USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > Waban, early days, 1681-1918 > Part 7
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In 1869 Colonel Edward Wyman conveyed all of his real estate in Waban to his brother, Dr. Morrill Wyman, of Cam- bridge, from whom William C. Strong purchased the "Moffat Farm," so called, in 1875, taking title in the name of his wife, Mary J. Strong.
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DR. MORRILL WYMAN
CHARLES C. BLANEY
Dr. Morrill Wyman, eminent Cambridge physician and scientist, was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, July 25, 1812, son of Dr. Rufus and Ann (Morrill) Wyman.
He was graduated from Harvard College in 1833, from Harvard Medical School in 1837, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1885. He was Adjunct Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Physic at Harvard, 1853-1856, Overseer of Harvard, 1875-1887, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was instru- mental in the founding and construction of the Cambridge Hospital, one of the buildings of which, Morrill Wyman House, is named for him, having been built with funds bequeathed by his son, Morrill Wyman, Jr., who died in 1914. In his 74th year (1886) he attempted to withdraw from practice as a family physician and limit his service to consultations, but with- out success, and he continued in active practice until he was 85 (1897). He died in Cambridge, January 30, 1903, aged 91 years.
For further information and portrait see Brief Record of Lives and Writings of Dr. Rufus Wyman (1778-1842) and his son Dr. Morrill Wyman (1812-1903), by Morrill Wyman, Jr., printed privately, a copy of which is in the Massachusetts State Library. There is no reference in this book to Dr. Morrill Wyman's ownership of the Waban farm, and as his brother Edward is listed as residing in the Beacon Street house until 1873, it is doubtful if Dr. Morrill Wyman ever occupied it.
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DR. MORRILL WYMAN
The land on which the Warren house is located was sold by Dr. Morrill Wyman in 1886 to Page & Henshaw, by whom it was sold in 1887 to Catharine B. Reed who shortly afterwards married Prof. Herbert Langford Warren.
INTERIOR OF WYMAN HOUSE DURING OCCUPANCY OF LEROY PHILLIPS Courtesy of Mr. LeRoy Phillips
THE COLLINS-GOULD FAMILIES
GARDNER S. GOULD
The Collins family was one of the first to settle in what is now known as Waban, beginning when Matthius Collins bought land here in 1779. At that time Waban was nothing but open country, with two roads - Beacon Street, then known as Sherborn Road, and a road, now Woodward Street, with a road swinging off the Sherborn Road to the north, now Chest- nut Street. There were only three or four houses along these roads between what is now Newton Highlands and the corner of the present Beacon and Washington Streets in Newton Lower Falls.
In the memories of present Wabanites there are, or were up to a few years ago, three houses along the south side of
THE FREDERICK A. COLLINS HOUSE ON BEACON STREET Photographed especially by Miss Florence and Mr. Karl Maynard
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THE COLLINS-GOULD FAMILIES
Beacon Street, just west of the railroad bridge, which were built and occupied by various members of the Collins family up to quite recent times. Going westward from the railroad, there was first, the home of Edward J. Collins at about No. 1686, and last occupied by the Besse Sanitarium and torn down in 1935; next, at No. 1704, the home of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Gould, built in 1804 and torn down in 1940; and next, at No. 1734, "the house with the pillars," now standing. Further reference will be made to each of these later.
There were three Matthius Collins's - father, son, and grandson. The first lived in Marblehead, where his family had lived for several generations. His son, Matthius II, was for many years a blacksmith in Watertown; amassed a considerable fortune for those days, and in 1779 bought a house and about one hundred acres of land in what is now Waban, thus being the first Collins to settle here. The house was on the site of No. 1686 Beacon Street, and the land extended along the south side of Beacon Street (then Sherborn Road) from the present junction of Beacon and Woodward Streets to Carleton Road, and from Beacon Street to the Charles River. On his death in 1785, his property was inherited by his son, Matthius III.
