CONTRIBUTIONS THE OLD RESIDENTS' Si^toridkl S^^od^tioi^ IvOWELIv, MASS. ORG^^lSriZElD IDECKMBER 31, 18 6 8. VOL. IV. No. 1. PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION, AUGUST, 1888. " 'Tis greatly wise to talk wkh our past hours." — YoUNG. LOWELL, MASS. Morning Mail Print: No. 18 Jackson Street. 1888. CONTRIBUTIONS THE OLD RESIDENTS Si^tof idkl S^^odiktioq, LOWELL, MASS. ORG^AI^riZEr) DECEMBER 21, 18 6 i VOL. IV. NO. 1. PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION, AUGUST, 1888. "'7'w greatly wise to talk with our past /iours."—Y OVNG. LOWELL, MASS. MOKNiNG Mail Print: No. 18 Jackson Street. 1888. CONTENTS. I. How Pawtucket Bridge Was Built and Owned, by James S. Russell 1 n. Harriet Livermore, by C. C. Chase 17 III. A Local Musical Society of 1824, by Solon W. Stevens 24 IV. A Clielmsford Girl of Two Hundred Years Ago, by Ephraim Brown 34 V. Rev. Owen Street. D. D., a Memorial Discourse by Rev. J. M. Greene, D. D. . . 43 V 1 . Geological Explorations, by Rev. Owen Street, D. D 60 VII. History of the Lowell Grammar Schools, by Alfred Gilman 87 VIII. Kirk Boott. .\ Letter from Dr. John O. Green to Rev. Theodore Edson. U.n.lio I. Hoiv Paivtucket Bridge Was Built and Owned, read by James S. Rassell, August 4? 1887. February 4, 1792, the General Court of Massa- chusetts granted an act of incorporation to certain persons as the Proprietors of tlie Middlesex Merrimack River Bridge. The charter provided that, after fifty years, the legishiture may alter the tolls, from time to time ; and may authorize a canal on the bank, or under the bridge, for the passnge of boats and rafts. But, at the end of four years, on petition, and representation that the tolls were inadequate for the maintainance of the bridge, the legislature allowed an increase of the tolls, on an average, of about fifty per cent. The tolls were first designated in English money; but in 1790 they were changed to Federal money, indicating that the transition from English to Federal money, in currency of the country, was made about that time. The toll for a foot passenger was from two-thirds of a penny to one cent and five mills. It is not easy now to imagine how they made change at these rates. I remember when half cents were in circulation ; but they were so scarce that they readily passed for whole cents, and perhaps that explains how the toll became two cents, as it was when I first passed over the bridge. The original proprietors were : PaKIvEII VaKNUM, JiKADLEY VaUNUM, Jajiks Vaknum, Jonathan Vaunum, TlIORfAS KUSSELL, HkNJAMIN FRKNCir, OLD RESIDENTS niSTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Jonathan Simpson, Nathan Tyler, Louis de Maresquelle, Eliakim Wood, Joseph B. Varnum, Daniel Coburn, LoAMMi Baldwin, Moses B. Coburn, William Blanchard, Asa Richardson, Solomon Aiken, Oliver Whitney, Jr., Samuel Cotton, Joel Spaldino, William Hildreth, Jr., John Ford, Jeptha Spalding, Jona. P. Pollard, Josiah Fletcher, Jr., Thomas Beals, Peter Coburn, Jr., Ebenezer Hall ; and such others as might become proprietors. The first book of records, covering about fifteen years, is probably lying forgotten on the shelf of some borrower and cannot be reported here. But there is found on a loose paper in the hand writing of Dr. John 0. Green some extracts from those records which are of some interest at the present tune. February 20, 1702. Four models adopted ; and Joseph Wilson was paid £2. 2s for his ; Capt. John Ford r£1.8s for his; Lt. Jeptha Spalding 14s, and Jonathan Varnum 14s. Thanks were voted to these gentlemen ; and they desired to stay to supper. May 23. Meeting adjourned till to-morrow morning at 5 o'clock. This early rising at the very beginning, may have had its influence upon the success of their enterprise. June 11. Col. Loannni Baldwin ;ip})ointed to pi-ocure one ton of iron and two barrels of New England rum. June 27. Each man to be allowed half [)int of rum per day, when master workman calls for it. August 27. Voted that Col. Baldwin be desired to procure one barrel of New England rum, and half a barrel West India for the proprietors. October 24. Voted to have the bridge opened for HOW PAWTUCKET BRIDGE WAS BUILT AND OWNED. d passengers November 5, next, and that all persons that shall come to see the bridge that day be treated with flip or toddy, at the expense of the proprietors. Voted that Major Hildreth go to Boston and get $400 out of the bank, and desire the printers to publish the time of opening the bridge ; and procure of Mr. Hall one barrel of West India rum, and a quarter of a hundred of sugar. October 31. Voted to have a dinner provided for sixty persons at the expense of the proprietors ; and that Col. Varnum furnish the same. 1803. June 22. Being about to rebuild with stone abutments, voted to have the treasurer procure rum b}'' the barrel and sugar by the quantity, and deal it out to the workmen. This was before the temperance agitation com- menced ; and even if the fifteen gallon law had been enacted it would have had no effect upon these proprie- tors. But later, when certain officials were sent to lobby the legislature against reducing the tolls, at dinner time two of them happened into a bar-room. One says, "Deacon, what shall we have to drink?" "I don't know as it will do for me to take anything, unless it be some gin for my complaint." It don't appear whether the deacon was peculiar in having a complaint, for which gin was the antidote. 1804. July 18. Voted to strip the old bridge, and throw it down as soon as possible, with saving the tim- ber. November 19. Voted to build a new toll-house, 34 x 18 feet ; the sill to lay on the bridge. Many shares are sold at auction for neglect to pay assessments. 1805. April 2. Voted that those proprietors that OLD residents' itistokical association. do not attend, each one will be mulcted in two mugs of flip or toddy. 1807. Major Parker Varnum was chosen president, James Varnum treasurer, and Asahel Stearns clerk. Voted free passage to all persons to nny public meeting at the west meeting-house in Dracut. That freedom was continued from year to year. Also special reduced rates of toll were accorded to those passing regularly and often. Voted that the clerk take such measures as may be necessary, to have the road in Billerica from the brick- kiln toward the canal, long since laid out, opened and made as soon as may be. June 30. At the special meeting of the directors, voted that Parker Varnum, John Ford, and Asahel Stearns, Esqs., be a committee to confer with the direc- tors of the Andover Bridge, and of the Andover and Medford Turnpike corporations, relative to the measures proper to be adopted in opposing the granting of the prayer of the petition of Joseph B. A^arnum, Esq., and others, for a turnpike from the line of New Hampshire to Woburn ; and for a bridge over Merrimack I'iver. And that the said committee meet with the viewing committee, appointed by the legislature, to view the proposed route prayed for in the petition. 1808. February 1. At a special meeting of the directors, voted, that Messeurs Nathan Tyler and James B. Varnum be requested to attend to-moi'i'ow, before the committee of the general court, who have under consid- eration the report of the aforesaid viewing committee, to support the remonstrance presented b}- persons em- ployed in rafting ; and that thoy be paid therefor by this corporation. February 8. At a special meeting of the directors. IIOAV PAWTUCKET BIUDOE AVAS BUILT AND OWNED. voted that N«ith- market. II. Harriet Liverinore, read by C. C. Chase* J^ovember 17, 1887. In the early days of Lowell there was a well-known and remarkable woman, who went about the eastern part of New England as an evangelist, proclamiing, as did John the Baptist of old, that the kingdom of God was at hand, that Christ was soon to return to earth and estab- lish his throne at Jerusalem. She had large, lustrous eyes, and a voice of wonderful sweetness and power. Her dress was very plain, her manner was earnest and passionate, and everything about her bespoke the sin- cerity of her convictions and the ardor of her enthusiasm. Her name was Harriet Livermore. She was the daughter of Judge Edward St. Loe Livermore, of Lowell, and when her health demanded rest from her arduous evan- gelical labors and travels, she was wont to spend a few weeks with her father at his mansion in Belvidere — which was long known to us as the " Old Yellow House." But before speaking more upon Harriet Livermore and her erratic and interesting career, I will give you a short sketch of her genealogy and her childhood. Harriet Livermore was born in Concord, N. H., in 1788. Though generous to a fault, she possessed a spirit and temper which brooked no control. Though she acknowledged the generosity of her parents, she was not * In preparing this paper I am greatly indebted to Mrs. Abbott ot" Boston, who was the wife of Judge J. G. Abbott, well known to us all, and was half-sister to Miss Liver- more. Mrs. Abbott, several years ago, wrote for this Association a sketch of the life of Judge Livermore, her father. I am also much indebted to Miss Kebecca L Davis of East Haverhill, Mass., and to the Rev. S. T. Livermore, both of whom have published sketches of the life of this remarkable woman. 18 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. contented to live at home. Still her father, with a lib- eral hand, supported and educated her. She was intel- lectual and brilliant, and in conversation there was a great fascination in her voice. The poet Whittier, who knew her well, says : " In my boyhood Miss Livermore was a fine-looking young woman." She had a fair com- plexion, black hair and very large black eyes. During the winter which she spent with her father in Washing- ton, she attracted admiration for her beauty and her grace. In her separation from her parents, not wishing to tax too far the generosity of her father in supporting her, she engaged, for several terms, in teaching a school not far from the home of the poet Whittier in Haverhill, Mass. While thus employed she was a frequent visitor in the Whittier family. In AVhittier's "Snow Bound" she occupies a large space, but I will quote only a few lines from the description of the Whittier family on a winter's eve: " Another guest tliat winter night, Flashed back from lustrous eyes the light. Unmarked by time, and yet not young; The honeyed music of her tongue And words of meekness scarcely told A nature passionate and bold. She sat among us, at the best, A not unfeared, half-welcome guest. She blended in a like degree The vixen and the devotee. Her tapering hand and rounded wrist Had facile power to form a list. Brows saintly calm and lips devout. Knew every change of scowl or pout." But the feature most marked in the life of Harriet Livermore was her religious enthusiasm, in which she was very ardent and very inconsistent. She was a "per- fectionist," but in the very act of proving that she was free from sin, she would become violently angry. Slie proposed to join the Society of Friends, the avowed and special opposers of war and strife, but failed to gain the HARRIET LTVERMORE. 19 favor of those friends of peace by actually inflicting a blow in anger upon some one who failed to agree with her. She became principally known to the world as a " pilgrim preacher." She was an attractive speaker, and in those days, the novelty of seeing a woman acting the orator attracted many to listen to her eloquent and fasci- nating words. Even President Jackson permitted her to speak in the halls of Congress, and she was the first lady ever admitted to such a privilege. She went through the country preaching in every kind of place and to every kind of people. In school-houses, in churches, on city wharves, in prisons, her earnest and eloquent voice was heard. Her great themes were the speedy coming of the Savior to assume in person his throne in Jerusalem, and the right and duty of women to proclaim in public the religion of Christ. This theme she expressed in rhyme : " That females, by the spirit moved, May preach the name by Mary loved, Jesus, the humble sinner's friend." Three times she visited the Holy Land to be present at the coming of the Lord from heaven. She returned from her last visit when seventy-seven years of age. She wished to be buried there. On one of these travels she visited the eccentric Lady Hester Stanhope, grand- daughter of Lord Chatham, who for many years lived upon the sides of Mt. Lebanon waiting for the second coming of the Lord. The lady, who has been styled "the crazy queen of Lebanon," showed to her visitor two horses, on one of which the Lord would ride when he should come to earth, and herself upon the other. This declaration of Lady Hester Miss Livermore violently dis- puted, declaring that she herself was to be the Lord's 20 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. bride and to ride upon that steed ; and her eloquence is said to have gained her cause. Returning from her last visit to Jerusalem, an aged woman, she spent the last three years of her life in or near Philadelphia, supported by the kindness of relatives and friends. Her eccentric character continued to the last, though she grew more impatient with age. She died in 1868, at the age of eighty years, and her body rests in a small burying-ground in Germantown, Penn- S3^1vania. The little book containing a sketch of the life of Harriet Livermore, published three years ago, by Rev. S. T. Livermore, her distant relative, arraigns Mr. Whit- tier with much severity for his treatment of her in "Snow Bound." He complains that while her faults and her eccentricities are portrayed in glaring colors in that beautiful poem, her sincere and ardent piety, her glowing enthusiasm, her self-denying and untiring labors in the great work of saving men, the shame and poverty which she endured for Christ's sake, all these are scarcely honored with a single line. The poet in a letter to Mr. Livermore, the author, written eight years ago, assures him that he does not think that he has " exaggerated her character in ' Snow Bound ' and certainly did not intend to." One cannot, however, read the sketch of her life by Mr. Livermore and feel sure that the amiable poet has done full justice to the better part of the character of this remarkable woman. The poet intended to be just, but he knew her mainly in her earlier years, when her restless and active mind was most unsettled and her fierce spirit and violent temper were most uncontrollable. In after years came toil and suffering, poverty bravely endured, humiliating failure and cruel mockings, and those, doubtless, had in some degree subdued and soft- ttARRlET LIVERMORE. 21 ened the turbulence of her heart. She was born with a passionate and excitable nature. She loved fondly; she hated fiercely. She says of herself : " When I was a child, whatever 1 loved became an idol. Whenever [at the boarding-school] my father came to see me, my joy amounted to ecstasy ; when he departed my grief was unbounded. Once in conversation about him with one of my female companions, I said he was the handsomest man in the world, asking her if she did not think so, and not receiving the repl}^ I wished I gave her a severe blow on her face." Again she says in regard to a young Elder who treated her coolly, when on one of her evangelistic preaching tours : '• I inconsiderately and rashly called him a hypocrite, and told him I believed the devil was in him. For this usurpation I had cause to make him an humble acknowledgment in a church meeting." In re- gard to her uncontrollable temper she was, throughout her life, always sinning and always repenting. Such a spirit needed a mother's firmness and love. But her mother died before she was five years old. When only eight years of age she was sent from home to a boarding- school. When she became a young lady she accom- panied her father, then a member of Congress, to Wash- ington, where she was flattered as one of the most grace- ful belles. Her father was indulgent and she moved in the most fashionable circles. She read romances. She indulged in the dance and in card-playing. She was fond of dress and was the gayest of the gay. She fell in love with a young physician, but fate and family pre- judice forbade the nuptials. He died while surgeon in the United States army, in Pensacola, Florida. At the age of twenty-three years her mind experi- enced a wonderful change. Of this change she says : " I was tired of the vain, thoughtless life I had led. Dis- 22 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. appointed in all my hopes of sublunary bliss, I drew up a resolution in my mind to commence a religious life." From this time forth, until at the age of eighty years, she died in an almshouse, she was a religious enthusiast. Her early religious experience was intense. " My food," she says, "became tasteless; T scarce took enough to prevent starvation. Sleep fled from m}^ eyes, my flesh declined, my spirits fell, and I drew near the dead. At length came peace and a sweet sense of pardon." She became a devout reader of the Bible and religious books, usually sitting up until past the midnight hour. She was educated as an Episcopalian, but she affiliated with the Congregationalists and Presbyterians. Subsequently she became a zealous Quaker, and, in conversation, used the shibboleths thee and thou. At length the subject of bap- tism filled her mind, and she became an intense Baptist. So ardently did she desire to be immersed, that in the month of January the ice of mid-winter was removed to make room for the performance of the rite. After belonging to so many religious sects she at length found her grave in a small cemetery of the Dunkards in Pennsyl- vania. In interpreting the Bible she implicitly gave to the glowing words of prophecy their literal meaning. Hence it was that the great theme of her preaching was the actual coming of Christ to reign in person as King in Jerusalem. Three times, at least, she went to Jerusa- lem to be present to welcome the Savior when he should descend upon the Mount of Olives. On one of these journeys she started with only fifty dollars. She re- turned from her last voyage, as I have said, when seventy- seven years of age. In these visits to the Holy City, she often suffered from sickness and want. Indeed she was sometimes almost reduced to beggary. In this country she preached in very many of the HARRIET LIVERMORE. 23 towns of New England. Under four different presidents she preached in Washington, and once President J. Q. Adams was one of her hearers. Our own Governor Briggs, then a Senator in Congress, thus writes : " Wash- ington, May 27, 1832. I attended church at the Capitol this morning and heard the celebrated Harriet Livermore. I have heard but few better models of correct speaking. She is, without exception, the sweetest singer I ever heard." Besides her arduous labors in preaching she was the author of numerous small books and pamphlets on religi- ous themes. As an author she did not excel. Her style was very florid and diffuse, and her works met with but a meager sale. She was fond, too, of writing poetry, but her poems deserve but little praise. Some may be in- terested in knowing that some of her books and a like- ness of her may be seen in the Massachusetts Historical Society Library of Boston. Doubtless many of the citizens of Lowell remember Miss Livermore. Our worthy secretary once had an opportunity to be the publisher of one of her books, but she was so unreasonable in her demands that the negoti- ations failed. Many anecdotes regarding her still float in the community. One Lowell hidy recently told me that in one of her religious meetings when the singers failed to please her, she threw the hymn book at their heads, and that on one occasion when the parents were to be absent from home, and left Harriet in charge of the younger children, she kept them all day locked up in the barn. But this article is already too long, and I will abruptly close by referring those who may wish to know more of this eccentric woman, to Mr. Livermore's sketch of her life, in the Lowell City Library. III. A Local Musical Society of 1824, hy Solon W. Stevens, read February 0, 1888. By the kindness of a friend an opportunity was recently given me to examine a curious and interesting book, which purported to contain the " Records " of the " Beethoven Musical Society," an organization belonging to those early days when Lowell was a part of the town of Chelmsford. Its perusal awakens peculiar and pleasant reminiscences. On the fly-leaf in the beginning there is an elaborate and exceedingly creditable specimen of the penman's art, in the drawing of a goose-quill with innumerable and well-proportioned flourishes, beneath which, in German text, are the words "Beethoven Musical Society," and under this, in one small space among the labyrinth of curves, may be found, if one has good eyesight, the fol- lowing excellent sentiment : " May Harmony of Heart and Voice ever Prevail ! " In perusing these "Records" the reader is carried back to primitive times in this locality, when oil lamps, by their flickering, "made darkness visible," when money was reckoned in shillings and pence, and when Deacon Gould's " Social Harmony " and " The Bridgewater Col- lection " were the standard authorities for use in vocal musical culture. Less than a thousand persons were then dwelling on " Chelmsford Neck," a large part of whom were in the employ of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. They were mostly young and middle-aged people, Indus- A LOCAL MUSICAL SOCIETY OF 1824. 25 trious, frugal, and representing different nationalities, all animated by a common purpose — that of earning a living. Conspicuous among the buildings of those days were the first Merrimack Mill with its adjoining boarding- houses ; the residence of Mr. Kirk Boott, near the Con- cord River ; the " Mansion House," kept by Capt. Jona- than Tyler, where the Massachusetts Mills now stand ; Judge Livermore's residence, on the site now occupied by St. John's Hospital ; the rows of low huts east of the North Common, usually called the "Acre "; the popular hotel on Pawtucket Street, which afterwards became the residence of Dr. J. C. Ayer; and the two rival houses known as " Mixer's Tavern " and " Blake's Tavern," sit- uated respectively on Central and Gorham streets. Neither locomotive, horse-car, telegraph, nor telephone had made their appearance, and a trip in the packet, " Gov. Sullivan," down the Middlesex Canal, was consid- ered the grand tour. It is to be inferred that the vexa- tious and difficult question of " license or no license," had not yet troubled the minds of men, for we read that with both passenger and boatman " Hip " and " black- strap" were the genteel beverages of the time. Mr. Kirk Boott was the presiding genius of the place, and the Merrimack Manufacturing Company were the owners of more than three-fourths of all the land and other tax- able property. Our fathers evidently believed in the weight and character of a great name ; for, however modest their pretentions, and whatever limit might be placed upon their abilities, they invoked prestige by the adoption of the name of one of the world's great composers, perhaps the greatest, in the title of their organization. Purists might possibly be tempted to inquire as to the necessity of the word " musical " since it would readily be assumed 26 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. that a " Beethoven " society would naturally be consid- ered a musical one, in distinction from a debating society or any other kind ; but whatever redundancy there may seem to be in the title may be left for the critics to explain. In accordance with a notice previously given, a meeting was held in the school-house of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, on the evening of Wednesday, the 15th of September, 1824, at which it was voted to form a " Sacred Musical Society," and a committee was appointed to draft a constitution. On the evening of Thursday, the 16th, at an adjourned meeting, this com- mittee ]-eported that it had attended to the duty assigned, and had the honor of submitting " the enclosed form " for examination. This " enclosed form " of a constitution was adopted, the preamble of which reads as follows : " Wherkas, Sacred Music has, in all ages of the Church, been deemed an interesting and important part of the worship of God, calculated to inspire the soul with feelings of gratitude to Hira, and sympathy for others, and V)y which, when well ordered, the mind is filled with devotion, and the thoughts directed to Him who is the only proper object of our worship in the Sanctuary. In order, there- fore, to establish a social compact for the purpose of improving our- selves in the science of Sacred music, and for the promotion of Har- mony in the duties which may be assigned us as a Musical Society in the Congregation which will worship in the Stone Church now build- ing in this place, and for the establishment, regulation, and j)erma- nency of the same, we, whose names are under written, do constitute and ordain the following as our constitution." Then follow sixteen articles, some of which were subsequently modified or repealed. . Article II. designates the officers as president, vice president, instrumental master, two choristers, treasurer and secretary. Article VI. makes it the duty of the instrumental master to A LOCAL MUSICAL SOCIETY OF 1824. 27 direct the instrumental performers. Article VII. makes it the duty of the choristers to select tunes, give direc- tions, and lead in all the vocal performances of the choir according to seniorit3^ By article X. the president, vice president, instrumental master, and choristers are consti- tuted a " committee of exigencies," and a board of direction to settle incidental questions and to call special meetings. The school-house mentioned in the preamble is what was then known as the Merrimack School-House, and stood upon the present site of the Green Grammar School. It was the same building which Mr. A. B. Wright saw when, on the 24th of April, 1826, he made his entrance into the town "perched upon the pinnacle of a limited amount of furniture, piled upon a country farm wagon, drawn by two horses having a jaded and somewhat dilapidated appearance." The religious his- tory of Lowell had its origin in this school-house. In it the Episcopalians worshiped until St. Anne's Church was built ; then the Baptists held services here until the First Baptist Church, on Church Street, was finished ; and then the Congregationalists met here until the First Congre- gational Church was completed on the same site where the new First Congregational Church building now stands. According to a note appended to Mr. Wright's inter- esting paper, published in Vol. III., No. 4, of " Contribu- tions of the Old Residents' Historical Association," this building was subsequently moved to the west side of Cabot Street, where it now stands, next south of a brick building on that street. Let us hope that such a land- mark, thus consecrated to education, music and religion, may long be carefully preserved. The stone church, also mentioned in the preamble, was St. Anne's Church. The first name on the list ot subscribers is that of 28 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Mr. Edward Sherman. At different times between Sep- tember 17, 1824, and October 12, 1825, seventy-six other gentlemen seem to have added their names, some of whom afterwards became quite prominent in public affairs — such as Elisha Huntington, .Joshua Swan, Daniel Balch and others — and the last name on the roll, written with a pencil, is H. J. Baxter. At the October meeting, in 1824, and at the September meeting, in 1825, the committee on exigencies was instructed to invite such "Female Singers" to join the society, as it might think best. Accordingly we find here two lists of " invited females." The first set of officers chosen was as follows : President, Joshua Swan ; vice president, James H. B. Ayer ; instrumental master, Abner Ball ; first chorister, Edward Sherman ; second chorister, Benjamin P. Brown ; treasurer, George B. Pollock ; secretary, Wm. Goodwin. Nathaniel D. Gould was chosen "Instructor," and re- quested " to bring 36 such books as he would think most proper, if approved of by the society, would be accepted." It is not a matter of wonder that the book considered " most proper " was Mr. Gould's own book, " Social Har- mony." In October, 1824, the " Rev. Mr. Edson " was " accepted " as an honorary member of the society. It seems the duties of the first chorister were somewhat multifarious, for it was voted that Mr. Edward Sherman, who held this position, should furnish the society with lamps, oil, wood, etc. About this time application was made to the Right Reverend Alexander \^. Griswold, the Bishop of the Diocese, to consecrate the " stone church," which had just been completed, " to the worship of Almighty God, according to the canons, liturgy, and discipline of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of A LOCAL MTTSTCAL SOCIETY OF 1824. 29 America." Accordingly Wednesday, March 16, 1825. was appointed for th^ ceremony of consecration. The Beethoven Musical Society took a conspicuous part in these exercises, with an orchestra consisting of a double- bass, a violoncello, two clarinets, and two violins. Wlint- ever criticism may have been made relative to this per- formance, the inference may be safely drawn, we should presume, that the instrumental accompaniment was. by no means too loud for the vocal parts. The services were opened with an anthem entitled " I was glad when they said unto me," and closed with Handel's ever-famous " Hallelujah Chorus." It is recorded that " the music was a very prominent feature of the consecration." At the annual meeting held in September, 1825, Mr. James H. B. Ayer was chosen president of this Associ- ation ; Mr. Edward Sherman, vice president ; Mr. Abner Ball was continued in the office of instrumental master ; Messrs. Amasa Kimball and George Brownell were elected first and second choristers ; Mr. Adam Morrill, treasurer ; and Mr. William Goodwin, secretary. It may be inferred that another meeting, held a little later in this month, was one of unusual interest, for one article of the con- stitution was modified and another one repealed. The vote was also passed " that the society meet every second Sunday evening, at the school-house, commencing to- morrow, at early candle light, for the purpose of im- provement in singing." We infer that the discipline was somewhat strict ; for at this meeting it was voted that Messrs. Ayer, Abbott and Morrill interview Mr. Brown " respecting his making an improper observation about the members of the society." It is a pleasant relief, however, to notice that at a meeting held soon after- wards it was voted to dismiss the subject. In September, 1826, Mr. Cyril French was vice 30 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. president ; Mr. Grovner Buttrick, instrumental master ; Jesse Phelps, treasurer ; and Nathaniel Currier, secretary. With one exception there is no record of another busi- ness meeting until March 4, 1827. Then a committee was chosen " to adopt some measures relating to a public concert." Luke Eastman was placed on this committee. According to tradition Mr. Eastman had considerable reputation in these parts as a successful teacher of music in singing schools, 'and the singing schools of New Eng- land were a peculiar institution, contemporaneous with the district school. Both have been to a great extent superseded by modern fashions ; but for thoroughness of legitimate work it may reasonably be dt)ubted whether the new is much superior to the old. According to the "Records," the Beethoven Sacred Musical Society held its last meeting on the 5th of September, 1827, after it had been voted that " the thanks of the society be presented to tlu; officers of said society for the able man- ner in which the same had been conducted ;" it was also voted to give the " balance of monies " in the treasury to the " Female Philanthropic Society." and the organiz- ation be dissolved " and the books deposited in George B. Pollock's hands." To those who are familiar with the financiiil condi- tion of certain musical organizations of the present day, the idea of having a surplus in the treasury at the time of dissolution, may seem wellnigh incredible. Thus it appears that " The Beethoven Musical Society " had an existence of about three years, and then by mutual con- sent it dissolved. No particular reason is given for dis- banding ; but it is eas}^ to imagine that new interests absorbed the attention of its members, as business and public affairs increased in importance in a growing connnunity. A LOCAL 31USICAL SOCIETY OF 1824. 31 Among the musical organizations which have, from time to time, since then enjoyed greater or less prosper- ity, may be mentioned the " Lowell Union Singing Society," another " Beethoven Musical Society," under the direction of Mr. Metz, the " Philharmonic Society," the "Otto Club," the " Amphions," and the "Lowell Choral Society " now in existence. It can hardly be said that Lowell people have, as a rule, been very liberal in their support of any public musical organization. Various reasons might be given, but perhaps none would be satisfactory. It is not owing to a lack of intelligence, nor to a lack of appreciation of meritorious efforts, but to a feeling of indifference, when comparison is made with tlie attention paid to other en- terprises, that musical societies in this city have held such a precarious tenure of existence. In Germany it is simply natural to be musical. To use a familiar phrase, " It is in the air." No matter how obscure the town may be, it will have its singing companies and its bands of players. Music belongs to this people by tradition, by birthright, by temperament, and by patient, persistent cultivation. Beside, much of the pecuniary assistance necessary for the maintenance of these organizations is furnished as a government subsidy. It may be there is something in the atmos- phere of a manufactui'ing community which has hitherto been uncongenial to the fostering care of musical art. Practical affairs, so called, and things which look to im- mediate results in dollars and cents, principally engross the attention of our busy people. But the importance of art culture is realized more and more as time goes by, and there are assurances for the hope that ere long our city may have the reputation of being a musical as well as a manufacturing centre. 32 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, The remainder of this book of " Records " consists of a series of empty leaves. There are those to whojoa the written pages of these " Records " may be as devoid of interest as these empty leaves. But to some who can recognize among the signers of the constitution of this society, the signatures of kindred long since joined to the "great majority," there is a fascination in the perusal which prompts the imagination to magnify reminiscences almost into realities. Like the lion in Milton's poem, which sprung from the ground in maturity of valor and strength, a large, busy and prosperous city has grown with wonderful rapidity on the spot where these men and women toiled and planned for temporal and spiritual purposes, early and late, and in the fear of God. Only a very few are living of those whose names appear as members of this company organized for improvement in the service of sacred song. The music which they sang seems quaint to us, and sometimes provokes a smile. The modulations which give peculiar character to old " Den- mark," and strike the notes of triumph in " The Dying Christian," sound strange to ears accustomed to the weird harmonies of " The Redemption " and " The Prodigal Son." Great changes have been made in the character and the construction of musical compositions, both great and small, within the last quarter of a century. The influ- ence of the theories of Richard Wagner has been felt along the whole line from the oratorio and opera to the simple song. Many harmonic combinations which once would linve been rejected for their harsh and discordant character, are now coiisidercnl the proper means of pro- ducing desirable effects. Fashion in these matters varies from one generation to another, but if the so-called " music of the future," shall fail to attain permanent A LOCAL MUSICAL SOCIETY OF 1824. 3fS popularity with the masses, it will be because of the absence of that Mozartean feature which the common people call tune. Occasionally, for the sake of novelty, we powder the hair and array the body in fantastic costume, and try to imitate the customs of other days, while basses and sopranos, altos and tenors, vie with each other in shouting in fugue the phrases of the music of " ye olden time." All this we regard as a pleasant pastime, and so it is. But once in a while, amid the pleasantry, the faces and the voices of another choir are seen and heard through the mists of years, the remembrance of which comes like a benediction to some of us as the busy days glide rapidly away. A little segment of the lives of people, as they had their being in this locality over sixty years ago, has ' been the theme of this hasty sketch. Sixty years hence some scribbler may employ an idle hour in prying into our affairs, and gossiping about cus- toms which to him will, doubtless, seem laughable and queer. In the perusal of our " records " will he be moved by a sense of gratitude, and will he wish it were possible to reach across the chasm and shake hands with the workers ? Who can tell ? IV. A Chelmsford Girl of Two Hundred Years Ago, hy Ephraim Brown, read Fehrioary 9, 1888. When John Heald came from Bervvick-on-Tweed, Scotland, in 1635, it is understood that his oldest son, John, was verging on manhood, yet he did not marry Sarah Deane till June 10, 1661, or twenty-six years after. The name of their oldest child was also John, born in 1666, and he married Mary Chandler, of Chelmsford, Mass., and settled in that part of Carlisle, Mass., which was then a portion of Concord. His residence about 1688 to 1695, was near the present Mansion House of Major Benjamin F. Heald, about one and one-half miles southerly of Carlisle Cen- tre, near the westerly road to Concord. Mary Chandler Heald seems to have been a woman of remarkable nerve, force and executive ability, and to have impressed upon her immediate posterity, her chil- dren and grandchildren, these characteristic elements in a large degree. It is related by Major B. F. Heald, who had it from his grandfather, that in the year 1693, when her second son, Timothy, was an infant, sleeping in the cradle, and Mary was busy about her household duties, with no other than her infant children in the house with her, the balmy autumn morning wafting its breezes over her humble dwelling, a heavy distant sound caught her listening ear, and from her door she caught the echo of baying hounds from the distant highlands. A CHELMSFORD GIRL OF TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 35 In that period of primitive isolation from other set- tlements, our ancestors, in the general silence of the wilderness, amid the apprehension of incursions of wild beasts and cruel Indians, in the lonesomeness and fear of the deep, dark forest, in the longing for sounds of human voices and wishes for human sympathy and neighborhood, to them even the baying of domestic hounds was a wel- come sound, not often enjoyed, and yet welcome, for it spoke of hunters near — welcome guests indeed, bringing news from the civilized world and cheer from distant friends and relatives. What was the significance of this modulated echo which she heard ? It caught her ear again, and by and by it became more pronounced and distinct. She had a double interest in it, for her husband, with the men of the region, had appointed that day and had started at dawn of that morning with their hounds, in a body and unitedly, to hunt down and destroy a savage and destructive wild beast that, prowling around, had been a devastation to their fields, herds, flocks, and growing crops, and a ter- ror to the region. 'A father could not go out in the morning without the fear that his home — wife and little ones — might fall victims to the monster ; a child could not go to the spring for water in safety. All attempts to run it down and destroy it, heretofore, had failed. Its depredations continued unabated and constant. Its bold- ness and cunning seemed to increase from its many escapes from man and its victories over dogs. It was too powerful and savage for their hounds to conquer — they were crushed, torn and repulsed ; too fleet for the hunters to overtake, and too cunning to fall into their ambuscades and traps. Cattle, sheep, swine, dogs, and grain fields were its victims, and human beings might be ; and as it became more bold and aggressive, it came nearer 36 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. to their homes daily, until the people's fear and excite- ment were raised to fever heat. It was the antecedent and prototype of Putnam's wolf, by fifty years. It was before Putnam was born. Putnam and his people only enacted over again what was done nearly two generations earlier, and what was more, done by a woman single handed and alone. Putnam, with his neighbors at hand, entered the den ; this woman, alone, entered the glen. Putnam's act was bold, but the rope around his feet and the strong hands of his neighbors and friends outside the cave, gave assurance of safety from death, and within the narrow walls his sinewy arms, trenchant blade and resolute nerve made him more than a match for any wolf ; but this woman had no rope, none near to help, no loving hand for rescue, not even a dog to aid. All — husband, his hounds and his trusty rifle — were on the distant hills in the chase. She had nothing but courage, skill, strong nerves, a correct eye, and her practised rifle, upon which to rely. The hunters had found the beast in his lair. His menace for a fight was met by many dogs and men, and he fled with dogs and hunters in full pursuit — blood at highest heat. The race had now begun in earnest. It was over hills and vales, through woods and swamps, anon on the summit then over the crest, down in the valley, undulnting as the face of the country', and tlie deep, heavy bay, from the top of the hill, floating faintly through the forest trees, in at Mary's open door, was the signal from the race a mile away, that first caught her ear. Accustomed to frontier life, a hunter herself, she at once understood, by the nature of the chase, revealed by its echoes, that it was no ordinary game that the hunters and their pack were pursuing. Strong voices came from A CHELMSFORD GIRL OF TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 37 the hill tops, muffled tones from the valleys, whence the sound struggled up through dense woods, soon to be clearer and nearer from a nearer eminence. Mary saw that the chase was drawing towards her home. Her heart began to beat with high excitement. She watched with eye and ear the progress of the chase, for she could see the distant wood-clad hills from whence the hoarse tones came, and knew the location of the valleys and swamps that lay in the path of the chase. As the leader of an orchestra can interpret every sound from his performers, so Mary could interpret the music that came to her ex- cited ear, and by it could read the condition and position of the game, hunters and hounds ; whether the game was fleeing or at bay, was exhausted or fleet, was in sight of the dogs or hidden from their view ; and an occasional human voice, shouting " To the right," " To the left," " Close up the centre," told that the hunters were on both flanks and in the centre of the chase — far behind, but eager and sure. Hounds indicate by their baying, whether they are pursuing their game by sight or by scent, Avhether they are near their prey or far off. In fact, a moment's reflection will show that the same tone and volume of baying will convey to a practised hunter's ear, the position of the head of the hound, whether ele- vated in air as when pursuing b}^ sight, or its down-to- the-ground position to follow the trail by scent, as when pursuing the game by the sense of smelling. Again the increased or diminished excitability of the baying indi- cates whether the hounds are gaining or losing ground — are in sight of the game or far behind; and the direction in which the game is fleeing is clearly shown by the sound, and so also it is shown when the game is brought to bay. Your reader has often watched hounds chasing foxes on New Hampsliire hills and noticed, with great in- 38 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. terest, the progress of the chase, both with eye and ear, and all hunters corroborate this statement most fully. This young, brave woman ere long detected, by the direction of tlie chase, that the beast was approaching the near swamp adjacent to the cleared land that sur- rounded her homestead, and whose dark and dense re- treat seemed a fit hiding place for the fleeing game. Did she shut up and barricade her doors and windows with herself inside, retreat to the cellar or garret, faint, scream, groan, give way to despair, or do some other timid thing? No ; instead she resolutely determined to capture the game herself. She quickly shut all the doors and win- dows, seized her long rifle, picked the flint, left her infant Timothy in the cradle asleep, and sallied forth into the deep shades of that swampy forest to meet the monster, in the very spot which she believed it would pass. Soon the waving bushes, the rustling leaves, the heavy, man- like tread, and the loud breathing, told that the monster was rushing directly upon her, and now, full in sight, was charging upon her very footsteps. With the rifle at her eye, her finger on the trigger, she received his on coming without flinching, and when the beast rose with open mouth and a terrific growl, doubly enraged at the sight of this new enemy, striking with its hugh arms right and left to clear its way, she pulled the trigger. The echo of her rifle, mingled with the roar of the beast, rolled over the region and told every hunter that a grand day's work was done. Expecting to meet some other and unknown hunter and the captured game, the hunters rushed forward, jind, amazed, saw the dying beast leaping vainly to regain its feet, with a bullet through its heart, roaring fearfully, and this woman, rifle in hand, looking calmly on surveying the work of her hands, and giving welcome to the hounds and hunters gathering around. A CHELMSFORD GIRL OF TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 39 She had shot a huge and ferocious bear. The hunters, in amazement and admiration, gave cheer upon cheer, not only because the dreadful beast was dead, but because it was killed in the forest by a woman all alone. An interesting question now arises, especially to young readers : To whom did this dead beast belong — to the woman or the hunters? It was valuable; worth, in our present currency, thirty or forty dollars. There is a recognized hunters' code that game pursued until ex- hausted and then driven within the reach of others who capture it without much effort, belongs to the party who started and run it down. A fox was chased on Wilton hills and driven all day — exhausted, it crossed upon my father's land. A neighbor's boy, with a fresh dog, cap- tured the fox and claimed it as his by right of capture. The hunters claimed and received it by the rights of first discovery and the hunters' code. The writer discovered a swarm of bees and forty pounds of honey in the forest of a neighbor, and by these rights obtained the honey, although a valuable tree was cut down to obtain it. By this code Mary's bear would belong to the men hunters. It is altogether probable, however, that she would be allowed a portion equal to the share of any other party, and perhaps the hunters'chivalry assigned to her and her husband a much larger portion. That the beast was dead was reason for great rejoicing. Not far from this period, about 1703, during the French and Indijin War, the hostile tribes of Indians gave cause for great alarm in the settlements of Con- cord, Carlisle, Chelmsford, and other towns. Numerous reports of savage murders were brought to the ears of these people, and their apprehension became extreme and painful. Although they had cleared their lands, erected houses and established homes, there was constant 40 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. fear that the midnight whoop would sweep through the valley of the Concord and penetrate to its sparsely set- tled borders, carrying desolation and death in its course. The capture and escape of Hannah Dastin, of Haverhill, Mass., was only five years before. There were but few inhabitants outside the settled villages ; these were likely to become victims, and before help could arrive the work of destruction and death might be complete. Many of the people shut up their houses and moved to the villages for safety. The Carlisle settlements were some miles from Concord village and seemed much exposed. When the movement to the village became active, Mary Chandler Heald called her remaining neighbors to- gether for consultation. They came the more willingly because she made the call ; besides they greatly desired to remain, keep their houses and carry on their farms. They had great respect for her tact, skill and courage. She urged the policy and duty of holding and defending their homes — of helping one another. Some were hesi- tating and timid, and fears were having control of rea- sons, when Mary, with ardent and courageous zeal, declared " You may all go, 1 shall stay — even every one of you, I shall stay!'' Her resolute declaration sent a thrill of courage into the hearts of the people and they stood their ground by her side, and before long the alarms faded away. One cool, decided, resolute, firm spirit controlled and drove away the fears of all around it, and braced up courage to the fighting stand for life and homes. And so it is generally. Hannah Dustin and Mai'y Heald were here much alike. Thus it is seen, she was a competent, skilful hunter and pioneer. The times as well as her birth made her so. Necessity rather than choice, compelled her to do A CHELMSFORD GIRL OF TWO HUNDRED TEARS AGO. 41 the work of the pioneer settler. The wilderness must be subdued, homes formed and defended, and want and hunger driven from the door. Major B. F. Heald, of Carlisle, by whom these accounts were given to the writer in 1886, has seen and stood under the spreading branches of a large apple tree from the shelter of which Mary Chandler Heald sent a ball from her trusty rifle which killed a deer, standing at the distance of twenty-eight rods. She could supply her table liberally with her rifle. She was also noted for great physical strength and agility. Trained to labor, her system became equal to the severest efforts, rivaling most men. Her husband, a strong man, tested his strength by lifting a heavy weight. She could lift the same weight with her husband sitting on it. She did not feel the nervous prostration that so affects the women of the present day. A happy state. Is the present condi- tion of society, with all its refinement and luxury and its afflictions incident thereto, any gain upon the past ? The merry, cheerful spii'it flowing from good health and a useful life, is worth more than the languid and gloomy heart of enervated luxury. Mr. Heald says she signed her name by a cross, but yet was of great intelligence in the common affairs of life. Though so courageous and able, she was gentle, tender and kind. She was greatly respected and beloved by all who knew her. She was the most influential woman in the region, and died greatly mourned at the age of ninety years. She had a son, born in 1711, named Ephraim, who was one of the first settlers of Townsend, Mass., and who died in 1802, aged ninety-one years. He was a noted hunter. His oldest son, named Ephraim also, became, in 42 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 1757, the first settler of Temple, N. H., and owner of Heald Mountain, which he kept for his hunting ground, and Avhich is so conspicuously seen from the highlands surrounding Lowell on every side. In him the pioneer qualities of his grandmother, Mary Chandler Heald, seem to have been greatly multiplied, and the history of his life is as romantic as that of Daniel Boone. A house built and occupied by a Heald family of Carlisle about this time, in 1807 become the birth-place of Prof. James S. Russell, who was for some forty years professor of mathematics in the High School of Lowell, and who is so well and favorably known to the members of this Association and the public. This house is now standing in this region and inhabited. F. Rev. Owen Street, D. D.; a Memorial Dis- course hy Rev. J. M. Greene, I). B., ])reached at Hi^h Street Church, Sunday, June 26, 1887. Psalms xxxvii. 37. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright ; for the end of that man is peace." Herodotus records a custom among the Ethiopians of setting the embalmed remains of illustrious person- ages in glass sepulchres, that their names and proportions might be seen by passers-by. The Bible seems to attach much importance to the memory of the wise and good. The woman who poured the alabaster box of precious ointment on the head of the Lord was, for that one act, to be held in everlasting remembrance. The sacred Scriptures pronounce an encomium upon nearly every holy man or woman whose name is found on their pages. The lives of the saints constitute no small part of the evidences of Christianity, and they are a no insig- nificant means in building up truth and righteousness in the world. It is, therefore, well for us to assemble in this place and obey the divine command, " Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright ; for the end of that man is peace." I need hardly say that the word "perfect" here means complete. It has a spiritual signilicance, referring more especially to one's aim and purpose. The perfect flower has all the essential parts — stamens and pistils. The perfect man lacks nothing needed to constitute the 44 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. true man — the fear of God, the love of humanity, truth, righteousness, temperance, faith, sympathy, char- ity, hope, joy. Such a complete or "perfect" man was he whose life we consider to-day. He was also an " upright" man. His life, his words, his works, his example, all pointed straight up to the throne of God. His was a zenith, not a nadir-bound soul. Dr. Owen Street was born in East Haven, Conn., September 8, 1815. His father was Nicholas Street, an intelligent farmer there, much esteemed for his solid and manly virtues. He lived to the age of eighty-two. Dr. Street's grandfather was Rev. Nicholas Street, the second pastor of the Congregational Church in East Haven, Conn. This was his only pastorate, and extended over a period of fifty-one years. He died on the fifty- first anniversary of his ordination, aged seventy-six. Dr. Street's great-grandfather was Rev. Samuel Street, first pastor of the church in Wallingford, Conn. That was his only pastorate and continued forty-two years, the last seven of which he had a colleague. He graduated at Hsirvard College in 16G4. He was ordained in Wiillingford in 1674, and died there January 10, 1717, aged eiglity-two years. He was one of the pioneers for the settlement of the town, and under his supervision the church there was organized. Dr. Street's great-great-grandfather was Rev. Nicholas Street, born and educated in England. He came to New England about the year 1637. He was settled for more than twenty years as colleague (teacher) with Rev. Wil- liam Hooke of Taunton, Mass. On the 26th of Septem- ber, 1659, he was installed as a colleague (teacher) with Rev. John Davenport, the first pastor in New Haven, Conn. There he remained fifteen years, till his death. REV. OWEN STREET, D. D. 45 April 22, 1674, aged seventy-one years. Dr. Leonard Bacon says of him: "He was a pious, judicious, modest man, and no inferior preacher." On his mother's side also. Dr. Street had a conspic- uous ancestry. His great-grandfather, Rev. M. Luce, was a French Huguenot exile, who was obliged to leave his native land for his Protestant faith. Rev. John Woodward, second pastor of the church in Noi'wich, Conn., and a scribe of the Saybrook synod, was also his great-grandfather. Dr. Street was one of five children, three sons and two daughters. Only one of them, a brother, Mr. Edwin Street, of Brooklyn, N. Y., survives. All of them, father, mother and children, were members of the Con- gregational church. When a boy Owen Street was industrious and ex- emplary in his habits, carefully perusing good books and laying in those stores of knowledge which served him so well iu mature life. He became a Christian in his youth, and joined the church before he entered college. He connected himself with the Yale College church by let- ter, during his freshman year, in 1833. He prepared for college in six months, under private instruction. That he was able to do this shows that his early reading and study had been most wisely conducted. President Noah Porter says, in a letter dated June 7, 1887: "I taught in the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, from 1831 to 1833. During 1832 Owen Street, then a full-grown youth, came to me and asked my advice about entering college. He wanted earnestly a college education. 1 then instructed him in the Latin grannnar and was very much astonished at the rapidity with which he went through it. I was then much struck with his promise and his great aptness. Then and after- 46 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. wards I was impressed with his earnestness, industry and desire to learn. During his college course he was always most studious and exemplary." President Porter was his tutor in college. Dr. Street graduated at Yale College in 1837. In his class of one hundred he stood, one of his classmates says, among the first fifteen or twenty. Among his col- lege classmates were Dr. A. L. Chapin, president of Beloit College ; Dr. David B. Coe, secretary of the Amer- ican Home Missionary Society ; Hon. William M. Evarts, the eminent jurist ; Hon. Samuel J. Tilden, candidate for the presidency of the United States ; Hon. Edwards Pierrepont ; Hon. Morrison R. Waite, the chief justice of the United States ; Prof. C. S. Lyman, of Yale Col- lege ; Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jr. ; Rev. Dr.. Andrew L. Stone, of San Francisco ; and others of note. Aftei" his graduation he tiuight two years, as princi- pal of the academy in Clinton, Conn., with remarkable success, showing even then his unusual gift of arousing enthusiasm in his pupils. It was there that he formed tlie acquaintance of lier who afterwards became his life- long companion and lielper. He studied theology in the Yale Theological School, having Dr. Nathaniel Taylor as his instructor. He was married November 29, 1841, to Mrs. Eli/a M. Bolles of Clinton, Conn. Ho was ordained as the pastor of the Congregational Church in Jamestown, N. Y., Feb- ruary 3, 1842. After nine years of faithful and success- ful labor there, he with impaired health sought rest for a few months. September 1, 1852, he was installed over the Congregational Church in Ansonia, Conn. He preached his first sermon in Lowell in May, 1857, and was installed here September 16th of the same year. It is of Dr. Street as a- minister here that 1 would REV. OWEN STREET, D. D. 47 particularly speak ; though in each former field he was the same " perfect " and " upright " man, and his labors were crowned with abundant success. I. Dr. Street was a man of " an excellent spirit." One's spirit includes his disposition, temper, moods and humor. It is a subtile thing, but mighty in its influence over the life. Many a man has had endowments of the highest kind in every respect but this, and his life has been a failure. Peevishness has ruined one ; envy, another; pride, another; contempt, another ; irascibility, another ; moroseness, another. It is not easy to name all the flies which may spoil the ointment of the human spirit. There are men who have the ingredients of disposi- tion so felicitously mixed that they seem always as placid as a June day, or as sweet as a freshly-blossomed rose. You never catch them off their guard. They never say anything for which they are sorry, never do what causes them regret. They move in their orbits as serenely as Jupiter in his course around the sun. You cannot cross them, even if you say ugly things to them. You cannot disconcert them, or disturb in the least the perfect equi- librium of their souls. Such men are rare as gems are. They have a kind word for every one, because they feel kindly towards all. They are ready to help every needy or suffering mortal, because their large hearts are full of benevolence and take the burdens of all. They are peacemakers, be- cause they hate strife of any kind. This is a noble quality to adorn a human soul. When we see it we call it " an excellent spirit." The prophet Daniel had it, and for more than two thousand years his spotless character has been admired. No one could have seen Dr. Street, only for a short 48 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. time, without being made to feel that he was a very king among men in the spirit which reigned in' his breast. He harbored ill-will towards no one. Another's success kin- dled in his heart only feelings of joy. Humility shone like a diamond in the forefront of his virtues. He was simple as a child, and as honest as truth itself. There was no guile in his spirit ; no duplicity in his word or manner. He was courteous, without insincerity. He was frank, without bluntness. For truth's sake he might op- pose you, yet his opposition never wounded. There was such a fire of love burning in his soul that his words, deeds, spirit, manner were all aglow with genuine goodwill. This excellence of spirit appeared in everything. It caused Dr. Street to be a true friend. He never betrayed confidence put in him, he never for selfish ends misled you by his advice. When you had won his esteem and affection he was as loyal to you as the needle to the pole. You saw it and felt it also in his sermons and addresses, in his prayers and conversations, and in his letters and attacks upon vice, crime and sin. He spoke plainly, but kindly ; forcibly, but advisedly ; with determination, but without anger or malice. No one ever charged him with showing a bad spirit. And that was a mighty element of his power, both as a man and a minister of the gospel of Christ. n. He was a man of decided Christian character. Character is the sum of the qualities which make one to be what he is. It is the device emblazoned upon the soul by one's own will ; it is the water-mark stamped into it by our choices. A man of virtuous character is one who is distin- guished by the voluntary and worthy traits which em- bellish his spirit and life. The most prominent feature in the character of Dr. REV. OWEN STREET, D. D. 49 Street was his religion. That lay at the foundation of it and gave its celestial hue to every stone in the whole fabric. He had a deep religious experience. He knew the power of the spirit of God to convict of sin, and the efficacy of the gospel to bring joy and gladness into a pardoned soul. When he spoke or wrote on practical religion he did not resort to books, or to his imagination, for facts, but he drew them fresh from his own heart-life. He had the courage of his convictions. You knew where he stood on great and important questions. If you had a keen sense of right and wrong you could tell beforehand on which side of a matter you would find him. Yet it ought to be said that, though he was positive and decided in his religious faith, he was not bigoted. He was conservative, yet catholic. He held clear and distinct opinions on the doctrines ; yet he was eminently charitable towards the sentiments of others. Christ was to him the Master, the Teacher, as well as the Savior. He discovered ineffable beauty and glory in the Son of God, and worshipped him. The Nazarene won his love no less than his thought, his obedience no less than his admiration. His reverence for Christ was so deep that, I have heard him say, he never wit- tingly stepped on a scrap of paper which had on it the name of his Savior. He was loyal to the church. He defended her claims as against other organizations which conflict with her welfare. To make the world more Christian was the dominant motive, the regnant princi- ple, of his life. With Paul he could say : " The love of Christ constraineth me." HI. He was a public spirited citizen. Not a few ministers are circumscribed in their thought and effort, by their professional round of duties. They 50 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. never go beyond the pulpit. They forget that they are citizens as well as ministers; and that any service de- manded by the welfare of the community which no one else will do devolves on them. Ministers are servants of all good work. They are to make the gospel of Christ bear upon the people, not only in the house of God, but in the schools and colleges, in reforms and politics, in busi- ness and social life. So far as in them lies they are to fill the whole community, all its activities, with the con- trolling principles of the Christian religion, and make God to be honored and respected, and Christ loved and trusted everywhere. This was Dr. Street's view of the minister's office. He was set as a watchman on the towers, and in Christ's name he was a custodian and guardian of the whole com- munity. Whatever was for the public good he was to give his influence for ; whatever was a detriment to the welfare of the community, he was to oppose, at what- ever risk. We are not surprised, therefore, that the cause of education found in him a staunch friend. He gave time for eight years to the duties of the school committee in this city, and no more helpful member was ever on the board. He encouraged the enlargement and the free use of the city library, for it is a means of educating the people. He attended a session of the summer classes at Cliautauqua, and returned to this city and established here those literary and scientific cii'cles, people's colleges, which have been such a blessing to a large nundjer of young men and young women. He taught Greek to private pupils 'and to public classes free of charge. He organized clubs of learned men and women, and presided over them with the dignity and erudition of a college president, and thus taught the teachers of the city. He REV. OWEN STREET, D. D. 61 was born to be a teacher ; and he would use his gift in any place where he could by intelligence cure the disease of ignorance. He prepared lectures and read them as occasion offered ; or he would on matters of science talk, illustrating his remnrks by specimens of his own collecting. And he never failed to interest and instruct his hearers. All this he did for the public good. He spent money freely for books, that he might be better fitted for the work of general instructor. Parallel with this was his interest in the moral, social and political interests of our city. The cause of temperance found in him one of its warmest friends and boldest advocates. He was always ready with a red-hot shot to fire into the camp of the advocates of the saloon, of license, or of the liquor traffic in any form. No one struck harder blows, nor more of them, than he, on the head of the monster Rum. One of Dr. Street's college classmates, Mr. L. Smith Hobart, of Springfield, Mass., writes me : " I remember his in- viting me while we were in college to go over to East Haven, and deliver an address on temperance to the young people of the village. When we reached there in the early evening, a large audience was gathered, through his efforts, to hear. This was a sample of his way of doing good." It is evident from this that the subject of temper- ance early in life engaged the attention and enlisted the services of this friend of the people. His voice was equally loud and clear in behalf of a holy Sabbath. He ever claimed that the Lord's day should be kept secred for rest and worship, and be freed from the desecration of needless toil and dissipat- ing sports. 52 OLD RKSIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. He spoke out plainly, also, for purity of life, for honesty in business, and for integrity of character everywhere. He went to the polls and voted for all the officers of the city, state and nation, ns he claimed that every good citizen should. He felt a deep interest in tlie poor and unfortunate classes, and devised plans for their improvement and elevation. To Dr. Street and Judge Nathan Crosby belongs the honor of founding the French Protestant Church in this city. They were the prime movers in it, and they stood by the enterprise in its times of peril, and guided it on to a permanent establishment. The French Protestant College also lay near his heart, because it will help the class that needs help. His heirs promise a portion of his estate and a part of his valuable library to establish this institution. And it is hoped that his friends who loved him so tenderly in life will aid in the erection of the Owen Street Hall as a monument to embalm his memory. IV. He was an instructive preacher. His distinc- tive work was that of a preacher of the gospel. What his conception of this important office was is no minor consideration. Some preachers regard men and women as bundles of emotions, and their aim is to touch some of the tender chords, start the tears, and rush their captives along the heavenly road. Others think the conscience is the bat- tery to be stormed in man's soul. They, therefore, arm themselves with the terrors of the Lord, hurl denuncia- tions, awaken fear, and they often seem to achieve mar- vellous results. Others appeal to the fancy, address their words to the imagination, and draw pictures of REV. OWEN STREET, D. D. 53 amazing beaut}'^ and attractiveness to lure souls to virtue and heaven. Other preachers, not disregarding the emotional and moral nature of man, yet consider that the intellect is the most hopeful door to the soul, if they would save it. They think that principles are to be formed in the mind, the reason is to be carried, the hearer is to be instructed in the knowledge of God if we would make him a valuable citizen in the kingdom of God. Dr. Street belonged to the last of these classes ; and he labored with success in this direction. He did not criticise those who worked by other methods. Different preachers have different gifts and they reap, each one his own harvest. Some persons cannot be savingly moved through the intellect. They do not think or reason out any subject. The only hope of saving them is through fear or feeling. Some preach- ers, also, are not able to use the higher weapons of reason and intelligence. They have not the power and skill needed to grapple with trained intellects. They play upon the emotions, appeal to curiosity, please the fancy, or awaken terror, because they cannot wield the heavy spear, or use the Damascus blade, of knowledge. Such preachers create their own audiences. They speak of necessity to their own classes. They build their kind of a church. They may have followers full of zeal, but not always zeal according to knowledge. I am uttering no criticism on methods of Christian work. Let each man labor in his own way, and may God bless him. Not every Trojan warrior could hurl Achilles' spear ; but that did not excuse him from using his own. My aim is simply to show how the office of the minister appeared to our dear departed brother. He was able to face a congregation of men and 54 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. women and speak to their highest intelligence. Like Apollos he was "mighty in the scriptures," and like Paul he " reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath day." When the Old Testament scriptures said " the priest's lips shall keep knowledge," he understood it to mean that the priest should gather knowledge, as the bee gathers honey, and give it out to the people. Dr. Street could obey the apostle when he said, " be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." He could defend his faith with convincing arguments. In consec[uence of this Dr. Street drew around him an intelligent congregation, and he trained them up in the knowledge of God. All truth was germane in his work. Nature was only another Bible in his hands. The fruits of such a ministry are seen in the intelli- gent men and women who, trained under it, have gone forth to bless the world. His style in writing was clear as crystal. You never were left in doubt as to his meaning. His words were always apt and elegant ; his expressions tender, yet forc- ible. He wrote new sermons to the last. And his ser- mons improved every year in freshness and vigor of thought. He never preached an abler sermon than in the EHot Church at the united service last April. He wrote, as nearly as can be estimated, about six- teen hundred sermons during his ministry of forty-five years. V. Dr. Street was a successful pastor. Many a minister has been all that coukl be desired in the pulpit, in the social meetings of the church, at funerals and all public gatherings ; but he could not happily go into the homes of the people, speak to them on the bed of sickness and death, comfort them in afllic- REV. OWEN STREET, D. D. 55 tion, cheer them in sorrow, meet them discreetly at their places of business, and wisely enter into their joys at weddings and on other social and festal occasions. It re- quires no little variety of talent to make one's self not only acceptable but useful in all these places. It throws a minister among his people in such ways that the weak spot in him will surely appear. He cannot cover himself with the robe of authority. He cannot escape the arrows of those who are disposed to criticise. Children with their keen eyes read him through. One who has not held the pastor's office cannot easily realize what a sifting his work gives him. If there is any duplicity, any lack of Godly sincerity, any want of faith in the truths he preaches, any tricks, frauds, devices in his work, they will surely appear and bear their baneful fruit. It is only a true man that can go among people, at all times and on all occasions, letting them see his weakness as well as his strength, and yet hold firmly their respect and affection. The minister who can do this finds his pastoral work a mighty arm of strength to him. Dr. Street had this gift, and he used it to great advantage. Highly cultured himself, he did not lose at all his sympathy with the uncultui'ed. He could go into the home where plenty reigned and talk to the edification of scholars, scientists, artists; and make himself just as agreeable the next hour in a home without carpet on the floor, with no pictures on the walls, and only broken English as the vehicle of thought. The poor people of his parish and of the city loved him dearly, because he sympathized with them and helped them in their work and homes. This ought to be noted, for not a few say in these days that the pastoral part of the minister's office is dead, it does not pay, it cannot be successfully 56 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. performed. But it was a mighty power for good in the hands of Dr. Street. He could talk religious truth per- suasively as well as preach it. He could tell the story of the cross at the bedside of the dying as effectively as in the pulpit. His life and character spoke as loudly as his words. He won the hearts of the children as he met them on the street, his very countenance was a gospel, his courteous and gentlemanly manner a benediction. He was a genuine man of God, and all felt it when- ever they met him. There was no guile about him, no pretence, no put-on dignity, no such letting down either as forfeits respect ; but he was always easy, honest, sin- cere, earnest, truthful. And everybody trusted him, for they knew he was worthy of confidence. He loved his people dearly and they loved him. VI. Dr. Street was a scholar. He was a thorough student. He knew how to use books to advantage. He had the divine faculty of rea- son ; he did his own thinking. He never read a book and, as Lord Bacon says, " swallowed " it ; but he ^'^ chewed and digested " whatever he read. He was an independent scholar and an original thinker. He did not even follow the lexicons in the study of language, but collated the passages and often made his own dictionary. If he accepted a statement made in a book he knew why. If he rejected it he could give a good reason. He was a fine scholar in Hebrew. He could read his Hebrew Bible with ease. In Greek he especially ex- celled. The Greek New Testament was nearly as famil- iar to him as the English. It was his custom at family devotions to read the Greek Testament. He was at home in classical Greek also. Plato and Homer he read fluently. His attainments in science were quite remarkable. REV. OWEN STREET, D. D. 57 He was an authority on local geology. In astronomy and physics he knew much more than the ordinary facts. In the use of the microscope he had special skill, even manufacturing his instruments and mounting his specimens. He was not only a good Bible scholar and theolo- gian, but was well versed in general literature, in history, mental and moral philosophy, and poetry. He wrote hymns of no inferior me|,'it. He contributed articles to the local press, and had many sermons printed in full, which were always read with interest and profit. He published two small volumes, and [jrinted several pam- phlets which had a wide circulation. He was a member of the Lowell Hebrew Club and contributed some of the best work done in it. His scholarly influence upon the community was marked. He did much to elevate the tone of the pulpit, and to hold the respect and esteem of men of learning and culture for the church. He addressed the intelligence and reason of the city, and no one passed his word by with the remark : There is no sense in what he says. I have often heard him say : " If we can carry fifty men, the best thinkers of the city, for Christ or for any good cause, we have carried the city." Doubtless that is true ; and we may sometimes be too eager to save the masses, while we neglect the men who control the masses. There never was a time when thorough scholarship was more needed in the pulpits of our land than to-day. The masses of the people are intelligent to a degree never known before. They need as religious guides men who understand the Bible and will be true to it. The remedy for spiritualism, adventism, materialism, rational- ism, and error in its thousand forms, is a more thorough knowledge of the word of God. Dr. Street felt this 58 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. deeply, and he labored vigorously to impart it. He fed his hearers with what Paul calls the " sincere milk of the word," and " strong meat." He brought "beaten oil" into the sanctuary of the Lord every Sabbath. His au- dience was the whole city. Any important thought which he advanced, or measure which he advocated, was felt by every intelligent mind among us. I ought to add that his scholarship was taken note of by other scholars. In 1882 «both his alma mater, Yale College, and Bates College conferred upon him the hon- orary degree of Doctor of Divinity. No one felt that the honor was not well deserved. In conclusion I will say that Dr. Street was fortu- nate in his helpers. His marriage was happy. His wife did " him good and not evil all the days of his life." She enabled him to devote his entire strength and time to his sacred calling. These memorial services commemo- rate her virtues, her success in the work allotted her, no less than his. Without her deft hand, good heart, guid- ing and inspiring mind he might not have become the eminent man whom we have known and loved. A kind Providence brought them together and crowned the union with happiness and prosperity. The two lives are seen in either one. He also had rare workers in his church and parish. Such men as Judge Nathan Crosby, John K. Chase, Elijah M. Read, and others both living and dead, besides many devout and honorable women, to be staunch friends of a pastor, contribute not a little to the success and happi- ness of his ministry. No doubt a faithful minister does much to mould and insjiire his co-workers. In a large degree he makes his own environment. Yet it is true that •• 'Jlit'ie's ii divinity tlial sliaiie.s our ends, lioiigli-liew llieiii how wc will.'" REV. OWEN STREET, D. D. 59 Evidently there was a Divine band which united this pastor and people, and a Divine wisdom which so guided them that for the long term of thirty years they wrought together in harmony and grew all the time in grace and in the knowledge of God. His decease one month ago (May 27, 1887) was no less beautiful than his life. His last sickness was short and amidst friends. He was ripe in years. The harness of a long and successful professional service was still on. He was loved and honored by all. He was willing and ready to go. He was full of faith in the truths he had preached and in a glorious future. His spirit passed away at evening as the church bell tolled to summon his dear people to the house of prayer. It ascended, too, in a chariot of song. His daughter had kneeled by his bedside to sing the hymn which in health he loved so much and himself sung so often : •' Lo, wliat a glorious sight appears To our believiug eyes; Tiie eartli and seas are passed away. And tlie old rolling skies." When she rose from her knees they looked and he had gone ! Without a motion of a limb or a moan the spirit passed to its blest abode, borne up on the wings of celestial melody. There we can leave him and his dear companion in life and death, assured that they form a part of the count- less, blood-washed throng who before the eternal throne sing " the song of Moses and the Lamb." VI. Geological ExploraMons, hy Rev. Given Street, D. D. THE ROCK-FT.OOR OF LOWELL. The newspapers have recently told us that near the precipice of Llewellyn Park in New Jersey, some late rock cuttings have brought to light the crater of an ex- tinct volcano. Geologists tell us that the time was that the cooling of our planet below the crust produced a shrinkage that left vacant spaces here and there between the rocky crust and the molten lava below. Of course the unsupported mass above would break by its own weight, and the huge fragments sinking down at various angles into the fiery sea would cause tlie red-liot lava to rise up nnd fill the chasms, and in some places to over- flow the surface rock. This is precisely what has happened on every side of us. If we have not extinct volcanoes close at hand, we have the cooled lava that came to the surface when the great over-arching crust was bent and wrinkled into the mountain ledges and hills and valleys of New Eng- land, and this part of the continent was lifted out of the bed of the ocean. As soon as the eye has learned to detect this lava rock we begin to find it wherever we ride or walk. We find fragments of it built into the stone fences. It is especially abundant as we go over the Aiken Street Bridge and pass on into Dracut. It comes up in veins or dykes as they are called in various parts of our city. The Concord River dam is in part built on one of these lava beds or trap dykes. There GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 61 are several others as we follow the bed of the Concord below the dam. There are a number of them in the bed of the Merrimack between the dam and the smooth water opposite Little Canada. There are two very conspicuous examples in the quarry on Fletcher Street. The work- men there call them " rotten stone." And they inform me that they are met with at intervals in blasting for sewers and water-pipes, all the way across from river to river. When this rock becomes a familiar acquaintance we do not need to be told that it is a true fire rock, and came into its present position in a red-hot fluid state ; for we find abundant examples where we can detect the over- flow upon the surface of the adjacent rock as certainly as if we saw it pouring out. We see, too, where the granite or the slate has been scorched and changed by it as if a blast had been turned upon them by a furnace. We shall find instances, also, where the granite itself has been melted and has softened the older rock with which it was in contact. There is a striking example of this in a fragment in the yard of the Locks and Canals cor- poration in the rear of their office. It was taken from the bed of the Merrimack, where it was present as a bowlder broken out of some ledge of the old Laurentian rock where the melted granite came iu instead of the black lava or trap. These trap dykes are to be met with all along our New England coast ; one or more of them is to be seen passing through the middle of every little island. Lowell Island is a case in point. Several very large ones, we are told, break across the entire width of England from shore to shore, and in the neighborhood of our great national park thousands of acres are covered by them. It would be an item of knowledge that might sometime be of pecuniary advantage to our city, if our city engi- 62 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. neers would map down these trap dykes as they come across them, as they are often many miles in length and keep very nearly the same line of direction ; and the knowledge might lead in some instances to more econom- ical locations of sewers and pipes. Apart from the trap dykes, the great rock-floor that underlies our city con- sists mainly of the hard slate rock of the Merrimack bed, and the bright porphyritic granite east of Middlesex Street. This is seen to good advantage in the ledge that has been cut through east of the Middlesex Street Depot, or Northern Depot as it is sometimes called. It is mostly covered by the wall, but there are a few places left un- covered which may be seen as the train moves out on the way to Boston, on the left-hand side. It is a highly crystalline rock with bright faces of feldspar, mica and quartz. The fresh cleavages shine in the sunlight with an almost metallic lustre. I have not been able to ascertain where the line of transition from the slate to the porphyry is located. It would be interesting if we could find it, and see just how the transition is made. We have many good observers and explorers among us ; I hope some of them will solve this question. Meanwhile it is interesting to take notice that wide as is the difference between the slate and the porphyry in appearance, their mineral ingredients scarcely differ at all. The difference comes by some law of met- amorphic crystallization which geologists recognize but do not pretend to define. The metamorphism is thought to have been produced by heat ; but how is a mystery. RIVER BEDS AND BOWLDERS. I write with the hope of doing something for the better education of our young people in the knowledge of that which lies, as it were, at tlieir own dooi\ 1 re- GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 63 gard it as a serious fault of many of our treatises on geology that they do not make sufficient use of the material that we have close at hand. With us the mate- rial is very abundant. The great dam of the Merrimack turns the water of the river so effectually away from its bed that for a portion of the year it may be crossed at the lower end of the Pawtucket rapids, and almost any- where between that point and the dam, without wetting the soles of one's feet. To a less extent the same is true of the Concord. This affords an excellent opportunity to see the work which these rivers have been doing for science thousands of years before they began their labor in the service of the useful arts. We begin our survey just below the dam of the Concord River, near the south-western corner of the Lowell Cemetery. That which first strikes the eye is the great profusion of bowlders that occupy the bed of the river. You can scarcely set your foot down any- where without stepping upon a bowlder. They are of all sizes ; some no larger than a man can lift, and some of many tons' weight. The elevated grounds on either side of the river are full of them. One that was blasted and removed during the past summer from near Railroad Street was estimated at not less than thirteen thousand cubic feet, or more than a thousand tons' weight. These granite bowlders, whether great or small, whether in the soil or washed clear of the soil by the river, are foreign to the neighborhood, having emigrated once upon a time from New Hampshire and moved down here to stay. Their journey was evidently a hard one. They encoun- tered innumerable grinding rubs and hard knocks. As it fares with many a traveler, they lost the sharp, angu- lar features with which they started ; their corners and edges were knocked off; they were smoothed and rounded, 64 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. and some of them even polished. It was a mutual con- flict and attrition — a kind of civil war that occupied them on the way. There was a constant crowding, pushing, tumbling about, scratching and knocking down. The wounds and scratches and bruises remain to tell the story. There are several instances within the compass of a quarter of a mile where large bowlders, that would weigh from ten to thirty tons, after having fared as roughly as others, and held together during their long journey, have since encountered some shattering force that has broken them into two or more fragments. This is commonly attrib- uted to frost. The fragments lie close to one another, very much as they would if the rock had fallen from a precipice and been cracked open by the fall. Our attention is next drawn to the fact that the bowlders in the channel of the river are set, as regards their lengthwise position, very nearly north and south; not parallel with the course of the river, but so as to make an obvious angle with it. There is one striking exception in the case of the Anvil Rock, which 1 account for by the hypothesis that its place being near the top of the moraine, the rivei- did not so undermine it as to let it settle away gradually to its place, as in most cases, but so as to give it a fall that partly reversed its position. The river had ordinarily nothing to do with this placing of the rocks beyond the mere fact of washing away the sand and gravel from beneath them and around them. This north and south position is the same that is constantly observed in excavations for sewers and cellars in all parts of the city ; showing that the course of the drift was from the north. The same thing is shown in an interesting way by \ GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 65 certain groups of bowlders gathered on the north side of a single rock which is of such huge dimensions as to suggest at once to the observer that the large over-shad- owing bowlder being a slower traveler has acted as a barrier, obstructing the passage of the others and bring- ing them to a stand behind it. There is one instance where two bowlders of exceptional length appear to have struck endwise upon the obstructing rock and swung around at right angles to their original pathway. The same lesson is taught by the accumulation of bowl- ders on the north side of the projecting ledge of gneiss that thrusts its point out into the river near the lower extremity of the rapids. But the rocks that most attract our notice as we look down the bed of the river have a different aspect from that of the ordinary bowlder that is dug out of the hills. They stand like the monuments in a cemetery, cut and carved by the current, or rather by the gritty sediment with which it is charged. With striking differ- ences in other respects, they have this in common, that their sides and ends so far as they were exposed to the current have been channelled out with a singular uni- formity, leaving them largest at the top and bottom, and smallest not far from the middle. This horizontal chan- nel or groove has been cut deeper in some of these rocks than in others from two causes : the differing power of the current in its various windings and eddyings and the differing hardness of the same rock at different points. There is frequently a vein of hard quartzite running through a bowlder that has resisted this action of the stream entirely ; its sharp edges standing out just as they were when the rock was broken off from its cliff, and showing that the granite above and below has been cut away several inches. 