for the follow- ing purposes, Viz. :


1st. To choose a Moderator.


2d. To hear and act upon a request of S. A. Walker in relation to a claim of the land on which the Hay Scales are located.


3d. To see if the Town will grant the gratuitous use of the Town Hall for Temperance purposes.


4th. To hear and act upon a report of the Cemetery Committee in relation to the purchase of a piece of land for the enlargement of the Cemetery lot. And to hear the reports of any other Committees that are prepared to report.


Hereof fail not, and make due return of this warrant, with your doings thereon, at the time and place of meeting afore- said.


Given under our hands and seals this Twenty-Sixth day of October, Anno Domini One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-six.


MARSHAL STEARNS, ـالـ


SEAL. JLJ JAMES BARTLETT, SEAL.


H. M. SANBORN, SEAL.


NOVEMBER, 1846.


NORFOLK, SS.


BROOKLINE, Nov. 2d, 1846. ) By Virtue of the within warrant to me directed, I have notified the within named persons to appear at the time. and place & for the purposes within expressed.


ELISHA STONE, Constable of Brookline.


A true copy of the warrant and return.


Attest : ARTEMAS NEWELL, Town Clerk.


BROOKLINE, November 9th, 1846.


In pursuance of the foregoing Warrant, the polls were opened by the Selectmen of the town of Brookline at one o'clock P. M., on the said 9th day of November, for the pur-


.


General Election, November 9, 1846. 209


poses expressed in said warrant, and were kept open two hours, according to the laws of the Commonwealth, after which the question was submitted to the Town, "how much longer the polls should be kept open"? when it was-


Voted, That the polls should be closed in half an hour.


Upon sorting and counting the votes the result was found to be as follows, to wit. :- First,


Voted, To send a Representative to the next General Court.


- Whole number of ballots for Governor were Two hundred and fifty-five, 255.


George N. Briggs of Pittsfield had One hundred and thirty-eight.


Francis Baylies of Taunton Fifty-one.


Isaac Davis of Worcester € 4 Sixty-one.


Francis Jackson of Boston One.


Samuel E. Sewall of Roxbury 66 Four.


.


Whole number of ballots for Lieutenant Governor were Two hundred & Fifty-four-254, to wit. :-


.John Reed of Yarmouth had One hundred and thirty-nine.


Charles W. Moore of Charlestown Fifty-one.


George Hood of Lynn Sixty-one.


Jolın M. Brewster of Pittsfield Three.


Whole number of ballots for Senator for the County of Norfolk were Two Hundred & Fifty-two, to wit. :


Samuel Guild of Roxbury One hundred & thirty-six.


James Maguire of Randolph One hundred & thirty-seven.


Truman Clark of Walpole One hundred & thirty-seven.


Minot Thayer of Braintree


John C. Scammel of Bellingham


Feach Fifty-one.


Ira Gill of Walpole


Artemas Brown of Medway Sixty-one.


Edgar K. Whitaker of Needham Sixty-one.


Jessie Pierce of Stoughton Sixty-one.


Willis Fisher of Franklin


Martin Torrey of Foxborough & each Three. John Gulliver of Roxbury


Whole number of ballots for Representative in Congress for the Eighth District were Two Hundred & Forty-Seven, to wit. :


John Quincy Adams of Quincy One hundred Eighty-two.


Isaac H. Wright of Roxbury Sixty-one.


Appleton Howe of Weymouth Four.


Whole number of ballots for Representative to General Court were Two hundred & fifty-two, to wit .: Necessary for a choice, 127.


Daniel Sanderson had One hundred & five.


Willard A. Humphrey Fifty-one.


James Bartlett Sixty-two.


Charles Stearns, Jun'r


Thirty-one.


Benjamin Bradley One.


Simon W. Clifford


One.


Willard Sears One.


No choice of Representative, highest candidate fell short 42 votes of a majority.


14


210


Brookline Town Records.


It was then-


Voted, That the subject of choosing a Representative to the next General Court be indefinitely postponed.


Attest : A. NEWELL, Town Clerk.