Matthius III married Hannah Jackson, daughter of Ephriam Jackson, who died a member of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Matthius continued to live in the old house until 1804, when he built the house at No. 1704 Beacon Street (later the home of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Gould), after completion of which, he took down the old house. The ac- companying cut is taken from an oil painting of the house, made about 1850, and shows it as most people remember it, except for a different type roof put on in 1860 and the piazza added in 1885. This house was taken down in 1940, the only visible reminder on the ground being one of the granite gate posts which formerly guarded the driveway entrance. The old gentleman with the tall hat and the children, represent Mat-
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WABAN - EARLY DAYS
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THE COLLINS HOMESTEAD ABOUT 1802. HOME OF WILLIAM GOULD
thius III and his grandchildren. He was known as "Squire Collins" and at a later day his wife was called "Widow Collins." He added to the land holdings of his father by the purchase of about seventy-five acres immediately to the west and extending along the south side of Beacon Street to its junction with Washington Street in Newton Lower Falls.
Matthius III was for several years Town Treasurer, and as an interesting indication of the changes which the past one hundred years have made, the records of his period in office show that about two-thirds of the town tax valuations were located in Newton Upper and Newton Lower Falls. He had a family of eight children, of whom five were living at the time of his death in 1855. Under his will the real estate was divided among his three sons - Edward J., Frederick A., and Amasa.
Edward J. Collins was a very highly respected and success- ful business man, and in his day one of Newton's most prom- inent citizens. He was Treasurer of Newton for twenty-one
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THE COLLINS-GOULD FAMILIES
years, County Commissioner for twelve years, Treasurer of the Newton Savings Bank and Director of the Newton National Bank for many years, and a member of the State Legislature. He built and lived in the house at No. 1686 Beacon Street until his death in 1879, and his widow and son Edward con- tinued on there until her death. From about 1898 onward, the house was successively occupied by the Fish School, the Pills- bury School and the Besse Sanitarium. The gymnasium in the barn was used for town affairs such as meetings of the Woman's Club. It was called "Besse Hall"; less frequently "Knollwood Hall." The house was taken down in 1935, and the lot developed with several modern homes, extending from No. 1692 Beacon Street around the corner and along Waban Avenue as far as No. 53. For several years, Edward and his brother Frederick owned and operated the old glue factory. This was located at the river near the foot of Gould Road. The business was discontinued about 1880 but the ruins of the buildings were visible until 1895.
Frederick A. Collins built and lived in "the house with the pillars," now standing at No. 1734 Beacon Street. He was a member of the City Council, and, as mentioned above, op- erated the glue factory with his brother Edward.
Amasa Collins went to Brandon, Vt., as a young man and for many years was in the wool business there. His old records of this period indicate that the business was conducted on the bartering basis - rum, sugar and molasses being traded to the farmers for their sheep and wool. The wool was gathered and processed and the animals driven over the road to Brighton for slaughtering. About 1860, Amasa returned to Waban, taking his father's house at No. 1704 Beacon Street, and at that time changed the roof from the hip type, as shown in the cut as of 1850, to the mansard type which most of us remember.
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WABAN - EARLY DAYS
THE EDWARD J. COLLINS HOUSE
Gould Family
In 1874, Alice Collins, daughter of Amasa, married Wil- liam H. Gould of Newton Upper Falls and from then until 1935 they lived in the old homestead at No. 1704 Beacon Street. For the following thirty or more years this house might almost be called the "Center of Waban." The village even then was small and compared with present conditions, sparsely built up. The large parlor of the house, running its full depth, made it an ideal and almost the only place in the village where gatherings of any considerable number of people could be held comfortably. Mr. and Mrs. Gould were intensely interested and prime movers in many community affairs, and the doors of the house were alway open for the furtherance of those affairs. Few people came to or stayed long in Waban who did not sooner or later partake of the fine hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Gould.
Mrs. Gould was the first President of the Waban Woman's Club, was Treasurer of the Newton Hospital Aid Association, and a Trustee of the Newton Hospital from its inception until about 1930. She was a charter member of the Lucy Jackson Chapter, D.A.R., named for one of her ancestors. Mrs. Gould died in 1940.
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THE COLLINS-GOULD FAMILIES
Mr. Gould was an ardent lover of sports, continuing to play golf at Brae Burn until after his eighty-fifth year; a "regular" on the alleys of the Neighborhood Club, and a member since its inception of the Men's Whist and Duplicate Whist Club. He died in 1937.
THE WILLIAM GOULD HOUSE Reproduced from King's "Handbook of Newton"
THE ELIOT OAK
CORA STANWOOD COBB
In Waban there is still standing a tree which is probably the oldest tree in Newton and certainly the most famous, be- cause under the spreading branches of this large white oak John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, used to preach to Waban's tribe about 300 years ago. City records made in 1886 give it a spread of eighty feet, and, although it has lost some of its lowest branches, it is even now a mighty tree with no signs of age. It can be seen where the house lots at Nos. 49 and 61 on Collins Road meet that of No. 18 Annawan Road, about 300 feet south of the acqueduct.