66 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. The most striking example of this is a large bowlder in the Merrimack a few rods below the Paw tucket bridge near the canal. It is the largest bowlder in that part of the river. Let us take our stand in the bed of the Con- cord near the dam, and look toward the north along the original course of the rapids. It requires no very vivid fancy to imagine these carved and channelled rocks mar- shalled in a procession and just called to a halt as they were creeping towards you ; a kind of holiday parade in which with all their variety of size, the fashion that prevails is of one general type. The Camel's Back opposite Faulkner's mill, plumed with the red furze of w^hich the air is sometimes so full, is a fair specimen of the erosion which has so changed the form and appearance of these bowlders. It has un- doubtedly lost at least one half of its original bulk. Like its companions it lifted its head just above the ordinary level of the water in the good old days when the river had its own way with no dam to obstruct its current. Then no one could read the story of its losses. But now it stands out in the light of open day, and re- veals the indisputable fact that a large part of its former self is gone. In the case of some smaller rocks the loss has been fully two-thirds. There are examples in which the wear has been so great that the rock has broken in two. I have drawings of two specimens taken, the one from the bed of the Concord and the other from that of the Merrimack. The one is a hard hornblende slate ; the other a bowlder of gneiss with a vein of quartzite four inches thick, which seems to have resisted the erosive power of the current entirely, and remains with the orig- inal cleavages intact as they were when first broken off. There is a specimen in which this process was evi- GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 67 dently approaching the same catastrophe, but was arrested by the building of the dam, and the removal of the rock to a conspicuous place on the top of a wall where it at- tracts the notice of passengers who are entering or leav- ing the city by the Boston and Maine Railroad. It is called the Table Rock, from its resemblance as viewed from one side to a centre-table. A single glance shows how the base might be cut with a section parallel to the top so as to make a table that would be convenient for use by a person standing. As seen from another point of view it corresponds well with the other water-worn rocks, and is quite sym- metrical ; showing a stem of only half the apparent size as seen the other way. From the top to the bottom the rock measures five feet. To construct our table we should cut it off about one foot from the bottom. We should have a table measuring twenty-two inches by thir- ty-five across the top. We walk a few rods below the dam, and a bowlder, which we will call the Cone, attracts our notice on the further side of the river-bed, with two holes in the side that is turned towards us. There is a current of water a couple of rods wide between us and the other rock, and we do not care to wet our feet. But the mystery of those holes must be explored. We can see that they are round, and we can see the bottom of the smaller one, which has only the depth of a wash-bowl. But the other, which seems to be about fifteen or twenty inches in diameter — how deep is that ? Perhaps the largest of yonder little bare-footed boys will answer the question for us. They respond to our signal, and for the consideration of a few pennies not only the one who accepts the contract, but all of them roll up their trowsers and dash into the stream, and we have the satisfnction of seeiuf]^ that the OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. hole is carefully measured, and the little fellow presses his thumb-nail on the stick at the right point, and keeps it there till our tape-line has settled the matter, and we jot down in our note book that the hole is just twenty- six inches deep. Somehow the water has bored that hole in the side of that hard granite bowlder. If it were a perpendicular hole instead of a horizontal we should have little doubt as to how it was done. The question has been asked, was not the rock lying with this side up when the hole was made, and has it not since been undermined and turned a somersault ? We are fortunately relieved from the necessity of considering the question by the fact that the Anvil Rock, a few rods further down the river, has a similar hole in the end opposite to the horn of the anvil. If we sup- pose this rock to have been once in the right position for a perpendicular boring, it must have stood upright on the horn of the anvil, and this end of the rock would have been fifteen feet above the bed of the river. BOWLDERS AND RIVER EROSIONS. This rock is recognized at once by the position of the supporting stem, which is about nine feet square, and the projection about five feet in length, that answers to the horn of an anvil. Under the horn there is the stump of a tree, apparently drifted there by the current and tightly wedged in. The effect is not picturesque, and it is to be hoped that Young America, in some of his play- ful moods, will apply a strong lever and pry it out. The marks of river erosion are on every side of this rock, but especially under the horn. The hole in the opposite end also must not be forgotten. A few feet distant is the Frog in his solemn sitting posture, with his back turned toward the great bowlder GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. that stopped him and partly swung him around. The actual contact has been broken by the rush and wear of the channel between, leaving an open space of a few inches. But this space is less than the depth of the erosion which either rock has suffered below the point of the original contact. Before speaking directly of the rock that next claims our attention, and has no peer, so far as I have been able to learn, among the bowlders of the world, let me insert a word of history which may, perhaps, be worthy of a place among the records of the Old Resi- dents' Association. When the dams were built arresting the currents of our rivers and giving fine facilities for boating in the still water above, the opportunity was not neglected. This created some anoyance to riparian owners ; especially to the proprietor of the grounds in the vicinity of the Con- cord River dam. It is within the recollection of many that the air grew very sulphurous around him when he fell in with intruders and trespassers. A conversation which has been reported to me by the surviving part- ner in the dialogue, who remembers it over the long chasm of forty years, seems to show that said proprietor had a genial side when honorably approached. After asking permission to go through his grounds to Mr. Wright's boat, and answering the following questions satisfactorily, " Whose boy are you ? " and " Did Mr. Wright let you have the key to his boat?" he received the following answer : " I know your father ; you are the first boy that ever asked permission to go through my grounds. Yes, you may go to-day, and you may go as often as Mr. Wright will let you have the key to his boat." It is no great stretch of charity to believe that in his conflicts with trespassers, this man was more sinned 70 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. against than sinning. But the boats were not the only causes of vexation. The Concord River, as we have seen, had, long before he could object, set up an exhibi- tion on its own account that was attractive alike to the intelligent and the unintelligent. Something he could do to cover and hide from the public view the more striking of these attractions, but after all they were too much for him. Let us look at things for a moment as they were forty years ago. What is the meaning of that slab set up against yonder rock in such a hap-hazard way that it seems to have no meaning at all ? We more than sus- pect that our genial friend, the riparian owner, has been there, and that there is something there that he wanted to hide. A similar suspicion was awakened in the mind of one of our distinguished citizens, then a young man, as he was strolling along the dry river bed in company with others who have a less vivid recollection of the in- cident. They had gone on a few steps and were occu- pied with the endless variety of the bowlders, great and small, that were on every side of them. ' He applied his hands to the top of the slab and succeeded in pulling it toward him. To his astonishment he had uncovered a cave in the bowlder that he could enter by stooping only one-third of his length. He lost no time but got in, and pulled back the slab again to cover the hole. He then shouted to his companions. They heard the shout as a cry of distress, and feared that he had fallen into the water. At last, guided by the sound, they came near enough to catch the words " I'm buried alive in a rock." On the strength of this incident we will call the rock the Sarcophagus. After enjoying the sui'prise together they measured the cavity, and found it something more than seven feet in length. They found also two small bowl- GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 71 ders within, which they believed to have been the mill- stones with which the grinding of the cavity had been accomplished. Their report of the adventure, and more than all, their account of the rock itself, brought more visitors to the spot than was agreeable to the aforesaid proprietor of the neighboring grounds. To his intense chagrin the mischievous secret was out, and the old tactics would no longer avail. He was the owner of a powder mill, and he well un- derstood how to use his own wares. He prepared a cart- ridge of ample power, and so placed it that the rock was burst open from end to end ; the closed end was blown out, a fragment of the roof was carried away and lost ; another portion of the roof west of the axis of the cavity was broken off, but remains ns a part of the huge mass that constitutes the western part of the front of the rock. This front portion was broken off from the main rock by a clear fracture extending from side to side, and down- ward perpendicularly to the bottom, and broken in two in the middle in the same line as that of the principal fracture of the rock from end to end, so that the rock is now in four fragments, the lines of fracture being nearly at right angles to each other ; the one being lengthwise through the middle of the rock, and the other crossing it about eighteen inches from the front. The two front fragments lean away from the rock so that while they are in contact at the bottom there is an opening of sev- eral inches at the top. There was also a slight settling away to a lower level and a twisting movement that has put them out of line with each other and with the main rock. Two or three stone masons with a derrick might put them into line again. This ought to be done. Mean- while, we can study the rock as it is, and reconstruct it 72 ' OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. on paper from the ruins, and from a striking photograph of them which has been taken by Mr. Sanborn of our city. He has also taken photographs of several of the rocks of which I have spoken in these papers. And if any, from their interest in the general subject, should care to transfer what I have written to their scrap-books, his pictures would serve as interesting illustrations. Meanwhile let me point out some of the most strik- ing features of this bowlder and its remarkable cavity. The mouth of the cavity might be represented by the figure 8, if we suppose the upper part to be larger than the lower ; retain the sharp angle at the middle on the left side as we face it, but erase the middle portion of the outline on the opposite side and substitute a slight inward curve for the angle ; or better still reverse the figure 3 thus g, and connect the open side with a line that shall bend slightly inward, and at the bottom sub- stitute for the circular form a V shaped outline. We may now apply the dimensions. From top to bottom, excluding the V, four feet; upper part of the figure 8, twenty-six inches diameter ; lower part twenty- three inches diameter ; distance from point of angle to the other side twenty inches. How are we to account for the singular shape when the holes in the other rocks, the Cone and the Anvil, are circular ? We notice first of all that the river began its work with a large sweep as if about to commence a hole of some four feet diameter. This is clearly seen as we look at the rock. We next take notice of a well defined vein of quartz coinciding exactly with the sharp angle in the middle of the open- ing. This means resistance. It says to the river, " you may bore above, and you may bore below, but here is a vein that you have no tools sharp enough to cut." Thus two holes are begun just as in the Cone, except that GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 73 there they are side by side ; while here the one is over the other. As the boring proceeds, a point is reached where the vein of quartz disappears. Beyond it the two holes become one. There was evidently a powerful eddy there. We find the proof that after the one orifice broke into the other the movement of the eddy was greatly changed, for it began to bore laterally as well as in its former direction. It bored out two deep bowls in the sides of the cavity, giving much more room than at the mouth. The vein of quartz was at length broken; possibly by the action of ice ; possibly by the grinding of pebbles ; and then the lateral boring within stopped and the whole force of excavation expended itself on the lengthwise cavity beyond. This is as I read it. Perhaps some one else may read it better. The cavity beyond the bowls, or about four feet from the mouth, contracts to about thirty inches by twenty-four, and steadily diminishes to about three-fourths of these dimensions at the end. The rock must have weighed originally, without including what was lost from the outside by the external erosion, at least twenty-five tons. It lost by internal excavation between three and four tons. It is a hard syenitic rock with other veins of quartz besides that of which I have spoken, and has several lim- ited areas of surface that would be beautiful if polished. No geological author with whose work I am ac- quainted has given account of a bowlder anywhere in the world that is to be compared with this. There are perpendicular borings without number, almost perfectly circular and of considerable depth ; but even these are commonly in ledges rather than bowlders ; and there are side erosions that are sufficiently striking, in the ledges that form the banks of rivers, or mountain torrents. But if there is a bowlder anywhere that has such a record of 74 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. river erosion as this, I hope the challenge I now give will bring it to light. I commend the fragments of this to the care of the people, hoping that something better awaits them than to be still further reduced by geologi- cal hammers and relic-hunters. Let us by all means save what is left of our broken Sarcophagus which is more ancient than any that tomb or pyramid can show and has the unintermitted work of thousands of years upon it. RIVEK EROSION OF LEDGE AND MORAINE. In what I shall now say I shall have in view our own immediate locality. I shall deal with theoretical considerations no further than may be necessary to ex- plain that which the pupils in our schools and the citizens of Lowell have before their eyes. Whoever has looked attentively from Pawtucket Bridge down the bed of the river when the water is low, must have noticed that the banks on both sides rise many feet above the water, and that these banks are ledges of the same hard, slate rock that appears in the river bed. There are places where it is safe to say the river has cut for itself a channel fifteen or twenty feet deep. It was a very peculiar kind of cutting — quite different from that by which the Niagara River excavated its bed from Lewiston back to the falls. A little examination shows that the layers or strata of slate are here turned u[) almost perpendicularly, and that their ridges extend along very nearly in the same direc- tion as the course of the river. Of course the river bed was from the first very uneven, having many little par- allel channels and interruptions, and exerting its erosive power along the sides, as well as on the top, of exposed ledges, and at the bottom of the channels between. This gave to the water from the first that peculiar plunging and fiinging motion which so arrests the attention now I GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 75 in the time of flood. The mighty current dashes head" long into one of those deep channels as if triumphantly claiming its own, and is almost immediately met by an obstructing ledge that lifts itself exactly in the centre of the channel to divide it and lash it into foam as it turns to seek on either side another channel, only to be split again and again in an endless confusion of fresh leaps and new interruptions. It will be seen at once that there is no such opportunity here as in the Concord for the concentration of the erosive power of the river upon a single point for thousands of years, and the steady wear and grind of a local eddy at one and the same cen- tre. Whatever was done the first thousand years, the next thousand years obliterated and swept away. What- ever was done the first thousand years was done in an upper story that has long since disappeared. The rock of that upper story is gone, and the cavities and holes and furrows are gone with it. And so it would continue to be if the river should cut its bed down another fifteen feet. The work of the Merrimack has been mostly a straightforward, honest driving of its planes and cutting tools in one direction. It took the job of cutting down the rock and has done it. This will explain why the bowlders that we find there are cut in no such fantastic shapes as in the bed of the Concord. They were con- tinually shifting their position. Their foundation was cut away and there was nothing left for them but to topple over and present new sides to the current. And this must be repeated many times. The Merrimack rapids were a great planing mill for straight work ; while the Concord rapids were a sort of carving, jig sawing and boring mill, where all sorts of cams and revolving machinery were in order. Still the student who can appreciate downright effective work and 76 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. can take in the whole situation, is abundantly rewarded by a trip from the Merrimack dam down the bed of tlie river as far as he can go upon the dry rocks. And then let him not forget to go and observe the same theatre of operations in the time of the first great freshet; approaching the river at as many points as he can. It is a grand and quickening sight. But you do not see the river at its best. You must imagine the Hash boards taken off, and the dam swept away. And even then you have not got the whole. For there is abundant reason to believe that the rivers were once much fuller than they are now. But we will forget about the Hood for the present, and stand on the dry rocks at the lower end of the rapids. We will spare time to look at two or three of these trap dykes mentioned in my first number, noticing one cross vein, and observing how the hard quartzose hornblende slate has been itself changed in the neighborhood of the trap ; so that you are at a loss to say in some instances which of the two it is that you are looking at. But we have not time to linger. We will take one more look along the river's bed, looking up stream now, and fixing the impression upon our memory as well as we can of the vast work of erosion the river has done. Let us think of what immense mass of rock that has been cut away between these banks. Look at the rocky banks ; they will tell the story. Or if you prefer the figures, we will only go back ten rods from where we stand and estimate the mass that has been removed from this section ten rods wide. Taking the width of the river as fifty rods, we shall have over two millions of cubic feet, enough to load seventeen thousand freight cars, a train that would occupy both tracks of the Boston and Lowell Railroad for the entire distance between the two cities. This ac- counts for only ten rods of the river's work. We can GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 77 measure hack to the hridge and multiply this at our lei- sure. What has become of all this mass ? Obviously we must look for it below. Let us now take a row-boat and move slowly down the river, taking notice of the wide area of water and of the color of the sand on either side, not very different, we presume, from that in the •bed of the river over which we are rowing. How can the dark rock of the river-bed above yield this light col- ored sand ? In answering this, three things are to be considered. 1. — A part of this sand is from the neigh- boring fields of Dracut. 2. — A part of it is the sediment that has been brought down by Beaver Brook. 3. — This black slate rock is largely constituted of quartz, as may be seen if you look at it edgewise with a lens of mod- erate power ; and if you pulverize it, you obtain a sand or grit that is no darker than that of the porphyry, and near enough to the color of the sand we are to account for. And if anything more need be said we might add that no small part of this sediment has been brought down by the Merrimack itself from the gneiss and gran- ite regions above the rapids. There is a broad basin of still water with a bed of sand we know not how deep. But under this bed of sand the rocky crust continues, and changes as it does under the city to porphyry and gneiss. We row down the river, passing the two bridges which we have some leisure to admire as we approach and pass them ; we look out sharply as we come to the mouth of the Concord, lest the rapid current set us over among the bowlders of Hunt's Falls, and strike for a landing-place just east of the new wall built by the cor- poration of the Locks and Canals. We are reminded somewhat of the Concord rapids. We find some chan- nelled bowlders ; but these are not the most striking fea- tures of the situation. There is another work of erosion 78 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. here that is not less interesting in its way than that at Pawtucket Falls. There has not been much ledge cut- ting ; none at all, in fact, till we have got some distance below the line where the city water pipes were laid across the river. And when we come to it it bears no resemblance to the other. It is a different kind of rock and did not rise much above its present level. The prin- cipal work of the river here was the cutting through the hill of bowlder drift. As before, we look at the two opposite banks to see what the task to be accomplished was. We naturally conclude that there was some depres- sion here ; enough to determine the path which the river was to take. Of course there was an accumulation of water behind the barrier; in fact a lake covering the most of the surface now occupied by the city of Lowell and a large extent of territory besides. We can easily understand the work that was to be done. It was simply to wash away a barrier of earth, which, with the ample supply of water on hand, required no long time. The bowlders that wete in the hill would settle down very nearly where they were, and the sand would be carried on to the vacant space below. This is as we find it. The bowlders are in the bed of the river and along its banks ; and the earthy sediment is found deposited where we should naturally look for it, extending a mile or two below. The question how these bowlders came to be in the hill, and how the hill itself came to be there, is so well an- swered by a paragraph from Professor Wright, who was one of the state geologists appointed by the legislature of the state of Pennsylvania for the very work of tracing the great terminal moraine from east to west across that state, that I will give you his own words : " Almost everywhere north of the fortieth parallel of latitiKle in the northern liemisphere the pebhles and bowlders which abound are GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 79 clearly not of local origin. In many cases it can be demonstrated that they have been transported from a northerly direction. It will be found, moreover, that almost universally where the surface of the rocks is freshly uncovered, they are polished and grooved and scratched in a peculiar manner. The hard portions have been planed down to a level with the soft portions, and the striation is in all open regions tolerably uniform in its direction north and south. " The pebbles and bowlders also are quite likely to be grooved and striated in the direction of their longest diameter. There are also peculiar lines of hills composed of coarse bowlders, compact clay gravel, and characterized by the frequent recurrence of bowl- shaped depressions stretching for hundreds of miles across the country from east to west. There are also long lines of peculiar gravel ridges, with similar bowl-shaped depressions, extending from north to south, frequently continuous for more than a hundred miles, and constitu- ting in some regions a parallel system at right angles to the line of hills just mentioned." In general explanation of these facts, it is assumed that there was in a cooler period of the northern hem- isphere a glaciation of its whole northern half ; some- thing of what is seen on a small scale in the glaciers of the Alps and Greenland and Alaska. This is the hypo- thesis of the distinguished Agassiz. Professor Wright further says : " Such progress has been made by that hypothesis, in untangling the interesting puzzles of surface geology, that the presumption in favor of its further applicability is of the strongest kind. The expla- nation is already so complete that one might readily trust his life to the theory. If lost in the forests of Maine, the traveller might as confidently direct his course by the stria? on the rocks or the direc- tion of the gravel ridges as by the magnetic needle in his pocket." Availing ourselves of this theory and of the illus- tration of it which Professor Wright has given, we shall find in the hill through which oui- river had to cut its way, not a terminal moraine, but something answering better to a medial moraine, yet differing from that as a continental glazier differs from an Alpine glacier. 80 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Look up from the southern bank where the main pipe of the city water work meets it at the foot of Alder Street, first to the Centralville summit, some two hundred feet high, then look up the Belvidere slope, rising more gradually to nearly the same elevation ; take in the lat- eral spread of the great moraine on either side ; let the great divided mass tell its story, and then let the bowl- ders lying in the river's bed and strown for the distance of a mile along its banks tell their story ; let the sand and gravel below tell their story ; and let the river tell its story ; let them each discourse in its own dialect ; lis- ten till you have learned the language of each and can put all their stories together, and you will have gained an impression that no geological cabinet that can be gathered within the walls of any museum can produce. There can be no bettei: field in which to study the work of the great North American glacier than is afforded by this hill, and these cuttings of the Merrimack and Concord Rivers. The great ice cap was of such depth from top to bottom as to cover Mt. Monadnock ; for it left some of its bowlders on that summit ; and it was strong enough in its movement to break off very consider- able mountain peaks and crumble them into bowlders or gravel as it crowded them slowly along. Even the local modern glaciers of Switzerland have done some work during the present century that throws much light on these processes of the ice period of geology. Let me quote a few words from Prof. Tyndal. [Forms of Water, Sec. 18] : * " liocks and stones are observed which have Ijeen plainly torn from the mountain-side. Blocks seen to fall from particular points are afterwards observed lower down. On the moraine, rocks are found of a totally different mineralogical character from those com- posing the mountains right and left. And in all such cases strata of GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 81 the same character are found bordering the glacier higher up. Fur- ther the ends or snouts of many glaciers act like ]>lough-shares on the land in front of them, overturning with slow but merciless energy- huts and chalets that stand in their way." " Sec. 35. Those who contended for the power of glaciers to excavate valleys, never stated, or meant to state, that it was the snout of the glazier that did the work." In Sec. 54 he tells us that at the head of the Matt- mark Lake, close to a small inn, there is a bowlder of serpentine that was landed there by the glacier fifty-seven years ago, that measured 240,000 cubic feet. Take the cube root of this number, and it gives you a cube whose dimensions of height, length and breadth are each sixty- two feet. Look at the postoffice building as you approach it from Central Street, and you have the altitude very nearly. Take so much of the front as really faces Cen- tral Street and you have very nearly the breadth. Fol- low the buildhig back to the same depth and you have the cube that represents the dimensions of that bowlder ; a solid stone that has been brought down and deposited within the memory and knowledge of observers that are now living. The largest bowlder in New England is scarcely equal to a cube of thirty-two feet. The great continental glacier was less gentle in the treatment of its bowlders. Doubtless it set larger ones in motion, but it cracked and broke and ground them up. GLACIAL SCRATCHES. 1 propose now to say something of the glacial scratches and grooves that are to be found on some of the rocks in our neighborhood. I am indebted to Mr. Thomas B. Lawson, our well-known artist, for the knowl- edge of the most striking monument of the glacial period that I have ever seen. It is to be found on the bank of the Merrimack, directly north of Mr. William Kittredge's house, and a few steps east of the residence of Mr. Wil- 82 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, liam H. White on Stackpole Street. It is visible from the north sidewalk of the street. It is only a fragment of the original rock that remains ; or rather two frag- ments, on which the scratches can be seen as they are now placed. Only one shows the furrows from the street. But this shows them so distinctly that having once seen them you would easily distinguish them, and count them at a distance of many rods. These " scratches," as geologists call them, or rather as we should say " fur- rows," are from seven to twelve inches broad, and from two to three and a half inches deep. The rock was first discovered by Mr. Lawson and Dr. Dana, in 1843. It was then lying in its own bed, undisturbed by the hand of man, and measured some- where about seven feet by nine. The portion of it that the glacier had planed off and plowed with these deep furrows measured five or six feet by eight. The position was such that the scratches were at right angles to the river. Some eighteen oi- twenty years afterward the renowned Professor Agassiz visited Lowell and was conducted by Mr. Lawson to the spot. He at once pronounced this as the most remarkable speci- men of glacial scratches that had been found anywhere in New England, and declared his intention to have a plaster cast of them made for the Harvard cabinet. This purpose, I regret to say, was not accomplished ; and it is now too late. The next time that Mr. Lawson visited the rock it had been broken in two by a blast of gunpowder, and a part of it removed. Still the part that remained told the story of the old glacial planing and scratching almost as well as before.' But now it has been blasted again, and the largest scratched surface that remains is that which is seen from the street, measuring about two and one- half feet by four and one-half. The longest groove GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 83 measuring three feet in length, and the number of grooves remaining on this fragment is five. The other grooved fragment exposed to view has five narrower grooves on a surface that is about two feet by three and one-half. It seems probable that their original position was such that the one fragment formed the southwestern cor- ner, and the other the northeastern corner of the rock. We can now in imagination reconstruct the rock. It is possible that with the aid of a derrick pulling out and turning over the other large broken fragments that lie there, a large portion of the surface could be matched together and shown once more in something of its entire- ness. I hope Mr. Lawson may be induced to make a sketch from memory of the rock as he at first saw it, with the aid of what remains. Such a chart as he could make would hold an honored place in any cabinet, and would be copied for many others. I am reminded of the fate of the celebrated Moab- ite stone discovered a few years ago. The fact that a wet-paper squeeze had been taken of its ancient Shemitic inscription and afterwards another, and that an effort had been made to obtain leave to remove it, stirred up the Arabs to break it in pieces with their hammers. But the fragments have since been put together again, and strange to say, most of the letters have been made out. This vandalism, that came so near to depriving the world of an invaluable historic monument, was made up of ignorance and spite. In the case of our rock it was ignorance without the spite. I have thus called the pub- lic attention to what remains of it, with the hope that something will be done by our public spirited citizens that will be worthy of their opportunity. The outlay of a few dollars might secure the removal of the principal fragments to the High School yard, where, surrounded 84 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. by an iron fence, they might be saved from further dam- age, and become a great object lesson for the pupils, and a monument of enthusiastic interest to strangers who visit our city. It is not impossible that in some future excavation the very plow that cut these furrows may be found. It lies somewhere in the great moraine that stretches southward from the river. It would be a most interesting identification, should the means of proving it be at hand. The specially interesting feature of this rock is not the width and depth of the furrows merely, but these taken together with the number and contiguity of them. There is many a bowlder within the compass of a mile that has one or two furrows as deep, or even deeper. There is one on High Street, a few rods beyond Oak Street. There are several in the river beds. There is one containing several grooves not two rods distant from that which has been blasted into fragments, as above narrated, that is fortunately out of the reach of gun- powder, but unfortunately too deeply covered with water to be critically examined ; the water being seldom clear enough to show the entire outline of the rock. Indeed the lower part of it is covered with the silt which the river has deposited upon it. In a favorable condition of the water the furrows can be seen for a foot or two. and are at right angles to the course of the river, as in the case of the first mentioned rock. With a boat and a pole to feel out the width and depth of the grooves some proximate dimensions might be given. As I saw them, I should say they are very similar to those of the broken rock, but of less number. Besides these deeply grooved rocks there are superfi- cial scratches only an inch or two wide that tell their tale with even more convincing power to some minds, because they can more easily comprehend the action that pro- GEOLOGICAL EXPLOKATIONS. 85 duced them. There is one example on a bowlder of some seventy to ninety tons weight that has recently been uncovered, less than twenty rods beyond Nineteenth Street, on the right hand side of the right fork of the road. I saw the scratches at the distance of three or four rods as I was riding by soon after the earth was removed. They cover a space of about two square yards. A photograph of two yards square of this rock would be prized by and by, when its turn shall come to be broken in pieces and removed. The time is coming that Lowell will acknowledge her debt to the amateur photographer who may be bright enough to preserve faithful pictures of those treasures, for science, that are destined soon to perish. Some idea of the tremendous force of moving masses of ice may be gained from the following paragraph taken from page one hundred and thirty-nine of Piof. Hitch- cock's report of his geological survey of Massachusetts : " Whoever has not witnessed the breaking up of a river in the spring after a severe winter when its whole surface has been covered by ice several feet thick, has but a faint idea of the prodigious force exerted at such a time. The ice high up the stream is usually first broken in pieces by the swollen waters. Large masses are thrown up edgewise and forced underneath the unbroken sheet, and the whole bed of the stream is blocked up ; perhaps, too, where the banks are high and rocky. The water accumulates behind the obstruction until the resistance is overcome ; and the huge mass of water and ice urges on its way, crushing and jamming together the ice which it meets and thus gaining new strength at every step. Often for miles the stream prodigiously swollen is literally crammed with ice, so that the water disappears, and a slowly moving column of ice is all that is seen. This presses with such force against the bottom and sides of the stream as to cause the earth to tremble like heavy thunder to the distance of miles." Let us imagine such a river of ice to be moving one rock along the surface of another which is at rest ; and I think we should be prepared to find afterwards that 86 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. both had been severely scratched. What shall we say, then, of a moving glacier three thousand feet thick ? Its perpendicular pressure upon a rock measuring only ten feet each way would be five thousand tons. Surely our deepest furrows are accounted for. To the question whether running water might not be held to be an adequate cause for these furrows or scratches, I have only to reply, I have already pointed to much deeper and broader furrows that have been caused by running watei- ; but they are wholly unlike these. Compare them and you will be satisfied. It is like comparing a timber that has been roughly hewed with a stone hammer, to one that has been smoothly finished with a plane. I have thus sought to open to the public, or rather, as Miss Phelps would say, to set "ajar" the door of our magnificent geological cabinet, and must now let the brief tale hasten to its conclusion. Our lava beds show us the way down to the home of the earthquakes and the subterranean fires. Fortunately they are thick and stout barriers, and keep the dreadful foe at a distance. Our slaty and granitic layers, turned up at every angle, show us how frail a shell was that rocky roof, fifteen or twenty thousand feet thick, when the surges of red-hot lava beat against its inner concave and demanded a vent. Our great moraine, like an immense dromedary wit-h two humps, stands with the long and manifold record of its travels, turning over some new page every day, and giv- ing token of other, and perhaps more striking disclosures yet to be uncovered. And our rivers come in with their later tale of moraine cutting and erosion of the hard silicious rocks. And last of all comes the steel drill and the shattering blast, like the bull in the china shop, turn- ing too mnn}^ of the treasures of our cabinet into heaps of ruins. VII. History of the Lowell Grammar Schools, hy Alfred Gilman. In 1822 the territory now occupied by Lowell was one school district with two school-houses ; one near the Pound and the other at Pawtucket Falls, near the Stone House. The Merrimack Company built a school-house on Merrimack Street ; employed at first a female teacher and paid the whole expense for its support. When Rev. Theodore Edson came the school was put under his charge. Joel Lewis was the first male teacher, for one year, at the end of which time he was appointed surveyor for the Locks and Canals Company. He died November 11, 1834. In 1825 Mr. Lewis was succeeded by Alfred V. Bassett from Atkinson, N. H. At the first town meeting, March 6th, 1826, Oliver M. Whipple, Warren Colburn, Henry Coburn, Jr., Nathaniel Wright and John Fisher were appointed a committee to divide the town into school and highway districts. The committee reported at the next meeting, April 3d, pro- posing its division into six school districts. The school- houses were located as follows : District No. 1, where the new Green School-house now stands, A. V. Bassett, teacher ; No. 2, at the Falls, near the Hospital, C. F. Blanchard, teacher ; No. 3, near the Pound, Perley Morse, teacher ; No. 4, near Hale's Mill, called the " Red School- house," C. Kittredge, teacher ; No. 5, west of Central Street, Joshua Merrill, teacher ; No. 6, on Central Street, south of Hurd Street, Nathaniel Wilson, teacher. At this meeting (April 3d) Theodore Edson, Warren Colburn, 88 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Samuel Batchelder, John 0. Green, and Elisha Hunting- ton were elected School Committee, and the town appro- priated $1000 for the support of the schools. Dr. Edson says, " One of the districts, Number Three, was very small, not comprising more than about sixteen pupils. In 1825, the year previous to the incorporation of Low- ell, the town of Chelmsford appropriated for schools in this whole region, which was reckoned one district, the sum of $113.50." At the town meeting May 8th, a prop- osition was made and carried that the school money be distributed in proportion to the taxes paid from each district, provided that where the sum for any district amounted to less than $112 it be made up to that sum. The Statute of 1826 (Chap. 143, Sec. 5) said : " The inhabitants of every town shall, at their annual meeting, choose by written ballots a school committee, consisting of three, five or seven persons, who shall have the general charge and superintendance of all the public schools in such town." Sec. 13 : " The school committee shall ex- amine teachers as to literary qualifications and capacity for government." Sec. 14 : "Instructors to have certifi- cate from school committee in duplicate, one to be filed with the treasurer before payment is made." Sec. 17 : "The school committee to direct what books shall be used." Towns may choose one person in each sciiool dis- trict to be prudential or district committee. Duties of district committee, to keep school-houses in good order, and in case there is no school-house to provide a suitable place ; to provide fuel ; to provide all necessaries for the comfort of the scholars ; to select and contract with a school-master, and give such information to committee as may aid them in their duty. In order to understand the dinicuUies that arose in I HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 89 the management of the schools, it is well to premise that the control was double-headed. There was a general superintending school committee, and a committee chosen in each district, called the District or Prudential Com- mittee. The district committees claimed and exercised the right to choose the teachers, — the general superin- tending committee to approve or disapprove the choice. One claimed the legal right to say what books should be used, and the other disputed that right. It is not sur- prising, therefore, that contentwns and disputes arose. The general committee introduced " Colburn's First Les- sons " in Arithmetic, and also a reading book prepared by the same author, designed for beginners. Their right to do so was disputed. At times the excitement run high, and bitter things were said by the opponents of the books; but in a majority of the districts, "a better acquaintance with the books, and explanations from the committee, both in and out of school," smoothed the way to their introduction and use, and the excitement subsided. Dr. Edson says : " It is a remarkable fact that the smallest district, whose greatest number of pupils was sixteen, and its average twelve, made the most difficulty." In March, 1827, district number five was divided ; the portion east of Central Street was made number six, and the portion on the west, including four blocks belong- ing to the Hamilton Company, the agent's house, and an old farm-house, which stood near the north-west corner of the South Common, comprised the fifth district, as previously stated. In district number three the general committee found a teacher, Mr. Perley Morse, who was incompetent, and stated the fact to his employers. The prudential committee were notified that he " could not be appro- 90 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. bated as a teacher of a town school," yet the district undertook to carry on the school independently of the committee. The general committee ordered books of Mr. Billings, who kept a book-store, and presented the bill to the selectmen, as the law directed. The select- men, instead of sustaining the school committee of the town, in their action, inserted the following article in the warrant calling the town meeting : " Article 6. To see if the town will pay Thomas Billings' account for books furnished to the school districts by direction of the school committee." With a certain grim humor, the chairman of the school committee, Dr. Edson, says : "As an illustration of the temper of tbat town meeting, there may be found in the town book, two significant votes, thus concisely recorded : ' Voted to dismiss the sixth article ; ' ' Voted to pay Perley Morse for teaching the school in the district aforesaid.' " Dr. Edson might have added : " I. A. Beard read the report of the school committee. It was not accepted." The Doctor says a motion was made to lay it under the table. At this meeting, March 3, 1828, an entirely new school committee was chosen, Abraham Merrill, Williain Gardiner, Jr., Jonathan C. Morrill, John Johnson and Harlin Pillsbury. Liberty in the use of school books was restored, and tranquility of public feeling. At the town meeting March 2, 1829, Harlin Pills- bury, E. W. Freeman, J. C. Morrill, William Gardiner, Jr., and Eliphalet Case were chosen school committee. At the April meeting, Theodore Edson and Elisha Bartlett were chosen to fill the vacancy occasioned by the declin- ation of Pillsbury and Gardiner. From that time to 1835, Dr. Edson was re-elected every year. The experience gained in the management of school districts probably led the committee to inquire if there J HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 91 was not some better way to govern the schools ; and, in 1832, they caused the following article to be inserted in the warrant, " To see if the town will take measures for the improvement of the public schools." Consideration of this article came up at the March meeting in 1832, and it is recorded : " On motion of Theodore Edson, the town voted that a committee of seven in number be chosen to consider whether any, and if any, what alteration or improvemeut of the public schools shall be expedient, and report thereon to the town at the adjourned meeting to be holden on the first Monday in April next," and Theodore Edson, Nathaniel Wright, Amos Blanchard, Elisha Huntington, Eliphalet Case, John C. Dalton, and John 0. Green were appointed as the committee. April 2d this committee made a report, accompanied by three resolutions : first, to establish Primary, second, Grannnar, and third. High Schools. This report was accepted and the resolutions adopted. " On motion of Nathaniel Wright the town voted that the selectmen, to be joined with the superintending school committee, be a committee to consider whither any, and if any, how many school-houses are necessary to be built ; to be con- stituted with full power and authority to purchase land and build as many as they may deem expedient, at the expense of the town." Thus the committee was enlarged ; it consisted of Joshua Swan, Matthias Parkhurst, Josiah Crosby, Benjamin Walker and Samuel C. Oliver, select- men, and Theodore Edson, Amos Blanchard, E. W. Free- man, Calvin Gardner, William Twining, Elisha Hunting- ton and Oilman Kimball, school committee. This committee had two important points to settle ; how many school-houses were needed, and where they should be located. The densely inhabited portions of the town were near the mills, while the outskirts were thinly populated. Dr. Edson says, " The first point was ^2 Otb RESIDENTS* HISTORlbAL ASSOCIATtOiT. easily settled. The second was one of greater difficulty." Happily the committee, judging from the past what the future wants of the town would be, concluded upon the building of two school-houses, and located them far enough from the thickly populated portions of the town, so that these could be accommodated, also those residing in the outskirts of the town. Should the town continue to grow, the inhabitants must spread outward, and in time these school-houses would both be surrounded by a dense population. It became necessary to call another town meeting to make the necessary appropriation of money. This was fixed for the third of September, 1832. In the mean- time other influences were at work. The Companies thus far had provided almost wholly for the education of the children of those persons in their employment. They could indulge in an honest pride on this account, and were certainly entitled to the gratitude of the community, but if there is one peculiarity more prominent than another in the Yankee character, it is independence of control either in religion, politics or education. In the warrant calling the meeting in question, appeared the article in the following petition: "To the honorable Selectmen of the town of Lowell : The under- signed, inhabitants of the town of Lowell, and legal voters in town affairs, and freeholders in said town, re- quest that you would insert an article in your warrant for the ensuing town meeting, ' To see if the town will express their opinion as to the expediency of building one or more school-houses for the use of the town the present or any future year, or make any appropriation therefor, or act in relation thereto.' Signed, Kirk Boott, Johnathan Tyler, J. Bancroft, Daniel Mixer, Luther Lawrence, Elisha Glidden, K. A]i])leton, Edward Sher- man, John P. Ilobbinson." tttSTORY OF TitE LOWELt GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 93 The question now became, shall the district school system be sustained ? If it was sustained, there existed a necessity for an increase in the number of school-houses, which would be " so much property vested in these legal incorporations" and "would greatly increase the diffi- culty of extinguishing " the system. Dr. Edson says, " so small was the chance of success, that not a person could be found to join him in the advo- cacy " of the measures. This is the uniform testimony also of his colleagues and contemporaries. The third of September came ; at the meeting a motion to authorize the loan of a sum not exceeding $20,000, for building school-houses, developed the oppo- sition and occasioned a lively discussion. Mr. Boott stated " that the town was already in debt, and by neces- sary appropriations for bridges, sidewalks and sewers, likely to be more so, and that the town could not then afford such an expenditure ; that the town had done for public schools what was required ; they were proper and sufficient for the poor, but would never serve for the' better sort of the community ; that those persons in the employ of the companies would desire and provide better schools for their children ; that the plan proposed was impracticable ; and that ministers were not suitable per- son to manage the expenditures of the town."* It was urged by Dr. Edson, on the other hand, "that the well being of the whole community would be pro- moted by the advancement of common schools ; that although the appropriation proposed seemed large, yet it was in fact an economical one, for since school-houses must be built, the same amount of accommodation would probably cost less in large buildings than in small ones ; that the plan was not an untried experiment; that the * Rev. Theodore Edson. 94 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. work of education on this system could be done to greater advantage, cheaper and better, by concentration of in- terest and effort, and by a more perfect division of hibor; that in tlie matter of general improvement, to incur a debt was but to divide the burden with those who come after, and who reap the greater share of the benefit, and that this was especially true in the case of provision for schools." The fling at the clergy was very quieth^ put aside by the remark that " if business men would come forward and acquaint themselves fully with the condition and wants of the schools," "ministers would be read}^ to yield the ground to them." * The motion prevailed to borrow $20,000, and on motion of Dr. Elisha Bartlctt it was voted that it is the wish of the town that two school-houses be built. This did not end the struggle. A petition was drawn up and presented as follows : " To the Selectmen of Lowell : The undersigned, inhabitants of the town of Lowell, respectfully request you to issue a warrant to ■call a town meeting as soon as convenient, on the follow- ing articles : 1st. — To see if the town will modify or re- scind the vote whereby they authorized their committee to build forthwith two school-houses. 2d. — To see if the town will appoint a committee with full powers to settle with any parties with whom said committee may have made contracts. 3d. — To see if the town will rescind the vote wdiereby they authorized a loan of twenty thousand dollars on the credit of the town." This petition was signed by Jonathan Tyler, Elisha * In the earnestness of this discussion Mr. Boott stated " tliat the establislunent of manufactures here was an experiment, and sliould it fail, every tiling here would go to decay and ruin, and it would be a great piece of folly to invest so much money on an uncertainty." Mr. Edson replied: " If, in the event of so disastrous a conclusion to the efforts that have been, and are now being made to build up a town here, which has been so vividly portrayed by the gentleman, it should happen, in some future age of the world, that an antiquarian, searching among the ruins, lie would be led to exclaim. ' where are their school-houses?' " HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GKAMMAR SCHOOLS. 95 Ford, Jonathan Bowers, Rufus Spalding, Jonathan Spald- ing, Phineas Whiting, Thomas Billings, Weld Spalding, John R. Adams, George Motley, P. Hale and John Richardson. In accordance with this petition a meeting was held September 10, 1832. J. H. B. Ayer moved that articles two, three and four (corresponding with the above prop- osition) be indefinitely postponed. On this motion the discussion was resumed. The opposition was strength- ened by the best legal ability of the town. The Hon. Luther Lawrence and the Hon. John P. Robinson appeared in opposition to the fojiiier action of the town. The principal arguments used by these gentlemen were " that the chief burden of this extravagant appropriation would fall upon the corporations, which were strongly opposed to it, and from which they could derive no benefit; that it was unfair to vote away the property of the non-resi- dent proprietors to such an amount, against the will of their Agents; that the new system was intended to supercede the action of districts in their corporate capac- ity and thus to interfere with the rights of citizens ; thjit over two hundred and fifty pupils in one school-room, as was contemplated, could never be properly managed." In reply to these arguments, it was stated " that in the general character and reputation of the community the corporations would receive an equivalent; that so far as the tax-paying property here was owned by per- sons in Boston, it was shown by documents that the same amount of property, if taxed in Boston, would be taxed at a much higher rate there than here ; that however well suited the district system might be to the sparse population of country towns, its operation was very dis- advantageous and unequal in cities and large towns ; that as to the management of large schools, the experi- 96 OLD nESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ence of Boston, Newburyport, and other large towns, showed that they were likely to be better managed than small ones." At a late hour a vote was taken which resulted in the indefinite postponement of the articles, yeas 172, nays 135, a victory for the chairman of the school com- mittee, Dr. Edson. Although the committee agreed to pay seventeen and twenty-five cents per foot for the Companies' land, amounting to $4,166.67, which was considered an extrav- agant price, Dr. Edson proves beyond a peradventure, that the Companies made a clear gain, financially, of $7,320 in- twelve years and eight months, as at the end of that time their land in the same vicinity sold for two and one-half cents per foot.* In 1829 the Merrimack School had 165 pupils. In the summer of this year Mr. Bassett resigned his situa- tion as teacher. He studied for the ministry and became a Universalist preacher ; was pastor of the Universalist Church in Dedham, where, in a fit of insanity caused by brain fever, he cut his throat with a razor, and died December 26, 1831. Mr. Bassett was succeeded by Walter Abbott, of Milford, N. H., who remained one year, left and engaged in mercantile business. Reuben Hills, of Hancock, N. H., came in 1830. In May, 1833, the North School-House, near the North Common, was completed and the Merri- mack School was moved into it. In April, 1832, this school had so increased that it was found necessary to * The next best thing to being beaten in such a cause, is to aclcnowledge tlie wrong. This pleasing feature is stated by Master Merrill in his sketch of School District No. 5: " In October, 18,33, Henry (May, His Excellency Gov. Lincoln, His Honor Lt.-Gov. Ann- strong, and other distinguished persons visited Lowell, and in company with Kirlc Boott, Luther Lawrence and other citizens, came into my scliool. Messrs. Boott and Lawrence were proud to show these distinguished guests the school-house and scliool, which, within a few months, they had opposed to tlie extent of their ability." HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 97 have an assistant, and Mr. N. D. Healey was appointed. When the school was removed to the new house, two female assistants were employed. In 1834 the school was divided. Mr. Healey was appointed principal of the new school, and Mr. Bean appointed assistant to Mr. Hills. Mr. Bean remained only one month, and was succeeded by Mr. Thomas F. Cram. Mr. Hills resigned in April, 1835. The principals of this school, after the resignation of Mr. Hills, were Jacob Graves, from 1835 to 184.1 ; G. 0. Fairbanks, from 1841 to 1842 ; 0. C. Wright, from 1842 to 1843 ; Jacob Graves, from 1843 to 1847 ; J. P. Fisk, from 1847 to 1856, when the house was remodeled, the two schools united and placed under the charge of Samuel Bement, the present incumbent. This school has had the following names : Merri- mack, North Grammar, Hancock, and Bartlett. ADAMS SCHOOL. The population in the vicinity of the North Gram- mar School increased so rapidly that the committee of 1836 opened the lower part of that house, and appointed Otis H. Morrill as principal. He resigned his situation in 1851 on account of ill-health ; was elected to the Leg- islature in the fall, but gradually declined and died June 9, 1852, aged thirty-two. He was succeeded in the school by Samuel Bement. When Mr. Fisk resigned his position in the Hancock School the house was remodeled by dividing it into eight rooms, in seven of which female assistants were placed, and Mr. Bement in the eighth, the whole making one school called the Bartlett Grammar School. George W. Holbrook and G. 0. Fairbanks had been assistants in the old school ; under the new arrangement female assistants were employed. W. A. Vanderlip was the writing master in this and 98 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the Hancock School, from 1836 to 1842 ; J. S. Phillips, from 1842 to 1843; J. B. Giles, from 1843 to 1856. IRISH SCHOOLS AND THE MANN SCHOOL. In 1844 the school committee appointed a sub-com- mittee to report upon the history of these schools. I avail myself of their report : " By the advice and efforts of philanthropic individuals, a room was rented, supplied with fuel and other necessaries, and a teacher placed in this school who was to be remunerated by a small weekly, voluntary tax from the parents. From the poverty and indifference of the parents, however, the school languished and became extinct. It was revived from time to time, but after months of feebleness failed. " Up to the year 1840 the attempts to establish a school in the neighborhood of the Acre, were sustained chiefly by individual benev- olence. At the annual town meeting in May, 18B0, an article was inserted in the warrant for the appointment of a committee to consider the expediency of establishing a separate school for the benefit of the Irish population. The committee reported in favor of such a school ; the report was accepted and the sum of fifty dollars was appropriated for the establishment and maintenance of a separate district school for the Irish. It was kept only part of the time and suspended. All the arrangements hitherto were unsatisfactory. In 1834 Rev. Mr. Connelly carried on a private school in a room under the Catholic Church. In June, 1835, this gentleman made application to the school committee for aid, and an arrangement was entered into be- tween them. The committee insisted upon the following conditions before any appropriation could be made of the public money : " 1st — That the instructors must be examined as to their quali- fications by the committee and receive their appointment from them. " 2d — That the books, exercises and studies should be all pre- scribed and regulated by the committee, and that no other whatever should be taught or allowed. " 3d — That these schools should be placed, as respects the exam- ination, inspection and general supervision of the committee, on pre- cisely the same ground as the other schools of the town. " Mr. Connelly urged, the instructors must be of the Roman Catholic faith, and that the books prescribed should contain no state- ments or facts not admitted by th:it faith, nor any remarks reflecting injuriously upon their system of belief. These conditions were assented to l)y the committee." HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 99 Under the above arrangement the committee assumed the supervision of the private school ah^eady existing in a room under the CathoHc Church, and elected Patrick Collins its teacher, as one of the public instructors. Miss Stevens was chosen a teacher of the primary school in the same building, but the committee failing to secure her services, Mary J. Woodbury was subsequently chosen in her place. September 10th, 1835, another Catholic school, in the vicinity of Chapel Hill, was adopted as a town school, taught by Daniel Mclllroy, under the aus- pices of Mr. Connelly. In the summer of 1837, another room was prepared under the Catholic Church, a new Catholic school was opend, and Mary Ann Stanton elected its teacher. In June, 1838, Mr. Collins' and Mr. Mclll- roy' s schools were united, called the Fifth Grammar School, moved to Liberty Hall on Lowell Street, and Mr. Mclllroy chosen principal, with Peter McDermott, assist- ant. During the year ending April, 1841, Mr. Mclllroy was succeeded by James Egan, and the next year J. W. Walsh succeeded Mr. McDermott as assistant. In June, 1844, Mr. Egan resigned his situation and Mr. M. Flynn succeeded him. Mr. Egan studied law, was admitted to the bar, and became a popular and successful lawyer in Boston. On the 8th of January, 1844, the Grammar School was moved to the new house on Lewis Street. The building cost $0650. Mr. George W. Shattuck, who had been a successful teacher in Mr. Graves' school for two years, was elected principal of the Lewis Street School. His management was judicious ; the school increased in numbers and reputa- tion. In 1848, a large private school, which had been kept in the basement of the Catholic Church, was dis- banded and most of the pupils entered the public schools. From 1838 to 1851 inclusive, 669 pupils of the Mann L.ofC. 100 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. School (Lewis Street) received certificates to enter the mills, while the total number from the other Grammar Schools was as follows : Edson, 156 ; Hancock, 282 Washington, 167; Franklin (from 1840), 59; Adams, 429 Moody (from 1841), 139; Green (from 1841), 102 ; Col burn (from 1848), 67 ; total, 2070 from all the schools during this period. In the fall of 1852, the "Sisters of Notre Dame" opened a school for girls, under the supervision of Father O'Brien, through whose influence nearly all the girls who had hitherto attended this school, joined that of theSisters. Mr. Shattuck resigned January 1, 1853, engaged in other business till the spring of 1859, when he was elected superintendent of our public schools. P. W. Robertson, from Troy, N. Y., was Mr. Shattuck's successor, and proved a failure. A. T. Young was transferred from the Washington School to the Mann School, and Robertson took his place in the Washington. Mr. Young remained but a short time and was succeeded b}^ Mr. Samuel A. Chase, who remained principal till 1873, when he was elected treasurer of the Central Savings Bank. Miss Nellie M. Gallagher, his first assistant, was elected prin- cipal of the Mann School, and retained the position until August, 1876, when George H. Conley was elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by her resignation. Mr. Conley, in June, 1883, was transferred to the Butler School, and his position as principal of the Mann School was given to Oliver C. Semple, a native of Bennington, Vt., who re- tained it until September 1, 1884, when he was elected principal of the new Grammar School in Pawtucketville. This closes the history of the Mann Grammar School. EDSON SCHOOL. This school was opened in a small white house on the corner of South and Middlesex Streets, November 5, HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 10 1 1827, by Joshua Merrill of Milford, N. H. In 1829 it was removed to the Free Chapel, where it continued until February 18, 1833, when it was removed to the new brick school-house on the South Common. Mr. Merrill retained his position as principal till October, 1845, when he re- signed and entered into trade as a bookseller. During the first four years Mr. Merrill conducted his school alone, but in 1832 the district system was abolished, the school increased in numbers, and he was provided with an assist- ant. When Mr. Merrill's school was removed to the new school-house, February 18, 1833, another Grammar School, hitherto kept in the basement of the First Univer- salist Church, then located on Chapel Hill, and taught by Moses F. Eaton, was united with Mr. Merrill's, and Mr. Eaton retained as assistant. Here Mr. Eaton remained till July 7, 1834, when he was transferred to the North School. John Butterfield was elected, July 7, 1834, as assistant to Mr. Merrill, and remained till December 5, 1836, when he became principal of Grammar School No. 3, in place of Mr. Whittier. George Giddings succeeded Mr. Butterfield as assistant. In 1838 Jonathan Kimball succeeded Mr. Giddings and remained till 1841, when he became principal of Grammar School No. 3, in the same building. Theodore H. Sweetser succeeded Mr. Kimball as assistant, and was the last male assistant in the school. He left in 1842. The writing masters were : Francis D. Randall in 1833, S. K. Hanscom till 1837, E. B. Patch till 1842, J. S. Patch till 1846, A. B. Wilcox till 1853, John Cogswell till 1856, after which time engraved slips were used, and writing taught by the respective teachers in each room. On the retirement of Mr. Merrill in 1845, Mr. Perley Balch was elected to fill the vacancy. During the sum- mer vacation of 1856, the house was remodeled by mak- ino; four rooms on each fioor. Female teachers were l02 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. appointed to take charge of seven of these rooms, and Mr. Balch occupied the eighth with the first class. He had supervision of the whole. In 1835 the committee fixed the salaries as follows: Principal of the High School, $1000; assistant, $500; Grammar master, $600; male assistants, $350. In 1847 the salaries were raised to $700 for principals, $400 for male and $175 for female assistants. In 1852 Grammar masters were raised to $1000. Now, for principals, $1800 ; female assistants, $600. In 1870, after twenty-hve years service, Mr. Balch resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Ira Waldron, of Dover, N. H., a graduate of Waterville College. Mr. Waldron resigned in August, 1872, and was succeeded by Mr. Calvin W. Burbank, of Fitchburg, who is the present incumbent. WASHINGTON SCHOOL. In the spring of 1834 the accommodations in the North and South Grammar Schools were not sufficient for the pupils entitled to attend schools of that rank. The school committee, on the 24th of March, opened a new school in the North School-House, and gave it the name of the " Third Grammar School." Nathaniel D. Healey was appointed principal, and Isaac Whittier and Edith Patch assistants. In June, 1838, the Third Grammar School was moved to the South Grammar School-House, in order to accommodate the children residing in Belvi- dere, who had then acquired a right to attend the Lowell schools. July 6, 1835, Mr. Healey resigned on account of ill-health. S. S. Button was elected to fill the vacancy, and remained a few months. April 5, 1836, Isaac Whit- tier who had been an assistant, became principal ; he re- signed October 17, and was succeeded by John Butter- field, December 5th. Mr. Butterfield remained till 1840, when he was succeeded by Jonathan Kimball, who had HISTORY OF THK LOWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 103 been an assistant in Mr. Morrill's school since 1838. Mr. Kimball remained until 1851, when he was elected sub- principal of the female department of the High School, where he remained till the summer of 1857, when he re- signed to take charge of the High School at Dorchester. On the transfer of Mr. Kimball to the High School in 1851, Albert T. Young was elected as his successor. Mr. Young was subsequently transferred to the Mann School and Robertson took his place in the Washington. Mr. Young soon got enough of the Mann School, relinquished it, and studied medicine. He became a successful prac- titioner. Mr. Robertson did better in his new position, but when the Edson and the Washington Schools were united, he lost it. FRANKLIN SCHOOL. During the winter of 1839, Mr. Rufus Adams was employed to open a school on Middlesex Street, and in 1840 the Fourth Grammar School was established in a school-house near the old burying ground. Mr. George Spalding was appointed principal, and held the position till 1844. His successor was Nason H. Morse. In 1845 the new brick school-house was erected at the intersec- tion of Middlesex and Branch Streets, at a cost of $8954.05. The number of pupils was so large that Mr. Morse was furnished with two female assistants, and Mr. James McCoy writing master. Mr. Morse remained at the head of the school till the second term of 1848, when ill-health compelled him to resign. Ephraim Brown, assistant in the Belvidere School, then took the school and conducted it through the term ending in July, during which month Ephraim W. Young was elected. Mr. Young had just graduated from Harvard College with high honors as a scholar. Early in the year 1849 he was transferred to the High School, where he emained, as teacher of Natural Sciences, till 1857, when 104 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. he resigned. He removed to Wisconsin and engaged successfully in farming. Mr. A. B. Heywood who was elected as Mr. Young's successor, was born in Westford, Mass. The school was large and his labors arduous. During the summer of 1851, he bled at the lungs. He obtained leave of absence for six months, which he spent in the South. During this time his place was supplied by Frederick A. Sawyer, who subsequently taught at Nashua, N. H., and Reading. Mr. Sawyer has since gained some notoriety as assistant in the treasury depart- ment at Washington, Senator from South Carolina, and his trial as a defaulter or embezzler. The charges were not sustained. Mr. Heywood returned in good health and resumed his labors the following spring. In May, 1856, he obtained leave of absence for six months, which he spent in Europe. He returned from his tour with renewed vigor. He resigned in 1870, and was succeeded by Mr. Stephen G. Bailey, who remained till 1874, when he resigned. In 1874 Mr. Perley Balch was transferred from the Colburn School to the Franklin. He resigned in 1878 and was succeeded by Mr. Frank F. Coburn. Perley Balch died February 9, 1881. Mr. Coburn con- tinued at this school until July, 1880, when he was elected as assistant to Mr. C. C. Chase in the High School. Upon the resignation of Mr. C. C. Chase, Mr. Coburn was elected to succeed him as principal of the High School, which position he retains at the present time. Mr. Charles W. Morey, a graduate of Amherst College, suc- ceeded Mr. Coburn as principal of the Franklin. The Franklin Grammar School is merged in the new Highland Gramuiar School. MOODY SCHOOL. January 8, 1841, this school was opened with Mr. Seth Pooler as principal. He had been an assistant in the High School since 1838. Benjamin B. Thompson, HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GKAMMAK SCHOOLS. 