Agreeably to the notification, the meeting was called to order at 4 o'clock on the said 9th day of November, and was organized by the choice of Marshall Stearns, Moderator.


The Second Article in the warrant was called up, & after some explanation by Mr. Walker, by his motion the whole matter was indefinitely postponed.


The Third Article in the warrant in relation to the use of the Town Hall gratuitously for temperance purposes, was disposed of by the following vote :


Voted, That the gratuitous use of the Town Hall be granted for temperance lectures and other temperance pur- poses.


The Fourth Article, in relation to hearing a report from the Cemetery Committee, was not acted upon, the Chairman of the Cemetery Committee, Mr. Jesse Bird, stated that the committee had no report to make.


The meeting was then adjourned without day.


Attest : A. NEWELL, Town Clerk.


PERAMBULATION OF THE LINES BETWEEN THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE & THE CITY OF BOSTON.


" We the subscribers, the Mayor & Aldermen of the City of Boston, and the Selectmen of the Town of Brookline, pursuant to notice, met this twenty-fifth day of November, A. D. 1846, at the time and place appointed and run the line and renewed the bound marks between the City of Boston & the Town of Brookline, as follows, to wit. :


Beginning at a stone post marked BO on the easterly side and Br. on the westerly side standing on the Boston and Roxbury Mill Dam, westerly from the new filling sluices erected in said dam (the old sluices referred to in the Act of February 22, 1825, entitled, An Act relative to the boundary lines of the City of Boston and to the Town of Brookline having been removed) thence running Northwesterly from said post at an angle of one hundred & fifteen degrees from the Mill Dam until it strikes the centre of the channel of Charles River, and also running from the said post southerly at an angle of one hundred three degrees forty- nine minutes until it strikes the centre of the channel of Muddy River, at


-


211


Location of Road, November 6, 1846.


a point where the respective boundaries of Boston, Brookline & Roxbury meet each other, being the same lines mentioned and described in the above recited Act.


In testimony whereof we have hereto set our hands the day & year first mentioned.


Signed.


Selectmen of Brookline. MARSHALL STEARNS, JAMES BARTLETT, H. M. SANBORN, A. NEWELL, Town Clerk.


Signed. Mayor & Aldermen of Boston. JOSIAH QUINCY, JUN., Mayor. WILLIAM PARKER,


JONAS PRESTON,


WILLIAM POPE,


JOHN HATHAWAY,


FREDERICK GOULD,


THOS. JONES,


CHARLES A. WELLS,


GEORGE HEAD.


A true copy of the Perambulation,


Attest :


ARTEMAS NEWELL,


Town Clerk.


LAYING OUT OF THE ROAD BY THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS THROUGH LAND OF CALEB CRAFT, SAMUEL HILL & DR. LUTHER M. HARRIS IN THE SOUTH PART OF THE TOWN, NOV. 6, 1846.


NORFOLK, SS. At a meeting of the County Commissioners at Dedham, December term, A. D. 1846.


On the petition of Joseph H. Billings and others, presented at a meet- ing of the Commissioners at Dedham on the third Tuesday of April last, praying that a new public highway might be laid out in Brookline in said County, from a point on the road leading from West Roxbury to Brighton, at or near the house of Caleb Craft, to a point on the same road near the southerly school house, in said Brookline, and running over and upon lands of Caleb Craft, Samuel Hill and Dr. Luther M. Harris,-It was ordered that the Commissioners would meet at the house of Caleb Craft, in Brookline, on Tuesday, the twenty-eighth day of July, then next following, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, and thence proceed to view the route of the road petitioned for, and then and there hear and act upon said petition ;- and that an attested copy of the said petition, with the said order thereon, be served upon the Clerk of the Town of Brookline, thirty days, at least, before the day appointed for said meet- ing, and that a like copy be published three weeks successively in the Norfolk County American, a newspaper printed in Roxbury, in said County, the last publication thereof to be fourteen days, at least, before said day of meeting, and also that like copies be posted up in two or more public places in said Brookline, fourteen days at least before said day, that all persons and corporations interested for or against said petition might then and there appear and be heard if they should see fit. This notice was duly served and published agreeably to the aforesaid order, as by the officer's return on file appears. And the Commissioners