Through the courtesy of Mr. George B. Rogers, the Super- intendent of Forestry in Newton, I was taken to see this famous oak, where the environment has been so changed that I could not seem to find it. During the past years I have asked many of the residents of Waban if it were still standing, but no one knew anything about it.
In the shade of this historic tree my sister Lillie and I used often to picnic during the long summer vacations with our school chums, Lillie and Mabel Collins. It was a lengthly process to get ready for a picnic in those days of the late eighties, with no telephones, letter-carriers or means of trans- portation, and when the nearest post office was at Newton Highlands; so, as we could see this great, spreading tree from the upper windows of our house up on the hill near where the Eliot station now stands, we devised a method of signalling to each other in the morning of the day which had been set to make sure that everything was O. K. They would go across the
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THE ELIOT OAK
field with a sheet and wave it from under the tree; we would shake a sheet from our attic windows. When the signal from the Collins girls had been seen and answered, we would scurry about to prepare our share of the luncheon for four; then hurry down the hill and, climbing over many a stone wall, cross the fields to Woodward Street, then along that dusty road we would trudge to Beacon and along Beacon to "the house with the pillars," then, joining the Collins girls there, all four crossed the wide fields and the acqueduct to The Tree. Such never-to- be-forgotten days did we pass under this beloved oak that Mr. Collins had told us used to shelter John Eliot and his group of Waban Indians so long before!
It was because of this historical fact that Mr. Benjamin Dickerman of Newton Highlands (who, because he had given more land than any other single donor for the Circuit Railroad, had been given the privilege of naming the first two stations that were built) named the one that stood near the place where John Eliot used to preach to the Waban Indians, Eliot, and the station built on the plains where they used to encamp, Waban. He told this to my mother, Mrs. Darius Cobb, and added that when the new Boston & Albany time-tables were printed the names of these two stations had been reversed. He complained to the managers of the railroad about this mistake, and was told that the error had been made in the printing of the time-tables; but that it was too late then to change the time-tables and tickets and, "what did it matter, anyway?"
So the place where the Waban Indians encamped and where their arrowheads have been found bears the name of Eliot, and the place where John Eliot preached to them is called Waban.
THE PLAINS
ELLSBREE D. LOCKE
Beginning with the year 1886, when the railroad was com- pleted from Newton Highlands to Riverside, the area from the bridge west to Washington Street was then known as the Plains; due, I presume, to the level plateau just north of the Charles River and extending to the railroad, south of what is now the Brae Burn Country Club. At that period, Beacon Street was a twenty-foot gravel road, bounded by stone walls on either side as far as what is now Irvington Street, to the west. From there to Washington Street, stone walls were in evidence, but not continuous. This entire plateau was given over to farm land, pastures and woods. There was a line of
LOOKING DOWN BEACON STREET TOWARDS THE SQUARE FROM THE LOCKE HOUSE Courtesy of Mr. Ellsbree Locke
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THE PLAINS
poles on the south side of Beacon Street, carrying wires for the fire alarm only; no electric or telephone wires were put through until some years later.
In the year 1890, there were seventeen houses from the bridge to Washington Street, a distance of seven-eighths of a mile, as follows: Edward Collins (later Fish and Pillsbury School), William H. Gould, Fred Collins, Hammond Wood- bury, all on the south side of Beacon Street.
On the north side, the school, which was a square wooden building of three stories, on the site of the present Angier School; only the first floor was finished. Of the two rooms, that on the south or Beacon Street side was for the so-called primary grades 1 to 4, presided over by Miss Noyes. On the north side, grades 5, 6 and 7 were under Miss Dinny, a little black-eyed woman of not over five feet two, but who could hold her own with the rugged boys from Fuller Street and lower Beacon Street. To attend the 8th and 9th grades, one had the choice of Newton Highlands or Auburndale, the fares being paid by the city.