105 Elizabeth C. Bartlett and Helen R. Eastman were Mr. Pooler's assistants, and E. D. Sanborn was writing master. Mr. Sanborn remained till 1845, when he was succeeded by John C. Tasker, and in 1846 by Benjamin Walker. In 1849 Mr. Walker received the appointment of paymaster at the Hamilton Print Works. Mr. Walker was succeeded by Warren C. Spalding who remained till 1853, when John Cogswell became writing master till 1858. Of the male assistants, Mr. Thompson served till 1842, Charles Morrill from 1842 to 1845, when on the resignation of Mr. Aaron Walker, Jr., he became principal of the Green School, and Ephraim Brown was elected to the vacancy. Mr. Brown remained till 1850, when he resigned and went into trade. Mr. Samuel Bement took his place till the close of the summer term, and was succeeded by a female assistant. In September, 1856, Mr. Pooler resigned, and that fall was elected a member of the legislature. At the close of 1857, he removed to Fall River and engaged in commercial business. A teacher was temporarily employed till the appoint- ment of Mr. Joseph Peabody, who held the position for twenty-seven years, and was succeeded by Wm. S. Green, the present incumbent. Mary E. Way, assistant to the principal, has been a teacher in this school twenty-six years. Joseph Peabody died November 21, 1886. GREEN SCHOOL. Prior to 1841 all the Grammar School scholars (ex- cept those attending the Irish school) were obliged to go to the North or South Grammar Schools. The rapid increase of population near the central point between these two, seemed a sufficient reason for the erection of another house, and in 1841 a location was selected on Middle Street. A large two-story brick house was built to accommodate a Grammar and a Primary School. The 106 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Grammar School was opened about the middle of the year, with Samuel C. Pratt, principal, assisted by Nelson H. Morse, H. Amanda Fox, and Nancy H. Green. C. H. Farnsworth was the writing master. Mr. Morse remained till 1846, when he was appointed principal of the Frank- lin School. George Spalding succeeded Mr. Morse as assistant from 1845 to 1846, Lewis L. Record from 1846 to 1848. Mr. Record subsequently became a Universalist minister. Alonzo Leland was assistant from 1848 to March, 1849, and S. N. Merrill from April 16, 1849, till the close of the summer term of 1851. After this time female assistants were employed. Samuel C. Pratt, principal, remained till the close of the summer of 1842, when he resigned. Mr. Pratt was succeeded by Aaron Walker, Jr., August 1, 1843, who continued till the spring of 1845, when he resigned. Mr. Walker was succeeded by Mr. Charles Morrill, who had been an assistant teacher in our schools since 1841 ; first with Mr. Graves in No. 2 (Hancock) in 1842 ; then with his brother, Otis H., in No. 6 (Adams) in 1843, when he was transferred to No. 7 (Moody) whence he became the principal of the Green School. In 1867 Mr. Morrill was elected superintendent of the public schools, and resigned his office as principal of the Green School. The office of superintendent he retained until the date of his death, April 2, 1884. Mr. Charles A. Chase succeeded Mr. Morrill as principal of the Green School in 1867, and resigned in November, 1868. Mr. Chase was succeeded by Mr. George F. Lawton. During Mr. Lawton's term of service the school was moved into the new house on Merrimack Street. It is the finest school building in the city, cost, all furnished, $106,000, and was dedicated December 31, 1870, when Dr. John 0. Green made the address. Mr. Lawton resigned in 1874, and was sue- HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 107 ceeded by Mr. Albert L. Fiske. Mr. Fiske died January 13, 1880. His successor, Albert L. Bacheller, who was transferred from the Colburn School, is the present in- cumbent, with Ruth B. Bailey as an assistant. COLBURN SCHOOL. The increase of population on Gorham, Church and Lawrence Streets, and the large attendance at the Edson School, led the committee to ask the City Council for another school-house, and recommended that it be located on Lawrence Street. The request was granted, the house built and finished in 1848, and dedicated December 13, 1848. The school was opened at the commencement of the winter term, under the tuition of Mr. Aaron Walker, Jr., who had been principal of the Green School, but for several years preceding 1848 had been teaching at Charlestown. His assistants have been Elizabeth Clem- ent and Mary E. Fletcher till 1852, Mary P. Norton till 1854, Fidelia 0. Dodge and Lucinda E. True were elected in 1852, and C. A. Woods in 1854. In 1864 Mr. Walker resigned and was succeeded by Mrs. Fidelia 0. Dodge, principal, and Elizabeth W. Frost, assistant. In 1870 Mrs. Dodge was transferred, as first assistant, to the Green School, and Mr. Perley Balch was elected to suc- ceed her as principal of the Colburn School. In 1874 Mr. Balch was transferred to the Franklin School, and Albert L. Bacheller was elected principal of the Colburn School. Mr. Bacheller is a graduate of the Middletown (Conn.) University. His success as a teacher in this school fully established his reputation and he was elected principal of the Green School. George W. Howe, who succeeded him as principal of the Colburn School, is a native of Lowell, graduated at Bowdoin College, and studied for the ministry. He is the present incumbent. 108 OLD RESIDENTS* HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. VARNUM SCHOOL. February 3, 1851, that part of Dracut called Cen- tralville was set off from Dracut to Lowell. This district had more than five hundred children for whom the school committee were at once called upon to make provision. The school-houses in this district were the old Academy on Chestnut Street, and the brick school-house on Fre- mont Street. These were put in good repair. A Gram- mar School was immediately opened in the upper room of the Academy building and a Primary School was com- menced in the lower room of the same building. Another primary was opened in the old brick school-house, and a third on Fourth Street. The Grammar School was named in honor of Gen. Joseph Varnum. A. W. Board- man, a graduate of Harvard College, was elected princi- pal, and Elizabeth Calef, assistant. Mr. Boardman re- mained till the spring of 1853, when he resigned. He was succeeded by Mr. D. P. Galloupe, who for many years had been principal of one of the Grammar Schools in Salem. December 7, 1857, the new brick school- house on Myrtle Street was occupied by the Varnum School. The house was finished with eight rooms, seven of which were in charge of female assistants, while the other was for advanced classes under the principal, who had charge of the whole. In 1878 Mr. Galloupe, after a service of twenty-five years, resigned, and was suceeded by Mr. Arthur K. Whitcomb, who had been previously engaged in the editorial departments of the Courier and Citizen. Mr. Whitcomb is the present incumbent. ITUmLAND, BUTLER AND PAAVTUCKET SCHOOLS. During the years 1882-5, three new Grammar school- houses have been built and two old ones, the Franklin and the Mann, have been discontinued as Grammar school- houses, in 1882 the Highland was finished at an expense HISTORY OF THE LOWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 109 of $43,296.44 ; in 1883 the Butler, at on expense of $55,930.27 ; in 1884 the Pawtucket, at an expense of $52,602.03, making a aggregate of $152,828.74. The Highland School was organized January 1, 1882, with Mr. C. W. Morey as principal. He graduated at Amherst in 1880. Miss Alice M. Clark is his assistant. The Butler School was organized September, 1883, with George H. Conley as principal. Mr. Conley had been principal of the Mann School. April 10, 1884, Mr. Conley * was elected superintendent of schools and was succeeded by Cornelius P. Callahan, born in Ireland, and graduated at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester. Miss Francis M. Webster, assistant. The Pawtucket School was was organized September 1, 1884, with Oliver C. Semple as principal. Mr. Semple is a native of Bennington, Vt. Mr. Semple resigned as principal September 4, 1885, and was succeeded, Sep- tember 28, the same year, by Mr. Cyrus W. Irish. Mr. Irish was transferred to the High School. Miss Nellie McDonald acted as principal for a short time and was succeeded by William P. Barry, as master. April 26, 1886, the title of Principal was changed in all the Grammar Schools, to Master. Music Teachers : Isaac N. Metcalf, from 1849 to 1857 ; Lyman Heath, 1849 ; B. F. Baker, 1848-9 ; and George F. Willey, from 1866 to 1885. Walter E. Owen is at present director of music. Writing Masters for all the Schools : C. H. Farns- worth, from 1860 to 1864; Bertram Harrison, from 1865 to June 25, 1883, when he was succeeded by Thomas M. Graves, the present incumbent. NoTK.— In compiling tills history the writer nialseinifiilly hccanie assistant editor of tlie Lowell Courier. Additions have been made in order to hriiiti it down to the present time. ♦Mr. Conley was called to a i)osition in Hosion, and was succeeded as Superintendent of Schools, by Mr. G. F. Lawton. nil. Kirk Boott. A Letter from Dr. John 0. Green to Rev. Theodore Edson, D. D. Thursday Evening, February 11, 1875. My Dear Doctor Edson : I feel a strong desire to comply with your request for personal reminiscences of Kirk Boott, greatly dis- proportionate to the amount of time which I can set apart to prepare them. Our stand-point is different and yet our estimate of him may not much differ. From the first week of his removing here, in April, 1822, I became his physician and that of his family, and my intercourse with them for fifteen years, till his death, was uninterrupted and intimate, while his public acts were all, more or less, under my observation and I was well situated to hear the criticisms and strictures which were freely indulged in, by a curious and interested com- munity. When he came here from Boston, where he had been selected for this novel position, by men of singular sagacity, he was little more than thirty-two years of age. After the lapse of more than forty years, I remember him as a man of more than medium height, very erect, of open and intelligent features and high forehead, with a decided military air, although there was a stiffness about his gait, which was afterwards increased by disease, and generally required the aid of a cane. He spoke in an undertone, always in few words, directly to the point. Either naturally, or acquired by his mili- tary education, he had a commanding manner which never seemed to me misplaced, but appropriate to the KIRK BOOTT. Ill position of superintendent of a vast multiplicity of affairs and a large number of men. All his actions and words were indicative of energy and great decision of character. His orders were given with briefness and precision, and he expected the same in reply. When you reflect upon the character of the old settlers here at the time, you will not be surprised that these character- istics were misunderstood by them, that his directness was mistaken for haughtiness and his energy for over- bearing. His situation was entirely novel. No similar enterprise had been undertaken. To be sure he had very able assistants in the gentlemen selected for the different parts of it, yet he it was who, in all case, was called upon to advise and decide. The variety of his employments almost exceeds belief. He was engineer, architect, draughtsman, con- veyancer or clerk, moderator of town meetings, represent- ative in the legislature — and a review of all his work in these departments at this day will only go to show a re- markable correctness of judgment and wise forethought. The interests of the Merrimack Company and those of individual land owners, the greedy speculators in real estate, the large contractors, and the selection of suitable overseers of work of all kinds, were not always identical or easily reconciled. His prompt and curt replies did not always at first command a cheerful acquiescence. Yet under strong provocation he was always dignified and gentlemanly. When presiding as moderator of town meeting and a noisy brawler was demanding to be heard, he did not hesitate to order him to address the moderator and take off his hat. His knowledge of men seemed almost like intuition. Under its promptings, were collected here a noble band of mechanics — men not only skilled craftsmen, but men 112 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. of incorruptible integrity, whose lives were passed here and whose faithful works are all around us. Until his house, now the Lowell Hospital, was fin- ished in 1823, he and his family boarded with Capt. Phineas Whiting, where Mr. Frederick Ayer now lives, while I was living with Mr. Holden in the next house. After he began housekeeping, his establishment was lib- eral and elegant, as befitted his position, where every- thing seemed indicative of taste and refinement without ostentation, and where comfort was never sacrificed for show, realizing to me rather the heau ideal oi an English home, and presided over by his most estimable and accomplished wife. Enthusiastic in the great problem to whose solution his whole soul was devoted, his labors scarcely knew any diminution even after they were interrupted by his fail- ing health. For years before his death, he suffered from symptoms indicative of obscure disease of the spine. He was seldom unable to go out, and under severe treatment of cupping and blistering and cautery, by direction of the most eminent physicians here and in London (where he had an older brother, Dr. Francis Boott, and highly dis- tinguished), and by the progress of his disease almost deprived of the power of walking, he seldom intermitted his labors. From the nature of his disease, the proba- bility of a sudden death had been foretold, and on the 11th day of April, 1837, at noon, he fell dead from his chaise, at the Merrimack Street Station, aged forty-six years and five months. Truly yours, John 0. Gkeen. CONTRIBUTIONS THE OLD RESIDENTS Si^tofidkl S^^odatiori, LOWELL, MASS. Oli.OAlVIZEID DECKMIBKR 31, lS6i Vol. IV. No. 3. PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION, AUGUST, II " ' Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours." — Young. LOWELL, MASS. Morning Mail Print: No. 18 Jackson Strkkt. 1889. CONTRIBUTIONS THE OLD RESIDENTS Si^toridal S^^o(^iktioi\, LOWBLL, ]V[ASS. ORGAisrizinr) deckmiber 31, isee. Vol. IV. ISTo. 3. PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION, AUGUST, 18S9. "' Tis greatly wise to talk with our past houis." — YoUNG. LOWELL, MASS. Morning Mail Print: No. 18 Jackson Street. 1889. CONTENTS. IX. Annual Reports of President. C. (". Chase 113 X. Lives of Postmasters, by C. C. Cliase, read November 8, 1888 128 XI. Eeminisceuces of an ex-Postmaster, by Alfred (Jilnian, read November 8, 1888, 142 XII. Life and Character of Nathan Allen, M. D., L. L. D., by Dr. D. N. Patterson, read May 8, 1889 151 XIII. Autobiography of Alvan Clark, vith an Introductory Letter by Chief Justice Wni. A. Kichardson. formerly of Lowell 164 XIV. Reminiscences of Warren Colbnrn 179 XV. The American Venice: Some Account of tiie Rivers. Canals and Bridges of Lowell, by James Bayles 182 IX. Annual Reports of President, C. C. Chase. May 10, 1888. The past year has been, to our Association, one of quiet and uniform success. Our able and faithful secre- tary has lost none of his zeal in our cause, and he has kept a watchful eye upon all that pertains to the early days of our city. Death has made its usual inroad upon our ranks, and we have, during the year, lost eight of our number. Since the institution of this Association in 1868, four hundred and sixty-four members have been enrolled. Of these, one hundred and sixty-seven have died, fifty- four, for various causes, have withdrawn, and two hun- dred and forty-three are now left in our ranks. The public exercises at our meetings in the past year, have mainly consisted in reading the diary and letters of Kirk Boott, and short sketches of the lives of men who, in past time, have been identified with the up-building and the good name of our city. We have already published, in permanent and attractive form, in- teresting and valuable sketches and reminiscences of all the earlier mayors of Lowell, of Boott, Jackson, Lowell, Moody, the Lawrences, Bachelder, and many other dis- tinguished men, whose names are honorably connected with the establishment and success of our great manu- factories ; also of all the prominent physicians and many of the excellent and talented clergymen, who, in the past, have done honor to our city. I take pride and pleasure in directing your attention, once more, to our 114 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. published volumes. To one who loves Lowell as his home or birthplace, these volumes are replete with most interesting and useful information. Unlike most other books, their value and interest will increase as time passes away and the charm of antiquity is added to their intrinsic merits. At the present meeting I had hoped to read an article written by Prof. Charles A. Aiken, of Princeton College, N. J., upon the life of his honored father, John Aiken, so long the efficient agent of the Lawrence Cor- poration. But a letter from Prof. Aiken, received not long since, informs me that his labors are such that he must put off the preparation of this article until his re- turn from Europe, where he is now travelling. I hope to read the article at our next meeting. It is not the policy of this Association to present itself too often as a claimant for popular attention. We do not happen to be in debt and therefore can afiord to keep quiet. If we really needed help the public would probably hear from us. But our treasurer's report will show that in pecuniary matters we are a somewhat re- markable exception to most associations. Among our possessions, perhaps too little valued, is our large collection of books and pamphlets in the office of our secretary. To one who is fond of historical and antiquarian research, this collection is well worthy of his attention and study. During the past year the following additions have been made to the accumulations of former years, viz. : Proceedings of tlie IHiude Island Historical Society, 1886-7, 1887-8. Report of the Library Committee, Lancaster, Mass. Catalogue, State Historical Society, Wisconsin. Papers of the California Historical Society, Vol. I., Part. 1. RErORT OF PRESIDENT, 1888. 115 Historical Collection of the Essex Institute, 10 vols., from D. P. Galloupe. Ithamar A. Beard's Field Book ; Charter of N. E. Granted by William and Mary; Acts and Laws of Massachusetts Bay, 1699- 1700. Presented by James Howard. Re-union of the Tweed Family, by Benjamin Walker. Register of the University of California, 1886-7. Collection of the Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, Mass., for 1878-79-80-85. Trial of the British Soldiers of the 29th Regiment of Foot, for the Murder of Crispus Attucks and four others, March 5, 1770. Donated'by Miss Mary A. Brigham. Minutes of the Council of Delaware State, from 1776 to 1792. Delaware Historical Society. Annual Report, Buffalo Historical Society. A copy of the " Subaltern." Presented by J. B. Francis. Report of the President of Yale University, 1887. Library Bulletin, University of California. Report of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society, 1887. Papers of the California Historical Society, 1887, Vol, I., Part 2. Fire Service :n Lowell. From F. N. Owen. Annual Report, Buffalo Historical Association. Annual Report, Wohurn Public Library. Catalogue of the Miimesota Historical Society, 2 vols. Alumni Oxonienses; the Members of the University of Oxford, Eng., from 1715 to 1886. Vol. I. Presented by the author, Joseph Foster. Record for 1887-8, Rhode Island Historical Society. Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Town of Dedham. Dedham Historical Society. (26 different works.) In bringing before yon the honored names of the eight members of our Association who have died since our last annual meeting, it has occurred to me as emi- nently proper just to glance at their history, and to give to their virtues a few fraternal words of praise. Mr. Daniel Gushing died on July 28, 1887, at the advanced age of eighty-one years. Mr. Gushing was 116 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. born in Providence, R. I., in 1806. Before coming to Lowell he had worked in a foundry in making stove pat- terns, and he was the first man to make a stove with an oven in it. Before his invention bread, I suppose, was uniformly baked in brick ovens, or in Dutch ovens, or in heated pots. At the age of twenty-nine years Mr. C. came to Lowell and formed a partnership with Mr. John Mack, in the stove, iron and tin business. On the death of John Mack, ex-mayor Sewall G. Mack became Mr- C.'s partner, and the well-known and honorable firm of Gushing & Mack continued till 1869, when Mr. Gushing, at the age of sixty-three, withdrew and engaged in the manufacture of cornices, etc., from galvanized iron. In this business he was the pioneer in the New England states. Mr. G. was the oldest trustee of the Lowell Institution for Savings. He lived an industrious, un- obtrusive life and left an honored name. Samuel M. Bellows died November 9, 1887, at the age, probably, of seventy-seven years. He was born in Watertown and came to Lowell in 1830, when twenty years of age. Here he worked as compositor in the office of the " Lowell Observer " and "The Advertiser." He be- came publisher of "The Advertiser" under Mr. Hildreth's ownership of the paper, and he went with postmaster Hildreth into Lowell Post Office as an assistant. This office he held until Mr. Rowell's appointment. During the last seven years of his life feeble health prevented active service. For some time he resided in Dorchester, at the residence of his daughter, where he died. Mr. Bellows was long well known in our city as a kind and g(Miial man, who was always at his post and faithful to liis duty. It has been honorably said of him that he was so attached to the place of his daily round of duty, that on Sundays, which were holidays to him, he was wont to REPORT OF PRESIDENT, 1888. 117 go down to the post office to read his Sunday paper. For many years few faces were so familiar on our streets as that of Mr. Bellows. Thomas Pratt died November 19, 1887, aged eighty- seven years. Mr. Pratt came to Lowell in 1832, when twenty-seven years of age. By trade he was, if 1 mistake not, a stair builder. He lived an industrious and unob- trusive life, and left behind him the name of an upright man. I know but little of Mr. Pratt, but ex-mayor Peabody pronounces him one of the most honest men God ever made, and proves it by asserting that he once employed him on a job of stair building and that Mr. Pratt pre- sented a bill three hundred dollars less than his own estimate. James Tower died December 24, 1887. Mr. Tower was born in Lancaster. Before coming to Lowell he engaged in the dry goods trade in Boston. When the new and thriving town of Lowell attracted his attention, he came hither bringing upon the Middlesex Canal a few goods upon speculation. His store was on the site now occupied by the Boston & Maine Railroad. He sub- sequently moved across the street, and from him the site of his new store was called " Tower's Corner." After a long employment in the dry goods trade, at the age of about sixty years, he retired from active business, and lived to the advanced age of ninety-one years, the oldest of our number who died in the last year. Li early life Mr. Tower engaged in military service and was present at the welcome given to LaFayette in 1825, at the dedi- cation of the Bunker Hill Monument. Jonathan Page died January 5, 1888. lie was born in Salisbury about 1809, and, when a boy of I'oiirtcon years of age, he came to Lowell and worked under his uncle at the carpenter's trade. After returning to Salis- 118 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. bury for a few years he came to Lowell again when twenty-two years of age, and became one of the firm of Page & Cole, carpenters. In early life he was one of the most prominent builders in Lowell, and many of the public and private edifices which we daily pass, were erected by him. His age was seventy-nine years. Few men have lived so many years in Lowell. He was a life- long democrat and an excellent citizen. Daniel G. Greenleaf died January 12, 1888, aged eighty years. He was born in Concord, N. H., in 1808, and came to Lowell when twenty-one years of age. After a short service in trunk making, he was appointed janitor of the Town Hall, and when Lowell became a city, he was for several years City Messenger. He also served as constable for more than fifty years. He is supposed to have been present at the inauguration of every city government since Lowell was a city. I knew him well, for he was my neighbor and was janitor of the Hio-h School house when I entered that school as princi- pal, in 1845. He knew well the early history of our city. It was while he was janitor of the Town Hall that that building was pelted with brick-bats in order to break up the lecture of the celebrated English abolitionist, George Thompson. I know of no living man so familiarly known in our streets as was Mr. Greenleaf. His short, quick step, his playful wit, his friendly, honest face will long be remembered by us all. He was a true and faith- ful man. Dr. Joel Spaulding died January 30, 1888, at the ao-e of sixty-eight years. He was born and lived and died in the same house, near Pawtucket Falls. He was with me two years in Dartmouth College. I knew him as a. genial companion and friend. He studied medicine with our late venerable president, Dr. J. 0. Green. He REPOKT OF PRESIDENT, 1889, 119 became president of the Middlesex North District Medi- cal Society, and he held a highly honorable position as a physician, in his long and successful practice of forty years, in Lowell. His kind and genial nature made his presence a welcome presence at the bedside of the sick. James G. Morrison died February 2, 1888, at the age of sixty-six years. He was superintendent of repairs at the Middlesex Mills. He was an active and esteemed member of the Worthen Street Baptist Church. These all have left behind them honorable names. I pray that in the coming year a gracious Providence may deal kindly with us who remain, and grant to the Old Residents' Historical Association a year of growth and prosperity. May 8, 1889. Gentlemen — The Old Residents' Historical Associ- ation of Lowell has, during another year, successfully pursued its quiet, unobtrusive work of collecting and preserving in permanent form whatever our city possesses of historical value. We intend that our descendants shall not complain of us for allowing valuable knowledge regarding our city's early days especially, to be forgotten and lost. Much could be said of the importance of the work in which we are engaged, but 1 have so much this evening to present, of a biographical nature, that I for- bear to speak in general of the objects of our Association. I herewith give you a list of members who have died during the year, as prepared by our worthy secretary: Lawson, Thomas B., June 4, 1888, aged eighty-one years. Tripp, John, June 7, 1888, aged eighty-one years. Fisher, Samuel S., September 13, 1888, aged eighty-seven years. Allen, Nathan, January 1, 1889, aged seventy-six years. 120 OLD KESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Bedlow, Joseph, February 17, 1889, aged ninety-three years and six months. Garity, Thomas R., February 26, 1889, aged fifty-one years. Billings, John, February 27, 1889, aged eighty-one years. Eaton, Samuel C, March 10, 1889, aged sixty-six years. Smith, John W., May 6, 1889, aged seventy-three years. [The following is the substance of the sketch of the lives of these men as given by Mr. Chase.] Thomas B. Lawson was born in Newburyport, Jan- uary 13, 1807. He never lost his attachment to the city of his birth. He came to Lowell at the age of about thirty-five years, and for forty-six years he made Lowell his home. He is one of the few of our citizens whose reputation has reached beyond the bounds of New Eng- land. As a portrait painter Mr. Lawson' s fame was national. Many distinguished men sat to him, among them Webster, Clay, Cushing, Garrison and Whittier. His portrait of Webster is especially famous, and it has been copied again and again. It is everywhere recog- nized as a wonderfully accurate likeness. His portrait of Garfield, one of his best works, is in our Common Council chamber. The excellent portraits of the mayors of our city, which adorn the City Government building, are mostly from the skilful hand of Mr Lawson. Mr. Lawson sought not political honors, being content with his reputation as an artist. He was a most entertaining companion. His acquaintance with eminent men, his remarkable memory, his fondness for literary pursuits, his genial ways, Iiis love of anecdote, his active intellect, all made his conversation peculiarly entertaining and instructive. He leaves one son and two daughters. His death occurred June 4, 1888, at the age of eighty-one years. John Tripp was born October 9, 1807, in Epsom, N. REPORT OF PRESIDENT, 1889. 121 H. He came to Lowell in 1825. He was for some time an overseer on the Appleton Corporation, but at length he engaged in the belting business in company with Josiah Gates. For the last thirty-five years he has been engaged in the business of roll covering on the premises of the Massachusetts Corporation. Mr. Tripp did not seek public honors, though he was once a member of our Common Council. As a member of the John Street Congregational Church he was known as a man of con- sistent Christian character, and in the business world he was regarded as an upright, honorable man. He leaves a son and daughter. His age was eighty years. Samuel S. Fisher died at Nashua, N. H., in June, 1888, at the age of nearly eighty-seven years. He came to Lowell from Waltham in 1824, and entered upon his work in the Lowell Machine Shop. In 1848 he took a position in the repair shop of the Boston and Maine railroad, where he was employed till 1875, when he went to live in Nashua. He died in that city at the home of his son-in-law. Mr. Fisher was one of the orig- inal members of the First Universalist Church of Lowell, and for many years was a deacon of this church. He was an esteemed and faithful man. Dr. Nathan Allen died January 1, 1889, at the age of seventy-six years. The extended sketch of the life of this honored and eminent citizen, given this evening by Dr. Patterson, makes it proper that I should omit any further account of his life. Joseph Bedlow was born in Ashford, Connecticut, August 24, 1795, and died February 17, 1889, being over ninety-three years of age. In early life he entered the employment of the Merrimack Company in Lowell, and subsequently was in the service of the Lowell Machine Shop and the Lawrence Corporation. In the latter posi- 122 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. tion he remained until 1868, when, on account of advanc- ing age, he retired from active life. Mr. Bedlow was an honored citizen, serving for several years in our Board of Aldermen and in the State Legislature. He was an honored member of St. John's Episcopal Church, and had reached the thirty-third degree in Masonry. He passed a quiet and revered old age, and he attained an age greater by six years than that of either of our members who have died during the past year. Thomas R. Garity was a native of Stockport, Eng. He came to this country, with his parents, when a mere child. In New York he learned the plumber's trade, and afterwards served as journeyman plumber in various places. At the outbreak of the war in 18G1, he enlisted in the Ellsworth Zouaves, a noted regiment, but did not serve throughout the war. He subsequently engaged in the business of plumbing in Oswego, N. Y. On coming to Lowell he set up the business of plumbing in company with Mr. Winegard, on Prescott Street, and, with some changes, continued in this business till he joined the syndicate of men who purchased the Rogers estate. After this he dealt in real estate. Mr. Garity was a member of our Common Council and Board of Aldermen. Of the latter board he was at one time the chairman. He was also a member of our State Legislature. He was an active and energetic man of business, an agreeable and genial companion, and a loving husband and father. He leaves a widow and four children. He died in the prime of life at the age of fifty-one years. John Billings was born in Weston, Mass., in May, 1808. He was well known for many years in Lowell as an active business man in company with Messrs. Bradt, bakers, and Ransom Reed in the grocery business. He died at his home in Boston February 27, 1889, at the REPORT OF PRESIDENT, 1889. 123 age of nearly eighty-one years. His last years were spent in Boston. He leaves in Lowell one daughter, the wife of Mr. J. P. Thompson, Register of Deeds. Samuel C. Eaton was a native of Wentworth, N. H. For the last forty-four years he was a citizen of Lowell, known by all as a dealer in pop-corn. In this business his polite manners, his good native sense, and his knowl- edge of men, gave him success. He had the respect of his fellow-citizens, and for fifteen years he served as deacon in the First Congregational Church. He possessed many estimable traits, and his death is mourned by many friends. He leaves a widow and one son. His age was sixty-six years. John W. Smith was born in Ipswich in 1816, and came to Lowell in his early years. It is remarkable that his whole business-life work of fifty-four years was in the service of the Merrimack Company. This single fact attests his fidelity, his ability, and his moral worth. Mr. Smith was an expert in his business. Probably no man in this country better understood the art of spinning. He was a frequent contributor of articles to textile pub- lications, and was acknowledged as an authority in his peculiar branch of business. He wrote a standard treatise on the breaking strength of yarn, and so great confidence was placed in him by his employers that he was once sent to England to purchase machinery for the company. The ardent interest which he took in the affairs of the Middlesex Mechanics' Association will make his death a loss to that association. Mr. Smith once served on the Lowell School Committee, and he was a devoted member of the First Congregational Church. His age was seventy-three years. He leaves a widow, a son, and a daughter. 124 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. I also present the list, as prepared by the secretary, of documents received : Vol. XI., Collections Wisconsin Historical Society. Thirty-fifth Annual Report, Am. Congregational Association. Proceedings New Hampshire Historical Society, 1884 to 1889. Register, University of California, 1888. Biennial Report, University of California, 1888. Report on Physical Training, University of California. Parish Records of the Town, Dedham Historical Society. Blackstone's Commentaries, 4 vols. Presented by R. H. Tyler. Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. From the United States Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. Hon. R. G. Hazard, LL.D., Rhode Island Historical Society. Biennial Report, Minnesota Historical Society. Complete Set of City Auditor's Reports. From H. A. Lord. Proceedings, 1888-9, Rhode Island Historical Society. Chief Justice Fuller, Dedham Historical Society. New Amsterdam, New Orange, N. Y., Oneida Historical Society. Leaflet and two Pamphlets, New London Historical Society. Annual Report City School Library, 1888-9. In my account of the postmasters of Lowell, read at a previous meeting, my sketch of the life of Eliphalet Case was so imperfect and unsatisfactory that I heg the liberty to present the following as the result of further research. You must pardon repetitions, some of which could hardly be avoided. In the early days of Lowell probably no citizen was more prominent or conspicuous in public affairs than Rev. Eliphalet Case. He was the first pastor of the First Universalist Church, democratic candidate for mayor in the first mayoralty election, a man of fine personal presence and superior ability, and a leader of the Jacksonian democracy of the city, holding almost every office in turn wliich the democratic party could give him. It has been found very difficult to gain a knowledge of Mr. Case's early life. From the replies to REPORT OF PRESIDENT, 1889. 125 the many letters which I have written on the subject, I now present you with what I believe to be substantially a correct sketch of Mr. Case's life. He was the only son of Eliphalet Case, of Rutland, Vt., and was born in July, 1796. In 1807 the family removed to Athens, Ohio, then in the far West. Elipha- let Case, the father, was a man of property and high respectability. President Super of the Ohio University, at Athens, repeats a story of Judge Brown, an old resi- dent of that place, that Mr. Case, Sen., was such a whistler that he was called " Whistling Case," and that he once made a trip from Athens to New England and back, pay- ing all his expences but twenty-five cents through his whistling concerts given on the way. When twenty-three years of age young Eliphalet came to New England to secure an education. It appears that he studied for the ministry as a Methodist. In 1828 he was settled as first pastor of the First Universalist Church of Lowell. His wife was Luella J. Bartlett, of Kingston, N. H., a grand- daughter of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. She will be remembered by many of our older citizen as a most esteeinable lady, a writer of poetry and a person of high intellectual culture. During the last ten years of her life she did not live with her husband, but returned to Kingston, where she died in 1856. The story is told (for which I do not vouch), that in his earliest preaching Mr. Case was a popular revivalist of the Methodist persuasion, and that the father of his future bride, being desirous that his daughter should give her mind to religious things, urged her to attend the ministrations of the eloquent young divine. The daughter dutifully yielded to the persuasion of her father, and the result was that she gave her heart to the — Reverend Mr. Case. 126 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Mr. Case sferved as pastor in Lowell only about two years, when he devoted himself to the work of edit- intr the " Lowell Mercury," which was started in 1829. Having some difficulty with the proprietors of the paper, he started the "Lowell Advertiser" in 1834. He was an ardent Jacksonian democrat in those days of political strife, and in 1833 he was appointed by President Jack- son as postmaster of Lowell, so much to the disgust of Capt. Wyman (also a warm friend of the president), who served as postmaster under the general's first term of office, that on returning from Washington, baffled and defeated, he entered his parlor and turned the portrait of Jackson with its face to the wall. Mr. Case served as postmaster until the end of President Van Buren's administration in 1841. He was thought by some to be too much of a politician to be a good postmaster. Dur- ing his term of service the office was in the city govern- ment building, then at the corner of Merrimack and John Streets, and finally in a low "ten-footer" owned by Mr. Case, on Middle Street, near the site of the Talbot Block. Mr. Case was often a member of the school committee, and was active and conspicuous in public affairs. In 1831 he represented the town of Lowell in the legislature, but as a candidate for first mayor of Lowell, in 1836, he was defeated by Dr. Bartlett. The two candidates walked arm-in-arm to the polls and mutu- ally cast their ballots each for the other. In 1842 Mr. Case removed to Portland, Me., where resided his brother-in-law, Hon. F. (). J. Smith, a distin- guished lawyer and ardent politician, and there became editor of the "Eastern Argus." In 1845 he went to Cincinnati and started the " Enquirer," now one of the greatest papers in this country. Failing there, however, he went to Patriot, Ind., about 1847, where he became a RErORT OF PRESIDENT, 1889. 127 farmer and political writer. It is said that lie took to Patriot about $19,000, with a part of which he pur- chased four or five hundred acres of land (mostly wild land), and set up the business of raising pork and distill- ing whiskey. He planted a vineyard of eleven acres and made wine and brandy. But Mr. Case was a visionary man and a very poor financier. His speculation in land proved a disasterous failure and some of his Lowell friends suffered with him. The extensive property fell into the hands of his partner, and all that he possessed was sold by the sheriff, except a few barrels of wine, which some of his friends helped him drink. His life in Patriot was now a lonely one, and he became a firm believer in spiritualism. In 1861 he made a short-lived effort at editing a paper, having, in company with Hon. F. 0. J. Smith, purchased the "Portland Advertiser." But he soon relinquished the enterprise, and, in 1862, returned to Patriot a few months before his death. He died in Patriot, of pneumonia, December 14, 1862, at the age of sixty-six years, leaving no children. He was poor and not beloved. On the stone that marks his grave in Patriot, there is no epitaph or name or date. X. Lives of Postmasters, by C. C. Chase, read JVovemher 8, 1888. The first post office of East Chelmsford (now Lowell) was established in 1824. The first postmaster, Jonathan C. Morrill, was appointed by President Monroe April 13, 1824. This was two years after the incorporation of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, when the number of the inhabitants of the village somewhat exceeded one thousand. Dr. John 0. Green, the late venerable presi- dent of our Old Residents' Association, who came to the village in April, 1822, tells us in his autobiography that in 1822 there was a post office on the Dracut side of the river, to which the mail was brought from Billerica on horseback once a week. The postmaster was Nathaniel Wright, who afterwards became mayor of the city of Lowell. An aged citizen of Lowell informs me that in those early days there was a post office on Salem Street, opposite Adams' Block, from which, when a boy, he was wont to take letters. Even as late as January, 1826, Joel Adams, postmaster at Chelmsford, advertises in the "Chelmsford Phenix" a list of letters which he had sent to Hobbs' store opposite the Adams Block. Hobbs' store was probably the place which our aged fellow-citizen frequented when a boy and mistook for a regular post office. Besides the post office on the Dracut side and the store of Mr. flobbs, the citizens of those early days, when postage was high and money scarce, resorted to various methods of obtaining their letters at small expense. Expressmen, stage-drivers, merchants who travelled, and LIVES OF POSTMASTERS. 129 private friends, freely conveyed letters from place to place. There was a rack put up at Frye's tavern, which stood on the site of the American House, on which letters not coming by mail were posted. Such devices for sav- ing postage have now almost entirely ceased on account of the remarkable cheapness of postage and the wonder- ful efficiency and dispatch of our post office service. Jonathan C. Morrill, our first postmaster was a son of Jonathan Morrill, a merchant and prominent business man in Amesbury, Mass., and also brother of Mrs. Paul Moody, a lady long and well known in Lowell. He was born at Amesbury, August 16, 1791, and received his education in the public schools of the town. When only eighteen years of age he coftimenced the work of teach- ing, and at several times in his early life he was employed as teacher in public or private schools. He was also when young employed in his father's store, and served a short time as bookkeeper of the woolen and cotton fac- tory of Amesbury. At the age of twenty-four years he became partner in a trading firm in Amesbury. Two years after this he opened a store in Brentwood, N. H., where he purchased a farm. At the age of twenty-seven years he removed to Waltliam at the request of Patrick T. Jackson, and served the Manufacturing Company there in the position previously occupied by Paul Moody, his brother-in-law. Here he remained three years, and here his son Charles, our late superintendent of public schools, was born. On leaving Waltham he spent two years upon his farm in Brentwood. On November 29, 1823, he came with his family to Lowell. For a short time he taught a private school on Central Street, our honorable fellow-citizen, C. B. Coburn, Esq., being one of his })U})ils. He then opened a store, in the building, now known as Wheeler's store, on Tilden Street, where he kept the 130 OLD KESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. post office. His appointment by President Monroe, as postmaster of East Chelmsford (now Lowell) was dated April 13, 1824. Two years after this, when East Chelms- ford became the town of Lowell, he was, on April 29, 1826, appointed by President Adams postmaster of the new town. The building on Tilden Street, in which the post office for nearly two years was kept, has been re- modelled, but the board under the front window in which was the orifice for admitting letters from the outside, has been carefully preserved and labeled "post office 1824," and can now readily be seen by anyone whose curiosity leads him to call at the store to see it. On December 30, 1825, Mr. Morrill gives notice in the "Chelmsford Phenix" that "by the permission of the P. M. General, the post office is removed to his new store on Central Street, a few rods south of Frye's Tavern." Mr. Morrill also advertised an extensive assortment of goods of almost every kind in his new place of busi- ness. His brother was his partner. This store was a two story wooden building standing on or near the corner of Central and Williams Streets, with its revolving drum on the front door outside on which was advertised the list of letters in the office. Mr. Morrill retained the post office throughout the administration of J. Q. Adams. Upon leaving Lowell he removed to Waterville, Maine, in 1830, and acted as agent for Waterville College. Even while in Lowell he was active, as a zealous Baptist in religious work, and he instituted a series of religious meetings from which sprung the organization of the First Baptist Church on Church Street. In 1836 he was ordained as clergyman and continued to preach until he was appointed agent of the Bible Society. His last public service was performed in New York city. After a long and painful illness he died in Taunton, Mass., LIVES OF POSTMASTERS. 131 August 22, 1858, at the age of sixty-seven years. Of Mr. Morrill's sons, Otis H., well known as principal of one of our grammar schools, died in Lowell in 1852, aged thirty-six years; Charles died in Lowell in 1884, aged sixty-five years ; George T., to whom I am indebted for my account of his father's early life, still resides in Amesbury. When General Jackson became President, Capt. William W. Wyman was appointed, on May 9, 1829, as the second postmaster of Lowell. During the administra- tion of Capt. Wyman, the office was removed first tempor- arilly to the corner of Central and Hurd Streets, and then to our present city government building. This building, then called the town house, was erected in 1829-30, at an expense of about $19,000. After its completion, and as late perhaps as the autumn of 1831, the post office was moved into it. The front of the building was occupied by Mr. George Carleton, apothe- cary, and Mr. Samuel Burbank, dealer in hardware and clothing. The post office was very conveniently situated in the rear of the building, having three entrances and commodious passageways. Here the office remained for about five years. Mr. Wyman was born February 10, 1782, in West Roxbury, Mass. He died August 5, 1864, at the age of eighty-two years, and was buried in West Roxbury. We can all remember him, and he was often seen on our streets — a tall old gentleman with white flowing locks and a fine physical development. He possessed an active but eccentric mind. He was ardent and visionary. His vagaries and experiments were innumerable. When I came to Lowell the fine slope of land in the vicinity of Mansur Street, which belonged to him, was thickly cov- ered with Isabella grape vines supported upon stakes. 132 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. They were laden with grapes, none of which, I think, ever ripened. His wine-making proved a failure. At one time he was moved to raise a lofty observatory on Belvidere heights. The foundations were laid, but the superstructure was never reared. Many of the buildings of our city were erected by him. We all remember Wyman's Exchange at the corner of Merrimack and Central Streets, an imposing structure of so many win- dows and so few stones, that, in case of fire, it was feared there would be a disastrous collapse. He also erected the building long known as Concert Hall. This, in the early days of the city, was a much frequented place of public entertainments. Classic Hall, too, was one of his buildings. Last of all he erected a church on Merrimack Street, on or near the site of our public library. This novel enterprise, like mau}^ others, proved a dismal fail- ure. His long and dismal array of buildings on Belvidere heights, where he resided, attracted the notice of all. They have now given place to far more elegant resi- dences. Mr. Wyman's religious views were peculiar. Some have called him a ranter. I have myself heard him in a religious meeting sneeringly declaim against " college-larned " ministers. In 1880, Mr. Charles Hovey read, before this Association, an amusing account of Capt. Wyman, as assistant marshal, on the day when President Jackson visited Lowell in 1833. He says that " on that day Capt. Wyman was in his glory. He was an uncommonly handsome man, both in figure and feat- ures, and with llowing locks and ulogant militar}^ dress, a prouder man never mounted steed." He was an ardent admirer of General Jackson, but when the General failed to appoint him postmaster in liis second presidential term he returned from Washington ballled and defeated, and " before saluting any member of his family, he walked LIVES OF POSTMASTERS. 133 directly to a picture of the General, which hung in his parlor, and turned the face to the wall." Eliphalet Case,* our third postmaster, was appointed by President Jackson, March 26, 1833, and he held the office by reappointment till the close of the administration of President Van Buren. He found the office at the city government building and kept it there for about three years. He then removed it to the store now occupied F. & E. Bailey, apothecaries, at the corner of Merrimack and John Streets. About one year afterwards, in October, 1837, Mr. Case again removed the office to a low "ten- foot" building erected by himself in the rear of Flint k Hutchinson's hardware store on Middle Street, between the present site of Talbot Block and Durant & Rogers' jewelry store. This act of Mr. Case was the subject of a great amount of ridicule at the time. An article in the "Courier" of October 10th read as follows: "The annual move of the Lowell post office will take place, we understand, next Saturday. Our postmaster, though professedly opposed to railroad monopolies, is in a fair way to have his post office dubbed a locomotive." The article ironically adds, in reference to the low, cheap building into which it was moved : " The postmaster deserves the thanks of the community for his attachment to the public good at so great a sacrifice of his own." It was a standing joke of the wags at the time to notify pub- lic meetings in the hall over the post office. People seemed disposed to complain of Mr. Case's administration. One writer in the "Courier," January 5, 1837, finds fault with Mr. Case for reading his newspaper before a comfortable fire in the office, while the people who fill the entry are waiting in the cold. Another writer, referring to the fre- * A more complete account of Mr. Case's life will be found in the President's Annual Report, on page 124. 134 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. quent removals of the office, advises that a railroad track be laid in the streets for the special accommodation of the travelling post office. When General Harrison was elected President by the Whigs, Mr. Case removed the publication of the list of letters from a Democratic to a Whig paper. When ex-Mayor Peabody remonstrated with him for thus truckling to the new dynasty, Mr. Case replied that when the administration changed it was customary to change papers in this way, to which Mr. Peabody keenly retorted : " Yes, and to change post- masters, too." Mr. Case, while in Lowell, was very conspicuous as a politician. When Lowell became a city, in 1836, he was the Democratic candidate for the office of mayor against Dr. Elisha Bartlett, the Whig candidate. One of our citizens informs me that he was at the post office on the morning of the election day when Dr. Bartlett called upon Mr. Case, and the two candidates, arm in arm, walked' to the polls and each voted for the other. Dr. Bartlett was elected. Mr. Case served upon our school committee and was called to fill various other responsible positions. He was a man of fine physical development and possessed of an active, aggressive, versatile mind. He was imperious and not popular with the young. He was erratic and given to change. He was a Methodist preacher, a Universalist preacher, a speculator, an editor of the " Lowell Mercury," the " Lowell Advertiser," the " Portland Argus," and the " Cincinnati Enquirer." His enemies attacked him, his friends lost money by him, his wife left him. So far as I can learn, like Melchisedec, he was without father or mother, and like Moses, no one knows his grave. He married the sister of the late Dr. Levi S. Bartlett, of Kingston, N. H. I am told that he at length went to Patriot, Ind., where he took up land. LIVES OF POSTMASTERS. 135 set up a saw-mill and a distillery, and engaged in various unfortunate enterprises, and where he died. But after many efforts I fail to learn anything of his age, his birth, his parentage, or his early years. Others who have made like efforts in regard to his history have been as unsuc- cessful as I have been. [Since writing the above I have been told by a lady of Philadelphia, who knew him well, that in his last years he lived a lonely life on his farm near Patriot, and that several years subsequent to 1857 he died and was buried at Patriot.] On September 20, 1841, Mr. Jacob Robbins was appointed, by President Tyler, as fourth postmaster of Lowell. The office was continued for three years longer in the low building on Middle Street. But upon the completion of the brick building in the rear of Durant & Rogers' store, corner of Central and Middle Streets, it was removed to that building, where it remained twelve years. The building was erected by ex-mayor Peabody, as builder, in 1844. The people of Lowell rejoiced in the change. In Mr. Schouler's paper, the " Courier," we find the following article published on November 23, 1844: "The fact has long been notorious that for many years we have had the meanest-looking post office in New England. That it stood so long as it did the winds and rains is strange, but that the people submitted to the small and inconvenient caricature so long as they did, is more strange. Indeed we may say, it is passing sti'ange." This article congratulated the people of Lowell upon the excellent acconmiodations in the new building erected by Mr. Jonathan Tyler. Mr. Robbins was a gentleman of high character and superior culture. He proved an efficient officer. He was born in Harvard, Mass, October 20, 1798. He came to Lowell in llr'28, kepi a druggist's store on the corner of Central and Hurd Streets, and was 136 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. succeeded in this store, in 1844, by Dr. J. C. Ayer. He once served on our school committee and once as repre- sentative to the general court. For several years he was a clerk in the Boston custom house and secretary of the Lowell Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Two or three times he visited Europe. He died at his home on East Merrimack Street on May 8, 1885. His age was nearly eighty-seven years. Mr. Stephen S. Seavy, our fifth postmaster, was appointed by President Polk, July 29, 1845. He had been a clerk in the post office for about ten years and seems to have been promoted according to principles of civil service reform. He was a quiet man of gentlemanly bearing, whose time was devoted mainly to the special duties of his office. Mr. Seavy was born in South Deer- field, N. H., July 14, 1814. His father, Josiah Seavy, came from South Deerfield to Lowell and kept a grocery store and a livery stable, and afterwards acted as clerk in the post office. Mr. Seavy was not active in public affairs, though he held the office of deacon in the Third Baptist Church. Soon after his term as postmaster ex- pired, he left Lowell and engaged in business in the city of Boston. His last days were days of gloom and sad- ness, for he became hopelessly insane. He died in Well- esley, Mass., October 10, 1867, and was buried in Lowell Cemeter3^ His age was fifty-three years. Mr. Alfred Gilman, the honored secretary of this Association, was appointed on October 29, 1849, by President Taylor, as sixth postmaster of Lowell. During his administration of four years, as during that of Mr. Seavy for four years, the office was in the brick building on Middle Street, in the rear of Durant & Rogers' store. Mr. Gilman administered the affairs of the office with that ability, courtesy and fidelity which, as we all know, LIVES OF POSTMASTERS. 137 characterize the man. Mr. Gihnan is a son of the late Mr. Ward Oilman, a brass founder in Portsmouth, N. H. He was born in that town March 19, 1812. He learned the trade of printer in Nashua, N. H. He came to Lowell in 1829, and worked in the office of the "Mer- cury," then published by Thomas Billings, bookseller. He also worked in the office of the "Lowell Courier" when it was edited by Mr. Purdy. Subsequently Mr. Gilman edited and published " The Album " in Lowell. In 1834 he went to Meredith Bridge, N. H., and edited and published " The Citizen." Near the close of 1835 he received the appointment of clerk and paymaster on the Hamilton Print Works, and returned to Lowell to assume his position. As draper and tailor on Central Street, Mr. Gilman is still in active business among us. He is Lowell's oracle in all things pertaining to her past history, and though seventy-six years of age, his eye is not dim nor his natural force abated. Mr. Thomas P. Goodhue was appointed by President Pierce seventh postmaster of Lowell, March 29, 1853. He was born in Hebron, N. H., September 20, 1803, and was son of Stephen Goodhue, a country merchant in that town. He came to Lowell about 1829, and opened a planing mill which afterwards became the property of A. L. Brooks. He also kept an English goods store and afterwards a furniture store with his elder brother, Stephen, as partner. The store was on Central Street near Market Street. He was known by his friends as an active Democratic politician and a genial, open-hearted, generous man. He was never married. In his last years he suffered much from a paralysis of his lower limbs. After holding the office of postmaster only about six months, he died October 6, 1853, at the age of fifty years. Mr. Fisher A. Hildreth was appointed by President 138 OLD RKSIDENTS' IIISTOHICAL ASSOCIATION. Pierce as the eighth postmaster of Lowell. His term of service began October 21, 1853, and he held the office nearly eight years. In December, 1856, Mr. Hildreth removed the office from Middle Street to his own build- ing on Merrimack Street, on or near the site of the pres- ent post office. Mr. Hildreth was born in Dracut, Feb- ruary 5. 1818. His father. Dr. Israel Hildreth, was for a long time a distinguished physician in Dracut. Mr. Hildreth was a superior scholar and possessed high in- tellectual qualities. In politics he was an ardent demo- crat. For two years he was the representative of Dracut in the general court. At different times he was the publisher of various democratic papers in Lowell, the " Republican," the " Advertiser," and the " Patriot." During the administration of Governor Boutwell he held, for two years, the office of high sheriff. As a political writer he was the peer of such men as Schouler, Robinson, and Waiiand, who were in his time distin- guished editors of Lowell papers. His mental powers were such that his friends believed that he made a mis- take in relinquishing, as he did, the practice of law, in which his talents would have given him a distinguished name. He was not a man of demonstrative nature, but by those who knew him best he was greatly beloved as a kind and indulgent father, a true and faithful friend. Three years before his death he had an attack of con- gestion of the lungs from which he never fully recovered. He died July 9, 1873, at the age of fifty-five years. Mr. John A. Goodwin was appointed the ninth post- master of Lowell by President Lincoln, on April 12, 1861. His term of office was thirteen years, which was longer by several years than that of any other one postmaster. During his administration the office continued to be kept in the building owned by Mr. Hildreth on Merrimack LIVES OF POSTMASTERS. 139 Street. Mr. Goodwin was son of Isaac Goodwin, an eminent lawyer, aiid was born in Sterling, Mass., May 21, 1824. He was a man of remarkable intellectual endowments, of wonderfully retentive memory, and of a fluency, felicity, and skill in the use of language which very few men have ever possessed. His versatile mind seemed adapted to almost any position in life. He was in turn a farmer, a sea captain's clerk, a navigator, a teacher, a civil engineer, an appointee as scientific professor, an editor, an alderman, a legislator, a speaker in our house of representatives, a postmaster, a school committeeman, a public orator, and, last of all, an author of a historical work, " The Pilgrim Republic," of great research and high literary merit. My long list is still incomplete. His longest service was that of editor. His temper was genial, his wit was sparkling, and where his voice was heard there was no dullness. He was in a word a most interesting man. In his last years (in which he was editor of the "Vox Populi") he was in feeble health, and he died September 24, 1884, at the age of sixty years. He was buried in South Sudbury, Mass. Major Edward T. Rowell was, on April 29, 1874, appointed by President Grant as tenth postmaster of Lowell. He was born at Concord, N. H., in 1836, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1861. He imme- diately enlisted in the army, and his honorable record as a soldier is sufficiently indicated by the fact that he was promoted first as second lieutenant, then as captain, and then as major in the second regiment of Berdan's United States Sharp Shooters. He was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, and also in the engagement at Petersburg. Since he came to Lowell, in 1867, his career as an enterprising and successful man of business in the firm of Marden & Rowell, publishers of " Lowell Courier," 140 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. is well known to us all. Never was the management of our post office more satisfactory to the citizens of Lowell than under the administration of Mr. Rowell. Col. Albert A. Haggett was appointed the eleventh postmaster of Lowell by President Cleveland, October 5, 1885. Col. Haggett was born in Lowell, April 30, 1839. His father, Mr. Allen Haggett, was ticket-master at Lowell for the Lowell & Nashua Railroad from the open- ing of the road till 1852. Col. Haggett is the first Low- ell boy who has filled the office of postmaster in our city. He was educated in our public schools, and from the high school he entered the service of the Middlesex Manu- facturing Company, where he still holds the position of paymaster for the corporation. His great dispatch in the transaction of business, his cordial address, his ready wit, fit him admirably for the post which he occupies. Though an ardent Democrat, he has hosts of friends out- side his own party. I believe it to be the testimony of all that the affairs of our post office are now faithfully, courteously, and efficiently conducted. Through the politeness of our representative in cono-ress, the Hon. Charles H. Allen, I am able to give the amount of the annual salary paid to our various post- masters from the establishment of the office. 1 give only complete fiscal years. Mr. Morrill's salary varied from $73 to $362. Mr. Wyman' salary varied from |G25 to 11000. Mr. Case's salary varied from $1537 to $1414. Mr. Robbins' salary varied from $1304 to $1547. Mr. Seavy's salary varied from $1734 to $1850. Mr. Gilman's salary was $2000. Mr. riildreth's salary varied from $1460 to $2000. Mr. Goodwin's salary varied from $2000 to $4000. Mr. Rowcll's salary varied from $4000 to $3100. Mr. Haggett's salary has varied from $3300 to $3200. LIVES OF POSTMASTERS. 141 For the twenty-seven years following the incaiigura- tion of our government in 1789, to the year 1816, the postage on a letter containing a single sheet was as fol- lows : Under 40 miles 8 cents, from 40 to 90 miles 10 cents, from 90 to 150 mile 12^ cents. For the period of twenty-nine years, from 1816 to 1845, which includes the early years of our city, the rate on such a letter was as follows : For 30 miles and under 6i cents, from 30 to 80 miles 10 cents, from 80 to 150 miles 12^ cents. The next change was in 1845, when 5 cents was fixed as the postage on a letter weighing one-half ounce or less for 300 miles or less, and 10 cents for a distance of over 300 miles. In 1851 the rate was reduced to 3 cents for 3000 miles, and in 1883 was fixed the present rate of 2 cents for any distance within our whole country for letters weighing one ounce or less. XI. Beminiscences of an ex-Postmaster, hy Alfred Gilman, read JVovemher 8, 1888. At the time that I took the position of postmaster the office was located on Middle Street, where it had been for a number of j^ears, in a bnilding owned by Jonathan Tyler. It has since been occupied for a piano- forte room, for a banking room, and for a depository of sale carriages. At that time (1849) it was considered an inconvenient place for the business transacted in it, being too small for the number employed, clerks and penny-postmen. Proper representations were made to the department at Washington and an additional allow- ance was made for rent, thus securing a finished apart- ment in the basement. Here allow the remark that the name of penny-post still adheres to the letter-carriers, notwithstanding they are paid by a regular salary. Then they were entitled to receive two cents for the delivery of each letter. The condition of the office convinced me that there was room for improvement. The great number of un- called for letters which, by the rules of the department, had to be periodically forwarded to Washington as "dead" letters, was a source of perplexity and regret, not only as diminishing the receipts of the office, but as evidenc- ing a failure to do what the department was established to perform, to say nothing of the chagrin and disappoint- ment of l)otli the writer and the one to whom the mes- sage was directed. I duly considered the character of our poi)ulation as being somewhat fluctuating, now here. REMINISCENCES OF AN KX-POSTMASTEI}. 143 then there, and I determined to adopt a plan to catch them before they migrated. I employed a young man to get all the names and residences of persons, both male and female, employed by the manufacturing companies ; to record these names, alphabetically arranged, in two blank books ; to have him receive all the letters (except- ing box letters) and when not directed to direct them. The result may readily be imagined; in the increased number of letters delivered, a larger income to the department, and a manifest reduction of dead letters. The boxes in the office were the property of the postmaster, and the receipts for rents were an allowed perquisite. There was a drawback to this, as all un- paid letters were put into the boxes at the postmaster's risk and charged to the occupant. At the end of the quarter, if there were any delinquents it was a loss to the postmaster, as he was responsible to the department for the postage of every letter delivered. The boxes now are government property, as well as the income from their rentals. Anyone who was never employed in a post office before the reduction in the rate of postage and the adop- tion of prepayment by stamps, can have no idea of the amount of labor saved by the present plan. The pre- payment by stamp alone saves the government all the loss formerly incurred from dead letters. The old plan involved the labor of recording in blank books, prepared and sent out by the department for that purpose, the name of the town or city from whence received, with the number of letters and the amount of postage from each. Every package was accompanied by a way-bill. A similar recoi'd and way- bill was made of mails sent. Each book had a duplicate, one retained and the other sent to Washington. By 144 OLD RESIDENTS' IIISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. these books, mails received and mails sent, the post- master's accounts were verified in Washington. Now this is all done away with ; the postmaster orders and is charged with all the stamps, postals, and stamped envel- opes he needs ; for these he is accountable, thus sympli- fying and expediting the business of the office. Under the old arrangement money enclosed in letters was at the risk of the sender ; but in case it failed to reach its destination, or was delayed in transmission, the postmaster was very likely to incur the indignant re- proaches and contumely of the party aggrieved. This was one of the burdens and perplexities of the position, and I have on my mind sundry cases that illustrate the unreasonableness of people in ascribing to the postmaster all the blame, on the supposition that they themselves could not possibly have done wrong or made a mistake. Now how different ! By the adoption of the money- order system, and the registration of valuable letters, nearly all risk is avoided, so that the transmission by mail of a money value is considered as safe as is if you paid it yourself into the hands of the one to whom it is due. There was a law at that time that the dues to the government must be paid in coin. It was the custom of my predecessor to demand specie in payment of the quarterly box dues for postage. This caused much com- plaint, and I took pay in bank bills. I was notified by a prominent Democrat that this was an infringement of the law, that 1 must demand specie. In order to have the question settled I wrote to the department for in- struction. In answer it was said that the postmaster could make any arrangement with his customers that he pleased, but that the government would demand specie of him. REMINISCENCES OF AN EX-POSTMASTER. 145 The first experiment in the use of stamps for the prepayment of postage was made in 1847. The prepay- ment by stamp or money was optional, the rate of post- age not being changed. Letters weighing half an ounce for a distance not over 300 miles, 5 cents ; over 300 miles, 10 cents; drop letters, 2 cents; foreign, 24 cents; newspapers not over 100 miles within the state, 1 cent; over 100 miles and out of the state, 1^ cents each. Letters for a distance not over 300 miles, weighing one ounce, 10 cents, two ounces 20 cents, three ounces 30 cents; over 300 miles, one ounce 20 cents, two ounces 40 cents, three ounces 60 cents. This instead of decreas- ing, tended to increase the labor in the office, as not only the regular books of mails sent and received were kept, but also an account of stamps received and sold. It neither relieved the department nor the postmaster, but was of some benefit to the public. The act of congress, March 3, 1851, reduced single rate letter postage to 3 cents, if prepaid, for a distance of not over 3,000 miles, continued the issue of stamps for prepayment, and allowed the optional feature to re- main. The act of 1852 authorized the use of postal cards, thus showing that the leaven of reform was quietly working, which eventually culminated in establishing a uniform rate of two cents for each letter for the whole country, making an imperative rule that postage must be prepaid. The act of 1851 reduced the postage on newspapers and periodicals nearly fifty per cent., allowed weekly papers to circulate free within the county in which they were published, and authorized postmasters appointed by the President to establish boxes as recepta- cles of mail matter in the precincts of their offices. The great and important change, whereby all mail matter must be prepaid by stamp, was made by congress 146 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. in April, 1855, retaining the single rate of three cents. In 1884 the rate was reduced to two cents per ounce. The following cases show how easily people get excited over the miscarriage of valuable letters, and accuse the postmaster of incompetency, inefficiency and almost all the sins forbidden in the decalogue. When investigated his skirts are cleared from every charge and the trouble is found to be the result of accident or carelessness. A man well known to me came into the office one day with an unsealed letter in one hand and a one hun- dred dollar bill in the other. He was desirous that I should see him put the bill into the letter and then for- ward it to the address, which was Orin Reed, Haverhill, Mass. Mr. Reed had been a resident in Lowell, and held at one time the office of constable. He bought a place in Haverhill and moved there. Of course I was witness to the transaction, entered it on mails sent and the way- bill and saw it put safely in the mail bag. I have no doubt the sender thought the process was a clincher, and that the government was bound in case of loss to make it good. He may have held the opinion that the post- master was personally responsible. Judging from lan- guage subsequently indulged in by him I should say that he did. In the course of a few days he informed me that the letter and money had not been received by Mr. Reed, and inquired what could be done about it. I told him that I would make inquiries and let him know. Conceiv- ing it to be a case wherein the reputation of the office was concerned, I wrote to the postmaster at Haverhill, giving him all the particulars, and asked him if his mails received at the date in question corresponded with our mails sent. His answer was that our way-bill corre- sponded with his mails received, thus confirming the fact REMINISCENCES OF AN EX-POSTMASTER, 147 that the letter was sent from the Lowell office and regu- larly received at Haverhill. He further informed us that Mr. Reed had a box in his office, and if the letter came it was put there and delivered to some one. These facts were stated to the person who made the remittance, but they did not satisfy him. He was asked if any one was ever authorized by Mr. Reed to take out his letters, and he very positively assured us that he never allowed any one to get his mail but himself, and went so far as not only to insinuate, but to charge that the letter had never been sent from Lowell. Being confident of the honesty of all who were employed in the office I had no difficulty in retaining control over my feelings, but. the case assumed an air of mystery and I felt bound to thoroughly sift the matter. My next recourse was to the depredation agent for this district. He came to Lowell, and after listen- ing to my account of all that we knew of the affair, sepa- rately examined my clerks and went to Haverhill and in- vestigated that office. On his return he stated that he could find nothing in either office implicating any one. Thus the matter remained for at least two weeks, inter- spersed by frequent visits from the person who sent the money, on which occasions he reiterated his charges, using language not of a very conciliating character. At the end of two weeks he informed us that the letter had been received and the money recovered. In explanation he stated that Mr. Reed, who lived in an outskirt of Haver- hill, had requested a neighbor, who was riding into town, to call at the post office and get his papers and letters. The neighbor did so, and on his return pulled the papers out of his coat pocket and delivered them to Mr. Reed. A fortnight after he put his hand into his pocket and found a letter — the very one about which such excite- ment had arisen. 