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Brookline Town Records.


afterwards met at the time and place named in this order, at which time and place also met the petitioners, the Town of Brookline by their Select- men, and the owners of the lands on the route of said road named in the petition, and they thence viewed the route of said new highway petitioned for, and then and there partially heard each and all said parties concerning the matter of said petition, and thence adjourned for a further hearing to a meeting of the County Commissioners next to be held at Dedham, September term, being the fourth Tuesday of Septem- ber, A. D. 1846.


And at said September term the Commissioners again met the said parties agreeably to said adjournment, and then and there fully heard them concerning the prayer of said petition, and after said hearing did adjudge that common convenience and necessity required that said new highway should be laid out as prayed for; and it was thereupon ordered that the Commissioners would meet at the house occupied by Caleb Craft, Jun., in said Brookline, on Friday the sixth day of November then next following, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and thence proceed to locate said new highway ;- and that an attested copy of this adjudication and order be served upon the Clerk of said Town of Brookline, thirty days at least before said sixth day of November, that a like copy be published three weeks successively in the Norfolk County American, a newspaper printed in Roxbury, in said county, the last publication thereof to be fourteen days, at least, before said day, and that like copies be posted in two or more public places in said Brookline, fourteen days at least before said day, that all persons and parties interested might then and there appear and be heard if they should see fit.


This notice was also duly served and published agreeably to the above recited order, as by the officer's return on file appears, and the Commis- sioners, and some of the said petitioners, land owners, & Committee of the Town of Brookline, met at the time and place named in said order of notice, and they thence proceeded to lay out and locate said new high- way, and did then lay out and locate the same by the courses, notes and bounds as follows, viz. :


Commencing on the easterly side of the old road leading from West Roxbury to Brighton nearly opposite the house of Caleb Craft, at a stake standing about twenty feet from said old road, and thence running in land of said Caleb Craft North 51º East one thousand & ninety-eight feet, to a ditch making the dividing line between said Craft's land & the land of Samuel Hill; thence on the same course in said Hill's land one hun- dred and twenty-nine feet to a stake; thence North 57º East in said Hill's land one hundred and forty feet and six inches to a stake; thence North 58° East, in the same land, eighty-four feet to a stake; thence North 70° 45' East, in the same land, seventy-six feet to a stake by a large rock on the hill; thence South 89º 25' East, in the same land, one hundred and twenty-six feet and nine inches to a stake and stones; thence North 84° 30' East, in the same land, one hundred and forty-five feet, to a small Hornbine tree; thence North 31º 40' East, in the same land, two hundred & forty-nine feet to a stake in meadow land; thence North 30° East, in the same land, two hundred & fourteen feet to a ditch making


213


Location of Road, November 6, 1846.


the division line between said Hill's land and the land of Dr. Luther M. Harris; thence North 41º 10' East in said Harris' land 109 feet and three inches to a stake; thence North 43º 40' East, in the same land, Ninety feet to a Maple tree; thence on the same course, in the same land, about twenty-two feet to intersection of the aforenamed old road, at a point nearly opposite the southerly school house in Brookline. The road is laid on the southeasterly side of the line herein before described, and is forty-two feet in width throughout, excepting the two ends of the road at its junction with said old road, at which ends the road is more than forty-two feet wide. The southeasterly end connects with said old road by lines curving outwardly on both sides, & at the Northeasterly end of said new road, the southeasterly line diverges from the Northeasterly line of the road before described, as follows : by a line running from a point opposite the Maple Tree before named North 55° 40' East 129 feet, thence north 61º 15' East 76 feet to the old road. All the above described courses & distances & width of the roads will more readily appear on a plan thereof made by Charles Whitney of Nov. 17, 1846. Three months are allowed to the aforenamed owners of the lands over which the road is laid to take off their trees, walls & fences, & twelve months are allowed to said town of Brookline to work and complete said road. The following specifications are given as to the manner of constructing the road, viz. :




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