Then came the City Farm or Poor House, a large three- story structure with copious barns, situated under the elms back of the property now belonging to Mrs. Rindge. An orchard of apple and pear trees surrounded it. I am not sure of the num- ber of inmates quartered there, but there must have been about twenty. A large stock of cattle, horses and pigs was main- tained, and the large barn held about 200 tons of hay. To secure pasturage, the city owned two large tracts of land north of the railroad and one west of the Hawkes farm. The two former were in the lowland which is now Brae Burn, one directly behind the Poor Farm and the other some distance west, separated by some land owned by W. B. Locke; both lots were connected by two stout wooden bridges over the railroad. In the year 1807 an almshouse was built in Auburndale, then in 1840 this Poor Farm in Waban was built. It was first presided
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WABAN - EARLY DAYS
over by a Mr. Ware; after many years a Mr. Moody took over. It was the duty of both of these men to see that enough food was raised for the inmates and sufficient fodder grown for the support of the animals; also to keep Beacon Street passable in winter and in repair during the summer.
Next beyond the Poor Farm came the house of A. D. Locke, then the house of W. B. Locke built in 1784, then G. W. Hawkes, Esther MacIntosh, and the Leonards; through this last abode in the summer the hens and ducks walked from the front door to the back. This was amusing and probably convenient. Mrs. Leonard was a character, never wearing shoes from early spring to very late fall. The next house was owned by Mr. Harrison, who later was a policeman, then Troy, Flynn, MacAllister and Kenney. This made the total of seventeen houses, for the Newton Lower Falls line is just west of the Kenney house.
RECOLLECTIONS of the LOCKE FAMILY
MRS. JOHN D. COWARD (MINNIE LOCKE)
William B. Locke was one of the early residents of what is now Waban. He was born in Cambridge in 1825 and there passed his youth. He was among the early "Forty-Niners," who made the long trek to California in search of fortune. The leader of the party died en route and William Locke replaced him. Long without water, the party finally reached a water- hole, only to find that the water was green with slime and very dangerous to drink. As many in this plight had contracted cholera from drinking from just such contaminated water-
THE LOCKE HOMESTEAD
Courtesy of Mr. Ellsbree Locke
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WABAN - EARLY DAYS
holes, W. B. Locke, for their own protection, stood over the water-hole with drawn gun. The party won through in safety.
After about two years, he returned to his quiet and in- dustrious life. He acquired a considerable tract of land on the north side of Beacon Street in the place now known as Waban. The house, still standing, dates back to 1784. Mr. Locke con- ducted a market garden business for many years, up to 1899. He lived here in Waban for about forty-nine years. To quote from a tribute to him, written by the Reverend William Hall Williams, the first minister in Waban: "His simple and con- sistent Christian life had exercised a strong beneficent influence over those who came in contact with him. In business he was recognized as a man of the highest integrity, and 'his word was as good as his bond.' In his family life he was most ten- derly affectionate, and as his children grew up about him and married, his position became almost patriarchal. In his re- ligious life, he was earnest and charitable and his faith was characterized by a gentle quality which has been happily described as 'sunny reasonableness.'"
The Locke farm adjoined the City Farm and there were but few houses between it and Lower Falls. When the railroad connecting Newton Highlands and Riverside was built, it bisected the Locke farm, and many years later part of the farm was taken by the Brae Burn Country Club. Long years later, streets were put through the farm and many beautiful homes are located all over the place. In Mr. Locke's early days there was no church, no school, no railroad station, no stores, and but few neighbors in that locality.
Six children, three boys and three girls, grew up on the farm and are now numbered as the old people in the com- munities in which they live. Their names are A. D. Locke of Waban; Miss Lucy Locke, also of Waban; H. E. Locke of Newton Upper Falls; Mrs. Minnie L. Coward and Mrs. Clara E. Nutter, both of Newton Upper Falls. Both Mrs. Coward and
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RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LOCKE FAMILY
Mrs. Nutter were born and married in the same room in the old farm house.
In 1890, the farm house was struck by lightning, the bolt entering an upstairs room, and, coming down the stairs, killed a large St. Bernard dog which was lying near the door. All five of us were stunned. My father came to first and I heard him saying, "We're struck!" Two of the girls ran down Beacon Street to the fire box, which was in front of the Poor Farm. The fire department arrived and seemed to get all fussed up. They went upstairs, tore the lace curtains off the windows and carried them downstairs, along with a feather bed, and they threw the wash-bowls, etc., out the windows. One fireman lurched downstairs carrying a rattan dummy such as is used in dressmaking. I lost all my belongings, but the house was saved and is still standing. The key to the front door was found in one of the rooms. There were a lot of men working on the road at the time of the fire and of course they came rushing over. The foreman was in the habit of swearing like a pirate with every breath he drew, but in the excitement of the fire, he never swore once. The next morning he showed up at the house to apologize for cussing so dreadfully at the fire! And he swore ten times in the course of his apology.