148 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. On another occasion complaint was made by a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Legislature that he had mailed a letter in Boston directed to Groton Junction, instruct- ing his correspondent to remit to him at Lowell five dol- lars. This occurred at the close of the session. He stated that the money had been sent but not received. As he had a box in the office, we assured him that if the letter came it was put into his box and delivered to some one. He assured us positively that no one had taken it out. This was in the spring of the year. Six months elapsed. The letter and money was found. A member of his family took the letter from the office and put it in his overcoat pocket. Warm weather came, his over- coat was laid away, and on the return of the cool w^eather of autumn he resumed its use and found the missing letter. The next case that I have to relate proved to be an amusing instance of misdirection. At the time W was paymaster at the Lowell Machine Shop, he informed me that he had sent a letter to Albany, N. Y., enclosing a five dollar bill, which had failed to reach its destination. When asked for the date, which he gave, we turned to our mails sent and found a letter at that time had been sent to Albany, Vt. I inquired if it was not possible that he had made a mistake in directing it. He spurned the idea with scorn. He make such a mistake ! It was impossible. As Albany, N. Y., letters were sent to a dis- tributing office, we had no means of tracing them. I told him that I would write to the postmaster at Albany, Vt., and request him to forward any letters remaining in his office having the specified direction. By the return mail a letter came and was put into his box. He soon appeared and stated that it was his letter but not the one enclosing the money. I tried Albany, Vt., again, and REMINISCENCES OF AN EX-POSTMASTER. 149 this time the right letter came, thus proving that he had twice made an error in directing his letters. It is a very gratifying exhibit of the progress made in the postal service when we compare the statistics of the year 1852 with 1887-8. Having in my possession a carefully prepared estimate of the business of this office in 1852, made in answer to questions proposed by the auditor of the post office department, I applied to the present postmaster, Col. A. A. Haggett, for information in regard to the business of the office at present. He very courteously gave me a copy of his accounts for the year ending July 1, 1888. These do not enumerate the number of pieces that passed through the office, as he keeps no account of matter delivered from the office, other than that which is delivered by the letter-carriers. During the year ending June 30, 1852, the business of the office was as follows : Whole number of letters 699,250, of which 354,518 were received and 344,732 sent. Of those received, 257,859, and of those sent, 261,759 were paid, leaving 179,632 unpaid. Whole number of newspapers and pamphlets 163,383, of which 23,687 were paid, 78,472 unpaid, and 61,224 were free as exchanges. Whole number of drop letters 18,771, making a total of 881,404. A great number of news- papers were received and never taken from the office, which are not included in the above account. The gross receipts of the office were $16,438.39; expenses, $4,675.71, leaving a net income to the post office depart- ment of $11,762.68. The business of the post office for the year ending July 1, 1888, was as follows: Received from the sale of stamps, envelopes, etc., $82,428.87 ; rent of boxes, $2,890.50; waste paper, $28.01 —making a total of $85,347.38. There was paid postmaster and office clerks 150 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. $10,626.82; rent and light, $3,450.00; railway postal clerks, $4,336.86; letter carriers, $16,470.38— amount- ing to $34,884.06. This shows a net income to the post office department of $50,463.32. In instituting a comparison between 1852 and 1887-8, I deduct from the receipts the income from box rents, $2,890.50 ; this would leave $82,456.88 — making the receipts for 1888 a trifle more than five times those of 1852. From the expenses two large items should be deducted, i. e., for railway postal clerks $4,336.86, and letter carriers $16,470.38, as neither of these is reck- oned in the expense account for 1852. These two items amount to $20,707.24, which, taken from $34,884.06, leaves $14,177.82, only about three times that of 1852, thus proving that the prepayment of postage by stamp really lessens the expense as compared with the gross receipts. If we assume $30,547.20 (leaving out railway clerks) as the legitimate expense of this office, the net income would be $54,800.18, more than four and a half times that of 1852. XII. life and Character of JVathan Allen, M.D., LL.D., hy Dr. D. JV. Patterson, read May 8, 1889. It is fitting that among the memorial papers which have been preserved, as publications of this Association, there should be one containing a sketch of our late dis- tinguished citizen. Dr. Nathan Allen, who was also an honored member of this society. I trust you will pardon me if, in a word of introduc- tion, I briefly refer to my own personal acquaintance with the subject of this sketch, and which will explain what otherwise might seem an inconsistency in presum- ing to prepare this memorial of one who was so many years my senior. The face of Dr. Allen is among my earliest recol- lections. Aside from the immediate members of my own family, he was the first man I ever knew. For eighteen years he continued as my father's family physi- cian, or until I began my own professional studies; and during the last twelve years there has scarcely been a week in which I have not been associated with him. Certainly this period of time has afforded me an oppor- tunity to study his habits and character, the knowledge of which could not well come within the reach of all. To have known Dr. Allen, as it was my privilege to know him, was to have enjoyed the companionship and friendly counsels of one who possessed to a remarkable degree that wonderful union of qualities of mind and heart which at all times commanded filial reverence and re- 152 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. spect. And this humble tribute to his memory, imper- fect though it may be, at least comes from a heart that loved him always while living, that consistently mourns him now that he is gone. Concerning his early history, the record reads as follows : Dr. Nathan Allen was born in Princeton, Mass., April 25, 1813. His parents, Moses and Mehitabel (Oliver) Allen, were both born in Barre, in this state. His parents were of Puritan stock and trained him in their christian principles. By birth, education, and a long professional life in this state he became a thoroughly Massachusetts man. Her interests were his interests, and whenever or wherever he was called upon to serve her, he was faithful to the cause intrusted to him. Like so many others who have attained high honor and distinction in the state and nation, he owed a large share of his success to the sterling principles of integrity, industry and thrift, which have ever characterized the influence of the rural homesteads of New England. So potent was this to the mind of Dr. Allen that on one occasion, in a public address made by him in his native town, he remarked as follows : " Here I wish to make my public acknowledgment to that over- ruling Providence which ordered my birth and early training in this place, distinguished no less for intelli- gence and morality than for health and devotion to agri- cultural pursuits. The greatest gift that any human beino- can receive in this world is that of a sound consti- tution, which can come alone from parents perfectly healthy in body and mind. The next greatest blessing is that this constitution be early strengthened and developed in accordance with natural laws, while at the same time the mental habits and moral character receive proper training in the right direction. To these blessings DR. NATHAN ALLEN. 153 I confess the strongest obligations ; first to the Creator, second to parents, and third to the healthy education and moral influence of this quiet rural town." That he cherished these principles throughout his long and useful career can well be attested by those who knew him. His collegiate studies were pursued at Amherst College, where he was graduated in 1836. Subsequently he entered upon the study of medicine, graduating in Philadelphia in the spring of 1841. In the fall of that year he came to Lowell and commenced the practice of his profession, which he continued uninterruptedly, with the exception of a short trip to Europe, until the day of the accident which caused his death. Dr. Allen was a many-sided man, and perhaps in no better way can we best estimate his character and worth as a whole than hy a study of his life from the standpoint of the several occupations in which he was engaged. As the practice of medicine was his chosen life-work, it is natural to consider him first as a physician. ^ In many respects his method of practise differed from that of the physicians of the present day. As I have often heard him say, " he believed in the use of few drugs," but those few he gave heroically. The doses were large and not always the most pleasant to take. Doubtless much of his adherence to the old-fashioned method of practise was due in no small measure to the fact that early in his professional career he gave his attention more particularly to the study of the preven- tion of disease and to the promulgation of the laws of health, than to the use of the more elegant preparations of the present day, and which now have almost entirely superseded the large and often nauseating compounds of olden times. Not that he was antagonistic or indifferent to the improvements made in the administering of drugs, 154 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. but he honestly believed that it was better to prevent disease than to afterwards cure it by the use of medicine. Soon after coming to Lowell he joined the Massa- chusetts Medical Society, and as a member of the Mid- dlesex North District Medical Society, he faithfully served in nearly every office which it was in their power to honor him. Dr. Allen never made pretentions to other than what he was. He was a faithful, conscientious practi- tioner, and earnestly labored for the good of his patients. He shared to a remarkable degree the high esteem and confidence of those associated with him. As a family physician Dr. Allen commanded and received the love and veneration of those who employed him. He was exceptionally patient, kind and considerate, and his christian principles enabled him to meet the trials and hardships of a physician's life with fortitude and sub- mission. And what has so often been said of others, may with truth and special significance be said of him, "He was good to the poor." Of this we shall have occasion to speak more definitely latter on. The great interest which Dr. Allen always mani- fested in educational matters is deserving of special notice. Himself a thoroughly educated man, he believed that education was an important factor in bringing about moral reforms and in perpetuating the highest type of American liberty. After graduating from college and before entering the medic|d university he served as principal of West- minster Academy for one year. In 1884 he prepared a paper entitled "The Old Academy," which was read at the celebration of that institution, August 7th of that year. The college from which he was graduated early recognized his scholastic attainments and awarded him DR. NATHAN ALLEN. 155 high honor in her councils. For over thirty years he was a member of the Board of Trustees of Amherst College, and during that time he wrought a change in the physical development of the students of that institu- tion which has attracted the attention and won the admiration of thoughtful men throughout this country and in Europe. Dr. Allen was intensely practical in his teachings. He believed in physical and mental training, and that the latter should not be obtained at the expense of or injury to the former. His essays on "• Physical Culture in Amherst College," " The Education of Girls," "Phys- ical Development," and " Mental Philosophy," each in their respective spheres set forth in unmistakable lan- guage his ideas of the importance of the truths he therein expounded. He was ever interested in the schools of this city, serving on the School Committee in 1851, and on many occasions gave valuable advice both for the maintenance and perpetuity of their educational advantages. Physi- ology he considered an important science that should be included in the curriculum of studies in our public schools. The benefits to be derived from a systematic perusal of this study would not only save many lives in the course of every year, but also improve the health of the community. He was a strong advocate of the phys- ical education of children, as by that means future gen- erations might be stronger in body and mind, from the fact that their parents had started right while they were young. From this hypothesis he reasoned that as " the life of an individual is the miniature of the life of a nation," so in time, this country must inevitably reap rich rewards from this kind of early training of her future citizens. 156 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. It was never the desire of Dr. Allen to poise before the public as a philanthropist, yet as such he will ever be remembered as one " who was truly and deeply im- pressed with the miseries of human life, and had the native goodness which desires to relieve them all." He was a strong advocate of the " ten-hour law," at a time when it was at a risk to his future professional prospects in a manufacturing community like Lowell to fearlessly champion such an act, when so many of the most wealthy and influential citizens were opposed to it. During his long connection with the State Board of Charities he improved every opportunity to help the poor and un- fortunate ; especially is this true of the insane ; to that afflicted class Dr. Allen devoted much of his time and labor, and to his efforts is due many of the improved changes in the insane institutions of this country. He would not tolerate abuse, neglect, or punishment of these helpless, unfortunate people, and by both voice and pen he sought to educate those in charge of such institutions to adopt and carry out the highest possible humane and christian course of management. His long connection of twenty-five years as physician at the St. John's Hospi- tal is additional evidence of his interest in deeds of charity, while his private labors as a physician among the poor of this city will long be remembered by those who were recipients of his care and attention. But it was through the medium of his writings that Dr. Allen was most widely known, and which will live, carrying weight and influence in deciding great questions of sanitary science long after his own private deeds of charity and labor are forgotten. Dr. Allen was not a man who could allow his pen to lie idle. His memory, which was uncommonly tenacious, enabled him to remember what he had read, and his DR. NATHAN ALLEN. 157 mind was well stored with valuable information which he was able to utilize to the best advantage, and thus to write intelligently upon any subject. Not being an orator, he chose the channels of the press as the avenue by which he might reach men's minds and hearts. It may with special propriety be said of him, he felt that "he was in the world to do something and thought he must." His first efforts with his pen began while attending medical lectures, when he edited the first three volumes of the American Phrenological Journal, published in Philadelphia. From that time until his death his pen was ever active. His publications were numerous, most of them being articles which could be published within the necessarily restricted columns of the newspapers. There were, however, a large number which were issued by the standard popular monthly journals — both medical and miscellaneous — of this and other countries, the nature of his communications attracting widespread attention and review by the leading writers of his time. Some of the occasions which called forth many of his best papers and the timely topics which he selected for discussion may briefly be enumerated, as follows : "Changes in New England Population," a subject in which he was specially interested and for many years had given careful study and research, was the title of a paper read at the annual meeting of the American Social Science Association, at Saratoga, September 6, 1887. Before the American Institute, at its fifteenth annual meeting, July 10, 1879, Dr. Allen delivered a most ex- cellent address on the "Education of Girls." During the year 1882 he prepared two most excel- lent essays, which attracted considerable attention and were spoken of very highly by the leading medical and 158 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. scientific journals of this country. One was on "Insanity in its Relations to the Medical Profession and Lunatic Hospitals." which was read at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Protection of the Insane, in New York, January 20, 1882; the other on the "In- fluence of Medical Men," which was presented before the American Academy of Medicine at its annual meeting in Philadelphia, October 26th of that year. These are but a few of the many which might be mentioned. Thus it will be seen that not only were his services in frequent demand by societies throughout the country, but his essays were all of the highest order, showing wide research and careful study. Fortuately only a few months before his death he collected and published in a book of some three hundred and fifty pages, about forty of his best and most popular articles. In this way they will be available for future reference and study ; and as Dr. Allen was far ahead of his time in many of his sanitary suggestions and logical deduc- tions of the laws of hygiene, the succeeding years will witness the fulfilment of many of his prophecies. I can scarcely recall the time when he did not have a paper in process of preparation, and his note-book was always crowded with " minutes " for future essays. At the time of his death he left an elaborate article, not quite completed, comprising a history of his native town, and designed for the Worcester County History. Such labors necessarily demanded a large and ex- tensive acquaintance with the literature of his time. Until late in life anything in the shape of a book he would buy. But during the last few years his purchases were mostly periodicals and newspapers. That he read them and culled from their columns their best articles, his many and well-filled scrap-books give mute and abundant testimony. DR. NATHAN ALLEN. 159 Outside of this city, the home of his adoption, Dr. Allen has been highly honored. In 1862 he received his commission from President Lincoln as a member of the Board of Examiners of Applicants for Pensions. This position the doctor continued to fill for twenty-two years. In 1864 he was appointed, by Gov. John A. Andrew, a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Charities. This office he held, by successive appointments, through- out the entire existence of the Board — a period of fifteen years. During a large part of the time he served as chairman, and many of the annual reports of that organ- ization bear evidence of his faithful, conscientious labors in its behalf. In 1872 Dr. Allen visited Europe as a delegate, commissioned by Gov. Washburn, to the international congress which met in London to consider the matter of reforms in prisons and other correctional institutions. His reputation as a leading medical writer in this country had already preceded him and provided a cordial wel- come from eminent men of his own profession, and secured many desirable opportunities to study the sani- tary methods and institutions of England. In 1874 he delivered the annual discourse before the Massachusetts Medical Society, choosing for his sub- ject "The Medical Problems of the Day." The several occasions when he delivered the addresses which have already been referred to, attest the high esteem with which he was held by the learned societies of this country ; while, as we all know, time and time again the standard periodicals of Great Britain and Europe have awarded his writings a prominent place in their issues, and in both editorials and reviews have praised his words of wisdom and instruction. Only a few years ago tiie degree of LL.D. was 160 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, conferred on Dr. Allen by his Alma Mater in recognition of his original researches into the history and changes of population in New England. In view of these facts it seeAis wellnigh incompre- hensible that m this city where he lived so many years — a life of honor and above reproach — that his high attainments, as a sanitarian and an expert hygienist, should not have been better recognized and appreciated. It is much the same to-day as it always has been, and whether we read in the inspired word, that " a prophet is not without honor save in his own country," or that striking couplet of classic lore, that " Ten ancient towns contended for Homer dead, Throngh wliicli the living Homer begged for bread." The inference and application of the text is the same, and applies to all who, conscious of integrity and purity of purpose, are misjudged, maledicted and ignored. That Dr. Allen did not receive at the hands of cer- tain past officials in this city the honor and recognition which he not only deserved but even had a right to ex- pect, is doubtless known to many of the members of this Association. The confidence, which through some un- known law the older sometimes gives to the younger, enables me to speak of that which could not with pro- priety be referred to while living, but which is not only proper but justice to his memory now that he is gone. As you have doubtless already surmised, I refer to the several occasions when he was deposed from the Board of Health in this city. The act has always been strongly deprecated by all our local newspapers — to their honor and credit be it said — irrespective of political party. I well remember that on one occasion he felt very keenly the disappointment, and which to his sensi- DR. NATHAN ALLEN. 161 tive mind seemed almost a personal insult, as with tears gathering in his eyes and his voice trembling with emo- tion he said, " I have always tried to do my duty and to do by every man in this city as I would wish to be done by. At my time in life the position means more to me than to a younger man, but my reward is not here." It would have been a credit to this city and an honor to Dr. Allen to have given him a permanent posi- tion as chairman of our local Board of Health, as long as he had lived, or until such time as old age made it impossible for him to serve. It then would have been perfectly proper to have made him an honorary member of the Board for the remainder of his life. Such a course would not only have been courteous but just, and to some extent an acknowledgment and appreciation for the long years of gratuitous services which he had ren- dered to St. John's Hospital and for a lesser period, but no less faithful labors, in instituting the project of the City Dispensary and for countless other efforts which he was constantly putting forth in behalf of the sick poor of Lowell. Younger men could hiive been associated with him on the Board, and no one who knew the kindly native disposition of Dr. Allen could doubt for a moment but that their deliberations would have been harmonious. He was ever ready to listen to new ideas advanced by the younger members of the profession, and prompt to recognize true merit in any man, while at the same time he sought by words of commendation and encouragement to advance the interests of sanitation in every possible manner which would benefit humanity. He never sought the "lion's share" of the honors, though frequently he did the heaviest share of the work, while his j^ears of experience together with his mature judguiont and wise 162 OLD RKSIDENTS' HISTOIIICAL ASSOCIATION. counsels would often obviate serious and perhaps irre- mediable errors. Aside from his professional labors, Dr. Allen has served in many responsible positions in this city. For over twenty years he was president of the City Institu- tion for Savings; he was also president of the Amherst Alumni Association of Lowell, and for ten years he was superintendent of the John Street Congregational Church Sunday School. In all religious matters pertaining both to the church and the state he was deeply interested. And rarely has there ever been a moral reform advocated in this city, but what he has ever been ready and willing to assist in the good work. Who can forget his earnest efforts in behalf of the mission of " Hospital Sunday?" Dr. Allen was practically a home man. His office being located in his house, he was more closely allied to the domestic interests of his family than he could have been had his office been down town and his home at some distant part of the city. He was a devoted father, a kind and considerate husband, and never was he so busy that he did not gladly welcome any member of his family into his study. Their presence was always a rec- reation as well as a stimulus to greater activity and work. Of his last ilhiess but a word needs to be added ; to liim it was doubtless an unconscious and painless one. On tlie inoniing of the 16tli of December, 1888, while descending the cellar stairs (at his new home on Belmont Street, which he had occupied but a few months) to arrange the furnace fire, he slipped and fell, striking heavily on his head, causing concussion of the brain and unconsciousness. From the effect of this accident he never rallied but once, and that only partially for a few moments. In this condition he lingered until the after- noon of January 1, 1889, when he passed away. DU. NATHAN ALLEN. 16^ Private funeral services were held at his late resi- dence the following Thursday, and more public memorial services were held in the Eliot Church the last Sabbath afternoon in January. These services were attended by a large audience who listened to appropriate addresses and to the reading of several letters which had been received from distinguished persons who had been asso- ciated with him through life. Thus passed away one whose life was full of good works, the lesson and moral of which remains for the instruction of us all. A kind Providence made painless and sudden his going home, so that he might well exclaim : " Say not, Good-night, but in some happier clime Bid me Good-morning." XIII. Autohio^raphy of Alvctn Clark, with an Introductory Letter hy Chief Justice Wm. A. Richardson, formerly of Lowell. Court of Claims Offices, Washington, D. C, July 10, 1889. Alfred Gilman. Esq.: My Dear Sir — In reply to the request contained in your letter, I will state the circumstances which led to the writing of the autobiography of Alvan Clark, to which you refer. When I resided in Cambridge I called several times on Mr. Clark to see his astronomical instruments and to witness his process of manufacturing the great telescopes for which he had became celebrated. Having known me as Probate Judge of the county, he was aware that I had recently resided in Lowell, and for that reason he frequently referred to the old citizens who formerly lived there, most of whom were then living and were known to me, and he gave me some account of his own connection with the place, particularly mention- ing the fact that his marriage was the first that was sol- emnized in the town of Lowell. Subsequently, after I came to Washington, it occurred to me that his life would furnish interesting materials for an article for the Old Residents' Historical Association in Lowell, and with the view of writing such a paper I set about collecting facts. I tested his memory by writing to Lowell and obtaining a copy of the record of the early AUTOUIOGRAPnY OF ALVAN CLAKK. 165 marriages, from which I found that he was correct in the statement as to his being the first in town. I then wrote to him, asking that he would write out his recollections in full of what he did in Lowell, whom he knew there, and any other facts which he thought would be of inter- est. I received several letters from him relating partic- ular incidents, and at last he sent me the full autobiog- raphy which I have published. As this covered the whole ground I found it unnecessary to write anything myself. The facts seemed to be of such general interest that I abandoned the idea of furnishing them as an article for your Association, and after consideration as to what to do with the autobiography to bring it conspicuously before the public, I had it printed in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, from which it has been extensively copied. I regret that the type-writer, who copied the manu- script for the press, made an error in Mr. Clark's father's name by writing Abram for Alvan, and it was so printed in the Register and in other periodicals which have copied the article. His father's name, like his own, was Alvan, plainly written in pencil. If you print the article please make that correction, and such others as I may note in the proof-sheets, which you will please send to me for careful comparison with the original manuscript. In another letter to me Mr. Clark thus refers to Lowell people and Lowell matters as follows : "I was employed as an engraver for calico printing at the Merrimack works, from the autumn of 1825 to the spring of 1827 only. I have no map of Lowell and have forgotten the names of the streets, but I boarded with Weld Spalding at the time ; was married in a brick house located in the center of a row of wooden tenements facing the canal, about, I should 16G OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. think, one hundred yards from the gate and count- ino'-room of the Merrimack Mills. Thouo;h I met with many well-remembered kindnesses in the place, I was a stranger, with acquirements or finances nowise calcu- lated to help forward in gaining or retaining informa- tion about Lowell. Kirk Boott was the head and front of authority, though I saw him but little. Moody (Paul I believe) I knew pretty well. He was an ingenious and very approachable man, but unpolished. But Warren Colburn was the man I had the best reason to esteem, and I believe he was universally esteemed as being largely enlightened and in sympathy with all that was right and o-ood. He had sounded me like a school-master and o fully appreciated what promise and worth there was in me at that time, as I learned from J. S. C. Knowlton while waiting on the corner for the stage-coach by which to take my final leave of Lowell. Knowlton informed me that Colburn had remarked to him in conversation relative to my going, only the evening before, that it was none of his business, but the company missed it in allowing me to leave. But I did leave and probably done as well as I would have done there, although my mother had hoped I would remain and grow up with the place. When I first went to Lowell I boarded for a time at the tavern kept by Mr. Tyler." Of the persons thus mentioned, Mr. Knowlton was then editor of the Lowell Journal and subsequently was the well-known editor of a newspaper in Worcester, Mass. Mr. Colburn was a distinguished arithmatician of his day, and was superintendent or agent of the Merri- mack Manufacturing Company at Lowell, where he died in 1833. Mr. Tyler was the late Jonathan Tyler, who then owned and kept the ''American House," on Central Street. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALVAN CLAKK. 167 Mr. Clark died in Cambridge August 19, 1887. His sons inherited the tastes and talents of their father, with whom they were long connected in business, and to the success of which they largely conti-ibuted. They are still engaged in the same work and hav5 a world-wide reputation. 1 am very respectfully yours, &c. William A. Richardson. Cameridgeport, October, 1878. My Dear Sir — The account of my career you have desired, 1 can write in pencil more conveniently than with ink. I have written but little in my life, and less of late than ever; so it is hard and slow work for me. My father's name was Alvan, and he w\as born in Harwich, Mass. ; and my mother was Mary Bassett, born in Dennis, Mass. They removed to Ashfield, Franklin County, Mass., in 1794, where I was born, March 8, 1804. I was the fifth of ten children, seven sons and three daughters. Five of us are living at this date. Our farm of one hundred acres was one of the roughest and most rocky in that rough and rocky town, and over the greater part of it, when I was a lad, the stumps of the primitive forest trees (mostly hemlock and some very large) were standing. Two splendid trout- brooks joined near the lower or eastern border of the farm, upon the larger of which is a grand waterfall, near the middle of the farm, but being three and one-luilf miles from the centre of Ashfield and about the same dis- tance from Conway and Goshen centres, it has attracted little attention. The year I was born my father built a saw-mill just below the confluence of these streams 168 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. and close upon the line between Conway and Ashfield. It was a fourth of a mile from the house, in plain sight, and of course a prominent object in my childish thoughts. It was washed away after standing seven years, but rebuilt when I was eight. I concluded then that I should be a millwright, being wonder-struck by the achievements of Captain Gates, the chief in this work of rebuilding. The first school-house in the district was located on our farm, and built when I was seven years old. At times forty scholars have attended there where now they can scarcely muster ten ; and I some times might be in- clined to fear that in forsaking a home abounding in in- viting influences, my example had been pernicious, were it not tluit I see with regret the same depopulation going on almost all over the rural portions of New England. An old grist-mill located by the waterfall, built be- fore I was born, was purchased by my father when I was about twelve. The school, the farm and these mills busied me until about seventeen, when I began to think that perhaps I might be better fitted for some other calling, and 1 went into a wagon-maker's shop and worked about a year with an older brother, but returned to the paternal mansion and put myself at work in good earnest to learn alone engraving and drawing, though I had first visited Hartford and seen something of such works, which were cheerfully explained to me, green as I was, by strangers well-skilled, of whom there were a number at .that time in the [)lace. I visited Boston in the autumn of 1824, carrying with me specimens to show my proficiency, which, though not great, were sufficient to secure me a living employment for the time. Sup])lying myself with some of the most needed art materials, 1 returned to Ashfield the next May, and spent AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALVAN CLARK. 160 the summer as studiously as possible, with no settled plans further than the acquisition of skill. In neighbor- ing towns I offered my services in making small portraits, some in India ink and some in water-colors, and with a pretty satisfactory measure of success. Here I must give you one little incident which tends to show what small matters can change the course of a human life. Wanting some fine sable-hair paint brushes, I sent for them b}'- a man in the habit of visiting Boston. Upon looking over a piece of newspaper in which they were wrapped when received, my eye fell upon an adver- tisement of recent date, headed, " Engravers Wanted." I was not long in making up my mind to apply for the situation. On reaching Boston I found the engravers were wanted at the engraving shop of the Merrimack Works in East Chelmsford for calico printing. The agent informed me that they had just contracted with Messrs. Mason & Baldwin, of Philadelphia, to do all their engrav- ing, and that one of the firm would soon be in East Chelmsford and very likely would employ me as an assistant. Mason at once on his arrival offered me eight dollars per week for one year, and nine dollars per week for the three succeeding years, with opportunity for learning the art in which they were engaged ; I was to work nine hour.s in winter and ten in summer per day, which terms I accepted. Such pay would now be considered small for a beginner in house-keeping, bat I was able to sup- plement it a little by painting and cutting stamps out of the shop. I have always felt that 1 incurred a very serious risk in marrying as I did. My wife, Maria, was the daughter of Asher Pease, and was born in Enfield, Conn., November 30, 1808. The family removed to Conway 170 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. and settled on a farm within half a mile of my own father's residence in 1811, where she resided with her parents until our marriage, except for a short time she boarded in the family of Dr. Edward Hitchcock, while he was a settled preacher in Conway, previous to his taking the presidency of Amherst College — this for the purpose of attending a select school. After remaining about six months in East Chelmsford, I invited my father to accompany this young woman to the place, which he did, and we were married, as the record shows, on the 25th of March, 1826.* My employer, Mr. Mason, was very kind, and procured credit for me, that we could arrange for house-keeping in an unpretentious way, where I felt that we were established for three years and six months at least. But a disagreement sprang up bewteen Mason & Baldwin and their employers, resulting in Mr. Mason re- turning to Philadelphia; but previous to leaving, he offered to cancel our engagement or take me with him to Philadelphia to serve it out, or he would open a branch shop in Providence, R. I., and give me charge of it, with pay of ten dollars per week and one-fourth of the profits. I accepted the last proposition, as there was no chance that I could remain in the Lowell shop with comfort, for they had imported English engravers, who had no notion of allowing the secrets of their art to slip into the hands of Americans. Our tarry in Providence was of only about one year's duration, when this branch of Mason & Bald- win's works was removed to New York, where I continued, on the same terms, with them until the spring of 1832, at which date I received an offer from Andrew Robeson •This was the first marriage in the town of Lowell. Tliat part of Chelmsford called East Chelmsford was incorporated as Lowell, March 1. 1826. The first town-meeting was held at Colburn's Tavern, March 25, 1826, and Mr. Clark was married that very day. by the late liev. Theodore Edson.— W. A. R. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALVAN CLARK. 171 for my services at his print-works in Fall River, such that I was induced to relinquish my connection with Mason residents' historical association. Lowell Company, the Merrimack Mills, and the grist mill in Anne Street. It is fed by the Pawtiicket and Northern Canals, being connected with the latter by the Moody Street feeder. It is also connected with the Eastern Canal by the Boott penstock. Bridges over Merrimack Canal. — At Market Street: A wooden bridge built in 1828. In 1841 the street was laid out as a highway and the bridge was widened by the city. A suit was subsequently brought against the Pro- prietors of the Locks and Canals to recover the expense, but the court decided in favor of the defendants. The case was based upon the 5th section of the loth chapter of the general statutes of 1792, incorporating the Paw- tucket Canal Company. It is stated therein, that if it becomes necessary to cut a canal across a highway, or to lay out a highway across Pawtucket Canal, the proprietors of the Pawtucket Canal shall construct and maintain such bridge or bridges as are necessary for public convenience. The decision of the court rested on the fact that the highway was not laid out across the Pawtucket Canal, the Merrimack Canal having been constructed by the Merrimack Company and subsequently purchased by the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals. Since that time the bridge has been maintained by the city. At Merrimack Street: A wooden bridge built by the Merrimack Company in 1823. It was originally fifty feet wide, but in 1837 it was widened by the addition of twenty-two feet by the city authorities. It is maintained conjointly by the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals and the city. At Anne Street: A wooden foot bridge leading from Anne to Button Streets. At Merrimack Dam: A wooden foot bridge for the use of employes. Western Canal. — The Western Canal was built in 1831. It was originally fed by the Pawtucket Canal, the RIVERS, CANALS AND BRIDGES OF LOWELL. 189 entrance being near the Swamp Locks. It is now fed by the Northern Canal, and is connected with the Merri- mack Canal by the Moody Street feeder. It assists in supplying power to the Tremont, Merrimack and Law- rence Mills. Bridges over Western Canal. — At Button Street : A wooden bridge built in 1831 ; maintained by the city since 1841, when the highway was laid out. At Broad- way : May 25, 1832, the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals entered into an agreement with Elisha Fuller and John R. Adams, by which the former were to build a stone bridge across the canal. It was completed accord- ing to agreement in 1833. In 1882 the city, hy a reso- lution, awarded the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals a certain sum of money for land to be used for the pur- pose of widening the structure. The work was completed in 1883, and the city is now responsible for the mainten- ance of the bridge. At Market Street : A wooden bridge built in 183 L When the highway was laid out in ]841 it was taken possession of by the city. At Merrimack Street: A wooden bridge built in 1831. It was originally fifty feet wide, but was subsequently widened to seventy feet by the city, since which time it has been conjointly maintained by the corporation and the city. At Moody Street: A wooden bridge built in 1831; maintained by the city since 1841. At Lawrence Dam: A wooden foot bridge for employes. Northern Canal. — The Northern Canal was built in 1847-48, under the direction of James B. Francis. The massive line of masonry that extends across the river and along the right bank to " High " Bridge, with the solid and imposing portals of the broad canal cut in the solid rock, is a monument of engineering skill of which our citizens are justly proud. 190 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Bridges oner Northern Canal. — At School Street : A stone bridge of three arches, a massive structure resting on the stone walls of the sluiceway. Built in 1848. At Pawtucket Street: A bridge known as " High" Bridge. Built in 1849. Pawtucket Street was formerly a road leading to the town landing adjoining the land of Robert Brinley, and what is now known as the " dump." At the bend of the river, a little below, were Brinley and Fishing Islands, anciently known as Musquash Islands, once the resort of fishermen who spread their seines in the river and hauled in remunerative draughts of shad and salmon in their season. At Cabot Street : A wooden bridge, built in 1847. It is a private way but is used as a highwa}^ to the Aiken Street Bridge, by the sufferance of the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals. In 1884 the mayor, in his message, recommended that the street be laid out as a highway. It was accomplished July, 1885. At Race Street : A wooden foot bridge, built in 1848. It was narrowed to nine feet in 1851. At Suffolk Street: A wooden bridge forty feet wide, built in 1847. The Proprietors of the Locks and Canals have built twenty-six bridges, five of which are now maintained by the city, and two conjointly by the city and the corpor- ation, THE WAMESIT CANAL. This canal Hows from the Concord River near the cemetery, and into River Meadow Brook in the rear of the Bleachery works. It was built by 0. M. Whipple, Moses Hale and W. Tileston, in 1846. In 1865 it was sold to the Wamesit Power Company for $150,000. It yields a maximum of five hundred horse-power, and is utilized by Faulkner's, Chase's, Belvidere Woolen, U. S. RIVERS, CANALS AND BRIDGES OF LOWELL. 191 Bunting and other mills. It is crossed by two bridges between the river and Faulkner's Mill, one at Lawrence Street and one at Chambers, a total of four. OTHER BRIDGES. There are one hundred and eighty-six bridges which were built and are kept in repair by the incorporated companies. The Boston & Lowell Railroad have built fourteen bridges, the Lowell & Andover Railroad three bridges, and the Framingham & Lowell Railroad one, a total of seventeen. Miscellaneous bridges, six. It will be seen that the corporations furnish a major- ity of the bridges. I have, since I commenced this arti- cle, thrown out about twenty bridges of a doubtful identity, but there are still enough to establish the title of the American Venice. CONTRIBUTIONS THE OLD RESIDENTS Si^tof ic5kl S^^odiktioii, LOWELL, NIASS. OfiG^NIZED IDECKMIBER 31, 18 6 8. Vol. T\r. No. 3. PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION, SEPTEMBER, 1890. " ^ Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours." — YouNG. LOWELL, MASS. Morning Mail Pkint: No. 18 Jackson Street, CONTRIBUTIONS THE OLD RESIDENTS Bi^tofidkl S^^odiatioi] LOWELL, NIASS. ORGJ-AISriZEr) DECEMBER SI, 18 68. Vol. IV. No. 3. PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION, SEPTEMBER, 1890. ^ Tis greatly wise to talk -with our past hours." — YuUNG. LOWELL, MASS. Morning Mail Pkint: No. 18 Jackson Stkekt. CONTKNTS. XVI. Memento of Charles Hovey, by James S. Russell, read November T, )S89 193 XVII. Memoir of Rev. Theodore Edson, S. T. D., by his daughter. Miss E. M. Edson, read November 7, 1889 202 XVIII. The Early Schools of Chelmsford, by H. S. Perham, read February 6, 1890... 217 XIX. Early Recollections of Lowell, by Benjamin Walker, read February 6. 1890.. 237 XX. A Memoir of Mrs. Jane Ermina Locke, by her daughter, Grace Le Baron (Locke) Upham, read May 7, 1890 257 XXI. The Lowell Cemetery, by James S. Russell, read May 7, 1890 272 XXII. President's Report, read May 7, 1890 282 XXIII. Letter from Hon. Wm. A. Richardson 291 HELJOTVPE f«IKTING ( X VI. Memento of Charles Hovey, read Movem- her 7, 1889, hy James S. Rassell. Iisr July, 1832, a country boy, born in the neighbor- ing town of Acton, but then living in Cambriclgeport, embarked on board a packet boat on the Middlesex Canal, on his way to Lowell, to commence the service of an apothecary's apprentice. A friend of the family had engaged the place for him, and introduced him to his future master. Till then the boy and master were total strangers to each other. Only those who have had like experiences away from home for the first time, only fourteen years of age, among strangers, in a strange business and subordinate to older apprentices, can appre- ciate the trials and homesickness of this lad. To enable me to imagine how he passed the long, tedious years to the remote time when he should be released from his servitude and become a free man, I have fortunately been permitted to read a diary kept by him the last six months of his apprenticeship. It exhibits so free, frank and honest expression of his mind that it is with the greatest satisfaction that I speak of the subjects that attracted my special notice. At the beginning of the book he states, his object is to improve his handwriting and acquire a facility in writing his thoughts. At the end of the ninety-third and last page, he reflects that he cannot claim to have improved his handwriting, what- ever other advantages he may have gained. His writ- ing on the earlier pages was excellent and very much like that of his later years. But later, there is appear- 194 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ance of hurry. He often speaks of being too tired to write after ten o'clock at night and a hard day's work. His room also is too cold for writing. He always has a reason to offer if he should omit his page of an evening. His style was plain and forcible ; his language was good, grammatical and well spelled. In after life he indulged frequently in writing for the press ; he had an extensive correspondence, and he presented numerous and valu- able papers before the Old Residents' Association, as you well know. Without doubt his diary writing had a marked influence upon his literary habits. The diary shows his commendable solicitude for the welfare of his parents. The brothers combined to build a house for them. Charles was able from his scanty savings, to furnish $200 for that object. He manifested great interest in the progress of the building, its final comple- tion and occupation. His family affections were kept alive by constant correspondence, chiefly through his younger brother, Albert, who resided at home with his parents. Another revelation of his diary, was his care of his personal character. He frequently resolves to be strictly honest and faithful in the service of his Master, hoping thereby to deserve well of Him in the future. He resolves to be cautious of the company he keeps, to avoid certain young lady acquaintances, because he has seen them in the company of some young men whose characters were not agreeable to him. He laments his lack of decision of character, inability to say no, and resolves to strive for that ability. If his father had had more decision, refusing to endorse for others, he might have been independent. He would never indorse be- yond one-fourth of his ready means, and that not till he had $20,000 at command. He cultivated a taste for MKMKNTO OF CIIAllLKS IIO\EY. 195 flowers, and enjoyed excursions with intelligent friends in search for them. He conceived a favorable idea of double entry book-keeping, studied the subject and re- solved to keep his own books in that way when he should be in business for himself. Indeed, he strove for self-improvement in various ways ; in mental culture as well as in the technical knowledge of his business. He early anticipated engaging in business for himself, and meant to qualify himself for successful pursuit of it. He counted the days to the time when he should be a free man, and perhaps be taken into partnership by his mas- ter ; for he foresaw his necessary connection with the concern. If disappointed here he would not follow the example of another apothecary of his acquaintance, who got married, bought a house, set up business with small means and burst up in a few months. He was not dis- appointed, however; his long and faithful service, and his knowledge of the business made him neccessary to the establishment ; and he was taken into partnership on favorable terms. No other security than his own promise without endorser, was required to install him the owner of a third of the stock and business. Mr. Hovey was born and educated in a Baptist family, and when he came to Lowell he was so well grounded in sound principles that his good moral char- acter was well insured. He probably knew no other mode of worship than that of his family. But his mas- ter, a member and officer and constant attendant at St. Anne's Church, to be sure that his apprentice attended church on Sundays, provided for his attendance where he could look after him. Mr. Hovey imitated his master in this particular. It was not done in a proselyt- ing spirit, though I have heard such motives attributed to him, probably from the fact that most of these boys 196 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. became attached to the church ; and several of them became the staunchest of churchmen. Mr. Hovey was a consistent prayer-book churchman, a constant attendant at church and, for many years, superintendent of the Sunday School. He succeeded Mr. Carleton as treasurer, and member of the vestrj'^, and held those offices as long as he lived, and his memorial tablet occupies a conspic- uous position upon the walls of the church. The knowl- edge of his character and zeal as a churchman, was not limited to St. Anne's people. He had familiar acquaint- ance with the bishops and many of the clergy of the church. He was clerk and treasurer of the corpor- ation of St. Mark's Episcopal School of Southborough, Mass., from its beginning till his death. He gave to the Trustees of Donations of the Episcopal Church, a liberal lot of land on Holywood Hill for an Episcopal church, in anticipation of the wants of Phoenix Village, the settle- ments of the syndicate's land, and the Tewksbury annex. His name as donor is inscribed upon one of the bells in the chime on St. Anne's Church. Mr. Hovey was not, in common parlance, a popular man. He sought not popularity otherwise than to deserve well of the people. He was not much of a pol- itician. In his minority he was a whig, not so much that he understood the principles of that party, as that he preferred to side with those for whom he had the most respect. He entered with enthusiasm into the first Harrison campaign, following the log cabin with the crowd, and was a member of a llute club, which contrib- uted to the music of the campaign. In after years he was very conservative, quiet, and reticent on political matters. He rarely attended a caucus, but always voted, and then retired to his private business. At the outbreak of the late rebellion, when most MEMENTO OF CHARLES HOVEY. 197 people were excited to red heat, he was too cahn to sat- isfy some of his neighbors. But no one had just cause to question his patriotism. When an apprentice, he was a member of an engine company, and in his diary speaks triumphantly of No. 3 being first at a fire. He never sought public office, nor joined secret societies. He willingly stood aside for tliose whose ambition led them to seek political preference ; and his benevolence was too expansive to be limited to society membership. I have heard him say that he had observed that those who gave liberally were generally blessed with means to continue giving ; while those who with- held more than was meet, tended to poverty. Mr. Hovey was a director of the Railroad Bank from 1846 to 1886, forty years. Only one other person ever served the bank so long. He was the youngest person ever elected to that office, he being only twenty-nine years old. He was made eligible to the office by being furnished with one share of the capital stock. The result shows the foresight of the management in selecting a man, and continuing him in office to the end of his life, who furnished the bank a large amount of business not only in the conduct of his private affairs, which were extensive, but that of a trustee of numerous estates, some of which were large, requiring extensive banking privileges. When the Mechanics Savings Bank was started in 1861, Mr. Hovey was elected a member of the corpo- ration and at the same meeting was elected trustee, which office he held over eighteen years, till he declined re- election. During that time he served on various impor- tant committees. One of the present officials of the bank says of him : "He was an esteemed member of the Board of Trustees and gave to the duties of his office 198 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. faithful and conscientious service." The first book of deposit the bank issued was taken by Mr. Hovey, he making a deposit in favor of one of his children ; who still keeps it alive not only as a valued curiosity, but as a cherished memento of a loving father. July 1, 1850, Mr. Hovey was elected clerk of the ' Lowell Gas Light Company; which office he held by re- election, for eight years, until he was elected treasurer and director of the company; but these offices he held only one year. It is usual for the directors to be nearly life tenants of the office, unless their private business prevents. This exceptionally short term of service seems to call for explanation. The cir- cumstances were well understood by all interested parties. At that time the manufacturing companies were large consumers of gas, and it was common to elect their agents directors of the company. A certain agent of the Merrimack Company was desired for director. But no room was large enough to accommodate both him and Mr. Hovey at the same time. Even the chimes upon St. Anne's Church, which contained a bell given by Mr. Hovey, was so disagreeable to the agent that he would have suppressed their sound had he been able. This hos- tility also calls for explanation. There was an important contest between the Merrimack Company and St, Anne's Church, to which both of these gentlemen were ardent partisans. It would have been a grief to Mr. Hovey to incur the displeasure of anyone, even, as in this case, when conscious of no dishonorable action. At the organization of the Lowell Cemetery Corpo- ration Mr. Hovey was elected clerk and treasurer, and he held the office eleven years, till his declining re-election, March 3, 1852. It was an office involving much inter- ruption of business ; the numerous inquries about the MEMENTO OF CHARLES HOVEY. 199 choice, purchase and grading of lots, the anxious mourn- ers solicitious about the burial of their friends, demanded not only courteous patience but exhausting sj^mpathy. Few have held the office so long as Mr. Hovey did, until the present incumbent; who is a distinguished example of the qualities the office requires. The next year after Mr. Hovey's resignation he was elected trustee. He continued in that office for sixteen years; when the Board of Trustees was revolutionized by parties who assumed that they could improve upon the old Board ; but who, in their turn, found that their gratuitous services were not duly appreciated. Mr. Hovey was clerk of the Stony Brook Railroad Corporation for eleven years, between 1851-62. Indeed, he was ever ready at the call of any honorable service, whether gratuitous or otherwise, even to the detriment of his private business. On examining the file of the Lowell Daily Citizen for May 4, 1886, I find some additional facts and senti- ments so true and just that I cannot do better than to repeat them here : " The community was pained and shocked this morning, to learn that Mr. Charles Hovey, one of our oldest and most respected citizens, who yester- day was in the apparent enjoyment of good health, had, during the night, passed forever from the associations of half a century ; from the fellowship of men whose re- spect and confidence he had richly earned ; from the cares and pleasures of a life strongly marked with the distinguishing traits of industry and christian rectitude. Mr. Hovey, who had spent the day in his store, retired last evening at about half-past nine, and made no com- plaint of illness. About eleven o'clock he aroused his wife and complained that he could not breathe. At his request Mrs. Hovey opened the windows, but that failed 200 OLD EESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ^ to .rive relief. Drs. Johnson and FoK were s«mn,one,l. An°examlnatlon showed the patient to be suffering from congestion of the lungs and, although every remedy Uno;n to science was applied human skill could not avail, and death ensued at half-past twelve. The end '"'' ForSy-four years Mr. Hovey spent the greater part of his time in the store in City Hall where he Lined a reputation for busines probity and fan- dealing "which was not confined to Lowell -but spread abroad to the surrounding towns, and gave the fim "' C-'lf;' f Hovey a prestige, which was mutually beneficial to the public and the proprietors. He was a warm friend to [he voung, manifesting au especial pleasure m counselling and'aiding them, who were bereft of home influence Mr Hovey was a man to command respect and in- vite confidence. His disposition was courteously gemal, and he was kindly considerate for the faults and failings of others. His honesty was of a sterling quality and his Christianity of a practical and unobtrusive character. Another, who knew him much more intimately than my- self, though he was my intimate friend, with whom 1 almost daily held sweet converse, says of him : Xhe ..reat characteristic of his life, was certainly his goodness ; and when to that is added his unfailing tenderness and delicate sense of courtesy and affability to everybody without exception, it seems to me that we have a char- acter of unusual attractiveness." The life of Mr. Hovey is certainly a model lite, worthy of admiration and imitation. Born of pious parents, brought up in the '-Nurture and admonition of the Lord," having only a common-school and limited academic education, leaving home at a tender age to make his abode among strangers to learii a lile business. MEMENTO OF CHARLES HOVEY. 201 to make for himself a name and praise among men, he departed not from his early training. The limited diary which we have mentioned, reveals the development of the boy into a successful business man, the christian gentleman and the happy father of a happy family ; whom he left not only to mourn their sad bereavement, but to enjoy the fair prospect of continued comfort, usefulness and happiness. Mr. Hovey was married in Dover, N. H., December 7, 1843, to Miss Catherine, daughter of Col. Joseph Smith. He leaves a widow, one son, the Rev. Henry Emerson Hovey of Portsmouth, N. H., and one daughter, Mrs. Kate S. Martin, the widow of the late Laurin Martin of this city. The ancestor of the Hovey family in this country, was Daniel Hovey, who landed at Ipswich, Mass., about 1637. He was born in England in 1619. From him the descent to (/harles Hovey is as follows : John, born 1642, died 1695; Luke, born 1676, died 1756; Abijali, born 1719; Solomon, born 1748, died 1825; William, born 1785, died 1852; Charles, born in Acton, Mass., Novem- ber 17, 1817, died in Lowell, May 4, 1886, aged sixty- eight years. These men, from Daniel down to William, Charles' father, were farmers and landholders in various parts of Middlesex and Essex counties. William was in the book business in Cambridge, Mass. On April 10, 1810, he married Sally Howe, who was born in North- boro, Mass., September 24, 1793, and died December 15, 1874. XVII. Memoir of Rev. Theodore Edson, S. T. D., hy his daughter, Miss E. M. Edson, read J^oveniher 7, 1889. It would seem to be scarcely necessary to present to a society claiming to be composed of old residents of the city any sketch of a life which has been lived before their eyes for many years, the incidents of which must be more or less familiar to them. Already the chief events of Dr. Edson's residence in Lowell, beginning with the circumstances of his first coming to Lowell as the Merrimack Company's minister are in print in the shape of anniversary sermons and other pamphlets, including an historical address, which is almost an auto- biography, upon the semi-centennial celebration of his first preaching in the town of East Chelmsford, now the city of Lowell. And it would also seem best that the office of writing such a sketch should fall to some one who would know what would be most desirable for the Old Residents' Society and acceptable to them, and not to one whose near relationship would enjoin a strict guard over words of eulogy, in inverse proportion to her facilities for knowing the truth and justice of them. Theodore Edson was born in Bridgewater, in this State, August 24, 1793. His father, Benjamin, born in 1754, died December 5, 1835, in his eighty-second year. His father, John, born 1729 and died 1777, was a pious and exemplary christian and was attached to the Church of England. On the breaking out of the Amer- ican Revolution, he and his brothers, remaining loyal to MEMOIR OF KKV. TIIKODORK EDSON, S. T. D. 203 the king, became obnoxious to their fellow townsmen. They were arrested and tried and placed upon a guard- ship in Boston harbor for safe keeping. His health failing from the confinement, he was removed to the dwelling house of a Mr. Pierpoint where he was kindly treated, being allowed to walk upon the roof, and occa- sionally to visit the family. There he caught the small- pox, of which he died. His father, Samuel, born in 1690, two years before his grandfather's death, died 1771, aged eighty-one. He gave fourteen acres of land by deed, January 23, 1747, to the Society in England for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, the income of which was to be appropriated to the support of public worship in Bridge water, in accordance with the Church of England. His father, Samuel, born in Salem in 1645, died 1719 ; aged seventy-four. His father, Samuel Edson, was born in England, 1612, came over early to Massachusetts, resided in Salem, 1639; removed to Bridgewater about 1650, and died in 1692, aged eighty. His monumental stone is in the old town burying ground, bearing a legible in- scription recording the interment of himself and wife. He was the common ancestor of all of the name in this country. He was a man of no ordinary character and ability. Previous to the year 1600, the name Edson is not found in the English vocabulary of proper names, and it is a matter of conjecture that Samuel Edson, coming away in troublous times, when the prospect was strong of civil war in England, might have dropped a syl- lable from some name beginning with Ed and ending with son^ and came to begin a fresh life in America. He was from the beginning a considerable land owner, and before his death had acquired a large estate by his 204 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. industry and enterprise. He held several offices of trust, was a member of the Council of War, and repre- sented the town at the General Court at Plymouth in 1696. The Edsons were the first and prominent donors of lands for the support of schools and church endowment in Bridgewater. Josiah Edson gave the school lands, so called, to the South precincts, in 1722, for the promot- ing and encouraging of learning, and his nephew, Samuel, as has been said, gave the Church lands in 1747. A church was erected not long after on the glebe, but services were not kept up regularly, probably owing to a scarcity of clergy of the Episcopal Church in the diocese, and Theodore Edson was not baptized in his infancy. In accordance with a custom prevalent in country towns in those days, he was sent to live in the family of Mr. Benjamin Willis in East Bridgewater when he was in his eleventh year, and remained with them five years. While he was there the grandfather died, and he rode to Plymouth and back the same day on horseback to announce his death. He was then about thirteen. He left the Willises in August, 1809, and became apprentice to his brother John, who was seven years oldei" than himself, and whose trade was that of a mill-wright, and they w'orked together in various country places in Massachusetts, having jobs as far west as Great Barrington, also at Sharon, Walthani, Easton (for Mr. Oliver Ames), at Newton quite frequently. Providence and Olneyville. At Providence he was taken sick with what proved to be typhoid fever, and returned home ; he had a relapse and was much worse ; in fact, he did not regain his former strength until a year from the time he w^as taken, which was the latter part of 1811. He was able, however, to teach the MEMOIR OF KEY. THEODORE EDSON, S. T. D. 205 district school during the summer of 1812, and again in the winter, living at home. Early in the year 1813, there is a record of his baptism in St. Andrew's Church, Hanover, by the Rev. Joab G. Cooper, and later in the same year he was confirmed in Dedham by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Griswold, who had been consecrated Bishop of the Eastern Dioceses about two years before. There is little doubt that from that time he had his mind upon the ministry, although there were many obstacles to be cleared away. In 1814, he tried attending the Academy at Bridgewater, but was twice obliged to desist from sickness — diurnal spasms of headache — a malady with which he was not afterwards troubled. During this year there is mention of his working with his brother in repairing the church edifice. This must have been the old church, built soon after the land was given, which was taken down soon after the repair- ing to make way for a new one. For in June, 1816, Bishop Griswold came to Bridgewater to consecrate the new church and to preach the sermon. At the Massachusetts Diocesan Convention of that year Mr. Theodore Edson attended as a lay delegate from Bridgewater. He made application to the American Education Society in October. Whether the application was successful or not cannot be inferred with positive cer- tainty from the result, but he went to Andover to (it for college, October 20, 1816. It may be asked where and wlien did he get his previous education. We all know that, "where there's a will there's a way ; " and this is true especially with regard to education. No boy was ever bent upon ob- taining that who did not find some way open to him. The will finds the way ; the desire for study discovers many avenues open which are un])erceived by the eye not look- 206 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ing for them. And let it be remembered the opportu- nities were less frequent and the range of studies more restricted at that time than now. Books of- any kind were less easily procured, and the standard literature was much more carefully read and laid up in the mem- ory. But a thoughtful boy or girl who had access to the Spectator, Bacon's Essays, Milton, Shakespeare, Cowper and Gray, had better models for English com- position, and a better basis for a good style than one who, with all the training which public schools do give. can not avoid the deterioratino; influence of a larire pro- portion of newspaper reading. Of the subject of this sketch it was said that at one time in his early life, when he was at work at a paper mill, one of the proprietors remarked that his work was not very profitable, because he had to stop and read whatever his eye caught of printed matter in the loose material. He was two years at Andover Academy during the professorship of Mr. Eliphalet Pearson. He was prom- inent in some literary society there, for many of his strictures upon the compositions of other students are among his papers. He taught Sunday School in Tewks- bury, walking over from Andover for that purpose, during the spring of his second year there ; and he entered Harvard College in August, 1818, the year after Dr. Greene's graduation. He was president's freshman, President Kirkland. During his college course, he fre- quently read prayers at South Boston, and during the last winter he taught school in Groton, Mass. His college themes and exercises are in existence, put together by date, and he had part in the spring exhibi- tion, one of five in some mathematical and astronomical exercises. The subject assigned him when he was MEMOIR OF KEY. THEODORE EDSON, S. T. D. 207 graduated was a forensic disputation with another grad- uate (Bradford), " Whether excessive attachment to ancient usages be a greater evil than excessive fondness for innovation." To those who remember his conserva- tism, there will be little doubt which side he took in the argument. Pausing to look back at this period, we find that his intimate academy and collegiate acquaintances were Mr. Daniel P. King of Danvers, afterwards Senator from Massachusetts, and Francis 0. Watts. A file of letters from the former was carefully preserved, but necessarily the friends were separated, although not estranged. Hon. Daniel P. King died in 1850. Mr. Watts was a vestryman in St. Paul's Church, Boston, and they came frequently into contact. His steady perseverance of study and teaching for six years, told upon his health, and he was quite sick for the last three months of 1822. For five weeks he was in the Massachusetts General Hospital, and only came out from there the last week in the year. He continued his lay-reading at South Boston, preparing in the mean- time for his ordination to the Deaconate, which took place September 11, 1823, in St. Paul's Church, Boston, the Rev. William T. Potter being admitted deacon with him. After that he topk charge regularly of St. Mat- thew's Church, South Boston, officiating and preaching every Sunday. He was there when Mr. Boott found him out, through the Rev. Dr. Eaton, and invited him to come to Lowell to preach the first service in a school- house built by the Merrimack Company for the use of their employes week days and Sundays. The last finish was put to the room on Saturday night, and the Rev. Theo- dore Edson held service and preached twice the next day. The history of his engagement by the company 208 OLD TIESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. for one year, after a request drawn up and signed by the men in their employ that his services might be continued; has often been repeated, and it is in print and in the annals of the Old Residents' Society. A few items may be repeated as being new to some of the later members of this Society. In the same building as that first occupied by the church, on the lower floor, was opened the Merrimac School, so called, for week days, and the Sunday Scliool was opened about the same time for the same scholars and others. The "minister" had both under his super- intendence. The second year of his engagement by the company began with the consecration of St. Anne's Church, and the Rev. Mr. Edson's admission to priest's orders, the Rev. Benjamin C. Cutler being admitted at the same time by the Rt. Rev. Alexander V. Griswold. The parsonage was built and occupied early in 1826. A little more than a year before, Mr. Edson had married a daughter of Bishop Parker of Boston. The arrangement with the Merrimack Company lasted about three years. At the end of that time, the parish of St. Anne's was formed, and a lease of the church and parsonage was granted to it, through the kind offices of Mr. Boott, the agent. The lease of the property was conditioned upon the continuance of the contract with their rector at that time. It was for fifteen years at most, but was to expire at any time of his removal previously. It may be as well to mention in this place the opportunities he had for removal. He was consulted Ijy private letter, and urged to consider whether he would accept the Assistant Rectorship of Trinity Church, Boston. The Rev. Dr. Gardner, the rector, had been MEMOIR OF REV. THEODORE EDSON, S. T. D. 209 very kind in encouraging him by exchanging with him in the early clays of his service here, and it was inti- mated that the office above mentioned would be acceptable to him. He declined because the existence of the services of the Episcopal Church, here and then, seemed to depend upon his remaining. It was before the lease. In 1826 he was requested to consent to be a candidate for president of Burlington College, Vt., but he declined. In 1828 he had a call from the Vestry of St. Stephen's Church, Middlebury, Vt., to succeed the Rev. B. B. Smith, afterwards Bishop of Kentucky. In 1829, at the suggestion of the Bishop of Connecticut, he was called to come to Chatham in that State, with the intimation that the Episcopal Watchman, a church paper, needed the help of steady contributions from the clergy in that vicinity. A letter is also extant alluding to his having received a call to St. Stephen's Church, Philadel- phia. In January, 1831, he is urged to accept a call to Pittsfield, Mass., by Mr. E. A. Newton, a prominent lay- man of the Diocese residing there ; and in the same year the calls in Vermont are renewed. His connection with the schools in this place began very soon after his coming here, and he was on the School Committee with Di-. Green and others for several years. The account of the stand he took with regard to the building of the two school-houses by the city, in the face of much opposition, is already in print in an article by Mr. Alfred Gilman, published in the Annals of this Historical Association, and I need not do more than allude to a feature of his conduct throughout his pastor- ate — the steadiness and moral courage with which he often opposed the measures of prominent men, friends of his own, with whom personally he ever held the most friendly relations. 210 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. His interest in Sunday Schools was marked, and in April, 1830, the Sunday-School House connected with St. Anne's was finished and occupied with two sessions on Sunday. It was also, for some years, occupied during church hours on Sunday morning and afternoon, by Sunday-School children and others having no seat in the church, for whom the church service was read, with a short sermon, story or address, by laymen willing to give their time for that purpose. Mr. Robert Morville and Mr, Calvin Cook were lay-readers. In September, 1839, he added to his parochial duties, that of editing a church paper called the " Christian Witness." It was published in Boston, by Mr. James B. Dow, and one day in the week Mr. Edson spent in Boston preparing the weekly issue for the press. This con- tinued about a year and a half, and during a period when the fate of St. Luke's Church and the approaching expiration of the lease of Church and parsonage gave him a good deal of anxiety. His health finally gave way, and in the spring of 1842 he was obliged to cease preaching for awhile and turn his face southward. The Rev. Mr. Leeds, of Salem, took charge of the parish of St. Anne's. Mr. Edson was gone about three months, going as far as Charleston, S. C, b}^ water and returning leisurely by land, making friendly visits on the way. At Baltimore he remained awhile with kind friends, in Philadelphia also, and Brooklyn, ending with a trip to Niagara Falls before returning to Lowell in July. His ill health at this time was supjiosed to be con- nected with the lungs. It was certainly bronchitis and was treated as such. In Philadelphia he consulted a physician of note. Dr. Gerhardt, who pronounced the lungs sound, and gave him a letter for Dr. Green. I should like to mention an incident which I cannot help MEMOIR OF KEV. THEODORE EDSON, S. T. D. 211 thinking had something to do with the fact that he was not obliged to give up to this disease again. He met a brother clergyman in Philadelahia, who hearing of his complaint, told him he could give him a few lessons in the management of the voice which would cure his throat. This gentleman was very kind and attentive to him, gave him some rules and illustrations, and was the means of his use of a natural keynote in reading and speaking, which required only stress to be heard distinctly by others, and yet was easily employed by himself. In the year 1843, February 28th, the lease of the Merrimack Company having expired, the people of St. Anne's, by some effort, purchased the church. The parsonage not being to let, Mr. Edson moved his family to the large stone house on Pawtucket Street, now owned by Mrs. J. C. Ayer, then used as a hotel, but vacant. The hand of a good Providence seemed to be over him in those matters wherein he took least heed for him- self. For many years he had lived to the extent of his income, making no special attempt at accumulation. During the year after he left the parsonage, a way seemed to open to him to build, in Kirk Street, in a block with Drs. Pillsbury and Jewett ; and one of his parishion- ers at that time, Mr. Cyril French, contractor and builder, offered his services to oversee the work. In January, 1844, a legacy of $5,000 which fell to his wife, enabled him to pay nearly all the expense of the house. In this place he lived about seven years, and was content, but then the owner of the stone cottage upon Andover Street sought him, and besought him to buy the little place, which she said was built for a minister and his family, and which she wished to see occupied by one of the same profession. He declined, saying he already had a house and could certainly not pay the price she ought 212 OLD KKSIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. to heave for that. She offered it at very low and easy terms — was willing to receive the amount by instalments and at his convenience, and it was through her urgency and repeated application that he entertained the thought at all. But the change was made, and the benefit in almost every point of view, to himself and family, at the end of the fifteen years residence there, showed evi- dently that the over-ruling was planned by One whom he was striving to serve day by day. The restful, quiet of the evenings and mornings in that charming home, the regular exercise of the days, and the fresh air free from the dust of the city, did much, no doubt, to strengthen health not robust, and a constitution not naturally strong. A very acute and severe illness which he had there in the autumn of 1858, and from which he was slow in recovering, might, to human appearance, have terminated fatally but for the healthful habit of of body, which seemed to give him endurance to resist the effects of the disease until relief came. At the end of the fifteen years, the opportunity came to buy the parsonage, and the kindness and gener- osity was very general which responded to the personal appeals made by the rector of St. Anne's for its purchase. Many of the Old Residents will remember the day in May, 1866, on which its doors and grounds were open to the parishioners and other friends, to offer their congrat- ulations. It was estimated that about fifteen hundred called that da}^, but so admirably were the arrangements made by the committee who had it in hand that there seemed no crowd, no rush. Many former residents came to town for tlie occasion. There was a service of thanks- giving in the church, including a Te Deum, and the weather was favorable and comfortable. It was the re- sult of these changes duiiiig the twenty-three years of MEMOIR OF REV. THEODORE EDSON, S. T. D. 213 absence from the parsonage, that he acquired the means, pecuniarily, to carry out some of the projects of his later years. One of these projects was the enterprise of St. Mary's Orphanage. His purchase of the property in Anne Street, directly behind the church, gave him the opportunity to accomplish a design he had long had in his mind. It was to start an orphanage for boys. In 1875 it was opened and put under the charge of the Sisters of St. Margaret's, whose headquarters were in Boston. He took up the burden of begging for it, and often was his heart cheered by gifts from citizens uncon- nected as well as connected with St. Anne's. It was always well filled with boys, and although the attempt to carry on the work after they had out-grown the care of the Sisters, by the purchase of a house and land in Dracut, proved unsuccessful and almost disastrous, he had great comfort in many of those whom he had more immediately under his eye. In 1880 the number was thirty-two. The great difficulty of carrying on the work after his death, was relieved in a little more than a year by its acceptance as a trust by St. Anne's parish, and the name was changed to the Theodore Edson Orphan- age, in memory of its founder. It was his custom for many years to spend every afternoon in parochial visiting, starting from home im- mediately after dinner and taking each day some locality where, in the early days he went almost from house to house, so that many families came then under his pas- toral care. In one house he would be directed to new- comers in another, and it was in that way that he came to know and be known so generally ; and his remaining in town during the summer months caused his services to be sought, for funerals especially, by many of other 214 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. congregations whose ministers were absent for the time. Once, a stranger who was much relieved to find some one to bury his wife, said he had been to seven and been un- successful. He was also known outside of the Diocese to the younger clergy of his own church on account of his being for many years one of the Examiners of the General Theological Seminary in New York. The ex- aminations and commencement took place in June, and his absence lasted about a week. These trips brought him in contact with many of the clergy, and were a recreation and a pleasure to him. He took a warm in- terest in young men, especially in those preparing for the ministry, and these visits, and his consequent acquaintance with many of the later graduates and newly ordained, kept him fresh in the church questions of the day. And it was one characteristic of his vigor of mind, and freshness of purpose, and perhaps some would say of his strength of will (which is not blame- worthy, is it? if it be not self will), that he was not deterred by opposition or discouragements from under- taking anything which he thought would be for the advantage of the parish hereafter. It was not a reason- able plea with him for not beginning a new enterprise, that his great age would prevent his seeing it carried out, and that he had better leave changes for his suc- cessor. He did what he would have done had a lifetime been before him, and left the issue to Him who had " put into his mind the good desire." His Sunday duties were a refreshment rather than a fatigue to him, and when, after his illness in 1858, the Vestry kindly provided him with an assistant, he was unwilling to make use of his help except to increase the number of ministrations, and to provide more church services. The arrangement resulted eventually in the formation of a second parish in the city — St. John's. MEMOIR OF REV. THEODORE EDSON, S. T. D. 215 In August, 1863, when he was just seventy years old, he received from the parish the generous gift of a cheque sufficient for a trip to Europe, and to be expended for that purpose. His most ardent desire was to visit the Holy Land, and it was his intention to do so if prac- ticable. But the time was unfortunate. There had been disturbances in Palestine that year, so that even the missionaries were not secure, and he found that travelling could not be safely accomplished there except in large parties or companies well guarded. No such party was to start until mid-winter or towards spring, and he thought he would not stay away so long from his home and people. His travels, therefore, were restricted to Great Britain and France. He had for a pleasant companion, Mr. Charles Hovey, who went with him and staid with him until he himself returned a little earlier. They landed in Ireland, journeyed through it, crossed over to Scotland, and afterwards took England. Letters of introduction which Dr. Edson had from Mrs. Boott, then living in Boston, gave him the advantage of access to much that was congenial to him in the Cathedral life, for her brother, Mr. Hayden, was Precentor in West- minster Abbey. Every moment of this sojourn abroad was a delight to him. To any one conversant with the familiar names which attach to almost every spot in England, and with the associations, historical and ecclesi- astical, which are comiected with them, the pleasure of seeing and visiting such places is far beyond that which an ordinary tourist, without such familiarity, can expe- rience. The letters which Dr. Edson sent home formed a consecutive jou^rnal of his trip. They were copied for safe keeping, and are in existence now. Much might be added to this paper, but it may be presumed that the latter years of the Rector of St. 216 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Anne's are recent enough to be in the memories of most of the members of this societ3\ One thing may be said of his religion. It was thorough and genuine ; it never could be laid aside. One cannot iinaghie him without it. As time went on it grew prominent perhaps, but without being obtrusive, and his cheerfulness and appreciation of humor as well as his unfailing sympathy, made him, I may venture to say, a not unwelcome visitor wherever he dropped in for a few words of greeting. The added tenderness of his home companionship passes further allusion. His perceptive faculties continued to the close, and the last Sunday before his final sickness he was in his place in church, and took part in the service. He lingered in suffering four weeks, and was then released. XVIII. Tlie Early Schools of Chelmsford, hi/ H. S. Ferhcini, read Fehraarjj G, 1800. If we inquire into the causes which led our New England ancestors to establish popular education, under such adverse circumstances, we shnll find that they were impelled by religious motives. They sought to erect a political fabric to be dedicated to the service of God ; and of this structure the Bible was the chief corner stone. Their interpretation of the Divine will, through the written Word, governed their course in all things. Their children, then, must be able to read and under- stand that Word, which was " a lamp to their feet and a guide to their path." It was felt that so much education as this the community owed, as a sacred duty, to every child born within its jurisdiction. Unfriendly critics point to the religions intolerance of these people, as in- dicating a defect in the Puritan character, and entirely inconsistent with their lofty aims. When judged by the standard of the times in which they lived, and their pur- poses in founding a nation here, this criticism will not be sustained. It was a time of intense religious agitation. Religious differences were the chief source of discord. It had caused the persecution which led these people to leave comfortable homes in England to found a nation in the wilderness. What more natural, therefore, than tluit they should seek to avoid the possibility of simiLar persecution in their new home, by admitting only such as held opinions in harmony with their own. Political prudence alone 218 OLD KESIDENTS' IIISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. would dictate such a course. They sought to found a commonwealth composed of a united body of believers. Their attitude toward such as differed with them was well stated by Winslow, one of their foremost men. " They liad come to New England," he said, " in order to make a society after their own model ; all who agreed with them might come and join that society; those who disagreed with them might go elsewhere — there was room on the American continent." In 1642 the General Court passed an act requiring the selectmen to "have a vigilant eye over their breth- ren and neighbors to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families as not to endeavor to teach, by themselves or others, their children and apprentices so much learning as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue." The same act also required parents to " give religious instruction to their children and apprentices." In 1647 a free school was made compulsorj^ If there were fifty householders, the town must appoint a teacher; and towns of one hundred householders must have a grammar school of such grade that youth " may be fitted for the University." As early as 1636 the General C(-)urt had appropriated £400 toward the establishment of a college at Newtown. This is said to have been " the first body in which the people, by their representatives, ever gave their own money to found a place of education." The first movement toward the settlement of Chelmsford was made in 1652. In that year a commit- tee representing families in Woburn and Concord, exam- ined this tract, lying, as they expressed it " on the other side of Concord River." These people reported, in their petition to the Genei'al Court for a grant of the land. THE EARLY SCHOOLS OF CHELMSFORD. 219 that " we do find a very comfortable place to accommo- date a company of God's people upon ; that may with God's blessing and assistance, live comfortably upon and do good in that place for Church and Commonwealth." The grant was made for a "plantation" in the following year, and settlements immediately commenced. In 1G55 it was incorporated under the name of Chelmsford. This tract was of a much larger area than is in- cluded in the present town. It extended from Billerica on the east to Groton on the west, and from Concord and the Nashoba Indian plantation on the south to an uninhabited wilderness on the north, I am unable to define the original line of the northern boundary. The line was soon extended to the present northein limits, and a few years after to the Merrimack and Concord rivers on the northeast. The territory then included, in addition to the present town, a large part of Carlisle, the whole of AVestford, and that part of Lowell which lies on this side of the Concord and Merrimack rivers. The difficulties which beset the pioneers who first took up their abode here, would have been sufficient with a less detetermined people to prevent any attention to the educational wants of their children. The nature of their surroundings was such that they could not form a compact settlement in villages, where their children could be daily assembled, and as social considerations and the necessity for mutual protection would, likewise, have prompted them to do. The land was mostly covered by forest, the exceptions being the meadows which skirted the streams, or where fires may have swept through the woods leaving spaces where the wild grasses would spring up. Their dwellings must, therefore, be scattered wherever such openings provided feed for their cattle. That such accommodations were scanty is made known 220 OLD KESIDENTS' rilSTORICAL ASSOCIATION, by the language of their petition, in 1656, for an exten- sion of their grant. This sets forth that " we have un- avoidably put ourselves upon straits," and " we have no outlet for our cattle to feed on." The energies of the people were expended in erect- ing their dwellings, cutting highways through the forest from house to house and '' to mill and meeting-house," and felling the trees to make room for their crops. Their church and pastor must be supported and a military organization for protection from the savages. The first settlements were distributed over the east- erly section of the town. About half a dozen families with their good minister, Rev. John Fisk, were located near the meeting-house at the centre of the town, and as many more were from one to two miles west, in what is now District Five. Several families selected favorable sites near Great Brook, at the south part of the town, now the north part of Carlisle ; and about four miles to the northeast of the centre, within the present limits of this city, seven or eight families established their homes. These were John Shipley (an ancestor of mine eight generations back), John Webb [alias Evered), Jerathmel Bowers, John Wright, John Spaulding, Josepii Park- hurst, Jonathan Butterfield, and perhaps others. These families were located in what is now the west part of tlie city, in the vicinity of Stedman, Baldwin and West Pine Streets. The neighborhood was known as the " neck houses." Several roads and foot-paths were laid out there by the town previous to 1675. As to the means employed by the town to provide instruction to the children during the first forty 3^ears, the records do not enlighten us. The teaching was, probably, mainly provided by the good mothers at their homes. In cases where these lacked the necessary qual- ifications the good minister doubtless aided. He had THE EARLY SCHOOLS OF CHELMSFORD. 221 received a collegiate education in England, and he found means while in this town to prepare one of his sons for Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1G62. It was the duty of the selectmen, as we have seen, to have a vigilant oversight in the matter. We have sufficient evidence that by some means these duties were attended to. Boys then of school age were afterwards chosen to administer the affairs of the town. The records preserved to us, in their hand- writing, show them to have possessed the proper qualifi- cations for those duties. Deeds and other legal insti'u- ments are found with the names of the men affixed, usually in a plain, legible hand. Their wives, however, are often obliged to sign by the hand of another, show- ing that it was not, in those days, looked upon as an essential accomplishment in girls to be able to write. The provisions for the religious instruction of the children are given in the following record made by the minister, Rev. John Fisk : 4-2'' 58 Some agitation there was al)out y^' way of proceeding la catechising our younger persons; & for y'' males conchided upon y** Lord's day in afternoon for y*" females, upon y® day after our Lecture constantly at 3 of y® clock in y*^ afternoon at y*" pastors house. The first record of a teacher appointed by the town is as follows : Samuel Fletcher is Apointed to be a scolle master for the town for the year 1G96 by order of the selectmen, TiioArAs Parker, Clarke. Of the qualifications of this first school-master, Samuel Fletcher, we must infer that they were at least fair, as he afterwards became prominent in the affairs of the town, occupying at different times the offices of town clerk, treasurer and selectman. 222 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. The town now contained one hundred families, and the statute, as we have seen, required a school of such grade as to prepare youth for the University. A word here in regard to the condition of the town records. The earlier records were transcribed by order of the town in 1742. In this transcript I find nothing relating to the schools. If this portion of them was transcribed it must have been in another volume which is not to be found. I have been obliged, therefore, to consult the original records. They are somewhat dilap- idated, dim and time-worn. I am happy to state that the town has taken measures to liaA'e a new and more perfect transcript made of what remains of them. The record following the one I have given, is evi- dently incomplete. It reads as follows : May the 12 : 16:98 the towne being * * * m'' edward emerson scoolmaster for the year 1698. This teacher belonged to that family of Emersons which numbered among its descendants Ralph Waldo Emerson of Concord. The town granted him land at different times, perhaps as compensation for his services. He married a daughter of Cornelius Waldo. His house stood where Mr. Allen Cameron now lives, in Westford Centre. For the year following the record stands : Chelmsford Agust the '26th 1699 the selectmen of said towne Apointed Samuel Fletcher Junr schoolmaster to Learne young persons to write : on the Day Above said Select men Apointed for Scooldames : Deacon Fosters wife J no Wrights : Moses Barretts wife and Joshua Fletchers wife Here recorded by me Samll J<'i,ET('nKK Towne Clerk. There was, at ihis time, no school-house in town. The children gathered at the house of the nearest THE EARLY SCHOOLS OF CHELMSFORD. 223 teacher or .school-daiiic. The .selection of these teachers must he governed somewhat hy their location, so as to accommodate the children in the dii't'erent sections of the town. Deacon Foster lived upon the north side of Itohin's Hill. Joshua Fletcher lived at the Stony Brook district, now in Westford. Moses Barrett lived south of Robin's Hill. John Wright lived at the Neck, so called, now Lowell. This section was called the Neck or the Great Neck. Concord River Neck was what is now called East Chelmsford. For the next two years no grammar school was maintained. It was connnon for towns to be complained of and lined by the Court for their failure to provide suitable schools. We are obliged to record that Chelms- ford was not an exception. At a General Towne Meeting Marcli 30th 1702 A proposition was mad whether we should aj)ply our selves to y® General court bv our Debety in Reference to our being presented to the quarter session & finned at sd court for not liaveing a Grammar Scool y*^ we may endeavor by a petision to sd general court to be eased in our greiv- anc on y* account. this was voted in y" Afirmitive the day above it was voted y*^ y*" selectmen should draw up a jietision to present to y'' General Court & send it by our Debyty In August, the same year the town chose a connnit- tee to " agree w* A scoolmaster for sd Towne." September 4 : 1702 captain Bowers cornet Hill & Eleazar Jirown Sen Agreed w*^ Sir Weld to be our scoolmaster half a year for £lb y'' sd Sir Weld begun to keep scool on y'^ 1st of October 1702 This was Thomas Weld, a son of Rev. Thomns Weld, the first minister of the church of Dunstable. The title Sir was applied to college graduates. He had just com- pleted his studies at Harvard. He died in 1704. This is the first record in which compensation to the teacher 224 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. is mentioned. The sum, fifteen pounds for six months' services, shows the amount necessary at that time to obtain teachers quahfied to prepare young men for the University. The only record for the next year reads: April the 28th 1703 on the Day Abovesaid capt IJowcrs and ine'" : Emerson wer chosen to joyn with the Selectmen to Agree with a scoll master to save the Towne from A fine. If a, school was maintained in 1704 the record of it is omitted. In 1705 appears the following : Chelmsford May the : 28 1705 the selectmen of sd towne Appointed Moses Barron and Eben wright Scole Masters to teach young jiarsons To Right And one the Day a bove sd the wido' Burdg tlie wife of John Snow the wife of Israll Prockter the wife of old tom Cory the wife of sargent Samuell Foster war Appointed scools Dames for the teaching of children to Heed Recorded By Moses IJakiion Town cla' This record is interesting in that it defines the duties of the teachers. The school-masters were to teach writ- ing and the school-dames reading. Fortunately we are able to judge of the qualifications of one of these writ- ing teachers, Moses Barron, as the record stands in his hand writing. He wrote a plain heavy hand with no attempt at graceful curves or fine shading. No punctu- ations are used except in the date. He is profuse with his ca})itals, and decidedly original in his manner of spelling. It is fair to say, however, in justice lo the memory of Moses Barron, that most of the records which appear in his hand-writing, as town clerk, are ((uite an improvement on the one I have given. He must have been a man of worth as he was chosen l)y (he town, at different times, to the offices of selectman, rep- resentative to the General Court, and town treasurer. The hitter he held at the time of his death in 1710. THE EARLY SCHOOLS OF CHELMSFORD. 225 Ebenezer Wi'ight, the other .school-inaster, lived at the Neck. This, as we have seen, was the Lowell section of the town. There were three brothers of that name,. John, Joseph and Ebenezer. In 1692 they all lived in this section. John Snow, whose wife was school-danie, dwelt in the Stony Brook valley, near where Westford Depot now stands. That neighborhood was called the Stony Brook Houses. School-dame Corey lived in the south part of the tow^n, near Great Brook, now in Carlisle. An interval of several years now occurs in which the records furnish us no light upon the subject of our inquiry. The grammar school was felt to be a heavy burden and had not been sustained. In 1710 the town paid "To Moses Barron for a jurney to Boston and entring a petition to the genorall as to an ensment of our gramer Scoole and to a Jurney to Cambridge as to our presentment for want of a gramer Scoole." At ''A Generall Towne Meting March the 7th: 1709-10 Voted that the selectmen shall agree With a man to teach children and youth to Wright and sifer and kep scool in Chelmsford." In 1711 "The Selectmen are appointed By the note of the towne to provide a Scoolmaster as the Law Derects." Five pounds were paid, in 1712, " To m'" Cheney for being our Scoolmaster," and " at a genorall towne meet- ing December 12 : 1712 the towne noted that It was thare minds to have a Scoole master." From this time forward the town was not withont a school for some part of each year, although the grannnar school had not yet become firmly established. The town was called upon to answer to the Court for want of one in 1714, 1716, 1721, and again in 1726. 226 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. At a "Town Meeting May the : 12ih 1718, voted to Petition the genorall court that the fishing phice at Pattuctt may be granted to Chehnsford for the benifit of seporting a scoole in chehnsford the fishing phice one the south side meremack." What action was taken upon this petition does not appear. The privilege asked for was a most important one. Allen, writing in 1820, says: '• The quantity of salmon, shad and alewives, caught in Chelmsford annually may be computed at about twenty- five hundred barrels, besides a large quantity of other fish of less value." The name "Merrimac signifies in the Indian language a sturgeon." As the settlements extended each year farther from the centre of the town, the question of the location of the schools became an important one and sometimes occasioned lively contests. An article annually appeared in the warrant for the March meeting similar to the following : To ;i"-ree and Vote in what part or parts of the said town the Grammar School or other Schools shall be Kept the year ensuing and to act in that affair as shall be thought proper. In 17 IG the town voated that the scule master shall kee]) scule in the fore ((uaiters of the town one month at a time in one place Voated that the selectmen shall determine wheir the fore (juar- ters of the town are This was a duty which must have taxed the wisdom of the fathers of the town. Mr. Nathaniel Prentice, of Canil)ridge, was the school-master for the years 1718, 1719 and 1720. He graduated from Harvard College in 1714. He was after- wards the second minister of the church of Dunstable, where he labored until his death in 1737. The follow- THE EARLY SCHOOLS OF CHKLMSFOKD. 227 ing is the language of the contract between Mr. Prentice and the town : Chelmsford September 22d 1719 The select men have agreed with m'' Xathaniel Prentice of Cambridge to keep scoole in Chelmsford from the firs of October next ensuing the Date untill the firs Day of Aprill 1720 the above sd Xathaniel Prentice does oblige himself to keep scoole six hours every Day in sd term exept it be Saturday Dayes which he is alowed for him self For which sd prentice is to have eigteen pounds. The name of Mr. Prentice is signed to this contract in a bold and graceful hand There is no suggestion of Christmas Holidays in this agreement. The school, as we have seen, rotated betweed the four quarters of the town. Let us accompany Mr. Prentice in his rounds. The first month would be at the centre of the town. At the end of that time he dismissed his pupils and moves, perhaps to the Stony Brook neighborhood, five miles away. There, in a room of some convenient dwell- ing, he organizes his classes, before the blazing log fire in the great open fire-place. His text-books are as prim- itive as the other accessories. In reading, Nasons says, " it was the New England Primer, with its rude cuts of Adam and Eve, Jonah and the whale, and rustic rhymes, such as " The idle fool Is whipt at school." After his brief month here he must go to meet the the boys and girls at the South End. And, like the others, we may suppose them to have been hearty, ruddy and boisterous youth, from their active out-door life. And if Mr. Prentice's pupils did not acquire the profi- ciency in Algebra and Latin, which })upils of the same age in our schools possess, who shall say that tliey had not a compensating advantage in the possession of more robust health and lively animal spirits. Nervous dis- 228 OLD RKSIDENTS' niSTORICAT. ASSOCIATION. orders induced by lack of exercise, and the inhaling the vitiated atmosphere of the crowded school-room, was, probably, not common at that day. The South End school was usually kept near where the South Chelms- ford school-house was afterwards built, on the road lead- ing by the house of Mr. Quimby to Carlisle. The next month would be at the North End. This included, besides the present Number Two District, all tliat part of the town to the north and northeast, includ- ing* what is now Lowell. The late John Parkhurst told me, that in his boyhood he had met at the old Number Two school-house, John Farrar and other boys from West Chelmsford, and the Adams boys, Benjamin and Thomas, from North Chelmsford. We have now come to an important event, the build- ing of the first school-house. In 1718 the town granted three rods and a half of land for that purpose, at " the most easterly corner of the buring Place." It stood where the horse sheds belonging to the First Congrega- tional church now stand. The cost, about one hundred dollars, was paid by subscription. The names of those citizens who contril)uted to this worthy object have been preserved in the record which reads as follows : Tlie names of those that built and linisliod the Sclioole house AikI What Each man gave thereto mr Stoddard Xathall F.utterli.'h 1 1 Moses Harron Samll F>arron 1 Josiah Fletcher lU'uone Ferliam 1 (1 Deacon Warinc; Fhcn I'arker 1 (1 Kben I^\>stei- u .lohn I>urge (» 1(1 (I Edward Siiauldiiiu 10 r>onj. l*arker 10 William Fletcher 10 IJichard Strutton 1 John liates .loseph h'oster (1 If) Stephen Feirce r.enjamin Adams 1 00 00 Moses l*arker 10 Kdvvaril Foster 00 15 00 John Danes* .0 10 'Probably meant for Davis. THE EARLY SCHOOLS OF CHELMSFORD. 229 The second school-house must. Iiave been built very soon after, for a road was laid out, in 1720, from the " North School house." The building stood a few rods east of the " Owls Nest Green House," at a turn of the road by the old Middlesex Turnpike. It is probable that this school-house also was paid for by subscription. There is no evidence that the town raised any money for such a purpose prior to 1794. Mr. Prentice was succeeded by Joseph Whipple, who taught from 1721 to 1724. A difference of opinion existed as to the merits of Mr. Whipple's teaching. It was settled by a town meeting in 1724, which " Voted that tbe Petition of Closes Parker and nine others freeholders who Petitioned that the Schoole master be Dismissed and a committee chose to ]*rovide another in his Poom be dismissed" Mr. Thomas Frink, of Sudbury, followed Whipple. He taught till 1727, when the town paid John Spaulding " to wait upon Mr. Frink home." Josiah Richardson and Isaac Richardson taught one year each. Joseph Lovett two years, Jonathan Mills one, and Samson Stoddard five, ending in 1734. The latter was a son of Rev. Samson Stoddard, and graduated from Harvard College in 1730. He became one of the lead- ing men of the town, was a colonel in the melitia, and held many offices of trust. The town of Stoddard, N. H., was named in his honor. After Mr. Stoddard no teacher remained longer than two years, until 1750 when Oliver Fletcher took charge of the schools and continued six years. He was a grad- uate of Harvard College of the class of 1735. He was a man of great worth of character. Allen says of him : " His piety and integrity gave him great ascendancy over his fellow-townsmen, and secured their esteem and confidence." 230 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Ill 1747 the town Voted that the (4ramrafir School be kept in the middle of this Towil the year ensuing, and that the out scirts of sd Town shall have their projjortionable part of money that is paid for schooling allowed to them for to provide Writing Schools for themselves and that all the sd Schools shall be free schools for the sd Town Voted that the Middle of sd Town shall be allowed to extend Two miles each way from the Meeting house. Voted That each end of sd Town shall be allowed to have three months schooling in the most suitablest season in this year ensuing for writing schools : as their proportionable ])art on sd Towns cost. One clause in this vote, "that all the said schools shall be free schools," and another at a later date, that there shall be " No schools at town cost but grammar school," indicate that supplementary schools were some- times maintained at private expense. A record appears in 1755 which shows the character of the services which each teacher was expected to render : Oliver J^^letcher, Grammar & writing six months. Kbenozer Gould, three months writing school. Daniel Proctor three months reeding, TJighting & Cyphering school. Of the first of these, Oliver Fletcher, we have already become acquainted. He was an elegant penman. His copy most of us would be glad to be able to imitate to-day. So much, however, cannot be said for Daniel Proctor. It would be a mark of ingenuity in his pupils if they could write as badly. Let us hope that his strength lay in the otlnn- branches, "reeding & Cypher- ing." Thomas llice succeeded Oliver Fletcher in the grammar school. He continued several years. In 1764 Peter Spaulding was emploj^ed, and he was followed by Samson Stoddard, Jr., a son of a former teacher of that name and a graduate of Harvard, and after him Vryling Stoddard, also of the same honorable THE EARLY SCHOOLS OF CHELMSFORD. 231 family. He gniduatcd from Harvard in 1765. Allen says of him : " He became an eminent instrnctor of youth in this place." Now let us go back a little and follow the action of the town in fixing the location of its schools. This question was decided by vote in town meeting, but was often far from satisfactory to the people in the more re- mote sections of the town. The method usually adopted for the grammar school was to divide the time between the different sections of the town, or to " circulate according to town vote." Occasionally it would be con- tinued throughout the year at the centre of the town. This was the case in 1724. Two citizens, Joseph Under- wood and Ebenezer Wright, recorded their "decent against the settlement of the School." One of these, Joseph Underwood, lived at what is now the centre of Westford. The other, Ebenezer Wright, had removed from the Neck, and was now living upon the present site of Edwin Heyward's house near Chamberlin's Cor- ner, in Westford. The next year the wish of the dis- senters was respected and the " west end " was given four months' school. The town was soon relieved of the necessity of providing for the west end as it was incor- porated as the town of Westford in 1729. In 1730-31 : .Vt a meeting of the selectmen Pursuant to tlie Town vote for Jiemoving the Scoole in three severall places in the Town it is ordered that the School master keep Schoole in the Schoole hous in the midle of the Town from the first of November Last past Thirteen weeks and then to Kemove to the north end and keep schoole at the Dwell- ing house of Jonathan Bowers (or in some other convenient i)lace where the neighborhood shall appoint) the space of six weeks and then to IJemove to the South end of the Town and keep school at the Dwelling hous of Samll Proctor (or in some other convenient place where the neighborhood shall appoint) the term of seven weeks which will fulfill the half year agreed upon. Jonathan Bowers here mentioned lived at the Neck. 232 OLD residents' iiistoiucal association. A record in 1753 contains the first mention of a school-house at the South End. It stood near the Paignon place in South Chelmsford. It has since been converted into a dwelling, and is still standing. The North End school was kept that year at the house of James Park- hurst, which stood a few rods west of the Number 2 school-house. The reason for holding this school at a dwelling house appears in the diary of the parson, Rev. Edenezer Bridge, who records, "Catechised the children at James Parkhurst's the school-house being unfit." In 1750 the school was kept "one-half in the north end and one-half in the south end." But the plan adopted in 1757 was finally settled upon as causing the least fric- tion. This was to divide the time between the three sections of the town, the north end, the centre, and the south end. This method continued Avith but one or two interruptions until the formation of the school districts in 1792. In the distribution of the schools in 1755 it was "voted that the writing school shall be kept three months in the north end of the Town att the school house & three months at the dwelling House of Robert Peirce." Robert Peirce lived near the present residence of Orlando Blodgett on (/helmsford Street. The house faced a road, now discontinued, which ran back of Mr. BUjdgett's house. This was afterwards the home of Benjamin Peirce, the distinguished father of a distin- guished son. President Franklin Pierce. In 1767 a reading and writing school was kept "2 mos at school house in the neck." This is the first men- tion of a school-house in this section. It stood u[)on School Street, not far from the old cemetery. If I may be allowed to otter a suggestion, 1 think it would be a fittiuii; act for the Old Residents' Historical THE KARLY SCHOOLS OF CHELMSFOKD. 233 Association to erect a memorial tablet upon the site of this the first institution of learning within the limits of your city. Other grave and important matters were now com- ing forward to engross the attention of the people and put school questions in the background. The oppressive measures of the mother country soon culminated in the Revolution. In these stirring times the older of the school-boys laid aside the text- book and took up the musket. When upon the morning of the 19tli of April, 1775. the minute guns sounded the call to arms, they were quick to respond, and they assist- ed with their elders, in the pursuit of the British from Concord to Boston. And again they stood with their brothers and fathers behind the intrenchments at Bunker Hill. And to a Chelmsford school-boy, Joseph Spaulding, belongs the honor of having fired the first gun at that battle. Upon his tombstone in the old burying ground in Chelmsford, may be found inscribed these words: " He was among the brave assertors and defenders of his country at Bunker Hill, where he opened the battle by firing upon the enemy before orders were given." His youthful ardor, however, it is said, called down upon him a severe rebuke from the impetuous General Putnam. The Chelmsford company in that engagement was under the command of the gallant Captain John Ford, whose home was up here at the Pawtucket Falls. Their position in the battle was at the rail fence. Here Ben- jamin Peirce, assisted by others, drew up and placed in position an abandoned cannon which did good execution. But during the distressing times of the Revolution the schools were by no means abandoned. In 1781, in addition to the grammar school, the town voted 234 OLD KESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Nine months Eighting school 3 mos in Neck so called extending from Mr, Timothy Clarks to the mouth of Concord & to Mr. Simeon Moreses & to Mr. Joseph Pierieees So by Mr. Philip Parkers Voted one month schooling at Xewfield one month at Mr. David Spauldings one month in Concord River Neck so called & five weeks on the mill road so called & eight weeks at or near Mr. John Adams This record is valuable as it defines the limits of the Neck district, and furnishes a basis for estimating the population here one hundred years ago. Timothy Clark here referred to, lived at Middlesex near where Baldwin Street terminates at the river. Simeon Mores lived upon what is now Moore Street. The house of Joseph Pierce was near the present city farm buildings, and Philip Parker's was upon West Pine Street near the Highland school. This district' embraced, then, all of what is now Lowell excepting Belvidere, Centralville and Pawtucket- ville ; and all of the children then living here, excepting the few who attended the grammar school four miles distant, were accommodated with a three months' school in the little nid school-house upon School Street. It would require a pretty commodious building to accom- modate the ten thousand school children in the same district to-day. After the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1780, the times became more tranquil and prosperous, and school questions again came uppermost. The school district system now begun to develop. In 1792 the manao-ement of the schools was, for the first time, placed fully in the hands of a school committee. The change was not made without a struggle, but after repeated adjournments and reconsiderations the town voted That a select committee be chosen to provide the grammar school masters and all other School masters & that said committee proportion Insi)ect and llegulate Said Schools. THE EAKLY SCHOOLS OF CHELMSFORD. 235 Nine persons were chosen to constitute this com- mittee, one from each district or " squadron." The next step was to provide school-houses for those districts not ah-eady so provided for. In 1794 it was Voted to raise 250 £ for the purpose of building school houses each squadron to draw their own money for building their school house, location decided by vote of members of squadrons. In the year 1800 the town supported twelve scliools at an expense of six hundred dollars. They were located as follows : At the middle of the Town, now District 1. At the Xorth School house, now District 2. Near Ebenezer Parker's, South Chelmsford, now District 3. At Mill Row, Now District 4. At Squadron by Capt. Benj. Fletcher's, now District 5. iVt Concord River Neck, now District 6. At School house by Simon Stevens, now District 7. At Newfield, now North Chelmsford, District 8. At Grate Neck, now Lowell. At Samuel Mai'shall's, also Lowell, corner Parker and Powell Streets. At school house by Joseph Adams' and at school house by Benj. Chamberlain's. One of the two last named was undoubtedly in Car- lisle, where the school-house now stands, north of Great Brook, and the other in Lowell. This portion of the town had now begun to increase in population. A map of tlie town made in 1794 shows on this section a cloth- ier's mill, iron works, five saw mills, and two grist mills. The only roads shown in the same section were one from Middlesex Village to the Concord River, marked Road to Salem. This followed the present line of por- tions of Baldwin, West Pine, Parker, Chelmsford, Hale, Thorndike and Gorham to Mopre Street, and on that to the river. A Country Road ran from Pawtucket Falls over the present line of School, Powell and Plain Street. Another beginning near the mouth of Concord River and terminating at Middlesex, correspond with Merri- mack, Pawtucket, and the west end of Middlesex Streets. 236 OLD residents' IirSTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Still another, marked Town Road, ran to the centre of Chelmsford. The little red school-house was now outgrown and three new ones took its place : One at the corner of Parker and Powell Streets, another where the Cit}'- Hospital now stands on Pawtucket Street, and the third at Middlesex. By the adoption of the school district system, every family in town was provided with a school within easy reach of their home. Men teachers were employed for these schools in winter, and women for the summer terms. Another result not perhaps at first contemplated was the loss of the grammar school. The town was too poor to support a high grade school in addition to their twelve district schools. The grammar school teachers had been men of character and scholarly attainments, and coming from the college to the school-room, with the best mental training which the times afforded, must have exerted an important influence in moulding the character, and stim- ulating the ambition and mental activity of the young men and women under their charge. I have given you an imperfect outline of the devel- opment of the schools of Chelmsford during a period of nearly a century and a half. If measured by the dollar and cents standard their efforts may nppear feeble from our standpoint. But they provided their children with sucli advantages as their means enabled them to, and they accomplished important results. The teaching of those da3^s was confined to a very few lines of study. But in the fundamental branches the training was thorough, and the pupils left the school with clear minds and a solid foundation upon wdiich to build in after life. XIX. Early Becoll ecti mis of Lowell, hif Benja- min Walker, read Fehruary 6, 1890. Your honored President having invited me to prepare a paper to be read before this Association, I have deemed the opportunity a fitting one to take a retrospective glance, and to revive as well as record my early recollections of the place and its people, as they appeared to me more than half a century ago. My first entrance into Lowell was made when I was four years of age. It was a beautiful afternoon, I should say in the early fall, when my father, after having located in business and commenced housekeeping in this new and prospective manufacturing village, took me from my native place, Wilmington, Mass., in a two- wheeled gig. such as was mainly used in those days by physicians and sheriffs. Young as I was, I well re member the ride through the woods of Wilmington, where we also forded the Shawsheen River, near Foster's tavern — no bridge having been built over that little stream — and how we wended our way through Tewks- bury, stopping at Brown's tavern, and finally, on a clear moonlight night, arriving and treading for the first time on the soil of what is now the great city of Lowell. That spot, still so dear to me, and so fresh in my memory, and which I do not think I have ever since passed with- out being reminded of this (to me) important fact, was what was then known as the residence of Charles Mel- vin. The location is on what is now known as School Street, and the premises are the beautiful grounds in 238 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the rear of the residence of Frederick Ayer, Esq. At the northwest corner of these grounds, and just border- ing on the site of the great canal, stood this Melvin residence. As I was taken into it, I saw what appeared to me a house of somewhat gigantic proportions, a large front-room, principally lighted by the cheerful blaze of an open fire, and a stone-hearth, large enough for a modern quarry. My amazement at the scene was, un- doubtedly, as great as the change that had come over my youthful eyes, and 1 am credited with saying, " If this is Lowell I don't like it, and I wish my father to take me back to Wilmington." Subsequent events, however, seem to show that he did not comply with this request. The next morning I took an exterior view of Lowell, walked out to the roadway and was, quite like- ly, swinging on the gate, when I was accosted with, " Well, little boy, what is your name ? " The individual who thus addressed me was Phineas Whiting, the gentle- man who is now known as Major Phineas Whiting, one of our oldest and most highly-esteemed citizens. This leads me to refer to Capt. Phineas Whiting, the Major's father, one of Lowell's most prominent early residents, whose somewhat palatial mansion for those days, exten- sive barns and out-houses, and whose store, all of which were located where the residence of Frederick A.yer now stands, were a sort of nucleus and centre for the neigh- hood. Cai)tain Whiting was an active and vigorous business-man, and had for his neighbors Nathnniel Wright, Jonathan Spalding, Rufus Spalding, James Bow- ers, Jonathan Bowers, Osgood Dane, Artemas Ilolden, Charles Melvin, Dr. John 0. Green and, possibly, some others. The boys in this neighborhood were Charles Melvin, Phineas and Henry Whiting, Nathaniel, Thomas, EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOAVELL. 239 William Henry and Emory Wright, Joel SjDalding, Os- good Dane, Gustavus A. Bailey, James, George and Johnnie Bowers, the latter still of Willow Dale fame Frank and Artemas Holden, to say nothing of all the pretty and interesting young girls. The recollections of the games and the pranks of these boys, of playino- in the sand-bank close by, and the finding of Indian- relics, are all very vivid in my mind. Capt. Elisha Ford was a burning and shining light in those days, and, somehow, I connect him with the guardianship of the water-power of Merrimack River, at that time, as well as of the old mill which sawed the lo<»-s and ground the corn of those days. The Indian tradi- tions, as connected with the saw-mil], are doubtless all true, but all that had passed away before my advent into Lowell. In the days of which I speak, the junction of what are now known as Pawtucket and School Streets was quite a centre. Socially, it ranked among the best families, and, as a business point, it maintained a store, a bakery, and last, but not least, a slaughter-house. This structure stood upon an eminence of the place near the present Bowers round house, was quite a large building, and was graced, at either end of the ridge-pole, with an enormous pair of ox-horns, emblematic, I sup- pose, of what was transpiring within. The dwelling in front, and still standing, I believe, was in due time occu- pied by my father's family. Opposite, where it is now entirely covered with buildings, was an open pasture. My recollection of that pasture is extremely vivid, as it was a play-ground. I presume, in those days, like many other boys, a part of my life's duties was to wear my father's old clothes. You have all heard the story of the boy whose pantaloons were made from an ancestral 340 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. pair, in stich a way that a person could not tell whether the boy inside was going to school or coming home ; and in one of my visits to this pasture, I presume I was dressed in the same way, for the first I knew a toad was iumping about, in their amplest part, and it was not until my cries attracted attention that I was finally re- lieved from this awfully cold and most unwelcome interloper. This experience taught me one very im- portant lesson, viz : that it is neither prudent nor pleasant to toady to any living thing. At the age to which I am now referring, I did not, of course, have much thought for the business interests of Lowell, but the educational part of life early at- tracted my attention. The old school-house, situated at the corner of what are now Pawtucket and Salem Streets, is as clear and vivid to my mind as the noon day. At the time of which I speak the school was kept by Miss Eveline Reynolds, a bright and intelligent lady from Boxford, Mass., and to her I owe much, for, as she boarded in our family, and my father was a sort of self- constituted school committee man, there always appeared to be a special effort made to encourage my ambition, if not to cover up my deficiencies. Here at this time, 1 think I am safe in saying, the foundation of the Lowell public school system was laid. How it has since fiourished, through the early and untiring zeal of such men as Rev. Theodore Edson, Rev. Amos Blan- chard. Dr. John 0. Green, Dr. Elisha Huntington and many other pioneers of public education, everybody here present well knows. That it may never be attacked or undermined, through any political manipulations or other aggressive inlluences, by which to divert it from its present lofty and noble purpose, is the bounden duty of every loyal citizen, and certainly of every intelligent EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOWELL. 241 voter. Public schools, on their broad and comprehen- sive foundation, do not contemplate the encouragement and study of any political faith, or of any religious creed. The platform is broad enough and sound enough for all parties and sects, and it is here that the doctrine of free and equal rights finds a more solid and substan- tial basis, than upon any other one plank in the general structure and economy of that splendid institution — the public-school system. My next appearance in the public schools of Lowell was at the High School, in what is now known as the Free Chapel, on Middlesex Street, at which time Frank- lin Forbes was the teacher. With a dozen others I was examined (?) by Rev. Dr. Edso.n, in a little ante-room of the present city government building, the entrance to which was at the east end, up one flight of stairs, at the left of the landing. The main entrance to the hall was at the head of these stairs. The little class of which I speak was subjected to a rather simple form of examina- tion, and, as I remember, all were admitted. At any rate I was, and given a written certificate to that effect, with which I hurried home, elated beyond expression with my success. Among the boys in the class which I entered were Gustavus V. Fox, Henry N. French and James C. Ayer. What I more particularly remember of the school at this time is, that Wednesday afternoons were devoted to declamation and composition, and that on one of these occasions, James C. Ayer being called, read a very original and amusing paper upon " The Ladies' Finger-ring." It fairly bristled with sharp points and good hits, which not only excited the risibilities of both teacher and scholars, but somewhat disturbed the general good order and dignity peculiar to a well-ordered school-room. The composition was a 242 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. very bright production, nevertheless, and while so acknowledged, the principal mildly suggested that future efforts of this young man had better be devoted to subjects, looking to a discussion of the jewels of the mind, rather than of those only calculated to adorn and beautify the body. I also remember, on one occasion, that Henry N. French, who was the son of Cyril French and who died of typhoid fever, while a member of the school, when called upon for a composition, stood up and apparently read one from " Parker's Progressive Exercises in Eng- lish Composition " — a book which was then used in this branch of study — but which, in fact, he improvised on the subject given him. When it came to delivering the papers for correction, young French surprised the prin- cipal by saying he hadn't any, and whispered to me that, if insisted upon, he would '' hand in his head." Henry French was not only one of the most promising young men I ever met, but a universal favorite, and his untimely death was sincerely mourned by all who knew him. I distinctly remember to this day his form, feat- ures and delightfully pleasant manners. During my connection with the High School it had its abode in the attic of St. Mary's Church, where I first remember meeting my venerable and highly respected friend, James S. Russell, as assistant teacher. From the first Mr. Russell seemed to me to be the very incarna- tion of mathematical precision and skill, forcible and vigorous in his teachings, without any very remarkable stock of patience with stupidity, but enthusiastic over those who were quick and bright enough to follow him in his problems. At this time Hon. Moody Currier, since governor of New Hampshire, was principal, and helped us all along in our classical studies. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOWELL. 243 Among the prominent scholars at this time was John C. Dalton, who became eminent as a physician and recently died in New York city. Young Dalton was humorous as well as brilliant, while Mr. Currier was of that staid and sober character which was ever foreign to lightness and fun. On one of the Wednesday after- noons, above referred to, Dalton was called upon to declaim. He promptly responded, made a most defer- ential bow, as if about to reproduce one of Daniel Webster's greatest speeches, and most deliberately re- marked, " I'm not a chicken." Then after a somewhat pro- longed pause, he proceeded to recite Holmes' " September Gale," with all the gravity of a statesman. While there was no little tittering all along the line of girls and boys, Mr. Currier maintained a most stoical gravity, but at the close of the following verses " It chanced to be our washing-day, And all our things were drying; The storm came roaming through the lines And set them all a-flying; I saw the shirts and petticoats Go riding off like witches ; I lost— ah, bitterly I wept— I lost my Sunday breeches! " I saw them straddling through the air, Alas! too late to win them; I saw them chase the clouds, as if The devil had been in them ; They were my darlings and my pride, My boyhood's only riches— ' Farewell, farewell,' I faintly cried— ' My breeches! O my breeches! ' " the Lowell High School was convulsed, our worthy principal yielded with a sardonic smile, and Dalton was the hero of th« hour. The High School was afterwards transferred to the North Grammar (now Bartlett) School, and here I met Frank F. and Joseph P. Battles, George and Hiram Brownell, and many other early residents of Lowell. It 244 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. was here that I completed my school-life, and I well remember leaving, unexpectedly, some three weeks before the end of the term, never again to enjoy its pleasures and delights. At the end of my school-days our family had left the neighborhood of Pawtucket Falls and moved to what is now 471 Middlesex Street, the present residence of Mrs. Sidney Spalding. This house was originally built and owned by my father, the architect and con- tractor being a Mr. Espy of Reading, Mass. This establishment was regarded as one of the best in the vicinity, at that time, being large and commodious, and included what were then and are now known as the mod- ern conveniences for house-keeping. For neighbors we had Samuel Horn and Otis Allen, who composed the firm of Horn & Allen, and who were then carrying on quite ex- tensive soap-works, which business was continued many years. Smith Adams, also located in this vicinity, and with his brother Elisha, built up and carried on an extensive business, which is, I believe, still in existence. Altogether the neighborhood was thriving, and more or less houses were subsequently built in the vicinity, although much of the land remained for years in its primeval state. In the process of its cultivation, how- ever, a roadway was opened, from Middlesex Street to a point a little beyond the present Broadway, by my father, which early received the name of Walker Street. Since that time this opening has been extended to Paw- tucket Street in one direction and to Westford Street in the other, and has now become a thoroughfare of no incon- siderable importance. Of course I can not but regard it as a sort of heirloom, destined to perpetuate, I hope creditably, the family name to which I belong, in its connection with the rise and progress of Lowell. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOWELL. 245 At the time of which I write, and going from what is now the corner of Central and Middlesex Streets, there was no building between the upper Appleton cor- poration-block, until after passing the point where the railroad now crosses Middlesex Street. Then came a brewery, a store, and one or two dwellings, but no more that I remember, until we arrived at Horn & Allen's residence, which is now occupied by Otis Allen and his son, Hon. Charles H. Allen. Beyond our own home, with possibly one exception, Middlesex Village was the next occupied territory. The location of which I speak was then considered a long distance from the business centre of Lowell, and a trip to Central Street was re- garded as quite a journey. The Merrimack corporation being the first manu- facturing establishment located in Lowell, business cen- tered near it, and Merrimack Street, with its two rows of ten-footers built from the point of the Merrimack-Street Depot to Central Street, thus became the nucleus from which Lowell has spread to its present ample proportions. Beyond where the Merrimac House now stands, to Cabot Street, buildings were gradually erected, but the original forest trees were to be seen in the locality for many years, and I well recollect how modernized this part of Merrimack Street became when they finally disappeared. As I write this, many thoughts of the early progress and civilization of Lowell crowd upon my mind, and I recall the Adams Block, which was regarded, in its day, as quite an imposing structure, and the tailoring estab- lishment just opposite, carried on by Francis Hobbs, who was one of the jolliest and liveliest " knights of the shears " ever in Lowell. This point afterwards became quite a business place, and Hobbs' store a headquarters for any quantity of local business and social gossip. My 246 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. impression is that Henry J. Baxter succeeded to this business, which was afterwards carried on by Baxter & Bennett on Merrimack Street, and last on Central Street. Major Baxter died many years ago, but William S. Ben- nett, a gentleman of most estimable character and rep- utation, is still a resident here. While on this subject I cannot refrain from speaking of one other prominent tailor, in the early days of Low- ell — Perez Fuller. He was so original in his character, so versatile in his accomplishments and filled such a niche in society, that he deserves more than a passing notice. It is said that it takes "nine tailors to make a man." If so, Mr. Fuller was a combination of all in one. In addition to his business qualifications, he was an ama- teur actor, and more than once graced the boards of the Tremont Theatre, when a member of the legislature, with the late William Warren; he was a poet, in his way, a comic singer and a musical composer, although I doubt if he knew, to borrow a unique expression, " a note of music from a clothes-pin." At weddings, oyster suppers, dinner parties, and in fact, occasionally at concerts, Perez Fuller was an indispensible factor. He was also a man of great wit and sly humor. It was, I believe, generally understood by all his patrons, and they were among the best people of Lowell, that, no matter how satisfactor}'- his work, every customer was bound to find some fault with it. My friend, Edward M. Sargent, had the follow- ing experience, when trying on a new overcoat : " It is not large enough. Fuller," said Sargent, "take it back and let it out." " Oh ! yes," said Fuller, in his little, whistling voice, " I will do so with pleasure." In a few days Mr. Sargent called in and said, "Fuller, where is my coat?" "Why," said he, "when you came in last you told me to let it out. Mr. Barrett, the conductor. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOAVELL. 247 came in just after you left and wanted a coat to wear to Boston, and I loaned him yours. When it comes back, shall I let it out again f " In the early days of Lowell, there were tw^o drug- gists, George H. Carleton and Jacob Robbins. The store of Mr. Carleton w^as situated practically upon the same spot where Carleton & Hovey's now is, and, for a distin- guishing feature, had two main entrances on Merrimack Street. The original sign of Mr. Carleton maintains its place and prominence to this day. The store of Jacob Robbins was near the corner of Central and Hurd Streets. I doubt if ever any marked competition existed between the two, or that they interfered in any way with each other's trade. Both were splendid men, and for years had the entire field to themselves. With Charles Hovey, whom I well remember at that time, as clerk in one, and Henry C. Gillis, who was succeeded by James C. Ayer, in the other, the medicines of those days were carefully and properly dispensed. At the present time there are probably not less than fifty druggists and apothecaries in the citj''. Among the early prominent business men of Lowell, in other branches of trade, were Thomas Billings, Ran- dall Meacham, succeeded by Oliver March and Daniel Bixby, booksellers and stationers, Atherton & Buttrick, Mansur & Reed, H. &. W. Spalding, grocers, E. D. Leavitt, hats and caps (now Brazer & Co.), Parkhurst & Richardson, afterwards Matthias Parkhurst, dry goods, Hapgood Wright, dealer in boots and shoes, Addison Brastow and L W. & J. K. Fellows, watch-makers and jewelers, David Dana, copper, tin and sheet-iron worker (now H. H. Wilder & Co.), J. G. & W. Kittredge, black- smiths and iron store, and, in course of time, many others. All were men of prominence, and all contributed 248 OLD KESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, in giving to Lowell its early excellent commercial stand- ing and credit. Of the names here mentioned Hapgood Wright and J. K. Fellows are still among our most highly respected citizens. Among the members of the legal profession in the early history of Lowell, it is pleasant to recall the names of Elisha Glidden, Isaac 0. Barnes, Joseph Locke, Samuel H. Mann, Luke Eastman, Thomas Hopkinson, Seth Ames, Josiah G. Abbott, Elisha Fuller, John P. Robinson, Tap- pan Wentworth, John R. Adams, Joel Adams, and John A. Knowles, than which it would be difficult to mention an equal number of more prominence or legal acumen. Good men and true have come after them, in the persons of Gen. B. F. Butler, A. P. Bonney, D. S. & G. F. Rich- ardson, A. R. Brown, Ithamar A. Beard, Lsaac S. Morse and others, but they were not here at the very beginning of Lowell. Of the early clergymen, I recall the names of Theodore Edson, George C. Beckwith, William Twining, Amos Blanchard, Uzziah C. Burnap, William Barry, Thomas B. Thayer, Lemuel Porter, and afterwards Henry A. Miles, A. A. Miner, Stedman W. Hanks, Joseph H. Towne and Father John Mahoney, all conspicuous for their purity of character and mental acquirements. I doubt if any city, of the age of Lowell, was ever more greatly blessed with the excellence of its spiritual leaders and religious teachers, than has fallen to the lot of our own beloved community. As a boy I was acquainted with all, and conversant with their peculiar character- istics. Perhaps no one possessed more sound and ster- ling good sense, or was more puritanical and rigid in his views, than Rev. Mr. Burnap. He was the personifica- tion of dignity and solemnity, and yet his smile seemed to me almost heavenly. He had a taste for mechanics as EARLY KECOLLECTIONS OF LOWELL. 249 well as theology, and I always understood that in the art of cabinet work he had few superiors. In speaking of the Appleton Street Church (now Dr. Court's), where he went in and out before his people for so many years, he once remarked, that '' when this edifice was con- structed it had not been discovered that there was room enough between the heavens and the earth to build the church, and therefore the wise men who had the order- ing of its construction dug down into the bowels of the latter to find a place for the vestry and Sunday school." This eminent divine evidently believed in the sunlight of the body as well as of the soul, and the modern sys- tem of church building shows how pertinent and wise were the conclusions of this thoroughly good and pious man on the subject of church architecture. He also ex- emplified, to me, the response of a good deacon, when once asked if his minister preserved a godly walk and a consistent carriage, replied that he did preserve a godly walk, but he didn't keep a carriage. In its list of early physicians Lowell was especially fortunate, and when I present the names of John 0. Green, Elisha Bartlett, Elisha Huntington, Gilman Kim- ball, Peleg Bradley, John C. Dalton, John D. Pillsbury, William Graves, and John Wheelock Graves as among the first practitioners, I cannot fail to bring to mind a degree of medical talent and skill that even now will command the highest respect and admiration. These men not only ranked high in their profession, but they were also distinguished for their culture and intellectual attain- ments. Dr. Green's memory is too fresh in our minds to require special mention in this connection ; but who has ever seen Dr. Bartlett and not admired his rare dignity and grace; or Dr. Huntington and not been charmed with his genial manner, his unbounded sym- 250 OLD residents' IIISTOIIICAL ASSOCIATION. pathy and love for every man, woman and child in the city ; or Dr. Dalton and not marveled at his elegant and polished manners, and so on through the entire list? In this category 1 do not include such distinguished men as Allen, Savory, Pillsbury, Wells, Spalding, and many others, not because they have been less eminent and successful in their several careers, but because they be- lontr to a somewhat later generation than that of which I now speak. It does not seem that many years have passed since -Dr. Bartlett's office — a little wooden structure at the corner of Central and Middlesex Streets, near the site of the present drug store of Albert Crowell — was demol- ished. It long remained one of the original landmarks of Lowell. Dr. Elisha. Bartlett, it will be remembered, was selected by the Whig party as the first candidate for mayor, in 1836, when Lowell became a city. His Dem- ocratic opponent, if I rightly recall the name, was Elipli- alet Case. At that time all the voting was done in the town hall — our present city government building — and as an illustration of the political feeling that existed be- tween those two candidates, at that time, and which were among those halcyon days, before the necessities of the Australian ballot had ever been made manifest, these two candidates walked the length of the hall, arm in arm, each depositing a ballot for the other, amid the applause and approval of all present. Dr. Bartlett was re-elected the next year, and then appears to have re- tired from political life. In the year 1839 Dr. Elisha Huntington was elected to fill the unexpired term occasioned by the sudden death of Luther Lawrence, and so popular did he become that he was, during his life, elected to this office, in all, eight times. Whenever, for any cause, the Whig party failed EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOWELL. 251 to agree upon a candidate, Dr. Huntington invariably came to the front, and was always elected. The other physicians mentioned were not so much given to the political arena, although Drs. Green, Dalton, and Pills- bury served once or more in the Board of Aldermen. Of the early banking men of Lowell, the first and foremost was James G. Carney, cashier of the Lowell Bank, and treasurer of the Lowell Institution for Sav- ings, in the former Nathaniel Wright being president. Mr. Wright, although a lawyer, was, paradoxical as it may seem, a man of few words. He was also somewhat gruff in his manner, and such an officer as men who had notes to pay, did not like to face, when wishing to have the same renewed. In this respect he doubtless proved a valuable servant to the bank. Mr. Carney, also, was rigid and exacting to the last degree. He was a man and an officer of incorruptible integrity, and no rule of the bank was, in his view, susceptible of other than the most literal observance. In illustration of this I recall an instance of going to the bank to pay a note for my father — he gave one, occasionally, in those days — when the bank was in the old Wyman's Exchange, and I reached the counter three minutes after banking hours, the outer door not having been closed, but Mr. Carney refused to receive the money and the note was protested. I doubt if such a practice exists at the present time. Early afterwards the Railroad Bank was organized, with Luther Lawrence as president and Pelham W. Warren as cashier ; and from this time, I always understood that the banking system was somewhat modified, so far as the cast-iron rules of the Lowell Bank were concerned. All this time I was only a youth, but it may show that even little errand-boys exercise some powers of observation and perhaps form correct opinions of those who, at the 252 OLD RESrDP:NTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. moment, are so much their superiors. In due time Benjamin F. French became president, and Samuel W. Stickney cashier, and from that time to this the Raih^oad Bank has been one of our most prominent and success- fully managed monetary institutions. The men who appeared to me to be the mainsprings and motive power, by which Lowell derived its principal business impetus, were the corporation agents. They were, in every sense, representative as well as able busi- ness men. They directed the great enterprises upon which Lowell had embarked, and upon their business sagacity and efficiency largely depended the future of this manufacturing place. Of course I was taught to believe that at the head of all these was Kirk Boott. and I well remember how his sudden death shocked the whole community. The impression for the moment seemed to prevail that, without him, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, and consequently Lowell, must suffer irrepar- ably ; but in the hands and under the direction of such men as George W. Whistler (early succeeded by James B. Francis), George Brownell, John Clark, Robert Means, James Cook, William Austin, John Aiken, John D. Prince, Charles L. Tilden, Benjamin F. French, Homer Bartlett, Samuel Lawrence, Alexander Wright, William Spencer, John Avery, and George Motley, each one of whom 1 very well knew, by sight at least, there seemed to be, as there certainly was, ample mental power and capacity in reserve to direct the great interests so auspiciously begun. It was through the influence and energy of such men as these, that Lowell early acquired the significant title of the " Manchester of America " — a proud distinc- tion which it maintains to this day, notwithstanding the many wonderful and thriving manufacturing cities that are now dotted through the New England States. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOWELL. 253 There were many other men very prominently identified with the early history of Lowell, who did much for its prosperity and good name. Among them I recall Oliver M. Whipple, one of the most thriving and enterprising of its citizens, who established a large powder works on the banks of the Concord River, near the present Lowell Cemetery, and employed a great number of men. He was, probably, the first man in Lowell who always drove a pair of horses in the regular prosecution of his business, and his turnout was, for years, a distinguishing feature in our streets. In addi- tion to his business activity, Mr. Whipple was otherwise the cause of a great deal of noise in the world, as all who remember the occasional blowing up of a powder-mill will attest. I cannot but recall, also, the names of such men as William Livingston, Edward F. Watson, William Fiske, and Josiah G. Peabody, whose faces were familiar to me when a lad. Capt. Peabody early made a special impression upon me, and I often wondered how a man with such a red and ruddy lace could always maintain such a high color, be so clear headed, and withal such an apostle of temperance. Li later years when I knew him better, I fully discovered the sterling qualities with which he then was and still is possessed, and as an officer at the head of our municipality, where 1 have had ample opportunity to measure his length, breadth, and depth, I am prepared to say that no more energetic, painstak. ing, or practical business man has ever, to my knowl. edge, been placed at the head of city affairs. It is a personal pleasure to have this opportunity of thus pub- licly recording my estimate of this gentleman, both as a public officer and a private citizen. William Livingston was also a tower of strength as a business man. As a 254 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. contractor, in excavating earth, digging canals, making roads, etc., I presume he has never been surpassed, and it was mainly through his energy and indomitable pluck that the Salem & Lowell Railroad was built. There are many more names I could mention, each of which w^ould suggest material for an entire paper, but I will only mention one, and that shall be Leonard Huntress. I first knew him when he was connected with the Lowell Journal — the paper may have had some other name at that time — and of whom as a printer, editor, and gentleman, I have the most pleasant recollec- tions. Of a truly genial nature, and most winning ways, he brought to his business every element of popularity. As a child he always called me " Benny Walker," and up to the day of his death, I am gratified to say, he never deviated from this form of expression, thus showing that no change of time or circumstances had ever been allowed to place me in any different attitude towards him, or to regard me other than one of the early boys of Lowell, upon whom he was so ready to bestow his rare gifts of kindness and good will. The establishment of Lowell as a manufacturing town early necessitated some public means of communi- cation with Boston, from which place most of its supplies were received, and to which its principal products were forwarded for market. For the convenience of passen- gers, stage-lines were early established, with a stage- office on Merrimack Street, just above the present loca- tion of the Merrimac House, and one on Central Street, by the side of Frye's Tavern — now the American House — the headquarters in Boston being Wilde's Tavern, on Elm Street. As I remember, trips were made daily, and the arrival and departure of these six-horse teams was quite an event. Li addition to the Middlesex Canal, EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOWELL. 255 which was early utilized in the transportation of heavy freights, by means of canal-boats which were "poled" up the Merrinuick River, from the entrance of the upper canal to Middlesex Village — I saj^ nothing here of the passenger packet — Joseph Tapley and Samuel Wood each established a line of covered baggage-wagons. As I recollect, each line comprised from four to six wagons, and each wagon was drawn by four horses. At this time I was accustomed to visit my Grandfather Kendall, near the dividing line of the towns of Woburn and Wil- mington. This point was in close proximity, both to the main county road between Lowell and Boston, and the Middlesex Canal. My grandfather kept the tavern, which was mainly patronized by the boat-men and freight-carriers, although Kirk Boott occasionally stop- ped long enough to have his old white horse watered. This was, in fact, one of the regular stopping places. With dinner at twenty-five cents each, and New-En^'-land rum at three cents a glass, which every one drank in those days — brandy and gin being rather bej^ond the means of the ordinary patron, the prices ranging from four to five cents a drink — a business of no little preten- sion was then and there carried on. In due time, and while I continued to make my youthful visits to this place, the construction of the Boston & Lowell Railroad was commenced, and larce gangs of laborers centered at and near this spot. Such an immense work as the building of twenty-six miles of railroad, which it was at first thought must be perfectly level and in a straight line, was regarded as one of the wonders of the age. It was also, it will be remembered, laid with granite sleepers, to make it solid and enduring, but these were replaced with wood many years ago. The most difficult work in constructing the Boston & Lowell Railroad, proved to be in digging through the 256 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. great ledge in Lowell, just below where the Middlesex Street station now stands. In due time, however, all this was accomplished, and when the road went into opera- tion, in 1836, this hill was often covered with people, who had assembled on foot and in carriages, to witness the arrival of a train of cars from Boston. John Bar- rett and Josiah E. Short, old stage drivers, were made conductors, although, probably not quite in accordance with the ideas which are supposed to govern the present civil-service act, and maintained their positions until the infirmities of age unfitted them for the duties of so active a life. An early feature in the passenger accom- modations of the road, was the Belvidere car, which was built somewhat after the present style of an open horse- railroad car, although neither half so good looking nor so comfortable. Joel Stone was one of the regular pat- rons of this car, and always carried a cushion under his arm, on the way to the train. This was a very airy way of going to Boston for fifty cents. Of course I recall the stage lines to Concord, N. H., to Nashua, and to Groton. I remember when passengers by the Boston & Lowell Railroad were transferred from the Merrimack Street station to the steamer " Herald," at the landing where the Vesper Boat Club now is, for Nashua. This fact will remind my readers of Joseph Bradley, through whose energy and perseverance this avenue of travel was opened, and thought, at the time, to be a great improvement over former methods. After a while, however, the Nashua & Lowell Railroad was constructed and made a connection with the Boston & Lowell, the steamer " Herald " was withdrawn from service, as also from the upper Merrimack. Subse- quently it was trundled through the necessary streets of LowoU, re-launched above Hunt's Falls, and taken to Newburyport to enter upon other service. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF LOWELL. 