There were lots of tricks played by the children on each other. H. E. as a boy was putting inner-soles in his shoes one day and got the glue all on them, then he went to get a drink of water and M. L. took one and put it in his chair, glue side up. When H. E. came back, he sat down in his chair not being able to see in the candlelight that there was anything on it. Then he started looking all around and of course we girls were convulsed with laughter knowing where his sole was.
MINNIE LOCKE COWARD
THE LAMPLIGHTERS
Further notes on the lamplighters of Waban must in- clude the fact that the little Locke boys passed the job down, one to the next youngest, all through their school days. Charles began it. Mrs. John Coward (Minnie Locke) writes as fol- lows: "H. E. Locke as a boy worked for the city, lighting the twenty-seven street lights on Beacon, Chestnut, Boylston and Woodward Streets, a route about three miles in length. He received 25 cents per night for twenty nights each month; the other nights the streets were lighted by the Man in the Moon." These boys were in their teens when they scurried through the dusk from lamp to lamp.
Miss Joanna Donovan and her sister Katherine tell us that the first street lamp on the West Newton side of what later became Waban was at the corner of Fuller (then Homer) and Chestnut Streets. This was a kerosene lamp. A boy in his teens lighted it every night for 50 cents a month. He kept a ladder just inside the stone wall.
In a paper of the Waban Improvement Society, signed by Louis K. Harlow and L. M. Flint, this recommendation ap- pears: "To see if the City in consideration of the increase of taxable property (amounting this year to about $2000 in actual tax receipts), will not put in and support four gas lights on Windsor Road."
As late as 1900 Wabanites groped about after dark. Writes Mrs. Arthur Comer: "Street lighting and sidewalks were inade- quate, so much so that we were obliged to carry a lantern for safety."
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THE POOR FARM
In the old days, before Waban was Waban, this territory was known as "up by the Poor Farm," so says our friend Connie Mehigan. The City Farm had been in Auburndale, the care of the poor dating back to 1733. The city bought forty acres of land on the Sherburn Road, now Beacon Street, near the house of Matthius Collins. This land extended north- erly to the crest of Moffatt Hill, where the Poor Farm orchard started, and ran parallel to the present Windsor Road, with about four rows of apple trees and a stone wall along the whole length down the hillside to the Strong estate.
THE POOR FARM
Reproduced from Mothers' Rest Report of 1900 kindness of Miss Elizabeth Bartlett
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The Poor House was a long narrow building with large wings which housed everybody. A large barn with the pig pen just over the fence from the schoolhouse discouraged the pupils from later becoming farmers. The land was cultivated on both sides of the railroad track, which was spanned by a wooden bridge at this point. Further down at the Hawkes Farm there was a second bridge across the tracks.
Mr. Harold C. Hoyt of Auburndale writes: "My grand- father, John J. Ware, was the Superintendent there for eighteen years, from 1856 to 1874. During the Civil War, the inmates scraped lint to be used for wounded soldiers on battlefields (so I was told by my mother)." Here we include part of a letter from Miss Martha M. Dix, formerly of Fuller Street: "In my childhood Waban was not a village, but just a long road (Beacon Street) with a few homes and the Almshouse. John Ware who superintended the Almshouse was a highly re- spected citizen of the town and later city. I am not sure, but I think he was a road commissioner, for I remember that after a severe storm with heavy snow fall my father was called upon by Mr. Ware for the use of his horses to help open up the roads. So while other children got to school thereby, my sister and I were forced to remain at home for lack of means to go the mile of filled-in road that led to school. I sincerely hope that John Ware's name appears in your records for he was one of those reliable, efficient and kindly men who serve their towns in an able but modest way."
The inmates of the institution attended the Methodist Church at Newton Upper Falls. The building was torn down about 1902. The foundations are today buried under the play- ground. Some of the old apple trees of the orchard are still alive. After the present Almshouse was built on Winchester Street, this house was put to the use described in the following paper.
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