257 When this very brief reference to the facilities for travel in and out of Lowell, not much more than fifty years ago, is contrasted with its present system of rail- roads, and its direct connection to almost any point in the United States and the Canadas, it seems almost in- comprehensible that so much should have been accom- plished. Yet we now accept all these changes and improvements, with scarcely a thought of the sagacity, ingenuity, skill, and enterprise, which have developed so much within the comparatively brief period of lialf a century. The annihilation of time and space, through the agencies of steam and electricity, are simply mar- velous, yet we calmly sit and wait for such other wonder- ful inventions and improvements as we all admit await those whose lot it shall be to see the end of the next fifty years. There are many other interesting themes connected with the early history of Lowell, which I could easily introduce, but which would exceed the intended limit of this paper. The early immigration of the Irish people, who largelj^^contributed that " bone and sinew " so indispen- sable in the formation and expansion of a city like ours ; their colonization on the " Acre " ; their turf huts and primitive methods of living ; the talented young men now in our midst, whose origin may be directly traced to this colony, and who now are active in the legal, lit- erary and religious professions, all afford subjects which may be utilized, and which are well worthy the pen of any historic writer, who would give to this nationality the place and prominence it deserves in the records of our city's formation and steady growth. It would be a pleasant task, also, to follow the rise, progress, and even downfall, of some of the many soci- eties of a public character, which have existed for a 258 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. longer or shorter period of our existence, both as a town and a city. Musical societies and associations have ever maintained no little prominence, as a paper recently read before this association by Solon W. Stevens, a brief sketch in the Daily Citizen, not long since, and a letter in the Boston Sunday Globe of January 26, amply show. I may add that, when I commenced this paper, it was my intention to have embodied some of my own early ex- periences and later observations, on a subject of so much general interest, and so fruitful for even an amateur musician, but the reason for dismissing it, at this time, must be apparent, and perhaps painfully so. Having thus bronght to mind a few of the pioneers and early business men of Lowell, the pleasant duty still remains for some gallant citizen or member of this community, to perform the graceful act of placing upon record the virtues and singing the praises of its early women. There were many distinguished for their emi- nent characters, literary talents, poetic attainments, and even dramatic power. The lady or gentleman who will venture on this field of labor, will not only acquire the title of eminent domain, in this particular branch of Lowell's history, but will be entitled to all the encomiums incident to so fascinating a theme. In conclusion, I desire to express the hope, that if neither new facts nor original ideas have been advanced, possibly old memories have been awakened, and sugges- tions made which will incite exertion, by some of the many competent and able members of the Old Kesidents' Association, to add to its already many excellent sketches, which have, in the past, afforded such valuable informa- tion, thus showing to those who shall come after us — to borro\y the title of an admirable little book, once pub- lished by Rev. Henry A. Miles — ''Lowell as it was and as it is." XX A Memoir of Mrs. Jane Ermiiia Locke, hy her daughter, Grace Le Baron (Locke) TJphain, read May 7, 1890. To MANY of the members of this Association the past history of the City of Lowell is one of sweet, sacl, memories of places and buildings, that the tide of pro- gress has swept from sight; and of people whose names were so identified with its public and social life, as to make it most fitting, that, as an association of old residents, as your very name signifies, you should hold such mem- ories in reverence, and make them a part of your history. To many, then, the name of Mrs. Jane Ermina Locke, will come as a voice out of the long past, recalling one, whose literary and social reputation, both here and in her later home in Boston, were fast making for herself, an enviable place in the "world of letters," when, alas! the Angel of Death so prematurely snapped the chords of her poetic lyre, and robbed the world of one, with a future yet unsolved before her, and one whom Lowell should feel proud to claim as her own, if not by birth- right, by adoption from long residence, and in recog- nition of her talents, and their ever ready use in its behalf. Mrs. Locke was born on the 25th of April, 1805, at Worthington, Hampshire County, Mass., situated on the southern declivity of the Green Mountains, being a por- tion of what is now known as the Berkshire Hills, She 260 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. was the youngest child of Deacon Charles and Deborah Starkweather, her father being one of the leading men of the town, and her mother a gentlewoman of "ye olden time." She was but a tiny bit of humanity, tipping the scales when dressed in her first spring costume, at less than three pounds! and the family legend goes, that when first introduced to her brothers and sisters (nine of them), the little stranger was exhibited, " placed in an old-fashioned quart mug, with a tiny saucer turned over it !" This little frame, with its attendant frailty, was but indicative of the physical weakness which followed its owner through all the years of her life. Her only ad- vantages for education were those of the district school, and being a bright, apt scholar, she gleaned only the rudiments, so to speak there, and perfected herself by studious application to books through life, so that she became a scholar of no little note. She was an ardent admirer of the German language, speaking and reading it, while German poetry and song had always their charms for her. The first intimation that her family and friends had, of her ability to compose and write for publication, was by the appearance of an article under her signature, in the old llampsldi^e Gazette a weekly paper of the county, entitled : " Old Cleveland, the Fisherman," written at the age of fifteen years ! A contemporary writes of this article, " that it was such a truthful and romantic description of the old man of the country about, that it surprised everybody that knew her, and gave her notoriety as a writer." And it was, indeed, a realistic story of great pathos, and bespoke the promise of greater achievements still in the literary line, which were fuliilled in her later years. MEMOIR OF MRS. JANE ERMINA LOCKE. 261 Miss Ermina Starkweather as she was then called, became the wife of Mr. John G. Locke, a lawyer, in 1829, whose family name, though now extinct in Lowell, was once honorably identified with it ; Mr. Locke, himself, having been in the public service of the city, as Clerk of the Common Council, and Auditor of Accounts for nine consecutive years; his father, the Hon. John Locke, being an associate of Hon. Daniel Webster in Congress, and his uncle and brother, having respec- tively filled the offices of Clerk and Judge of the Municipal Court of Lowell. After her marriage, Mrs. Locke accepted the double prerogative of changing both her surname and Christian name as well, and prefixed the name of Jane to her more euphonious one of Ermina, although when using an abbreviation, it was always the new name that was sacrificed, her signature oftener appearing as Mrs. J. Ermina Locke. Mr. and Mrs. Locke moved first to Buffalo, N. Y., and although making a home amongst strangers, her worth was speedily acknowledged, and her ever ready pen cheerfully lent itself to all charities, and public celebrations of all kinds. The following ode, printed, and distributed, while on the march of the procession which formed a part of the celebration of Washington's birthday in Buffalo in 1831, became very popular, and its words would inspire love for the Father of our Country from even John Bull himself, although he might, perhaps, differ in senti- ment with it : ODE TO WASHINGTON. With piido wo iKiil tliis natal morn, The birthday of our sire; Our hearts witli lilial feelings burn, Our souls with patriot fire. Our spirits take a lofty tone, And swell the name of Washington. 262 OLD residents' iiistokical association. Let songs of gratitude employ, The aged and tlie young, And chastened mirth, and hallowed joy, Break forth from every tongue. Our land Is free, our soil is won— Our Hero, was our Washington. His deeds we'll praise in lofty strains, His precepts call to mind ; 'Twas he who rent the tyrant's chains. And none again shall bind. We'll spread our banners to the sun. And shout the name of Washington. Columbia's daughter well may wear. Chased gold and diadem ; And sparkling in their drapery, bear Tlie jewel and the gem. We're children of a noble one. The great, innnortal Washington. The vine is clustering o'er our heads, The lig its fruitage lends ; The valley its bright verdure spreads. The forest graceful bends, Untithed, these blessings are our own. And purchased by our Washington. This day let gratitude employ The aged, and the young, And chastened mirth, and hallowed joy, Break forth from every tongue. We'll spread our banners to the sun, And shout the name of Washington. Mrs. Locke's stay in Buffalo was but for two years only, and good fortune brought her to Lowell in 18o3, and here she dwelt with 3^ou for almost twenty years. Some of the members of this Association, can, no doubt, recall to mind the little lady, small in stature, and of great personal magnetism. Hers was no ordinary face. 'Twas of that intellectual beauty of mind, that spoke through the grey-blue eye of expression, the sweet smile of love for all that was refined in life, and a purity of face and heart that bespoke a veneration for all things spiritual — a beauty more enviable than the outlines of her pure Grecian profde, which gained for her the title MEBrOIR OF MKS. JANE ERMINA LOCKE. 263 in younger days of the " belle " of her mountain home. 'Twas here she became the mother of her " little flock," as she poetically termed her family of seven children. Domestic duties pressed heavily upon her, and sickness, her greatest foe, ever spent its shafts upon her delicate constitution. With all her accumulating literary work, she was the ever devoted wife and mother, and the dedication to her first volume of poems, published in 1842, best presents her as the guardian of her household : "What others prize, I cheerfully forego,— All outward circumstauces, all pomp and show; Nay, count them mean, so much I hold above Domestic quiet, spiced with wedded love; And ne'er to others threshold press for joy While free my heart, from grief's to sad alloy; Or join the dance, or song, or giddy crowd, While pure around my home is sky from cloud, Thus do I prove where dwells my chiefest joy." But one by one, she saw her little family go heaven- ward, and the graveyard of Lowell received three of her little ones into its keeping, within a few years, and her little cottage which she appropriately named Wamesit Cottage, situated on what has since been called Wamesit Street echoed many a cry of " Rachel mourning for her children," whose grief found palliation only in the comforts of her Christian faith and that outlet of her broken heart, and busy brain — her active pen. As before said, in 1842, she published her first volume of poems, which she prefaced with the words — " They have, for the most part, been written for my own amusement — to relieve the soul of what would cumber it unuttered, or hush the clamors of a native gift. Some of them in my veriest youth, and many of them in seasons of extreme debility." This last was but a sad truth, for shortly after its publication her fatal foe, consumption, began insidiously its slow work of destruction, and 264 OLD KKSIDKNTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. although but little else than an invalid for the last dozen years of her life, her activity and usefulness were wonderful. This, her first published volume, was imbued with a sentiment of sorrow that her many afflictions dictated. Many of the little poems were but chapters in her life; many were dedicated to the memory of her loved ones ; some to that large circle of literary friends, bright stars in the literary world, it was her good fortune to have about her, for she counted amongst them, those of her contemporaries, William Cullen Bryant, Edgar A. Poe, N. P. Willis, Rufus Choate, Daniel Webster, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney and Mrs. Francis Sargent Osgood. In 1842, Mrs. Locke gave to the religious world a little book for children, called " Rachel, or the Little Mourner," which had wide circulation amongst the Sun- day Schools of the day, and had for its frontispiece, a true portrait of one of her own little girls. In 1846, she published a lengthy poem called " Bos- ton," which met with such a warm reception and ready sale as to warrant other editions, and was handsomely noticed by the able critics of the times. N. P. Willis wrote of this poem : " The name of Jane E. Locke is familiar to the readers of periodical literature, as the author of many interesting prose articles in the maga- zines. She appears here not less pleasing in the charac- ter of poet. The little book before us, is something quite new in American literature. It is a map of the mind of the Athens of America. The value of a work of this kind, both to those who know and love Boston, is very great. Mrs. Locke's little gem of a book ought to be in the hands of every patriotic American, as a faithful guide-book, and intellectual record, in which useful in- formation is euibellished with the graces of poetic art." MEMOIR OF MRS. JANE ERMINA LOCKE. 265 During all this busy time the pen of the poetess was by no means idle in behalf of the City of Lowell, and a resume of her private scrap-book, will not only show how active she was in all its public interests, but will, as well, freshen the memories of some of the older members of this Historical Association, by serving to recall incidents of the long ago. On one page is recorded the military celebration on the fourth of July (year unknown), of the Mechanics Phalanx and the Lowell City Guards, on which occasion the poetess was chosen by the ladies of Lowell, to present a military standard to these companies, in the old John Street Church. Her graceful speech was gallantly re- plied to by Capt Beals, in command. Many toasts were given in her honor at the banquet which followed, the one by Capt. Varnum substantiating her reputation in the world of letters : " The lady who presented the standard — She has shown herself this day, well worthy of the literary reputation she has long enjoyed." On another page is the circular issued by her as President of the Female Total Abstinence Society of Lowell, showing her to be in fullest sympathy with all good work. While interspersed between the time- dimmed pages, are recorded her "original hymn at the ordination of the evangelist, Mr. Edwin J. Gerry " ; another, sung at the dedication of the Colburn Grammar School ; an ode for a fourth of July celebration ; a song for the Harrison Glee Club ; still another for the Beethoven Club ; hymns and odes respectively for the eleventh anniversary of the South Congregational Sun- day School ; the Cold Water Army celebration in 1841 ; a spirited ode for a supper given at the Temperance Hotel, by its host, to those in sympathy with him. While to the Unitaiian interests of Lowell she was ever ready 266 OLD RESIDENTS' niSTORICAL ASSOCIATION. to respond with hymns and songs as requested for their sacred services or their jubilees. Has not Lowell then a just claim to its loyal towns-woman, and a more just cause for revering her memory ! Through her wide-spread literary acquaintance of the day, she became interested in the unfortiinate poet, Edgar A. Poe, and, in 1848, introduced and entertained him, in Lowell, when he came to deliver his lecture on " Poetic Principle " ; and in his hours of misfortune, she was forward in the movement for his relief, although the fact that she did not always approve his spasmodic hallucinations of love, for his still more susceptible in- amorata, in the closing years of his life, has served to fill u]) the pages for an over-zealous biographer of Poe, who, in misrepresenting her, has added one more to the over-crowded list of those, who, in their literary career, have suffered from ill-deserved criticism. When con- fronted by one of Mrs. Locke's family this same biog- rapher magnanimously offered to erase the objection- able lines from all following editions, adding that he supi)osed Mrs Locke left no descendants ! What Christian charity ! What professional courtesy ! What a fate awaits those poor mortals who shall leave no posterity ! Their unsullied reputation left to the mercies of critics, whose reverence ceases with the death of their innocent victims, and the force of whose malicious shafts is dead- ened only by the fear of some living champion to avert their poisonous thrusts ! That Poe died in appreciation of Mrs. Locke's generous interest, and with a " brothei'ly affection, and highest esteem " for his kind friend, who, while acknowledging his masterly poetic talent, could not remain ignorant of his weaknesses, the evidence of letters held by her family, go far to show. Li 1850, Mr. and Mrs. Locke bade adieu to Lowell, MEMOIK OF MRS. JANE ERMINA LOCKE. 2G7 and took up their residence in Boston, the former having received an appointment in the Custom House in the latter city. Mrs. Locke continued her hibors as correspondent for the Boston Journal and Daily Atlas, and was still the busy contributor to the magazines and other periodicals of the day. She was engaged by James Monroe & Co., publishers, to preface many English publications repro- duced in this country, and, in 1854, they published her second volume of poems, by name "The Recalled and other Poems." This was most favorably received, its critics being such wise judges as Rufus Choate, Thomas Starr King, and N. P. Willis, while Edgar A. Poe is credited in the author's preface as having given " words of encouragement, that have also given strength and confidence to the whole volume." The volume closed with a rhymed Eulogy on Web- ster, which the press of the day loudly praised, calling it ''a remarkable effort of poetic inspiration," — enough alone for the fame of any writer to repose upon; havini*- been very flatteringly complimented by the Hon. Rufus Choate, and such parts of it as were in print durino- the life of "The Defender," by Mr. Webster. If i\iQ ijjse dixit of Mr. Choate and Webster is worth anything, it is a poem of most sterling merit. Mrs. Locke was a per- sonal friend and a devoted admirer of the Marshfield sage, of whom she says : " Country and clime are naught, and men grow less, When Webster's shadow trails the wilderness." The requiem for her unfortunate but talented friend, Mr. Poe, is a most beautiful and tender tribute to the great poet, whose harp strings can, alas! be only stirred by the breezes of memory, attuned to that plaintive rhythm of his most weird and wonderful poem, "Never- 268 OLD Kfc;SIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. more, ah! nevermore — nameless here forevermore ! " Mrs. Locke's poem is filled with that sentiment of Christian charity, so marked in her private and public life, as well. REQUIEM FOR EDGAR A. TOE. Strike the anthem, bards and brothers, Softly sweep your many lyres ; Let the low and solemn requiem, Linger on their silver wires! One hath broken from your number- Think not of his errors here— And liatli laid hin\ to a slumber. Leyoud earthly hojie or fear! One hath broken from your number, With a harp of mightiest tone; And bath passed througli Death's dread slundier. Onward to the eternal throne! Let the turf press lightly on him. Lay his lyre upon his breast ; And the laurels fame had won him, Hang tliem o'er his place of rest. Tliough they bear full many an earlli-slahi, Death's dark stream should wash away All the mildew clinging to them, All the soilmg of the clay! Eartli-stained laurels banging heavy. With the cold and midnight dew! Weep ye, brothers, it is mournful, Thus to decorate the yew! Had the prayers of those availed him, O'er whose patli his shadow fell. Darkening with its raven pinions Life's dun way,— it had been well. IJut yet strike the anthem, brothers- Think not of his errors now— Mourn him, mourn his harp strings broken, And the crushed wreath on his brow! Take yc— take the scattered fragments. Lay them kindly at his breast; Of the lyre he swept so wildly. Let them mark Ins place of rest! Strike tlie antlicin low and solemn. Let its mournful echo .swell Through the "haunted woodland " ojienings. Where the Ghoids of Wier do dwell. MKMOIR OF MRS. JANE ERMINA LOCKE. 269 O'er the " clauk tarn " of the "Auber " Let its mournful numbers swell, And through ''Cypress vales Titanic,"— I'aths his spirit loved so well! Nevermore shall strains so mighty Wind along that lakelet " dim "; Nevermore sliall float such music, None could sweep the lyre like him! Strike the anthem, then, ye brothers- Think not of his errors now— iMourn him, mourn his liarp strings broken And tlie cruslied wreatli on liis brow! Mrs. Locke appeared also, as a lecturer, before the Ladies' Physiological Society of Boston, and was com- plimented by a request for a repetition of her lecture, to which she acceded. Consumption had, in these later years, asserted itself beyond control, and won its final victory over her, on March 8, 1859, and the cypress entwined itself with the laurel, that surrounded her rising fame and name. The last poem she published was one called " The Midnight Voice," and reads sadly prophetic, when we remember that its author passed away from earth almost before the printer's ink had inscribed its words of ominous prophecy : Oh spirit, spirit, come again. And whisper to my soul! Nay, call aloud, nor call in vain. But keep the heart's control! And what tliou wouldst oil, speak it all! And wiiat tliou wouldst witli me ; So will 1 wait tliy midniglit call, And answer back to tliee. With that inborn love of the beautiful in Nature, her great desire seemed to be to look once more upon country skies and the snow-covered hills, and she was taken, at her own request, to the little town of Ashburn- ham, Worcester County, on March 1, 1859, but the change was beyond her feble endurance, and she died on 270 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the eighth of the same month, closing her eyes to the long-wished-for joys, and murmuring the words, "Peace, peace, all is peace." The sweet song of her life was finished, and the loud " amen " of resignation, from her pure lips, found its echo with the waiting cherub choir of her own loved ones beyond the stars. The magazines and public press of the day, to which she had for so long lent her words, were full of kindly tribute to her memory and her literary worth. The fol- lowing from the pen of Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith, the writer, who was her nearest personal friend, is a loving testimonial to Mrs. Locke, in her sweet womanliness and as the devoted guardian of her household : " Hardly had I written my last article, when the sorrowful news came of the departure of my friend, Mrs. Jane Ermina Locke. She was one of the many who die with their genius but half acknowledged by the world. Her life was nobler, sweeter, than any of her expressions by the pen. Generous and loving, she had always something to say or do for others, quite forgetful of self. She sacri- ficed her genius that she might redeem the duties of her household and family; therefore, I am sure, her great song will respond to heavenly harp-strings." And the following brief extract from a lengthy obituary notice in the Great Republic Monthly, a then popular magazine, is as just a tribute to Mrs. Locke's literary talent: "Jane Ermina Locke has gone from us, at an age when men are in the prime of their powers, and the very bloom of intellect. She died with her capabilities unrevealed either to herself or the world. That she has done much and well, a volume of poems of hers published several years since, abundantly testifies; but these were but the promise of her genius. Those who knew her best felt that much of reserve power remained. MEMOIR OF MKS. JANE ERMINA LOCKE, 271 She has written a large number of articles in prose, critiques, essays, and stories, characterized by great vigor of expression, analytical, subtile, and inventive, in a high degree. She was a keen observer of the progress of opinion in our country, and not unfrequently wrote pithy and stirring articles anonymously, in aid of what seemed highest and best to her own mind. Generous in her appreciation of others, she did not fail to give her testimou}^ in their behalf. An enemy to all shams, cliques, and pretenders, she more than once exposed those dark shadows upon the horizon of American literature." The old graveyard of the city of Lowell, is to-day the guardian of all that is, of the perishing dust of the woman, and the poetess— Mrs. Jane Ermina Locke — above whose grave, the waving grass and the humble daisy, appeal to the hearts of those who knew and loved her, in that language of sweet simplicity, which marked her life : and the Angel of Death, as he closed the por- tals of her short life, greeted with holy reverence, that other Angel of Memory, whose indelible crayon has graven sweet words of remembrance, of one, whose memory is a benediction, as her life was a sweet, sad poem. XXI. The Lowell Cemetery hij Jcunes S. Russell, read, May 7, 1800. From the earliest times, man has desired the lifeless bodies of himself and family to be placed near together, and their graves defended from desecration. Abraham provided a burial place for himself and posterity. Jacob, after blessing each of his sons sepa- rately, charged them, saying, " I am to be gathered unto my people ; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite ; in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife ; and there I buried Leah." In more modern times churchyards have been sought for burials ; and vaults under cathedrals. At the present time, appropriate places are set apart for the burial of the dead ; und families secure private lots, more or less exclusive, for themselves and posterity. This very common desire for grouping the dead of separate families, may be in part accounted for from the facility it affords the survivors to visit the scene of their last look upon the departed, for contemplation, raising a prayer, and dropping a tear. Before the extraordinary infiux of people into East Chelmsford, the sparse popuhition had its local grave yards; one at the present corner of School and Branch THE LOWELL CEMETERY. 273 Streets, which is now in good condition ; and is still nsed by the descendents of the old inhabitants. The other was in the edge of Tewksbury ; but now on the high ground in Belvidere, between East Merrimack Street and the Merrimack River. But there is no trace of it left. Some of the bodies were removed to other places, and the remains of others mingled with the soil and gravel excavated from cellars ; and used in the grading of house lots. To protect their dead from such desecration, sensi- tive people form themselves into incorporated companies, to procure suitable burial places, and provide for their perpetual care. The corporation perpetuates itself, and will never fail to defend the interests of the proprietors. At the opening of manufacturing in Lowell, the people that flocked here from all quarters, were chiefly in the prime of life, and here temporarily, as they sup- posed, while they could secure profitable employment ; having no idea of leaving their bones here. But, in process of time, the population assumed a more perma- nent character; and men began to consider what should finally be the disposition of their lifeless bodies ; whether they should be transported away to lie beside their fathers ; or whether they themselves should start anew, be the heads of their own families, and provide a resting place for themselves and their posterity. As early as 1840 the subject of a private and ex- clusive cemetery, began to be agitated among leading minds. James G. Carney is credited as being the first to move in the matter ; and Oliver M. Whipple bought a lot of land in anticipation of the demand for it for cemetery purposes. On August 1, of that year, a meeting was called of those disposed to encourage the undertaking. At this 274 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. meeting a committee of thirty, of which Dr. Elisha Bart- lett was chairman, was appointed to consider the subject, and report at a subsequent meeting. The result of their report was the purchase of the Whipple land for $5,000, comprising about forty-four acres. But by subsequent additions, from time to time, the lot now includes nearly one hundred acres. In the language of Dr. Blanchard, " How suited to its contemplated uses is this enclosure ; embracing every variety of surface and of scenery for the gratification of every variety of taste ; embosomed in some parts in the soft brown shade of the natural forest ; and open in others for the ornaments of artificial cultivation ; watered by a brook, which waits only the bidding of art to swell into glossy lakes and to fall in silver cascades ; accessible at all times, yet so remote from the marts of business, as not to be liable to be encroached upon by the spreading abodes of the living ; sequestered from the din and bustle of active life, yet, by its easy approach, and its winding avenues and paths, inviting the visits of bereaved fondness, and of pensive reflection; is it not just suited to its present destination ? " On February 13 and March 8, the act of incorpora- tion was accepted, by-laws adopted, and the officers chosen, as follows, viz. : Oliver M. Whipple, president ; James G. Carney, treasurer ; Charles Hovey, clerk; for trustees, John Aiken, James Cook, Jonathan Tyler, Samuel Lawrence, John W. Graves, Seth Ames, John C. Dalton, Alexander Wright, David Dana, Eliphalet Case, Jolm Nesmith, and William Livingston. In view of this list of names, we may truly infer that the men engaged in this enterprise were among the foremost men of the city, embracing agents of mills, professional men, men in trade, and in the various busi- ness industries. THE LOWELL CEMETERY, 275 The minimum price of lots of three hundred square feet, was fixed at $10 ; and a public sale of the choice of lots, was held November 30, 1841. The premiums bid averaged about $5 a lot, for the lots sold ; and $5 was added to the price of lots for future sales. The price has been increased, from time to time, till now only im- proved lots are sold, and those at $250, or 83^ cents per square foot ; equal to the price of building lots in the populous parts of the city of the living. The ground was consecrated by appropriate relig- ious ceremonies on Sunday, June 20, 1841. The following account of the occasion is from the Lowell Courier oi that date: "Though the afternoon was a little showery, a vast concourse of people resorted to the spot, and were attentive to the exercises. The extensive plot obtained for the cemetery, is yet in so rough a state as to present no attractions, except the ever-pleasing decor- ations of nature. Hill and dale are there in delightful proportions ; and there too are the native oaks and pines, which have stood since the days of the tomahawk and wigwam. Enough can be seen to satisfy any observer that it is well chosen, and capable of being made one of the most appropriate and interesting places of sepulture to be found in the country. '' It was a solemn place — a graveyard ; but, as yet, no graves were there. The assembly was composed of all the variety of our population. The aged and the young, male and female, rich and poor, were there ; all in one throng. We were under the wide-spread branches of native oaks, and so situated as to give all a favorable opportunity to see and hear. " The exercises commenced by singing the following hymn, in that tune which, for grandure and melody, has few equals, Old China. The singing was well con- 276 OLD residents' iiistokical association. ducted by the worthy president of the Lowell Union Singing Society, J. C. Aiken. " There is a land of pure delight, Where Saints immortal reign; Infinite day excludes the night, And pleasures banish pain. There everlasting spring abides. And never-withering flowers; Death, like a narrow sea, divides That heavenly land from ours." "An appropriate prayer was then offered by Rev. Lemuel Porter. Next came the address by Rev. Amos Blanchard, which for its appropriate extent of subjects, its richness of thought and felicity of expression, is sel- dom equaled on any public occasion. We cite some passages from that eloquent address : " ' How imposing, my friends, is this scene ! From worshipping God in your respective temples, you have assembled, a congregation vast, with one accord in one place. You come from houses made with hands, to pray and praise amid these venerable columns, and beneath this verdant roof, reared and woven by His own omnip- otence. Here is perpetual worship ; grandure, strength and grace proclaim the divine presence. The occasion of our concourse is as touching as the scene is solemn. The living city has poured forth its thousands to lay, with appropriate solemnities, the foundations of a city of the dead. We are here to set apart a depository for our bodies, when our spirits shall have joined the great con- gregation of the dead. We consecrate this as the place where the monuments and the inscriptions shall utter their monitory voice, and art and classic taste shall con- spire with Autumn's fading leaf, and Winter's snowy livery, and the jubilee shout of the Springtime, and Sumpier's golden glories, and the flowing river, and the THE LOWELL CEMETERY. 277 leaping brook, and the insects' hum, and the zephyr's requiem, and the wabbling of the birds, and the lovely landscape around, and the blue heavens above ; to soothe, to tranquilize, and elevate the soul. Here will shortly arise the urn, the shaft, the table, the mausoleum, and the plain headstone, as so many monuments, on the con- fines of both worlds, presenting to us at once, the end of life's inquietudes and the image of eternal rest. Here " the wicked will cease from troubling, and the w^eary will be at rest." ' " After the address, followed the consecrating prayer, offered by the Rev. Henry A. Miles, of which we can only say, it was what it should be. Then was sung the hymn : "Why sliould we start, and fear to die, What tim'rous worms we mortals are; Death is tlie gate of endless joy. And yet we dread to enter there." " The exercises were then closed with the benedic- tion, by the Rev. Dr. Packard, whose pastoral charge once included the domain of our city." Among the names of the clergy engaged in the enterprise and taking parts in the consecration exercises, we fail to notice that of the venerable Dr. Edson. But he chose that his body should finally rest with those people among whom he chiefly labored while living. It lies in the ground honored by his name, in a lot no other- wise distinguished than by a massive stone cross, lying flat upon the surface of the ground. The eligible and well-kept grounds of the Edson Cemetery are open to all, and no one need feel agrieved at the apparent exclu- siveness of the Lowell Cemetery. The construction of a suitable gateway was long delayed for lack of funds. But at length, aided largely by liberal subscriptions from many ladies, a noble struc- 278 OLD llESIDENTS' IIISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ture, beautiful in architecture, rose at the entrance ; and more recently, an appropriate stone building, for an office for the superintendent, reception, and committee rooms, has been placed beside the gateway. It is much to be regretted that the Lowell & Andover Raih'oad has been constructed along the front of the cemetery and crossing the public road at grade. The numerous daily trains greatly endanger the frequent funeral processions at the crossing. The $5500 award of damages is a trifle compared with the detriment to the corporation. Previous to this obstruction to the present entrance, the trustees had endeavored to secure a much desired entrance on the Belvidere side. These efforts have hitherto been without avail. But recently the way was thought to be opened, and the object attained, by the purchase of about ten acres of additional land. The offer was made and accepted, and the deed awaited for. But when presented it was found to con- tain certain new conditions, which were incompatible with the interests of the cemetery. This is a severe disappointment, not only to the proprietors of the cem- etery, but to half of the city, who have long looked for a Belvidere entrance to the cemetery, and had supposed it secured. The reason for such restrictions ought to be obvious and sufficient. But, so far as can be learned, they are simply personal, and the persons concerned are willing to brave the indignation of their fellow-citizens. It is hoped that more reasonable counsels will yet prevail.* The description of the natural scenery, by Dr. * Since the above was written, the annual meeting of tlie corporation lias occurred, when this subject was fully discussed. It was determined to take sides with neither of tlie outside parties, but to do what seemed best for tlie interests of the cemetery wlien all tilings were considered. It was voted to accept the deed with its restrictions. Now the Belvidere entrance may be considered as secured: and, though tlie cemetery does not acfjuirc all tlie advantages it expected, from the aci|uisitioii of tlie additional land, it is hoped that eventually all parties will be satisfied. THE LOWELL CEMETERY. 279 Blanchard, is not only eloquent but very nearly truthful. We fail to notice the " brook swelling into glossy lakes, and falling in silver cascades." The only watercourses are under cover, serving for the drainage of the surface water ; and pipes conducting water from the city reser- voir. There is, however, at the base of Fort Hill, a living spring, which I hope to see developed into an eligible drinking fountain, under a shady bower, offering shelter and comfort to the weary and thirsty visitors. His prevision of the development of the possibilities of the situation, was still more eloquent and truthful, as a casual observation will verify. The granite curbing and iron fences of a former fashion, are gradually giving way to a simpler style. A raised mound, without fencing, conforming to the natural lay of the land, and covered with a thick, green sward, and well trimmed, is coming into vogue. But a simple granite curbing interferes little with the green turf, and has the advantage of defending the lot, and defining its limits. Each year shows advancement, not only in the sub- stantial and permanent, but in the ornamental and aesthetic features. One of the latest is the extensive greenhouse, attached to the grounds, where flowers, in great variety, may be had at all seasons. There is a great demand for flowers, by persons of taste and senti- ment, who place them at the head of the graves of their loved ones, pleasantly imagining, perhaps, that the sense- less body beneath perceives, or at least the gratified spirit is a witness to, these tokens of affection. The practice is simple, and refining to the living. But not so the extravagant display of flowers now common at funerals, detracting from the solemnity of the occasions. A few chaste blossoms of varieties appropriate to the age of the subject, are in good taste and to be commended. 280 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Private gifts for the public benefit have not been wanting ; but what is worthy of remark is, that women have been foremost in conferring such favors. Tlie mag- nificent gateway is crowned with " sounding praise," by the generosit3'^ of one noble woman. The chapel, at great cost, beautiful in design and construction, appropriate and useful, is the gift of another noble woman. Still another has generously provided for the care and preser- vation of the chapel for all time. The early subscrip- tions by the ladies, already mentioned, is properly re- peated in this connection. The Glidden fountain and statuary is also worthy of all praise. May others, in the future, emulate these examples. As early as 1860 the corporation, with commendable forethought, assumed the perpetual care of lots, whose owners made with them deposits of money, the interest of which should be devoted to that object. The depos- itors have increased in number until there are now many hundreds. The funds are deposited in savings banks. An account is kept with each separate lot. It is credited with the income, and charged with what is expended on the lot. At the annual meetings of the corporation the treasurer reports the condition of each account. This record involves much labor and responsibility. The average of the deposits is now about $120. This sum is amply sufficient for all contingencies — any additional sum would serve only to increase the burden of its care. The accumulations of some thirty or forty of the accounts, above the expenditures, amount to seventy per cent, of the deposits. Unless there should be some provision made for withdrawing these excessive accumu- lations, the burden of the care will become intolerable in tlie future. THE LOWELL CEMETERY. 281 This system of perpetual care is invaluable. The longest lives must come to an end. Their successors may be indifferent, or may have removed to distant parts of the world, or even already buried ; and the neglected lots left to disfigure the ground. There are already neglected and delapidated lots for which there is no provision made for their improvement. Shall the corporation assume the care of such lots and thus encourage the heedless and penurious in their negli- gence ? There is one notable example where a person has made provision that the surplus earnings of his deposit shall, at stated times, flow over into the surround- ing lots that need attention. The officers of the corporation serve gratuitously, except the clerk and treasurer, whose salary is none too much for the labor he performs. Oliver M. Whipple, the first president, held the position for nearly thirty years ; his successors hav^ held the office for shorter times. Many of the trustees have served for long periods. The present treasurer has been in office nearly twenty years. A house is provided, near the cemetery, for the superintendent, who has in his employ twenty men, more or less, at different seasons of the year. Much has already been done ; but more remains to be done, and the time is probably very remote when it may be said, No more improvement is possible. XXII. President's Report, read May 7, 1800. For another year the Old Residents' Historical Association has steadily pursued its quiet and unobtru- sive course. Seventeen new members have been added to our ranks, and sixteen of our members have died — a number larger, it is believed, than that of any preced- ing year. The influenza, which during much of the year has prevailed throughout the city, seems to have had a fatal tendency to conspire with every other disease in decimating our ranks. Of those who have died due notice will be taken in the proper place. During the year the following documents have been added to our library, the titles of which, as fur- nished me by our faithful secretary, are as follows : Narrative of the Captivity of Stei)hen Williams, Deerfield Memorial Association. Annual IJeport of the BulLilo Historical Association, January 8, 1889. l^roceedings of the Davenport, Iowa, .Vcadcray of Natural Sciences, from 1884 to 1889. Annual Ifeport of the Dedliam Historical Society, 1889. Tliirty-Sixth Annual 1 Report of the American Congregational Association of ]joston. Catalogue of Portraits, State Historical Society, Wisconsin. Transactions of the Oneida Historical Society, at Utica, N. Y., 1887 to 1889. Aboard and Abroad; an Account of His Tiip to Europe, by Benjamin Walker, Esq. Annual lleport of the University of California, for year ending June 30, 1889. president's address, 1890. 283 Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Biographical Sketch of Hon. Edward Lovell Dana, Wyomino- Historical Society. Annual Koport of the Woburn Public Library for 1889. Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, parts 1 and 4, 1887. Proceedings of the Phode Island Historical Society, 1889-90. liBcords of the New London County Historical Society, Vol. 1, Part 1. Early Chicago and Illinois, Chicago Historical Society. Report of Yale L^niversity, by the President, 1889. I take this opportunity to urge again upon the members of this Association, the importance of fulfilling their individual obligations to contribute their own per- sonal reminiscences in forwarding the cause for which the society was established. In this good work our brother, Benj. Walker, Esq., has led the way. The remark cannot be too frequently repeated, that acts and events which seem trivial and common place to-day, may, in future years, be read by those who come after us, with interest and even with delight. What pleasure is now afforded us by even a glimpse at the life of our ancestors one hundred years ago. The following record of the lives of those of our members who have died during the last year, is neces- sarily very brief. Hon. Ephraim B. Patch died of paralysis, July 2, 1889, at the house of his daugher, in Chelmsford, at the age of eighty-three years. He was born at Ashby in 1806, and came to Lowell in 1831. From 1831 to 1841 he was engaged in the dry goods business. Then for about three years he was a teacher of penmanship in the pub- lic schools. From 1844 to 1889 he was a well-known auctioneer on Prescott Street. For several months 284 OLD residents' iiistohical association. before his death his ill health prevented his engagement in active labor. Mr. Patch was an assessor of the city in 1857 and 1858. He served on the school committee nineteen years, was state senator in 1860, was one of the original trustees of the Old Ladies' Home, in the support of which he performed a great amount of gra- tuitous labor. He was president of the Ministry-at Large, and in time of the war he was chairman of the committee for managing the Sanitary Fair. He bore the reputation of a benevolent, upright man. Few citizens have been so much missed in the streets of Lowell. Langley H. Boardman died at his residence on Willow Street, July 24, 1889, at the age of sixty-seven years. He was born in Essex, Mass., and came to Low- ell in his youth. Through his whole life in Lowell he was engaged in the shoe trade, first as clerk under Hap- good Wright, Esq., and afterwards as proprietor of a shoe store. In this business he was engaged for more than forty years. He was a quiet, intelligent and honor- able man, whose time was devoted to the discharge of his private business. Jacob Ames died August 27, 1889, at the age of eighty-three years. He was born in Hancock, N. H., in 1806. At the age of ten years he went to New Ipswich, N. H., and was subsequently employed as carpenter with his father: In 1827, at the age of twenty-one years, he came to Lowell, and worked at his trade for twenty-five years, being employed by the Massachusetts Corporation. He was a devout member of the John Street Congrega- tional Church, and was known as a man of few words, of vigorous will and of strict integrity. Oliver W. Flint died September 6, 1889, at the age of eighty-four years. He was born in Dracut, but for about sixty years resided in Lowell. He was formerly president's address, 1890. 285 an overseer on the Tremont & Suffolk Corporation, but in later years was engaged in keeping a livery stable. He belonged to the Veteran Firemen's Association. He died at the home of his daughter. Frank F. Battles died at his home, on Mt. Washing- ton Street, September 19, 1889, at the age of sixty-nine years. He was born in Dorchester, Mass., and came to Lowell with his father when twelve years of age. His father was an overseer on the Tremont Corporation. Having been educated in our public schools, he was employed first as clerk in the Railroad Bank, afterwards as paymaster of the Dwight Mills in Cabotville, and of the Prescott Mills in Lowell, and also as superintendent of the latter Mills. Subsequently, for forty-three years, he was agent of the Massachusetts & Prescott Mills. He was a director of the Railroad Bank, and served as Alderman in 1870 and 1871. He was greatly beloved by all who were in his employ as agent, and was known as a man of benevolent heart and of great moral worth. Andrew T. Nute died at his residence, on Elm Street, September 24, 1889, at the age of eighty-four years. He was born in Milton, N. H., and came to Lowell when about twenty-two years of age. For several years he was an overseer on the Suffolk Corporation. He next engaged in the meat business, but in his latter years he was a member of the firm of Woods & Nute, manufac- turers of scales. He served as Alderman in 1855 and 1857. He was a member of the St. Paul's Methodist Church, and belonged to the Veritas Lodge of Odd Fel- lows and the William North Lodge of Masons. Luke McFarlin died at his residence, on Arlington Street, on October 18, 1889, at the age of seventy-nine years. He was born in Lowell, and was, through life, identified with the city. In early life he was engaged in 286 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. salmon fishing, etc., on the Merrimack. In company with his brother William, he was long engaged in the ice business in Lowell, and occupied the position in the trade now occupied by Daniel Gage, to whom the McFarlins sold out their business. Mr. McFarlin was at one period engaged in teaming stone from the quarry on the Mam- moth Road, in Dracut, to supply the building operations in the city of Lowell. Li his last years, being in failing health, he employed himself in letting boats on the Merrimack. Mr. McFarlin was never married. Joshua Merrill died November 9, 1889, at his home, on Tenth Street, at the age of eighty-seven years — an age greater than that of either of the members of this Association who have died during the past year, Col. Bancroft being younger by nearly one year. Mr. Merrill was born in Milford, N. H., March 17, 1802, and was a farmer's son. When twenty-five years of age he came to Lowell, where for eighteen years he was a well-known teacher of the city, having been the instructor of many of the leading men of Lowell. Upon leaving the pro- fession of teaching (in 1845) he became a bookseller, having, for several years, one of his sons as partner. His time, during many of the last years of his life, was divided between his bookstore and his farm. He was fond of agricultural pursuits. He was always an ardent friend of the temperance cause, and was a prohibitionist in politics for many of his latter years. In 1850 he was a member of the Common Council, and for fourteen years a member of the Lowell School Board. He was one of the founders of Universalism in Lowell, and a prominent man in the churches of that persuasion. Jefferson Bancroft died upon his farm, in Tyngs- borough, January 3, 1890, at the age of eighty-seven years. He was born in Warwick, Mass., April 30, 1803. president's address, 1890. 287 He came to Lowell in 1824, at the age of twenty-one years, and found employment in the Satinet Manufactory of Thos. Hurd. Later he was an overseer in the Apple- ton Mills. In 1831 he was appointed by Sherilf Varnum as Deputy Sheriff, and this office he held through the rest of his life — a period of fifty-nine years. Few men have been better known in Lowell or held more positions of trust and honor. He was in the City Council in 1839 and 1840 ; on the Board of Aldermen in 1841 and 1842 ; and Chief Engineer of the Fire Department in 1844, 1845 and 1846. He was also Colonel of the Fifth (now Sixth) Regiment, and was Mayor of the city in 1846, 1847 and 1848. He was also Warden of the Massachus- etts State Prison, and was four times elected Represent- ative of the city in the General Court of Massachusetts. He was everywhere acknowledged to be a man of high character and marked ability. Oliver E. Cushing died February 17, 181)0, at the age of sixty-one years. He was educated in our public schools and in Phillips Academy, and became a civil and mechanical engineer. For twenty-five years he was the agent of the Lowell Gas Light Company. He was a trustee of the Five Cent Savings Bank, and for more than thirty years clerk of St. Anne's Parish. He was an Alderman of the city in 1885, and at the time of his death president of the Lowell Cemetery. As agent of the Gas Light Company he was a popular officer, and his administration was marked with ability. Jacob Nichols died at his home, on Summer Street, on February 16, 1890, at the age of seventy-six years. He came to Lowell from Amherst in early life. Having acquired a good knowledge of machinery, he once went to Mexico as superintendent of a mechanical plant in that country. He subsequently engaged in the furniture 288 OLD KESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. business on Market Street, Lowell. Having acquired property he dealt largely in real estate. He became proprietor and treasurer of the Cutter & Walker Manu- facturing Company. He was a director in the Old Low- ell National Bank, and of the Andover & Lowell Rail- road. He had the reputation of an upright man of business. Amos B. French died at his residence, on Bridge Street, March 23, 1890, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was born in Billerica in 1812, but resided in Lowell after he was about twelve years old. For many years he was well known to the people of this city as the keeper of its most popular restaurant. For many of his later years he was a member of the firm of French & Puffer, in the crockery business. He was on the Board of Aldermen in 1870 and 1871, and was a direc- tor of the First National Bank and of the Lowell Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and trustee of the Lowell Institution for Savings. He was known as a quiet, un- obtrusive man, of very agreeable address, and, above all, of the strictest integrity. Nathan M. Wright died March 31, 1890, at his res- idence, on Nesmith Street, at the age of seventy-five years. He was born in Concord, Mass., May 20, 1815, and was educated in the High School and other public schools of that town. He came to Lowell July 10, 1831, and served as clerk in the shoe store of his brother. Hap- good Wright. In 1836 he began the shoe business on his own account, and continued it until a few months before his death. He was known as a man of very courteous manners, of good ability, and of upright character. Col. Josiah A. Sawtelle died April 3, 1890, at his home, in Sawtelle Place off School Street, at the age of sixty-six years. He was born in Townsend, and came to president's address, 1890. 289 Lowell when a boy, where, after his school days, he en- gaged with his father in the work of bridge building and other kindred employments. He was a man of military tastes and belonged to the Fifth (afterwards the Sixth) Regiment at an early date. In the famous march of this regiment through Baltimore, April 19, 1861, he was Captain of Company A. He was after- wards appointed Major, and for gallant conduct was promoted in 1862 to the office of Lieutenant Colonel. Since the war he has engaged in bridge building, etc. William Nichols died at Monterey, Cal., March 30, 1890, at the age of seventy-two years. He was born at Wilmington, February 20, 1818, and came to Lowell in his boyhood. At the age of ten years he entered a grocer's store as clerk and at length began the grocer's business on his own account. Except for a brief period in which he was engaged in business in Norfolk, Va., and in Canada, he has followed the grocer's business in Lowell, until the time of his death. At one time he was in company with Abner W. Buttrick, and afterwards as partner with Ransom Reed. For many years subse- quent to 1849 he was a member of the well-known firm of Nichols & Fletcher, which was followed by the firm of William Nichols & Co. Mr. Nichols was engaged in the grocers' business for sixty-two years. He was a director of the Appleton Bank, and trustee of the City Institution for Savings. He was a modest man of the highest character and the strictest integrity. He was remarkable for his devotion to his business and the vigorous health and activity of his last years of life. Daniel P. Galloupe died at his residence, on Methuen Street, May 4, 1890, at the age of eighty-three years. He was born in Topsfield, Mass., January 20, 1807, and very early in life began the business of teaching in his 290 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. native town. He had been for many years a teacher in one of the grammar schools of Salem, Mass., when he received his appointment as principal of the Varnum School in Lowell in 1853. In this school he was the faithful and successful teacher for twenty-five years, resigning his position at the age of about seventy-one years. Since his resignation he for several years served upon the School Committee of Lowell, and also in the office of Superintendent of the schools of the town of Dracut. Mr. Galloupe was known as a wise and conserv- ative educator, and at a public convention in Boston, a few years since, he was publicly and foimally recog- nized as the original proposer of the foruuition of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association. It is a remarkable fact that the average age of those of our number who have died during the past year is more than seventy-seven years, the oldest, Mr. Merrill, being eighty-seven years of age, and the young- est, Mr. Gushing, sixty-one. The age of only four was below seventy years. XXIII. Letter from Hon. Wm. A. Richardson Court of Claims Chambers, Washington, D. C, February 15, 1890. Alfred Gihncm, Esq., Secretary: I appreciate the compliment of my election as an Honorary and Corresponding Member of the Old Resi- dents' Historical Association of Lowell, notice of which has just been received, and I accept the same with pleasure. I am led to recall how much I have been connected with Lowell and its institutions. My mother, Mary (Adams) Richardson, and her father, William Adams, and other ancestors, were born in Chelmsford before the town of Lowell was set off from its territory. I went to Lowell in 1843, immediately after gradu- ation at Harvard College, and studied law with my brother, Daniel S. Richardson, who had settled there in 1839. In July, 1846, after leaving the Harvard Law School, I took up my permanent residence in Lowell and went into partnership in the practice of the law with my brother Daniel, and so continued until my appoint- ment as Judge of Probate and Insolvency, in 1858, when my brother, George F. Richardson, took my pla-ce in the firm, which still continues under the style of D. S. & G. F. Richardson. I still kept up my residence in Lowell, having an office in Boston, until 1863 or 1864, when I removed to Cambridge. In 1849 I was a member of the Common Council, elected (unanimously) to fill a vacancy, in March, I think. In 1853 and 1854 I was a member and president of the Common Council. 292 OLD RESIDENTS IIISTOraCAL ASSOCIATION. I was a resident of Lowell when, in 1855, I was appointed one of the Commissioners to revise the Gen- eral Statutes of the Commonwealth, in 1856 when I was appointed Judge of Probate for Middlesex County, and in 1858 when I was appointed Judge of Probate and Insolvency for Middlesex. I was for many years one of the directors of the Appleton Bank, both before and after it became a Na- tional bank ; president of the Wamesit Bank before and when it was changed to a National bank, and afterwards. I was vice-president, president and trustee of the Middle- sex Mechanics' Association, and took an active part in resuscitating it when it was threatened with decay and destruction. I was one of the corporators, trustees, and finance committee of the Lowell Five Cent Savings Bank, in which I took an active interest. For a few years I was also a director of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. In Masonic institutions I was a member of Ancient York Lodge, and for some years secretary of Mount Horeb Royal Arch Chapter, and was one of the founders and first recorder of Pilgrim Commandery of Knights Templars. My only child was born in Lowell, now Mrs. Isabel Richardson Magruder, wife of Dr. Alexander F. Magru- der, surgeon in the United States Navy, and now residing here in Washington. I regard Lowell as the place where was laid the foundation of whatever success in my life has been at- tained, and I not only look back upon it with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, but my interest in the city and its people has never abated. I am very i-espectfully and truly yours, etc. Willi A]\r A. RrniARDsoN. CONTRIBUTIONS THE OLD RESIDENTS Si^toridkl S^^odiktioq, LOV/KIvIv, IVIASS. ORGAlSriZEID IDECKMBER SI, 18 6 8. Vol. IV. N"o. 4. PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION, OCTOBER, 1891. Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours." — YouNG. LOWELL, MASS.: MoKNiNQ Mail Print, 147 Central Street, 1891. 3^[ cJs ^5^^j;i-'€^^ '^y ^ ^>-^'- ^ CONTRIBUTIONS THE OLD RESIDENTS Si^torical S^^odiktioLi LO\7V^ELIv. MASS. OR,G-A.]SriZE;D DKCKMBTCR ^3, 18GS. Vol. IV. No. 4. PFBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION, OCTOBER, 1891. Tis greatly wise to talk with our past /ioiirs:'—\'oVNG LOWELL, MASS.: MoRXiXG Mail Print, 147 Cextkal Stkkkt, 1891. CONTENTS. XXIV. Brief Biographical Notices of the Prominent Citizens of the Town of Lowell — 1826 to 1836, by C. C. Chase. Read Nov. 4. 3800 : 293 XXV. Capt. John Ford, by C. C. Chase. Read Feb. 4, 1891 326 XXVI. Lowell Island, by Alfred Gilman. Read Feb. 4, 1891 338 XXVII. Residences on Nesmith Street, by James S. Russell. Read Feb. 4, 1891 ... 352 XXVIII. Vice President's Report, by Benjamin Walker. Read May 5, 1891 359 XXIX. Sketch of Lucy E. Penhallow, by James S. Russell. Read May 5, 1891 370 XXX. Memoir of Horatio Wood, by his Sou. Read August 4, 1891 379 XXir. Brief Biographical JVotices of the Prom- inent Citizens of the Town of Lowell— 1826 to 1836, hy C. C. Chase, read Mov. 4, 1890. When the work of establishing the great manufac- tories of Lowell was begun by the Merrimack Company, in 1822, three farms occupied the grounds upon which now stand the most important structures of our city. The Cheever farm, situated in the bend of the Merrimack River above the Merrimack Corporation, and occupying, probably, all of the site of the Lawrence and Tremont & Suffolk Mills, with its woodland in the vicinity of Tilden Street and a large pasture beside the river. The farm house of Mr. Cheever is no longer standing, but its place is marked by a willow tree on Cheever Street. Next came the Fletcher farm, where now are the Merri- mack and Boott Mills, and perhaps part of the Massa- chusetts Mills. The house of Mr. Fletcher was not far from the corner of Merrimack and John Streets. Third was the farm of Nathan Tyler, on which stand the Pres- cott and probably part of the Massachusetts Mills. Mr. Tyler's orchard was in the vicinity of Prescott Street and his dwelling house a short distance north of the Prescott Mills and on the north side of Merrimack Street. So rapidly did this new village (known then as East Chelmsford) grow, and so great was the inconvenience of transacting all town business at Chelmsford Centre, four miles away, and so little community of interest ex- isted between the staid old farming town and the young 294 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. and vigorous manufacturing village, that in the begin- ning of 1826, the population being now about twenty- five hundred, measures were taken to procure from the legislature of Massachusetts a town charter. In prepar- ing the charter the last thing to be decided upon was the name of the new town. For this a blank was left in the document to be filled at the last moment by Mr. Boott, who seems to have been the controlling actor in the work of obtaining a charter. Two names in Mr. Boott' s mind presented claims for the honor, first that of " Lowell" in honor of Francis Cabot Lowell who, though he had died years before, had been the "informing soul" of the great enterprise of introducing the manufacture of cotton in America, and second that of " Derby," a town in England endeared to Mr. Boott by the associa- tions of his boyhood. When Nathan Appleton asked Mr. Boott by what name the blank should be filled, and Mr. Boott had said: Either "Lowell" or "Derby," Mr. Appleton promptly replied: "Then 'Lowell' by all means." And "Lowell" it was. The charter was granted, the act of incorporation being signed on March 1, 1826, by Levi Lincoln, Gov- ernor of Massachusetts, Nathan Silsbee, President of the Senate, and Edward D. Bangs, Secretary of the Com- monwealth. On the next day, March 2, Joseph Locke, an attorney-at-law in Billerica, who seven years after- wards came to Lowell and became the first judge of the police court of Lowell, issued a warrant to Kirk Boott authorizing him to call a town meeting of legal voters to choose town officers, etc., etc., the meeting to be held March 6, at Balch & Coburn's tavern, now known as the " Stone House," and late residence of J. C. Ayer. At the meeting on Mtirch 6, Kirk Boott was chosen moderator and Samuel A. Coburn town clerk. The board of select- PROMINENT CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF LOWELL. 295 men elected were Nathaniel Wright, Samuel Batchelder and 0. M. Whipple. Artemas Holden was elected treas- urer, and Luther Marshall constable. About four weeks afterwards, April 3, another town meeting was held in the hall of the Merrimack House, at which Theodore Edson, Warren Colburn, Samuel Batchelder and John 0. Green were elected first school committee of the town. This was also the day of the State election, and the vote of the town stood : Levi Lincoln, whig, 93 ; James Lloyd, democratic, 53 ; Samuel Hubbard, 14. It may here be remarked that while Lowell was a town it uniformly gave a whig majority at State elections, though this majority constantly diminished. Levi Lin- coln was Governor during the first eight years of Lowell's township. Having now given the various steps by which Lowell became an incorporated town I come to the main purpose of presenting this article, which is in a familiar and informal way to record for future reference, what I have been able, after considerable inquiry and investiga- tion, to learn of the men who held the offices and took prominent parts in the affairs of the town. This record, though now perhaps, of little apparent value, will, when those who remember the early days and early men of our city, have all passed away, be read with interest when found in the volumes of the " Contributions " of our association. In performing my task, I shall give little space to those men whose biographies have ah-eady been published in these volumes. John Locke of Billerica, who issued the warrant for the call of the first town meeting, was born in Fitz- william, N. H., in 1772, graduated from Dartmouth College at the age of twenty-five years, began the prac- tice of law in Billerica in 1801, came to Lowell in 1833, 296 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. after a practice of thirtj-two years in Billerica. Upon coming to Lowell he became first judge of our police court. This office he held thirteen years. He repre- sented Billerica eight times and Lowell once (1849) in the legislature of Massachusetts. He was once a Presi- dential Elector, and once a member of the Governor's Council. He died in 1853, at the age of eighty-one years, and seven years after resigning his office as judge of the police court. This association has published in the first volume of its "Contributions" a notice of Judge Locke, written by John A. Knowles. The life and character of Kirk Boott are so fully delineated in the articles prepared by Alfred Gilman, Esq., Rev. Dr. Edson and James B. Francis, Esq., in the first, second and third volumes of our "Contributions," that I need only add here that Mr. Boott took a very active and efficient part in the affairs of the township of Lowell. He was moderator of the first and subse- quent town meetings. He represented the town in the legislature, and his name frequently appears in the records of the town. He was a natural leader of men, and his services in the Peninsular campaign under the Duke of Wellington had admirably fitted him for his position as first agent of the Merrimack Company — a position in which he entered upon a path untrodden before. He had no predecessor. Derby, an old English town, about fifty miles south-cast from Liverpool, is the home of the Boott family. Here lived Mr. Boott' s father, before coming to Boston, and here also lived his wife before her marriage. Lowell had but one town clerk during the ten years of its township, Samuel A. Coburn, who was also city clerk for about two years after the town became a city. The town records kept by Mr. Coburn are a PROMINENT CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF LOWELL. 297 model for scribes of every degree. Mr. Cob urn belonged to the Dracut family of Cobiirns, and many of his relatives still live in Lowell and vicinity. He was a man of fine personal presence and agreeable manners, and well adapted to the position of landlord, in which, he spent most of his life. He was landlord of the " Stone House " on Pawtucket Street, and was the first to occupy it. Daniel Balch was his partner. In the 3Iercury for June 27, 1825, the partners advertise that they have taken the elegant house recently erected by Phineas Whiting, and pledged themselves that their cellars will be well stored with old wine and London porter, and their bar furnished with the best of liquors. Mr. Coburn represented the town in the legislature in 1833. He was born in Dracut, May 13, 1795. He died in Ports- mouth, N. H., March 24, 1856, at the age of sixty-one years. Artemas Holden was treasurer of Lowell during the ten years of its township. Mr. Holden was born in Townsend, Mass., Sept. 13, 1776, and died in Lowell, Aug. 8, 1863, at the age of nearly eighty-seven years. He was a cooper by trade, his shop standing near the present residence of S. G. Mack, Esq., on Pawtucket Street. His dwelling house was near the residence of Frederick Ayer, Esq. He represented the town in the legislature in 1832 and 1835. His descendants are still with us. His son, Frederick A. Holden, now seventy- eight years of age, is in the employ of the Locks and Canals Company. The selectmen first elected by the town were Nathaniel Wright, Joshua Swan and Henry Coburn. A sketch of the life of Mr. Wright, prepared by Mr. Samuel McPhetres, has already been published b}^ this association. He was a lawyer by profession and a very popular man 298 OLD residents' HISTORrCA.L ASSOCIATION. in those early days. He held almost every office m the gift of the people. He was elected as first state senator (living in Lowell) in 1834. He represented the town in the lower house in 1826, 1827 and 1828. He was four times elected on the board of selectmen of the town and twice as mayor of the city. He was born in Ster- ling, Mass., Feb. 13, 1785, graduated at Harvard College in 1808, and died Nov. 5, 1858, at the age of seventy- three years. His residence was on the corner of School and Pawtucket Streets. Joshua Swan was another of the most popular men of the town. He shared with Mr. Boott the honor of being elected moderator at the town meetings. He w^as chosen on the board of selectmen for eight out of ten years of Lowell's township. No other citizen served as long, though Benjamin Walker held the office five years. Mr. Swan represented the town in the legislature in 1830 and 1831 ; was president of the Middlesex Mechanics Association, served on the board of aldermen and w^as county commissioner in 1848, when the court house was built. He was also on the first board of directors of the Boston & Lowell Railroad. Mr. Swan was born in Methuen and came to Lowell in 1824, and served as con- tractor in the Lowell Machine Shop for sixteen years. He resided on the Hale estate near Hale's Mills. He was born Jan. 10, 1788, and died Aug. 21, 1867, at the age of seventy-nine years. Samuel Batchelder, a member of the first board of selectmen of the town, and one of the most active and efficient servants of the town of Lowell in its early days, has been made the subject of an extended biographical sketch, written by Rev. W. R. Bagnall and published by this association in the third volume of its " Contribu- tions." He was born in Jaffrey, N. H., June 8, 1784. PROMINENT CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF LOWELL. 299 He came to East Chelmsford (now Lowell) in 1825, when forty-one years of age, and after attaining a reputation as a manufacturer, he became the agent of the Hamilton Mills. He served the town on the board of selectmen and on the school board. He was a great inventor and a man of wonderful mental activity. His last years w^ere spent in retirement in Cambridge, Mass., where he died of old age Feb. 5, 1879, in the ninety-fifth year of his age. No other of the founders of Lowell attained such longevity, while many of his compeers were cut oE in early manhood. Kirk Boott at the age of forty-seven ; Francis Cabot Lowell at forty-two ; Warren Colburn at forty ; Ezra Worthen at forty-three ; Paul Moody at fifty-tw^o ; however, Nathan Appleton lived nearly eighty- two years ; Dr. Edson about ninety ; and Dr. J. 0. Green eighty-six years. Oliver M. Whipple, who was one of the three mem- bers of the first board of selectmen, was long one of the most enterprising and successful business men of Lowell's early days. He was for four years alderman of the city, and for three years a representative in the legislature He took a deep interest in the welfare of the city. Especially is the establishment of Lowell Cemetery in- debted to Mr. Whipple's generosity and aid. It is situ- ated mainly on land once owned by him. He was born in Weathersfield, Vt., May 8, 1794, came to Lowell in 1818, and started the extensive powder works on Concord River, long known as " Whipple's Mills." He died April 26, 1872, at the age of seventy-eight years. Henry Coburn who was elected on the second board of selectmen (for 1827) was a prominent farmer, living on the Chelmsford road, and was the father of our well- known fellow-citizen, C. B. Coburn. He was born Dec. 16, 1780, and died Sept. 27, 1835, at the age of seventy- five years. 300 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Capt. Artemas Young, on the board of selectmen in 1828, 1829, 1830 and 1831, was born in Worcester, Mass., Ang. 13, 1785, and was a manufacturer of paper and flannel at Massic Falls. He also kept a West India goods store, first at corner of Central and Hurd Streets and then at corner of Central and Church Streets. He died April 5, 1837, at the age of fifty-one years. James Tyler served on the board of selectmen in 1830 and 1831. James, Joseph, and Wilham Tyler, brothers, came from Billerica to Lowell among the first to join the new enterprise. They were cousins of our well-known fellow-citizen, the late Capt. Jonathan Tyler. Before Lowell became a town James and Joseph Tyler opened an English and West India goods store on Cen- tral Street, nearly opposite the law office of George F. Richardson. Here for a considerable period the two bachelor Ijrothers continued in trade, both of them being honored with office by the town. Josiali Crosby was on the board of selectmen in 1832. He was a young physician and came to Lowell from Concord, N. H., at the solicitation of Samuel Batcli- elder. He practised in Lowell five years. He was born Feb. 1, 1704, and was one of the distinguished sons of Dr. Asa Cros1)y of Sandwich, N. H. Of his brothers, Nathan was judge of the police court of Lowell, Dixi was professor in the Medical School of Dartmouth Col- lege, Alpheus was the distinguished professor of Greek in Dartmouth College, and Thomas was also a professor in the same institution. Josiah Crosby was born Feb. 1, 1794, and died in Manchester, N. H., Jan. 7, 1875, at the age of eighty-one years. He was long a physfcian in Manchester. Fifty-four years ago I knew Dr. Asa Crosby, the venerable father of this distinguished family, and was one of those who followed him to his grave in Han- over, N. H. He died at Hanover, April 12, 1830. PROMINENT CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF LOWELL. 301 Matthias Parkhurst was on the board of selectmen in 1832 and. 1833. He was born in Chelmsford June 10, 1795, came to Lowell in 1823 and resided on Chapel Street. He was long engaged in the dry goods business on Central Street. He early took an active part in local affairs. He represented the town in the legislature* in 1835, was on the school board of Lowell in 1843 and 1844, and was an assessor of the city from 1842 to 1856. He died Aug. 10, 1877, at the age of eighty-two years. Samuel C. Oliver was on the board of selectmen in 1832 and 1833. He was born in Readiug, Mass., Jan. 20, 1801. He was a machinist by trade, and not far from the age of twenty-one years, having already married and having lived a short time in Waltham, came to Lowell among the earliest of those who embarked in the new manufacturing enterprise. He was employed in the machine shop and became superintendent of the department of forging. He resided on Button Street and was one of the most important and active members of the Worthen Street Baptist Church. He removed from the city about 1846 and died in Chicopee, Mass., Oct. 28, 1863, at the age of sixty-two years. Recently two of his daughters have presented his portrait to the city of Lowell. This portrait now adorns the walls of the common council room. Benjamin Walker was on the board of selectmen in 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835 and 1836. He was born in Wil- mington, Mass., June 23, 1801, and came to Lowell in 1826, where he followed the calling of butcher, living on School Street near Pawtucket Falls. After a few years of successful business he l)uilt and occupied the house on Middlesex Street, now owned by Mrs. Sidney Spalding. * Throughout this article those who are said to have represented Lowell in the legis- lature, were members of the house of representatives unless the contrary is stated. 302 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. He also purchased in the vicinity a large tract of land which he cultivated for many years. Through a part of this land now runs Walker Street, which received its name from Mr. Walker. He was very active in promot- ing the business and educational interests of Lowell, was one of the founders of the Unitarian Church, and was, 1835, elected to the state legislature. His son and name- sake is now an honored member of this association. He died in the prime of his manhood on Sept. 7, 1840, at the age of thirty-nine years. Dr. Elisha Huntington was a member of the board of selectmen in 1833 and 1834. A sketch of his life, prepared by Mr. McPhetres, was published in the first volume of our " Contributions." Probably no citizen of Lowell has been more beloved or held more public offices. He was three times elected to the common council, three times to the board of aldermen, eight times to the office of mayor, and in 1852 was lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts. He filled with grace and dignity every position to which he was called. He was born in Tops- field, Mass., April 9, 1796, and was the son of a clergy- man. He died Dec. 13, 1865, at the age of nearly seventy years. Dr. Jesse Fox was on the board of selectmen in 1834. Dr. Fox was born in Dracut, Feb. 28, 1786, and died of old age, at his residence on Third Street, Oct. 12, 1870, at the age of eighty-five years. He practised medicine in his earlier years in Middleton, but having a taste for mechanical pursuits and being an inventor b}^ nature, he quit his profession and engaged in manufac- turing in Saugus, Mass. In 1823 he came to Lowell, being invited by Thomas Hurd to aid him in his manu- facturing enterprise established on the site of the present Middlesex Mills. He left Mr. Hurd after six years, and PROMINENT CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF LOWELL. 303 for the last forty-one years of his life seems to have had no fixed and regular employment. His mind, however, was busy in the invention of several machines. His son, Gustavus V. Fox, distinguished himself as assistant secre- tary of the United States navy in the war of the rebellion. William Livingston served on the board of select- men in 1834, 1835 and 1836. He was born in Tewks- bury, April 12, 1803, and until twenty years of age remained upon his father's farm. He came to Lowell when the work of erecting mills called for laborers, and as a common laborer took part in excavating and laying foundations. His industry and skill were soon noticed and his merits recognized. From a simple laborer he became a contractor in a small way. At length he be- came one of the most successful contractors in America in the work of constructing mills, canals, and railroads. He engaged in the enlargement of the Middlesex Canal, in the construction of the Indian Head and Blackstone Canals, of the Salem & Lowell and the Lowell & Law- rence Railroads, and other great works. He also built a saw mill and grist mill, and dealt in grain at his place of business on Thorndike Street. He was intensely labori- ous and active. It was by his excess of exhausting night work upon constructing railroads that he is supposed to have brought on the disease of his lungs, which cut short his life. He died of consumption, in Florida, March 17, 1855, at the age of fifty-two years. William N. Owen was on the board of selectmen in 1835 and 1836. He was born in Dedham, Aug. 2, 1806, and came to Lowell in 1828, when twenty- two years of age. He was engaged in the carriage manufacture on Market Street till 1842, when he became a dealer in provisions on Merrimack near Worthen Street. In 1852 he removed to East Merrimack Street, where he died 304 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Aug. 12, 1877, at the age of seventy-one years. He represented the city m the legislature in 1837, and was one of the oldest of the Lowell Odd Fellows. Of John Chase who was on the board of selectmen in 1835 and 1836, I have little knowledge. He was a machinist, living at Swamp Locks, Dutton Street. He was a member of the committee of twenty-five chosen Feb. 3, 1836, to consider the expediency of establishing a city government. James Russell, who was on the board of selectmen in 1835 and 1836, was a stone mason, much employed in putting in foundations of mills. He died of cholera, Sept. 5, 1849, aged sixty-one years. On the week of his death twenty-six persons died of cholera in Lowell. In the selection of town officers the town of Lowell was remarkably fortunate from the fact that the great and novel enterprise of introducing manufactures on a magnificent scale by incorporated companies endowed with very large capital and supported by the wealth and intelligence of the city of Boston, had filled the new town with men of talent. The grandure of the enter- prise pleased the imagination of ambitious young men just starting upon a business career and allured a large class of superior men to seek their homes and their fortunes in the rising town. This statement finds a good illustration in the character and talent of the first board of school committee selected by the town. The board consisted of Theodore Edson, Warren Colburn, Samuel Batchelder and John 0. Green. The " Contributions " of this association already contain the Memoirs of Dr. Edson, written by his daughter ; those of Samuel Batch- elder, written by Rev. W. R. Bagnall ; and also the autobiography of Dr. Green, our late honored and ven- erable president. Of these three, therefore, I shall speak onl}' \ery biielly. PROMINENT CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF LOWELL. 305 Dr. Edson was born in Bridgewuislied in the CArT. JOHN FORD. 329 Revolutionary War, was born in Haverhill, Mass., Nov. 6, 1738, and Avas a son of Robert Ford of that town. It is probable that Robert Ford, the father, was inured to a soldier's life, for in Chase's History of Haverhill we find that in 1725, thirteen years before the birth of John Ford, one Robert Ford heads the list of a company of scouts called "Centinels," under Ensign Moses Huz- zen, whose perilous duty it was to search in the woods about the town for the Indians, who lurked in the vicin- ity in the time of the French and Indian wars, for the purpose of murdering the inhabitants. This was the year which followed the celebrated " Lovewell's Fight" with the Indians. This Robert Ford is doubtless identi- cal with Robert Ford, the father of Capt. John Ford. Captain Ford, on coming to East Chelmsford (now Lowell), settled near Pawtucket Falls, where he spent a long and honorable life. The house which he built, though probably not that in which he first lived, is still standing. It is known as No. 179 Pawtucket Street and is the residence of William D. Earl, Esq., whose wife was the great-granddaughter of Capt. Ford. On the same premises is the residence of Henry A. Lambert, Esq., whose wife is also the great-granddaughter of Cap- tain Ford. Before the Revolutionary War, Captain Ford was engaged in a large range of business. He owned a saw- mill at the foot of Pawtucket Falls, near the mouth of the Concord River, and his account-book shows that he dealt largely in planks, boards and other kinds of lum- ber. He also kept a store, furnished with a great variety of West India and other goods. From 1771 to 1782 he sold a very great amount of lumber to Timothy Brown, who built and occupied as a tavern the celebrated " Old Yellow House " in Belvidere. 330 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Captain Ford was a man of superior talent and marked character. He was very tall and had a florid complexion. His grandson, Horatio G. F. Corliss, long a Avell-known lawyer in Lowell, who died in 1870, at the age of sixty-four years, is said to have resembled him in personal appearance. Captain Ford was a man of distinguished bravery and great physical strength. Mr. Cowley, in his History of Lowell, mentions a tradition which he does not think well authenticated, that " Captain Ford once killed an Indian by pitching him into the wheel pit of his sawMiiill, the Lidian being on the watch for a chance to take the life of the Captain, who had killed one of his brothers during a former war." As to this tradition, it is said that Captain Ford told Col. Thomas J. Adams, that one day when he went to his saw-mill, wearing his " revolutionary " coat, ha\dng three brass buttons, two inches in diameter, he was met by an Indian wdio sprung at him shouting, " Me got you," and immediately attempted to stab him with a knife, but the knife striking one of his buttons his life was saved. Captain Ford having in his hand a bar with which he moved the logs in his mill, struck him a powerful blow with the bar and sent him dead out the tail-race of the mill. This story seems to be founded in fact for Mrs. Lambert, great-granddaughter of Captain Ford, assures the writer that Capt. Elisha Ford, his son, often told her the story as if he had no doubt of its authenticity, and Capt. Elisha Ford was a inim of sound judgment, who in his long service of the Locks and Canals Company was known as a man of investigating mind and high integrity. What part John Ford took in the French and Indian War seems to have been nowhere recorded. Neither Mr. Allen, in his notice of CajDtain Ford in his history CArT. JOHN FORD. 331 of Chelmsford, nor Dr. John 0. Green, his physician, in his article concerning Captain Ford published in the Vox Pojmli, June 16, 1875, make any mention of him in connection with the French and Indian War. But Frederick P. Hill, in his History of Chelmsford, calls him a veteran of the French and Indian War. Mr. Cowley, also, in his History of Lowell, refers to a tradition of his having killed an Indian in a former war, referring, doubtless, to the French and Indian War. It is alto- gether probable that a young man of Captain Ford's impetuous and adventurous spirit did not fail to partici- pate in a war wliich raged around him when he was in the very prime of martial age, for he was seventeen years old at the time of Braddock's Expedition, and twenty-one years old at the capture of Quebec. More- over history records that in this war Chelmsford men were at the front. Capt. Jonathan Barron of Chelms- ford lost his life at Fort George, and Capt. Moses Parker of Chelmsford won distinguished praise for valor at the siege of Fort Fronteuac. But it was in the early years of the Revolutionary War that Captain Ford became most conspicuous for 23atriotism and bravery. It has been recorded that he was among the first to hear of the battles of Lexington and Concord, and to hasten to the rescue. This is hardly true, for when the news of these battles reached Chelms- ford the Minute Men of that town were already on the march for the scene of action. On this occasion the following seems to have been the order of events : Gen- eral Warren, at ten o'clock in the evening of April 18th, the day before the battles, despatched William Dawes to Lexington through Roxbury, and Paul Revere through Charlestown, to bring the news of the approach of the British under Pitcairn. Both messengers arrived just 332 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. after midnight and pushed on to Concord. From them the alarm in the night spread like wildfire through the country. In Chelmsford on the morning of the lOtli drums were beat, the alarm-guns were fired, and the Min- ute Men gathered on the village green. Rev. Ebenezer Bridge, the patriotic pastor of the church, was promptly on the ground, and urged that before starting all should gather in the church for prayer. To this the impetuous Captain Ford objected, declaring that they had more important business than praying. The Minute Men, sixty-one in number, under Capt. Oliver Barron, hastened towards Concord, twelve miles or more away. They arrived after the battle at Concord Bridge, but in season to participate in the fights with the retreating Bi-itish at Meriam's Corner and Hardy's Hill, In the latter place Captain Ford, then acting as sergeant, behaved with great bravery and conspicuous daring. Gordon, in his " History of the American Revolution," avers that " it can be fully proved that Captain Ford killed five regulars." But these patriotic Minute Men of Chelmsford were far from being soldiers enlisted for the war. Their term of service Avas only about one week and that of some of them only three days. They were farmers totally unprepared for a military campaign. But Ser- geant John Ford proceeded immediately to raise a company of which he took the command as Cai)taiii. Ten days after the Lexington Ijattle he had raised lit'ty- seven men, and on May IDth lie received his eoiiniiissioii as Captain. This new company joined the American army at Cambridge under General Ward and engaged in the battle of Bimker Hill. Tbeir term of service was somewhat over nine months. The following is the muster-roll of the comi)any : CAPT. JOHN FORD. 333 John Ford, Capt., Isaac Parker, Lieut., Jonas Parker,2d Lieut., Moses Barker, Serg., Parker Emerson, Serg., Daniel Keyes, Serg., Jonas Pierce, Serg., John Bates, Corp., Wm. Chambers, Corp., Wm. Campbell, Corp., Benj. Barrett, Corp., Wm. Rausteau, Drum., Barzilla Lew, Fifer, John Keyes, Alex. Davidson, John Chambers, Samuel Britton, Moses Barker, Jr., Benj. I^arker, David Chambers, Samuel Wilson, Nath'l Foster, Isaiah Foster, Benj, Pierce, Benj. Farley, Enoch Cleveland, Benj. Butterfield, Samuel Howard, Moses Esterbrooks, Robert Ainger, Elijah Hazelton, John Glode, Joseph Spalding, Francis Davidson, Oliver Cory, Samuel Marshal, Jesse Dow, Wm. Parker Jr., Joseph Chambers. Nath'l Hunt, Reuben Foster, Joseph Spaulding,Jr. Noah Foster, Jonas Spalding, Solomon Keyes, Isaac Barrett, Timothy Adams, Josiah P'letcher, John Parker. James Chambers, Silas Parker, Benj. Haywood, Wm. Rowell, Robert! Hichardson, James Dunn, Ebcnezer Shed, Jonathan Sprague, James Alexander, Solomon Farmer, Wm. Brown, Thomas Bewkel. The part taken by Captain Ford in the battle of Bunker Hill does high honor to his skill and bravery. On the day before the jjattle he volunteered to carry from Cambridge to Bunker Hill a message of General Ward. To do thi,s he must pass over Charlestown Neck in the range of British guns, at the imminent peril of his life. He had orders from General Ward to dismount from his horse at the Neck and cross on foot in order to escape observation. But he run the risk and passed and re-passed on horseback. While at Bunker Hill he warned General Prescott that from the movements of the enemy it was evident that they w^ere preparing to attack the Americans upon the hill, and urged the necessity of immediately casting up breastworks and redoubts. Pres- cott, wdio had not feared such an attack, yielded to the persuasion of Captain Ford and before the morning of 334 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the battle the breastworks were completed, Avithout which the Americans coulcl not have held their ground or achieved the immortal glory of that illustrious day. Is it asking too much to claim a large share of that glory for the brave and sagacious Captain Ford ? Captain Ford's company belonged to the regiment of Col. Ebenezer Bridge, of Avhom we have already spoken. This regiment on the morning of the battle had not yet left their quarters at Cambridge. Captain Ford, restive at the delay of the regiment, obtained per- mission to lead forth his company alone and proceed forthwith to the scene of strife. On reaching the battle-field, when the British, after a repulse, were preparing for another attack, General Putnam ordered Captain Ford to bring into line of action two deserted cannon. Captain Ford protested that his men knew nothing of artillery practice, and his men, while willing to fight Avith their own weapons, positively refused to handle the cannon. But General Putnam insisted and Captain Ford like a true soldier promptly obeyed his superior officer. " He then," says Governor Pierce, who was a young soldier of the company, "addressed his company in a very animated, patriotic and brave strain, which is the cliaracteristic of tlie m.'in. The company then seized tlm drag-ropes and soon drew the cannon to the rail fence." In that position the cannon were effectively used upon the foe, General Putnam himself aiding in aiming and firing them. One of these pieces was burst after being fired eleven times. The firing continued until all the annnunition was spent. It was prol)ably when the Americans began their retreat from Bunker Hill that Captain Ford found Capt. Benjamin Walker, of the second Chelmsford company, lying wounded on the field and took him upon his slioul- CAPT. JOHN FORD. 335 cler and carried him about forty rods to save him from capture by the British. Captain Walker, however, per- suaded his friend to drop him and save himself. The unfortunate man was carried to Boston where his leg was amputated and where, after several weeks of suffer- ing and neglect, he died. He was a brave man who had been trained to arms in the French wars. Upon or near the expiration of the nine months' service of Captain Ford's first company, another company of Chelmsford men, with Captain Ford as commander, was raised to re-enforce the American army in Cam- bridge. This company served from January to April, 1776. During this period the army engaged in no con- siderable fighting, and as summer approached the Chelms- ford soldiers returned to their farms. In the summer of the same year another company was raised in Chelmsford and stationed at Ticonderoga under command of Captain Ford. This company was in service for about six months without engaging in any im- portant battle. While stationed at Ticonderoga, Captain Ford kept a regimental order-book which is still in the possession of his descendants. In this book, now one hundred and fourteen years old, are recorded regimental orders, trials by courts-martial, promotions of officers, punishments of disorderly soldiers, and various other matters pertaining to a military encampment. Every day are recorded the parole and countersign of the camp, two words instead of a single countersign. For example, on August 30, 1776, the first word, called the parole, was Brutus and the countersign Hancock. Captain Ford and his company returned from Ticon- deroga at the close of 1776, and during the first nine months of 1777 he does not appear to have been engaged in military service. It must be borne in mind that he !36 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. was largely engaged in business when the war broke out, having a saw-mill and a considerable trade in various kinds of goods. There was much to call him home. During the year, however, another Chelmsford com- pany was raised, which marched Sept. 3 0th under Cap- tain Ford to re-enforce the northern army against the British under Burgoyne in their attempt to sever New England from the rest of the country. As the last of the two battles which preceded the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga took place only eight days after Captain Ford's company left Chelmsford, it is not certain that this company engaged in either battle. The company was in service only forty-three days. On returning it brought with it,- from Stillwater to Cambridge, forty or fifty British prisoners. I am not aware that Captain Ford engaged in any further military service. For forty-five subsequent years, at his home near Pawtucket Falls, he followed the peace- ful avocations of civil life. Dr. John 0. Green, the late venerable president of this Association, who was his physician in his last sick- ness of several months, in the article from which we have already once quoted, describes him as " a tall, wiry, active man, bowed by the weight of years and his great privations and labors, of few words, direct, of primitive simplicity and sterling integrity," and adds that " it was with great reluctance and true modesty that he ever referred to his exploits as a soldier. lie died Nov. G, 181^2, at the age of eighty-four years. In regard to his last sickness Dr. Green makes the following statement : " His patriotism was sadly shocked when hundreds of Irish were first brouglit here to dig our canals. On one occasion when he could not refrain from indulging in some angry, disparaging words CArX. JOHN FORD. 337 ill their hearing, they fell upon him and beat him severely and dangerously, on School-Street Hill, which was sup- posed to have hastened his death, which occurred two months afterwards." His grave is in the little burying-ground nearly opposite the Pawtucketville Church, and near by it are the graves of his son, Capt. EHsha Ford, and his daugh- ters, Deborah and Prudence. The children of Captain Ford were : (1) Deborah, wdio lived unmarried at the homestead; (2) John, who lived unmarried, and died at Brownville, Me., at an advanced age; (3) Capt. Elisha, who lived upon the homestead ; (4) Sarah, wife of John Corliss of Lowell ; (5) Prudence w^ho lived unmarried at the homestead; (6) Capt. Horatio G., who followed the seas, was un- married, and died in early manhood. The only living representatives of Captain Ford are the descendants of his daughter, Sarah Ford Corliss. XXVI. Loiuell Island, Vij Alfred Gilman. Read Fch. Jf, 1891. It is recorded in history that this island was granted by the general court, in 1G65, to Governor Endicott and his heirs. It was bequeathed in 1680 by Z. Endicott to his daughters, under the designation of Cotta Island, and this was its proper name, but it was afterwards corrupted into Cat Island. History also informs us that previous to the time that Martin Luther entered the convent at Eisenach, while yet a youth about fourteen years of age, his poverty was such that he was obliged to beg his bread from house to house. On one occasion, after an ineffectual attempt to obtain food by this method, being repulsed in every instance, his spirits were weighed down by hunger and his want of success. As a last resort he applied at the residence of a burgomaster named Cotta. Through the intercession of the wife of this worthy man he was taken in and comforted and cared for. The couple were so pleased with the youth that he was adopted by them and found a home in the family. I think there can be no doubt that in commemoration of this Christian act we find an island in Salem harbor named after that family. If so it is a source of regret that the name was ever changed. My correspondent at the Asylum Station, Mr. Andrew Nichols, has kindly supplied me with the follow- ing facts in regard to this property : '' That the island varying as nine, ten and twelve acres, shifting from the entrance of Salem harbor to the entrance to Marblehead harbor, and described as at the bottom of Marblehead har- LOWELL ISLAND. 339 bor, with a house and woods upon it in 1746. It was owned by Gov. James Bowdoin of Boston, and later by Gov. Elbridge Gerry, and were it not for that other island in Boston harbor, could rightly have been called ' Governor's Island.' " My correspondent was not aware that the ownership was once in Endicott. He says: "I startled one of Salem's antiquarians when I told him the fact that Cat Island was conveyed by Ebenezer Lowell, of Marblehead, merchant, and his wife Mary, in 1732, to her brother Samuel Reed, and that probably was one of the reasons of its name, ' Lowell Island.' I find Middle- sex County men owned it in ]761, viz: Messrs. Oliver, Green and Wills of Maiden. Perhaps they run it as a summer resort." The act incorporating the Lowell and Salem Railroad was passed by the legislature in 1846. William Living- ston was instrumental in chartering and building this road, and he, in connection with his brother Elbridge, and Sidney Spalding,' took the contract to build the road including all the bridges and stations. The road was completed in 1850. Mr. Livingston was possessed of an active brain, and although he was what would be called an unlearned man, he was, nevertheless, a good student, always ready to take in the situation, and estimate, pro and con, its advantages and disadvantages. Things that other people would pass by unheeded he regarded with the keenest interest, and when the subject had passed the crucible of his brain, he became master of the situation. Having established a railroad between Lowell and Salem with an eye to a direct communication with the ocean, evidently and purposely to enable Lowell people to be supplied with the various kinds of coal, he built a track connecting his railroad with Phillips' wharf in 340 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Salem. This brought him in contact with the ocean, and his restless activity saw an unlimited field for further operations. What more natural than that he should, in the course of his investigations, look out over the water and see an uninhabited island ready to have him appro- priate it, with its salubrious air and isolated position, for the advantage and benefit of his fellow-citizens, to say nothing of its benefit to the railroad. He found ready helpers in the Hon. Stephen C. Phillips and a large number of his neighbors and friends in Lowell. There still remain a few survivors of that day who were their personal friends and intimate associates. I have obtained from the Registry of Deeds in Salem a copy of the following records: "June 11, 1851. David Blaney of Marblehead, and wife Ellen, releasing dower for $1000 to Stephen C. Phillips of Salem, a certain island known as Cat Island, lying at the entrance to Marblehead harbor, bounded southeasterly on the passageway from ' Halfway Rock ' to Salem har- bor, northwesterly on the passageway from ' Baker's Island ' up to Marblehead harbor, and northeasterly and southeasterly on the sea." On the back of this deed Stephen C. Phillips of Salem, wife Margaret M., for $1000, quitclaim to Salem Steamboat Company the within described Cat Island, dated Jan. 16, 1852. In the early days of this experiment to make the island a pli\ce of resort, the great difficulty was the means of communication by water. Sailing vessels, in pleasant weather, offered the only method, but their size and capacity were so limited that they could only afford accommodation for small parties. In boisterous weather with the wind and tide against them, and during the prevalence of fog, it was a hazardous trial to endeavor to reach the island in them. LOWELL ISLAND. 341 On one occasion our friend, Mr. Samuel Horn, being at the island, there came up a dense fog that com- pletely shut from view the main land, and made an attempt to gain it in the frail craft at his disposal extremely hazardous. A necessity to reach the train for Lowell made it imperative for him and his friends to make the trial. The skipper encouraged the plan of a trial, stating that he had had forty years' experience in navigation and considered himself competent and able to land them safely at the wharf in Salem. Trusting to these assertions the party embarked in the boat, but after witnessing its management they were led to doubt the capabilit}^ of the skipper, as the craft, standing on the wind, would careen over and take in a lot of water. Landsmen were not accustomed to this sort of naviga- tion and sharply cautioned the man at the helm, but he continued to encourage them, reiterating his confidence in his ability to land them safely. While running along the Marblehead shore, which revealed its vicinity more by the dashing of the waves on the rocks than by any- thing to be seen, another lurch and another shipment of water completely used up what little confidence they had in the skipper's ability. They ordered him to land them on the Marblehead shore, from whence they would find their way to Salem. The skipper, after landing them, continued on his course to Salem. The boat cap- sized, but the skipper was able to right the boat and was saved. Mr. Horn and his friends have ever since consid- ered this a providential escape from a watery grave. I resume the account of the transfer of the prop- erty, inferring that in the meantime improvements were being made: "Oct. 11, 1852, the Salem Steamboat Company mortgaged for $12,000 to Stephen C. Phillips, George L. Newcomb and Daniel Bowker of Salem, and 342 ol:) residents' iiistokical association. Samuel Horn, Daniel S. Richardson, William Fiske and Abiel Rolfe of Lowell, Cat Island, now called Lowell Island, with all buildings and personal property of every description thereon." This mortgage was assigned at the same date to the City Institution for Savings as collateral for a loan. At the time of the purchase of the island the only building upon it was one used by fishermen as a fish- house. This was altered and enlarged to serve as a place of resort and entertainment for visitors. It was parti- tioned off so as to accommodate as many as possible in a given space. The partitions were not much higher than a man's head, consequently the conversation held in one room became common property. When the open- ing of the house was advertised to take place a large number of people from Lowell and vicinity embraced the opportunity to enjoy the ride to Salem and a visit to the island. Some delay in their transportation from the wharf in Salem to the island was unavoidable, conse- quently those who were so lucky as to secure a passage on the first trip were well provided for at the house, but those who were conveyed by the later trips of the boat found that everything in the shape of eatables had dis- appeared. Neither love nor money had any influence to obtain ji crust of bread and scarcely a drink of any kind. This excursion was engineered by Timothy Pearson and he must have been well paid, if curses were worth any- thing. This experience, while it was a cause of disappoint- ment to many pleasure-seekers, was a source of gratifi- cation to the proprietors, who were encouraged by it to erect a building ample to accommodate all and make the island a paying investment as a popular resort. Accord- ingly it was decided to erect such a structure. This was LOWELL ISLAND. 343 brought about by the persistent efforts of the Salem members of the corporation, not however without much opposition from some of the Lowell proprietors, who did not believe that Salem people could be induced to pat- ronize it to the extent required to leave a cash balance on the right side of the ledger account. The last transfer mentioned was to the Savings Bank. June 20, 1854. The mortgage was assigned by John A. Buttrick, treasurer, to Stephen C. Phillips, George L. Newcomb, D. H. Bowker, Samuel Horn, D. S. Richardson, William Fiske, and Abiel Rolfe, and by them assigned, at the same date, for $12,000, to William Livingston, Isaac Farrington, Daniel S. Richardson, Sidney Spalding, Samuel Horn, Horace Howard, Abiel Rolfe, and Ignatius Tyler, all of Lowell. In 1854 I was chosen treasurer of the Salem Steam- boat Company and my recollections of that period are given from memory. A steamboat called the Argo had been purchased for the sum of $25,000, and was run regu- larly from Phillips' Wharf to the island and back so as to connect with the trains from Lowell. The services of George W. Larrabee had been secured as landlord at the house. Mr. Larrabee was a very efficient manager and the establishment was conducted to the satisfaction of its patrons. He was a model landlord, and my intercourse with him was of the pleasantest nature. But even under his management the house did not pay the running ex- penses. What was gained by the house was swallowed up by the expense of running the steamboat, so that at the end of the season the proprietors were somewhat dis- appointed with the problem they had so laboriously tried to solve. Under these circumstances it was decided to put the whole establishment under the hammer and close it out at auction. By vote of the corporation, power was 344 OLD llESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. given to the president and treasurer, Messrs. Phillips and Gilman, to convey the property to the purchaser. I think it was extensively advertised, but there was a small attendance and bidding was not very lively. The buyer, by the conditions of the sale, was to assume the whole indebtedness of the company, some $25,000. The accounts, according to the best of my recollection, ex- hibited a total of nearly $70,000 expended upon the island for land, buildings, furnishing, and steamer. The property was struck off to Samuel Horn, who bid a small sum. above the liabilities. A previous arrangement had probably been made by Mr. Horn with the other propri- etors to perfect a re-organization of the company, or else his bid was waived and he took a mortgage, as I find from the records this was done Aug. 7, 1855. Thus my position as treasurer was vacated. At one time, while I was at the island, an incident occurred which I can record at this distance of time without fear of a charge of being egotistical. There had been an easterly storm and its effects were displayed by the heavy waves as they rolled in their majestic pro- portions toward Salem harbor. Their appearance attracted the crowd assembled at the house, the piazza of which on the northeasterly side was well filled with delighted spectators. From this position the view took in Baker's Island. A man was seen standing on its shore waving a white handkerchief as a sign of distress. Not knowing how serious such a call might be, and thinking only how to relieve the person who evidently needed assistance, I immediately made my way to a boat* hauled up on the beach near the steamer. Finding that singly 1 should not be able to drag it down to the water, I appealed for help to a young man from Salem who was fortunately near. There were two oars and a paddle in LOWELL ISLAND. 345 the boat which we launched, and I asked the young man if he could steer a boat ; he said he would try, and relying on that we started, very much against the expressed wishes of Mr. William Livingston, who, from the deck of the steamer, shouted to us that such a boat could not ride such a sea, that we would be drowned and that he positively forbade us ! We were afloat and must go on. I threw my whole strength into the oars, but the tide and wind both being against us we could make no head- way past the steamer. I requested the young man to put the boat's bow dead against the wind, which he did, and then we gained. It was glorious, riding now on the crest of a wave and anon in the trough between two waves, apparently lost to those who were watching us from the island. Our progress was slow but with little apparent danger. The buoyancy of the skiff was very much in our favor as it rode like a sea-bird on the water. It seemed to us but a short time ere we reached Baker's Island, although it was a mile distant, and found the wrecked mariner sitting on a rock close to the water's edge. We took him in and inquired of him the cause of his trouble. He stated that he and his mate started from Salem to have a sail down the harbor. While sailing along under the lea of the island, about three- quarters of a mile from the spot he occupied, the boat capsized and sank. He had taken his partner, who could not swim, on his back and brought him half a mile when he was so exhausted that he was obliged to let him go, and he sank beneath the billows. We commenced to return, and had not proceeded more than four boat's lengths from the shore, when I noticed just below the surface of the water what looked like the top of a boat's mast. This led me to doubt the man's story. The whole transaction became plain at once. As long as the 346 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. boat kept under the lea of the island she was safe but when she shot out from the southern point of it the full force of a stiff easterly breeze struck her and she cap- sized. Her hull being the heaviest part of her, sank but a very short distance from the shore with her mast standing upright. We conveyed the man safely to Lowell Island, where he was refreshed with a good dinner, his clothes dried and a passage given him on the steamer, from whose deck, after the ebb tide, could be seen about two feet of the boat's mast above the water. Subsequently, from a Salem paper, we learned that the seamen, fresh from a voyage, chartered a sail-boat, supplied themselves with an abundance of ardent spirits, and started to have a time. They probably, in sea-par- lance, got half-seas over, belayed the sheet and let the boat take care of herself. To resume the subject of transfers : The last that I recorded was the assignment of the mortgage to the Savings Bank, and by that institution to Lowell parties June 20, 1854. The next record is dated July 10, 1857, on which date the original mortgage to Phillips was dis- charged and released. This was mortgage number one. March 27, 1854, it was mortgaged by the president and treasurer to Sidney Spalding and Stephen H. Phillips, trustees. This was mortgage number two. Jul}^ 10, 1857, this mortgage was discharged and released. Aug. 7, 1855, it was mortgaged by the treasurer to Samuel Horn, John Avery, Horace Howard, Daniel S. Richardson, Ignatius Tyler, William Fiske, Joshua Con- verse, Sidney Spalding and George W. Larrabee. This was mortgage number three. June 15, 1857, said mort- gage was discharged. July 10, 1857, the establishment, including steamboat, was sold by Gorham L. Pollard. LOAVELL ISLAND. 347 This is the last mention made of the steamboat, as she was sold by Mr. Pollard. Her last enrollment at the Custom House in Salem was in 1857. Willard P. Phillips informs me "that in the summer of 1861 the Argo was a guard boat on the Potomac, armed with cannon and protected, I fear, only by wood, but nevertheless she passed the rebel batteries safely. It happened that my younger brother was detailed to service on her." Mr. Pollard was connected with the Lowell Museum from 1849 to 1851; followed the business of baker from 1853 to 1855, and was owner and landlord of the island for nearly ten years. At the date of his purchase of the island he mortgaged it to Sidney Spalding and Samuel Horn. This is nmrtgage number four. Aug. 8, 1861, the mortgage was discharged. Aug. 10, 1869, Pollard sold to Andrew L. Johnson, of Boston, who at the same date mortgaged it to Charles W. Skinner of Boston. This is mortgage number five. Feb. 28, 1871, Skinner assigned to John S. Blair of Boston. Sept. 20, 1871, Blair assigned to Skinner. Oct. 3, 1871, Skinner took possession. Nov. 18, 1871, affidavit of sale to Skinner. June 1, 1872, Skinner sold to Edward J. Coleman, of Hyde Park, and at the same date Coleman mortgaged to Skinner. This is mortgage number six. June 12, 1873, Skinner assigned the mortgage to George E. Poster of Boston. Oct. 2, 1873, Foster took possession. Jan. 12, 1874, Foster assigned to William B. Eichards of Boston. July 2, 1875, Richards took possession. Nov. 3, 1876, Ptichards released the mortgage to Shaw and Shattuck, trustees and attorneys of Edward J. Coleman. Jan. 27, 1877, sold by said trustees to Fred E. Bryant of Boston. Same date Bryant sold to Shaw and Shattuck for $1000. Same date notice of sale on premises of the island, build- ings, etc., by deputy sheriif to Shaw and Shattuck. Jan. 348 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 8, 1878, Samuel Shaw and Lucius A. Shattuck, of Boston, trustees, etc., quitclaim for $4500, to Samuel B. Riudge, of Cambridge, the island and buildings. Dec. 11, 1888, to Frederick H. Rindge, of Los Angeles, Cal., for one dollar, quitclaim to Children's Island Sanitarium. Mr. Livingston died in 1855. If he had lived it is a fair presumption that the island would have remained in the possession of Lowell parties. The proprietors did not anticipate failure and the loss of their funds in generously giving for what they considered the benefit of the public, and it is to their credit that they twice endeavored to sustain, by their subscriptions, the estab- lishment for a permanent summer resort, one too that all who visited it proclaimed to be one of the best on the coast. One of the most enthusiastic of those who made prolonged visits to the island, a brother of Samuel B. Rindge, the last purchaser of the property, repeatedly and invariably spoke of it as superior to any seaside resort that he ever had visited, on account of its location, its healthful and invigorating air, the regularity and promptness of the service that made it so homelike, and its easy access. His opinion may have influenced a gen- erous relative to finally acquire possession of it. In 1888, Lowell or Cat Island was given by Frederick H. Rindge, the owner, to the Children's Island Sanitarium, a corporation duly established by the laws of the Com- monwealth, subject to the following conditions: "That said property shall be used by the Children's Island Sanitarium only for the use and purpose for which said corporation was organized, and as set forth in its articles of incorporation, and the title hereb}^ conveyed is ex- pressly limited to that use, and whenever said corpora- tion shall cease to use as above, said transfer to be of no effect, and the property will revert and reinvest in me and my heirs and assigns." Dated Dec. II, 1888. LOWELL ISLAND. 349 Frederick H. Rindge was the son of Samuel B. Rindge who was born at East Cambridge, Dec, 20, 1820. In 1836 he entered the counting-room of Messrs. Parker & Blanchard in Boston, as the youngest boy. His first year's sahiry did not exceed fifty dollars, to be increased the same amount for each additional year of service. He is described as having a natural gift for trading. He would make the acquaintance of masters of vessels bound for the West Indies and Spanish main, and intrust to them little invoices of merchandise, to be sold on joint account, and the proceeds to be returned in the produce of the country, thus unconsciously imitating the career of Lord Timothy Dexter of Newburyport. His usefulness and value to his employers insured his promotion and he became head book-keeper and cashier. At twenty-five years of age he became a part- ner in the firm. When he died, May 3, 1888, his prop- erty was valued at nearly two millions of dollars. The new City Hall in Cambridge, which cost $300,000, is a gift to the city from his son, Frederick H. Rindge of California, a native of the place, and was formally presented to the mayor, Dec. 9, 1880. In making the gift he was represented by Col. F. J. Parker, being unable on account of illness to be present. Mr. Rindge is also building a public library and English high school-house, which he will present to the city when finished. A correspondent of the Boston Transcrijjt spent a day at the Children's Island last September, and I avail myself of his account of this visit to show the condition of the island at that time. He says : " Leaving Boston at 9 40 a. m., an hour's ride brought us to Marblehead, the nearest point on the main-land to the island. On leaving the cars the first sight was a party of children, twenty-five 350 OLD KKSIDENTS' HISTOTIICAL ASSOCIATION. or thirty in number, under the charge of a Sister, waiting for the train to return to Boston. These were the children returning from a fortnight's stay at the island, and very reluctant they seemed, too, to go back to the city. " The island, much larger than it appears from the water, con- tains about fifteen acres of land and rock. There is sufficient pastur- age for three cows, and quite room enough for its present purposes. The house itself is a large building, originally a summer hotel. Owing to the lateness of the season the number of children present was smaller than it had been before. Nearly two hundred had been there during the three months' occupancy. Many of the children are unable to get farther than the broad piazza, though often the little < rutches help to climb many of the rocks. " We first entered the house, leaving the island itself for later inspection. A long corridor runs straight through the building, through which a breeze must always pass. As we entered the door, such a charming picture of blue sea, green grass, and grey rocks was revealed through the door at the farther end ! The house is shaj)ed like a large T, the long dining-room being in the stem of the letter, and over it the children's dormitories. Down stairs are long, cool- looking parlors, simply and tastefully furnished, with muslin curtains at the many windows looking out on the wide piazza. A piano, much weather-stained, stands between the folding doors, and is a source of much entertainment, equal to the accompaniment of familiar hymns, and often in the evenings keeping time for impromptu dances. Beyond these long parlors is a pretty, square room called the reading-room, where those wanting quiet can find a pleasant retreat. " Before going up stairs we were taken into the dining-room, where the children were at dinner. They looked very happy and seemed to have excellent appetites. Over the dining-room is another long corridor from which lead off twenty-five little rooms, each con- taining two small iron bedsteads, thus allowing room for fifty children, the number usually present at one time. There are other rooms that can be utilized, and in a remote part of the house a room used as an isolated ward in case of an infectious disease breaking out, though great care is taken that no contagious cases are admitted. At the farther end of the corridor where the children's rooms are, there is a room devoted to the visiting doctor's needs. " Besides the children there is a number of women taken as boarders, who find here rest, pure air, and freedom from care, for a lowp:ll island. 351 moderate charge. The conveniences of the house amply allow for this. A great want is certainly supplied when working women can find such a resting-place. " After enjoying a tour of the house, even to the cupola, from which there is a fine view, we went out of doors to see the island itself. Near the house is a large refreshment saloon, on one side of which is a bowling alley with balls and pins intact. The large room of the saloon is used for a play-room in wet weather, and here also parties are held. Each set of children has a ' sail ' and a ' party.' The rocks on the farther end of the island are rugged and pictu- resque. Perched on two of the highest points are summer-houses, delightfully cool spots in which to read or work on a summer's day. A pebbly beach in a little cove affords good bathing facilities, and here are the bath-houses. When we left, most of the children were allowed to take the sail to Marblehead with us. llow they delight in sailinof." XXVII. Residences on Kesmith Street, hy James S. Russell. Read Feb. 4, 1891. When the Messrs. Nesmith laid out their extensive hind in Belvidere into streets and house-lots, their own name was given to the principal street, which was designed to be a first-class thoroughfare. It is on ele- vated ground, a half mile long, straight and level, and sixty feet wide, with sidewalks ten feet wide — wider than can be found in any other part of the city so far from the centre. It is lined with ornamental trees and bor- ders on a park unsurpassed in beauty. It is bordered by over forty houses, some of which are equal to the best in the city ; and from the occupants of which no less than five mayors of the city have been taken, as well as three others from the immediate neighborhood. A street car track runs the length of the street, affording ready conveyance to all parts of the city. I located upon the street in 1843, and have con- tinued there till the present time. The street was then in a rude state, and only a few houses upon it. 1 have observed the successive improvements upon the street, the progress of l)uilding, and the people dwelling there. Commencing at East Merrimack Street, on the westerly corner stood a double house, owned and perhaps occupied by Mr. Ziba Abbott. It has had numerous occupants, and is at present owned and occu- pied by Mrs. Sawyer. I remember only Mrs. Thompson, Mr. Fifield, Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Reed, Mr. E. S. Hunt, Mr. Charles Ilovey, Mr. C. C. Ilutcliinson, and Mrs. Sawyer. This, pei-haps, was the first, house ))uilt upon the street. KESIDENCES ON NESMTTII STREET. The next bouse on this side was built by Dea. Thos. Ordway, for many years city clerk and registrar. He occupied the house while he lived and was succeeded by one of his sons, who has enlarged and much improved it. He is its present occupant. The next house was built by Mr. Ricker and sold to Mr. William S. Merrill, who kept a fur and clothing store on the corner of Merrimack and Central Streets. It was first occupied by Mr. Ricker, a painter; then sold to Mr. Merrill and by him to the present owner and occupant, Mr. C. C. Chase, for many years the honored principal of the Lowell High School. The next house was built by Mr. Merrill, who sold it to Mr. Caleb Weaver, unless Mr. N. L. Dayton, who owned the vacant land on the corner of Chestnut Street, previously owned and sold to Mr. Weaver. Mr. Moses Johnson succeeded Mr. Weaver, who, with his brother, kept a furniture store in Wyman's Block. Mr. Johnson's family still occupies the house. The house on the other corner of Chestnut Street was built by Mr. Thomas Nesmith, and was occupied by Mr. Charles Hovey, then by Rev. Mr. Atkinson of the High Street Church, who afterwards built and occupied the Manse on Andover Street. The house was sold to the Middlesex Company and occupied by Mr. Whipple, one of its officials. It was bought by the late S. K. Hutchinson, and descended to his son Charles C, who enlarged it, occupied it for a time, and sold it to the present occupant, Mr. Julian Talbot. Samuel J. Varney built the next house. It has been owned and occupied by Mr. Varney, Benjamin Weaver, ex-Mayor E. F. Sherman, and John F. Rogers, whose widow is the present owner. It has been rented to S. P. Griffin, Mrs. Eastman, Mr. Alfred Chadwick, and ex- Mayor Noyes who is its present occupant. This house, 354 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. my house, and the one first mentioned, were the only houses on the west side of the street in 1843, The house next in order is a double house built by Currier & Upton, butchers. It was finished and occupied by them in 1843. Mr. Upton's part was sold to Mr. Joseph Merrill who kept a shoe store on Central Street. Mr. Upton built in the woods, on the present Fairmount Street, the house afterwards owned by Mr. Butters, stable-man on Church Street, and now owned by Walter H. McDaniels. Mrs. James Wight bought of Mr. Merrill and sold to Mr. Samuel Kidder, the present owner of the whole house. Mr. John Currier sold his part to Mr. Seth Pooler, who was long time principal of the Moody School. Mr. Pooler sold to Mr. Kidder, who occupies that part of the house and rents the other part. His tenants have been Mrs. Smith, Mr. J. Tyler Stevens, and the Misses Folsom. The next house was built by the Hon. John Nesmith for his clerk, Henry Phelps, in 1841, who occupied it till May, 1843, when I took possession and have held it to the present time. The house has been changed and enlarged from time to time till its original could not be recognized. The next house was built by Mr. Franklin Forbes, a former principal of the Lowell High School and a suc- cessful agent of the Lancaster Mills. He sold it to Mr. John K. Chase, who turned it quarter way round, en- larged and occupied it while he lived. It was sold to Henry L. Williams, rented to Mr. E. J. Benner, and after his death it was sold to Mrs. Ransom Reed, who is the present occupant. Mr. Williams built the next house, on the corner of Andover Street, and occupied it while he lived. It is now owned and occupied by his widow. Mr. Aiiron Mniisur ))uilt tlie house on the other cor- rksidencp:s on nesmith street. 355 ner of Andover Street. He was one of the earliest in- habitants, and previously lived at the corner of East Merrimack and Davidson Streets. He and his widow occupied the new house while they lived. The house was purchased by the Middlesex Company and occupied by their officials, Mr. Avery first and now by Col. A. A. Haggett, ex-postmaster. The next house was built by Mr. David Dana. It passed from him to Mr. George Motley, who is now the occupant. Mr. William Nichols, a veteran grocer, built and occupied the next house, and his widow lives there still. The next house was built by Mr. Levi Sprague, who sold to Mr. Alfred Chase, who sold it to the late N. M. Wright, a veteran shoe dealer on Central Street. His family still occupies the house. Mr. Jeroboam How built the next house, on the corner of Oak Street. It has been occupied by Mrs. William Wyman, Mrs. Edward Tufts, Colonel Dimon, and a family by the name of Bat- tles, now living there. Mr. 0. H. Moulton, general superintendent of the Hamilton Company, built the house on the opposite side of Oak Street. Then comes the house built by Mrs. Burrows, the widow of Mr. Henry Burrows, superin- tendent of the Merrimack Print Works. Ex-Mayor Stott owns and occupies the next house, on the corner of Por- ter Street. On the other corner of the street is the house built by Mr. Samuel K. Hutchinson, and now belonging to Mr. Charles C. Hutchinson. The next house is on the corner of Sherman Street, not yet finished ; Mr. Lamson, of the Store Service Consolidation, is building a palace there. The next is a cosy house built and occupied by the widow of the late William A. Burke. The next building is a stable belonging to the Sweetzer estate. Mr. John Stott is the builder, owner 356 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. and occupant of the next house. Next stands the last house on the west side of the street, built and occupied by Mr. Thomas Costello, the veteran plumber on Central Street. The first house on the east corner of East Merri- mack Street was built by Mr. F. J. Ladd, and is now occupied by the Rev. Mr. Huntington, of the High Street Church. There was formerly on the lot a small house, altered from a stable by Mr. Aaron Walker, for- mer principal of the Green and Colburn Schools. I do not know who built the next house. It was owned and occupied, at one time, by Mr. Ransom, a carpenter, and by Joseph R. Hayes, the apothecary on Central Street ; sold to Mrs. Guild, and by her sold to Mr. Jason Fuller, the present owner, and now occupied by Mr. E.- L. White. A cottage house stands next, built by Mr. John Holt and sold to Mr. Fuller. It has had numerous tenants, among whom were Mr. P. P. Haggerty and a Mr. Mansur. A double house stood next, owned by Mr. John Holt. He occupied one part and rented the other ; then moved the house down on Bartlett, and built an elegant house upon the site, which he occupied while living. It is now occupied by his son-in-law, Mr. E. Hylan. The next house, on the corner of Chestnut Street, is {i , double house, built by Mr. S. N. Arlin and Mr. Daniel Holt. Mr. Arlin was a furniture painter, but a California fever turned a good mechanic into a clothing- dealer on Central Street. The tenement is now owned and occupied by Mr. Jason Fuller. Mr. Holt occupied his part of the house while he lived. It is now owned and occupied by Mrs. Sarah Holbrook. The Belvidere Park occupies the space between Chest- nut and Andover Streets. In 1843, it was surrounded by a slat fence and occupied as a pasture. Mr. Shepard, RESIDENCES ON NESMITH STREET, 357 the florist, occupied it for a fruit and vegetable garden for ten years. He built upon it a small house, in which his family dwelt and kept a saloon for pleasure parties. It was afterwards sold to the city, with the aid of liberal contributions from the abutters. And now, surrounded by a granite curb, concrete walks, and ornamental trees, enclosing a well-kept lawn, there is no lovlier spot in the city limits. The John Nesmith estate occupies the space between Andover and Wyman Streets. Between Wyman and Mansur Streets stands the house built by Mrs. Paul Moody, who sold to Mr. William Wyman ; and by him sold to the late Daniel S. Richardson, Esq., whose family are still its occupants. On the opposite corner of Mansur Street is the residence of ex-Mayor George F. Richardson. The house was built by ex- Mayor Stephen Mansur. It has been enlarged and modernized, and well becomes its commanding position. The next house was built by Mr. Samuel C. Pratt, the first principal of the Green School. Mr. John Mixer, the father-in-law of ex-Mayor Abbott, owned and occu- pied and sold it to Mr. Addison Putnam, the proprietor of the furnishing store on Central Street. Mr. John Avery commenced building the next house, but sold out to Mr. William A. Burke. He com- pleted and occupied the elegant establishment. His son, E. N. Burke, now occupies the premises. The next was a cottage house, one of the oldest on the street. Mr. Winslow How and a Mr. Cambridge once occupied it. It was bought by Mr. Sweetzer, father of the late T. H. Sweetzer, the standing democratic candidate for gov- ernor. He enlarged and occupied the house. His son- in-law, Mr. Willis Farrington is the present occupant. The late Judge Crosby was the pioneer in that end of the street. He built and lived there ; and his son-in-law. 358 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. W. H. White, now occiipies the premi.ses. Beyond him lives Mr. 0. H. Perry, agent of the Middlesex Mills, in the house built by ex-Mayor J. P. Folsom. Dr. Gilman Kimball built the next house ; which has had numerous tenants, among whom were Mr. Cunningham, a civil engineer ; Rev. Mr. Blanchard of the Unitarian Church ; and Mr. Foss, a mason. The next, and last house, is an old cottage at the junction of Nesmith and Rogers Street. It was probably on the old Tewksbury road before Nesmith Street was laid out. The only one of its numerous tenants I have known was Mr. William Bunker, a nibver of buildings. Pawtucket Street is a rival of Nesmith Street ; and it is claimed that the west and northwest winds, prevail- ing most of the time, drive the smoke and exhalations of the city eastward, to the disparagement of Belvidere. Bat it should be borne in mind that when these winds prevail, the atmosphere is dense, and the noxious exha- lations of the city rise above the air breathed by the Belvidere people, whereas, when the winds are easterly, the atmosphere is comparatively light, and the noxious vapors and health-destroying germs settle down to the l)reatliing strata of the west-enders. The numerous situations eligible for first-class dwell- ings on the high grovmd of Belvidere, are attracting the iittention of people who will soon put Belvidere past all rivalry. XXVIII. Vice President's Report, hy Benjamin Walker. Read May 5, 1891. In consequence of the impaired health of our hon- ored president, whose ultimate recovery we all so ardently and sincerely desire, the duty of making the annual re- port before the Old Residents' Historical Association, at this time, devolves upon me. While undertaking this service with no little degree of diffidence, in view of the completeness and excellence of the annual papers which have been presented ever since the formation of this Association, I am quite certain that, in consideration of the comparatively little time I have been able to devote to this matter, any shortcomings will be charitably regarded. As time rolls on the importance of this Association, as a nucleus whereby to collect and collate any and everything pertaining to the early history of Lowell, becomes more and more apparent, and the value of its collections, even now, cannot be over-estimated. This is shown by the frequency with which its library and its records are consulted, the important data which are often afforded, and the vast fund of information already to be derived, relative to the men who have shaped the desti- nies and enterprises of our city, making it what it has become and giving it especially a manufacturing reputa- tion second to no other in the country, and perhaps not, all things considered, in the world. No other local association, and no other organization, is or can be so well calculated to complete and perpet- uate its history, and thereby encourage its industries, as 360 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the Old Residents' Historical Association. For this reason it becomes us to labor for its enlargement and growth, to exercise extra and earnest efforts to increase its membership, and as its old members, one by one, bow to the inevitable decree for all the living, younger and more vigorous spirits may assume the duties and respon- sibilities, which a healthy growth of this Association already does and ever will demand. To this end the suggestion comes, and it seems to me with unerring force, that with the advancing light of recent years, and not only the acknowledged but proven ability of women to cope successfully with the " lords of creation," in very many of the walks of life, this Associ- ation may, possibly, be making a grave error in allowing their prejudices to obtain the mastery over their better judgment in closing its doors against female membership. The names of women are not wanting who have become conspicuous in the growth and history of Lowell, and there are, at this day, many who are fully competent, and I have no doubt w^illing, to contribute what, it is safe to assume, would prove among the best and most inter- esting papers in the archives of this Association. Surely our constitution admits any j^erson to membership who has reached the age of forty-five years, (if any lady was ever known to acknowledge these figures) and has resided in Lowell twenty-five years, and it seems to me that we are only half accomplishing the good, and half deriving the benefits which we all seek, when we deprive by word or vote, the ladies from rendering the aid and assistance, by their presence and otherwise, so essential in the social and domestic walks of life. The age is progressive, our Association should be progressive, and when we awake to the realities of our former mistakes and blunders we shall acknowledge the ability of the women of the city VICE president's report. 361 of Lowell, and encourage them to come to the front in such labors and good works as are contemplated in the ranks of the Old Residents' Historical Association. During the current year twenty-three new members have been added to the Association, and the following contributions to its library, viz : The Dows or Dowse Family in America; Genealogy of the descendants of Lawrence Dowse, etc. Memorial Sermon; William F. Salmon. Presented by C. C. Hutchinson. Evolution of the University, by Prof. George C. Howard, Lincoln, Neb. Unitarian Church, Chelmsford, Mass. Presented by Bradley Marshall. Pride's History of Tewksbury. Presented by Bradley Marshall. Smithsonian Institute Report for 1888. State Library Bulletin, University of the State of New York, Albany. Hyde Park Historical Record, Vol. I, No. 1, April, 1891. Report of the President of Yale University for 1890. Thirty-eighth Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Annual Report of the Woburn Library, 1890. Dedham Historical Register, Vol. II, No. 2. Complete Files of Lowell Morning Mail. Presented by Alfred (Jilman. Register of the University of California. Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Buffalo His- torical Society, 1890-91. Proceedings of the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1890-91. During the year nine members of the Association have departed this life : Isaac Deming died at Woodstock, Vt., Aug. 3, 1890, aged eighty-four years and eleven months. He was for many years an overseer in the Tremont Mills, and his remains were brought to Lowell for interment. Isaac N. Fitts, well known as one of Lowell's oldest and most respected citizens, died Aug. 21, 1890, at the 362 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. age of eighty-one years and nine months. He was born in Candia, N. H., and came to Lowell in 1828. He worked at the joiners' trade for several years, subse- quently entering the employment of the Lowell Corpo- ration as mill-wright, where he remained for nearly half a century. He was a skilful mechanic, and it is said under his supervision the first turbine wheel in this city was put in position and operation. Musically Mr. Fitts was, in early life, quite prominently and favorably known in Lowell, his favorite instrument being the so-called " double-bass " viol, upon which he was a performer of much merit. Before the days of organs he was almost continually connected with church orchestras, and often participated in the concerts and public entertainments given at various times and for various purposes. His last engagement as a performer was at the Fifth Street Baptist Church, only a few years ago, closing with the introduction of a fine organ, originally built for, and for many years located at, the residence of the late Joseph H. Ely, Stackpole Street, it having been pur- chased by this church a few years after Mr. Ely's death. Mr. Fitts served as a member of the common council in 1842, and was a member of the Pentucket Lodge of Masons. He was most exemplary in his char- acter, held in the highest esteem by a large circle of ac(iuaintancos, and was, in a word, an upright citizen and a thoroughly good man. Andrew J. Wiggin, an old resident of Lowell, died Aug. 29, 1890, aged seventy-five years and five months. Mr. Wiggin was born in Stratham, N. H. He came to Lowell more than fifty years ago, and pursued his voca- tion as a carpenter all these years, being employed either by the Lowell or Merrimack Corporations. He was a member of Oberlin Lodge, I. 0. 0. F., and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. VICE PKESIDENT'S REPOUT. 363 John Smiley, one of the earliest and oldest residents of Lowell, died Sept. 5, 1890, aged seventy-nine years and four months. He was a native of Peterboro, N. H., and came to this city in 1883, and, as I understand, was a wood-worker, devoting his latter years to pattern mak- ing. His remains were taken to Great Falls, N. H., for interment. George W. Fullerton died Oct. 12, 1890, at the age of seventy-two years. Mr. Fullerton was the faithful engineer of the J. C. Ayer Company, and was there employed for thirty years, and until incapacitated by sickness. He was a man of much intelligence and re- finement, interested in all that pertained to his employers and the city, and his death was very generally regretted. He was a member of Oberlin Lodge, Monomake Encamp- ment, and the Patriarchs Militant, I. 0. 0. F., and, if I am correctly informed, was a member of the Central Meth- odist Episcopal Church, John Street. Dr. Gustavus A. Gerry, who was the son of a farmer, was born at Harvard, Mass., in 1831, and died Oct. 24, 1890, at the age of sixty years. After graduating from the public schools of his native place, he entered the office of a dentist in Clinton, Mass., where he partially acquired his profession, dental colleges being unknown in those days. From Clinton, Dr. Gerry removed to Gardner, Mass., and remained a few years, coming to Lowell in 1857, since which time he has continued to be prominently and favorably known in his profession. After the Boston Dental College was established. Dr. Gerry took the prescribed course, thus perfecting himself in the details of dentistry, and received a diploma in July, 1874. That Dr: Gerry was* a progressive man in his profession is shown by his connection with several dental societies, being, at times, president of two and 364 OLD RESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. treasurer of a third, and by the large practice which he always had in this city. As a citizen, and with an earnest desire as well as signal ability to promote the in- terests of his adopted city, Dr. Gerry did much, in vari- ous public ways, serving in the school committee and also in the common council and board of aldermen. He was also a prominent Mason, belonged to the Odd Fellows, and was actively interested in the First Unitarian Society. He leaves behind him a character and a reputation such as we may all respect and admire. Samuel T. Lancaster, who died Dec. 2, 1890, at the age of sixty-six years, was born in Milford, N. H., July 12, 1825. His early life was one of peculiar hardship and poverty. His father having died soon after the birth of this son, Samuel was placed on a farm by his widowed mother ; but the labor proved distasteful and irksome to the last degree. At an early period of his life, he was apprenticed to the tailoring business, in Amherst, N. H., where he remained until 1844, at which time, be- ing then nineteen years of age, he removed to this city. With a little trunk on his shoulder, containing all his worldly possessions, and almost penniless, as well as without much education, he arrived in Lowell and sought the residence of Willianj S. Bennett, where he boarded for a time. It is thus easy to picture his advent into our midst, to make his way and fortune in the world. After three years' service with Mr. Bennett, and in the year 1847, he commenced business for himself, on the site of the present Swan Block, on Central Street. In 1852 he moved into the building then standing at the corner of of Central and Hurd Streets, and in 1855 associated himself with Stark Totman, the firm of Lancaster & Totman continuing sixteen years. The firm name was afterwards changed to S. T. Lancaster & Co., the partner VICE PRESIDENT S REPORT. 365 then being Wilbur L. Bates, since deceased, and later Henry J. Dean. Mr. Dean succeeded to the business in 1886, upon retirement of Mr. Lancaster in consequence of ill health. Mr. Lancaster was a director in the Mer- chants National Bank (and also the oldest bank director in the city) ; also a director in the Traders and Mechanics Insurance Company, the Lowell Hosiery Company, and a trustee in the City Institution for Savings. He was also prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity, was twice elected a member of the common council, and was an earnest and a consistent member of High Street Church. He was also not without honors in his military career, having served, to great acceptance, two years as lieutenant whilea member of the City Guards. While mod- est and unassuming even to diffidence, Mr. Lancaster gained the good will and respect of all with whom he came in contact, and so great was my personal confidence in him that, for more than thirty years, I depended entirely upon him for the selection and making of my clothing, simply stating the garment wanted. That his reputation as a business man was without reproach, the places of honor and trust in which he was placed afford ample evi- dence. In his death he was not less sincerely mourned than he was universally respected while living. In the death of Alfred Gilman, on April 8th, this Association loses one of its first, most zealous, active and valuable members. As secretary and treasurer since 1869, two years after its organization, he has in a great measure directed its course, given character to its pro- ceedings, and watched, with an almost paternal oversight, for everything that would add to its influence and pros- perity. Mr. Gilman's early advent into Lowell, his con- nection, in various waj's, with its general interests, his force of character, his well-balanced and well-trained 366 OLD RESIDKNTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. mind, togetlier with his natural taste and literary ability for historical work, have together rendered his labors for this Association far more valuable than would at first appear. We all recognize the fact that Mr. Gilman was, during the latter years of his life, authority on most matters pertaining to the history of Lowell, and he most certainly was so on all with which this society is identi- fied. We can only hope that his example and his mem- ory will serve to stimulate those who are left to follow in his footsteps, and in some small degree to achieve for the future what he has accomplished in the past. Mr. Gil- man was born at Portsmouth, N. H., March 19, 1812, and had, therefore, reached the age of seventy-nine years at the time of his death. As a youth he only received a common school education, and at the age of seventeen years commenced his business life as a printer, first being employed as such at Nashua, N. H. From that place he came to Lowell and persued the same avocation through employment at Tlie Loioell Journal and .other newspaper and job-printing establishments, serving in a variety of capacities. He left the printer's trade to accept the position of paymaster at the Hamilton Print Works, where he remained until 1849, when he was appointed postmaster under the administration of Zachary Tayloi-, the writer of this sketch succeeding Mr. Gilman at the Hamilton Print Works. Mr. Gilman held the office of postmaster one term of four years, retiring after the inauguration of President Franklin Pierce. Mr. Gilman next became landlord, for one year, of the Lowell Island House, which may in some degree account for his faiiiil- iarity with that place, and the excellence ot the paper on Lowell Island, prepared and read by him at the last quar- terly meeting of this Association. Mr. Gilman was an active and ardent whig in the days of that party, and VICE president's report. 367 was several times elected a member of the common council in the early municipal history of Lowell. While courteous and respectful to all with whom he had busi- ness intercourse, he was firm in his convictions, and in his more active days fully able to support and defend his views on public questions, being a debater of acknowl- edged merit. For many years Mr. Gilman had been in the tailoring business, having been connected successively with Leonard Worcester, Charles H. Burbank, and his son Alfred, upon whom the mantle of the father has naturally fallen, as secretary and treasurer of this Asso- ciation, thus still preserving us the name of him whom we have all learned so much to respect, and whose mem- ory we shall henceforth hold in such high veneration and esteem. Leonard Brown, a member of the Old Residents' Historical Association, died Monday the 4th inst., at the age of seventy years, and that this record may be, as far as possible, complete, I have incorporated the follow- ing excellent sketch of his life from the columns of Tlie Morning Mail of this date (May 5th) : " Leonard Brown, whose long and serious illness lias been fre- quently mentioned, died Monday afternoon at his home, No. 7 Durant Street, at the age of seventy years. He was born in Lex- ington, and learned the printer's trade in Concord in the same office with William S. Robinson, who afterwards became widely known under the nom de plume of 'Warrington.' Mr. Brown came to this city in 1842 and went to work as a compositor in 27ie Courier office, and since that time he has been, with the exception of a very few years, identified with the printing business in Lowell. He remained in The Courier office until 1851, when he bought out the Norton job printing office and began business for himself at No. 56 Central Street, in the block now occupied by Robertson Brothers as a furni- ture establishment. He remained there until 1854, when he sold out and was elected city auditor, a position he filled for two years. A year or two later he and George F. Morey, P]sq., bought out The 368 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Lowell Citizen of Mr. Z. E. Stone and the N'ews, of other parties, and published a paper with the combined title Citizen and News. This connection continued about three years when Mr. Brown sold out his interest to Mr. C. L. Knapp, and the business was carried on under the firm name of Knapp & Morey. Mr. Brown remained in the employ of the paper as local reporter until the breaking out of the rebellion. He served Avith the historic Sixth regiment during its three months' campaign, and re-enlisted for nine months' ser- vice. Upon returning from the war he accepted a position as clerk in the office of Adjutant-General Schouler and remained there for several years. About the year 1871 he and Samuel M. Chase became associated as partners in the job-printing business and were located in the Savings Bank building on Shattuck Street. This firm contin- ued for a few years when it dissolved, and Mr. Brown's next business connection was in the job-printing business with H. F. Gove, under the style of Leonard Brown & Co., at No. 56 Central Street, the same number at which the deceased first started business on his own account, about thirty years before. Mr. Gove withdrew after about a year, and Mr. Brown continued for a short time alone. Since that time he has worked in the various printing offices of the city, his last emj)loyment previous to giving up active work being in The Mail office. " He became connected with the fire department during the early years of his residence here, and for several years was associated with Wamesit Three, having suggested the name for the engine when it was added to the department. lie subsequently became foreman of Wamesit, and during his captaincy it became the pet company of the department. It was during his command of the company, in August, 1849, that the company ran to Lawrence to afire, and would probably have disbanded had it not been for the efforts of Hon. J. G. Peabody, at that time a member of the board of engineers. Mr. Brown was a member of the Veteran Firemen's Association and took great interest in the organization so long as his health permitted. He was a mem- ber of the common council from Ward Three in 1853, and a repre- sentative to the legislature from AVard Two in 1881. He was the last charter member of Ancient York Lodge of Masons, and a mem- ber oi" the Commandery and other branches of the order. He was also a member of the Old Residents' Association and Post No. 42, G. A. li. "His surviving family consists of a widow, one son, William Schouler (named after Mr. Brown's first employer in Lowell, for VICE president's report. 369 whom he always entertained the highest regard), and one daughter, the wife of ex-Alderman W. D. Brown. The son is a mechanical engineer in Boston. " The deceased, probably, had as extensive an acquaintance in the city as any of the older residents and by all was esteemed and respected. He was familiarly known by the title of 'Deacon,' and probably but few of his later acquaintances ever knew that the title was simply a nickname. His illness has been of long continuance, and he has felt for the past year that recovery was impossible. He made all arrangements for his end with methodical precision. Few men have died and left behind a pleasanter memory than Leonard Brown." With the foregoing sketches of those who have been taken from onr ranks, and the brief summary of facts connected with the workings of this Association, as they have transpired during the year, I can, in closing, only renew the hope that each member will do what he can to increase its membership, and bear in mind that every- one in our ranks is cordially invited to prepare papers and submit facts, no matter in how plain and unpreten- tious a form, as all contribute greatly to the value of our records. Although in the early history of the Association, it was customary to appoint a committee at each quarterly meeting to furnish historical papers to be read at the next, our late secretary has very faithfully attended to this duty, and, as we are all aware, with great success. Deprived of him, we should all now interest ourselves, and a notice, at any time, to the present secretary, of the preparation of any contribution, bearing upon the history of Lowell, will be gratefully received, and a place assigned for its presentation to this Association. Let each of us, therefore, consider himself under this per- sonal obligation, and we will be assured of future meetings of interest and usefulness. XXIX. Sketch of Lucy E. Penhallow, hy James S. Russell. Read May 5, 1891. Samuel Penhallow, the first immigrant of the Pen- hallow family to this country, was born at St. Mabyn, County of Cornwall, in Great Britain, July 2, 1665. In 1686 he came to Boston, in New England. He joined the church in Charlestown and pursued his studies for the ministry, but soon abandoned that purpose and removed to Portsmouth, N. H., where, on July 1, 1687, he married Mary Cutts, daughter of John Cutts, the first president of the council of the province of New Hampshire. Mary Cutts was born in Portsmouth, Nov. 17, 1669, and in her eighteenth year married Mr. Pen- hallow, inheriting from her father a valuable patrimony, part of which was land whereon a large portion of the town of Portsmouth is built. Mr. Penhallow engaged in trade, accumulated a large estate, and "lived in a style not inferior to any of the first rank in the government." He was early appointed a magistrate, and in the discharge of his duty was prompt, decisive, and a terror to evil-doers. In 1714, Mr. Penhallow was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and in 1717 chief justice of the same court, which office he held until his death, Dec. 2, 1726. He was the author of the History of the Wars of New England with the Eastern Indians. Mr. Penhallow was the father of thirteen children, the fourth of whom was John, born Jan. 13, 1693. He married Elizabeth, widow of John Watts. She was SKETCH OF LUCY E. PENHALLOW. 371 a daughter of Peter Butler of Boston. He was a clerk of the Supreme Court in New Hampshire in 1711, and later was a merchant in Boston, engaged in trade with the West Indies and England. Still later he was en- gaged in a new settlement at Georgetown, Me., about sixty miles east of the Piscataqua, where he hiid a long-con- tinued warfare with the savages. Mrs. Penhallow, writing May 2, 1721, to her kinsman, says: "We met with many discouragements in this new settlement." And he writes to Colonel Hutchinson: "I suppose you have had an account of the confusion and disorder occasioned by the Indians, both at Cork and Garden Island, which has driven the people from Cork down here, who would have gone to Boston, in their fright, if we had not stopped them." In August, 1721, Mr. Penhallow, then governor of Arrowsick (an island at the mouth of Kennebec River), was commissioned a captain "that he might fight for his property and kill Indians according to law and order." He writes, June 15, 1422 : "May it please your Excel- lency, the common calamity of this part of the country is such that the people upon the river and bay are all flying for shelter, and that no arguments can persuade them to keep their houses." " The Indians began their hostilities upon nine or ten families, and took such a number of them as they thought fit ; they used them very barbarously, forcing into their houses at midnight, hauling them out of bed by the hair and stripping them of whatever was val- uable." With this commission to " kill Indians according to law and order," we have this letter, written Portsmouth, Nov. 9, 1728 : " When I arrived in this place, I took care to write to the Rev. ministers of Boston, in your name, 372 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. thanking them for their care of you, in behalf of a min- ister ; since which the Rev. Mr. Colman's care for you has been such as to prevail with Mr. Baxter's son to come among you. I now desire and earnestly charge you to carry it respectful and dutiful to him. Let the Sabbath be carefully regarded and diligent attendance on the public worship. Take care not to begin your weekly labors so as to borrow of the Sabbath. What I write is out of a sincere desire for your good." The son did the fighting and the father wrote the history of the war. John Penhallow had three children, Mary, Samuel and John. This John, the third in descent, was born about 1720, and married (1) Sarah, daughter of Hunking Wentworth, about 1750, by whom he had eleven child- ren. For a second marriage he took for wife Aim Wendell, sister of Judge Oliver Wendell. But she left no issue. Hunking, the tenth child (named for his grandfather, Hunking Wenthworthj was born in Octo- ber, 1766, and died Sept. 24, 1826. Benjamin, the youngest child, was born in 1768. He married (1) Lucy Hart, who bore him one child, named Oliver Wendell, born in 1796 and died in 1874. He married (1) Margaret, daughter of John Scott and Hannah Pearce. They had twelve children and all but one daughter died young. By his second wife, Fi-ances Smith, he had no issue. The second marriage of Benjamin, the father, was somewhat romantic — an instance of love at first sight. Standing in his store one day he observed a strange lady enter a house opposite, to rest awhile on her journey to Portland. He was so decidedly smitten that he sought an introduction to her, and in due time they were mar- ried. She was Susan Pearce, daughter of Col. William Pearce of Gloucester, Mass. SKETCH OF LUCY E. PENHALLOW. 373 Benjamin Penhallow was appointed judge of sessions in New Hampshire. '• His little shop afforded to the public the needles, pins, thread and tape, snuff and other useful and fancy articles, while in the adjoining room the penalties of violated law were decreed with all the rigor which a sense of the majesty of the law required. This little room of justice was onl}^ large enough to admit the magistrate, the culprit, two attorneys and four witnesses. If more appeared they could only look in at the door. The smallness of the room seemed to make the law operations work with more celerity." "Judge Penhallow was a strict constructionist." "He imbibed his father's concientious nicety. If everybody could be made to move with the same carefulness and affability the world would have few accidents to record. The influence of such examples does not die in a single generation." By Judge Penhallow's second marriage he had seven children. Lucy Elizabeth, the eldest, was born xMay 29, 1805, and died in December, 1880. Susan Pearce was born April 29, 1807, and died in November, 1880. The two sisters died near together. Miss Lucy was so overcome by her sister's death that she met with an accident that proved fatal. Ann Calder was born Aug. 11, 1809, and died in 1885. William Pearce was born July 19, 1813; Julia Maria was born in 1814, and died in January, 1873. At this date, 1891, the Penhallow family is not represented in Lowell. The only one of the name residing here, is the widow of Benjamin Hunking, the youngest of the family, born May 1, 181 G, and died March 30, 1873. After Miss Lucy's appointment to the High School, the family, consisting of the mother and four daughters. 374 OLD KESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. came to Lowell and located on Tyler Street, midway on the south side, where they continued until the mother's death ; then the sisters moved to Kirk Street, into a tenement in the biick block on the site of the present primary school-house. The destruction of that house caused their removal to a tenement in the brick block on the south side of Appleton Street, which they pur- chased and occupied while they lived, excepting sister Ann, who was unfortunate, both in body and mind, and who, in accordance with their mother's advice, was pro- vided for away. They were all peculiar, but Miss Julia least so. She was more humble, sympathetic and like other people. Miss Susan was more domestic and subservient. But Miss Lucy was the governing spirit. All acquiesced willingly, in appearance, to her will. They lived by rule well-defined. Each day in the week and each month in the year had its duties assigned. Their round of formal calls must be made twice in a year. Their circle of acquaintance was extensive, but their intimates were limited. On a leisure half-day the trio would start out to do a certain section of the city. Miss Luc}^ on the lead and Miss Susan and Julia, each two steps in her rear. The short calls at some houses and the cards at others would in due time do up that section for another six months. Their distinguishing trait was excessive family })ride. Being descended from a long line of noble ancestors, they were bound to keep up the appearance, at least, of that nobilit3^ No one ever found them in dishabille. Unless all was in order within, one might ring and ring and hear no response. From the fact that the daugh- ters resorted to teaching and a son to a mechanical trade, we infer that the father died leaving them without SKETCH OF LUCY E. PENHALLOW. the means of keeping up a style of living congenial to their aspirations. Benjamin Hunking, the eighth child, learned the printer's trade, and in 1843, went to the Sandwich Islands. There he introduced the first printing-press and established a newspaper. He came to Lowell in 1847. and established a job printing office, doing an ex- tensive and honorable business. He took a more rational view of life and accepted the situation that fortune had assigned him. He married for love, in defiance of family pride. This was the sorest affliction to the sisters. But love proved a sure guide in this instance. His wife was worthy of him and he of her, and the fruit of their marriage was two worthy sons. These their Aunt Lucy, passing by their parents, took the charge of as if they were her own children, conducted their education, lavished upon them her favors, appar- ently intending them to sustain the family nobility. William Pearce, the elder, is in (-hicago engaged in mercantile business, and Arthur Lincoln, though a graduate of Harvard College, turned aside from profes- sional life and is pursuing his fortune on the plains of New Mexico. Miss Lucy, with all her efforts, failed to inspire her nephews with her ambition. They turned their backs upon antiquity to live in the present. They disposed of the ancient relics at an immense sacrifice, handing over to the junk-shop quantities of ancient documents that would have delighted the heart of any antiquarian. They spared only a few things, at their Aunt Lucy's request, among which was the old bible, containing a most extensive family registry. The book is now in the possession of the nephew at Chicago. Of the other brother I have been able to learn but 376 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. little, beside his name and date of birth. He was named for his grandfather, Col. William Pearce, who was a man of wealth and extensive influence in Essex County. Miss Lucy had a taste for literature and art, which she cultivated and employed in writing for various periodicals and multiplying paintings, as she had leisure. She taught a young ladies' select school in Nashua, N. H., also in Haverhill, Mass., and was teacher of the ornamental for a short time in the Dracut Academy. At the instance of some Portsmouth friends residing here, she conducted a genteel school in the Unitarian vestry. In 1840 she was elected principal of the female department of the Lowell High School, when the school was first opened in the new building on Kirk and Anne Streets. Previously the school had been under male teachers exclusively. But in the new building the sexes were seated in different rooms, each with its own prin- cipal, yet the school was united as one, the female department being in some degree subordinate. Miss Penhallow held her position for seven years, having her sister Julia for assistant much of the time. Subsequent teachers have differed from Miss Pen- hallow in many respects and among themselves ; but no one made better scholars or trained them more judi- ciously. Those whose purpose was to make the most of their opportunities, respected and even loved her. But others chafed under her vigilant eye, which looked well to their orderly conduct and neatness and even to their proper carriage on the public streets. The crisis soon came. Certain young ladies con- cocted a suspicious-looking paper in which they mingled their sentences in such manner that each could say, " I didn't write it." It was placed where it might take the SKETCH OF LUCY E. PENH ALLOW. o7' eye of Miss Penhallow in her rounds of inspection. It took, and its uncomplimentary character led to an in- vestigation by the higher powers, which resulted in the establishment of her authority beyond further question. One sentence in this remarkable document ran thus : " Mr. Russell says Miss Penhallow shall never make his coffee." Another anecdote, illustrating the spirit of some pupils at that time I may relate. A certain young lady having incurred the displeasure of Miss Penhallow, the case was referred to Dr. Green, the sub-committee. After the interview with the doctor, her mates asked her what the doctor said to her. " Oh," said she, "he wanted me to kiss him ! " This scandal led to the call- ing in of the doctor once more. Said the doctor to her : " Did you say I wanted you to kiss me ?" Didn't you ? " says she. The Doctor came off second best that time. The Penhallows were an important accession to the Unitarian Church, Miss Lucy especially. She was the head of the female department of the evening school at the Free Chapel for three years, and of the male depart- ment for one year. She conducted the bible class for women thirty-two years, until her death. The Sunday School was held after the afternoon service, which she always attended, and then retired with her class to their room. Her instruction was thought by some to be more dictatorial and oratorical than sympathetic. " She taught as one having author- ity, and not as the Scribes." One of her female friends who knew her well, con- siders her most striking characteristic, " her fidelity in the discharge of duty and in her friendships." She says she was warmly hospitable and glad to receive her friends. She always exhibited a dignified and unwaver- 378 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ing courtesy, and never unbent to her most intimate friends. She was very punctihous in discharging all social obligations. It should be said in justice to Miss Penhallow, that she repented of her neglect of her sister-in-law, en- treated her forgiveness, and would accept of no other per- son to nurse her in her last sickness. I presume there are surviving many elderly ladies — mothers and even grandmothers — who remember Miss Penhallow with in- creasing favor. Even those who once thought her too exacting, have modified their opinions as the juster judgement of maturity has had its proper influence. One gentleman says : " She was a shrewd and effi- cient manager and mistress of her household. She was proud of her inherited gentility, and with some reason." These characteristics agree with my own observation and the opinion of others who have been consulted. As evidence of her efficient management, may be adduced that it is said that her estate netted some $60,000, which much surprised even those who were acquainted with their economical habits. XXX. Memoir of Horatio Wood, hij Jiis Sou. Bead August 4, 1801. Horatio Wood, son of John and Elizabeth (Smith) Wood, was born at Newburyport, Mass., Dec. 1. 1807. The father was for fifty years a prominent merchant of Newburyport, and, for several years, president of the Mechanics Bank in that city. The son was fitted for college, partly at the Newburyport Academy, but chiefl}^ by Mr. Caleb Gushing, who was then entering upon the practice of the law and was employed by several gentle- men to give their sons a better preparation for college than could be got at the schools of the town. In the spring of 1823, I think, the boys and their tutor spent a day or two in making a little excursion to see the busy beginning of what was afterward the city of Lowell. In 1823 Mr. Wood entered the freshman class at Harvard College, graduating in 1827. Beside the excellence of the usual instruction, the college then enjoyed certain new stimulating influences. Professor Ticknor, fresh from the German universities, gave lectures on French and Spanish literature. Dr. Charles Follen, an enthusi- astic teacher, gave instruction in the German language, introduced gymnastics among the students and taught them how to run long distances " with a minimum of fatigue." Mr. Wood's copious and carefully written notes of Professor Ticknor's lectures are still preserved ; he was captivated by Dr. Follen, studied German, practised the gymnastic exercises vigorously and kept up through life the habit of exercising in the open air. The mode 380 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. of running he frequently used, I am sure, until after he was seventy years of age. After graduation he taught school for a year at Concord, Mass., and for another year at Newburyport. He thoroughly enjoyed the year at Concord — his school and the social advantages of the place. Among his pupils were two who afterward removed to this city : Mr. Frederic Parker, deceased, who was for a year secretary of the Board of Directors of the Ministry-at-Large while Mr. Wood was minister; and Mr. James S. Russell, whose suggestive teaching of mathematics Mr. Wood's son enjoyed in his turn. In 1829 Mr. Wood entered the Divinity School of Harvard College. Among his classmates were Rev. A. P. Peal)ody, his life-long friend ; Rev. Charles Babbidge of Pepperell, and Rev. Henry A. Miles, formerl}^ of this city. His real life from 1830 to 1844 is best learned from the following account, written by him, which I found among his papers after his death. It is written in so confidential a spirit, it is so complete a revelation of his early aspirations, that I can only imagine it to have been the beginning of an article in- tended to be read to his brother ministers-at-large at some meeting of their association. My mind was taken by the tirst movements of Rev. Dr. Tnck- erman among the poorest, the most friendless, the most neglected, the most exposed to sin and ruin of our fellow-men. It sli-uck me like the dawning of a new day for the Unitarian Church if it would be not only doctrinally. but practically, truly Christian. Rev. F. T. Gray, Rev. C. F. Barnard, Rev. J. T. Sargent, Rev. R. C. Waterston,* I saw step forward, one after another, and put their hands zealously and vigorously to the plough of Christ in the new field, and my heart went with them. On a Saturday of my *Tliose named were all ministers-at-large in Boston. Dr. Tuckerinan began his labor in December, 182G; Mr. Barnard in April, 1832; Mr. Gray in October, 1833; Mr. Sargent in June, 1837. and Mr. Waterston in 1840. MEMOIR OF HORATIO WOOD. 381 last collegiate year, in 1827,* I went alone and spent a day in visiting the crowded rooms, cellars and attics of Broad Street [lioston], where there was a stifled mass of degradation and woe. I Jet nothing escape ray eyes, heard all tales, sat down and talked familiarly with 4nany till they unburdened themselves and turned themselves inside out, letting rae know all that was in their hearts. I carried away knowledge and lessons which were never to leave me. When in the Theological School, I started a philanthropic soci- ety of inquiries into missions and other plans of benevolent opera- tion, and sought out and invited Dr. Tuckerman to go to Cambridge and address the students on his new experience, which he did with such interest, feeling and effect that I was as clay in the hands of the potter. Soon after I took another excursion alone to the under world and visited the spirits in prison ; went to the State Prison, felt interested in the Sunday School effort in behalf of the prisoners, offered my services as a teacher and asked leave of the chaplain to introduce to the charge of the vacant classes as many of brother students as might feel impelled to come; a proposition which was readily accepted. The next day, Sunday, I entered upon the work with William G. Eliot, now of St. Louis ; Nathanael Hall, now of Dor- chester; [Frederic W.] Holland and others; which was the begin- ning of a train of divinity students from Harvard, as teachers in the prison, kej)t up for years. On this snme Saturday I also visited Lech- mere Point jail, which I found without any chnplain and never visited by any brother or sister of mercy. I talked with every prisoner, male and female, felt my bowels yearn toward tlum and offered to the jailor my own services and that of others, undoubtedly to be procured, in Sabbath instruction to the inmates. I was referred to Sheriff Varnum of Lowell for permission, visited Lowell with Mr. Hall and readily obtained admission at any time for the purpose in view. The jail was then divided into large square cells with from one to ten drunkards, prostitutes, thieves and desperate persons in each. The plan adoj)ted was for one student to be locked into a cell, the keeper retiring to his house, for one hour of talk and instruction with the inmates.f Generally five or six students thus employed themselves on Sabbath mornings. With some of us storms or severe cold had little power to deter from the service here or at * He was then nineteen years old. t At one time Mr. Wood was sliut np in a cell with a single occupant wlio soon showed signs of insanity, and, drawing a knife, threatened to kill him. He appeared not to regard the threat and contrived, unseen by the i)risoner, to throw liis handkerchief out of the window. This attracted the attention of the keeper who instantly released him. 382 OLD residents' histokical association. Charlestown, though the distance was from one and a half to three miles. I went myself on Sundays first to the Lechmere Point jail and from there to the State Prison ; the walk and the instruc- tion were considerable but love for the work made it easy. Thus was I born to be a minister-at-large. In 1832, having completed the course of study at the Divin- ity School, I took the common round of a beginner in the ministry, preaching when invited at Portsmouth, Boston, Providence, New Bedford, etc.; but mere preaching, shifting supplies and a liability to an early settlement were not to my mind, so I decided to seek em- ployment for a couple of years in new societies at a distance, go to work somewhat as a missionary, coni])lete my knowledge of society in all its grades, in its country as Avell as city aspects, and get needed experience. At Fryebui'g in Maine, but for most of the time in the two neighboring towns of Franklin and Salisbury, N. H., I labored with my might to enlighten and liberalize, and to make practical, consistent christians, where darkness, prejudice, despotic creed and resisting worldliness with ruining habits held sway. When the two years were completed, as the two societies were not in a condition to maintain stated ])reaching, I left with most valuable experience and with my powers in a good working condition. I received and accepted a call to settle in Walpole, N. II., but it was too comfortable and dead a state of society to operate in to advantage in following out a missionary propensity, and in four years I withdrew from a ministerial partnership which, when once formed, I had hoped would be for life. Soon I was called to take charge of a society in Tyngsborough, near Lowell, which was in a state of transformation from Calvinism to Liberalism. There was at this time a great struggle for supremacy between four sects; but educa- tion, social life and good morale were in a low state. In this town and at Walpole the most lowly, the most ignorant and unchristian weie made objects of special attention. It was not the Society and the village but those unconnected and unreached, the uncared for cliillarge " origi- nated with Dr. Tuckerman ; that the name was given because the minister-at-large had the whole city for his field — the poor to relieve, the degraded to raise, the well- to-do and benevolent to bring into communication and sympathy with the poor. The Lowell Missionary Society appointed Rev. Crawford Nightingale the first minister of the new institution, who held the situation but for one month, because, upon trial, he modestly thought himself unfitted for the peculiar duties of the place. At the instigation of Rev. Henry A. Miles, pastor of the Uni- tarian Church, the Society invited Mr. Wood to assume the vacant position. He began his labors Oct. 28, 1844. He once defined the work of the Ministry-at-Large to be ''a large intertwined work of religion, education and charity." In my necessarily brief account of his man- agement of the institution, I shall consider it under these three heads of charity, education and religion. During the first years of Mr. Wood's service the number of persons seeking assistance was large in pro- portion to the population. Laborers, chiefly Irish, were coming to the city with their families in increasing num- bers and many of the most industrious had so exhausted their means in coming that they needed aid until they could obtain employment. In 1848, especially, the number of those who really desired work and could not get it was very large and there was much suffering. Beside the able-bodied and industrious, whose passage was paid by themselves or their friends, many infirm and idle paupers were sent here, their expenses paid, from other cities, from the country towns of New England, from the alms-houses of Ireland and, in 1851, from Canada. Confronted by this 386 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. mass of poverty and beggary, Mr. Wood was compelled to adopt a method of alms-giving adapted to the limited means under his control and calculated to lessen pauper- ism instead of increasing it. He always relieved extreme suffering whether there was money in the "Poor's Purse" of the Ministry-at- Large or not ; that is, no one should starve or freeze if he could help it. Beyond that, he employed the means of the Ministry-at-Large only to relieve those who were temporarily disabled by sickness or other misfortune. One exception he made to this rule ; he gave slight con- tinuous assistance to some aged or infirm persons who could almost support themselves and were anxious to do their utmost to escape the alms-house. He strove to furnish the needed relief as far as possible without the expenditure of money. Sometimes the applicant had well-to-do relatives who could be shamed into doing for him ; or he only needed work which could be got by inquiry ; perhaps he was a member of a church able to do for him and willing if his wants were known ; or he could be assisted to some other town where he might reasonably expect to do better. Still, when ail these per- sons were disposed of, there remained two classes ; the first comprising those poor by reason of idleness and vice ; the second, those permanently disabled by illness or accident, and those families which had lost the earning members. For these last there was only relief from the city gov- ernment and the dreaded alms-house. As to the idle and vicious, he would not see them starve, but he thought they should be well pinched into adopting better courses. Before giving anything to an applicant, unless it were a little dole of food, he made a, thorough investigation into his circumstances, learned his reputa- tion willi res])e<'tal)le neighl)ors, visited his lunue and, if MEMOIR OF nORATIO WOOD. 387 he suspected imposture, did not hesitate minutely to examine the premises. He sometimes made ludicrous discoveries of hidden treasure — food, furniture and clothing given by the recklessly benevolent. H(! did not search for impostors alone, but also for those shrinking poor who suifered in secret and were ashamed to beg. In the very coldest weather he used to go rapidly through the crowded districts to see if any were without fuel. In these tours of investigation he received nnich information voluntarily given by those warm-hearted poor who felt for others poorer than themselves. Mr. Wood's unwillingness to assist the undeserving frequently brought him, at first, into conflict with the well-to-do and benevolent. It must be remembered that in "1844, most New Englanders had seen little of real or feigned poverty and did not know how to deal with it. They made a feeble resistance, if any, to the fluent beggar with his tale of woe and exnggerated expressions of gratitude. The city then swarmed with beggars run- ning from door to door ; ladies gave freely and reported the cases to Mr. Wood. When he refused to give aid they were indignant and thought him hard hearted, but, after being repeatedly duped, they learned to have con- fidence in his judgment and resolved to give only through him. In a few years he Avas able to say, in one of his reports, that street beggary had almost entirely ceased. During Mr. Wood's twenty-four years of service as minister-at-large there were at least five ])eriods when there was unusual suifering from poverty : from 1846 to 1848, owing to an excessive inmiigration ; in 1850-51, a time of depression in manufacturing when the mills were partly closed ; during the connnercial crisis of 1857-58 ; at the beginning of the War, and at its close. 388 OLD KESIDENTS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. • In 1857, the stoppage of business, the lack of employ- ment and the consequent poverty were general, but the unusual efforts made by citizens to raise funds for char- itable uses went far to meet the difficulty. Early in the War a majority of the manufacturing companies closed their mills, some even selling out their suj^plies of cot- ton ; their action at that time formed a marked excep- tion to their usual consideration for the welfare of the operatives which it is not pleasant to recall. A more unselfish policy would have been as much to the advan- tage of the mills as to that of the work-people they em- ployed. There was then a good deal of suffering and Mr. Wood found it very hard to get money to relieve it. Mat- ters grew much worse toward the close of the War in consequence of a rise in the prices of food and clothing, much more rapid than the rise in wages. He says in his report for the year ending in October, 1864 : "In the cotton-manufacturing district of Lowell, the wearing of cotton cloth was entirely abandoned by not a few. I have never known so many people to live so low. Some came down to two meals a day, others to only one." One who Avell remembers that time said to me recently : " Women and children came in early winter to the office of the Ministry-at-Large wearing but one thin garment with no underclothing. I stripped our house of all we could spare, and was obliged to buy poor cotton cloth for the Ministry at fifty cents a yard. At the sewing school we made undergarments from the fragments discarded by societies working for the sokliers." This Avas almost the only time that Mr. Wood had the pain of seeing extreme suffering which he could not relieve. He spent all he dared in excess of" the charity fund at his disposal and found it almost impos- sible to oljtain money from citizens. Their purses and MEMOIR OF nOKATIO WOOD. 389 their generosity had been exhausted to furnish supplies for the Sanitary Commission, for soldiers, sailors and their families. But, while worthy poor were barely kept alive, impostors were posing as soldiers' widows with success. The sum of money expended each year by the Ministry-at-Large for charitable purposes was called the Poor's Purse ; it was at Mr. Wood's disposal and he had to account for it. He was obliged, especially in the earlier years, to raise a good part of it himself, and by every possible device. He organized courses of lectures ; when people got tired of these, he had, for several years, floral sales on the Fourth of July, and a great labor they were for him and for Mrs. Wood ; later he arranged promenade concerts. During the latter half of his term of service more money came in of itself and he had less labor; still the furnishing of the Poor's Purse was always a source of care and anxiety. When Mr. Wood began his ministry in 1844, he found here an unusual degree not only of poverty but of ignorance. A large proportion of the Irish immi- grants were unable to read and write. Two months after his arrival in the city he opened an evening school on two evenings a week at the Free Chapel on Middlesex Street ; the third school of the kind in New England. The inconvenience of the place for the purpose was enough to have deterred most men from the undertaking. Tlie Ministry-at-Large had then the use only of the second story of the l)uilding ; tliis story contained the audience-room and two small dark closets. All the materials of instruction had to be packed into these closets and brought out again weekly. He says in one of his reports: "The starting of the school necessitated much personal solicitation and expla- 390 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. nation.* One evening I managed to gain admission to a theatre of wild and ignorant boys in Belvidere and per- suaded tliem all to drop their theatre and join our school, which they did the next school night. The school in one month numbered two hundred scholars, male and female." t In after years he advertised his schools by posters, placed about the streets and in the mills. In 1846, or early in 1847, the Ministry-at-Large was enabled to hire the whole of the Free Chapel building so that the school had better accommodations and the attend- ance was much increased. For several seasons both stories and the basement were occupied by the school In January, 1853, Mr. Wood opened two other even- ing scliools ; one at the Howard Chapel in Centralville ; the other at the Suffolk Street Hall, in a region densely populated by Irish. The Centndville school was carried on only for two years as Mr. Wood found the labor too great in addition to all his other duties. In 1853 there Avere in all the schools 756 pupils from twelve to sixty years of age; in 1855, 1,000 pupils; in 1857, 1,200 pupils and sixty-eight teachers. These numbers iuclude all those whose names were registered. Usually about three-fourths of those registered came long enough to be called attending scholars. Those who failed to con- tinue their attendance were chielly women who, proba- l)ly, became discouraged by the rigor of the season. The whole nuui))er of pu])ils was about equally divided between the sexes. In the Suifolk Street school there was usually more young men ; in the Middlesex Street school, more }'oung women. None were admitted who attended the public schools. At first none were received * To obtain teachers and pupils. lie had also to make it understood tliat no religious instruction would be given. t Mrs. Wood acted as principal of the female department of the Middlesex Street school for the greater part of tlie twenty-four years it was carried on. MEMOIR OF nORATIO AVOOD. 391 under twelve years of age ; soon the age of admission was raised to fourteen, and later to fifteen j^ears. There was always a goodly number of pupils over twenty j^ears of age, and always some over thirty. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were the branches chiefly taught. For several years the privilege of taking books from the City Library, then not a free library, was given at the close of each season to the most meritorious scholars. The greater part of the pupils were employed in the mills. On one corporation, the Hamilton, where especial effort was made to induce the operatives to attend the evening school, the number of those unaljle to sign their names was reduced in three years from three hun- dred to thirty. The eagerness of the young people to avail themselves of this chance to learn, and the deter- mination which brought them out in s^Dite of fatigue and wintry weather were most gratifying. It was most interesting to observe the older scholars, those who came at twenty, thirty, forty years of age to learn to read and write. I can see them now as they sat laljorino' over their hard and novel task and striving to over- come the drowsiness induced by fatigue and the heat of the crowded room. Mau}^ of adult age acquired a knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic which enabled them to obtain ])ermanent employment in place of uncertnin day laljor. In after years Mr. Wood Avns not unfi'ccpiently accosted by those who wislu'd to thank" him for the instruction received in the evening school which had given them a better position in life. Then was he paid for his labor. None of the teachers wei-e paid ; all gave their services, many for two, three 3'enrs or more. Some were teachers in the public schools, and the majority laljored in some w^;iy during the dny. A few Ijecanie so interested in their scholars as to continue 392 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. the instruction after the schools had closed for the season. Mr. Wood organized the schools, procured the teachers, the materials for instruction, and through his influence and efforts the money was obtained to defray the expenses. lie was the acting head of each school. Many of the pupils were unused to discipline or control ; although most of them were restrained by their desire to learn, still a few were disposed to make disturbance. Mr. Wood always had a policeman at the outer door to keep roughs away from the entrance, but he never called the man inside to assist him in maintaining order, as he thought it would lessen his authority to do so. If a pupil was disorderly, he was quick to detect the offender and ordered him to leave the school for the evening. If the boy refused to go and clung to his chair, Mr. Wood put him out at once. Although a small man, he had much muscular strength and never feared that he should not accomplish what he undertook. When a pupil was repeatedly disorderly, he was expelled from the school for the season, but this extreme step was seldom neces- sary. When the Suffolk Street school was begun, it was feared by those influential in that region that, not simply an educational, but a religious invasion of their district was attempted. A strong feeling of opposition to the school Avas excited, and one evening, when this feeling w^as at its height, the attending policeman was absent by some mistake. Mr. Wood saw the hall-way filling with roughs ; there were disorderly cries in the school, and riotous proceedings seemed imminent. He went into the entry, seized the ringleader by the collar, pulled him over backwards, dragged him down the stairs, his heels clattering from step to step, and dropped him on the sidewalk. Tlie other intruders left the entry at Mr. MEMOIR OF HORATIO WOOD. 393 Wood's order, the disturbance in the school-room was quelled, and, for six years, a most successful school was kept at that place. These evening schools were free in much the same sense that the public schools were then free — that is, the pupils bought their books and paid a small fee, ten or fifteen cents, for the use of stationery. The schools were most economically carried on ; the cost of conduct- ing them amounting to about fifty cents for each pupil for the season of four or five months. At first the expenses were paid chiefly from the slender Poor's Purse, but, in 1851, the School Committee of Lowell appropriated fifty dollars for the support of the Middle- sex Street school ; this appropriation was increased upon the establishment of the other schools, and, in 1855, it amounted to five hundred dollars. In 1859 the City assumed the management of the evening schools, and Mr. Wood was relieved from excessive labor almost beyond his strength. Still he continued his school at the Free Chapel on Middlesex Street, raising the age of admis- sion to sixteen years and offering instruction in higher branches — for instance, book-keeping and mechanical drawing. He found that the elder pupils preferred his school where t^iey did not have to associate with those much younger than themselves. During the twenty- four years he estimated that more than twelve thousand pupils attended his schools, and during that time he was absent but one evening, to attend the funeral of his mother.* For about twenty years a sewing school was con- *0n June 29, 1891, after Mr. Wood's death, tlie School Committee of Lowell passed unanimously a series of resolutions recognizing him as tlie founder of evening schools in Lowell, and expressing their appreciation of "the philanthropic spirit tliat inspired him and his faithful band of assistant teacliers to freely give tlieir services " in instructing tlie illiterate of tlie city. 394 OLD residents' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ducted at the Free Chapel on Wednesday afternoons during the colder part of the year, which was under the charge of Mrs. Wood and was attended by from eighty to two hundred girls, the greater part of them of foreign parentage. Mr. Wood's efforts in behalf of religion were less prominent than his educational and charitable labors for several reasons. At first many persons supposed the establishment of the Ministry-at-Large to be a masked attempt to organize a second Unitarian Society ; a sup- position not unreasonable as a few Unitarians then desired that issue. Unless Mr. Wood could allay this prejudice, his usefulness as minister-at-large would speedily end, especially as he had to deal largely with Catholics, a sect peculiarly sensitive to religious interference. By exer- cising the utmost caution and by keeping himself entirely free from affiliation with any sect, he was most successful in overcoming the difficulty, and with a rapid- ity that seems remarkable as we look back upon it ; in a few years he had the assistance, in money or service, of persons of every sect. He was well aware, too, that any reference to religious subjects only repelled the most degraded, and those he most desired to lead a step forward. Charity, physical aid, he once called the "entering wedge;" then came secular and moral in- struction ; finally, the inculcation of religious faith and feeling. It was the more difficult to induce the poor to attend the Sunday services because they wished on that day to rest, to enjoy the open air or to avail themselves of the opportunity to do many things which they could not do during the week. The attendance on the Sun- day services was not large, varying from seventy to two hundred persons. Mr. Wood never solicited the presence of those connected with other churches, but of those MEMOIR OF HORATIO WOOD. 395 who went to no church, and many of them he had to supply with suitable clothing to enable them to come. His preaching was never doctrinal, but of a plain and practical nature. Beside conducting the services at the Free Chapel, he acted as chaplain at the Poor Farm for six years, beginning with 1851 ; then at the Jail for two years ; introducing into each, for the first time, religious services which have continued to the present day. Mr. Wood made the strongest effort to attract and influence the young ; but never admitted any children to his Sunday School who attended the schools of other churches. At the conclusion of the morning service, the children remained for a few moments to receive each a juvenile paper; in the afternoon, during the warmer months, he distributed among them flowers gathered in his own garden. The Sunday School, which he superintended, was held at the conclusion of the afternoon service. It opened in 1844 with four scholars, had in two years one hundred and fifty registered scholars, and in after years from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty. For the enjoyment of the children there were the Fruit Festival in the autumn, the Christmas celebration with its tree of gifts, and on the evening of Washington's birth- dny, and at other times during the winter, social gather- ings at which the children were taught to amuse them- selves in a free but orderly manner. Mr. Wood collected two small libraries for the children, — one of religious books distributed on Sunday, and one of miscellaneous books given out during the week. Some persons, both young and old, attended the religious exercises of the Ministry-at-Large for years, but for many the Free Chapel was a temporary, rather than a permanent, resort. A few, as their condition in life improved, naturally preferred some other place of worship, but many were drawn away 396 OLD RESIDENTS' niSTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. by other churches, which found it easier to replenish their congregations and Sunday Schools from the Chapel than to scour the streets as Mr. Wood did. For the first two years he had the use only of the upper story of the Chapel building, and suffered much inconvenience for want of room. In 1846 the directors were enabled to hire the whole building. School-rooms and a storage-room were arranged in the basement ; on the ground floor were a school-room, an office where appli- cants for aid were received at stated liours, and a room where clothing was kept for distribution. In April, 1863, Mr. Wood learned that the Hamilton and Ai)pleton Cor- porations meditated selling the building. He instantly secured the refusal of it at a price generously low, quickly raised the money from a few persons, and bought the building. The pi'operty was conveyed to five trustees by a deed specifying that it should be used for religious, educational, and charitable purposes ; that the manage- ment should be entirely unsectarian, and that the seats in the Chapel should be free. I have already spoken of the " Poor's Purse," that |)ortion of the annual receipts expended by Mr. Wood, chiefly in charity. The other expenses of the institution were paid from what was called the " General Fund," a sum at first given mostly by members of the Unitarian Society. In 1846, at the suggestion, and largely through the influence, of Mr. John Clark, the manufacturing cor- porations consented to give six hundred dollars, on con- dition that the like sum should first be conliibuU'd by citizens. In 1857, at the solicitation of Mr. Wood, tiic c()r})orations increased their annual gift (o one thousand dollars on the same conditions. Witlu)ut this generosity of the corporations the usefulness of the Ministry-at- Large would have been greatly abridged, if, indeed, its 3IEMOIK OF IIOKATK) WOOD. 397 existence could have been maintained. The sum con- tributed by citizens was given by individuals of every religious sect, who pledged each an annual sum. This list of subscribers to the General Fund was a remark- ably stable one. A little effort, from time to time, on the part of Mr. Wood and of others, kept the list full. Only once or twice, and then at times of unusual distress, was the management of the Ministry-at-Large obliged to make any public appeal for money. Mr. Wood read every year to the Lowell Missionary Society a report of his operations for the preceding twelve months, which was printed and widely distributed. While the greater part of each report was taken up in giving a detailed account of the condition of the Minis- try-at-Large and of his labors in its several departments, a few pages were always devoted to the treatment of some special subject, such as the causes of poverty, the methods of relieving it, the dwellings of the poor, the hours of labor, the effect of immigration upon the wel- fare of the city, the light treatment of vicious youth, etc. These general reflections attracted much attention to his reports, and he was often asked for copies by per- sons living in this and other countries who were inter- ested in the solution of social problems. He also availed himself of his report to introduce to the attention of the citizens of Lowell whatever new undertaking he thought the time demanded. To such suggestions, supplemented by some effort on his part, are owing the establishment of the City Reform School, the appointment of a Truant Commissioner by the city, and the organization of the Lowell Five Cent Savings Bank. 1 doubt if the Reform School ever took the shajie he desired. At any rate he afterward came to the opinion that the majority of youthful offenders would do 308 OLD KESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. better if tliey could be placed, singly, in respectable homes in the country. He said : "Very seldom is juve- nile depravity so deep as it appears to be. It needs only separation from evil and subjection to good inlluences to work gradually, and sometimes speedily, out of the sys- tem." The Five Cent Savings Bank began operations in June, 1854. Mr. Wood was chosen its first president, and held the office until he resigned it in January, 1885, in consequence of physical disability. Any account of Mr. Wood's conduct of the Ministry- at-Large would be incomplete which did not mention the valuable assistance he received from Mrs. Wood. In his last report as Minister he says: "Justice requires that the record should be made on these pages that Mrs. Wood in the evening school, in the sewing school, in the Sunday School, in the choir, in the clothing and library departments, has rendered constant service ; her head, heart and hands have contributed materially to the re- sults in which we all rejoice." It is but just to add that this constant service, which at times severely taxed her strength, was freely given without other compensation than the satisfaction of performing it. During twenty-four years of service as Minister-at- Large, Mr. Wood labored to the extent of his strength, and at one period, from 1853 to 1859, beyond what was wise. In those years his week began with three services on Sunday beside the superintendence of his Sunday School. During tlie rest of the week he began his day by going to his office at eight o'clock to receive appli- cants for aid. Tlie rest of the day was taken up witli visiting, and in the evening came the schools from which he returned home at ten o'clock too excited to sleep. Beside these regular duties there was always some ex- (•e[)tiona.l call upon liis lime and strengtli, and, under- MEMOIR OF HORATIO WOOD. 399 lying call, was the almost constant anxiety : " How shall I replenish my Poor's Purse." Even his iron constitution could never have endured the strain, were it not that his work was lighter in the warmer part of the year when he refreshed himself by the cultivation of his garden or b}^ a summer journey. As it was he broke down three times : once f romM lameness caused by excessive walk- ing; twice he was threatened with organic disease and was forced to rest for a month or two. In 1868, after a long period of distress among the poor, the city became more prosperous and Mr. Wood's labor and care were somewhat lightened. He could con- template with satisfaction the condition of the Ministry- at-Large. That institution, which at his coming he found poorly housed and without form, now owned its building ; its usefulness was generally acknowledged, and its hold upon the regard of the citizens of Lowell was strong. Its resources had lately been increased by two funds, the Dalton and the Holbrook funds, of about five hundred dollars each, of which the interest was to be spent in aiding the poor. He had recently, under pledge of secrecy, been consulted by a wealthy resident of Lowell as to a provision in his will by which the income of the Ministry-at-Largo would probably be largely aug- mented.* He looked forward to having an assistant and to carrying out long-cherished plans of benevolent iiction which lack of means had hitherto hindered his adopting. These pleasing anticipations were not to be realized. * Mr. Thomas Ncsniitli, who rtied in 1870, left twenty -five thousand dollars to the City of Lowell on condition that the city should agree to pay annually six per cent, oj that sum to certain trustees, under wliose direction the income should be e.xi)en(led for the relief of the poor of Lowell. Without binding the trustees to any particular course of action, he exjiressed tlie wish that they should commit the inc(mie to the " Ministry-at-Large for distribution, especially so while the Rev. Horatio Wood, the present Minister-at Large, shall occui)y and fill said onice. . . . having great confi- dence in the present oix'rations of said Ministry-at-Large and in the distribution, etc." 400 OLD RKSIDENTS' IIISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. In September, 1868, the Board of Directors took such action, or rather came to such a determination, as to leave Mr. Wood, in his opinion, no course but to give up liis office. With great reluctance he sent in his res- ignalion, which took effect Dec. 31, 1868. Although he said little of it, his retirement from the Ministry-at-Large gave him great pain ; how intense 1 never knew until since his death. His love for the institution and his desire for its prosperity were never diminished. Before leaving the subject of the Ministry-at-Large, I beg to be excused if I add a word, which I should not venture to utter it" it were merely to give expression to my own opinion. The function of the Ministry-at-Large has been somewhat misconceived. It has been too commonly supposed that it is simply a charitable associ- ation. This limited view of its scope has at times been held by persons (joncei-ned in its management, perhaps to its disadvantage. If Mr. Wood had made himself a, mere routine almoner, the institution would never have attained its present prominence, or have enjo^^ed its present prospei'ity. He defined its work to lie an "inter- twined work of religion, education, and charity"; he believed the final object of that work to be the social, intellectual, and spiritual elevation of men and women^ especially of the most degraded. The institution, while well provided with funds for the relief of poverty, now needs the menus of performing more fully its higher duties. But, however nm])le the; means of the Ministry- at-Large, the extent of its usefulness must depend lai-gelv upon the character of its minister, in whom should ])v found the qualities, not often combined, of force, sensi- bility, discretion, and zeal. When a man of these qual- ities is secured, let those wdiose dut_y it is see that his hands are strengthened and that he is not disheartened by personal care. MEMOIK OF IIOKATIO AVOOD. 401 111 18G9 Mr. Wood fouiifl liimself witliout occupa- tion. He hoped, probably, to find some employment of a ])hilanthropic nature for which he was peculiarly fitted by his experience and personal qualities, but such posi- tions are not common. He was now sixty-one years of age and could not easily adopt an entirely novel occupa- tion. Indeed he felt unfitted, as well as disinclined, for the performance of the usual duties of a parish minister. But if remunerative labor is sometimes hard to find, there is always in every community enough good work to be done by those who will do it gratuitously. tn 1874, if I am not mistaken, Mr. Wood became interested in the People's Club of Lowell. This institu- tion did not originate with him, as some newspapers stated at the time of his death. In 1872, at the instiga- tion of Col. James Francis and Mr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., a meeting of prominent citizens was called to consider a plan for affording a place of innocent resort for those young persons who spent their evenings in walking the streets. A society was organized, rooms were hired, one for a reading-room, the other for an amusement and lecture-room, and the People's Club went into successful operation at once. At first men and women were admitted to the rooms, but the women soon ceased to come and it was decided to admit only men. When Mr. Wood became connected with the Club in 1874, its affairs were somewhat less flourishing than at first, chiefly because the young men who originated it, having their careers before them, were unable to afford the time its successful working required. But soon after Mr. Wood began to devote himself to its interests, the Club revived and the greater part of its management gradually fell into his hands. He procured the lecturers, the periodi- cals for the reading-room, the books for its library, and, 402 OLD RESIDENTS' niSTOllICAL ASSOCIATION. greatest labor of all, the money needed to carry it on. A portion of the money was given by annual subscrip- tions secured by Mr. Wood, but rather the larger part came from the liberality of the manufacturing corpor- ations at his solicitation.* In 1878 a woman's branch of the People's Club was opened in the Wyman's Exchange, on the corner of Merrimack and Central Streets. Two large rooms were rented and attractively furnished, — one for a reading- room, the other for an amusement and lecture-room. Entertaining and instructive lectures were secured by Mr. Wood at the expenditure of much time and labor. These were given every other Saturday evening ; on the alternate evenings musical entertainments were provided, partly by him, but chiefly by an efficient committee of ladies. He discovered, somewhat unexpectedly, that it is more difficult, though it is perhaps even more desirable, to attract young women to the Club than young men. Of late years classes in various kinds of needle-work have been formed, which have done much to increase the attendance. Mr. Wood took great pleasure in the conduct of the Club. Every evening found him at the rooms, a happy observer when they were full.f So far as Mr. Wood had to do with the expenditure of money for the several institutions with which he was *Mr. Wood wrote in October, 1875: "The manufacturing cori^orations have just voted an appropriation for the People's Club. Tliis act is in accordance with their con- siderate regard, from the lirst starting of the mills, for the spiritual, temporal, intellect- ual, and moral cood of those in their employ, as evinced, formerly in grants to struggling churches, now to tlie Hospital, to the Ministryat-I.arge, and to the Mechanics' Associ- ation. This has been wisdom and kindness, and has found its reward in the better lives and hearts of the operatives, with which Providence has closely connected material gain." t Want of space will not permit me to give the names of many wlic liavo given much time to the interests of the People's Club, but 1 cannot refrain from mentioning Mr. James Watson, who has been its secretary from the beginning, who gave Mr. Wood valuable assistance, and who, for the last seven years, has taken his place in its man- agement. MEMOIR OF nOUATIO WOOD. 403 connected, it is noticeable how much he accomplished in proportion to the sums used. He seldom had much left over at the end of the year, for he was strongly of the opinion that charitable institutions which depend upon popular favor thrive, not by saving, but by efficient spending; that for them to save money, is to lose it. He kept the credit of his institutions good by always payhig bills on the quarter-day. He was never asked for money due, but he often dunned tradesmen for their bills. In the disbursement of the Poor's Purse of the Ministry-at-Large, his expenditures several times ex- ceeded the receipts, but only at times of unusual distress, and, even then, he never allowed the deficit to exceed what he knew he could himself obtain in a more pros- perous time. Whenever the end of the year disclosed a deficiency, he was always. 1 am very sure, the only creditor unpaid. His personal expenditure was always limited to his means. In his devotion to the interests of the Ministry- at-Large, his own affairs sometimes sujffered, but never to others' loss. I have known him, when the payment of his salary lagged, to borrow on his own note the means of paying the very few personal bills he ever allowed to run. He once told me that early in life, when his secret desire to serve his fellow-men had probably already be- come strong, he had made up his mind that he should never have abundant means, and that the lack should never trouble him. This attitude he maintained in spite, I believe, of an inherited tendency to acquisitiveness. He was very successful in obtaining the means for promoting his plans, whether he was asking for money or for personal service. I do not think he ever impor- tuned and he was certainly very sensitive to any chilling rebuff. He really believed that he was doing a person 404 OLD KESIDENTS' IIISTOraCAL ASSOCIATION. a favor in giving him an opportunity to do good, and the result usually confirmed his belief. Hardly any undertaking of his failed, and this almost uniform suc- cess was due chiefly to his quick perception of an oi)por- tunity, his energy in seizing it before it escnped him and to his intimate knowledge of human nature. He seemed to know intuitively what woukl attract and what would repel those whom he wished to bring under better influ- ences. He did not underrate his fellow-men, but often said, toward the end of his life, that his acquaintance with the most vicious men and women had only con- vinced him of the fundamental excellence of human nature. He believed there was no peison so bad that he could not be influenced for good, if one went the right way to work and found the tender spot in liis chai- acter. His res[)ect for human nature was further shown in his bearing. Theie was absolutely no difference in his treatment of high or low. Me was always kindly, never lost conunand of himself, was nevei' familiar, and uniformly exhibited a sim})le dignity which iiis[)ir('d respect. In the spiingof 1884 he sulfeied a stroke of paraly- sis which impaired his ])ower of motion, and, in a great it degree, his ability to speak. At first he struggled against the disease with all his force of will, but, finding the contest vain, he reconciled himself to his state, and, until the day of his death, May 12, 1891, maintained, to the surprise' of all who knew his active temperament, a calm and cheerful existence. It was characteristic of him that, during this time, his pecuniary affairs gave him no concern, but the growth of his gardt'ii, the })i()grt'ss of the seasons, news about old friends, any tidings of the Ministry-at-La,i'ge, or, uu)re particularly, of the People's Club, his latest cai'e, always interested him. In the last MEMOIR OF HORATIO WOOD. 405 winter of his life he insisted upon visiting the People's Club ten or eleven times, toiling up the long stairs to the men's or the women's branch. It was at these visits that his face, somewhat dulled by age and disease, wore its most animated expression. His life was a very happy one ; he often said that he would like to live it over again ; but his happiness and his success were greatly owing to the wise, sympathetic and cheerful companionship he enjoyed for fifty-six years. In ni}^ account of Mr. Wood's philanthropic work in this city, I have said, perhaps, too little of the gener- ous assistance he received in all his undertakings from very many noble-hearted men and women, — assistance essential to the accomplishment of his plans, and fully appreciated by him. If I were to dedicate this sketch of my father's life, it should be inscribed in gratitude to those corporations and to those individuals who gave him encouragement, money, or self-denying service. INDEX Abbott. Abby, 383 Balch, Daniel, 28, 297 Catharine T., 383 Perley, lOl, 102, 104, 107 Jacob, Kev., 383 Baldwin, Loammi, 2 James C, 357 Ball, Abner, 28 Josiah (Jr., 248 Bancroft, Jefferson. 92, 286, 287 , 2y Bangs, Edward D.. 294 Bank, Central Savings, 100 First National. 288 Walter, 9G Ziba, 352 Adams, Benjamin. 228, 291 Five Cent Savings, 397, 398 Joel, 128, 248,317 Mechanics Savings, 197 John, Pies., 234 Railroad National, 251, 252, 285 John Quincy, 130 Barnard, Dr. F. A. P.. 174 John K., 29, 95, 248, 324 Gov. , 327 Joseph, 235 Rev. C. F., 380 Kufus, 103 Barnaby, Kev. James, 310, 311 Simon, 317 Barnes. Isaac O.. 248, 324 Smith, 244 Bartlett, Dr. Elisha, 90, 94, 134, 249, 250, 274, Thomas, 228 309 Thomas J., 330 Elizabeth C, 105 Agassiz, Prof. Louis, 79 Ailcen, Prof. Charles A., 114 Homer, 252 Dr. Josiah, 125 J. C.,276 Dr. Levi S., 134 John, 114, 252, 274, 312 Luella J.,125 Solomon, 2 Barrett, John, 246, 256 Allen, Charles H., 140, 245 Moses, 223 Elisha 244, Barron, Jonathan, 331 Mehitable, (Oliver) 152 Oliver, 332 Moses, 152 Samuel, 228 Dr. Nathan, L. L. D., 121, 250 Moses, 224, 225, 228 Biographical Sketch of, 151-163 Barry, Kev. William, 248 Otis. 244. 245 William P., 109 American Venice, Some account of, 182-191 Bassett, Alfred V., 87, 96 Ames, Jacob, 284 Mary, 167 Oliver, 204 Batchelder, Samuel, 88, 295, 298, 299, 300, Seth, 248, 374, 315, 324, 305, 315 Amherst Alumni Association, 162 Bates, John, 228 Andrew, Gov. John A., 159 Wilbur L., 365 Annual Reports of President of Associa- Battles, Frank F., 243, 285 tion, 1888 and 1889, 113-127; 1890, 282-292 Joseph P., 243 Annual Report of Vice President of Asso- Baxter, Henry J., 28, 246 ciation for 1891, 359-369 & Bennett, 246 "Anvil Kock," 64 Bayles, James, 182 Appleton, Ebenezer, 92, 315 Beals, Capt., 265 Nathan, 294, 299 Thomas, 2 Arbuthnot. Col. , 327 Bean. , 97 Arlin, S. N., 356 Beard, Kev. Ithamar A., 248, 307 Atherton & Buttrick, 247 Beckwith, Rev. George C, 248 Atkinson, Kev. , 353 Bedlow, Joseph, 121, 122 Atlas, Boston Daily, 267 Beethoven Club, 265 Austin, William, 252, 311, 321 Musical Society. 24, 26, 29, 31 Avery, John, 252, 346, 355, 357 Bellows, Samuel M., 116, 117 Ayer, Dr. James C, 25, 136, 241, 247, 294, 317 Benner, E. J.. 354 Mrs. James C, 211 Bement, Samuel, 97, 105 James H. B.,28, 29, 95 Bennett, William S., 246, 364 Frederick, 112, 238, 29 Bigelow, Dr. Jacob, 176 Billings, John, 122. 123 Babbage. Kev. Charles, 380 Thomas. 90, 95, 137, 247 Bacheller, Albert L., 107 Biographical Notices of Prominent Citizens Bacon, Dr. Leonard, 45 of Lowell, 293-325 Bagnall, Kev. W. R., 298, 304 Bixby, Daniel, 247 Bailey, F. & E., 133 Blair, John S., 347 Gustavis, 239 Blake's Tavern, 25 Kuth B., 107 Blanchard, Rev. Amos, D. D., 91, 240, 248, Dr. Stephen G., 104 274. 279, 310 Baker, B. F., 109 C. F.,87 Balch & Coburn, 294 Rev. Henry, 358 408 OLD Residents' historical associatio^j. Blanchard, William, 2 Blauey, David, 340 Ellen, 340 IModgett, Orlando, 232 Boai-dman, A. W., 108 Langley H.. 284 Bolles, Mrs. Eliza M., 46 Bond, Francis E.. 324 Prof. George P., 172, 175 Bonney, A. P.. 248 Books, Pamphlets, Documents, etc.. Col- lection of, Keceived, 114, 115, 124,282, Boone, Daniel. 42 Boott, Kirk, 25, 92, 93, 110, 113, 16G, 207, 208, 254, 255, 294, 296, 299. 305, 312 Mrs. Kirk, 215 Boston Daily Alias, 207 Boston .Idiinial. ■JC.T Boston Laili.s' I'liysiological Society, 209 Boston iS; Lowell Uailroad, 250 Bcmtwell, Gov., 138 Bowdoin. Gov. James. 339 Bowers, Captain, 223, 224 George, 239 James, 239 Jerathmel, 220 Jolinnie, 239 Jonathan, 95,238, Bowker, Daniel, 341, D. H..313 Bradley, Dr. Peleg. 249 Bradt, Messrs. D. & D. H., 122 Bragg, Maynard, 315 Brastow, Addison. 247 Brazer, William P. & Co.. 247 Bridge, Col. Ebenezer. 326-328 Ebenezer, 326, 327, 334 Kev. Ebenezer, 232, 326 Merrimack Kiver, 1,5, 7. 8 Briggs, Gov., 23, 313 Brooks, A. L , 137 Gov. John, 327,328 Brown, A. K., 248 Benjamin P., 28 Eleazer, 223 Ephraim, 34, 105 Leonard, 367, 368, 309 Leonard & Co., 368 ,29 Brown's Tavern, 237 Brownell, George, 29, 243, 252 Hiram, 243, Bryant, Fred E., 347 William Cullen, 204 Bunker. William, 358 Burbank, Calvin W., 102 Charles H., 367 Samuel, 131 Burke, E. N., 357 Burge, John, 228 Mrs. John, 224 Burge, John, 228 Burke, William A., 355, 357 Burnap, Kev. Uzziah C, 248 Burnham, S. W., 175, Burrows, Henry, 355 Mm. Henry, 355 Butler, Gen. Benjamin F., 180, 248 Peter, 371 School, 100, 108, 109 Butterlield, John. 101, 102, 220 Jonatlian, 327 IMaliianiel. 228 Buttrick, Abner W.. 289, 319, 320 Grovner. 30 John, 343 & Co., 320 Cabot, Samuel, Jr., 401 Calef, Elizabeth, 108 Callahan, C. F., 109 Cambridge, Mr. , 357 Cameron, Allen, 222 Canals and Bridges Built by the Locks and Canals Company, 186 Canal, Middlesex. 25 Wamiset, 190, 191 Carleton, George H., 131, 196, 247 & Hovey, 247 Carney, James G., 251. 273, 274 Case, Kev. Eliphalet. 90, 91, 124-127, 133-135, 250, 274, 309, 312, 314, 315 Merrill E., 311 Eliphalet, Sr., 125 Cemetery, Lowell, 63. 287 Paper on, 272-281 Corporation, 198 Chandler, James. 319 Mary, 34 Chase. Alfred, 355 Charles A., 106 Charles C, 17. 104, 113, 128 Keport of Old Residents' Histor- ical Association for 1890, 282-290 Biographical Notices by, 293-325, 326, 353 Ira M., 13 John, 304 John K.,58 Samuel A., 100 Chadwick, Alfred, 353 Cliamberlin, Benjamin, 235 Chapel, Free, 101 Chapin, Dr. A. L.. 46 Chance. Brothers & Co., 175 Chatham, Lord, 19 Cheever, , 293 Chelmsford, Early Schools of. Paper on, 217-236 Girl, a Sketch of, 34-42 Location of Early Schools iu 1800, 235 Neck, 24 Phenix, 128, 130 Choate, Rufus, 264, 267 Church, First Baptist, 27 F'irst Congregational, 27 French Protestant, 52 St. Anne's, 27 St. John's, 214 City Dispensary, 161 Hospital, 236 Insiitution for Savings, 162 Citizens of the Town of Lowell, Biograph- ical Notices of, 293-325 Clark, Alice M., 109 Alvan, Autobiography of, 164-177 Alvan G., 174 Alvan, Sr., 164 George Bassett, 171, 172, 174 ,)olm, 2,52, 396, Mr.. 179, 180 Thomas, 178 Tiniolhy, 234, Clay, Henry, 318, 319 Cleinent, Asa. 13 Elizabeth, 107 Cleveland, President Grovcr. 140 Club, People's. 4ill, 402. 4(I4. 405 Coburn, C. B. & Co., ,i20 C. B., 129, 299 C. C, 299 Daniel. 2 Frank F., 104 Henry, 287, 299 Henry, Jr.. 87 400 Coburn Moses B., 2 Feter, Jr., 2 Frescott, 6 Samuel A., 294, 296,297, 312 Warren, 166 Coe, Dr. David B., 46, Cogswell, Jolm. 101, ;05, (jolburu, Warren, 87, 295, 299, 304, 306, 307 Keniiniscences of, 179-181 Coleman, Edward J., 347, liev. Mr. ,372 Conley, George H., 100, 109 Collins, I'ataick, 99 Connelly, Kev., 98, Converse, Joshua, 346, Cook, James, 252. 274 Cookson. Kev. John, 307, 308 C()oi>er. Kev. .loab G.. 205 Cotimi. ^aiiiiK-1,2 t'orv. Alls. Thomas. 224, 225 Costfllo, TlKimas, 35U Cotta Island, 338 Cook, Calvin. 210 Cookson. Kev. John, 307, 308 Corliss, Horatio G. F.. 330 John, 337 Sarah b\, 337 Court, Kev. Kobert, 249 Cowley, Charles, 330, 331 Cram, Thomas F., 97 Crosby, Dr. Alpheus, 300 Dr. Asa, 300 Dr. Dixi, 300 Josiah, 91, 300, 309 JVathan, 52, 58, 300, 357 Thomas, 300 Crowell, Albert, 2.50 Cunningham. Mr. , 358 Currier, Mood\ , 242, 243 John, 354 Nathaniel, 29 & Upton, 354 Cushing. Gen. Caleb, 313 ■ Caleb, 379 Daniel, 115, <& Mack, 215 Oliver K, 287, 290 & Upton, 354 Cutler, Kev. Benj. C, 208 Cutter & Walker Manufacturing Co., 288 Cutts, John, 370, Mary, 370 Dalton, Dr. John C, 91, 243, 249, 250, 251 Fund, 399 Dana, David, 247, 274, 355 Dr. Samuel L., 82 Dane, Osgood, 238, 319 Danes. John, 228 Davenport, Kev. John, 44 Davidson, John, 315, William, 315, 316 Davis, John, 228 Dawes. Kev. W. R., 173, 174 William, 331 Dayton, N. L., 3.53 Dean, Henry J., 365 Sarah, 34 Deming, Isaac, .361 Depot. .Mlddlese.v Street. 62 De.xter, Lord TinioMiy. 349 Dispensary, City, Uil Dodge. Mrs. Fidelia O., 107 Dow, .laiiifs i;., 210 l)r;iiK'r, i)v. llfiuy, 175 Duianl .& Kojicrs, 1.33, 136 Dusliii, Uanuah, 40 Dutton, S. S., 102 Dwight, Mills, 285 Eagan, Jamas. 99 Earl, William D., 329 Eastern Argus, 126 Eastman, Helen K., 105 Luke, 30. 248 Mrs., 353 Eaton, Rev. Dr. , 207 • Moses F., 101 Samuel C, 123 Edson, Benjamin, 202 Cemetery, 277 Miss E. M., 202 John, 202, Josiah, 204 Orphanage, 213 Samuel, 203, 204 Kev. Theodore, 28. 87. 88. 89, 90, 91. 93, 96, 1 10, 240, 241 . 248, 277, 295, 290, 299, 304, .'iOS, 307. 310-312, 316 Memoir of, 202-216 Eliot. Dr. Charles Wm., 181, William G., 381 Ely, Joseph H.. 362 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 222 Mr. , 224 Endicott, Gov. , 338 Z., 338 Enquirer, Cincinnati, 126. 134 Espy, Mr. , 244 Evarts, Hon. William M.. 40 Fairbanks, G. O., 97 Farriugton, Isaac, 343 Willis, 357 Farrar, John, 228 Farnsworth, C. H.. 106, 109 Fellows, I. W. & J. K., 247 J. K., 248 Fifleld. Mr. , 352 First Baptist Church. 27 Congregational Churcb. 27 Fisher, A. Waldo, 321 John. 87 Samuel S., 121 Fisk, Rev. John, 220, 221 J. K., 97 Fiske, Albert L., 107 William, 253, 342, 343, 340 Fitts, Isaac N., 361, 362 Fletcher, Benjamin. 235 Joshua, 223, 228 Joshua, Mrs. 222 Josiah, 228 Josiah, Jr.. 2 Mary E., 107 Oliver, 229*, 230 Samuel, 221, 222 Samuel, Jr., 222 William. 228 Flint & Hutcliinson. 133 Oliver W., )84, 285 Follen, Dr. Charles, 379 Folsom, J. B., 358 Misses , .354 Forbes. Franklin, 241, 354 Ford, Deborah, 337 Elisha, 6, 8, 95, 312, 313, 314, .337 Elisha, Capt., 239 Horatio, 337 John, Capt., 2, 4. 5, 233, 313 Memoir of, 326-337 John, Jr., 337 Prudence, 337 Robert, 329 Sarali. 337 Foss, Mr. , 358 Foster, Deacon, 223 Mrs. Deacon, 222 410 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Foster, Eben, 228 Edward, 228 George E., 347 Joseph, 228 Joshua, 223 Samuel, 224 Foster's Tavern, 237 Fox„Dr.'!Lorenzo',S., 200 Dr. Jesse, 302, 312 Gustavus v., 241,303 H. Amanda. 106 Francis, James, 401 James B., 11,252, 2!)6 Freeman, Rev. E. W., 90, 91. 309, 310 Free Chapel. lOl, 241, 389. 393, 391, 395, 39C French, Amos B., 288 Benjamin, i Benjamin F., 252 Cyril, 29, 211, 242, 317 Henry N., 241, 242 Joslah B., 320 Protestant Church, 52 & Buffer, 288 Friends, Society of, 18 Frink, Thomas, 229 Frost, Elizabetli W., 107 Fuller, Eliza, 248, 324, 325 Jason, 350 Perez, 246 FuUerton, George W., 363 Gage, Daniel, 287 Galloupe, Daniel P., 108, 289, 290 Gannett, Dr. E. S., 385, Gardner, Rev. Dr. , 208 Rev. Calvin, 91 , 310 Gardiner. William, Jr., 90, 91, 308, 309 Garity, Thomas R., 122 Gas Light Company. Lowell, 287 Gates, Capt. , 168 Josiah, 121 Geological Exi)lorations, Paper on, 00-86 Gerry, Edwin J., 265 Gov. Elbridge, 339 Dr. Gustavus A. ,'303, 364 Gerhardt, Dr. ,210 Giddings, George, 101 Giles, J. B., 98 Joel. 178 Gillis, Henry C, 247 Gilman, Alfred, 10, 87, 136, i;57, 142. 209, 296, 338, 365, 366, 367 Ward, 137 Glidden, Elisha,.92, 248, 324 Goodhue, Stephen, 137 Thomas P., 13/ Goodwin, Isaac, 139 John A., 138. 139 William, 28. 29 Gould, Natlianiel D., 28 Gove. H. F.. 368 Grant, President U. S.,99, 139 Graves, ,Iacob. 97, 100 John W., Dr., 249, 274, 311, 312, 325 Thomas M., 109 William, Dr., 249 Gray, Prof. Asa, 177 Rev. F. T., 380 Great Republican Monlhiy, 270 Green, Rev. Aaron, 305 Dr. John O , 2, 88, 91, 106. 118, 128, 209, 210, 238, 240, 249, 295, 299, 304, 305, 306, 307. 331, 336. 377, 384 Letter from, 110-112 Nancy H.. 106 Greene, Rev. J. M., D. D., 43 William S., 105 , Dr., 206 Greenleaf, Daniel G., 118 Griffin, Ebenezer, 5 S. P., 353 Griswold, Rt. Rev. Alexander V., 28, 205, 208 Guild, Willard. 316 Mrs. , 356 Haggerty, P. P., 356 Haggett, Albert A., 140, 149, 355 Allen, 140 Hale, P., 95 Hall, Asaph, Prof., 175 Ebenezer, 2, 3 Nathanael, 381 Suffolk Street, 390 Hamblet, , 11 Hanks, Rev. Stedman W., 248 Hanscom, S. K., lot Hare, Dr. , 177 Harrison, Bertman, 109 Glee Club, 265 President Henry, 134 Hart, Lucy, 372 Haselton, St. Peter, 6 Hastings, Horatio W., 321 Haven, Samuel F., LL.D., 311, 324 Hayden, Mr. , 215 Hayes, Joseph R., 356 Heald, Benjamin F., 34 Ephraim, 41 John, 34 Mary C, 34, 40, 41,42 Mary, 40 Healey, N. D., 97, 102 Heath, Lyman, 109 Henians, Mrs., 264 Henry, Prot. Joseph, 177 Herschel, , 174 Heydock, William T., 311, 324 Heywood, A. B., 104 Edwin, 231 Hildreth, Fisher A., 116, 137, 138 Dr. Israel, 12, 138 William, Jr., 2, 324 Hill, Cornet, 223 Hillard, Francis, 324 William, Jr., 324 Hills, Reuben, 96 Hitchcock, Dr. Edward, 85, 170 Hoar, Silas, 6 Hobart, L. Smith, 51 Hobbs, Mr. , 128 Francis, 245 Holbrook Fund. 399 George, 97 iMrs. Sarah. 350 Holden, Artemas. 6, 238, 239, 295, 297, 312 Frank, 239 , 112 Frederick A., 297 Jr., 297 Holt, Daniel, 356 .John, 356 Home, Old Ladies', 284 Hooke, Rev. William, 44 Hopkins, (irainiiKU- School, 45 Hopkiiisoii. IhoiiKis. 24,s Holland. KrcdiTic \V.,.!si, Horn, Samufl, -'44, 341, 342, 343, 344, 340 & Allen, 245 Hospital, Lowell, 112 St. John's, 25, 161 House, Old Yellow, 17 Mansion. 25, 34 Storie, 294 Hovey, Abijah, 201 ^Charles, 132, 215, 247, 274, 352, 353 411 Hovey, Charles, Memento of, 193-201 Daniel, 201 Eev. Henry E., 201 John, 201 Luke, 201 Solomon, 20i William. 201 Howard Chapel, 390 Horace, 346 Jeroboam, 355 Samuel. 319 How, Winslow, 357 Howe, George W., 107 Sally. 201 Hubbard, Mr. , 352 Samuel, 295 Huggins. , 173, Hurd, Thomas, 302 Hunt. E. S., 352 Hutchinson, Charles C, 352, 353, 355 S. K.. 353, 355 Bunking, Benjamin. 373, 375 Huntress, Leonard. 254 Huntington, Rev. Charles W., 356 Dr. Elisha, 28, 88, 91, 240,2 250, 251, 302, 309, 310 Hylan, E., 356 Institution for Savings, City, 162, 251 Irish, Cyrus W., 109 Jackson, Pres. Andrew, 19, 126, 131, 308 Patrick T.. 120 Jewett, Dr. JereniiMh. 211 Johnson, Andrew L., 347 Dr. Herbert S., 200 John. 90, 308 Moses, 353 Journal, Boston, 267 Kendall. . 255 Kidder, Samuel, 354 Kimball, Amasa, 29 Dr. Gilman, 249, .sio, 358 Jonathan, 101, 102, 1 03 King, Daniel P., 207 Thomas Starr, 267 Kirkland, , 206 Kittredge,C.,87, 247 J. G. & W., 81, 247 William, 81,323 Knapp, C. L., 368 & Morey, 368 Knowles, John A., 248, 296, 320 J. K.. 320 Knowlton, J. S. C, 166, 307, 314 Knott, , 173 Ladd, F. J., 356 Lambert, Henry A., 329 Lamson, William S., 355 Lancaster, Samuel T., .364 & Totman, 364 Larrabee. George W., 343, 346 Lawrence, Luther. 92, 250, 251 , 295 Samuel, 252, 274 Lawson, Thomas B., 82, 83, 120 Lawton, George F., 106 Leavitt, Erasmus D., 247, 323 Leeds, Rev. Mr. , 210 Leland, Alonzo, 106 Lewis, Joel, 87 Library, Lowell City, 23, 391 Lincoln, Pres. Abraham, i:i8, 159 Arthur, 375 Gov. Levi, 294, 295 Liverniore, Edward St Loe, c, 17 Harriet, Sketch of, 17, 23 287 Livermore, Judge , 25, 217 Rev. S. T.,20 Livingston, William, 253, 274, 303, 339, 343, 345. 348 "Llewellyn Park," 60 Lloyd, James, 295 Locke, Grace Le Baron. 2.59 Mrs. Jane Erniina — Memoir of 259-271 John. 261, 205, 2'.ir, Joseph, 248, 204. .''.24 Locks & Canals Corponition. 61 Loring, Charles G., 170 Lovett, Joseph. 229 Lowell Advertiser. 116, 126, 135, 138 and Andover Railroad, 278 Cemetery, 63, 198. 287 Paper on, 272-281 Cemetery Corporation, 198 Citizen, 137, 199, 200 Courier. 135. 139. 275 Early Recollections of, paper on, 237-258 Ebenezer, 339 Francis Cabot, 294. 299 Grammar Schools, History of, 87-109 Gas Light Company, Island, History of, James Russell, 313 Mercury, 1.34 Missionary Society, 397 Musical Society, Sketch of, 24, 33 Observer, 1I9 Patriot, 138 Republican, 138 Union Singing Society, 276 Vox Populi. 139 Lowell's Islands. 183 River Bridges. 184, 185, 191 Waterways, 182, 183 Luce. Rev. M.. 45 Luther, Martin, 338 Lyman, Prof. C. S..4'j Macham, Randall, 247 Mack, John, 116 Sewall G.. 110,297 Mahoney. Rev. Father John, 248 Mann, Samuel H., 248, 323-325 School, Mansfield. George, 14 Mansion House, 25, 34 Mansur, Aaron, 321, 322, 354 Stephen, 322 William, 321 & Reed, 247 March, Oliver, 247 Marble, David, 6 Marden & Rowell. 1.39 Mare.squelle, Louis De, 2 Marshall. Luther. 205 Marston. Stephen. .•i22 Martin, Mrs. Kate S., Lauriu Mnssacliusetts and Prescott Mills, 285 Mason .S; Baldwin, 16'.), 170, 171 McCorniick, L. J., 175 McCoy, James. 103 McDerniott. Peter, 99 McDonald. Nellie, 109 McFarlin. I-uke, 285, 286 Mclllrov, Daniel. 99 McPhetres, Sainncl, 297, 298, 312 Meachani, Kandall. 247 Means. KolierL. 2r)2 Mechanics I'iialanx, 265 Melvine, Charles, 237, 238 412 OLD RESIDKNTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Memtoers, List of deceased of 1888 and '89, Packard, Rev. Dr., 277 119. 120 Page, Jonathan. 117, 118 Merriam, Horatio, 324, 325 & Cole, 118 Merrill, Abraham D., Rev., 308 Parker, Benjamin. 228 Abraham, 90 Bishop, 208 Joseph, 354 Eben, 228 Joshua. 87, 101, 286, 290, 311 Ebenezer, 235 S. N., 106 F. J..349 Williams., 353 Frederic, 380 Merrimack Manufacturing Company, 24. Moses, 228, 229, 326. 327, 328, 331 25,20, 111 Philip, 234 School House, 27 Thojnas. 221 Metcalf,IsaacN..109 & Blanchard, 349 Metz. Mr. , 31 Parkhurst, James. 232 Middlesex Canal. 25 John, 228 Street Depot, 62 Joseph, 220 Miles, Rev. Henry A., 248, 258, 277. 380, 385 Mathias, 91, 247, 301,312 Mills, Jonathan, 229 & Richardson, 247 Ministry-at-Large. 284. 383, 385, 38G, 388, Patch, E. B., 101.283,284 389. 397, 398, 399. 400, 404 Edith, 102 Miner, Rev. A. A,, 248 J. S., 101 Mixer, Daniel, 92 Patterson. Dr. David N., 121, 151 John. 320 Pawtucket Bridge, History of, 1-16 Mixer's Tavern, 25 Peabody, Rev. Andrew P., 380, 383 Muster-roll of a Revolutionary Company, Joseph. 105 333 Josiah G., 117, 134, 135, 253, 368 Monroe, Pres. James, 128, 130 Pearce, Hannah, 372 Moody, Paul, 113. 129. 160. 299, 307, 357 Susan, 372 Mrs. Paul, 129, 357 William, 372, 375, 376 Mores, Simeon, 234 Pearson, Fliphalet. 206 Morey, Charles W., 104, 109 Timothy, 342 George F., 367 Pease, Asher, 1C9 Morrill. Adam, 29. 103, 105 Maria, 1 69 Charles, 106, 131 Peirce, Benjamin, 233, 328 George T., 131 Franklin, 329 Jonathan, 129 Robert, 232, 329 Jonathan C, 90, 128, 129, 130, 308, Stephen, 228 309, 316 Penhallow, Ann C, 373 OtisH.,97. 106. 131 Benjamin, 373 Morrison, James G., 119 Elizabeth, 370 Morse, Isaac S.. 248 Francis S., 372 Nason H.. 103, 1U6 Bunking, 372 Perley, 87, 89, 90 John, 370, 372 Morville, Robert, 210 John, Jr., 372 Motley, George, 95, 252. 355 Julia Maria, 373, 374 Moulton, Oliver H., 355 Lucy E., Sketch of, 370-378 Munroe, James & Co., 267 Mary, 372 Pres. James, 130 Oliver W., 372 Samuel. 370, 372 Nashua & Lowell Railroad, 256 Susan P.. 373. 374 Newton, E. A., 209 William P., 373 Nesmith, John, 354, 357 People's Club, 40l, 402, 404, 405 Street, Paper on Residences on Perham, Benone, 228 352-358 H. S.. 217 Thomas, 353 Perry, Oliver H.,358 Newcomb, George L., 341 Phelps. Jesse, 30, 319 Nichols. Andrew, 338 Phillips, John, Jr, 5 Jacob, 287 J. S.,98 William, 289 Margaret M., 340 William & Co.. 289 StephenC, 340, 341,343,346 & Fletcher, 289 Stephen H.,346 NightinmUc, Kt-v. (Crawford, 385 Willard P., 347 Norton. M:nv 1'.. 1(I7 & Gilman. 344 Notre Daiiic' Sisti-rsof, 100 Pierce, Pres. Franklin, 137, 138, 232 Noyes, l-Alward ■).. .•353 Benjamin, 328 Nute, Andrew T., 285 Joseph, 234 Robert, 328 O'Brien. Father, 100 Pierrepont, Hon. Edward, 46, 203 Olcott. KdwMrd H , ,324 PlUsbury. Dr. George H.. 250 "Old Ladies' lldinc." 284 Dr. Harlin, 90, 211. 251, 308, .309 Oliver, s.iiimcl ('.. ',n,30i Dr. John D., 250, 312 cicen & Willis, Messrs., 339 Dr. John, 312 Ordway, Dea. Thomas, 353 Poe, Edgar A,. 264. 266, 267, 268, 269 Orphanage, Dr. Kdson's, 213 Pollard, Gorham, L., 346, 347 St. Mary's, 213 J on a P.. 2 Osgood, Mrs. F. S.,264 Pollock, George B., 28. 30 Owen, Walter E., 109 Pooler, Seth, 104, 105, 354 Owen, William N., 303, 304 Porter, Noali, 45, 4(i 413 Porter, Rev. Lemuel, 248, 276 "Portland Argus," 134 Postmasters, Paper on Lives of, 128-141 Salaries, 140 Postmaster-Ex, Reminiscenses of an, 142- 150 Potter, Rev. William T., 207 Pratt, Samuel O.. lOG, 357 Thomas, 117 Prentice, Nathaniel, 226, 227, 229 Prince, John 1)., 252 Proctor, Daniel, 230 Prockter, .Mrs. Israel, 224 Putnam, Addison, 357 Gen. Israel, 233, 333, 334 Quimby, Mr 228 Railroad, Boston & Lowell, /ne National Bank, 251, 252, 285 Randall, Francis D., loi Ransom, Mr. , 35G Record, Lewis L., 106 Reed, Elijah M., 58 Mary, .339 Mr. , 352 Orin, 146 Ransom, 122, 289, 354 Samuel, 339 Reports, Annual, of President of Associa- tiou, 1888-89, 113-127 Report, Vice President's, 3.59-369 Residences on Nesmith Street, Paper on, 352-358 Revere, Paul, 331 Reynolds, Eveline, 240 Richardson, Asa, 2 Daniel S., 291 Daniel S. & G. F., 248 Daniel S., 324, 342, 343, 346, 357 George K., 291, 300, 324, 357 Isaac, 229 Josiah, 229 John, 95 Mary A., 291 S. M., 9 William A., 1G4, 1G7, 177, 178 Letter from, 291,292 Rice, Thomas, 230 Richards, William B., 347 Ricker, Mr. , 353 Rindge, Frederick H., 348, 349 Samuel B., 348, 349 River, Concord, 60, 63, 66, 70, 80 Merrimack, 61, 62, 66, 80 Robbins, Jacob, 135, 136, 247, 2 '8, 317 Robertson, P. W., 100, 103 Brothers, 367 Robinson, John P., 92, 95, 312; 313, 324 John, F., 353 William S.,367 Rogers, Zadock, 315 Rolfe, Abiel, 342, 343 Rowell, Edward T., 116, 139, 140 Russell, James, 304 James S., 1, 42, 193, 242, 272, 352, 370, 377 Thomas. 1 Sanborn, E. D.,105 "Sanitary," 264 Commission, 389 Fair, 264 Sargent, Edward M. , 246 Rev. J. T., 380 Lucius M., 171 Savory, Dr. Charles A., 250 Sawtelle, Col. Josiah A., 288, 289 Sawyer, Frederick A., 104 Mrs. — , 352 Seavey, Josiah, v.iG Stephen S., 1.36 School, Adams, 97, 100, IOC Bartlett. 97 Butler, 100, 108. 109 City Reform, 397 Col burn, 100, 107, 265 Edson, 100, 103, 107 Fifth Grammar, 99 Frankhn, lOO, 104, 106, 107, 109 Green, 27, lOO, 105, 106, 107 Hancock, 97, 98, 100, lOG High Highland, 108, 109 House, Merrimack, 27 House, Red, 87 Hish, 98 Mann, 98, lOO, li)8 Moody. lUO, 104, 106 North Grammar, 97, 243 Pawtucketville, loo, 108, 109 South Grammar, 102 Third (iramniar, 102 Varnuin, 108 Washington, 100, 103 Schools, Lowell Grammar, History of, 87-109 Schouler, Adjutant General, 368 Scott, John, 372 Margaret, 372 Semple. Oliver C, 100 Shattuck, George W., 99, 100 Lucius A., 348 Shaw, Samuel, 348 & Shattuck, 347 Sheafe, John L., 317, 324 Sheppard, Edwin. 356 Sherman, Edward, 28, 29, 92, .353 Shipley, John, 220 Short, Josiah E., 255 Sigourney, Mrs. , 264 Silsbee, Nathan, 294 Silllman, Benj. Jr., 46 Simpson, Jonathan, 2 "Sisters of St. Margaret," 213 "Sisters of Notre Dame," UO Skinner, Charles W., 347 Smith. Alpheus, 319 Catherine, 201 Col. Joseph, 201 Elizabeth O., 270 V. O. J., 126, 127 Francis, .'J72 John VV., 123 Mrs. , 354 Rev. B. H., 209. Smiley, John, 363 "Snow Bound." 20 Snow, John, 225 Mrs. John, 224 Society, Amphion,3l Beetlioven Musical, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31 Female Philanthropic, 30 Total Abstinence, 265 of Friends, 18 A Local Musical, Sketch of, 24-33 Lowell Choral, 31 Missionary, 397 Union Singing, 31 Otto Club, 31 Philharmonic, 31 Sacred Musical, 26 Southwick, Royal, 318 Spalding, George, 103, 106 H&W.,247 414 OLD RESIDENTS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Spalding, Jeptlia, 2 Joel, 2, 239, 250. 318 Jonathan. 05. 238.318 Rufus, 95, 238 Sutnev. 322, 346, 347 Sidney, Mrs.. 244, 301 Simeon, 326 Simon, 318 Warren C, 105 Weld. 95, 165 Spaulding, Edward. 228 Dr. Joel. 118,318 Jolin, 220 Joseph, 233 heter, 230 Spencer, William, 252 Sprague, Levi, 355 Stanhope, Lady Hesta. 19 Stanton, Mary Ann, 99 Starkweather, Charles, 260 Deborah, 260 Mrs. Emma, 261 Stearns. Asahel, 4 J. Tyler, 354 Simeon, 235 Stevens. Solon w;, 24, 258 Miss , 99 Stickney, Samuel W., 2')2 Stoddard, Samson, 228.229 Jr., 230 Rev. Samson. 229 Stone, Dr. Andrew L., 46, Joel, 255 Zina, E., 368 Stony Brook Railroad Co.. 199 Stott, Charles A., 355 John. 355 Stratton, Richard, 228 Street. Edwin, 45 Nicholas, 44 Rev. Nicholas, 44 Rev Owen, D. D., Memorial dis- course on, 43-59, 60 Rev. Samuel, 44 Streeter, B., 324, 325 Sullivan, Gov. , 25 Swan, Joshua, 28, 91, 297, 298, 312 Sweetser, Theodore H., lOl, 357 Talbot, Julian, 353 Tapley, Josepli, 255 Tasker, John C, 105 Tavern, Balch & Coburn's, 294 Tavern, Blake's, 25 Brown's, 237 Foster's, 237 Frye's, 254 Mixer's. 25 Taylor, Dr. Nathaniel, 46 Pros. Zachary, 136, 360 Thayer, Kev. Thomas B.. 248, 312 Thompson, Benj. B.. 104, 105, 117 George 118 Ticknor, Prof., 379 Tilden, Charles L., 252 Samuel J., 46 Tolman, Stark, 364 Tonipsiiii, Mrs..;i5.' , Totniaii. Stark, 3(j4 Tower, James, 117 Tower's ('(uiicr, 117 Townc, Key. .loscph H.,248 Tripp, Joliii, 12(1. 121 True, Luuiiula E., 107 Tuckerman. Rev. Dr., 380, 381, 385 Tufts. Mrs. lidward, 355 Twining, Rev. William, 91, 248. 310 Tyler, Ignatius, 343, 346 Tyler,James. 300, 318 John, Pres., 13.5, 142 Jonathan, 25, 92, 94, 135, 166. 274, 322 Joseph, 300. 318 Nathan, 3, 4, 5, 293, 322 William. 300 Tyndal, Prof., 80 Underwood, Joseph. 231 Unitarian Missionary Society, 384 Upton, Mrs. , 354 Van Buren, Pres. Martin, 126 Vanderlip, W. A., 97 Varney, Samuel J., 353 Varnum, Atkinson C, 13 Br.'idley, 1, Capt , 265 Gen. Joseph, 108 James, l, 4 James B., 4 Joseph B. ,2,4,5 Jonathan, 1,2 Parker, 1. 4 School. 290 Sheriff. 381 Venice, American. Some Account of, 182- 191 Wagner, Richard, 32 Waite, Morrison R.. 46 Waldo, Cornelius, 222 Waldroa, Ira. 102 Walker, Aaron. 356 Aaron, Jr., 105, 106, 107 Benjamin, 91. 105, 237, 254, 283, 298, 359, 301, 302, 312. 334. 335, 359 Capt. Benjamin, 334 335 Walsh. J. W., 99 Wamesit Canal, 190, 191 Ward, Gen., 332, 333 Waring, Deacon, 228 Warren, Gen. Joseph. 327 Pelham W.. 251 William, 246 Washburn, Gov., 159 Washington. Ode to, 261, 262 Waterson. Rev. R. C, 380 Watson, Edward F., 253 Elizabeth, 370 Watts, John, 370 Francis O. , 207 Way, Mary E., 105 Weaver, Benjamin, 353 Caleb, 353 Webb. John, 220 Webster, Daniel. 261, 264. 267, 311, 313 Francis M., 109 Weld. Thomas. 222 Rev. Tliomas, 222 Wells, Dr. David. 250 Wendell. Ann. 372 Oliver, 372 Wentworth. Hunking, 372 Sarah, 372 Tappen, 248 Whipple, Josei)h. 229 Oliver M., 87, 253, 273, 274, 281, 295, 297, 313 Mr. . 3J3 Whistler, George W., 2.52 Whitcomb, Arthur K., 108 White, E. L., 356 William II., 82 W. H., 358 Whittier, John J.. 18, 20 Whiting, Henry, 238 Phineas, 95, 112, 238 415 Whiting, Cant. Phineas, : Whitney, Oliver, Jr., 2 WhittieV, Isaac, loi. 102 Wiggiu. Andrew J., 362 Ight, Mr Wilcox, A. B., 101 Wi s. James, 354 Wilder, H. H. &Co., 247 Willey. George F., 109 Williams, Henry L., 354 L.,9 Willis, N. P.. 264,207 Wilson, John M..324 Joseph, 2 Nathaniel, 87 Winegard Mr.. , 122 Wood, Elizabeth (Smith), 379 Kev. Horatio, Memoir of, 379-405 Horatio. 379 Mrs. Horatio. 398 John, 379 Eliakim, 2 Samuel, 255 Woods, (;. A., 107 & Nute. 285 Woodbury, Mary J., 99 Worcester. Leonard, 367 Worthen, Ezra, 299 Wright, Alexander, 252, 318. 323, 324 A. B., 27 Eben, 224 Ebenezer, 225, 231 Emory, 239 Hapgood, 247, 248, 284 John, 2.^0, 225 Joseph, 225 Mrs. John, 222 Nathaniel, 87, 91, 128,238,2 Nathan M., 288, 355 N. M.,355 O. C.,97 Prof.. 78, 79 Thomas, 239 William H.. 239 Wyman, William. 308, 357 Mrs. William, 355 William W., 131. 132,320 Young, Albert T., 100, 103 Artemas, 300 Ephraim W., 103, 104